Indie Film Release Guide: December 11th [An ONTD Original]

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Comments

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Planning to watch Let Them All Talk, I'm Your Woman, Funny Boy, and Alex Wheatle because they're all streaming, and I'll probably get to some of the others later. And everything I've read about Wild Mountain Thyme sounds absolutely batshit, lol - I can't say I'm not intrigued.

Last weekend, we watched Ammonite. I loved the cinematography, and the story was sort of interesting, with not a lot of exposition, in a good way. But unfortunately, Saoirse and Kate just had zero chemistry. I am generally easily emotionally affected by films, but I just didn't feel anything at all about either character other than bummed they had to do that kind of work in big-ass skirts. And whether it's fair or not, the setting, characters and story lead me to repeatedly compare it with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and it does not do well in that comparison. I still think it's worth watching; it was just disappointing, especially considering that it stars of my favorite actresses and I really liked God's Own Country from the same director.

We also watched

[frau_stripes]

so you're telling me.. you were not entertained?

[masterofmystery]

woahhhhhhhh you've never seen gladiator until now???? how???? maybe you should do the BP watch like i did earlier this year lmao

i also looked up mank after seeing that meh movie and saw the age he died. i was like wow fincher you really stretched it with 60+ gary oldman there buddy

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lol, I literally went back and looked at your thread to see what you thought after I watched it!! idk how I missed it for so long, and I'm glad I finally watched - Joaquin Phoenix was perfect casting and the colosseum fights were fantastic - but yeah, I couldn't believe it won Best Picture with that script.

[daijouboo]

Yeah, the casting in Mank was insane. Like you have a 61 year old playing a 43 year old and the actress playing his wife is supposed to be the same age as him, but IRL is 28 years younger? It was too much.

[colonel_green]

I told myself going into Ammonite that I wasn't going to constantly compare it to Portrait of a Lady on Fire, both because that's a ridiculously high standard for any film and because this was underway well before anybody involved could have seen Portrait, so any similarities are purely coincidental. But damn, there are a lot of similarities here, and in none of them does Ammonite come out looking like the superior film.

There is on an intellectual level some interesting material here, particularly toward the ending, where rather than the [Spoiler (click to open)]complications for the same-sex relationship being the result of Saoirse Ronan's character being married and the world being against them, etc., which is the standard ending for these types of period-set stories, it comes down to class tensions and Kate Winslet's devotion to her work. But I don't think this lands the way it could have, much of which has to do with the very chilly tone taken by Lee (very akin to what he did with God's Own Country, which a lot of people loved, though I was more

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Oh yeah, I appreciated Brokeback waaaay more on this watch, and I know it's at least in part because I'm older. I've gained a lot more perspective and patience as a viewer in the decade since I first saw it, and films like that kind of demand both. I think the first time I saw it, I liked it, but I was waiting for something more ~dramatic~ to happen, and was kind of whelmed when it didn't. But this time, just seeing the fallout of the emotional turmoil they're each living through is fucking heart-wrenching, nevermind the scenes where they're actually showing vulnerability.

And ITA with your thoughts on Ammonite! I liked GoC a lot, but I think its general chilliness is one of the reasons why CMBYN hit me much harder that same year - warmth is so much more appealing to me as a viewer.

I gotta say, I always enjoy reading your comments, even when we feel differently about a movie!