Tag: Movies (Page 5 of 6)

Vote Villeneuve 2049

July 28, 2017 / Taylor Gaines

On Tuesday, Taylor and Sam argued over which movie director should be the subject of their upcoming podcast series. In the series, they will examine each movie in the filmography of a prominent director. When the dust settled, two men remained: Guillermo del Toro and Denis Villeneuve. Next Tuesday, we’ll be holding a live Twitter vote to determine the winner and subject of the series. Today, we are publishing Taylor’s and Sam’s arguments for why you should vote for their chosen director. First up: Taylor on Villeneuve. (Update: Sam’s is here.)

The argument for Denis Villeneuve is two minutes and 22 seconds long.

Sure, I could spend my time telling you why watching the movies of a man who decided to make two “Hellboy” movies is a bad idea. Or I could tell you why we’d be wasting our time with a filmmaker who saw “Pinocchio” and thought, “You know what? That story should be darker.” I could even tell you why you should never trust the judgment of a man who thinks “The Strain” is good television.

But I won’t do that.

I could also spend my time telling you why Villeneuve is the right choice. For many reasons. I could tell you that “Arrival” is secretly the best movie of the last year. I could tell you that watching “Prisoners” will make you feel things you never thought a movie could make you feel. I could point out that you’d actually be doing Sam a favor by picking Villeneuve because his all-time favorite actor Jake Gyllenhaal is in two of his movies.

But I won’t do that either.

For now, I will simply show you a video that is two minutes and 22 seconds long and highlight some of the moments within.

Please begin.

This is the trailer for Villeneuve’s upcoming film, “Blade Runner 2049.” It comes out October 6.

This is Ryan Gosling. He plays Sebastian. Years after the world has fallen into complete disarray due to a nuclear apocalypse, he still likes to visit the piano bar he used to own. He doggedly holds out hope that he will run into his old flame, Mia, again, and that they can rekindle their romance. “Blade Runner 2049” takes place several years after the events of the first movie, but fans hope it will provide all the answers to their burning questions. Will John Legend make an appearance? It’s too soon to say.

The trailer also reveals that “Blade Runner 2049” takes place in the same expanded universe as “The Prestige,” a theory many had been bandying about online for years.

That’s enough about the plot for now, though. I’d like to talk about wonder.

Denis Villeneuve is the kind of director that makes you audibly gasp when you’re watching his movies in the theater. The world his camera captures is more beautiful than the one we actually inhabit. Even when it’s eye is trained on a post-apocalyptic society. Every shot in this trailer is magnificent, and I would like to build a home inside each of them and live out the rest of my days traveling between each one. That’s wonder.

I mean, c’mon.

That feeling you get when Mackenzie Davis struts onto the screen like she owns the god damn world is called joy. One of our best television actors (“Halt and Catch Fire”, “Black Mirror”) is getting her chance to rule the big screen, and she is not taking that lightly.

If you aren’t sold yet, think about this.

Harrison Ford is 75 years old. When he moves around on screen, he looks every bit his age. But when Villeneuve, in his infinite wisdom, saw Harrison Ford on set, he said, “You know what, I know what this movie’s missing. We need a man who looks like he hasn’t run in 25 years to run from a collapsing building or something.”

This moment in the trailer is funny, and if you don’t want to see Harrison Ford trying to run in a movie, I’m not sure what I can do for you.

There are so many questions. Why is Ryan Gosling so angry? Whose blood is that? Is he a robot? Is Harrison Ford a robot? Will any of Guillermo del Toro’s movies be half as good as this single second of the “Blade Runner 2049” trailer? Will that guy from “Suicide Squad” completely ruin the movie? Am I contractually obligated to mention him by name *cough* Jared Leto? Is Tom Hardy in this movie? Is Denis Villeneuve the best filmmaker currently working in Hollywood?

If you want answers, you know what to do.

Vote Villeneuve.

Follow us @fauxworthypod, and check in on Tuesday for the live vote. The winner will be the subject for the podcast series. “Blade Runner 2049” comes out October 6. “The Shape of Water” comes out December 8.

Director Deliberations I

July 25, 2017 / Taylor Gaines

Taylor is joined by Sam Hensel to prepare for their new film director podcast.

You can find all of our previous podcasts on our website, TheFauxworthyPodcast.com and on iTunes. Subscribe, rate, and review!

As always, thanks to Levi Bradford for the theme song. You can find his music at poblano.bandcamp.com.

Listen to Episode One of the series here!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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“The Big Sick” Made Me Feel Less Alone

July 21, 2017 / Taylor Gaines

Living alone can be isolating. I’ve lived in a big house with 12 people, and I’ve lived in a small room with four people. I currently live alone.

There’s something about living alone that makes me feel disconnected from the world. Alone on more than just a physical level. With less human contact and more time in my own head, the world can start to feel like it revolves around me. Empathy becomes harder. I think about questions I don’t want to be asking. It’s scary.

This is to say that, even if I can’t find anyone to go to the movies with me, it doesn’t take much for me to go anyway. I like to be among other people, to be part of a collective experience.

So last Friday, I decided to go to the movies. I hopped in the car, drove to the theater and bought a ticket to see “The Big Sick.” I went to the bathroom, walked in the theater, and … I was the only one there.

What are the odds? I went to the movie theater, and I was still alone.

However, as the film began to roll and the movie played out, something weird happened. I found myself reacting. Physically. I’m not one to react much when watching something alone, but as “The Big Sick” played out, I began to feel like I was spending time with a close friend. I found myself smiling uncontrollably, laughing out loud and tearing up. I felt connected, and I felt … not alone. For 124 minutes, everything just made sense.

The movie, if you don’t know, is about an aspiring stand-up comedian named Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani). It’s based on the true story of Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, who met while he was living in Chicago trying to catch a break. The script, co-written by Nanjiani and Gordon, tells the story of their tumultuous and drama-filled relationship in its early days, from courtship to coma.

I should explain. Here’s a summary of how things go in the film (MILD SPOILERS): Kumail is doing stand-up. A girl heckles him during one of his shows. That girl turns out to be Emily. They go home together. They go their separate ways. They hang out again. They tell each other they’re not going to start a relationship. They hang out again. She tells him, “No really, we’re not going to start a relationship.” And they hang out again. Before too long, they’re dating. Then, there’s a fight, the fight, and things are bad. During this period, Kumail gets a call from Emily’s roommate saying Emily is in the hospital and that someone needs to go check on her because the roommate can’t. So he goes. At the hospital, the doctor tells him, “Look, things are worse than they seem. We need to put her in a medically-induced coma.” And bam. Your eponymous “Big Sick.” Emily goes into a coma, her parents come to town to take care of her, Kumail stays by her side, and plot ensues.

I won’t spoil the movie completely – although the “true story”-ness of it does a lot of that work for me – but suffice it to say that “The Big Sick” is damn near perfect. It’s a romantic comedy, but it’s a romantic comedy in the way that Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None” is a romantic comedy. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s heartwarming, and it’s intoxicating. Here’s an excerpt from the opening scene.

Kumail: Hi.

Emily: Hi.

Kumail: My name’s Kumail.

Emily: Yeah, we know.

Friend: We saw you perform.

Kumail: Now that the niceties are out of the way, I have to tell you that when you yelled at me, it really threw me off, and you really shouldn’t heckle comedians. It’s so rude.

Emily: I didn’t heckle you. I just “woohoo-ed” you. It’s supportive.

Kumail: Okay, that’s a common misconception. Yelling anything at a comedian is considered heckling. Heckling doesn’t have to be negative.

Emily: So if I, if I yelled out like, “You’re amazing in bed!” That’d be a heckle?

Kumail: Yeah, it would be an accurate heckle.

(friend leaves.)

Emily: You scared my friend off now.

The movie is also earnest and honest in a way that is revealing and breathtaking and deeply human. Each character seems to be constantly struggling to figure out how to function in a world where the thing they love most can be taken away from them at any moment. Ray Romano, in particular, is a revelation in this movie. He plays Emily’s father, a man struggling to keep his marriage, family and psyche intact as his whole world seems to be crumbling around him. Holly Hunter, who plays Emily’s mom, is also fantastic, but Romano legitimately deserves an Academy Award nomination for his work in “The Big Sick.”

The lengths to which Nanjiani and Gordon go to describe the details of their actual lives are also quite unbelievable. It’s specific, and it’s raw, and it’s emotional, but their willingness to go there in the script really gives the movie an extra bit of oomph that struck a chord with me deep down.

The movie also manages to play brilliantly on the difficulties and complexities of a cross-cultural relationship between a Pakistani-American with devoutly Muslim parents and a seemingly suburban-raised white woman.

Oh, and also, it’s really freaking funny. Did I mention I was laughing in an empty theater like an idiot the whole time?

Above all, though, it’s not the story or the jokes that will stick with me the most. What makes “The Big Sick” memorable – and transcendent – are the ways it portrays human connection. There’s the night Romano’s character crashes at Kumail’s apartment. There’s the scene where Hunter’s character and Kumail share a few drunken slices of pizza. There’s the stand-up set that Kumail performs during a low point in Emily’s hospital stay. It’s those moments of humanity, simple and delicate, that punched me in the gut the hardest.

During one scene, Kumail is sitting bedside next to Emily in the hospital. She’s in a coma, but he’s talking to her. He starts talking about what it would mean if she has to “go,” if she doesn’t wake up. He says something about not wanting her to leave, but that if she has to, he understands. It’s a beautiful moment and a tear-jerking one, and it’s a perfect example of the way “The Big Sick” is able to wrap heartbreak, fear, hope and love all up into powerful, individual moments.

To me, the movie shows that love, that most amorphous form of human connection, is what makes the world make sense. It shows that love – messy and beautiful and inexplicable – is sometimes all we have keeping the world from breaking apart into billions of little pieces.

For me, it was the perfect movie at the perfect time. It reminded me what life is all about. It made me feel love. It made me feel understood. It made me feel like I was a part of something, something much bigger and more beautiful than I could possibly fathom.

For me, “The Big Sick” felt a hell of a lot more like The Big Cure.

Fauxworthy Podcast Episode 42: Someones In The Crowd

January 16, 2017 / Taylor Gaines

Today on the podcast, the guys work through some stuff. Bryan has some issues he needs to get off his chest.

They unpack the film “La La Land” and internet culture, including talk of the other two Ryan Gosling-Emma Stone films (2:00), why Taylor loves “La La Land” (3:00), whether there is enough music in the movie (9:00), why Bryan is fed up with the internet (10:15), Taylor’s strategy for dealing with the hot-take culture (13:00), “pure” art consumption versus influenced art consumption (17:30), whether or not Bryan will change his internet usage tactics (21:45), whether or not “La La Land” achieves its goal (23:15), Taylor’s conflicted thoughts on “Manchester By The Sea” (25:30) and Dr. Gaines’ diagnosis (27:50).

They also discuss upcoming TV shows and Taylor guesses what each one is about, including “A Series of Unfortunate Events” (29:45), “Taboo” (31:10), “The Young Pope” (31:50), “Legion” (32:25), “Big Little Lies” (34:00),

Finally, they discuss some other shows that are coming up in 2017 (35:15) and whether or not Taylor is an enlightened TV viewer (38:30).

You can find all of our previous podcasts on our website, TheFauxworthyPodcast.com and on iTunes. Subscribe, rate, and review! We are also a proud member of the Establishing Shot Podcast Network.

As always, thanks to Levi Bradford for the theme song. You can find his music here at poblano.bandcamp.com.

‘La La Land’ and the Past, Future and Present

January 13, 2017 / Taylor Gaines

I saw “La La Land” late on a Friday night. It was something like a 10:20 p.m. showing. The crowd was underwhelming. I easily got my favorite seat in the theater: front section, back row, dead middle. I took my routine trip to the bathroom after the second trailer and sat back down. Film rolled.

Two hours later, I floated out of the theater, the molecules that used to make up my body bouncing off the walls, some of them wandering up into the stars. I assume they were dancing up there. It was cold when I went outside. I didn’t feel it really. If the theater wasn’t closed, I probably would have turned around and walked right back inside to see “La La Land” again anyway. I think I would have easily paid twice the price.

I could have lived inside “La La Land” forever. I could have met a girl, raised a family, worked on my 401K or something, and died peacefully inside “La La Land.” I never wanted it to end.

Damien Chazelle views the world through a lens more beautiful than I can ever imagine. Justin Hurwitz hears the world through speakers far too expensive for me to purchase. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone perform in ways the English language is not even properly equipped to describe. Their chemistry sparks in ways I highly doubt any language is equipped to describe. The production design, the set design, the costumes; everything is simply elegant. To call it aesthetically pleasing is insultingly inadequate when I consider how at home and comfortable and joyful the movie made me feel. The songs are in my bones now it seems.

I don’t like to gush like crazy about things because I think that makes it easy to not take people’s opinions seriously. So I’ll get off this train. The experience is passed. Instead of ranting and raving, let me just get some of my thoughts out here. There’s a lot of meat on the bones of “La La Land,” and I just wanted to throw out some of the ideas I’ve been thinking about since seeing it.

ooo

I don’t think anyone would tell you “La La Land” is a sequel to “Whiplash,” but in the, you know, “spiritual sense,” it kind of felt like it was. Damien Chazelle clearly loves jazz and loves movies more than I’ve loved anything in my entire life, and it comes across in every frame and musical note of this movie. (Note: Score by Justin Hurwitz.) And when it comes to “Whiplash,” I felt like “La La Land” explored areas of music and movies that “Whiplash” simply didn’t have the time or energy to explore.

In “Whiplash,” Miles Teller alarmingly dumps the charming and beautiful and fantastic and no-I’m-not-in-love-with-her-and-I-definitely-haven’t-seen-every-episode-of-“Supergirl”-why-are-you-asking Melissa Benoist for no other reason really than he’s a major dick. It’s brushed aside and the movie pretty much moves on. The music was always more important. In “La La Land,” it felt like Chazelle wanted to explore the flip side of that relationship: a world where the relationship is more important, one where putting art above it is a mistake.

It’s not that cut-and-dried of course, and I’m pretty sure for Chazelle art always wins out, but watching “La La Land” unfold, I felt like it more deeply explored what it truly meant to chase an artistic dream. Not just the blood and sweat and tears and J.K. Simmons-yelling-in-your-face-40-times-a-day of it all but the emotional toll it takes on your relationships with those you love.

Chazelle doesn’t speak through his character’s words as much as through their actions and Hurwitz’s music. He couldn’t have picked better vessels in Gosling and Stone, and his music and production squads are second to none.

The film builds to a moment where Emma Stone’s Mia is auditioning for one last movie. She’s at a point that is truly make-or-break. And in that moment, she lays her heart on the line. “Audition (Those Who Dream)” is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful song that will knock you on your ass in the theater. It’s an ode to those really willing to fight and take risks in order to make it artistically, and Stone’s performance shows the toll that fight has taken on her character.

The interesting bit comes from the way the song (and movie) frames the idea of that fight. It constantly reminds us of its heavy cost, but it also romanticizes the journey in a contradictory and deeply human way.

This was best exemplified in the film’s final number (SPOILER ALERT) where Mia and her husband sit in on a performance by Gosling’s Sebastian at his jazz club in Los Angeles. Mia and Sebastian have both “made it” in their respective fields, but things don’t seem quite as romantic as they imagined. Because the price was their relationship. Everything that one is reaching for and everything that one has already reached seems much more romantic outside of those particular moments.

In fact, Sebastian’s piano transports Mia back to her year with Sebastian and tints it, alters it, re-imagines it in a slightly more positive way, one with a happier ending, one where everything works out and they’re still together. The music takes her on a beautiful, fantasized journey of everything that happened in the film previously. It’s not the same, of course. There are no downsides, no fights, no struggles. And in the end, Sebastian is the one who walks into the jazz club with her that night. But then the music stops, and Mia is right back where she started, wistfully imagining a much more romantic version of her life than the one she wound up with. What she doesn’t realize in that moment is that the reality of everything that happened before is just as beautiful as the way she imagined it. The reality was as breathtaking as her imagination. And just because she is looking back on it differently doesn’t mean those things aren’t true, or that those things didn’t happen. “La La Land,” in all its wonder and whimsy, reminds us of the breathtaking grandeur of everyday life and the awesome beauty of the struggle. I wonder if it’s bombastic ending will keep even us from recognizing that.

ooo

The characters in “La La Land” talk often about the past versus the future. This is quite fitting for a classical musical being made in 2016, particularly one that’s goal seems to be “bring back musicals in the movie theater.” Mia represents the future, a passionate artist thinly veiled as a cynic. Sebastian represents the past, a vestige of jazz music of yesteryear desperately trying to hold on to the way things were before.

In the movie’s final musical montage, “La La Land” unites the past and the future and shows how beautiful the result could be if we didn’t spend so much time debating which was more important and focused on the present itself. (In the same way, the characters in the film are constantly looking forward to something or backward toward something that has already passed.) During those final moments of the film, everything is united and beautiful and perfect. Then, the future and the past smile at each other and go their separate ways, leaving the rest of us in the present on our own.

I wish I could have held on to that feeling of beauty and perfection. But eventually I was back in my apartment, staring at my computer screen, just thinking about watching “La La Land” again.

I think I missed the point. What a waste of a lovely night.