The Unofficial Ongoing Current Movies in Theaters thread

[reckless toboggan]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/marissamull...sturbation-sce

Robert Pattinson Is Very Entertained By Everyone's Reaction To His Furious Masturbation Scene In "The Lighthouse"

Finally, a movie that TGR maggots can relate to.

[dookeyXXX]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/marissamull...sturbation-sce




Finally, a movie that TGR maggots can relate to.

Damn you sir and the spoilers you rode in on!



Hoping to see it this coming week...

[dookeyXXX]

LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE

This film wasn't really on my radar, but I ended up seeing it while recently visiting the 'rents. They were going to see it at their local independent cinema, so I tagged along.
I was pleasantly surprised.
I have to admit that I didn't know much about LR other than that she dated Jerry Brown on his first go-around as Governor of California. Suffice it to say, she was a badass during her career. What a set of pipes. And her command of different musical genres was pretty unparalleled. She also seems like she was hella cool and not a spoiled diva, which was refreshing to see given her stature and level of stardom she achieved.
The film is a classic documentary in that it unfolds in a pretty linear fashion, starting with LR's birth, her upbringing in the Southwest, and continues on from there chronicling her meteoric career.
To this end, the film contains some fantastic archival footage and a host of great interviews from the likes of Dolly Parton, Don Henley, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, and more.
I had no idea how deep Ronstadt's career went nor about her connections to Neil Young, The Eagles, and others.
I also had no idea that she is just a singer (and a mightly damn good one), not a songwriter. She's like Sinatra, a vocalist with a signature voice that is heralded for her interpretations of other people's songs. She was also a maverick when it came to the course of her career (she literally flipped her script at least 5 times in terms of the genres of music she peformed).
The only minor off-putting element of the film is that it has a tendency to feel slightly maudlin when discussing why she retired from singing.
Still, if you are into popular music at all, this is completely worth watching for the classic footage and interviews with her peers.

[dookeyXXX]

FIRST LOVE



This is perhaps the most mainstream movie that Japanese cinematic cult autuer Takashi Miike has ever made. But that's not saying much, since even a seemingly "normal" film from this director is still weird by most contemporary standards.
On the surface this is a sweet love story about a shy boxer and a drug-addled prostitute. Underneath the rather straightforward tale lies a story about, well, a shy boxer and a drug-addled prostitute, but it's all augmented with a yakuza/triad war, lots of meth, a one-armed swordsman, tons of guns, a quick blast of anime, and some serious bouts of absurdist violence. Toss in lots of screaming, too (pretty much every dominant male character yells their lines at the top of their lungs in a gutteral growl that is so over-the-top that it comes off as sane and ordinary).
But then that's a Takashi Miike film in a nutshell: teeming with bizarre events that surge up between the cracks of everydayness. While delivered in a linear fashion, the film really feels like an Eastern interpretation of a lost Tarantino script, with oddball characters popping up at every turn in an attempt to foil our young protagonist's effort to win the girl (or at least get her somewhere safe so she can detox).
I will admit that I am a bit torn about this film because it teeters so close to being commonplace, yet every time I found myself losing interest, Miike injected something that figuratively slapped me hard across the face and made me say "Damn!".
Oh, and the ending is rather saccharine. But the journey there is pretty much raw, unprocessed sugar.

Where it is currently screening:
https://www.firstlovemovie.com/tickets/

[Caucasian Asian]

I think I need to go see this




Sent from inside the house

[dookeyXXX]

THE LIGHTHOUSE
4/5
Imagine a nightmare roommate scenario. You know the type: farts loudly, chews food with their mouth open, never flushes after dropping a deuce in the toilet. Now add in some Lovecraftian tentacle porn, drunkenly sung sea shanties, and plenty of nautical lore, both mystical and superstitious. Got it? Yeah, this doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface of Robert Eggers' sophomore film. Relying heavily on isolation, dread, and a sense of supreme unease, The Lighthouse is a glorious mind-fuck of psychological proportions.
That said, the film reminds me quite a bit of Repo Man, with Willem Dafoe being the wise (or just crazy) old “mentor” in the vein of Bud and Robert Pattinson playing the role of the neophyte Otto. Of course the setting is far removed from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, replaced by eternal sea brine dampness, lottsa muck, and sqawking gull guano. But it's no less surreal than the cult classic from 1984.
This film, however, unfolds without a hint as to the time period, but Moby Dick era America is a safe bet. It also fails to clue us into the time lapses that occur throughout the story, thus you never know how long our intrepid “wickers” have been tending the titular desolate beacon. In fact the story never really allows for any kind of distinction between reality and vivid hallucination. To this end the film is anything but even-keeled.
In terms of acting, both Dafoe and Pattison deliver tour de force performances, with the former being the best rendition of a cinematical pirate since Robert Newton and the latter bringing his best JFK, spewing a thick New England drawl laden with circumstance.
When all is said and done one is taken on a delirious journey culminating with an ending that seems somewhat abstruse yet serves to further blur the divide between fantasy and real life.

RIYL: Ravenous (1999); The Haunting (1963); The Shining (1980); The Wind (2019)

[mcski]

You eat a lot of acid, back in the hippy days?

[El Chupacabra]

Plate of shrimp.

[mcski]

Everybody’s into weirdness now

[dookeyXXX]

You eat a lot of acid, back in the hippy days?

Alas, I am too young to have been a hippy.
And double alas, I have never partaken of Timothy Leary's favorite snacks.

I do enjoy me some weird movies, though.

[mcski]

You’re not too young to get the reference, ffs! Weak sauce!

[dookeyXXX]

You’re not to young to get the reference, ffs! Weak sauce!

DOH!
My mind was in literal mode, not quoteable mode!

[Meadow Skipper]

I think I need to go see this

I caught this yesterday, and I'm giving it 4.5/5. It's somewhat genre-busting: adventure, comedic, absurdist, thought-provoking...coming-of-age and rom-com elements even sneak in. Scarlett Johansson's character and performance impressed the shit out of me. She was charming, poignant, and tough. Take Waititi's take on Hitler was hilarious. The two kids were legit as shit, and Sam Rockwell was really good in a slightly lesser part. Waititi's direction was excellent. RIYL the Coen Brothers.

This one might be too weird for the Academy, but I think the performances, especially Johansson's, deserve awards.

[dookeyXXX]

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP
3.5/5

When I first started seeing the trailers earlier this year I immediately thought “WTF?!?” Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed Zombieland. Like Shaun of the Dead before it, the original pumped a much needed comedic shot into the stifled walking dead cinemascape. But when the credits rolled on that film back in 2009 my first thought most definitely was not “Oh, I hope they make a sequel.” I mean I had heard rumblings over the years about a sequel, but figured it was just Hollywood white noise. So, yeah, back to my initial reaction upon learning that they had in fact made a sequel and not only that, but a decade later: I was like “What’s the point?”. I mean the track record for sequels overall is pretty low in terms of equaling the originality and success of the first film. Sure, there have been a few rare cases; Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day come to mind, but I am bereft of thinking of any others.
So, it was with trepidation that I entered the theater to see ZLDT. Why even go, you ask? Well, after the mind-fuck of The Lighthouse, I seriously needed me some lighthearted entertainment.
My heart initially sank with the opening monologue by Columbus (Jess Eisenberg) as it was teeming with forced meta moments, referencing the fact that we, the audience, were in fact watching a film and not only that, but a film that was the decades-later sequel to a previous film. Hell, Columbus even thanked us for paying and supporting the film. I hate that shit. I mean it was semi-cool before Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool beat it like a twice dead horse, now it’s just lame (it should come as no surprise then that the screenwriting team of Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were not only responsible for the script of Zombieland, but also those of Deadpool and Deadpool 2).
Thank the stars the film shed that meta bullshit quickly and the chemistry of the cast, the fast pace, and non-stop jokes (the screenwriters seemed to adopt the old Catskills stand-up practice of just tossing out joke after joke in rapid fire and hoping that at least one joke hit home) flipped my initial impression from “this shit is lame” to one of being rather impressed. The best way to describe this film is that it’s like running into an old high school or college buddy whom you haven’t seen for at least a decade. The first 20-minutes you are hanging out are awkward and stilted as you catch up on rudimentary things, but the longer you hang out, the more comfortable you get with one another.
So what the hell does that mean? In short, I really enjoyed this film. I mean I laughed. I cried. I was on the edge of my seat. I ran the full gamut of emotions and found myself engaged more often than not. Again a lot of the credit for the success of this sequel comes from the screenwriters with their Ginsu sharp wit and excellent use of callbacks, but most of the applause is due to the cast; everybody onscreen is on point. Well, almost everybody.
The only slight in this film, imho, is Abigail Breslin. To be fair, I couldn’t stand her as a precocious child actor in the first film (and any of the other films I happened to have seen her in over the years) and I can’t stand her as a rebellious teen in this film. I am willing to concede that she may be the nicest person on the planet in real life, but as a thespian she is just plain annoying. While she is central to the story, thank the heavens she is barely in the film (all of this said, her pivotal callback in the final act is pretty damn solid). That leaves more screen time for the nerdy Columbus, the incomparable Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), the snarky Wichita (Emma Stone), and newcomer Nevada (Rosario Dawson). I was surprisingly okay with the over-the-top ditzy blonde girl performance of Zoey Deutch as Madison, but additional newcomer Berkeley (portrayed by Avan Jogia) was a shallow and one-dimensional character who didn’t really add much to the film other than being a thin device to move the plot along to its logical conclusion.
Surprisingly, some of the stuff which made me groan when I saw the trailer (the doppelgangers, for example) actually ended up being handled really well in the film. And while the third act gets a little trite (although the monster truck element is gangbusters), again, the chemistry of the cast and the whip-slick pacing help to push it along.
In the end this is an admirable sequel, perhaps not quite as compelling as the original, but it comes pretty damn close.
But as much as I ended up enjoying this film, I certainly hope all involved decide to end the series here. Afterall, remember what happend to both the Alien and Terminator franchises after the sequels?

PS:
Make sure you stay through the credits.

RIYL: Zombieland; Shaun of the Dead; Little Monsters; Juan of the Dead

[reckless toboggan]

Sequel:

The Empire Strikes Back.


I mean WTF?

[4matic]

Sequel:

The Empire Strikes Back.


I mean WTF?

Disney is so tired. Sad people line up for this crap

[dookeyXXX]

Sequel:

The Empire Strikes Back.


I mean WTF?

True, indeed, however I did not mention it because 1. It was part of an jntended trilogy and 2. It did not take almost a decade to hit the theaters after its predecessor....

Disney is so tired. Sad people line up for this crap

And while this may be true, when ESB was made and released (1980) neither Lucasfilm nor 20th Century Fox were part of Disney, thus making your statement somewhat historically moot...

[Supermoon]

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP
3.5/5

Thank you for putting my feelings about this into words. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

Some people hadn’t seen the first and didn’t like it at all, which I kind of get, but for someone who liked the first one a lot it was a perfect mix of nostalgia for the first and new elements.

[PNWbrit]

Ford vs Ferrari was excellent.

Fun evening with Oft and ACH.

[warthog]

Ford vs Ferrari was excellent.

Yup, saw it in an Imax, and the sound was incredible.

[toast2266]

Yup, saw it in an Imax, and the sound was incredible.

Just saw it in the local theater. It was good, but an imax sound system would've made it much, much better.

[dookeyXXX]

Terminator: Dark Fate
2/5

The latest entry in the Terminator franchise is the cinematic equivalent of patching holes in your dorm room wall with toothpaste and hoping that the RAs won’t notice when they do the end of term inspection to give you back your security deposit. If that analogy escapes you, think of it as slapping a crappy coat of old paint on an old story and calling it “new”.
Joining the recent (and fucking annoying) slate of films that retcon all the previous films in the series (last year’s Halloween immediately comes to mind), this latest Terminator purports to be the “official” sequel to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, thus nulling and voiding all the Terminator movies that have come down the pike since 1991. That’s fine, since all of those now-unofficial sequels were kinda crappy anyway. But the thing is: this new film is also kinda crappy.
Hiding under a false glaze of feminism and “girl power” the film is literally machismo on overdrive masquerading as Marianismo. It’s also an unapologetic (and perhaps lazy?) pastiche of the story and plots from the original Terminator and T2: JD, the only prominent difference being that now we have 3 female protagonists instead of one: Mackenzie Davis is effectively Michael Biehn and Natalia Reyes is the female John Conner. How about giving us some original and multi-dimensional female characters? Instead we are given a trio of women who spend the bulk of the film trying to out dick wave one another in an endless stream of verbal and physical pissing matches.
What’s more, the whole “girl power” angle is a sham in my opinion since the film is directed by a man, the screenplay was written by 3 men and is based upon a story that was concocted by 5 men, and--HUGE SPOILER ALERT--the ultimate hero of the film is non other than the former poster icon of macho masculinity hisownself (that would be Arnie, if you couldn’t guess).
Faux feminism aside, the core problem with TDF is that it’s as lifeless as the Rev-9 killing machine hunting down our spunky trio of heroines in the film. There is no chemistry between the actors and when they’re not not interacting with one another onscreen everyone’s main modes are glaring and scowling. Don't even get me started on the Uncanny Valley aspects of the opening montage or the giant plot holes that it presents, either. As for the action sequences, well, they are not only tepid, but also feel as if they are running on an autopilot program that favors redundancy (i.e. you’ve seen most of these sequences rendered more excitingly in other films). If that weren’t bad enough, many of the scenes are shot in a murky darkness so you can’t even see what’s happening. Most will remember how the liquidic T-1000 effects in T2:JD seemed fresh and vibrant in the ‘90s; here, however, they just seem ho-hum and behind the times.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for strong women characters being injected into action films, but rather than just taking an old male dominated story and changing the gender of the main characters, how about actually writing something vaguely original and making those female characters individualistic, rather than just one-dimensional riffs on previously rendered male characters?
In short, the oft maligned Terminator: Genysis was infinitely better than this film, which should give you some idea of how lackluster and lame this one is.
Like the Alien franchise before it, the Terminator franchise just hasn’t been able to recapture the originality or vibrancy of the first two films. Perhaps whomever takes the helms for the next go-around should actually re-visit those films to understand what made them so good and then rather than poorly mimicking them, actually write something original and exciting.

RIYL; Terminator 3; Terminator: Salvation

[warthog]

Just saw it in the local theater. It was good, but an imax sound system would've made it much, much better.

Closest I'll ever be to driving in a car like that at those speeds.

[dookeyXXX]

I think I need to go see this




Sent from inside the house

Yes, you do. STAT!

I caught this yesterday, and I'm giving it 4.5/5. It's somewhat genre-busting: adventure, comedic, absurdist, thought-provoking...coming-of-age and rom-com elements even sneak in. Scarlett Johansson's character and performance impressed the shit out of me. She was charming, poignant, and tough. Take Waititi's take on Hitler was hilarious. The two kids were legit as shit, and Sam Rockwell was really good in a slightly lesser part. Waititi's direction was excellent. RIYL the Coen Brothers.

This one might be too weird for the Academy, but I think the performances, especially Johansson's, deserve awards.

Totally agree with you, In fact, you more or less summed up my feelings, but with far less words (I tend to be long-winded)...



JOJO RABBIT
Rating: 4.5 (out of 5)
This is that rarest of all cinematic treats: a veritable Tootsie Pop of a film. Say what? Basically this film is covered in a sweet candy coating of comedy which conceals its soft center of moral and humanistic drama. What’s more is that it skips sprightly through the fields of social commentary, absurdist realism, taught melodrama, and imaginary fantasy like a carefree child let loose in the wild. It is also the most gloriously fucked-up (in a really good way) coming of age film I’ve seen in a long, long, long time.
Writer/director Taika Waititi has unleashed a film that is not only teeming with wicked and whip-sharp black humor balanced by poignant moments of humanism, but one that also moves along at breakneck speed, is imbued with lush cinematography (thanks to Mihai Malaimare Jr.), and features a bonkers cast of characters.
Speaking of the latter, the assembled actors are 99% stellar, ranging from Scarlett Johansson’s incredibly mature turn as a mother trying to cope with the fascist system in which she is surrounded. I feel like this might actually be the most adult role she’s ever done and she shines. Sure, her character is imbued with a bit of that manic pixie dream girlishness, but she elevates that cliche, turning it into one of a cultured and wise woman who also happens to be a badass mother. Sam Rockwell, in a fantastic supporting role, literally steals the show every single scene that he’s in. And our main man Roman Griffin Davis (aka Jojo) is that rare child actor who eschews any precociousness in favor of just plain old solid acting; he’s one of the best youthful thespians I’ve seen onscreen in ages. Plus his comedic timing is damn near impeccable. Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa is sublime and Waititi (a self professed “Polynesian Jew”) as Hitler is the supreme, off-the-nuts escapee from Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t a few casting hiccups, though. To wit, there’s Jojo’s schlubby second BFF (Archie Yates as Yorki), who feels like a forced inclusion, as if the filmmakers said “hey, we need the stereotypical awkward fat kid in the film”. His performance reminded me of Jonathan Lipnicki in Jerry Maguire; a child actor who provides comic relief in the form of a lisp, thick glasses, and a goofy smile While he has a few key moments of dialogue, for the most part his line readings feel stiff. Speaking of stiff and awkward presentation, let’s talk about Rebel Wilson. She essentially plays the adult counterpart to Yorki; awkward and yearning for acceptance. I’m sure this was intentional, but given the bravura performances of those around her, hers just seemed stilted. Also, I find that her deadpan and detached schtick is a one-trick pony that should be put out to pasture. I feel someone like Kate McKinnon would have been better suited to the part, but that’s just me. These are but trifling quibbles that are easily forgotten because the rest of the movie is damn near seamless.
What about the story? Well, without giving too much away, it’s about a young boy involved with the Hitler Youth who begins to find his own voice and personality in a life during wartime. The first act is a gonzo rush of gut-wrenching hilarity; I laughed so hard during this section of the film that tears blurred my vision and I feared my loud guffawing would cause the usher to escort me out of the theater for disturbing my fellow movie watchers. The Second Act veers into long-in-the-tooth territory at times, but ultimately pushes through thanks to Johansson and Davis’ combined charisma. The third act combines all of the elements of the first two into a cohesive conclusion. In short, the first act should have you crying from laughing non-stop, the second act should provide a momentary respite to catch your breath, and the third act should have you crying from its sheer combination of emotional sadness tempered with a patina of blissfulness . Oh, and the callback ending may be utterly predictable, but it’s lso one of the most moving and cool scenes ever committed to film.
Other than Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, this is the best film I've seen this year and I would not hesitate to see it again.

RIYL
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys; Garden State; Swiss Army Man; Harold and Maude; If

[ticketchecker]

Ford vs Ferrari was excellent.

Fun evening with Oft and ACH.

Such a fun movie