cloud_loud's recent activity
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9 votes
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
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House passes bill that could ban TikTok in the US, sending it to the Senate
45 votes -
Comment on Movie of the Week #20 - Life is Beautiful in ~movies
cloud_loud It’s not that I have a problem with the whimsical nature itself. It’s just not executed well, and I think the gags are unfunny. It’s like copying Chaplin’s comedy but not doing it well.It’s not that I have a problem with the whimsical nature itself. It’s just not executed well, and I think the gags are unfunny. It’s like copying Chaplin’s comedy but not doing it well.
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Comment on Movie of the Week #20 - Life is Beautiful in ~movies
cloud_loud (edited )LinkI had never watched this before. I know this is in the top 100 for IMDb. But it’s the type of movie that would do well with the IMDb demographic. Due to the 90s release and it being a...I had never watched this before. I know this is in the top 100 for IMDb. But it’s the type of movie that would do well with the IMDb demographic. Due to the 90s release and it being a crowdpleaser.
I can’t really explain why I never watched it. Although I imagine I would have eventually watched it due to the similarities it has with The Day the Clown Cried.
I have mixed to negative feelings about this. Looking at a lot of the Letterboxd reviews, the negative reviews come from people largely saying it’s inappropriate to have comedy in such a setting. That’s not an argument I’m terribly interested in, nor is it something that came to mind while watching it. I think it might just be a bad movie.
The first half, which I didn’t know about since I was expecting the whole film to take place in a concentration camp, is dreadful. It is so painfully unfunny and nauseously whimsical. I was prepared to give the film a much lower rating just based on that. I’ve never seen any of Begnini’s other films, but if they’re more in line with how this half of the film is then I understand why he’s never had another film be well received.
The second half I thought had some strong moments. Overwrought sentimentally works on me, but I don’t know if the few moments that work are enough to outweigh everything else I don’t like about the film. There’s a cheapness and an awkwardness to the way the big two final moments of the film are delivered. The ending being a freeze frame I thought was almost to the level of satire.
I don’t think Begnini deserved to win Best Actor, the real winner that year (Jim Carrey for The Truman Show) wasn’t even nominated but Tom Hanks was more deserving of the award for Saving Private Ryan. The performance I did think stood out was the child’s performance. I don’t think the movie works without him. He’s the emotional crutch of the film.
In terms of people’s critiques of this film; there’s this idea that it’s saying life is great as long as you ignore misery and delude yourself into thinking it’s great. I think this is an incorrect reading of the film. It’s not saying the only way to keep being happy is to lie to yourself. It’s a father’s Herculean effort in preserving his child’s innocence. The reality of the concentration camp is still there, and the pain the father goes through is still there. He’s just hanging onto hope that the misery will end and in that hope tries his hardest not to let the child become crippled by it.
But overall I think Jojo Rabbit deals with similar things better. I think that’s a better made film overall. And I won’t speak to all the other nominees since we’re gonna be talking about this year again for Saving Private Ryan (and I’m planning on watching the nominees I haven’t seen) but I don’t agree that this is better than Shakespeare in Love.
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Comment on 'Oppenheimer' lands seven Oscars including Best Picture in ~movies
cloud_loud For every The Departed or No Country for Old Men we get stuff like A Beautiful Mind, Crash, and CODA. K I don’t really get why it’s a shame. Even if you don’t particularly care for them why is it...For every The Departed or No Country for Old Men we get stuff like A Beautiful Mind, Crash, and CODA.
Awards have lost a lot of meaning for me.
K
It's a shame they still mean so much to the people actually in the business.
I don’t really get why it’s a shame. Even if you don’t particularly care for them why is it a shame that the people in the industry care about it lol. Studios vying for Oscar attention are a large part of why movies like Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Banshees of Inisherin, and TAR even get made. Without the Oscars we wouldn’t get those movies.
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Comment on 'Oppenheimer' lands seven Oscars including Best Picture in ~movies
cloud_loud Yeah Gladstone was initially widely believed to be going Supporting. Which she probably would have won had she stayed in that category. A similar thing happened last year with Michelle Williams...Yeah Gladstone was initially widely believed to be going Supporting. Which she probably would have won had she stayed in that category. A similar thing happened last year with Michelle Williams and The Fabelmans. Williams would have easily won the supporting category but decided to go Lead to lose.
I am by no means a Kimmel fan but I think he did a terrific job, the best in recent memory for sure
I’m a big fan of Kimmel’s first time hosting the Oscar’s (the La La Land Moonlight) but I felt like he phoned it in the next few times he did it. This time though you can tell he actually put in the effort.
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Comment on 'Oppenheimer' lands seven Oscars including Best Picture in ~movies
cloud_loud (edited )LinkOppenheimer is now the third highest grossing Best Picture winner, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Titanic. And in my opinion is easily the best winner of the 21st...Oppenheimer is now the third highest grossing Best Picture winner, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Titanic. And in my opinion is easily the best winner of the 21st century. Which in reality is not that high a bar to clear if you actually look at what's won.
The Academy perfectly matched the Oscar's in all the categories, so for the second year in a row I did pretty bad lol. Usually one DGA nominee goes home empty handed, but because I bet on Gladstone going home with Actress and was betting on Poor Things only winning Production Design, I decide to switch my PD prediction to Barbie to blank Poor Things. That was an incredibly stupid decision as it turns out.
Gladstone becoming the consensus choice of the awards community to win did make me worried that Stone would end up winning. Which is exactly what happened. And now social media is melting down because a white woman won over a Native American. And Stone's critically praised performance is now being revised as being a bad performance simply for that reason. Internet people will always moralize awards, and will try super hard to be performative in every instance, including trashing Stone. It's annoying as fuck, Stone is a good winner and hopefully when the dust settles people realize that again.
The only award Oppenheimer was expected to win that it lost is Sound, which went to Zone of Interest as the story is largely told through Sound (I still think Oppenheimer deserved that award).
The ceremony was pretty good! One or two things were bad: The in memorium could have been presented better and Pacino announced the Winner in such an awkward way. But other than that, this is the first ceremony I've truly enjoyed since the Parasite year.
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'Oppenheimer' lands seven Oscars including Best Picture
23 votes -
Comment on Illumination, Nintendo set new animated film based on world of Super Mario Bros in ~movies
cloud_loud It's the first official announcement of a sequel to the billion dollar hitIt's the first official announcement of a sequel to the billion dollar hit
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Illumination, Nintendo set new animated film based on world of Super Mario Bros
7 votes -
Comment on Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers’ accused of plagiarism by ‘Luca’ writer in ~movies
cloud_loud Payne was largely inspired by a French film titled Merlusse as well as The Last Detail.The thing that strikes me as suspicious is that I can't really think of any other movies or books with a terribly similar setup
Payne was largely inspired by a French film titled Merlusse as well as The Last Detail.
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Comment on Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers’ accused of plagiarism by ‘Luca’ writer in ~movies
cloud_loud This was blowing up over social media yesterday. If you read Stephenson's actual script it's not similar at all to Holdovers. The broad stroke would be someone is left with a kid that he has to...This was blowing up over social media yesterday. If you read Stephenson's actual script it's not similar at all to Holdovers. The broad stroke would be someone is left with a kid that he has to look after. Whatever lawyer told Stephenson had a case was obviously lying to him. Art is made in the specifics not vaguely similar ideas.
It's not uncommon for these Oscar contenders to get accused of plagiarism. Usually it's not from successful screenwriters like Stephenson, but it's still not uncommon. I remember The Shape of Water getting hit with a barrage of plagiarism accusations one of which came out the day before the ceremony (just like it happened here).
The idea that Alexander Payne would feel the need to plagiarize someone is laughable, he doesn't have a writing credit on Holdovers but still. This will absolutely get laughed out of Court. And I find the trades reporting on this to be doing a disgraceful job by pumping it up saying there was "incredible proof" despite the actual screenplay proving otherwise.
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‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ sweeps five categories at Razzies, including Worst Picture
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Comment on Quiz: Guess what actors said about major movie flops in ~movies
cloud_loud I can turn my brain off for a movie but I still require something. I can understand doing it for something like a Michael Bay film or a David Leitch film but not for something so bland and dull...I can turn my brain off for a movie but I still require something. I can understand doing it for something like a Michael Bay film or a David Leitch film but not for something so bland and dull like a Sonyverse movie.
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Comment on Inside Out 2 | Official trailer in ~movies
cloud_loud I love the first Inside Out but this does not look good. It reminds me of the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes trailer. Something just feels off, I can’t quite put my finger on it.I love the first Inside Out but this does not look good. It reminds me of the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes trailer. Something just feels off, I can’t quite put my finger on it.
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Inside Out 2 | Official trailer
16 votes -
Comment on Rooster Teeth is shutting down after twenty-one years in ~games
cloud_loud The thing is though I'm not sure there is a comparable nerd era for younger GenZ and GenAlpha. I think the closest equivalents to these thing that we have now are twitch streamers. But I don't...The thing is though I'm not sure there is a comparable nerd era for younger GenZ and GenAlpha. I think the closest equivalents to these thing that we have now are twitch streamers. But I don't really think they're on the same plane as being "nerdy."
I don't know if this is gonna make sense. But I don't think gaming is viewed as a nerdy thing anymore, and on top of that viewing yourself as a nerd isn't cool anymore either. That's all very 2010s. So RoosterTeeth and Machinima which were aimed at these hyper nerdy audiences couldn't keep up with the trend change.
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Comment on Rooster Teeth is shutting down after twenty-one years in ~games
cloud_loud What makes it interesting is that there’s not an alternative to them. It’s not like similar content creators exist on TikTok or anything. It’s just over, people moved on from that part of internet...What makes it interesting is that there’s not an alternative to them. It’s not like similar content creators exist on TikTok or anything. It’s just over, people moved on from that part of internet culture.
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Comment on Rooster Teeth is shutting down after twenty-one years in ~games
cloud_loud To frame this in a broader discussion, it kind of feels like this nerd era of the internet is over, doesn't it? Considering so many pillars of that community that existed on YouTube are now dead.To frame this in a broader discussion, it kind of feels like this nerd era of the internet is over, doesn't it? Considering so many pillars of that community that existed on YouTube are now dead.
So instead of making a post that gets zero comments, I'll just do it here. Here's an early spitball of the 2025 Oscar's:
Picture
Also: I'm dog earring Twisters and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as potential surprise populist contenders ala Top Gun: Maverick.
Director
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Lead Actor
Lead Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Film Editing