American Hustle, David O. Russell's follow up to hugely successful Silver Linings Playbook is an entertaining mess. It has moments of brilliance, moments of artistic confusion, scenes that are lovely and scenes that are completely misguided. While the cast is excellent, I'm only convinced of the greatness of one performance. Fortunately for the film, this ensemble's efforts are enough to entertain.
I like Joseph Godon-Levitt. I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a fan of his, but he is a talented guy and he seems to be a likable, cool person. He has given us a lot of good performances in many great films - just recently in Looper, The Dark Knight Rises and 50/50. And now he is trying his efforts in a new endeavor - writing and directing.
The lovely Katy of The Drama Llama has started a very cool blogathon. You get to answer questions starting with each letter of the alphabet with movie related answers. I made some small adjustments here and there. You can check her original post by clicking the picture above.
(spoilers)
For me Christmas sure came early today in the form of 6 second look on new season of Game of Thrones. Yes, 6 seconds. I'm that easy to please. Well, when it comes to Thrones. Imagine being washed ashore for 6 fucking months and this being your first drop of drinking water. This is what I'm going through when Thrones is not on air and there are no leaks from the set.
Today's Golden Globes nominations were shocking, surprising and above all - they chose people who are hot right now and they really want them to appear on that red carper (Kate Winslet, who I'm told just had a baby, I'm mostly talking about you). There were surprises - Rush nominated for Best Drama, snubs - Oprah Winfrey shockingly absent, sources of joy for many - Greta Gerwig nominated for Frances Ha and potential game changers - Idris Elba nominated for Long Walk to Freedom.
Imagine that you are a cook. In fact, you are an excellent cook. You've spent the whole day cooking delicious meals of many different cuisines. By the end of the day you are left with various ingredients. They are all superb individually, but they don't make sense together. You could come up with some new sort of meal and make it delicious, you have a talent for it. But instead you go the easy way - you put them in a shit-stainted shaky bowl, you say it's great and you serve it to your customers.
I usually try to stay open minded when it comes to other people's opinions on movies. No, wait. That's not it. I try to, however, remember that everyone is entitled to have different taste than me. Movies are different, people are different. As many people, as many reactions to certain films. That said, occasionally I hear opinions so shockingly wrong I just roll my eyes.
I'm not gonna write much about previous episode, The Dead, as it was weak and boring, to the point that I'm in no rush to rewatch it. Axeman/Fiona romance is a snoozefest so far and the only big development was Queenie jumping sides and bringing LaLaurie to Laveau. We also got awful and cringeworthy scenes from Madison who is now the most annoying person on the show.
Take Shelter and The Hunt don't have much in common at the first glance. But when you start looking closely similarities arise - both stories center around a man, who despite having a family and people who love him, is utterly alone with his problems. In case of Curtis, the hero of Take Shelter, he is suspecting that he is becoming mentally ill. Lucas, the protagonist of The Hunt, on the other hand has been accused of molesting a little girl in his village.
This week's Coven brought in quite the cinematic episode. It was very focused and almost felt like a separate movie, with few scenes connected to the main story line. We open in 1919 where we meet the Axeman (Danny Huston) - New Orleans's equivalent of the Zodiac killer. The Axeman killed 8 people and wrote to the newspaper that he won't kill anyone who has jazz music playing in their house.
(I know I'm probably the last one to post it, but in my defense I was making the above graphic)
Based on true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty, as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon's chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
This week in American Horror Story we got to see witch burning, a good old fashioned chainsaw to zombie's head action and another episode of Spalding's little corpse/starlet slapstick adventure. It was, just as it sounds, really fun.
MettelRay has started another fun blogathon - this time she is posting a list of emotions and participants can share movie scenes that caused them to have those emotions. Yesterday she posted awkwardness and fear. Instead of giving 3 examples for each, I'll give 5 examples for fear.
Some of you may remember classic Tales from the Crypt series. Based on the eponymous comic books series, Tales from the Crypt is something that you simply don't see on TV anymore - thanks to our PG-13 media, whenever there are re-runs of the series now, it's heavily edited. Why? Because 20 something years ago you could show sex, boobs, gore and say 'fuck!' without people throwing a bible at you and TV executives taking sedatives.
The most memorable part of the film, more often than not, is the ending. It is the last thing you see before the end credits roll and the last thing you are left with. Sometimes the ending you see is truly shocking - because of the twist, because of how horrifying the events are, because it leaves things open ended. There are several endings out there that are so disturbing they are enough to cause nightmares. And who doesn't love scary stories with macabre twist just in time for Halloween?
Another week, another trip to the fucked up world of American Horror Story. The latest episode pushed the boundaries and definitely took as further into just how sick the things can get. Incest, bestiality, jar with jizz, animal sacrifice. Fun!
And just like the Devil keeps coming back, so do Carrie remakes.
(spoilers!)
(spoilers!)
In case you forgotten, American Horror Story: Coven premieres tonight. Finally a show that really leaves you in agonizing pain of wanting more and wishing it was Wednesday just to see the new episode. Here is the list of movies that may keep you busy in the meantime. (inspired by this awesome list of 5 movies with witches by Jess)
After Breaking Bad finale was over I was left with immediate "That's it?" thought. While I don't necessarily believe the series finale has to be the best episode of the series, it should at least be one of the best finales that series had. Felina had nothing on Face Off or Full Measures. Hell, it wouldn't even be in my top 20 of the best Breaking Bad episodes.