SOLITARY MAN w/michael douglas

wow this movie is really good!

MD is so great to watch when he's on his game.

it plays almost like a spiritual sequel to wonder boys... but much much better than that film

i posted on this somewhere, i liked it!

crazee

needed a shower after

it was nice that it avoided the 'easy redemption' trappings of similar movies by showing him relapsing into bad behaviors after brief improvement, rather than making the decision to 'change', and watching said efforts go flawlessly.

somehow i just found it so purely enjoyable to watch... such a compelling performance

it was nice that it avoided the 'easy redemption' trappings of similar movies by showing him relapsing into bad behaviors after brief improvement, rather than making the decision to 'change', and watching said efforts go flawlessly.

― San Te, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 2:47 PM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark

ya so many movies forget that compulsive behaviour is... compulsive.

BECAUSE JESS WANTED IT: MICHAEL DOUGLAS, I THINK HE IS Y?? BUT KINDA CREEPY

ew, this Solitary Man movie. Now he's seducing teenagers.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, May 17, 2010 12:36 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Imogen Poots as Allyson

What?

― ljagljana (kkvgz), Monday, May 17, 2010 12:37 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

She actually gives the best performance in the film; don't know her at all

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, May 17, 2010 12:50 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
1 month passes...

eh i wouldn't say best performance.

still, don't really know what to think of this here film. dramatically, all these other people exist only to be spoken to and react against michael douglas. they ought to feel as though they are just as real in and of themselves and they don't, really.

― kenny logins (goole), Sunday, June 20, 2010 7:14 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

didn't know anchor bay did theatrical releases, probably should stick to video
production budget - $15mil, box office - $4mil

who cares this isn't variety.com

yeah i thought it was a really top-notch performance from m douglas, but the movie was built around just that, and doesn't have much more to it. even tho all the supports are well done too.

i dunno, i was kinda bugged by how easily friendly danny devito's character was, because the plot needed it, and how vindictive mary-louise parker was, for the same reason.

hey that movie you really liked? well it probably shouldn't have been made at all cuz it didnt recoup domestically! xp

i dunno, i was kinda bugged by how easily friendly danny devito's character was, because the plot needed it, and how vindictive mary-louise parker was, for the same reason.

― goole, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 2:53 PM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark

well i mean come on look what he did

to me MD's performance and the character was strong enough that i didn't really need any more in the way of... other stuff

yeah fair enough

are we all aware of this hilariousness

http://weeklystandard.com/articles/scoundrel-time

(read thru to the last line)

LOL

DUN DUN DUN

what the hell was interesting about this character?

that he wasn't you

he was just kind of fascinating to watch! i mean such a venal guy, yet such a good talker and salesman and so weirdly honest about being full of shit. and despite making him fascinating, the movie doesnt hold him up as any kind of hero at all, he's clearly headed right for the drain, clearly totally destructive and selfish and fucked up.

(and not in some "refreshing" way either)

yea, the moment they were baiting you to think the guy was turning a corner, he hits on that kid's g/f at his party....ya know, stuff like that. he also had a very unusual reason for becoming the guy he was

are we meant to believe that it was his heart scare that sent him off chasing poon?

susan sarandon was p great in this iirc

Also liked it. Thought I posted that somewhere but I guess not.

Striking similarities between this, Crazy Heart and (apparently) The Wrestler (which I did not see)

lions in winter(s)

ugh i hated crazy heart

didnt see CH, thought the wrestler was pretty good but i liked this better

Sarandon's role was an earth-mother joke.

As for MD's character, I realize many of you want to be fucking teens when you're 65, but still...

ya except that scene is fucking AWFUL and cringe-inducing, not like, heroic or aspirational. like that's the point you realize how shitty he really is. so i dont really get your objection to it.

a character can be fascinating even if they're not, like, morally pure.

yea but for Dr. Morbius he has to appear in a movie that ILE doesn't like

my objections:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/solitary-man/4828

who is San Te? new or renamed enemy?

santa

you sound like Stalin finding out Trotsky is hiding in Mexico, Morbs.

good review, even if i disagree with your conclusions...

thx, conclusions are like DNA.

new 'enemy' though it's really mostly in jest ;). longtime lurker who was too intimidated to post for quite a few years...

AND RIGHTLY SO

:D

Morbs, your review made me want to see the movie. You think it's all a tiresome cliche, yet it doesn't sound like too many movies I've seen. You really do sound... cranky.

Which is itself a tiresome cliche, I know...

Saw it tonight, haven't read the thread (I will after I post this). Undoubtedly my age (not 60, but closer to that than 30...) and the fact that I haven't had a great three or four weeks, but I did ultimately find it moving. It's comparable to About Schmidt and Broken Flowers; Solitary Man is much more willing to open itself up to ridicule--it wouldn't be difficult to list six things that had me thinking "Right...", and I'm sure every one of them is listed above--but I much preferred it to those two very careful and (I found) lifeless films. The kid from The Squid and the Whale is going to have a harder time escaping his little box than the girl from Precious--I can't imagine him in any other role. Danny DeVito is amazingly good.

also, you can't cast Danny DeVito as 'a regular guy' at this point.

Gotta disagree; I think DeVito just disappears into the role (admittedly small). One scene I should single out ia the final one between Douglas and the Squid and the Whale kid. I think it's Douglas's best in the film.

totally anticipatable

You know...not that I'm against being surprised at the movies, I'm very much for it, but I'm talking about the execution of the scene, not whether or not it undermined whatever expectations I may or may not have had about how that relationship would play out. (I don't think I consciously had any.) I think I probably anticipated a happy ending the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz, but thought the way it was handled was just fine anyway. Maybe it was just how honorably Douglas's character acquitted himself in that scene that made an impression on me.

I wish he'd been whacked by the mobsters

we're opening this Friday! looks terrible

it's not!

and you can totally cast danny devito as a regular guy! i mean he's the most regular-guy-looking movie star there is. it's not like casting george hamilton as a shoeshine boy or something.

no kiddin. I mean, if he's supposed to be a salt-of-the-earth guy whereas all the other major adult characters are NY high rollers, past or present, then it would help to have a more anonymous actor in the role.

i just like watching DD, i'm always happy to see him, so i was fine with it.

would have loved to have seen kathleen turner swagger in out of the rain at one point

Or punch him down a flight of stairs a la The War of the Roses.

he finally "meets his match"!

Already out on DVD – that was quick.

theatrical release = loss leader

i've seen movies come out on DVD first sometimes in the last few years

did this even come out in the UK? everyone was really great in it, and MD's character was all the good things s1ocki said about it. the last scene was risible.

what was the best 2009 man btw? serious, single or solitary?

think I overrated this in retrospect. but MD was great.

I agree. My take.

lol at "something has snapped in her acting; it’s like she visited the set to drop off a bundt cake and then asked to stand in front of the camera"

expect the same from her in Wall Street 2

re MD, you guys are starfuckers.

don't really see why MD's leathery carcass going after teens is any more objectionable than grant in to catch a thief

because we... like... an actor's performance? xp

and morbs its SUPPOSED TO BE GROSS... it's not like we were all cheering him on in that scene.

seriously.

That's what they want you to think you think.

don't really see why MD's leathery carcass going after teens is any more objectionable than grant in to catch a thief

Um, because Grace Kelly was a GROWN WOMAN????

thinking more of the leatheriness than the particular prey.

but the whole point of MD in this film is that he's basically disgusting. this is the premise of the film and his character. it's not something they avoid. i don't really get the problem. seems like your objection to this film is the premise?

No, the execution, and the bad writing.

Most of the dialogue was fine by me; it was the direction that was misconceived.

at no point is there any doubt that Douglas will be cuddly in the end. He just became a prick cuz he had a cardiac scare! awwwwwwwww

what's your excuse

* AIR HORN *

* high-fives everybody in the room *

lol

if this is like Crazy Heart and the Wrestler I kinda don't need to see it, I think... I'm not really into these sort of "old asshole tries to find redemption" tropes in general

It's much funnier than those movies, Shakey.

It's not a very good movie, but a lot of fun.

cool

I like joeks

ya he's not looking for redemption so much as just fucking around like an idiot

s1ocki, if you want to make yr next film abt me, we can discover what kind of prick I am.

The best joke is in the first 3 minutes: "Don't call me Dad here!"

I hated things like Bundt Cake Sarandon saying how she'd found her fulfillment as a NYC realtor. Yes, self-actualization through one of the top-ranked succubus occupations.

It could be worse -- self-actualization through film criticism ;)

solitary morbs

but there's already a film about Morbs:

http://www.dryvetymeonlyne.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Troll.jpg

lol

I prefer "An Enemy of the People," shithead.

too bad, you ain't Antwone Fisher, you don't get to make it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/movies/21douglas.html?_r=1

Totally watchable and enjoyable. But the ending was a cop out, I feel. Kind of like the ending of a short story you'd write in college.

Ending totally American indie drivel.

But I did really enjoy it, and it was all about the performance.

I also totaly lol'd at Douglas saying to Devito "I haven't seen you in 30 years!"

Also this wasn't nearly as good as Wonder Boys, which I'll totally stan for.

Good scenes among good actors does not really make up for the simplicity of the motivations of Douglas.

gillian jacobs was in this. and olivia thirlby. i liked it.

I liked it better when it was just portrait of an aging alpha male womanizer without a cute explanation

but the explanation was rooted in the opening five minutes of the movie!!!

I think the reliance on it to explain his behaviour to his ex was a bit much. I did like the fact that it explained why he was generally so crap at being bad (except for getting laid, though he was probably deluding himself about that).

it mighth ave worked better without that tag, for sure.

would i like this movie if I'm all for watching michael douglas be michael douglas-y but thought wonder boys was schmaltzy crap?

you'd like michael douglas in it

and it's only 90 minutes so

haha that really is the magic number these days

only reason i watched it tbh