Movie/TV recommendations

[Erkki]

Almost forgot to mention Orson Welles' F for Fake (1973). It felt like it might be a masterpiece, but I lacked something to fully appreciate it as such. There is some really clever trickery in this semi-documentary. Part of the reason that I didn't fully understand might have been that the sound quality wasn't ideal, or I just am not used to the way Orson Welles speaks. But I think it actually requires more knowledge about cinema and art than I have so maybe I'll hold off rewatching it for a few years and see if I can appreciate it more later.

[Ben X]

Wasn't BCS A Netflix series? Isn't it on there all the time?

[Nappi]

Apparently not in the USA.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Yeah it wasn't Netflix created but they seem to have gotten the rights to show it first (before TV channels) in Ireland and the UK I guess?

[Ben X]

Ahhh, I see.

[Cordeos]

I watched Beasts of no Nation last night. It was very well done, reminded me of A Long Way Gone. The best part of the movie for me was the first section where the main character is just a kid living in a village not really connected with the war raging in his country. I wish there had been more scenes of him and his family on the run since the confusing and fear of fleeing both sides is something that is happening in Syria right now. His family has no dog in the fight, they just want to survive and escape the conflict. 

[TheLastBaron]

Watched the first episode of Louis CK and Steve Buscemi's new show and man it's so very Louis CK, which I mean in the best possible way.

[Ozzie]

Yeah, I enjoyed it lots, too!

[brkl]

Five bucks an episode is pretty rough.

[Ozzie]

Upcoming episodes will be cheaper: the next one 2$, the ones after that 3.

http://www.avclub.com/article/louis-ck-says-more-horace-and-pete-coming-saturday-231762

[Woodfella]

Saw Spotlight the other day and all I can say is that it is alright. Well acted, but have no strong feelings about it at all. Yeah, it's absolutely baffling that this happened but the most powerful moment of the film is the credits when the list of places where abuses have been exposed comes up.

Also laughed out loud at the montage of them scanning old documents using rulers to keep their place, much to the annoyance of my companion.

[ariskany_evan]

Watched It Felt Like Love on Mubi two nights ago. A super potent coming-of-age story set in Coney Island area of Brooklyn. Captures a liminal moment really well. Doesn't deal in the aftermath, thankfully, which leaves it open to the feelings they're trying to convey. You finish the film feeling like she can move in so many directions; it could have been a summer for tough growth, but it also may have been the beginning of a downward descent.

I'm pretty sure Mubi's selection is region-specific, so if you're in the US I highly recommend!

 

https://mubi.com/films/it-felt-like-love

[brkl]

Upcoming episodes will be cheaper: the next one 2$, the ones after that 3.

http://www.avclub.com/article/louis-ck-says-more-horace-and-pete-coming-saturday-231762

Yup, I bought it when I got the email!

[Erkki]

I'm pretty sure Mubi's selection is region-specific, so if you're in the US I highly recommend!

https://mubi.com/films/it-felt-like-love

Seems so, it says "not currently showin" for me

[feelthedarkness]

I really liked Hail, Caesar, and feel like it's one of those movies that will grow with some rewatching. I got the feeling there was an effective meta-narrative I wasn't picking up on, based on the narrator. That Channing Tatum is talented. 

[eot]

I finally watched Fury Road and didn't quite get what all the fuss was about. I rarely watch action movies nowadays though so I suppose I don't have much to compare it to.

[Woodfella]

Continuing my Coen brothers journey. Have these cunts made a bad film or what, Jesus.

Watched Intolerable Cruelty last night and although it's definitely low on the list it was no where near as bad as I'd been lead to believe.

[feelthedarkness]

Yeah, they're on a Hitchcockian run (including some mild, but still worthwhile boners). If there aren't already I assume there will be film school classes on their work? 

[gormanate]

I finally watched Season 1 of Friday Night Lights and man, what a great show. 

I could nitpick some parts of it, and personally didn't really care about Jason and Lyla's relationship very much, but it's shockingly refreshing to see a show so full of love and compassion for its characters. 

This show also made me realize how rare it is to see a mature, committed marriage between two people who deeply love one another. I'm really struck by it and I can't wait to keep watching more, (though everyone keeps prepping me for how bad Season 2 is)

[TheLastBaron]

I thought Hail Caesar was really bad, not as bad as Ladykillers, but down there, and for the same reasons. Clooney was delightful as always, however.

[Woodfella]

Continuing my Coen brothers journey. Have these cunts made a bad film or what, Jesus. .

I thought Hail Caesar was really bad.

Oh.

[TheLastBaron]

I mean if you enjoy them doing their straight up comedy movies (like Ladykillers) then you'll probably (maybe) like this one, but those just never seem to work for me as much as I do love the Coen brothers.

I also just felt that the movie was pretty incoherent, like there were a lot of separate scenes that never came together to form a movie.

[Patrick R]

It's been four films in a row now the Coens lack an organizing principle to sort all their ideas into a coherent whole. I think maybe they're done making truly great films. Though obviously I'm in the minority on this forum, where ILD and ASM are widely regarded as two of their best.

 

Hail, Caesar! has plenty of surface-level pleasures, but it's a real mess. It tries to say something about the deification of Hollywood mediocrity (and only three weeks before the Academy Awards, hmmmm) but I think it stumbles pretty hard.

[Gormongous]

It's been four films in a row now the Coens lack an organizing principle to sort all their ideas into a coherent whole. I think maybe they're done making truly great films. Though obviously I'm in the minority on this forum, where ILD and ASM are widely regarded as two of their best.

I would actually say that what the Coen Brothers have done is move beyond "genre X in setting Y" subversions that have made their movies such pleasant surprises. No more "hard-boiled crime film in the frozen North," no more "Chandler-type mystery with a deadbeat LA pothead as lead," no more "screwball musical comedy in the Depression-era South." For better or for worse, they're playing stuff more straight these days, and I mostly see it as a good thing? It certainly makes them a bit less digestible, sure.

I haven't seen Hail, Caesar though and I'm not terribly optimistic. Outside of Birdman, which is more about the semi-legitimate madness of celebrity anyway, I don't tend to enjoy movies where the film industry talks about itself.

[Patrick R]

I would actually say that what the Coen Brothers have done is move beyond "genre X in setting Y" subversions that have made their movies such pleasant surprises. No more "hard-boiled crime film in the frozen North," no more "Chandler-type mystery with a deadbeat LA pothead as lead," no more "screwball musical comedy in the Depression-era South." For better or for worse, they're playing stuff more straight these days, and I mostly see it as a good thing? It certainly makes them a bit less digestible, sure.

a) I think this is very reductive and doesn't really get to the heart of what the Coens do.

 

sunglasses) I don't agree they're playing stuff more straight these days, especially with A Serious Man and Hail, Caesar! I think the last time they really just played it straight was True Grit. And before that, Intolerable Cruelty? Possibly No Country For Old Men, if you count a faithful adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel playing it straight, when that novel wasn't playing it straight in the first place.