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jmovies
Let's Call It A Bromance
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:22 pm Posts: 12333
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Goodnight Mommy
Goodnight MommyQuote: Goodnight Mommy (German: Ich seh Ich seh) is a 2014 Austrian horror film written and directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. It was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
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Mon Sep 14, 2015 10:34 am |
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thompsoncory
Rachel McAdams Fan
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:13 am Posts: 14544 Location: LA / NYC
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Re: Goodnight Mommy
Let me preface this by saying that the twist in this movie is so fucking obvious and stupid - I literally knew exactly how it was going to play out from the first ten minutes, and if anyone leaves the theater feeling shocked by the big revelation I question their sanity. The movie itself is decent but I didn't find it incredibly terrifying or anything of the sort - it does certainly do its best to make the viewer uncomfortable though. It has a great atmosphere and does a nice job of developing tension. The cinematography is gorgeous. The movie turns into a bit of a riff on the torture porn formula during the final third and I didn't think this segment worked as well as the rest of the film. The whole thing isn't exactly a fun watch - it reminded me a lot of Funny Games actually. The performances are good. I don't know if it was the filmmaker's intention or because I guessed the twist ending but from the very beginning I 100% sympathized with the mother - she didn't do anything wrong. The kids were little shits and I wanted them to die. It's not a bad movie at all but after the insane hype this one received I was a bit disappointed. C+
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Mon Sep 14, 2015 12:05 pm |
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Chippy
KJ's Leading Pundit
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:45 pm Posts: 63026 Location: Tonight... YOU!
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Re: Goodnight Mommy
I've read some very bad reviews about this.
_________________trixster wrote: shut the fuck up zwackerm, you're out of your fucking element trixster wrote: chippy is correct
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Mon Sep 14, 2015 12:28 pm |
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Dil
Forum General
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:48 pm Posts: 8942 Location: Houston, Texas
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Re: Goodnight Mommy
I thought this lived up to that great trailer. Sure you've seen the twist before in plenty of other movies, but I loved the atmosphere of this movie. It's drenched in dread and although it doesn't really get violent until the third act you could feel the tension in every scene. The kids were good, the mom was great and the cinematography/camerawork was on point.
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Mon Sep 14, 2015 12:58 pm |
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David
Pure Phase
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:33 am Posts: 34865 Location: Maryland
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Re: Goodnight Mommy
This highly praised Austrian suspense film is well-constructed, gorgeous even, on nearly every technical level, but it left me empty and a shade frustrated. The story turns on adolescent brothers (Elias and Lukas Schwarz) whose idyllic summer is disrupted by the return of their mother (Susanne Wuest) after reconstructive facial surgery. The children are uncomfortable around this distant, bandage-swathed disciplinarian and begin to suspect she may be an impostor. With each day, the atmosphere in their luxurious and secluded home grows more tense. Can they trust their mother? Is she safe around them?
Simply put, I regard this film as around an hour and 10 minutes of modestly creepy miscellany (a dead animal! a dream sequence! a field on fire! a graveyard!) situated in a vacuum and doled out at a snail's pace, then a 30-minute blast of borderline torture pornography and a fairly predictable twist. Yes, the cast is strong and in tune with the subjective space within which they must play, and the 35-millimeter cinematography is as elegant and Haneke-brand icy as the house where the action unfolds. But I found it hard to detect a pulse beneath the veneer. The characters constantly serve the contrived screenplay, so I never invested in their fate or felt scared for (or by) them. And once the film's violent and sentimental final cards are dealt, the lengthy and deliberate buildup feels arbitrary in retrospect, its opacity more a shrewd gambit to earn festival-circuit laurels than an organic and earned preamble.
C+
The story is rather amusing when considered from an objective place above the action: after being away from her profoundly traumatized son for a while due to major surgery, a famous and wealthy television presenter decides to return home and instantly adopt this tough-love distance to discourage him from obsessing over his dead brother...while still covered in creepy bandages and without any in-person assistance from a loved one or a mental-health professional (not even after finding a dead cat floating in an aquarium in the living room).
Who was even watching him while she was in the hospital?
She also does a notably poor job arguing her case when tied up, barely drawing at all on her shared history with her son. No, "Remember when you were five?" anecdotes. This helps the audience, of course, because it allows us to continue to entertain the notion she may be a liar or a menace.
_________________1. The Lost City of Z - 2. A Cure for Wellness - 3. Phantom Thread - 4. T2 Trainspotting - 5. Detroit - 6. Good Time - 7. The Beguiled - 8. The Florida Project - 9. Logan and 10. Molly's Game
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Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:27 am |
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trixster
loyalfromlondon
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:31 pm Posts: 19697 Location: ville-marie
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Re: Goodnight Mommy
hanekean
_________________Magic Mike wrote: zwackerm wrote: If John Wick 2 even makes 30 million I will eat 1,000 shoes. Same. Algren wrote: I don't think. I predict.
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Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:53 pm |
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