pomattovich

Clearly Cooper wanted to make a film that was smaller in scope after his more ambitious efforts like "Star is Born" and "Maestro," but I absolutely detested this when I saw it at NYFF. It hopes to combine elements of a stand-up comedy portrait and a marriage drama, but fails spectacularly at both. The stand-up elements seem incredibly inauthentic. Arnett's stand-up is sloppy and unfunny (not just my opinion but what other stand-ups say in the film) but he keeps getting asked back, to The Comedy Cellar, no less. I know he's based on an actual comic, but then Cooper should have just made this a biopic rather than something so loosely inspired. Poor Laura Dern is the MVP of this but is also completely wasted in her role. The film really favors Arnett and even has Dern getting turned on when she catches him insulting her with jokes onstage. (what are the odds that in all of Manhattan, Laura and her date Peyton Manning(!) just happen to pick The Comedy Cellar as a place for an after dinner drink?) There's just so little structure or satisfying arc to this story. Supporting players have almost nothing to do, including Cooper as a scene-stealing best friend who never steals any scenes. This is just awful. I would be kinder to it if it wasn't being touted as a great film and worthy of awards, but this closing night film of NYFF was one of the worst showings that I've ever seen at the festival. Even the audience was dead quiet during the film, but you can bet they all leapt to their feet when Bradley took the stage.

What did you expect? Oh. Do the you think the humans pretending to be magical singing cats look weird? I tell you, if someone was going to make an adaptation of ALW's Cats, i WANTED it to look weird! I wanted it to strange, fantastical, sometimes silly, sometimes oddly serious, and always unlike any other movie out there. In those terms, this film is a wild success. You can argue that you don't like the show on which it is based (I had actually never seen it, nor was I familiar with most of the music,) and that you might have never had any interest in seeing any adaptation of it period, but I feel like most people are merely reviewing the film's existence and not the film itself. If you don't like the look of the film and the performers, what WOULD have satisfied you? It was always going to be humans pretending to be cats. Yes, the CGI fur and make-up looks odd, but I was totally fine with it. I was thoroughly entertained for the entire film. I went to an early press screening, and then took my wife a few days later. Unlike me, she is very familiar with the show and she absolutely loved this film. Even more than I. Are there so rough edges to this film? Definitely. But that's certainly true with similarly toned recent musicals like Moulin Rouge or The Greatest Showman, and I like this film considerably more than those. The cast here is excellent. Ian McKellen is a notable standout. Many of the non-star dancers are exceptional. I think Hooper did an excellent job with the film. A Cats movie was always going to be weird. This is gloriously weird. The more people who hate on it now, the bigger the cult status it will achieve later. This film has its fans. They just need to find each other. This one will be watched for years to come. Just not by everyone.

A beautiful kind of movie that I sometimes feel like isn't made anymore, or at least rarely released. A quiet meditation through a series of life events. Mary Kay Place has almost always been great throughout her career, but rarely has she had the chance to play a role so front and center. She's extraordinary here. Almost anyone who sees this film will find something in it that applies to their own life or remind them of someone they love. I was incredibly moved by it. Without question the best film I've seen so far in this still young year.

The best film I've seen this year, last year, probably the year before that, and probably next year too. The kind of masterpiece most auteur filmmakers have seemingly forgot how to make these days. Incredibly powerful and dramatic. Nostalgic without being overly sentimental. Just as stunning on a technical level as Gravity was, without being nearly as showy. Simply flawless.

Paul Dano’s directorial debut looks beautiful, has a typically excellent performance from Carrie Mulligan, and has a story that feel like Philip Roth without the Judaism. But I don’t think the prose of the book translate all that well to this internalized story. What I'm sure is richly descriptive in the book feels repetitive and tedious here. Mulligan is great but feels like a supporting character in her own story, constantly disappearing behind closed doors while we stay with the gaze of her son and his reaction shots. There's a rather dramatically moving story here, but too much of it happens offscreen. I should acknowledge that I seem to be in the minority on this. The audience at the screening was rapturous. I was disappointed.

David Gordon Green’s response to the original film leans a bit too much on recreating it. Goes in some intriguing directions, & some disappointing ones. It hits the nostalgia button a few too many times. Jamie Lee is great, but is a supporting character in her own movie. The Shape is outstanding, with a strong physical presence that still delivers chills, though rarely satisfying scares. At the end of the day, it’s still just a Halloween sequel, complete with a final girl and a bevy of dumb teenagers to mow through before the final confrontation that we came to see.

Tamara Jenkins’ long overdue return is a hilarious & devastating depiction of modern child conception. Kathryn Hahn is outstanding & Giamatti is the most on brand since Sideways. Great support from Molly Shannon and John Carrol Lynch as well. I love both of Jenkins' other two films and have long lamented her absence. She is so great at mining from life experiences that almost anyone can recognize and relate to, while still crafting carefully plotted stories filled with humor that never feels forced. Hopefully this will be a big hit and Netflix will give her a ton of money to make another film sooner rather than later! I love this film, I adore Jenkins and I hate that we've only gotten 3 films from her in 22 years.