Patrick R

I've seen a slew of good-not-great movies lately that I'd all recommend for their strong points. Nemesis (1992) - This direct to video cyberpunk movie is maybe secretly one of the best in it's field. It's probably the closest any film has come to capturing a William Gibson vibe (the lead character is basically a shameless rip-off of the Turner character in Count Zero), but the production design makes it also feel like an adaptation of an anime or maybe even some lost Data East arcade brawler. There's no shortage of gunfights, explosions and cheesy acting (basically every line of dialogue in the movie was done in post), but it also has an oppressive existential tone and an almost Cronenbergian obsession with sexy sweaty bodies being pulled apart to reveal big chunky electronics. It's cheap as hell but shockingly effective and fun on top of it. Like most direct to video action movies of it's era, you can easily find it on YouTube. There is also a recent German blu-ray release that is apparently gorgeous looking. Ip Man (2010) - Obviously I'm behind the curve here, as this has been a modern classic martial arts movie for half a decade, but if you don't know, this is a real good martial arts movie. Donnie Yen is the complete package, a good actor, a charismatic movie star and a great martial artist. This is basically a big cheesy Hollywood take on kung fu movies, with a big historical backdrop. It works the way that a Rocky movie works. The astounding thing is it works this way even though the titular character of Ip Man never comes close to losing a fight and his moral principles are basically never in question. That Ip Man can manage to wring any tension from such a unimpeachable main character is kind of amazing. Good solid entertainment. Antoine and Collette (1962) - Part of an anthology film, this is Truffaut's follow-up to The 400 Blows that follows the further adventures of Antoine Doniel. If you like The 400 Blows this is a worthy addition, with the main character now in his late teens and trying to navigate the world of women. If you haven't seen The 400 Blows, skip this and watch that instead. My Life In Pink (1997) - A touching Belgium film about a seven-year-old trans girl whose family and community cannot understand her. Notable primarily for being so ahead of it's time in just insisting that people let trans children be their actual gender (while, at the same time, America was grappling with the idea of Ellen Degeneres being gay like it was a national crisis). It's pretty by the numbers as far as these sorts of narratives go, but there's enough good quiet observational moments and Burtonesque surreal flourishes that it never feels tedious. It's also pretty subtle and nuanced for the kind of narrative it is. Good stuff. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) - Scorsese feels like the wrong director for the material, seeming uncomfortable whether trapped in motel rooms and diners or outside in it's southwest locations (of all the regionally-specific dramas of the 70's, this is maybe the least regionally specific), but Ellen Burstyn's performance is on a whole other planet. It's genuinely astonishing to watch her work, displaying so many conflicting emotions all at once. She's able to be devastated, then laugh it off, then get exasperated, then put on a happy face for her kid all in the span of 3 seconds. Really strong drama

Tried and failed to make it through The Revenant. Unbelievably tedious.

I promised myself I'd watch Cars but oof.

Uh oh!

http://www.objectivegamereviews.com/

And then sometimes that happens even if you do nail it. Plenty of people out there who misunderstand the point of Lolita.

Oh no. I've played 19 hours of this in the past week. It is a part time job! And I can't stop! My first solo stealth run of Jewelry Store was immensely satisfying.

Oof. I'm gonna stick with this a bit but just reading that post reminds me why I've never tried to get serious about a multiplayer game. It feels like a part-time job just to understand all that. I have no idea what half of what you said means. I'm still trying to figure out why I can't throw the doctor's bag anywhere because nowhere is an "appropriate surface". And maybe the difficulty curve is way different when you're playing online with four people who are all proactive (as opposed to two AI who are rubber-banded to you), but I've barely been able to complete jobs on normal, so I'm definitely not going to step into Very Hard yet. Also, when I'm in casing mode in the Jewelry Store it doesn't set off the alarm, so does that mean the metal detector doesn't work if you don't have a mask on(??) or am I on a different Jewelry Store level. And why can't you shut doors in this game?

Anyone still playing this? I haven't touched multiplayer yet because I don't want to be the shitty newb who screws up the heist because he doesn't know the basic controls of the game. But I've put about 3 hours into the offline mode and completed two missions and I'm really getting into this, even though there's no real idea of teamwork with the AI teammates. Question: Doing the jewelry store robbery, the alarm always gets triggered pretty much immediately. What am I missing? Question: What should I avoid when playing online for the first time? Question: If I get one DLC pack, what should it be?

Every year my former podcast does a weird episode for April Fools Day. This year we did a radio drama that's a parody of Aaron Sorkin tv shows (like The West Wing, The Newsroom, Sports Night) called "The Podcast". I'm pretty proud of it: http://www.directorsclubpodcast.com/blog/aaronsorkinpodcast

I definitely agree with most of this, emphasis on the bolded. Reading the books feels like it has the very relatable natural arc of two people trying to settle into a relationship, while the film felt like two people agonizing over whether they should date at all, which is a weirder, less relatable concept. I think it's probably the best adaptation of Scott Pilgrim that could realistically exist in a single film, but it feels like something that just shouldn't have been adapted in the first place.

Asphalt Jungle is the best crime movie of the 50's, easy. It's sexy and violent and smart and funny and sad and every character is memorable. Just a perfectly formulated pulp crime film.

I disagree that all John Wick's action is bad. I think the shootout in his house is very good and the fight at the club is also quite good. It's only later in the film the choreography and clean direction start to devolve. There's a lot of good ancillary stuff around the edges, like the casual absurdity of this world of hitmen that's introduced late into the film with the Continental. I also appreciate how simple the story is, given it's comic book tone. Despite existing in an alternate universe, it never feels like it's trying to sell you on a franchise or sequel of any kind, which is totally great and unheard of these days. But it definitely peaks early, and I was tired of it before it ended.

I saw a film print of ET tonight and I was just crying and crying and crying. If you haven't seen it since you were a kid there's a whole other world of emotion to it you probably didn't pick up. That movie is incredible.

One of my favorite parts of Children of Men is the symbolism of the ear-ringing. Clive Owen's ears ring after the blast in the coffee shop and again when . Earlier Julianne Moore explains that when your ears ring it's that ear cell dying and afterwards you'll never hear that frequency again. The entire film is a more effective plea for peace than most because it's set up a world where life actually is as precious as we should always treat it. When someone dies, there will be no one to take their place.

I feel vindicated by The Incredibles because it is a real-ass superhero action movie that children can also enjoy instead of a children's film for children-ass children. It only makes the bad puns in all the earlier films stick out that much more. It's not even just that it doesn't talk down, it's that it's (relatively) highly sexualized (especially regarding Elastigirl's body) it's got tons of henchmen being killed, gunplay, torture, suicide attempts. To be honest, having no real memory from my first viewing, I was kind of shocked, even though it's all presented in a rather clean-cut four-color tone. It felt like Brad Bird had successfully moved the tone a couple steps away from Pixar and a couple steps towards The Simpsons, particularly with the family's dynamic. Was there any hub-bub over this being Pixar's first PG film? Or by 2004, did G and PG already basically mean the same thing? I was pleasantly surprised to discover the much ballyhooed (at least in my circles) Ayn Randian vibes of the movie were not overbearing. It's vaguely fascist in the way most superhero movies are fascist, but Syndrome is an evil capitalist, not an evil philanthropist or government worker. And it doesn't go out of it's way to vilify the government that regulated superheroes. It feels like Brad Bird wrote a draft of it, took a step back, realized he'd accidentally said some fucked up shit, and walked it back a bit. The character of the government contact feels like a result of that. But really, what's incredible about this are the action scenes. Legitimately about a half dozen of the best action scenes of the decade are in this movie. It makes me even more angry at how thoroughly mediocre the four thousand other superhero movies released since have been. Is there a post-Incredibles superhero movie that understands the fun and potential of super-powered action scenes All the action is similarly inventive, well-composed and clearly laid out in strong character beats. The first superhero moment of Captain America kind of gets there, though not as good and this YouTube video stupidly cuts out the great Simpsons-esque where the kid gets thrown into the water as a distraction. My only real problem with The Incredibles is that, thematically, it's just a real-ass superhero movie with some pretty basic superhero movie themes. I don't really have anything but the shallowest emotional investment in anything happening. But that's not really a problem, it's just something The Incredibles lacks that my other favorite Pixar movies have. It's still probably the best superhero movie ever made, as dubious a distinction as that is. EDIT: "I feel vindicated by The Incredibles because it is a real-ass superhero action movie that children can also enjoy instead of a children's film for children-ass children" is maybe the dumbest sentence I have ever written.

We tried doing a Criterion club when Thumbs was sponsored by Hulu+ but that only lasted about 5 films or so.

When Somebody Loved Me is so congruous, yo.

WOW, The Incredibles is nearly two hours!

Like that song!

Let's call the whole thing off.

I know taste is literally a matter of taste, but I've always found the enthusiasm for McDonalds breakfast, particularly egg mcmuffins, baffling. I can eat garbage hamburgers all day every day, but fast food eggs make me nauseous.

The structure hasn't changed much, but the dynamic has shifted back and forth dramatically over the years. I feel like there are about 8 "eras" of Idle Thumbs so far, depending on who's hosting and who's available to join. Always felt the constantly changing theme songs were appropriate on that front.

I dunno. I really miss Sean being on the podcast but there are an incalculable number of personal things that could have lead to him not wanting to be on the podcast right now or anymore. If there hasn't been an announcement and nothing's been made official then that probably means he doesn't really want to get into it, and that's his right.