Marriage Story

[AustrieGOAT]

Didn't see a thread about this film but definitely worth talking about. Noah Baumbach's best film by far in my opinion, and glad he's starting to finally get the break-out he deserves. Loved the story overall, although its similar to Baumbach's other films, the tone this one carries just hits differently than them and any other dramas about relationship / divorce that I've seen. The screenplay and dialogue were phenomenal, but Adam Driver and Scarlett really nail the performance. No shade to Joaquin for his incredible performance as Joker, but Driver's performance in this one was definitely good enough to win Best Actor in another year. All in all, Laura Dern feels like a lock for Best Supporting Actress and there's not much hope for the film in Best Picture and Lead Actors, but this film definitely deserves recognition as one of the best of the year.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Watched Marriage Story (Netflix)

This is one of the more award-baity movies I have ever seen.

1) serious topic with lots of serious feelings that need to be acted seriously - check
2) two A list actors (Scarlet Johnanson, Adam Driver) taking a break from big budget, franchise flicks to do something serious - check
3) Movie about the serious challenges of being a serious artist - check
4) Supporting cast of past award nominees/winners being themselves (Ray Liotta, Alan Alda, Laura Dern) - check
5) The movie might as well have put "this is a serious movie" in subtitles because it kept reminding us how serious it was.

My issues with it:

1) Laura Dern
2) Another movie about self-pitying artists. This is La La Land without dancing or good visuals. If this movie was about two accountants, no one on the awards circuit would give a scaleeto.
3) it could have been easily edited down by 30 minutes and nothing in the plot or character development would have been any different. There was a lot of actor and director self-indulgence in this movie.
4) There is no chemistry between Driver and Johnanson, so they didn't look or act like people that had ever loved each other. It takes a scaleeto-ton of exposition to keep reminding us that they loved each other.

Best part of movie: Julie Hagerty is great, her character was interesting, and she deserved more screen time. The movie would have been a lot better if it had been about Hagerty's relationship with her daughter and son-in-law in a failing marriage.

The dialogue was interesting enough for the most part to justify a grade of B- at the most.

I was not a fan.

 

[Marat]

While the acting was good, the film itself was really slow. I kept waiting for it get more interesting but ..... did not do it for me either.

 

[Aluminny69]

I couldn't finish it. Too slow. Another movie about movies ( actors, directors). I don't watch movies when I don't care about the characters.

 

[Waquoit]

We couldn't make it through the Squid and the Whale, not going to bother with this.

 

[BlueandOG]

I would watch if they were playing Black Widow and Kylo Ren. Otherwise, my own marriage is boring - I don't need to see it in a movie.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Didn't see a thread about this film but definitely worth talking about. Noah Baumbach's best film by far in my opinion, and glad he's starting to finally get the break-out he deserves. Loved the story overall, although its similar to Baumbach's other films, the tone this one carries just hits differently than them and any other dramas about relationship / divorce that I've seen. The screenplay and dialogue were phenomenal, but Adam Driver and Scarlett really nail the performance. No shade to Joaquin for his incredible performance as Joker, but Driver's performance in this one was definitely good enough to win Best Actor in another year. All in all, Laura Dern feels like a lock for Best Supporting Actress and there's not much hope for the film in Best Picture and Lead Actors, but this film definitely deserves recognition as one of the best of the year.

I agree that the acting is very good, but overall the movie is a 'B' because it is just a little too Hollywood & by extension too flippant. Dern I guess is purposefully over the top & un-apologetically malicious, but I could have used a little more self-awareness on the destructiveness of her tactics. The movie devoted a lot of time to the costs of the attorney's and the divorce, yet there were no actual implications on the characters lives. They didn't show ScarJo doing much of anything with the relo/money she got ( I guess she revived her acting career but mentioned in dialogue only) & Driver was pretty much able to immediately adapt & commute/move to the west coast (yeah his apartment was mediocre, so what). The way both ex-husband & wife ultimately dealt with each other similarly 'yada yada'd the emotional impact of the divorce. Yes they had a screaming fight, but they quickly returned to treating each other with respect and kindness. This doesn't often happen in the real world.