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Rharney6
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Asteroid City (2023)
All production design. No heart.
It started with "French Dispatch." The emotional center that infuses all his films up to that point, even the less successful ones like "Darjeeling Limited", but is particularly resonant in "Rushmore", "Royal Tenenbaums", "Moonrise Kingdom", and "Grand Budapest Hotel", is gone. Or maybe it's still there buried underneath layers and layers of hermetically sealed, lacquered self-indulgence. I couldn't be bothered to find it, if it was. I feel like I'm no longer welcome at the modern kids' table in the cafeteria. I'm done and fervently hope he can find his way clear to becoming an director of good stories enhanced by production design again, rather than the other way around.
Bluey (2018)
Not just the best kid's show around, but
...one of the best shows for any audience anywhere.
I'm not kidding.
I started watching it with my grandkids and now I watch it even when they're not around.
The Last Movie Stars (2022)
Disjointed and disappointing
I simply don't get a narrative here. It's too disjointed. The cut aways to Zoom calls is needlessly distracting. Why do we care what Ethan Hawke thinks? Let the storylines from these two compelling figures emerge naturally. Interesting topics are introduced (like Newman's unique personality as characterized by his ex-wife) but are never followed up. It's kind of a mess, frankly. Great premise executed in a mediocre fashion. Newman and Woodward deserve better.
Julia (2022)
So why isn't this any better than it is?
The episodes are written and structured like a Hallmark movie. There's really not a particularly authentic moment in it which is a shame given the subject and the cast. If you're really interested in Julia Child watch "Julia and Julia" or any of the documentaries you can find.
The Ocean of Helena Lee (2015)
This wants to be a better movie than it is.
You can feel its aspirations. But it doesn't get there. Why?
Trust me I've seen all the coming of age movies, and I love the genre. American Graffiti. Dazed and Confused. Inside Daisy Clover. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. The Trouble with Angels. And so on.
Many in this genre are episodic in nature and that's OK. There's something that holds it together though. And this one is just TOO loose. I really wanted to love the characters but it's so loose that I never found a reason to. And I grew up in a beach town too.
Great soundtrack. I love Maria McKee.
Roma (2018)
There are two kinds of movies. Roma is the epitome of the second.
Both types are perfectly legitimate and I love both.
First: movies as entertainment. A place to lose oneself. I just saw all three of the Lord of the Rings movies here in a theater in Minneapolis over New Year's Eve weekend, 2018. Back to back. To see them again on a big screen was wonderful and I appreciated, all over again, how Peter Jackson (the director), combined so many elements (story adaptation, casting, acting, visuals, special effects) to create a world I was happy to lose myself in, for hours. (Trust me it was hours.) When they're good we all love movies like this. I know I do.
Second: movies as an experience or lesson. A place to find oneself. Most of David Lynch's films fall here. A fair amount of Bergman. Some Kubrick (2001 for sure; maybe Barry Lyndon). Lost in Translation. And Roma. Really any movie where the user reviews on IMDB are either 8-9-10 or 1-2-3. And the latter are filled with words like "boring" and "nothing happens."
A suggestion if you're in the latter group: stop trying to figure these movies out. Stop waiting for something classically entertaining to happen. Just turn off your brain and stop thinking. Let the movie roll over you (frankly this is the only way to watch a Lynch movie that isn't "The Straight Story" or "Dune"). Be open and emphatic.
When it's over you may find yourself with some subtle, emotional reaction you can't obviously describe (unlike a response to the first kind where typically we know exactly what we liked and didn't like). But you feel moved in someway: sad, filled with joy, terrified. These movies can expose you to or remind us what it means, authentically, to be human. And that kind of movie won't leave you for a long, long time.
This isn't to say that some who love the second type can't be pretentious. I roll my eyes at lots of these user reviews sometimes. Ignore them. Find your own way.
Think of it this way: loving both kinds of movies just gives you more movies to see and enjoy!