I spent a very large part of this film pondering how it could be that PTA would give her sisters with the same names as her real life sisters, and cast actresses that looked vaguely like them, and not just cast her actual sisters. Then the credits rolled and I felt really dumb. I have no idea why I was convinced it wasn't them.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, 29 January 2022 15:25 (two years ago) link
alana rules, i love seeing a movie centered around a woman who is just generally pissed off and surlygary feels like max fischer but without the pathos (a character issue, not a performance issue)this is set up as a movie about gary and alana and their relationship but really it's about alana. gary is 15 and confident and successful, who cares, he's going to be finei was pretty disoriented by the start of the movie (gary immediately hitting on alana in this very suave way) but again, this movie is ABOUT alana and we're getting her perspective and it would be disorienting to be talked to by a 15-year-old boy that waythe john michael higgins scenes were as excruciating as described and not funny at all and could so easily have been cut, why were they there?????the sean penn extended cameo >>>>>> the bradley cooper extended cameoi always like seeing skyler gisondo in stuff even if he's one of those guys who always plays essentially the same character. he's good at that one thingthe one harriet sansom harris scene was the best standalone scene in a movie that mostly felt like a bunch of (enjoyable!) setpieces kind of thrown together. a+ to harriet sansom harris
― na (NA), Thursday, 3 February 2022 20:13 (two years ago) link
also apparently in the '70s you just ran everywhere. primary mode of transportation = running.
― na (NA), Thursday, 3 February 2022 20:18 (two years ago) link
the first scene with gary and alana is seriously just so good, such a sensitive portrait of tantalizingly taboo desire
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Friday, 4 February 2022 02:30 (two years ago) link
Just saw this. To me it felt like it was directed by a neural network that studied all of the shots seen in other movies about the 70s. Directed by transformer. And the characters too felt like they were impressions of impressions of impressions of typical characters from movies about the 70s to the point where it seemed like Fred Armisen could show up to do the same thing then break the fourth wall. Caricatures of specifically movie versions of 70s people.
― Evan, Monday, 21 February 2022 16:18 (two years ago) link
Liked this (loved the cinematography), but it reinforced my theory that if you have enough money to license amazing songs, you can make any movie seem better than it is.
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 21 February 2022 16:59 (two years ago) link
idk i just keep asking myself why this (powerful hollywood white man from a hollywood lineage) guy, at this point in his career, in 2022 decided to do a movie about this age gap shit. like really. why? 🤔 🤔 🤔 🤔
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 21 February 2022 17:56 (two years ago) link
Three bad takes in a row!
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Monday, 21 February 2022 18:04 (two years ago) link
Agree with Darin's theory, although to me that's a plus--spend, spend.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:11 (two years ago) link
Minus its soundtrack (not the most expensive ever assembled--I guess Bowie cost enough), Licorice Pizza would evaporate.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:13 (two years ago) link
I'll also give LP extra points for featuring the most authentically ugly onscreen 70s hair on men I've seen since the actual 1970s.
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 21 February 2022 18:26 (two years ago) link
the wigs were pretty bad
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:28 (two years ago) link
It’s kinda funny to see people call out a soundtrack that includes “My Ding-a-ling.”
― Chris L, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:51 (two years ago) link
My point is that anyone can film young people running in 35mm w/vintage lenses and toss Life on Mars? in the sound bed and trigger an emotional response (with Bowie doing the heavy lifting).
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 21 February 2022 18:58 (two years ago) link
"anyone" = someone with a large soundtrack budget
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 21 February 2022 18:59 (two years ago) link
it's a godawful small affair
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 February 2022 19:04 (two years ago) link
whenever someone brings up the age gap someone chimes in with "BAD TAKE" when it's actually good that people point that out and think about why its even in this dumb movie!
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 21 February 2022 19:05 (two years ago) link
the soundtrack drop with the greatest impact is a doors song imo which requires talent to carry off
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 19:16 (two years ago) link
you can sub in wings for the doors in that post and it’s still true :)
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 19:17 (two years ago) link
also ffs how many pta movies involve transcendent pop song placement that you feel the need to invoke “anyone could do this” for this film
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 19:21 (two years ago) link
for me it’s impossible to say whether the soundtrack makes this movie seem better than it is because it’s one of his indisputably great tricks, across his oeuvre
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 19:23 (two years ago) link
The best argument I can make for the talent/knack involved in placing a song artistically is to look at films like Forrest Gump or (my go-to example, a forgotten film--for good reason) The Flamingo Kid. They're filled with great songs, most of which have zero resonance (occasionally one will work anyway). So even though I mostly agree with Darin about "Bowie doing the heavy lifting," what the director does in choosing that song and placing it right can't be removed from the equation.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 February 2022 19:29 (two years ago) link
The last 25-30 years have been littered with movies that leaned on their soundtrack that weren't able to generate any kind of response.
This movie didn't entirely work for me but the "age gap" discourse has been a typical shambles. It paints everything with the same brush and is about defining what's out of bounds for artists to explore, not about generating thought.
― Chris L, Monday, 21 February 2022 19:34 (two years ago) link
"life on mars" scores cooper hoffman running to the gas station right? not sure what emotional heavy-lifting people are accusing it of tbh
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:01 (two years ago) link
most of the song placements in this movie align with its tilts between realism and surrealism, and the surreality life takes on when it no longer resembles what you recognize, which is i think what the intervention of the gas shortage also signifies for these characters, that the time they have to abide within their fantasies will end
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:05 (two years ago) link
I'm no film critic, but in defense of my post:
• seems like PTS saw the Tarintino Manson movie and thought "MY TURN"• song choices felt unconnected to narrative and arbitrary (although Brad's take on the Bowie song is good)• soundtrack seemed like a crutch (yeah yeah you can direct this at any film, but whatever) • the aesthetics of the film were the only aspect I truly liked which made me feel manipulated in a way• as I said, I liked the movie, but didn't love it. Sorry!
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:14 (two years ago) link
blood in the streets it's up to my ankles
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:15 (two years ago) link
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Monday, February 21, 2022 1:04 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
lol
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:24 (two years ago) link
In my film class today we discussed sound design: music, special effects, etc. PTA came up as an example of a director who can use music diegetically and non-diegetically well and also for spectacularly ungainly reasons. The wall-to-wall score in Magnolia came up as an example of how he can do it badly.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:25 (two years ago) link
(The point was to explain how movie scores contribute to our responses).
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:26 (two years ago) link
Am I crazy though? It felt like I’ve seen the 70s character quirks over and over scans as cliches to me...
― Evan, Monday, 21 February 2022 20:27 (two years ago) link
It's not fresh like Phantom Thread, which seemed as if he were breaking new emotional ground; American directors don't touch this sort of conception of love as a game you can still take seriously. It's like Ophuls directing a Mazursky script. I saw it again in January and am prepared to crown it his best.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:30 (two years ago) link
Magnolia’s score did what I think PTA wanted it to do tho? To keep the entire movie at a heightened state of anxiety for 3+ hours?
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:30 (two years ago) link
congrats, PTA!
The only film-score mismatch I can think of in PTA’s work is There Will Be Blood come to think of it
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:35 (two years ago) link
inasmuch as Greenwood music only works with Thom Yorke's dispatches.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:35 (two years ago) link
last two posts are deeply wrong lmao
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:50 (two years ago) link
*cues Greenwood thunder*
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:51 (two years ago) link
one of my most memorable theater experiences is the seasickness i felt when greenwood's score starts up in there will be blood
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:52 (two years ago) link
pta's way of making the landscape from which they extract the oil feel full of doom and hostile to any kind of humanity
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:53 (two years ago) link
That's a movie where it's a necessary complement, yeah.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 February 2022 20:56 (two years ago) link
In my film class today we discussed sound design: music, special effects, etc. PTA came up as an example of a director who can use music diegetically and non-diegetically well and also for spectacularly ungainly reasons. The wall-to-wall score in Magnolia came up as an example of how he can do it badly.― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 21, 2022 3:25 PM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 21, 2022 3:25 PM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
Would pull my kid out of this college
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 21 February 2022 21:12 (two years ago) link
me in professor Soto's class
https://c.tenor.com/sCdo8DW21XQAAAAC/boo-outrage.gif
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 21 February 2022 21:13 (two years ago) link
can't stand Radiohead, Greenwood's scores for PTA and Ramsey and Campion are v good
― bad luck banging, or Lorna Doone (sic), Monday, 21 February 2022 22:22 (two years ago) link
I'd also differentiate between using period music to fix time and/or to capture a mood, like with "Life on Mars" here, and using something counter-intuitively, like PTA using "Jessie's Girl" in Boogie Nights in the midst of this violent, chaotically surreal scene. The former is the lowest level of imagination--it can be great, but as Darin says, the music does the heavy lifting. With the latter, I give most of the credit to the director (or person in charge of the soundtrack).
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 01:08 (two years ago) link
My example of "great soundtrack, inert movie" is Almost Famous.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 01:31 (two years ago) link
That's an example of a startling PTA use of music xpost
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 22 February 2022 01:47 (two years ago) link
I love a few things from Almost Famous: "Tiny Dancer," of course, but also "America" as William flips through his inherited record collection, the couple of Led Zeppelin songs, and one or two other things, I think.
Best of all, when Dirk, sitting on the couch and in close-up, realizes the song describes his relationship to Amber and smiles.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 01:50 (two years ago) link
This is dumb bcuz the guy explored it and made a huge movie about it and is getting critical acclaim and anyone that disagrees is labeled with having bad takes.
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 04:26 (two years ago) link
So what's your good take?
― Chris L, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 04:47 (two years ago) link