I went on a bit of a binge the last week and watched a ton of movies I had sitting in my watch-list. I will try to keep these summaries all as spoiler free as possible: Fantastic Beasts: The...
I went on a bit of a binge the last week and watched a ton of movies I had sitting in my watch-list. I will try to keep these summaries all as spoiler free as possible:
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald - It felt like the entire point of the movie was simply "we need to get from point A to B", which may not be so bad once the series is done and you can binge it all, but as a standalone film it was very weak and disappointing, especially the ending.
Incredibles 2 - Amazing animation and characters... but the "empowering women by emasculating the father figure" trope it relied on is pretty tired and dated. If you can get past that (some of my MRA friends couldn't), it's very enjoyable.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Probably the best movie I watched out of the bunch. The animation is absolutely gorgeous, the characters incredibly relatable, with a very heartfelt, coming-of-age story... I cried like a wee baby at the end. Fantastic and highly recommended, even if you're not really a spider-man fan.
Venom - I had heard horrible things about this film, but it was better than I expected. Going in with incredibly low expectations helps a lot, I guess. ;)
Sicario: Day Of The Soldado - The first Sicario was a masterpiece of incredibly well crafted, slow-burn tension building, but Day of the Solidado felt like your typical action blockbuster. It was fine, if that's what you go in expecting to see... but as a follow up to Sicario it was pretty weak and I felt pretty disappointed with it.
The Equalizer 2 - Pure action, male power-fantasy schlock. It is what it is and it doesn't apologize for it. Denzel is 65 but still managed to pull off a badass character just fine. Cheesy and incredibly unrealistic but fun.
Tomb Raider (2018) - Similar to Equalizer 2, but replace the 65yo male character with a mid-20s female one. Also cheesy and incredibly unrealistic but fun.
Some other movies I have ready to watch but just haven't got around to yet:
BlacKkKlansmen - I have heard the advertising was incredibly misleading and it's far from a comedy, which is what it was portrayed as, but I am looking forward to watching it nonetheless.
Mandy, Get Out (I know... it's practically a crime I haven't seen it yet!) and It Comes At Night - All supposed to be total mindfucks.
I don't think that's what the movie did at all. Bob, once he lets go of his shortsightedness about wanting to be at the forefront of the hero comeback, is a really good dad. The movie goes out of...
"empowering women by emasculating the father figure" trope it relied on is pretty tired and dated
I don't think that's what the movie did at all. Bob, once he lets go of his shortsightedness about wanting to be at the forefront of the hero comeback, is a really good dad. The movie goes out of its way to show him doing well, and to have a character say "parenting is a heroic act"(might be a paraphrase). I think the point of Bob's character is relating heroism down of good actions of normal individuals, by bringing him into a situation that people in the real world can understand and relate to after establishing his heroism in the first movie.
The movie spends half its run time highlighting how incompetent Bob is at the role reversal of becoming the stay at home Dad, and how overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted he gets during all his...
The movie spends half its run time highlighting how incompetent Bob is at the role reversal of becoming the stay at home Dad, and how overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted he gets during all his misadventures. Everything works out in the end, but that’s still textbook emasculation of the father figure and it’s a rather tired and dated trope. Mr. Mom did virtually the exact same story in the 80s, and the only major difference is in Incredibles 2 it’s a family of superheroes.
Now, as predictable as it was, I still enjoyed it... but I know for a fact that not everyone will, so I thought it worth mentioning, especially since it’s the weakest part of the story, IMO.
He's incompetent because he's unprepared and unwilling to be in the shadow of Elastigirl, not because the movie wants to emasculate him. That is, until he accepts his role and how it's better for...
He's incompetent because he's unprepared and unwilling to be in the shadow of Elastigirl, not because the movie wants to emasculate him. That is, until he accepts his role and how it's better for the family as a whole this way, at which point he begins to do perfectly fine as a parent. The movie isn't emasculating him, it's showcasing the difficulty of being a parent, and showing the heroic nature of not just larger than life superheroic acts, but heroism on a smaller, personal scale.
I found BlacKkKlansman pretty entertaining. Spike Lee is a pretty serious dude and so his work reflects it. So, Klansman isn't a gutbuster by any stretch but there are few pretty funny moments....
I found BlacKkKlansman pretty entertaining. Spike Lee is a pretty serious dude and so his work reflects it. So, Klansman isn't a gutbuster by any stretch but there are few pretty funny moments. Unless, of course, you are in the actual KKK. Then I suspect the schadenfreude moments will be lost on you. But otherwise you should totally watch it tonight. Its one of those rare movies that is entertaining, moving, and meaningful.
Yeah, the animation was something truly unique, magical and at many points breathtakingly beautiful. Since you enjoyed it so much as well, you might get a kick out of the WIRED video from a few...
Yeah, the animation was something truly unique, magical and at many points breathtakingly beautiful. Since you enjoyed it so much as well, you might get a kick out of the WIRED video from a few days ago: How Animators Created the Spider-Verse
TL;DW - It was made using a blend of traditional 3D CGI, "hand drawn" 2D animation + stills, and "deconstructed" 2D animation + stills, combined with a tremendous amount of post production work to get the "print comic" look just right. The cell shading in particular they put an insane amount of work into, even developing a machine learning algorithm to apply the line-work "properly" to all the characters' faces. And they also did a bunch of voodoo with the character animation vs camera tracking frame syncing, which I noticed while I was watching but couldn't put my finger on exactly what was happening... it just made me think of claymation, with that characteristic syncopated rhythm it has to it.
I just watched Velvet Buzzsaw on Netflix, and have to say it's a pretty bad movie. Sort of a Final Destination if it took place in the art world, and they made all of the characters who die out to...
I just watched Velvet Buzzsaw on Netflix, and have to say it's a pretty bad movie. Sort of a Final Destination if it took place in the art world, and they made all of the characters who die out to be pretty bad people so you don't feel bad when they die.
I was fine with the camp and general theme of the movie until the very last death at the end of the movie. That's when it jumped from "solid, campy" to "cheesy, bad" and as it was the last scene...
I was fine with the camp and general theme of the movie until the very last death at the end of the movie. That's when it jumped from "solid, campy" to "cheesy, bad" and as it was the last scene my opinion stayed there.
I wasn't expecting a campy B-movie, so I was pretty disappointing. I guess, considering it from that angle, it's a solid B movie, but I went straight from the official Netflix trailer to watching...
I wasn't expecting a campy B-movie, so I was pretty disappointing.
I guess, considering it from that angle, it's a solid B movie, but I went straight from the official Netflix trailer to watching the movie, and felt like I was set up for a totally different movie.
The best movies I watched this week: Neighboring Sounds https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2190367/?ref_=nv_sr_1 This guy is my favorite current Brazilian director and I just love his intimate style....
This guy is my favorite current Brazilian director and I just love his intimate style. Another of his films, Aquarius is on Netflix currently. These films are just about people, going about their lives. Minor conflicts here and there, such as humans do in life.
And 2 German films by Christian Petzold. Barbara (2012) and Phoenix (2014) were back to back movies of his, using the same two actors to play the leads in both films. But the films are very different and it really shows the ability of the actress, I forget her name.
i got to see an advanced screening of the best of enemies last week or so and it was pretty good. ymmv, but i think it struck just enough of a balance between actually presenting the KKK as an...
i got to see an advanced screening of the best of enemies last week or so and it was pretty good. ymmv, but i think it struck just enough of a balance between actually presenting the KKK as an awful group while also demonstrating that (can people please learn how to fucking do this with bad people and groups in movies? thanks), very occasionally, people with views like that are able to change if you facilitate their exposure to the things they hate. they also did a pretty good job at adapting what actually happened to the screen (since it's based on a true story), and if nothing else it's a better fucking movie than green book, so.
in this case they at least have the excuse of the redemption arc being a thing that actually happened in real life. CP Ellis did actually renounce his allegiance to the klan and never went back to...
I am pretty wary about yet another movie that is about redemption for a white racist in the old South. Not to mention that Sam Rockwell literally played this character already in Three Billboards where he was a racist police officer.
in this case they at least have the excuse of the redemption arc being a thing that actually happened in real life. CP Ellis did actually renounce his allegiance to the klan and never went back to it after the events portrayed by the film.
I watched Burning yesterday, and thought it was really well done. It's a 2018 Korean film featuring Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead. The movie itself is based off a darkly ponderous short story...
I watched Burning yesterday, and thought it was really well done. It's a 2018 Korean film featuring Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead. The movie itself is based off a darkly ponderous short story by Haruki Murakami.
The story really hits home on themes around superficiality vs. authenticity, finding a greater purpose in life, and makes plenty of villainous comparisons with capitalist/Western/Gangnam culture.
Fair warning, the movie is not incredibly uplifting, and is quite art-house, which makes it a slow burn (pun intended). That being said, it's certainly moving, and will leave you longing for a simpler world in this age of accelerating change.
This week has been full of ups and downs for me. I checked my Letterboxd and this week I've watched: Star Trek: Insurrection Star Trek: Nemesis Triple Threat Universal Soldier The Prophecy Mortal...
This week has been full of ups and downs for me. I checked my Letterboxd and this week I've watched:
Insurrection and Nemesis were the only two Star Trek movies my wife (who is a massive Star Trek fan) hadn't seen so we decided to watch those. I hadn't seen either of them since the came out in theaters. Insurrection is basically a glorified TNG episode that has a few interesting ideas but doesn't execute them well. Nemesis is just flat out bad. It might be the worst Star Trek movie.
Triple Threat was a fun action movie. It's got a who's who cast of Asian and DTV action stars (I mean that as a compliment). The plot was completely nonsensical but the action is well done and Tony Jaa gets a few great comedic moments. As far as direct to video action movies go, it's head and shoulders above most.
Mortal Engines was much better than I expected. The plot is all over the place but it is a visually stunning movie. But Hugo Weaving chews up quite a bit of scenery as the bad guy. The costumes and set design were stunning and I'd recommend the movie on those aspects alone.
And while it isn't strictly a movie, I did watch Critters: A New Binge on Shudder. For those who don't know, it's a new entry in the Critters franchise from the 80s/early 90s. It's eight 10 minute long episodes that basically amount to a 70 minute long movie. As someone who enjoyed the first two Critters quite a bit as a kid, I was really disappointed with how bad it was. There are moments of fun scattered throughout, like the episode that features Thomas Lennon fighting a bunch of Crites. It's very obvious that this was made on a shoestring budget, but I can kind of forgive that since they at least went with practical effects when they could. The puppets they used for the Crites are better than I expected, but definitely don't match up to the Chiodo Brothers puppets from the original. I'll take mediocre practical effects over SyFy Originals quality CGI any day.
We just watched "Us"! I loved it. I don't know what Jordan Peele's actual intention was behind it, but it has a very interesting theme of nature vs nurture. Doesn't leave much space for wondering...
We just watched "Us"! I loved it. I don't know what Jordan Peele's actual intention was behind it, but it has a very interesting theme of nature vs nurture. Doesn't leave much space for wondering what Jordan's take on it is!
It also seems like it could be a very apt allegory for White Privilege, or at least socio-economic privilege. We all deserve care and respect, and there are whole swathes of people who get less of it than others (while things are getting better on the surface as the decades go on... well... the more things change, the more they stay the same).
POTENTIAL SPOILER
If we, as a society, were to create a population (say, by cloning or, you know, bringing them over as slaves), treat them as less-than when we realize that they don't know the same things as us (if you don't know our language and customs, you must be a stupid animal!), "set them free" by abandoning them with no means of escape (Hey! We could create laws and norms to make it almost impossible for you to leave the "ghetto"), give them no help and support to get education, physical and mental health treatment (did you know black women are more likely to die in childbirth?? Spoiler alert: It's not because of their genetics!) can we truly, in good conscience, blame them for rising up? (or potential wealth, learning, or employment gaps?)
*Edit: for anyone looking for a source about black women being more likely to die in childbirth, here it is
That's why it's an allegory, in my opinion, not a direct comparison. But I love what you said about the escalator, and I do also think that it could be applied not just to low socio-economic...
the main family are all black,
That's why it's an allegory, in my opinion, not a direct comparison. But I love what you said about the escalator, and I do also think that it could be applied not just to low socio-economic classes, but to people of color.
For example, I have a dark-skinned Latina friend who is married to a black man. She's a teacher and he's a vice principal, so they are not in any way lower-class, but they still get followed around in stores, and a couple of months ago, they bought something at a store, got home and found that the box was empty except for the packaging; they brought it back to the store and got loudly accused of taking the item out and trying to get another one for free. They then got confronted by the security guards, even though it was the customer service person who was yelling, not my friends. That would have never happened to me!
Good quote! Thanks! Though, the creator of Hereditary came out to say that it was not an allegory for mental illness, and I'm pretty sure he's wrong, too... so... /s My SO and I have had some...
Good quote! Thanks!
Though, the creator of Hereditary came out to say that it was not an allegory for mental illness, and I'm pretty sure he's wrong, too... so... /s
My SO and I have had some interesting conversations about how the meaning of art pieces isn't necessarily dictated by their creators because they are so subjective. And here, I think he may have just proved his first point again, since it is such an apt metaphor, even if unintentional.
I just found an old usb that I lost with: Amadeus Casablanca Citizen Kane Dead Poets Society Gladiator Grave of Fireflies Se7en Vampyr Vertigo Which one should I watch ~movies?
A lot of god movies on there, but I'd go with Amadeus. It's the kind of movie you have to clear your evening for (not just because it's nearly 3 hours long) so you can sit back when it's done and...
A lot of god movies on there, but I'd go with Amadeus. It's the kind of movie you have to clear your evening for (not just because it's nearly 3 hours long) so you can sit back when it's done and go "that was some damn good filmmaking."
I guess you could say that about a lot of those movies though. Amadeus is the one that I'd be the most excited to rewatch.
Vampyr I haven’t seen so can’t comment on, but the rest are absolute classics and you can’t really go wrong with any of them. IMO Casablanca hasn’t aged well though; It’s still worth watching but...
Vampyr I haven’t seen so can’t comment on, but the rest are absolute classics and you can’t really go wrong with any of them. IMO Casablanca hasn’t aged well though; It’s still worth watching but more for the artistry and understanding its place in cinematic history than the entertainment value.
However, my recommendation for which to watch first would be Grave of Fireflies, simply because I’m a huge Ghibli fanboy and it’s a remarkably beautiful, heart-wrenching and important movie that I think everyone should see at least once... but fair warning, it will fucking destroy you and leave you an emotional wreck afterwards so only watch it if you can handle that.
I am very hyped about and want to discuss the work of the journalist Adam Curtis. His movie Hypernormalization might be the one of most salient works of sociopolitical analysis of the modern era....
I am very hyped about and want to discuss the work of the journalist Adam Curtis. His movie Hypernormalization might be the one of most salient works of sociopolitical analysis of the modern era. His work on media as means of elite social control are indispensible. Tilderinos i know at least one of you will dig this guy's work!
The Century of the Self is another award winning Adam Curtis documentary that is well worth watching as well. It's about Sigmund Freud, his nephew Edward Bernays (the father of modern "public...
The Century of the Self is another award winning Adam Curtis documentary that is well worth watching as well. It's about Sigmund Freud, his nephew Edward Bernays (the father of modern "public relations"), and how their theories have shaped the modern world, from its rampant consumerism to manipulative politics.
To be clear, this is a movie about how the entire field of public relations was founded by someone who recognized mass media and psychology could be used as tools for social control. Am I a bummer...
To be clear, this is a movie about how the entire field of public relations was founded by someone who recognized mass media and psychology could be used as tools for social control.
Am I a bummer for wishing I had more friends who talked about this sort of stuff? I think it's totally fascinating.
in a rare two-in-one-month moment i happened to also see mary poppins returns this week. it was uh, alright. nothing to write home about, to be honest, so i'd give it like a 6 out of 10?...
in a rare two-in-one-month moment i happened to also see mary poppins returns this week. it was uh, alright. nothing to write home about, to be honest, so i'd give it like a 6 out of 10? lin-manuel miranda has completely ruined his voice for anybody who's seen hamilton or heard the soundtrack, though, because as someone who knows the soundtrack very well, his accent in the film literally just sounds like a british alexander hamilton, lol.
I went on a bit of a binge the last week and watched a ton of movies I had sitting in my watch-list. I will try to keep these summaries all as spoiler free as possible:
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald - It felt like the entire point of the movie was simply "we need to get from point A to B", which may not be so bad once the series is done and you can binge it all, but as a standalone film it was very weak and disappointing, especially the ending.
Incredibles 2 - Amazing animation and characters... but the "empowering women by emasculating the father figure" trope it relied on is pretty tired and dated. If you can get past that (some of my MRA friends couldn't), it's very enjoyable.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Probably the best movie I watched out of the bunch. The animation is absolutely gorgeous, the characters incredibly relatable, with a very heartfelt, coming-of-age story... I cried like a wee baby at the end. Fantastic and highly recommended, even if you're not really a spider-man fan.
Venom - I had heard horrible things about this film, but it was better than I expected. Going in with incredibly low expectations helps a lot, I guess. ;)
Sicario: Day Of The Soldado - The first Sicario was a masterpiece of incredibly well crafted, slow-burn tension building, but Day of the Solidado felt like your typical action blockbuster. It was fine, if that's what you go in expecting to see... but as a follow up to Sicario it was pretty weak and I felt pretty disappointed with it.
The Equalizer 2 - Pure action, male power-fantasy schlock. It is what it is and it doesn't apologize for it. Denzel is 65 but still managed to pull off a badass character just fine. Cheesy and incredibly unrealistic but fun.
Tomb Raider (2018) - Similar to Equalizer 2, but replace the 65yo male character with a mid-20s female one. Also cheesy and incredibly unrealistic but fun.
Some other movies I have ready to watch but just haven't got around to yet:
BlacKkKlansmen - I have heard the advertising was incredibly misleading and it's far from a comedy, which is what it was portrayed as, but I am looking forward to watching it nonetheless.
Mandy, Get Out (I know... it's practically a crime I haven't seen it yet!) and It Comes At Night - All supposed to be total mindfucks.
I don't think that's what the movie did at all. Bob, once he lets go of his shortsightedness about wanting to be at the forefront of the hero comeback, is a really good dad. The movie goes out of its way to show him doing well, and to have a character say "parenting is a heroic act"(might be a paraphrase). I think the point of Bob's character is relating heroism down of good actions of normal individuals, by bringing him into a situation that people in the real world can understand and relate to after establishing his heroism in the first movie.
The movie spends half its run time highlighting how incompetent Bob is at the role reversal of becoming the stay at home Dad, and how overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted he gets during all his misadventures. Everything works out in the end, but that’s still textbook emasculation of the father figure and it’s a rather tired and dated trope. Mr. Mom did virtually the exact same story in the 80s, and the only major difference is in Incredibles 2 it’s a family of superheroes.
Now, as predictable as it was, I still enjoyed it... but I know for a fact that not everyone will, so I thought it worth mentioning, especially since it’s the weakest part of the story, IMO.
He's incompetent because he's unprepared and unwilling to be in the shadow of Elastigirl, not because the movie wants to emasculate him. That is, until he accepts his role and how it's better for the family as a whole this way, at which point he begins to do perfectly fine as a parent. The movie isn't emasculating him, it's showcasing the difficulty of being a parent, and showing the heroic nature of not just larger than life superheroic acts, but heroism on a smaller, personal scale.
I found BlacKkKlansman pretty entertaining. Spike Lee is a pretty serious dude and so his work reflects it. So, Klansman isn't a gutbuster by any stretch but there are few pretty funny moments. Unless, of course, you are in the actual KKK. Then I suspect the schadenfreude moments will be lost on you. But otherwise you should totally watch it tonight. Its one of those rare movies that is entertaining, moving, and meaningful.
Yeah, the animation was something truly unique, magical and at many points breathtakingly beautiful. Since you enjoyed it so much as well, you might get a kick out of the WIRED video from a few days ago:
How Animators Created the Spider-Verse
TL;DW - It was made using a blend of traditional 3D CGI, "hand drawn" 2D animation + stills, and "deconstructed" 2D animation + stills, combined with a tremendous amount of post production work to get the "print comic" look just right. The cell shading in particular they put an insane amount of work into, even developing a machine learning algorithm to apply the line-work "properly" to all the characters' faces. And they also did a bunch of voodoo with the character animation vs camera tracking frame syncing, which I noticed while I was watching but couldn't put my finger on exactly what was happening... it just made me think of claymation, with that characteristic syncopated rhythm it has to it.
I just watched Velvet Buzzsaw on Netflix, and have to say it's a pretty bad movie. Sort of a Final Destination if it took place in the art world, and they made all of the characters who die out to be pretty bad people so you don't feel bad when they die.
I was fine with the camp and general theme of the movie until the very last death at the end of the movie. That's when it jumped from "solid, campy" to "cheesy, bad" and as it was the last scene my opinion stayed there.
I wasn't expecting a campy B-movie, so I was pretty disappointing.
I guess, considering it from that angle, it's a solid B movie, but I went straight from the official Netflix trailer to watching the movie, and felt like I was set up for a totally different movie.
The best movies I watched this week:
Neighboring Sounds https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2190367/?ref_=nv_sr_1
This guy is my favorite current Brazilian director and I just love his intimate style. Another of his films, Aquarius is on Netflix currently. These films are just about people, going about their lives. Minor conflicts here and there, such as humans do in life.
And 2 German films by Christian Petzold. Barbara (2012) and Phoenix (2014) were back to back movies of his, using the same two actors to play the leads in both films. But the films are very different and it really shows the ability of the actress, I forget her name.
Barbara https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2178941/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Phoenix https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2764784/?ref_=tt_rec_tt
i got to see an advanced screening of the best of enemies last week or so and it was pretty good. ymmv, but i think it struck just enough of a balance between actually presenting the KKK as an awful group while also demonstrating that (can people please learn how to fucking do this with bad people and groups in movies? thanks), very occasionally, people with views like that are able to change if you facilitate their exposure to the things they hate. they also did a pretty good job at adapting what actually happened to the screen (since it's based on a true story), and if nothing else it's a better fucking movie than green book, so.
in this case they at least have the excuse of the redemption arc being a thing that actually happened in real life. CP Ellis did actually renounce his allegiance to the klan and never went back to it after the events portrayed by the film.
I watched Burning yesterday, and thought it was really well done. It's a 2018 Korean film featuring Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead. The movie itself is based off a darkly ponderous short story by Haruki Murakami.
The story really hits home on themes around superficiality vs. authenticity, finding a greater purpose in life, and makes plenty of villainous comparisons with capitalist/Western/Gangnam culture.
Fair warning, the movie is not incredibly uplifting, and is quite art-house, which makes it a slow burn (pun intended). That being said, it's certainly moving, and will leave you longing for a simpler world in this age of accelerating change.
I was wondering if this would be any good or not. I'm going to check it out now. I've been very into South Korean cinema lately.
This week has been full of ups and downs for me. I checked my Letterboxd and this week I've watched:
Insurrection and Nemesis were the only two Star Trek movies my wife (who is a massive Star Trek fan) hadn't seen so we decided to watch those. I hadn't seen either of them since the came out in theaters. Insurrection is basically a glorified TNG episode that has a few interesting ideas but doesn't execute them well. Nemesis is just flat out bad. It might be the worst Star Trek movie.
Triple Threat was a fun action movie. It's got a who's who cast of Asian and DTV action stars (I mean that as a compliment). The plot was completely nonsensical but the action is well done and Tony Jaa gets a few great comedic moments. As far as direct to video action movies go, it's head and shoulders above most.
Mortal Engines was much better than I expected. The plot is all over the place but it is a visually stunning movie. But Hugo Weaving chews up quite a bit of scenery as the bad guy. The costumes and set design were stunning and I'd recommend the movie on those aspects alone.
And while it isn't strictly a movie, I did watch Critters: A New Binge on Shudder. For those who don't know, it's a new entry in the Critters franchise from the 80s/early 90s. It's eight 10 minute long episodes that basically amount to a 70 minute long movie. As someone who enjoyed the first two Critters quite a bit as a kid, I was really disappointed with how bad it was. There are moments of fun scattered throughout, like the episode that features Thomas Lennon fighting a bunch of Crites. It's very obvious that this was made on a shoestring budget, but I can kind of forgive that since they at least went with practical effects when they could. The puppets they used for the Crites are better than I expected, but definitely don't match up to the Chiodo Brothers puppets from the original. I'll take mediocre practical effects over SyFy Originals quality CGI any day.
We just watched "Us"! I loved it. I don't know what Jordan Peele's actual intention was behind it, but it has a very interesting theme of nature vs nurture. Doesn't leave much space for wondering what Jordan's take on it is!
It also seems like it could be a very apt allegory for White Privilege, or at least socio-economic privilege. We all deserve care and respect, and there are whole swathes of people who get less of it than others (while things are getting better on the surface as the decades go on... well... the more things change, the more they stay the same).
POTENTIAL SPOILER
If we, as a society, were to create a population (say, by cloning or, you know, bringing them over as slaves), treat them as less-than when we realize that they don't know the same things as us (if you don't know our language and customs, you must be a stupid animal!), "set them free" by abandoning them with no means of escape (Hey! We could create laws and norms to make it almost impossible for you to leave the "ghetto"), give them no help and support to get education, physical and mental health treatment (did you know black women are more likely to die in childbirth?? Spoiler alert: It's not because of their genetics!) can we truly, in good conscience, blame them for rising up? (or potential wealth, learning, or employment gaps?)
*Edit: for anyone looking for a source about black women being more likely to die in childbirth, here it is
That's why it's an allegory, in my opinion, not a direct comparison. But I love what you said about the escalator, and I do also think that it could be applied not just to low socio-economic classes, but to people of color.
For example, I have a dark-skinned Latina friend who is married to a black man. She's a teacher and he's a vice principal, so they are not in any way lower-class, but they still get followed around in stores, and a couple of months ago, they bought something at a store, got home and found that the box was empty except for the packaging; they brought it back to the store and got loudly accused of taking the item out and trying to get another one for free. They then got confronted by the security guards, even though it was the customer service person who was yelling, not my friends. That would have never happened to me!
Good quote! Thanks!
Though, the creator of Hereditary came out to say that it was not an allegory for mental illness, and I'm pretty sure he's wrong, too... so... /s
My SO and I have had some interesting conversations about how the meaning of art pieces isn't necessarily dictated by their creators because they are so subjective. And here, I think he may have just proved his first point again, since it is such an apt metaphor, even if unintentional.
Ooh, yes! I will watch when I'm not at work. Thanks!
I just found an old usb that I lost with:
Which one should I watch ~movies?
A lot of god movies on there, but I'd go with Amadeus. It's the kind of movie you have to clear your evening for (not just because it's nearly 3 hours long) so you can sit back when it's done and go "that was some damn good filmmaking."
I guess you could say that about a lot of those movies though. Amadeus is the one that I'd be the most excited to rewatch.
Vampyr I haven’t seen so can’t comment on, but the rest are absolute classics and you can’t really go wrong with any of them. IMO Casablanca hasn’t aged well though; It’s still worth watching but more for the artistry and understanding its place in cinematic history than the entertainment value.
However, my recommendation for which to watch first would be Grave of Fireflies, simply because I’m a huge Ghibli fanboy and it’s a remarkably beautiful, heart-wrenching and important movie that I think everyone should see at least once... but fair warning, it will fucking destroy you and leave you an emotional wreck afterwards so only watch it if you can handle that.
I am very hyped about and want to discuss the work of the journalist Adam Curtis. His movie Hypernormalization might be the one of most salient works of sociopolitical analysis of the modern era. His work on media as means of elite social control are indispensible. Tilderinos i know at least one of you will dig this guy's work!
The Century of the Self is another award winning Adam Curtis documentary that is well worth watching as well. It's about Sigmund Freud, his nephew Edward Bernays (the father of modern "public relations"), and how their theories have shaped the modern world, from its rampant consumerism to manipulative politics.
To be clear, this is a movie about how the entire field of public relations was founded by someone who recognized mass media and psychology could be used as tools for social control.
Am I a bummer for wishing I had more friends who talked about this sort of stuff? I think it's totally fascinating.
in a rare two-in-one-month moment i happened to also see mary poppins returns this week. it was uh, alright. nothing to write home about, to be honest, so i'd give it like a 6 out of 10? lin-manuel miranda has completely ruined his voice for anybody who's seen hamilton or heard the soundtrack, though, because as someone who knows the soundtrack very well, his accent in the film literally just sounds like a british alexander hamilton, lol.