Movie/TV recommendations

[Roderick]

Thailand has a thing against Steve McQueen and women and/or people of color?

[twmac]

Just now, Roderick said:

Thailand has a thing against Steve McQueen and women and/or people of color?

 

Women led films outside of Korean, kid and/or mega blockbuster films aren't seen as appealing here. Same goes for films with black leads, with the exception obviously being Black Panther. Widows is both of those things.

 

[Roderick]

Well, that's Thailand's loss then. Widows is outstanding.

[Erkki]

The PÖFF festival is over and I can go back to normal life (of watching only one movie per day on average). The last movie I saw was also one of the strongest, The Tap Box, about a Vietnamese thug, who is also into the arts and is torn between having normal human feelings and wanting to do his job well. It features some great (to me) theater performances in costume.

 

[edit] the original title is Song Lang.

[Erkki]

Suspiria is great! It's really strange to think about the fact that the director's previous film was Call Me by Your Name, though. They are of so different genres. I think I miss some of the symbolism in Suspiria, but I think it does a really really good job of being both a good remake and a good film in its own right. Thankfully I have a really shitty memory so I don't even remember how precisiely it matches the oiriginal. But I think at least the ending is quite different. And maybe a bit over the top... or well... a lot over the top. The top is blown away by it... Not just the top.

[Ben X]

Managed to see Sorry To Bother You at the local indie cinema and was quite disappointed. It's a load of moderately interesting ideas thrown at a tired cliche of a plot, and it doesn't get going for at least the first hour - this really could have done with at least twenty minutes trimming off. As others have noted, it has touches of Idiocracy, Kaufman and Gondry about it, but the thing I was reminded most of was Gremlins 2 - that's the level of satirical sophistication it was playing at. Not necessarily a bad thing, but here the story drags too much to make up for it.

[BigJKO]

I've started watching The Tick and am really enjoying it. It's very different from any superhero show out there and although it sometimes goes a bit too broad, comedy-wise, most of the time it's a whole lot of fun especially Serafinowicz as the always-earnest Tick.

[jennegatron]

I watched Minding the Gap last night. It is a documentary about 4 young men who became friends through skateboarding and is a movie all about cycles of abuse & poverty in the dying city of Rockford Illinois. I love my home state and have been to Rockford many times for school events in high school. I saw so much of people I knew in this film. It's on hulu and I can't stop thinking about it. I highly recommend it for a look into what it's like living in a rust belt style city in the US as a young person.

[TychoCelchuuu]

On 12/13/2018 at 7:16 PM, BigJKO said:

I've started watching The Tick and am really enjoying it. It's very different from any superhero show out there and although it sometimes goes a bit too broad, comedy-wise, most of the time it's a whole lot of fun especially Serafinowicz as the always-earnest Tick.

I quite like The Tick too. I love Serafinowciz and it's cool because the guy who plays Arthur is one of the co-hosts of a podcast I love so I've been a fan of his for a long time. I think the second season is coming relatively soon so that's cool.

[twmac]

I watched Hearts Beat Loud and it is this sweet little story about a father (played with uncharacteristic softness by Nick Offerman) and daughter recording some songs together while dealing with their lives. It is almost a musical with the amount of songs that are played throughout but what I like about it is the way the film is into giving the audience an idea of how a song is manufactured and what some of the process is behind putting tracks together. There is nothing brilliant about it, it is just well placed as a generally kind and warm film - that also isn't too tacky. I would strongly recommend it in place of a cheesy Christmas film.

[BigJKO]

On 12/16/2018 at 5:14 PM, TychoCelchuuu said:

I quite like The Tick too. I love Serafinowciz and it's cool because the guy who plays Arthur is one of the co-hosts of a podcast I love so I've been a fan of his for a long time. I think the second season is coming relatively soon so that's cool.

 

Yes! Blank Check's Griffin Newman! It was very weird to finally watch him in something, because I'd gotten so used to listening to him on the podcast. But he's really good as Arthur/Mothman!

 

Really looking forward to Season 2.

[jennegatron]

11 hours ago, twmac said:

I watched Hearts Beat Loud and it is this sweet little story about a father (played with uncharacteristic softness by Nick Offerman) and daughter recording some songs together while dealing with their lives. It is almost a musical with the amount of songs that are played throughout but what I like about it is the way the film is into giving the audience an idea of how a song is manufactured and what some of the process is behind putting tracks together. There is nothing brilliant about it, it is just well placed as a generally kind and warm film - that also isn't too tacky. I would strongly recommend it in place of a cheesy Christmas film.

 

I forgot about this movie, but after hearing this my interest is definitely re-piqued! 

[twmac]

Yeah - it is good and just what I needed this week.

[Erkki]

Has anyone seen the new series "You" on Netflix? I just binged thru it, but I'm not sure what I think of it.

 

On one hand it was able to pull my interest enough to make me watch through the season. It was kind of well written in the sense that everything had a purpose and was connected somehow.

 

But on the other hand, the show kind of takes the side of the creepy

psychopath on-the-verge-of-serial killer and then often asks us to see his point of view... I know there are other shows that have done that (e.g. Dexter), and I've never gotten into them. And this time also I felt like I was watching more to see the puzzle unravel rather than for enjoyment of the show. At times it also seemed a bit faux-feminist, or at least that's the impression I got whenever some canned feminist / anti-bigotry phrases were spoken.

[Roderick]

Welcome to Marwen seemed like it could be an interesting movie,

 

and though it's definitely 'weird', with all the CGI puppets, the film veers way too much into facile sentiment near the end to be effective. The juxtaposition of the idealized CGI puppet world and the real world where Mark has to deal with reality could've made for interesting stuff. There's one scene where his imagined proposal to his neighbor goes horribly wrong, which is also the best scene in the film for that reason. However, after that it feels the real world story becomes just as cartoony as the puppet world, and the two mesh together in a boring way.

Also, it's at that point the film loses confidence in the viewer and starts over-explaining what's happening, again to its detriment. Particular low points were the puppet sequence where Mark points out that the Belgian witch is a symbol of his addiction (YEAH, NO, DUH), and the courtroom scene where the nazi convicts who beat him up are apparently crying over his passionate speech at the end. Which is just completely unlikely, for one, and doesn't ring true either because the speech is by no means that powerful, so as an audience it did little for me.

I'm reminded of Suckerpunch (never a good thing). That film too asked us to become engaged with CGI scenes that we knew were in-film fantasies. It never works on that level, because there are literally no stakes. Whatever danger the characters or puppets are in, within the film itself they are imaginary or symbolic, so who cares who gets shots or stabbed or whatever'ed?

 

[SecretAsianMan]

I watched a bunch of movies recently on a trip to/from China.

 

Deadpool 2 - more of the same but less so. I liked the first one but this just felt meh

 

Venom - not bad for a B-movie, very bad for an actual blockbuster

 

Ocean's 8 - I liked 11, 12, and 13 (well parts of 12) but wasn't into this.  The all lady cast was fine but the story lacked any of the pizazz and charm

 

Ant-Man and the Wasp - As someone who thought that Ant-Man was just ok, this didn't seem any better

 

Ready Player One - oh god this was dumb.  Lots of nerd candy in the visuals and references but almost no real characters or story to speak of.

[Roderick]

Solid opinions all around, SAM.

[Ben X]

Yep, agreed.

 

Sad to see a non-perf-cap Zemeckis movie get such poor reviews...

[SecretAsianMan]

I forgot that I also watched Mission Impossible Fallout.  I don't get why people liked this movie so much.  I think it was ok, but it's the same movie that the last 2 have been with some slightly different characters.  Those weren't bad movies either (I actually liked 4) but at this point I can barely tell them apart.

[Roderick]

I have to take back what I said just now, SAM!

[Merus]

Actually you know what, SAM is onto something there. I too feel like 4 was the best one and that now the series is built around Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg, they're competent but kind of generic. That Indy plot in Ghost Protocol was extremely good and I'm genuinely annoyed they didn't stick with that. Of course the plans fall apart at the last minute! That's what makes the Missions so Impossible! Aaargh

[Roderick]

What makes the Mission so Impossible is that in every single movie, Hunt gets disowned, and it keeps happening, and it will keep happening.

[SecretAsianMan]

1 hour ago, Roderick said:

What makes the Mission so Impossible is that in every single movie, Hunt gets disowned, and it keeps happening, and it will keep happening.

 

And then solves it with an elaborate unnecessary stunt and some kind of cosplay.

[SecretAsianMan]

Another movie I just remembered I watched, The Incredibles 2.  It was pretty good, though I like the first one more.  There's a lot of lingering plot details that either never get resolved or fleshed out enough to feel relevant but I read that this was due to the release dates of it and Toy Story 4 being swapped.

[twmac]

On 08/01/2019 at 4:32 PM, Roderick said:

Welcome to Marwen seemed like it could be an interesting movie,

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and though it's definitely 'weird', with all the CGI puppets, the film veers way too much into facile sentiment near the end to be effective. The juxtaposition of the idealized CGI puppet world and the real world where Mark has to deal with reality could've made for interesting stuff. There's one scene where his imagined proposal to his neighbor goes horribly wrong, which is also the best scene in the film for that reason. However, after that it feels the real world story becomes just as cartoony as the puppet world, and the two mesh together in a boring way.

Also, it's at that point the film loses confidence in the viewer and starts over-explaining what's happening, again to its detriment. Particular low points were the puppet sequence where Mark points out that the Belgian witch is a symbol of his addiction (YEAH, NO, DUH), and the courtroom scene where the nazi convicts who beat him up are apparently crying over his passionate speech at the end. Which is just completely unlikely, for one, and doesn't ring true either because the speech is by no means that powerful, so as an audience it did little for me.

I'm reminded of Suckerpunch (never a good thing). That film too asked us to become engaged with CGI scenes that we knew were in-film fantasies. It never works on that level, because there are literally no stakes. Whatever danger the characters or puppets are in, within the film itself they are imaginary or symbolic, so who cares who gets shots or stabbed or whatever'ed?

 

 

Watch the documentary instead - it is a way better story.