Movie/TV recommendations

[Cleinhun]

Saw Midnight Special was pretty disappointed overalll but it has some good moments, like the opening a lot. I was looking forward to this because I love Take Shelter.

Aww, I was looking forward to that one too, but I haven't been able to find anywhere it's playing.

[Ben X]

I also was not a fan of John Wick:

https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/4038-movietv-recommendations/?view=findpost&p=385634

Hardcore Henry got mentioned on the podcast, and I think we've linked to clips of it here before. I remember Sharlto Copley doing a perfect rendition of clunky AI pathfinding and that totally sold me on it!

[Patrick R]

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.

[Woodfella]

Aww, I was looking forward to that one too, but I haven't been able to find anywhere it's playing.

It definitely had good moments and it's got Michael Shannon in it so it's not all bad.

I'm in the UK and this was an "unseen" screening an event where the cinema screens a film that isn't out yet but you don't know what it is until you arrive.

[Erkki]

Lately as my watchlist is full of longer movies, I'm not always able to force myself to watch them to the end.

 

• Intolerance (1916) just seems to jump around too much. Also I get the feeling that it will end up being rather sexist, but I quit after the first hour.
• Repentance (1984) seems interesting, but it's done in a style that requires effort from me to watch which I didn't have at the time.
• The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) is a martial-arts + western combo but it makes all the action really boring even as it is rather beautiful to look at.
• Chi-Raq (2015) had some interesting things about it, but I fell asleep at half-point and didn't feel like continuing the next day. Generally from what little I've watched his movies' trailers, I'm not very interested in Spike Lee, although I did like She's Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing.

[twmac]

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.

 

The club scene shoot out was the best of a bad bunch. The one in his house is ripped so hard from the end sequence of the terrible Ahnohld film Raw Deal that I barely paid attention to it as I was too busy comparing it to that.

[Patrick R]

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.

[Gormongous]

After rereading all of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series last weekend, I rewatched the movie adaptation by Edgar Wright. I remember the latter being passably fun, but it sure wasn't this time around, not at all! The first two acts keep the episodic rhythm of the comics, but they also try to create a through line by imposing a "Battle of the Bands" framework, which mostly plays out as one interfering with the other and making the movie feel both draggy and rushed. The fights are entertaining enough on the surface and have their stakes properly established, thanks to being lifted almost wholesale from the comics, but they also last increasingly overlong and the final one with Gideon stretches for nearly twenty-five minutes with only occasional interruptions. Furthermore, that fight is filled with a lot of gratuitous and flow-breaking callouts to video games, which exemplify the movie's unfortunate compulsion to take the air that the comics left in their reference humor and fill it up with more reference humor, like Wright wasn't aware that the air is necessary for the humor to have impact and for the characters to come off as actual people instead of joke dispensers. And let's not even start with the decision to flatten the comics' themes of internal versus external integrity, personal histories, and the costs of being a "good" person down into just being honest with instead of jealous of the one you love...

 

Mark Webber, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, and Kieran Culkin are superb with no reservations whatsoever. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, and Allison Pill are all passable (Pill is actually great but screwed by Kim Pine being totally gutted as a character with anything resembling an arc). Jason Schwartzman would be passable, even good, if he weren't just playing shades of the same character that he's been doing since Rushmore (I don't know if he doesn't take direction well or if he was cast to play that character, but either way...). Brie Larson and Michael Cera are absolutely terrible, Cera in particular making the movie unwatchable for broad swathes of time as he struggles to convey earnestness and repeatedly settles for his signature blend of awkward, anxious, and mock-serious instead. Scott Pilgrim is supposed to be someone who doesn't believe his own bullshit, but keeps spinning it out in the hopes that everyone else does, yet Cera's Pilgrim definitely does believe his own bullshit, more than anyone else, and that's why he makes friends with Nega Scott in the end instead of fighting him or running from him (get a few drinks in me and I will bring any party to a grinding halt explaining how this proves that Edgar Wright misunderstands Scott Pilgrim to an extent that's only equaled by Baz Luhrmann misunderstanding The Great Gatsby).

 

Usually, I'm an apologist for slavish adaptations of novels and comics to the silver screen, because watching a fictional world come to life before your eyes is often pleasure enough. I don't think Zack Snyder's Watchmen is all that bad, for instance! Here, though, efforts to recreate the aesthetic trappings of Bryan Lee O'Malley's work lead to a movie that not only is nothing like the actual experience of reading them, but is also frustratingly dull (and dully frustrating) to watch on its own merits. Boo.

[tberton]

I can't really disagree with you on any single point there (although I think I like Schwartzman, Cera and Larson more than you), but I still really like that movie. It's just a really pleasing audio-visual experience. The colours, the fight choreography and the music are all great. Plus, it's really nice to see my city actually get to be itself on screen and they even get some good gags out of it, like the Casa Loma scene. 

 

But I agree that it's a thematic mess. They tried to cram six books that take place over more than a year into a 2 hour long movie that takes place over maybe two weeks. The characters really suffer for it. I may have said this here before, but it really feels like it should have been two movies: first, Scott comes to terms with Envy, then Ramona comes to terms with Gideon. Trying to do it all in one movie leaves everything falling flat.

[Patrick R]

I can't really disagree with you on any single point there (although I think I like Schwartzman, Cera and Larson more than you), but I still really like that movie. It's just a really pleasing audio-visual experience. The colours, the fight choreography and the music are all great. Plus, it's really nice to see my city actually get to be itself on screen and they even get some good gags out of it, like the Casa Loma scene. 

 

But I agree that it's a thematic mess. They tried to cram six books that take place over more than a year into a 2 hour long movie that takes place over maybe two weeks. The characters really suffer for it. I may have said this here before, but it really feels like it should have been two movies: first, Scott comes to terms with Envy, then Ramona comes to terms with Gideon. Trying to do it all in one movie leaves everything falling flat.

 

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.

[Ben X]

Regarding Wright not understanding certain stuff, I think volume 6 hadn't been written at the point they were doing the screenplay so that may explain some stuff getting flubbed.

[Gormongous]

I can't really disagree with you on any single point there (although I think I like Schwartzman, Cera and Larson more than you), but I still really like that movie. It's just a really pleasing audio-visual experience. The colours, the fight choreography and the music are all great. Plus, it's really nice to see my city actually get to be itself on screen and they even get some good gags out of it, like the Casa Loma scene.

I totally understand it being nice to see Toronto treated as Toronto in a movie (although, again, that's something the comics do better in every regard) but I really can't agree with you about the audio-visual experience. The efforts to do a graphic-novel presentation, in particular, were usually too distracting or on-the-nose and sometimes propped up jokes that should have been cut or rewritten for the screen. I also thought the choreography of the fights was good, but diluted by the length of the fights (and the fact that Scott fights Gideon twice to play out the "extra life" bit). It just aggressively didn't work for me, to the point that I may never watch it again... which is sad, somehow, given how much I like the comics.

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.

Probably, and I'm probably being too hard on it for that, but it definitely puts me in mind of, say, Wolfgang Petersen's Troy: compressed timescale, flattened themes, gutted characters, etc. It's the classic mid- to late-naughties movie adaptation in that way, for all the creativity and energy that Wright personally brings to the table.

Regarding Wright not understanding certain stuff, I think volume 6 hadn't been written at the point they were doing the screenplay so that may explain some stuff getting flubbed.

Yeah, I remember reading that, too, and that partially accounts for the feeling that the third act is like a funhouse mirror of the comics. Just about the only difference that I like there is how affable Schwartzman plays Gideon, like he'd rather control Ramona by coopting her past than by destroying it. I'm not sure it matches up perfectly, but... Still, there's ground laid for what the Nega Scott is from early in the comics, and the decision to have Scott buddy up with the personification of every shitty thing that he's done and then denied was "really him" instead of fighting it or acknowledging that he and it are the same person is... I don't know, it really bugs me. I'm a weirdo for it, I know.

[Ben X]

I don't know, it really bugs me. I'm a weirdo for it, I know.

 

Nah, I had a very similar reaction the first time I watched it - it's quite jarring seeing such a simplistic take on it. But the second time I watched it I was able to enjoy it more for the good stuff and the way it reflects its main character's miniscule attention span. If nothing else the music written for the film by Beck and others is great, and that opening is amazing.

[Brannigan]

I took him getting buddy buddy with negascott as a joke, not meant to have thematic consequence. They even ramp up like it's going to be yet another fight. The point was to just build up this big confrontation that just does not happen.

[brkl]

I just saw He Never Died on Netflix. The summary pretty much promises a cheap, bad action movie, but it's actually very good! All the reviews call it horror-comedy, but it never looks or sounds like a comedy. It's nothing like Evil Dead. Anyway, I recommend it heartily. It's about a cannibal who never died.

[Erkki]

Getting closer to having watched the 100 highest rated movies on Letterboxd. I'm mostly working on the first page and have now seen 41 of the 72. From the last couple of days:

 

Modern Times - a good, funny movie, probably as good as Chaplin gets. B-

Shawshank Redemption - I had forgotten that I'd seen this before. Very competently made, but ultimately I felt the story and characters didn't quite work for me. This big reveal and what followed just turned the characters into charicatures. B

A Woman Under Influence - a somewhat tough to watch movie about the difficulties of dealing with mental illness. Very believable characters and behaviour. A-

Seven Samurai - there are some cringeworthy moments, sound effects are occasionally pretty bad, and it could be shorter (took me two days to watch), but it is overall a really well made and gorgeous movie. A

[Gormongous]

I finally finished the first season of The Expanse like everyone else in the world did six months ago. I'm mixed: on the one hand, it's nice to see a well-realized sci-fi world presented with a decent budget and an eye towards consistent aesthetics. I'm looking to another season of it very much. On the other hand...

 

I was deeply disappointed by the introduction of a black-and-white villain in the form of Mao's company and the protomolecule research team. For the first two thirds of the season, The Expanse established a regular pattern of introducing threats and then complicating why they're threatening: the OPA is a bunch of terrorists but their grievances are legitimate, the Martian Navy is belligerent but eminently pragmatic, Fred Johnson is a war criminal but very ethical about his extremism, etc. When we get the inkling that Mao's performing ridiculously evil experiments, I was ready to have it subverted in some way, to continue the themes of the universe being a complex place and people having their reasons for almost anything... but no, it's all just profit and blind fetishism of scientific progress. Sure, that's worth the mass murdering of thousands of people and turning an interplanetary cold war hot! It's not that everything's shades of gray, it's that all these shades of gray are ignoring the one truly black thing out there. I don't find that particularly interesting.

 

Also, all the viewpoint characters annoyed me at various times, but I was sincerely surprised that UN Diplomat Lady ended up having the most satisfactory arc for me: she was pompous, high-handed, and cynical, but her growth was believable and satisfying. Compared to Holden, who is willing to risk the lives of his team repeatedly and, in the finale, to hang out with a sketchy cop who murders dozens of unsuspecting mercs just because but who threatens to shoot a crewmate and friend in the back for defending them from hostile soldiers, and Thomas Jane, who is a misanthropic jerk willing to murder dozens of unsuspecting mercs just because he's in love with a dead woman he's never met, she is a sterling example of good character writing. Maybe if the writers had done a better job of contrasting Jared Harris' love of Julie Mao, which is all about him, with Thomas Jane's love of her, which is all about her... but they didn't. I'm just supposed to believe that a hardened cop who's inured to his status as a traitor to his people and who insults his partner for believing that a prostitute loves him is head over heels for some teenage debutante. If all your central characters are irredeemable idiots, hypocrites, and monsters, why am I watching your show? Why is it not about Fred Johnson, an interesting personality with an interesting past and an interesting future? Why are we following around Goody Two-Shoes, Lord of Good Intentions and Unintended Consequences, and his counterpart Dirty Cop the Dirtiest Cop? I don't know.

 

Also, the writing for episodes five, six, and most of seven was inexplicably bad on the level of dialogue, with every other line coming out of characters' mouths being a platitude or a cliche. I know that the mid-season doldrums are time to give the less experienced writers in your stable a chance, but keep some oversight on them so we don't have to hear two women debate the meaning of motherhood with empty hyperbole.

[Gormongous]

Oh! I also finished the third season of Rectify, which was mercifully more about healing this time around than its relentless themes of judgment and hatred that made the first two seasons incredible but immensely stressful to watch.

[Cordeos]

I finally finished the first season of The Expanse like everyone else in the world did six months ago. I'm mixed: on the one hand, it's nice to see a well-realized sci-fi world presented with a decent budget and an eye towards consistent aesthetics. I'm looking to another season of it very much. On the other hand...

 

I was deeply disappointed by the introduction of a black-and-white villain in the form of Mao's company and the protomolecule research team. For the first two thirds of the season, The Expanse established a regular pattern of introducing threats and then complicating why they're threatening: the OPA is a bunch of terrorists but their grievances are legitimate, the Martian Navy is belligerent but eminently pragmatic, Fred Johnson is a war criminal but very ethical about his extremism, etc. When we get the inkling that Mao's performing ridiculously evil experiments, I was ready to have it subverted in some way, to continue the themes of the universe being a complex place and people having their reasons for almost anything... but no, it's all just profit and blind fetishism of scientific progress. Sure, that's worth the mass murdering of thousands of people and turning an interplanetary cold war hot! It's not that everything's shades of gray, it's that all these shades of gray are ignoring the one truly black thing out there. I don't find that particularly interesting.

 

Also, all the viewpoint characters annoyed me at various times, but I was sincerely surprised that UN Diplomat Lady ended up having the most satisfactory arc for me: she was pompous, high-handed, and cynical, but her growth was believable and satisfying. Compared to Holden, who is willing to risk the lives of his team repeatedly and, in the finale, to hang out with a sketchy cop who murders dozens of unsuspecting mercs just because but who threatens to shoot a crewmate and friend in the back for defending them from hostile soldiers, and Thomas Jane, who is a misanthropic jerk willing to murder dozens of unsuspecting mercs just because he's in love with a dead woman he's never met, she is a sterling example of good character writing. Maybe if the writers had done a better job of contrasting Jared Harris' love of Julie Mao, which is all about him, with Thomas Jane's love of her, which is all about her... but they didn't. I'm just supposed to believe that a hardened cop who's inured to his status as a traitor to his people and who insults his partner for believing that a prostitute loves him is head over heels for some teenage debutante. If all your central characters are irredeemable idiots, hypocrites, and monsters, why am I watching your show? Why is it not about Fred Johnson, an interesting personality with an interesting past and an interesting future? Why are we following around Goody Two-Shoes, Lord of Good Intentions and Unintended Consequences, and his counterpart Dirty Cop the Dirtiest Cop? I don't know.

 

Also, the writing for episodes five, six, and most of seven was inexplicably bad on the level of dialogue, with every other line coming out of characters' mouths being a platitude or a cliche. I know that the mid-season doldrums are time to give the less experienced writers in your stable a chance, but keep some oversight on them so we don't have to hear two women debate the meaning of motherhood with empty hyperbole.

After book 2 the villains get more, complex. Not sure how long it will take the show to get there. I Think the books keep getting better, so IMO stick with it. I don't want to spoil anything, but there is a lot of character growth for pretty much everyone.

[Erkki]

I wish this was coming to a theater near me or to my region as a Blu-Ray

[sclpls]

If for some reason you are looking for a tearjerker of a movie I saw Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies last night in a theater, and I think over half the audience was audibly crying by the end. It has been a long time since I've seen anything that devastatingly bleak. I put the film right up there with A Woman in Berlin as a powerful portrayal of the consequences of war.

 

Roger Ebert's review:

 

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-grave-of-the-fireflies-1988

[Erkki]

Holy shit, the Parks & Recreation Season 6 finale is one of the most amazing moments in any TV series I've seen. I actually cried several times.

[Patrick R]

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

[Erkki]

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

It seemed more impressive that day when I saw it in IMAX, but when I try to remember the overall feeling of it, yeah, it's tedious, and I think in the end it will be rather forgettable.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I was really hoping that the movie was going to have Leo die and then be about his son for the rest of the movie, but it was not.

 

(I had never heard of this story before I watched it)