ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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The Decameron had less penises than I expected after seeing Arabian Nights (of the same trilogy) earlier. But boy does it have bad teeth! Next up: The Canterbury Tales. I hear it has a really large schlong.

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I'm going through the Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection Blu-Ray... I saw Rope, Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt so far. The latter reminds me of Night of the Hunter (which I now consider a masterpiece, although I wasn't fully enjoying the whole movie on first viewing), but the characters are a bit annoying with their old-fashioned behaviour. I think I actually had the same problem with Night of the Hunter at first, though, and it really is a very thrilling movie.

 

I also liked Rope for it's compactness, although I might agree with the writer (I think) on one of the extras that the beginning of the movie revealed too much and kind of took away some of the potential suspense. But maybe he was wrong, could be that the movie wouldn't have worked as well if the audience didn't know what they do from the start. Also, the Blu-Ray has the theatrical trailer on it and it's ridiculous how much it reveals -- especially compared to today's trailers, which some complain about.

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Very disappointed in Warcraft. I was hoping for something good, because of Duncan Jones, but this is just ticking the box "Warcraft movie" in some executive's todo list while trying to not appear totally incompetent.

 

It's not even worth seeing once, I walked out of the cinema in the middle.

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Yikes. It was so incredibly likely that this would happen, but I'd hoped that Jones would've made it his own thing as well... Haven't seen the film yet (and in all likelihood I probably will soon because I'm going with a group), but I'm lowering my expectations accordingly.

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Saw Cap: Civil War and didn't enjoy it very much. Overstuffed, with no real plot (and what it has is recycled) and the action is well-choreographed but badly directed. I think it would have worked much better as a Captain America film (this really isn't, it's Avengers 2.5) where:

 

Near the start of the film Rhodey dies and the December 16th 1991 reveal happens, and Iron Man becomes the villain of the film; Bucky is re-introduced as an ally earlier so we care about him and worry that he might get killed - because we know Stark and Rogers sure aren't going to; most of the other characters are cut out or only seen from the perspective of Cap

 

Either that or it should have committed to being an Avengers film and re-structured accordingly.

 

Black Panther and Spidey are okay, but add nothing; I suspect their own films will suffer for the characters being introduced in so perfunctory a manner elsewhere. Vision and Scarlet Witch's chemistry is great but is utterly irrelevant to this film.

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I was recently at a party where someone asked me what kind of films I was into recently and I said "Well, lately I've been really into Jean Renoir." to which he replied "Oh yeah, Double Indemnity is one of my favorite movies ever."


I related this story to my partner and they said "You don't consider Double Indemnity noir?" and I realized that both my partner and this person at this party thought I said "genre noir".


So anyway, guy at party, sorry I made a face like you were a lunatic. Double Indemnity is indeed rad.


 


 


As is Jean Renoir! If you've never seen The Grand Illusion or The River or Rules of the Game you are missing out on some of the greatest films ever.


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I'm planning to get to Renoir sometime soon. Did see Rules of the Game this year and liked it a lot!

 

I found a really interesting film and on an interesting service:

https://www.festivalscope.com/all/film/lions

 

The service seems to mainly let you see festival films online, although I haven't yet fully understood how they pick them. It says that it used to be a service for pros, but recently branched out to offer something for everyone, and there's still a separate thing for pros. Some movies on it are free, like Lions. I think I didn't even have to enter my credit card info, just made an account. There are also some interesting shorts by Flatform (I've only seen the one with the Italian town). Other movies cost something to watch, I've seen prices like 2€. I wanted to try out the service for a longer movie and randomly picked Lions. There were some technical issues like visible compression artifacts, a couple of interruptions where it showed a loading animation... but on the whole it mostly worked for HD streaming.

 

The movie Lions itself is pretty amazing... it's kind of like a Tarkovsky movie in many ways, for example in the way it removes the genre from a genre movie... or at least it seemed to me that way (it's kind of like a horror movie, but not really). And the way it plays with long tracking shots and nature, including wind and rain, also reminds me of Tarkovsky. It doesn't quite measure up to any actual Tarkovsky movies, but is still rather impressive. The movie basically has a group of young people moving through a forest and the purpose is not very clear. It gets creepy at times. Definitely worth a watch IMHO and as I mentioned it's free, so give it a shot if it sounds interesting (I don't know, maybe they show different movies in different countries, though).

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Fuck, don't read the IMDB page for that Lions movie, it spoils the entire film in one sentence. I hadn't even figured it out after watching.

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I saw

. Don't watch Gooby.

 

Is that the official trailer?! It has comic sans!!!

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Just saw Finding Dory and I liked it, but 90% of me liking it had to do with seeing Stringer Bell and McNulty as buddies. I also saw the trailer for BFG and am thoroughly ready to start hating on Mark Rylance again.

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 I also saw the trailer for BFG and am thoroughly ready to start hating on Mark Rylance again.

 

fuck all y'all

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I caught Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping last weekend and can confirm that it is good and funny.I don't usually go see comedies in theaters but I have a soft spot for the Lonely Island people. I didn't like their previous movies (Hot Rod and MacGruber) but this one was great. 

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W A R C R A F T (spacing concurrent to movie title, which is weird since Warcraft has always had closely tucked together letters): what a strange film! It had all the outward appearance of a Blizzard cutscene that occassionally strayed into schlocky Dungeons & Dragons movie territory. Not necessarily by overacting, but more by its staging and weirdly super flat story. And yet, I totally loved it while seeing it, and now that I've been home for 24 hours I am still digging it. Usually my brain uses that time to figure out what it really thinks of a film (and perceptions can then totally skew from what I thought in the cinema), but Warcraft firmly stays in the 'good' range.

 

I wonder why. For years I was unsure how to even approach a Warcraft film. How to keep it from being too pulpy? Would it focus on random characters adventuring in this huge, huge world? Instead the film more or less follows the events of the first game, with the addition of the Medivh storyline and taking into account the retconned story of the Orcs as noble shamans instead of bloodthirsty savages. Duncan Jones does a fine job translating this to a briskly moving tale with perhaps one too many male lead character with long hair and a beard, but hey, that's fantasy video games for you. The audience sported diehard fans howling at the sight of a Murlock in the frame, and people who knew nothing of Warcraft but were thoroughly entertained as well.

 

Make no mistake: this is a cartoon. There are few noteworthy themes, emotional development is absent and the characters that are present are as two-dimensional as cardboard cutouts. This in itself is unfortunate: the likes of Lothar, Garona or Khadgar have enough going on that you could construct a valuable narrative out of them, but perhaps the movie too slavishly followed the existing narrative. Beyond actually fleshing out backstories and motivations, there was potential for Medivh to be much more of a comic relief as a rambling magic addict, or Lothar as the pained hero struggling with raising his son. As it is, the most human of them all is the Orc Durotar, burdened by an invasion while he'd rather see his own son grow up in peace.

 

Still, the movie whizzes by with lots of fun and excitement. The best scenes, I think, are the ones where you start to see the traditions and systems in place in the Horde, and how the Orcs are in fact torn by their old ways and the new-found demonic savagery. The scant moments when Gul'dan tries to have his way, but crashes on his men's scorn for being dishonorable, are kind of exciting.

 

Now that it's over, I can't wait for a second film. And more specifically, for the moment when they get to the events of Warcaft 3, when things'll get really interesting with Arthas, Blood Elves, the founding of an Orc state and the undead. Alliance, ho! (Or what was it again?)

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Just saw The Lobster - wow.

One of the most intriguing and provocative things I've seen in a while. Very, very cool

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I saw The Lobster last year. I agree, really interesting movie. There was stuff that I really did not care for, e.g.

the cruel blinding of the Rachel Wiesz' character,

but overall I felt positive about the film, because it was so thought-provoking.

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Definitely a situation where the second half can't compare to the first, but it's a hilarious and wholly original work nonetheless.

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An Honest Liar is a very good documentary about The Amazing Randi.

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Midnight Special was very disappointing. Great 70's sci-fi movie vibes, but no emotion or humor at all.

Was disappointed by this too. Really like take shelter and shotgun stories. Remember laughing out loud at Adam Drivers confused "What the fuck is that shit" face like, "you and me both mate"

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Saw "I Killed My Mother" yesterday night. Goddamn, I still feel an emotional reverberation from it. Extremely powerful film!

Don't know more to say at the moment.

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Well, I know a bit more to say now.

Now it's...11 hours later and the movie still has an effect on me! Crazy...it has been some years since a movie, my favorite movie, had such an effect on me, though it didn't have such a disruptive one. Don't get me wrong, the movie has stuff that can be hard to take, but it ends on a conciliatory note.

There are many aspects of the movie that are truthful and authentic. Like the dynamic the protagonist has with his mother, the dependency he has to her and the destructive power this wields on their relationship. The way he knows what he needs yet it is denied. The way they play their games with each other and really don't truly listen to each other anymore. As I learnt, the director/actor/writer was 16 when he wrote the autobiographical story and 19 when he directed it. And you can tell that it's a story told by someone who is still lucid about all these little details of interactions, of behaviours, who managed to reproduce them so accurately because he was still affected by the situation and consumed by it. The protagonist is depicted as very self-involved, whose mind is occupied by his pursuit for independence and of fixing the relationship with his mother. He puts all his energy and awareness into these personal issues. So he can be ignorant of the needs around him.

This self-involvedeness, possession of extreme emotions and being very lucid about all the nuances of interaction reminds me of a phase I went through just a few months ago. And yes, of being absolutely incapable of fending for myself and being dependent on my parents. Oh, and yes, of coming out to my parents not by own choice. So, this movie accurately depicts a lot that I can find in my own past, and this is why it ruined me. Today I was around some elementary school kids (I'm an intern for two weeks), and I just couldn't handle them.

 

Anyway, great movie!!!  :tup: :tup:  :tup:  :grin:

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I Killed My Mother is totally amazing. Xavier Dolan's other work is definitely worth checking out, particularly Mommy and Laurence Anyways.

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I heart Mommy a lot! Still haven't watched the others.

 

Has anyone else started watching Horace & Pete (with Louis CK and Steve Buscemi)? I heard it was already cancelled (only 1 season was made), but the first episode was rather promising, although it has one really annoying "I'm not racist"-racist & "this is how it's been done for 100 years" old guy character.

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