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Is nobody watching movies anymore?
I watched the Netflix film with Rosamund Pike and I have to say I had a lot of issues with it. Mainly the fact that the film features an entirely unlikeable protagonist that I was actually rooting against the entire time. The acting is great and the film looks amazing, but you have to give your main character some redeeming qualities. Just one.
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Check out "Safety not Guaranteed". Very good film, love, sci-fi, comedy you'll enjoy it!!!
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
Check out my website: PopCulturedwithMovieMike
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Add me to the list of non movie watchers this past year. But if there's a plus I've been catching up on lots of great shows.
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
Same here, Heather. Shows and sports have pretty much consumed all of my television-watching bandwidth for the past year.
For me, Movies are viewed in a theater. Unmolested by phones, outside noises, doorbells, dogs barking etc. An added bonus is superior sound.
I wish I could say I caught up on a lot of TV, but I've mostly rewatched sitcoms...Fresh Prince, That 70s Show, Seinfeld. Currently rewatching TNG. I did watch Deep Space 9 (approx 225 episodes) and The Office (approx 270 episodes). I was mostly watching while catching up on years of video games.
The Queens Gambit was the only actually new TV I watched, along with the final season of Schitt's Creek.
I did watch a fair amount of movies but a lot of those were movies I haven't seen in 15-20 years. It was fun re-experiencing childhood favorites as close as possible to the first time again.
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Got my second shot on Saturday (which really knocked me down), so after my two week "waiting for it to take full effect" period, I am hopefully going to go to the movies for the first time in over a year.
A NEW GAME BEGINS
Man I LOVED... “I Care A Lot”. It made me angry. I couldn’t take my eyes off it though. I loved it.... 8.5/10
For me.
Bone Tomahawk. Brutal..... one scene was arguably the most brutal in any film I’ve seen. I liked it a lot! 8/10.
Thanks to Still Servant for the recommendation.
HELP ME FIND
Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
Watched an independent UK flick called Bait. It was a decent movie, made more impressive by how it was made. They used the same Bolex silent film cameras I used in school. They then did Foley work and added sound effects to the footage. The most impressive feat was how damn good the ADR on all that dialogue was. It was pretty flawless.
7/10
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I know exactly which scene you are talking about! You're welcome.
I had a hard time with I Care a Lot. I don't mind antiheroes, Walter White is one of my favorite characters of all-time, but you have to have some redeeming qualities. Actually, you need one redeeming quality. Pike's character in that film has zero and that makes it really hard to root for. And yes, you were supposed to root for her.
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You know, I gotta say that I was very disappointed in "Bone Tomahawk". Was it brutal and probably very spot on with regard to accuracy for the times? Yes it was, but to me that didn't quite carry it through. I was so hopeful too especially when I saw the cast. A lot of really good actors, but overall I thought it was very slow, the dialogue onlt "so-so" and also short on explanation of the Indians/Cannibals. So plot wise it wasn't very good IMO. I kept waiting for it to pick up and become a great western, but it just seemed to crawl to the precipice and then fall away. I stuck with it though and watched through the end. It wasn't a bad movie by any means, but it certainly doesn't rank any where near my top ten list of westerns. Stll Servant, I have found to be on the mark with his recommendations more times than not, but this one just didn't do it for me. Maybe it was too much hype (?) I don't know, but I give it a solid 3 out of 6 beers on the RFFRS
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
I watched Saint Maud last night. I think it did a good job at playing up the religious fanaticism angle and had an unsettling atmosphere, but it was very slow and I had a hard time caring about either of the main characters. I was expecting full-on horror, but I think I'd categorize it as more psychological. Anyone else here see it?
A NEW GAME BEGINS
"Doctor Strangelove"!!! Need I say more????? Watch it and be better for it!!! lol
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
Recently rewatched Frozen and then watched Frozen II for the first time. These are actually very good (decent stories, decent humor) and not merely effective merchandise sales vehicles.
Eastasia has always taught college students to feel pride or shame according to their race.
I recently saw The Hollars, a basic family drama starring Margo Martindale (if you don't know that name, you'd probably know her if you saw her; she's great in everything), Richard Jenkins (ditto), John Krasinski (who also directed), and Anna Kendrick, with amusing smaller roles done right by Josh Groban (!) and Charlie Day. There's nothing outrageous here, it's a simple story, but moving; I recommend it.
Take a look:
Eastasia has always taught college students to feel pride or shame according to their race.
The Mauritanian is a great movie. Well worth it and nice to go to a theatre to see it. 8/10 for me!
Oh and Guantánamo Bay should be fuckin closed forever.
HELP ME FIND
Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
I enjoyed it as well and I'm tired of how the government acts and teats people without facts.
Crisis also came out at the same time and it is also a pretty good movie. It ties three stories together in regards to the drug industry, but it is a descent watch too. 3/5.
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality. Edgar Allan Poe
I haven't rated a movie that I have viewed in a theater in months.
Today I viewed "Promising Young Woman"- Dark, funny, and wickedly sarcastic, the culmination of events is a cinematic triumph.
5/6 Beers on the RFSRS.
After 1 year, 1 month, and 12 days, I finally went back to the movies today.
Saw Nomadland (reminded me of Wild in a van) and enjoyed it, though it was much more of a slower, quieter, more contemplative film than I was expecting. Great cinematography and understated performance by Frances McDormand (I thought her performance and character in Three Billboards a few years ago was much better and more Oscar-worthy, though).
I liked the characters, the different settings with real places and people, but the film is very much a road trip/slice of life film with little in the way of narrative juiciness, developed plot, or character arcs. It's in no hurry to get where it's going (which is nice, in some respects, that Zhao lets scenes and character moments breathe), but I do think that the slow pace ultimately hurts the film by not giving it much focus.
I'm glad I saw it (and it being my first theater trip in over a year made the experience even more enjoyable than watching at home), but I wouldn't necessarily consider it worthy of winning Best Picture.
. . .
I also saw The United States vs. Billie Holiday last night and really enjoyed it. Fantastic performance by Andra Day, who absolutely carries the film with her great acting and vocals. Without her, there is no film. The range of emotions that she is asked to display is quite wide, and Day nails them all with authenticity and finesse. It's hard to believe that this is her first acting role.
The film tackles many events and months from Billie's life, but mostly revolves around her drug use and how she was pursued by the FBI (something I had no idea about until I watched the movie) for singing her anti-lynching protest song "Strange Fruit." The FBI considered it a threat and feared its potential to incite an uprising in the African American community. The way Holiday was treated was awful, and the film does a great job at showing how Billie was a victim of circumstances (being framed for drug possession by the US government, among them), but never allowed her life to be defined by it. Here, Billie Holiday is allowed to be a fully realized person, with strengths and weaknesses, loves and fears. It's what the film does so well.
At 2 hours and 10 minutes, it also covers a lot of ground. While everything shown is worthy of being in the film, it does lead to an unfocused narrative and screenplay. As I was watching, I kept thinking that the story would be better served as a miniseries.
There's some strange, uneven editing choices that didn't quite work for me, but ultimately the film is incredibly successful in what it sets out to do: creating a vivid portrait of Billie Holiday the singer as well as the person, and reminding us that those speaking the truth will never truly be silenced.
A NEW GAME BEGINS