Oscars 2019

well, i appear to have been right about the nature of the next film:
https://www.indiewire.com/2018/09/skin-jamie-bell-neo-nazi-tiff-2018-1202001233/

When this is your lead actor's take:

"Going into this movie, I was always afraid of, are we letting him off the hook? Are we letting these people off the hook? Are we kind of letting this whole thing fall by the wayside and saying, ‘It’s a film, and he has to have his third-act moments, where he realizes that he’s done wrong’? So I was hesitant as hell to do a lot of the scenes.”

xp but honestly, i dunno why you'd wanna give too much amplification to a guy who spent a decade and a half doing recreational hate crimes and came around to being a human being. doc didn't bother me so much as a slice-of-life but the instant you add dramatic tropes, you come perilously close to making his story - and not the stories of the very many lives he clearly disrupted, damaged and destroyed - the hero's story.

sorry to take over the oscars thread with this, but i'm finding one of the winner's films and the concept for their next work viscerally repugnant, so it's relevant i suppose.

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, February 26, 2019 10:39 AM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

apt Vice critique

― Rhine Jive Click Bait (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, February 26, 2019

thought he meant Bryan Singer and BR.

pick your poison, i guess. who do you suppose they'll get to play Bryan Singer in the 2028 biopic?

xp lol

for a remake of a remake of a remake "A Star Is Born" is far from boilerplate and worth seeing

I saw 102 new releases last year, and 85 older films (1932-2016) in theatres. Happy to remain sceptical that A Star Is Born 4 has value that would have warranted bumping any of those.

I'd like that 2+ hours back personally

A Star is Born > Darkest Hour

also better than The Post

but looking over 2017's nominees really highlights what a shit group this year was

my concern about green book winning is not about the movie - i haven't seen it and can't say first hand whether or not it's shitty - but the way it caters to the fragility of its older white target audience and the way in doing so, it serves to perpetuate a lie which is, ultimately, unsustainable
my objection is this: who are the audiences who flocked to "green book" going to vote for next november?
having asked that question i suspect that in many, if not most, cases the answer will be "the democrat". my mom, who hates trump as much as anybody, probably really enjoyed green book. we haven't talked about it because i quit talking to her after she told me that racism is a problem on "both sides".
― the scientology of mountains (rushomancy), Tuesday, 26 February 2019 15:02 (three hours ago) Permalink

so is the problem what green book reveals about certain americans or what it does to them? if the former, well it's not like we didn't know any of this. if the latter, my sense is that films play a teeny tiny if any causal role in actually perpetuating any of this stuff. which is why i just can't bring myself to care all that much if a movie was made and seen that takes a stupid, blinkered view of race relations. i mean, maybe i'm wrong about that; it can only ever really be a hunch given that it's not really possible to prove the magnitude of a film or tv show's influence.

my concern about green book winning is not about the movie - i haven't seen it and can't say first hand whether or not it's shitty - but the way it caters to the fragility of its older white target audience and the way in doing so, it serves to perpetuate a lie which is, ultimately, unsustainable

this is also the demographic that goes to multiplexes, not streams things at home. Hollywood knows.

actually i think younger people go to movies in the theaters more often than older people these days.

"In 2016, 18-24 year olds went to the movies an average of 6.5 times over the year, up 0.6 from 2015. This was the largest increase of any age group. Per capita attendance was next highest for 12-17 year olds (6.1). Per capita attendance also increased for 25-39 year olds and 50-59 year olds compared to the previous year."

https://ptpimg.me/c22n50.png

source:
www.natoonline.org/data/

that doesn't actually say how often older people go

that doesn't mean films aren't made that target the "grey dollar"

https://ptpimg.me/2x821y.png

all i'm pointing out is that older folks aren't a disproportionate share of the moviegoing public. if anything, young adults are.

and as far as race goes, af-ams and latinos are actually overrepresnted as frequent moviegoers relative to their share of the US population.

fwiw, Harry Belafonte is a fan of Green Book

And, as I indicated last night, so is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His point was basically that the film--however out of step it might be with the world today; he was not oblivious to this--contains a basic truth that he lived through himself (in his case, as it related to John Wooden): that Wooden needed to be taught, through his time with Jabbar, the perspective of someone African-American. (Kierna Mayo, not a fan of the film, argued the more current "It's not up to us to teach white people anything--they need to figure this out for themselves.")

I know Jabbar's view is very old-fashioned. I understand exasperation with the film. But he’s someone I’ve always respected a lot, and far be it for me to say “Oh no, you’re wrong.” He’s speaking about his own life.

Here's the piece he wrote that sparked the whole discussion:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-truth-green-book-controversy-1175540

i've also spoken with a few black folks who liked the film, and were exasperated by some of the words spoken against it. (sorry if i sound like jacob wohl here. fwiw i talked w/ these folk at work, not at a hipster coffee shop.) i think that perhaps somewhat like with the film philadelphia, there's a gulf between how many people of a certain demo feel about the film and how some of their more radical political spokesepeople feel about it.

(i'm not alluding to the relative merits of those films ,which i can't assess because i haven't seen green book.)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a really good writer.

yeah, that's true. Also a sherlock holmes nerd!

This is true! My dad is also a Holmes fanatic and has gotten to hang with Kareem on several occasions as a result.

my two or so glancing moments with Kareem have proven him to be friendly but (justifiably so!) not particularly interested in engaging unless you have something he wants to talk to you about. I can only imagine what the full weight of his considerable attention must be like and would be absolutely tickled to hear him go off on some arcane points about Doyle-iana. What did your dad think of his dinner with Lew?

Oh, this is a combination of all the things my dad loves: Sherlock Holmes ephemera and new material, plus rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Kareem has written a couple of his own Holmes novels, so he's in deep!

oh ulysses that reminds me i agree 100% about SKIN what a piece of shit. people laughed when i saw it too, just at such a ridiculous topper on an already unbelievably grim procession of shorts. So many walkouts during Detainment and Skin. i think the conceit of Skin would actually make a decent pulp horror movie in the same vein as Don't Breathe, but it was horrifying presented out of context and with no warning. and obviously as a comment on racism it is completely dysfunctional and stupid.

Holy shit, Vallelonga co-wrote Deadfall? That movie is unhinged. Arguably Nic Cage's weirdest performance.

In 1977 or 1978 my dad led me from the back of an airplane up to the front to meet Kareem. My dad likes to recall that the chapter in the book he had open in his lap was "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar"

flappy otm
detainment MIGHT have been worse but only because it was longer.

Kareem was reading a book while piloting the plane? Yikes.

http://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/kareem-abdul-jabbar-airplane.jpg

(I need for someone to come on now and say "Surely that's from some movie.")

yes that was always my part growing up!

^favorite

so is the problem what green book reveals about certain americans or what it does to them? if the former, well it's not like we didn't know any of this. if the latter, my sense is that films play a teeny tiny if any causal role in actually perpetuating any of this stuff.

― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy)

the latter, and my sense is different! i think we are affected by the perspectives we are exposed to, more than we like to acknowledge.

Remember next year is going to be all about CATS, which will win 15 Oscars at the minimum.

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) February 25, 2019

Oh, Jesus, haul this guy out of there.

Uh, wrong thread!

no, i think that's a good all-purpose post.