Movie/TV recommendations

[Jov]

Sooo megathread. I'm not going to search to see if/how many times it's been posted before; I'm just gonna say what I wanna say:

 

I finally watched Ex Machina the other night. Such a good film! (So good.) Man I love original Sci-Fi. Haven't had a treat like it since Moon.

 

Other things that I've watched somewhat recently and loved: Black Rock, The Babadook.

 

OH and I got to go to a pre-screening for Charlie Kaufman's newest film Anomalisa (Writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation) and it was GOOD. Maybe even great.

[SuperBiasedMan]

OH and I got to go to a pre-screening for Charlie Kaufman's newest film Anomalisa (Writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation) and it was GOOD. Maybe even great.

 

Oh sweet! I backed this years back especially because I loved the claymation episode of Community. I am even more eagerly awaiting my downloadable copy now.

[Bjorn]

Other things that I've watched somewhat recently and loved: Black Rock, The Babadook.

 

Babadook has been on my shortlist to watch for a bit.  What's the style of horror in it?  Jumpscares, psychological?

[Patrick R]

Babadook has been on my shortlist to watch for a bit.  What's the style of horror in it?  Jumpscares, psychological?

 

Pretty traditional kind of ghost scares you'd see in something like The Conjuring, except with a Slenderman kind of monster instead of a ghost, and then all that mutates into a psychological thing because, without spoiling anything, The Babadook is a metaphor for _______________.

 

It's the fact that it's actually a movie about something (in addition to being really scary) that pushes Babadook over the top. Then again, a lot of the customers at the video store I work at complained about how "unrealistic it is", so you do have to be able to give in to a surreal tone.

[Jov]

Babadook has been on my shortlist to watch for a bit.  What's the style of horror in it?  Jumpscares, psychological?

 

Totes psychological. I hate jumpscare movies.

[Bjorn]

Sounds perfect, as I generally love horror that incorporates the surreal, or naturally questions the nature of reality.  If I remember right, it had got middling reviews on Netflix (which I don't pay a lot of attention to, but I think the still affect how quickly I get around to watching something). 

[Jov]

Sounds perfect, as I generally love horror that incorporates the surreal, or naturally questions the nature of reality.  If I remember right, it had got middling reviews on Netflix (which I don't pay a lot of attention to, but I think the still affect how quickly I get around to watching something). 

I'm not basing this off research or anything, but I bet the low reviews are because the bulk of horror fans have come to expect a certain thing. In today's world, I feel like most people have shorter attention spans are find a film with motherfucking PACING to be challenging. See: Aziz Ansari's new show: Line, line, line... it has the look and writing of something cinematic, but feels so artificial and afraid to take a breathe. Anyway, The Babadook is the kind of horror that I (and Daniel Riendeau, I think) enjoy. A film with substance, and confidence, and most importantly an artist behind it who hasn't let money take control of the film.

[Ben X]

Aziz Ansari's new show: Line, line, line... it has the look and writing of something cinematic, but feels so artificial and afraid to take a breathe.

 

I had completely the opposite reaction - I felt that compared to something like Kimmy Schmidt, Master Of None felt pretty loose and natural. I thought it totally took the time out to do stuff like extended flashbacks or dream sequences or domestic squabbles that weren't played up for constant laffs.

[tberton]

This is a tangent, but I find it interesting that despite the shared universe of all the Marvel movies/shows, the Marvel Cinematic Universe really has no continuity. Every now and then they'll have a cross-show cameo or say "Remember the time aliens attacked New York?" (which they have to keep telling you in words, because there sure isn't any other evidence it ever happened). You can feel that they're working under the constraint of "Continuity is confusing, we can't afford to alienate anyone who hasn't seen other MCU stuff". It makes me wonder what the point of the MCU is, why have a shared universe if you're not going to share anything?

 

Hmmm? There's plenty of continuity. The Avengers pulls directly from Thor and Captain America, Iron Man 3 pulls from Avengers, Agents of SHIELD had plenty of stuff going on concurrently with Captain America 2, etc.

[BadHat]

This might be a case of being influenced by who I watched it with (girlfriend haaated it), but I didn't think the Babadook was especially great? Or rather, I thought it was a pretty effective drama, and the actor who played the mother was fantastic, but the horror/suspense was pretty flat. I wasn't expecting it to shock me but I didn't even find it unsettling (disclaimer: horror is subjective, not trying to invalidate anyone else's take). I forget if I already posted about this or not, maybe my opinion has changed since then.

 

I saw Mazerunner: Scorch Trials and uh... hmm. I actually enjoyed the first movie, I thought it was pretty inventive despite its uneven pacing and some of its more cliched Lord of the Flies-isms. This is just... taking an interesting premise and turning it into another fucking post-apocalypse thing. Worse, the theme of "taking the fight to WCKD" is so reminiscent of that other big YA trilogy that it seems like they're really trying to turn this into Hunger Games: For Men. Or maybe the books were always like that, I don't know. All that aside it was a perfectly serviceable action movie with some good performances and effects. Also, drinking game: take a shot every time another Game of Thrones cast member shows up.

[Patrick R]

Based on it's box office take I am guessing I am the last person on Earth to see it but HOLY SHIT is Jurassic World bad. Can not believe how totally awful it is.

[Gormongous]

Based on it's box office take I am guessing I am the last person on Earth to see it but HOLY SHIT is Jurassic World bad. Can not believe how totally awful it is.

 

Yeah, it really bummed me out to see how far the franchise had fallen. The original Jurassic Park was Spielberg at the absolute height of his craft. Twenty-two years later, not a single moment falls flat for me. Now it's just like Transformers and whatever else, an overwritten script foisted on an inexperienced director as a pretext for putting awesome special effects on the big screen.

[Patrick R]

I don't even really like Jurassic Park (I watched it too much as a kid and all the hand-wringing at science & Grant learning to be a father stuff makes me cringe) but Jurassic World is the kind of bad that really makes one think about how much craft went into that.

[Henroid]

Is this the place to talk about upcoming movies too? The first trailer (non-teaser) for Captain America: Civil War just debuted via Jimmy Kimmel Live (and is online) and I am pumped for it.

 

[JonCole]

Super pumped for Civil War, I know comic book lovers are going to think that it's small fries compared to "real" Civil War but I'm content with the small teams they built up here to kinda crystallize the idea behind the original comic plotline. Also really like that they're bringing Bucky back in a real way, he's probably one of my favorite parts of the Cap comics in the past 5 years or so.

 

I'm only a few episodes into it, but I'm totally on the Master of None hype train. I feel like it's totally earnest and I think Aziz is best when he's just being himself rather than a character, and this certainly tries to give us the closest character to Aziz as they could muster.

 

Also on a slow crawl through Jessica Jones, don't really want to binge through it like Daredevil. David Tennant is great, I was a bit afraid to see him in this super-antagonist role but he's pulling it off with style. And I was also kinda wary to see Krysten Ritter in the titular role because I couldn't think of anything I saw her in that I liked (really didn't like her in Veronica Mars, where she resonates most clearly in my memory), but she's doing an absolutely superb job. I find the character far more appealing than the kinda goofy comic book presence that Jones has been in recent memory.

[Bjorn]

I'm genuinely surprised that the Cap'n movies have ended up being some of my favorites in the MU, and Civil War looks to continue that.  I always had the impression of the Captain being a pretty boring character. 

[Henroid]

I'm genuinely surprised that the Cap'n movies have ended up being some of my favorites in the MU, and Civil War looks to continue that.  I always had the impression of the Captain being a pretty boring character. 

That's the thing; Captain America was very much the "woo patriotism" guy for Marvel for a long time. Nothing terribly complicated. Patriotism of that sort is either out of style or needs to make some big political comeback, depending on who you ask, so Marvel Film Studios has taken a very smart approach with Cap in these movies. Whatever compelling "OH SHIT" plots they want to have, they use Captain America for. And it just... works. Aside from the first Iron Man, so far the Captain America movies are my favorites. And I'm right there with you - Civil War looks like it's going to continue that. The use of Bucky as a leaping off point for it is a really good move too, because it keeps things intimate with what the film audience knows, while still leaning into what the comic book readers know the Civil War to be.

 

Gah. Just so pumped for that movie.

[Merus]

It also feels like they're doing Superman storylines with Captain America - in terms of superheroics he's basically a brick with a Cool Shield, and we know his heart is absolutely in the right place so there's no real source of internal conflict. So what we get in the movies are the kind of storylines they should be doing with Superman: the world is wrong, and he can't fix that on his own, so he has to inspire other people to join him in making the world a better place. 

[Mawd]

Yeah I'm kinda fatigued on the marvel comic movies (I still like the shows and Deadpool might be good?) but apart from the first Iron Man, the Captain America series are the only films that I've stayed keen on, so I'm happy for more. Plus Chris Evans being eye candy will always be appreciated by The Boy and I.

Oh and we finally saw Trainwreck with my mum and my sister and it was the funniest movie we'd seen in a long time.

[TheLastBaron]

So in 2016 we have an Xmen movie, Doctor Strange, Civil War, Deadpool, Gambit, and Sinister Six?

[Patrick R]

Magic Mike XXL is like a beacon for masculinity, a wonderful fantasy where women have inherited the Earth, everything you want out of that kind of movie, except that it's still just a little too heteronormative.

 

EDIT: And continuing the catching up on 2015 Channing Tatum movies train, the sensation of watching Jupiter Ascending is basically this:

 

[Merus]

Oh my god what is that from

[Patrick R]

This fake screenplay Twitter whose address I can't remember. I saved that image on my computer years ago and it always comes in handy when talking about big budget Hollywood sci-fi.

[agorman]

I saw Spotlight last night and I think it might be my favorite movie I've seen this year. I have sat here for like 10 minutes trying to cohere my thoughts into something worthwhile but have failed. The whole movie is so understated (the aesthetics are perfect) and resists temptation to be showy or flashy compared to the version of this movie I can imagine being portrayed in The Newsroom or something similar

[Erkki]

I've seen some more great movies at PÖFF during the past few days:

 

Truman is about dying and friendship. Really great actors who make a really emotional movie. A friend I saw it with cried 8 times, I cried only 3 times but was declared also human. It's more of a typical movie compared to most festival movies, as my friend put it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3754940/

 

La novia (The Bride) is a really poetic movie that grabs your attention. The characters are intentionally unreal, as if out of a fairy tale. I'm not sure how well it will work outside of a cinema, though. I think this might be my favourite from PÖFF so far, besides Tangerine. I really liked how it had lots of details while doing a great job emphasizing the important elements in every scene. I wish I hadn't been too tired to ask some questions from the director - I think this was the first time the movie was shown outside of Spain.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2734566/

 

Epitafio (Epitaph) was another really poetic movie, of some conquistadors who decide to climb a volcano, for reasons. It is visually and aurally impressive, but I think I need a second viewing to get the most of it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4991756/

 

Sado (The Throne) is an impressive historical drama set in the royal family and court of 18th century Korea. I held back the tears as I didn't want to cry for fools, but in the end I had to let them come.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4010918/

 

The End of the Tour showed that even a famous writer is a normal person like anyone else

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3416744/