GRGRGGEGEGAHS IT'S HEATHER!!! I watched the Blair Witch Project last night with my dad. Keep in mind that I don't scare easily at all, but this SCARED ME SHITLESS. 10/10 movie would recommend

(through tears) happy gay marriage pinky and the brain

Pop Trolls would love the Lego Movie soundtracks.

Everything is Awesome? If you told me that the song was from Trolls I'd believe you.

Catchy Song? Yes and Barb would hate it so much.

Super Cool? Unbelievable, super cool, outrageous and amazing? Phenomenal, fantastic, so incredible? That's a Pop Troll mantra if I've ever heard it.

Favorite soviet movies (and where to find them)

The general opinion about the soviet union varies from person to person, but I think many can agree that the movies that came from this time period were phenomenal. Here are my top favorite movies that I recommend, which also have generally good english subtitles.

Hussar Ballad

A rare musical-comedy gem that I absolutely adore. Shura Azarova, a 17 year old girl joins the army to fight against Napoleon. Plot twist: She's pretending to be a guy and starts falling for a fellow soldier, who she actually engaged to but he has no idea that his new friend is actually a girl (she doesn't like him in the beginning and no wonder lmao). Has a lot of catchy numbers, especially давным давно/ a long time ago/ davnim davno. It may seem a little weird, but watch the first 10 minutes, I guarantee that it will not be a waste of your time.

2. Ivan Vassilvveich changes profession/Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future.

A scientist successfully creates a time-machine but accidentally sends his building's manager and a thief all the way back in time to Ivan IV The Terrible's reign, whilst sending the actual Tsar to the modern decade. Chaos ensues for all.

3. Prisoner of the Caucasus/Shurik's New Adventures/Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (I had no idea this movie had this many translations lol) A kind but naive student named Shurik goes to the Caucasus on vacation where he meets a young woman named Nina, who he ends up accidentally kidnapping (yes, he's that much of a dumbass but he was told that bride kidnapping is a tradition that Nina follows and God forbid that anyone uses this thing called communication). It works out in the end just as chaotically as it started.

4. The Garage A cooperative is planning on buliding a garage for its members except for it now has to be reduced and there won't be enough space for everyone so someone's going to be left out. The comitee ignores said members objections, so someone locks them in for the night leading to them spending the night locked inside the museum which is also the meeting spot. It's actually quite funny, despite the odd description, but I am writing it whilst extremely caffeinated so bear with me here.

5. Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia (Невероятные приключения итальянцев в России). A fantastic comedy. An elderly lady of soviet origin reveals to her grandaughter that there's a treasure buried in Leningrad. However, the wrong people hear about it, so they try to outwit each other in their race to Russia. Pretty funny, especially when the actual treasure hunting commences.

6. The Bremen Town Musicians An animated movie, but nonetheless deserving a mention. The troubadour with his gang of friends made from a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster travel around singing, until he meets a princess but the king doesn't approve of them etc. Pretty standard story, but the singing is amazing, especially Troubadours song "Luch solntsa zolotovo/Луч солнца золотого/ Beam of the Golden Sun" with the translation here sung by Muslim Magomayev who honestly deserves a separate post dedicated because his voice is amazing. The english subtitles are a bit iffy here, but nonethless it's worth a watch as it's only 20 or so minutes long.

7. The Mystery of the Third Planet Also an sci-fi animated movie, but the staple of my childhood. Captain Zelyoniy and Professor Seleznyoviy with his daughter go around various planets collecting new species for the zoo. However, on one of the planets they end up discovering something odd and before they know it, they're right in the middle of a conspiracy and a famous missing captain. Fantastic soundtrack and great animation.

There are many more movies that I'd definitely recommend, so this list will be updated sometime in the future.

Bill Hader's Favorite Movies of 2023🎥

I still haven’t seen “Poor Things” or “All of Us Strangers,” both of which I hear are great. That said:

“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” — I think this came out in 2022, but I saw it this year and loved it. It turned me on to her photography, which is phenomenal.

“Anatomy of a Fall” — That couple fighting in the kitchen was so well written, directed, and acted I thought I was going to have a panic attack. And Milo Machado Graner’s performance is beautiful.

“Beau is Afraid” — This felt like the nightmare a nervous guy has before he visits his overbearing mother. One of the boldest American films I’ve seen in years. Kylie Rodgers drinking that paint! Jesus…

“The Boy and the Heron” — A legend! I like how he animates gusts of wind.

“El Conde” — Ed Lachman’s cinematography is gorgeous. And the visual effects are very well done.

“Evil Dead Rise” — I’m a sucker for “The Evil Dead” movies. I’ll never look at a cheese grater the same again.

“Fallen Leaves” — Simple and beautiful storytelling. Their first date is one of my favorite scenes of the year.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” — One of my heroes adapting one of my favorite contemporary authors, I went in with big expectations and was completely knocked out. Scorsese somehow continues to discover new moves in his storytelling. I’ve never seen a love story like this in his movies. And the banality of evil that De Niro portrays I haven’t seen either; it’s usually Biblical evil! It’s very inspiring. And it was nice seeing the light and the land of my home state faithfully captured on film.

“May December” — Unbelievable performances from everyone. Natalie Portman’s recreation of the letter! Stoned Charles Melton on the roof! And Julianne Moore continues to prove she might be the best living actor in the world. I’ve always been a huge Todd Haynes fan, and this is one of his best.

“Showing Up” — Kelly Reichart is a national treasure. Her films have the simplicity/complexity of a great short story. I love the sound in her movies. A campfire in one of her movies sounds different from campfires in most movies (although I don’t think there’s a campfire in this one).

“Talk to Me” — What a great idea for a horror movie! I said, “Oh no” out loud multiple times while watching it alone in my house.

“The Zone of Interest” — I can honestly say I’ve loved every movie Jonathan Glazer has made — all four of them! He’s so confident in his instincts. Like that opening title! The static camera. The sound design. The music! All the withholding. It adds up to an experience I’ve never had watching a movie. And all I do is lay around like a slob watching movies, so that’s really saying something.

Thank you @martymcdie88mph for bringing this to my attention❤️

cool to see you have some of my feelings i think? Kyon's reasons for his choice have always seemed terrible to me. ur 3 friends have been having an awful time back there man but glad you're having fun i guess lol? That being said, I can't see the human Nagato as the same person as the alien one. To me, she seems for all intents and purposes "dead" in that world, so I do prefer Kyon's choice. hate him sometimes tho. loved reading your thoughts! hope you enjoyed the series and the movie!

Thank you. ^_^ Yeah, Kyon's decision was warped and self-serving, but I can accept that because the morality of the show is already warped and self-serving. That's the tone. Phenomenal cosmic powers used in unbelievably selfish ways.

Nobody ever uses Haruhi's powers for good. Except. Ironically. The villain of this movie. <.< Are we the baddies?

Yuki is the most dramatically changed, but it makes sense to me why that is; She's the least human of the cast. Throughout the show she's been collecting her anomalous "error data", which is developing emotions and sentimental attachments. She's gradually becoming more humanlike. But Alt Yuki is someone who doesn't have to do that because she already is fully human.

In a sense, Alt Yuki is who Anomaly Yuki wants to be. She's Yuki's escapist fantasy. Yuki's ideal self living the life Yuki wants to be living. Everything we see in the other world is a reflection of Yuki's innermost desires for herself and her friends.

Disappearance actually reminded me a lot of PMMM Rebellion Story.

So I have no trouble seeing these as the same character. She is for Yuki what Haruhi is for me personally.

No because that ending was literally movie like 😧

You seriously need like Nobel for this 🤭

you're such a phenomenal writer I literally wish I get to your level of talent one day this amazing like omg just so shocked 🙉🫶🏾🩶

lasdjaslkdas 😭😭

i really don't have words you guys are being so unbelievably sweet i'm just aldjsad i cannot thank you guys enough

BOY KILLS WORLD (no spoilers)

to say the film was absolutely phenomenal is an understatement. the action and cinematography is unreal and the talent pumped into this film is unbelievable. the acting was amazing from all sides.

i can’t even begin to find the words to explain bills talent. to see him as a leading man in this movie was such a privilege. he put his everything into this role and it is so clear his work ethic and dedication. his ability to emote and almost ‘talk’ without saying a word the whole film was beautiful to watch. the fight scenes and his physical acting was out of this world. i was so proud to see bill play this role and it is so lovely to see everyone speak to highly of him now as a leading man. everyone go and see this film!

💌 send this to the twelve nicest people you know or who seem to have a good heart and if you get five back you must be pretty awesome. 💌

:3

Aaaawww~!! Thank you!! You are super awesome too!! * plays in mind the "Unbelievable, super cool, outrageous and amazing. Phenomenal, fantastic, so incredible. Whoo-hoo!" moment from Super Cool song from lego movie 2. * That's you!💖💖🎤

TOHO SPIRITED AWAY?? PLS GIVE ME THE DEETS

oh it was soooooooooo good i'm so happy i got a chance to see it!!! gorgeous design all around, there was no standout elements bc everything fit so well together. all the spirits + magical elements were done with traditional (japanese and western) style puppetry, so everything was articulated and manipulated by an operator, which had this really wonderful almost youth theatre vibe. a lot of times with shows that involve puppets, they'll try to make the puppets as advanced as possible to not make them 'childish' (see: war horse), but for something that's based heavily in folklore and IS a children's story, to me the only logical sense is to emphasize that particular angle. the puppets were also incredible, very well made and sooo accurate to the movie??? like impressively accurate. my faves were probably kamaji and haku? kamaji's six extra arms were each operated by a separate person who had one hand operating the elbow and one hand as the actual hand, so all eight hands were able to do everything, which mean there was some REALLY incredible choreography of just. all the stuff that he was doing, but also when he got up and walked it was soooooooo cool. and haku!!! he had two puppets actually, one 'full size' that was a big long foam articulated body that took i think four puppeteers, and there was a tiny haku that they used for the flying scenes that was basically just a little head and a ....idk what the actual technical term is but it was basically just a wind sock as the body on a big long pole so the puppeteer could essentially move him like you would a big ribbon! the scene were he first transforms and flies off was sooo pretty, the actor haku did a lil setup to a GORGEOUS spinning jump and when he landed he ducked down behind some of the chorus members and as he disappeared the tiny ribbon haku shot up from the same spot and started looping around.......... actual magic. also wow the actor playing haku was so pretty. and very tall. which i did not notice until the very end. i would not be suprised if he had ballet training bc tall and he had the ballet dancer chin/head posture. also the actor playing lin (also doublecast as chihiro's mom) was crazy hot. just so unbelievably hot. anyways. speaking of casting: noface as a popping dancer. UNREAL and incredible galaxy brained choice. he had a solo while they did a set change and WOW. spooky and gorgeous and also weirdly welcoming? really excellent job of embodying a sympathetic physicality that made it understandable why chihiro would let him in to the bath house in the first place. also for the curtain call he put the mask on the back of his head and literally did the bows backwards. insane. my ONLY complaint is that i didn't love noface's giant form, but that's mostly because years and years ago i saw a (different) puppet show with a grim reaper character that was very similar to giant noface (the telescoping neck + large body) and i literally thought at the time 'if you were going to do puppet noface that is exactly how you should do it', so 1) expectations 2) i'm pretty sure that version was done using quite a sophisticated extending mechanism, which would be antithetical to the rest of the puppets in the show, and 3) this giant noface was VERY big (probably at least 10-15 feet across? he was at least eight puppeteers with the original actor as the mask) so the logistics would not have worked. regardless. it is a very small complaint that literally no one else would have had unless they had seen the same show that i did in like. 2015. costumes were all unreal, the set was phenomenal; it actually took me WELL over an hour to figure out that the set literally stayed the same the entire time, it was just being rotated (it was on a turntable) and redressed + had a couple balconies flown in. also live orchestra?? in the set??????? i didnt even know they were THERE they had them behind a scrim on an upper level platform in the back and they pulled it up for curtain call and there was like. 15 ppl sitting back there????

ok but if i had to pick ONE thing that was my favourite, it would be that ALL the living things were played by someone alive. i know that sounds obvious, especialy for like. the dancing vases and the frog and the soot sprites, but even the PLANTS were puppets in their own way. like the hydrangea bushes that chihiro hides in at the beginning and the flower field that she and haku run through were done with chorus members wearing these beautiful flower head/chest/arm pieces. even the stone guardians at the tunnel at the beginning of the play were actors. it really underscored the magic of everything to have all the life be actually alive.

I have successfully seen all the movies shown for the Studio Ghibli Fest these past 10 months & it has been amazing!!! 3 of the movies were some I’ve never seen before & watching them on the big screen was truly extraordinary!!! Watching the wonderful films that I love in theater was unbelievable, with all the Studio Ghibli movies I’ve watched I have only seen 2 in theater, rewatching them all in there was truly a spectacular experience for me!!! As well as watching the Studio Ghibli movies I’ve never watched on a big screen was truly incredible!!! As always Studio Ghibli’s movies has amazing artwork & animation paired with beautiful soothing soundtrack!!! Spirited Away Live On Stage was magnificent!!! THE SINGING!!! THE DANCING!!! THE SWEET SWEET MUSIC!!! ALL OF IT WAS FLAWLESS!!! Seeing my FAVORITE MOVIE performed on stage with some of THE BEST of Japan’s actors was a remarkable experience!!! I CAN’T WAIT TO BUY THE DVD📀!!! Also after every movie there were scenes extracted from 10 Years With Hayao Miyazaki, a documentary all about Hayao Miyazaki & his team of artists & their beautiful hard work they put into their films!!! Together with those scenes we were also shown artwork for Hayao Miyazaki’s FINAL MOVIE!!! I also saw Kenshi Yonezu sing his new song 地球儀-Spinning Globe & him being interviewed about how he made this delightful song & sung it for Hayao Miyazaki himself!!! I’m so excited to see Hayao Miyazaki’s FINAL MOVE!!! It is sad know that a phenomenal artist such as Hayao Miyazaki will be retiring but I know that it’s better this way, he deserves to live out his golden years in peace☮️!!!

sorry, i was rewatching httyd and i just had to talk about it

making a live action movie adaptation makes no sense. it wouldnt add ANYTHING to the story. 

have you seen the quality of animation in that movie? the colours are gorgeous; the backgrounds are phenomenal; the characters all move exactly like a live action person would act, or maybe a little exaggerated, when it helps convey the story. the voice acting? is absolutely brilliant. every time i hear stoiks voice actor sob in relief when he realises hiccup is still alive i almost burst into tears immediately, let’s not even mention jay baruchel’s unbelievably wonderful voice acting for hiccup. making real people play these characters would not add anything, emotionally or visually or even auditorily.

speaking of the actors, there is no way to get actors faithful enough to the characters to stop me from feeling like some of the original character has been lost. it is almost a sure thing that with a live action, they’ll tone down not only the set, but the clothes and characters themselves. and the dragons? unless they get aslan-level cgi for the dragons, the disparity between cgi and reality will stop people from being able to immerse themselves the way they can with the fully animated original. yes, sure, cgi has come a long way, i’m sure it’ll still be good, but. i dont know. it wont be the same, you know?

and the camerawork? in this ANIMATED movie? when hiccup is running through the maze the camera shakes like the person ‘holding’ the camera is running with him; it dips and dives and spins around the characters and scenes masterfully. im convinced that a huge part of the success of the movie which is so understated is how well the animators used the ‘camera’ in the animation to show off their world in the best possible ways. there is simply no way to replicate that kind of camerawork in a live action and make it work as well as it does in the original.

i’ve heard john powell was recruited to write more music for the live action. well, i sure hope you keep the standard up to what it was before, mr powell.

and what i hate the most? is that this is one hundo percent just another fucking cash grab. i cant stand it. theyre making it out to be some sort of way to ‘give back to the loyal fans’ but its bullshit. we all know its fucking bullshit. they want these ‘loyal fans’ to come to the theatres or their fucking streaming services and see either a shot by shot recreation of the original movie But With Real People, or see a completely different movie, in which case dont advertise it as a live action adaptation and just make a different movie with a similar premise.

godssake. sorry. i just had to say SOMETHING

i watched near-universally acclaimed movie silence of the lambs after reading the book (acclaimed to me, and probably in general but that doesn’t matter.) which was really not the way to experience it. like, okay, “book better than the movie” is rarely actually true— often what i assume this means is “movie not the book, which is bad, because i am a fan of book,” or even “movie doesn’t look how i thought book looked,” or maybe “book doesn’t really translate to movie because literature and film have frequently different ways of making meaning so stuff didn’t hit the same”… you get my point. and largely the case with silence of the lambs is the third— in adapting the story a lot of quite separate parts of the narrative get mixed into a single scene, which is of course not uncommon but not always good when done; and also thomas harris is a phenomenal writer of the mind in ways that are very difficult to do cinematographically. in film you typically need the body to perform and signify the sorts of things harris is writing, and he’s writing them in ways which are really divorced from the body, so.

and also i took UNBELIEVABLY huge issue with the direction jodie foster got. truly the whole thing feels like Strong Female Character discourse in a nutshell: thomas harris set out to write a strong female character (explicitly those words) and i think one aspect of that is that clarice starling has got a white-knuckled grip on herself. so after the initial interview with lecter in the hospital, when she’s smarting from getting cum flung at her and also riding the bizarre high of very nearly getting her way through it, she sits in her car fuming and thinking about it. there’s this great line in the book about how she sits there breathing until enough condensation forms inside the windows that she’s got a bit of privacy. that’s, for me, one of the most incredible parts of how harris writes— his description of it is that he didn’t see himself as fully understanding starling, and that often works as moments of privacy for her, where we only see her as others do, or see her obscured. anyway in the movie as you may recall she sits in her car and cries. i will not bother with being like there is nothing wrong with women showing vulnerability. there is obviously something wrong with this.

and one thing i think about often as well is that— i don’t remember where it’s from, but there was an interview with anthony hopkins (i think) and jodie foster where hopkins is saying something about that shot in the opening sequence with diminutive trainee agent starling stepping into an elevator full of older, taller, senior men, and how well it illustrates her position as a woman in a man’s world. and like, sure. sure! it’s efficient! it also occludes a far more interesting moment of gender and positional alterity in the book, which is when starling is at the county morgue in west virginia with crawford and in a room full of men crowding the scene who haven’t spared her more than a second of thought, and leans on the memory of her mother’s presence— and then all of a sudden we’re in jack crawford’s perspective, and he’s hearing her speak with a pronounced southern accent, and thinking of her as a woman in a lineage of rural women who cared for the dead. which is interesting because, on one hand, the book is presenting that very straight; on the other, it’s not presenting that specifically as a position she’s assuming for herself (contextually, you might think she’s putting on her best southern mom voice). there’s also a quite interesting thing going on in the book that i think is just not visually as possible, which is the way that starling is so rarely engaging with the various negotiations with and perceptions of gender happening around her. for example, when chilton first meets her at the hospital he’s immediately like “oh the fbi has girls now? wanna girl with me to dinner, miss fbi agent?” and she’s so dog with a bone about her assignment that she sort of bounces off it, and only once he’s clearly not trying to help her does she think she could have gone about it a different way. being a woman and being a poor southerner are two aspects of her identity that she’s tried to evacuate of meaning (i.e., keep from working against her)— this makes her less able and willing to use them, and it makes this moment of crawford perceiving her so much more interesting, because it’s both of these things at once, and in conjunction.

fundamentally i think the book has a particular way of looking at clarice which is highly tied to perspective and interpretation in a very different way than demme’s movie is. the book makes no bones about starling being very effective— she’s absolutely in over her head, and highly unqualified, but she’s got a really fascinating mix of extreme self-control and instinctive impulsiveness, which almost always makes her brash. whereas the movie is trying to look more directly at her, and in so doing is assuming her grip on herself isn’t as good as it is— it takes these moments where she speaks out before thinking and generalizes them. she trembles when she’d be still, cries when she’d be quiet and thoughtful in anger. i DO think there’s something very insulting about misreading a book that deft and respectful in its treatment of her.

I had to sit and think for a little bc my mind was so full but the season 1 finale of Rings of Power was…

Holy shit.

Chemistry and acting on point. Everyone was acting with their whole pussy out. Every twist was like a new smack in the face even if they were fairly predictable.

Have to give insane props to Charlie Vickers because that change from annoyed but kind of proud casual Southlander to downright sinister was beyond phenomenal.

Morfydd Clark was fantastic for her collection of facial expressions. The small ones and the large ones were so amazing.

Same thing for Lloyd Owen. The changes in vocal intonation and facial expressions was unbelievable. Well, believable, but the unbelievableness comes from how well he did it.

Daniel Weyman really nailed mannerisms and speech patterns once the veil really began lifting.

Markella Kavenagh and Megan Richards made me cry so much. Lenny Henry too. But those two… fuck.

I’ll do a longer post later.

I am so excited for s2.

Also if I hear one more goddamn complaint about how that isn’t how it happened in the books, I’m going to s c r e a m. I watched Alicent try to actively harm one of Rhaenyra’s kids then cut her instead when that never fucking happened in Fire and Blood. Halaena isnt a dreamer in the books. Laenor is all but confirmed dead (dragons only bond to new riders if their rider is dead. Seasmoke moves on in the book. He isn’t dead in the show but Seasmoke is presumably still bonding to [redacted].). To name just a few changes. And guess what? Those changes are good.

Rings of Power’s changes work well for what they are attempting to accomplish with what rights Amazon has. Cause fucking hell, they don’t have the rights to two major works. Complaining about poor writing (like how they don’t actually make you care about any of the characters initially and rely on prior attachment while shows like Stranger Things and House of the Dragon instantly suck you in and make you care for characters that don’t last beyond an episode), is FINE. Good even. But bitching about how the books were different is just… christ. Every show or movie changes things from books/comics. That does not automatically make it bad. Shit y’all.

A Man Called Otto (2022, dir. Marc Forster) - review by Rookie-Critic

TW: suicide

A Man Called Otto had its moments, but tended to be a little too sickly sweet for its own good (when it wasn't being way darker than advertised). I'll admit that I was on the side saying that I wasn't sure I could believe Tom Hanks as a grumpy old man, but for all of the film's faults, the believability of Hanks' Otto Anderson is not one of them. As much as we as an internet collective have corralled Hanks into the role of "America's Dad," and as much as Hollywood has begun to cast Hanks for roles that genuinely don't suit him (excuse me while I glare at Baz Luhrmann), we tend to forget that Hanks is a phenomenal actor that got as famous as he is now for being consistently great, not just in his more typecast-aligning roles like Big and Sleepless in Seattle, but also for movies like Road to Perdition and Philadelphia. Also, let's be honest, we all love him as Woody in Toy Story, and he's basically playing a giant buzzkill (pun absolutely intended) for a majority of the first film in that franchise. I actually found most of the film's cast to be quite endearing, especially Mariana Treviño, who practically steals the film from Hanks, which in and of itself is an impressive feat. As I've said in previous reviews, I love when we get to see fairly unknown actors play big roles in movies alongside the legacy names. The big name draws in the crowd and then they get to see this new (or new to the average moviegoer, anyway) face thrive. I hope to see Treviño in bigger and better things in the future because she was a delight in this.

The biggest detriment to the film is that it really tends to get caught up in itself a lot. I'm actually quite a sucker for sentiment in a film and get swept up very easily in a movie's emotional manipulation if I'm even remotely enjoying it, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I did shed some tears while watching A Man Called Otto, but there were moments that, had they been dialed back about 75%, would have been so much more effective. There are multiple montages set to the most over-the-top, Josh Groban-esque music (which I'm seeing now was mostly written by Hanks' wife, singer and fellow actor Rita Wilson) that absolutely kill the emotional momentum of the film. It is so unbelievably heavy-handed and saccharine that I think I was audibly groaning by the third time it happened. I really can't stress how hilariously atrocious these sequences are. There's also quite a few scenes of these incredibly out of touch depictions of the younger generation that seem to be plaguing a decent handful of films in the recent months, including one sequence involving a train station that is laughably obtuse, and the way the young people in that scene behave ends up being beneficial to Otto later in the film anyway, so I'm not really sure what the commentary is supposed to be, and I don't think the film does either. I find it odd that these sequences are even in the movie for how amazingly progressive a lot of the film seems to be.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about something I mentioned at the beginning of this review about the film being way darker than advertised. I would also like to take this moment to issue a trigger warning (TW: suicide) for those that might have PTSD or anxiety about this topic. This film presents itself in its advertising as a wholesome family drama where a young, friendly family melts the heart of the neighborhood grump. What this movie is really about is a suicidal man learning to find his reason for living again. I won't divulge the details of why for people who don't want those plot spoilers, but I feel it is heavily important to know going into this film that suicide is a heavily felt presence throughout the entirety of the film, and I think I counted five suicide attempts that are shown on screen (it could be six, but I remember at least five). I'm not against the depiction of suicide or suicidal thoughts in film, I think it's an incredibly important topic to discuss openly and without shame or judgment, but I also think that it is paramount for a piece of media to clearly state when it is going to depict something as potentially traumatizing (or re-traumatizing) as that on screen. When the first attempt happens, the film is barely 15 minutes into its runtime, and I was so jarred by it that I almost thought I had somehow walked into the wrong theater, that this had to be some other grumpy Tom Hanks movie and not the fun-loving, cheery looking one whose trailer got "The End of the Line" by The Traveling Wilburys stuck in my head for weeks. I don't know if I can hold a fault of the trailer against the film itself, but I was quite angry with the film's marketing for not giving some kind of indication of what the film and its tone actually were.

I'm having a hard time thinking of what score to give A Man Called Otto, because for all of the things that were objectively bad about the film, I did find myself getting emotional on more than one occasion. The film's sentimentality gets in its own way a lot, but when it's able to find a good balance between heart and drama it really sings, so I'd say there's a little more to like about it on the whole.

Score: 6/10.

Currently only in theaters.

BTL: Who was the biggest surprise in terms of someone you would never have thought of for the role?

Papsidera: Matthew Goode as Robert Evans was phenomenal. We talked about a lot of different guys for Bob Evans and there were other actors attached before I was involved. I cannot say enough about Matthew. He came rather late to the party because there was so much discussion about who that could be. We got to Matthew and the fact that he embodied that in his own unique way is phenomenal. I knew Bob briefly. I did a movie [called] Jade with Bob Evans, who was a producer. Bob was a character and was unbelievably idiosyncratic. Matthew nailed his inflection and his tonality; all of that stuff I was just blown away. It was a magical performance where he had fun and allowed us to have fun. I was thrilled with Lou Ferrigno for Lenny Montana, which was a hard role to find.