I saw this at the cinema a couple of weeks ago. Can’t share your view of it. Didn’t like it at all.
By all means expand on that. Mrs. H. and I go on Sunday morning and I currently have mixed feelings. Tomorrow morning I go see “No Other Choice”.
Absolutely fine to have different views on this film but what was it you didn’t like?
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TBH, it’d be easier to say what I did like. The theatre scenes at the end were a bit saccharine but well acted. The rest was just pretty dull. Just not my kind of film. As you say, it’s perfectly ok to have different opinions on it and no one should be discouraged from giving it a go just because i didn’t like it. I think that the critics have all loved it, except for the guy from The Independent.
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I hope you enjoy it more than I did. If it’s any consolation, my view appears to be a minority one.
The last Viking, a danish movie, sad story presented in a slap stick fashion, was rather impressed with it.
I always find the dynamics of forums fascinating. You can have something that’s well reviewed and a bunch of people on a forum quickly expressing their love for it. The minority “I didn’t love it” appears churlish or contrary, but, come back in 6 months to a year and watch how the reviews turn and, often, forums too.
A great example is the Springsteen film. Pretty much universally praised when it came our, arguably because it sold copy, but most of those publications have now quietly reversed position. If you look online in places like this then it was absolutely wonderful. Look on film forums or indeed Springsteen forums and it was panned.
All you can do is choose to see a film either because you want to see it or because it was well reviewed, and make up your own mind.
I go to the Hamnet film with a clear view that the book was of zero interest to me but the film may well make it more attractive/palatable. We shall see.
Watched “No Other Choice”. Trailer really did it no favours. Painted it as slightly slapstick and only that. It most certainly was, but I’d argue it was so much more besides. It unfolded slowly at the outset, was often bleak and just as often dealt in massive ironies and excellent slapstick. The layers of the story very much gave it a feel of “Parasite” to me. That kind of storytelling. Some great performances too. Really enjoyed it.
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Just been to see this and really enjoyed it. Very picaresque and probably could have lost 20 mins with decent editing. It very much reminded me of an early Coen brothers film. Having seen Timothee Chalomet in A Complete Unknown and now this, he really is becoming a remarkable actor
Mrs Duck thinks that this is an allegorical film about a certain US politician with an unshakeable belief in himself who will do , or say, anything to get what he wants
Hammett then.
I don’t know if all Everyman cinemas are now doing this but the “bloke introduces film” after the trailers thing is unnecessary and increasingly annoying. You’ve made me sit through 15 minutes of ads and now you’re consuming another 5 minutes of my day for what exactly?
Added level of annoyance when he asked the audience to keep conversation to a minimum during the film. Gave him both barrels afterwards. If you want a conversation during a film then watch it in your own space. When you’re in the cinema STFU.
Anyways… historical fiction (or semi fiction) is the one type of book I have no interest in. No specific reason I can nail down. Like jazz and classical I may well one day find a way in.
Thought as a film it was paced slowly but compellingly and the cinematography was excellent bar the tedious repetition of the camera staring skywards through a clearing of trees repeatedly during the first half of the film in order to signify nothing in particular. Could have easily lost those 10 minutes. Ditto the theatrical pretension of the screen going dark. Same thing used in Sentimental Value and it became just as annoying here. Richter’s score was tediously generic and in parts like an annoying hum underscoring speech and making it harder to follow. Nowhere near as bad as Oppenheimer but still more than a little pointless and annoying.
All that aside I thought it was a very good rather than excellent film. The performance of Jessie Buckley was outstanding. Hard to take your eyes off her face every time she was on screen. Thought the Mescal performance was bewildering. I agree with several reviews that his part was underwritten but for me he’s an actor who thinks he has skills he patently does not. It was possible to read Jessie Buckley’s face in an instant and throughout. Him? He was opaque. Found myself repeatedly thinking that he probably thought he was conveying something as meaningful as her whereas I was looking at his face thinking “Dude, I’m getting nothing here.”
The children were very good but I can’t say I’d rave about them in the ways other have. The adult supporting actors on the other hand I thought were excellent and probably aren’t getting the credit for that.
The ending? Barely credible to me in terms of the narrative. Mrs. H. said she’d not cried so much since Schindlers List. Women to my right did the same as me. Sat there, watched it and wondered why the eldest daughter wasn’t there, why she was allowed to stay when disrupting a performance etc? The offering of hands just made it all look like the sort of thing luvvies love. Hammy more than anything else, Again, theatrical pretension but divorced from the narrative to that point. It’s been talked up stupendously but talked up it was. It was an okay, hardly unexpected, ending.
I enjoyed the film. It’s a very very good film but if I were to recall one thing from it then it would be the performance of Buckley rather than the film itself.
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When we saw it at the Everyman we had “woman introduces film” so clearly their overall policy is “person introduces film” 
It’s a thing. It’s not a new thing.
I watched a couple of films at the Barbican before Covid. Both films had somebody introduce it.
No negative comments from anyone, I thought it was a fine. Although probably wouldn’t go down well with the average cinema goer in Birkenhead. 
I quite like it tbh - makes it a bit more ‘human’ although I know it’s just a ‘thing’. Fortunately, ours doesn’t tell us to be quiet during the film. It’s only the Mancunians who need reminding
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Damn right.
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Certainly a new thing at the Manchester Everyman.
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Was there an organ rising up at the side of the screen? 
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It wasn’t that kind of cinema. 
@Skeptikal your services are required.
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Clearly you’ve seen the new AA advert preceding said film.
How very rude?
Can highly recommend Song Sung Blue. An emotional rollercoaster with great performances by Hugh Jackman and especially Kate Hudson.
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