2014 What movies are you watching

[Valley]

We saw Nebraska and loved it. We also saw August:Osage County. It was excellent, but somewhat emotionally draining.

[iris lilies]

Iris lilies........you watch the neatest movies!

oh hey, I want to see Captain Phillips mainly because of the Somali guy from the Twin Cities.

I watch way too much film. Our public library has 27,000 dvds. They eventually get all of the critically acclaimed titles, I just have to wait. I might get Captain Phillips from Redbox, there is so seldom anything in the Red box that I want. I have a 1 dvd subscription to Netflix that I use for titles that I really want to see before the Library que is exhausted.

Our Library has a cool program right now, it is showing episodes of House of Cards (the American one with Kevin Spacey.) Even though I've already breezed through House of Cards one via NEtflix on dvd, I am watching it again in these programs at the Library because each week at the showing there is a speaker who leads the group in discussion about some aspect of the production. Last week it was "marketing strategy of Netflix" and next week it is "filming choices in House of Cards."

[razz]

Went to see "enough said" today. Both main characters played by Julia Dreyfus and Gandolfini were simply excellent in their roles. Sorry to read that Gandolfini has passed away recently. In what other roles or movies was he a key character? I am interested in seeing more of his acting.

[Lainey]

Finally saw "The Way Way Back" - realistic teen angst film, with Steve Carrell as an excellent bad guy!

[iris lilies]

Went to see "enough said" today. Both main characters played by Julia Dreyfus and Gandolfini were simply excellent in their roles. Sorry to read that Gandolfini has passed away recently. In what other roles or movies was he a key character? I am interested in seeing more of his acting.

razz, Gandolfini played the iconic Tony Soprano role in The Sopranos. He was born to play that role.

I never watched it when it was on tv and I really dislike films about the mafia. The mob just bores me. But I finally found my way around into the critically acclaimed cable tv shows and I got hooked on the The Sopranos; it transcends mob films. While there certainly is a lot of mob action, it also has lots relationship and family drama. Tony has some complex women in his wife: his mother, his sister, his wife, his shrink. Lots of good stuff here. I was shocked and saddened by his death.

[iris lilies]

I saw Captain Phillips and it was gripping, I liked it a lot. Mainly I was curious to see how a tiny pirate boat could take over a big freighter. Now I see, hmmm, they didn't have guns on the big ship. If this isn't an example of "where guns are outlawed only outlaws have guns" then I don't know what is.

I saw a disturbing German film called Paradies: Love about sex tourism for women. It's not a documentary, it's a story that centers on a 50 year old German woman who goes to Kenya for vacation and to meet up with young Kenyan men for romance and sex. Going into it I thought that it might be a little fun and silly, but no. OMG it is heavy. This Kenyan resort caters to middle aged European women there to drink, party, and play with Kenyan men. We see that women can be like men and can enjoy men solely as sex objects until--they can't. The women in the film are generally not at all attractive.The themes of black poverty/white privilege and power and racism are carried out in disturbing ways. I am trying to remember the last time I saw a film with a heroine as despicable as this woman and her friends.

There's another film with the same theme starring, I believe, Lauren Bacall, but it's much gentler in portraying an older women who meets up with a cabana boy during a Caribbean vacation.

[RosieTR]

The Beasts of the Southern Wild (yes I am behind). Was really great to see 1) a film that really puts you in a *place* not just "somewhere in America". Even though the portrayal of the Bayou is not flattering, it did seem realistic and definitely made you feel like the filmmakers intended you to feel the sense of the place. 2) a film with a fair number of female characters esp the young girl, not as sex symbols or someone to be saved but as people with their own thoughts/dreams/failings/successes. Perhaps because DH's taste in film tends toward action/sci-fi/military movies the latter is sorely lacking in my life which I find frustrating at times. Not that other types of movies (drama, romance, comedy) have stellar female leads/supporting characters either.

[Tiam]

I have not watched this. (I've seen Captain Phillips. I don't think the outcome was the real point of the film) But I've seen links for documentaries.http://natgeotv.com/uk/somali-pirates-fighting-back

[mtnlaurel]

I took the kids to see Lego Movie for my son's birthday. It was so clever and funny and had great actors for the voices... I love Liam Neeson (sp).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/...=tt_cl_sm#cast

It was such a trip visually that it was worth seeing on the big screen to me.
They offer it in 3D, but all that does is give me a headache, so we went to the regular viewing.

[catherine]

Nebraska - It moved really slow, but I think that was the point. Glad I saw it. The old coot's wife stole the show in my book.


Inside Llewlyn Davis
Then I made the mistake of blowing my movie theater budget all in one day and went directly to go see Inside Llewlyn Davis right after American Hustle - mistake. (I don't get much time to myself these days & got too greedy on MeTime - or maybe just overboard winter escapism) So, I kept wanting to compare the 2 films and how they made me feel. One up, the other either completely vacant or down.
I just so can't stand that genre of music that it was hard for me to overcome.
I like seeing how things really work though and the gritty reality of life. Whatever became of Llewlyn in the long run? Did he just end up a bitter washed up alky and that was just his 'folk singing phase'?
The main character's lack of moral fiber was stunning juxtaposed to his beautiful, pure voice.
And then another family that there just wasn't any real love in....... I couldn't get ahold of how Llewlyn was so vacant of decency.

Hmm, I like Inside Llewyn Davis. Maybe because I LOVE 60s folk music and also because my son is a singer/songwriter and so I identified vicariously with the struggles of being an unknown musician trying to make it. I agree that maybe you wouldn't want him as a best friend, and you certainly wouldn't want him as a boyfriend, but I don't think he was depraved--just clueless. To me I engaged in how the hapless foibles rolled out.

Nebraska was also really good. Don't you think in a way, there's a thematic link to Nebraska and Inside Llewyn Davis? But I loved Nebraska's sleepiness and cinematic choices, ie black-and-white--(to iris lilies: the producers of Nebraska were the same producers that my son worked with out in St. Louis making King of the Hill!! I was SO excited to see them get an Oscar nod. They are SUCH nice, nice people.)