Surprised nobody posted about this yet. People were raving about it at SXSW and the trailer looks nuts, in a good way!
Lakeith Stanfield is going to have a breakthrough role here, and Tessa Thompson continues to crush it.
Ah! I meant to post this last week but forgot to. Thanks for starting the thread. This is far and away my most anticipated movie right now. Boots fucking Riley making what looks like the Putney Swope version of a Kafka story. And my unreserved love for Lakeith Stanfield is well-documented.
This looks amazing!
I second all that -- I'm very very ready for this
I worked on this film and have known Boots for a long time. He originally wrote the script as a joke because he was exhausted by the grind of making albums so he taught himself screenwriting in order to write some music as the soundtrack to the movie that he may or may not get to make one day. pretty crazy to see it all come together step by step.
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/806/39205142360_4d55448c50_c.jpg)
i'm happy that we have that Messages of the Week-thing here, because I might not have opened this thread otherwise.
this looks amazing. I haven't been this exited for a comedy in a while.
^ seconded. and wow. had to watch the trailer twice back-to-back. looking forward to this one
ps - two years before production Boots's script was released by McSweeney's - so you can read them now.
We play this trailer where I work and every time I catch it I get a lil more excited. Kanye's tweetz have me thinkin' on its premise a bunch, too. So much power in a voice. A double-edged sword everyone wants to co-opt. Can't wait to watch it play out.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DcOSYHIX0AEmezA.jpg)
anyone else see this?
very much wanted this to be good, but i did not like this. at all, almost. broad, tepid "satire" that's haphazardly put together. a few strongish moments strewn throughout what feels like an eternity of been there, done that. suffers from the overreaching with and overstuffing of ideas that comes with most first films. lakeith stanfield can do no wrong, armie hammer continues his streak of perfectly solid performances that will mostly go unappreciated, and that's about all i got for positives.
Quote from: wilder on July 17, 2018, 06:57:06 PM
Pacing is also horrible.
mind numbingly so. i left the theater surprised it wasn't an hour later than it actually was.
Quote from: wilder on July 17, 2018, 06:57:06 PM
The film suffers from first-time-director-syndrome in a less than charming way, and eventually collapses under the weight of its own bullshit.
agreed. it's Great Value michel gondry (to whom there's even a silly nod to).
I was quite un-fond of it as well. Whatever benefit-of-the-doubt I might have been extending them in the first third of the film (tenuous at best) was withdrawn at the terrible syncing of the 'white voices'. That's the central conceit of the film, and you can't get it dubbed any better than that? And the last act? Jesus.
This movie was bonkers. Tune-Yards fans should seek it out for the music, especially!
My audience was audibly "what?"-ing from the first few minutes, as soon as they saw the in-universe TV programs. Without saying too much, I think the first act introduces enough elements of elevated-satire to ease you into its anything-goes mindset. The photograph + elevator in particular. Cash howls at the world and it responds in kind. It doesn't quite know exactly how to carry its own momentum, pacing is for sure all over the place, as if Robert Downey Sr. had smoked out Lindsay Anderson, but much clumsier than either of their films, in a way I found endearing.
I shot those photographs!
Ah, XixaX. The only place that gets me. I felt exactly the same way about this movie (should we be worried about that?). It was sufficiently weird and has a great cast, but in the end it just wasn't compelling. The third act draaaags and doesn't land anywhere. I almost turned my phone on to check the time. And yet when Boots Riley makes another movie, I'll be there.
The soundtrack dropped! Just as WAVEY as the flick ~
LEVEL IT UP!
I'm glad a movie this ambitious, singular and weird can still get a wide release and have people see and talk about it. Love Tessa Thompson in everything, normally really like Lakeith but felt like his performance needed something here. I lost the emotional thread on the story pretty early and agree that it didn't quite work for me. I'm glad it exists, just felt like Boots was aiming for Putney Swope/Network by Jonze/Gondry but not sure the talent is there yet.
Quote from: wilberfan on July 18, 2018, 02:52:12 PMthe terrible syncing of the 'white voices'. That's the central conceit of the film, and you can't get it dubbed any better than that?
I also could not get past this problem. Poorly synced sound is one of my pet peeves, and it was uniformly awful in this movie. Really a shame.
But in the end I have to admit I really enjoyed the film. I agree the pacing leaves much to be desired — the last act could have been super intense with tighter editing — but it sort of works as a reflection of things being uneasy and out of balance in the film's universe.
As I've been hearing more and more complaints about the movie going "off the rails," I've just had a feeling that part was going to work for me. And it did.
Definitely not a perfect film, but it's also not trying to be. It just wants you to get its message (Capitalism must end) and have some fun receiving it.
Saw the film in August at Arclight Hollywood with seven of my friends. Late night, normal screening; we thought we'd be the only audience members but Lakeith Stanfield was there as well, cracking up at his own line delivery. Spoke to him afterwards: he gave us each a hug and said, "Glad you guys are weirdos and liked the film."