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Bohan Reviews (215 KP) rated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) in Movies
May 8, 2019
Frances McDormand is as close to perfect as she could get.
Full Review:
https://www.bohanreviews.com/post/three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri
Full Review:
https://www.bohanreviews.com/post/three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Ben Is Back (2018) in Movies
Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)
We seem to be knee deep in movies like this at the moment, Ben Is Back being the second from Lucas Hedges. This one is penned and directed by his father, Peter Hedges, though it doesn't appear that he was a shoo-in for the role.
After seeing Boy Erased I wasn't overly sure about Hedges as an actor, if I'm honest this has done little to sway that opinion in me. I don't feel like we get a massive range from him, possibly because these movies all feel like they've been made to win things over everything else? I'm not sure.
Hedges performance is brought up a level by the incredible performance from Julia Roberts, that woman truly is a treasure. The desperate nature of her character is so evident in every scene, wanting to do anything she can for her son and trying to fix everything. I don't think there was a single point where she faltered, and the part she played in the ending was immensely emotional.
There's also a solid support cast in Courtney B. Vance and Kathryn Newton. They drew in the much-needed family element which could have been lost to all the scenes with Ben and Holly out on their own.
You have to compare this to Beautiful Boy, it's difficult not to. They could be the same film, Ben Is Back just edges ahead for me though. I wasn't overly keen on the main actors in either film and both were carried by their parental leads. Both cover the drugs topic well from their own angles but here I felt we got a much better look at the family impact.
This rounded out a very emotional double bill at the cinema and what I actually came out thinking wasn't about this film in particular but that this year has given us some fantastic mum performances. Julia Roberts, Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman have managed to use their films to prove that they're giants in the acting world.
What you should do
I'd add Ben Is Back to my list of films to watch at least once.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
All I would really like is an attic that was as easy to get into as theirs.
After seeing Boy Erased I wasn't overly sure about Hedges as an actor, if I'm honest this has done little to sway that opinion in me. I don't feel like we get a massive range from him, possibly because these movies all feel like they've been made to win things over everything else? I'm not sure.
Hedges performance is brought up a level by the incredible performance from Julia Roberts, that woman truly is a treasure. The desperate nature of her character is so evident in every scene, wanting to do anything she can for her son and trying to fix everything. I don't think there was a single point where she faltered, and the part she played in the ending was immensely emotional.
There's also a solid support cast in Courtney B. Vance and Kathryn Newton. They drew in the much-needed family element which could have been lost to all the scenes with Ben and Holly out on their own.
You have to compare this to Beautiful Boy, it's difficult not to. They could be the same film, Ben Is Back just edges ahead for me though. I wasn't overly keen on the main actors in either film and both were carried by their parental leads. Both cover the drugs topic well from their own angles but here I felt we got a much better look at the family impact.
This rounded out a very emotional double bill at the cinema and what I actually came out thinking wasn't about this film in particular but that this year has given us some fantastic mum performances. Julia Roberts, Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman have managed to use their films to prove that they're giants in the acting world.
What you should do
I'd add Ben Is Back to my list of films to watch at least once.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
All I would really like is an attic that was as easy to get into as theirs.
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) in Movies
Jun 6, 2021
Three Billboards is a fricking masterpiece, and another home run from Martin McDonagh.
The cast is stacked to say the least. Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell both give a career best performance. The supporting cast is made up of the likes of Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes, Clarke Peters, Samara Weaving, and Peter Dinklage - all who are just great. McDonagh's screenplay is fantastic as per usual, and the runtime is filled with his token dark humour, as well as plenty of emotionally charged events. The narrative is sort of all over the place, with several plot strands all running alongside and throughout eachother, but it's messiness adds to the whole experience, almost like a sort of controlled chaos. All of this is backed by a truly wonderful music score by Carter Burwell.
Three Billboards is just one of those movies that springs off the screen and sticks in your head for all the right reasons.
The cast is stacked to say the least. Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell both give a career best performance. The supporting cast is made up of the likes of Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes, Clarke Peters, Samara Weaving, and Peter Dinklage - all who are just great. McDonagh's screenplay is fantastic as per usual, and the runtime is filled with his token dark humour, as well as plenty of emotionally charged events. The narrative is sort of all over the place, with several plot strands all running alongside and throughout eachother, but it's messiness adds to the whole experience, almost like a sort of controlled chaos. All of this is backed by a truly wonderful music score by Carter Burwell.
Three Billboards is just one of those movies that springs off the screen and sticks in your head for all the right reasons.
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Honey Boy (2019) in Movies
Nov 17, 2020
I'm going to keep this one short because I feel it's important to just go and experience Honey Boy without too much prior knowledge.
Written by Shia LaBeouf and based on parts of his childhood and his relationship with his father, Honey Boy is brimming with raw emotion. It flicks from heartwarming to traumatic with a finger snap, and captures the turbulence of this haphazard upbringing in a hugely effective manner.
LaBeouf also stars, and takes on the role of his father, so this movie is also a sort of therapy, splayed out right in front of us. It feels personal.
The rest of the cast are fantastic - Noah Jupe, Lucas Hedges, and FKA Twigs in particular - Everyone just knocks it out the park.
Honey Boy also boasts a multitude of beautiful shots. Alma Har'el has done a wonderful job of bringing this story to fruition.
Shia LaBeouf has really come into his own in recent years, and between this and The Peanut Butter Falcon, he is.further proving why he is one the best acting talents around at the moment. Wonderful stuff!
Written by Shia LaBeouf and based on parts of his childhood and his relationship with his father, Honey Boy is brimming with raw emotion. It flicks from heartwarming to traumatic with a finger snap, and captures the turbulence of this haphazard upbringing in a hugely effective manner.
LaBeouf also stars, and takes on the role of his father, so this movie is also a sort of therapy, splayed out right in front of us. It feels personal.
The rest of the cast are fantastic - Noah Jupe, Lucas Hedges, and FKA Twigs in particular - Everyone just knocks it out the park.
Honey Boy also boasts a multitude of beautiful shots. Alma Har'el has done a wonderful job of bringing this story to fruition.
Shia LaBeouf has really come into his own in recent years, and between this and The Peanut Butter Falcon, he is.further proving why he is one the best acting talents around at the moment. Wonderful stuff!
Tim McGuire (301 KP) rated Honey Boy (2019) in Movies
Mar 3, 2020
392. Honey Boy. A story about a boy, who's dad made a living off him, by pimping him out to Hollywood, ensuring he would grow up to be a weirdo, the Shia LeBeouf story. Ok, it's written by him, oh and it stars him as Tom Cruise's character from Born on the Fourth of July, only he's not in a wheel chair, he has a son. Dad, James and son, Otis live in a motel, close by the movie studios where Otis is a child actor, doing child actor things...insert Corey Feldman stories here... while his dad, lives off him, and doing other shady things and not being a good dad, and how the two deal with that. Movie also tells the tale of twenty-something Otis, and his adult acting life is... insert Shia LeBeouf stories here... where he relives the memories we are watching. Guy who plays older Otis, Lucas Hedges, has LeBeouf's super annoying way of aggressive, spit-talking and mannerisms down pact, even though it's not supposed to be him in the first place...ooops. I really did enjoy the movie I just felt there were several places where I felt the filmmakers were patting themselves on the back, saying to themselves 'yea man, this is deep. stretch this out a little longer, man, really show that this 12 year old boy's relationship with the prostitute across the way is beautiful, not creepy in any way at all.' Worth the watch, check it out! Filmbufftim on FB
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Manchester by the Sea (2016) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Wow! I’d heard all about the Oscar hype surrounding this film but to be honest, while I thought I would be seeing a solid and well-made indie film, I went into it without great expectations of having an ‘enjoyable’ time: the trailer had “angst” written all over it. And – sure – it is emotional and harrowing in places. However, I was completely knocked out by the depth, the intelligence and the humour of this masterpiece.
‘Family troubles’ is a common trope for the movies, and I was strongly reminded at times in watching this movie of a multi-Oscar winning classic of my youth: Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” back in 1980. In that film the relationship between parents (Mary Tyler-Moore and Donald Sutherland) and their teenage son (Timothy Hutton) is rocked by the accidental death of another family member. Similarly, in “Manchester by the Sea” a drifting handyman Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck, “Triple 9“, “Interstellar“) gets the shocking news that his only brother Joe (Kyle Chandler, “The Wolf of Wall Street“) has suddenly passed away, leaving behind a mid-teens son Patrick (Lucas Hedges) with no-one to look after him.
With the other option being an unstable and ex-alcoholic mother Elise (Gretchen Mol) – now divorced and living in a strictly pious household with new husband Jeffrey (Matthew Broderick) – Joe has legally plumped for naming Lee as the boy’s guardian. This is much to Lee’s surprise and annoyance. For Lee is a man-adrift: an antisocial loner with a very short fuse. Having any sort of responsibility is not in his game plan.
With the ground too frozen to bury his brother, Lee is forced to remain in Manchester-by-the-Sea for a few weeks: a town he can’t stand and a town that, for some reason, can’t stand him. Can Lee’s attitude be softened by his lively and over-sexed nephew? Or will he just continue his emotional and social decline towards a gutter and a brown-bag?
Where this film surprises – with a strong kick to the gut – is that while I have described the high-level story in the paragraphs above that the trailer depicts, there is a whole other dimension to the tale that is hidden and truly astonishing. No spoilers, but if you are not shocked and moved by it, then you need your humanity chip reset.
Casey Affleck is Oscar-nominated now for Best Actor and I would love to see him win for this. I had a real go at his brother, Ben, for a lack of facial variation in his performance in “Live By Night“. Here, while Casey has a similar dour and pretty rigid demeanour, his performance is chalk-and-cheese compared to Ben. He channels a shut-down rage in his eyes that is both haunting and disturbing in equal measure.
Young Lucas Hedges – overlooked by the BAFTAs (he is in the “Rising Star” category) but yesterday nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar – is equally strong, burying his teenage grief in guitars, sex and smart phones in a highly believable way.
Supporting roles are equally strong, with Michelle Williams – albeit only having limited screen time – delivering truly memorable scenes, notably the street encounter with Lee (as featured on the poster) which is electrifying. She is also Oscar nominated for the role.
What really makes these performances shine is the elegant directing by Kenneth Lonergan, better known for his screenplays on films like “Analyze This” and “Gangs of New York”. He gives the actors time… lots of time. A typical example is when young Patrick walks into Lee’s bedroom and stares at some photos on his bedside table before walking on. It must be a good 20 to 30 seconds used, but time really well spent. The film spectacularly uses flash-backs to great effect, with the only visual notification that you are in a different time-zone being the living and breathing appearance of Joe in the shot.
Lonergan also writes the screenplay, and I mentioned in my introduction the humour used. There are some outright belly laughs in this film, which feels incongruous with the morbid subject matter but which also feels guiltily appropriate (we’ve all surely had an experience where a tense funeral mood is lightened by an uncle loudly farting at the back of the church, or similar!).
Manchester-by-the-Sea is a picturesque place in Massachusetts, and the camera work by Jody Lee Lipes (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”, “Trainwreck”) lovingly makes use of that. There is incredibly crisp focus, with the opening boat scene looks like it is hyper-HD.
This is a truly stunning film, and one that will live with me for many years to come. For that reason it receives my highest accolade together with my best wishes for success at the forthcoming Oscars. If you haven’t yet, go see it.
‘Family troubles’ is a common trope for the movies, and I was strongly reminded at times in watching this movie of a multi-Oscar winning classic of my youth: Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” back in 1980. In that film the relationship between parents (Mary Tyler-Moore and Donald Sutherland) and their teenage son (Timothy Hutton) is rocked by the accidental death of another family member. Similarly, in “Manchester by the Sea” a drifting handyman Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck, “Triple 9“, “Interstellar“) gets the shocking news that his only brother Joe (Kyle Chandler, “The Wolf of Wall Street“) has suddenly passed away, leaving behind a mid-teens son Patrick (Lucas Hedges) with no-one to look after him.
With the other option being an unstable and ex-alcoholic mother Elise (Gretchen Mol) – now divorced and living in a strictly pious household with new husband Jeffrey (Matthew Broderick) – Joe has legally plumped for naming Lee as the boy’s guardian. This is much to Lee’s surprise and annoyance. For Lee is a man-adrift: an antisocial loner with a very short fuse. Having any sort of responsibility is not in his game plan.
With the ground too frozen to bury his brother, Lee is forced to remain in Manchester-by-the-Sea for a few weeks: a town he can’t stand and a town that, for some reason, can’t stand him. Can Lee’s attitude be softened by his lively and over-sexed nephew? Or will he just continue his emotional and social decline towards a gutter and a brown-bag?
Where this film surprises – with a strong kick to the gut – is that while I have described the high-level story in the paragraphs above that the trailer depicts, there is a whole other dimension to the tale that is hidden and truly astonishing. No spoilers, but if you are not shocked and moved by it, then you need your humanity chip reset.
Casey Affleck is Oscar-nominated now for Best Actor and I would love to see him win for this. I had a real go at his brother, Ben, for a lack of facial variation in his performance in “Live By Night“. Here, while Casey has a similar dour and pretty rigid demeanour, his performance is chalk-and-cheese compared to Ben. He channels a shut-down rage in his eyes that is both haunting and disturbing in equal measure.
Young Lucas Hedges – overlooked by the BAFTAs (he is in the “Rising Star” category) but yesterday nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar – is equally strong, burying his teenage grief in guitars, sex and smart phones in a highly believable way.
Supporting roles are equally strong, with Michelle Williams – albeit only having limited screen time – delivering truly memorable scenes, notably the street encounter with Lee (as featured on the poster) which is electrifying. She is also Oscar nominated for the role.
What really makes these performances shine is the elegant directing by Kenneth Lonergan, better known for his screenplays on films like “Analyze This” and “Gangs of New York”. He gives the actors time… lots of time. A typical example is when young Patrick walks into Lee’s bedroom and stares at some photos on his bedside table before walking on. It must be a good 20 to 30 seconds used, but time really well spent. The film spectacularly uses flash-backs to great effect, with the only visual notification that you are in a different time-zone being the living and breathing appearance of Joe in the shot.
Lonergan also writes the screenplay, and I mentioned in my introduction the humour used. There are some outright belly laughs in this film, which feels incongruous with the morbid subject matter but which also feels guiltily appropriate (we’ve all surely had an experience where a tense funeral mood is lightened by an uncle loudly farting at the back of the church, or similar!).
Manchester-by-the-Sea is a picturesque place in Massachusetts, and the camera work by Jody Lee Lipes (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”, “Trainwreck”) lovingly makes use of that. There is incredibly crisp focus, with the opening boat scene looks like it is hyper-HD.
This is a truly stunning film, and one that will live with me for many years to come. For that reason it receives my highest accolade together with my best wishes for success at the forthcoming Oscars. If you haven’t yet, go see it.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Mid90s (2018) in Movies
Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)
At 1 hour 25 minutes you'd be forgiven for thinking this would be a brief affair, but if you're not into it then this 85-minute film is agonisingly long.
Going into this the only thing I knew about this film was that it was directed by Jonah Hill, and I like him so that felt like something positive.
31 people had booked to see this preview at my Cineworld, I think there were maybe 10 of us that showed up. I have to say that there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm from any of us until it was time to leave.
Kudos on going with the 4:3 look on the screen and the grainier quality on the filming (I'm sure there are technical terms for that but I don't know them!) That combined with accurate costumes and settings to really take you back to the 90s. I found the smaller aspect to be rather distracting on the big screen though. I watch 4:3 a lot at home on my widescreen TV without it seeming odd, perhaps this is just one of those things, I go so often that I'm probably just expecting it to fill the whole screen.
The film starts with a particularly jarring scene, and while I don't have an issue with that shock impact I don't like that there's no context. You can infer things later on, but at no point do you explicitly find out the reason behind some of the shocking scenes. The film feels much more like we've been plonked down into his life rather than learning about it.
It's difficult to sum up how I feel about the characters.
Sunny Suljic is fine in the main role but there wasn't anything that wowed me from the role. That's no slur on the acting, I just didn't feel that the dialogue or story gave us more than a glance at his life.
Ray came across as the strongest out of all the skaters, we see a few different aspects of him and he gets a proper chance to open up. Had all the characters had this opportunity then I think we'd have had something much more interesting... but then teenage boys aren't notoriously fans of opening up emotionally on screen unless we're in a romantic film.
Those of you who read my reviews will know how I feel about Lucas Hedges, that is to say, I don't really get it. This role offers little backstory apart from the fact that he clearly has a long passion for beating the crap out of his brother, Stevie. Despite my growing indifference for him I feel like Hedges wasn't given enough time in the movie. I can see why he wasn't, Ian is hyper-aggressive and a very threatening presence so having more of him would have changed the dynamic a lot. Having more of him though might have allowed us to understand him a little bit more and take away some of the unanswered questions at the end of the film.
There are a lot of scenes with drug use and alcohol, and I can see those being relevant to the story, but the "sex" scene was uncomfortable and really didn't feel like it fit in at all. From the moment you see it coming to the point where the boys are prying out details of the encounter I sat there wondering why. Why it needed to be there and why the script was just so bad through it.
The ending was the only part of the film that actually made me feel anything for the characters and the events. That in itself is quite an achievement being that you can tell exactly what is coming. The way the final event is handled was visually striking and leads us into a moment where all the characters get to show something that finally feels like genuine emotion. I think it says a lot that the most effective bits of the film had no dialogue in them. The events at the end of this film saved Mid90s from getting one of the lowest ratings in my reviewing history.
I'd say that had they given over an extra 20 minutes to better character development then this would have been better, but I worry that an extra 20 minutes would just have made the event even more excruciating.
What you should do
I'm sure this has it's audience somewhere, after all, people seem to be raving about it. Sadly I am not that audience and I really can't recommend this to anyone.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I love the idea of making customer skateboards.
Going into this the only thing I knew about this film was that it was directed by Jonah Hill, and I like him so that felt like something positive.
31 people had booked to see this preview at my Cineworld, I think there were maybe 10 of us that showed up. I have to say that there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm from any of us until it was time to leave.
Kudos on going with the 4:3 look on the screen and the grainier quality on the filming (I'm sure there are technical terms for that but I don't know them!) That combined with accurate costumes and settings to really take you back to the 90s. I found the smaller aspect to be rather distracting on the big screen though. I watch 4:3 a lot at home on my widescreen TV without it seeming odd, perhaps this is just one of those things, I go so often that I'm probably just expecting it to fill the whole screen.
The film starts with a particularly jarring scene, and while I don't have an issue with that shock impact I don't like that there's no context. You can infer things later on, but at no point do you explicitly find out the reason behind some of the shocking scenes. The film feels much more like we've been plonked down into his life rather than learning about it.
It's difficult to sum up how I feel about the characters.
Sunny Suljic is fine in the main role but there wasn't anything that wowed me from the role. That's no slur on the acting, I just didn't feel that the dialogue or story gave us more than a glance at his life.
Ray came across as the strongest out of all the skaters, we see a few different aspects of him and he gets a proper chance to open up. Had all the characters had this opportunity then I think we'd have had something much more interesting... but then teenage boys aren't notoriously fans of opening up emotionally on screen unless we're in a romantic film.
Those of you who read my reviews will know how I feel about Lucas Hedges, that is to say, I don't really get it. This role offers little backstory apart from the fact that he clearly has a long passion for beating the crap out of his brother, Stevie. Despite my growing indifference for him I feel like Hedges wasn't given enough time in the movie. I can see why he wasn't, Ian is hyper-aggressive and a very threatening presence so having more of him would have changed the dynamic a lot. Having more of him though might have allowed us to understand him a little bit more and take away some of the unanswered questions at the end of the film.
There are a lot of scenes with drug use and alcohol, and I can see those being relevant to the story, but the "sex" scene was uncomfortable and really didn't feel like it fit in at all. From the moment you see it coming to the point where the boys are prying out details of the encounter I sat there wondering why. Why it needed to be there and why the script was just so bad through it.
The ending was the only part of the film that actually made me feel anything for the characters and the events. That in itself is quite an achievement being that you can tell exactly what is coming. The way the final event is handled was visually striking and leads us into a moment where all the characters get to show something that finally feels like genuine emotion. I think it says a lot that the most effective bits of the film had no dialogue in them. The events at the end of this film saved Mid90s from getting one of the lowest ratings in my reviewing history.
I'd say that had they given over an extra 20 minutes to better character development then this would have been better, but I worry that an extra 20 minutes would just have made the event even more excruciating.
What you should do
I'm sure this has it's audience somewhere, after all, people seem to be raving about it. Sadly I am not that audience and I really can't recommend this to anyone.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I love the idea of making customer skateboards.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Boy Erased (2018) in Movies
Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)
This is a tough one to get into, not because of the subject matter but because the beginning is just so slow. I actually sat there wondering if this was the movie I had thought I was going to be seeing when I walked in.
Let's just start by saying that Nicole Kidman is genuinely the best thing about this film. You can feel her shame, and the love she feels for her son... and all of that through the horrendous wig. The wig people are definitely out to get her in these recent films.
Boy Erased certainly doesn't pull any punches. There are two scenes in particular that are brutal and quite shocking, but they hit on completely opposite ends of the scale for me. The first sees a relationship develop between Jared and his male friend at college, this leads to a rape scene that should have a massive impact on the film but it somehow didn't. The second is at the conversion program and we see one of the members getting beaten by his family, this one had some very powerful performances. Two shocking scenes that should surely hold similar impact and yet they don't.
There is a break in this film that takes it from bad to good, that divide comes when the conversion therapy enters the story. Before that point nothing seems to hold much weight. Had there been something at the beginning that alluded to the latter part of the film then that incredibly long set up could have been forgiven.
When it comes to the acting it's really all over the shop. As I said, Nicole Kidman knocked my socks off as the leading lady, but when it came to the leading men I was a little underwhelmed. Crowe's performance didn't make me feel anything about his character, possibly because most of his role appears in the beginning of the film where it feels like nothing happens. Until he was able to start developing Jared's character with his interactions with other group members Lucas Hedges' offering wasn't much to write home about either. I could probably go on for ages about the supporting cast but there's good, there's bad, and there's unnecessary, but I'm sure that all the characters are there for a reason.
The story is an important one and had the scope to be amazing but somewhere along the line some choices were made that meant momentum was lost very early on in the film.
What you should do
I think it's worth a watch, but do be aware that it takes a while to reach its stride.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I think we could all do with Nancy's ability to realise her mistake and rectify it against such powerful opposition. "Shame on you, and shame on me!"
Let's just start by saying that Nicole Kidman is genuinely the best thing about this film. You can feel her shame, and the love she feels for her son... and all of that through the horrendous wig. The wig people are definitely out to get her in these recent films.
Boy Erased certainly doesn't pull any punches. There are two scenes in particular that are brutal and quite shocking, but they hit on completely opposite ends of the scale for me. The first sees a relationship develop between Jared and his male friend at college, this leads to a rape scene that should have a massive impact on the film but it somehow didn't. The second is at the conversion program and we see one of the members getting beaten by his family, this one had some very powerful performances. Two shocking scenes that should surely hold similar impact and yet they don't.
There is a break in this film that takes it from bad to good, that divide comes when the conversion therapy enters the story. Before that point nothing seems to hold much weight. Had there been something at the beginning that alluded to the latter part of the film then that incredibly long set up could have been forgiven.
When it comes to the acting it's really all over the shop. As I said, Nicole Kidman knocked my socks off as the leading lady, but when it came to the leading men I was a little underwhelmed. Crowe's performance didn't make me feel anything about his character, possibly because most of his role appears in the beginning of the film where it feels like nothing happens. Until he was able to start developing Jared's character with his interactions with other group members Lucas Hedges' offering wasn't much to write home about either. I could probably go on for ages about the supporting cast but there's good, there's bad, and there's unnecessary, but I'm sure that all the characters are there for a reason.
The story is an important one and had the scope to be amazing but somewhere along the line some choices were made that meant momentum was lost very early on in the film.
What you should do
I think it's worth a watch, but do be aware that it takes a while to reach its stride.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I think we could all do with Nancy's ability to realise her mistake and rectify it against such powerful opposition. "Shame on you, and shame on me!"
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Lady Bird (2017) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
“What if this is the best version”.
When did you grow up? I am now 57, and I’m still “working towards”! I remember distinctly though at the age of 16 thinking “I’ve got there”. And then again at 18. And then again at 21. And then again at 25…. There is something sweet about the certainty of youth that only life’s ultimate experiences can roughen the edges of.
“Lady Bird”, the directorial debut of Greta Gerwig, features one such teen who thinks she knows it all. Looking and acting for all the world like a 15 year old (something that Margot Robbie really can’t pull off in “I, Tonya”) Saoirse Ronan plays Christine McPherson who has the given name (“I gave the name to myself”) of ‘Lady Bird’. She is struggling with a lot of issues: an unreasonable and overbearing (parents: read ‘perfectly reasonably but firm’) mother (Laurie Metcalf, “Roseanne”); the issues of puberty and young love; the constrictions of a Catholic school she despises; and her inability to perform to the grades she needs to get into a college of her choice. That choice being on the East coast as far away from the backwater of Sacremento (“the mid-west of California” – LoL) as she can get.
Love comes in the form of two serial male fixations: the gorgeous and artistic Danny (Lucas Hedges, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, “Manchester By The Sea”) and the aloof and enigmatic Kyle (Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me By Your Name”).
This is a near perfect coming of age film. The plot, while fairly superficial and covering ground well-trodden before, fully engages you and makes the running time just fly by. And there is just so much talent on show. The script by Gerwig is chocker-block full of great and memorable lines; Ronan is pitch-perfect as the irascible and cock-sure teen; Tracy Letts (“The Post“) is magnificent in the less showy role as the “good cop” dad, struggling invisibly with his own demons; and Metcalf gives an Oscar-nominated performance that really should give Alison Janney a run for her money… a drive away from an airport conveys just perfectly every college-age parent’s emotional low-point.
Where perhaps the film overplays its hand a bit is in the “wrong side of the tracks” line. The household while struggling is by no means trailer-park poor (compare and contrast with “I, Tonya”): perhaps this is the depths of financial desperation found in Sacremento? But I doubt it… there still seems to be money available for fancy cowgirl outfits.
Which leads me to the rating, which seems to have been a common rant in the last few weeks. I would have thought that there was nothing like this film to turn the mirror of reasonableness on a young teen, perhaps helping them to treat their parents better, work harder for college or make better choices. Yet it has a UK 15 certificate. And for what? There is a full frontal male photo-spread in “Playgirl” (I want to say “it’s a penis, get over it”, but if forced I would have frankly just snipped the 50 milliseconds out to get the lower rating). And there are a few (only a few) F- and C- words. I have the same problem here as with “Phantom Thread” – here is a high-class film that a young teen audience would absolutely love to see. I think the BBFC have got it wrong again here.
I cannot recommend this film enough: a tale of teenage life love and resolution that is hard to beat. Possibly one of the best coming of age tales I’ve ever seen. On the basis that it looks like I will never get to see “Call Me By Your Name” – the only major one I’ve missed – before this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, what a great way to round off my Oscar-viewing season.
“Lady Bird”, the directorial debut of Greta Gerwig, features one such teen who thinks she knows it all. Looking and acting for all the world like a 15 year old (something that Margot Robbie really can’t pull off in “I, Tonya”) Saoirse Ronan plays Christine McPherson who has the given name (“I gave the name to myself”) of ‘Lady Bird’. She is struggling with a lot of issues: an unreasonable and overbearing (parents: read ‘perfectly reasonably but firm’) mother (Laurie Metcalf, “Roseanne”); the issues of puberty and young love; the constrictions of a Catholic school she despises; and her inability to perform to the grades she needs to get into a college of her choice. That choice being on the East coast as far away from the backwater of Sacremento (“the mid-west of California” – LoL) as she can get.
Love comes in the form of two serial male fixations: the gorgeous and artistic Danny (Lucas Hedges, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, “Manchester By The Sea”) and the aloof and enigmatic Kyle (Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me By Your Name”).
This is a near perfect coming of age film. The plot, while fairly superficial and covering ground well-trodden before, fully engages you and makes the running time just fly by. And there is just so much talent on show. The script by Gerwig is chocker-block full of great and memorable lines; Ronan is pitch-perfect as the irascible and cock-sure teen; Tracy Letts (“The Post“) is magnificent in the less showy role as the “good cop” dad, struggling invisibly with his own demons; and Metcalf gives an Oscar-nominated performance that really should give Alison Janney a run for her money… a drive away from an airport conveys just perfectly every college-age parent’s emotional low-point.
Where perhaps the film overplays its hand a bit is in the “wrong side of the tracks” line. The household while struggling is by no means trailer-park poor (compare and contrast with “I, Tonya”): perhaps this is the depths of financial desperation found in Sacremento? But I doubt it… there still seems to be money available for fancy cowgirl outfits.
Which leads me to the rating, which seems to have been a common rant in the last few weeks. I would have thought that there was nothing like this film to turn the mirror of reasonableness on a young teen, perhaps helping them to treat their parents better, work harder for college or make better choices. Yet it has a UK 15 certificate. And for what? There is a full frontal male photo-spread in “Playgirl” (I want to say “it’s a penis, get over it”, but if forced I would have frankly just snipped the 50 milliseconds out to get the lower rating). And there are a few (only a few) F- and C- words. I have the same problem here as with “Phantom Thread” – here is a high-class film that a young teen audience would absolutely love to see. I think the BBFC have got it wrong again here.
I cannot recommend this film enough: a tale of teenage life love and resolution that is hard to beat. Possibly one of the best coming of age tales I’ve ever seen. On the basis that it looks like I will never get to see “Call Me By Your Name” – the only major one I’ve missed – before this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, what a great way to round off my Oscar-viewing season.
Gareth von Kallenbach (965 KP) rated Mid90s (2018) in Movies
Jul 2, 2019
It doesn’t take much to remember that Jonah Hill (writer and director) had already acted in one of the greatest coming-of-age movies at the age of 24. A cursory glance at Superbad shows it to be a hilarious and quotable movie. But a deeper look at the film reveals the true story. Two high school friends (Hill and Michael Cera) who realize they are drifting apart because of incoming adulthood and that they are powerless to stop it. Keeping that in mind, Hill was quoted during the production of Mid 90s as saying that coming-of-age films are cliché and what he really wanted was to make a skateboarding movie that avoided the 80s “cowabunga” tropes. The result of that focus is Mid 90s.
Sunny Suljic plays 13-year-old Stevie, a quiet and often confused boy looking to escape his bleak and abusive home life by connecting with a group of local skater kids. While Suljic absolutely steals the show with his superb acting, his (mostly no name) costars deserve massive kudos for this endeavor as well. Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea, Three Billboards outside of Ebbing Missouri) plays Stevie’s abusive older brother Ian. Though he is quickly established in the opening shot as the antagonist, his character arc throughout the film is one of the greatest and you find yourself soon empathetic to his plight nearly as much as Stevie’s. The skater gang is comprised of Ray (Na-kel Smith), Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt), 4th Grade (Ryder McLaughlin) and Ruben (Gio Galicia). These four seem apathetically content to take Stevie under their wing after he begins hanging out at their skate shop. During this time they expose Stevie to a world of drinking, smoking, drugs and sex as well as a complex set of personalities that Stevie struggles to understand but tries desperately to emulate. This reverence begins to lead him down a path that worry not only his mother and brother, but also occasionally members of his new social group. The actors playing his newfound friends all bring a beautiful authenticity to their roles. They certainly aren’t playing “themselves”, but their personalities don’t feel concocted or forced.
The original score for the film was done by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross as well as a selection of 1990s Hip Hop. And while the original music by Reznor and Ross accents the film perfectly, the 90s throwback songs struggle to do more than remind the viewer of the period and provide the sporadic nostalgia kick. In fact, most of the 90s nostalgia does little to add to the film. Thus, while the opportunity was there to give us a solid examination and social commentary on 1990s culture, Hill seems to fall short of that concept and instead uses the references as a gimmick to tie in smaller plot points.
In addition to the music, there are a few other elements that add to the hipster vintage nature of the film. It was shot entirely on 16mm and is presented in square 1:1 ratio. While this is certainly an unusual choice as more movies are shifted to wide screen formats and square televisions are no longer produced, it pushes the film closer towards the verité genre that is necessary to keep it within the indie style guide.
Mid 90s, along with Eighth Grade have positioned A24 studios in a fantastic place. They’ve demonstrated their willingness to get behind first time writer/directors and the results have been impressive to say the least. If they can remain on this type of pace I could see how the Academy would take notice come awards season.
So despite his view that they are cliché, Jonah Hill has once again created a poignant and powerful coming-of-age movie and he’s managed to wrap it into just enough skateboarding reality to give us the love letter he was hoping to produce. The film is not without its faults, but it’s not one you should miss.
Sunny Suljic plays 13-year-old Stevie, a quiet and often confused boy looking to escape his bleak and abusive home life by connecting with a group of local skater kids. While Suljic absolutely steals the show with his superb acting, his (mostly no name) costars deserve massive kudos for this endeavor as well. Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea, Three Billboards outside of Ebbing Missouri) plays Stevie’s abusive older brother Ian. Though he is quickly established in the opening shot as the antagonist, his character arc throughout the film is one of the greatest and you find yourself soon empathetic to his plight nearly as much as Stevie’s. The skater gang is comprised of Ray (Na-kel Smith), Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt), 4th Grade (Ryder McLaughlin) and Ruben (Gio Galicia). These four seem apathetically content to take Stevie under their wing after he begins hanging out at their skate shop. During this time they expose Stevie to a world of drinking, smoking, drugs and sex as well as a complex set of personalities that Stevie struggles to understand but tries desperately to emulate. This reverence begins to lead him down a path that worry not only his mother and brother, but also occasionally members of his new social group. The actors playing his newfound friends all bring a beautiful authenticity to their roles. They certainly aren’t playing “themselves”, but their personalities don’t feel concocted or forced.
The original score for the film was done by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross as well as a selection of 1990s Hip Hop. And while the original music by Reznor and Ross accents the film perfectly, the 90s throwback songs struggle to do more than remind the viewer of the period and provide the sporadic nostalgia kick. In fact, most of the 90s nostalgia does little to add to the film. Thus, while the opportunity was there to give us a solid examination and social commentary on 1990s culture, Hill seems to fall short of that concept and instead uses the references as a gimmick to tie in smaller plot points.
In addition to the music, there are a few other elements that add to the hipster vintage nature of the film. It was shot entirely on 16mm and is presented in square 1:1 ratio. While this is certainly an unusual choice as more movies are shifted to wide screen formats and square televisions are no longer produced, it pushes the film closer towards the verité genre that is necessary to keep it within the indie style guide.
Mid 90s, along with Eighth Grade have positioned A24 studios in a fantastic place. They’ve demonstrated their willingness to get behind first time writer/directors and the results have been impressive to say the least. If they can remain on this type of pace I could see how the Academy would take notice come awards season.
So despite his view that they are cliché, Jonah Hill has once again created a poignant and powerful coming-of-age movie and he’s managed to wrap it into just enough skateboarding reality to give us the love letter he was hoping to produce. The film is not without its faults, but it’s not one you should miss.