Dark Waters (2020)

[surreal]

Saw this yesterday and was blown away - just a terrific legal drama based on the true events around a lawyer who had previously been working to defend chemical companies, suddenly going head-to-head with Dupont.  It's all based on this article in the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html

The build-up is fantastic, the premise and implications terrifying, and the performances uniformly exellent - especially from Mark Ruffalo who despite his characters status shows him to be an everyman and becomes more beaten-down as the movie progresses across 5 decades.

If you like legal dramas and real-life adaptations I can highly recommend this one

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvAOuhyunhY

[BlodwynPig]

Mama

[El Unicornio, mang]

Solid film, one of the most depressing I've seen in a while, particularly with the colour scheme they chose. The statistics at the end are genuinely horrifying.

[popcorn]

Thought this was a completely by-the-numbers borefest. Watch Zodiac instead.

[Ian Benson]

I thought this film was good, but, yeah, also watch Zodiac if you haven't seen it as it's also good, and Mark Ruffalo is also in it. Spotlight's good too, also starring Mark Ruffalo. And Margaret as well. He's in that one, playing a bus driver. He's in some of the Marvel films. He's probably in some other good films. I think he's always good even if the films aren't especially. Sam Rockwell's another one like that in my opinion.

[popcorn]

Spotlight's good too, also starring Mark Ruffalo.

I didn't like Spotlight either. I think it and Dark Water both suffer from a lack of distinctive directing and a lot of dull, hackneyed dialogue. The one I remember hating in Spotlight is when some character goes on a righteous rant and another character responds: "Are you done?" It's just what every scene like that in that sort of movie goes like these days.

Likewise Dark Waters ticks off every cliche. The neglected housewife (Anne Hathaway with absolutely fuck-all to do) turns up and finds the obsessed protagonist surrounded in files and papers. How many times have we seen that now? And yet it's in Zodiac and works brilliantly (I rewatched it recently for a third time) - I suppose it's just the difference characterful direction and handling of genre can make, though I lack the smarts to identify how in concrete terms.

I remember liking Erin Brokovich a lot more too, but that was 20 years ago.

[Ian Benson]

I think the lack of distinctive directing actually works in these films' favour - a more mundane, matter-of-fact, borderline documentary-approach if you will. The depiction of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations can oftentimes - through directorial flourishes and grandstanding speeches and the like - render said ordinary people as near-superhumans from the get-go; you know they're going to win.

[popcorn]

I don't think the cliches help though. That makes them more filmic, in the bad way.

[SteveDave]

I saw this last night and apart from Anne Hathaway phoning it in (and seemingly getting younger as the film went on) I thought the performances were great. There were a few things (like him seeing "Bad Teeth" on a kids book which reminds him of the girl on the bike's manky teeth and the real Bucky turning up were a bit much) but overall it was gripping. 

[Bence Fekete]

Spotlight was beyond shite.

I thought Dark Waters was much, much better than that and feels like it has something powerful to say but loses it's grip (possbily needs to shave 30 mins?), and I was fairly bored by the end.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Worth mentioning that this is directed by the great Todd Haynes.

[ProvanFan]

From Neighbours?

[peanutbutter]

I thought it was okay but overall seemed to be a lot more about raising awareness to a thing that's still ongoing rather than trying to be a great work in its own right. Like, the actual story is about a major corporation trying to bore a man into submission?

[zomgmouse]

I thought this was really good. Haynes directs with a fantastic muted urgency. I guess it being a real story (and having read up on the actual events) adds to the weight.

[surreal]

I want to get this on disc for my collection as I loved it, but for some reason there is only a DVD release, not blu-ray, which strikes me as very odd for a fairly high-profile release

[El Unicornio, mang]

It's available in Region A on bluray, if you don't mind paying 40 quid for it...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Waters-Blu-ray-Mark-Ruffalo/dp/B081KRTDHW/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=dark+waters&qid=1595587808&s=dvd&sr=1-2

[surreal]

I'll pass.  I don;t have a multi-region player anyway, although most stuff is region-free these days anyway.  Just seems odd not to give a blu-ray release.  I think we still sell more dvds than blu-ray in this country, so maybe they're starting to skip the odd release - presuming that is why the 4k discs include blu-ray as well.  Maybe that is where the divide will be.

EDIT - also one of the comments suggesting that is a pirate copy.

[El Unicornio, mang]

There is Blu-Ray rips of it floating around the internet, but yeah if you want the actual disc you might have to just have the dvd, although I'm sure it'll come to UK Blu-Ray eventually.