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Omnipresent Talkbacker IndustryKiller Has Seen LARS AND THE REAL GIRL!!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Go ahead. Call him a plant.
Industry Killer’s been a talkbacker for a looooong time, and the one thing I know for sure is that he’s not a puppet for anyone. He’s opinionated, he has very particular likes and dislikes, and he’s more than willing to tell you about it.
I love the title of this film, and I’m looking forward to seeing it. This is the first report I’ve heard from anyone who’s seen it, so check it out:
'Ello fellow Aicners, IndustryKiller! Here taking a minute off bitching about Transformers to bring you some information on an actual work of art. Now I may be in the minority here, but I felt Ryan Gosling deserved the academy award for best actor this year. I thought his somehow simultaneously subtle and intense work in Half Nelson harkened back to the sublime realism of the Pacino and Brando of old. He had an understated acting style that is underappreciated in this new world of accents and biopics. Moreover I think he is currently the best actor of his generation.
This brings us to our feature presentation, Lars and the Real Girl. I was part of the first test screening for this the other day at the Arclight. So far this is a flick that has flown completely under the buzz radar and I gotta do my part to put a stop to that. Gosling plays Lars, a painfully introverted and lonely guy who lives with his brother and sister in law after the death of his father leaves him alone. You know this guy, you've seen him at work or around. the type that you wanna be really nice to because he's sweet and seems so sad, but won't go the extra mile because then you might actually have to spend time with him. He goes to church and work and does his best to avoid others including his family. One day Lars happily announces that he has a female visitor that will be staying with him, this greatly excites his brother and Sister in law who have begun to worry about his behavior, at least until they find out that this would be companion is one of those plastic sex dolls Lars has ordered off the internet. Moreover, Lars is completely convinced she is a real person, to the point that he has conversations, takes her to the doctor, and goes on walks with her. On a doctors (played ably by Patricia Clarkson) orders they decide to play along in an effort to help Lars out of his shell.
Unlike Little Miss SUnshine, this is an indie comedy with real soul, not all too perfectly quirky characters whose lives fall apart according to the jokes. What struck me is how amazingly real the premise is played, never pandering to the comedy and never pushing false profundity and hope on us. Instead it allows it's characters to breathe and through that the story flourishes instead of becoming a slave to gags. What you see, rather than a comedy, is human beings reacting to a situation that happens to be comedic the way you or I would. And while it's an absolutely hilarious film, the filmmakers (and Gosling) never shy away from the fact that Lars is a very troubled individual with incredibly deep seeded insecurities, and as a result we have some very funny scenes punctuated with heart breaking drama.
There is one scene in particular where Lars is at a party and you can plainly see Lars struggling with this new social urge combined with his crippling anti-social disorder. It's a scene so good I'll never listen to the Talking Heads "This Must be the Place (Naive melody)" with the same ears again. Gosling does this saying almost nothing and it's a brave performance. By the end of the film even the woman handing out questionnaires was crying.
A nod also belong to Paul Schneider and the ethereal Emily Mortimer as Lars's brother and sister in law. It's also a film that doesn't treat small town America with disdain, but rather it's peripheral characters are well rounded and kind without coming off as naive and dumb. Being from a small New England town myself I found this pretty refreshing.
I don't think this film comes out until fall even know it seemed damn near completion at this early date. I wasn't part of the focus groupd afterwards but God I hope they didn't give any typical jackass focus group advice. Apart from maybe a bit of tightening up late in the first act nothing needs to be changed in this film. Moreover I plead with the studio to support this film as judging from the audiences very enthusiastic reaction I think it has a very real shot at being a hit with the mainstream. It's certainly at least as funny as Little Miss Sunshine and a far better film from top to bottom. So on that note of hope, peace out.
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first?
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A very herbivorous review indeed. Skunks hate the sound of Industry...Killer! Is Gosling going to be type-cast in these roles now?
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It's called word association. You say, "Emily Mortimer" and I instantly think, "Great tits!" and begin to envision them in my mind (i.e. her tits in Young Adam).
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sounds like it's much better than Cats.
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it into a heartfelt movie? Sounds interesting, but if his girl has a dick-hole mouth (does he clothe it?) and is blatantly sexual, it'll be difficult to get a big audience. I do find it interesting how a concept can be twisted to fit different genres. The fact that movies as disparate as Memento and 50 First Dates can share the same basic premise is pretty odd.
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Guys with their 'Real Dolls' in ordinary relationship type poses. One was a guy lying on the grass with his laptop while she laid next to him sunbathing etc etc... It was very creepy, but I wonder if it inspired this movie...
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Reminds me of the disturbing 80's flick 'PIN'. Also, it's Brother-in-law.
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is gone off the main page
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But I want to see Ms. Mortimer's allegedly fantastic breastuses. Linkage, bitches ?
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Why would I waste time reading that review when I can just call IndustryKiller an ass right now?
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where's the Stardust trailer story, dude?
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Having heard nothing but praise from everyone who's seen little miss sunshine, how can you sit there and talk down on it. likewise, where do you really get off on this Transformers bashing? Granted, it MAY be shite.... but every department behind that film has shown nothing but the highest integrity to the source material. What is your problem? If it's simply the fact that you can't believe the transformer designs aren't blocky.... then all I can say to that is THANK FUCKING CHRIST the transformer designs aren't blocky. If you don't like it because Michael Bay put out the pieces of shit movies 'the island, pearl harbour and armageddon.... then all i can really say is The island LOOKED good and WAS good until the dreadful 3rd act. Pearl harbour Looked shit and was shit until the awesome 3rd act (the actual attack that is) and if you didn't like armageddon then you really have no life left in you. Armegeddon may have it's flaws and granted i had trouble with it the last dvd sitting..... but when i first saw it in theatres I was in movie going geek heaven.... and so were you. You know it. I know it. Every armageddon hating bitch knows it. Spielberg + Bay + Transformers = Something to be excited about!
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Sounds like this year's Little Miss Sunshine!
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I too am excited about Transformers....I'm wary of when a talkbacker's name is IndustryKiller ( the token "fight the MAN" guy), but nice review holmes. I'm excited to see this one, and i haven't seen half-nelson so I guess I'll pick that one up as well.
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Someone had to say it.
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Because I thought Al Gore deserved the award for “Best Actor”
... (I couldn't resist).
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Can't... breathe... laughing.... too hard....
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One of the great filmmakers died almost two weeks ago and all we hear about is some gay-as-hell movie about Greek cheek-splitters.
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http://tinyurl.com/3r78t
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Hey IndustryKiller, why didn't you mention anything about Kelli's performance. She is such a talented young lady so I find it hard to believe that you didn't remember any part of it, or even notice her. I knew this film would be awesome when I saw the cast. I've been following Kelli's career now for several years and this is probably one of my most anticipated films of hers.
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You are absolutely right Kelli garner was great in it. I had actually never heard of her before this and I had to IMDB her afterwards. The reason i didn't give a mention was that I didn't want the review to get stupidly long with praise, I felt retardedly long with praise was suitable. Also given that information on this film is so limited I felt it would be best to stick to the basics sort of as an intro. I'm sure, or at least I hope, that when the film gets closer to release everyone will hear more. But if you like Kelli Garner sincerefan, or if you ARE Kelli Garner, good job.
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Mar 18, 2007 9:25:44 PM CDT
messi, something tells me I've made more films than you
by bendersshinyass
My audiance is only 15000 people small though. I'm getting there. As for blocky transformers... I've said this before, And chances are I'll say it again until it becomes common accepted knowledge, the original cartoons weren't blocky. They changed into nice streamline robots the likes of which the toys just COULD NOT do. What I see witht he new film is a way of making the transformers turn into robs and retain a sleakness. If you put the original robot toy of optimus up against the new film robot design of optimus .... dude, they've done fucking brilliantly. Nothing you or anyone can say will counter this argument. If you wanted optimus to look like the original toy transformer, then I'm terribly sorry your dreams have been shattered. If you wanted optimus to look like the original cartoon, then the only way that cartoon truck design could change into the cartoon robot design is for dramatic alterations to the way the actual transforming takes place. It's awesome the way these robots have a hundred moving parts and gears during their transforming.
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I think you are only half right on LMS. Little Miss Sunshine did get a lions share of praise when it was in theatres. But now, in the Oscars orbit, there is a growing tide against it. In fact at the Oscar nomination talkback, you'll see that LMS best picture nom was one of the most controversial subjects. If you want some background on why I didn't like it; i thought it was so perfectly quirky it would make Wes Anderson (whom I love btw) squirm, the characters lives fall apart in perfect unison according to which joke needed to be told, the characters themselves werent human so much as dipshit archetypes, and by the end of the film NOTHING was resolved, in fact I felt that the worst was yet to come for these people who havent even begun to pick up the pieces of their shattered dreams. I dont buy that getting on a stage and dancing for the little girl somehow made them closer as a family. Only in movieland could that even remotely occur. So i guess what i was trying to say is this film is the opposite of that. there are no cheap outs or silly jokes at the characters expense. About Michael Bay. it seems like we fundamentally disagree here. I simply have not liked anything the guy did after The Rock. Bad Boys and the Rock are amazing action films, and after that I really outright don't like his movies. With that said, my distaste for Transformers Ill admit goes a bit beyond Bay and blocky robots. I've read the script. A script that at this point we know is DAMN clsoe to what is being rpesented onscreen, and it's terrible. Scriptwise, besides Pearl Harbor, maybe the worst thing Bay has ever taken on. A good film should start with a good script. Not always. SOmetimes they write as they go and we get Casablanca, sometimes they finish it well ahead of tiem and we get Transformers. THe fact that I grew up since infancy with the Transformers biases my opinion a bit. If you didn't grow up with them your chances of enjoyment increase. But the fact remains is that the script isn't good, not for a Transformers movie, not for any movie. You don't have to lsiten to me. but I think it's pretty unfair when I am attacked as some kind of hater who has it out for Transformers because of some personal vandetta. if you look back on some old talkbacks when Bay was first announced I was actually defending his hiring cause I thought he could get a budget directors of lesser stature would be unable to secure. On another note congratulations on your film, 15,000 strong is a damn fine start. Keep fighting the good fight.
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It is not the blockiness of the original Transformers that made their designs great, and it is not the non-blockiness of the new ones that makes them crap. And it doesn't have anything to do with how far the new designs have strayed from G1. (Well, maybe it does for some people.) IN MY OPINION, the reason that the original G1 designs of the Transformers resonate with people is because you can look at the robot and clearly see the car it comes from. That's all. The pleasure of recognition, and the simple cleverness of how a wheel well becomes a shoulder, or a grill becomes a chest. When I look at a Transformer in robot form, I want to see the shape of the thing it transforms into. If I can't recognize the vehicle somewhere in the shell of the robot, then the object has absolutely no Transformer-ness to it. On this front, all of the designs that I have seen (so far) from this new movie are complete and total failures. Yes, they look pretty freaking cool. But they do not look like Transformers to me, and I suspect the majority of the movie's detractors feel similarly, at least on a subconscious level. How about it, fellow detractors? Am I on the money here? Oh, and just so this is not TOTALLY off topic, I think this Lars and the Real Girl movie looks potentially interesting, but I want to reserve judgment until I see a trailer. *grin*
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I just wanted to drop in and remind you that I love each and every one of you. This talkbalk needs more love.
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Mar 19, 2007 9:27:51 AM CDT
getting a little tired of you calling me a cunt, messi
by bendersshinyass
This is talkback, and only one of us is being a cunt. really.
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Thanks bud, for keeping it civil. I was merely pulling you up on the fact that there was abit of hatred towards Bay and transformers, and I made the assumption you were in league with the haters. I asked questions, but didn't attack your integrity. You're responce has been enlightening to me... You've read the script, and you think it sucks. Thats fair enough. But you know, I've read so many scripts that i thought wouldn't be pulled off well as films.... and I've been proven wrong time and again that these days I just consider myself to not be as visionary as i ought to be. In fact, I thought the script for batman begins was eons better than the finished film, so it does go both ways I guess. That said.... Is the script really that poor? I thought the action at the end was just pure Transformers bliss. I also thought that it kept true to the original G1 premise. At least in the film, they don't arrive looking like transformed trucks and cars that they haven't yet been configured too. And there here for energon cubes. It's a film, pretend for a second you're a kid watching the cartoon and that trailer for the film comes on. Works for me :)
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there's no way around it. The real killer blow is the lack of action, as if you are attempting to excuse the weakness of the Human interest through "Giant robots fighting" then there had better be a decent amount of Giant Robots Fighting. just a thought, as IndustryKiller is omnipresent does that make him god? If so, you've a lot to answer for.
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