Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Mr. Turner (2014)
Director: Mike Leigh
Writer: Mike Leigh (screenplay)
Cast: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson
Genre: Biography, Drama, History

A look at the life of a very private man...an eccentric and a great artist who achieved great fame during his life, only to have his art drop out of favor during his later years.

Mr Turner is that man. Before Monet, de Gaulle, Van Gogh and the other celebrated Impressionist burst onto the scene, there was British painter J.M.W. Turner. Turner was ahead of his time with his paintings that gave an impression of his subject. A rather radical idea in the mid 19th century. Today few know about this avant garde genius, that is until the movie Mr Turner came out.

Like an impressionist painting, the film Mr. Turner gives us a view of the man without making a definitive statement about him. Perhaps that's how it should be. We see J.M.W. Turner's life unveiled before us without over dramatization. He moves through the film from scene to scene, which does make it hard to connect to the man and to care about his plight. We're the observer on someones subdued life. And the film feels subdued.

We are treated to examples of Mr Turner's work and for me that was a high light of the film.


I wish the actor Timothy Spall had better dictation. I'm sure he muddled the lines on purpose. It does give a good effect making Mr Turner seem even odder if that's possible, but I could hardly understand a word the actor said. He played Mr Turner so emotionless, that there wasn't much in it for me. Yet compared to other over-the-top drama's, Mr Turner was refreshing, refreshing but bland, like a fine prepared English meal.

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Nice review Citizen! Mr. Turner was a film I was interested in for a while, unfortunately I haven't gotten around to it. Your review still makes me want to see it, but I might lower my expectations a bit.

Thanks False Writer.....I'm not dissing the movie when I say Mr Turner was low key and emotionless as that is clearly the directors intention to show the painter in that light. Compared to most movies that create some type of big tension so as to be antagonistic....Mr Turner takes a simplified look at the painter, which is a strength. I have a feeling if I watched it again, I would give it a slightly higher rating. So please watch it sometime and let me know what you think of it.

Trough movies i can forget about the **** world we live in, my depression, everything bad that's happening. So movies basically make me really happy

I have one question to all the people here.
What do we call ourselves, 'Movie nerds', 'those people who like movies', i don't know, make something up, be creative!

I'm encouraged by your review of American Sniper, and I know Gunslinger loved it too. It's the movie from 2014 that I want to see the most out of those I haven't. So far, my issue has been that my wife isn't interested.

I saw both of those last two films in the cinema actually, both with different housemates. I liked them both.

Mr Turner I thought was incredibly well crafted, and there was not much wrong with most of the elements - cinematography and performances especially. I just thought the script could have done with some refinement, you say the film gives us a "view of the man without making a definitive statement about him" and I think that's where it struggles, it seems to cover a lot of ground, and enjoys spending time with the character, but the narrative isn't really focused enough for him to be a compelling character.

American Sniper divides opinion, and I would define myself in simplistic terms as "far-left, anti-war" but enjoyed it myself. I think the like/dislike for the film stems from the discussion outside of it just as much as the content itself. With one camp labeling it a disgusting pro-American celebration of inhuman actions, the other camp labels it as a great action movie with no moral consequences. I think the truth is that the film is neither. I read a good review of it that I think labelled it as perhaps "anti-war, pro-solider" and that might just be corrrect. I too thought it did a good job of portraying a human being who was very troubled throughout his life. Clint Eastwood likes dealing with these macho characters of responsibility, and I think people just weren't sure how to interpret this one. If it had been set in the old West, the outcry would have been far less. Storytelling and in terms of direction, I think its all very well structured and powerful. It wasn't one of my very favourites of the year, but I thought it was a good film

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I think many of us love to 'escape' into movies and forget the daily grind at least for a while. For me that's why I love period/historical subject films as it's like escaping back in time for the length of the movie.

Cinephile

Cricket you can tell your wife that much of the movie isn't about war but set in Texas and about Kyle's home life and his relation with his wife and how he deals with war stress. And what scenes of war are shown are not glorified, we don't get rock n roll music playing as people are sniped. The film didn't make sniping look cool and I didn't find it too graphic. But yes there's some violence in it of course.

I almost didn't review the film because opinions are so strongly divided and I didn't want a backlash. It's definitely not an action flick. Personally I don't think we belonged in Iraq either, but thanks to false claims of weapons of mass destruction the U.S. went. I expected the film to address that issue, but it never did. So not a pro Iraq war film, IMO.

Not seen Mr Turner but I've got to admit to being one of the people who hated American Sniper. Beyond its questionable politics I actually thought it was just a very poor film. I think there's an interesting film to be made about Chris Kyle, but Eastwood's canonisation of him wasn't it.

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Directors: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland
Writers: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland
Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart
Genre: Drama

Alice Howland is a bright, attractive, professional woman. She's well respected in her career as a linguistics university professor. Alice is married with a supportive husband and three adult children. Life is good...and Alice would seem to have it all. Then one day Alice notices she's becoming forgetful, even simple facts are being erased from her mind. When her doctor diagnoses her with irreversible early onset Alzheimer's Disease, Alice faces the grim process of slowly losing her mind while struggling to keep her sense of self. There's no hope for a cure either.

One might think that Still Alice is a dismal movie that's wrought full of heart breaking moments, it's not. Still Alice does something that's rare for a movie, it takes an intimate view of an irreversible disease and focuses on the small moments that make up Alice's life as she learns to cope with her failing memory.

In the hands of another director the film might have been used to tug at our heart strings, but the director never crosses the line into sentimentality. What is shown is an intimate view of Alice and how Alzheimer’s effects her and her family. We see a once loving Alec Baldwin beginning to distance himself from Alice over his growing frustration with her condition. He changes as a result of her Alzheimer’s and wants to pursue his own career options.


Alec Baldwin plays John, Alice's husband. He's crucial in the role of a supportive partner who begins to have second thoughts once he realizes the amount of sacrifice he'll have to make in order to help Alice with her Alzheimer's condition.



Julianne Moore who's a fine actresses with class, shows us a very believable Alice. Her performance is a good reason to watch this movie. Two other reasons are the relationships with her husband John (Alec Baldwin) and her youngest daughter Lydia (Kristen Stewart). These relationships tell us much of the story...The rebellious daughter Lydia is drawn closer to her mom, while the other children choose to face the situation with anger and denial.

Still Alice is a simple film and that's its power.

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Nice review, CR, I think I'm going to watch Still Alice. I didn't know what it was about before. My mom had that disease, so it could be powerful for me.

Thanks Cricket. For you this will be a vastly different film than it was for me. I appreciated what I thought was a honest candid look at Alzheimers without over dramatizing. I'll be interested in your views, hopefully you'll post back here.

My next review is a film that HoneyKid recommended to me. So a big thanks to HK for a film that I enjoyed watching

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I have not seen The Two Faces of January, but it was nice to read your review of Still Alice. I agree that it didn't go into over-sentimality, but I did think it went for some kind of bleak trying sentimality. When she made that video to herself and all, I thought that was a little too much. I think it was an easy route to go and a cheap shot. But because the movie isn't directed nor written overly sentimental, then it didn't come off in a nasty way or anything like that.

I mostly enjoyed the film, even though I didn't see anything that special in it. Moore was fantastic though

By the way, I love how you insist on using Baldwin's real name, or the shortened version of it at least.

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MM, the video part was as you say a bit contrived... I agree with you on that. But even though it does seem like a standard fare scene, it didn't change my feel for the film.

I really like Julianne Moore in most of her films. I think highly of
Far From Heaven (2002) have you seen it?

Nope, but it sounds like I should.

Yeah, in my opinion Julianne Moore is pretty much extraordinary in everything she's in. Amazing actress. I very much love her in Magnolia and, well, [insert movie title here].

I'm glad you enjoyed it, CR. I thought it sounded like something you'd like.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Nice reviews, CR. I've been curious about The Two Faces of January but haven't heard much about it. I'll get around to Still Alice at some point to see Moore's award-winning performance.

I'm going to add Magnolia to my need to watch list.

Your 3 for 3! see the bottom of my OP
http://www.movieforums.com/community...64#post1276664

I still have some 2014 films you mentioned that I might be watching.

Capt. calling Orson. Capt. calling Orson. Come in, Orson.

(Sorry, Rules. I have no actual message. I just felt like saying that for old times sake!)