My first film of the year is ‘Two Popes’, which is on Netflix. It’s slow, but great performances, especially Hopkins who is a dead-ringer for Pope Benedict XVI. I’d give it an 8/10.
Saw ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ and was a bit disappointed. I liked it enough (and I’m definitely not on board with the ‘I hate Tarantino’ circle-jerk thread), but I didn’t think it quite matched to his recent outings like ‘Django’, ‘Inglourious Basterds’ and definitely nowhere near the dizzying heights of ‘Pulp Fiction.’ I liked the characters and the setting and DiCaprio and Pitt give great performances as usual, but I felt the plot meandered a lot in the middle (did we need to spend 10 minutes watching Sharon Tate watch herself in a movie?). I did get a little bored in the middle, but it picked up a lot in the end, which followed Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ style of revising historical events. The ending does pay off, which I appreciate. But I don’t think this should be in contention for best picture, and I probably won’t ever watch it again (in contrast to ‘Pulp Fiction’, which I’ve probably seen a dozen times).
Saw Two Popes. It was boring as bleep. Slow paced and a bit too much dialogue but 1/2 in it gets engaging when Francis talks about his time as an Argentine stripper prior to him becoming a priest.
I’m getting drunk and watching Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman tonight.
I never have time to watch anything except a few minutes of the news anymore, but the kids need to study for exams and the wife needs to take a Chinese entourage on some factory tours this weekend. Finally got some chill time.
Saw The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood reluctantly (because I need to have watched it to say I hate them) and yes, I thoroughly loathed them. Wasted like 6 hours on those boring tripes.
As someone who since Thanksgiving has seen Marriage Story a third time, 8½ a fifth time, Notorious (1946) a third time, The Third Man a third time and The Rules of the Game for the second time…
6 Underground amused me. It was excessively long, has awkward and confusing editing (especially pertaining to flashbacks), bewildered camera plotting and spotty color correction… But I did not consider it a total waste of 2 hours.
What can I say, I knew what I was getting into… And bayhem’s gotta bay 'em.