Details: Released in 2017. Stars Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas. Directed by Denis Villeneuve. About two hours and twenty-five minutes long.
Blade Runner 2049 is the sequel to the original Blade Runner released in 1982. Like its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049’s strongest points are its visuals and the tone and atmosphere that it seeks to create. No spoilers ahead.
Details: About two hours long. Stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.
I originally heard about this film after watching some reviews for it on YouTube. It received glowing reviews, which is interesting because it mostly flopped at the box office. After watching this movie, I don’t think it was that great nor was it terrible.
The Nice Guys is a film that attempts to replicate or take inspiration from films like Chinatown with Jack Nicholson, or L.A. Confidential, or any other old noir, detective story. The only difference from those films is the tone; this film is a comedy.
The premise is this: Ryan Gosling plays a private detective and meets Russel Crowe, who plays a thug, while investigating a case. Together they try to solve the case and see where the case leads.
In regards to the plot, the film was very reminiscent of Chinatown in that there was this big subplot involving Detroit and the big three car producers which didn’t really have that big of an impact on the overall story. That’s the thing with noir films, they have all these subplots that don’t really matter. The most interesting part of noir films are the dialogue, the interactions between characters, the surprise twists, and eventually the big reveal of who done it.
While there is certainly elements of suspense and noir here, those elements are not the primary draw of this film. The best parts of this movie are the funny pieces of dialogue between Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling. This movie is essentially two hours of watching these two guys make fun of each other and screw around, which is great if that’s what you’re into. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that entertained.
A noteworthy mention is the actress who played Gosling’s daughter, Angourie Rice. She was good, but good child actors generally creep me the hell out. Rice had a lot of fairly adult lines she was asked to say, which was somewhat uncomfortable. Watching her mostly reminded me of all the child entertainers who tried to make it in show business and mostly grew up into messed up adults. I hope Rice has a better experience with show business.
It was okay. I didn’t find it that funny. The movie tried to be somewhat noir, but noir films generally have a mess of a plot and that was true here. I’d recommend it to Gosling or Crowe fans. I’d also recommend to people who want to see topless women. I saw an R rated version and there was a substantial bit of nudity. If you enjoy seeing young, scantily clad women, you may want to give this film a watch.
Score: 5/10
Details: Stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. About two hours long.
I just came back from watching this film at Lincoln Center and there is a lot I feel towards this movie and a lot that should be said. I am listening to the soundtrack as I write this and getting choked up again.
The premise is this: Mia (played by Emma Stone) and Sebastian (played by Ryan Gosling) are two aspiring artists. Mia aspires to be an actress and Sebastian a jazz musician. They meet and fall in love while chasing their dreams.
This is a musical through and through. I remember seeing a clip on YouTube where the director stated that the film was meant as a 1960’s era style musical in a modern setting. I think this is exactly right. If you don’t like musicals or romance, this film is not for you.
With that said, I loved this movie. I don’t want to go into spoilers and fortunately, there are aspects of this film which are very formulaic in terms of musicals and can be discussed. For instance, the opening number is your standard, big, flashy, tone-setting musical number that you’d expect in other musicals or Disney movies.
I found myself having a strange reaction to the first two musical numbers. It was jarring to me and I realized that it had been a good, long while since I’d seen such a flamboyant musical as this. I missed musicals like this. And while I did not love the first two songs or how they meshed with the plot, they reacquainted me with this genre and I thoroughly enjoyed each subsequent song and dance number.
The strongest parts of this film are easily the musical arrangements and the visual imagery. Bright colors are in vogue throughout this film and delight the eyes. There are many, many long shots throughout the film which lend authenticity to the performances and make you question just how far the choreographers and directors had to plan in order to get these shots. I advise you watch the opening number with an eye towards how many cuts are used. Answer: there are none. It was all shot in one shot. It was amazing. The main theme is wistfully threaded throughout all the plot points and songs in the film and really triggered my emotions each time I heard that melody.
The performances, at least dramatically, were great, especially the scenes between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Which leads us to the weakest part of the movie: Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s singing and dancing ability. While watching this film, I had flashbacks to West Side Story and Singin’ In the Rain, and it was clear that, unlike the protagonists in those films, these two were actors first and singers and dancers second. There was something undoubtedly muted about their movements and songs. Emma has a decent voice and has a good song towards the end, but it’s clear that more octaves should have been included to add more feeling to that song. That would likely have pushed it outside her range unfortunately. Gosling’s singing sounds like Gosling’s talking, which wasn’t all that impressive. Gosling’s saving grace was that he tried to put some emotion into it, covering his lack of ability.
The dancing was generally great, but, again, there was something missing. I thought about the dancing that I’d seen from prior musicals and there is a clear difference in energy and movement between one who has trained in this style of dance all their lives versus someone who spent a few months in pre-production trying to get up to speed. This is simply my opinion. I imagine that a person who is not analyzing the film as closely as I was may have a different opinion and not even notice. In fact, a friend that I watched the film with liked that they were less talented in regards to singing and dancing. She said that it added authenticity to their performances.
Furthermore, I’m not sure casting no names with greater dancing, singing, and acting ability would have been a good idea despite my complaints. Star power is a real thing. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are familiar faces and have worked together on two prior movies. They have convincing chemistry on screen and in this film. I’m not sure this movie would have worked without that name recognition or that chemistry. I’d watched a clip on YouTube where the director comments that he casted the two because of their chemistry, that they were like a Bogart and a Bacall. After watching this film, I agree. This film centers on the relationship between these two and without Stone or Gosling or another pair of known actors with similar abilities, this film probably wouldn’t work. There would likely be a lot less people who would even watch it.
Score: 8/10 By the end of the film, I was choking back tears. A friend asked what I thought and it was all I could do to give a thumbs up. I applauded along with the audience I watched it with. It’s a great film done in a style that has not been seen in a while. Don’t listen to the soundtrack first. Don’t go in with too many predictions or expectations. Just walk in with an open mind and give it a watch. You’ll have a good time.
The Big Short is a big mess.
This is what happens when you have a film that gets too big a budget and too much support.
I imagine that when they pitched this movie to the studios and the oodles of A list actors in this movie, they gave the familiar pitch of a film based on a book base upon a true story. This was probably a short time after the success of the Wolf of Wall Street and all parties involved wanted to recapture some of the success of that film, to inhale some of that movie’s fumes. And each time they signed up another well known actor, they did it by dropping the names of each A list actor already signed onto the project, giving false hope of how successful this movie would be. Too bad this film was not a success.
And there are a lot of famous faces in this movie. Off the top of my head, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Marissa Tomei, Amelia Pond from Doctor Who, that weird Jewish guy from New Girl, and a lot of others I’m sure I’m missing. It’s a star studded cast. Too bad the plot is shit.
You can see what they are trying to do; a hard hitting drama conveying the injustice of Wall Street, the American finance industry and of residential mortgage backed securities. Despite the convoluted plot, the main problem is the attempts of the film to explain the financial crisis and CDO’s to the audience. See, The Big Short fails to understand something that The Wolf of Wall Street understood very well: people are idiots. At least most people in the movie theater. We don’t want to think about complex financial instruments or systemic problems in our society, we want to watch an entertaining story. Movies are escapism at its finest and when you try to educate an audience when they seek entertainment, you get a movie like this. This is a movie that does poorly at both educating and entertaining.
Additionally, there are noteworthy appearances by Anthony Bourdain, Selena Gomez, and Margot Robbie in a bathtub drinking champagne.
Score: 4/10 Only watch if the entertainment value of a movie depends entirely on the big names that are in it. I know there are many who can enjoy a shit movie if you put their favorite actors in it. While not complete shit, this is a movie for them.
Muse Bank 