A robust movie week offers Todd Haynes' documentary about the influential rock band, Mia Hansen-Løve's meta-movie about married filmmakers in PersonaLand and a lively return to form for Ridley Scott.
Still stoked to see the VU Doc but disappointed that we don't get much in the way of Yule-era focus. I get that Cale is alive and infinitely cool and that Warhol-era is more in the direct bullseye of what Haynes cares about but sad that the part where they hard shift into different sounds probably gets treated as a "then this happened, then The End" kind of thing.
I thought The Velvet Underground might very well be one of the best music documentaries I’ve ever seen, up there with The Last Waltz and CODA (Ryuichi Sakamoto). I loved how the form of the film matched the form of the music. I came away wanting to immediately watch it again.
The Last Duel was FANTASTIC! It's easy to put a foot wrong with this subject matter, but I thought they handled it really well. I could single out every performance in this movie, even down to the smallest supporting roles (the giggly teenage king! Affleck having the most fun ever!). So happy to see Adam Nagaitis getting bigger roles- after The Terror, that guy should be in everything.
Can we get a new Oscar category for "Least Convincing Blond"? Because Affleck deserves something for having to act through that. It's still jarringly distracting after the 2h mark!
Really enjoyed The Last Duel and revisiting this review after seeing it. The choice to go so subjective with it was truly brilliant, made what could have been something either too saccharine or too maudlin hit just the right balance and allowed it to hammer home its themes without being boringly obvious. Brilliant structural decision, best movie Ridley Scott has made in a while, I think.
Oh man, this is the review that has me excited to see The Last Duel.
Still stoked to see the VU Doc but disappointed that we don't get much in the way of Yule-era focus. I get that Cale is alive and infinitely cool and that Warhol-era is more in the direct bullseye of what Haynes cares about but sad that the part where they hard shift into different sounds probably gets treated as a "then this happened, then The End" kind of thing.
I thought The Velvet Underground might very well be one of the best music documentaries I’ve ever seen, up there with The Last Waltz and CODA (Ryuichi Sakamoto). I loved how the form of the film matched the form of the music. I came away wanting to immediately watch it again.
Where are all my other Berg-heads to discuss that movie!
The Last Duel was FANTASTIC! It's easy to put a foot wrong with this subject matter, but I thought they handled it really well. I could single out every performance in this movie, even down to the smallest supporting roles (the giggly teenage king! Affleck having the most fun ever!). So happy to see Adam Nagaitis getting bigger roles- after The Terror, that guy should be in everything.
Can we get a new Oscar category for "Least Convincing Blond"? Because Affleck deserves something for having to act through that. It's still jarringly distracting after the 2h mark!
Really enjoyed The Last Duel and revisiting this review after seeing it. The choice to go so subjective with it was truly brilliant, made what could have been something either too saccharine or too maudlin hit just the right balance and allowed it to hammer home its themes without being boringly obvious. Brilliant structural decision, best movie Ridley Scott has made in a while, I think.