Movie/TV recommendations

[sclpls]

I found the romance in it very bland, I did really like the story of the guy though who's just dedicating his life to something he sees as beautiful even if it can be destructive to the world and even partially destructive to his own life.

 

I think the blandness of it is what sold me. Despite the drama because of her illness, it is all rather mundane isn't it? But that's a pretty regular feature of adult life. Whatever romance exists is going to be personal and idiosyncratic. Viewed from outside, it appears unexceptional, and perhaps monstrous. It ends up mirroring his choice to design warplanes. In both cases without access to his dreamscape all the viewer sees are choices that are exacerbating the sickness of a woman and a nation.

[SuperBiasedMan]

In theory sure, but on screen it was just a generic romance story. They meet and instantly fall in love, circumstances pull them apart and when they eventually get together they're largely happy. They have tragedy, but the romance seems stiffly fake. They just love each other and there's nothing else to their relationship. That doesn't feel like real life blandness to me, just Hollywood blandness.

[Bjorn]

Every time I watch Eyes Wide Shut, I'm baffled by why people seem to hate it as much as they do. It's such a good movie! Kubrick thought it was his best. I might agree.

 

I rewatched it...a year or two ago after having not seen it since it's theatrical release.  On release, I remember not caring for it very much, it easily being my least favorite Kubrick movie.  I liked it more this time around, but I still don't think it's Kubrick at his best.  Cruise's character is, to me, by far the most boring and least interesting character in the movie (full disclosure, I super duper don't like Cruise and this may color my interpretation).  It's what I often think of as a British problem in story telling (Kubrick was American, but it's a style I associate most often with the British), viewing extreme experiences through the eyes of a "normal", as a bland outsider.  I don't think it works as often as it is used.

 

As for why people don't like it, the themes running through it are male insecurity (across professional, personal, financial and sexual fronts), female sexual desire/fantasy and glimpses into a kind of debauchery that seems both fantastical and real at the same time, the kind of debauchery most people know that they could never experience but might want to, a dream that's just far enough out of reach to be aggravating to be informed of it's existence.  Those are all the things I like about it, but not necessarily the themes a lot of Americans want to think about when watching a movie.  It just doesn't quite work for me because I think there's a better and more interesting story waiting to be told in that material (probably Kidman's story, though I'd take the piano player as well). 

[Zeusthecat]

I haven't kept up with this thread well enough to see if there has been discussion on Making a Murderer but man that show has me so bummed out. I have so little faith in our justice system.

[Twig]

I haven't kept up with this thread well enough to see if there has been discussion on Making a Murderer but man that show has me so bummed out. I have so little faith in our justice system.

 

Had a conversation with my physical therapist and she told me about it and compared it to Serial, which piqued my interest. So, worth watching then?

[Gormongous]

Books:

The Son

Shadow Country

The Bully of Order

The Ploughmen

The Day the Cowboys Quit

 

Adding to the list of books, Lonesome Dove is excellent. It takes a while to get going, it's usually only sci-fi/fantasy doorstoppers where the action takes a hundred pages to get started, but it really is a deep and thoughtful paean of the Old West.

 

Also, Blood and Thunder is about the period a little before the "Old West" that we understand took root, but it's a well-written and engrossing study of the clash between an expansionist young nation and an ancient peoples, through the lens of a man caught in between.

[Spenny]

Had a conversation with my physical therapist and she told me about it and compared it to Serial, which piqued my interest. So, worth watching then?

 

I've only seen the first two episodes, so what I'm saying I hope will change, but I have been finding that while its similar in form to Serial, thus far the story in Making a Murderer has been mostly frustrating and not nearly as intriguing as Serial. I think I'll watch more, but so far it is a huge bummer.

[Roderick]

Seeing this film reminded me of the story about how when Ian Banks's original editor died, his books bloated out of control as no one wanted to tell him to cut things from his book.

 

Tarantino needs an editor/producer that can slap every now and then and tell him to cut out the fat.

 

I don't disagree there!

[Mawd]

So I saw The Revenant and holy crap was that good. I think it might be fighting with Fury Road, Brazil, and Once Upon A Time In The West for my favourite movie.

My partner thought it had some pacing issues but I was too absorbed in the slow drawn out shots to notice.

I don't think it's a perfect movie necessarily just one that really grabbed me. I can't wait to see it on a higher resolution though. There were also a bunch of moments when I could plainly see the ripples in the theatre screen which kinda threw me out of the movie magic.

[Jov]

I recommend Anomalisa! Don't watch it on your computer though, it's too pretty. It's also definitely not for everyone. I talked to a coworker who was also a Charlie Kaufman fan, and he was not impressed. For me it's my movie of the year, though - over The Hateful Eight, Star Wars, Ex Machina, and The Revenant. I loved it for the artistry, the novelty, and for how damn real it was.

[Woodfella]

Saw the Hateful 8 today and thought it was mostly quite shit. First half was alright. Flashback was alright too.

I too saw Anolalisa last week and liked it a lot, it looked really nice and it was funny and weird and lovely.

Also The Duke of Burgundy. Really brilliant, one of my favourites of the year. Anyone else seen it?

[namman siggins]

Duke of Burgundy is gorgeous and one of my favorites from '15.

You should check out Hard to be a God

[Woodfella]

You should check out Hard to be a God

I have the Blu ray but haven't got round to it yet, need to set aside an entire morning

[Erkki]

Yeah, Duke of Burgundy was great. Hard to Be a God is one of my favorites after Mad Max, and I also got the Blu-Ray but haven't dared rewatch yet because it probably requires me to be in a certain mindset to enjoy fully.

[namman siggins]

Y'all should check Jauja

 

[Bucket_of_Lizards]

I'm really liking the Expanse on scifi, it took me a bit to warm to some of the actors but the worldbuilding is exquisite and it's nice to see something that ambitious.

[Woodfella]

Theres another Mystery Screening at my local cinema tomorrow night. Normally I don't bother with the clues but I'm pretty sure I'm not going so let's see if we can solve them. It'll be a film that is due to be released in the UK soon.

1. Theres a change to the usual line up here.

2. The man behind it all just about guarantees OSCAR nominations

3. Kick started Riggan's rebirth

4. 6 Oscar nominations and two wins between the headliners

[twmac]

I have no idea what that is but I really want to know what the answer is.

 

 

Otherwise, after recommendations on here, I watched seasons 1 and 2 of The Mindy Project. That first season is gold, then they start jettisoning characters in the second season and focusing on the most boring aspect of the show (Mindy and Danny's dynamic). The quality drop was so disappointing given how good it was in the first. I blame the writers almost entirely but the fact that Mindy Kaling agreed to do some of those episodes astounded me.

 

Season 3 is better.

[Woodfella]

I have no idea what that is but I really want to know what the answer is.

It was The Big Short...

[Patrick R]

Very important top secret thoughts under the spoiler.

 

Wrath of Khan is still a really really good movie.

[twmac]

Sorry Ninety, I am going to make the point that pretty much every time I see some one disagreeing about something in a thread, I can guess it is going to be you.

 

Personally, I like it in most threads. But you have to go back and read old Toblix threads - that is a person who knew how to disagree with everyone in style. That, or look at Norfolk'n'Clue who used to rile me with his dissenting opinions but he also had humour about it.

[BusbyBerkeley]

I started up season 2 of Rectify and I forgot how good that show is. It's really good! Better than a lot of things!

[namman siggins]

New doc from Werner Herzog

 

[Erkki]

Anyone else use letterboxd? I was looking for something that could be "goodreads for movies" and this seemed like the best bet. Besides being really unstable and buggy occasionally, it works great for keeping lists of movies. I now keep track of about 200 movies I want to see, and have recalled 700 movies and marked them already seen. At the start of the year I also started logging all movies when I see them, and also try to give a star rating to each, not meant as absolute so much, more like a tool to help me remember movies I've liked more than others. http://letterboxd.com/T4ffer/films/diary/

[Woodfella]

This is a cool thing. I just made one and followed you (is that what you do? Idk)

.

I've also forgotten the name of every film