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Eric Atreides

Just Mercy l Warner Bros. | Xmas 2019 limited, January 10, 2020 wide | Free to rent all June

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Got pretty much snubbed at the Oscars.

Which surprised me, thought it's subject matter alone would net a BP nomination, even if the execution was not all that it could have been.

Of course, you  have to wonder if the widespread critricism of Green Book win ( a movie that really was only pretty good winning because of subject matter) did not hurt this film's chances.

 

Edited by dudalb
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On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2020 at 5:52 AM, rukaio101 said:

Saw it last night. I'll confess I'm slightly biased since I read the book first, but honestly I was pretty underwhelmed by it. It took a legitimately interesting and rage-inducing story and turned it into a very generic 'racial-relations Oscarbait' movie. It had all the hallmarks and tropes of a 'White Saviour' movie, just without the white saviour themselves. You could practically make a bingo card out of all of the Hollywood tropes involved. 

 

Don't get me wrong, it had a handful of scenes that worked and the actors do a solid job (with special mention to Tim Blake Nelson, who is taking that southern accent he had from Watchmen and fully running with it), but I do think it's somewhat telling that halfway through the movie I became convinced that this movie wasn't written/directed by an actual black guy, simply because its portrayal of the black community/issues was so cartoonishly stereotypical. (I was right, although it was an asian director rather than a white one). Maybe a few years ago, this sort of movie would've gotten past me just fine, but considering how many great black-directed movies there were last year dealing with complicated racial issues in a way that felt genuine, this sort of film just doesn't feel like it cuts it for me anymore.

 

Once again though, I will say I am fairly biased, having the vastly superior book to compare it to, but even trying to view it through an objective lens as its own thing separate from the book, I still can't bring myself to be very impressed with it. It's not Green Book levels of willful ignorance and terribleness, but it definitely feels like the sort of movie we should've moved on from by now. I won't exactly be surprised if other people without my biases can sit down and enjoy it- that Hollywood formula is a popular one for a reason- but I can't really bring myself to say I liked it very much.

Yet another case of great source material hurt by weak execution.

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5 hours ago, dudalb said:

Got pretty much snubbed at the Oscars.

Which surprised me, thought it's subject matter alone would net a BP nomination, even if the execution was not all that it could have been.

Of course, you  have to wonder if the widespread critricism of Green Book win ( a movie that really was only pretty good winning because of subject matter) did not hurt this film's chances.

 

I think as soon as it was apparent Joker started picking up some serious steam, Warner Bros. pretty much focused entirely on that and forgot about Just Mercy. Then again, I don't know how much difference marketing/campaigning would have made for JM. Maybe it's just not good enough. I don't know, I haven't seen it. I'm obviously talking from an awards perspective because it's clearly a crowd-pleaser and more than good enough as far as audiences are concerned.

Edited by JB33
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