Typically, I'm a paragon of order, structure, planning, etc., but as I make my way through the last few years of stuff I haven't seen, I think I'm just going to pinball my way through everything. Since
The Iceman was the last thing I'd watched, I figured I'd find more stuff with Michael Shannon, so I watched
Take Shelter and
Midnight Special.
I wanted to see
Take Shelter right after I saw the first trailer for it. Shannon was awesome, but I wasn't as into the movie as I would've liked. And the ending was fantastic as a sequence but terrible as an ending, if that makes sense. You spend the whole movie wondering if we're dealing with mental illness or with something else, and then, at the end, that question is answered...but there are still like fifty unanswered questions.
Midnight Special was more of the same.
@KOQ24, you can tell me what you made of it, but watching
Take Shelter and
Midnight Special back-to-back, it's like Jeff Nichols' "style" is to intentionally make unfinished movies.
Ricky, if you've seen either of these, I'd love to get your take, as well, but from the "pyramid" perspective - with exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement - it's like he just stops filming after the climax.
Midnight Special ends with what struck me as a riff on
The Abyss, but unlike what Cameron did, Nichols doesn't even provide a little coda hinting at WTF we just saw. He just ends on the climax.
Between the two, I thought
Midnight Special was MUCH better. I was invested right from the start. The gas station scene was awesome and I loved Adam Driver's arc. But I hate the feeling of being left hanging when the reason seems to be to cover up a lack of ability/interest in explaining shit and a cop out to "ambiguity" so that viewers do work that the artist should've taken the responsibility to do himself.
And then I ended the night moving from
Midnight Special and its ET stuff to
Arrival. I can't remember who among you in here was either wanting me to see or warning me off of seeing this one, so I don't know who I'm proving right or wrong here, but I wasn't really a fan.
Arrival is like the other side of the same problematic coin: If
Midnight Special pissed me off because Nichols didn't try to explain anything,
Arrival pissed me off because the explanation was stupid. It was like a less intelligent and less inspired version of
Interstellar.
Much like
Midnight Special, I was immediately invested. I'm not crazy about Amy Adams, but she didn't detract from anything; Jeremy Renner was given the most thankless role I've seen him in yet; and Forest Whitaker is always awesome. I thought the script was actually pretty strong; I loved the way they balanced the military strategizing and the global politics with the "human" drama of trying to communicate. And the scene with the bomb was top-notch. But the ending didn't make sense to me.
Like
Interstellar, time is the key here. According to Adams, time isn't perceived the same way by the aliens. But, unlike in
Interstellar - where it's more of a "feeling" or a "perspective" that allows you to "transcend" time - in
Arrival, it's ostensibly the understanding of a new language that all of a sudden snaps your brain into a place where you "see" things differently. If I'm right so far, then I'm at a loss as to how that makes sense. One minute, she's struggling to understand/use this new language; the next minute, she can read their huge jumbled mess of a message; and the next minute, she can see her entire life from beginning to end.
What I thought they were doing - and what I think they should've done - with those "dreams" or "visions" that she was having (and which, it turns out, were glimpses from her future) was something like the aliens bypassing all "normal" modes of communication (visual, verbal, written) and communicating through some form of telepathy. Something like, with the situation as dire as it was, them "reaching out" to her and, instead of communicating with her on her terms with the whiteboards and the computers, communicating on their terms - and her realizing that she actually
can (maybe all humans can?) communicate that way.
Anyway, I enjoyed both
Midnight Special and
Arrival, but I was disappointed with the endings of both. And, for the record, neither one has shit on
Interstellar
I'm worried Bullitt will watch the first minute or so of Nocturnal Animals and hate me for even mentioning the film...
Shhhhh.. I'm sure he'll *love* it.
LOL. This is going to go swimmingly.
hahah. I don't even think i'd recommend the movie per se since I had a lot of problems with it. BUt it'd certainly be interesting to hear Bullitt's take on it. That opening credits scene though. I feel like in this PC climate I can't even publicly complain about it, but my god.
You guys really think I'm going to hate something starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon? I've actually always been intrigued by that one.
2010:
The American
True Grit
2011 is my cutoff. But I saw both of these anyway.
True Grit was better than I was expecting, but then I wasn't a big fan of the original and I'm not crazy about the "Western Coens" (unless
Raising Arizona counts
). And I thought
The American sucked. I thought Clooney was cool but the movie was garbage.
2011:
War Horse
Margin Casll
The Grey
Rango (please)
Killer Elite
Bernie
Not doing
War Horse (too stupid an idea, and Spielberg-helmed? No way) or
Rango (I'd love to accommodate you,
Sigh, but I'm not making time for animation). I saw
Margin Call (loved it),
Killer Elite (didn't love it but liked it much more than I was expecting to), and
The Grey (I was skeptical about it but I ended up really digging it).
Bernie is on my list now, though.
2012:
Chronicle
Killing them softly (hurry already)
Chronicle was never on my radar but it sounds cool. And I'll get to
Killing them Softly, I swear.
2 013:
The counselor
Pain and gain
Inside llewyn davis
Saw
Pain and Gain (wasn't a fan at all, major disappointment considering how excited I was to see it). The other two are on the list.
2014:
Predestination (IMMEDIATELY)
Ex machina
Nightcrawler
Dawn of the apes
Gone girl
Saw them all except the apes. You already recommended me
Predestination a while back. I guess you blocked out the fact that I hated it. I also hated
Ex Machina.
Nightcrawler and
Gone Girl, on the other hand, were both excellent. The former especially. Clearly, I haven't seen all that much these last few years, but
Nightcrawler is near the very top of what I have seen.
2015:
Sicario
Big short
The martian
I enjoy pissing off a friend of mine who loved
The Martian and who loses it when I give him the "It's just a movie version of the Matt Damon portion of
Interstellar." I'd hate to lose my ability to do that by actually watching
The Martian. But I'll probably end up checking that one out.
I saw the other two. I actually watched
The Big Short and
Margin Call back-to-back. The latter was ten times better. And
Sicario was good but the script was a mess and that hurt it overall.
2016:
Batman vs superman ultimate edition
I'm watching all of these online. Is there a way for me to distinguish between an ultimate edition and a regular edition?
Can't remember if I ever got you to see Brick, since it's one of my favorite JGL movies.
I did watch
Brick around that time. And I loved it, too. I haven't seen it since, but I opted not to rewatch it since it was still pretty fresh in my mind (a sign of how much I enjoyed it).
I also really enjoy Looper.
Me, too. There's something about it that keeps it from being Nolan-level awesome for me, but it's unquestionably a great movie.
Ages since I've seen Cape Fear, maybe I have to check it out.
The sequence with Illeana Douglas is horrifying. And, of course, the famous scene with Juliette Lewis.
2011
The Skin I Live In
Drive
Attack The Block
13 Assassins
The Grey
Goon
The Raid
The Skin I Live In is on my list now. Haven't seen
Attack the Block or
13 Assassins, but, if I'm being honest, I'll probably skip those. And I saw the rest. I already talked about
The Grey and
Goon. As for
The Raid and
Drive: I honestly wasn't a fan of either. The choreography in
The Raid was far from mindblowing or innovative and
Drive was one cool scene in the middle of a painfully boring crapfest.
2012
Moonrise Kingdom
The Master
Dredd
The Cabin in the Woods
Looper
End of Watch
Get the Gringo
Chronicle
Lockout
Dredd was fucking awesome and
End of Watch was pretty good (
Sabotage was much better). I put the others on the list.
2013
Her
Elysium (Might be a controversial pick)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Prisoners
Blackfish
Rush
Snowpiercer
Pain & Gain
I saw most of these.
Her was much better than I was expecting. I actually really liked
Elysium. Not a fan of
Prisoners. And
Rush was surprisingly awesome. I tried to watch
Snowpiercer a while back but opted out pretty quick. I might give it another chance. Not doing
Blackfish. I only watch documentaries if I care about the subject matter and I don't care about whales.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is on the list, though.
2014
Edge of Tomorrow
Inherent Vice
Gone Girl
The Raid 2
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
22 Jump Street
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
What We Do In The Shadows
Nightcrawler
The Voices
Either already saw most of these or already have them on the list.
The Voices is a new one, though. That one was never on my radar but it sounds like it could be good.
2015
Chappie
Bone Tomahawk
The Man from U.N.C.L.E
Hardcore Henry
Spy
Creed
The Martian
Turbo Kid
Already said I'm not doing
Turbo Kid but am doing
Bone Tomahawk. I forgot about
Chappie. I thought that looked like it could be good.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.? Really? I heard that was awful.
Hardcore Henry was an annoying gimmick movie.
Spy was hilarious (I laughed harder at her puking on the first guy she kills than I've laughed at anything in recent memory).
Creed was exactly what I was expecting: A dumb movie that I had to watch just to see Sly.
2016
Manchester by the Sea
Swiss Army Man
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Keanu
Grimsby
The Nice Guys
Green Room
Deadpool
Saw
The Nice Guys. Loved the first half but I thought it tanked after that. Crowe and Gosling deserved a better script. Probably going to skip
Swiss Army Man and
Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I'm skeptical about
Keanu but I'll probably give it a shot. I forgot about
Grimsby but that looked good from the trailers. Did you ever see
The Dictator? I might do a Sacha Baron Cohen double-header. And the other two are on the list.
Logan was awesome and
Get Out is on the list.
Any Coen films you might have missed
Way ahead of you.
Cheap Thrills (I need to watch the one you recommended in exchange, but you should really watch this)
I was actually going to watch this and surprise you with it and remind you about that exchange we planned. Can't slip anything by you, though
21 Jump Street (both are good, really)
Already saw them. Both were funnier than I was expecting, but I also wanted both to be funnier than they were.
Saw it.
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople
That's two recommendations for this one now. Damn it.
Saw it.
Ugh, I hated that one. And that hurt to say given how much I loved the people involved.
On the list.
Silence (fast becoming an all-timer for me)
I'll definitely check this one out.
Very disappointed in how unfunny this one was.
On the list.
Saw it.
The Last Stand (I'm kidding myself thinking you haven't seen this one)
Saw that shit in theaters.
Her (you mentioned splitting up - sorry to hear it - and this movie is essentially about that, i.e the goodness in letting go)
Saw it. Ironically, watching that with the ex was one of the things that sped up the getting together process.
The Drop (perfect movie in the sense of sheer function)
I started this once but bailed. Just wasn't feeling it. I'll need to do a Tom Hardy marathon, so I'll probably come back around to it.
You recommended this to me a while back and I thought it looked like a bad Lifetime movie (said by someone who thinks highly of good Lifetime movies). No promises.
Saw it.
Fuck Star Wars.
Wished it would've been funnier.