I think that’s an advanced sexual maneuver.
I’m talking about this:
… which is obviously me holding my popcorn and firmly telling her, “no, let’s go see Bohemian Rhapsody.”
@Kelly_Wand hats off to your amazing song lyrics in the opsis. And your Cooper streams of consciousness.
Be careful what you wish for.
Uh oh … is it bad?
I’ve seen a few reviews that think so. I’m waiting for the DVD release, myself.
Well, damn. I’m going to have to give in, one way or another. She’s a music fan, so that’s going to be a tough call.
And to add to the praise @Kelly_Wand, the Meghyn Kelly joke just slayed me. And then there’s a Gosling bit after that was just chef kiss.
Also @tomchick I take real umbrage with you calling Mile 22 an Indonesian fight movie. Just because Iko Uwais is slumming it in a Peter Berg spastic-cam production does not give it the pedigree of a post-The Raid Indonesian fight movie, which have things like clarity, choreography and basic cause and effect in their action.
If anyone wants to see a quality one with the gore cranked up near splatter levels, I cannot recommend The Night Comes For Us highly enough. I’ve seen it like five times now.
I listened to this podcast which I don’t often do (don’t take that as a criticism though), and enjoyed it. Thanks for the discussion, guys!
I went to see this with my wife as Begin Again is one of her favourite movies of all time. To everyone’s surprise, I ended up liking it more than her. I thought it was great, the chemistry of the actors and the music really brought the melo-drama home for me.
I have to admit I got teary at the end (for anyone keeping score, it was during I will never love again when it cuts to Bradley Cooper singing it to L. Gaga), and it even got me again when I relistened to the song the following morning. I can count the number of times a movie made me cry on one hand, and so it really surprised me. The dog scenes were probably a big contributing factor, like when L. Gaga was mourning you could see the dog waiting at the door =::::::(. Just randomly, I was very happy to learn that this was Bradley Cooper’s actual dog.
One of my wife’s criticisms is that it felt like the suicide came out of nowhere even though it was telegraphed the entire movie (my wife guessed it near the start when he stops at a billboard with three neon nooses). I didn’t have a problem with this. Perhaps this is what people mean when they talk about “head cannon” in scifi/fantasy, but to me it was clear that he was a mess and on the precipice through the entire film.
His arc reminded me of one of the (many) messages in the book Infinite Jest, which I will haphazardly paraphrase by saying that getting sober does not ‘fix everything’ for an alcoholic or drug addict, as they are still left with the crippling problems which led them to substance abuse in the first place. In Bradley Cooper’s case, he had severe depression expressed through his belief that he destroys the lives of everyone who has ever cared about him. His mum died at childbirth, his dad killed himself at 13, his older brother’s music dreams went nowhere (which he thinks is his own fault), and now he is ruining L. Gaga’s life (the nail in the coffin was the producer coming over to give a piece of his mind). Thinking your loved one’s will be better off without you is a common motivation for suicide.
Looking back, it is a simple movie and its elements have probably been done a thousand times before. Yet, in this case the chemistry of the stars, the fact that the emotional punchlines are being delivered through good music, and the direction/writing really worked for me.
This is a great post, @Tim_N. Really thoughtful. First of all, I’m so pleased to hear your wife is a Begin Again fan. I’m a big fan of that movie, and I have listened to the music so many times. I trust she has seen Once, which is a tougher watch, but really rewarding.
Dang. I had no idea.
That book sits on my bookshelf, beckoning me. But I’m such a slow reader that I tell it to shut up and stop taunting me. I love David Foster Wallace because of this, but I find assailing that huge book to be too daunting.
This is why I describe it as 3/4 of a good movie, and one that I thought as I watched it might wind up on my list. But the rehab stuff just turned me off.
Great post, Tim.
-xtien
“We’re far from the shadow now…”
Thanks for your reply @ChristienMurawski.
We haven’t seen Once yet, I know it’s the same guy I will have to convince her to watch it.
It’s such a tremendous book, I would really recommend it to anyone who has the patience to slowly digest a massive book. Try to get to it sometime, but most importantly don’t throw it out. Even if it takes you 20 years, you should really read it at some point.
I understood all of the criticisms you had about the movie in the podcast, and agree with many of them. I think the key is that it emotionally touched me (even the rehab / suicide stuff), which is a very subjective thing but also makes me forgive all of these objective shortfalls.
I just read The Pale King and it’s pretty awesome value, if you miss his voice.
I missed his voice. Then I read things like this:
and this:
I no longer miss his voice as much.
Yikes, I didn’t know about the stalking. A better argument against dating him than against reading him, but we all gotta choose which books to open. I’m appalled by Roman Polanski raping a 13-year-old yet still admire Rosemary’s Baby. But not everybody has my powers of compartmentalization.