[evollove]

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

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by TheDom

You are on a fucking roll. If I ever had to rank my favorite films Clementine would no doubt be top 3. I can watch it any day and any time. I actually just ordered a poster of Fonda sitting on the porch.

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

[evollove]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

Dark Pork
Featuring the horny hobbit-- good stuff

Porno?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

Porno?

Poldark!

Ha ha ha

Sorry I call it that

Gilly or Killy or whatever his name is in it

[Severian]

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?

[Severian]

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.

[ilduclo]

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.

[h8kurdt]

Originally Posted by Severian

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.

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.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

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.

[evollove]

My predictions:

Originally Posted by evollove

Best Picture: Moonlight
Actor: Casey
Actress: Not sure. Haven't seen two or three of those.
Supporting actor: Dude from Moonlight
Supporting actress: Viola Davis
Adapted screenplay: Moonlight. Fences would be a nice upset though.
Original screenplay: I dunno. LaLa or Machester. Or The Lobster might be a surprise.

The winners:

(see above)

Should've entered some contest. Damn it.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

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

[Severian]

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

[Severian]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

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.

[evollove]

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


This guy finds the timing suspicious. Ergo, hoax.

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

[Severian]

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.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by evollove

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


This guy finds the timing suspicious. Ergo, hoax.

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

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

[evollove]

I like his taste in music.