That’s a lot of grain, dude.

Oh, that sounds familiar…

Anyway, is this the movie that ends with the guy telling people to scream out the window? Or… is that something else?

It’s a satire? I.e., not actually funny?

Oh, I think I was thinking of Network (which was from the 70s). This is from 1987! I was thinking “wow, William Hurt looks old to be like 27”.

Oh, right.

Oh, that’s her!

I’m having some problems getting into this, and I’m not sure at all why. The base mood is basically… Hill Street Blues? But with a plot line that’s all satirical and critical of the news business and how fake (*gasp*) it is and stuff.

It’s refreshing to see actors without fillers and botox again. We used to think of the 80s as being so over-the-top glamorous, but then the trend just continued and now nobody protests at the otherworldly faces on the screens.

Button down shirts! I’ve been reading the menswear guy lately… I didn’t know what that expression referred to before.

I’m not sure whether we have those in Europe? A Brooks Brothers invention, I think he said.

See those buttons?

Oh oh I’ve seen this before! Probably at the time? I remember this sweaty scene!

Yes, it’s him.

I really liked the ending. (SPOILERS!) The movie kind of sets up Holly Hunter to choose between Hurt (who’s very nice, but fake) and Brooks (who’s a bit of a dick, but serious), and goes for the unusual solution of: How about none of them?

Which is the only right solution.

But it’s not that the movie aged badly, but more like it’s… I dunno. For large stretches of this movie, I just didn’t really connect. Is it just that it’s too long for the material? (It’s 2h10m.)

Broadcast News. James L. Brooks. 1987. ⚃

Hey! Spoilers!

OK, not loving this so far… The colour grading isn’t overpowering, but they’ve grayified a lot (except certain colours), and there’s shakycam. Which I just loathe.

OK, we’ve got a sad kid who gets bullied… so is he gonna go all Harry Potter all of a sudden?

Oh, it’s Liam!

Oh yeah! That’s why I bought this bluray — it has Sigourney Weaver. I was starting to wonder how I ended up with this…

Nice decor. I mean, I mean it — if they hadn’t colour graded this into sadness, it would be a comfy kitchen.

They found the one child actor in the UK that looks like a jaundiced 40s child. Which is confusing, since it’s contemporary (I think). Nobody’s got a mobile phone… perhaps it’s meant to be set in the 90s? (They have a DVD player.)

Stern! Very stern!

So Liam Neeson plays an ent?

Oh, there’s animated bits, too.

I like the style. It’s very computerish, but somebody has apparently invented an algorithm to make everything seem all watercolourley. It’s pretty.

But it looks like we’re going to get Liam Treeson telling the poor kid three of these fairytales? And I hate fairytales sooo much.

Oh god

This is very confusing. She’s got thick, luscious hair, but cropped short. So her mother is trying to get her to wear wigs!? But why? This isn’t how cancer treatments work — chemo doesn’t result in having shorter, luscious hair!

Did she just refuse to shave her head for this role? Which I can totally understand, if so.

This movie didn’t bomb exactly, but didn’t do well either.

Still not shaved her head.

Bandana is growing bigger, though.

This movie is even worse than the Jurassic World thing Bayona did.

The movie is one of those worthy ones. Beurk !

A Monster Calls. J.A. Bayona. 2016. ⚀

Well, OK, this movie is well made and I love the actors, but… It’s only been fifteen minutes, and we’ve already had so much misery heaped upon this poor woman that it’s… It’s not that I don’t believe that it’s possible, but it’s too much.

Yeah of course — in addition to everything else, she’s probably dying from some disease?

I’m sorry, this is veering close to kitch.

OK OK.

Yeah, a mattress without a sheet. Trés economique à long terme.

Lokita is such a gormless character — she deals drugs but apparently gets paid less than 1% of the take? And is also paying off the people who smuggled her in (in the most humiliating way — by carrying around absolutely all her money on her person), and etc etc. I thought it was a kinda racist movie, but then her kid brother is super duper competent and does almost super human feats, so I guess it’s just misogynist?

I just didn’t find the characters believable.

So instead of being heart-rending (which is what the directors where obviously going for), I was just rolling my eyes at each horrific thing.

Don’t listen to me:

It’s got an 87% tomatometer.

But I’m pissed off with this movie, because they really went all in on making a tear jerker about the horrible conditions immigrants face, and how terribly they’re exploited — and the filmmakers failed completely, in my opinion. I totally applaud what they apparently were trying to make, but instead they made this piece of kitch.

Still, I loved the performances (especially the kid (who they had say the most hair-raisingly incongruous things)) and it looks good, so let’s go with:

Tori and Lokita. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne. 2022. ⚁