If you DON'T take the Oscars seriously, they can be a lot of fun. Otherwise, one ends up bitching online.

Finished LaLaLand. It is exhausting in its visual perfection. Even the fucking trash cans look good.

I like Emma Stone, but I don't see her as an elegant Hollywood star. Ryan Gosling is impossibly handsome, but Emma's simply cute. There's nothing mysterious or even alluring about her. She just seems like a cool chick. Whereas Scarlet Johanson, say, gets my imagination going.

If Hollywood wants to jerk itself off, this will win a ton of awards tonight.

So excited for the show! You're not? Grumpy Gus. I feel bad for you.

I feel great! Still wasted from last night. But I won't be watching tv tonite. I'm just not into it. Instead I've got some movies lined up and season 2 of Dark Pork
Featuring the horny hobbit-- good stuff

He really is on a fucking roll. I'm ready to start calling him sensei at this point.

Porno?

Poldark!

Ha ha ha

Sorry I call it that

Gilly or Killy or whatever his name is in it

So I finished Nocturnal Animals.

It was engaging, I have to admit. I mean, I knew Amy Adams would be. But the rest of it held my attention. Michael Shannon's performance is the very obvious highlight, BUT... it's not the kind of "Oh no fucking way!" best supporting that, say, Javier Bardem delivered in No Country for Old Men, or you-know-who delivered in The Dark You-Know-What.

I have a pseudo-friend who is becoming *something* of a semi-big shot in the independent film world as a screenwriter. Honestly, he kind of grosses me out, because he's experienced some success at festivals for one film, and now he's just Mr. Film Guy. I'm happy for him, but he won't be quitting his day job any time soon, but that hasn't stopped him from feeling VERY important indeed, and I just don't really jive with that.

ANUway... he's melting over Michael Shannon. Just swooning. Over this part in Nocturnal Animals. But the thing is... the whole film is pretty well acted, as most films are these days. Shannon got the prime scene-stealer of a role, the one role that makes you want to sit and find out what happens next (even though he plays a fictional character in Amy's imagination while reading a book). I think the part is low in depth, high on instant gratification. In a movie that is bleak and twisted almost as a fucking rule, Shannon plays the one and only character that isn't completely insufferable, so he's really set up to be the "hero" for the viewer.

Anyway, it's not earth shattering. It's convenient, and capably played. I would not be surprised if he won, but I can think of several other actors both above Shannon's level (Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Daniel Day Lewis) who could have pulled off this role and having it be kind of a blow-off role career wise, not worthy of hype.

I can even think of a few actors beneath Shannon's level (Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck) who could have done this just as well. So I think there's an element of the role-as-film's-redemption that's at play here. Still, he does a fine job, and the movie has nothing else about it, save for perhaps its pacing and look, that makes it special in any way, so I can totally live with him winning.

But my pseudo-friend is batshit. This is not the kind of performance or film that goes down in history. It's just not. And Best Supporting roles tend to be the some of the meatiest and most complex. I hope to see Shannon do more of this kind of intense, in the moment acting. He is talented. But, again, no Heath or Javier or blah blah.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this fashion-show-I-mean-movie?

God damn though, there was some really brutal shit early on in the film and I almost had to turn it the fuck off. Not excessively violent, but deeply, deeply disturbing. One gets the sense that Tom Ford knows how to elicit feelings, but doesn't quite feel them himself... so the scene in question plays out a bit like snuff. It's as though Ford has studied emotionally charged violence and understands intellectually that it correlates with critical praise, but has no fucking clue why, or how. So he just shoved this slab if brutal mayhem into the film because it was on some checklist that he apparently put together from watching and not understanding Blue Velvet, Silence of the Lambs, Irreversible, Jacob's fucking Ladder, and other classic, devastatingly brutal films.

It's clear he has a knack for visuals and tone, but he has only a cursory, reductive understanding of storytelling, writing and filmmaking.

The guy's a suit maker!

Blah.

I have Noc Am sitting around and may get to it one of these days, Michael Shannon is pretty typecast a lot, the seemingly normal with the strange ways. He was good in Boardwalk Empire.

So? Nothing wrong with doing something different in your career. And who's to say as time goes on he won't get better. Also, I'd call him a bit more than a "suit maker"

Have you seen A Single Man? That was his first film he directed and I've always had a lot of love for it.

Yeah, you're right. I'm being hard on him. Then again, he's Tom Ford. He can do whatever. Me, I feel impotent just at the thought of that! ;)

I was actually much better than I thought it would be, to be honest. It was. I read a review of it today that said something like, "This barely feels like it was even made by a human." I think that's sort of what I'm getting at. It seemed to lack feeling, which is weird considering how emotional all the facets of the story are.

Meh. I think it was the violence that really threw me. I was expecting it to be total style over substance, and it wasn't quite like that. I hope he gets better and follows his bliss and all that.

I'm feeling cranky today and yesterday and all year.

My predictions:


The winners:

(see above)

Should've entered some contest. Damn it.

paddy power/ladbrokes have betting on all kinds of things i understand

not sure about vegas

I guess I need to see Moonlight and Fences at least now. Glad Moonlight won if it had to be anything other than ARRIVAL. But my god man... ARRIVAL!!!

I really expected Michael Shannon to win, but wasn't invested in it at all, so not worried.

as a basic dude i have never cared much for fashion, and as proof of this i'll declar i bought a pair of jeans at costco just yesterday, but as an appreciator of the arts i've learned to never underestimate fashion people-- they have more talent, grit, discipline, imagination, energy, balls, sensibility, aesthetic instincts and money than most people in other arts (particularly poets-- poets are the fucking worst ha ha ha).

schnabel and zero dark thirty were painters first, right?

so i'm looking forward to watching the suitmaker's flick once it's out on bluray for sure.

as well as the rest of the others

You're not basic. Sometimes Costco has good shit! Mostly not. But you're not basic.

And you're right, you're right! Gahhh! I get it! I won't edit out my suit maker comment, but it was dumb. There's been so much overlap between fashion and other arts that it's really not a reliable predictor of anything. Kim Gordon! Kanye! So many others that I honestly have no fucking clue who has done what.

When it come to fashion, I've been a dress-casual dude except for hoodies and adidas on the weekends, ever since I stopped dressing like a member of Fugazi. I've never been in a position to buy anything more pricey than Banana Republic or North Face, so i don't know shit about shit when it comes to all that. And I will always shop at thrift stores, no matter what.

And yeah I think Zero Dark Thirty did painting or something but I don't know for sure. Never saw the movie.

(eagerly anticipating tesla's bill paxton/illuminatti post)


This guy finds the timing suspicious. Ergo, hoax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOJPr-cmGi0

I've been thinking about Nocturnal Animals since I watched it, so the fact that it lingers says something.

ALSO... this is an very particular thing about me, but I have issues with a very specific kind of violence. The realistic kind that shows people being victims of random attacks, being utterly powerless to stop them. This is the result of some shit I went through many years ago, and also as a kid. As a result, I have a conditioned response to just NOT FUCK WITH this kind of thing. I don't want to spoil anything, but this stuff is present in NoctAn, and I barely made it through the first quarter of the film because of it. So, personal issues are informing my perception of the film, for sure.

Reviews said it was "style over substance," but honestly it made me think, made me wonder, and kept me engrossed, even thoughI maintain that the directorial style was oddly detached, and that characters came across as observations. Maybe that was the point!

Zach Snyder is style over substance. He went to film school and has been coached by some fine fine filmmakers, but even when I enjoy his films, his direction is just shit. Just slow-mo and CGI. Tom Ford is not, from what I've seen, like this at all. Still not exactly my cuo of tea, but I would probably give the movie 4/5 if I were pressed to rate it. That's still barely a B-, but parts of it were VERY good, and it was unique and original in many ways.

So... I'm re-evaluating my position a bit based on the fact that I judged the film from an early scene that hit a nerve that most people who aren't me wouldn't understand. Yah.

Also, Symbols, it IS out on DVD/Bluray ... right now. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Bill Paxton... that's to bad. He was more a likeable guy than a good actor, but still, I always enjoyed watching him on screen.

A Simple Plan was great for a post-Fargo crime movie.

He was fun in Agents of Shield too until he became half-robot or whatever.

Sad.

she did zero dark thirty, the hurt locker, strange days, point break, and blue steel. you must have seen at least one of those (strange days is an underrated cyberpunk ripped straight from william gibson by the most successful hollywood plagiarist, point break is keanu and the dead guy, blue steel is the best legs of the 80s, and hurt locker was a really good movie i thought-- it also won some prizes). BUT BEFORE THAT she painted stuff like this:



according to some article this was some preproduction she did for the hurt locker



so nocturnal animals would you say it belongs in what genre? i am doing an experiment trying to match genres to northrop frye's cycles ha ha ha ha haha ha ha. please no fucking spoilers giveaways hints or anything like that. you're fucking terrible with the spoilers! i'm only asking "tragedy" "comedy" "satire" that sort of thing. only that.

so yes i am a little insane. I AM ALSO VERY FUCKING BASIC. and proud of it. i drink instant coffee and miller lite. i also traded my mid-century modern "antiques" for camping furniture.

fuck refinement

but anyway, what was i saying?

also i look forward to tesla never posting here

I like his taste in music.

is it cia music?

I'm awesome at spoilers. Nobody does spoilers better than me. Nobody.

You are cranky!

Anyway, no spoilers: it's a tragedy.

(I don't think I've given away anything that you can't see in a description of the film, or by reading the back of the Bluray box, just so you know)

But it's a tragedy. There is exactly zero comedy in it.

I don't even think I know what he likes. I only know that he's either a very committed troll, or batshit crazy.

Oscars occur during the Biblical time of the sacrifice of the golden calf. FACT!

Heart surgery. Right.

And tesla's the crazy one?

Open your eyes man!

thanks! i'll save it for the late summer/fall

ha ha ha ha

im serious. how tragic is that now

i wasn't cranky. it's that every time i ask no spoilers you give major clues away lol. so i had to be firm. but say no more! let's change subjects

northrop frye. airspace fast food.

ok maybe im cranky that im not in new orleans at the mardi gras or in panama or somewhere that celebrates the carnaval

but not like, cranky cranky, more like, pining maybe

no i actually feel great. it's the day after the hangover and i'm superrelaxed

--

looking for comedies in the classical sense now or some shit about "the birth of the hero" i don't really understand (northrop frye)

Odd what the ratings board censors deem a PG-13 as oppposed to R rating.

I give it a 7/10.

so comedy season is coming up (we had frozen windshields this morning, but still, spring is starting to show up on the ground) and i need a new repertoire.

comedy in the classical "happy ending" sense, not in the contemporary "oh so funny" sense. though they're not mutually exclusive of course.

basically i need movies with sympathetic characters who triumph against adversity. "heroes" who live to tell the tale not die in a fire.

terrible premise, i know, with so much hollywood pap made along these lines, but i welcome quality recommendations from the hive mind.

So, is Frozen Windsheilds the new Disney?

no, it's more like a tom sawyer style amusement park where i get to scrape ice off trucks because it's the greatest thing in the world!

and they serve airspace junk food like northrop fries, so in that sense it's more like... epcot

It's a Gift

Some W.C. Fields are clever/funny but this one's just really really funny - and unusually uplifting (for him).

The Philadelphia Story

Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant doing clever/funny in a way that's never not funny. Utterly brilliant.

Mr. Hulot's Holiday

The perfect summer feel-good comedy, bar none. Pure uplift.

The Sandlot - Gets being a child right

great, great!

i've got "bringing up baby" right here so that looks promising

hulot--yes, i love it! and mon oncle etc. all of it.

i'll look for the other ones

need more! please feed the beast. gotta plan from "very soon" into mid-summer or later. need like 4 movies per weekend, thats... a lot a ha ha

will also need *cough cough* "romances". fits frye's cycle and my wife has been enjoying POLDARK which i think fits the mold

everything alive/uplifting you can think of.

death begins some time in late august or september with TRAGEDY SEASON lololol. plus horror and vileness, ending in total cynicism (THE RULING CLASS was... wow).

but now, time for the "positive" stuff

got REMO WILLIAMS thinking it was some sort of lost 80s action classic i had never seen



nope. it was just terrible lolololololol

I had been watching a documentary about Prince Philip, and somehow that brought me to this, which I didn't know existed until just a few hours ago.

It's entertaining, for a Sunday "furnace is broken and we're stuck in a shit hotel with a laptop and fuckall else to do" movie.

holy shit i just finished O LUCKY MAN!



great film, great fucking satire, super hilarious (but in a bitter way), malcolm mcdowell and helen mirren on the same screen-- ah shit, this saved today's screenings because the previous one was crap but this more than made up for it

I Am Not Your Negro, excellent biography of James Baldwin, highest recco's

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5804038/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

As a young teen I read aqs many of the Destroyer men's adventure series that that Remo movie is based on. I loved the character of Chiun and how he was always insulting the white man, western culture, etc., but he loved the highest art achieved in america, the soap opera. The movie captured maybe 10% of what the books are like. very disappointing.

then I had to see that fucker with a shaved pate pretending to be Hnery Miller trying to slam ass into anais nin and uma thurman.... hahhahahahahhah that movie sucked shit too, and was hard to masturbate to as well.....

^no idea what movie you're talking about