truth 24 times per second: the new movie thread

[dieblucasdie]

Rachel McAdams. Some kinda reference to The Notebook or something, maybe. Also Gosling is or was dating her in the real life.

-20, Blucas

They were dating for a very long time and broke up recently. 

Also re: Vonnegut.  I actually originally wrote "A book with a ghost narrator had better be sci-fi or comedy."

But anyway, I'd quibble with the assertion that Vonnegut would expect me to take a ghost narrator seriously.

In any case, he wouldn't be expecting me to shed a single tear over it all.

[dieblucasdie]

Also -20 to nonotyet for pretending she didn't know exactly what I meant.

[elpollodiablo]

Maybe she missed that issue of Tiger Beat

[nonotyet]

I am not pretending anything! I had no idea!

also you suck

edit: actually I should be more sensitive, this must be a very difficult time for you.

[dieblucasdie]

Do you expect me to believe they broke up on the one week you weren't checking Oh No They Didn't! 8 times a day?

Yes, I am a jerk.

[nonotyet]

I LEARNED IT FROM YOU, DAD

I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU

[hannah]

Isn't it more of an angel narrator? Also she comes to earth, takes over the body of a homely friend, and has sex with her childhood sweetheart.

That's the only part of the book I read, because some mother of a kid in my mom's class gave it to my mom, and it was just sitting there in the "donate to some chump" pile. Etc.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Isn't it more of an angel narrator? Also she comes to earth, takes over the body of a homely friend, and has sex with her childhood sweetheart.

what the fuck? are you serious?

[elpollodiablo]

oh em gee


also lulz to nny

[Ah_Pook]

peter jackson is in a bad place these days, and that makes me extremely sad.

[hannah]

Isn't it more of an angel narrator? Also she comes to earth, takes over the body of a homely friend, and has sex with her childhood sweetheart.

what the fuck? are you serious?

Oh, crud, not homely. Or maybe. That may be my cranky gloss. Anyway: conveniently, her friend is a lesbian, so the childhood sweetheart knows that them getting it on means nothing, and indeed that it is the spirit of his murdered and raped lost love that has taken up the lesbian's body and, in turn, his organ so sweetly.

[girl]

Yeah, a friend of mine, who normally has impeccable taste, raved and raved about the book, so I finally caved and read it. I was willing to suspend disbelief for the bulk of it, but that sex scene was so far over the line. I hated it.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

Bamboozled.  Man, I found blackface horrifying in a million different ways before I saw this movie, but something about seeing a minstrel show roughly acted out in front of you fills you with all kinds of rage and horror you didn't even know you could feel.

The low-production values initially made this seem like a poorly acted reality show (I understand the purpose of Damon Wayans' put-on snooty French accent, but after hearing it for two-hours it became drill-like), and the levity with which the subject is treated at first makes the whole affair feel like a racially-charged Network.  It ends very similarly, too, though by that time everything has pretty well gone to hell and the film goes from satire to "okay guys this is the message all right movie over."

Which isn't a criticism, really, because it's hard to attack a subject like this and not have everything go to hell.  My only real problems with the film besides Damon Wayans are the few very random, very out-of-place repetition of short lines of dialogue.  As well as Spike Lee overlaying every slightly obscure reference to black culture to with an exact image representing it.  Though that's more unnecessary than bad.

Otherwise, goddamn.  The final montage of filmed minstrel shows and blackface characters in broadcasted media was far more than I could bear.  Props to Lee for taking this on and even being able to make a half-decent film out of it.

[auto-da-fey]

As well as Spike Lee overlaying every slightly obscure reference to black culture to with an exact image representing it. 

The Vanilla Sky album-cover effect!

Also, yeah, that post conveys much more effectively what I was trying to say about this film a while ago when pollo called bullshit on me for saying I respected it but considered it something of a failure. At least, I think it conveys that. "Half-decent," at least, I would certainly agree with.

[Lindsay With An A]

I watched Sherman's March last night. It was really good, if about an hour too long, but I didn't have anything else to do so I didn't mind. The box said "If Woody Allen had made Gone With The Wind, it would have looked like this film!" and though that was clearly hyperbole there's some truth to it as well.

[elpollodiablo]

As well as Spike Lee overlaying every slightly obscure reference to black culture to with an exact image representing it. 

The Vanilla Sky album-cover effect!

Also, yeah, that post conveys much more effectively what I was trying to say about this film a while ago when pollo called bullshit on me for saying I respected it but considered it something of a failure. At least, I think it conveys that. "Half-decent," at least, I would certainly agree with.

I don't remember this at all

[auto-da-fey]

well, another time i remembered very clearly girl and diesel discussing sherrybaby, which they both insisted that they hadn't seen, so i dunno, i could well be imagining posts. which would be a really sad fucking comment on the state of my consciousness.

but i do think we had that exchange--it was really brief, not a full-fledged discussion or anything.

[elpollodiablo]

So I was checking out the Southland Tales website (which is frustratingly underdeveloped--there are parts that have said "COMING SOON" for weeks, and doesn't this damn thing come out in like 20 days?) and as the pop-up window was cycling through production stills, I could've sworn I saw... Is that...? IT IS

AVON MOTHERFUCKING BARKSDALE

This cast gets weirder and weirder

[aftm]

He's from Remember the Titans, no?

Hey, OT of the Lovely Bones - minus Ryan Gosling, plus Mark bloody Wahlberg? WTF?

[DCDave]

He's from Remember the Titans, no?

Yes but also The MotherFucking Wire and if you do not watch that there is something wrong with your brain parts.

[jebreject]

haha, "brain parts."

[Cowboy Dan]

Hey, OT of the Lovely Bones - minus Ryan Gosling, plus Mark bloody Wahlberg? WTF?

have you forgotten that mark walhberg is awesome

[dieblucasdie]

Mark Wahlberg can be awesome but he is not default-awesome by any stretch of the imagination, no Sir.

[auto-da-fey]

His awesome-ratio probably isn't too far removed from Gosling's, though I'm not quite ambitious enough to hit IMDB and make some stat-action transpire.

[hannah]

I'd say that's not quite fair, cuz Gosling is always good, regardless of the materia (cf. Mickey Mouse Club), whereas Wahlberg can be undone by a bad piece of directing etc. But when Wahlberg is excellent he is. (Tho I haven't seen Lars, which is supposed to be all kinds of bad, Gosling incl.)