Movie Talk

I read in the Times about a new documentary about Oscar Peterson. If you're not familiar with Oscar Peterson, he was a jazz pianist from Canada. His playing was brilliant, stunning, exciting, swinging, at times astounding in its creativity, improvisation  and breadth of styles. 

The film, though, was really, really awful. What a shame. So much wasted time on the screen. Not nearly enough of his playing. Billy Joel? Who cares? And a mediocre saloon band gets to much time dribbling when Oscar's music could be featured. So terrible.  

Here's a nice video about Oscar's playing. Again, a bit too much gab but you get an idea of OP's brilliance. 

I'm looking forward to seeing Ted K., a new biopic about Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber. I think it's on Apple TV+.

 Very fond of Oscar P.  Truly fine, delicate, clear playing.

hmm, never knew he was Canadian.

You can hear Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom in Tomorrow Is Today, from Joel’s first album, so we know Billy is … sincere.

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

I read in the Times about a new documentary about Oscar Peterson. If you're not familiar with Oscar Peterson, he was a jazz pianist from Canada. His playing was brilliant, stunning, exciting, swinging, at times astounding in its creativity, improvisation  and breadth of styles. 

The film, though, was really, really awful. What a shame. So much wasted time on the screen. Not nearly enough of his playing. Billy Joel? Who cares? And a mediocre saloon band gets to much time dribbling when Oscar's music could be featured. So terrible.  

Here's a nice video about Oscar's playing. Again, a bit too much gab but you get an idea of OP's brilliance. 

I'm looking forward to seeing Ted K., a new biopic about Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber. I think it's on Apple TV+.

He had some chops.  

I've seen The Godfather a gazillion times, and I never noticed this

I noticed it when I watched it a couple of weeks ago.

Saw Don’t Look Up.  Solid meh.  Power Of The Dog.  Liked it a lot but not for everyone.  Great performances. 

The songs in Cyrano were forgettable, but Peter Dinklage more than makes up for that. Thankfully, there’s a lot of him.

And the period costumes and scenery were Richard Lester-esque (The Three and The Four Musketeers) in their panache.

jeffl said:

Saw Don’t Look Up.  Solid meh. 

yup

My son and I rented and watched "Ted K"on Prime over the weekend. We had high hopes for it. But, alas, it wasn't very good. The thing that was most annoying was that the most interesting part of the story, i.e., how his brother identified him by reading his "manifesto" and recognizing his brother's writing, wasn't part of the narrative. It was only mentioned in scrolling text at the end. 

I'd say skip it. 

Took a break from the war and watched West Side Story. Loved this version of Tony, hated the old one. Loved his voice and this Maria.  Some cool choreography and costumes. And the music still holds up.

Prepping for the Oscars (an inevitable disappointment but I watch every year), I watched West Side Story and King Richard yesterday. 

West Side Story, what can I say? The original WSS is a beloved part of my growing up. Seen it 5 or 6 times With my parents. With my kids.  This version was truly good, but I kept feeling I was watching a high school trying to put its own vision on the screen. Nuts, right? I still say, as I said 2 years ago when I heard that Spielberg was re-making WSS, why? 

I think the acting made King Richard a great movie. Everybody was so good, especially Will Smith and the women who played Richard's wife and young Venus and Serena. At times I thought the Richard character was overwrought and overplayed but I realised that, no, he was really like that.  I give the filmmakers and Smith credit for staying true to an driven but obnoxious and insensitive character that we can feel so ambivalent about. 

Tonight I hope to watch Drive My Car but it's 3 hours long! Then Encanto, and Nightmare Alley. 

I saw CODA (loved it and all the performances), Don't Look Up (great pointed satire), Power of the Dog (again great performances, esp. Ben Cumberbatch) and Licorice Pizza (phooey, meh although Alana Haim was so charming, so fresh, she lit up the screen in an otherwise blah movie). 

Why are all these movies so long? 

Watched DRIVE MY CAR last night. Three hours. Whooo! Very emotionally-driven film, you get inside the thoughts and emotions of multiple characters. And some wonderful performances, but loooong and sloooow. This movie did not have to be 180 minutes. I had dinner early so I could start the film before 6:30. Next up: Nightmare Alley and Encanto. 

Although tonight I'll be watching the St. Peters Peacocks face off against 3rd seed Purdue. Here in Jersey City, where I live now, people have Peacock fever. Go, 'cocks, go!

No Oscar thread?

We didn’t watch last night.  Did anyone see the Will Smith-Chris Rock altercation live? Holy cow. 

mrincredible said:

Did anyone see the Will Smith-Chris Rock altercation live?

IIRC, after the slap the live broadcast went back and forth a couple of times between a technical-difficulties type of screen that just said “Oscars” on it and brief, muted shots of Smith and Rock until returning for good with Rock’s comment about “the greatest night in the history of television.”

DaveSchmidt said:

mrincredible said:

Did anyone see the Will Smith-Chris Rock altercation live?

IIRC, after the slap the live broadcast went back and forth a couple of times between a technical-difficulties type of screen that just said “Oscars” on it and brief, muted shots of Smith and Rock until returning for good with Rock’s comment about “the greatest night in the history of television.”

The part that was muted was not muted on international tv. Look at the expression on Jada. 

You had to have watched the slapping episode to understand what Chris Rock was going through in his acceptance speech.

I've always liked Will Smith but I'm done. This was childish, petty, narcissistic, privileged behaviour. He should have apologized to Chris Rock. 

She has Alopecia? Oh, Lordie, what a bunch of crap. 

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

She has Alopecia? Oh, Lordie, what a bunch of crap. 

She has been very public for a few years about her alopecia. 

Will Smith’s actions were inexcusable. And he had an opportunity to publicly apologize a few minutes later and chose not to do so. 

What Chris Rock said was also inexcusable. I understand when you book Chris Rock you are taking a chance that he’ll say something outrageous. But in my opinion that crossed that a$$hole line. 

But it doesn’t excuse violence. 

twitter was a course all aflutter about this. I was shocked - shocked I say! - at the percentage of people who supported Smith's actions. It was very bizarre.

We watched King Richard Saturday evening because I had heard so many people say that Will Smith was going to get the Oscar. We loved the movie and Will Smith deserved the Oscar. My next pick would have been Benedict Cumberbatch, who was incredible in The Power of the Dog. He is really a talented actor. When I saw the movie a few months ago I was sure that he was going to get the Oscar. 

Will Smith is talented but he has long been full of himself. Chris Rock is 1000 times cooler than him.  And by the way, what he did is called "assault."  Not allowed to do that just because you're offended by someone.

After watching Sean Penn interviewed by Jim Acosta I decided to watch the Oscars hoping that a surprise from Zelensky or a tribute to Ukraine would be part of the show; I hoped for one of the political speeches that were a traditional surprise at previous shows. At least Francis Ford Coppola ended his speech with Viva Ukraine. Sean Penn expressed his hope that if Zelensky were not part of the show, people would boycott the Oscars. As well he promised to publicly smelt his own Oscar when he  returns. 

So assessing behavior surrounding the Oscars, I'm in agreement with Sean Penn, I feel sorry for Chris Rock who remained poised after the assault, and revolted by Will Smith's violent behavior and self pitying, weepy, explanation for how hard it is to be disrespected and expected to keep smiling.  

Penn has a tendency to go overboard sometimes. His call for a boycott is exactly that.

I don't think it's necessary for the Oscars to become explicitly political.  That's not their job.

drummerboy said:

Penn has a tendency to go overboard sometimes. His call for a boycott is exactly that.

I don't think it's necessary for the Oscars to become explicitly political.  That's not their job.

No, not their job. Just reflecting on the behavior of 3 male performers, The Good, (documentary director,) The Bad, (joke) and The Ugly (public assault). I'm hopelessly impressed with the behavior of Zelensky and Penn. And as a born boycotter, I like Penn's attack on a disappointing situation better than Smith's.

I haven't seen Coda yet, but on the face of it it seems like a weak choice for best movie.

But then I'm reminded of Green Book, which also wasn't real best movie material, but has become a favorite of mine.

Maybe the academy is on to something.

Enjoying The Green Knight with Dev Petel. He is a favorite of mine and an easy win for me as I enjoy anything medieval, particularly Arthurian legend.

An interesting medieval themed film with another favorite actor, Adam Driver, is The Last Duel, a historical drama, told from 3 different character's viewpoints. I may have posted when I first watched it on Showtime. Strong performances by Ben Affleck and Mat Damon.

If you enjoy castles and quests both are great.

Just saw Parallel Mothers by Pedro Almodovar, on Amazon, though had to pay extra. If you're familiar with his work and are a fan, it's another brilliant, thought-provoking, semi - tragic and beautifully acted drama starring Penelope Cruz. 

I was not knocked out by Dune.  I saw one description of it as "inert," which seemed apt.  2.5 hours just for Part 1.  Really?