Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

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domino harvey
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Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#1 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:00 pm

Room won a surprise People's Choice victory last week at the Toronto Film Festival, an award which as Gold Derby explains has an uncanny ability to predict Oscar favorites, so this and Brie Larson look to be real contenders.

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aox
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Re: The Films of 2015

#2 Post by aox » Wed Nov 04, 2015 12:00 am

Has anyone seen "Room", and would you recommend it. It's playing at Angelika tomorrow and seems to be getting great reviews.

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domino harvey
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Re: The Films of 2015

#3 Post by domino harvey » Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:39 am

aox wrote:Has anyone seen "Room", and would you recommend it. It's playing at Angelika tomorrow and seems to be getting great reviews.
My girlfriend and I saw it last night and we both disliked it. For an indie that has auspices of being realistic and "tough," it's laughably contrived (never more glaringly than when a certain character makes a perfectly timed appearance during a big TV interview) and features some of the worst "naively wise child" narration you'll ever sit through (and it doesn't even make narrative sense-- who is the kid even talking to?). Brie Larson and the kid are okay and both likely nominees, but how the former is now a shoo-in to win seems to be something of a mystery (though I bear her no ill will since she should've been nommed for Short Term 12 and this is classic Oscar restitution). The film devotes its time to a diminishing split narrative, and as a result is unable to exhibit either due attention or inquisitiveness (though it improves once it becomes a recovery story over a day-to-day experience one), and I grew awfully impatient with all of the convenient shortcuts the film insists on taking in the process of telling what should be a compelling story. This film makes a tough subject (in either half) too easy, and is toothless and disposable as a result.

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djproject
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Re: Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#4 Post by djproject » Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:57 pm

I want to take this film seriously. But I can't get past the title =D

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Re: The Films of 2015

#5 Post by Jack Phillips » Thu Nov 05, 2015 1:03 pm

domino harvey wrote:The film devotes its time to a diminishing split narrative, and as a result is unable to exhibit either due attention or inquisitiveness (though it improves once it becomes a recovery story over a day-to-day experience one), and I grew awfully impatient with all of the convenient shortcuts the film insists on taking in the process of telling what should be a compelling story. This film makes a tough subject (in either half) too easy, and is toothless and disposable as a result.
I guess I agree. What bothered me most about the second half was that it became almost entirely about the young boy's adjustment to his new environment. Since we're all familiar with that environment, we have to watch the boy learn what all of us already know. There isn't anything new for the audience to take away. We're reduced to experiencing one precious moment after another (sometimes involving ice cream, sometimes cute dogs). At the end I was literally running out of the theater to escape the orgy of preciousness.

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TheDudeAbides
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Re: Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#6 Post by TheDudeAbides » Fri Nov 13, 2015 12:15 pm

Room is an interesting beast to say the least. It's a film that is quite hard to hate but one that doesn't leave enough to love either. The performances are great, especially from Brie Larsen who's quickly become my favourite "it's all in the eyes" actress, and the subject matter is completely tragic and all too real. Anyone familiar with Ariel Castro and his kidnappings of Amanda Berry and company will probably have a hard time completely dismissing the subject matter as this has unfortunately happened to many people before and that fact that this is an all too real tragedy will really pull at the heartstrings of just about every typical filmgoer, especially parents. That said the film is not without it's issues.

It is too melodramatic and heavy; I can't exactly think of a way to go around based on the subject matter but it's still too dramatic and too heavy handed. As Domino had pointed out, the narration is outlandish and too self aware; they are trying way too hard to make it seem like it come off like it came from a 5 year old who is smart but also uninformed at the same time but they do not succeed; it feels much more like the narration you could expect to hear in a film very self aware that it's being cheeky like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl or any Wes Anderson film. The film also suffers from a poor third act and an odd ending.

All in all, I liked it and it was okay; but it was not the masterpiece that some reviewers were leading me to believe

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Re: Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#7 Post by davoarid » Tue Jan 19, 2016 3:50 pm

It took away my favorite part of the novel:
SpoilerShow
that Joy continued to breast feed her son until even after they were rescued.
It was a major point of contention in the book (the TV reporter asked about it during the interview, and the doctors and her grandparents all gave her grief over it), but the film only included one very subtle reference to it in the penultimate scene (one so subtle I imagine people unfamiliar with the book wouldn't have noticed at all).

I can't really get at why this bothered me so much; it just felt like a calculated "Ooh, no, that'll make people really uncomfortable, let's cut it" marketing move to me.

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TMDaines
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Re: Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#8 Post by TMDaines » Wed Jan 20, 2016 3:36 am

I presumed that she had in fact continued with it, but we only see the scene where she chooses to stop. Maybe other scenes hit the cutting room floor.

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Re: Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#9 Post by barryconvex » Thu Feb 18, 2016 4:57 pm

didn't love this either. in fact i'm pretty much in total agreement with this board's reaction so far. the direction is stiff and the supporting characters one dimensional. the film also makes a big mistake focusing primarily on the kid in the second half of the movie and then compounds it by eliminating Larson's character altogether for a good 15-20 minutes.

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Re: Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#10 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Feb 18, 2016 5:27 pm

I hadn't written anything about this when it came out, so I'll write a little bit now even though I should be revisiting it first: I really liked this film, and my admiration has only grown the farther and farther I've gotten away from some of its flaws (narration chief among them - framing all of this particularly horrific early stuff through the child's perspective is a brilliant touch, but having someone whose outlook is underdeveloped and warped narrate a film rarely if ever works well, particularly a child). The first half is certainly the compelling stuff promised in promotion and trailers, but it's really the second half that, while not as heart-poundingly upsetting to watch, is more essential and more haunting. Rarely does anyone investigate the aftermath of a tragedy like this beyond the surface level (which is why my other major complaint with this was the unrealistic prodding of the news anchor - could you imagine this happening in real life without a justified outcry at the very least?) and seeing Larson navigate the discomfort of living safely and comfortably without having any road map for her life even loosely sketched because of the time she had stolen from her was certainly one of the year's acting and writing highlights for me. Outside of the aforementioned questionable decisions, Abrahamson does an excellent job of documenting without injecting drama where it doesn't belong (Macy's quick exit from the proceedings felt raw and real and like something that, 99 times out of 100, would have been unwisely rewritten and expanded once he was cast, for example).

And man, I wonder if Sean Bridgers had any idea when he got into acting that he'd be the go-to irredeemable human being for multiple casting directors? Between this and The Woman (and I'm sure there are more), I can't say I'd blame anyone for crossing to the other side of the street if they saw him approaching them at this point.

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Re: Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

#11 Post by mastertape » Mon Feb 22, 2016 4:26 am

This was a very impressive film for me. It has its flaws like the child speaking in dialogues and saying some perfect lines with uncanny timing. In a film like this it takes you aback and lets you wonder if that was right but delving into the emotional crux of this film and the psychological turmoils these characters go through, I dint feel like complaining much.

Brie Larson was noticeable in the small space she got in 'Spectacular Now' itself and I kept wondering until IMDb reminded me. She shines here, she carries the film with ease, I felt. From being emotionally grueling story it becomes a happy one, especially when the kid starts bonding with the grandmother. These are things that we don't see in a film which starts like this.

As a film I am not very sure if it is bigger in scope than the others that are contending for the Oscars, but the direction and Larson's acting is top shelf and might win one or even two.

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