Live action Looney Tunes, Modern Times/The Gold Rush, Oregon Trail (yes the PC a game!) mash up that commits to the bits harder than anything I’ve seen.
One of the most genuinely unique, laugh out loud hilarious films I’ve seen in awhile. It is a gag a minute madcap ride that just builds and builds the absurdity. Marx Brothers plus Tex Avery. How can a movie so deftly pull off the physical comedy of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie…
Beautiful, cold, distant. Full of vacuous objects and people. Astounding how much this influenced. Wes Anderson, The Godfather, the Sopranos (Pine Barrens), Taxi Driver, Mishima and even Clueless!
Marcello is a perfect allegorical tool, craving order and morality above all else, except when he doesn’t. A low key nervy weasel who wanders into numerously gloriously sexy scenarios whole being a genealogy
Putz. This is a crazy intense political thriller, except that it isn’t! I somehow expected that this would be…
Tarkovsky crafts some of the most gorgeous and awe inspiring shots it is a shame they are so frequently in the most tedious films ever made. With a focus on elegant framing and horizon, and some do the most patient zooms in any movie, the films are amongst the coolest and unique looking in all of cinema. Every one a postcard, painting or stained glass window.
Yet, except for Stalker I really fail to connect with any of it.
It…
Interweaving three separate and distinct stories into a larger narrative is not an easy thing to do. As one of Adam McKay's first "serious movies", this does a great job of explaining one of the worst financial times in the US and the world.
Everybody is so self-interested, with no idea of the commons and it is all presented in such a way that gives you a fourth wall breaking of explanation but also doesn't forget to be an entertaining…
Let me get this out of the way: Texas and California forming an alliance is so hard to believe it’s what is known as a “first page problem.” A full stop flaw in logic that keeps the reader from moving on. I honestly expect better from Garland, who I find a compelling and smart writer.
It wouldn’t happen, and moreover there is zero interest in even coming with an explanation for it (caveat: after complaining about this some, I actually…
Richly humanistic and nuanced portrayal of isolated broken people helping each other. Not just set in the 1970s, but FEELS like the 1970s. This is a terrifically bittersweet, touching and frequently very funny character study made for adults. Giamatti is really great here as a stodgy glass eyed grump of a history Professor. Loathed by his students, who are stuck with him over the Christmas holiday at school. This film, like Sideways shows that Giamatti and Payne really are a…
