26 Comments
Sep 30, 2021Liked by Scott Tobias

Saw Titane yesterday at NYFF (along with The Lost Daughter & Red Rocket) and it's practically all I've been thinking about since. I truly haven't seen something that equally grotesque and tender. A phenomenal and entrancing piece of work that's gonna be stuck in my head for quite a while.

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Good job name-checking the superb In My Skin, which sadly doesn’t appear to be digitally available anywhere. Glad I bought the DVD.

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Me want to see Titane as, me not sure whether it best movie of year or even good movie, but it certainly most interesting. But me also not can help but think of that movie where Cameron Diaz fucks car and wonder whether every decade now gets car-fucking movie that speaks to its era. And if so, what were previous decades' car-fucking movies? Was Herbie: Fully Loaded dirtier than me realized?

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Oct 1, 2021Liked by Scott Tobias

It's pretty wild that a movie with this much fan service came from a TV show that was determined to not give the audience what they want. I'm thinking of the ending, of course, but also other times like the episode where Melfi contemplates unleashing Tony on the man who assaulted her before chiding the audience directly by saying "No!" into the camera.

I wonder if the lack of commercial success with NOT FADE AWAY, and the long gestating A RIBBON OF DREAMS falling through pushed Chase to do this for commercial reasons rather than a genuine desire to return to this world.

Matthew Weiner's post MAD MEN career has followed a similar arc with THE ROMANOFFS being mildly received with critics and audiences*, and his novel not really setting the world on fire. Maybe we will see a similar prequel/sequel project returning to those characters in future.

*It's hard to tell with streaming not publishing ratings, but when was the last time you heard anything about this show?

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Oct 4, 2021Liked by Scott Tobias

I just came back from watching Titane. I wasn't expecting a moving tale that Mary Shelley and her father, the writer and social critic, William Godwin would appreciate (and probably mom, MW, too). It's so important how we, especially fathers, raise our children. The charcterization by inference was written very well. Visually spectacular filmmaking. This my first movie by this director. She took wildly different plot and tonal elements and somehow made them not simply cohere, but be beautiful underneath the outrageousness, while telling a riveting story that is about something important for all societies. The two leads were brilliant. Grade: A

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Oct 4, 2021Liked by Scott Tobias

Just got back from Titane and...hmm. I'm gonna need to sleep on this one for like a week. God bless critics like Scott who can pump out such a thoughtful review after one viewing.

Anyway, after the dizzying opening act I groaned a bit as I could see the movie heading into more emotional terrain. But despite that the middle section worked incredibly well for me. There's one scene in particular that is breathtaking and moving without a word spoken.

I'm not sure I cared for the ending sadly. But then that's where the need to sleep on it comes in. There's so much to unpack here but the conclusion felt a little too pat. And I found that the central relationship stagnated after that wonderful middle act.

It's such an audacious movie, though. I really need to check out RAW.

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I'm surprised you didn't mention Michael Gandolfini, or how he fares as the young Tony.

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