Posts by Rebecca Peterson3

Visually, the cinematography is absolutely flawless, though when it comes to the actual substance... I think I found it much more impactful back when I was seventeen.
Still, it remains an excellent piece of cinema.

bluenomad2 said:Brad Douriff is my favorite of the four. First saw him in an X-Files episode, Beyond the Sea, playing some kind of prophet. Incredible performance. Later found out he’s actually the doll Chucky. A gem. 🙂

He just has a knack for those twisted roles. Still, I think he's best known as Billy from Let. He had a standout part in Deadwood, too.

Horton is my favorite in Arsenic and Old Lace. It's a movie people either love or hate. Personally, I love it. 😁

As a kid, I used to have absolute nightmares because of that voice... 😲

As they say, "I just couldn't resist."
What exactly is there to resist when you accidentally stumble into a bathroom and find an unexpected woman standing there? You offer a polite apology and promptly make your exit... Unless, of course, the unspoken rule is that you're expected to strip naked and start a physical altercation...

Ashley Grant66 said:I figured he went in there thinking he was just having a quick little fling with what he assumed was a sex worker, and he left her money just like he usually does. The neighbors heard screaming and some kind of "struggle," and the guy ended up injuring his foot by stepping on glass—which certainly wouldn't have happened if he’d just stepped into the bathroom and she hadn't bolted out the door seeing him. It definitely felt like some sort of invasion and physical altercation...

I agree that the filmmakers intentionally kept things vague, which leaves anyone watching it to come to their own conclusions based on how they perceive the subtext. The IMDb synopsis explicitly uses the word 'rape,' and a few reviews I skimmed also highlight the sexual dimension of the scene. Personally, I think the sheer trauma of a stranger breaking into your shower is intense enough on its own, though perhaps labeling it 'rape' might be a bit of an easy assumption for some viewers. Lawrence Edwards58, do you think the entire interpretation of the film shifts if we remove that sexual element from the equation?...

The sexual dimension is a taboo subject in Iranian society. You can see how much he struggles right from the moment he moves into the apartment, constantly being interrogated about that woman and her belongings, who she is, why she's there...

He injured his foot because he was barefoot (and likely naked)...

If there weren't a sexual component involved, it would be an entirely different story, but even if there wasn't, his wife, the neighbors, and his colleagues would probably assume there was... it's a complicated situation when you can't be completely open with the people closest to you...

Ashley Grant66 said:I find it quite curious how everyone seems to be targeting the husband. 😁

It strikes me that it’s rather difficult to discuss a detached husband who appears to be acting solely to 'defend' his property—even if that is likely his primary driver... It stands to reason that he cannot comprehend her, viewing her decision as entirely irrational, which perhaps serves as his way of disregarding her autonomy... essentially treating her like a minor character in his own story, much like we view her as a secondary figure in a film centered on him. But why shouldn't the perpetrator's family have a right to know what kind of man he is? And why is it so hard to empathize with the person forced to live alongside someone so visibly traumatized and shaken, yet who refuses to take any action? For reasons that are deeply intimate, clearly significant, yet utterly incomprehensible to outsiders...

He isn't being cold; he's actually in an impossible situation. I mean, look at how much he snapped at the colleague who was basically handed a cheap apartment by that woman! You live in such a rigid, conservative society that you're forced to maintain this specific kind of decorum...
If the neighbors hadn't been there, he probably would have just swept the whole thing under the rug, mostly because he's preoccupied with whether the bastard is going to lash out at someone else next.

They actually had a decent relationship before the assault occurred—before anything was even put to the test—but since then, he’s changed:
- someone laid hands on his property
- everyone witnessed it
It's hard to say which part haunts him more; he just withdraws into himself, and instead of finding her husband beside her, she finds herself facing a polite, polished stranger...

goldenhound32 said:"The attacker"?
So, the old man walked into the bathroom and she went flying through the glass shower door from pure terror, if my memory serves me correctly...

Yeah, exactly.
The neighbor recalls, if I remember rightly, saying, "When I saw her, she looked more dead than alive," while the old man admits, "I couldn't resist the temptation."
A lot has gone down here...
One thing is certain—it wasn't the shower glass's fault.

Paul Rogers94 said:When someone tries to force romance on me—regardless of whether it’s portrayed as queer or otherwise—it feels about as intrusive as being shoved face-first into fascism or a sermon from a preacher... and if this all takes place in an exotic setting like Shanghai amidst some overly sentimental wartime backdrop, then I think the director is seriously patronizing my intelligence. Honestly, Ang Lee reached his true zenith with Hulk; that film is essentially the purest distillation of his directorial vision...

I have to disagree here; I never felt like anything was being forced upon me as a viewer... though, truth be told, I couldn't even make it through the end of Hulk.

Paul Rogers94 said:I don't follow the "cold-blooded" label... he really did everything within his power to help her process that trauma. He even let her completely derail their evening together, despite it being painfully obvious she wasn't ready. She doesn't want a doctor, she won't go to the police, and she certainly isn't interested in keeping the perpetrator's car... so what exactly is the expectation? In the first half of the film, I actually entertained the idea—though it felt a bit too cliché for my taste—that she might have had an affair and things just spiraled out of control. I suppose that’s what the director intended, given that the primary engine of the plot is this whole whodunit investigation...

Actually, no, that isn't his "performance." They aren't actors making executive decisions here; they're just playing parts while the director decides when to pull them into the spotlight...
The empathy you're describing is what you offer a stranger, but that's precisely what he's doing. A spouse or a parent in a situation like this would expect something much more substantial...
In a rigid, deeply conservative society like the one depicted in the film, he really should have stood firmly by her side, yet he failed to do so...

Paul Rogers94 said:I didn't experience it that way with Brokeback Mountain🙂 I just couldn't get into it; to me, it felt like a cheap, loud attempt at cinema—just a universal, pathetic melodrama about a gay romance.

A "gay romance," huh...
Rogers, have you actually sat through Lust, Caution by the same director?

Paul Rogers94 said:In this specific film, she spends the entire runtime acting suspicious, constantly manipulating him in various ways—this, that, refusing to go here or doing this, claiming things aren't right (it’s clear she doesn't love him, and neither does he).

What exactly is "suspicious" to you?
Maybe she was just looking for a little empathy, for heaven's sake... I mean, how would you feel if you were being violated, and the guy standing next to you remained completely ice-cold...?

He claims he spotted the exact bike he bought, which suggests he had this little habit of dropping cash wherever he went the moment he stepped inside...

Paul Rogers94 said:When we talk about how a movie is perceived, there’s this critical layer of identification that people often overlook—for instance, what hook is someone supposed to latch onto in a queer film if they don't personally live that life? If they can't find that connection, then perhaps the film simply isn't for them... perception is subjective, as much as it varies from person to person, even if most of us are being nudged by the same subconscious cultural values. But one must distinguish between perception and reality; after all, a Rorschach blot is just a Rorschach blot, regardless of what you think you see in it...

I can identify with the protagonist of a queer film even if I've never harbored any such desires myself (take *Brokeback Mountain*, for example, which is really just a universal story about love).
It was the same way with this film; the woman believed his signals meant far more than he ever intended them to mean, and frankly, it's all just nonsense...

Grace Sanchez50 said:I was having quite the lengthy discussion with goldenhound32, and...
I actually posted my review over in the other thread... The phone is irrelevant to the actual point being made, much like how our previous debate about whether one needs to sit through an entire movie to form an opinion went nowhere; there is simply no way to prove anything to you because you refuse to step outside your own little bubble... You haven't contributed a single intelligent thought to this forum since you joined, least of all regarding cinema. I am still sitting here waiting for you to actually contribute something meaningful to this discussion about the film, yet you insist on circling back to me and my cell phone. How much longer are we going to do this?...

So, you actually decided to grace this film forum with your presence just to critique the size of someone's bladder... how incredibly sophisticated...
Both the phone and the arguments themselves have become completely irrelevant at this point, and since someone decided to clutter the chat with that tired "you only need to watch the movie once" line, perhaps they should take their commentary over there...
Since there isn't a dedicated thread for this film yet, I suppose we’ll just have to make this one our official hub... so please, go ahead and drop your reviews here, and let's see if we can actually manage to have a decent conversation for once...

Paul Rogers94 said:It sits somewhere in that uneasy space between a heavy social drama and a gripping psychological thriller... A professor and his wife, an actress, move into a new home, only for her to be targeted by some intruder while he’s away at work. He becomes absolutely obsessed with hunting down the culprit and seeing justice served, but there's this lingering, cynical truth to his crusade: when you pursue justice at any cost, you usually end up with a hollow victory where nobody feels satisfied, and even the concept of justice itself feels somewhat unfulfilled...

It isn’t about justice, Paul Rogers94, not really... It’s more that he views her as nothing more than a piece of property, much like how Grace Sanchez50 treats her smartphone. He’s pinned her down with his own rigid expectations, acting as if anyone daring to mess with his settings deserves a lifetime of misery, all while completely disregarding her actual feelings. She can feel that suffocating control, of course, and it’s only a matter of time before the whole relationship simply snaps...

Grace Sanchez50 said:Oh, for heaven's sake, Lawrence Edwards58, please save those childish little wordplay games and pedantic literalism for a playground... the point of this forum is to actually discuss cinema, not to maintain a personal diary where you log every fleeting impression you have about a movie. I am still sitting here waiting for you to provide an actual, coherent argument—or rather, a legitimate critique—of this film that might actually spark a conversation more intelligent than this thread with the pinned post, which, if we're being honest, was exceptionally foolish and entirely unnecessary...

And look, nook, I don't see you having said anything of substance regarding the film itself, aside from boasting about your phone, so perhaps follow your own advice and present some real arguments... personally, you won't be getting any meaningful discourse from me on this film forum unless you step up, nor am I going to go out of my way to encourage you... why don't you try motivating yourself...

Grace Sanchez50 said:If you actually owned a thousand-dollar device like I do, you’d have a PIN.

Truly a monumental contribution to this discussion with that "but the movie was great" logic... what an intellectual powerhouse we have here...

I suppose you decided to grace this cinema forum just to brag about your expensive phone and belittle everyone else...
we're here to share impressions and thoughts; save your closing arguments for a courtroom...

And yes, as I previously stated, the film is excellent.

What an absolute mess... you guys have completely hijacked this thread with that pinned post, and frankly, I don't even have one myself.
As for the movie, it was actually quite brilliant...

Kyle Vaughn8 said:Ghosts? Seriously—you guys actually believe in that stuff? 🙂
I really hope they don't ruin the whole movie with something that cliché—fingers crossed, right?
But looking at those photos—where Kirsten Stewart is just staring into space like that—could there actually be something going on?

So, what exactly was the issue with him?

Like I said—everyone's saying this is one you just can't miss. ☕

Just look at him... honestly, I found the whole thing incredibly tedious; it was far too long and just absolutely cluttered with unnecessary dialogue and monologues that went nowhere...

No, if those numbers are implying there are actual ghosts lurking around here, I certainly won't be able to resist... I might just have to take a look for myself... 😛

Kyle Vaughn8 said:





Seriously—I feel like I can't open a single newspaper without seeing everyone rave about this movie... so I figured I’d start a thread just to kill some time until it hits theaters in March.

The director is Olivier Assayas—he did *Clouds of Sils Maria*, though I haven't actually sat down to watch that one yet. ☕

The gist: it's about a Personal Shopper—basically a fashion guru played by Kirsten Stewart. It's such a weirdly specific career for our modern era, right?

Is this something you guys are planning to catch? ☕

A lot of people are saying the film is kind of unsettling.
What do you think could make it so "unsettling" though? 🤔

Not after *Clouds of Sils Maria*, if you ask me... no thank you.

electrictrucker88 said:Honestly, it bugs me when everyone looks perfectly manicured and airbrushed in settings where they really shouldn't... Sure, the movie is meant to be mindless entertainment, but that doesn't mean it has to look entirely artificial...

True, but you have to realize this is classic Zemeckis territory, where the aesthetic polish always takes precedence over any semblance of realism.
Basically, just a tear-jerker for the whole family.

electrictrucker88 said:Someone mentioned they looked a bit too polished, and honestly, I felt the same way... it really pulled me out of the moment.

Good grief, why does it matter so much??!
This is supposed to be a mindless popcorn movie where you just switch your brain off; everyone looks perfectly manicured and flawless, and frankly, realism is the very last thing on my mind. If I were actually looking for depth or authenticity, I’d be questioning her motives for everything she did, and let's be honest, repeating "they threatened Anne, they threatened Anne" hysterically doesn't provide even five percent of an actual answer to that question...

And finally, I really wish they had cast a younger actor for Brad's role... Brad belongs to the David Fincher generation, and I have to wonder how much longer we're going to see him playing the pretty boy...

Given that we're talking about Zemeckis, I honestly wasn't holding my breath, but I have to admit... the end result caught me completely off guard.

Rachel Young3 said:I mean, seriously, how does he just walk up to anyone and jump into their cars like that... 🙂

That’s exactly what happens when an author becomes far too precious with their protagonist... they end up handing them a thousand opportunities to succeed without ever actually letting them face any real consequences. It’s honestly exhausting to watch. A character needs to step up and actually live through their own life; you can't just hover over them like some neurotic old lady protecting a porcelain doll...