Has anyone here seen Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill? I saw it yesterday with my parents. I didn't know much about it, but I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. The makeup to make Gary Oldman look like Churchill was good (I won't be surprised if it gets a Best Makeup nomination at the Oscars this year) and I liked the different aspects of his life that we saw. I also really liked the cinematography.

I believe I meant to respond to your post and say that I have not seen Phantom Thread, but I have listened to some of the soundtrack and the music is rather good!

This weekend I saw what I think must be the worst film (or one of the worst films) I have seen this year: Chappaquiddick.  I'm honestly surprised to see that it's Certified Fresh (81%) on Rotten Tomatoes. I thought it had pretty bad pacing, since the beginning was so drawn out for no apparent reason (I get that we're supposed to see how long Ted Kennedy waited before reporting the accident, but even so I thought it wasn't done well). Even after it gets reported, there's a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes of how the public is informed about what happened, but a lot is glossed over, including the entire hearing that takes place in the courtroom. So there was hardly any tension or intrigue to speak of and overall was quite disappointing.

Recently I watched Doctor Strange and I like this new role from Benedict

Last edited by halste (December 12, 2018 3:19 pm)

This might be too niche for a lot of you here, but my most-recently watched movies was this Thursday when I watched Ghost in the Shell (the original one from 1995, not the 2017 remake), which I have wanted to see for years but only found the Blu-ray at the library last week by chance. It wasn't always the easiest film to understand, but I found myself fascinated by its world and the main characters. And now I can't get this film out of my mind. And even though it's from 1995 and could have looked dated, the animation, I found, was so impressive.

I have not yet seen Akira, but it's another one I would like to see (preferably before the Tokyo olympics, since apparently the Tokyo Olympics feature in that movie even though nobody would have known at the time that it would have been in 2020). I have listened to some of the soundtrack, though, and it's quite good!

I watched the dubbed version of Ghost (though the disc had both English dub and Japaneese audio with English subtitles on it), though I might watch some scenes with subtitles before I return it just out of curiosity to see if the translations are different. I tend to choose the dubbed option for animated films and shows if I have the choice. I like to just watch the animation instead of missing some of it because I'm looking down at the subtitles.

And yes, I agree 100% that 2001 is best on a big cinema screen! 

Have any of you seen the new Elvis movie? I went to see it this past weekend. I found the stylistic flourishes in the first half were way too heavy-handed so I thought the movie didn't have a lot of nuance. I also found the sound design aggravating a lot of the time. But I thought the second half of the film was kind of enjoyable and the guy playing Elvis did a good job. Even though he doesn't look a lot like Elvis in general, there were moments where he looked like him. And in interviews I think he's charming. It's a pretty sad story, though, definitely not as hopeful or uplifting as some other films I've seen about famous musicians.

Last edited by Yitzock (July 13, 2022 2:50 pm)

Yes, definitely a mixed bag on his views, though I'm only now discovering that. But he was also transgressive in the 50s with his fashion and performance style. I went through quite an Elvis phase as a child and have heard his music off and on since then, so he was definitely an artist I grew up listening to. My maternal grandmother absolutely loved him in the 60s, when he was making movies that weren't necessarily good but were the kind of thing my grandmother liked. My mom has told me before about how sad my grandmother was when he died. We have mutliple Elvis CDs of hers in the house, as well as a book packed away somewhere full of pictures.

I think that as long as you can at some point believe that that actor is the person they are playing, then it's successful. Rami Malek didn't really look like Freddie Mercury, but he didn't look so much unlike him that I couldn't believe it. And Gwilym Lee looked so much like Brian May I would forget it wasn't him! Paul Dano looks quite a bit like Brian Wilson, but I don't think I knew that well what he looked like when I watched Love & Mercy, so I didn't have a lot to compare to. Jamie Foxx is a bit different looking from Ray Charles, but I thought he looked enough like him (though the sunglasses might have helped). I haven't seen Walk the Line, but as far as looks go Joaquin Phoenix seems like good casting for Johnny Cash. 

In movies where I know very well what the real person looked like, I think I notice the differences more. I'm not very familiar with the Sex Pistols, so I don't know if it would have that distracting effect for me if I watched the series, though looking up a picture I can see that some of the actors don't really look like the real people in the band that much. I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it, but I had considered watching that series when it came out, since one of the actors from Sing Street is in it.
 

Last edited by Yitzock (July 13, 2022 7:32 pm)

Lilo and Stitch definitely played a big role in starting my Elvis phase! I remember enjoying the songs in the movie and also watching all the bonus material on the DVD, learning about Elvis in Blue Hawaii, which my mom ended up buying for me on DVD. I still have it, though I'm not sure I could stand watching Blue Hawaii now. But I remember watching it multiple times. And then the next time we visited my grandmother that summer she gave me one of her Elvis CDs which I listened to over and over! I still have it and have been listening to some of it again this week. My grandmother also wasn't into rock and roll (although my mom was as a teenager in the 60s, especially the Beatles, she was definitely a Beatlemaniac), but she loved Elvis.

I thought it was quite moving hearing Austin Butler talk about that connection between him and Elvis. 23 seems so young to lose one's mother. I felt for him hearing that. But it also reminded me of how fortunate I am that my mum is still around. If things had gone differently at any point these past few years, I could have ended up in a similar situation. 

Last edited by Yitzock (July 14, 2022 6:56 pm)

My mum suspects it probably was genetic. Elvis died in his 40s of arrythmia, I believe, plus his body took abuse from drugs and such over the years so he was in his 40s. I believe Lisa Marie died of a heart attack as well. Elvis' mum also died of heart failure, I believe. Obviously, I don't know about any conditions they had or any diagnoses, but because of that pattern my mum thinks it's likely genetic.
This must be so hard for Priscilla. She and Elvis and a bit of a problematic relationship in some ways, but it's also clear that she loved him a lot, and it would have been tough to lose him so young, and now to lose her daughter... I can only imagine.

I was not aware of that, though I knew that one of Lisa Marie's sons had committed suicide, I think. So much sadness for one family, although I suppose there are others with similar stories who aren't famous.