Yeah, that was my take as well. The long drives and long hangouts instead of the quick cuts and coke momentum.
― ... (Eazy), Friday, 20 December 2019 05:51 (four years ago) link
Two different portraits, one is the story of a guy who wanted to make loads of money without working a job and indulging in every vice, the other is the story of a guy who regarded his mob work as a job that he showed up for like clockwork and did well and just wanted to have a steady gig.
― omar little, Friday, 20 December 2019 07:28 (four years ago) link
New interview
We are in a situation now where the theatres are only showing the latest superhero films. You have 12 screens – and 11 are the superhero film. You enjoy superhero films, fine, but you need 11 screens? It’s crazy for a picture like, you know, Lady Bird or The Souvenir. Those films may not necessarily be hugely commercial, but there are films that are modest and genuine and find a large audience. Just because a film is commercial doesn’t mean it can’t be art. What has consumed the theatres is product. A product is to be consumed and thrown away.
― ... (Eazy), Friday, 20 December 2019 20:30 (four years ago) link
the man stays on message!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 20 December 2019 21:01 (four years ago) link
The Souvenir is different; I was actually on in the beginning with Joanna [Hogg]. She came to see me and we had discussions about it. The Safdie brothers, they’re crazy. I saw them in Telluride at a dinner and it was like they were mugging me. They look like two bandits. When they said they had Adam Sandler, I thought: OK, that’s interesting. They would come on the set of The Irishman and hang out. There’s still an aspect of me that has an affinity with their ferocious manner, so to speak. But over the years, I have become more and more like Joanna’s films or Happy as Lazzaro – it’s about focusing on the essentials.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 December 2019 21:06 (four years ago) link
The Safdie Brothers have reportedly been linked to a remake of "48 Hrs."
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 December 2019 21:13 (four years ago) link
I'm down with any director who wants to kick it with Hogg.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 December 2019 21:32 (four years ago) link
In rural areas, sure. And that is a problem for sure. But there are exactly zero theatres in my area that only show the superhero film and little else. Ive gone to indie films while Marvel is playing next door.
― Bublé in the changer, I wish I was dead (Neanderthal), Friday, 20 December 2019 21:34 (four years ago) link
im not sure that rural areas have 12 screens at their cinemas but yeah, I'm going to a multiplex to see the new terrence malick film this afternoon because i live in a city. i could also go see parasite, the new todd haynes movie, or a screening of the fleabag theatre piece at the same multiplex this afternoon if i so wished.
― xmas respecter (jim in vancouver), Friday, 20 December 2019 21:45 (four years ago) link
Tupelo (pop. ~35,000) has a 10 and an 8. Showing a total of 7 different films today.
― Miami weisse (WmC), Friday, 20 December 2019 22:00 (four years ago) link
I'm assuming the tupelo metro area is over 100k with those kind of numbers
― xmas respecter (jim in vancouver), Friday, 20 December 2019 22:01 (four years ago) link
140k, #8 in US Micropolitan Statistical Areas. The 140k surprised me considering the 3 counties it covers.
― Miami weisse (WmC), Friday, 20 December 2019 22:06 (four years ago) link
ah this was mesmerising
― Banáná hÉireann (darraghmac), Saturday, 21 December 2019 22:38 (four years ago) link
great thread
― Banáná hÉireann (darraghmac), Monday, 23 December 2019 00:52 (four years ago) link
I think late period Scorsese is the best.
― calzino, Monday, 23 December 2019 00:54 (four years ago) link
I’d definitely be willing to argue that his last 3 are among his best.
― ryan, Monday, 23 December 2019 01:03 (four years ago) link
Completely missed the first time around that the close up of a gun being fired and someone getting shot in the head near the beginning of his narration (“And then I started painting houses...myself.”) is Frank shooting Hoffa.
― omar little, Monday, 23 December 2019 01:07 (four years ago) link
wow, that makes two of us - and I've seen it twice!
― henry s, Monday, 23 December 2019 01:21 (four years ago) link
same here, extremely grateful for that
― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Monday, 23 December 2019 04:03 (four years ago) link
how could you tell, omar? i remember the splatter shot but not what preceded it.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 December 2019 16:57 (four years ago) link
it’s so quick that I don’t think it’s meant to be caught consciously, but it’s Hoffa getting shot. Just the split second moment of time that his life led up to and the direct and indirect fallout of that moment. That’s how long it took to define his life wholly (at least in this telling).
― omar little, Monday, 23 December 2019 18:55 (four years ago) link
it was easy to tell cos Sheeran was momentarily distracted by Hoffa's GREAT ASS!!!
― Bublé in the changer, I wish I was dead (Neanderthal), Monday, 23 December 2019 19:04 (four years ago) link
apart from all the cracking takes itt (yours were great omar) the other element worth picking up is pesci going as far as he can for frank throughout, but hoffa having frank's (and peggy's, in a mirroring element) love in manner that cant be bought or won, really
its not enough, in the end (how could it be, given all we know about frank and his entire persona as a tool of others?) but it really puts some weight into russ's killer line "i chose us over him"
and it adds weight also to peggy making her own decision after hoffa disappears
in the end, the importance of peggy is imo the importance frank's narrative framing puts on her- she's the judge he never was, and neither frank nor russ could ever sway her to their world, when hoffa could
also thought the hoffa/frank relationship was developed quite enough, tbh- if you couldnt buy the bond between the two guys who were as useful as any associates could be to the bosses, but knew theyd never be more than tools (albeit prized tools), then you dont buy it.
hoffa's final rebellion against this and the ending it brings about is what really sets up the questioning of the final half hour- frank could never have taken such a stand, and living with that contrast and the glare of peggy's judgement is a sparse place for a hard man to see out his slow death.
― Banáná hÉireann (darraghmac), Monday, 23 December 2019 19:08 (four years ago) link
ty deems
The contrast in Frank and Jimmy’s choices is also the only two choices for guys such as that, who are used as tools. Any questioning of the “company line” will result in death and survival means doing the job that’s asked of you and you and turn can never ask why or whether there’s another way, and if you do you’d better keep it between yourself and the friend who is just loyal enough to not want to see you dead unless of course you keep asking and asking.
Instructive also to note that even for these very measured and cautious top mob bosses (Pesci and Keitel), the polar opposites of DeNiro and Pesci’s roles in Goodfellas, there’s generally only two ways out. Frank’s rare fortune seems to have been he was too in important to bother with killing and keeping in prison forever, and unfortunate enough to live long enough to die alone and apparently forgotten.
― omar little, Monday, 23 December 2019 21:52 (four years ago) link
Thought of that "two ways out" during the movie, and I think there was only one person in all of those "how they met their death" inserts who died of natural causes. Those inserts also made me curious about the great mob rubout of 1979-80.
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 24 December 2019 02:25 (four years ago) link
I don't agree with every take here, but Boots Riley's worth reading:
Love or hate "The Irishman", we all have to admit one thing:With the radical direction that the working class in the US is taking right now- Its curious timing to have a big budget "unions are corrupt" movie come out right now.— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) December 27, 2019
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 December 2019 15:53 (four years ago) link
<3 Boots
― looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:04 (four years ago) link
I love Boots too but I think this is kind of a silly take tbh
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:07 (four years ago) link
He is an awesome person and fine actor is Boots, but I don't think Scorsese is in the deep state anti-union dept just because he's not Ken Loach.
― calzino, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:13 (four years ago) link
lol
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:14 (four years ago) link
I mean it's fairly obvious that wasn't Scorsese's angle with the film, and I don't agree with every one of Boot's takes either, but a large chunk of "unions = bad" sentiment is based on poor received knowledge in this country. either that Unions "make money off of their members and do little to protect them", or "they're all Mafia infested" and the positive benefits get largely shoved to the backburner.
I don't exactly think Scorsese had any actual obligation to have that discussion in his movie, because the film was shown purely through Sheeran's lens, and his side of things has already come into hefty dispute. but it's an interesting concept Boots brings up about how it might color the perception of unions further in less discerning viewers.
idk...I'm just a big The Coup fan.
― looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:15 (four years ago) link
"Cos you know i'm uninsured in this biyatchMy medical plan was to not get shot"
― looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:16 (four years ago) link
Boots Riley has a lot of silly takes on things, tbh
Also, Ken Loach har made some pretty anti-union films as well. Because he thought they at times were corrupt and didn't love up to expectations. And so forth.
― Frederik B, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:19 (four years ago) link
this take is the best take
"This is for my folkers who got bills overdueThis is for my folkers, um, check one twoThis is for my folkers who never lived like a hogMe and you, toe to toe, I got love for the underdogThis is for my folkers who got bills overdueThis is for my folkers, um, check one twoThis is for my folkers who never lived like a hogMe and you, toe to toe, I got love for the underdog
I raise this glass for the ones who die meaninglesslyAnd the newborns who get fed intravenouslySomebody's mom caught a job and a welfare fraud caseWhen she breathe she swear it feels like plastic wrap around her face
Lights turned off and its the third month the rent is lateThoughts of being homeless, crying till you hyperventilateDespair permeates the air then sets in your earThe kids play with that one toy they learned how to share
Coming home don't never seem to be a celebrationBills they piled up on the coffee table like they're decorationsBig ol' spoons of peanut butter, big ass glass of waterMakes the hunger subside, save the real food for your daughter
You feel like swingin haymakers at a moving truckYou feel like laughing so it seems like you don't give a fuckYou feel like getting so high you smoke a whole damn cropYou feel like crying but you think that you might never stop
Homes with no heat stiffen your joints like arthritisIf this was fiction, it'd be easier to write thisSome folks try to front like they so above youThey'd tear this motherfucker up if they really loved you
There's certain tricks of the trade to try and halt your defeatLike taking tupperware to an "all you can eat"Returning used shit for new saying you lost your receiptAnd writing four figure checks when your accounts deplete
Then all your problems pile up about a mile upThinkin about a partner you can dial up to help you out this foul stuffWhole family sleepin on a futon while you're clippin couponsEatin salad tryin to get full off the croutons
'Crosstown, the situation is identicalSomebody's getting strangled by the system and its tentaclesMisconceptions raise questions to be solvedAlot of b-boys are broke, alot of homeless got jobs
You can make 8 bones an hour till you pass out and still be assed outMost pyramid schemes don't let you cash outThey say this generation made the harmony breakBut crime rise consistent with the povery rate
You take the workers and jobs, you gon have murders and mobsA gang of preachers screamin sermons over murmurs and sobsSayin "Pray for a change from the Lord above you"They'd tear this motherfucker up if they really loved you
You like this song cause it's relatable, it's you in this rhymeWe go to stores that only let us in two at a timeWe live in places where it costs to get your check cashedArguments about money usually drown out the tec blasts
Work six days a week, can't sleep Saturdays thoughMuscles tremblin like a pager when the battery's lowAnd you just don't know where the years wentAlthough every long shift feels like a year spent
And you can write your resume, but it wouldn't even mentionAll the life lessons learned doing six years of detentionOr how you learned the police was just some handicappersOn the ground next to broken glass and candy wrappers
Now don't accept my collects on the phoneJust hit me at the house so I know I ain't aloneAnd we can chop it up about this messed up systemHomies that's been killed, how we always gonna miss them
It's almost impossible survivin on this fractionSip a 40 to the brain for the chemical reactionYou gotta hustle cause they're tryin to push and shove youI'll tear this motherfucker up since I really love you"
--Underdogs, The Coup (aka Boots Riley)
― looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:22 (four years ago) link
tl;dr
― Frederik B, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:30 (four years ago) link
I would have thought nothing was too long for the smartest guy on the board
― looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:31 (four years ago) link
xp
being critical of unions and anti-union are two different positions Fred. I've been scathing of Unite in the past myself because they did fuck all to help a colleague of mine who got laid off for having the temerity to join one. But that doesn't make me anti-union.
Probably safe to say at this point that Scorsese obv has a fascination with murderous crims and the all wealth/glamour/mythology of organised crime.
― calzino, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:39 (four years ago) link
Rank and File is pretty anti-union, though.
― Frederik B, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:42 (four years ago) link
yeah that was made when unions still had sway in the UK. He probably wouldn't be so harsh now they've decimated to next to nothing!
― calzino, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:46 (four years ago) link
Oh sure, Sorry We Missed You is steeped in union nostalgia.
― Frederik B, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:50 (four years ago) link
Reading back on it, I was trying to agree with you. Even Ken Loach has made anti-union films, and still he isn't an anti-union person. Although he might be more anti-union than Scorsese? More revolutionary by nature. Although he has really kept it hidden quite well since, like, 1990.
― Frederik B, Friday, 27 December 2019 16:52 (four years ago) link
five million ways to paint a ceo
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 27 December 2019 16:56 (four years ago) link
Lol
― looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Friday, 27 December 2019 17:04 (four years ago) link
I got in a car accident to that song once (not at fault)
are you by any chance a CEO
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Friday, 27 December 2019 17:10 (four years ago) link
This was a comment posted by a daft friend of mine to me about The Irishman. Probably the most inept and useless one line review ever!
"Finished. Enjoyed the ugliness and the bad clothes but felt like goodfellas meets ken loach. Waste of my time."
― calzino, Friday, 27 December 2019 17:13 (four years ago) link
Providing multi-year employment to hundreds of union workers to make an anti-union film. Oh, the irony.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Friday, 27 December 2019 17:14 (four years ago) link
I disagree with his take that this movie is anti-union. I thought the Teamsters' pension fund was the precious resource that was being contested and Hoffa's obstinance to let the mob take more was his ultimate undoing. That the mob stole from this big pool of money by corrupting people with access doesn't make the union any more corrupt than a company that's being embezzled from, or a government agency that someone is selling classified documents from.
― beard papa, Friday, 27 December 2019 17:37 (four years ago) link
This was a comment posted by a daft friend of mine to me about The Irishman. Probably the most inept and useless one line review ever!"Finished. Enjoyed the ugliness and the bad clothes but felt like goodfellas meets ken loach. Waste of my time."
― hot nuts (small) (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 27 December 2019 17:47 (four years ago) link
reading a stance on "unions" from this movie is as silly to me as imagining psycho has a stance on secretaries stealing from real estate offices
― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open), Friday, 27 December 2019 17:58 (four years ago) link