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
Three bad takes in a row!
― 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
disagrees with what
― bad luck banging, or Lorna Doone (sic), Tuesday, 22 February 2022 05:35 (two years ago) link
the critical acclaim
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 05:37 (two years ago) link
kurt you hate this movie on such a personal level that all of your arguments feel like a form of revenge. hard to engage with
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Tuesday, 22 February 2022 06:55 (two years ago) link
isn’t there tumblr for this kind of stuff
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 22 February 2022 08:42 (two years ago) link
What about my about-the-70s movie tropes issue? I just wanted someone to tell me why I'm wrong
― Evan, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 15:32 (two years ago) link
well going into the film completely blind, for the first few minutes i thought it was vogueishly set in the 90s, which would make sense perhaps?
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Tuesday, 22 February 2022 15:47 (two years ago) link
The first few minutes are just in the school, right? Makes sense.
― Evan, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 16:25 (two years ago) link
fucking loved this, it was crammed with the joy of throwing images on the screen, haters can go to hell.
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 26 February 2022 12:54 (two years ago) link
My kinda review tbh ^Hope to watch it this weekend
― circa1916, Saturday, 26 February 2022 16:14 (two years ago) link
The age gap discourse is dumb because it doesn't acknowledge how the dynamics actually play out onscreen.
I don't think that the soundtrack does the heavy lifting but I do think the fetischistic evocation of a bygone era - which includes the soundtrack sure but also production design and plot points - does. It's almost like a video game, where so much of the appeal is allowing you to walk within a particular world. So Evan I think your about the 70's movie trope issues are valid, but I do think it's that at its highest possible level.
That being said, it's also just funny! The crazy business ideas, the weird showbiz kid behaviours, that amazing scene with Sean Penn and Tom Waits (even tho casting Penn in the first place should be a bigger point of problematic contention than age gap and supposed racism both).
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 26 February 2022 16:25 (two years ago) link
A friend and I are going to do a Zoomcast on this and Zola next week, so I went to see it a second time tonight. Had two deer cross in front of me on the way home, one right after the other; I almost died for a PTA film.
It just seemed longer this time--there was a point where I thought, "Jesus, there's still Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, and the politician to go." I think the best thing about it is the ending, which is the kind of storybook thing I tend to fall for. I think the worst thing is the whole Bradley Cooper detour, which seemed pointless.
No one's mentioned John C. Reilly under the Herman Munster makeup--maybe it's too obvious, but I got a kick out of recognizing the voice.
Is Lucy Doolittle literally supposed to be Lucille Ball, or is she a composite? The song her troupe sings is "Yours, Mine and Ours."
― clemenza, Sunday, 27 February 2022 05:24 (two years ago) link