this has gotten even better in my mind since watching it
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 November 2017 15:47 (six years ago) link
The depth of empathy for everyone on screen is worthy of comparisons to Renoir
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Tuesday, 14 November 2017 16:15 (six years ago) link
This also very much reinforced my belief that friendships between women are the best thing to make movies about.
― .oO (silby), Tuesday, 14 November 2017 16:18 (six years ago) link
I know comparing with Renoir risk overselling it, but I calls 'em as I feels 'em.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Tuesday, 14 November 2017 17:20 (six years ago) link
waiting for you to label Call Me by Your Name Ivory-esque
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 November 2017 17:27 (six years ago) link
Ang Lee-esque maybe
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Tuesday, 14 November 2017 17:52 (six years ago) link
I haven't read much Oscar buzz about Ronan but, boy, does she deserve it.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:50 (six years ago) link
Really? I've seen her on the bulk of lists.
Of course, I've also seen Emma Stone on most of those same lists.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Thursday, 16 November 2017 17:04 (six years ago) link
haven't seen this yet but really want to. gerwig was on fresh air this morning, she's funny (in a weird funny way like half the people she plays; like, she wanted to be a competitive fencer and that's why she went to catholic high school, because they'd accommodate her travel schedule). does she have a flat, affectless manner when she speaks? yes but for some reason it's worked in everything I've seen her in.
― akm, Thursday, 16 November 2017 22:13 (six years ago) link
also even though yes I haven't even seen the movie, they played one bit of dialogue from this and though there was nothing amazing about it, just listening to the delivery of it made me cry in the car.
― akm, Thursday, 16 November 2017 22:14 (six years ago) link
Man, the part at the end where Terry asks her about Woody Allen (allegations) was pretty weird and awkward. She basically talks about how she refuses to talk about it because she doesn't want to say the wrong thing and have it affect her career, which is real, but in a way, this seems like the worst thing she could say?
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 17 November 2017 21:06 (six years ago) link
No that’s not the worst thing she could say
― .oO (silby), Friday, 17 November 2017 21:19 (six years ago) link
Well yeah
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 17 November 2017 21:22 (six years ago) link
o this was so great
― fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal), Saturday, 18 November 2017 04:31 (six years ago) link
this movie was so charming
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 20 November 2017 00:01 (six years ago) link
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Tuesday, November 14, 2017 9:15 AM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
extremely down with this comparison
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 20 November 2017 00:02 (six years ago) link
This movie was very sweet. It grew on me more and more as it went on.
― JRN, Monday, 20 November 2017 00:45 (six years ago) link
Loved this so, so much. The matinee I saw was completely sold out. I loathed Frances Ha and Mistress America, just awful, so I went in somewhat skeptical, but was relieved that none of the whimsy or boring sensibility of Baumbach/Anderson/Allen rubbed off on Gerwig. She really delivered on "a female counterpoint to tales like The 400 Blows and Boyhood." No mixtape swapping, no scenes of teens sitting around a stereo talking about how cool this or that band is, not exaggeration of taste. Lady Bird liked Alanis Morisette - in 2002! So refreshing. Finally a coming of age story about real people with complex relationships. Moments of real pathos: Danny breaking down and falling into Lady Bird's arms as he cries that he's terrified of telling his mom that he's gay, begging her not to tell anyone - you could hear a fucking pin drop in that packed theater. It was really stunning. It's not particularly innovative and yeah the ending is predictable, but so what? Sometimes a nice piece of cake just needs to be that. I can't stress what a welcome relief this movie is from garbage like 20th Century Women or Moonrise Kingdom - more female counterpoints to that shit immediately, please! Saoirse Ronan fantastic obviously, along with everyone else. Gerwig knocked it out of the park.
― flappy bird, Monday, 20 November 2017 00:54 (six years ago) link
Damn even Armond White liked this
― omar little, Monday, 20 November 2017 01:21 (six years ago) link
I loathed Frances Ha and Mistress America, just awful,
oh come on
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 November 2017 01:28 (six years ago) link
I love your response otherwise though!
garbage like 20th Century Women
wait wtf
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 20 November 2017 01:35 (six years ago) link
I'm not a fan but I can understand what (lots and lots) of my filmcrit friends saw in it.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 November 2017 02:04 (six years ago) link
flappy - 20th century women rules....eh?
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Monday, 20 November 2017 02:10 (six years ago) link
Yes, good observation and a rare and refreshing virtue
― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Monday, 20 November 2017 03:20 (six years ago) link
Although the empathy may not have extended to bf #2
― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Monday, 20 November 2017 03:22 (six years ago) link
I recognized enough of myself and/or my friends at that age (i.e. the barter gag) that I extended it.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 20 November 2017 03:35 (six years ago) link
Chalamet is resourceful enough an actor (and Gerwig gives him the space) to remind us why we found selfish dicks hot as fuck.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 November 2017 03:36 (six years ago) link
Saw this tonight. I liked the last third better than the first hour--which is good, I'd rather have a film end strong. Favourite two things were the scene where Lois Smith suggested love = attention, and also Lady Bird's voiceover about driving around Sacramento (and the matching shots of her and her mom behind the wheel). I'm always moved by scenes where someone gets an acceptance letter in the mail for university--think I could name a half-dozen other good ones. And proms, I guess because I didn't go my own. I kind of wish Laurie Metcalf hadn't been given a milder version of the Mary Tyler Moore role from Ordinary People. She's just so funny on Roseanne; I missed that.
― clemenza, Monday, 20 November 2017 03:45 (six years ago) link
I'm always moved by scenes where someone gets an acceptance letter in the mail for university
With me it's scenes involving parents and kids entering college saying their goodbyes. This one offered a bittersweet and no less wrenching variation.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 20 November 2017 03:51 (six years ago) link
They're great too, and Lady Bird's wasn't like anything I'd ever seen. Sort of reminded me of Sarris writing about Notorious, how the camera settles on the villain rather than the two principals--not that Laurie Metcalf's the villain, but following her in and out of the airport was unusual and really nice.
― clemenza, Monday, 20 November 2017 04:01 (six years ago) link
the trailer makes this look like some rote indie h**ster film. i take it that the trailer is just rotten then?
― Susan Stranglehands (jed_), Monday, 20 November 2017 04:30 (six years ago) link
The movie is a lot better than the trailer led me to expect
― JRN, Monday, 20 November 2017 04:35 (six years ago) link
I loathed Frances Ha and Mistress America, just awful,oh come on― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)I love your response otherwise though!― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)garbage like 20th Century Womenwait wtf― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson)I'm not a fan but I can understand what (lots and lots) of my filmcrit friends saw in it.― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)flappy - 20th century women rules....eh?― Week of Wonders (Ross)
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson)
― Week of Wonders (Ross)
Haven't seen Frances Ha since it came out 5 years ago but I really hated it, the world doesn't need another second of Woody Allen cosplay. It came out around the same time Girls premiered on HBO and I was just completely fed up with struggling artists (?) in love letters to NYC. Mistress America is fresh in my mind, I remember that one being just so weightless and full of noxious whimsy and silliness, as if Baumbach was trying to outdo the worst of Wes Anderson. I rewatched Greenberg tonight after making my initial post and seeing the responses, and it's even better than I remember. Brilliant movie. The Greenberg character is incredible, such a beautiful excoriation of a certain type of meek hipster that is all too often exalted and excused for in movies, culture, and society. The scene when he's doing coke with the millennials and he's going off about how he's better than them because they're "so sincere, and confident, and you don't have any hangups, and you listen to older, smart people...like me." The movie is such a fantastic dark satire, totally absurd at times, and I really despised Frances Ha & Mistress America because it was as if Baumbach embraced the sensibility of the effigy that he completely torched in his last movie.
20th Century Women... this is what I wrote at the time:
Mike Mills makes the same mistake here, presenting one-dimensional archetypes instead of the real people he claims to pay homage to. Some autobiography. 20th Century Women is slotted with scarecrows: the neurotic teenage boy who’s obviously a stand-in for the director (Lucas Jade Zumann); the slightly older girl that the director always wanted to fuck but got emotionally toyed with instead (Elle Fanning); the boy’s eccentric and often embarrassing free spirit of a mother (Annette Bening); and the new wave art girl who lived on the Lower East Side in the mid-1970s and moved back home, whose sole purpose is to give us reason to believe any of these people would be listening to Suicide and The Talking Heads or wearing Lou Reed and Devo t-shirts (that would be Greta Gerwig).
Do we really need another poignant scene of parents freaking out over Black Flag? Pick your generation and band of choice—20th Century Women is pure nostalgia porn, an exercise that should’ve been carried out in private, for much less money.
― flappy bird, Monday, 20 November 2017 04:39 (six years ago) link
also 20th Century Women was so obviously written by a dude from a dude's perspective. I found the whole conceit at best a complete failure, at worst really disingenuous.
― flappy bird, Monday, 20 November 2017 04:40 (six years ago) link
I wouldn't say they freaked out over Black Flag; they were bemused.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up0pJ4Otvkk
― clemenza, Monday, 20 November 2017 04:57 (six years ago) link
The trailer isn’t very indicative of the movie, but I did love it’s use of the Monkees’ “As We Go Along.”
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 20 November 2017 13:12 (six years ago) link
after the third-or-so appearance of "Crash" by DMB I was about to cry uncle
― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Monday, 20 November 2017 13:37 (six years ago) link
(that was my point of empathy with Kyle/bf2)
― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Monday, 20 November 2017 13:40 (six years ago) link
I agree with the Facebook clickbait article about how more characters in movies should have bad taste in music.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 20 November 2017 13:52 (six years ago) link
Or, rather, fewer should flaunt their directors' ostensibly amazing taste in music.
Dunno about "Facebook clickbait," but I assume you're talking about this Steven Hyden piece? http://uproxx.com/movies/lady-bird-dave-matthews-band-in-defense-of-fictional-uncool-music-taste/
― Beret McKesson (jaymc), Monday, 20 November 2017 14:13 (six years ago) link
I was being a little glib. I agree with the sentiment.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 20 November 2017 14:16 (six years ago) link
here's my thinkpiece: I Loved This Movie But "Crash into Me" Has Been Stuck in My Head for Almost 24 Hours
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 20 November 2017 19:40 (six years ago) link
It’s one thing, for instance, to make Margot a Rolling Stones fan in The Royal Tenenbaums, but isn’t it a little much that she plays “She Smiles Sweetly,” a largely unknown cut from 1967’s Between The Buttons, on a frickin’ record player?
this is p dumb imo (oh big surprise from a st*ve hyd*n piece)
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 20 November 2017 19:42 (six years ago) link
I haven't seen this yet (or read the Hyden thing, lol) but I broadly agree with the sentiment that many filmmakers err on the side of hipness instead of what's "in character" / setting-appropriate
― Simon H., Monday, 20 November 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link
In 2001 it might have been a little much (the record player portion, that is).
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 20 November 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link
Anderson is kind of immune from this criticism since his movies are generally not populated with humans
― Simon H., Monday, 20 November 2017 19:48 (six years ago) link
and even if they were they wouldn't have heard R&B.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 November 2017 19:48 (six years ago) link
but Royal Tenenbaums isn't grounded in reality in the same way that Perks of Being a Wallflower or 20th Century Women are. criticizing the turntable and the obscure Stones track is like criticizing the tent that Richie lives in. fwiw Royal Tenenbaums is the only Wes Anderson movie I really love, because the balance of whimsy and real people is just right.
― flappy bird, Monday, 20 November 2017 19:50 (six years ago) link
when you're a teen, are moms ever really knowable
― mh, Monday, 23 July 2018 13:57 (six years ago) link
fwiw I took the musical choices of LB and her friend to be kind of this nerdy friend thing where they were still really stuck on the songs that came out when they were in middle school
― mh, Monday, 23 July 2018 13:59 (six years ago) link
What I liked most about LB was that it seemed made with a light touch which also suggested confidence/assurance. I loved when it indulged silly and absurd humor, like the football coach's stage directions.
The movie didn't really "stick with me" but definitely charmed and entertained.
― rip van wanko, Monday, 23 July 2018 14:06 (six years ago) link
i guess tuition got too expensive in NYC for Lady Bird :/ https://t.co/sG7T6LBuB4— m (@myownprividaho) September 4, 2018
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 18:51 (six years ago) link
She shouldn't have taken that magazine!
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 18:51 (six years ago) link
wow @mugshotbaes is an obnoxious concept
― faculty w1fe (silby), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 18:54 (six years ago) link
absolutely but I won't deny I legitimately lol'd at this the moment I caught it
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 18:57 (six years ago) link
I was yesterday years old when I found out Beanie Feldstein is Jonah Hill's little sister.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 15:37 (four years ago) link
you can see it in her face, but yeah, this is not widely known i dont think
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 21:21 (four years ago) link
oh weird.
― akm, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 22:27 (four years ago) link
this was great. so, so many killer lines
― ole uncle tiktok (darraghmac), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:40 (four years ago) link
I watched it a few days ago and didn't actually care for it!
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:25 (four years ago) link
You monster why on earth not
― silby, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:27 (four years ago) link
I can't remember, I was drunk.
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:29 (four years ago) link
:)
Watching a movie drunk seems weird
― silby, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:30 (four years ago) link
not sure id actually seen saoirse in anything, tbh. jesus shes note perfect and better in this.
― ole uncle tiktok (darraghmac), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:31 (four years ago) link
doing anything drunk seems weird, because youre drunk
Saoirse Ronan is the best
― silby, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:33 (four years ago) link
She hasn't given a bad performance yet.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:34 (four years ago) link
I taught this film last fall -- my students love it.
I’m way overdue to see Brooklyn.
― silby, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:35 (four years ago) link
Alfred I should reiterate that I recall that your review you linked upthread really touched me.
― silby,
There's a pandemic on!
I do love Saoirse, though. A LOT.
I know the film makes her dowdy deliberately but I think she's astonishingly beautiful and she is so simpatico.
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:36 (four years ago) link
oh! Thank you! *hugs at 10 feet*
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:36 (four years ago) link
Brooklyn is old-fashioned solid-good film making and it is great and she looks incredible throughout. It has finesse.
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:38 (four years ago) link
I found it very moving, much to my surprise.
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:40 (four years ago) link
yes, I did too
― Dan S, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:41 (four years ago) link
and Emory Cohen is cute as fuck
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:44 (four years ago) link
yes, looked him up straight away.
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:45 (four years ago) link
He is not cute anywhere else.
his character in the novel is a perfect smouldering flame
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:46 (four years ago) link
he's kinda creepy-cute. intriguing.
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:47 (four years ago) link
I guess that's good/clever casting! xp
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:51 (four years ago) link
Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson: Just because something looks ugly doesn't mean that it's morally wrong.
GINNI THOMAS: You think dead children aren't morally wrong?
Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson: No. I'm just saying that, if you took up close pictures of my vagina while I was on my period, it would be disturbing but it doesn't make it wrong.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2024 22:57 (one month ago) link