Jake Gittes

Heavenly Creatures (1994) Topsy-Turvy (1999) Foxcatcher (2014) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2014)

I dunno, the movie had me chuckling right from Stevens' first appearance, when he flashes those impossibly blue eyes at the mother and starts talking his way into the family in the most ridiculously smooth way possible. It only grows more absurd from there, and I don't think it changes genres just for the hell of it as much as because it'd be way too boring if it stayed a "serious" suspense thriller all the way through, or revealed itself as an action movie early on. It could have failed, but I think ultimately the fusion of genres here is just about flawless, and is the best thing about the movie.

THL was (and remains) pretty rare as a great film about modern warfare in general and Iraq specifically. Boyhood similarly stands out among coming-of-age movies, of which there are approximately a shitton.

Looks like we got two threads for this movie: http://forums.boxofficetheory.com/index.php?/topic/16855-the-guest-2014/

Yeah, this. The first and the third seasons were very good, and the show cast great people and nailed individual moments (the very first scene of the pilot, the climactic events of the last two S1 episodes, the Red Wedding), but if I want to revisit the story there's no question I'll just pick up the books again.

Opinions, assholes, etc.

You can see evil lurking anywhere if you only look hard enough. Doesn't mean it's actually there.

Also, if you've never seen Twin Peaks, drop whatever you're doing, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTp6d7Bw79A

After seeing The Guest I'm all for Dan Stevens following Craig. The downside is that, unlike in The Guest, he won't be allowed to fully embrace the psychopathic killing machine side of Bond. Also the PG-13 thing, etc. But seriously, he'd still rock it. As far as Elba is concerned, if they really want him maybe they could have him star in a stand-alone Bond movie, then cast someone more age-appropriate. It'd be very unusual but why not. Or in a more realistic scenario they could write a really badass villain specifically for him in Bond 25.

It won't if you don't look for politics that aren't there.

Not even a serious question for me.

I don't exactly recall Malick ever being moralistic or trying to teach the audience any lessons, and I doubt he's about to start now

Going from a wide release to a limited & day-and-day VOD release seems like a pretty shitty marketing strategy

Was Blue Ruin dumped? I thought it just had a day-and-day VOD release. Wouldn't have made much in theaters anyway. But yeah it's a pretty good movie with a great central performance.

Dan Stevens - The Guest Timothy Spall - Mr. Turner Jack O'Connell - Starred Up Essie Davis - The Babadook Sarah Snook - Predestination Tilda Swinton, Alison Pill - Snowpiercer Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne - We Are the Best!

I'd say everyone does great work here. Most of Downton's memorable moments involved Maggie Smith and Michelle Dockery.

Well, one of the jokes of the movie is how polite and friendly his character is on the outset, only becoming a sociopathic killing machine due to his desire to help the family (killing the father's boss) or when his super-soldier serum doesn't want him to compromise his identity. Hell, he apologizes to both the mother and the father before killing them. Anyway, this movie made me very happy Stevens ditched Downton when he could, because I never suspected he could be so charismatic, creepy and just plain fun in a role. That show made just about everyone boring.

The coolest motherfucker of a movie I've seen this whole year.

This warms my heart.

Best horror film in several years for sure. By which I don't mean it's the most aggressively scary, but in terms of direction, writing and acting it's hard to find a strong recent comparison. The movie The Babadook most reminded me of is actually We Need to Talk About Kevin - they both fearlessly explore the guilt of a mother who doesn't love her child, except Kevin doesn't go supernatural and The Babadook does. But they are equally effective in the end. And yes, special shout-out to Essie Davis. She goes from moth-like, on-the-verge-of-death vulnerability to bug-eyed intensity that rivals Nicholson in The Shining, and then becomes a figure of such strength it's impossible not to root for her. It's an iconic horror performance in the making.

I'll do a top 10 or top 15 if there's a day available in early January

Serkis lead, Kebbell supporting. No other way.

Ida Leviathan Wild Tales Timbuktu Force majeure

Nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 87th Academy Awards®. Eighty-three films had originally been considered in the category. The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are: Argentina, "Wild Tales," Damián Szifrón, director; Estonia, "Tangerines," Zaza Urushadze, director; Georgia, "Corn Island," George Ovashvili, director; Mauritania, "Timbuktu," Abderrahmane Sissako, director; Netherlands, "Accused," Paula van der Oest, director; Poland, "Ida," Paweł Pawlikowski, director; Russia, "Leviathan," Andrey Zvyagintsev, director; Sweden, "Force Majeure," Ruben Östlund, director; Venezuela, "The Liberator," Alberto Arvelo, director.