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Midweek Movie Free Talk
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.
I hit play on Starship Troopers on Netflix on a whim. Went in almost completely blind. All I knew was humans vs. bug aliens. Holy shit what an incredible surprise. This movie was made for me and I need more. I expected a straightfaced sci fi war movie. What I got was hilarious and satirical and hammy and camp in all the best ways.
I also subscribed to MUBI and would love recommendations if anyone has any.
Well going by Paul Verhoeven who directed Starship Troopers you might wanna check out Total Recall (1990) and RoboCop (1987) if you by chance haven't seen them. They're kinda similar in expression, theme and humor.
Thank you! I’ve been meaning to watch RoboCop and Total Recall for years. Knowing the same creative force is behind them as Starship Troopers is the kick I need to watch them.
when I was signed up with Mubi, I got into a steady habit of watching whatever was going out. It was fun to have no control over what I was going to watch.
While I love this idea, it also gives me a lot of genuine anxiety. I have a hard time watching deeply sad things. I’m trying to get past it, but yeah, my heart gets crushed easily.
Definitely watch Domino then. Zero heartbreak in there. The selection right now is... kinkier than normal. :)
Ok I’ll give it a shot! Who directed the one you’re talking about? They have more than one Domino listed.
2005 Domino with Mickey Rourke and Keira Knightley is great. 2019 is good if you're into DePalma.
Don't expect the same tone at all if you ever try the book. Some like it, some hate it, but it has a very earnest didactic tone. Heinlein did break some rules for his time by making the pilots women and featuring a filipino main character. But many Heinlein books have not aged well.
Verhoven didn’t even finish the book. He said it was too right wing.
Yeah, that is a long possible discussion among Heinlein afficionados. I am not at all sure that Verhoven understood what Heinlein was trying to do with Starship Troopers. But a good very different film resulted.
I’ve never read any Heinlein, but anyone I’ve ever talked to about him has said the same. What sort of bad takes are we talking?
Disclaimer, I read most of Heinlein's work decades ago as a teenager and in my early 20s. I would say that his short stories like the Roads must roll are excellent. His childrens fiction is a great introduction to science fiction adventure.
Heinlein was a social rebel but he was also shaped by his time. Many of his male 'alpha' characters are served by 'nubile' women who feel affection toward the main character and sometimes are also snarky and sassy in an unthreatening way. I find it cringe.
He explores unrestrained or unlimited sexual relationships in several of his books. Polyamory, incest etc.
Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a book I still value for its computer character and for the insurrection/revolution, but it is a libertarian manifesto.
Many of Heinlein's main characters are (likely) self insert characters, grumpy antisocial philosophically minded old men who have a very high opinion of their own intellect and like to pontificate about human nature, economics, society in ways that I now find obnoxious.
Eeehhh yeah… seems like we share the same perspective on things. Doesn’t sound like my kinda guy.
That said, I enjoy Sci Fi and still intend to read some of his work some day. It sounds like there’s some good to find there, and I like to read formative authors for the perspective it gives when I read contemporary stuff.
Intellectuals who are in love with their own intellect are obnoxious though.
It is very likely the the longer/higher page count novels have a high percentage of philosophical masturbation aka fluff that you might want to avoid.
Barbie. Its perfect. Just watch it and treat every shot like a wimmelbilder.
I saw Asteroid City earlier in the summer and really liked it. Probably mostly for its 50s scifi aesthetics. I have been trying out more Wes Anderson movies but nothing has quite hit the mark yet.
Fantastic Mr. Fox was impeccably well made but lacked substance I felt. I almost despised Rushmore for its main character and annoying number of music montages. The French Dispatch came sort of close to what I liked about Asteroid City with its smaller stories within a larger story. But I am also starting to see what I don't like about his style of directing, especially how every actor almost act the same stiff unemotional way. I may give one more Wes Anderson movie a try before I take a needed break.
I have no idea if this will hit the mark for you or not, but the only Wes Anderson film that I really enjoy is Grand Budapest Hotel. Like, probably in my top 3 films of all time, and there's no other Wes Anderson film that I enjoyed much (have yet to watch Asteroid City though, maybe I will this weekend).
The Life Aquatic was my introduction to Wes (though I'd seen Tenebaums on Comedy Central multiple times) and the first time I'd watched it I bounced off hard. Didn't care for it at all.
The second watch was like an eye opener. I'd say Murray makes a great leading man with Wes because the stiffness doesn't come across as unemotional but more like a broken man. You can see and hear the emotion in the complete lack of emotion. In the same way that, because it focuses on kids, Moonrise Kingdom gets over that because kids are just awkward like that.
I guess, what I'm trying to say is that when it works it works.
Though, I feel the Grand Budapest simultaneously is dripping with substance and also as shallow as most Anderson stories can be.
I would try either Moonrise Kingdom or Isle of Dogs next for Wes Anderson. Those are my favorites of his I've seen (other than Fantastic Mr. Fox). I liked Grand Budapest Hotel pretty well also.
One cool thing about Fantastic Mr. Fox, they recorded a lot of the audio on Roald Dahl's property. They're in the barn, Clooney and co are in Dahl's barn. He also got full access to all of his notes and stuff, which is where the ending came from.
I like Anderson's work, but for me, his latest work is almost parody (a la Wes Anderson, The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders)
The Royal Tenenbaums will always be his most complete work for me, but The Life Aquatic will always be my favorite.
I don't consider myself a movie person, so my cautious enthusiasm for The Creator, coming out in about a week, is unusual. A lot of sci-fi films tend to disappoint me in their execution or world-/character-building, or simply have bland scripts. I'm not sure that The Creator is setting out to try anything new, but it's directed by the same person who directed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which makes me optimistic. I think we have a good chance of having a film delivered the way the script intended, utilizing sci-fi influences in a good way, with solid execution throughout.
This look really interesting. A science fiction movie with a decently sized budget and an original script that is not based on an existing franchise or story. Not something we see often.
You should also give Melancholia a watch.
In terms of the no frills filmmaking check out other dogma filmmakers. Watch Festen.
Watched "No More Bets" and it was overall pretty good/okay, but man did it feel just a tad racist. I mean I guess it's understandable being a Chinese film and so of course being under control of the Chinese Communist Party, but they really drove the point that the online gambling scammers are all Malaysian or whatever, and whatever Chinese people were involved were only involved because they were kidnapped and coerced, and then at the end the perfect Chinese Party investigation squad/police bust the whole thing perfectly (not in China, of course, but in Malaysia or whatever) with no flaws whatsoever.
In reality, of course, these scams are usually Chinese-run, and corruption is fairly rampant among chinese police. But of course they can't show that
A Haunting in Venice.
I'm a sucker for Kenneth Branagh and when I like a filmmaker, I tend to praise their films more than most. While I did like Orient Express and Death on the Nile, I wouldn't classify either of them as good movies. The visuals are mostly flat, and the green screen is laughable especially in Death on the Nile. But they're fun mindless popcorn movies. I don't consider them good in the way I consider Belfast good.
This was good. The cinematography is beautiful. Kenneth Branagh builds on the visual language that he developed for Belfast. The story is stripped down so there's a greater focus on performances, and what great performances. Definitely the best overall performance from a cast from this franchise. The score is incredible and redeems Hildur from her mediocre work on Women Talking. The set design and the lighting builds this great eerie atmosphere throughout the whole movie.
Highly recommend.
Alright so Barbie decided to be campaigned in Original Screenplay instead of Adapted. So:
Original Screenplay:
Alt: Past Lives
Adapted Screenplay:
Alt: Priscilla
Barbie in adapted or original will be an interesting thing to follow. Most adapted screenplays are from novels, short stories or plays, but even something like Borat is considered adapted because it is based on a character from the Ali G Show.
The studio is deciding to campaign it in Original but I can definitely see the writers branch at the Oscar’s put it in Adapted: Moonlight was original everywhere else but Adapted at the Oscar’s because it was based on an unproduced play. And Whiplash was original every where else but went Adapted at the Oscar’s because Chazelle made a short film before the feature.
I watched BulletTrain this weekend. I wanted to catch it in theaters but the opportunity never came up. Since it hit streaming I've been pitching it to my girlfriend every time we sat down to watch something but she wasn't interested.
Friday night she was playing something on the computer so I had free reign of the TV and finally watched it, and I am so glad I did.
It was great. The cast is stellar. Brad Pitt is usually an easy sell for me, and he didn't disappoint. Ever since Atlanta I've been a fan of Brian Tyree Henry, and he was also great. Him and Aaron-Taylor Johnson had great chemistry. I'd watch a spin-off movie about their characters.
It doesn't feel like a two hour film either. I got up at what I thought must have been near the end to take the dog out, only to see I still had 40 minutes remaining. The pacing is great and it doesn't drag at all despite the run time.
Would highly recommend