Film Club #2 - Margot at the Wedding

Sad Professor · 08-06-2018 12:18pm #1

Welcome to Film Club where the denizens of the boards.ie film forum watch a particular film and discuss it in depth (hopefully)!

This week's film is:

Margot at the Wedding

Dir: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, John Turturro, Ciarán Hinds

Trailer:

Netflix link: https://www.netflix.com/title/70077536
Also available on iTunes, Google Play and other VOD services

johnny_ultimate · 15-06-2018 12:24am

I got around to watching this again, a good ten years after I first saw it. I remember being a tad uncertain about it then, but that's only more pronounced now.

It feels like Baumbach didn't quite know where he was going with this one. You can see his interest in the mumblecore approach emerging for sure, but it would find more effective outlets in Greenberg and especially Francis Ha (Mistress America to a degree, but he went a bit more all-in on the comedy there). This feels somewhere between a Baumbach film and maybe even an Ingmar Bergman one... there's a particularly grimness and even nastiness to it I don't think fully works. Jack Black's character is the perfect example of that - he's an overtly comic and OTT character one minute, and a bit of an asshole everyman the next, and it simply didn't work for me.

Visually it's murky and grey in a way that suits the mood of the film, but isn't particularly appealing or interesting in terms of actually watching it!

The cast are obviously talented, but they're cursed with characters that aren't likable. This in itself isn't a flaw, and I tend to admire writers who go with straight-up unsympathetic characters as it's a brave, interesting and totally valid choice. Where this fails, I think, is they're not particularly interesting either. There's hints of fascinating stuff in there - Margot in particular has an enigmatic, casually cruel quality that's curious for sure. But it doesn't come together IMO.

At times, it works as a cringey comedy, and occasionally as a ****ed-up family drama. But as a whole it leaves me cold. I do think it was Baumbach somewhat trying to chart his course after Squid and the Whale. I've always found him a curious filmmaker where I really like around half of his films and am largely indifferent to the other half... this, alas, slots into the other half.

buried · 15-06-2018 10:09pm

I couldn't stand it lads. I turned it off with 30 minutes to go. Everybody was just a complete and utter total a$$hole. If I want to spend near two hours of my time with people like that I'll just go spend it with the worst of my own family. There is a point in this, I think it's when the Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh characters come back from visiting the neighbour asking him to go to the wedding, before Jack Black assaults a shrub, the dialouge there and the performance between the two is so bad, you can see them break the fourth wall shark and you can almost see them realise that this is awful tack altogether. Was soon after that I turned it off.
Still, was interesting to watch something I had not heard of for the club, but I just was an anti-christ trying to watch this.
Keep em coming though!

Sad Professor · 15-06-2018 11:30pm

I love it, probably my favourite Baumbach. The dysfunctional family dynamic really appeals to my sense of humour and love of dark family comedies. I find all the characters hilarious and endearing in their authenticity. Baumbach is a master at writing the everyday neurosis/psychosis that people have, particularly the selfish, materialistic bourgeois type characters that he obviously knows so well.

The editing is excellent. As in Baumbach's other films, a lot of the humour comes from the timing of the cuts, the abrupt end of scenes, etc. The cinematography is really good as well, all the old lenses and natural lighting.

kerplun k · 07-07-2018 4:05pm

I watched it last night. I Have to say I wasn’t a big fan of it. Previously I’ve watched three Noah Baumbach films, The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg and The Meyerowitz Stories and I’ve felt the same about all of them. I could sum them all up in one word. Meh. It verges on boring which is a shame because the cast are phenomenal and are the films only saving grace. I don’t know what it is about Baumbach, but I just can’t connect with anything he does, this isn’t to say he doesn’t make good films, but I just don’t get them. I can see Margot at the Wedding is shot well, and the characters are good and terrifically acted, and have interesting and dynamic relationships but it’s all just a bit boring, it almost feels like a poor-mans Wes Anderson film, but not half as interesting or funny. If you want to watch a good quirky comedy/drama film about the complicated relationships between a dysfunctional family I’d recommend the excellent August: Osage County.

17-07-2018 3:20pm

Downloaded this ages ago but still haven't got around to it

17-07-2018 11:05pm

Being honest with you guys, your choice of 2nd film is hardly something to get excited about. The title alone probably nuked half the 'members' straight off the bat!

kerplun k · 18-07-2018 9:07am

Deleted User wrote: »

Being honest with you guys, your choice of 2nd film is hardly something to get excited about. The title alone probably nuked half the 'members' straight off the bat!

I guess the whole point in having a film club is to watch films that you normally wouldn’t watch, now, in saying that, I have a strict no trailer policy so I only watched the trailer posted on here, after I seen the movie, and Jeez Louise, its bad. Not only does it give the whole friggin plot away, but it actually makes the film look worse than it is.

18-07-2018 4:41pm

kerplun k wrote: »

I guess the whole point in having a film club is to watch films that you normally wouldn’t watch, now, in saying that, I have a strict no trailer policy so I only watched the trailer posted on here, after I seen the movie, and Jeez Louise, its bad. Not only does it give the whole friggin plot away, but it actually makes the film look worse than it is.

Yeah sure its interesting to be presented with a film I wouldn't have normally come across or some cool indie flick, I just think this was a particularly bad choice when trying to get something going like a film club. The who concept has died with it.

Sad Professor · 18-07-2018 5:18pm

Certainly not the first time the film club has died.

The idea was to pick films that were slightly off mainstream in some way and which might produce some discussion, rather than films everyone had seen or liked and didn't have much to say about. But it's a difficult balance to get right, especially if there's a chance people will not bother watching it because they don't like the sound of it or the title or whatever. In this case it seems most people didn't even give the film a chance, encouraged no doubt by a poor trailer and some negative early posts. A "club" this ain't.

Anyway, I'm not sure how Johnny Ultimate feels, but personally I'm going to bow out of this. Other people should should get involved now if they want. I'd suggest sticking mostly to indie genre films that have previously been discussed on the forum and were popular. The Witch, Green Room, that kind of thing.

pixelburp · 18-07-2018 5:23pm

I think the forum has been pretty quiet too anyway over the last couple of months; maybe it's the good weather, cinema takings are supposedly down, so wouldn't surprise that folks aren't sitting indoors watching movies (though an air conditioned cinema is a great place to cool down in!) either way

18-07-2018 5:50pm

Sad Professor wrote: »

Certainly not the first time the film club has died.

The idea was to pick films that were slightly off mainstream in some way and which might produce some discussion, rather than films everyone had seen or liked and didn't have much to say about. But it's a difficult balance to get right, especially if there's a chance people will not bother watching it because they don't like the sound of it or the title or whatever. In this case it seems most people didn't even give the film a chance, encouraged no doubt by a poor trailer and some negative early posts. A "club" this ain't.

Anyway, I'm not sure how Johnny Ultimate feels, but personally I'm going to bow out of this. Other people should should get involved now if they want. I'd suggest sticking mostly to indie genre films that have previously been discussed on the forum and were popular. The Witch, Green Room, that kind of thing.

Well the what have you watched recently thread is probably its own little film club in a way, so its not all bad.
For me to create a buzz and proper debate, you need to be picking films that are controversial. The artsy discussions are very niche, whereas if you have something with a bit more oomph and polarizing thats when proper debate and discussion will arise from a greater portion of the visitors.
I don't think you should bow out just yet, just come up with something that will stoke a few fires!

johnny_ultimate · 20-07-2018 1:46pm

As I said when I proposed the idea, I wasn’t entirely optimistic about its potential - more just an experiment based on some feedback and to see if the easy access of Netflix might get more people watching a chosen film. As was always feared, initial enthusiasm - of which there was a lot - hasn’t translated to participation. The Good Time thread was reasonably encouraging (limited compared to the initial enthusiasm, but at least a few posters happy to jump in and participate), but this one obviously more concerning (with kudos of course to those who watched it, even if they weren’t fond of it).

If it’s going to be limited to a ‘certain type’ of film, then I think that definitely limits its potential and runs against the spirit of what this kind of thing can and IMO should achieve. Again, there’s undoubtedly a balance to be drawn and it’s important to get the right mix between accessible and challenging... but that is indeed tricky to achieve.

Before bowing out for good, if people are game I might suggest one more film. I have one in mind which I’m curious to use as a test case, to see what the response is - a pretty bold foreign language genre film that does things a little differently while still being a pleasingly pulpy, accessible film. Particularly curious to see if world cinema can generate a discussion, at least if it has a strong hook. If that doesn’t work out, I’m satisfied to call it a failed experiment, or alternatively leave it to others if they’d like to give it a proper whirl

brevity · 28-07-2018 7:24pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Before bowing out for good, if people are game I might suggest one more film. I have one in mind which I’m curious to use as a test case, to see what the response is - a pretty bold foreign language genre film that does things a little differently while still being a pleasingly pulpy, accessible film. Particularly curious to see if world cinema can generate a discussion, at least if it has a strong hook. If that doesn’t work out, I’m satisfied to call it a failed experiment, or alternatively leave it to others if they’d like to give it a proper whirl

What's this movie? I'm intrigued.

kerplun k · 28-07-2018 7:26pm

brevity wrote: »

What's this movie? I'm intrigued.

My guess is that it's Sebastian Schippers Victoria.

Film Club #2 - Margot at the Wedding

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