Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Against the Crowd Blogathon 2018: A Guest Post from Joel


It's Day 2 of Against the Crowd Blogathon 2018!

As promised, we have a guest post by super reader Joel. If you've been around this blog for a while you know that even though Joel doesn't have a blog of his own, he's contributed to a number of my blogathons. He has even served as my de facto co-host for Girl Week. Yes Joel, Girl Week 2018 is just a few short months away.  Since he's been a loyal reader and gives the best comments, I'm more than happy to share this space for him to do so.

Of course, the point of this particular blogathon is to give unpopular movie opinions. We're discussing films we hate that others love and films we love that others hate. With that, I'll turn it over to Joel.


HATE!!!


Boyhood (2014)

Award winning? Revolutionary? Awesome? Pish I say!

For three nearly unendurable hours we watch a stupid selfish irresponsible disinterested woman and her dullard of an ex-husband groan about the unfairness of life while basically ignoring their children unless it suits their purposes. The result of this is that their son and the protagonist of the film grows up to be a lackadaisical slacker whose future seems as aimless as this pile of garbage.

I’ve heard this referred to as a love it or hate it film. Please put me firmly in the hate camp. This dreary exercise in existential navel gazing ennui is a mind-numbing, whiny bore. The supposedly edgy technique of shooting over 12 years only proves that Linklater could bore the audience through decades of time!


People proclaim “It’s so true to life! It’s so real!” So what? Scrubbing out my toilet is “so true to life!” as well but I don’t want to watch the cinematic equivalent on the screen.

Like Francis Ford Coppola Linklater cast his own daughter as the couple’s daughter and perhaps someday like Sofia Coppola she might display some skill behind the camera. One can only hope, as it stands now she has the screen presence of vapor.

I’ll state flat out that I am a fan of neither Ethan Hawke nor Patricia Arquette, both marginal talents at best, and Arquette’s Oscar win is one of the most egregious missteps the Academy ever made. There is not a single distinguished aspect to her performance. To be fair her character is poorly conceived and a deplorable mother. The example that sticks out in my mind and infuriated me when watching was when her 14 (!!!!) year old son comes home on his birthday high as a kite, which she recognizes, and all she says is take it easy and go to bed!!!! What in the name of all that is holy kind of response is that!? Call Child Protection Services and get that poor kid away from her. No wonder he had no direction. She never puts her children first and even remains in a terribly abusive relationship despite the danger to her kids. GGGRRRR.


It took me an entire day to wade through this cinematic torture chamber because I broke it into small segments hoping that it would somehow come together into something resembling entertainment. To say that hope went unrealized is a massive understatement.

Near the conclusion of this turkey Arquette’s character (thankfully the last time we see her) says “I thought there would be more.” I’m right there with you sister!!!


LOVE!!!


Love and Other Disasters (2006)

"Jacks" Jackson (Brittany Murphy-petite, fresh and lovely), by birth English but having grown up in America is now back in London (a plot device to cover the fact that Brittany’s accent is wildly variable) works for the British edition of Vogue magazine. Ditzy, flighty and decked out in a tremendous high fashion wardrobe Jacks regularly sleeps with her devoted ex-boyfriend, James Wildstone (Elliot Cowan). Well he’s her ex as far as she’s concerned but he still thinks they’re together though she’s broken up with him multiple times. She also lives with Peter Simon (Matthew Rhys-of the Americans and Brothers & Sisters using an approximation of his native Welsh accent), a screenwriter and her gay best friend who has romantic complications of his own. When Jacks meets Argentinian Paolo Sarmiento (Santiago Cabrera) a photographer's assistant at Vogue, she assumes he is gay and set out to make a match for Peter. However Paolo is straight and deeply smitten with her. Whatever will happen?

Along for the ride is Jacks other best friend, rich girl Tallulah (Catherine Tate) a disaster of a woman who’s current paramour, at least in her mind is an obscene phone caller who works for the phone company and has promised her free broadband! Then there’s Tallulah’s mother Felicity Riggs-Wentworth (Stephanie Beacham) a fashion tragedy who jumps from cause to cause. There’s even a handful of surprise high profile cameos laced throughout.

Some movies are meant to have great import, enrich the human condition or provide insight into a mystery of life. This movie is not one of those. The critics apparently didn’t understand that thinking that something co-produced by Luc Besson and David Fincher (admittedly an unexpected pair for this sort of froth) could turn out something so light. A cheery little romantic comedy with gorgeous views of London, it wears its mantle proudly referencing Breakfast at Tiffany’s along with other starry eyed pictures.




Thanks, Joel!


Click below for yesterday's entries




22 comments:

  1. I can understand people who don't like Boyhood and I'm cool with that. It's not for everyone as I can sympathize with those not interested in films that run at nearly 3 hours or more. Love and Other Disasters I admit to not having seen although I've always liked Brittany Murphy and it's a damn shame she's not around anymore as if she was alive right now. She'd have a damn good career as a comedy actress and maybe we wouldn't have to endure some of the shitty films starring Amy Schumer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't have any problem with long films, I love Gone With the Wind, How the West Was Won, JFK, Judgement at Nuremberg and several others, but a film has to have the heft to make an investment of that amount of time worthwhile. This whimpering sore of an endurance test most certainly did not.

      Delete
  2. This looks so great Dell! Thanks! All the pictures fit so perfectly though that one of Arquette brought all the endurable insufferability of that piece of junk back and made me just want to slap her across the face!!

    Looking forward to what every one else comes up with. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your words led me to the pics. Great job on your part. As always, thanks a ton for doing this.

      Delete
  3. Nice post, Joel! I share your hatred of Boyhood and agree 100% with everything written. There was literally one time in that entire three hours that I was like "aww, nostalgia" and it was when they were in line for the new Harry Potter book.

    I've never seen Love and Other Disasters though I've always been aware of it. Brittany Murphy always had a nice screen presence. It's a shame she's gone. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always nice to find a kindred spirit in regards to something everyone else praises and I disdain. I think this is one of those situations where the film will age horribly for those initial acolytes who were swayed by either their fandom of Linklater or thought the film was edgy because of the effort involved in putting it together.

      Love and Other Disasters is a big ball of fluff but good fluff I think.

      Delete
  4. Dude...we literally said almost exactly the same things about Boyhood. What a total bore, and I wanted more too!! I remember when I saw it, the fire alarm went off in the theater, and we had to evacuate. There was only about 15 minutes left of the movie, but I didn't even care....still haven't finished it....nor do I plan to. What a snoozefest of a movie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Argh! The thought of actually having to sit through this in a theatre gives me the heebie-jeebies!! I had an incredibly hard time making it to the end on DVD. You've missed nothing by not seeing it to the end, which sucked by the way...but I'm sure you already knew that!!

      Delete
  5. OMG! you took my first movie which I also hate with a passion. Boyhood is a snot enriched snore and I hated the characters. I could not write anything better than what you wrote here about the horrible flick that took 3 hrs of my life. How she won an Oscar, I just don’t know but it got raves because the director shot this film over the years..how cool...big deal. I am just so happy that I know someone else who hates this film. I don’t know your second film but I would be willing to see it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm happy to discover that I'm not alone in my complete detestation for this rancid slab of cheese! I'm at a total loss how Arquette's tidal wave of awards for this nothing piece of work came about. Especially when there was such other exceptional work, Keira Knightley, Emma Stone, Laura Dern, right there.

      Delete
    2. I am so with you and might even say the cast of Sharknado was better:)

      Delete
    3. Sharknado!!! HA! A very apt comparison. :-)

      Delete
  6. Boyhood is the perfect example of a film that I liked fine on watching.... and haven't even thought about since. I think it is an impressive undertaking, but I don't think Linklater got as much as he could have out of the idea, and the very nature of it means we don't really have enough time to connect with the characters who aren't Mason. People were all about that "I just thought there would be more" moment, but it didn't make any impact on me at all. I didn't feel very connected to the mother character much at all. I did, however, think Ethan Hawke was terrific as the drifter father. I don't think the film is bad at all. But it's also not very memorable, and for a film with such a big hook, it should AT LEAST be memorable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We'll just have to disagree on it being good but I agree that it's not memorable other than to make me cringe when I hear someone talk about it positively, or really any other time.

      As far as Hawke I've never seen anything where I thought he gave any more than an adequate forgettable performance and he ALWAYS looks like he's in desperate need of a bath and shampoo!

      Delete
  7. Nice post! I love Love and Other Disasters. It was such a shame to lose Brittany Murphy at such a young age. She was a wonderful actress. This was probably one of my favorites of hers. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! Another Love & Other Disasters fan! Brittany Murphy was very well suited to her part (except for that wavering accent). It has great views of London in the mix as well.

      Delete
  8. By the way, I could have definitely written the exact same post on Boyhood. What a dreadful experience that was. Haven't seen Love and Other Disasters, but it sounds like it's worth a look.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was pretty sure I remembered you weren't a fan which of course pleases me. I most definitely DID NOT revisit this for the blogathon, Sweet Jesus once was bad enough!!!!!

      Love and Other Disasters is a flyaway little thing but good for a rainy day. This made me wonder, have you ever had a chance to watch any of my other recommendations from the previous years? I'm always curious if anyone gives any of the movies I suggest a look.

      Delete
  9. Wait... am I the only one who loved Boyhood?! It certainly has some flaws but it is such an interesting project. And I could relate to Mason so much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's the good thing about the blogathon it shows we all have different tastes. But I simply couldn't abide the film.

      Delete