Just out from seeing First Man. Loved it. The Gemini 8 launch sequence shot entirely within the capsule is probably my favourite five minutes of any film this year.
Watched the Alexander McQueen and Three Identical Strangers documentaries, both were fantastic (the less you know about the later the better) but ultimately quite melancholic as well
Saw A Star is Born yesterday and I reckon itās one of the best Hollywood films Iāve seen in a while. Bradley Cooper was so good, a really lived-in, natural performance when it couldāve gone so OTT. The performance scenes were really atmospheric - just the sheer volume of the opening - and quite often emotional. Great chemistry between the pair, lots of nice touches, amazing itās a debut film really.
A Gentle Creature - usually love Loznitsa but I wasnāt really about this, pretty tedious until it becomes ridiculous.
July 22 - YAWN. Again, usually love Greengrass but this didnāt have that propulsive tension heās so good at. Also made me think about the ethics of this kind of filmmaking: is it a bit exploitative? Itās way too long, too.
It probably is just the obvious target market going to see it. But that market is pretty big.
First Man
Very good (the in space bits are terrific), shame itās seemingly done poorly in its opening weekend in the US, so there probably wonāt be any sequel called Second Man (sorry @roastthemonaspit) I would have ended it after the footage of the Kennedy speech rather than having that final scene though.
Also,the death of Armstrongās daughter (which I didnāt know about) and the Apollo 1 fire (which I did know about) were both horrific.
the bit with the kid in hospital was a bit odd, was it based on a real person?
started watching Hateful Eight, actually seemed decent
First Man - This really, really caught me off guard emotionally to the point where I canāt really work out whether it was thanks to the film or just where my head was at when I happened to watch it (not in any particularly bad way, one of my very dearest friends has just had a son and Iāve been very emotional about it since he arrived, lots of thinking about the passing of time and a lot of real joy for him and his partner, Iāve felt on the verge of tears for the last few days and they really, really came during this screening!)
Either way it completely overwhelmed me and will go down as one of my very favourite films for a long time. I had a lot of stuff wrapped up in there regarding the turmoil of being emotionally unable to express what youāre feeling to your loved ones that really came to a head when his son put his hand out for a handshake instead of a hug. Really dug up some Daddy issues and in turn Granddaddy issues that hit doubly hard with the unexpected nostalgia I had for the way that the mechanical side of everything was shot, and more importantly the sound design around it.
I grew up around building sites and machinery and it never really interested me that much (to the upset of my Dad and Granddad Iāve always felt) and Iāve only recently started to really have an appreciation for the physicality and tangibility of nuts and bolts and mechanisms etc. It sounds really stupid to be associating that with the depiction of literal NASA equipment but there was a very deliberate and evocative depiction of how primitive (relatively) it all was that really gave me an overwhelming sense of nostalgia laced with sadness that Iāve come to appreciate that sort of thing too late to have bonded about it in some sense.
All of that combined with a bit of an emotional gut punch with the daughterās bracelet at the end and it added up to quite the experience. I think Chazelle is already a pretty special filmmaker with this and Whiplash particularly in the edit. This was a really high grade example of visual storytelling that I think I would have loved regardless, catching me at this specific moment in time though it was very, very special.
Bad Times at the El Royale - Fucking shite.
It didnāt blow me away like it did for you, but this definitely has to be one of the most visually arresting real life/biopic films that Iāve ever seen. Wouldnāt be hard to imagine how this would have turned out if Spielberg (for all his merits) or someone similar had made it; what we got was an entirely different and more striking style of film instead.
Yeah, definitely. I think he has a real strength for imbibing sequences with narrative without the need for dialogue (I stand by the fact that the final sequence of Whiplash would work as its own short film and would have every element of characterization etc from the full feature within it) and the individual mission sequences throughout were all absolutely superb and self-contained without the need for exposition.
honestly think this is the worst film iāve ever seen
first man shite
was just bored through most of it. though the spaceships shoogling were pretty exciting tbf
i guess itās meant to be about sacrifice, and how he had to destroy his family life for his mission? but you donāt really get to see much of anything, just the goz looking bored.
the tight framing for 95% of the film was really annoying me
What a wonderful review, cheers for sharing this Ant.
(Talking about El Royale, obviously)
(it really is fucking shite mate)
(Imagine my surprise)
Just caught up with Custody which I missed earlier this year and itās a brilliant, short and intense drama about two parents divorcing and using their children as bait. Xavier Legrand is so good, and heās not even 40 yet.
Hateful Eight - hmmm
Itās pretty shit