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Jake Gittes

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Everything posted by Jake Gittes

  1. Concerning August, I just looked up its director, John Wells, and he's done directing-wise nothing except The Company Men (a Sundance recession drama from 2010 with Affleck and TLJ that got a mixed critical reception and audiences never showed up to see it) and some TV episodes of Shameless and ER. That alone makes me hesitant to lock it up as a major awards player, because this guy isn't even in the Tom-Hooper-before-TKS league. At best, he seems like a Tate Taylor, and that guy was never really in the Best Director conversation, which means the film stood no chance of winning BP. I'm more than willing to believe that August has all it needs to get three or four people nominated for acting, but I can't be certain about anything more. Uninspired direction can turn the greatest source material into mediocrity.
  2. Coens' new movie sounds great to me. And even if it didn't, I'd trust the Coens enough. I'll be delighted if Oscar Isaac's lead role is meaty enough to get him into the awards conversation. Guy's a great, underrated actor. I'm also curious to see how Timberlake will fare going from Fincher to the Coens.
  3. I also nearly fell off my seat at "Kinda like Gandalf". It was very unexpected and all the more hilarious for it. And it showed you Maya knew at least some of her pop culture.
  4. I thought the best female performance of last year came from Cotillard.
  5. ZDT is much more popular, acclaimed and weighty than My Week with Marilyn, though. That movie had next to nothing to offer except for Williams' performance, while Chastain's is a great performance in the center of a great film.
  6. As a fan of Kavalier & Clay... HBO mini-series or GTFO.
  7. Just when I started thinking there's no way The Hobbit misses $300m now.Also, Oscar noms apparently had zero effect on Les Mis and Django. Worse drops than last weekend. Lincoln's unstoppable, though.
  8. Yep, when you see the close-up of Kruger getting strangled, those are actually QT's hands, not Waltz's.
  9. It was weaker visually than I expected (especially the scenes of the limo driving around Paris, very sterile and down-to-earth for a movie with such a concept) and I thought it had a couple too many endings - to me, the perfect closing shot would have been the limos driving inside the Holy Motors building. But overall I thought it was an excellent meditation on how much acting and mask-putting we do in our lives, sometimes even in danger of losing our "true self", whatever it might be, entirely and ending up with nothing but the masks, however convincing they may be. It's never dull, the accordeon scene is just wonderful and Lavant's performance is seriously one of the all-time greats.BTW, if you liked HM enough, I really recommend Leos Carax's other films, especially Les amants du Pont-Neuf (1991) and Pola X (1999). Unlike HM, they aren't weird or outrageous (although Carax can fuck with your head a bit here and there), very straightforward and easy to follow, actually, and very beautifully shot in addition. 'Les Amants' has Lavant and Juliette Binoche starring as homeless lovers, it's a fantastic romantic drama, bursting with life and energy. Pola X is a very dark and depressing story, but absolutely captivating. His first two films from the 1980s are also beautifully shot and both have 20-something Lavant starring in them, but are also more experimental.
  10. I think in the worst case scenario they'll Al Pacino him when he's in his 50s.
  11. No, not yet. Gets released here on the 17th, and unlike ZDT, it's something I want to first see in the theater.
  12. Yeah, absolutely Bigelow. Un-fucking-forgivable. All of the five nominated directors have no business being in over her.Also, Cotillard (again, a better performance than anyone of the actual nominees gave, and I love Chastain and Lawrence's work), and, to a lesser extent, Perks in Adapted and MK in Picture. And while I admittedly haven't seen The Master yet, the cinematography and production design looked utterly spellbinding from the trailers.
  13. Will this be streaming online? It's 6 AM here and I don't feel like sleeping at all tonight, so I might as well watch it to pass some time until afternoon.
  14. 5/5Zero Dark Thirty4/5ArgoSilver Linings Playbook3/5AmourLife of PiLincolnBeasts of the Southern Wildnot seen: Django, Les Mis
  15. Best Director nominees are pretty unreal. No Hooper, no Affleck, AND no Bigelow. Whoda thunk.
  16. I sorta love the way BAFTA treats Tom Hooper, especially in comparison to DGA/Oscars. 2 years ago they awarded TKS best picture, but picked Fincher as best director. This time out they nominated Les Mis, but Hooper himself didn't even get a nom. Compare that to the blowjob he's been receiving in Hollywood.I'm at the point now when I want to look everyone nominating Arkin in the eyes and ask what the fuck they think they are doing. It's ridiculous. And frankly, after seeing Lincoln, I've no idea why TLJ is in this whole conversation, either. It's Tommy Lee Jones playing Tommy Lee Jones wearing a wig and insulting all the other characters. The best male supporting player in the movie is easily James Spader, and even he doesn't really do anything worthy of awards.
  17. He was, actually - the Coens were not.
  18. The scene of his killing in the movie is perfect. He shows himself, gets taken out in less than a second, and that's it. No slow-motion, no dramatic music, nothing. He was alive a second ago, now he's dead, just like any other person in his place would be.
  19. Until I get to see Django Unchained and The Master, this is my favorite movie of 2012. Masterful direction, taut writing, perfect editing and not a false note in any of the performances - Jason Clarke, in particular, is going to get really sought after after this. There were times when I did think both the film and Chastain might have been going for a bit too much emotional distance, but then I was surprised how perfectly the very final scene landed. While the reviews led me to expect something very close to Zodiac (a film I absolutely love), it isn't quite that - Zodiac was much more about how the long and exhausting obsession of its three main characters nearly destroyed their lives, ultimately dissolving in time rather than getting a closure. Maya's obsession in ZDT has a very clear closure - her own personal Zodiac found and killed - but much more of an emphasis is placed on the aftermath. "Where do you want to go?", she is asked. All she could do in response is cry, helpless, in a state of (as I'm sure it was to her) terrifying uncertainty.I'm not entirely sure how ZDT will hold up on the second viewing, but for now it's a very, very impressive piece of work, especially considering I tend to get sceptical, not over-hyped, when I sit down to watch movies that received this kind of early praise. Zero Dark Thirty got me in its grip in its first minutes and didn't let go for the remaining 150.
  20. "Enthralling for pre-schoolers" is certainly a great argument for the Academy members to watch it.
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