Letterboxd — Your life in film

I watched this movie last year under the assumption it was going to be a fun little indie phenomenon and not one of the most popular and polarizing movies of my lifetime. It has now swept the Oscars in a way we haven’t seen since Return of the King so I should probably, at long last, give my take.

It’s okay. Establishes a really detailed and lived-in millieu early on which makes it feel authentic even when it’s transparently phony. Performances…

This documentary about New Jersey’s notorious Action Park spends its first hour listening to various Gen-Xers recall how dangerous the unregulated theme park was; then swerves into a devastating section about the park’s first death, and the coordinated effort on the part of the local government, media, and the park’s megalomaniacal owner to cover it up, and the painful grief that still tortures the victim’s family 40 years later; and finally ends with a montage in which the aforementioned Gen-Xers…

I love that Holofcener is genuine about the dynamics between people who can't help but sabotage themselves and each other. She allows her characters to be fuck ups in an organic way, and even with a common contrivance inserted for a film of this type she transcends it, because our point of view character has to bear the weight of the hurt they've caused, and knew they were going to cause. Usually in films of this type all is forgiven,…

as huge fan of the farrellys, it's nice to see one of them return to an outright comedy. i'm not deranged enough of an auteurist to proclaim this as a late style masterpiece but it fits nicely into their oeuvre. 

the film is competently shot, certainly looks better than the over-lit look of many recent comedies, and has solid performances from the whole cast. it has more needle drops than you could ever imagine fit into two hours. it's not…

wouldn't go as far as saying this was good but it's a step in the right direction. less wordy bullshit than five and certainly gorier. 

as will become a common refrain with each new scream movie, craven is severely missed behind the camera. the direction just ain't there. aside from one fun set piece with a ladder, there isn't really any tension in the scares. people get spooked and kills are a plenty but it doesn't build from anything.

and…

The signs were there that this was going to be a disaster. What kind of Adam Driver movie opens in the United Arab Emirates before any other market?

I have never seen Driver phone it in like this before. Mind you, he's incapable of being bad, but he's so clearly disinterested in doing almost anything except say the lines as written and doing the bare minimum action or emotion the director asks him to do.

If you were hoping maybe…