Little Women (2019)

[Small Man Big Horse]

Greta Gerwig's latest, it's a sumptuous, charming, engaging, incredibly warm and all kinds of lovely. I've no idea if it's a faithful adaptation or how it compares to the other film versions as this is the first I've seen, but it was beautifully acted, gracefully directed and just bloody fantastic in general. 8.5.10

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It's very crafty marketing. You have to see it on the big screen, or the women will be too little to see.

[robotam]

Saw this instead of the new star wars . Really enjoyed it. It was nice

[touchingcloth]

I can't wait to see this, but they don't release it here until late January. I was sceptical cos of a) previous adaptations being uniformly shite and b) the presence of Emma Watson, but given that Gerwig and Roman did Ladybird I'm nothing but anticipative for this one.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Saw this instead of the new star wars . Really enjoyed it. It was nice

It's an incredibly warm and kindhearted film, isn't it, and just what I was in the mood for today.

I can't wait to see this, but they don't release it here until late January. I was sceptical cos of a) previous adaptations being uniformly shite and b) the presence of Emma Watson, but given that Gerwig and Roman did Ladybird I'm nothing but anticipative for this one.

I'd no real opinion of Watson before this but I thought she was pretty bloody great in it.

[robotam]

Yeah, I think when you called it lovely in your first post that pretty much summed it up. I thought everyone was great in it. Like when Odenkirk appears just by looking at him you get who he is (also the stuff they read from letters and say about him before he arrives. But whatever. Happy new ywear).

[Leo2112]

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

"These women are little, but the ones out there are far away."

[timebug]

Only ever seen the version with Susan Sarandon as the mother, way back when, and I have never been so bored in my life.

[peanutbutter]

This looks like it'll be nice but I can't help but feel Greta Gerwig has been way underperforming since she got full creative freedom. Lady Bird was fine, a Greta Gerwig film which suffered hugely from needing someone else to play Greta Gerwig (I think Ronan's very good, more that it highlighted the weaknesses in Gerwig as a filmmaker when she couldn't rely on her own charisma), this looks like it'll be a fine adaptation of a thing I couldn't give a shite about.

Can she just not direct herself? Is that the issue? I'd far rather her as an actor/co-writer with a very strong presence than a director from what I've seen so far. Or maybe it's just that her whole persona worked better as a semi-outsider and she seems to have very rapidly became establishment as fuck

[Puce Moment]

I honestly think she has looked at Sofia Coppola's career and thought "I want to be like that." And why not?

Going to watch this now with absolutely no clue about the storyline, other than I assume it will have a Coppola-esque feel like The Virgin Suicides or The Beguiled or any story about young women and girls shut together in a house, but with a much breezier story.

[LynnBenfield69]

Really enjoyed this, didn't want it to end. The casting of Odenkirk is fucking weird though and really pulled me out of the world.

[Puce Moment]

Really enjoyed this, didn't want it to end. The casting of Odenkirk is fucking weird though and really pulled me out of the world.

I'd go along with that, although given how chocolate boxy it gets towards the end, added to it it's meta approach and unfaithful narrator, I do wonder how much of it we are expected to believe is happening because the editor wanted it that way.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and thought once again that Florence Pugh is becoming one of our best actors. I was completely wrong about it being about these youg women stuck in a house together. It was very much the inverse, and was more about people growing up and moving on, and compromise. And how hard that is, which is a universal theme well-handled here.

[amputeeporn]

Seem to be alone in feeling fairly locked out of this. The casting didn't really help; Midsommar was great, although I'm wondering if she just had the best character to play? Emma Watson, who I like despite never having seen her in anything, seemed really out of her depth - lots of bad strange face pulling - and I didn't for a minute believe her as a sister of the others. I never really got the closeness we kept being told about between her and Ronan, either.

The weird structure felt funny, too, flashback etc, and I think it might have been much more enjoyable and charming to see the girls as actual kids rather than women pretending to be. Occasionally I lost track of whether I was in the past or the present.

Timothee thing was good but I wonder if his casting, looking so much like a little boy, contributed to my weird feeling that the women never really cohered as a unit? Would a slightly more masculine lead have looked less like their little brother?

I had various other problems as well, mainly not liking Jo at all, and finding her pretty hard work and up herself.

It was nice enough but a big step down from Ladybird in my opinion. I also thought The Man Not Understanding Her Amazing Writing was a yawningly 2020 thing, given that in the book her publisher encourages her to write stories for girls and it's Jo who can't work out how. Just clanged a bit for me.

[Barry Admin]

Me and my sis took my Mum to see it this week. I loved it, and got the most out of it by far, sadly. They were a bit politely non-plussed and didn't like the structure.

Cried when Beth got the piano. Cried more later on. It was brilliant, and uplifting in weird ways. I dunno if I've ever read the book but had next to no knowledge of the story, which is perfect.

So I was open-mouthed at a few things, firstly Bob Odenkirk turning up! The whole device of the story actually having been written was amazing, the structure of the entire thing is extraordinary. It was interesting how you got the best of both worlds, with the "happy" fairytale ending, but them realising that the true ending was so much better, and Jo had all she ever wanted in the book - that was her real partner: her writing, and her acceptance as an author and talent.

Of course, what it had to say about women was fascinating too. I found it intriguing that the publisher had so little interest in Jo, and deliberately tried to low-ball her the whole way through. Yet, he ended up listening to the opinions of his daughters, even though his concerns were strictly financial.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Me and my sis took my Mum to see it this week. I loved it, and got the most out of it by far, sadly. They were a bit politely non-plussed and didn't like the structure.

Cried when Beth got the piano. Cried more later on. It was brilliant, and uplifting in weird ways. I dunno if I've ever read the book but had next to no knowledge of the story, which is perfect.

So I was open-mouthed at a few things, firstly Bob Odenkirk turning up! The whole device of the story actually having been written was amazing, the structure of the entire thing is extraordinary. It was interesting how you got the best of both worlds, with the "happy" fairytale ending, but them realising that the true ending was so much better, and Jo had all she ever wanted in the book - that was her real partner: her writing, and her acceptance as an author and talent.

Of course, what it had to say about women was fascinating too. I found it intriguing that the publisher had so little interest in Jo, and deliberately tried to low-ball her the whole way through. Yet, he ended up listening to the opinions of his daughters, even though his concerns were strictly financial.

Really glad you enjoyed it, I originally watched it on New Year's Eve and beforehand was slightly frustrated that the only thing I was doing that day was going to the cinema, but then it's such a gorgeously warmhearted film that I found myself so so glad that I did that rather than attend some party I probably wouldn't have enjoyed. Or even one which I would have enjoyed! The piano moment really got to me as well, and even though it's only a small role Odenkirk really was perfect for it. When it fails to win Best Picture at the Oscars I shall be pretty damn annoyed, especially as bar Parasite it's an uninspiring bunch this year.

[kidsick5000]

Utterly wonderful. Utterly infuriating there isn't a best director nod. 
And it's an addition to the list of films that capture Creative adrenalin- similar to the Pet Sounds scenes in Love And Mercy