The years when we hit every opera in the Lyric season are gone and not coming back. Ditto for ticking off each new play at the Goodman and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Part my own gathering senescence. Part a shift in the material being presented. Whoever the audience is supposed to be, I ain't it.
But we do rouse ourselves, sometimes.
"Let's go see the Dylan movie," my wife enthused Friday night, coming home about 5 p.m. The next show at Northbrook Court was 6:10 p.m., so we mobilized. I went online to buy tickets, but it was complicated, and we decided to just grab them there. A quick dinner of leftover Chinese food, then into the car.
Northbrook Court is sad and abandoned, much of the parking lot surrounded by chainlink fence. They don't even have those large cardboard movie displays by the theater entrance anymore — not worth production. We bought the same seats I'd tried to snag online and saved $4, maybe $6, buying them in person. So score one for analog living.
Before the movie — excellent, incidentally — 20 minutes of ads and previews. One for "Until Dawn," a horror movie that unspools the novel story line of a group of buff young people blundering into a creepy house populated by gore-mouthed fiends who hack them apart for 90 minutes. The preview alone was unbearable — it went on and on. I can't imagine what the actual movie is.
"Let's go see the Dylan movie," my wife enthused Friday night, coming home about 5 p.m. The next show at Northbrook Court was 6:10 p.m., so we mobilized. I went online to buy tickets, but it was complicated, and we decided to just grab them there. A quick dinner of leftover Chinese food, then into the car.
Northbrook Court is sad and abandoned, much of the parking lot surrounded by chainlink fence. They don't even have those large cardboard movie displays by the theater entrance anymore — not worth production. We bought the same seats I'd tried to snag online and saved $4, maybe $6, buying them in person. So score one for analog living.
Before the movie — excellent, incidentally — 20 minutes of ads and previews. One for "Until Dawn," a horror movie that unspools the novel story line of a group of buff young people blundering into a creepy house populated by gore-mouthed fiends who hack them apart for 90 minutes. The preview alone was unbearable — it went on and on. I can't imagine what the actual movie is.
None of this I would mention. Except at the very end, after an eternity of these kids being slashed with knives and jabbed with pickaxes, screaming and having worms bursting out of their faces, while gore spattered clowns flash into view, there is the blue rating card, giving away the game to potential viewers that the film is rated R for gore and warning us, specifically, of the presence of, "A sexual reference."
That was it. Just one, apparently, judging from the indefinite article.
That was it. Just one, apparently, judging from the indefinite article.
Sometimes I feel like I'm in a movie myself, and want to turn to the audience and say, "Can you believe this shit?" We're Americans. Of course the bloodbath doesn't bother us — just the opposite, we pay for that part. That's what brings someone to watch "Until Dawn." But just in case anyone's titillation at the Grand Guignol dismemberment occurring onscreen might be spoiled by "a sexual reference" — just one, not even plural — there is a warning. You've been informed. Brace yourself for a word alluding to sexual matters.
"Gosh Brad, I'd love to see 'Until Dawn' but I hear somebody mentions forming the beast with two backs before being hacked apart by clowns, and that's against Scripture..."
"Gosh Brad, I'd love to see 'Until Dawn' but I hear somebody mentions forming the beast with two backs before being hacked apart by clowns, and that's against Scripture..."
I wonder what the sexual reference could possibly be. Not enough to see the film. Maybe somebody who does see stuff like that can make note of it, and let us know.
Yes, A Complete Unknown, is a fine film. So is, Wicked, as far as recent ones go. Yes, there is a lot of junk out there. It isn't that hard to buy the tickets online.This is a good idea when it's a popular film and you want to get decent seats. The extra fee isn't much.
ReplyDeletePreviews now are beyond traumatizing. It must sell, or else just cheap to produce. All content is so dark lately. Is it the canary in the coalmine of where things are headed? If you want to have the begeezus scared out of you, just turn on the news.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the brief review - “excellent” - on the Bob Dylan movie. We plan to catch it tomorrow afternoon at Deer Park. A bustling shopping center that’s totally outside. I don’t get it. I liked the indoor malls. Never had to worry about the weather and always a great selection of stores at Randhurst too. But people flock to Deer Park - the traffic can be brutal - with a wide range of stores. Just remember to bring your umbrella and dress warm during the Midwest winter. You’ll be outside a lot going from store to store.
ReplyDeleteOld Orchard does well too as an outdoor mall.
DeleteI'd like to see the Dylan flick. Also, the Led Zeppelin movie looks like fun. But no thanks to the slasher slop. I'm not going to wade through 90 minutes of gurgling gore to get to one off color joke.
ReplyDeleteMovie previews ruin the movies. I refuse to watch them.
ReplyDeleteThey've been doing this forever. Yet, every time I go to see a movie, I'm shocked to be forced to view completely uninteresting flashy bits of flicks to come. Next time, I'm bringing noise-cancelling headphones with me.
Deletejohn
This is why I don't go to movies at the theater anymore. Streaming is better.
ReplyDeleteStreaming isn’t better. I hate the trade off but sitting through some previews (some actually are pretty good) to see a movie in the dark, BIG on screen, is one I make.
DeleteHere here.
DeleteSpeaking of pithy movie reviews, some years ago we were heading across the Lincoln Village parking lot (remember Lincoln Village?) to see “Independence Day” and someone shouted to a person leaving the theater asking how the movie was. He shouted back, “Good effects. Great explosions. Limp plot.“
ReplyDeletePBS blurs out the naughty bits when they show old paintings and sculptures. I remember watching some travel show about Florence, and PBS blurred out David's cock and balls. They've been doing this for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching "Steambath" on PBS in autumn 1975. Valerie Perrine's ass was shown, unblurred, in all it's glory. Va-Va-Va-voom. It was a pretty good play.
DeleteWhat’s a movie theater?
ReplyDeleteUntil Dawn is based on a video game. That tells me all I need to know.
ReplyDeleteCoey
It is baffling that film adaptations of video games are so universally awful! I don't understand why, especially when modern video games have solid story lines and imagery. The closest one came to a success I think was "The Last of Us", but that was a series, not a movie, every movie attempt without exception, out of so many, was a complete failure.
DeleteStill haven't seen the Dylan movie. Scenes have been shown on the small screen from time to time. On shows like "CBS News Sunday Morning"--and elsewhere. No actress will ever look and sound like Joan Baez, but I'm willing to engage in the suspension of disbelief.
ReplyDeleteWill never forget going to see Jane Austen's "Emma"...and then coming outside into the sunshine and learning that the Plague was upon us. The next day, everything stopped. We went to one movie in the following two years. The Plague got us out of the habit of movie-going. Since 2020, I can probably count the number of films we've seen on both hands.
Aging is one reason...and the hassle of online ticketing is another. A third, and maybe the primary reason, is the product itself. "Until Dawn" is typical of what Hollywood churns out. It's no longer "Can you believe this shit?" Viewers can, and do, and eagerly pay to see it. it's more like: "Who is the audience for this shit?"
It's mostly male teens and twentysomethings, with twisted fantasies of carving up young girls who won't sleep with them. And there's a political connection there, too,. One guess what it is, and who it is, and who those kids vote for. Not gonna go there.
It annoys my wife, but when the previews and trailers come on, I walk....and vote with my feet. Won't watch the previews. Any of them. Have done this for years now. I'm not going to come back and see any of that crap anyway, so why expose myself to it, and become upset?
"Until Dawn" is nothing new or novel. Just worse than what we grew up with. Who else remembers "Night of the Living Dead"...from over a half-century ago?. It's a cult classic now, but It disturbed me in 1970. My girlfriend loved it. I didn't. Today's horror genre no longer disturbs me...it horrifies me. I don't watch it.
I wasn't sure where we were going with our topic(s) this morning, but I could relate to the general flow nonetheless. Regarding sex vs. violence in today's films, the U.S. is continuing its fascination with gruesome violence while pearl-clutching over sex. I can think of a few directors who seem to revel in... violence porn?... when given the opportunity: Besides their masterpieces, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg have both turned out some stomach-churning titles that I wouldn't want to see again.
ReplyDeleteSome years back, the spouse and I decided to make watching the Oscars a lot more relevant for viewing by actually, you know, getting off our butts to go and watch the films up for Best Picture nomination. (There are also always plenty of worthy individual nominations across many more films, but tickets aren't cheap, a good film should show well on the big screen without endless big-face closeups intended for TV viewing, and we have to start someplace.)
For me, this had the side benefit of forcing me to watch films that I would not otherwise seek out. In 2016 I had left "La-La Land" for last on my list, not my thing, finally getting into a showing on Sunday afternoon of Oscar night, and was so blown away by it that I cannot remember any other film I saw that year.
This year seems especially all over the place. "Emilia Pérez" was okay, definitely original, and thinking outside the box is becoming rare. "Anora" we rented at home, and the spouse hated it so much that we went to something else after the first hour. I finished it the next day, and I suppose Mikey Madison earned her nomination (for what one report sniffed was her "mostly nude" performance), but what that movie needs more than anything else is an editor; scenes go on far too long after their point has been made. "Conclave" has the High Class Film spot, but doesn't really earn its out-of-left-field ending. Next up is "A Complete Unknown" tomorrow night, in the theater for best results. We also need to shoehorn in "The Brutalist," "Wicked," "The Substance" and whatever else we have time for.
Which brings us to the trailers for other films. The worst ones can go in multiple wrong directions, such as showing major plot twists, throwing all the expensive CGI effects into a pile, editing so incoherent that the premise can't be found, even including scenes that are not in the final cut. There is definitely an art to editing a two-hour film down to a 2-minute sales pitch, and after watching six or eight trailers before whatever the film was that you bought tickets to see, you can get a good eye for what works and what doesn't.
Here is where I'm going to circle back to "La-La Land." Their main trailer (the first one that comes up on IMDb.com) is an absolute masterpiece of a little more than two minutes run-time, starting off quietly, slowly bringing in its theme, and as the tempo builds, all of its actions, effects and award titles are keyed to the beat of the music, giving a clear picture of what the film is about without revealing spoilers or plot twists. The ending of the film itself is magic, but they are creative enough to not give it away in advance: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/ That was nine years ago now, but it still has lessons that other films could follow today.
Hmmm... I guess this means that "Until Dawn" is not a follow-up to The "Before" Trilogy ("Before Sunrise," etc.), then. ; )
ReplyDelete"Maybe somebody who does see stuff like that can make note of it, and let us know." At the Internet Movie Database, they have a "Parents Guide" section where folks report on potentially problematic aspects of a movie after having seen it. Since it's not out yet, the only thing there at the moment is a description that may be based on the trailer, itself, for all I know. "Rated R for strong grisly graphic brutal bloody gruesome violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexual content/nudity and drug use." But if one were to circle back once it comes out, I imagine you'd be able to find out more specifically what the "sexual reference" refers to.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30955489/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_until%2520dawn
Like Andy, we long had a policy of trying to see almost all, if not all, of the Best Picture nominees before the awards. We seldom actually made it in time, but would continue after the awards, at least trying to see the winners in major categories.
Uh, we haven't been to a movie theater since March, 2020. D'oh! A combination of our "own gathering senescence," the marvel of streaming, and lingering overcautiousness since the plague. I knew when we waited months after all the hoopla with regard to "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" to stream those two that we were in a brave new world. Well, a cowardly new world, I suppose. We did end up seeing all ten of the BP nominees from last year's awards on the small screen, but it took quite a while...
One benefit of not going to loads of mainstream movies in the past was that, when we'd go to a place like Landmark Cinemas or the Music Box, all the previews were for good movies and we weren't subjected to random slasher fare. So, that was nice.
We liked "La La Land" fine, but evidently not as well as you, Andy. It did have the benefit of seeming a lot more like an old-fashioned "best picture" than a lot of the other stuff that gets nominated these days. Though, of course, it famously did not win, despite having its name actually called out as the winner at the ceremony!
You can hack off a breast as long as you don't show the nipple.
ReplyDeleteA brilliant, concise, hilarious summation, 2:55 Anonymous. Kudos!
DeleteA good post about a very annoying situation, regarding the extended awful previews!!
ReplyDeleteAnother way to look at it is that maybe people go to the theater to watch numerous previews, and get upset when they start showing a movie? … LOL
ReplyDelete