Fourth movie with a running time of 100 minutes or less is Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (90 minutes) from 2021

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Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

The final movie for January is next Monday on the 29th with The Iron Giant

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

We got our first silent movie (almost) with Charlie Chaplin's City Lights from 1931.

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How familiar are you with silent films and Charlie Chaplin? Is a movie that is more than 90 years old still worth watching today? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

Rest of the schedule for January is:

• 22nd: Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
• 29th: The Iron Giant

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

We begin the new year with a movie that takes place on new year's eve with Four Rooms from 1995. Written and directed by four direcors - Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.

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How was the movie as a whole? Were there any of the four segments that you particularly liked - or hated?

Rest of schedule for January is:

• 8th: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
• 15th: City Lights
• 22nd: Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
• 29th: The Iron Giant

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Next movie with a running time of less than 100 minutes is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles directed by John Hughes from 1987.

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Is this movie a Thanksgiving tradition for you? How did you find the humor in this movie? Still funny or dated? How does it compare to other John Hughes movies? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

Rest of the schedule for January is:

• 15th: City Lights
• 22nd: Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
• 29th: The Iron Giant

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

I personally don't love most anime I've been recommended. Admittedly, shonen anime is pretty predictable and boring to watch to me, and I've only mostly been recommended anime in that genre since it's the most popular. There are some exceptions of course, but nothing has grabbed me too hard. I'm not super into the exaggerated reaction shots and repeating everything that's happening on screen like I can't already see it happening. Announcing your feelings and actions is so tiring.

Really looking for something that makes me laugh or feel something.

I've been getting bored of current TV offerings and I'm trying to boost my Japanese learning so I'm wondering if there's anything out there for me. I do try to watch at least a couple of episodes every time I get something suggested, nothing really clicked for me. Even the ones I do like, I feel like I had to force myself to sit through sometimes.

Some anime I do enjoy:

• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - Even though I really dislike super over the top things, there's something about the relatively simple story and heart in this one. I really loved it and it's probably my favorite so far.
• most Studio Ghibli things - I mean, who doesn't, right?
• Your Name and Suzume - both kinda in the same vein of interesting stories and something different that is hard to pull off in conventional live-action, and beautifully drawn to boot
• Ju Jutsu Kaisen season 1 - I enjoyed it, will probably watch season 2, but waiting for it to finish
• Persona 5 The Animation - Honestly mostly because I liked the game, the anime was not as great tbh.

Things I've seen and are already on the list and will probably(?) continue -

• FMA:B (1 episode)
• Cowboy Bebop (1 episode)
• Undead Murder Farce
• Chainsaw Man season 1 (this one's a bit iffy imo, I really can't stand the main character's fascination with boobs, the action is good though and the story is actually kinda interesting)

Things I've seen and won't continue/didn't particularly enjoy -
(17 episodes of) Death Note, One Punch Man season 1, Demon Hunter season 1

Edit: Western shows/movies I enjoyed:
Background shows I'll put on:
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine

Shows that made me feel things:
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
The Last of Us
Mr. Robot

Not shows but things I enjoy:
Spider-verse movies
Everything Everywhere All at Once (my favorite movie of all time)
The Planet of the Apes trilogy remakes
Lord of the Rings

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

I didn't have as much time for reading this year. My daughters kept me quite busy (and happy). However, I managed to squeeze in one or the other title. I don't want to discuss all of the forty-something books I read, but here's an incomplete list of what I can recommend (and what not).

I really enjoyed the following books:

• number9dream by David Mitchell
• Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
• Red Rising (all six books) by Pierce Brown
• The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis
• Dark Rome by Michael Sommer
• A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
• At Night all Blood is Black by David Diop
• The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World by Tim Marshall
• First Person Singular by by Haruki Murakami
• Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus
• This is your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin
• The History of Heavy Metal by Andrew O'Neill

I think my favorites were Black Swan Green and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Both are very powerful stories with complex protagonists.

I didn't really enjoy these books:

• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (seriously, I like Murakami, but I hated this book – the plot was annoying, stylistic choices were questionable and the protagonist bland)
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang (the book was interesting, but also a bit "too much" for me)

I think those books taught me something, although they weren't necessarily fun to read:

• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
• The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• The Great Mental Models Volume 3: Systems and Mathematics

Especially Chris Voss and James Clear can't stop boasting and/or advertising. I learned something from their books, but I found them annoying to read. The mental models book and the Phoenix project were fun, though.

I'm a software developer and read quite some books about this topic this year. I can recommend the following of them:

• Efficient Linux at the Command Line
• 100 Go Mistakes
• The Staff Engineer's Path
• TypeScript Cookbook
• Principles of Package Design

But I didn't really like those (although they're good from a technical perspective):

• Cloud Native Go
• Security and Microservice Architecture on AWS

So, what did you guys read? What can you recommend? Which books disappointed you?

We end the month of 1990s movies with a Christmas classic. Home Alone from 1990.

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Is this a stable Christmas movie in your household or is it perhaps the first time you see it?

Next months schedule for January is:

• 1st: Four Rooms
• 8th: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
• 15th: City Lights
• 22nd: Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
• 29th: The Iron Giant

The next movie from the 1990s is The Talented Mr. Ripley from 1999 directed by Anthony Minghella with a 90s moviestar lineup of Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman and many others. Based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith from 1955.

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Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

The rest of the schedule is:

• 25th of December: Home Alone

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

The next movie from the 1990s is Edward Scissorhands from 1990 directed by Tim Burton

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Are you familiar with other works by Tim Burton and how does this compare? Does it have a certain "90s feel" to it? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

The rest of the schedule is:

• 18th of December: The Talented Mr. Ripley
• 25th of December: Home Alone

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

So we have a month with movies from the 1990s and we are starting off with Lost Highway directed by David Lynch from 1997.

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Are you familiar with other works by David Lynch and how does this compare? Does it have a certain "90s feel" to it? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

The rest of the schedule is:

• 11th of December: Edward Scissorhands
• 18th of December: The Talented Mr. Ripley
• 25th of December: Home Alone

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

And the 2023 Formula 1 Season has ended!

This isn't a spolier this "late" in the game, so congratulations to Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT for winning the 2023 World Constructors' Championship, and their driver Max Verstappen for the winning the 2023 World Drivers' Championship. Plus all the other records Max has smashed this year—talk about domination!

The 2024 schedule is out and the first GP is February 29 - March 2 in Bahrain.

Pre-season testing will also be in Bahrain, Feb. 21-23 (the week prior). We usually get a little bit of sneakpeak, I think.

Anyway, enjoy the break, everyone. I know I'll enjoy not waking up at odd hours or not sleeping for F1 sessions for a few months! See you all -- according to David Coulthard -- in 97 days for testing!

I've just started reading The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, and am currently reading A Player of Games. This might be a controversial thing to say, but I'm getting some Douglas Adams vibes, especially in his depiction of the drones. Am I the only one who feels a certain connection there?

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

This is the fifth and last movie we discuss of Academy Award Winners. Ariana DeBose won for Best Supporting Actress. It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.

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Did the movie deserve its nominations and awards? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

Voting for December will come up in a few days.

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

This is the fourth movie we discuss of Academy Award Winners. It won for Best Original Screenplay and Kate Winslet was nominated for Best Actress.

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Did the movie deserve its nominations and awards? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.

The rest of the schedule is:

• 27th of November: West Side Story (2021)