Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86672 posts
Tue Nov-12-19 03:14 PM
1. "Very good. Funnier than I expected." In response to Reply # 0
I could probably gripe about how even the storytelling is for the husband and wife, and how that results in some of Adam Driver's "lessons learned" at the end feel slightly unearned. But each scene packs a palpable emotional or comedic punch.
3. "it felt like him cheating wasnt treated " In response to Reply # 1
with the same culpability/gravity as some of her actions (which ultimately never rose to the level of infidelity).
she came off looking like the villain torturing an earnest father. had dude wishing death on her nshit.
meanwhile he fucked *their* co-worker and basically said she should be thankful he wasnt fucking everything that walked by when they were in their 20s lol.
"very good" territory. divorce movies are hitting me differently now that I'm married -- before I thought of divorce as a dramatic failure, but it's never just the one big thing that ends a marriage. it's all those little things that end up becoming that. seeing it all end really must feel like a dream.
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johannson were incredible. You might as well just hand Laura Dern the Oscar now. They're all a shoe-in for Oscar noms and this will definitely get a best picture nom. I'm still holding out that Parasite wins, but this was fantastic.
6. "RE: Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019)" In response to Reply # 0
Very good.
This that millennial Kramer vs. Kramer shit
a little awkward watching it with a spouse you very recently have gotten out of a rough spot with though.. there will be lots of comparisons made and uncomfortable real life scenarios brought up when you're just trying to watch and process the movie lol
10. "Not as good as it wants to be." In response to Reply # 0
I admit there is a little something here, but it's absolutely due to the performances and not the writing or direction. I fucking hate Baumbach. Every time one of his movies comes out, we are told over and over how great they are. Then I watch them and whatever his latest is is just as forgettable as his last.
This clearly is a film drawing inspiration from Bergman, Allen, and the like; however, it is just not as interesting nor realistic as the films it admires. I never once bought that this couple was the type of couple who would get divorced, at least not at this point in their marriage. They were very clearly still in love with each other, had a child they both did not want to be away from, and were good partners together. I thought the emotional moments just weren't there even though they came across to the viewer like, "hey, it's time for you to cry!" Moreover, the trope of him cheating was completely unnecessary and didn't make sense given the story.
The cinematography was great and I thought the score was good also. But this movie wanted to be some substantive meditation on the dissolution of a marriage, while portraying itself as a simple and honest "story", but I think it was mostly just up its own ass.
12. "I love how divisive it is on who the sympathetic character is. " In response to Reply # 11
Some people I've talked to leaned towards Adam Driver's character, and some to Scarlet Johannson's character. And it's not as simple as women side with the wife's side, men side with the husband's.
13. "I really, really liked the movie, but I found Driver's actions irreperab..." In response to Reply # 12
Scarlett has plenty of valid reasons to want out of the marriage. She feels trapped in a life she didn't entirely intend to build for herself, and while she knew there was a chance she'd be less happy moment-to-moment as a single woman, she'd have an opportunity to chase dreams she'd been suppressing for years in favor of her husband and child.
Driver, meanwhile, doesn't want out of the marriage, but he's also the one that doesn't want to move to LA and shift focus to her career for a bit. He's the one who sleeps with a less charismatic (and frankly far less attractive woman) apparently just to prove that, if he'd wanted to, he could've slept with a lot more women? In every scene that that isn't the crux of the conversation he's presented as sympathetic, but once the audience knows that about him (and is never given an equal and opposite flaw in Scarlett) I think it's just impossible to care as much about the divorce itself.
It turns the movie into an acting and dialogue showcase, but kind of a leaden screenplay. Several people I highly recommended the movie to came back with some version of that criticism, and I don't need to watch the movie again to know they're right. For a movie that seems awfully concerned with centrism and a refreshing amount of room to breath for two characters on opposite sides of a disagreement, that one detail makes it really hard to root for Driver's character even if he acts the fuck out of the role.
14. "I think your criticism assumes everything ScarJo says is true. " In response to Reply # 13
I think I started off team ScarJo but I think the more I watched the more I thought she might be an unreliable narrator and Adam Driver might be right, she might just be the kind to stay miserable and blame others for their choices.
>Scarlett has plenty of valid reasons to want out of the >marriage. She feels trapped in a life she didn't entirely >intend to build for herself, and while she knew there was a >chance she'd be less happy moment-to-moment as a single woman, >she'd have an opportunity to chase dreams she'd been >suppressing for years in favor of her husband and child. > >Driver, meanwhile, doesn't want out of the marriage, but he's >also the one that doesn't want to move to LA and shift focus >to her career for a bit. He's the one who sleeps with a less >charismatic (and frankly far less attractive woman) apparently >just to prove that, if he'd wanted to, he could've slept with >a lot more women? In every scene that that isn't the crux of >the conversation he's presented as sympathetic, but once the >audience knows that about him (and is never given an equal and >opposite flaw in Scarlett) I think it's just impossible to >care as much about the divorce itself. > >It turns the movie into an acting and dialogue showcase, but >kind of a leaden screenplay. Several people I highly >recommended the movie to came back with some version of that >criticism, and I don't need to watch the movie again to know >they're right. For a movie that seems awfully concerned with >centrism and a refreshing amount of room to breath for two >characters on opposite sides of a disagreement, that one >detail makes it really hard to root for Driver's character >even if he acts the fuck out of the role. > > >~~~~~~~~~ >"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas >http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517 >Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
I don't remember who said it, I think it was on the Grierson and Leitch podcast, but the most accurate comment on the movie I heard was that the process of divorce was practically designed for the divorcees to end up hating each other.
Thankfully I've never had a divorce (and hopefully never will), but you can see how the lawyers help escalate a seemingly amicable divorce into a outright legal battle--even if in a way the lawyers are right in doing so (you can argue that Laura Dern's character only helped ScarJo's character get what she was too insecure to go after).
17. "I think Laura Dern's character was pure evil. " In response to Reply # 16
Or at least as evil as Ray Liotta (both of whom, gave excellent performances). Ray Liotta may have been gruff and unlikable, but he was the exact same thing as Laura Dern (just without all the niceties). The only "nice" lawyer was Alan Alda (also great), and he was ineffective.
>I don't remember who said it, I think it was on the Grierson >and Leitch podcast, but the most accurate comment on the movie >I heard was that the process of divorce was practically >designed for the divorcees to end up hating each other. > >Thankfully I've never had a divorce (and hopefully never >will), but you can see how the lawyers help escalate a >seemingly amicable divorce into a outright legal battle--even >if in a way the lawyers are right in doing so (you can argue >that Laura Dern's character only helped ScarJo's character get >what she was too insecure to go after).
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
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