18th Mofo Hall of Fame

The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017)
Imdb

Date Watched: 2/15/19
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 18th MoFo Hall of Fame, nominated by rauldc14
Rewatch: No.

I went into this movie having no idea what to expect. I'd read the name and seen images of the film's poster around MoFo but nothing about those things piqued my interest. Things weren't looking too promising either in the first few minutes of the film as Moonee and the other children basically made nuisances of themselves.

As the film progressed though, I slowly began to feel something for the situation these characters were in. I wouldn't say that I liked Halley, and certainly she made a lot of poor choices, but I found it easy to see how much of a struggle her life was. I felt for the kids, too, as they faced hardships they could neither control nor truly understand. The one character that really stood out to me though, was Bobby the manager. I really loved the way he tried to help and how he never turned a judgmental eye on the others, even as they laid blame on him for things that went wrong.

I also really loved how real the characters felt - not in spite of their petty, trashy ways but because of it. I appreciated that nobody was painted as a hero or as a villain. They were just a bunch of people in a situation without much hope, struggling through their day to day existences all within sight of that "Magic Kingdom."

+

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Wow. Glad you liked it!

That's because you are the shiznit

The Little Stranger


I rented this as I do with most HoF films because I feel better doing it that way.

Right from the start I was exhausted with the pointed and sharp pomposity of characters that were almost cartoonishly boring and pretentious. I simply did not care for this humorless and audaciously involving snoozefest. I’m just glad I was able to shake this typically british laundry pile off of my forehead with something mindless and courteous, something of the Jim Belushi persuasion.This will be the last HoF I will attend because my bank account dry heaves when I participate, and I refuse to pirate stream. No offense to anyone.

Brimstone

I had found myself, at multiple moments and at the spiraling descents, wondering: how I would have felt about this film if I had not bared witness to a number of @cricket nominations? Having turned that cinematic corner of being able to see past the cruelty of the context, into the craft of the film itself. Specifically, Nothing Bad Could Happen being that actual corner to where I could view such a film as Pixote beyond the subject matter's harshness.
In fact, at a number of parts, as the film moved beyond it's first hour, it was a kind of saving mantra: "I've watched cricket films, I can deal with this."

And I did.

I appreciated the growing tension of the first chapter and how well it was constructed. I was on pins and needles waiting for the brutal shoe to drop.
I thought the cinematography had a haunting beauty throughout the film. Pausing at many a time to admire the long shots on so many occasions.
I will also say that the length of the film was a necessity. I find myself pondering on where to cut scenes and came to the realization that it is more due to the subject matter and the abuse that Fanning's character is subjected to with an unrelenting callousness that wears on you. Not so much the actual story length itself.
As stated with others, there does seem more purpose in setting up scenes of abuse and while there is some truth to it; a large portion of the story being told feels necessary in the greater scheme of it all.

I have always enjoyed Guy Pearce from the first time seeing him in LA Confidential and found that he can do creepy exceedingly well and while a bit limited in dimension, he still makes you despise him for the depravity bathed in religious righteousness that he commits to.
And, as the victim of that character both Dakota Fanning and Emilia Jones are excellent at making us care for them with scarcely a word spoken. And OH how we cheer for both at their attempts to break free, and how it gnaws at us when there is no relief and the only final release is at the bottom of a lake.
Damn.

Still, a very worthwhile film overall, I must admit.

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

That's a bummer and we'd miss you. I know your nom has been taken a kickin', BUT...you did also nominate one of the most well received films in any HoF...The Station Agent...which now is a proud member of the MoFo Movie Hall of Fame I liked The Little Stranger myself, luckily my library had it.

Do you not have a good library system in your area, @Joel?

I often can find many of the films I need to watch for HOFs on DVD at my library at no cost.

You know you've given the same vague review for my last three nominated films. I hate to see you go, but I doubt you were ever really here to begin with.

I have mixed results with the lbrary. Most of the time, even if a title is in circulation somewhere in the state (not sure if all libraries offer this cross pollination type of availability for titles like mine does?), it could be months before I get an email telling me it's in.

I have prime for a few days, I'm going to try and get the rest of these knocked out.

That's completely understandable, 100%, and I don't feel any resentment for that, honestly, I don't! I mean, would it be nice if one person liked it? Yes! But...there have already been 3 people I've showed it to here that've liked it @Citizen Rules, and 2 of them loved it @re93animator, @TYTD!

Gonna try to get another one of these watched tonight. Probably going to be either Florida Project or Little Stranger.

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Letterboxd

Missing 4. Might go for Extremely Loud today.

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/watching movies for mark f/
MovieMeditation's Cinema Reviews // Film Diary 2015 // Letterboxd Profile // MovieMeditation's Top 50 Horror

Double bill on for tonight.

The King of Comedy and Abandon Ship.

A film with a plot that had potential but ultimately did not do it for me. The film is quite well made and is has some solid production design and cinematography. The acting is fairly good for the most part but I wasn't a fan of Domhnall Gleeson's performance in this. My biggest problem with this was that I just found it to be quite dull and as a result I was struggling to keep interest in the film. I would've liked for the plot to be more suspenseful which would've at least made the film somewhat interesting but instead I spent the majority of the time just waiting for this to end. Overall quite disappointing.

I think I'm gonna do up Brimstone.

I hope this review doesn't cause cancer It's just not my film.

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Wauw. That has to be the worst rating to one of my noms ever in a HoF.

But then again, I did take the biggest chance yet with this one. It was bound to split people, so while it doesn’t surprise me it’s still a bit sad to see. Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes. I’ll review my own nom once I revisit it again soon!

I had forgotten to mention,
I f@ckin LOOOVE this gif!!

Where ON EARTH did you find this clip of you as a kid, Miss Vicky?

I'll be picking up The Square, The Little Stranger, and Bubba Ho-Tep from my library in the next day or so along with posting up my review of Road To Perdition (Spoiler Alert: it was okay, I guess)

You said Split. Uh huh-heh-he uh huh