It's funny but in a way it's just as comic booky as the comic book movies that are the villains of this film.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 17:53 (nine years ago) link
But yeah he didn't kill himself at the end. Or if we are going to say he did kill himself I'm pretty sure it was when he jumped off the building the day before.
every other instance of his "powers" in the film are shown to be either unreal or otherwise in his mind (incl when he jumps off the building the day before - when he walks back into the theater he's being badgered by a cabbie for the fare), why would the end be any different
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 17:58 (nine years ago) link
it could be a 'feelgood' cheat like that pisspoor climax of Being There where Sellers walks on water.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 18:03 (nine years ago) link
yeah - and the only real clue there is his daughter's expression. although maybe she is just glad he's dead.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 18:04 (nine years ago) link
altho tbf I like the ending of Being There
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 18:05 (nine years ago) link
the most notable thing about this film was Norton playing the essence of every "Norton is an asshole to work with" story from the last 20 years.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 18:07 (nine years ago) link
that was certainly the most enjoyable thing about it
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 18:10 (nine years ago) link
The movie goes downhill after his and Keaton's first moment onstage.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 18:24 (nine years ago) link
Finally saw this last night, super fun. Sure it's showoffy, but it's hard for me to believe that anyone interested in film wouldn't enjoy just the physical mechanics of its construction (tracking shot, drum score, jittery dialogue etc. etc.) Man there are some grumpy snobs upthread.
― Losing swag by the second (Dan Peterson), Monday, 9 March 2015 14:40 (nine years ago) link
I'm a cheerful snob.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 9 March 2015 14:49 (nine years ago) link
if you don't mind that what's under the showboating is repulsive
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 March 2015 14:52 (nine years ago) link
I feel bad for them.
― AKA Thermo Thinwall (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 9 March 2015 15:21 (nine years ago) link
we're practically like CRITICS, applying LABELS
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 10 March 2015 05:33 (nine years ago) link
citrics
― post you had fecund thoughts about (darraghmac), Tuesday, 10 March 2015 08:00 (nine years ago) link
fuck critics
― nose, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 20:18 (nine years ago) link
if you want a good review
― Team Foxcatcherwatcher (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 10 March 2015 20:25 (nine years ago) link
it took 4 writers to simulate the howling self-absorption of Paddy Chayefsky gone New Age.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Sunday, February 22, 2015 8:05 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Haha, yes! Finally watched this, and thought of Network several times throughout--not a good thing.
― That shit right there is precedented. (cryptosicko), Monday, 13 April 2015 13:08 (nine years ago) link
it held it together tonally far better than network imo but the good things abt network are in the mix, def
― post you had fecund thoughts about (darraghmac), Monday, 13 April 2015 14:22 (nine years ago) link
no no
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 April 2015 14:26 (nine years ago) link
this was a well made, generally overacted, dumb movie (and likely bad too but i was distracted by how well it was made)
― Premise ridiculous. Who have two potato? (forksclovetofu), Monday, 13 April 2015 14:30 (nine years ago) link
Network had imagination to it.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 13 April 2015 15:01 (nine years ago) link
Network and Birdman both have crushingly obvious things to say about Society, and want congratulations for their profundity in pointing them out. Big shock that the Academy loved both of them, though I imagine that it was Birdman's praising of the nobility of the Hollywood actor that actually got it the Best Pic award.
― That shit right there is precedented. (cryptosicko), Monday, 13 April 2015 16:14 (nine years ago) link
p much. this movie = http://cinemajaw.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/jon-lovitz-acting.jpg
― Οὖτις, Monday, 13 April 2015 16:17 (nine years ago) link
The movie was not praising these delusional losers I didn't think
― Dainger! High Doltage (wins), Monday, 13 April 2015 16:24 (nine years ago) link
I was pretty buzzed coming out of this mostly cause of the showier formal elements like the drumming & fake single shot. A virtuosic movie about failed would-be virtuosi, the pictures of fidelman of film. Even tho the critic scene was fucking stupid as was at least one of the superfluous endings.
Anyway then I thought about if some more and it has not aged well in my head at all
― Dainger! High Doltage (wins), Monday, 13 April 2015 16:41 (nine years ago) link
it's not so much that the movie is praising the delusional losers as the Academy was patting itself on the back for being self-aware enough to acknowledge the delusional losers in their midst (aren't they so clever and grown up - they "get it")
― Οὖτις, Monday, 13 April 2015 16:44 (nine years ago) link
Yeah that's more like it, Hollywood navel-gazing does tend to do well at Hollywood navel-gazing ceremonies but what rational person pays the slightest attention to those anyway
― Dainger! High Doltage (wins), Monday, 13 April 2015 16:47 (nine years ago) link
zactly
I'm not telling anyone what I thought about what the academy thought of this, thats p much three levels beyond how I grade movies
― post you had fecund thoughts about (darraghmac), Monday, 13 April 2015 16:56 (nine years ago) link
kinda feel like all the meta-celebrity stuff in this movie was handled in a better way in Top Five (which was also just a better all around movie imo)
― Οὖτις, Monday, 13 April 2015 16:57 (nine years ago) link
Network's characters have agendas, they have individual desires and motives, they react to each other. Birdman has a handful of unchanging archetypes that exist while things happen around them.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 13 April 2015 17:32 (nine years ago) link
it really meant something back then mannnnnnnn
― post you had fecund thoughts about (darraghmac), Monday, 13 April 2015 19:57 (nine years ago) link
Network is so much better than this thing come on
― polyphonic, Monday, 13 April 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
― polyphonic, Monday, April 13, 2015 3:04 PM (29 seconds ago)
― Eric H., Monday, 13 April 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
Network has teeth and is concerned w the culture at large, this just seemed like navel-gazing
― Οὖτις, Monday, 13 April 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link
^Imagining Michael Keaton saying this while drums skitter around jazz beat.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 13 April 2015 20:19 (nine years ago) link
ba-TSCH
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 13 April 2015 23:20 (nine years ago) link
Network is fun trash.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 April 2015 23:32 (nine years ago) link
Exactly. No small feat.
― Eric H., Tuesday, 14 April 2015 03:56 (nine years ago) link
i didn't really like this
― marcos, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 17:30 (eight years ago) link
it was very claustrophobic
i felt relieved when it was over
― marcos, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 17:31 (eight years ago) link
oh and best thing about this was definitely the drum beats
― flopson, Saturday, 10 January 2015 01:11 (1 hour ago) Permalink
^^This
In retrospect I wish the film had ditched the play and just focused on the drummer.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, January 9, 2015 9:42 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm
Could've still be a one-shot film.
― Norse Jung (Eric H.), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 17:37 (eight years ago) link
i started watching it thinking it would be pretty bad, so i ended up enjoying it, actually
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 18:56 (eight years ago) link
AI's next movie: The Revenant: Iñárritu, DiCaprio
― half the staying power of Erasure (Eazy), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 19:07 (eight years ago) link
I have this DVD checked out of the library atm and expect to watch it some time in the next couple of nights. Opinions here seems to be all over the map so I guess I'll be prepared for anything from greatness to pompous dreck.
― Aimless, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 19:11 (eight years ago) link
it's great and pompous
― deejerk reactions (darraghmac), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 19:17 (eight years ago) link
Antonio Sanchez definitely killed it. And the part where you see Nate Smith playing his parts is better than all the drumming scenes in Whiplash.
― lil urbane (Jordan), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 19:17 (eight years ago) link
yes, and it's a celebration of pomposity
not as funny or good as either Black Swan or Maskerade though
― let no-one live rent free in your butt (sic), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 20:52 (eight years ago) link
I just finished watching it. First impressions:
It was ridiculous without being funny. It tried to play both sides of the street at once and failed as both a drama and a comedy. It did succeed in being pretentious.
It was reasonably accurate in its satire of theater people, but theater are not only an easy target, but their personal inadequacies are irrelevant to what makes the theater worthwhile, so who cares?
The only actor who figured out how to rise above his role as it was written was Ed Norton. The rest of the cast dutifully delivered the caricatures that the script demanded.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 16 September 2015 05:32 (eight years ago) link
I didn't enjoy that review
― deejerk reactions (darraghmac), Wednesday, 16 September 2015 06:39 (eight years ago) link