BP Movie Journal 12/21/17
Movies
FOXTROT
COCO
PERMANENT
THE TRACE WE LEAVE BEHIND
THE PIRATES OF SOMALIA
I, TONYA
DOWNSIZING
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
BLADE RUNNER 2049
SPIRITED AWAY
IT
CHINATOWN
CHASING CORAL
GONE IN 60 SECONDS
THE LEISURE SEEKER
YOU’RE NEXT
ONE OF US
ALIENS
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL
BETTER WATCH OUT
JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD
THE POST
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI
THE DISASTER ARTIST
HOSTILES
MOLLY’S GAME
THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE
A FANTASTIC WOMAN
MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
BATTLE OF THE SEXES
TV
SURVIVOR
Great packed movie journal. Loved hearing all the hot takes.
That being said, y’all are wrong about Battle of the Sexes. It’s a fun little movie that deftly balances a dramatic love story, as well as the comedic relationship between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. I really liked the performances, especially that of the two leads, as well as Austin Stowell’s turn as Larry King. Billie Jean (in this movie) is the epitome of a bold woman, striving to fight against a system that marginalizes her and others around her. I put it alongside another 2017 release, The Shape of Water (albeit a far more visually interesting, disturbing, and fantastical film) as the kind of “fuck toxic masculinity” type of attitude that Trump’s America necessitates. While neither movie takes place in the modern day, both are refreshingly unabashed in their politics, and poignant even today.
I’m also very interested to hear a more in depth discussion about the ending of The Florida Project. I’m firmly in the camp that it is brilliant (and destroyed me to tears). I cannot wait until Tyler has seen it as well, so David can be taken to task (or perhaps not) for not liking the ending.
Looking forward to all the year-end wrap up stuff!
Given what we know about Tyler’s likes and dislikes, the ending will most likely have a much more profound effect on him than it did David.
I didn’t see any mockery of the Tanya Harding character at all. If anything, it was slavishly devoted to her, clearly picking her side of the conflicting stories of Jeff Gillooly. And all that would have been fine, if not for the utterly absurd 11th hour direct-to-camera condemnation from Tanya to we the viewers, for daring to find her story comical when we first heard it in the 90’s. Not since the movie Dope has a character’s self-righteous indignation at the viewer felt so out-of-place, so unearned. I of course feel pity for Harding and the difficult life she’s had. I do not feel remorse for not magically intuiting the details of that life in the mid 90’s. Also, she almost certainly helped plan the attack, so the pity only goes so far.