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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3312 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 3, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Am I the only one who found Everything, Everywhere All at Once to be excruciatingly boring? I liked Daniels's first move and have enjoyed other somewhat similar films, but this one basically went nowhere after the set up (or more accurately, it went to the same place over and over).

I was completely onboard for the entire first half of the movie. It lost me in the second half, particularly when the directors seemed determined to wring every last ounce of comedy from jokes that had been hilarious and surprising in the first half, but quickly wore out their welcome through repetition. I'll be a little annoyed if it wins Best Picture at the Oscars as it clearly doesn't deserve it, albeit not as much as Banshees of Inisherin doesn't deserve it.

I thought it wasn't particularly good. I didn't really get any value out of the movie besides a couple laughs.

I thought it was okay but found the universal praise for it as a life-changing or philosophically enlightening experience a little odd.

For people who’ve never had existential epiphanies about mortality while imagining participating in pulp SF, it’s probably a life-changer. There’s a body-horror aspect that reminds me of Cronenberg films like Existenz, and a stepping into higher worlds like The Thirteenth Floor, culminating in zen rock garden world.

For me, the dramatic core was in the Boomer workaholic mom confronting her Millennial daughter’s suicidal nihilism, and finding a way through against all odds. It struck me as Important, as the teenage girl suicide rates have shot up during the Facebook/Instagram decade.

Her confrontation with her own and her father’s heteronormative assumptions is also Important, because orgasms cause some of the most passionate, real, joyful, and shameful emotions a human can experience. To ignore those feelings while judging actions is to miss the entire point.

That's fair. I had assumed that the issues presented in the film were ones that most people worked through on their own at a young age, as I did, but that clearly isn't the case and if it helps some people along then all the better.

It might have been received too many plaudits but I wouldn't say it was boring. Visually interesting and had a lot of heart (its message of unconditional love and the rebuke towards the post-ironic cynicism in our society landed nicely to me), though it leaned into the zany a little too much for my liking. I'd give it an 8/10 if you held a gun to my head. For reference I would say something like Annihilation or Oldboy (2003) are functionally perfect films for me, I love great visuals and think good acting and compelling stories are less important (not that I can't appreciate an excellent performance, There Will Be Blood is in my top 10 all time and I will sit down and re-watch it any time, if asked).

Speaking of performances, have you seen The Whale yet?

There Will Be Blood had great visuals as well as a great lead performance; the entire first 10-15 min or so, for example. I don't offhand recall the visuals of Oldboy, since I saw it 20 years ago, but it was an amazing film. I haven't seen Annihilation.

I saw The Whale, and Brendan Fraser was certainly the best thing about it. I might give the Oscar to Colin Farrell, though The Banshees of Inisherin was more of an ensemble film than was The Whale. But it also had great visuals; every interior scene, basically.

Re visuals, have you seen The Assassin

And, if you liked the visuals in Everything, Everywhere All At Once, you might like Neptune Frost.

It might be a distinction without a difference, but I categorize visuals (the use of movie magic, set/costume design, mattes/CGI/miniatures) and cinematography (camera work, lighting and framing) slightly separately though I also lump them together for most purposes since they go hand in hand, and while TWBB has excellent cinematography it only has a couple setpieces (the oil Derrick, the church) that elevate the visual aspects of the film for me. Not to say PTA isn't an accomplished director for a visual medium.

Fraser's performance was great in The Whale, but I also found myself really appreciating the set as well. I've personally known people who've failed in life, and they all lived in a place like that, with a similar sensibility towards housekeeping (though his apartment was still too neat to be true to life, I'll accept it as necessary to keep continuity from shot to shot, hard to do if everything is covered with loose wrappers and empty food or drink containers). I've found that I have a soft spot for stage plays adapted for film, The Sunset Limited is an example of my being pleasantly surprised by such a movie.

Hard agree on Banshees, people that bemoan the state of the film industry these days just aren't looking in the right places, I think. Many of my favorite films I've ever seen have been made in the past 10 years.

Haven't seen The Assassin but I'll check it out soon, and report back. I'm always excited to watch good foreign language films, I don't have near enough of a knowledge base to start working through the best of what's out there. I'll take a look at Neptune Frost as well, looks like I might possibly receive it as well as I did Beyond the Black Rainbow (an example IMO of a movie with ZERO story or high quality performances but heavy on the visuals: I shut it off after 45 minutes, I suppose I'm not a purist for visuals) but I'll give it a fair shake. Thanks for the recs!

Sure thing. If you can figure out what is going on in The Assassin, let me know. But it looks great.

I'm not sure that I'd go as far as excruciatingly boring, but I do think it was wildly overhyped. It had a novel premise (at least as far as my personal sci-fi exposure goes) but the execution wasn't as brilliant as everyone says it was. It's not bad but it's not the Second Coming of Christ either.

I did find the "sausage fingers" scenes extremely off-putting for whatever reason.

Yes, the premise was fine. But of all the Infinite skills of the different versions of herself she could accessed, she accessed the same martial arts one over and over and over. And there was not a single creative escape nor clever outwitting of her numerically superior foes.

That I chalked up to her inexperience. The main villain accessed way more variations (the luchador, the pinata, the pebble) demonstrating her superior mastery of the ability

I guess, but that doesn't make it more interesting lol.

Fair!

Fortunately, my favorite movie of the few years is Shoplifters, so I am relatively immune to that particular accusation.

Amazing film. I was thinking about it for days afterwards, and even brought it up with my therapist.

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