Caught a showing of Marty Supreme with the fam a few days before I left, and man, I don't know if I'm just getting old and out of touch with movies or what, but I did not get or like it at all. I felt a similar way to One Battle After Another; both are getting very high praise, which makes me feel out of the loop. To be fair, I also tend to like movies that many others don't, so I suppose it all evens out.
I think I prefer OBAA to this, though. Both were absolutely relentless with the pacing and energy, but at least One Battle had a few little comedown moments; Marty is just frantic and exhausting. Leo's character, while completely and bafflingly inept, was at least somewhat likeable, whereas I didn't care one bit for Marty as a person. He was a loud, brash, sociopathic narcissist, and it kept feeling like the movie was trying to redeem him, but couldn't let him appear too weak or have uncool moments. Even when he's called out for being a horrible person, those same people go right back to sleeping with him or giving him what he wants, so I don't really know the lesson the film was trying to convey. He didn't really get any comeuppance in the end, it felt like.
he did get his comeuppance at the end. The way the ending is framed/shot is at odds with what actually happened. It was a hollow victory. The culmination of his dream was a meaningless exhibition match. He made a powerful enemy in Kevin O'Leary, and now he's settling down to raise a baby with a woman he said has no purpose in life. At some point, the chickens come home to roost, and it can't be more than two weeks after the movie ends.
Does anyone really believe that he'll commit to Rachel or make a good father? For me, Marty Supreme is the perfect movie for this moment in American history. It's all bravado. He's singularly driven, but to what end? Relationships were ruined, people were scammed, and people died. For what, exactly? What was actually accomplished?
I don't know what to tell you about OBAA. For me, that's one of the five best movies of the 2020s.
I enjoyed it but didn't love it. Elle's a lot of fun and it's certainly a novel premise for a Predator flick but if I'm honest,
a sweet and wholesome found family story isn't really what I'm looking for in my alien murder bastards franchise. Plus having all the antagonists be synths made it feel a generally bloodless affair. I do respect it for doing something different with it though.
Also as far as the meta story goes, Jesus Christ are W-Y *ever* going to learn? How many billions have they blown on their dumb bioweapons bullshit only for it to blow up in their faces every single time? Shutter the department and just increase people's wages to a decent level, you fuckers!
he did get his comeuppance at the end. The way the ending is framed/shot is at odds with what actually happened. It was a hollow victory. The culmination of his dream was a meaningless exhibition match. He made a powerful enemy in Kevin O'Leary, and now he's settling down to raise a baby with a woman he said has no purpose in life. At some point, the chickens come home to roost, and it can't be more than two weeks after the movie ends.
Does anyone really believe that he'll commit to Rachel or make a good father? For me, Marty Supreme is the perfect movie for this moment in American history. It's all bravado. He's singularly driven, but to what end? Relationships were ruined, people were scammed, and people died. For what, exactly? What was actually accomplished?
I don't know what to tell you about OBAA. For me, that's one of the five best movies of the 2020s.
That's fair. I just didn't get that from the movie. Which, granted, may be my fault, as I was basically entirely checked out by that point. If so, though, it's a bit ironic that a character who has no issues speaking his mind the entire movie is suddenly without words to express himself. Which, again, could've been a good message if it was hammered home a bit more, but I don't even feel like it was. To me, him going and asking to see and hold his baby wasn't necessarily framed as a bad thing, or a punishment, but as the cherry on top. He confesses his love to his baby mama then goes to hold their child- whether he thinks she's aimless or not, he seems rather content. Whether the victory really is hollow or not seems almost pointless, because in his mind, he's already won and hasn't really lost anything of note. If he were to come back, only to find his mother or Rachel and the baby gone, I think that would've been one thing. But he got everything he wanted, really, and faces no (obvious) punishment.
OBAA has grown on me a bit since seeing it, admittedly. I'm still not as wild about it as everyone else seems to be, and there are some unanswered questions or things that kinda make me mad to think about, but it was fine. It at least had some enjoyable moments- I liked Benicio's character, and Sean Penn did give a hell of a performance. It's weird- Penn's character Lockjaw is arguably an even more detestable human being than Marty, but I still found myself, not exactly enamored, but not finding him quite as grating in a weird way. They're both similar characters in that they're one-track minded, caring only about themselves and their end goal, regardless of who else gets hurt along the way. Maybe because Lockjaw does get a more clear comeuppance in the end, even if he doesn't entirely have time to realize it. Lockjaw has a weirdly giddy, boyish side peek through with all the Christmas Adventurers Club stuff, which I think endears him a bit more (weird to say about a white supremacist, but you know what I mean), whereas Marty, at least to me, never really lets us see that "weak" side, so to speak.
I will say, though, that OBAA's score really gave me a headache. It was like my cat was walking across a piano and they just went with it. I get that it was trying to convey the panic and hectic tone, but it was just assaulting to the ears at times. Again, I totally get why both of these movies connected, they just weren't for me. I admit that my taste is, at times, about as interesting as a saltine cracker.
To me, him going and asking to see and hold his baby wasn't necessarily framed as a bad thing, or a punishment, but as the cherry on top. He confesses his love to his baby mama then goes to hold their child- whether he thinks she's aimless or not, he seems rather content. Whether the victory really is hollow or not seems almost pointless, because in his mind, he's already won and hasn't really lost anything of note. If he were to come back, only to find his mother or Rachel and the baby gone, I think that would've been one thing. But he got everything he wanted, really, and faces no (obvious) punishment.
Did he, though? When he was chasing ping pong greatness, he wanted nothing to do with Rachel or their kid. Fatherhood is a consolation prize for a man who failed at his true passion. His ping pong career is over. He didn't get on a Wheaties box, become the face of American ping pong, or win a major tournament.
To me, whether he succeeded in his own mind is immaterial. He's a loser. He sold out the shoe store guy, his mother, and the mother of his child for nothing.
I get that it was trying to convey the panic and hectic tone, but it was just assaulting to the ears at times. Again, I totally get why both of these movies connected, they just weren't for me. I admit that my taste is, at times, about as interesting as a saltine cracker.