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Jeff Nichols recommended The Hustler (1961) in Movies (curated)

 
The Hustler (1961)
The Hustler (1961)
1961 | Drama, Romance
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite Watch

"Then the next Paul Newman film has to be The Hustler — that’s as much about directing as anything else. I know that director [Robert Rossen] didn’t do a ton of stuff but that’s the first time I really started thinking about the frame. That’s not true; I thought about the frame before I even knew I was thinking about the frame when I saw Lawrence of Arabia. I saw The Hustler again on a film print in college. I’d seen it many times before, I actually owned it on video in high school. What high school student owns a video cassette of The Hustler? But I did. I just thought it was so beautiful — that black and white photography. The framing in that film — I think it’s cinema scope. I know it’s 235, so super wide frames. The way they would stack foreground-background action in that — that was a real lesson because I had done this thing in my first video project in film school. I was looking at the camera and I was looking at the shot and it was a video camera that they had on a little pee-wee dolly that had a hydraulic boom arm on it. I was just sitting there looking at this video and wondering, “This is in my infancy as a person thinking about visual storytelling.” I was messing with this hydraulic boom lift and looking at the monitor and all of a sudden I lowered the camera to the point to where this table that was right in front of the camera fell into the foreground. Then I had this thing in the foreground and this carriage in the background. And all of a sudden, it just got vastly more interesting to me. I know that might seem so remedial to people that take photographs and other things. This was a big breakthrough for me. When I went back and looked at The Hustler you see all of this complex foreground-background framing going on. Spielberg‘s the best at it too. Spielberg does it all the time. If you look at scenes in Indiana Jones where they’re sitting across the table the more he puts the camera — it’s awesome. But there’s an elegance to the camera placement and the camera movement in The Hustler that’s pretty undeniable. Not to mention, there’s a reason I’m talking about Paul Newman movies: there’s a behavior emerging in these films from the sixties that I really identified with. I almost felt like they valued it more than people in other decades, because they were so directly breaking free from the structures of studio films of the fifties and that acting style, more importantly. That it seemed like, “Now we’re going to take some seriously flawed characters for a run, for a test drive.” It’s when you start getting, I think, some of the best writing in film history — and character writing specifically. Stories that turn on character more than plot. What an odd plot for The Hustler. What an odd trajectory, but totally compelling. When I guess they’re going to the derby or whatever and that’s when his girlfriend — what an odd structure. That’s really something I strive for in my stuff. Structures that aren’t just a continual execution of plot, but are really driven by characters and their flaws."

Source
  
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Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated Strange Weather in Tokyo in Books

Oct 5, 2020  
Strange Weather in Tokyo
Strange Weather in Tokyo
Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
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Being born in Macedonia, I grew up reading books that were mostly translated. Because of that, I always appreciate the amazing job that translators do and have always cherished translated copies of my books. Strange Weather in Tokyo is no different, and Allison Markin Powell did an amazing job translating this book. 

I read this book in August as part of the Tandem and Granta Books Instagram readalong - to celebrate #Kawakamimonth as well as Women in Translation month - and I am so glad I was able to join.

<b><i>Synopsis:</i></b>

One night when she is drinking alone in a local bar, Tsukiko finds herself sitting next to her former high school teacher. Over the coming months they share food and drink sake, and as seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms - Tsukiko and her teacher develop a hesitant intimacy that tilts awkwardly and poignantly towards love.

<b><i>My Thoughts:</i></b>

From the very first chapter, we travel to Japan and the whole mood changes. I could grasp the culture, taste the food and feel the weather changing through the seasons. The writing is brief and concise, yet full of emotion and wisdom. Both the characters and the scene had something very special about their description - they appeared so close, so real, as if you could just reach out your hand and touch them, feel them, taste them. This feeling stayed with me and I will cling on to it, because it happens so rarely these days. 

Even though I am not a fan of student-teacher relationships, this relationship in particular kept me intrigued, simply because it was so much different than anything I have encountered before.

Tsukiko is young and tries to live in the modern world, while Sensei is much older and very traditional. They meet in the bar and talk. There are no dates, nor arranged meetings. They may see each other, and they may not. Sometimes it could be months before they bump into each other again. And that’s the beauty of their relationship. They live their own lives independently, and having each other as company is an added bonus. 

A few plot twists lingered in the way of their love. Tsukiko’s potential boyfriend, who is the same age as her, Sensei’s old age and what that might mean, and the numerous arguments that seem bizarre, but test their relationship on deeper levels. It was very refreshing to see the brutally honest issue that is age between couples. Sensei knows he doesn’t have too long to live, and he is honest with Tsukiko, as he wants her to truly understand what this means, and once she understands it, he wants to ensure she is okay to proceed the relationship, given those circumstances. 

<b><i>I have mixed feelings about the ending of Strange Weather in Tokyo.</i></b>

I was surprised at how it ended, but then I understood why. Perhaps I wanted a complete closure, but I learned that life doesn’t do closures. There is no perfect or right time to do something. We only have the “now” and we should enjoy every moment while we can.
  
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Hadley (567 KP) rated Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age in Books

Jan 20, 2021  
Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age
Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age
Various Authors | 2017 | Paranormal
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ghost stories (1 more)
Well-written
Only a few stories (0 more)
This collection of tales will transport you to a time when staircases creaked in old manor houses, and a candle could be blown out by a gust of wind, or by a passing ghost. Penned by some of the greatest Victorian novelists and masters of the ghost story genre, these stories come alive alongside exquisitely eerie art in this special illustrated edition.

Since this is a short story collection, I will list the stories with a short synopsis and what I liked and disliked about them.

"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" by M.R. James
A professor decides to go on vacation to work on his golf game while doing a little side work in the town's archaeology, but when he digs up an old whistle and blows into it, he instantly regrets what the whistle brings.
Liked: the buildup to the climax was done masterfully, and the superstition that was used as the premise of the story
Disliked: that the ending is never explained

"The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell
When a governess and her ward are taken to a haunted house, they found out that everyone has to pay for their misdeeds.
Liked: the perfect example of what Victorian ghost stories were
Disliked: Nothing; I really enjoyed this one

"The Signalman" by Charles Dickens
A railroad signalman tells a co-worker that he is seeing a ghost that warns him of future accidents, but his co-worker can't tell if he's telling the truth or losing his mind.
Liked: an excellent ghost story; I wish it were an entire novel
Disliked: nothing

"The Body-Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson
When a medical student realizes that the 'donated' bodies are murder victims, he's not so sure he can live with the consequences.
Liked: the ending wasn't predictable
Disliked: at the start, there's a little confusion among who is who

" The Captain of the Pole-Star" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A group of whalers are stuck in the middle of the ocean because of ice burgs, but the ice is the least of their problems when they begin to hear and see supernatural things out on the ice.
Liked: the plot of the story was really good
Disliked: the run-on sentences, some of the accents were hard to decipher, and the ending wasn't explained

"The Phantom Coach" by Amelia B. Edwards
A young man loses his way while on a hunt, but soon finds help with an old man that is convinced the supernatural is real, and when he senses the young man does not, he puts him up against forces from the other side.
Liked: the story never lulled, and the descriptions of the undead were amazing
Disliked: nothing, I thought the story was really good

"The Screaming Skull" by F. Marion Crawford
When the friend of a family finds a skull in the latter's home, he begins to question whether or not the husband murdered his wife.
Liked: I love that this story is actually based off an urban legend
Disliked: the way the author kept breaking away from the story to talk to the audience; it caused the flow of the story to stop

Overall, the Victorian-era authors knew how to write a ghost story. I absolutely loved this collection of short stories. I highly recommend this book to people who love a good 'ol fashioned ghost story (not the gory ones we have today).
  
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Gareth von Kallenbach (974 KP) rated Why Him? (2016) in Movies

Jul 12, 2019  
Why Him? (2016)
Why Him? (2016)
2016 | Comedy
5
6.4 (14 Ratings)
Movie Rating
When an “out of touch” Midwesterner owner of a paper factory (Bryan Cranston) decides to take his family to California to spend Christmas with his college student daughter (Zoey Deutch) and meet her new tech-millionaire, but socially inept boyfriend (James Franco), a typical father vs boyfriend faceoff ensues. For many, Why Him? will be enough to satisfy the comedy itch. Those expecting to find the next gut busting comedy will be disappointed, while those thinking it will be a dull comedy will be pleasantly surprised. This film is somewhere in the middle. A constant stream of chuckles with a few bigger laughs here or there. But ultimately forgettable at the lack of main characters to root for.

The highlights of this film include Cranston who reminds us that he has comedic timing from his years in Malcom in the Middle. His chemistry and timing is played well across Megan Mullally who perfectly delivers a few genuine laughs as a Midwestern suburban wife trying to maintain the niceties. Their son (Griffin Gluck) also adds to the humorous family affair as a teenage brother trying to be taken seriously as an adult but still being treated as a child. Lastly, the always funny Keegan-Michael Key hilariously plays Gustav, the “estate manager” to the tech-millionaire boyfriend and spices up the film every time he seems to appear.

James Franco on the other hand quickly wears out is welcome as the socially inept tech-millionaire boyfriend. At times he is funny, however after the dropping the “f-bomb” so many times you begin to sees him as a basic, depthless “caricature” only going for the low hanging fruit of crude jokes. Still, his crude, repeated, jokes are no longer funny after the first few times we see them. The film tries to give Franco some “mysterious depth” through an eluded troubled childhood and his genuine honesty. Only the film never gives you any payoff, as Franco’s character never actually evolves past his caricature shortcomings. It is a shame, because we actually like the girlfriend character (Zoey Deutch) and want to understand what she sees in Franco’s character, however since he never really evolves, there really is no reason to like or root for them to be together.

I also want to point out that this film acknowledges its biggest flaw. At one point in the film a character points out that there is a war going on between father and boyfriend, only the boyfriend isn’t actually fighting. That’s true, and thus there is no real conflict and no real reason to root for any of the characters. Franco’s boyfriend character never evolves past his caricature. While Cranston’s father character only evolves because the movie devolves into “paint by numbers” territory in the last 10 minutes. Since there is no one to root, we do not really care the outcome as we got our chuckles throughout the film but will forget about it shortly after walking out the theater.

Why Him? Has a solid cast, a few unexpected cameos and delivers constant chuckles throughout, however without giving us a likeable boyfriend or any characters to root for, the lack of memorable gut busting laughs has this film as nothing more than a typical forgettable comedy.