2016 Movie Challenge – Page 13

Most people haven’t themed their weeks at all, but Ryan McNeil of The Matinee opted to give me a double feature of concert/music docs, which is almost prescient, since I’ve recently been really interested to see more of those. Both of these two would’ve been high on my list, so I’m glad he pushed me toward them.

The Last Waltz is the record of The Band’s final concert in 1978, and one of the first times a single band’s concert was filmed and released in theatres (of course Woodstock and Monterey Pop predate The Last Waltz). Martin Scorsese directed (his interest in music has resulted in several other music-related documentaries since this), and captured the joy and energy of the concert with some great cinematography despite having to be careful not to interfere with the concert from the live audience’s point of view.

Challenge Week 21: Boyhood

By Jandy

On May 29, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

I’m really knocking out the Richard Linklater films the past few weeks! I love most Linklater films, but his coming of age stuff (by which I largely mean Dazed and Confused) can fall flat for me, so I went into Boyhood with hopes but also fears. Of course I also knew the shot-over-12-years gimmick, and worried that it would be just that, a gimmick.

And to some degree it is – I mean, a lot of this is pretty standard kid-growing-up stuff, from the struggling single mom to sibling conflict, to the new stepfamily and that turning rotten, to fun weekends with dad, to raging hormones and acting out. Ellar Coltrane does mumble through the teenage years a bit, but I mean, that’s pretty accurate to most of the teenage boys I know. The film is necessarily episodic as we drop in on this kid’s life every three or four years and see what’s going on – we hit the high dramatic points (the biggest climax is about halfway through when stepdad turns violent and they leave in a hurry – I was glad the kids had at least a passing concern for the stepsiblings they left behind, because I was crazy worried about them, but we never found out what happened to them, probably because our family didn’t either).

Challenge Week 21: A Man for All Seasons

By Jandy

On May 29, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

I put off watching this for a long time, despite being one of only a handful of films standing between me and completing the Best Picture Oscar Winners list, and I think in large part it’s because I had it mentally linked with Becket, which is also about a conflict between a British monarch and man of God – not only could I not keep straight which was which historically, but I found Becket fairly boring and forgettable (as evidenced by the fact that I couldn’t remember which king/church guy was which). For anyone else similarly confused, Becket is Thomas Becket, friend and antagonist of King Henry II in the 12th century. A Man for All Seasons is Sir Thomas More, friend and antagonist of King Henry VIII in the 16th century. I guess with all the Thomases and Henrys, confusion is understandable.

Though this is based on a play and quite talky, it is far from boring (maybe I should try Becket again!). This is a fascinating period in history – the Tudors, especially Henry VIII were always volatile, and here he’s dying to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon, who has failed to give him a son, and marry Anne Boleyn. The Catholic Church refused to grant him a divorce, so he took advantage of the Reformation going on in Germany and declared the English church’s independence from Rome, with himself as head of the church. As Reformations go, the English one is, at this point anyway, pretty suspect.

Challenge Week 20: Sneakers

By Jandy

On May 23, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

I hadn’t heard of this movie at all until it came up on a podcast I randomly listened to a few months ago, and I was intrigued because I love spy-type and hacker-type movies, so I was glad to have a push to see it. I didn’t know much what to expect from tone, though I figured it’d be light, and it was.

Robert Redford plays Marty Bishop, formerly a juvenile delinquent hacker now working to test security systems with a team of folks whose backgrounds aren’t exactly upstanding either. He’s approached by the NSA to get ahold of a box that supposedly can decrypt anything – but is it really the NSA? WHO KNOWS. There’s some double-dealing, but it’s more straight-forward than you might expect, with a lot of it coming down to Marty and his childhood partner who got nabbed back in the day while Marty got away.

Challenge Week 20: The Abyss

By Jandy

On May 22, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

Truth be told, this is one of the films I’ve been looking forward to the most in the challenge, if only because my friend and Flickchart developer Nathan pretty much never shuts up about it. But Nathan didn’t give it to me for the challenge – he hasn’t chosen yet, so we’ll see what he comes up with now that one of his favorite casual recs for me is gone.

I’m sort of hot and cold on James Cameron – I think he can be pretty visionary in terms of technology, but he also often risks letting the tech in his film take over the story and characters, Avatar being the chief example of both stunning tech and lackluster/derivative story. Other times, the spectacle wins for me, as in Titanic, and both work together perfectly in Terminator 2. I was very curious to see where The Abyss would fall on the spectrum.

Category: 2016 Movie Challenge Page 13 of 21

Challenge Week 22: The Last Waltz and Standing in the Shadows of Motown

Challenge Week 21: Boyhood

Challenge Week 21: A Man for All Seasons

Challenge Week 20: Sneakers

Challenge Week 20: The Abyss