Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews

didn't like Knives Out very much but i'm about 25% thru Glass Onion and liking it better.

I've mentioned it in in the trailer thread, and today I finally went and watched UFO Sweden. It's a Swedish attempt at making a big-budget Hollywood-esque film (much like the previous film by the same production studio), with the story being about a young woman who believes that her father was abducted by aliens, and who teams up with a small group of slightly off-kilter ufologist to find out what her dad was researching, and how it releates to strange events going on around their home town, while trying (and failing) to avoid getting into trouble with the police. The cinematography and special effects does indeed feel very Hollywood, as does the script, for better or worse. Lots of dialogue and action is probably stuff that has been seen in a million films already, but it's done with heart and passion, with some underlying themes that I genuinely loved. Specifically, it's about sharing a passion with like-minded people, not pushing them away or abandoning them, but coming together as a group to achieve great things, and making friends along the way.

What makes the film "Swedish" in my mind is that this theme is reflected in a gently humorous celebration of the Swedish "association life" (not sure if that's an accurate translation), our many small-scale, non-profit organizations of regular people coming together around shared interests, usually set up in a democratic fashion. This is often associated with boring meetings with strict adherence to protocol, but it's also an important way to meet like-minded people, learning the basics of democracy, and just being social in general. UFO Sweden does make some jokes about the boring meetings, but it also shows the beauty of a group of weird outcasts sharing something, sometimes arguing with each other but also growing close through shared activites and adventures. It uses the classic sci-fi words "we are not alone" not to mean aliens, but that we humans are stronger when we band together.

I'm really curious what non-Swedes will think about the film (still no word about an american release, but it will be streaming in some other countries). My opinion is that the central theme of the strenght of organizing is something that is very important nowadays.

Glass Onion is awesome. A huge step up from Knives Out. Great fun and much bigger, sillier, but in a way that suits the character of Benoit Blanc in a way that I felt Knives Out didn't. Highly recommended.

Knives Out isn’t really about Blanc. Glass Onion is much more so.

Speaking of Glass Onion, I just watched The Last of Sheila, one of the major inspirations for Glass Onion. Honestly, the movies are so similar that the latter almost feels like a remake (though not quite all the way). The Last of Sheila is also about a group of wealthy assholes who get invited by the King Asshole of their friend group for a trip to the Mediterranean to play games and get power tripped. All while hiding deep dark secrets. It's the kind of puzzle box movie where you spend the first half wondering if there even is a puzzle, and then the second half reveals everything so beautifully and intricately that you can't believe you missed it.

The one knock I have is that it kind of blows off an accusation of child molestation as a regrettable foible rather than a heinous crime. However, the movie doesn't go deep into it, so it's hard to even know what specific actions the accusation represents. It's also an accusation coming from a hateful character and it's blown off by a bunch of other hateful characters, so I'm not certain if the movie thinks of it as a harmless accusation, or it's using the casual reaction as an illustration of just how jaded and self-absorbed these people are. But I think it's worth knowing going into it.

This echo chamber is nice!

I also loved Glass Onion, and think it's fascinating that people get miffed when someone solves a whodunnit halfway through, because my husband and I spend 100% of our time trying to suss it out, and are delighted every time one of us nails it. I actually avoided Knives Out because I read an interview where Rian Johnson said he wasn't particularly interested in making a whodunnit that people could solve. I like having big clues dangled in front of me to make me feel clever, dangit! This movie breaks a cardinal rule of the genre (are there many other whodunnits where the viewpoint character spends half the story lying to the audience?), but it's still solvable, in a Phoenix Wright kind of way.

I laughed because I had everything pegged the moment the twist was revealed, but got turned around in the second half making things more complicated in my head than they actually were. It was, indeed, a glass onion, peeling back layers only to find that nothing's there.

Huh, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is... pretty darn good. I have no real affection for the Shrek franchise, like, at all, but this film is clearly moving forward with a mentality more akin to modern animated film while not forgetting the naughty fairy tale vibe the franchise made it's bones one, in both cases in a good way. It does feel like it is standing on the shoulders of giants (it has clearly taken a LOT of visual cues from Into the Spider-Verse and apparently tried to court it's co-director early on and Harvey Guillén's incredibly charming dog feels very Olaf-inspired, even though I'm low-key over that character) but despite this, it's just a very fun story, well-told. I think it helped a lot that the "Fearless Hero" opening number that starts off the movie is so infectiously fun that it definitely ripples across the movie, even when the message of the movie is being a fearless legend is kind of sad, really.

Sprite said:

This echo chamber is nice!

I also loved Glass Onion, and think it's fascinating that people get miffed when someone solves a whodunnit halfway through, because my husband and I spend 100% of our time trying to suss it out, and are delighted every time one of us nails it. I actually avoided Knives Out because I read an interview where Rian Johnson said he wasn't particularly interested in making a whodunnit that people could solve. I like having big clues dangled in front of me to make me feel clever, dangit! This movie breaks a cardinal rule of the genre (are there many other whodunnits where the viewpoint character spends half the story lying to the audience?), but it's still solvable, in a Phoenix Wright kind of way.

I laughed because I had everything pegged the moment the twist was revealed, but got turned around in the second half making things more complicated in my head than they actually were. It was, indeed, a glass onion, peeling back layers only to find that nothing's there.

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Have you gone back to watch Knives Out? Because it definitely dangles clues in front of you and I think it's solvable.

I'll definitely watch it at some point, worst case scenario I don't like it but still look forward to more, if they do more. I'd be delighted if Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig did nothing but make Benoit Blanc movies for the rest of their lives.

As an aside, I will forever be tickled that Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim's final cameos were a freaking Among Us reference. I also love the implication that Blanc would be pretty bad at getting away with murder himself.

Sprite said:

Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim's final cameos were a freaking Among Us reference

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I completely missed it was them! I think my mom was asking me something right at that moment so I'm glad you pointed this out!

Apparently I was saving the best for last, because The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was my favourite movie of the year.

Sorry, Prey. No shame in the silver medal.

Well I wrapped up the year with one 2022s best movies and I started off the new year with another one.

As it turns out that murder movie starring James Bond that everyone has been talking about is, in fact, really really good. I think I’d give Glass Onion the nod over Knives Out myself, but it’s a close race.

I… guess Rian Johnson is the only person I want making movies from now on.

Octopus Prime said:

I… guess Rian Johnson is the only person I want making movies from now on.

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So you want Jordan Peele and Taika Waititi to stop? (Just to name a couple.)

Rian Johnson can have movies and Taika Waititi can have TV shows. Jordan Peele can have horror, which will now be considered its own medium for some reason.

Rewatched Glass Onion last night. Liked it more on a second viewing. I think one downside of the structure is that the character's motivations are a bit tough to read in the first half. Once you know what's going on, it's a lot easier to create an emotional connection (although I think the movie lacks the emotional core of Knives Out).

There were also a couple structural notes and clues that I had missed the first time around that really impressed me. Here were some:


A small one: After Duke's death, in the chaos, you can see Duke's phone in Miles' back pocket.

Blanc's achilles heel being stupid games, which he mentions several times - at the bath in the beginning, when Helen mentions Clue in Act 2, and at the reveal. But I hadn't really clued into the fact that this is foreshadowing that the murder, murderer and solution were all stupid and obvious, which is why Blanc can't notice them. Helen even literally says "maybe Miles did it" to which Blanc replies that that would be idiotic and "Miles Bron is not an idiot" - an assumption he realizes was wrong at the end, when he shouts "Miles Bron is an idiot".

But the really big one was that the final scene where Helen destroys the Glass Onion perfectly mirrors Miles' "disruption" speech from the middle of the movie. She starts by breaking something small that everybody wants to break anyway (the glass sculptures) and everyone's excited about it, because they all wanted them broken anyway. Then she pushes further and people get scared, they say she's going too far. But she keeps pushing. Until she pushes to far and her "partner" tells her to stop (which Miles literally does), because the one thing that nobody wants broken is the system itself. Blanc even shouts "Disruption!" after the explosion. I was so delighted when I noticed the parallel. I hope somebody overlays the speech onto that scene.
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Torzelbaum said:

So you want Jordan Peele and Taika Waititi to stop? (Just to name a couple.)

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Not saying there aren’t going to be Drawbacks

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles: Watched this because it was the new #1 on the Sight & Sound greatest movies of all time poll, and the first ever #1 directed by a woman (Chantal Akerman). It's a 3 and a half hour movie about a single mother who also does sex work to make ends meet, but it primarily lingers on mundane tasks. You see the title character, for example, peel two potatoes or plate dinner for her and her son in real time, as opposed to with cuts or in a montage—the movie really draws attention by how compressed time is in most movies by focusing on these simple actions in their entirety. The sex work is not a shocking reveal, as it's basically the first scene of the movie, and for the most part it's a lacuna. You know it's going on in the background, but generally it's not where the movie's focus is. For most of the movie, it's really only tangentially addressed, as the context the audience knows but the son does not in her conversations with him about relationships between men and women. Instead, you see the rhythms of her life over three days. You get used to the sounds and rhythms of her footsteps and light switches flipping on and off in her apartment and she moves from room to room, and you become very familiar with her kitchen and meal prep and her other chores around town.

That's not to say the movie is flat, as you gradually see little wrinkles introduced in her routine, and there's a definite change in tone over the course of the movie, and it is all building up to something. You definitely need to be in the right place to watch 3 and a half hours of chores, which is admittedly probably a hard sell for many, but if you're in a headspace to take in the rhythms of daily life and observe minor shifts in patterns, I do think it rewards your patience and attention in the end.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio is very good. Stop-motion animation is incredible.

Banshees of Inisherin was beautiful and haunting. A very odd movie, but one I felt enthralled by, both due to the cinematography and the performances. Farrell and Gleeson have such great chemistry and Farrell in particular is so good at playing pathetic characters (in both the modern and classical senses of the word).

estragon said:

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles: Watched this because it was the new #1 on the Sight & Sound greatest movies of all time poll, and the first ever #1 directed by a woman (Chantal Akerman). It's a 3 and a half hour movie about a single mother who also does sex work to make ends meet, but it primarily lingers on mundane tasks. You see the title character, for example, peel two potatoes or plate dinner for her and her son in real time, as opposed to with cuts or in a montage—the movie really draws attention by how compressed time is in most movies by focusing on these simple actions in their entirety. The sex work is not a shocking reveal, as it's basically the first scene of the movie, and for the most part it's a lacuna. You know it's going on in the background, but generally it's not where the movie's focus is. For most of the movie, it's really only tangentially addressed, as the context the audience knows but the son does not in her conversations with him about relationships between men and women. Instead, you see the rhythms of her life over three days. You get used to the sounds and rhythms of her footsteps and light switches flipping on and off in her apartment and she moves from room to room, and you become very familiar with her kitchen and meal prep and her other chores around town.

That's not to say the movie is flat, as you gradually see little wrinkles introduced in her routine, and there's a definite change in tone over the course of the movie, and it is all building up to something. You definitely need to be in the right place to watch 3 and a half hours of chores, which is admittedly probably a hard sell for many, but if you're in a headspace to take in the rhythms of daily life and observe minor shifts in patterns, I do think it rewards your patience and attention in the end.

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This is all very interesting and compelling as a way to approach cinema, but does it make it the best film of all time? It seems like it would still be facing an uphill battle against a good story told well.

I think it was a good story told well, but it's specifically a story that foregrounds women's repetitive domestic labor in form and content.

Full poll here, for anyone curious.

Hmm, maybe I should have been more clear. I meant more of a traditional story structure rather than something avant garde like three hours of chores.

I'm not trying to criticize the film here, or diminish it as not important, just trying to understand.

Look, you don't want people screengrabbing your sight and sound list on twitter and being rude about how basic it is. (happened 2 Ti West; I'm sure more...) I've definitely heard about this film a lot for years as someone who has questionable taste but does see a lot of film twitter. This is not a poll sent out to the general public and I'm sure many lister's did not see it as a chore at all!

I saw this film three years ago when the Criterion Channel just started. I was looking at my phone during the midway bit of sex work that caused Jeanne to start to unspool, maybe. But I realized this, rewound, and barely looked at my phone thereafter. Not really the movie's fault. I'm a Phillistine. (I enjoyed it! but it is v. unlikely I won't be looking at my phone at home...)

*Peter Griffin voice* I like Emily in Paris.

Neo Skimbleshanks said:

I'm sure many lister's did not see it as a chore at all!

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This made me realize I was ambiguous about something—I didn't mean to say that the movie is figuratively a chore to watch, only that the movie is primarily made up fo scenes of the title character literally doing chores.

Do you need to be in the right mood to watch Jeanne Dielman peel potatoes in state of silent ennui for three and a half hours? Sure. But I also need to be in the right mood to watch a mindless action movie, just a different type of mood.

As far as how it got to the top of the list, submissions aren't ranked (or, they can be as a personal touch, but the ranks don't matter, just the number of mentions). So, you could see it easily standing in as a representative experimental work and feminist work on a lot of lists. Also, it's honestly pretty accessible for a movie that could be classified as experimental. I think basically anyone who watches Jeanne Dielman all the way through would "get it" in a way that's not guaranteed with other experimental entires in the top 10 like Mulholland Drive or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

My guess though is that, after a long period of Citizen Kane dominance, the list is now less stable going forward as the critics who are invited to vote on this are more diverse and have apparently begun to reevaluate what is important to film canon, and as some more stodgy set in their ways voters die off. It definitely wouldn't surprise me if a more accessible narrative movie from outside the Euro-American sphere like In the Mood for Love or Tokyo Story took the #1 spot in the future.

estragon said:

As far as how it got to the top of the list, submissions aren't ranked (or, they can be as a personal touch, but the ranks don't matter, just the number of mentions). So, you could see it easily standing in as a representative experimental work and feminist work on a lot of lists. Also, it's honestly pretty accessible for a movie that could be classified as experimental. I think basically anyone who watches Jeanne Dielman all the way through would "get it" in a way that's not guaranteed with other experimental entires in the top 10 like Mulholland Drive or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Ah! That makes a lot of sense.

estragon said:

This made me realize I was ambiguous about something—I didn't mean to say that the movie is figuratively a chore to watch, only that the movie is primarily made up fo scenes of the title character literally doing chores.

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You were clear and I was just kind of illiterately misreading Loki's post, which was also just descriptively using the word "chores." Brain fried

Weird is possibly the funniest movie to come out in 2022. As someone who grew up with Al's music and watched UHF a bajillion times on VHS, this is exactly the kind of "Biopic" I wanted and expected. Daniel Radcliffe is so good at the kind of mania required of him here, and Evan Rachel Wood kills it every scene she's in.

Bullet Train is not a movie that needed to be as long as it was. It was enjoyable, but I found myself looking at the run time loooong before it was over. Felt in a lot of ways like a return to the Very Very Cool action movies of the mid aughts that wanted to be Kill Bill very badly. And as far as that goes, it was one of the better ones, certainly better than Lucky Number Slevin or Seven Psychopaths, maybe not as fun as The Losers. Brad Pitt was a delight throughout, and he’s usually someone I’m ambivalent towards.

That being said the last twenty minutes or so completely transforms it, and why couldn’t I have been watching that movie all along.