Back when A24 was pure, for better or (in this case) worse.
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The Gambler 1974
Literally an entire movie where “the action is the juice.”
Overall it’s a great effort (the best Jimmy Caan performance, with all due respect to Sonny Corleone), while maybe the most batshit random ending I’ve seen in a long time. Also, the supporting cast is completely stacked - Burt Young, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton, Morris Carnovsky, etc…and they all bring the heat.
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Vertigo 1958
I always try to view movies in the context of the era in which they were made. But for the first time, I couldn’t connect to a film that is hailed as an all-time classic. (And I went into it completely clueless, so wasn’t like anything was already spoiled.). I rarely felt engaged and ultimately left feeling like there was a better movie in there somewhere.
The thing that really did me in was the third act; the initial reveal…
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Rock of Ages 2012
Proud to say that I am so committed to the Tom Cruise oeuvre, that I actually rewatched this again thinking “can’t be as bad as I remember it”…folks, it’s somehow worse.
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Forrest Gump 1994
Honestly, this might be the 90’s movie that’s aged the worst. I didn’t get the hype around it when it came out and I still don’t. It’s saccharine in the most disgusting way.
Also, it robbed Pulp Fiction of a lot of awards - which, while they don’t matter, are still validation to a certain subset of sickos like me.
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Oppenheimer 2023
Much like the rest of Nolan’s recent filmography, this one is gonna require multiple viewings to fully process.
While the plot itself isn’t overtly complex, the various narratives are fairly dense (even stretched across 3 hours). As great at the editing was, at a certain point, I had to stop trying to understand every detail and just marvel at what was happening on screen. It made for a satisfactory experience, but I still left the theater feeling as though I hadn’t comprehended everything.
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Singin' in the Rain 1952
Hilarious to watch this for the first time AFTER La La Land and Babylon and seeing just how much Chazelle aped and mutated from it for those two projects.
That being said, there’s a reason he did it - this film is as good as marketed. Aside from all the stuff that’s already been mentioned about it, I wonder if this was the first case of a movie being a Hollywood satire on this much of a meta level? Really brilliant stuff when you think how ahead of its time it was.
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