ronntaylor
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Finally watched "Knives Out." Enjoyed it, but a bit of a letdown given all the buzz from friends.
What Movie Are You Watching?
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Every office should look like that!
Thomas Veil
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True story:
In my younger days I had a number of movie posters. I hung one frame in my office and would periodically rotate the movie poster that was in it.
One day I got stopped in the hall and was told that somebody had asked if I was a Satanist.
Uh...what??
It was explained to me that another staff member had gone past my open office door and seen this:
In my younger days I had a number of movie posters. I hung one frame in my office and would periodically rotate the movie poster that was in it.
One day I got stopped in the hall and was told that somebody had asked if I was a Satanist.
Uh...what??
It was explained to me that another staff member had gone past my open office door and seen this:
lizkat
Watching March roll out real winter
Mrs. Veil and I saw that the other night. It certainly is a movie "of another time". I somehow can't see something like it being made today. (Or if it was, it would have Transformers or super villains in it.)
I'll be interested to see what you thought of it. With appropriate spoilers, of course.
"All the President's Men" is a personal favorite. I must've seen it four or five times already.
"Dammit! When is somebody going to go on the record with this thing??"
I let Dirty Dancing slide away unstreamed... somewhere I have an iTunes download so no loss there. All the President's Men, ditto.
But I did watch Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And I"m one of those who thinks that film is a right-on-money classic exposé of so many down-home truths, not least of course the old saw about in vino veritas. What gets said while drunk is occasionally skimpy on facts, but heavy on feelings erstwhile repressed for assorted practical reasons.
Yes, this kind of film could probably not get made by a major studio these days, and yes, it was a milestone back then, partly because it set new benchmarks on how vulgar the language (and suggestions) in a Hollywood film could go and still not be banned by not only the Vatican but the execs of the very studio making the film. After all, there's a scene early on where Taylor insouciantly "goddamns" Warner Bros. by name, and that studio was in fact the maker of the film.
The appeal of the film to me was in the layering of feelings, the overlap of past and present, the sticking of the viewer right into the middle of the fights between members of two couples and amongst the four of them... as they wrestle with who they believe they are, or might have been, except for whatever and whomever each blames for what seems to have gone wrong in life or may yet go wrong as time goes on.
We're not just watching drunks spar with each other, we're caught up by the close camerawork and dialogue, hauled into their malice and confusion, their attempts to remain civilized --to remember social, academic, parental obligations, the mission... their grip on "why we are even here at this hour?!" fading away into enraged attempts to wound mortally or to defend spouse or self, host or guest, at any cost to anyone.
It's no surprise to me that Taylor and Dennis won their respective Oscars, only infuriating that Burton didn't also win for the performance of a lifetime. At least the Academy afforded him a nomination.
As for Segal, also nominated for an Oscar, he was pitch perfect in a migration to world-weary, error-ridden and finally exasperated war games combatant, from his initial uncertainty as to his place and position. All that was made clear by the fact that his character, Nick, is never even addressed by name in the whole film, not even by his wife, Honey, who only calls him Dear, and by the film's extensive play on George and Martha's confusion over whether Nick teaches in the biology or mathematics department, or later on as George's insecurities emerge, the history department.
And yet it is Nick who --for assorted reasons he portrays very well-- becomes either the reflecting point or the black hole of Honey's pain or George and Martha's rage as the film reels on through their escalating hostilities.
Still it's true that one can come away from the film wondering how the hell one managed to spend two hours in a set of endless booze-fueled battles that seemed variously to compress years into seconds but also to crawl. We can be drawn into it as if in real time, often enough wondering why Honey and Nick don't just LEAVE, or why we don't beat them to the door.
I even found myself wondering during one rewatch of this film why the neighbors across the way didn't call the police, when the camera had panned across the property to show the signal light on George and Martha's car still blinking after it had been parked more or less in the driveway, and I noticed there was a view of another house not far away. But then these were all civilized people, no? Faculty members, likely living along faculty row... minding their own business at two a.m., or else lying awake at home staring at the ceiling and sharpening swords for their own next battles with peers or administrators at the university.
That scene with the car's turn signal blinking was one of those that departed the staging of Albee's play, which was set inside the house, but aside from a few of such excursions converted from related memories in the play, the film was very faithful to Albee in terms of the dialogue and interactions, the layers of veneer peeling off as the revelations of character emerge. I think that's what made the film a classic, no matter (or maybe because of) how claustrophobic it is for the characters and viewers as well.
We don't have to suspend disbelief in this movie, we can be drawn into it, as if a hapless guest like Honey or Nick. We can become another someone who just didn't say "no" soon enough at some other party, earlier, when Martha, seemingly blithely but in fact by design and without George's knowledge, said "Why not stop by our place after?" And once there, maybe we too can't figure out how to leave before dawn.
Thomas Veil
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The reason I was thinking of, why the film could not be made today, is that there would be little audience for it. Watching George and Martha argue, with dialogue that is (believe it or not) even more petty and puerile than what we hear from politicians, is, as you alluded to, hard to take. I sat through four hours of "Zack Snyder's Justice League" and was enthralled, yet a half hour into this two hour+ movie, I was starting to cringe. I wasn't even at the halfway point when I wanted out. Forcing yourself to listen to this couple bicker with each other and bully their guests for two hours is a little bit like pulling the wings off flies.
Once George started talking about games, it became clear (at least to me) that this hatred these two have for each other is so deep-seated, and they are so resigned to it (God only knows why) that that's what their relationship has become. If they can't bring themselves to leave each other, then they seem to find some kind of perverted solace in turning their marriage into a game of who can hurt the other the most, who can project their vices on the other the most, and even who can corrupt some nice young guests. They're no longer bickering because they annoy the shit out of each other; they're bickering now because they get some sort of sick entertainment out of it.
Which frankly is still tiresome to watch until the denouement, when you find out about their son.
It's clear a battery of marriage counselors couldn't help these two, and probably not even a battery of psychiatrists. This movie is ripe for discussions like this one, especially scenes like the ending where after all that's said and done there is, unbelievably, a hint, just a hint, of caring between them.
And then you have to wonder how Nick and Honey's relationship has changed.
Yeah, lots to unpack.
On a lighter note, I walked in just as the credits were ending, so I didn't see the cast names. George Segal was so young that I said to my wife, "This guy reminds me a lot of George Segal." He had pretty much the same voice, the same mannerisms, but he was so young (and so sandy blond) that it took me a while of looking at him to realize it was George Segal. In my mind I guess he hadn't yet grown into the face that I was familiar with.
(I had the same problem with Jack Nicholson in "The Raven". All the elements were there, but he was so young that he looked like an unpolished, not fully developed version of his later self, for lack of better words.)
Once George started talking about games, it became clear (at least to me) that this hatred these two have for each other is so deep-seated, and they are so resigned to it (God only knows why) that that's what their relationship has become. If they can't bring themselves to leave each other, then they seem to find some kind of perverted solace in turning their marriage into a game of who can hurt the other the most, who can project their vices on the other the most, and even who can corrupt some nice young guests. They're no longer bickering because they annoy the shit out of each other; they're bickering now because they get some sort of sick entertainment out of it.
Which frankly is still tiresome to watch until the denouement, when you find out about their son.
It's clear a battery of marriage counselors couldn't help these two, and probably not even a battery of psychiatrists. This movie is ripe for discussions like this one, especially scenes like the ending where after all that's said and done there is, unbelievably, a hint, just a hint, of caring between them.
And then you have to wonder how Nick and Honey's relationship has changed.
Yeah, lots to unpack.
On a lighter note, I walked in just as the credits were ending, so I didn't see the cast names. George Segal was so young that I said to my wife, "This guy reminds me a lot of George Segal." He had pretty much the same voice, the same mannerisms, but he was so young (and so sandy blond) that it took me a while of looking at him to realize it was George Segal. In my mind I guess he hadn't yet grown into the face that I was familiar with.
(I had the same problem with Jack Nicholson in "The Raven". All the elements were there, but he was so young that he looked like an unpolished, not fully developed version of his later self, for lack of better words.)
Thomas Veil
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Watching Daniel Craig play a role totally different from James Bond was a hoot.
He was wonderful in that.
The Saint (1997)- There is a vibe about this movie that I love. Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue are great.
lizkat
Watching March roll out real winter
Oh I think I would like that one, I'm going to scout it up... Imdb says it streams via Showtime, i might have to rent it somewhere instead.
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tranceking26
Power User
Has anybody seen the Sonic The Hedgehog movie? Any good?
I'm considering renting it, as it ain't on Netflix here.
I'm considering renting it, as it ain't on Netflix here.
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Watched the documentary Our Towns on HBO Max. Highly recommended. They go to different towns in the US and talk about their historical and current struggles. I don't know if it's 50/50 but they are in both blue and red states, but also they have a policy of not talking about national politics. Several towns they focused on racism and diversity, but in a positive way, acknowledgment or a racist past or diversity in a town you wouldn't expect it.
It also made me appreciate small towns more, not saying I didn't before. I've lived in the same city my entire life, over a million in population currently. In a small town you can resurrect an abandoned building or block and it makes a noticeable difference. When they do that here it's just made high end in an already high end city and it has no real impact beyond possibly being the new spot of the month.
Overall watching it made me feel better about things in this country and the big take away is try to focus on things locally where you can make a difference and experience it. Putting all your attention nationally is just a cancer that drags you down.
It also made me appreciate small towns more, not saying I didn't before. I've lived in the same city my entire life, over a million in population currently. In a small town you can resurrect an abandoned building or block and it makes a noticeable difference. When they do that here it's just made high end in an already high end city and it has no real impact beyond possibly being the new spot of the month.
Overall watching it made me feel better about things in this country and the big take away is try to focus on things locally where you can make a difference and experience it. Putting all your attention nationally is just a cancer that drags you down.
lizkat
Watching March roll out real winter
I want to watch that thing too, thanks for the mention of it, gonna bump it up in the queue.
Just read a piece in Five Thirty Eight that was talking about decline in local news coverage, but on a positive note had mentioned an interesting experiment that one newspaper out west in the USA undertook: no mention of national politics on the editorial page for a month. The effect was startling, apparently: much much more focus on local issues among the readership, leading to more local news coverage and more attention to civic affairs out in the community.
Local News Coverage Is Declining — And That Could Be Bad For American Politics
The laws of supply and demand aren’t working for local news. The local news business was devastated by COVID-19, even though consumers wanted more of its produc…
fivethirtyeight.com
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I want to watch that thing too, thanks for the mention of it, gonna bump it up in the queue.
Just read a piece in Five Thirty Eight that was talking about decline in local news coverage, but on a positive note had mentioned an interesting experiment that one newspaper out west in the USA undertook: no mention of national politics on the editorial page for a month. The effect was startling, apparently: much much more focus on local issues among the readership, leading to more local news coverage and more attention to civic affairs out in the community.
Local News Coverage Is Declining — And That Could Be Bad For American Politics
The laws of supply and demand aren’t working for local news. The local news business was devastated by COVID-19, even though consumers wanted more of its produc…
In one of the towns showcased they focused on the local newspapers and they said they try to stay out of national politics. I think there have been several studies that determined if you remove the major parties from being for or against certain issues the average citizens agree on more things than we don't. Although not part of those studies, I think it's fairly apparent that a lot of those shared views are left leaning and therefor the Republican party goes into overdrive to create hyperbolic boogiemen in an attempt to sway people from those shared views.
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Was able to go to the movies for the first time since march 2020. Watched a quiet place 2
As I hoped (and kind of expected), it hit a service for free this month (generally when a movie gets a $0.99 rental sale, it's free the next month or two). Anyway, it's on EPIX.
And yes, it's 11 thumbs up. Just terrific, funny, charming, terrifically cast (love us some Michael Rooker ...) and super icky in the best possible way - it's Zombieland but with a little less absurd/surreal humor, and a bit more "sweetness", it's only PG-13 too, so nothing too graphic. It's also got a good bit of a Monsters (2010) feel, particular the look of the world after the event, and one scene that was absolutely a visual homage to that movie.
The Longest Day (1962)- 6 June 1944. Great portrayal of events on D Day and a favorite movie.
Trivia: Beach landing scenes were filmed in Corsica.
www.imdb.com
Scaling the cliffs of Pointe-du-hoc was filmed on location.
www.warhistoryonline.com
More trivia, the casino sequence in Ouistreham was the actual hotel during the invasion that was later scheduled for demolition and destroyed as part of the movie production.
The bangalore torpedo sequence to destroy the obstacle to get off Omaha beach does not appear to be accurate, but not absolutely sure.
It doesn’t get any hotter than this.
Trivia: Beach landing scenes were filmed in Corsica.
The Longest Day (1962) - Trivia - IMDb
The Longest Day (1962) - Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more...
www.imdb.com
Scaling the cliffs of Pointe-du-hoc was filmed on location.
5 War Movie Scenes Filmed On The Actual Location That You Can Visit
Unless you’re part of the Fury team, historical accuracy is an important factor when making a war film. Military consultants and historical advisors are
www.warhistoryonline.com
More trivia, the casino sequence in Ouistreham was the actual hotel during the invasion that was later scheduled for demolition and destroyed as part of the movie production.
The bangalore torpedo sequence to destroy the obstacle to get off Omaha beach does not appear to be accurate, but not absolutely sure.
It doesn’t get any hotter than this.
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The Fountain (2006)- This movie got good reviews but both my wife and I only lasted about 5 minutes before turning it off. Fortunately it was on Starz as part of a left over subscription.
lizkat
Watching March roll out real winter
Watching Bloody Sunday (2002) and am too lazy to walk over to a bookshelf, where I believe I do have a DVD of it and could doubtless find out who an actor is --one whose face is familiar but can't think of his name-- so of course it makes me crazy because the cast and crew list in Imdb doesn't have many photos, and so far no one's even called his name out in dialogue of the damn movie.
Worse, I know I saw him in ANOTHER film the title of which I cannot remember either... I remember vividly a scene with his character and his boss and his press aide and can't think of any of THEIR names.
So I was batting like zero for five there all told, no?
Yeah. And that was just the second half of the day. I previously spent a significant part of the afternoon looking for a book about a disappeared Guatemalan journalist and I could not remember her name, the name of that book or the author and I struck out on a couple searches, fetching the name of a later-diseappeared journo from the same country instead and I couldn't remember when the other one went missing. So then I trashed my physical bookshelves and coffee table hunting for the hardcopy book, gave up, turned around to grab my iPad and go charge it, and the godblasted book was second down in a pile of books right at hand, atop the back of the couch in a collection of stuff about Guatemalan history. And of course the name of that book even included the word "Disappeared". And there I had been searching earlier for things like "censored" and "kidnapped" and "persecuted" and so forth. Gee. If it had been a snake the book would have bitten me.
I might go to bed before I come up to bat again today in trying to think of anything remotely important. But the movie Bloody Sunday is leaving the venue tonight and I'd rather finish streaming it than venture over to trash my bookshelves all over again looking for a DVD now instead of a book.
Hope everyone else is having a grand evening...
It's so cool that we have this thing called "time, passing" so that not everything annoying happens all at once.
Worse, I know I saw him in ANOTHER film the title of which I cannot remember either... I remember vividly a scene with his character and his boss and his press aide and can't think of any of THEIR names.
So I was batting like zero for five there all told, no?
Yeah. And that was just the second half of the day. I previously spent a significant part of the afternoon looking for a book about a disappeared Guatemalan journalist and I could not remember her name, the name of that book or the author and I struck out on a couple searches, fetching the name of a later-diseappeared journo from the same country instead and I couldn't remember when the other one went missing. So then I trashed my physical bookshelves and coffee table hunting for the hardcopy book, gave up, turned around to grab my iPad and go charge it, and the godblasted book was second down in a pile of books right at hand, atop the back of the couch in a collection of stuff about Guatemalan history. And of course the name of that book even included the word "Disappeared". And there I had been searching earlier for things like "censored" and "kidnapped" and "persecuted" and so forth. Gee. If it had been a snake the book would have bitten me.
I might go to bed before I come up to bat again today in trying to think of anything remotely important. But the movie Bloody Sunday is leaving the venue tonight and I'd rather finish streaming it than venture over to trash my bookshelves all over again looking for a DVD now instead of a book.
Hope everyone else is having a grand evening...
It's so cool that we have this thing called "time, passing" so that not everything annoying happens all at once.
JayMysteri0
What the F?!!!
I watched Infinite on Paramount + so you didn't have to.
You're welcome.
If you like the movie Wanted somehow more than me, then think of this as the sequel they had no intention of making, along with borrowing from the Matrix. This movie should NOT have happened with Mark Wahlberg as the lead, no matter how badly he wants to be considered an action movie star. No. The only saving grace was Chiwetel Ejiofor. Someone evidently told the man Covid caused a Ham shortage, so he stepped up to the task of bringing the world all it will need for awhile.
Streaming services with "big budget" movies that don't get released, will become the new Blockbuster.
You're welcome.
If you like the movie Wanted somehow more than me, then think of this as the sequel they had no intention of making, along with borrowing from the Matrix. This movie should NOT have happened with Mark Wahlberg as the lead, no matter how badly he wants to be considered an action movie star. No. The only saving grace was Chiwetel Ejiofor. Someone evidently told the man Covid caused a Ham shortage, so he stepped up to the task of bringing the world all it will need for awhile.
Streaming services with "big budget" movies that don't get released, will become the new Blockbuster.