Movie Diary
a) Oppenheimer
I think it's interesting that Christopher Nolan's only two historical movies are both about World War II but are otherwise a study in contrasts. Dunkirk is his shortest movie, light on dialogue and heavy on realistic action, while Oppenheimer is his longest and talkiest movie, and almost psychedelic in its use of visual effects to convey psychological interiors. For me personally, I found Dunkirk more impressive, but Oppenheimer built steam over those three hours and was full of great performances large and small. I don't know if I would put it in Nolan's top five, though.
b) Past Lives
I often roll my eyes when people write semi-autobiographical stories where the main character is a writer. But that choice feels more valuable in Past Lives, which at one point features two writer characters analyzing their own lives from a storytelling standpoint, who would be the hero or the villain to a reader. I thought that was an interesting little scene that showed how the movie existed in conversation with its tropes without being too cute about it or negating the emotion of the story. Also, at one point you see one of those characters at a book-signing event for a book they wrote called Boner, which is never remarked upon elsewhere in Past Lives, a very funny thing to happen in an otherwise very moving and soulful movie. I haven't seen all of this year's Best Picture nominees yet, but so far I think my scorecard is Killers of the Flower Moon > The Holdovers > Past Lives > Oppenheimer > Barbie > Maestro.
c) May December
I thought May December was great, particularly seeing an Oscar caliber actress like Natalie Portman give an amazing performance that was also a dark, funny critique of actors and awards season biopics, the whole thing went in a couple directions I didn't expect that made it work on multiple levels. Aside from the three leads, though, I'm surprised Cory Michael Smith hasn't gotten more praise for a great supporting performance, I also thought he was a standout in 2022's Call Jane.
d) Nyad
Both Annette Bening and Jodie Foster have Oscar nominations for Nyad but it's not up for Best Picture, so it's not surprising that great performances (by both of them and Rhys Ifans) are what really elevate it above the usual sports biopic. I have no memory of hearing of Diana Nyad or her historic swim when it was happening, but the movie still got me pretty invested in the whole thing, and how you can find her both admirable and frustrating just like the people around her do.
e) Rustin
Rustin star Colman Domingo, director George C. Wolfe, and a lot of the supporting cast have tons of Broadway experience, and I've never seen a movie that felt more like it was adapted from a stage play but wasn't. It almost has the vibe of a musical with the songs cut out. That stagey quality isn't a bad thing per se, it gives the whole movie a charge of energy that many historical biopics could use. But every actor moves with such big gestures, even the camera seems to jump around them so urgently, that it really wrings any possible subtlety out of the movie, Wolfe's style was just far more suited to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. I've been really impressed by everything I've seen Domingo in, so I'd be happy if he won the Oscar, but it's not my favorite performance by him, it felt very broad. Also: man, Chris Rock sticks out like a sore thumb in a movie that takes place in the '60s.
Longtime readers may recall that my wife and I have a Valentine's Day tradition of Chinese takeout and scary movies. This year's movie was one we both wanted to see when it came out last summer, and we both found it enjoyable but maybe not as much as we'd hoped. Seemed like the kind of thing that would've been more exciting in the theater.
Dead Reckoning had some absolutely great action sequences, particularly everything with the little yellow car and the handcuffs, and Hayley Atwell's character was a great new foil for Tom Cruise. But the stuff around the great action sequences felt a little more like padding than usual, the movie had a weird stop-start momentum and some stuff that dragged on way too long. I don't like when "part one of two" movies end kind of abruptly to remind you that the next installment is on the way, there are lots of movies that are part of a series and still feel like a satisfyingly complete film unto itself.
h) The Creator
The Creator has a pretty Terminator-ish premise about a near future war between humans and AI, but it's still fun to see a big slick sci-fi movie, directed capably by Rogue One's Gareth Edwards, that's not part of any established franchise. John David Washington still feels like a placebo movie star, this probably would've felt more like a complete movie with someone with real presence and personality in the main role, even his dad. It was fun to see Alison Janney in a big effects-driven action movie. There's a minor character named Shipley who dies early in the movie, and when it happens Janney yells "Shipley!" about 20 times, that was weird to watch.
It was very strange to watch an animated film written by Charlie Kaufman with my 8-year-old son who loved it. I don't think fans of Kaufman's best known work necessarily need to seek this out, but I really enjoyed it, probably more than his last few projects.
A more straightforward animated feature, but a fun one. Great voice cast and I liked the touch that Ruby's family lives amongst humans in a Coneheads-style premise (with "if anyone asks, we're from Canada" instead of "we come from France").
I got to interview Fantasia Barrino a few years ago while she was on tour. And she said it was her last tour and that "There is something different that I must do, that I won't talk about now." I don't know if her plan for the next chapter of her career was acting, but maybe she already knew then that she wanted to reprise her role in The Color Purple on Broadway in a feature film, I don't really know what she was alluding to. In any event, I've loved seeing Fantasia back in the spotlight for this movie and she's great in it. There's an interesting contrast in the dark subject matter in The Color Purple and how bright and fun a lot of the musical numbers are, but it works.
I'd never really watched the first Color Purple movie all the way through, so I wanted to watch it before putting on the new one, great Whoopi Goldberg performance. It's interesting to watch this now, from the vantage point of it being Steven Spielberg's first straight up human-scale drama, now that he's made so many of them, because back then he was still the summer blockbuster guy, taking a relatively big risk.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment