Alexander Payne + Clooney + Hawaii = The Descendants

No, but luckily she is.

the triviality of this film is snowballing since I saw it 5 weeks ago

it was better than i thought it would be, though most of the humor didnt work imo

@ the time it made me want to go read my law school notes on the rule of perpetuities, which of course i absolutely did not do

I hope you're under 30

― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Friday, January 6, 2012 8:23 PM (44 minutes ago)

she's a year and a half younger than i am

go for it

i thought her character was the best part about the movie - her decency, and the way she supported her family, the whole thing seemed very loose and natural - not gonna win an oscar or anything but i thought it was a nice performace for the kid. had to be one of her first major film roles?

Didn't buy her as a wild child by scene #2, but I'll blame the script on that, not her.

yeah the contrast between her first scene and the rest of the movie was pretty odd, kind of surprised they didn't go back to that or even allude to it besides when she talked to her mom. that's not to say i didn't buy that someone who acted the way she did for 90% of the movie couldn't be more of a wild child in other parts of her life - she's only 17 and seemed less like an addict than just a girl with a wild side. "drugs" in clooney's dad-speak probably meant "weed"

This and Beginners are the worst movies of the year because they actually try to Say Something.

we disagree semiviolently on Beginners, but Shame & We Need to Kill Kevin Now fail at Saying Something much more foully than either of your suggestions.

We love each other because we disagree on what we hate.

xxp
does it? i've been removed from the film hype cycle long enough now that i was able to walk into this without knowing a thing about it other than clooney was in it (my mom took me). unable to react to any of that, it seemed like a nice, harmless little movie, and i thought it avoided the sap and other traps it easily could have fallen into

my best friend just a couple weeks ago lost his mother in a similar fashion, so maybe i was biased in that way

It's not as poisonous as Up in the Air, true.

and it covered itself in sap.

OK, so Morbs likes Beginners, I like Kevin and Alfred likes "Countdown." Tie a bow on it.

(I'm cool with settling on Shame as the worst relevant movie of the year.)

every scene of talking 2 an unconscious person is p lame but not like unforgiveable

i still havent seen up in the air, & may never

My take.

we’re told, over and over, to concentrate on his star qualities, his confidence.

Pretty much how I feel about Pitt in Moneyball to the letter.

With all its flaws Moneyball offers a better star turn.

No, just less opportunity for its star to be embarrassing (or much of anything).

I still prefer him in TOL but I wasn't embarrassed watching him in Moneyball the way I was with Clooney in his last 67 movies.

Eric, did you read the NYT Lim piece on Pitt? It contends that Beane was a stretch for him.

I didn't believe a word of it, despite the rhetorical filigrees. The role is written as/for a roué.

while i've got all the gays in one place, has clooney ever looked this bad? given the wife's state, the news of infidelity, and the decision to be made wrt the land, i suppose they were going for the haven't-slept-in-weeks look

Syriana

Unless nail-devoid hipster of the state is a look now.

well, "looked this bad" in the heteronormative Oscar-nom way, you mean.

I think he's a toadstool with good skin and hair products.

Clooney likes to play slovenly or humiliated, in those mentioned and Intolerable Cruelty (prob my fave role of his after Out of Sight).

He peaked early, then.

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzclccCKzS1qbs6n7o1_400.jpg

who's the pretty girl on the left?

Kristy McNichol

lookit the gel glistening!

did not find much to take away from this movie. i think i was immediately turned off since literally everyone in the movie was kind of an asshole, and im not really sure making someone act that way is really a substitute for a convincing character.

oh and the boyfriend character was the cheapest gimmick ever that you can see coming miles away. kinda typifies the glib approach of the movie.

george clooney runs in shoes!

― occupy the A train (difficult listening hour)

^^^ best ilx post of 2011

Erudite white people suffering domestic strife in Hawaii.

Well, yeah, but, other than location, The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya fit this description as well. And all of them have a land auction, too.

Enjoyed it.

boy this really ladles it on, especially towards the end. thought the running in flipflops was funny tho

I enjoyed this. My only real complaint was the casting of Clooney.

i liked this well enough when i saw it, but even at the time i had to sort of artificially muster up for enthusiasm than i felt in my heart or whatever. after a few weeks it's really fading on me. payne is a smart guy, and election is a minor classic, but i don't think this one really shows his talent that much TBH. the nicest way to put it, i suppose, is that this sort of thing isn't really my cup of tea. i guess there's still a little mileage in his old trick of taking a sentimental scene and sort of blowing it up with inappropriate humor, but even on this he seemed to kind of hedge. there's no way this is a "bad" movie, and the criticism of it as "white people problems" is dumb and lazy, but it wasn't really all that great either was it?

MORE enthuasism

damned typos.

HA

It's def not a great movie, but there are some scenes that I've kept revisiting in my mind since I saw this Saturday night. The scene with Woodley in the pool made my eyes tear up in 3 seconds. Also the boyfriend scene at the Princeville hotel really left an impression on me.

That said, I've only been able to make to the movies about 3 times in the last year, so what do I know.

yeah both of those played well when i was watching but when i think back i just envision this kind of clouded gray thing--nothing really pops out. but that's just me i guess.

there are definitely some great lines in this film, but i can't remember any of them. :)

You know, I like Payne, and I admit I haven't seen this one yet. But the guy showed such a searing, acid wit in "Citizen Ruth" and "Election" (which I think even he has admitted may be his only move where absolutely everything was just right). But from "About Schmidt" on it's all been variations on midlife crisis, no? I agree that "rich white people" is reductive and unfair to his subjects, but there's still something about his particular milieu that echoes the exclusivity of Woody Allen and Albert Brooks yet nonetheless continually falls short of the best of their particular skills. I know, good company to be in, but still.

rich white people vs overweight Dorito-eating Hawaiians.

Same class/crass issues as Vanya.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/15/theater/Vanya600.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvktSp2mHi4&feature=related

i was expected to dislike this but ended up having no real problem with it.

i think the 'rich ppl probs' angle is just backwards, esp the charge that it effaces the real racial character of hawaii. the movie is about the narrow class of people who did exactly that. their whiteness and indolent wealth hangs over the whole damn thing. i thought it was all hyper class- and privilege-aware. clooney has to say it aloud when he's making his final decision: "we're haole as shit". what does the one cousin say when he takes them to see the land in his jeep, "i got nothin' but time". lucky him.