Musical Mondays Week 104 The Guest

[tomspanks 9039]

 

4 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

Sorry for the unpopular pick! I should have made it clearer when I picked it (although I did allude to this fact) that it was a more tangentially musical Monday related because the soundtrack played a role in the film in the form of a mixtape (Us would have been my alternate choice because it uses I Got 5 on it in a similar way. Drive would also be another non-musical musical example in this vein). It was also my attempt to include the Halloween horror/thriller vibe because I love horror movies. 

My issue was that The Guest didn't feel the music was a main focus of the movie.  Also, I didn't dig the soundtrack that much, but that's on me.  I probably would've liked the movie more if I had gone in expecting a straight mystery/thriller movie.  

If I could stretch the MM rules myself, I'd pick a movie scored by John Williams.  What is everyone's favorite John Williams movie soundtrack and why is it Jurassic Park?

1 hour ago, GrahamS. said:

If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth watching an episode or two of Legion. You still might think he’s a terrible actor, but it’s a completely different performance.

I've seen the first 2-ish episodes of Legion and I tapped out.  Matthew Crawley forever.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

Look I'm just saying if Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham was here NONE of this tomfoolery would ever have happened ok?

[tomspanks 9039]

1 hour ago, gigi-tastic said:

Look I'm just saying if Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham was here NONE of this tomfoolery would ever have happened ok?

Halloween is very middle class, dear.

[grudlian. 4725]

4 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

I get your points. My take on this movie —which is the follow-up from the guys who made You’re Next—is that it’s subverting where you think it’s going from the jump (similar to you’re Next, but I actually like this film more). 

The key to the film to me is how Dan Stevens plays this character. I probably revealed too much last week saying he was psycho. When I saw it on the theater, part of the fun is you’re never QUITE sure where he’s coming from. Does he intend to harm the family? Or is he there because he legitimately wants to pay his respects but still has a screw loose?

The fun of the film is that there’s no way to know for sure. Personally, I think he legitimately wants to help this family, not victimize them, but he is insane. In his head, breaking bullies’ arms, killing the dad’s boss, teaching the son to stick up for himself by giving him psychotic motivational lectures is all things that his “friend” would have wanted. In his mind, he is genuinely being a good guy to them. He offers to leave at the beginning when he sees he’s upset the mom and I think he genuinely means it. Her taking him in is a combination of her neediness (and even the husband’s although he won’t admit it initially) and his twisted moral compass. He’s happy to stay there while he does shady shit to earn money to pay for a plastic surgeon to escape Lance Reddick. It’s a twisted two-way street. When the daughter reveals that she’s onto him, he could simply kill the whole family, but he doesn’t want to do that. He even tells her to give him time and he’ll leave and I think that is his plan. It’s only when Lance shows up that things spiral out of control.

Even at the end, when everyone’s been slaughtered, I believe him when he says he forgives the son. In Dan’s fucked-up worldview, the son has done the right thing by literally stabbing the bully (which is Dan) in the back. since this earns Dan’s respect, he will let them slide and just go on to kill anyone else who gets in his way.

I was very much under the impression that he was a bad guy from the beginning. I couldn't figure out why and I don't think they explained it satisfactorily (I get Lance Reddick programmed him but are his targets anyone who went after his army buddy's family?). I do agree with you that he doesn't want to hurt the family. That was part of his programming to protect Lance Reddick's company.

I looked at trivia on imdb for this. They made a point to say Dave hadn't gotten facial reconstruction surgery yet. Who thinks he had gotten it and who thinks he hasn't yet? I thought he definitely had to look like the dead army guy's buddy. The main reason I think so is because the picture on the screen when the daughter called the army about him was definitely a different guy. 

[GrahamS. 803]

2 hours ago, tomspanks said:

 

My issue was that The Guest didn't feel the music was a main focus of the movie.  Also, I didn't dig the soundtrack that much, but that's on me.  I probably would've liked the movie more if I had gone in expecting a straight mystery/thriller movie.  

If I could stretch the MM rules myself, I'd pick a movie scored by John Williams.  What is everyone's favorite John Williams movie soundtrack and why is it Jurassic Park?

I've seen the first 2-ish episodes of Legion and I tapped out.  Matthew Crawley forever.

 

2 hours ago, gigi-tastic said:

Look I'm just saying if Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham was here NONE of this tomfoolery would ever have happened ok?

Ummm... who? I’ve seen a little Downton, but am more familiar with this:

 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

7 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

 

Ummm... who? I’ve seen a little Downton, but am more familiar with this:

 

"Ooh wah, ooh wah, Downton Diddy. Tell us about the boy from New York City."

[gigi-tastic 2322]

12 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

 

Ummm... who? I’ve seen a little Downton, but am more familiar with this:

 

1. I'm all for Downton Diddy now

2. 

 How do you not know the QUEEN  of Downton Abbey? if you only know one thing about the show know Violet! 

 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

1 hour ago, gigi-tastic said:

1. I'm all for Downton Diddy now

2. 

 How do you not know the QUEEN  of Downton Abbey? if you only know one thing about the show know Violet! 

 

[tomspanks 9039]

14 hours ago, grudlian. said:

I looked at trivia on imdb for this. They made a point to say Dave hadn't gotten facial reconstruction surgery yet. Who thinks he had gotten it and who thinks he hasn't yet? I thought he definitely had to look like the dead army guy's buddy. The main reason I think so is because the picture on the screen when the daughter called the army about him was definitely a different guy. 

I was confused by that.  But I think what happened was, he had gotten surgery to get a different face before coming to the house.  And then at the house, he was on the phone and he was trying to get ANOTHER surgery to change his face AGAIN.  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

23 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

I was confused by that.  But I think what happened was, he had gotten surgery to get a different face before coming to the house.  And then at the house, he was on the phone and he was trying to get ANOTHER surgery to change his face AGAIN.  

I agree with this.  Just make sure he gets blonde hair.  Holly likes blonde hair.

[grudlian. 4725]

1 hour ago, tomspanks said:

I was confused by that.  But I think what happened was, he had gotten surgery to get a different face before coming to the house.  And then at the house, he was on the phone and he was trying to get ANOTHER surgery to change his face AGAIN.  

This is kind of what I thought but it only adds more questions. Why did he get surgery to look like the dead guy's friend? Did he even know this guy? How does befriending this family help him?

[Cameron H. 23786]

I absolutely hated how quickly the parents believed "David" over their own daughter. They've known him for a minute, and they immediately side with him. In fact, their entire attitude with him is nuts. They have them picking up their son from school after knowing him for less than a day; they invite him to come to the principle's office when the kid is about to be expelled. I'm sorry, none of this would happen. Ever. No way. And if the movie was trying to make a point of saying, "yes, this is unusual, but they were disarmed by his charm," it needed to do a much better job explaining why they felt so comfortable trusting him so completely so quickly. In fact, that's a big problem I had with it.

I think the movie fails for me because it shows the family trusting him so readily, but it also needs to convince the audience that he's trustworthy too. It's tell not show writing. They trust him because the movie says they do, but they never really make a convincing argument why they should.

[tomspanks 9039]

27 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

This is kind of what I thought but it only adds more questions. Why did he get surgery to look like the dead guy's friend? Did he even know this guy? How does befriending this family help him?

I think they were all in the same program and Dave really did make a promise to the dead man to look after his family, but to escape the program he had to get surgery to look like Dan Stevens?  Not sure if ithelpshim much except he could be a stickler for keeping promises?  

In conclusion: I dunno.

[tomspanks 9039]

21 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

I think the movie fails for me because it shows the family trusting him so readily, but it also needs to convince the audience that he's trustworthy too. It's tell not show writing. They trust him because the movie says they do, but they never really make a convincing argument why they should.

Especially the kid - Luke? - he sold out his sister for this stranger.  Yeeesh.

[grudlian. 4725]

30 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

I absolutely hated how quickly the parents believed "David" over their own daughter. They've known him for a minute, and they immediately side with him. In fact, their entire attitude with him is nuts. They have them picking up their son from school after knowing him for less than a day; they invite him to come to the principle's office when the kid is about to be expelled. I'm sorry, none of this would happen. Ever. No way. And if the movie was trying to make a point of saying, "yes, this is unusual, but they were disarmed by his charm," it needed to do a much better job explaining why they felt so comfortable trusting him so completely so quickly. In fact, that's a big problem I had with it.

I think the movie fails for me because it shows the family trusting him so readily, but it also needs to convince the audience that he's trustworthy too. It's tell not show writing. They trust him because the movie says they do, but they never really make a convincing argument why they should.

I forgot about the principal's office part. That seemed crazy to me. I don't have any children but don't schools now keep a record of the student's guardians? So they don't release a child to someone without custody or whatever. I would think discussing expulsion of a minor with someone who isn't a legal guardian is a big deal even if the parent is present. 

[GrahamS. 803]

It’s certainly been more of a conversation-starter than I initially thought! Just to further confound those who didn’t like it, it got a 90% on RT AND 76% on Metacritic. That’s how I heard of it, by reading about it.

Since I’ve never seen Dan on Downton, for those who didn’t like his performance here, do you think His Downton performance influenced you because you had that to judge him against? When I saw this movie, he was a complete unknown. Or would you have thought his performance sucked regardless?

 

[GrahamS. 803]

4 hours ago, gigi-tastic said:

1. I'm all for Downton Diddy now

2. 

 How do you not know the QUEEN  of Downton Abbey? if you only know one thing about the show know Violet! 

 

What’s Professor McGonagall doing in Downton Abbey?? Is the Abbey in Diagon Alley?

[Cameron H. 23786]

22 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

What’s Professor McGonagall doing in Downton Abbey?? Is the Abbey in Diagon Alley?

You should watch Downton...

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

I forgot about the principal's office part. That seemed crazy to me. I don't have any children but don't schools now keep a record of the student's guardians? So they don't release a child to someone without custody or whatever. I would think discussing expulsion of a minor with someone who isn't a legal guardian is a big deal even if the parent is present. 

At my son’s school, everyone has to sign in electronically with their relationship to the student. Last time I checked, “sexy drifter” wasn’t an option, but maybe you could write it in under “other.”

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

I'm sorry, none of this would happen. Ever. No way. And if the movie was trying to make a point of saying, "yes, this is unusual, but they were disarmed by his charm," it needed to do a much better job explaining why they felt so comfortable trusting him so completely so quickly.

It would also help if they actually made him charming

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

At my son’s school, everyone has to sign in electronically with their relationship to the student. Last time I checked, “sexy drifter” wasn’t an option, but maybe you could write it in under “other.”

I've picked up my nieces at the end of school no problem without any sort of anything. I reckon that if I picked them up in the middle of the school day or something, they would have checked?  

I'm thinking maybe it's due to public school? I think when they were in private daycare, then I had to sign in to get them.

They're little though. I don't imagine they'd make someone sign in to pick up a 17-year old kid, would they? (I guess they should.)

[Cameron H. 23786]

Just now, AlmostAGhost said:

It would also help if they actually made him charming

That’s what I mean. The movie tells us that he’s charmed us, but for this to work, not only does he need to charm them, he needs to charm the audience. I mean, maybe he did for some?

I don’t know. I’m notoriously hard to impress. I don’t trust anyone who jogs for miles, but doesn’t sweat a drop. 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

That’s what I mean. The movie tells us that he’s charmed us, but for this to work, not only does he need to charm them, he needs to charm the audience. I mean, maybe he did for some?

I don’t know. I’m notoriously hard to impress. I don’t trust anyone who jogs for miles, but doesn’t sweat a drop. 

One thing that maybe could have helped is if they showed him being friends with the son in the Army. That might've helped us as viewers buy his moving so quickly.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 minute ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I've picked up my nieces at the end of school no problem without any sort of anything. I reckon that if I picked them up in the middle of the school day or something, they would have checked?  

I'm thinking maybe it's due to public school? I think when they were in private daycare, then I had to sign in to get them.

They're little though. I don't imagine they'd make someone sign in to pick up a 17-year old kid, would they? (I guess they should.)

Not sure about high school. My son is 8. Did you go in or was it a car line? Public school car lines are probably pretty loosey-goosey. My son’s school (which is admittedly pretty small) requires any person picking up a child, that’s not immediate family, to be prearranged and approved. The people who help with car line recognize all the parents, so they probably wouldn’t have allowed you to do that. I’ve seen them stop kids from getting in cars with people they don’t recognize.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 minute ago, AlmostAGhost said:

One thing that maybe could have helped is if they showed him being friends with the son in the Army. That might've helped us as viewers buy his moving so quickly.

Or something! I think the movie mistakes Stevens being clean cut and handsome for charisma.