Media itt: movie/film discussion - Beware Spoilers

Myzozoa

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I watched the relatively short horror movie His House (93 mins) for halloween this year. The movie is about a couple who flee from genocide in their homeland of South Sudan, they get on a boat and cross the sea and seek asylum in the UK. The asylum service treats them with suspicion and warns them that if they break any rules they will be sent back to Sudan. They are placed in a home on the outskirts of London and given 75 pounds a week to live on. They are told to have no guests or friends over to their new house and they are not allowed to work. Quickly, the couple begins to experience being accosted by the spirits of the dead people they encountered on their journey from South Sudan, the spirits haunt the home they have been placed in and live in the walls. Part of the drama of the movie is the ambiguity about whether the couple are really experiencing a haunting or if they are experiencing psychosis from PTSD. The film calls into question how asylum seekers are treated, with one part of the plot centre-ing on whether the couple would choose to be deported back to South Sudan rather than be isolated and haunted by spirits in the UK. I won't spoil the ending, but I would give this move 8/10 and say that it is pretty scary, at least for someone like me who doesn't watch many horror films, and definitely worth watching if you can handle a movie that is both scary and sad.
 
Common themes for me are comics and robots, from the west or east. I'll note James Bond was a worthy mention with too many entries to settle on one.

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
2. Star Wars (1977)
3. Space Jam
4. The Empire Strikes Back
5. Batman (1966)
6. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
7. Spider-Man
8. Doctor Strange
9. Real Steel
10. Spider-Man Homecoming
11. Pokemon The First Movie
12. Captain America The First Avenger
13. Robocop (1987)
14. Terminator 2
15. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
16. Lupin III The Castle of Cagliostro
17. Pacific Rim
18. Darkman
19. Cinderella (1950)
20. Urusei Yatsura Beautiful Dreamer
21. The Iron Giant
22. Ratatouille
23. Wall-E
24. Frozen
25. Super Mario Bros
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
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I just watched the original unfinished cut of The Thief and the Cobbler.

It had: wildly imaginative storyboarding; world-warping animation; a charming silent protagonist; a poetic villain; and a wonderfully fantastical premise.

Strongly recommend. It’s a shame was never finished
 

GatoDelFuego

The Antimonymph of the Internet
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So I've been watching the Sam Rami Spider-Man movies over the past few weeks with my friends P Squared brightobject and Hulavuta. It's been very interesting: I'd seen spider-man 1 in theaters when it came out but left 3/4 of the way through because I found it too scary as a kid; I saw spider man 2 on DVD a year after it came out, then never saw spider-man 3 at all. Reading through literature and reviews of the movies, and general internet culture, I've heard awful things about spider-man 3 and very positive things about the second film. Roger ebert called it a defining film in the superhero genre for many years.

Spider-man 1 is a pretty perfect superhero origin story. The main villain doesn't even show up until at least 50 minutes into the film, and he only fights spider man on screen for a grand total of about 80 seconds. It's very narrative driven, especially in the first half, as well...you have to have uncle ben's death and the pro wrestling and all that jazz. They took a lot of really cool nods from the years of comics when making this and it winds up as a great film to watch. I think this movie really wrote the script for superhero movies for a good decade to come, until the marvel style started taking over. It's definitely worth watching. It has a very timeless quality to it, especially since a film structured like this would be almost comical for a studio to fund today.

Spider-man 2 was a massive letdown after hearing so much about it. This was the only spider man film I'd seen from start to finish, and I generally remembered it being pretty good. I think a lot of the problems with this one come from them trying to use the same formula as spider-man 1. It's very much a slow burn, there's tons of long conversations between the cast, there's a big narrative going on. The bits where Dr octopus shows up and fights are actually amazing, especially when considering how old the film is. Where this movie really fails is that MJ is such a badly written character. This endless romance they drag over 3 films takes up the majority of this movie, and it's just BORING.

Spider-man 3 was in my mind as some kind of legendarily bad movie; I hadn't seen it but I'd seen cinemasins, HISHE, nostalgia critic, etc talk about this movie like it was terrible. All my friends that saw it when it came out said it was too crowded and too confusing for them. I thought it was great! The multiple villains definitely crowd the film, but the script makes it all work. I think you could take out one of them or two of them and still have a good product with some rewriting, but I really like how this one turned out. Where the first two films were very narrative focused, this one is a constant barrage of action. I think it worked very well and had a very natural pacing. It could have been written a little better, but it's definitely more enjoyable to watch imo than SM2. To anybody who doubts this movie, I say give it a shot.


Overall, it was very interesting to watch all these. The universe that was created for these films has an amazing amount of charm. Years and years of marvel's epic, massive crossover adventure and batman's gritty "r e a l i s m" are truthfully killing the "superhero genre" these days. It's super refreshing to have these films; the chemistry between the actors is (mostly) there, you've got a great cast of side characters who actually persist over all three films, the tone is unique. There's legitimate SCARY parts of these movies, and then 10 minutes later it's super uplifting and whimsical. It's UNIQUE above all else! I think the proof that people have a soft spot for these movies comes from the fact that tobey maguire's spiderman is everywhere on the internet, and it's not just the dance scene from SM3. JJJ and the green goblin and doc ock all have their own memes. I don't think maguire and garfield would be returning to the MCU if people didn't care about rami's universe. The fact that these films stand up almost 20 years later is proof of how solid they were when they were first made. Check em out, they really are timeless.
 

Hulavuta

keeps the varmints on the run
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Yeah, Gato stole most of what I was gonna say but I agree. Spider-Man 2 was the only one that I had never seen all the way through, but after I watched it I realized I already put together the whole picture of it. I see people putting this next to The Dark Knight in terms of superhero movies and I just don't see it. Doc Ock is scary but his story and motivation really has nothing to do with anything. Spider-Man 2 seems to me just "growing in circles" whereas Spider-Man 3 actually continues the arcs of 1.

I've always had a soft spot for Spider-Man 3 but upon rewatching, I actually feel it's the best of the three. It is dragged down a bit by the horrible toxic romance subplot, but that plagued Spider-Man 2 as well. The "too many villains" thing works as they are all thematically linked by this underlying choice of revenge vs. forgiveness. So though from a narrative standpoint they do not get as much screentime as they may need, we are able to understand each character through the screentime of the other characters who are going through the same moral dilemmas. So for me the emotional arc rings true in a way it just didn't for Doc Ock who just wanted to do his science project.

Raimi was forced to put Venom in this movie, but I think he did an excellent job. Topher Grace is not the muscular Eddie Brock that comic readers may be familiar with, but for his role in the story, it works. He's the "dark version" of Peter; he wants the same job, dates the same girl, gets the same powers, and so on. He represents what would happen to Peter if he gave in to his darker desires. So it makes sense to cast someone who looks a bit like Tobey Maguire in terms of build as well. And it makes sense that the symbiote is not seen as its own character which places the importance back on Peter and Eddie to make their own decisions. The one time it does seem like its own character (when Peter and Eddie face it together near the end) it serves more as them kind of looking at themselves from the outside. I can't speak for anyone who is a fan of Venom who wanted the comic-accurate version in this movie, but for the purposes of what this wanted to accomplish, I think Venom was excellent.
 

antemortem

THE ORIGINAL DAVE
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I’ve watched so many movies this year, it’s insane. Probably among the top of the pack includes i’m thinking of ending things (Jessie Buckley from Chernobyl), which was an immensely satisfying twist on the psychological... drama? Horror subgenre hybrid of various vague descriptions? It blurs the lines between genres and really keeps you on your toes and tenderly surprises about 2/3 of the way through. Also The Prom (problematic queer representation manifest James Corden aside, decent), Boys in the Band (all of these queer men in their most unhinged roles to-date, coming at you from Joe Mantello... oh that explains a LOT), and a couple other weird off-the-path things kept me well-entertained during quarantine and ended up being some of the better movies I saw this year.

My comments seem like gripes, but they are ”in addition to” otherwise memorable experiences. I can also see myself rewatching some of these easily.
 
1. Once Upon a Time in America
2. Carlito's Way
3. Donnie Brasco
4. Kill Bill
5. Spider-man 2
6. Bad Boys 1983
 

Oglemi

Borf
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So: WW84, minor spoilers:

Overall it's decent; certainly better than the Justice League movies but not quite on par with the previous WW movie and the runtime is a bit much, especially the last half hour. My biggest gripe overall with the movie is the absolute waste of Cheetah as the villain. By this I mean the villain could have been literally any DC villain, the final fight between her and WW wasted all of the potential choreography that they could have had. "Let's give the most athletic and dynamic fighter-villain we have and spin her around on a rope for 3+ minutes instead of, you know, actually fighting." It was aggravating to say the least, especially since there were actually better fight sequences earlier in the movie.

Aside from that, the climax was just like "ok so we have a full movie, how do we end it?" and the reply was just a collective shrug and felt like it never got past that before filming. It's definitely not as bad as FF4 (2015), and I can see what they were going for, but it basically hits you over the head with the message and then continues to whale on you for like the final 10-15 minutes... so ya the execution was just so off the mark.
 

phantom

Banned deucer.
even putting aside the issues with the acting from the lead and the questionable storyline, ww84 was some phenomenally racist propaganda. the lead actress is a former idf soldier, who in the past, supported the bombing of gaza by the idf in 2014. in the movie, her character was seen saving arab children with the use of a missile, which is an especially heinous way to flip the narrative when that same bombing campaign that gadot supported led to the killing of 4 palestinian children by the idf. the fact that the arab portrayals was limited to painting them as fanatics who wanted to “build a wall to keep the heathens out’ (this coming from an american film...) was especially egregious. in addition to that, the only representation of latinos throughout the movie was pascal’s character and family, where they were portrayed as narcissists and domestic abusers. like, I get that superhero movies in general have contributed to the infantilization of western culture, but it’s especially grating to see such blatantly insidious narratives and reductive white savior complexes superimposed on top of that. I expected something like that from a marvel film. glad I pirated this trash lol
 

vonFiedler

I Like Chopin
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It's been a while since we had any Nicolas Cage movies, so two of them kinda snuck up on me.

Jiu Jitsu, 5/10 on the Cage Gauge

Jiu Jitsu is easy to peg as a bad movie what with its terrible plot, dialogue, and actors (especially the main character), but it is at least competent with its martial arts action scenes and in a movie about power rangers fighting the predator that's enough to make it an enjoyable enough movie that you'll watch once and never think about again. It's also super ambitious with its camera work, which doesn't always pay off but this at least feels like a labor of love and I'm so happy if films like this are the worst that we see Cage in going forward.

Speaking of Cage, he plays a side role as a mentally insane jiu jitsu power ranger and it's obvious that he ad-libbed all of his lines as they are the only ones in the film that aren't garbage. Having said all this, it's a pretty reserved performance and I'm not sure why this is the film he'd do that in. It's also super obvious when he gets replaced with a stunt double for fight scenes, which was more funny than anything.

The Croods: A New Age, 6/10 on the Cage Gauge

A sequel that somehow exists, Croods was surprisingly okay and I'd say the same about this one. Really can't devote enough thought into these movies to pick which one is better. A New Age is often very vibrant with its shot compositions but also feels over the top in its lolcat-like humor. I'm glad it didn't fall into some plot pitfalls, like a love triangle, but it's plot wasn't anything to write home about either. Dawn Betterman is cute as fuck what the shit.

Cage plays caveman dad pretty much the same way he did last time, though he's maybe even more comfortable in the role and it's one that suits him very well. He really even disappears into the role by the end of the film, I felt.
 
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Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
Dr._No_-_UK_cinema_poster.jpg
Recently, I managed to get hold of the first 18 James Bond VHSes because I'm an impulsive idiot with a fetish for old media. So to kick off the new year, I'm watching them in order. They shouldn't just be stuck on my VHS rack, eh? I've not been an active Bond watcher before...I usually just sat down and watched them when they inevitably came up while watching TV. So, let's take this approach.

So, the first was Dr. No (1962).

When it released, Dr. No got mixed reviews, and when reading them, you could say that at the time, they didn't "get it". However, it's since been regarded as one of the best Bond films: it set the standard for a lot of the presentation in the series, and you can see it pretty clearly. The risque scenes, humour, sudden twists, and spontaneous action...from the very beginning of the adaptations, it was, well, Bond. For the low budget and time period, the movie is pretty damn impressive and adapted the novel decently well. Fun fact, Dr. No wasn't even the first novel!

The main things I disliked were the slow start and lack of representation of Dr. No himself. The movie takes a hot minute to get to the heavy-hitting segments on Crab Key, and when Dr. No is confronted the scene is a bit...short. It's not bad, it's just a tiny bit lacking in substance. As far as I know, Dr. No wasn't that present in the books either, but regardless, I think not expanding on it was a missed opportunity. You could argue that they wanted to keep it safe, though. The ending was a bit abrupt too, it caught me a bit off-guard. Regardless, when it gets good, it's solid, and unlike many films, it's stood the test of time.

I've not got much else to say that hasn't really been said in the past checks notes 50 years. It's a nice flick for sure, though it's definitely not aged well in the social department.

May Sean Connery rest in peace.
 

vonFiedler

I Like Chopin
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Saw two of the tentpole streaming movies out now. They were both very good but also very flawed, so I wanted to talk about them.

Soul was directed by Pete Doctor, a man who has made of my favorite movies of all time, Inside Out and Up. So it's a bit unreasonable to whinge that it doesn't live up to those but after initially enjoying it, my opinion of it has slowly diminished. Spoilers but the lesson of Soul is that people don't have purposes, which some people probably need to hear, maybe a lot people do, but if you're a big absurdist literature nerd then that's the starting assumption of good storytelling. Life has no purpose and then what? The film is also ostensibly about what happens when he die, but that's a big bait and switch. They're too cowardly to make a real statement about that. The film is depressingly relatable and has a lot of creative spectacle, but its surprisingly less insightful than previous outings.

Wonder Woman 1984 was the best superhero movie ever made...

at some point.

Certainly not the point in which we got it streamed. Maybe it was in the footage Patty Jenkin shot before it was edited. Or maybe it was in the script. Or maybe just as ideas in Patty and Geoff John's heads. The concept of fighting this monkey's paw is so unique for a superhero film and has so much character and thematic potential. The characters of Minerva and Max Lord are fantastic. The climax of using truth and diplomacy to save the world is so anime and it was fucking perfect. It's a shame that so much of the movie was not quite good.

In terms of general execution there's a lot of weirdness that makes me think they skimped on the editing when they realized it was going to be streamed. The film's *second* opening is a super tacky superhero scene with a weird tone that never shows up again in the film. People have already commented on how most of the action is pretty uninspiring.

The film is very kneecapped by the DCEU timeline, because for some stupid reason Diana spent 80 years being a piece of shit (thanks Zack). So we have to ride the line between that and also trying to be a likeable superhero and it's really bad. She also has to go out of her way to destroy security camera so she's never seen canonically, but she's seen a lot and makes a speech to the whole world... so... I think her character arc with Steve Trevor is correct for the overall story but it's so hard to get invested in her struggles when they are so lame and contrived. Could have easily been fixed by ignoring the DCEU or by not setting it in the past.

Minerva is a great character but the Cheetah is barely more than a goon. Really sad.

People complain about the runtime. I didn't really care about that, but I'd still cut a LOT of stuff. There's a lot of story fluff that just seems to have no point. The invisible jet, which was conveniently never used before and won't be used again. The golden armor, which was conveniently never used before and won't be used again. The big Olympics scene at the beginning which serves a tiny thematic purpose but didn't need to be so long or grandiose to do so. At least pick one opening action scene and cut the other. Egypt trip is fairly superfluous. Had to throw in another action scene somewhere I guess and had to have an excuse for Steve flying, but both of those scenes were bad so... There's a lot of small stuff that just doesn't contribute to the narrative.
 

Myzozoa

to find better ways to say what nobody says
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It's been a while since I did a true myzozoa weird post, so here we are.

I recently made a list of movies to watch since afaik I have watched all the TV shows that are worth watching, it being quarantine and all, and it looks like I'm just gonna be watching drag race and bake-off until 2022 at this rate. Anyway, I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel which means films. TV has come along way in the last 15 years and it is pretty safe to say that most film is garbage in comparison and that TV is a far superior device for fiction.

So I made a list of films I wanted to watch so my partner could say 'no' to half of them since she isn't up for most of the films I would like to watch.

Nonetheless we've made good progress on the list:

1. I Care A Lot

This is a sort of dramedy about 2 evil lesbians who take over old peoples' lives through the guardianship legal process. They become guardians of old people who supposedly need health care and someone to manage their affairs because in their aged state they can't manage their own affairs. The guardian controls finances and moves the old people out of their homes and into care facilities, denying them visits from their families and generally controlling their lives while paying themselves with the money from the estates of the people they've essentially kidnapped through court order. One day, the evil lesbians pick the wrong person, an old lady who seems to have no family, but turns out to be the mother of a mobster. A sort of face-off ensues between the lesbians and the mobster and that is basically the plot of the film without too much spoiled.

I'd give it a 7.5/10, as despite recognizing the weaknesses of film as a medium, I tend to overrate films cause they're entertaining. It is a humorous and watchable comedy with decent suspense. All and all pretty much what you should get out of a movie that you're going to spend 2 hours watching. The film exposes a rather frightening and seemingly abusable legal process, and is thoughtfully plotted, shot, etc all of which diminished the typical buyers remorse I have about movies.

2. Tangerine

This movie was shot all on an i-phone and has many visually beautiful scenes. The film is about 2 transgender prostitutes in Los Angeles, one of whom has just gotten out of prison to find out her boyfriend/pimp has been cheating on her. A parallel plot follows an Armenian cab driver who has a crush on her. This movie is probably more fun and interesting for people who live in or are from Los Angeles, such as myself. It is beautifully shot, but the plot is thin and most of the dialogue in the first half is not engaging.

I'd give it a 6.5/10, as I said before I always inflate my movie ratings, but also the second half is much more redeeming after a weak first half.

3. Borat Subsequent Film

I don't think I watched the first Borat film all the way through ever, except on an airplane, so it wasn't particularly memorable as I went to watch the sequel. The sequel is highly watchable and not as cringy as I expected from reading about it. The film follows Borat and his daughter as they travel to America to give a gift to Mike Pence. The expected humor is all there, but the film evokes an array of emotions and has a healthy, if contrived, complexity. Imo, the major strength of this film's construction is the juxtaposition of the fictionalized 'Kazakstani' sexism with the all too real American sexism that is exposed in the film.

I would give this film an 8.5/10, it captures many moments of irony, such as when some q-anon believers explain to Borat what a conspiracy theory is. I feel, given the nature of a project like this, that the film has been edited very precisely to deliver the strongest footage to the audience.

4. Kajillionaire

This film is the main inspiration for me actually writing about how I came to watch these movies. This movie was certainly calculated to entice me, in particular, into watching a Miranda July film, which is not something I had ever before considered doing. It stars the actress who plays Jane in Jane the Virgin, and the actress who plays Delores in Westworld (as seen in my avatar on this website), which meant I had to watch it, it was perfectly suited to get my money. The film also takes place in LA, for extra bonus enticement. I was pleasantly surprised to find, as a person with parents that have minor sociopathic tendencies, that this film did speak to that element of my life experiences. It is a highly strange movie that follows a family, parents and daughter, who get by in life by "scraping", essentially doing minor con artist type schemes to survive, with the daughter being forced to do much of the risky work and her parents basically treating her like shit and often humiliating her verbally.

One day, finding that she's won some free airline tickets through some drawing she's entered, the daughter puts together a scheme where she insures some luggage and has her parents steal it, she will then collect the payout from the insurance. They fly to NYC and camp out at the airport before flying back the next day. While on the plane back to LA, the parents meet a women that works at a Lenscrafter's type store. She is interested, for some unexplained and thin reason, in participating in the family's schemes, and promises to connect them to some of the desperate old people she encounters while working at the glasses store, so that together they can con and rob them. The daughter of the family is jealous of her parent's interest in this woman after the years of emotional neglect her parents have inflicted upon her. After confronting her parents about their lack of love for her, the daughter leaves with the woman from the plane, who promises to do all the things her parents never did for her, in exchange for the money the insurance paid out. The rest of the film depicts both this, and the drama that ensues from her parents attempting to 'win' her back.

I'd rate this film a 7/10, the first half is kind of strange and may not hold the interest of some viewers, but the relationship between the daughter and the woman from the plane that develops in the second half makes the film compelling. Evan Rachel Wood delivers an outstanding performance throughout, which is worth watching for its own sake.

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading. If I get a chance to watch The Mauritanian and/or The Lobster I'll be back with another post.
 
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watermess

What? Never seen an idiot before?
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Me and TPP watched Spirited Away last night and was my first time experiencing anything really anime related. It's truly something magical and has to be seen to be believed. It's probably the best 'coming of age' or personal growth stories that I've ever seen. What I think this film does a lot better than others with this same lesson or message is Ochirio starts off as likable, just very timid and fearful yet also the voice of reason that can't really speak up due to her own anxiety. The animation, character design (especially No Face and the witch twins), and soundtrack (6th station in particular is amazing, give it a listen here) have aged like fine wine and sell the world so well. The development of the characters and how they treat Ochirio is really natural and sells the overall theme of growth. The lessons taught by characters liie Ochirio's grandfather are also of value, and help progress the story. The ending twist I thought was very clever and heartwarming. It was my first impression of the medium and I hope to see more of what Studio Ghibli has to offer. The only thing I wish was tweaked a bit was maybe make the stuff before night falls and everything becomes ocean a little shorter but that's a very minor nitpick. Sorry if I don't have too much new to add about it if someone has already discussed it, but it really impressed me.
If you liked that studio ghibli film I would strongly recommend the red turtle which has been one of my personal favourites through the past few years, it a really beautiful animation and an incredible film, it also actually the César Award for Best Animated Film in 2017 so I'm not the only person who likes it ;)
I've been meaning to watch spirited away for years now, reading that review from a friend is the kick up the ass i think i needed, I'm a massive sucker for a coming of age lol
 
Me and TPP watched Spirited Away last night and was my first time experiencing anything really anime related. It's truly something magical and has to be seen to be believed. It's probably the best 'coming of age' or personal growth stories that I've ever seen. What I think this film does a lot better than others with this same lesson or message is Ochirio starts off as likable, just very timid and fearful yet also the voice of reason that can't really speak up due to her own anxiety. The animation, character design (especially No Face and the witch twins), and soundtrack (6th station in particular is amazing, give it a listen here) have aged like fine wine and sell the world so well. The development of the characters and how they treat Ochirio is really natural and sells the overall theme of growth. The lessons taught by characters liie Ochirio's grandfather are also of value, and help progress the story. The ending twist I thought was very clever and heartwarming. It was my first impression of the medium and I hope to see more of what Studio Ghibli has to offer. The only thing I wish was tweaked a bit was maybe make the stuff before night falls and everything becomes ocean a little shorter but that's a very minor nitpick. Sorry if I don't have too much new to add about it if someone has already discussed it, but it really impressed me.
I recommend these in-depth analyses of the film, and if you're interested I suggest you watch them quickly before they get striked. They give a good understanding of the structure of each scene, of many symbolic elements, storylines, etc. ; while linking each time to the overall structure of the work.

 

Diophantine

Banned deucer.
Watched two incredible films lately: The Mauritanian and Blinded by the Light.

The Mauritanian is a true story about a terrorist recruiter suspect who is placed in Guantanamo Bay without evidence or any charges, and a lawyer who tries her best to save him. It also follows the prosecutor, who we see develop as the case does. Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the titular Mauritanian, is played by Tahar Rahim and manages to capture his experiences and mannerisms down to a T. Despite the worst possible things happening to him, and those around him, Slahi keeps his positive wit (which is great for showing how normal, or even charming, a person he is) and faith which is heart-moving to watch. The film never tells us whether or not Slahi is guilty, probably because there isn't any evidence, only hear-say, but the more we see of Slahi (including the actual clips), the more we want to believe he's innocent.

Blinded by the Light is another story based on real life, centred around a Pakistani teenager in Luton (UK) in the 80s. He has to overcome family and societal pressures, neo-nazis, and bring his talent for writing to life. He manages to do so through the inspiration of Bruce Springsteen (American rock star), who he comes to hero worship. Very heartwarming (and at times heartwarmingly cringe during the musical parts) film; very emotional in both its happy and sad parts.

While I saw this ages ago when it came out, my favoruite film of all time (?) has got to be Four Lions. It's a comedy about five incompetent Jihadi terrorists from Britain planning terror attacks. Every scene is memorable, and will have you watching the film time after time due to how funny it is. Besides the unbelievable comedic value, this film is also very clever. Chris Morris has specifically formed his characters based on the types of people from Britain that end up being radicalised. The more you see of these characters, their personalities, and their beliefs, the more you understand why tragedies such as these occur to seemingly normal people.
 

brightobject

there like moonlight
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watched the mitchells versus the machines. Kinda Cringe if u ask me...could probably have been better as a 20 min short or something. The visuals were really awesome though...really excited to see where sony takes these technologies from here w like spider verse 2, et al.

also watched brokeback mountain. basically career performances from every actor in the movie, like wow lol. highly recommend. There is an incredible level of interiority that holds up to repeated watches. I do wonder how the movie would feel if it ended with after Ennis and Jack parted ways at the lake....anyone else?
 
My latest watch was Under the Skin, which I utterly adored. Equal parts atmospheric and meditative. Terrific soundtrack enhanced the beautifully composed shots something fierce. This is my favorite type of film at the moment, please recommend more like it / Angel's Egg / Tarkovsky (doesn't necessarily have to be scifi). I've been meaning to get around to The Ascent.

Also Four Lions is fantastic.
 
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NuttyRabbit

Banned deucer.
Last movie I sat down and watched was The Peanuts Movie.

If you're not a Peanuts fan, it's a decent, charming, if rather generic kids movie with a really nice artstyle.

However, if you're like me and grew up on Peanuts and owned all the collections and know every character and watched every special, then it's a must-see. It's one of THE most faithful adaptations of any comic I've ever seen in terms of just about everything from the visuals to the characterization to even the tone. The sheer amount of references they organically throw in is insane, as is the amount of effort put in towards really making it feel like a Peanuts story. And to top it off, the ending is pure catharsis for anyone who's ever read the comics while not feeling TOO fanservice-y.

Just a straight injection of serotonin into the soul from start to finish. Objectively a 6 or 7 out of 10, but to me it's like a 9
 

GatoDelFuego

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So, as you might guess from my recent posts, I saw Tenet last night.

I am a big christopher nolan fan. When I first saw the imax preview for this movie, I was really impressed. The following trailers gave it a wierd time-travel vibe, and based on the production notes it looked exactly like my kind of film. I had joked that it was going to be my favorite film. As more evidence of how the film dealt with time travel came out, I started saying as a joke "it's my favorite film, I just don't know why yet".

I will say that it is certainly nolan's most "nolan" film. Inception has nothing on this, it's just nolan going full unrestrained art film on this to make a script that makes sense in his head. I saw a lot of people ribbing on the film for how awful it handles exposition, and I thought "it can't be that bad". Well, it is that bad. 10 minutes in and the edits were just totally nauseating, I had written the movie off as "so bad it's good". It literally feels like a video game for the first half hour.

And then. The movie takes a complete turn. You'll have to watch it to understand this, but at some point the movie just gets BETTER. It's such a jump that it the bad editing at the beginning HAS to be "artistic" and "on purpose" in order to trick you into disliking the movie before you like it. The way the plot works, at some point you will know exactly how every sequence in the rest of the movie (which is quite long) works, which ruins the surprise. Except, that might be the idea of the movie? That you can predict the action perfectly and it's still satisfying?

All these flaws I don't know if they make up for the fact that the movie might only work as a one-time gimmick. I need to watch it again and see how it feels on a rewatch. But the longer I go the more I WANT to rewatch it again, so idk if that's a good thing or not. Probably good.

I'm the protagonist.
 

Hulavuta

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I share most of my opinion with Gato, but I'm not sure if I quite liked the movie as much as he did. At certain points I got very frustrated with the film and literally got a headache trying to figure it out. We had to pause and talk several times.

I really disliked it at first, and even jokingly theorized that it was purposely bad, and then halfway through they were going to go back in time and show you why everything you saw was actually good. And to my amazement, that is literally what happened. Once they start going back, it becomes thrilling and incredible as you start to piece together what exactly happened, and how.


The issue for me is that the first half does not really get justified completely by the latter half. You are led to believe one explanation for time travel (it is the weapons themselves that just "fire backwards" somehow) and the movie does not follow that rule at all. So it was just confusing and completely disengaging. I kept trying to understand what was happening through this premise, and it frustrated me because it made no sense. Of course, later on you find out that it is something completely different, that it is people going backwards in time firing the weapons. Then it all makes sense.

But why the false premise? I think I would've preferred that the movie tell me that I don't know (perhaps through the Protagonist, our audience surrogate, stating our audience's confusion through dialogue. After all, he doesn't totally get it yet either), and then assure me that answers are coming later. Rather than lead me to believe the rules of this movie are one thing and then frustrate me when it doesn't follow them.


I was trying to think of applicable examples and what came to mind happened to be two Hitchcock films, Psycho and Vertigo. Both of these movies make you think you're watching a different kind of movie until the midway switch. Psycho makes you think one character and one plot point is important, before switching to a different one. Vertigo takes this even further by almost changing genres completely by presenting itself as a ghost story at first, and then kind of a crime mystery.

But both of these films work to keep you following along before the big twist; you understood the movie under one set of rules, and then it switches to a new one. In Tenet, you don't really get any rules or any real perspective to understand the movie until the midway point, which made it very frustrating to me.


I know with any criticism like this I risk being just called a smooth brain who isn't smart enough to get it, but that's how I feel. The whole thing makes sense when you look back at the movie as a whole, but I think the first half could be reworked in a way that suggests you can still be engaged even though our understanding will be delayed a bit (more acknowledgement of the weirdness of everything from the Protagonist would be one way to do that, as I suggested earlier).
 

GatoDelFuego

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Anybody who is trying to "understand" the science or the "rules" and slaving over the physics is wasting their time. Nolan said himself: DON'T try to understand it. Just feel it. So it's not a smoothbrain take to say this.

That plays into what I said though, this movie really is no different from any other "popcorn flick" "turn your brain off action movie". That doesn't necessarily make it not fun to watch, but yeah, the intellectual value is only good for one viewing. It's not a cinematic masterpiece. (But maybe that's the point?) But that being the point doesn't excuse it. I said it's nolan's most artistic effort but it's NOT artistic to do something bad on purpose for irony's sake.
 

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