3.17.24 - Dune: Part Two, the Best Picture Nominees, Goodfellas | Gems From the Rabbithole #5
Man, I love movies.
I’m pretty nondiscriminatory when it comes to watching movies, I’ll watch mostly anything. I know many people who will completely write-off a movie before watching even a second of it, declaring they just know they’ll hate it or that “it’s not for me”. What sci-fi movie from Christmases past scarred you so deeply that now Dune 2 is out of the question? I’m of the optimistic belief that you can at least be entertained by anything. First step — surrender to the couch or movie theatre armchair. Next step — mute whatever angst you’ve concocted against said film or genre. Last step — give yourself permission to go against your better judgement and get lost in the story, admire the music, really examine the visuals, side eye the characters or fall in love with them. I go into every movie with zero expectations. I sit down and I watch. I’m in no rush, I usually just want to see what the hype is all about.
Anyways, I’ve been watching ALOT of shit lately. Firstly, it’s Bachelor and Love Is Blind season so work has had me very busy. This past month, I was also chasing down the Best Picture nominations, was blown away by a new cinematic masterpiece in theatres, and caught up on some classic DeNiro and Scorsese.
Dune: Part Two (2024 | In Theatres)
I didn’t see the first Dune in theatres. I watched it from the comfort of our living room couch for the first time a couple weeks ago and honestly, I fell asleep. I was doing a decent job keeping track of all the characters, the houses, the planets, the “spice” thing, Timothée Chalamet’s hair, Oscar Isaac’s hair, the lack of Zendaya. It was a giant new universe — I may have missed a few details but I got the gist. As you can probably guess, I also didn’t see the original 1984 Dune or read the books; hell, I didn’t even bother to review the Wikipedia page before sitting for the movie. I really put no respect on this movie at all. I was just excited for Zendaya and my high school crush Timothée.
Going into Dune: Part Two though, I was kinda hype. My brother, my personal TikTok correspondent, reported that the buzz on Dune-Tok was crazy — people were walking out of the theatre saying it was the best sci-fi movie they’d ever seen. I had been closely watching the film’s worldwide press tour and keeping track of Zendaya’s outfits, obviously, and that alone had me ready and excited. Could Dune: Part Two even dare to live up to her Mugler archival robot suit? Was Zendaya doing the absolute most or was the movie actually worthy of this level of extra? We got IMAX tickets and sat one row too close but whatever — we strapped in with our expectations high in the sky and were ready to be blown away.
And that, my friends, I was.
Dune: Part Two was a cinematic feast for the eyes. Visually stunning, staggering, thrilling, ravishing — I need a new thesaurus. I do not use the term ‘magnificent’ too often — but that shit was motherfucking MAGNIFICENT. If there’s any commentary everyone seems to agree on, it’s that. The sandworm riding scene? Bruh. My eyes, yet alone my brain, couldn’t believe what I was watching. I didn’t breathe for 7 minutes. I finally let out a sigh and looked towards Nate and my sister-in-law who, like me, were both beaming with shock and awe after witnessing one of the most gnarly things we’d all ever seen with our two eyes on a movie screen. The entire time watching, I thought: “Wow. Technology.” While James Cameron’s Avatar brought us the hyper-realistic but still obviously fictional planet of Pandora, Villeneuve’s Dune suffocates us (in the best way possible) with sensory overload on the desert planet of Arrakis, begging myself to fetch a scarf to cover my eyes and nose from all the sand.
I wrote about Villeneuve’s other films Sicario and fellow sci-fi movie Arrival in a previous newsletter. Who knew I was such a Villeneuve fan? I sure as shit didn’t. I previously said sci-fi wasn’t my usual go to, but apparently a Villeneuve sci-fi is. I learned, the French-Canadian director is an avid storyboarder. To world-build and to construct a universe first in your mind, then to visualize it through drawing on paper, then to construct the screenplay around your storyboard — I’m fascinated by his imagination and his vision. I wonder what he dreams about at night. A dream is only a dream until you decide to make it real, they say. So you mean to tell me, what we watched was what he dreamt up in his brain one day while sitting on the toilet?
The music was perfect. As perfect as the music was in The Lion King, which was also scored by film composer Hans Zimmer. I’m a big movie score person. As I write this, the soundtrack to Phantom Thread is playing in my headphones. The music in Dune: Part Two felt epic and transcendent and magically captured the sounds and colors of the perilous desert landscape flawlessly. I’m not someone who minds a three-hour movie; for me, there was no valley, the entirety of the movie was a peak. Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, a villain in the black-and-white Harkonnen world, was sinister and serving apocalyptic skinhead; I was also happy to hear he’d finally rid himself of the Elvis accent. Stylistically, this movie is just so fucking cool.
Timothée Chalamet gave the most impressive performance. First of all, he’s 28 but at times gives pre-pubescent 18-year-old. By the end of the film, he’s a messiah and his transformation from doubtful teenager to mf Jesus — the slow burn of his growing power and confidence — convinced the hell out of me. The scenes of him addressing his legion of followers, scarf blowing in the wind as they cheered for their prophet had me internally screaming “Hail Paul” and ready to join the movement. Now, Zendaya was giving us badass sand warrior princess. Her and Timothée’s love story was pretty to look at, but their chemistry left much to be desired. I felt more heartbreaking angst between Timothée and Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name.
Nevertheless, I plan to see Dune: Part Two in theatres a second time. I must witness this movie once more on a giant screen before it’s shrunk down to mere inches. I’ve seen alot of film masterpieces in my day. I don’t think masterpiece is even an overused term, there are in fact many. Dune: Part Two is one of them and that’s all folks.
Final Verdict: Go watch something awesome. Your eyes won’t be disappointed.
Random Musings on the Best Picture Nominees
So the Oscars have come and gone. Oppenheimer won Best Picture to no surprise at all, whether we wanted it to or not. This year, I’ve seen 8 of the 10 nominees so far and have some thoughts...
Oppenheimer
I appreciated the history lesson because I barely remembered what the Manhattan Project was. The film reminds us of the lack of humanity among us humans and made me pessimistic all over again. Although, I was locked in from minute 1 until the very end, I was also morbidly waiting and waiting for THE explosion and to be visually stunned out of my seat; unfortunately, I think Dune: Part Two left me more shook. Of Christopher Nolan’s filmography, The Dark Knight still sits in the top seat for me.
Barbie
Ken was the star of the movie Barbie. That’s kind of a biiiiiiiig problem. Entertaining but otherwise wholly disappointing for a host of aggregating reasons.
Poor Things
This was my personal best picture of 2023. Poor Things is bizarre, fantastical, otherworldly, and wildly original. The feminists hated it; the storyline is definitely borderline problematic. Nonetheless, this feminist loved it — loved the story, loved Emma Stone’s performance, loved the costume and production design, loved watching something so weird and eccentric and also so beautiful. A million years ago, I watched film director Yorgos Lanthimos’s film Dogtooth, one of his first feature films and one of the most wildly absurd and deeply memorable movies I’ve never forgotten. Poor Things was cool to see what that director now, with a budget and access to A-list actors, could create.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Find all my thoughts in my 11.3.23 newsletter.
Anatomy of a Fall
I love true crime and watch alot of it. Dateline, 20/20, SVU, anything on the Investigation Discovery channel — be it Homicide Hunter or Southern Fried Homicide — I will eat it right up. Anatomy of a Fall was largely a court room drama about a husband and father’s mysterious fall and the wife and marriage on trial. Kinda interesting premise, very subtle angst of “Did she? or Didn’t she?” but definitely not enough twists and turns to think of this as any more interesting than a story I’ve watched already on Snapped.
The Holdovers
The movie is now embroiled in a wild plagarism scandal. To whoever ultimately wrote this movie, well done! I thoroughly enjoyed The Holdovers. Nate and I watched it with some friends on a cold Sunday afternoon, all knuzzled up on the couch drinking tea and that setting couldn’t have been anymore perfect for this cozy, nostalgic, warm and fuzzy film. It’s also really cool how the film was stylized — using a particular film stock, camera lens, and color grading — to look and feel like it was made in the 1970s.
Past Lives
Find all my thoughts in my 11.3.23 newsletter.
American Fiction
I need to watch this one again. I walked away feeling kinda meh and underwhelmed and for some reason, I think that’s my fault.
We’re planning to watch Zone of Internet as soon as it dips below $19.99 on streaming. As far as Bradley Cooper’s Maestro goes, I’ll get around to it one day.
Goodfellas (1990 | Hulu)
Goodfellas is one of those foundational movies you study as a film studies student. There’s so much to study — the movie is a master class in acting, directing, and the mob movie genre. As the kids say, it’s “iconic.”
I rewatched Goodfellas for the first time in years and forgot just how many scenes, lines, and moments are in fact iconic or, as the dictionary states, widely considered to epitomize an era, culture, community, or place. Goodfellas is the crime drama of the 1990s. For 2.5 hours, you’re an Italian-American fly on the wall who’s tantalized by the flashiness and exciting anarchy of mob life among the hooligans of Jersey’s Finest Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci, both born to play wise guys. Oh, and Robert DeNiro’s there too to round things out.
To appreciate Goodfellas is to watch Goodfellas. I rather show you, than tell you. Here are three of my favorite scenes:
Here is Martin Scorsese just showing off with this very famous, three-minute long, one-take shot that cemented him as one of the GOATs.
This scene shows precisely why Joe Pesci won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Watching this scene initially, I thought I was either watching the greatest acting of all time from that cute lil old lady or the scene had to be improvised; the characters felt too real. After a quick Google search, I learned the lil old lady is Scorsese’s real life mother actually and the scene was in fact predominantly improvised.
Final Verdict: Whatever is at the top of your movie list, replace it with Goodfellas. If you’ve seen it already, I’m sure you’re due for a rewatch.
What was your Best Picture of 2023? Have you seen Dune: Part Two? What’s your favorite scene in Goodfellas? Let me know in the comments!
Sometimes Nate and I speak in British accents for like……several hours. It’s really fun and makes me wish I had a cool accent and not my nondescript, very boring New Jersey-but-not-at all-New Jersey accent. Nate has a weird Eastern Pennsyltucky accent. They put weird inflections on the most random of moments, but usually when asking a question. It's very sing songy in a weird, Irish Trinidanian kinda way. Anyways, here are some gems from my recent late night Internet deep dives…
BUY: EO Liquid Hand Soap - I love citrusy scents. This hand soap is dumb expensive, but if you like bright, uplifting lemony smells, it’s the best of the best. Treat yo self.
WATCH: The Hill Bombing Skateboarders of San Francisco (documentary short) - I recently spent 48 hours in San Fran on a work trip. SF is a wild city — smack dab next to tent cities and streets that look like the sun don’t shine there are magical, gigantic Victorian townhomes amid the unique, rolling hills of the city streets. While there, I was reminded of this beautiful doc I once watched about the skateboarders who skate those city streets, risking their lives for the thrill, among many other complex reasons.
LISTEN: “Destiny” by Zero 7 - I watched Blue Crush on that flight to San Fran and my inner 12-year-old aspiring surfer girl was living. The Blue Crush soundtrack is so good — Lenny Kravitz, N.E.R.D, Damien Marley, P.O.D. I forgot how much I used to bump this Sia song when I was in middle school.
LAUGH:
, I feel confident there’s a string of unanswered iMessages already screenshot and sitting in Julia’s camera roll waiting for a drop.FOLLOW: @balitecture on Instagram - Apparently, you can build a three-bedroom villa in Bali for just $349K. Since discovering this, I’ve been pestering Nate with questions about retirement and why oh why we’re looking for a house in New Jersey…
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