April 27, 2024
The Hot Blog
amit on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
Christian on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
YancySkancy on: Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
Review: Little Women (no spoilers) - The Hot Blog
Box Office First Look - The Hot Blog
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree - The Hot Blog
Quote Unquotesee all »
It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Overlord
I truly enjoyed Thunder Road.
Isle Of Dogs. Everyone had a lukewarm take because woke cultural appropriation came first on this soon to be beloved classic.
Shot In The Dark is getting no mentions.
The Director And The Jedi (better than that actual movie).
Kin, people demand original movies except when they get them.
American Animals, white boy angst is a last decades fad but this is some Fight Club level cult building thing.
Upgrade
Isle Of Dogs
Ghost Stories
Upgrade
Tully
Alpha
Strangers: Prey at Night
Mile 22
I think Annihilation was a truly fantastic movie that’s apparently getting forgotten during awards season but never even had the chance to be seen on the big screen in most countries earlier this year.
Beyond that, Sorry to Bother You and Revenge….yeah I’ll see just about anything with Tessa Thompson at this point.
Was going to express fear that The Rider and Death of Stalin were going to be lost in the year end conversation. And Lo and behold the Globe nominations come out and they are nowhere to be seen.
Surprised to see Bohemian and Star is Born in drama category, those are pretty straight forward musicals no?
And wow, no broadcast series at all in the top two categories. I thought This is Us would hold the ground.
I second all of those Geoff. Good picks. I’ll add The Rider, The Endless, and Hold the Dark.
In no particular order:
Lean on Pete (provided my most cathartic movie cry of the year)
The Rider
You Were Never Really Here
Annihilation
Isle of Dogs (even as Wes’ live-action films continue to find larger and larger theatrical audiences, his stop-motion animated marvels still struggle at the box office)
First Man
Science Fair
Suspiria
Wildlife
The Other Side of the Wind (c’mon, people! Orson Welles’ at long last completed final film should have been met with more than just a collective shrug)
The King
Hal (one of my favorite filmmaker docs about one of my favorite directors)
Never Goin’ Back (the best femme-centered stoner comedy since “Smiley Face”)
Widows
The Sisters Brothers
Annihilation is my favorite film of the year and therefore didn’t think of it as overlooked but yea, it was.
And glad to see at least one other person on the Suspiria train, movieman. Respect ✊
‘Ignored’ is stretching the definition, but all of these deserved more success than they received:
Hold the Dark.
First Man.
Unsane.
Solo : A Star Wars Story
Game Night.
Adrift.
Tully.
The Mercy.
A Simple Favor.
Good call on Death of Stalin HCAT – I almost forgot that movie myself, would LOVE to see Steve Buscemi get his first Oscar nomination. He was fantastic in that film.
Unsane too, yeah that was a fun little thriller – makes me want to catch up on Logan Lucky too since Soderbergh apparently never went away….
And I don’t know if it’s REALLY overlooked technically since the reviews were strong and all of the hipsters have been singing its praises….and this is the definition of a niche film but I really enjoyed Mandy – would be too much to ask for an acting nod for Nicholas Cage and I get why but….the film also had incredibly Oscar-worth sound design.
I like “Unsane” and love “The Death of Stalin,” although the latter was at least critically revered and did solid niche (i.e., arthouse) biz. Probably the best it could hope for really.
Greatly enjoyed “A Simple Favor,” although it did quite nicely and got generally favorable reviews. The most “criminally overlooked” thing about it was how Blake Lively’s pretty freaking great performance has gotten zero awards traction.
For me, Lively seems like the next logical step in evolution from Jessica Lange to Robin Wright.
I wish her well, and a long, successful career.
P.S.= Yeah, agree that “Solo” was underrated. I still think it was the best “Star Wars”-for-kids movie since “Return of the Jedi.”
“Game Night” has already built up such a cult-ish following that I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually spawns a sequel. (Stranger things have happened, right?)
“Mandy” got a lot of (critical) love and has cult immortality written all over it. Can’t imagine anything (e.g., Oscar recognition) more in its future, though.
P.P.S.= “Logan Lucky” is great! Definitely worth checking out, Geoff. It would have definitely headlined my “criminally overlooked” list of 2017 films.
‘The Death Of Stalin’ was a BAFTA nom last year making it a little dusty as a possibility for Oscar consideration…. I’m pretty sure it’s out of the race…
Can You Ever Forgive Me
I love “Forgive Me?,” and am kind of shocked that it didn’t create more of a ripple after opening to solid, even rave (in many cases, including mine) reviews.
Same here. Saw it today. So good.
still no ‘i told u so’ thread so this will have to do i guess.
so weird how most of the best/freshest take/most heart-rending and compelling movies this year were written-and/or-directed by women and yet i’d wager not a single one will be up for a ‘major’ award in this farcical awards season circle jerk, wank on
I agree leah. On that note, can’t believe I forgot to mention Private Life. A masterpiece and easily one of the year’s best.
ha i finally saw ‘private life’ last night on the ‘flix (our netflix here is pretty shit but at least we’re getting the new stuff in a timely fashion) after a re-watch of ‘savages’ recently (RIP PSH, he and linney as sibs are entirely believable)
PL is such a lovely, melancholy, funny, heartbreaking family drama, so well written/conceived (pun intended bah dum dum psh) and executed, i keep thinking about it today. jenkins is a truly gifted film-maker, rock on.
(and i’ve seen ‘can you ever forgive me’ now 3 times, which is a LOT, but i’m absolutely fascinated by it)
also, ‘TREASON’S GREETINGS’ Individual 1, you rat-fucking POS
(maybe this malignant narcissist will finally be held to account for something but i’m not holding my breath)
Jenkins is amazing. I’m also a huge fan of The Savages. Private Life, The Rider, and Can You Ever Forgive Me are easily three of the best movies I’ve seen this year. They deserve way more recognition. They have received some, but not enough.
leave no trace
you were never really here
(eta re the latter, i watched this for i think the third time with my son – who hadn’t seen it yet – the other day, and he was so disturbed by it, i’ve never seen him like that… i was disturbed that he was so disturbed. ‘leave no trace’ made him very sad)
THE NIGHT COMES FOR US
Just watched it. Holy hell. That was a blast.
Yes for You Were Never Really Here. Loved it. Still need to see Leave No Trace.
I need to watch The Night Comes for Us. That director had a horror movie drop recently that I watched. May the Devil Take You. It’s pretty good.
hopefully more people will take the opportunity to see granik’s ‘leave no trace’, such a beautiful, painful, gentle meditation on fathers and daughters, love and the inevitable separation of the parent/child bond, finding the strength to forge your own path, post-war ptsd and the pressure to conform, and the contrasting beauty and harsh reality of living rough in nature. the end just quietly destroys me.
I already wanted to see it but now I’m really going to make it a priority.
Leave No Trace is one I forgot about but I’m on it.
And I might watch May The Devil Take You tonight
The Night Comes For Us is way over the top. Not Shoot Em Up level but the carnage and bodily damage is cartoonish. But it’s also well choreographed, creative and week shot and edited. It’s just fun and relentless. The plot is nothing special. But who cares. A lot of The Raid guys are in it.
This reminds me I have yet to watch The Villainess, or Yakuza Apocalypse. I was hyped for Villainess but forgot about it.
I thought Mid90s was the kind of sweet, simple, but yet affecting (and yes, nostalgic) movie that I really wanted to see. Critics didn’t really agree. But even if no one else liked it, it brought a certain kind of indie movie charm back that I’d been craving. And it did it well too.
Leave No Trace is pretty wonderful. The two leads are outstanding and it’s so nicely observed and moving. Slow and low-key, but those are attributes in this case. Some of those people seemed like real people and not professional actors. Really liked it.
I liked, but didn’t love “Trace.”
“Winter’s Bone” is the superior Granik movie.
I found the tween actress who played the daughter awfully wan. Seemed like a pretty blah, uninflected performance to me.
She’s definitely no J-Law.
The movie rested entirely on Ben Foster’s shoulders. But he was up to the task.
Of course, my “good-but-not-great” response may have been impacted by having to watch an online screener which is NEVER the best way to see any movie.
That’s a giant writedown for Verizon.
They should have named it Oaf Media, amIright?
The Cloverfield Paradox – utterly crazy, derivative as hell, but a real guilty pleasure far more entertaining than the terrible reviews would lead you to believe.
I sorta despise Disney in general and am not particularly happy with their stewardship of the Star Wars franchise (though they certainly haven’t done any worse than Lucas did back in the aughts). But the idea of putting Carl Weathers into the universe is a giant positive step, and that he might share screentime with Werner fucking Herzog rubs the belly of my minds pleasure center.
There were a few socially conscious films that came out within weeks of each other Blackkklansman has made the most noise. Sorry to Bother You I thought did ok at the time but it’s been crickets ever since. The one that’s been forgotten that’s the most sorrowful for me was Blindspotting.
I thought it was pretty solid but admit to having trouble recalling the title. But parts of that movie still come to mind.
Most Overlooked Movies (that I saw)
Annihilation
Suspiria (Tilda Swinton deserves an Oscar nom for playing three roles)
Wildlife (Carey Mulligan gave the best performance by an actor all year)
Sorry to Bother You
Widows (critically acclaimed but for some reason never clicked with audiences)
EGood- Totally agree about Swinton deserving an Oscar nomination for “Suspiria:” but what category does she belong in?
Best Supporting Actress or Best Supporting Actor?
Also agree about Mulligan (giving the performance of the year) and “Widows.” (“Annihilation,” too, for that matter which was my first four-star studio release of 2018.)
I was puzzled by the lack of heat in even the favorable reviews of Steve McQueen’s movie.
For me, it was his best work to date, clicking on nearly every level (heist flick; sociological treatise; feminist manifesto; etc.), and I was delighted that every member of its incredibly rich and diverse cast (Brian Tyree Henry; Robert Duvall; Carrie Coon; et al) had great moments.
Plus, I never saw that twist coming.
“Sorry to Bother You” was the movie “Bamboozled” wanted to be (but wasn’t). The only thing that kept me from going whole-hog was the ending which I had some problems with.
Also very good-and almost completely forgotten about–was “Blindspotting.”
Science Fair. An inspirational, hopeful, funny, poignant, and just plain outstanding doc. One of the best times I had at the movies all year.
Totally agree w/ your “Science Fair” pick, SB.
I really thought it was going to be an “R.B.G.” (or “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”) style sleeper hit.
But I guess they needed a more savvy (SPC, Focus, Searchlight, A24) distributer.
Ditto “Minding the Gap” which really deserved to become a “Hoop Dreams”-ish sensation. (For my money, it’s actually a better film than “Hoop Dreams.” Sorry, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s ghosts.)
I thought so too, movieman. The audience ate it up and it’s such a crowd pleaser. Not an expert on doc distribution, but it seems like they left money on the table. I need to see Minding the Gap. Have read nothing but raves.
I suppose Support the Girls can’t be said to be “criminally” overlooked, since it got some love from a couple of critics’ groups. But I guarantee it will be criminally overlooked by the Oscars.
SB: I think “Science Fair” may have suffered from National Geographic’s inattention.
They put all of their marketing muscle into selling “Free Solo” (a good, but inferior doc as far as I’m concerned) this fall and had nothing left over for “Science Fair.”
The result? “Solo” was one of the top-grossing docs (and indies!) of the year while “Science Fair” was a theatrical also ran.
With a little bit of luck, perhaps “SF” will eventually find a large and appreciative audience on cable.
“Gap” is fantastic: beautifully done and emotionally wrenching! Only “The Rider” and “Lean on Pete” coaxed more tears from my eye sockets this year, lol.
That makes sense re: Science Fair. I’m up for a good cry. I think it’s on Hulu? Will seek it out.
Holy shit movieman you weren’t kidding. Just finished it. So, so good. And I definitely cried. Happy that it made the doc short list and hope it gets a nom. Really special movie. I knew within five minutes that I’d love it and I didn’t want it to end. Good luck Zach, Keire, and Bing.
Glad you liked it, SB!
Yep, it’s definitely one of those rare films you don’t want to end.
I wanted to stick with those guys just to make sure everything worked out for them.
Here’s hoping it receives a well-deserved Oscar nomination.
It’s not perfect but I enjoyed Assassination Nation, especially the second half (starts out pretty slow).
It’s a little late to the party, but I finally caught up with “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” and actually preferred it to the similarly-themed “Boy Erased.”
John Gallagher Jr. and Jennifer Ehle may lack the marquee luster of Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, but I liked their performances better. And Chloe Grace Moretz is every bit as good as (the excellent) Lucas Hedges.
Sasha Stone lived up to her “American Honey” promise, too. Anxious to see her in the “Hellboy” reboot.
I loved “American Honey,” but that’s Sasha Lane, not Sasha Stone, Movieman. The film ranked high on my top 20 list the year it was released.
Which reminds me: I can’t put off my 2018 Top 20 list any longer. Tonight’s the night to write. If I don’t finish, I hope to at least make a major dent in it.
We need a thread for our Top 10 lists,
Oy.
Mea culpa, Christian.
And I could’ve sworn that I double-checked IMDB before writing that previous post. At least I didn’t say “Sasha Grey.”
A 10-best thread would be cool although I’m still putting the finishing touches on mine. (Haven’t even started composing my worst list, lol.)
2 movies I really enjoyed that stalled at the box office–and got lost in the fall movie shuffle–were “White Boy Rick” and “Bad Times at the El Royale.”
They represent the sort of medium-budgeted studio films that were the industry’s bread and butter once upon a time, but are now an endangered species.
I hope both find large, enthusiastic followings on home video/cable.
I just watched the French Holocaust drama “A Bag of Marbles” and thought it was pretty terrific.
It’s the kind of story that’s already been done to death, and I was reluctant to even give it a try despite generally positive reviews when it opened last spring.
But I’m very glad that I did: found it immensely satisfying in an old-fashioned (French) movie-movie sort of way.
30 years ago it would’ve been released by Orion Classics and played for six months at a NY arthouse like the Paris. (Hell, 25 years ago Miramax could have released it to comparable domestic a-house glory.)
Now it’s barely distributed (in the U.S.) at all.
Has anybody else seen it?
Not sure whether it’s been “underrated” or “overlooked” yet–it just opened last week–but Lebanon’s neorealist marvel “Capernaum” is pretty damn extraordinary. Felt like a new millennium “Pixote,” and I liked it more than the Hector Babenco movie.
It marks a giant leap forward by Nadine Labaki over previous films like “Caramel” and “Where Do We Go Now?”
I know that it sounds like a bit like a slog (I avoided my screener for weeks), but
it’s anything but. If you have the chance to see it, GO!
Here’s one that was definitely underrated: Rupert Everett’s “Oscar Wilde in decline” biopic, “The Happy Prince.”
This is another movie that would have made a huge splash 25-30 years ago, but now seems lost in time.
Definitely worth seeking out when it hits home video.
I think I was the only person knocked out by “The Little Stranger.” Curiously, I forgot about it when compiling my year-end Best list, but I blame that omission on you guys, not the movie, for not keeping it in the conversation beyond its two-week theatrical run. 🙂
The Clovehitch Killer. Just watched it last night. A rare serial killer thriller with fully-fleshed out characters and lives, and resists the easy ending. It doesn’t really give the audience what it wants. It gives the characters what they want and it impressive and devastating.