Yeah I mostly avoid chat/trailers ahead of seeing films for this reason
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Watched a bunch of films this weekend
2 Ju 2 Manji: Weirdly disappointed by this. Not very funny, pretty much no tension which was strange considering the concept, Jack Black and Karen G were fun at least. 5/10
Black Narcissus: Love Powell & Pressburger but had never seen this. Def one of their best, loved it. 9/10
Daphne: Alright. Daphne was great, she deserved to be in something better. 6/10
Coco: Lesser Pixar but lovely to look at and had a really sweet message and had lots of heart. 6.5/10
Three Bilbos: Underwhelmed. All the funny bits were in the trailer which left not much else 6/10
Sweet Bean
Very lowkey Japanese drama about an old woman who makes nice dorayaki. I liked it on the whole, very understated but did dip into schmaltz at some key moments. My first Naomi Kawase film and supposedly her most mainstream so I’ll look forward to something else of hers that’s a bit more challenging.
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Watched Kong skull island, it was okish I suppose. Enjoyed the head scratching that it provoked in me when Samuel L Jackson said “Hold on to your butts”. Kind of got the feeling that the makers didn’t understand the difference between the SAS and MI5 because no way was Tom Hiddlestone an SAS type.
Watched John wick 2. Bang bang, splatter, spatter. Shrug emoji.
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Start out by saying that I found myself laughing a lot through Three Billboards while also finding it uncomfortable. It felt like it was constantly subverting expectations in its plotting but in the end it felt like it was just doing it for its own sake, there was no sense that it was important and this meant the film basically has NO PLOT, just a series of strange non-sequitur interactions that don’t appear to have any bearing on previous ones.
That said, I didn’t really come out hating it? I think early on I just decided there wasn’t going to be a great deal of logic and instead latched onto the only thing I could: how the characters genuinely seemed to elicit my sympathies and complete disgust either by turns or at the same time. I wish this aspect could have been put into a genuinely great and moving film, though.
TBH that irritated me (she’s an Aussie actress I think) but then I reasoned that people just move around the world and I guess it’s more my assumptions that make me think his wife should be an American rather than, say, an Aussie who came over travelling and decided to get married or something?
Didn’t really mind the acting, TBH. I mean it felt fine to me but then nothing seemed to be about being ‘real’ as the comedy appeared to be the main driver.
I think this stands out more because of generally bad plotting throughout. Nothing seems to lead anywhere so it’s extra galling to see him use coincidence to make the ‘point’ that things aren’t like they are in normal stories or something? Felt like he thought his writing was way cleverer than it was.
Anyway: all the racism points you and others make. It’s just ridiculous. and I don’t know that I even agree that Sam Rockwell
has a redemption arc. It just seems more like everything that defined him as being bad is completely ignored after, there’s no sense that any character recognises him changing.
Even in a town where racism is supposedly just swept under the carpet, why is no one even looking to charge him for assault and attempted murder for his attack on Red and his secretary? I mean his new chief watches him do this and just asks for his badge and his gun? Presumably because (again) of the convenience of the story to allow him to do his failed detective thing.
It’s like he wrote that bit with the Chief’s note to Dixon and this was meant to be the point where the audience are supposed to go, “oh right, he’s probably okay deep down,” and change view rather than than thinking, “Fucking hell, the Chief was even more of a racist shit than we thought”?
An American copper not being arrested for beating someone up. Too far fetched 
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A white guy and a pretty young white woman, though and while watched by a new head of department
Thank god it doesn’t happen in real life 
Whatever dude. Police fucking over middle-class white dudes is different to poor white people and/or people of colour. I’m not dismissing it, I’m pointing out it’s part of the weakness of the writing. Dixon is not someone with any particular protection either that we see. There is no background shown at all so we are left with a really uneven story rather than something that makes pure sense due to the background provided.
Finally, a Reddit AMA that might be worth reading (and not in a ‘watch someone crash and burn’ kind of way)
https://twitter.com/Phantom_Thread/status/952604850969239552
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Three Bilboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - This is a complete mess tonally but kind of quite enjoyed it despite that. Thought Frances McDormand was great but she always is so it doesn’t seem like as nailed on a ‘Best Performance’ performance as it seems to be. The humour is largely quite bad, Martin McDonagh’s obsession with dwarves is really weird. Thought Woody Harrelson’s character had the best moments tbh, was most affected by his arc. All over the place as a film though, really surprised by the acclaim.
Insidious: The Last Key - First walkout in the time we’ve had unlimited cards and this was film 100 of that run! Dire, obviously.
Coco - Absolutely loved this. Pixar are a fucking gift from heaven. Nobody does family films with such elaborate plots so well, this is a complex thing to handle easily in a way that can remain child friendly and they knocked it out the park. It looked absolutely stunning, they’re doing stuff with depth of field these days which just looks insanely good. Wonderful to see a culture that is underrepresented on screen given such prominence. It made me laugh, made me cry, the full works. Wonderful film.
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Darkest Hour. A history lesson dressed up as a very average film. Gary Oldman did a good impersonation, but the mannerisms and vocal tics got really fucking irritating after a while.
Coco. Not in the ‘God Tier’ of Pixar films, but still a very, very good film. It looks stunning and was genuinely quite sweet. Might go see it again.
All The Money In The World. I really liked this. A really good story. Regardless of the reasons, it definitely benefited from the recasting - Kevin Spacey would have been utter horseshit in that role.
he was on the Bill Simmons podcast the other day, well worth a listen
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in the cinema they showed the whole of the Shea Stadium gig after the main film finished - considering the legend of them not being able to hear themselves play, they sound amazing.
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oh that would have been great! the gig looked absolute madness, if what Ringo said was true and he was having to watch the band and their movements to keep in time, it must have been ridiculous
what’s funny is how short the show is - there would be an actual riot if a band only played for that long these days
and then Macca played the last show there with…Bilyl Joel!
Went to see 3 Billboards last night
was looking forward to it but was a little underwhelmed
The audience were just the worst - middle class cinema part timers, being slow and useless ordering cups of mint tea etc ( (I am very middle class and ended up looking at their list of bottled beers so I haven;t got a leg to stand on TBH). And a lot of laughing at weird moments,
What the hell was going on with Woody Harrelson’s wife;s accent? Seemed to move between New Zealand, British and what I assume was supposed to be a Missouri accent. Just terrible
I didn’t know that - is Shea Stadium no more?
been demolished apparently (I also didnt know this, only just seen it via Wiki)
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