Erkki

Also just remembered... somewhere in the movie a local man points to a person in a corner as the keeper of some tradition. One of the main characters (a visitor) responds with a surprise by asking "The disabled?" (the person had a disfigured face)

Sure. Firstly, the casting choices. If you know Chidi from The Good Place, they actually cast the actor to play basically the same character here. All the characters are very one-dimensional and I didn’t really get their motivations to do certain things. Secondly, even though they are going for a very overexposed look knowingly, it still comes off as cheap amateur cinematography at times, as if someone got the camera settings wrong. And the visual effects during some trippy sequences are super lame IMHO. Thirdly, there is no tension or increasing creepiness. From very early on, we know that SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG and until the end the feeling remains the same. Patrick thinks similarly in more detail [edit] Regarding the last point, this may be one of the cases where having seen the trailer ruins the movie experience. I think because the trailer gave a very specific expectation of where this story was going and then besides some details the movie followed it pretty closely. So if you haven’t seen the trailer and don’t want your expectations ruined, don’t read the spoiler:

Booksmart is maybe the best movie of this year so far. The way it avoids cliches and stays funny throughout is almost miraculous. Also, a recommendation to NOT see: Midsommar. What potential this movie had, but ended up being quite shit.

I saw The Last Black Man in San Francisco in the Alamo Drafthouse theatre. I think it’s mostly that I’m not local why I didn’t get it, but I saw/heard some local people really enjoying it! I got that it was about the San Francisco housing crisis and the racism related to that, but for me it didn’t connect at all.

Chernobyl is great! (onlythe last episode is a bit weaker, the 4th one has some amazing shots IIRC)

I have a kind of weird relationship with Mubi lately. Firstly, I'm payin for it by year and I think it's a great service worth supporting even if I don't use it as much as I feel I'm paying for. But then I occasionally don't use it much for 2 months and I get a guilty feeling for paying something for a thing I don't use, and then if I have time, I go on a Mubi binge. Just last week I watched like 10 movies in a row (some were shorts*). There are some great movies on there, but I've mostly already seen those e.g. best works of Agnes Varda (RIP), Jonas Mekas, other famous directors. Then there's utter tripe like the films restored by NWR or promoted by him (not sure which, don't care) - usually these are garbage movies with trivial plots that feature naked women in some capacity. But most of the stuff on Mubi is exactly a little bit too average for my taste. Such movies that, after watching, I think I've expanded my view of world cinema a little bit, but I haven't really seen a movie I would remember and recommend to others. Occasionally one of those movies is something I end up liking a lot. And I guess that's why I keep doing it and keep paying for the service. Like, I'll remember the song "el limón, el limonero..." from Bad Hair forever. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3074610/ I was able to watch some Bollywood classics I would probably never have watched otherwise. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053706/, https://letterboxd.com/film/kaagaz-ke-phool/ I saw a previous movie of Ruben Östlund, which I also wouldn't have otherwise. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1376717/ etc. I just wish that when I went on a binge I would chance upon some great movies but lately it's mostly average or slightly better. * that's my favourite excuse when spending too much time watching movies.

Ok as I read the start of this page by Cbirdsong, I think the exact saame can be said by this season, but now it’s worse because the production value is also somehow used in the wrong places, at least in the finale.

I somehow didn’t get into Easy when I first tried to watch it, but when I got through a couple of episodes I started liking it. Reminds me of High Maintenance.

Today is quite weird. It's my last day at ZeroTurnaround RougeWave Perforce and I'm joining a new company after 8 years of working here. Last post from work laptop At my new employer I will travel to San Francisco occasionally so maybe I can join some thumb meetup some time if any is happening there. Haven't been paying attention.

I gave up on the idea in the previous post about making the movie understandable only by sound. That would be a totally different discipline and I have enough on my plate as it is. I think I have an actually close to final cut of my movie, but we still have a lot of sound mixing and editing , color correction and grading to do. And to create proper credits with bloopers and stuff. Still, if anyone wants to see the current state and give some feedback, let me know by PM and I'll send you a link. I might also have to prepare some questions like Patrick did when he shared his movie, so I might take a couple of days with getting back to you, though.

I saw Us (award of most unsearchable title goes to?) and man it's weird. I kind of like it, but I'm not sure that it made any sense to me. Might have to digest a bit. Get Out was very clearly understandable compared to this.

I randomly happened to see two pieces within a couple of days that used "Fade to white" to mean the same thing. One was an episode in High Maintenance and the other was The Passion of Anna by Bergman. Didn't know this was a thing, have you noticed it any other works?

I'm now trying to come up with a way to make the sound so good that the whole movie could be somewhat understood only by the sound. I found this research, I wonder if it's something unique or if it's reiterating in other words what all good film sound editors know (probably more of the latter?)

I'm watching it. Through 1st season and into the second. It's... good... and kind of meh sometimes. I think overall I like it, but I wish it had a stronger concept running through it. A good thing is that it's not something that invites you to binge it.

My short film is progressing. The video editing is almost done, now the main remaining things are shooting a short stop motion animation sequence ADR - re-recording some lines, recording some new lines to replace what's being said foley, sound editing and mixing color correction and grading I have gotten a bit of experience with the last two doing some video projects for friends. But I'm somewhat color blind and because of this I dread the process of color grading a bit. Also it's actually a very technical area that I know I can't do at a similar level as a pro could, but I think I better do it myself to get the experience and to save money. And same goes for the whole sound process. But both are also actually kind of fun processes for having very direct and detailed control over what the end result is going to look and sound like. I know I should spend some more time learning about these disciplines, but when I stop at some level of depth, am I going to be able to make the right artistic choices with what I know? I'm aiming for an autumn release now, though, so I can take my time. The most difficult is going to be the stop motion animation, which is another thing that I initially described with one sentence in the script, but is now going to be much more complicated. [edit] Also I forgot finding/commissioning music. I have a friend who wants to try making the music, but I haven't shown him the movie yet.

Truth and Justice is an Estonian film made more in the Hollywood style. It is pretty true to the book on which it is based, which is one of our most famous saga. So if you want to learn something about Estonian culture, I guess this movie is a good way to get an introduction, in a familiar format. I wouldn't say it's super great because I think it really comes together at the very end, and you might get bored somewhere in the middle of this two and a half hour epic. (it also shares a single line with the short film I'm making because I borrowed the line from the same book).

I finished Pose and now watched Paris is Burning. Interesting to see the doc after the fictional series and how accurate it seemed in many ways.

I binged through Westworld and as you can guess I started liking it at one point. I think it was somewhere between episode 4 and 5. The second season is a bit too all over the place and takes way long to get where it’s going, but I cannot say that I disliked it. Another show I’m watching is Pose from Netflix. It’s about the ball scene in 80’s New York which I have zero interest of, but following the troubles of the several trans characters seems enlightening. It’s not easy to binge and I think I like it that way - been watching one or two episodes a week. The cast is also trans women, but I haven’t looked up what trans women generally think about it, though. Initially it seemed pretty male-gaze’y but it seems to be with a point.

I accidentally made a tiny short nature video yesterday

[edit]The original title was "overrated classics", but that was a somewhat problematic wording. (I don't want to put this in the recommended movies thread, so I made a new one) Damn, I just watched Taxi Driver, expecting to be hit by brilliance... What I found was one of the most boring movies I have watched recently, with a great lead actor. Wait, is this actually what the height of american cinema was in the 1970's? I'm now scared to rewatch other classics from those years lest I be as disappointed. I have of course seen this movie a couple of times as a teen, but I was different then and I guess I had forgotten it mostly. Later I have always heard of Taxi Driver as being a classic and perhaps one of the best movies ever. But this was just lame, the only thing it had going for it was the portrayal of the loneliness of Travis, and De Niro played him well, but that just wasn't enough to make the movie captivating. And what the hell was the ending?

Ok, this isn't about a movie, but what's so great about Mad Men? Was it just that at the time it didn't seem as awful with the treatment of women and bombarding us with stereotyped macho behaviour of men or does it turn that whole thing around at some point? I've only seen 2 episodes, but if that casual sexism isn't turned around quickly (like in the next 2 episodes) then I don't see the point of just keeping watching this ... whatever it is.

Almost through with Insecure and got used to the pacing. It’s good! Will give Westworld another try at least for another episode and then I still have a bunch of HBO stuff, recommended here and what I’ve wanted to see before that I only now realized was HBO. And by the time I’m done Netflix has probably released some new good stuff...

I don't know if this should go here now or to Recommendations, but Russian Doll is kind of brilliant and really fresh. I've seen two episodes so far, and hope it can keep up. It's created by and starts Natasha Lyonne, who played Nicky in OITNB and she's great here as well. The photography / grading does great things with color and the story plays with your expectations in a funny way. It's great!

John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids. But that's more apocalypse-as-it-happened-just-now

Started with Insecure and it’s pretty good indeed although the pace could be faster. Also watched Westworld episode one and I don’t get the general appeal - it seems so boring so far. Any other HBO recommendations? Just subscribed to it and already binged through Girls, which was 100% awesome and maybe one of the best series ever.