Jake Gittes

A secretly great movie. For a while I, like many people, had the impression that it wasn't anything more than a cheesy outdated disco melodrama, so when I finally saw it, I was kinda shocked - both by how tough and gritty it was, and by how good it was.

November 4 is a holiday, plus kids are out of school for the whole first week of the month.

Yeah this is a good one. The incredibly grimy, sweaty, filthy atmosphere created here is something else; I liked that last year's remake had the ambition to go in the opposite direction, but the execution of the original impressed me more. Excellent soundtrack, a richer-than-could-be-expected central performance by Spinell, and a hugely memorable ending. The scene in the subway has some world-class tension.

Only Lovers Left Alive is #1 since a few hours ago

Cut Talia out of the thing entirely, make Bane the independent main villain with no backstory, get rid of stupid shit like Blake knowing who Batman is, flesh out Bruce and Selina's relationship a bit more, and there you're already MUCH closer to having a really good, not overly messy 150-minute film. I mean, sure, I know, who am I to tell Nolan how to make movies and all that. But I can't help it, to me it's just so damn obvious.

I'm disappointed in you Baumer. I thought we were together in this. TDKR should be detested. TDKR should not be allowed reconsideration. TDKR has deserved our scorn, mockery and contempt from the moment it arrived, in all of its loud stupidity, into our movie theaters. For more than 20 months now we have been lonely and brave and uncompromising haters of TDKR, knowing deep inside that we were right and our way was the only way. And now it suddenly appears that you, Baumer, never learned to do what is necessary for our cause. You have betrayed us. YOU HAVE BETRAYED US [in Robert De Niro's voice] You are gonna burn for this, Baumer.

I'd say 140-150m for TF2 and 105-115 for TF3.

Thor 2 had Catching Fire and the post-Thanksgiving drop to deal with. For CA2 the skies are clear until May 2.

Magic in the Moonlight and Birdman are her first movies in four years that I'm interested in, but anyway, Easy A pretty much gives her a lifetime pass in my book.

I took a look at the poster and I'm now convinced this is one of the most sophisticated and visually beautiful animated films ever made.

The Idiots is nowhere near shit, or exploitation, and is one of the essential parts of LVT's filmography. Granted I personally like the movie as a meta-mockery of the Dogme 95 movement, so I never had that problem with it. And what makes it better is that it's not just trolling for the sake of it, there are some devastating moments in there. It's got one of the most powerful final scenes I've seen in any film, hands down.

I could watch Tony Leung and Maggie Chung walk up and down stairs shot by Christopher Doyle for hours. I was happy, then, when the film was obviously much more than that. I wouldn't have complained if it ended a scene earlier - I thought the only time it dragged was at the end - but it's still a film of amazing beauty and sadness.

Already a thread: http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/13309-chungking-express-1994/?hl=chungking it wasn't in the archive for some reason.

A beautiful mess that I really need to see again.

$380m for X-Men is an... interesting one for sure.

If anything its snub will only help Boyhood. BM got held back by plenty of things - I'm sure many voters hadn't seen the first two films, SPC was more interested in pushing Blue Jasmine, there wasn't any campaigning and competition was very serious. We know Boyhood won't have to deal with the first two issues, we don't know whether anyone will campaign or not and we don't know just how strong the other contenders will be. But based on the acclaim it's received already, its snub would probably be akin to that of Inside Llewyn Davis (which also won a major prize at a film festival, was loved by critics and was the only Oscar hopeful of its distributor). But Boyhood has an advantage in that it's supposed to be life-affirming and nobody will perceive it as too dark, cynical, pessimistic, etc.

Played Sundance, won Best Director in Berlin (with a lot of people claiming it was snubbed for the Golden Bear) and critics are over the moon about it. Doesn't mean everyone will love it, but the consensus seems to be there. The execution obviously makes it a very special film and Linklater has accumulated some goodwill over the past 20 years. Now it's up for IFC and those critics (see The Hurt Locker) to keep the fire going, the question is how successful will they be and how strong the competition will actually be.

Ideally I want to see Boyhood take it home, but more realistically I'm going between Unbroken and Big Eyes right now. With maybe Gone Girl as a dark horse if Fincher really delivers.

The man's a troll for sure. Though that makes it especially important to recognize when he's being genuine. And often he manages to be both in a single movie. (ex: The Idiots).

BTW, it definitely took me a few minutes to realize that Machete Hobo actually wasn't Mad Dog who miraculously survived.

Yeah I understand. Well, good for you (no sarcasm or condescension meant). At least you aren't claiming you found something truly deep and meaningful in it - now those people I have a much harder time understanding. Though I did really like David Eihrich's piece over at The Dissolve which took the whole film to be Trier's massive reflection on his career, and Joe to be his definitive lonely, abused and misunderstood lead character. But I won't know how much I actually agree with it until I see both parts. Based on Vol. 1 I already partly see where he's coming from, but I still can't get over how self-satisfied the direction was and how unaffected I was by Joe and anything that happened to her. ("I can't feel anything", all right).

Well I wouldn't say it was Trier's intention to give you anything better than that. Anyway, I saw Vol. 1 and really couldn't stand it. It felt like it was going on for three hours instead of two, it was flatly acted (previously I thought I could easily listen to Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stellan Skarsgard talk all day - turns out I was wrong, but hell, I'll just blame it on the writing), and all the fishing metaphors felt like the kind of humor that would be much more at home in a Woody Allen film. Perhaps most of all, it didn't feel either provocative or titillating not just in the sexual way, but in any way - and here, I think, lies the reason why Trier's past films were so effective: he always deliberately limited and challenged himself in some way. Europa worked inside the genre borders of a stylized neo-noir; Breaking the Waves had its stripped-down, grainy look and very naturalistic performances; The Idiots was full-on Dogme 95; Dogville had an extremely minimal, stage-like set; Antichrist had two characters in mostly just one setting. In Nymphomaniac, there are no limitations like that - anything goes. Trier has always had a huge ego, but here it's like he actually believed himself for the first time to be God, which instantly led to his downfall. He allows himself to do anything he wants, and because of that, nothing means anything anymore. Long silence broken by Rammstein, constant switching of tones or a dick montage set to Shostakovich might have actually meant something in an earlier film, or at least would be genuinely provocative, but here they're the equivalent of an old guy attempting to impress you by telling you dirty jokes and suddenly pulling his dick out, and in the end he mostly just comes off as desperate and you just get tired and want to leave. Nothing matters. Everything's just one big joke, one big act of trolling, if you will. I have no idea what I was supposed to find in that; maybe it'll be clearer when I see the second part. P.S. Gotta admit though, the whoring bed scene was good. Thurman really sold it.

I think Linklater said he'd write a new part of the script every year and then they'd shoot according to it. Doesn't mean there wasn't some improvisation involved, but probably not more than usual.

They'll probably get the screenplay nom without much campaigning - they got one for both In the Loop and Y Tu Mama Tambien, which had similar critical acclaim. The challenge will be in the Picture and Director categories. The performances have also been praised by everyone but I think, at this point, Patricia Arquette is the movie's only really strong shot at an acting nomination. In the technical categories it could get an Editing nom if enough people in the branch see it and appreciate how it's put together.