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It's interesting that The Coens have so many movies with such warm, interesting, endearing characters, but also a handful of movies with truly unpleasant people presented unpleasantly that are torture to watch. It's almost like they want to punish their audience.
my reading of the coens is that they're misanthropes, and that even the most endearing of their characters are in fact dupes of various stripes. not all, but most.
so there is a political valence to their stuff that is quote/unquote bad. i can suspend that shortcoming because they're very good writers and make good pictures.
to your original q. I find the pastiche in hail caesar to be lots of fun & as "authentic" as can be hoped for, in a movie like this. it's filled with great scenes. why? if I find them funny. and though I never found much use for his thinking, i liked seeing one of the more visible exponents of the frankfurt school in a hollywood movie. clooney has been a wonderful comic instrument for them and he is here, too, and this movie adds josh brolin to their character repertoire of capable idiots. no grand argument. just plays to my predictions and pretensions
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47020 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
Bammer wrote:
tragabigzanda wrote:
Bammer
tragabigzanda wrote:
tragabigzanda wrote:
Simple Torture wrote:
Jorge wrote:
Simple Torture wrote:
We saw the new Puss in Boots movie with my daughter today, and it was really funny.
Are there references to the extended Shrek universe
I've only watched like 40% of Shrek, so no, not really, but similar humor in some parts.
On the docket for this frigid snowy day
Puss In Boots rules so hard
I swear I’m not joking when I say I’ve been thinking about this one a lot. Lots of themes around mortality, fear of death, meaning of life…And awesome animation and voices too.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 3:35 pm Posts: 32244 Location: Buenos Aires
Malloy wrote:
to your original q. I find the pastiche in hail caesar to be lots of fun & as "authentic" as can be hoped for, in a movie like this. it's filled with great scenes. why? if I find them funny. and though I never found much use for his thinking, i liked seeing one of the more visible exponents of the frankfurt school in a hollywood movie. clooney has been a wonderful comic instrument for them and he is here, too, and this movie adds josh brolin to their character repertoire of capable idiots. no grand argument. just plays to my predictions and pretensions
I agree. It's colorful, it's funny, the music is great, the "villains" are a group of communist screenwriters. It's a great time. I prefer it over several Coens films, to me it's nowhere near their worst. I know it's controversial but I saw it then (and still see it) as a bounce back in quality from the widely loved Inside Llewyn Davis. As far as unlikeable characters, that's never been a problem for me. I've never felt like I needed to personally like the characters in order to enjoy the movie
Inside Llewyn Davis is pretty cool. It’s on my list of remaining 2013 movies. I’ve got 10 rewatches, thst I’ve all rated highly previously, and 17 I’ve never seen before.
to your original q. I find the pastiche in hail caesar to be lots of fun & as "authentic" as can be hoped for, in a movie like this. it's filled with great scenes. why? if I find them funny. and though I never found much use for his thinking, i liked seeing one of the more visible exponents of the frankfurt school in a hollywood movie. clooney has been a wonderful comic instrument for them and he is here, too, and this movie adds josh brolin to their character repertoire of capable idiots. no grand argument. just plays to my predictions and pretensions
I agree. It's colorful, it's funny, the music is great, the "villains" are a group of communist screenwriters. It's a great time. I prefer it over several Coens films, to me it's nowhere near their worst. I know it's controversial but I saw it then (and still see it) as a bounce back in quality from the widely loved Inside Llewyn Davis. As far as unlikeable characters, that's never been a problem for me. I've never felt like I needed to personally like the characters in order to enjoy the movie
Ditto for the most part on the last point. And with those kind of Coens’ characters they are always entertaining.
An enigma of a man shaped hole in the wall between reality and the soul of the devil.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:13 pm Posts: 39762 Location: 6000 feet beyond man and time.
The communist cell of writers was the only thing I really liked about it, but they aren't in the movie much. The only time I laughed was when the cowboy guy says "so it's communists."
Outside of that, everyone else is hamming it up in the worst ways. Clooney is awful. Everything looks cheap and ugly (which I assume was on purpose, but showing Hollywood as fake and gaudy isn't very interesting these days).
Maybe if they would have concentrated on making the movie about the hero movie exec vs evil commie writers, that might have been funny, but it's too unfocused. I don't know why Channing Tatum is in this movie at all.
Joined: Thu April 04, 2013 6:27 am Posts: 17728 Location: Port Perry Lodge on voluptuous Lake Perry
BurtReynolds wrote:
The communist cell of writers was the only thing I really liked about it, but they aren't in the movie much. The only time I laughed was when the cowboy guy says "so it's communists."
Outside of that, everyone else is hamming it up in the worst ways. Clooney is awful. Everything looks cheap and ugly (which I assume was on purpose, but showing Hollywood as fake and gaudy isn't very interesting these days).
Maybe if they would have concentrated on making the movie about the hero movie exec vs evil commie writers, that might have been funny, but it's too unfocused. I don't know why Channing Tatum is in this movie at all.
Part of the humor of it all is the weird choices, left turns it makes throughout. Think Big Lebowski. It's quirky. Channing Tatum's arc is quite hilarious, if you think about it. They can make a Fargo when they feel like it. But this isn't that.
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An enigma of a man shaped hole in the wall between reality and the soul of the devil.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:13 pm Posts: 39762 Location: 6000 feet beyond man and time.
tree_ wrote:
BurtReynolds wrote:
The communist cell of writers was the only thing I really liked about it, but they aren't in the movie much. The only time I laughed was when the cowboy guy says "so it's communists."
Outside of that, everyone else is hamming it up in the worst ways. Clooney is awful. Everything looks cheap and ugly (which I assume was on purpose, but showing Hollywood as fake and gaudy isn't very interesting these days).
Maybe if they would have concentrated on making the movie about the hero movie exec vs evil commie writers, that might have been funny, but it's too unfocused. I don't know why Channing Tatum is in this movie at all.
Part of the humor of it all is the weird choices, left turns it makes throughout. Think Big Lebowski. It's quirky. Channing Tatum's arc is quite hilarious, if you think about it. They can make a Fargo when they feel like it. But this isn't that.
Don't ever compare this movie to Big Lebowski again.
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