I have not been to a movie theater this full or this interactive in a long time. I don't know if its fans of Nathan Fielder, Elizabeth Holmes, documentaries, or all of the above but it was a truly wonderful movie going experience. They say insert blockbuster here saved movie theaters, but this might actually have been it. The film was also great. fyi you can totally see everything...
Rewatched The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003 - โ โ โ โ โ
I originally watched this for April's IndieWeb Movie Club but didn't get around to posting about it. I also read Story of your Life which this film is based on since I hadn't done that before.
Absolutely crushed by this film. Jessie Buckley is amazing in everything but this might be my favorite performance by her. The scene where they are practicing the play is so powerful and you can hear the pain behind Paul Mescal's "Again". Go thy ways to a nunnery. Again.
For such a massive ensemble cast, every single performance was very memorable. I was initially thrown off by the needle drops more so because they felt out of time but they actually really work. I bounced around with the rating for this mostly because I was left a little conflicted by the ending. I think its purposely ambiguous to make us think about whether Marty has actually grown as a person. Specially if I may not necessarily feel like he deserves to win (both in the game and life) based on everything we saw the prior two hours. Probably my favorite vampire film of the year, so far.
This post is my entry for IndieWeb Movie Club #007. Propriety? Noun. Conformity to established standards of behavior or manners, suitability, rightness, or justice. See โetiquette.โ - Judy I had never heard of this film before Joe recommended it in the IndieWeb Chat sometime last year. I promptly watched it as I realized I had not seen many films starring Barbra Streisand and I felt I had to fix that. The first time I watched it I found myself playing close attention to the plot and the bags. I wanted to follow what everyone was doing and how exactly they would resolve it. This time I ignored the plot to focus more on the jokes. There were so many little reactions and background sounds that I completely missed the first time. Sometimes knowing where the joke ends makes the joke even funnier. As soon as Fritz (not Hans) tells the other guy to stop Mrs Van Hoskins with his "charm", it all played once in my head and again on screen. This happened again with the chase sequence. And as soon as the judge showed up, I officially could not stop laughing just remembering his lines and delivery. Thanks Joe for hosting this month's IndieWeb Movie Club as well as for recommending this originally.
Nora Ephron sure knows how to write and direct a movie. Now I'm going to get a $2.95 Tall Decaf Cappuccino at Starbucks before getting my eyes lasered.
This post is my entry for IndieWeb Movie Club #005. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. I have somehow made it 30+ years without watching it and assumed all the praise would have made it impossible to live up to. I was wrong. The beauty of this movie is the timelessness of it. Not only does it hold up after almost 80 years but it also feels like it could be watched at any point of the year and the message would still carry through. I dont know if I would even consider it a Christmas movie as I originally believed it was. Die Hard meets that criteria better than this film does. I initially felt a little underwhelmed by the fact that Potter never really had a turn or consequences to his story. The more I thought about it the more I realized that sometimes, much like in real life, people with that amount of control dont actually grow. They also may not lose, but they do fail. Because in the end, the message of the movie is very explicitly told to us: Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Finally, just because this helped me visualize the amount in 2024: $8000 is $129433.
This post is my entry for IndieWeb Movie Club #002. This has been on my rewatch list for a while. The last time I watched this movie was also the first time my (now) wife and I watched a movie together. Someone at work recommended it to her, and I had a copy of it (remember DVDs?). First viewing: I don't know exactly but it was around the summer of 2008. I remember because a store I loved going to was closing and that's where I found the DVD and got it. Watch count: 3 times. Favorite quote: This is a movie of good lines and even better deliveries. My favorite delivery has to be: Then you know what happens? Six years later you find yourself singing "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" in front of Ira!. Favorite scene: The Met scene is shot beautifully but it also presents the slight shift in the relationship between the two leads. Not because Harry asking Sally to a movie is necessarily a romantic ask, but because this version of Harry is changed so much from the one we originally meet that believes "men and women can't be friends". He's asking his friend to the movies much like I asked my wife all those years ago to watch this movie with me. Cut to us now doing one of those couple interviews that are so brilliantly done in this movie. Fun fact: They were all real interviews and stories but they cast actors to perform them. Prop I wish I had: You know that little container that Sally has to alphabetize her VHSes with index cards? I want that. Cards and all. While I think this is generally regarded as a classic in the romcom genre, I feel like it doesn't get as much of the attention as others. I'm pretty sure even other Meg Ryan movies of the same genre get more play even today on TV and movie theaters. I need to eventually find a movie theater that is playing it so I can watch it there.
Wake up, Neo... This post is my entry for IndieWeb Movie Club #001. It's hard to write anything original about a movie (and series) that has had every frame analyzed, discussed, copied, and (to some degree) has come true. Instead of an analysis or review, I came up with a list which may or may not carry over to future IndieWeb Movie Club posts. First viewing: I can't say exactly but I know it was in theaters. We had one movie theater in the town I grew up and it played movies about 6 months after they were released elsewhere. So I want to say either late '99 or early '00. Watch count: I've logged this movie 4 times between my site and my letterboxd. But even before this I had probably seen this double of that. So I'm estimating between 10-15. Favorite quote: What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. Favorite scene: This one is difficult because every scene is great for different reasons. Trinity's first scene is pretty great and builds up to what action scenes are going to look like in this movie. Morpheus training with Neo does so many new things while taking shots and moves straight out of the media that inspired it. Then there's the writing with scenes like Morpheus in the construct teaching Neo about the Matrix, and Smith's interrogation scene venting his frustrations of humanity vs machines and his place in this world. But I think in this last watch something stuck out to me about the scene where they are going to unplug Morpheus. I interpreted this moment as Neo finally understanding what Morpheus was teaching him during the fight and the jump programs. The word believe is used a lot. Free your mind. Prop I wish I had: Many movies have done the multiple monitor workstation, but this is the one I wanted. While this is my favorite of the series, I do love all the sequels and the Animatrix. Since I can't just watch one, I'm probably going to continue on to the rest of the series before next months IndieWeb Movie Club. The Matrix has you...
Thanks to Joe and James for this recommendation. Favorite quote (spoilers): You have this way of making everything sound reasonable and then rooms begin to burn. People start to chase people.
It's great seeing this story told from this specific point of view. It's hard to explain but there was a certain mythology surrounding this story growing up near the Andes region. Also worth checking out the "Making of": https://youtu.be/VFBbf-MbEl8
Feb
Rewatched Drop Dead Gorgeous, 1999 - โ โ โ โ โ
Got to watch this today with my Minnesotan friends that had somehow not watched this before. Very 90s but seeing them react to the MN specific jokes made this a great movie watching experience.
It's not a tradition but usually the first time we hear "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey outside of home during the holiday season means it's time to watch this again.
