ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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It seems Olive Kitteridge hasn't been mentioned here. I just watched it and I think it's pretty great. It deals with relationships similar to how Bergman did it, but with more production values I would say, or at least more varied scenery. And perhaps less dialogue, more in a kind of "show don't tell" way. Bergman would just have the people stuck in a house talking or something, but here we see the characters actually moving between different parts of their lives, and we see a span of 25 years of their lives (great make-up BTW!).

 

To me the first half was stronger and the ending was really good again, but some parts of episode 3 and 4 were kind of losing me. Don't look at the spoiler if you intend to see it, but haven't yet.

 

Bill Murray at the moment is kind of like a half-mythical being - he is reclusive and chooses to appear here and there. I knew he was in this in some capacity, but after his initial appearance I was disappointed that it was just a cameo. And then when he appears again before the end it felt to me like a huge immersion-breaking event, and that immersion-breaking seemed intentional. It's like it took the story from one reality to another, closer to the real world. I'm not saying as if he does some kind of miraculous acting there, just that his presense is kind of a reality-distortion, because of his status. Anyway, after Murray was re-introduced, I think the ending tied together things nicely, and a little immersion-shattering helped it connect back to the real world for me, or something (sorry, not able to express what I mean very well).

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Just saw 3-D Rarities (2015) - an amazing look at early 3D films, starting from 1922! I didn't know it went back that far, but I guess the basic technology is not neccessarily that high tech - just put two cameras/lenses at close distance like the human eyes and synchronize them.

 

I really like some of the early stuff up to the psychedelic short animations from the 50s. After this it's a new era of "Hollywood discovers 3D" and the content becomes gimmicky and sexist. It's as if they didn't even understand the medium (which I now think is way more demanding than 2D films), but somewhy wanted to spend money on it. All they saw was the gimmick and they made sure to reference it verbally a lot. I'm not sure today's 3D movies fare any better. I guess nowadays they are at least better at making sure people don't feel sick from the disparities, but 3D movies are still just 3D versions of 2D movies, but IMHO this is the wrong way to approach the medium.

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The Square (2017), Cannes Palme d'Or winner, is quite something. There are some very powerful scenes in it, but I'm not quite sure it's the kind of powerful I like. And I didn't understand the point fully - maybe needs some digestion or a more educated viewer.

 

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On 03/09/2017 at 12:38 PM, feelthedarkness said:

Hey all, help! End of the month is my annual 24 hour nerd-a-thon some friends and i have been throwing for 25 years, and I need movie recommendations.

 

Preferred parameters:

Newish (or newly found/released (Samurai Cop was a fun hit when it was resurrected))

Remarkable/Unusual/Terrible/Disturbing/Weird! Ultra violence is A-Ok, salacious torture and/or sexual violence is not! 

Ideally not streaming on common services (but this is an older rule and obviously getting harder to abide)

 

Previous hits: Hard to Be a God, Upstream Color, Turkish Star Wars, Neil Breen's Double Down, Hard Ticket to Hawii, The Visitor, The Raid

 

I've slacked a bit this year, so far I only have Neil Breen's latest: Pass-Thru


 

 

 

 

I think I'm still helpful: a friend of mine specialises in questionable film marathons, and the most recent one of these he put on had Zardoz, Antiviral, and R100. I don't know if I could in good conscience recommend anyone watch R100, even though it ends with an army of dominatrixes slowly advancing on a house, but Zardoz is hilariously bad and Antiviral was actually kind of interesting.

 

All my friends are still scarred by Man-Borg, so there's something that will be memorable, if not necessarily good. (I couldn't make that weekend, and it sounds like I dodged a bullet.)

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If you have ever been sucked into a true crime series like The Jinx or Making A Murderer, then the new Netflix comedy series American Vandal is definitely worth watching. Simultaneously a really sharp parody of the true crime genre, true crime culture, and high school culture and it passes the mockumentary sniff test of "Do I believe what I'm watching is a real artifact from the world it's depicting?" with flying colors. Very smart low-brow humor with some really good performances.

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I can recommend not watching Kingsman: The Golden Circle. As a fan of the original I was hoping the sequel could capture the same magic and the answer is hell no. It's boring and unfunny and it has none of the interesting stuff from the first movie. I can however recommend Beasts of No Nation which is gorgeous and harrowing and chock full of tremendous performances.

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So I finished the last 3 episodes of American Vandal and it's the best show I've seen in a while. The arc from parody to sincerity is really strong. Figures the first great teen movie of a generation would end up being a Netflix mockumentary/found footage TV series. It's everything 13 Reasons could never be.

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I thought Kingsman 2 was fine. Not as pitch perfect as the first one, mind. I was very happy with some of the spy cliché deconstruction and a certain foul-mouthed rock legend.

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I agree with both Roderick and Tycho on Kingsman 2, somehow. It was fine and had some good moments in it, but mostly an overlong re-run of the first one but lacking its impetus.

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6 hours ago, Patrick R said:

So I finished the last 3 episodes of American Vandal and it's the best show I've seen in a while. The arc from parody to sincerity is really strong. Figures the first great teen movie of a generation would end up being a Netflix mockumentary/found footage TV series. It's everything 13 Reasons could never be.

 

Yup, agree wholeheartedly, I was getting really uncomfortable with how every investigation arc seemed to expose or ruin a girl in this show, and then the show started to address it. The final episode tosses comedy straight out the window and gets really fucking dark.

 

Like all good comedies that parodying certain genres, the show cleverly makes you interested in what is going to happen next instead of just going for jokes. Also, at key points it knows when to have some one go 'hang on, are you serious about this?'.

 

Loved it and devoured the whole thing in a couple of days

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I just watched the trailer for Annihilation and I mostly enjoyed it? I wish Portman had a crew cut. Some of the imagery is exactly what I expected and some of it's absolutely not? I wish there were less rainbows, but otherwise I can deal with it. I want to be deeply, deeply distressed by the experience of watching this movie. I know that's a big ask for Hollywood, but if anything can do it it's Alex Garland and Annihilation.

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I watched The Usual Suspects for the first time in over five years. What a great movie. I obviously knew the twist but seeing how the film played out was still great. What a masterful ending.

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I'm not sure whether it's been brought up in this thread before, but I just watched the Big Sick and absolutely loved it. It's the semi-fictionalised story of stand up comedian/actor Kumail Nanjiani meeting his now wife. It's really funny without making the dramatic plot unbelievable - which I suppose might be helped by most of it having actually happened. Just very well written and performed, and genuinely enjoyable to watch.

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American Vandal was indeed good. I watched the entire thing in a couple of evenings... at some point I thought, hey, they could have made it as a 2 hour movie, but then maybe it wouldn't have worked as well because the series format was kind of natural since it covered a long time period.

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7 hours ago, Gwardinen said:

I'm not sure whether it's been brought up in this thread before, but I just watched the Big Sick and absolutely loved it. It's the semi-fictionalised story of stand up comedian/actor Kumail Nanjiani meeting his now wife. It's really funny without making the dramatic plot unbelievable - which I suppose might be helped by most of it having actually happened. Just very well written and performed, and genuinely enjoyable to watch.

 

i really liked this too! i was shockingly surprised at how much i came out of that movie adoring Ray Romano.

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On 9/24/2017 at 6:14 AM, Merus said:

 

I think I'm still helpful: a friend of mine specialises in questionable film marathons, and the most recent one of these he put on had Zardoz, Antiviral, and R100. I don't know if I could in good conscience recommend anyone watch R100, even though it ends with an army of dominatrixes slowly advancing on a house, but Zardoz is hilariously bad and Antiviral was actually kind of interesting.

 

All my friends are still scarred by Man-Borg, so there's something that will be memorable, if not necessarily good. (I couldn't make that weekend, and it sounds like I dodged a bullet.)

 

Oh man, thanks! I wish I had picked up R100 in time. That looks right on too. 

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Oh man, we just finished American Vandal, and it is exceptionally good. Funny, tragic, and impeccably built and acted. I love the way it turns in on itself.

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I’ll give a +1 to American Vandal too. I tried it based on recommendations here without having high hopes for it myself, and was glad to be proven wrong. It’s surprisingly compelling. 

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Glad so many people are enjoying the show.

 

It is amazing that they managed to take a premise that should have been centered around Dick-jokes and make something so much more.

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On 1/11/2013 at 10:51 AM, Max Ernst said:

Ayo, I just exhausted Goddard's filmography. Who should I jump to next?

Sorry for resurrecting (I found it when searching for Kusturica), but holy crap, how'd you do that? I just checked Letterboxd and Godard made over a 100 movies. Or you meant you saw the main ones and found it exhausted for you? I personally still have to see Histoire(s) du Cinema, but I'm not sure if I want to see anything else because the only one I've liked so far is Le Mepris (Contempt).

 

On a totally unrelated note, there's an Emir Kusturica week going on in my favourite cinema and I just saw my first Kusturica movie: Time of the Gypsies. It was kind of interesting in a way, but also not. I'm not sure whether I want to keep on seeing the other movies. Anyone recommend anything particular from Kusturica? The other movies are:

When Father Was Away on Business (1985)

Arizona Dream (1993)

Underground (1995)

Black Cat, White Cat (1998)

Life is a Miracle (2004)

Maradona by Kusturica (2008)

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I have been telling a lot of people to watch American Vandal based on my enjoyment of it, and backing it up with the commentary and meaning expressed in this thread.

 

On 10/10/2017 at 12:00 PM, Patrick R said:

Especially considering most the stuff the creators had done before were College Humor shorts.

 

You're throwing a lot of shade at a group of writers who have been producing good sketch comedy for the last 15 years.

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I've personally not seen many College Humor videos that did much for me but, regardless, I'm not throwing shade at anyone. If American Vandal only aspired to the level of sketch comedy, even good sketch comedy, it wouldn't be nearly as good as it is. The first episode feels like good sketch comedy, a single good premise (high school bullshit in the structure of Making A Murderer) exploited to it's full potential. It's every subsequent episode that further opens up what American Vandal can be, tonally and structurally, that makes it so remarkable. 

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Yeah, I didn't read it as shade, so much as usually when comedy writers attempt to stretch a sketch idea into a longer running time, they tend to feel sparse. American Vandal goes somewhere else, the show addresses its own bullshit and the jokes dissipate into really interesting social commentary.

 

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