My HOG thoughts

[Massive Monster 5,047]

!!! SPOILERS !!!

Hey guys,

Not that it matters but I thought I'd share my first impressions (I saw HOG last night).

First of all :

The theater was packed. I was shook especially because it was a screening in english with subtitles (I live in France), these are usually not so popular with the masses. 

Unfortunately I had a lot of issues with the film (none are Gaga's fault) :

1) Way too many songs and weird ultra mainstream pop song choices (Which most times turned the film into a lazy made rom-com). I really lost my cool when they played Faith for example 

2) Rushed cuts/ a lot of scenes are too short. I wanted to see things pan out rather than little scenes about the same things 

3) The issues/ drama the characters face isn't detailed enough IMO, the film stays on the surface of things, doesn't go deep.

4) I would have preferred less comedy and more drama. I would have happily sacrificed the "comic relief" of Jared Leto's character for more drama and detailed issues. 

5) Why didn't we get court scenes 

3) Too many of the same shots/ locations. I was fed up of seeing the same shot of Rodolpho Gucci's front of house from the interior.

Positives:

-Al Pacino is a natural. You can't not like him.

-Interesting to learn about the Gucci family and brand.

-The sex scene IS very good indeed, love how the camera moves to place Gaga vertically on the shot, and the cut to the wedding is grand. 

-I love Gaga's acting especially when she gets the house back at the end and gets Maurizio's mistress out. I wanted to cheer. 

Voila !

What did you guys think ?

[imnotyourbabe10 6,102]

Hi fellow monster!

Thanks for making this thread – I wasn’t sure where to post my first impressions, as I just saw it this week.  I agree with everything you said! My theater was busy for a Tuesday night.  I agree, the film’s errors were not Gaga’s fault and she was mesmerizing.  I often forgot I was watching my “stan pop-star.” I felt she morphed into the character more than her other acting work.  Hoping for an Oscar nomination!

The soundtrack was cringey, indeed.  My partner and I were laughing at it throughout – especially during the Faith sequence you mentioned.

I agree that the editing was rough.  Short scenes!  And we also kept humming about how many times we’d see the same shot.  This seemed to contribute to the lack of depth and the ending felt rushed, imho.  We needed more court scenes for sure!  I also didn’t understand Maurizio’s development.  He went from likeable to an asshole so quickly!

The acting was great!  Gaga, Pacino, Hayek, and Irons were my favorites.  Thought Leto was good, but played it over-the-top and like a “clown.”  They covered a lot of ground but it lacked the depth.  I really enjoyed the demise of their relationship, including the wintry scenes and Maurizio’s mistress.  You could tell Patrizia was done at that point.

Lastly, the run-time, albeit long, was well-paced and I felt very entertained throughout. It truly felt like quite a story arc -- though I longed for an overall, better film from the director of Alien!  Looking forward to seeing it in the theater again -- and hope to be a little buzzed this time

[stvn 618]

This is a really nice review + thoughts! 

1) I kinda liked the songs, but maybe I'm an old lol. Either way, the editing in general as well as the editing and splicing of the songs was a little off. 

2) I actually think one of the strengths of the film is how tight the scenes are. They were well-shot and concise, and compared to many recent dramas, actually really well-done. In my opinion. 

3) I didn't initially fault the movie for it's locations or aesthetic, but so many reviews (including yours), have kind of changed my mind. There were a lot of opportunities for the sets and cinematography to be better and grander. I'm not sure how much of what was in the film was a conscious choice and how much just "happened." But as someone who initially defended this aspect of the film, I actually really agree at this point. For a movie with a decently hefty budget that was literally shot IN Italy, I didn't see a lot of Italy. You know?

Al is a sweetheart. Gaga telling photographers off for asking him to take off his glasses at the premiere is classic gaga and also a cute friendship moment (but that's not about the film, just saying)!

The sex scene is actually brilliant. I think tons of people make fun of it because of HOW good it is -- to the point that it makes them uncomfortable -- so they try to just kinda make it a meme to calm it down. In reality, I think it's one of the best scenes in the movie as far as performances go (no pun intended). 

I'll need to watch it again, but Gaga had several standout scenes while being good throughout. Her talking to the lawyer (the ARE WE TALKING ABOUT DIVORCE SCENE) and her showing the photo album to Maurizio, as well as the xmas present scene.... that is good acting right there. Those things could have been cheesy and terrible with anyone but her. And I know people wanna say she was cheesy and terrible here (haters), but I can't imagine anyone doing it better.

My biggest complaint is something Gaga had no control over -- I am not a fan of biopic films in general. Knowing it's about real people takes me out of the story. No matter how good the acting is, it always does. And no matter how good the accents are (or aren't, in my opinion Gaga did great with the accent), we all know that this story didn't happen in english. Sure, they spoke English sometimes, and certainly in some business meetings, but the bulk of what happened would have been in Italian. Even with the best accents, that's just something I can't get over. Biopics are tricky like that, and while I loved Gaga in this film, I don't like the trend in general of doing biopics like this. I love documentaries and books for nonfiction. For films, and especially for Gaga, I want to see NEW stories. Where she is allowed to experiment and create a new character without the criticism. That's just my opinion. I still loved HOG overall though.

Regarding Jared Leto (sorry, just one more note I gotta stick in) -- I have... thoughts. I think he has been good in certain roles in his career, but I think his ego is even bigger than Gaga's. And that's fine. He took a big swing, and it could have been great, but it was a miss for me. I still admire his commitment, because you can tell he puts his whole self into everything he does (for better or for worse). I actually think his performance (though unintended) came of more offensive and as more of a parody than anything the other actors were doing. I don't think that was on purpose, but that's how it ended up. I'm still trying to be judicious, and I need to give the film another few rounds to know for sure what I think of his whole performance. 

Long story short -- mixed bag for me. Gage really WAS excellent though, and the best part of the film, and even non gaga stans are saying that in their reviews. But it's not a perfect film, and I really hope Gaga never does a biopic again. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Massive Monster said:

1) Way too many songs and weird ultra mainstream pop song choices (Which most times turned the film into a lazy made rom-com). I really lost my cool when they played Faith for example 

I felt secondhand embarassment when i heard 

Spoiler

george michael faith, idk why, it felt too weird. and sometimes too many scenes with music playing close together

 

2 hours ago, Massive Monster said:

2) Rushed cuts/ a lot of scenes are too short. I wanted to see things pan out rather than little scenes about the same things 

Started noticing when 

Spoiler

the scene with Adam Driver and his father they argued over Patrizia, his father saying she's a gold digger, him saying he loves her and he said something like "but I love her!" and it cuts abruptly. Soooo weird, bad cut

 

2 hours ago, Massive Monster said:

3) The issues/ drama the characters face isn't detailed enough IMO, the film stays on the surface of things, doesn't go deep.

Yup, main problem with the movie is the lack of perspective from the writer/director. It says nothing, every story, novel, or movie, has to convey a certain message, with themes woving everything. It's what makes a great movie or novel. Otherwise it's just something u watch but u don't get attached to bcs it said nothing, didn't ask questions, didn't ask for u to answer them, pure neutrality from the writers and director which makes it neutral, normal, nothing special.

2 hours ago, Massive Monster said:

4) I would have preferred less comedy and more drama. I would have happily sacrificed the "comic relief" of Jared Leto's character for more drama and detailed issues. 

I agree

[stvn 618]

57 minutes ago, AnnaNicoleSmith said:

Yup, main problem with the movie is the lack of perspective from the writer/director. It says nothing, every story, novel, or movie, has to convey a certain message, with themes woving everything. It's what makes a great movie or novel. Otherwise it's just something u watch but u don't get attached to bcs it said nothing, didn't ask questions, didn't ask for u to answer them, pure neutrality from the writers and director which makes it neutral, normal, nothing special.

Also, oops, am I supposed to use spoiler tags? I assumed anyone reading had seen it. Let me know if I'm doing it wrong. (And I'm continuing to discuss spoilers here.)

This is a really good way to describe it that I hadn't put my finger on. I think it stems from it being based on a book which was obviously based on real life and real interviews with some of the people involved. So someone then adapted that into a screenplay. And maybe for the sake of sticking with the "real" story, they didn't editorialize enough. But I don't think that's fully an excuse -- they could have taken the real story and made the script better. But that very fact is really part of the reason I do not like biopics in general. But it also seems like Ridley just took that script, threw big actors at it, some money and production value, and kind of expected it to all come together. You know?

I still think it will take me a while to fully have an opinion on this film. Gaga was great, but you kind of encapsulated a lot of what I feel about it. What was it trying to say? And maybe that's hard with a biopic. But at this point, I really don't see a clear vision. I see some good performances and moments and an enjoyable movie, but yeah, I'm still not sure of the point. Maybe I'll change my mind who knows.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, stvn said:

I still think it will take me a while to fully have an opinion on this film. Gaga was great, but you kind of encapsulated a lot of what I feel about it. What was it trying to say? And maybe that's hard with a biopic. But at this point, I really don't see a clear vision. I see some good performances and moments and an enjoyable movie, but yeah, I'm still not sure of the point. Maybe I'll change my mind who knows.

With a biopic i personally think it's harder, because in real life sometimes there are no themes, but I just thought about my own life and I still can find a theme. My life is boring, but if someone made a movie about it from my birth to now, the present-me would be the rising conflict. The theme would be about fear, insecurity. The message would be, can you find your true potential in life if you don't confront your fear? The people in my life would center around it, my dad would be the character who is the opposite of the protagonist (me), he is fearless and condemns her for being trapped by fear. While other characters help her to liberate herself, the main message at the end of the movie is something you didn't think of, fear will always be a part of you, it's about whether you can dance with your handcuffs. This is a story, and it can be quite powerful, the ending can be. This is what was missing in this House of Gucci story. What can you say to us? What is interesting about this story that was worth a ton of work from writers and director/actors? Because so far the problem is that the ending is an ending, it conveys nothing and it said nothing. Patrizia is a criminal, end of. And Maurizio sadly died. The brand lives on. And when the ending happened in cinema, i had this weird realization like oh my god..... and then what? So what? What was this all for? All of my 2 hours I spent, and you tell me nothing, this was for nothing. I couldve watched a documentary and the commentators would've found interesting analysis and takes on Patrizia, the "Black Widow" the media would call her. How interesting is that? A black widow, killing, and why did she do that? What was her motive? Who is she as a person? Did she lose her mind? So far seems to be she was swallowed by deeep deep greed, but why? Tell us why, show us why, and how, and what it means to you as a director and writer, and give us meaning to this, make us ask questions, make us realize something about society. That's what makes a good story vs mediocre/forgettable. And it sucks cus it had a lot of potential

[SharkmanthaC 114,698]

The music is amazing. 

I’ll post a more detailed thoughts maybe later, but I’m at the theater waiting for it to begin. (This is my third time.)