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The Dark Alfred

CAYOM Festival - Year 7 - Three-Month Funeral triumphs

By The Dark Alfred, in Vanilla CAYOM

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Alpha Global Phenomenon

Alpha

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Journey could've been renamed "That Forgettable Movie Where Some Girl Runs Around in a Desert For No Reason Then To Advance The Plot."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directed by Terrence Malick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In disguise as Ang Lee.

Edited by Alpha
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4815162342 Global Phenomenon

4815162342

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Well then we'll decide what we have to decide and get to the reviews right now:

 

 

The Three Month Funeral

 

A rizhang Review

 

Let us first observe a moment of silence to honour and bask in the glory of Goddess Meryl.

 

 

It’s hard to know where to start whenever a movie involves Meryl. It seems so often, regardless of the quality of the movie, that she shines, like a bright star, greater than anything else in the world. In her best moments, it feels like nothing else exists, nothing else matters, except for her and you. It feels as if she’s staring into your soul, communing with you directly. This is one of her more subtle roles and she is phenomenal in it. When you watch her you cry for her, you smile with her, and you feel for her. You feel the anguish, the joy, the tragedy, and all the myriad of emotions between the extremes that Meryl portrays with striking and divine accuracy. Sometimes one must remind themselves that they aren’t watching Laura, but watching Meryl. Of course, there is an obligatory Oscar scene and she hits it out of the ball park. It is glorious; it is like watching “Of course he has a knife! He always has a knife! We all have knives! It’s 1183 and we’re all barbarians!” all over again. It’s b-e-a-utiful. If she doesn’t win for this role, it’ll be blasphemy.

 

Now let us move on to a slightly lesser creation, the movie itself. In and out of itself, whether or not Goddess Meryl was on hand to elevate it to a slightly higher level, it is still a very, very well made film. It’s well scripted, well-conceived, and while it could’ve easily gone deep into melodrama territory, it didn’t. It is perhaps one of the weirdest stagey movies out there but it works for some strange reason. It seems odd that something that goes on so many tangents and has such a complex and sprawling plot manages to pull it together but it does. It also helps that unlike Silver Linings Playbook, the happy ending, while too happy, at least makes sense. It doesn’t feel like it was tacked on for the sake of giving it an obligatory Hollywood style ending, though it could’ve been made better had it not been tied up so prettily with a bow. It seems as if all the problems are solved, while in reality it probably wouldn’t have been and the movie would’ve been more impactful if everyone left, maybe no liking each other, but having a mutual understanding. Leave a little bit of melancholy in the movie and just watch it grow; the effect is beautiful. It’s a bit of a missed opportunity here, but the ending as it is still works quite well. However, all in all, the story is an elaborated version of a simple story. At the heart of it all lies a human story, one that isn’t dissimilar to what you may have experience or what someone you know may have experienced. That’s where it succeeds. It tells a story that we can all relate to.

 

Throughout the entire movie the acting is fantastic, and whenever there are interactions, especially confrontations, the atmosphere nearly turns electric. Perhaps it’s Meryl who brings out the best in everyone, but everyone’s bloody brilliant and the contrast and dynamic especially between John and Robert, and Matt and Alex are fantastic. And then we arrive at Megan (Jennifer Lawrence) who is no doubt a little bit superfluous. It’s nice to see some fantastic acting, and dynamics on screen, but it sometimes (quite often) felt like that she was unneeded. She served some purpose, and then serve some unnecessary purposes, but for the most part all of what she really contributed to the central story arc could’ve been done without Megan, and perhaps making Matt(Anthony Mackie) or Meryl’s part bigger and getting them to ease John and Robert into it all.

 

Perhaps we arrive at the film’s biggest flaw, and its oddest premise. Even more so than Megan, there is a part of the film that serves no purpose whatsoever. The body in the freezer is superfluous, it’s odd, it’s almost as if it’s an ostentatious display of something esoteric, it’s something that I, and probably most people, have no idea why it’s there. It serves only to be an obstacle, and an oddity. Perhaps if it had served a more Eckleburgian purpose then it’d make sense and one would be perfectly justified in including it in the movie. However, the way it stands now, it’s a bit of a thorn in one’s thigh. It’s kinda annoying but not catastrophically so, and it’s probably unjustified to spend an entire paragraph of this review devoted to it, but it is still something to keep in mind.

 

9.5/10

 

The Three Month Funeral

 

An Alfred Rating

 

Concept/Idea: 10/8
Plot/Story/Characterisation: 10/7
Casting: 10/9
Opening: 5/3
Ending: 5/2
Location: 5/4
X Factor Bonus: 5/2

Overall: 70%

 

The Three Month Funeral

 

A Numbers Review

 

A Serious Absurdity

 

 

The Three Month Funeral could have been an excellent family drama about a family's struggles to heal and repair old wounds in the wake of a loss. But there's a problem, the drama (yes this is a drama, regardless of what the marketing shows) is based on an inherently absurd premise: That family and friends are forced by a will stipulation to live together in a house with the deceased's body for three months in order to get a piece of the inheritance and if anyone no longer resides there, even for a day, everything goes to random man Jake, who we never see again in the film after the letter reading and have no real proof that what he says is genuine. This sets up a situation where a hostile, fractured family (and friend), many of whom need a slice of the dead guy's estate, are cooped up together for three months. This is a premise for an absurdist comedy (Wes Anderson would have nailed a film like this) or with a slightly altered hook, an almost macabre dramady of sorts with family members scheming to get others out of the house to deny them a share of the inheritance. Lots and lots of fun could be had with this sort of starting point. But instead the film plays the idea and the resulting friction totally straight, I mean 100% serious and earnest, aside from a single recurring gag about finding the body in the fridge.

 

So who is forced to be in this social experiment: JGL, who has the most developed and continuously involving character in the film, Meryl Streep, playing motherly Meryl with a slight pinch of iron, Bill Murray, who acts hostile and curmudgeonly for 4/5 of the film before Mother Meryl unloads her Oscar Clip (if she does get nominated) on his ass, Jennifer Lawrence, who's just sorta there as understanding yet befuddled by JGL's hostility. The film several times is close to giving her character a moment of poignancy, but then brushes it aside. You have Anthony Mackie whose character is a bit contradictory and doesn't do much to earn sympathy for his plight by going on a date less than a month after the love of his life drops dead (Alex tells him the most BS line possible and Mackie's character eats it up). Dennis Quaid is kinda just there as protective father-in-law, and Matt Smith's character is close to interesting at times and kinda plot device at others.

 

The pure family drama aspect of the film is very good, and the Matt subplot reconnects well with the main story, though it seems that the JGL/Murray differences were resolved a little too neatly by the end of the third act. The problem is that this is a serious drama based on an absurdist comedy foundation that it plays totally normal and unremarkable. There were plenty of chances for David O'Russell to unleash his style but he's hemmed in by a script that is all about acceptance and love and tolerance and coming together and all very nice things with no bite to them (and O'Russell is nothing if not full of bite). The film wants to have two genres to spice it up but pretty much just overloads on one (drama), which is all good, but the absurdist comedy elements in the premise and sorta scattered here and there just feel like sore thumbs, so it should have just gone full drama and serious and all aspects. Basically it's like a person standing on Pennsylvania Railroad gets the "Advance to Go, Collect $200" card in Monopoly but as he's getting near Short Line he gets grabbed by the back of his collar and told "whoa sonny, we can't let you be that good at this game."

 

B+

 

Could have been terrific (like an A) if the film went total drama or actually embraced the absurdist comedy underlying the premise.

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4815162342 Global Phenomenon

4815162342

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NO

 

We already forced a massive delay for The Academy (which admittedly got scathing reviews so it's understandable), we ain't letting a second studio do the same just because the film didn't get three raves.

 

 

The purpose of the Festival is NOT to let players see what's wrong with their films and fix them up before Part 1 starts.

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Hiccup Summer Tentpole

Hiccup

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NO

 

We already forced a massive delay for The Academy (which admittedly got scathing reviews so it's understandable), we ain't letting a second studio do the same just because the film didn't get three raves.

 

 

The purpose of the Festival is NOT to let players see what's wrong with their films and fix them up before Part 1 starts.

 

Otherwise ...don't enter your films in the festival because bad word of mouth will fly. 

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Blankments Global Phenomenon

Blankments

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Okay, okay. :P I kinda want to do a rewrite, but I'll keep it as is. I see you and ric's points well though, and it's not a total loss like Academy. Besides, I have five other major movies to write, and a rewrite of this seems impossible along with those five. Hoping for some love later on though, from the other players. ;)

 

It is my first huge film after all; I expected some hiccups.

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4815162342 Global Phenomenon

4815162342

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Entering a film into the festival is a Big Risk. Allowing people to then change things that were criticized defeats the purpose.

 

Again, The Academy got eviscerated by ric and I, so a delay there is totally understandable.

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Blankments Global Phenomenon

Blankments

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Innocense - 84
The Three-Month Funeral - 83
 

Spark 2: Ignition - 80
Blank - 76
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time - 75
The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer - 56
The Fall Of Boss Tweed - 54
Journey - 51
The Academy - 38

 

TOP TWO OF THE FEST WOOT :D

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