Movie/TV recommendations

[Bjorn]

I didn't realize Miller directed The Witches of Eastwick.  That's fascinating. 

 

I haven't seen Beyond Thunderdome in years, I should rewatch it.  But I know it's a movie the lady is incredibly fond of, mostly because of Tina Turner being a badass and leaving a hell of an impression on an impressionable teen her back in the day.

[Bjorn]

We watched The Nightly Show over our lunch for the first time in months. I had dropped it from our lunch watching rotation out of frustration with repeated lazy jokes that were sexist, transphobic, fat-shaming, etc.  But I've also wanted Wilmore to have success, just to wise up and drop out the punching down humor.

 

So the show opened with a "nerds don't have sex" joke, and then made a point to repeat the exact same joke 10 minutes later.  Not offensive like some of the earlier stuff, but still just so incredibly lazy and had no connection to the topic at hand.  Like, you can't come up with a different fucking joke than that, you have to repeat the opening monologue joke during the discussion?  The topic was about the FDA changing the rules about gay men donating blood, now allowing it but requiring 1 year of abstaining from sex before donating. WTF FDA?.

[Mangela Lansbury]

The topic was about the FDA changing the rules about gay men donating blood, now allowing it but requiring 1 year of abstaining from sex before donating. WTF FDA?.

 

The questionnaire still includes the question "Have you ever been to Africa?" because yes, having ever visited a continent might mean you have HIV and your blood is dangerous. They also include the question, "Have you had sexual contact with anyone who was born or lived in Africa?" because the FDA is fucking gross.

 

I've been watching Star Wars Rebels today.     

[Bjorn]

I, very sadly, haven't donated blood in years.  Once I started working from home, it just wasn't as convenient as when I was at school, or worked somewhere that sponsored blood drives.  I had hoped that things had improved in the last decade. 

[BobbyBesar]

The questionnaire still includes the question "Have you ever been to Africa?" because yes, having ever visited a continent might mean you have HIV and your blood is dangerous. They also include the question, "Have you had sexual contact with anyone who was born or lived in Africa?" because the FDA is fucking gross.

Not sure if it still does, but a similar question used to exist for South East Asia in general as well. I assumed because of malaria, but I guess it could have been HIV.

[tberton]

Canadian Blood Services have a lot of similar questions, although they might be more specific. I'd be really interested to talk to an expert on the subject, because I understand the sentiment behind those questions: if the blood donation supply gets diseased, that's extremely bad and has resulted in huge scandals in the past, so wanting to block off any possibility of that happening makes sense. I'm just not certain those questions are the best way of doing it.

 

Do you still get paid for giving blood in the States? That to me is far more disgusting than any of the questions.

 

EDIT: Here are the questions you get asked when donating blood in Canada. I'm also not certain how many of those are "answer wrong and you can't donate" and how many are "we just need to know this about your blood."

[Mawd]

For gay men in NZ it's something like sixth months for younger people and for older people it's quite a few years.

Anyway the boy and I are basically watching Game of Thrones out of obligation at this point. It's boring or crass most of the time.  It tries so hard to be shocking its just dull. I hope The Others come along and take everyone soon.

Meanwhile we've just started Penny Dreadful season 2 and it's really fun! We both enjoy that it actually takes the time to give specific characters whole episodes rather than juggling five complex plot lines over ten minutes each.
We've just seen the best tv we've seen for months out of one in depth episode.

We've wrapped up the latest Vikings season too. It's better than GoT but we're quietly hoping half the caste dies already with their go nowhere melodrama. At least all the ham in PD amounts to something.

Oh and we're keen for Hannibal to start up in a few weeks.

[Mangela Lansbury]

Canadian Blood Services have a lot of similar questions, although they might be more specific. I'd be really interested to talk to an expert on the subject, because I understand the sentiment behind those questions: if the blood donation supply gets diseased, that's extremely bad and has resulted in huge scandals in the past, so wanting to block off any possibility of that happening makes sense. I'm just not certain those questions are the best way of doing it.

Do you still get paid for giving blood in the States? That to me is far more disgusting than any of the questions.

EDIT: Here are the questions you get asked when donating blood in Canada. I'm also not certain how many of those are "answer wrong and you can't donate" and how many are "we just need to know this about your blood."

There's a flowchart for the FDA guidelines that I looked at. It seems like generally their questions have some qualification, but I'm not sure that "have you ever had sex with someone from Africa, but if they left the continent before 77 you're totally cool" is any better. The problem they have is that you might have an exotic strain of HIV that they can't test for. I have a feeling that's bullshit, but I'm not an immunologist so who knows.

And you can get paid for donating, but only at private blood banks, I think? I know there's a place in town that pays for plasma donations, at least.

[Mawd]

There's a flowchart for the FDA guidelines that I looked at. It seems like generally their questions have some qualification, but I'm not sure that "have you ever had sex with someone from Africa, but if they left the continent before 77 you're totally cool" is any better. The problem they have is that you might have an exotic strain of HIV that they can't test for. I have a feeling that's bullshit, but I'm not an immunologist so who knows.

 

Given that HIV undergoes one of the fastest mutation rates of anything. I find it hard to imagine that a strain would be too exotic given that they're all constantly changing. Not that I'm very learned about HIV. But that mutation rate is one of the things that stuck with me after my cellular biology lectures.

 

But a quick google did say that PCR doesn't pick up all forms of HIV so if that's the main way to test (I have nothing but ignorance here) then I guess that's grounds for someone to make that kind of restriction argument (but I don't want to imply that its the correct argument to make).

[Mangela Lansbury]

Given that HIV undergoes one of the fastest mutation rates of anything. I find it hard to imagine that a strain would be too exotic given that they're all constantly changing. Not that I'm very learned about HIV. But that's one of the things that stuck with me after my cellular biology lectures.

But a quick google did say that PCR doesn't pick up all forms of HIV so if that's the main way to test (I have nothing but ignorance here) then I guess that's grounds for someone to make that kind of restriction argument.

PCR tests for HIV RNA, which is one of the two main tests. The other tests for certain antibodies. PCR is usually for earlier detection -- it's not perfect, but it's pretty dang accurate.

[Patrick R]

My partner is a social worker who specializes in HIV-positive populations, and they pointed me to this article that they said explains it pretty well.

 

They think a lot of this is about hospitals covering their asses and not wanting to be legally responsible on the slim chance that someone gets a blood transfusion with HIV positive blood. Gay men can still donate organs, because organ donation recipients sign waivers before receiving the transplant (and are informed if the person donating was a high risk for HIV). Blood donation, on the other hand, often happens rapidly because of sudden accidents. If someone is in a car wreck the doctors can't wait for their consent to give them blood.

 

My partner actually worked for a study that was trying to educate people on organ donation waiting lists about how slim the chances are to contract HIV just because the donor was a gay man, and how even in the event of contracting HIV it's very manageable compared to kidney or liver failure.

[tberton]

And you can get paid for donating, but only at private blood banks, I think? I know there's a place in town that pays for plasma donations, at least.

 

I find the idea of private blood banks so disturbing. ugh.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I find the idea of private blood banks so disturbing. ugh.

It's a lot more fun if you just assume they're all secretly vampires.

Wait why is this the TV and movies thread?

[Bjorn]

It's a lot more fun if you just assume they're all secretly vampires.

Wait why is this the TV and movies thread?

 

It's all my fault for watching the Nightly Show again. 

[Polish Hill]

Speaking of giving blood, I saw Fury Road on Memorial Day and it was as good as everyone says.

[Roderick]

In a few weeks the Blade Runner Final Cut is hitting cinemas and I couldn't be more excited. I recently rewatched the film and wrote a bit about it on Filmadeus.

 

[osmosisch]

Speaking of giving blood, I saw Fury Road on Memorial Day and it was as good as everyone says.

Just saw it last night. Still reeling. So good.

[dibs]

Saw it yesterday, it was exhausting but I loved it. Two of the lads didn't like it at all though.

[SecretAsianMan]

Anyone else seen Kung Fury yet?

 

[elmuerte]

Awesome

[syntheticgerbil]

Saw the new Mad Max finally. Lot's of great stunts and lots of fun. Theron was great. The kid from Skins did an amazing job with the war boy character, didn't expect there to be another character arc like that at all. Also that robot arm was very convincing.

 

Just one thing, how can someone let such a bad actor be the main character? Like you could get James from Twin Peaks and get the same result. Every other major character in the movie showed Tom Hardy up. Dude just mumbled and made blank stares like he was an idiot 2nd grader trying to solve a math problem. Does everyone just like him because he was Bane and franchise nerd culture is big? Is it just because he's sexy? He did the same thing with Peaky Blinders, everyone was so hyped that he was going to be in Season 2 and he just came in and mumbled a lot and acted vaguely menacing, wasting precious screen time that could be devoted to much better characters played by much better actors and actresses.

[tegan]

He was originally supposed to have no lines, all of his dialogue was dubbed in.

[Gormongous]

Just one thing, how can someone let such a bad actor be the main character? Like you could get James from Twin Peaks and get the same result. Every other major character in the movie showed Tom Hardy up. Dude just mumbled and made blank stares like he was an idiot 2nd grader trying to solve a math problem. Does everyone just like him because he was Bane and franchise nerd culture is big? Is it just because he's sexy? He did the same thing with Peaky Blinders, everyone was so hyped that he was going to be in Season 2 and he just came in and mumbled a lot and acted vaguely menacing, wasting precious screen time that could be devoted to much better characters played by much better actors and actresses.

 

I don't know why other people like Tom Hardy, but I like him because he's put on incredible performances in Bronson and in Locke. Both of those are exhausting, singular roles that Hardy pulled off excellently, so I don't think he's a bad actor by any definition. Maybe you just don't like that kind of character and would doubt the chops of anyone playing it?

[osmosisch]

I really liked Hardy. His stilted speech suggested to me that Max has been solo-roaming the wastelands for so long that he's almost forgotten how to talk. I think his recall of his name at the end is as much for himself as it is for Furiosa.

His physical performance had some lovely moments too, I thought, for example the frenetic filing at his garden fork mask and the stoic washing off of blood.

It's not really a film about him and his amount of screen presence/demands on attention via acting felt just right to me.

[Twig]

I liked Hardy a lot, too, for the reasons osmosich stated. It really worked for me for him to have so few lines and for them all to be rough and stilted because the story was about everyone around him. He just happened to get involved, basically accidentally, and he clearly was out of his element for basically the whole movie - at least in terms of social interactions. There's a slight redemption arc (explicitly stated) for him, but it's not the focus of the movie. I would gladly watch Hardy again in a new Mad Max movie. (Assuming continued excellent quality all around.)

 

I didn't know he was Bane.

 

He is quite attractive, though.