So what am I doing while we all social distance in place, stuck inside a house for days on end, aside from a once-weekly trip to the grocery store, a drive to nowhere and a few walks or runs?
Well, I'm watching a lot of movies, a lot of them that have lived in glory but have someone to date escaped my mind. There are dozens upon dozens of classic films, great films, that I've just never watched, be it laziness, lack of interest, lack of knowledge, or what. With basically no sports to watch, and fewer new shows by the day, we have to plough through the depths of film history, and that is what I've done.
**Quick aside: I also binged the entire Tiger King documentary, and holy shit will I have a lot to say about that piece of incredible work**
I thought it might be good to chronicle my exploits of watching older movies and giving a few rambling thoughts on each one.
There Will Be Blood
* I don't really understand how I hadn't seen this previously, as I loosely know the story, it came out in a year where I saw most of all the other good oscar type fare, and I am a fan of Daniel Day Lewis's work - no excuses here
* Obviously, DDL was excellent, but I have to say he was way more understated than usual. While we can all say how he escapes into the roles with method acting to the nth degree, it is always quite obvious that he is 'acting,' such as when he played Lincoln, but in this he really does just disappear.
* The kid who played Eli was excellent, making him so hateable right off the bat despite all his actual good characteristics. It was great casting and a great performance as it allows us to root for Daniel despite him being pretty openly a terrible person
* It took me a long time to realize that the setting was in California - I think the 'Little Boston' name confused me - which was an odd setting, though I understand t was true to fact, somewhat wrapped up in the gold rush
* Overall, I give it a nice 7/10, the performances and realism was great, but it was all a bit drab and boring
The Talented Mr. Ripley
* What an insane cast, all in their youth. Philipp Seymour Hoffman was so brilliant as the petulatnt, loatshome douche-bro. Paltrow was charming. Blanchette played that role perfectly, with a distinct air of luxury. Damon was awesome, being able to switch from charming to sociopathic in moments notice.
* That all said, Jude Law fucking owned that movie as Dickie Greenleef. So beautiful, so airy, so charming, so affable. It was almost a weird precurser to his role as Lenny as The Young Pope, but in while that he was both gorgeous and smarmy and sharp, here he was just captivating. That role would ave been nigh impossible if it was anyone else or if the performance was even 5% worse.
* The story itself was interesting, but like a lot of movies I found myself having far less interest in the second half - basically after Tom kills Freddie. It was interesting when Marge saw through his ruse, but Mr. Greenleaf not doing so was just strange
* Man did it make living like a playboy in Italy on Daddy's dime look incredible - which of course it probably is. That was a masterful showcase for how fun it might just be to be filthy rich.
Magnolia
* I went down something of a PTA rabbit hole after watching There Will Be Blood, and while Boogie Nights is still on the list, I decided to chop off the most aimless but interesting epic movie I've seen. I still don't entirely know what it was about or what message it was trying to get across, but man was it captivating
* The plot was so incredible wistful, just flowing in and out, back and forth, it was defintiely hard to keep track of everyone, but as it started to come together, and you realized this was the tale of two old men laying out everything before they die, and the people it impacts, it became beautifully back together
* Seymour Hoffman was great in this as well, but to me the real stars was the woman who played Rose, Tom Cruise and Philip Baker Hall, but in reality everyone was well cast, from the old wives, to William H. Macy as an ex-child star, to John C. Reilly as the cop, way before he would become famous in anything else
* After loving shows like The Wire, or even Babylon Berlin, I can confidently say in my movies also I love story over plot. The plot of Magnolia was fairly staid, but the tone, the world it created, the wrapping of storylines was so beautiful
Next Up:
- Mystic River
- Boogie Nights
- Road to Perdition
Well, I'm watching a lot of movies, a lot of them that have lived in glory but have someone to date escaped my mind. There are dozens upon dozens of classic films, great films, that I've just never watched, be it laziness, lack of interest, lack of knowledge, or what. With basically no sports to watch, and fewer new shows by the day, we have to plough through the depths of film history, and that is what I've done.
**Quick aside: I also binged the entire Tiger King documentary, and holy shit will I have a lot to say about that piece of incredible work**
I thought it might be good to chronicle my exploits of watching older movies and giving a few rambling thoughts on each one.
There Will Be Blood
* I don't really understand how I hadn't seen this previously, as I loosely know the story, it came out in a year where I saw most of all the other good oscar type fare, and I am a fan of Daniel Day Lewis's work - no excuses here
* Obviously, DDL was excellent, but I have to say he was way more understated than usual. While we can all say how he escapes into the roles with method acting to the nth degree, it is always quite obvious that he is 'acting,' such as when he played Lincoln, but in this he really does just disappear.
* The kid who played Eli was excellent, making him so hateable right off the bat despite all his actual good characteristics. It was great casting and a great performance as it allows us to root for Daniel despite him being pretty openly a terrible person
* It took me a long time to realize that the setting was in California - I think the 'Little Boston' name confused me - which was an odd setting, though I understand t was true to fact, somewhat wrapped up in the gold rush
* Overall, I give it a nice 7/10, the performances and realism was great, but it was all a bit drab and boring
The Talented Mr. Ripley
* What an insane cast, all in their youth. Philipp Seymour Hoffman was so brilliant as the petulatnt, loatshome douche-bro. Paltrow was charming. Blanchette played that role perfectly, with a distinct air of luxury. Damon was awesome, being able to switch from charming to sociopathic in moments notice.
* That all said, Jude Law fucking owned that movie as Dickie Greenleef. So beautiful, so airy, so charming, so affable. It was almost a weird precurser to his role as Lenny as The Young Pope, but in while that he was both gorgeous and smarmy and sharp, here he was just captivating. That role would ave been nigh impossible if it was anyone else or if the performance was even 5% worse.
* The story itself was interesting, but like a lot of movies I found myself having far less interest in the second half - basically after Tom kills Freddie. It was interesting when Marge saw through his ruse, but Mr. Greenleaf not doing so was just strange
* Man did it make living like a playboy in Italy on Daddy's dime look incredible - which of course it probably is. That was a masterful showcase for how fun it might just be to be filthy rich.
Magnolia
* I went down something of a PTA rabbit hole after watching There Will Be Blood, and while Boogie Nights is still on the list, I decided to chop off the most aimless but interesting epic movie I've seen. I still don't entirely know what it was about or what message it was trying to get across, but man was it captivating
* The plot was so incredible wistful, just flowing in and out, back and forth, it was defintiely hard to keep track of everyone, but as it started to come together, and you realized this was the tale of two old men laying out everything before they die, and the people it impacts, it became beautifully back together
* Seymour Hoffman was great in this as well, but to me the real stars was the woman who played Rose, Tom Cruise and Philip Baker Hall, but in reality everyone was well cast, from the old wives, to William H. Macy as an ex-child star, to John C. Reilly as the cop, way before he would become famous in anything else
* After loving shows like The Wire, or even Babylon Berlin, I can confidently say in my movies also I love story over plot. The plot of Magnolia was fairly staid, but the tone, the world it created, the wrapping of storylines was so beautiful
Next Up:
- Mystic River
- Boogie Nights
- Road to Perdition
