The Wrestler

[Dan Gould]

I am going off of Bill Simmons' review on ESPN.com,

[BruceH]

I heard that a lot of the guys that the main character deals with in the locker rooms, and performs with are "real" wrestlers, but I wouldn't know them from a hole in the wall.

[Soulstation1]

CB was not in this movie

[Soulstation1]

Big Al would love the soundtrack to this movie

[thedwork]

  RDK said:

Very fine film - one of my favorites this year. Roarke is terrific and well-deserving of the Oscar nom.

  sal said:

I loved this movie as well. Mickey Rourke was fantastic and deserves the Oscar. Marisa Tomei is eternaly beautiful and her performance was excellent as well.

i also was pulling for Rourke for the oscar, and i thought he deserved it. the fact that it was Penn who won instead, with his mentioning of Rourke in particular at the end of his acceptance speech, took some of the sting out of it - as well as taking some guts to do because i believe it is customary to either acknowledge all the other nominees, or none at all, and it considered uncouth to do otherwise. Penn is a master performer and recognized that he should acknowledge Rourke's performance as being a special one. that's how i saw that anyway...

very good review alexander (Spoiler Alert!!!) The Wrestler totally blew me away. at the end of the movie i had tears streaming down my face. i couldn't think straight for a good 5-10 minutes after the credits ended. it really got to me. this kind of work is why film is beautiful and important. for anyone who's ever had real thoughts about giving up (in the final analysis, that's what the film is about: giving up) not only on their dreams, but their life, this movie is brutally - and thankfully - unsentimentally direct and on target imo. everyone involved nailed it.

ROURKE!!!

[thedwork]

  7/4 said:

Barfly.

damn straight man. for me, that's the one. i knew Rourke was a special actor the first time i saw that back in the day. it's a film/performance that tends to polarize people. love it or hate it kinda thing. i loved it. it's detractors say that Rourke was way, way over the top in his performance but i didn't see it that way. and after i saw the Bukowski documentary Born Into This many many years after internalizing the film Barfly i felt that vindicated in my sense that it was indeed not over the top. if anything it was maybe a little timid. people who didn't enjoy it also thought it wasn't funny when it was trying to be (or they didn't even know it was going for the laugh). i thought it was very funny when it was trying to be and struck a good balance. i always figured for sure that would be his greatest performance. now we've also got The Wrestler!

and it's the last great thing i can think of faye Dunaway doing. plus it's one of the most endlessly quotable movies i know of:

"So - you hired a dick to find an asshole."

"The last time you ever paid for a drink... was the first time."

or maybe my favorite bit and probably the most classic:

Wanda: I can't stand people, I hate them.

Henry: Oh yeah?

Wanda: Do you hate them?

Henry: No... but I seem to feel better when they're not around.

then later in the movie:

Wanda: I hate the police, don't you?

Henry: I don't know, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.

a taste if interested:

Barfly: The Fuel Scene

[Soulstation1]

The wrestler is even better on the 2nd / 3rd viewing

IMO

The wrestler is even better on the 2nd / 3rd viewing

IMO

[Chuck Nessa]

3 characters, 3 victims. Downer, but reasonably high quality downer.

[WorldB3]

Saw it last night, love it. They both deserved Oscars. I look forward to reading your blog entry on it Alexander.

Great flick.

[BruceH]

  Chuck Nessa said:

3 characters, 3 victims. Downer, but reasonably high quality downer.

Quite right, but if you're in the mood for a downer then you could do a lot worse. What gets me is the TV adds give just the opposite impression. They show every second of footage in the film of people laughing, giving the 100% wrong idea that it's a high-energy, life-affirming, upbeat movie. A criminal misrepresentation. I hope anyone who saw the add also READ something about the film before seeing it.

[Dan Gould]

I don't get that - the ad that is running for the DVD release has Roarke saying "I'm just a broken down piece of meat" or something like that while he gets teary-eyed. Doesn't make it look life-affirming to me, unless its affirming that oftentimes, life sucks.

My wife would never go to see this but I got her to put it on the Netflix list and it just arrived. I'll be watching this weekend when she goes to visit her Mom for a Mother's Day weekend.

[Dan Gould]

I meant to post about this when I watched last weekend.

My feeling was that it was a good, but not extraordinary movie. The story arc was predictable, and Hollywood in its own way - he doesn't get the girl but he does execute that move off the top rope, whether it will kill him or not. A truly realistic look at the wrestling business would have been even more brutal, and could just as easily end in the morgue.

At the same time, there are some very effective scenes and of course the acting was excellent.

And as I said elsewhere, while its a shame Marisa Tomei waited til she hit 40 to take her clothes off on camera, I am nevertheless grateful that she finally did.

[jlhoots]

  Dan Gould said:

I meant to post about this when I watched last weekend.

My feeling was that it was a good, but not extraordinary movie. The story arc was predictable, and Hollywood in its own way - he doesn't get the girl but he does execute that move off the top rope, whether it will kill him or not. A truly realistic look at the wrestling business would have been even more brutal, and could just as easily end in the morgue.

At the same time, there are some very effective scenes and of course the acting was excellent.

And as I said elsewhere, while its a shame Marisa Tomei waited til she hit 40 to take her clothes off on camera, I am nevertheless grateful that she finally did.

You haven't seen Before The Devil Knows Your Dead????

[Dan Gould]

I've seen stills.