Hi Guys,

Lots of good movies out right now. The best one I have seen so far has been Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine...which is an absolute brilliant documentary...

I also saw "About Schmidt" which I thought was really entertaining although I was probably the youngest person in the room in a movie full of senior citizens!

Finally saw Die Another Day as well....that was pretty good too....this coming for someone who is not the world's biggest James Bond fan.

Has anyone seen Adaptation or the Hours?

Brient

I don’t go to movies often. The last movie I went to see was “Planet of the Apes” (the new one, not the 1968 one). But friends dragged me to see “About Schmidt” telling me it looked like a cute, funny movie. Ugh. How could anyone LIKE this movie? Halfway through, I was wondering if anything funny would ever happen to these horribly sad people in this movie. (it didn’t) Brient, you found this movie “entertaining”? If I’d been a senior citizen watching this movie, I’d have gone home and slashed my wrists. I’m sure this movie will get all kinds of awards and critical praises heaped on it, but honestly, it just reminded me why I rarely go to movies… they’re CRAP! And I mean that in the nicest way possible.

And that's my movie review for 2003.

I see quite a lot of movies and I agree that About Schmidt was found lacking. This was very disappointing as the film was written and directed by Alexander Payne who did the wonderful film Election (with Matthew Broderick and Reece Witherspoon).

Adaptation (written by Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich) was good until the "preposterous" 3rd act (as a friend described it). I was liking the movie until they went into the swamp... and then they lost my appreciation.

Drumline and Chicago I mentioned in their own threads.

The Two Towers was unimpressive as a film, IMO. I saw Lord of the Rings three times (loved it!), but one viewing of Two Towers (on an IMAX screen no less) was enough. The problem was the lack of cohesive story, due largely to the fragmentary storylines in the book.

I re-visited Almodovar's Talk To Her (which I saw at the Toronto film fest) and, while good, found it less good than All About My Mother (one of my favorite films) or Live Flesh even.

Nicholas Nicholby had its moments. And certainly some gay-ish subtext, not to mention a bevy of gay and gay-friendly stars. Stunning Charlie Hunnam (from the British Queer As Folks, apparently) as Nicholas, Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell as Smike made the cutest couple. Alan Cummings, Nathan Lane and Dame Edna as a troupe of actors. Christopher Plummer and Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge) as dastardly villains. The movie did suffer from some unnecessary plot, though.

Have yet to see The Hours, Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can... but have no burning desire to see them, either. My pick for best picture is still the surprising Adam Sandler pic Punch-Drunk Love.

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Just saw The Hours. An interesting film. Surprising performance by Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf.

Would also like to recommend Standing in the Shadows of Motown, a wonderful documentary about the studio musicians who played on all the early Motown recordings... and who played on more #1 hits than the Beatles, Elvis and Rolling Stones combined. They perform with contemporary singers, including Chaka Khan, Gerald Levert, Joan Osborne and Meshell Ngegeocello.

[ January 18, 2003: Message edited by: canmark ]

I'm sorry. but "Punch drunk love" sucked!! I have no idea what the hell the film was trying to do.

I liked "sex and Lucia" and "talk to her" But I'm not sure what would be the film of the year. Perhaps "The Hours"?

"Nicholas Nickelby" could be called "Dickens Lite." Most of the book's truly colorful characters are missing or have been diminished (Nicholas' mother is a wonderful character in the book, a nothing in the film, his sister's employers--the Mantallinis--are highly comic in the novel, and don't even register in the film.) The sexual subtext between Nicholas and Smike (in the novel, he is depicted as retarded in addition to deformed) was the most interesting aspect of the film. Of course, Hunnam and Elliott are, without a doubt, the hottest people to ever be in a Dickens' adaptation.

Regarding "Adaptation", the major change in tone in the film's final 30 minutes ruined much of what came before. And I wonder how Susan Orlean feels about the way she is presented in that portion of the film. Streep is tremendous (no surprise); I always prefer he in comedy than drama as she tends to get very stick-up-her-ass noble in dramatic roles.

~Adam

Theo's 4-star Review:

Far From Heaven - ****
Antwone Fister - ****
About Schmidt - ***
Catch Me If You Can - ***
Lord of the Rings - **
Die Another Day - **

Next up:

Chicago
The Pianist
Gangs of New York
Drumline
The Hours

[quote]Originally posted by Theo:


Chicago
The Pianist
Gangs of New York
Drumline
The Hours

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I would see all of these.

I did see Catch Me: the music/set-up was better than the movie, and the movie was good.

Day-Lewis in Gangs was beyond anything I could have expected - but then, he took off 5 years ( - seems like a long time) to do it. he came off as a totally different animal from his previous films.

Hope to see Man from Elysian Fields on video one day.

I enjoyed some spanish movies but I don't know if were released abroad , my fave movies are :
_ Los lunes al sol (with Bardem , this is something like Full Monty but without streaptess)
_ La ciudad sin límites (with Sbaraglia , do you need anymore?)
_ Deseo ( Sbaraglia again :-)
_ Guerreros ( with Noriega and Eloy Azorin (the lad of All about my mother)
- Lucía y el sexo.
- El crimen del padre Amaro and Y tu mamá también (two great mexican movies)

I saw la ciudad sin limites. but didn't know Leonardo Sbraglia was doing so many movies en espana (as opposed to Argentina). I heard that Pablo Echarri was doing some work in spain. have you seen any?

a proposito... I am wondering about the movie "Juana la loca" did you see it? do you recommend it?

I couln't watch Juana la loca but it will be showed on canal+ the next month , the critics were rather cool to it so I'm looking forward to see it.
Sbaraglia has been working a lot lately , after winning the Goya award for Plata Quemada he got it also for the best performance in the movie Intacto.
The best news , according to Zero magazine , is that Eloy de la Iglesia ( The deputy , Hidden pleasures )will make a film again after 25 years , this new film will be based upon the gay themed novel Los amantes búlgaros.

I'm glad someone brought up "Y Tu Mama Tambien". I saw the unrated version, which I rented from the local family-oriented Blockbuster. I must have completely missed something that others in the gay community are seeing. Why is this film being touted so highly for its "gay" content? To me, it is more phobic than touching or symbolic. And there was nudity and sexual content that we don't ever see in mainstream films in the US, but so what?

Someone help me out here?

Bulldog,

I didn't see "Y tu mama..." but I know a lot of my friends said they didn't see what the hub-bub was about either.

who knows? maybe the ruckus in the gay community was simply due to the two cute boys and nudity thing. anyway, you are not alone.

Well two guys jerkin off together and then having a three way with a girl and making out with each other while they are having sex with her is pretty unusual, and titilating to gay audiences. And it was done extremely well, and the movie was great. I don't think it got near the accolades it deserved. They certainly don't make teen movies like that with brains, heart and a social conscious in the United States. Not that I've ever heard of anyway. The sex part wasn't the major thrust of the movie, so to speak, but it is a big part of young life at times and they presented it just as being what real life is like as opposed to what Hollywood puts out that looks totally unfamiliar to me.

[quote] They certainly don't make teen movies like that with brains, heart and a social conscious in the United States.

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Matt, you mean you never saw "Sixteen Candles"??

[quote]Originally posted by ung:
who knows? maybe the ruckus in the gay community was simply due to the two cute boys and nudity thing. anyway, you are not alone.

---

Isn't that what gay porn is for?

Anyway, thanks for your comments Ung. At least I know that I'm not alone.

I saw the new version of Solaris and thought it was excellent in many ways. The cinematography and editing, themes of second chances and love, and the delirious ambiguity of the story more than held my attention. Plus, it helps to have George Clooney showing his wonderful butt, twice! He is one hunk with a great ass on the screen.

I am a big fan of the original Russian version, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, so I was thinking I would find the new version pale and anemic compared to the first one. That was not the case.

Solaris was so much just my cup of tea that I went back a second time. Liked it a bit more the second time around. Managed to convince my partner to come with me, and he enjoyed the film, though less than me.

Sure, Solaris is not a big hit, but if you want to be challenged intellectually at the movies, you might give this film a viewing.

By the way, the Village Voice's esteemed film critic Jim Hoberman named Solaris one of his ten best movies for the year.

From PlanetOut.com, ‘Top GLBT films of 2002’

1. Y Tu Mamá También
2. Far From Heaven
3. Notorious C.H.O.
4. Kissing Jessica Stein
5. Frida
6. The Hours
7. The Rules of Attraction
8. 8 Women
9. The Adventures of Felix
10. Talk to Her

I've seen #2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10. My pick for top gay & lesbian film would be #3 Notorious Cho, although it's just a comedy concert film by fag hag Margaret Cho. It wold seem, though, that most of these films are not even "gay" films (ie. where the main storyline involves gay characters). Talk To Her, for example, doesn't have any gay characters.

I loved "Talk to Her"--to me it is Almodóvar's most formally experimental and daring movie, though thematically and plotwise it isn't as strong as "All About My Mother."

On another thread I said that "Antwone Fisher" is schmaltzy. It is--it is also very moving. Sexy Derek Luke's acting was so strong that I was drawn into the story. It's a traditional tearjerker though. Denzel plays...Denzel.

"Y tu mama también" is a lively, sexy film, and I think it may have sparked American audiences because it is so rare for us to see male-male sexual play or male nudity (except butts) in a non-porno film. I recommend it.

"Frida" sucked. It was yet another Julie Taymor filmic disaster (cf. "Titus Andronicus"). Stick with the theater! If anyone goes to this film to learn what Frida Kahlo's life and struggles as an artist were like, or to gain any insight into 20th century Mexican artistic milieus, they'll be disappointed. The sets are nice, though, and the film's color schemes are interesting.

I didn't see "Notorious C.H.O.," but I did see the early Provincetown version of the stage show that became this movie. I love Margaret Cho!

I want to see "Solaris," but the presence of George Clooney in it, with his dunce's half-grin, is the major barrier. That, and my belief that Tarkovsky's version is one of his greatest films. But I guess I'll see it eventually. Just knowing that Leonardo DiCaprio is in a movie is enough to keep me away, just as knowing that Julianne Moore is in one is a major draw. "Far from Heaven" was very good. I do want to see "The Hours," which received faint praise in the Chicago Reader.

"The Rules of Attraction" is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I wasn't even hoping for much. I was hoping it would be at least funny in a campy way, like "Cruel Intentions," but it wasn't.

I agree about "Rules of Attraction." Bah, as in Bahd.

But I can't understand why no one has ever mentioned (on this or any of other "gay movies" threads) \"Sordid Lives\" Absolutely the funniest movie I saw this year! Is it still, after so many years, only playing in Palm Springs? This movie needs a distributor. Anybody seen it?

Someone has asked about Sordid Lives, which I have not seen. It was playing both late at night and early in the morning on weekends at San Francisco's Balboa Theater. Saw the movie listed in the local paper's movie times section, for what? The past month? Or two?

The run did not generate any media attention, as far as I can tell. And I don't know anyone who caught the flick when it had a short run in SF.

"Adaptation" was true to itself in the last 20 minutes... just too "clever" for its own good.

Keep an eye out for the Scottish "Morvern Callar" at an arthouse near you: supermarket checkout girl (Samantha Morton) has her novelist b.f. commit suicide at Xmas; she goes Club Medding with his money in Spain. Not for those who like to be told how to feel by every scene in a film. Evocative soundtrack (for the "Some Velvet Morning" cue alone)...

[quote]Originally posted by MSUBulldog:
I'm glad someone brought up "Y Tu Mama Tambien". ... Why is this film being touted so highly for its "gay" content?

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Because it had two cute [sic] twentyish young men in it? With one same-sex kiss as the "money shot"? That's all it takes for undiscerning homos to coo... This Overrated Foreign Film of the Year was best summed up for me by A.O. Scott in
the 2002 Slate Movie Club:

"The sentimental fantasy of a dying, conveniently gorgeous woman holding onto her ebbing life force by f**king teenage boys."

Besides Clooney's rear...Solaris was worthless.

Just saw Chicago. Excellent. Most epsecially Queen Latifah. She turned it out, as the kids say.

Saw Chicago--loved it!

Gangs of New York--very good

25th Hour--only enjoyed Edward Norton, felt the rest of it was manipulative.

Lord of the Rings--loved it too!

Also saw the new version of Solaris. It was okay. George Clooney's butt was nice. That's the only reason I went to see it. As was Far from Heaven. Yeah, Dennis Quaid played gay. It was a pretty movie and made some nice social commentary but other than that, it was nothing more than okay.

[ January 14, 2003: Message edited by: theodoresdaddy ]

Spike Lee's "25th Hour" is pretty damn good, and unlike some critics I don't think its use of the post-9/11 atmosphere in NYC is either gratuitous or exploitative. And I can't remember the last film that made nighttime New York look so beautiful. And along with the bigger acting names, there's a totally convincing turn by former Super Bowl anti-hero Tony Siragusa as a Ukrainian mobster!!!

In the Academy of the Overrated, "About Schmidt" is a sour and vicious hatefest pretending to be humane, as Ed Gonzalez of Slant says here. Even more than "Fargo" it should've been titled "Mocking Midwesterners." Why do filmmakers like Alexander Payne tend to win awards for their first stinker?

[ January 21, 2003: Message edited by: Bill W ]

I loved Chicago and the Hours. HATED Adaptation. It just couldn't end soon enough.

Catch Me if you Can ran out of steam. Still want to see the Pianist and Frida.

"Far From Heaven"

I've noticed there hasn't been much discussion about this film. The script had some problems, and even though many people are full of praise for Julianne Moore, I found her performance lacking the radiance that makes so many of her period acting so wonderful (e.g., The End of the Affair).

Dennis Quaid didn't do a very good job playing the closet gay man. I might suggest that he couldn't play gay because he isn't (blaspheme, I'm sure), but he looked too comfortable with Moore's character for me to believe he was struggling as much as we were to believe.

Overall it was a good idea carried out poorly.


[Post modified to correct typo. - Outsports moderator]

[ January 26, 2005, 12:16 PM: Message edited by: m1 ]

Actually Alasad, you can find our lengthy Far From Heaven thread here (though we exhausted it over a month ago). And I'm on the side that it was executed *brilliantly*, and that viewers who take it at "face value" can misunderstand it.

"Nicholas Nickelby": Although this can't compare with the 8-hour stage version, it's pleasant enough, with a lot of good people: Tom Courtenay, Christopher Plummer, Alan Cumming, and Dame Edna Everidge and Nathan Lane as the world's unlikeliest married couple. Actually, it's a good idea that doesn't work; Nathan's wonderful but Edna looks ill-at-ease and swallows some of her lines. And there's some lovely gay subtext in the scenes with Nicholas (QAF UK's Charlie Hunnam) and his handicapped friend Smike (Billy Elliott's Jamie Bell).

love movies, Lord of the Rings was EXCELLENT!!!
Really enjoyed catch me if you can and 25th Hour both great.

Douglas McGrath, the Texan who "Nicholas Nickelby" (as well as the "Emma" that starred Blythe Danner's daughter Gwyneth Paltrow) told some interviewer that he is now working on yet another Dickens' tale, "Dombey & Son." I am a fanatic about that book and can't see how he will be able to streamline it (a la "Nicholas")--the story spans more than 20 years--but it will be interesting to see if he injects the sexual subtext that he found in "Nicholas." As a thought, Jeremy Northam would make an excellent "Dombey" and be sexy as all get-out in the role.

~Adam

Bill W-

Thanks for pointing out the other discussion, and not to bring too much of it here, but ...

I wasn't feeling well last weekend, thanks to HIV, so I wanted to see a comfort movie, one I had seen before and knew to be good.

Just my luck, the Roxie Cinema was showing Clouzot's classic French film the Wages of Fear, with a very sexy Yves Montand in the lead. It was just the thing to get my mind off of being sick. If you can get into entertaining b/w French movies from the 1950s about desperate men in South America driving trucks of nitroglycerine over treacherous roads, then see the Wages of Fear.

In terms of new movies, my boyfriend and I took in Chicago last weekend. We both liked it and were prepared to dislike it since we both loved the revival on Broadway. What a nice treat. Would have been better if there wasn't so much quick MTV-style editing during the musical numbers.

Except for The Two Towers, which despite reservations, I loved (Sean Astin is amazing), I haven't been to a movie theatre in ages. I love movies, but I realized that I was paying for all these movie channels on my cable system just so I could get Showtime and HBO, so I watch stuff off of them. Sure, it's 6 months to a year after they're in the theaters, but no big deal. I love Turner Classic Movies, IFC and Sundance the most.

One of the best things I've seen on cable recently was Nicole Kidman in The Others. Incredible atmosphere, wonderful acting by Ms. Kidman and a nice plot twist at the end.

One thing that keeps me from going to movies in a theatre and shelling out $8-10 for something (besides people talking like they're at home with a VCR/DVD) is trailers; I do a lot of weeding out by viewing them. There's a new Vin Diesel movie coming out called A Man Apart and I saw the trailer at The Two Towers. I wouldn't go to see it anyway--it's the tired old "Cop has wife/son/daughter/cat murdered and seeks revenge" bullshit--but the trailer gave EVERYTHING away--I could figure out the plot and how it's resolved right then. Why do they do that?

those trailers.... it doesn't matter if they give away the whole plot or not. they're paper thin anyway.... it's just that those who go to those movies don't care about a plot... don't wanna have to think about shit like "story development" or "thinking about what's happening onscreen" they just care about "The Action" (chases, explosions, fights etc)

just saw a movie called "Rabbit Proof Fence"

Go see it!

Perhaps it was the mood I was in, or, being able to watch a movie in the greatest theater in Seattle: The Cinerama, I have to say The Two Towers is the best movie I've seen all last year. I'm not sure if it's my deep, deep ,deep infatuation with Viggo Mortensen (why won't he return my calls?), or the absolute brilliant direction of Mr. Jackson, but, I enjoyed it immensely. It's also the last movie I was so excited with I actually clutched my hands and bit my fingernails while watching it.

rupert, it was an epic though wasn't it. The scenery was jaw dropping too.

I spent alot of time catching up on movies this week since I was unable to work after my surgery.

Narc-Ray Liotta turns in a frightnening performance. Jason Patric is solid. Great twists and turns, if perhaps a tad convuluted. Violent, but worthwhile.

The Hours-Nicole Kidman is stunning. i love a movie that can make me cry (without my feeling manipulated), and this one did. Dream cast and highly recommended.

The Pianist-Story of Polish pianist who survived the Holocaust. Adrien Brody better get an Oscar nod! Very moving.

Catch Me If You Can-If this is Spielberg slumming, he should slum more often. Just a fun breezy entertainment without the heavy-handedness of some of his recent flicks. Only complaint is DeCaprio looked awfully young to get away with the scams. The attention to detail (costumes, sets, etc) was noteworthy.

Well, I went to see "The Hours" today and was completely blown away. It was a superb movie, and the cast was just perfection, I agree that Nicole Kidman was excellent, but Meryl Streep was just perfection in every scene. Is there nothing she can't do? Ed Harris, who took my breath away the first time I laid eyes on him years ago in "Swing Shift," absolutely breaks your heart playing an AIDS patient. And Toni Collete, in one scene with Julianne Moore, is luminescent. When I had first heard the plot summary, it sounded like an unworkable conceit, but it all comes together perfectly, and packs quite a punch. Easily the best movie of last year.

Agree about the age thing =- I like the clothes - I was too young to wear them but I remember them on my older brother.

[ January 27, 2003, 03:25 AM: Message edited by: copman ]

My sister got an Oscars consideration tape of Gangs of New York so we watched it last night.

What a ghastly movie! Is this the same man that made Taxi Driver and Raging Bull? It's hard to credit it. People have been raving about Daniel Day-Lewis' performance--I fully expected him to have a parrot appear and start going "Arrghh, Jim Bob, matey". Totally over the top; it's fine if it was for camp value but I don't think that's what he was aiming for. Plus, the glass eye? It moved throughout the entire movie. Bad dialogue, pseudo-profound platitudes about the immigrant experience, dull acting and waaaay too much eroticizing of the violence (i.e. the bullet hitting someone, they fall back in slow-mo as the blood spurts out--was Sam Peckinpaugh an advisor on this film?). And to top it off, a bad U2 song at the end. I hated it and was glad I saw it for free.

quote:
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Catch Me If You Can- Only complaint is DeCaprio looked awfully young to get away with the scams.
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Actually DiCaprio's youthful appearance was quite appropriate, because the real-life character he was portraying (Frank Abagnale) was in fact still a teenager when the scams started.

I finally got around to seeing 'Far From Heaven' about two weeks ago. (I think there was a separate thread about this movie, but can't find it now, so I'll add my two cents here). I really enjoyed 'Far From Heaven', although I had been led to believe that the husband's homosexual affair was going to be the prominent story. In fact, the story of the wife's friendship with the black man received considerably more attention. I suppose this was because gay men lived in a shadowy, secretive 'subculture' in the 1950s, so the gay theme may have been deliberately understated in the film.

The characters played by Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert were charming and likable. I also enjoy watching Haysbert in '24', the best show on TV, IMHO.

yeah, leo was supposed to be 16 years old in the movie.

I finally saw Far From Heaven last night, and I thought that it was great. I thought the storyline between the racial and class differences of that era, was written brilliantly. I loved it!! I saw Lord of the Rings about two weeks ago, and I thought it was even better than the first. I still want to see Chicago, and that new movie with hottie, Collin Farrell and Al Pacino. It is called, " The Recruit" I think that Collin Farrell is the best looking actor on the big screen right now, who can actually act anyway!!

Just rented Tadpole. First of all, it sucked. Second of all, can you imagine the outrage about a 40 year old man sleeping with a 15 year old boy in a movie?

On QAF, they had to make Justin 18 to get past the critics but in Tadpole, it was fine to have an underage kid getting schlepped by a 40 year old woman who then gave his phone number out to her friends!

Can anyone say statutory rape?

Also rented Y Tu Mama from Blockbuster and it was an edited version. My partner had seen it in the theatre and he was appalled that they had cut some out some scenes.

Also borrowed Margaret Cho from a friend at work. OH MY GOD! I thought I was going to die from laughing so hard.

Saw Eight Legged Freaks. I would recommend that to anyone who wants a good laugh. It was completely mindless and over the top and soooo much fun.

Sounds like what almost every straight guy I've ever met would consider Heaven on Earth.

Tadpole was a disaster when it was released. It caused a huge stir at Sundance last year and sold for some obscene amount. The big selling point was that it was done with digital cameras. Did that make any difference to how you reacted to the movie, TDaddy? I'm personally not a fan at all of digitally shot stuff; at this point in its development, it looks like Ma and Pa's Home Movies kind of stuff. The technology will improve though.

[ February 01, 2003, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Stay AWAY from Blockbuster if you want to see NC-17 movies unedited. They will not stock NC-17 or unrated films. They're morality pushers, basically.

I saw Tadpole also, and I didn't care for the storyline too much. Sigourney Weaver doesn't do it for me and my fanatasies of being with an older woman!!! :-)It was one of those movies where I kept waiting for it to be over.