What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Went to see Silence yesterday and quite liked it. As you might expect from a nearly 3 hour long Scorsese movie, it is pretty sweeping and dense, with a decent amount to chew on. But I thought it did a very good job of depicting multiple facets of the situation; Jesuit priests being captured and encouraged to renounce their Christian faith in 17th century Japan, with the local Christians being slaughtered as the price for the priests' continued faith, and as further encouragement for them to apostasize.

Perhaps the best recommendation I can give is that although it's a slow-moving, often quiet and dialogue heavy film about religious faith, I was with it for the full three hours. I especially liked the politics and reasoning involved at points when the main priest (Andrew Garfield) is a prisoner and has conversations with the Japanese leaders. There is also a side character, Kichijiro, who has a recurring role in Garfield's journey, and I liked how his role played out.

As a former Mormon who is essentially agnostic, I'm sure I feel differently about this now than I would have 10 years ago. There was a sense of pity towards the resolute Christians willing to die horribly because of a belief, which in some respects (pointed out nicely in the film) is based on faulty understandings of the religion itself. I also found myself in agreement with the Japanese Buddhists at times as they were dealing with these pesky Christians. (Not in agreement about them slaughtering those Christians, of course). It's a sign of good writing when all sides of a situation can be compelling and reasonable, rather than the main protagonist's views being obviously painted as the right ones. And this film does that admirably.

But regardless of where my own belief and faith may be today, the dilemma of having faith when that faith is not being answered or shown to have merit (the title refers to the result of their prayers) is an interesting one for someone who has been there, or is there (probably not so much for long-time atheists). So I could still appreciate the film depicting that and studying it. And while I didn't personally connect with the ending resolution of that, I could still accept it as Scorsese's choice, and why that might work for the characters. Can't say more about that, though, without spoiling something important.

I have no desire to see it again, but I'm glad I saw it. And it is lingering in my mind today, so there is some good resonance to it.

Thanks for the insight, grudunza. As an apostate, this looks like something I need to see.

Colorcrayons wrote: Thanks for the insight, grudunza. As an apostate, this looks like something I need to see.

Well, it teeters between being more of a faith-promoting depiction to being critical of that or agnostic, and I won't say where it comes down. But I think it's fair enough to both sides, and can always be appreciated just as a look at the history of that situation, which is pretty interesting.

Grudunza, not joking, I'm kind of fascinated with Mormons ever since I saw the musical - specifically by the fact that the church has a weird, almost flirting relationship with it.

Vlad wrote: Grudunza, not joking, I'm kind of fascinated with Mormons ever since I saw the musical - specifically by the fact that the church has a weird, almost flirting relationship with it.

Saw it last year and laughed my ass off. I'm going to see it again this August in Salt Lake City, which seems especially fitting.

The church, the corporation that it is (more than a church in many ways), recognizes marketing potential, and the opportunity to get name recognition through a popular media property. I can't imagine their ads in the programs actually work, but it's one of the more entertaining uses of tithing dollars.

I remain fascinated with Mormons and still know and love many of them. I find aspects of its origins more fascinating now as an audacious fraud that worked on millions, myself included. Such obvious bullshit in many ways, though, but believers gonna believe, regardless (a theme of Silence). Glad to be on the other side now, though.

I don't know anyone worth having a conversation with who at some point of their lives haven't really, truly believed in something and now are stupefied by how could they. Actually, now that I think of it, all of my friends are former zealots of one kind or another, presently apostates.
I wasn't aware they performed The Book in Salt Lake City. This is hilarious. And I instantly warmed up to them, because this acceptance (and even exploitation) of a satire denotes both sense of humor and practicality. I can't imagine Scientologists (for example) reacting with such good humor. Or Catholics, now that I think of it - it took a long time for the church to accept Jesus SuperStar and it's incredibly tame in comparison.

Cosmos (2016): Final film by one of my favorite directors, Andrzej Zulawski, who also directed the wonderfully batshit Posession (1981) and the incomplete yet completely undervalued On The Silver Globe. Cosmos is billed as a "thriller" but it's really more of a weird absurdist black comedy (for instance, the protagonist is a manic depressive writer who spends a lot of time musing on mid-century philosophers, esp. Sartre). I don't know if I'd call it a great film but it's just bizarre enough to keep one watching. It's on Netflix if weird low budget Euro arthouse navel-gazing is your thing.

The Big Bus (1976): I hadn't seen this since I was a kid. It's a good-natured disaster movie spoof set onboard a giant atomic-powered passenger bus complete with a pool, a bowling alley, an "Oriental"-themed piano lounge, etc. Larry Hagman and Stockard Channing are in it. Silly as fuck.

Revolver (1973): Poliziotteschi movie with a sweaty-looking Oliver Reed, an eminently punchable antagonist (a douchey singer-songwriter type) and the usual genre trappings of vigilantism vs. law & order. There's a pretty good car chase, and a "twist" ending that's not much of a surprise if you've ever watched 70s Italian cop movies. I fell asleep in the middle. Great Morricone score.

Watched two movies last night...

Sully very entertaining. Neat how they can show the crash/land sequence two entire times and it's just as interesting and nail-biting the second time. I think the movie starts and ends weak and there is a lot of filler but there's a bunch of good in here and like I said, very entertaining. Probably 4 stars

The Edge of Seventeen. I really loved this. Hailee Steinfeld is fantastic and Woody Harrelson is a blast. It starts off pretty slow, much like Juno, but picks up speed and gets really great. I was rooting for Nadine the entire time, I worried about her and everything. I was super into it. It was really cool seeing it with my little sister cuz there's lots of sibling moments. She had to explain to me some of the feminine-related parts that I didn't quite get "why is she spraying perfume up her skirt? Why does it look like it hurts?"

Really loved it. Might have made no.10 on my top ten instead of Fences. 4.5 stars at least

I watched Sully again on Friday with my in-laws. I'd seen it before and loved it, and knew they would appreciate it, especially my father-in-law, who was a pilot.

But on the second view, I had the exact same thought as you, Barney, that the beginning and end are weak. Especially the beginning, where there's some clunky dialogue and it's slow to get to what happened. It's funny how I didn't feel or notice that at all watching it alone, but watching it with others and hoping they'd appreciate the movie kind of made me realize it was weak in that sense. But all of the stuff involving the actual flight, and seeing it from the different perspectives and from the air traffic controller, is totally riveting. I still have to give it high marks based on that.

I need to watch Edge of Seventeen. I loved Juno, so if it's even in the same ballpark, then I'll probably dig it.

Yeah, please see Edge of Seventeen and report back!

In Sully, there were women in both flight simulations, why wouldn't they use experienced pilots to run those scenarios?

The Founder: A pretty darn great film about the founding and franchising of McDonald's. Michael Keaton is great as Ray Kroc, and the smile on my face was huge and justified when I saw Nick Offerman as one of the McDonald brothers. John Carroll Lynch is also perfect as the other brother. The first half or so is especially fun as it walks you through the different innovations that made the franchise so successful, and the history of its growth. The later part involves more of how the business entity developed, and that's also decent, if not as engrossing for me as the earlier part. Witty and shot with good energy. I didn't expect to love this, but I did.

Nocturnal Animals: Gripping for the most part, but at the end I was like, uh, okaaaaay. Did anything really happen? It's about a woman whose ex-husband has written a novel. The movie plays out both the real life narrative and also the narrative of the novel. And it's all kind of connected and symbolic, but ultimately felt thin and unsatisfying. The story shown within the film has some decent Coen influence and feel to it, so that's cool, but again, it ends with more of a thud than a bang.

Hacksaw Ridge: I gotta admit, Mel Gibson just has skills for violent drama. This is pretty solid. I had a love/hate thing with the script, though, where there are quite a few good lines and scenes, but also some very hackneyed parts that felt laborious.

Tickled: I kept hearing recommendations from film critics about this documentary, and finally gave it a spin. It follows a filmmaker's quest to cover the bizarre sport of endurance tickling, but ends up being about the harassment the filmmaker himself undergoes at the hands of someone involved with that. And yeah, that is a really twisted story of obsession.

Her: How did I not ever see this before? Brilliant. Joaquin Phoenix may be an oddball, but man, can he bring it. Wonderful script, too.

Black Barney wrote: In Sully, there were women in both flight simulations, why wouldn't they use experienced pilots to run those scenarios?

Um.

Saw The Founder and liked it quite a lot.
I didn't know one thing about Ray Kroc and his story, it is pretty fascinating. I actually didn't find the second half to be weaker than the first, and it felt like the movie ended right before becoming boring. Michael Keaton rules. I liked him here way more than in other recent films (like Birdman and Spotlight), but that's probably because he's doing a better character. He really captures that "this guy is kinda mean, but I'm not sure exactly in what sense" vibe.
Nick Offerman is just such a lovable guy, but I can't watch him and not think Ron Swanson.
I also think there's a sort of easter egg:

Resident Evil 6 - Ret-cons half the prior movies, awful editing in the action scenes, and the end makes no sense. Now that its over I guess I only like half this series. The 1st, 2nd, and 4th movies were fun. 3rd was lame and 5th was shit.

Memento holds up well, but the extremely unreliable narrator/protagonist is both the best and worst thing about the movie. As the story unfolds backwards, it feels like we are learning more and more about the situation, until a tipping point where too many of our assumptions are thrown into chaos. The setup is a great gimmick, but the outcome is less than satisfying.

Nightcrawler is worth a look. Jake Gyllenhaal turns in another memorable performance, and this time he is extraordinarily creepy as a guy who makes a living listening to a police scanner and showing up at accidents and crime scenes to get footage to sell to local tv stations. There is a somewhat random scene at the very beginning that establishes his character as awkward, brash, and ruthless. Gyllenhaal and co-star Rene Russo lack chemistry, but that works well for the story. The driving scenes are intense, and there are some good ethical questions raised.