Letterboxd — Your life in film

This opens with Steven Spielberg recounting the story that eventually became the first scene of The Fabelmans, right down to citing the train crash as the scene that really affected him. And this has a ton of Spielberg at work; observing him as he directs the actors, goes over storyboards. It’s nuts and bolts in the best possible way. I also love Harrison Ford’s description of Indy in this: “Indiana Jones is an archaeologist. And, in his spare time, he’s a grave robber.”

Tagline Brainstorming Sesh For Flamin’ Hot:

-“Based on a cheesy true story.“

-“This is Richard Montañez. A real blue chipper.”

-“Richard Montañez was never afraid to Ruffle a few feathers.”

-“Meet the one man who put all his chips on the table.”

-“Searchlight Pictures proudly presents the story of the janitor who really cleaned up.“

-“This summer, prepare to get Lay’d.”

Review at ScreenCrush.

Keaton still has that old Batman joie de vivre; even belatedly, it’s really fun to see him back in another adventure. But by the third act, all of the quipping and fan service begin to feel like manic form of distraction; as if The Flash is trying to solve its overloaded story’s problems by outrunning them.

Full review at ScreenCrush.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Absolutely ludicrous to me that this movie got mediocre-to-bad reviews in 2004 when it is so obviously the best of the trilogy and one of the all-time great sequels — and still my favorite sequel ever about the making of sequels.

“We’re forcing it.”
“Yeah. We’re forcing it.”

When I saw this movie for the first time, I had no idea who Sean Connery was. (In my defense, I was 8.) I thought he was funny, but I did not really understand what it meant to cast him as Indy’s father — or the added comedy of casting James Bond as a bumbling academic. Sometimes, the fun of revisiting things you loved as a kid is discovering that beneath the superficial pleasures you enjoyed is a whole lot more you did not realize was there.

There are generally two types of sequels: The ones that rehash the previous film’s success for financial gain, and the ones that use the previous film’s success as a license to experiment. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse isn’t just that second kind of sequel, it’s actually about making precisely that sort of movie. Its real villain isn’t the Vulture or the Spot, it’s storytelling orthodoxy; the idea that you must create a work of art in a certain way simply because that’s how it’s always been done.

Full review at ScreenCrush.

A proposal: The Academy Awards add a new category, Best Asshole, and unilaterally declare Glenn Howerton the inaugural winner of said award for his outstanding work in BlackBerry. 

The film ends with the obligatory title cards that appear at the end of every biopic; revealing the fates of all the key players after the events depicted onscreen. They’re interesting but also a little redundant; anyone watching in a theater knows what happened next because they’ll see everyone around them pull an iPhone or Android device out of their pockets as soon as the credits start to roll.

Some of the funniest parts of this one are just the set ups; show me Buster Keaton next to a track and field event and I’m already laughing anticipating all the silly stuff he’s going to do. (The funniest one: The hammer throw!)