The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Wow, this is so meta. I love it!

Wow. Nick Cage is the only person I’ve seen who has total Botox Forehead and wrinkles on his forehead at the same time. That’s talent!

OK, now his forehead is moving, so perhaps it’s not botox? They just CGId his forehead in that scene? Or… HE”S SUCH A BRILLIANT ACTOR HE CAN ACT FOREHEAD BOTOXED

OK, this movie was perfect, true ⚅, until this moment, and now it’s cringe.

I don’t know… Well, I had to take a short break to make some leftovers into dinner, and when I came back, I found myself rather unenthused by the proceedings. I mean, it’s properly silly and stupid, which I like, but it felt like it was more random instead of being inspired?

Might just be me.

Well, OK, then the last third was insane again.

But does it, though, A. A. Dowd from Digital Trends? Does it?

Anyway, Cage had such a weird career: He started off doing the coolest movies imaginable, and then went on to do decades of the … worst movies possible. Watching the “making of” bits on this disk, I don’t think this is going to lead to a change in his career (as in — starting to do good movies again), because he sounds absolutely dissociated from reality in the interview snippets.

But then again, perhaps that an act, too?

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Tom Gormican. 2022. ⚄

Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now

Oh, I thought this was just going to be footage from the performance. But instead it’s more of a normal documentary, where they talk about how much of a disaster the festival was, and stuff like that.

Well that’s disappointing.

Actually… this is really good. It was a strange and hostile festival, and this really captures that.

Did anybody hear the music? The field is enormous.

Such a consummately professional microphone setup.

And… I think I was wrong? We got an introduction, but now we’ve been shown two songs in full without any interruption? I love it!

This is the tensest concert movie I’ve ever seen. What a fucking nightmare.

I’m not surprised that it took almost half a century to release this, because it’s *gngnngg*

This is seriously one of the best concerts movies ever. It’s so un-annoying — it doesn’t have three hundred people giving one line about how amazing Joni is. Instead it’s 90% straight up concert footage, 5% Joni giving some context to what we’re seeing, and 5% footage from around the festival.

It’s kinda perfect.

I mean, your mileage will vary — if you don’t like Joni Mitchell’s music, you won’t like this movie.

(My only nitpick: The original footage was presumably not in 16:9, so it would have been nice if this movie wasn’t either, but whatevs.)

Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now. Murray Lerner. 2018. ⚅