Most Anticipated Next Film

[gattaca]

Posting here -> December release -> Oh my.. big shoes to fill and it sounds like another home-run!  "Endlessly charming"     -> https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/wonka-reviews-reactions-timothee-chalamet-b2455133.html  V.

[killersmom]

^^^^^ I am so looking forward to seeing this. It's rated PG, so I don't think J&A will let me take the girls.

[gattaca]

Just wow! -> https://www.slashfilm.com/1458544/dune-part-2-trailer-war-intrigue-spice/  V.

[killersmom]

Just wow! -> https://www.slashfilm.com/1458544/dune-part-2-trailer-war-intrigue-spice/  V.

WOW! Is right!! Looks really amazing!

[gattaca]

"All of Us Strangers (2023)" by Andrew Haigh, starring: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Carter John Grout.  -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21192142
> This one's gonna be tough - "hits you like a ton of bricks".  Just reading the reviews is giving me chillbumps! 

Potential major spoilers below in the reviews.  Read at your own risk!  The excerpts I include from the one review does NOT have spoilers.  But sentement like many of us felt after seeing BBM.  "hit me like a ton of bricks", "audience member weeping..."

a) -> https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/review-us-strangers-enthralling-gift-cinematic-hypnosis/story?id=105840158

b) -> https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/movies/all-of-us-strangers-review.html
"It is, however, a movie with a tricky conceit to pull off, one I am trying not to spoil for you. Let’s just say it’s a spectral story, inherently a little contrived, and thus veers close to sticky sentimentality more than once. I’ve watched it surrounded by weeping audience members while I struggled to stay plugged in as I desperately attempted to rationally untangle its threads. On second viewing, I surrendered to it, and that’s the way to go: just feel your way through, letting it roll over you.     ... “I’ve always felt like a stranger in my own family,” Harry tells Adam, and once I was able to stop intellectualizing “All of Us Strangers,” the line hit me like a ton of bricks. I think it’s a sentiment more common than most of us admit, even to ourselves, even when we are surrounded by people who love us. We are, we know, strangers in our families and in our lives and our cities and our own bodies, and our life’s work is to move from the strange to something approaching the familiar. All, I think, of us."

c) WAPO -> https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/12/21/all-of-us-strangers-movie-review/

d) Warning do not read until after seeing film / ending details -> https://www.vulture.com/article/all-of-us-strangers-unexpected-twist-ending-explained.html

e) Rotten 95% / ??% => https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_of_us_strangers

V.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

^^^
Paul Mescal got an Oscar nomination for Best Actor last year, and while I didn't think the movie was much of anything, he was quite appealing.

[tfferg]

Thank you, Vince, for your All of Us Strangers post.

I saw the film a few weeks ago at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. I was uncomfortable sitting at close quarters in a sellout  audience. It had been so long since the festival films were screened in cinemas that I forgot to ask for the assisted listening system to be turned on. Before the film itself began, there was a separate short video introduction by the director himself in a completely different setting and I heard every word clearly. However, I couldn't discern more than a few words of the film itself, which was very frustrating because many, many key scenes are conversations between the characters. I've always been able to understand Andrew Scott's accent in his previous films.There were a number of scenes which I did enjoy on a purely visual level, but I didn't understand what happened in the latter part of the film.

An independent chain screened the film at their many cinemas the other night as a one-evening gala event with a glass of bubbly. Unlike the version I saw at MQFF, the trailer was captioned. I suppose for general cinema release, many audiences would have difficulty with the Andrew Scott's light Irish accent and with Paul Mescal's accent as a Mancunian character. I debated whether or not it would be worth my while going to see it again particularly as it would mean going by myself so that my partner would come home from work to an empty house which I know makes him very uncomfortable.

I read quite a lot of reviews from various film festival screenings here and in other countries, none of which contained any spoilers

Having decided not to book a ticket, I suddenly understood the climax and denouement of the film

The theme of the film is grief and loss but there are scenes of comfort and happiness. For several reviewers the film relates to their own experience and they found it cathartic.

[gattaca]

^^^ Sometimes here, we get to have closed captioning ON shows.  While other theaters will provide reader glasses which overlays the closed captioning into your view as the film proceeds.  Others, in particular one just build complex, offers none of these which makes me they might in violation of USA's Americans with Disability act.   I've not decided whether to push them to do better yet or not.  The place seems run by high-school teenagers just trying to keep a job.  Nice but not if you are hearing impaired for sure or it's a film (aka Nolan) where the dialog is difficult to understand due to mixing or just accents as you relate.   I checked and it won't open here for a while and then only in 1 theater about 1 hours drive away so I might have to just wait to see in when streamed. V.

[brianr]

I have just come home from seeing "all of us strangers" at one of our city's 2 multiplexes.
I did have trouble understanding it especially Harry but really most of the characters seemed to mumble. I was not even sure it was gay related before it started.  For some reason, I did not find it emotional except perhaps when he comes out to his Mother and her reaction.
Most of the criticism I have read is that it is another gay movie with a sad ending. Perhaps the idea that some have that Adam has also died removes that.
I certainly thought how depiction of gay sex has gone a long way since 2005/6.
I heard a discussion of queer/gay and it has been mentioned in reviews but did not understand what was said.  I found it hard to use the word 'queer" because of its derogative use when I was growing up but have got over that now.

[tfferg]

When All of Us Strangers was shown over a week the week before last, I decided to give it another  go and went to an afternoon screening. I got an effective device which allowed me to see the closed oaptions. The actors don't actually mumble. I wasn't able to make out much of the dialogue the first time I saw the film back in November because of the way it was recorded. I fond movies vary in this respect. I suspect that many gay movies don't have big enough budgets to finance better quality sound recording. It is especially noticeable in short films made by filmmakers before the are able to make full-length features or documentaries. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have always been able to understand Andrew Scott in other films over the years and I don't recall having any difficulty with Jamie Bell's lines in Billy Elliot.

BTW, I found Jamie Bell's performance in All of Us Strangers very moving. I teared up in his scene with Adam where he portrays. complex mixture of emotions in an understated but very clear way.

As reviewers have noted, the themes of the film are loneliness and loss, but also kindness. Adam's parents develop qualities of understanding and kindness that they certainly didn't have when they were alive. They become more understanding and accept Adam fully. I think that they were too preoccupied with problems in their relationship to give any attention to the young Adam and his needs. Adam's mother somehow develops insights, especially into Harry.

Despite his scary demeanour when he first knocks on Adam's door, Harry turns out to be a man with qualities of empathy. He is a very good listener.

The mood of the final scene is not one of tragedy but of warmth and kindness.

[tfferg]

The very true-to-life sex scene in All of Us Strangers is excellent and played authentically in a way that we don't see specifically in other films.

As for the discussion over the words gay and queer. Harry is 20 years younger than Adam. The latter, like people of our generation adopted the word gay because the word queer was a homophobic slur when we were young. It was the era of gay liberation. The younger Harry experienced the ubiquitous use of the word gay by school students not just as a homophobic slur but as an all-purpose put down, "That's so gay", so he prefers the word queer. Many people identify as queer these days.

[Jeff Wrangler]

The very true-to-life sex scene in All of Us Strangers is excellent and played authentically in a way that we don't see specifically in other films.

As for the discussion over the words gay and queer. Harry is 20 years younger than Adam. The latter, like people of our generation adopted the word gay because the word queer was a homophobic slur when we were young. It was the era of gay liberation. The younger Harry experienced the ubiquitous use of the word gay by school students not just as a homophobic slur but as an all-purpose put down, "That's so gay", so he prefers the word queer. Many people identify as queer these days.

Don't I remember that? And my school days were a very long time ago.

As for the use of queer, that's probably why I have a knee-jerk, automatic reaction against that word. I guess it really is a generational thing. (But I suppose there is a flip side to that: How many born since the turn of the century, and even some time before, don't know that once that was a slur?)

[gattaca]

^^ Thanks for the warning about "AoUS".. I probably won't get to see it b/c it will likely only show in 1 theater over in Durham which is about 60 minute 1 way drive... so I may hold for home where I can turn on closed-captions.  I'm eagerly awaiting..  V.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Coming soon to a theater near you.

Twisters




Starring hunky Glen Powell.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Coming soon to a theater near you.

Twisters




Starring hunky Glen Powell.

It will be interesting to see the difference in special effects.