accountingfortaste - Tumblr blog

accountingfortaste · 4 years

Text

Favorite Films of 2019

By Clay Keller

Only Quentin Tarantino can make a movie that is both low-key hang out nostalgia fuel and suspenseful, surprising, mysterious, gratuitous, and tender. In many ways this is the ultimate QT movie, so jam-packed with all of his trademark interests and techniques that it feels like the culmination of his 25 year career. And after all that time he hasn’t lost a step. In fact, he’s only getting better. OUATIH looks as good as any Tarantino movie. It’s as funny as any Tarantino movie. The needle drops are as pitch perfect, and the violence as shockingly, disgustingly, delightful. But what sets this film apart from the rest of his filmography is the love. The love Quentin has for his hometown, the love that Rick and Cliff have for each other, the love Sharon has for living life... more so than any other Tarantino, besides perhaps Jackie Brown, Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood is a full, rich, emotional experience, in addition to being a thrillingly singular and original entertainment.

In the same way Inglourious Basterds gave the Nazis was they deserved, this film gives Sharon Tate what she did - the chance to be remembered as a loving, talented, vibrant person, rather than just a famous murder victim. The conception and execution of this idea is the work of a mature and emotionally attuned filmmaker, attributes not always ascribed to Mr. Tarantino, but ought to be.

Plus, damn it if both Pitt and DiCaprio don’t both give hilarious, nuanced, all-around all-timer performances in this. Any and all awards season acclaim bestowed upon Once Upon... will be more than warranted, and I will probably watch it every year until the day I die.

HONORABLE MENTION

(in Alphabetical Order)

Apollo 11

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Crawl

Doctor Sleep

The Farewell

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

Mike Wallace Is Here

The Report

The Souvenir

Uncut Gems

ANTICIPATED 2019 FILMS NOT YET SEEN:

Ash is Purest White, The Lighthouse, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Atlantics, Climax, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Queen & Slim

MOST ANTICIPATED FOR 2020

Deep Water (Adrian Lyne)

First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)

The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson)

Happiest Season (Clea Duvall)

In the Heights (Jon Chu)

FAVORITE CLASSICS FIRST SEEN IN 2019

A hard-boiled, crude oil-black comedy about an ambitious (mercenary) newspaper man who sets his morals aside in service of a story, and quickly finds himself in too deep, presiding over a spectacle teetering on the brink of collapse. Like most Wilder films, the dialogue crackles with a propulsive energy and the performances are instantly iconic. Unlike most Wilder films, Ace in the Hole’s story isn’t an insular satire about showbiz or office life, but a fairly blunt message piece, delivered from a bullhorn, about yellow journalism, corrupt bureaucracy, mob mentality, and how terrifyingly easy it is to dehumanize your fellow man in the age of modern media. This is a rollercoaster of a movie - it tells you a joke, then hits you with a little chin music while you’re laughing. It’s a mixture of tones that only masters can pull off, masters like Wilder and his star Kirk Douglas, one of the best charming/scary actors of all time.

How thrilling it was to “discover” a stone-cold classic like this in the filmography of one of the greatest to ever do it. I intend to parse out my few remaining unseen Wilders over the rest my life, so I know that, even if everything else goes to shit, I can look forward to works from one of the people who perfected the form.

FAVORITE TELEVISION OF 2019

(Disclaimer: I watched very few full seasons of TV in 2019)

The most impressive feat achieved by Succession is that it manages to somehow not be relentlessly depressing, but fascinating and funny as hell. The behind-the-green-curtain glimpse at the way the tides of economics and politics are determined by broken sociopaths raised in gilded bubbles making decisions based at best on purely selfish maneuvering and at worst on petty grievances is plenty interesting. But this baby is all about the characters. Succession is a once-in-a-generation convergence of writing and performers that has created a smorgasbord of the most entertaining and fully realized characters ever - and watching them scheme, curse, and inch towards humanity every episode is pure, uncut entertainment.

#TeamTom

FAVORITE CHILDREN’S SPECIALS MADE ON PURPOSE OF 2019

#once upon in hollywood #parasite #little women #knives out #avengers endgame #marriage story #tigers are not afraid #ford v ferrari #us #the irishman #crawl #succession

25 notes · View notes

accountingfortaste · 5 years

Text

Favorite Films of 2018

by Clay Keller

First Reformed is a powerful film. Its images haunt, its performances sear, its plot thrills. Most uniquely, though, its ideas are potent; they force the viewer, in particular viewers who grew up in the church, to constantly engage with the material as it unfolds, considering both sides of the incisively scripted debates right along with the characters. It’s exhilarating to follow (and project upon) the earnest and empathetic Reverend Toller, as he attempts to negotiate the inconsistencies between his faith and his church, and grapple with his waning relevance. And as Toller, Ethan Hawke delivers a stifled scream of a performance, full of sadness, confusion, and compassion. It’s a career-best turn, and I hope it is awarded, come awards time.

The script. Only a seasoned veteran could write a script like this. Well, a seasoned veteran slash genius, really. Every line is deeply considered and every moment connects directly to, and expands upon, at least one of the myriad themes of the film. One could easily write a thesis around any given scene. Even considering his pedigree, and the many years he spent contemplating this project, it’s a minor miracle that Schrader was able to make a film about modern Christianity and the climate crisis without succumbing to simple lecturing and hectoring. This is an earnest, intellectual, and emotional plea for sanity and consistency.

A plea that resonated for me, and one that I hope as many people as possible hear.

HONORABLE MENTION

In Alphabetical Order

Double Lover (François Ozon)

The Favourite (Yorgos Lathimos)

First Man (Damien Chazelle)

The Little Stranger (Lenny Abrahamson)

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie)

Revenge (Coralie Fargeat)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman)

Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle)

Unsane (Steven Soderbergh)

Widows (Steve McQueen)

Anticipated 2018 Films Not Yet Seen: Wildlife, Blaze (Update: Beautifully unassuming), Destroyer, Burning, Shoplifters, Eighth Grade (Update: Elsie Fisher should have been nominated), Leave No Trace (Update: Perhaps the finest two-hander screen partnership of the year)

MOST ANTICIPATED IN 2019

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)

Double Lives (Olivier Assayas)

Us (Jordan Peele)

Against All Enemies (Benedict Andrews)

First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)

FAVORITE CLASSICS FIRST SEEN IN 2018

Pure, perfect, entertainment. The dialogue sings, the three leads are hilarious and deeply appealing, and the precocious little girl is very funny and not at all annoying. Every bit of it is tops, all around. And, not for nothin’, the drunken midnight rendezvous between Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart is one of the greatest flirting scenes in the history of cinema.

FAVORITE TELEVISION

Note: Admittedly, most of my television watching time in 2018 was taken up by seasons one through five of ER, which is a thrilling and vibrant show that puts most modern programs to shame. It’s also more cinematic than 90% of what’s out there. You ask me, the Golden Age of TV started in 1994.

The funniest comedy, the tensest drama, the most thrillingly staged action. Barry somehow managed the highest achievement in every genre this year, all while feeling lean and singularly focused. It pulled no punches and hedged no bets and I have absolutely no idea how it is going to continue into the future, but Hader and Berg have more than earned my trust.

#2018 #film #best of 2018 #first reformed #ethan hawke #buster scruggs #coen brothers #you were never really her #lynne ramsay #joaquin phoenix #zoe kazan #barry #killing eve #the philadelphia story #mamma mia 2 #vox lux #paddington 2 #tv

2 notes · View notes

accountingfortaste · 6 years

Text

Favorite Films of 2017

by Clay Keller

I’m finding it difficult to write something coherent about Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper, partially because the more I watch it, the more I’m convinced that I’m not meant to try; that its power lies in its complete lack of interest in being “coherent.” Just as a life, especially one thrown into grief-stricken chaos, only has the coherence that we arbitrarily apply to it, Personal Shopper is a series of strange and beguiling instances, full of un-explained oddities, horrors, and loose-ends. Instances that capture, better than any movie I’ve seen, that ephemeral feeling of existential entrapment; of being not stuck in place, but captive somehow. It’s a maddening, inexplicable, feeling, and that a film could dramatize it so well is deeply impressive.

Speaking of captivity, Kristen Stewart delivers a performance in Personal Shopper that is so unvarnished, so unencumbered, that one has a difficult time conceiving that it was delivered at all, and not just simply lived. Each time I revisit this film I find it more difficult to turn away. It’s only a matter of time before Americans accept what the French celebrated a few years back: the fact that Kristen Stewart is fucking terrific.

Anyway, I don’t know. Maybe everything I wrote above is rambling pablum. A bunch of nonsense my mind concocted by way of trying to intellectualize (or excuse) an instinctual love of a weirdo movie in which Kristen Stewart has a dramatic imessage conversation for twenty minutes and gets attacked by a Victorian ghost, which is just audacious and great. Is Personal Shopper a brilliant work by a genius and his genius muse? Is Personal Shopper bullshit?

Or is it just me?

HONORABLE MENTION

(In Alphabetical Order)

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)

The Big Sick (Michael Showalter)

Get Out (Jordan Peele)

A Ghost Story (David Lowery)

Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)

Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd)

Molly’s Game (Aaron Sorkin)

Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi)

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

Win It All (Joe Swanberg)

Anticipated 2017 Films Not Yet Seen: The Post (Update: I loved it!), Phantom Thread (Update: Favorite PTA since TWBB), The Florida Project, mother!, Good Time

MOST ANTICIPATED IN 2018

Annihilation (Alex Garland)

- Behind the camera: our premier sci-fi screenwriter. In front of the camera: Portman, Thompson, and Isaac. In the audience: me.

The Happytime Murders (Brian Henson)

- The director of two of the best Muppet movies making his first feature in 20 years is definitely something to be excited about.

E-Book (Olivier Assayas)

- Assayas has been so contemplative lately that we’ve forgotten that he’s also a total goddamn genre-mixing weirdo (see: Demonlover, Boarding Gate). Now he’s making a “full-blown comedy” with Juliette Binoche, one of his oldest collaborators, and I am here for it.

Underwater (William Eubank)

- My favorite subgenre + my favorite Kristen Stewart = a movie I will probably love regardless of objective quality.

You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsey)

- If this trailer doesn’t ignite all of your senses, you are dead to the magic of cinema: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMqsd7Umxy8

FAVORITE CLASSICS FIRST SEEN IN 2017

How on earth did I not see Do the Right Thing until I was nearly 30? It’s almost unfathomable how colorful, funny, and heartbreaking Spike Lee’s 3rd film is. It has myriad memorable scenes and characters. It creates a sense of place in a way that is almost unparalleled in film history. It’s entertaining as hell. It also has a pulsating heart of essential humanity and righteous anger that vibrates at such an honest frequency as to make you feel literally connected to the screen as the narrative unfolds. Do the Right Thing shook me, and is one of those “as good or better than its out-sized reputation” films, alongside The Godfather and Casablanca.

FAVORITE TELEVISION

Me, at the beginning of 2017: “I’ve never seen Twin Peaks, mostly because I’m worried I’ll hate it, I’m not really a David Lynch fan.” Me, in August of 2017: “HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT THE ZIG-ZAG FLOORS IN THE BLACK LODGE ARE THE SAME AS THE ZIG-ZAG FLOORS IN THE LOBBY OF ERASERHEAD’S APARTMENT BUILDING?! AND THERE’S A PHOTO OF A MUSHROOM CLOUD ON THE WALL?! IS IT ALL CONNECTED?!”

If I could retroactively make one of my 2017 resolutions be “do a total 180 on David Lynch and get super into Twin Peaks” then I would have accomplished something in this God-foresaken shit-ass year. I don’t know if it was age, or context, or what, but this year found my eyes suddenly opened to the genius of well-known genius David Lynch. I went from avoiding Twin Peaks for years to devouring and loving both of the original seasons. From “Mulholland Drive is weird and boring” to “Mulholland Drive is weird and a stone-cold modern masterpiece.” My former podcast co-host Darren Franich maintains that one needs to learn how to watch David Lynch, by watching David Lynch, and I couldn’t agree more. Watch just one of the elliptical missives that Lynch has released into our miasma and you will be left befuddled and possibly angry. Watch five and you’ll unlock the mysteries of the universe.

Hyperbole? Perhaps. Then again, did you see episode 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return?

It would have been so easy for Lynch and Frost to thrill Twin Peaks fans with The Return. After all, these are people (myself now included) who get goosebumps every time Kyle MacLachlan is so much as in the same room as a cup of coffee. Put a cherry pie on front of him and they (again, me now included) need to change their shorts. Instead, and, in retrospect, predictably, Lynch and Frost decided to use the eighteen hours Showtime gave them to thrill their audience in a different way: by creating an audio/visual experience the likes none of them had ever seen. Was it frustrating to wait nearly the entire season for our beloved Agent Cooper to return (if he does at all)? Yes. Were there storylines and characters that seemed meandering and pointless? Yes. Who the fuck is Freddie and why does he have a green glove hand? Yes. But none of that matters, because, for an entire summer, I rushed home on Sunday nights, needing to immerse myself in the wild juxtapositions of image and sound and performance that Lynch plucked out of the cosmos and so graciously delivered to us mere mortals, as soon as I possibly could.

When Cooper finally did come back, well, Lynch nailed that moment too (goosebumps! shorts-changing!), of course, because he’s just as good at giving you what you want as he is at giving you what you need. And nostalgia goosebumps are lovely and all, but it’s a testament to the success of Twin Peaks: The Return that the nostalgia goosebumps are not what I’ll remember. What I’ll remember is when Cooper (?) asks what year it is, Laura Palmer (?) screams, and the lights go out in Twin Peaks (?), and my skin basically tore apart at the seams.

117 notes · View notes

accountingfortaste · 7 years

Text

The Biggest Logic Hole in the History of Cinema

by Clay Keller

I wish it didn’t have to be like this. Generally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with Clark Johnson’s S.W.A.T. (2003); it’s a relatively diverting LAPD action thriller with a surprisingly solid, “in-their-prime,” cast.* Under different circumstances, producer Neal H. Moritz’s 2 Fast 2 Furious follow-up could be remembered for any number of things. It could be remembered for the cracker jack airplane paintball training sequence, or for LL Cool J’s preposterous abdominal muscles, or perhaps even for Gamble, Jeremy Renner’s emo ex-S.W.A.T. villain, who definitely looks like this:

But that would be under different circumstances. As things are, all of the positive aspects of the fourth of five (!) Colin Farrell movies released in 2003 are overshadowed by the fact that this film contains the single most inexplicable logic hole / paradox in the history of movies.

At this point, you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t remember those parts of the movie that are supposedly ‘overshadowed’ by that other part of the movie that I don’t remember.” And you’d be right, because you don’t care about S.W.A.T., no one does.

But you’re about to.

Part One: The Theme Song

S.W.A.T was not the first time that a television show was adapted into a feature film. In fact, without doing any research, I’d venture to guess that S.W.A.T. isn’t even the second or third time this happened. And when a television show is adapted for the big screen, it is commonplace to include some kind of winking, self aware, moment that lets the audience know that the filmmakers are aware that the story they are telling is derived from a different story that was previously told on a different medium. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson sharing a scene with the actors who played the original Starsky and Hutch in Starsky and Hutch (2004) comes to mind, or the “does she always look like she’s in slow-motion?” joke from the trailer for Baywatch (2017). There are many more examples, but since those are the only ones that immediately came to mind, they must be the best.

Considering that long, proud tradition, it isn’t unreasonable that the people behind S.W.A.T. wanted to throw in a reference or two to the ol’ TV show. In fact, the fans would expect no less! And the references begin subtly enough, with the famous theme song from the show, originally composed by Barry De Vorzon, woven into the fabric of the score of the film, composed by Elliot Goldenthal. This is great, a nice little nod to the TV show that instantly evokes jaunty 70’s police fun without being too on-the-nose or distracting. Plus, since the characters in movies cannot hear the score music, having the original theme song present there doesn’t create any irreparable tears in the foundational logic of the world of the movie.

So far, so good. But then…

Midway through the movie, after successfully passing the aforementioned airplane paintball trial and officially becoming a S.W.A.T. unit, our heroes go out for a celebratory BBQ dinner. They laugh, drink, ogle Ladies Love Cool James’ abs, listen to a somber speech by Sam Jackson about the unacceptability of dying, and then begin singing the theme song from S.W.A.T. the TV show. All of them. In unison.

At first blush this may not seem like an issue. After all, the S.W.A.T. theme song is simple and catchy. Real-life S.W.A.T. teams probably sing it all the time, like how pilots are constantly humming the Wings theme, and you can’t walk past a fire station without hearing some firefighter jamming out Third Watch on an electric keyboard. The issue comes with the realization that this particular S.W.A.T. team is in a movie directly based on the TV show that this song originates from, sharing their names and characteristics with the characters from said show. If the TV show existed in the world of the movie, and they all know it well enough to spontaneously break out singing the theme, surely by now one or more of them would have had the existential meltdown that comes with noticing that you and your friends have the exact same names as a fictional S.W.A.T. team from a thirty year old television show. Surely.

But maybe not.

While this seems like a fairly egregious oversight, it isn’t completely damning, and, with a little bit of “deleted scene hypothesizing,” can be explained away. Perhaps in the world of S.W.A.T., that catchy theme song did not originate with Mr. De Vorzon and the Aaron Spelling-produced show, which of course couldn’t exist, but rather with our heroes themselves, composed at some point in the course of the narrative and adopted as a personal pump-up jam. As far as I know, such a scene does not exist, but easily could, and would make an excellent addition to one of the films myriad training montages:

For this theory to hold water, one needs to assume that Oscar-nominated composer Marc Shaiman would be friends with Samuel L. Jackson’s Sgt. Dan “Hondo” Harrelson, but Shaiman seems very likable, so I buy it.

Whew, that was close. Clark Johnson, screenwriter David Ayer, and company, almost obliterated the reality of their film for a tossed-off joke, but with a little creative thinking on the part of the audience, the movie can continue on, unabated. All they need to do now is avoid making any more references to…

Part Two: The Actual Goddamn Show

… oh come on.

Mere minutes after the movie’s first flirtation with smashing through the fourth wall like the Kool-Aid Man, we find our heroes enjoying a much-deserved day off.

Sgt. Hondo and Lt. Velasquez (Reg E. Cathy) are putting in some time on the links…

… while Deacon takes his kids shopping…

… TJ (Josh Charles) has a predictably douchey (lunch?) date at a French restaurant…

… Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez) tests Street’s step-dad potential with a backyard water gun fight…

… and Boxer (Brian Van Holt) shirks his household chores…

… while kicking back on the couch with a lukewarm Dr. Pepper…

… and blithely watching everything he thought he knew about the universe be thrown into utter chaos.

Well, shit. So much for the airtight “personal team theme song composed for them by Oscar-nominated composer Marc Shaiman” theory. This scene confirms it: the TV show S.W.A.T., a spin-off of The Rookies that aired from 1975–1976, exists in the world of the movie. The reason everyone was able to sing the theme song during that scene in the BBQ restaurant is because they are all aware (and presumably fans) of the TV show, S.W.A.T., which, again, exists.

How is it possible, in light of this new information, that every single last goddamn fucking scene in this movie doesn’t play out like so:

It just doesn’t make sense! All things considered, the movie S.W.A.T. should be about regular blue collar cops who, after bearing witness to a glitch in the space-time continuum, slowly lose their minds as they become feverishly obsessed with figuring out how this is possible and if they can fix this broken reality. Not one drug lord should be apprehended from a flaming private jet, not one beach dramatically ran upon by a dripping-wet Colin Farrell. Who has time for that kinda crap in the midst of their psyche slowly cracking into a million pieces? S.W.A.T. should essentially be the same movie as Jake Gyllenhaal’s Enemy, but with significantly more hair gel and leather cuffs; there’s no reason it doesn’t end with every character either dead, in an institution, or facing down a spider the size of a bus.

Part Three: Theories

Honestly, the time for excuses is over. The stretch that was necessary to explain away the theme song gaffe was just barely short enough that I was willing to make it. This, however, is a bridge too far. By including a clip from the actual show, S.W.A.T. earned itself the dubious honor of having The Biggest Logic Hole In The History Of Cinema, full-stop.

However, in blatant defiance of the sentence immediately preceding this one, I am not going to stop, but rather press forward, with a collection of theories that attempt to bring sense to the nonsensical, and fill The Biggest Logic Hole In The History Of Cinema.

Each theory will be followed by points both for, and against.

Theory 1: The characters in the movie all love S.W.A.T. so much that they legally changed their names to those of the characters on the show.

Ok, maybe? But since none of the characters know each other at the beginning of the film, that means they all did this very weird thing independent of each other, and just coincidentally all picked different characters. Then to top it off, they were all recruited for the job that the fictional character that they named themselves after also had, and in the same unit, no less. And then they never spoke about it.

Actually, no. For the one, the probability of that happening is infinitesimal, and for two we know from the movie that Hondo didn’t recruit people based on their names, he recruited them based on their willingness to beat the hell out of suspects, and enjoy “good old fashioned American hot dogs.” Plus, if it was some pro-level “The Secret” shit, they would go on about it non-fucking-stop and they’d be on, like, The Talk, if that’s still a show.

Theory 2: It’s the holodeck, from Star Trek

“Whoa, these theories sure went off the rails quick, didn’t they?” Why yes, they did. The theories went off the rails with a quickness that is in direct proportion to the insanity of the hole.

S.W.A.T. officer Michael Boxer (the grinning layabout we see watching S.W.A.T. on his couch) is actually Lt. Mike Boxer, a security officer on a Galaxy Class starship that isn’t the Enterprise, I don’t know their names, but one of the other ones. Since nothing ever fucking happens out in space (remember, not the Enterprise), Lt. Boxer stares wistfully out at the stars, lost in nostalgic reveres about the good ol’ days of cops and international drug kingpins, until he remembers that there is a holodeck and he can just go and do the damn thing. So, not unlike Capt. Picard and his 40s private eye fantasies, Lt. Boxer wiles away the hours in his program set in 2003 Los Angeles, because really, was there ever a better place and moment in American history?

I’m still thinkin’ no. If this is Boxer’s program, which is assumed because he’s the one who is unequivocally aware of the show, why is he not the lead? Hell, he isn’t even on the poster! Who writes themselves into something as a supporting character who gets shot and has to sit out the entire climax of the story? Unless this is some sort of reverse- Lt. Barclay situation, where in real life Boxer is the cock of the walk and his secret fantasy is to be background bullet fodder… I don’t know. I’ll chalk this one up as a “possible.”

(You: “Wait, the author snarkily implies that, like all cool people, he knows the bare-minimum necessary about Star Trek, but then invokes occasional guest character Lt. Barclay as a reference? Just how much does he actually know about Star Trek: The Next Generation? Is he secretly a big The Talk fan as well?” Me: “Fuck you, that’s how much.”)

Theory 3: Michael Boxer is a bored immortal and/or interdimensional being

This theory is similar to the holodeck theory, but with a less proprietary mythology. Basically, Boxer is an ancient, and possibly interdimensional, being who loved the television show S.W.A.T. so much that he decided his late-20th century game would be organically recreating the program, with real people and real situations. He Marty McFly-ed all of the heroes’ parents (“You know a name I’ve always liked? Hondo...”) then took up some sort of mentorship role during their youths (a teacher, coach, surprisingly wise vagrant, etc) to subtly nudge them in the direction of law enforcement. Boxer has had millennia of practice with human Rube Goldberg puzzles like this, so he’s really fucking good at it and it works like a charm.

“If he was an influential part of their young adulthoods, why doesn’t anyone recognize him as such?” Easy, the mustache. Next.

“Why does he allow himself to be shot at the end of the second act?” Because he needs to take himself out of the situation in order for his little baby birds to fly on their own. Next.

“What about the continued existence of the show? And knowledge of the theme song?” In his capacity as wise vagrant, he indoctrinated his pupils with the idea that television is evil and should be avoided at all costs. As for the song? Welcome back to the game, Clay’s Perfect Marc Shaiman Theory From Earlier!

Holy shit, you guys. I think we did it. We patched the biggest logic hole in the history of cinema. Congrats, Brian Van Holt! Here you’ve been for the last fifteen years thinking you played seventh banana in a moderately successful PG-13 franchise non-starter, when you were actually playing omniscient god-like banana in a moderately successful PG-13 franchise non-starter. I’m glad we were able to do you this service. You can now be at peace.

Part Four: What Come Next?

As you are no doubt already aware, the S.W.A.T. legacy is far from concluded. A new version of the series, from The Shield creator Shawn Ryan and Fast Five director Justin Lin, is premiering this fall on CBS. Oddly, it is an adaptation of both the TV show and the movie, since it incorporates the Chris Sanchez character that was originated by Michelle Rodriguez in the film.

This begs the question, will ageless interdimensional trickster god Michael Boxer also appear in the new series? According to imdb it would seem that he does not show up in the pilot, but that doesn’t mean much. Scripts can be rewritten. Pilots can be re-shot. Just imagine the narrative possibilities of adding a TV-obsessed, all-powerful, immortal character to a gritty LA police / social drama. I’m not saying that it will be better, because that is obvious, and I am not in the habit of redundantly pointing out the obvious.

Do with this information what you will, Shawn Ryan. I know you’ll make the correct choice.

In Conclusion:

youtube

*S.W.A.T. is actually a pretty damn good time. Underrated. Check it out.

#S.W.A.T.#jeremy renner #samuel l jackson #michelle rodriguez #josh charles #ll cool j #brian van holt #david ayer #movies #screenwriting #clark johnson #los angeles #aaron spelling #shawn ryan #colin farrell #clay keller

15 notes · View notes

accountingfortaste · 7 years

Text

Greatest moments of #Family in The Fast and the Furious

By Clay Keller

Any true fan of the The Fast and the Furious franchise, or, really, any human person who has seen a trailer or any press tour interviews for The Fast and the Furious franchise, knows that what truly drives these films aren’t the increasingly insane car stunts or the increasingly insane biceps of Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. The entire world knows that what drives the Fast and The Furious franchise is its increasingly insane dedication to the idea of family.

Whether it’s a literal family, comprised of people who are actually related to each other, or a made family, comprised of people who like risking their lives in cars together, there is nothing that Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) cares about more than the people around whatever table he happens to be sitting at, drinking a Corona. He does it, as a song from the Furious 7 soundtrack elucidates, “all for the family.”

So, for the next few minutes, let’s forget the cars jumping onto boats, bank vaults wiping out first floors of buildings, and cargo planes exploding on the world’s longest runways, and focus on the all-time best moments of family in this eight-film juggernaut action franchise that began as a low-rent Point Break clone about street racers who steal DVD players.

(Full disclosure: The author truly adores these movies and any snarkiness of tone is meant in the spirit of loving, familial, ribbing.)

(Warning: This piece will feature 26 uses of the word “family.” 27, including that one.)

“Sean’s Dad Stops Him From Getting Killed” - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) has pretty lousy parents. His mother, overwhelmed by Sean’s housing development-destroying shenanigans, ships him off to Japan, where his estranged military man father spends most of the film being annoyed by Sean’s indifference to curfews.

The bar for family moments is so low in this Walker and (mostly) Diesel-less entry, that it’s actually kind of touching when Sean’s dad (Brian Goodman) comes out of nowhere, gun in hand, to stop the Drift King (Brian Tee) from killing his son. Major Boswell may be a distant alcoholic who thinks his son is a disrespectful ne'er do well, but damn if he’ll let him get shot dead at his front door.

This act of paternal protection leads to a nice little conversation about responsibility, then Boswell the elder disappears into the Tokyo night, never to be seen again. It’s a small scene, but one of the best in the film. Shockingly, for all of the focus on family and fathers throughout the course of this series, Sean is the only character whose parents we actually meet.

Until Fate, that is.

“Daddy’s Gotta Coach a Soccer Game” - The Fate of the Furious

The opening moments of F. Gary Gray’s The Fate of the Furious find DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) facing his greatest threat yet: that the Dragons might lose the championship and he’ll have to take a dozen heartbroken little girls out for manicures.

Ignoring the suits who come bearing a new mission, Hobbs leads his daughters soccer team in a traditional Polynesian Haka dance, giving them the strength and confidence to score more goals than the other team, and thus win the game. The moms don’t mind having him there, either.

The complete devotion Hobbs has to his daughter is sweet, and seeing a building-sized superhuman like The Rock insist on doing suburban dad activities is always great. Maybe in #F9 daddy will have to build IKEA bunk beds or chaperone a middle school dance. I think what I’m saying is that I want the inevitable Hobbs spin-off to be a remake of Definitely, Maybe.

“Family BBQ, Original Recipe” - The Fast and the Furious

Every Toretto family BBQ is special, but you never forget your first.

Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) was definitely “sandwich crazy,” but flirtations with Mia (Jordana Brewster) aside, this may be the moment that his allegiances began shifting from the LAPD to the ragtag found family of street racing criminals he was sent to investigate. Remember, Brian is a father-less latchkey kid from Barstow who spent the majority of his youth hanging around demolition derbies and roughhousing with Roman Pierce. For him, the entire experience of a Toretto BBQ must have been overwhelming. The bountiful table! The loving banter! From Jesse’s (Chad Lindberg) charmingly stilted recitation of grace, to papa Dom’s forgiveness of misbehaving child Vince (Matt Schulze), when he sheepishly returns and wants a plate, Brian had never seen anything like it before. And it shows: Paul Walker plays the whole scene with the most wonderful doofy grin.

In a deleted scene, Brian tells Dom, Letty, and the rest of his new friends that the BBQ they’re having “feels like family.” While the use of the literal word “family” wouldn’t become pervasive until later in the series, the idea was born here, the first time that Brian O’Conner truly felt at home.

“Family Hug” - Fast Five

Dom and Brian have been “brothers” ever since the night of that very first street race in The Fast and The Furious, when, as everyone else fled, Brian went back to help Dom evade arrest. “The ‘buster’ kept me out of handcuffs…” Dom tells less-brave family member Vince, using, for the first time, what will become Brian’s unusually endearing nickname, “... the ‘buster’ brought me back.” From there the brotherhood would only grow. It had it’s ups (Brian letting Dom escape at the end of 1, Brian annihilating a prison bus to free Dom in 5) and it’s downs (Dom finding out Brian’s a cop) but family is family.

So, naturally, one of the best “family moments” in the Fast and Furious lineage is in Fast Five, when family becomes family. It happens in a favela spillway in Rio. Dom, Mia, and Brian have just escaped (a pre-family) Hobbs, and are planning their next move. Dom suggests they split up. Mia doesn’t like that idea, you see, she’s pregnant. Brian is elated. Uncle Dom spends a moment in silent reflection, as he’s want to do. Then, grinning from ear to ear, he pulls his sister and brother in for the single best hug of the franchise. “Our family just got a little bigger,” he says.

Just like that our heroes went from “brothers” to brothers, and the guiding mythos of The Fast and the Furious was set in stone.

Which is family, in case that wasn’t clear.

“A Day at the Beach” - Furious 7

Ex-cop Brian begins 2015’s Furious 7 questioning his decision to settle down and be a dad. He “misses the bullets,” and his minivan doesn’t have quite the same get up and go as the Nos-ed up Skylines he’s grown accustomed to as part of Dom Toretto’s team of gearhead superheroes for hire.

After two hours of dangling over cliffs, jumping Lambos through skyscrapers, and being forced to fight Tony Jaa multiple times, he comes to the conclusion that maybe life in the slow lane isn’t so bad after all.

Brian’s choice of “family over repeated hand to hand combat with Tony Jaa” becomes clear in the penultimate scene of the film, when, after successfully securing the “God’s Eye” and defeating Jason Statham, the gang puts on their flowiest linen shirts and hits the beach.

While Brian plays in the surf with his wife and son, the team looks on, making the bittersweet observation that he finally looks happy, and that this is where he’s always belonged: with his family. Then Dom stands up and, uh, says something. And then the scene with the two cars driving in different directions?

(Full disclosure: the author intended to carefully rewatch this scene for the purposes of this article, but started crying almost immediately and had to turn it off)

It’s a beautiful, and surprisingly tasteful, scene, and a perfect send off for the O’Conner family.

#fast and furious #the fast and the furious #toretto tuesday #vin diesel #paul walker #the rock #dwayne johnson #fate of the furious #tokyo drift #michelle rodriguez #jordana brewster #brian o'conner #dom toretto #family

24 notes · View notes

accountingfortaste · 7 years

Text

Favorite and Least Favorite Films of 2016

by Clay Keller

Hell or High Water is a full meal: t-bone steak, potatoes, green beans, and an iced tea to wash ‘er down. There isn’t a single empty calorie (end of food metaphors) in this lean (ok, that’s the end) West Texas thriller about brothers robbing banks and the Odd Couple marshals hot on their trail.

The script by Taylor Sheridan is a thing of beauty - not only is the dialogue crackling and well-observed, but the chase is paced perfectly, and punctuated with terrific scenes of local color; every supporting character is so fully drawn that you could just as well follow them home and it would be just as interesting. Perhaps most importantly, the socio-economic message that pervades nearly every moment and every character is potent without being preachy, it fortifies the story with a rich sense of time and place, and elevates the entire piece.

David Mackenzie’s direction fits this material to a “t.” His camera is loose enough to be immediate and energetic, but his aesthetic eye is sharp enough to find many truly gorgeous cinematic moments. Add to that recipe (I can’t be helped) uniformly excellent performances, a rusty, epic, mournful score, and an awesome Townes Van Zandt-lead soundtrack, and what you’ve got is one hell of an entertaining movie.

Bonus: Listen as Clay and podcast co-host Darren Franich competitively “draft” the best films of the year on The Vidiots Video Store Show: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/60-best-of-2016-draft!/id1051071972?i=1000379861422&mt=2

- HONORABLE MENTION -

(presented in alphabetical order)

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino)

Blood Father (Jean-Francois Pinchet)

Don’t Think Twice (Mike Birbiglia)

The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)

Gleason (J. Clay Tweel)

Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller)

Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)

Morris From America (Chad Hartigan)

Sing Street (John Carney)

20th Century Women (Mike Mills)

- LEAST FAVORITE -

Ugh. When the three hour long “R rated” cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out on Blu-ray, the general consensus was that it was an improvement on the much-maligned theatrical version of the film. Having only seen the “R rated” cut, I refuse to believe that this joyless, pointless, basically incoherent slog of a movie could possibly be the “better” version of anything.

I’m generally tired of the “dark and gritty” approach to superheroes of the last ten years, but I’ll forgive a complete dearth of levity so long as the dramatic stakes make, like, any kind of sense. At all. But nothing in BvS makes sense. At all. The character choices are wildly inconsistent, the plot turns confusingly unmotivated, and the catharsis hilariously unearned. The creative missteps faceplants in BvS are so frequent and extreme that it’s truly shocking to me that it’s the work of professional storytellers; I refuse to believe that anyone genuinely thought any of this was actually a good idea. Also not helping this movie be good, or even tolerable, is lifeless dialogue, muddy, indifferent visuals, and performances so bland that Ben Affleck was impressive in comparison. Ugh.

Warner Bros. handing the keys of the DC universe to Zack Snyder is a decision that will perplex me until the end of time. That said... Wonder Woman looks pretty dope, doesn’t it?

Anticipated 2016 films not yet seen: Certain Women, Fences, Elle, Hidden Figures, A Man Called Ove, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Sunset Song

- FAVORITE CLASSICS FIRST SEEN IN 2016 -

Blue is a marvel. It somehow manages to be a work of staggering, meticulous visual mastery without sacrificing even an ounce of narrative honesty. Not once does it feel stagey or distant as it explores the confusing duality of human emotions, of freedom and happiness born of sincere tragedy. In the role of a woman abruptly forced to reassess her entire life, Juliet Binoche embodies a combination of fragility and resolve that breaks your heart and puts it back together again. And the use of music! Sublime.

White, by stark contrast, is an acidic dark comedy fable with an almost Coen-esque absurdity. It’s a loopy tale of emotional warfare, full of delightful visual gags, profound irony, and a vicious performance from a young Julie Delpy. Placed between Blue and Red, White feels like something akin to a mid-meal dessert, but it is by no means a trifle.

In Red, the series again shifts gears entirely, this time to a simmering voyeuristic mystery about unlikely friendships, moral relativism, and unseen connections. It’s an intriguing, if slightly mystifying, entry, whose true power isn’t fully felt until the final frames, when all three films culminate in an ending that I’m not sure is intended to be intellectually analyzed, but just simply... understood. The Three Colors is an astounding and almost overwhelming work, and one that I’m sure I will revisit often.

- MOST ANTICIPATED 2017 -

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray)

Annihilation (Alex Garland)

Euphoria (Lisa Langseth)

- FAVORITE TELEVISION -

Television in 2016 was defined by its surprises. Most of my favorite shows came to the end of their runs in 2015, and several current favorites (Fargo, The Leftovers) took the year off. In January, I could never have predicted that in December my top 5 list would include two different shows based on the same historical subject (one from Ryan Murphy, no less) and that it would be topped by a Starz remake of a film I haven’t seen. Even Veep, a perennial favorite in it’s fifth season, was a surprise; how often does a show lose it’s creator/showrunner and not only stay great, but... improve? Never, that’s how often. This is the only time. (Black Mirror wasn’t a surprise, just really fucking good.)

In a year chock full of surprises, Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan’s adaptation of Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience was the biggest. I loved everything about it. I loved the out-of-control (or is it?) descent into the depths of the (impressively fleshed-out) world of high priced escorts. I loved the twisty tale of corporate espionage. I loved the formal experimentation; one 30-min episode would follow a traditional A/B/C structure, and the next would be a single long, multi-layered scene. Exhilarating.

But most of all, I loved the captivating character study of a deeply complex, possibly sociopathic, woman, played with chilling confidence by Riley Keough. This may sound hyperbolic, but Keough’s performance as Christine is a star-making turn the likes of which I haven’t seen since Jon Hamm started pushing Lucky Strikes. She’s that good. As is The Girlfriend Experience.

#best of 2016 #hell or high water #the girlfriend experience #the handmaiden #jackie #everybody wants some #the invitation #la la land #indignation #moonlight #blue jay #american honey

30 notes · View notes

accountingfortaste · 8 years

Text

Favorite and Least Favorite Films of 2015

----------

Most modern revisionist westerns wallow in the unsentimentality of the Wild West. John Maclean’s remarkably assured debut feature Slow West delights in it, finding fittingly ironic twists on well-worn tropes and new avenues into archetypal characters that at once feel completely classic and completely fresh.

The bullseye for “dark comedy genre movie” is tiny and way off in the distance, but Maclean nails it. The comedy is big without being silly; the violence brutal without being exploitative; the compositions immaculate without being clinical. Add to the equation predictably great performances from Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn, and surprisingly great performances from everyone else, and the sum is a terrific story brought to the screen with impeccable craft. It’s one of those movies that remind you just how great movies can be.

It also has what may be the greatest coat in the history of the medium.

- HONORABLE MENTION - (Presented in alphabetical order)

Brooklyn (John Crowley)

Creep (Patrick Brice)

Ex Machina (Alex Garland)

It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie)

Phoenix (Christian Petzold)

Predestination (The Spierig Brothers)

Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)

Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle)

Tangerine (Sean Baker)

- LEAST FAVORITE -

Other films were arguably worse, but none squandered nearly as many precious resources as Trainwreck. Amy Schumer is an excellent actress, and an important voice in comedy, but any incisive or intelligent comedy in this meandering film (over two hours!) is undercut by a sloppy sketch-like structure and shockingly lazy joke writing.

There are many groan-worthy bits, but I will single out the “intervention” scene, which is inexplicably terrible and completely derails the movie, both narratively and logically, at a crucial juncture in the story. That carelessness of storytelling is emblematic of the film as a whole, good ideas and real emotions hidden under a thick, thick layer of outdated gay jokes about John Cena and cliche characters like Tilda Swinton’s nonsensically abusive magazine editor.

I like Schumer and crave R rated comedies from the female perspective, but this was just a bad movie, and the most frustrating movie-watching experience of the year.

ANTICIPATED 2015 FILMS NOT YET SEEN: Mustang, Son of Saul, Crimson Peak, Bone Tomahawk (UPDATE: Great, loved it), Spotlight (UPDATE: Terrific, one of the year’s best), Results, Chi-raq, Victoria

- ASSORTED ADDITIONAL CATEGORIES -

FAVORITE FAST AND FURIOUS FILM

Furious 7 (James Wan)

MOST DISAPPOINTING FILM

Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow)

FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (Guy Ritchie)

youtube

MOST REWATCHED 2014 FILM

The Guest (Adam Wingard)

FAVORITE CLASSICS FIRST SEEN IN 2015

The second film featuring Jean-Pierre Léaud as François Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel character (the first being The 400 Blows) seems at first to be a diverting trifle; a strange and funny little tale of a cheeky young man who can’t find his place in the world, because he doesn’t much care to. But underneath the quirky humor, private investigator subplot and gorgeous Paris-in-the-60′s color photography, Truffaut is laying a foundation for one of the most profound third acts I’ve seen: three consecutive scenes of sheer brilliance which shed the frippery that has been delighting the audience thus far, to expose the core of human desires, needs and expectations. The resultant film is lovely and funny and odd and leaves you reeling, but in the best way.

2. Repulsion (Roman Polankski)

3. After Hours (Martin Scorsese)

4. Miami Blues (George Armitage)

5. The New World (Terrence Malick)

MOST ANTICIPATED 2016

Hail, Caesar! (Joel & Ethan Coen)

John Wick 2 (Chad Stahleski)

Passengers (Morton Tyldum)

The Nice Guys (Shane Black)

War on Everyone (John Michael McDonagh)

BONUS: FAVORITE TELEVISION SHOWS

The first season of The Leftovers had great ideas, terrific actors and a unique sensibility, but turned many people off with its unrelentingly depressing story lines and characters. Personally, I found this zealous dedication to being a bummer endearing. I’d never seen anything quite like it. You do you, The Leftovers.

Thankfully, the second season is able to retain all of its original flavor in the midst of massive, positive, changes; it is funnier, more exciting, more mysterious and more hopeful, all without losing its off-kilter, deeply melancholic soul. I loved every second, and I am very much looking forward to The Leftovers doing The Leftovers in its third, and final, season.

ALSO: Check out the Best Of 2015 DRAFT that I did with Vidiots Video Store Show co-host Darren Franich: http://vidiotsshow.libsyn.com/podcast/vidiots-video-store-show-11-best-of-2015-draft

#movies #2015 #best #slow west #leftovers #hannibal #fargo #truffaut #trainwreck

0 notes

accountingfortaste · 8 years

Text

This is what happens when Clay texts Darren about the new “Star Wars” movie.

Clay Keller:

Star Wars. Above average blockbuster, all the new people are great. Lots of nitpick material. Is kylo ren just, like, super shitty at the light saber?

Darren Franich:

First half hour is great, stormtroopers are weirdly way cooler than ever, everything goes downhill at Fake Mos Eisley, Finn makes no sense as a character, the number of plot mysteries left dangling is an embarrassment of serialization, waste of Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac is a god.

Clay Keller:

An embarrassment of serialization! Buuuuuurn. Yeah, but I’ll give Finn some time to make sense in 8. He’s fun, and he has universal chemistry with everyone.

Storm troopers were almost too cool

Darren Franich:

Why is everyone so willing to say “It’ll make sense in Episode 8”? This is a two hour fucking movie! Make sense in your own context!

Don’t want to explain Snoke? Here’s a thought: Don’t fucking have five scenes with him that are all exactly the same!

Clay Keller:

Hahaha super low expectations I guess. If I remember correctly they don’t explain the emperor in empire

Darren Franich:

He’s in one scene and he’s the Emperor!

Nothing to explain!

Clay Keller:

But snoke is no bueno, for sure

Darren Franich:

Anyhow, good for the stormtroopers.

Clay Keller:

For the first few seconds when I thought snoke was a giant thanos man I was like “well, Star Wars is done”

Darren Franich:

The Guardians comparisons really don’t help the movie. And I don’t love Guardians.

Clay Keller:

Me neither. It was breezy and diverting, but weightless.

Does the force make people instantly amazing at lightsabers?! WHO WAS MAX VON SYDOW?

Darren Franich:

Von Sydow in this < Von Sydow in Flash Gordon.

Clay Keller:

Do lightsabers have agency? How can they call to people? wtf was with Rey’s convenient flashback vision?

Darren Franich:

That is the precise moment when the movie lost me.

But I actually felt really good watching the movie. It made me understand JJ Abrams, and understand why I’m just not interested in his stuff anymore.

Clay Keller:

Darren lightsabers JJ under the illumination of the god light. *thank you*

Darren Franich:

It’s just kind of poignant, the idea of endlessly recreating the stuff you liked when you were a kid.

Clay Keller:

He’s a really fascinating and frustrating filmmaker

How can he get so much right, then whiff other parts? Like, every time?

Except MI3

Natch

Darren Franich:

My personal read is that he has good instincts (do location shooting and analog effects!) but then he gets nervous and undercuts those instinct (cut action scenes to hell, shoot fight scenes in medium-close-up.)

Clay Keller:

And this was actually quite reserved for him

Darren Franich:

Like, you know how Spielberg is great at everything but then he always oversells the endings? JJ Abrams has that problem on a scene to scene basis.

What did you think of the Han stuff?

Clay Keller:

Hmmmmm. In theory I like it, but it was all too rushed

Darren Franich:

Yeah, felt like we missed a movie, and not the good way.

In conclusion, my skepticism has been vindicated!!!!!!!!

All hail the cynical boy with low expectations!

Clay Keller:

How proud you must be!

Speaking to the sidelining of Leia, it could just be that she’s not super mobile any more and hasn’t acted in 20 years

Darren Franich:

Oh, so it’s Carrie Fisher’s fault!

It’s Carrie Fisher’s fault, they’re setting stuff up for episode 8, JJ needed to tell the same story over again to get people interested, of course they still use the same X-Wings thirty eight years later.

Nostalgic pablum, I declare!

Clay Keller:

Shhhh be still, Taggart.

Darren Franich:

Would you rank it higher than Empire?

Clay Keller:

Nah, prob not.

I’d maybe put it third? Or 4th.

There’s some very entertaining stuff. But man, plot holes. Not quite Prometheus or Jworld level, but bad

Darren Franich:

It feels very Abrams that Han and Chewie are just hanging out in space to grab the Falcon.

Clay Keller:

That was a botched moment

Darren Franich:

And all the important planets are in the same solar system?

Clay Keller:

Welllllllllllll c'mon

Darren Franich:

THE SAME SOLAR SYSTEM

Clay Keller:

It’s a jaunty space opera. We don’t need to get into serious astronomy

Darren Franich:

But this is Abrams’ problem. You can use the “jaunty space opera” excuse, but you can also overruse it.

Clay Keller:

Abrams didn’t come up with the all the planets are close and easy to travel between thing. That’s a staple of sw, and Star Trek

Darren Franich:

That is not true! In the other movies they hyperdrive there.

Clay Keller:

They were hyper driving a decent bit in this

Darren Franich:

In this movie, Unnamed Planets Of The Republic are in the sky over Fake Forest Jabba’s Palace.

Clay Keller:

But I won’t say it wasn’t full of too easy contrivances

Darren Franich:

It’s Kirk crashlanding on a planet with Old Spock and Scotty all over again. One of those is fine. Two are unacceptable.

Clay Keller:

Yeaahhhhhhhhhh that’s pretty far down the list of gripes though

Top gripe has to be the force

Darren Franich:

You mean Rey becoming ROTJ-level powerful so fast?

Clay Keller:

So fast? Try “before she even believes she has the force”

Darren Franich:

I want the deleted scene where she speaks parseltongue.

Clay Keller:

That was pretty nuts. Maybe ghost Jedi can avatar into padawans like bran.

Like, Obi wan was force helping her

(I think she’s a descendent of Obi wan)

Darren Franich:

Oh, who fucking cares.

We have ANOTHER surprise parent reveal in Episode VIII?

Clay Keller:

SCORCHED EARTH

Darren Franich:

Last question: Did this movie make you more/less excited for the next five Star Wars movies?

Clay Keller:

Neither. The idea of a rian johnson Star Wars movie is exciting independent of the set up. I am encouraged that he’ll have great new actors to work with

Are you really just done with it?

Darren Franich:

Better: I’ve made peace with it.

It’s just this thing that exists, that is trying really hard to be a thing we loved when we were kids.

And now I understand that JJ Abrams has only ever wanted to make a Star Wars movie, and I have just evolved to a point where I couldn’t care less one way or another about a new Star Wars movie.

Clay Keller:

I like that you and JJ have been on this epic parallel path

Darren Franich:

We all have, Clay. We all have. But it turns out his path ended long ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

And now I care more about “The Leftovers.”

Also, Trevorrow’s a hack.

Clay Keller:

Ok. No one is arguing any of that.

But Johnson is writing 9

I guess i never allowed my childhood love of sw to bleed too much into adulthood

So I haven’t experienced a crash

I’m just in it for general enjoyment of good blockbusters

Now, Into Darkness made me livid

So I’m not chill about everything

Darren Franich:

I guess, in that regard, this movie was totally disappointing. So TV-like in the worst way. And the bummer is knowing that the success of this movie will make it more influential than something like “Fury Road.” Similar to how “Phantom Menace” was actually more influential than “The Matrix.”

Clay Keller:

I think that might remain to be seen

Star Wars success isn’t a surprise to anyone

Mad max came out of nowhere. Especially if it gets some nods, it will have an influence

Darren Franich:

Maybe! But I think if you asked a studio executive which one they would like more, there’s no question.

Everyone wants a brain trust. Hard to trust a real filmmaker.

Abrams somehow splits the difference, because he is his own enervating brain trust.

Clay Keller:

Yes, but SW is such an outlier in general. Jworld I think will be a more direct negative influence.

AND Star Wars is going to end up being more rian Johnson than anyone else

Darren Franich:

You’re very optimistic about an independent filmmaker’s ability to navigate one of the most corporate creative bureaucracies in Hollywood history!

I applaud your optimism. I return to being a proud skeptic, thus far ahead 1-0.

That said, call me when Mangold signs on for the Boba Fett movie.

Clay Keller:

Cynicism never got us anywhere!

Darren Franich:

It got us “The Third Man”!

And Bogart!

And HAN MOTHERFUCKING SOLO!

(RIP)

Clay Keller:

The third man, bogart, Han Solo and darren Franich. A proud tradition.

Clay Keller:

Adam driver was dope in that though. Love him

Darren Franich:

Listen, I liked the Stormtroopers.

Clay Keller:

But I think they made some weird atormtrooper a mistakes too!

Why was the trooper with the electric staff not phasma? Or a cool new design? He/she was just a rando!

Missed toy opportunity

Also: regular ol stormtroopers can go toe to toe with the leads now?

Darren Franich:

I loved that. Felt like they brought mystery and a real threat level to guys who were total goons even in the original.

The better version of this movie, I think, is all about the stormtroopers who changes sides, and we learn more about why they change sides, and Phasma gets an actual showdown.

But that’s one movie, and Force Awakens is at least four movies.

Clay Keller:

Don’t worry, Johnson will fix phasma in VIII.

It just occurred to me that Amidala Beautiful Girlses Anakin in the prequels.

Darren Franich:

Moving on from that, did this movie change your perspective in any way on the prequels?

Clay Keller:

You always want to move on from beautiful girls

Not my perspective on how good of movies they are, but I find it difficult to muster hate for them anymore.

It’s good backstory, good myth for things to build on. You just don’t need to make a movie out of every bit of backstory/ exposition

Darren Franich:

Agreed. I do feel like, after a decade of everyone saying what was wrong with them, Abrams and co. made a movie that strenuously avoided all those pitfalls and tried on every level to go in the other direction, and the results were still just ok.

Last question and then we’re never talking about Star Wars again/until the Rogue One trailer comes out: Luke not in the movie. Until the very end. Work for you?

Clay Keller:

Worked for me. If they hadn’t shown him at all that would have been annoying, but i have no complaints with the use/no use of Luke.

Mmmmm rogue one. Mikkelson. Mendelsohn. Jones. Godzilla was a snooooze but that cast has me all revved up

Darren Franich:

I just wonder if they’re gonna manage to steal the Death Star plans.

Clay Keller:

The outcome of the movie is almost as predictable as that joke!

2 notes · View notes

accountingfortaste · 9 years

Text

Favorite and Least Favorite Films of 2014

FAVORITE

Jake Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom is the most singular, fully-formed and zeitgeist-worthy character to come out of a motion picture since Daniel Day Lewis' Daniel Plainview in 2007's There Will Be Blood. The writing and performing of that character are so specific and entrancing that if Nightcrawler were just a simple character study, that would be plenty. But on top of that Nightcrawler is also an incisive satire of the news media, a revealing and gritty portrait of Los Angeles after dark, and hands-down the best thriller of the year; there are two suspense sequences in this film that are among the most breathless and nerve-jangling of all time.

There were many great films this year, but I suspect only Nightcrawler, and Boyhood, will be enduring classics.

Nightcrawler (Director: Dan Gilroy)

Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)

The Guest (Adam Wingard)

Alan Partridge (Declan Lowney)

Chef (Jon Favreau)

Locke (Steven Knight)

Boyhood (Richard Linklater)

Coherence (James Ward Byrkit)

Gone Girl (David Fincher)

The One I Love (Charlie McDowell)

LEAST Favorite

It's a testament to the overall quality of the films released in 2014 that Godzilla ended up being my least favorite. It's well-shot. It's well-designed. It's got a good cast. But it's just so DULL. Although Godzilla is unquestionably superior to Transformers: Age of Extinction in terms of craft, at least Transformers is so batshit insane that I never became bored. Each new scene brought with it the promise of more fascinatingly idiotic techno-babble and/or shockingly tone-deaf comedy (the "Romeo & Juliet Law" discussion in T4 is easily the most HOW ON EARTH IS THIS A REAL THING?! scene of the year). Godzilla, on the other hand, is like being read to out of a particularly dry science textbook while watching a particularly unimaginative child knock their toy monsters against each other. People love to talk about how much they love dinosaurs, but the real reason Jurassic Park works is because it has well-wrought, entertaining, sympathetic human characters. Mostly it works because it has Jeff Golblum. To say that Godzilla has no Jeff Goldblum would be the understatement of the century. It doesn't even have anything in the ballpark of a Jeff Goldblum. It desperately needed at least one Jeff Goldblum.

Godzilla (Director: Gareth Edwards)

Transformers: Age of Extinction (Michael Bay)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Mark Webb)

They Came Together (David Wain)

The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum)

GUILTY PLEASURE

The Purge: Anarchy (Dir: James DeMonaco)

MOST UNDERRATED FILM(s)

Adult World (54% on rottentomatoes / 61 on metacritic)

Sabotage (19% on rottentomatoes / 44 on metacritic )

MOST UNDER-APPRECIATED FILM

The Guest ($332,890 domestic gross)

MOST '50-YEAR-OLD MAN KILLS EVERYONE' FILM

John Wick (Dir: Chad Stahelski)

HONORABLE MENTION (arranged alphabetically)

This scene, from BIRDMAN, in which Norton and Keaton rehearse the play, is astounding. Possibly my favorite scene in any movie this year.

Birdman (Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu)

Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)

Cheap Thrills (E.L. Katz)

Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)

Fury (David Ayer) *

Life Itself (Steve James)

Noah (Darren Aronosfky)

Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre)

The Best Offer (Guiseppe Tornatore)

Whiplash (Dir: Damien Chazelle)

* update: replaced The Immigrant

Anticipated 2014 releases as yet unseen: Selma, The Babadook, Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner, Only Lovers Left Alive, Fury, Frank, Get on Up, Beyond the Lights (and others, I'm sure).

FAVORITE CLASSIC first seen in 2014

Sea of Love is terrific entertainment; a noir-ish "femme-fatale" thriller that is suspenseful, sexy, genuinely funny and messily human. Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin have palpably dangerous chemistry and every single supporting character (the always-delightful John Goodman and Richard Jenkins among them) is fully fleshed out and dynamic. Hollywood thrillers this complex and unpredictable used to come around fairly frequently. These days it seems like we only get one when David Fincher or Steven Soderbergh are in the mood. So seek this one out, and if you have the strength to look past the truly awful DVD cover, then you'll be rewarded with Al Pacino's best film of the 80's.

Sea of Love (1989/ Dir: Harold Becker)

MOST ANTICIPATED for 2015

Furious 7 (Director: James Wan)

Ex Machina (Alex Garland)

Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols)

The Last Five Years (Richard LaGravenese)

Untitled Cold War Spy Thriller (Steven Spielberg)

BONUS: Favorite Television Programs aired in 2014

The experiment: Take two first time filmmakers with opposite sensibilities, give them the same script and equal budgets, and follow them as they make their films, from pre-production to premiere. The result: An intense, intimate portrait of the indie filmmaking process that brilliantly wrangled the organic drama and fascinating characters found on a film production into the most engaging and compulsively watchable television show of the year.

The Chair (Starz/ Creator: Chris Moore)

Fargo (FX/ Creator: Noah Hawley)

Hannibal (NBC/ Creator: Bryan Fuller)

You're the Worst (FX/ Creator: Stephen Falk)

Mad Men (AMC/ Creator: Matthew Weiner)

ADDITIONAL BONUS: Most ludicrous prop made for a movie in 2014

Laminated "Romeo & Juliet Law" card - Transformers: Age of Extinction

#2014 best nightcrawler

1 note · View note

accountingfortaste · 10 years

Text

Favorite and Least Favorite Films of 2013

FAVORITE

Not only does this film have all the great Coen trademarks (wonderfully precise dialogue, excellent performances, gorgeous cinematography), and in spades, but it adds a level of true, deep, human emotion that isn't always present in their work. As a snapshot of a moment in American history, it's a delight. As a meditation on loss and the endless frustration of life as an artist, it's profound. I enjoyed many films this year, but I felt Inside Llewyn Davis, and it's going to stick with me for a long time. And the music! Oh, the music. Amazing. I can't wait to see it again.

Inside Llewyn Davis (Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen)

American Hustle (Dir: David O. Russell)

The Place Beyond the Pines (Dir: Derek Cianfrance)

Nebraska (Dir: Alexander Payne)

Before Midnight (Dir: Richard Linklater)

The World's End (Dir: Edgar Wright)

Captain Phillips (Dir: Paul Greengrass)

Frances Ha (Dir: Noah Baumbach)

The Hunt (Dir: Thomas Vinterberg)

Stories We Tell (Dir: Sarah Polley)

LEAST Favorite

An unpleasant, tone-deaf film in which "dark comedy" is attempted simply by mashing senseless violence up against lame jokes, without any semblance of a message or a point. That's disappointing enough, coming from a seasoned pro like Besson, but what's shocking, considering his filmography, is how dull and unimaginative the senseless violence is.

The Family (Dir: Luc Besson)

Man of Steel (DIr: Zack Snyder)

Elysium (Dir: Neill Blomkamp)

Stoker (Dir: Chan-wook Park)

Kick-Ass 2 (Dir: Jeff Wadlow)

Biggest Disappointment

Star Trek Into Darkness (Dir: J.J. Abrams)

Guilty Pleasure

Pain & Gain (Dir: Michael Bay)

Favorite Fast & Furious Film

Fast & Furious 6 (Dir: Justin Lin)

Most Underrated

The Counselor (Dir: Ridley Scott)

31% on Rottentomatoes/ 45 on Metacritic

Most Overrated

World War Z (Dir: Marc Forster)

67% on Rottentomatoes/ 63 on Metacritic

Honorable Mention (arranged alphabetically)

About Time (Dir: Richard Curtis)

Her (Dir: Spike Jonze)

In the House (Dir: Francois Ozon)

Mud (Dir: Jeff NIchols)

Prisoners (Dir: Denis Villaneuve)

Rush (Dir: Ron Howard)

Spring Breakers (Dir: Harmony Korine)

12 Years a Slave (Dir: Steve McQueen)

The Wolf of Wall Street (Dir: Martin Scorsese)

Upstream Color (Dir: Shane Carruth)

Note: There were a LOT of great movies in 2013. Some that missed the top 20 would have easily made the top 10 in previous years. Also, I didn't see Gravity. I know, I know. I'm sorry.

UPDATE: I have since seen Gravity, and it was spectacular.

Favorite Classic First Seen in 2013

A remarkably modern feeling dramedy, anchored by warm and funny performances from Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn, who have simply intoxicating chemistry. Its frank discussions of love and sex, as well as a snappy out-of-sequence structure make it feel like something from the 2000's, not the 60's.

Two for the Road (1967/ Dir: Stanley Donen)

Most Anticipated for 2014

Inherent Vice

Interstellar

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Last 5 Years

X-Men: Days of Future Past

BONUS: Favorite Television Programs aired in 2013

A twisted sociopath (played with unnerving stillness by Mads Mikkelson) befriends and manipulates the disturbed empath (a powerfully fragile Hugh Dancy) that the FBI has hired him to assist. The potent cocktail of perfect performance, clever writing and the most hauntingly beautiful photography and design ever seen on TV makes Hannibal a transfixing experience. If it had premiered on HBO, rather than lowly NBC, it would have been heaped with Golden Globe nominations. Watch it, please, when it returns in February.

Hannibal (Showrunner: Bryan Fuller)

Orange is the New Black (Showrunner: Jenji Kohan)

Mad Men (Showrunner: Matthew Weiner)

Orphan Black (Showrunners: Graeme Manson & John Fawcett)

Masters of Sex (Showrunner: Michelle Ashford)

#2013 #best of #inside llewyn davis #the family #hannibal #movies #two for the road

1 note · View note