kiddo82

I'm still mad they didn't submit Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

I wish I liked this as much as some of the reviewers I follow who I really respect. I *liked* it in the theater, but it wasn't something that stayed under my skin. It's a shame France chose not to submit it to the academy for international film though. (A country may only choose one film for consideration.) I kind of hope it gets a best picture nom just to stick it to them. I think the

Human/Fishman fornication

Thankfully I didn't see this one with my parents but I still think about the time I saw The Shape of Water with my dad. If I could have allowed myself to get swallowed up by my movie theater seat, I would have.

Yeah. I've seen enough of Vincent D'Onfrio in other things to know he's a good actor. But I just don't like his choices as Kingpin. It's like a Nicholas Cage performance before Nicholas Cage was in on the joke.

Sorry. It's a bad word play on the title using the brand of soap called Dial.

So Mean Girls had already made back it's budget. There is still work to be done in order for it to be deemed profitable but this is obviously a huge first step. I didn't care for Anyone But You--my love for Glenn Powell not withstanding--but it has reportedly grossed 83,000,000 off of a reported 25 million budget. Also, it's estimated that Wonka has achieved profitability off of a reported 125 million dollar budget. Add in that Barbie (145 million dollar budget) and Oppenheimer (100 million) were giant moneymakers.* Hopefully the studios will learn that a bloated budget doesn't necessarily equal big bucks and they should focus on making good movies that people like. But they probably wont. *Not that 100+ million dollar budget is anything to sneeze at, but it's nothing compared to the 200+ budgets of movies like The Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and Dial Hand Soap, The Flash (which could have cost as much as 300!!), Mission Impossible 23: Tom Cruise Runs Some More, etc. And it's not that these movies don't bring in money, it's just not enough money to justify their budgets. And fewer and fewer of them have enough legs these days.

I think D'Onfrio's acting as Kingpin is distractingly bad. I can't even take the character seriously.

I really liked The Mick.

I don't dislike Paul Rudd but he does fall into this category of generically good looking, affable, white dudes who get universal love despite being pretty one note. (See also Ryan Reynolds.) It's not their fault, and more power to them for that, but it does seem like they get away with playing the same types of roles over and over while others might get criticized for not stretching themselves. My UO is I have listened to a few episodes of the podcast Smart/Less with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes and I can only put up with it if they interview a guest I'm interested in. I think the only one who comes across really well is Sean Hayes. Bateman and Arnett seem as if they are trying too hard to be the funniest person in the room and it's a turn off.

Correct!

Could the ending have taken place in Oliver's head? Unreliable narrator and all that.

Did you ever see that scene from the Office where the rest of the office can't remember if Stanley has a mustache or not? And it's all the funnier because as an audience member you're like, "Wait. Does he?" That was me watching Giamatti's eye during the movie. I couldn't tell you for sure if it was or wasn't how I remember him looking prior.

I get that they probably didn't want to just cast all of the original supporting roles but I think Busy Phillips over Amy Poehler is a step down. Ironically, Amy Poehler is more age appropriate now to play the mom of a 16 year old than she was 20 years ago.

The masks was great shorthand for the passage of one time frame to another.