Not to disregard Skolimowski, or Vigo, but I finally watched Tàr on Sunday. Didn't care for it.

A frustrating film in that it toyed at times with going somewhere more interesting but impeded its own progress on this front. Of reviews I've read by higher profile critics, I think Richard Brody's take might be closest to my own.

Right off the bat, it seemed Cate Blanchett's performance was affected, overly AC-TORly even in a film depicting someone characterized as often full of herself. Whereas bathos can be an unfortunate crutch in contemporary culture, here I think Tàr would've worked better had the filmmakers leaned more toward satire or borderline satire at several junctures. There were tastes of it to be sure, but the way the film played out, there were just too many scenes with belabored dry dialog that took too long to go barely anywhere, much less somewhere pleasantly unexpected.

As a whole, I just found the film to be clunky, not even that successful on its own grounds. Tàr was a rather joyless affair lacking in verve. For a film about an expert-level musician it didn't seem to boast much of a genuine love, or even feel for, music. For a film depicting a high-profile person's downfall as a result of grooming/romantic misconduct, there were few "erotic" or even that sensual moments that gave me the impression that Tàr had much of a sex drive at all. The tone just had a tendency to be clinical and drained of affect but not in a way that revealed much we couldn't assume. As a character study, it gained a lot more traction as her life began falling apart, and she started behaving erratically and desperately, but it was rather "meh" at establishing her as a credible larger than life figure.

My family watched it too and didn't care for it either. However, after I gave my mom the film Barbara this last Christmas (also starring Nina Hoss), she watched it and thought it was great. Which it is.

I suspect this isn't one that folks on PRF are going to flock to see, but anyway I will report on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (kid's choice).

Paul Rudd was occasionally funny. Michelle Pfeiffer still looks good. One of the main villains made me think of Doctor Eggman and his floating vehicle from Sonic the Hedgehog.

It was bad.

Went to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at a theater last night. I don't know if it was the 4k restoration they've been talking about, but it still looks good.

I love how they tease the main musical theme throughout the film and then bring it in completely, with Yo-Yo Ma's deeply evocative cello, only at the very end when the story comes to its tragic conclusion.

Also, when I first saw it I was 33 and Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi were quite appealing to me. This time, the first time Jade Fox appears I kind of gasped. She is played by Cheng Pei Pei, whom I subsequently read is thought to have been the world's first all-out female action hero. Doing the math, I realized that she was 54 when she filmed Crouching Tiger, which is the age of my girlfriend right now, and the movie she is most associated with came out in 1966, the year of my birth.

Maybe it was the Rumplemintz talking, but I found all of that to be pretty cool.

DaveA wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 11:13 am For a film depicting a high-profile person's downfall as a result of grooming/romantic misconduct, there were few "erotic" or even that sensual moments that gave me the impression that Tàr had much of a sex drive at all. The tone just had a tendency to be clinical and drained of affect but not in a way that revealed much we couldn't assume. As a character study, it gained a lot more traction as her life began falling apart, and she started behaving erratically and desperately, but it was rather "meh" at establishing her as a credible larger than life figure.

Oh geez that's where it was going? I tried again and only got 20 minutes further. Seems like that entire story could have been told within the amount of time I put into it, and ditch the hour+ long chunk of what felt like watching someone read their own reviews.

Wood Goblin wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:15 am

tallchris wrote: Sat Jan 14, 2023 4:40 pm Criterion Channel just posted three of Jerzy Skolimowski's films in honor of his recently released EO (still need to see that).

After first reading about it 20+ years ago I finally saw DEEP END and it was a great as I could possibly have hoped for. If you described all the individual bits it doesn't seem like it would be that great, but it all comes together in a really fantastic way.

Real long scene set to most of (the) Can's "Mother Sky", great to finally hear that in context!

Definitely gonna watch the other two films in the series asap!

We watched this the other day, too, and agree: fantastic movie. The Can sequence is a highlight.

Worth pointing out that EO is now on the Criterion Channel as of this week. Just watched it last night, only 88 minutes and well worth your time.

Definitely the obvious similarities to Bresson's AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, but I'd say in some ways it reminded me more of L'ARGENT in many ways.

penningtron wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:17 pmOh geez that's where it was going?

To be fair, the film is about more than one thing. But a good chunk of it pertains in some way to the separation of art and artist, the #metoo movement, "cancel culture," etc., but with all of these things being potentially turned on their head given that a woman/lesbian is the subject of controversy rather than a man, and that the movie deals with the rarefied world of classical music rather than the Hollywood milieu or professional sports or whatever.

A curious thing about Tàr, or at least the discourse around it, is people parsing out what exactly its stance on these things might be, or if it even has one. I've seen some argue that the film is fundamentally conservative/reactionary. I've seen others argue that it's the opposite. Others still seem to think that its strength lies in it being able to be read either way, in neither of these things being underscored explicitly. For me, all of this would have a lot more traction and intrigue if dramatically the film itself had more traction and intrigue. As it is, it's just kind of a hodge-podge, an overlong one at that. The film has won over most critics and members of the film cognoscenti, though.

The Green Knight was interesting. Probably the best King Arthur flick since Excalibur.

Caught the unrated M3gan on Friday. That was genuinely hilarious, which is a requirement for me when it comes to horror movies. Some pretty brutal kills, too.

Yesterday, watched The Anderson Tapes which started strong then finished pointlessly (also was Walken's film debut in a supporting role) and Shamus which featured Burt Reynolds trying to pull off "vulnerable". He does a decent job of it at times but his biggest asset is that he's got charm for days. Unfortunately, trying to watch two movies in a row just saps my attention so I only barely paid attention to what struck me as a decently intricate plot. I feel like I need to rewatch it in maybe a week or so.

Watched The Wild Bunch and it continues to be fantastic and interesting. Such a banger of a film, yet still only my third favorite from Peckinpah.

La Bete Humain. I guess I somehow never saw this, although was a big fan of Lower Depths, Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion. Excellent in just about all ways, beaucoup steam train pron. If you don't believe me, Orson Welles called Renoir "The Greatest of All Directors".