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6 votes
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Interview with Daniel Waters, writer of Demolition Man, on his movie's predictive power
13 votes -
What's your go-to "comfort food" movie?
It's a miserable cold rainy afternoon. You need to wind down. You want to lie down on the couch, curl up under a blanket, drink a mug of cocoa/tea/chocolate, switch off, and spend a couple of...
It's a miserable cold rainy afternoon. You need to wind down. You want to lie down on the couch, curl up under a blanket, drink a mug of cocoa/tea/chocolate, switch off, and spend a couple of hours just relaxing in front of a movie. You don't want something that will challenge you or make you think. Nothing new and exciting. It doesn't need to cheer you up, because you're not feeling depressed. You just want something that's going to make you feel cosy. Something familiar and comfortable and warm. You want an old favourite that you've seen so many times you can practically quote it word for word, so you don't even need to fully pay attention - but a movie that always makes you feel happy when you see it for the umpteenth time.
What movie do you put on?
21 votes -
Lionsgate to livestream 'John Wick,' 'Dirty Dancing,' 'La La Land,' and 'The Hunger Games' as free YouTube events
11 votes -
Behold Dune: An exclusive look at Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, and more
10 votes -
Wanderers - A short film by Erik Wernquist
7 votes -
The lost and the furious: Films that tried (and failed) to ride the Fast & Furious wave
8 votes -
Project 88: A crowdsourced shot-for-shot fan remake of Back To The Future 2
5 votes -
No Time to Die sounds like it has a lot of SPECTRE in it
4 votes -
Documentaries as advertising: Corporate interests turn to indie docs for influence; audiences in the dark
7 votes -
Movie Monday Free Talk
We haven't had one of these in a while, and given the amount of time people are spending indoors, I figured it might be good to share some movie recommendations. I will post my own comment...
We haven't had one of these in a while, and given the amount of time people are spending indoors, I figured it might be good to share some movie recommendations.
I will post my own comment regarding some movies I've seen recently, but I wanted to also share some quarantine / pandemic movies that might be interesting given the strange times we find ourselves in. Warning: they are probably not a great way to take your mind off things, if that's what you are searching for, hence why I'm separating them from my other comment.
- Contagion (2011) - Probably one of the more relevant movies, and certainly on people's minds. It's an interesting worst case what-if scenario, and actually tackles some of the political struggle with organizing around a pandemic.
- Perfect Sense (2011) - Overshadowed by Contagion, which is arguably the better movie, but I liked the premise of this one: a disease that slowly takes away your 5 senses, one at a time. I didn't like the ending, but for a thought experiment it captured my attention. It threw in a love plot line which may or may not have been necessary when the reaction was more interesting, but it does help provide a ground floor experience of a more terrifying epidemic.
- It's a Disaster (2012) - I have somehow managed to miss watching this movie, despite it being on my watch list for some time. A comedy, which may come in use in this trying time, it centers around a group of friends who invariably become part of a self-quarantine at their house.
- Rear Window (1954) - A Hitchcock classic. Jimmy Stewart is confined to his NYC apartment due to a leg injury, and has all the time in the world to spy on his neighbors, where he becomes obsessive over a potential domestic dispute between a couple across the way.
- The Lighthouse (2019) - Superb acting by Willem Dafoe. Two men, a seaman fresh to the trade and a seasoned veteran, are servicing the sole lighthouse on a tiny island as part of a contract. They are forced to stay longer than either imagined due to a storm passing through them. They get at their wits end with each other and their sanity slowly falls apart. Beautifully shot in black and white and with authentic vernacular, it really transports you to a different time period.
5 votes -
What are your favorite deleted scenes?
Whether it be a scene you like, a scene you think should have been kept, both, or something else. (Can also include scenes that were re-inserted in a later release, like an extended edition.)
11 votes -
Heart of an assassin: How Daniel Craig changed James Bond forever
13 votes -
The quarantine playlist - A list of film recommendations about social distancing
6 votes -
‘Fast & Furious 9’ release pushed back a year due to coronavirus
7 votes -
Soul | Official trailer
8 votes -
Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson test positive for coronavirus on the Gold Coast
18 votes -
The Guardians of the Galaxy will appear in Thor: Love and Thunder
7 votes -
Max von Sydow, star of The Exorcist and The Seventh Seal, dies aged 90
8 votes -
Finnish director Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää ensured that his new film was torture for his actors, literally – but he insists his immersive methods are just like gardening
5 votes -
No Time to Die, the newest James Bond film, will have its release delayed by seven months to November 2020
12 votes -
Moviefone, worth 1% of its former value, is being run by one employee after parent company’s bankruptcy
6 votes -
Casino Royale — How action reveals character
4 votes -
Sergei Eisinstein: Disney Fan
3 votes -
Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape, sexual assault, but acquitted of predatory sexual assault
16 votes -
Director Rian Johnson breaks down a scene from Knives Out
7 votes -
The hidden pro-union politics of Space Jam
10 votes -
Dirty Machines - "The End of History" (2020, short film)
5 votes -
A couple of thoughts about Annihilation (2018)
Just finished Annihilation. Decided to share some random thoughts: The film looks absolutely stunning. Perfect blend of beautiful and horrifying. But the characters… ugh. They are your classical...
Just finished Annihilation. Decided to share some random thoughts:
The film looks absolutely stunning. Perfect blend of beautiful and horrifying. But the characters… ugh. They are your classical horror film bunch of idiots. And, as per tradition with the modern sci-fi horror, they're supposed to be “scientists”. Bah.
It seems like both the screenplay and the visuals were heavily inspired by Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers, and possibly Andrei Tarkovsky's film adaptation, Stalker (1979), as well as a bit of his other sci-fi work, Solaris (1972), here and there. Honestly, if you like the idea of “alien shit twisting stuff around it”, and you like reading, you're way better off just reading Roadside Picnic.
Why didn't most trees change? The flowers, the moss, and the animals get all kinds of wild twisted colours and mutations, but the trees remain just green? That really bothered me. They also don't mention all this mutated flora and fauna going outside “the zone”, which, I assume, would be a giant issue.
That lighthouse would be so destroyed if it was really hit by an object of that diameter.
I found it ironic that the psychologist of the team was the one who was severely depressed. Here in Russia we call that a “barefoot cobbler” situation. But the way the film shows severe depression is pretty accurate.
Overall, I reluctantly enjoyed the film, but I couldn't stop thinking that all those visual effects and designs would be much more amazing in a Strugatsky bros. adaptation film.
15 votes -
A (comically late) Black History Month Watchlist
Yeah, so I know there's about a week and a half left in Black History Month (which is in February here, for the non-US and I believe Canada folks who didn't know), and this rec list is therefore...
Yeah, so I know there's about a week and a half left in Black History Month (which is in February here, for the non-US and I believe Canada folks who didn't know), and this rec list is therefore super late, but I've been watching some movies that were historically significant in terms of breaking racial barriers at mainstream award shows like the Oscars and in film production at large, were pioneers in getting films from African nations famous and acclaimed worldwide, or just generally covered racial issues of their times in significant or compelling ways, and thought I'd post the watchlist here in case anyone was interested. So I guess either binge all these in the coming week and a half, keep this as a guide for next year, watch any of the ones that interest you past February, or save it for October, which is when I understand Black History Month takes place in the UK.
- Within Our Gates (1920) - The first movie by an African American director to have a still surviving print.
- Eleven P.M. (1928) - A silent era film led by a mostly black cast and directed by enigmatic little known African American director Richard Maurice. An absolutely bizarre surrealist melodrama.
- Cry, The Beloved Country (1951) - This film examining the effects of apartheid in South Africa actually filmed almost entirely in segregated South Africa, possibly making it the first major film to do so.
- The Defiant Ones (1958) - Sidney Poitier was the first black man to be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars for his role in this film. Details the story of two escaped convicts, a white man and a black man, becoming friends, with more nuance and layering than its premise and time period might suggest.
- One Potato, Two Potato (1964) - One of the first, and possibly the first, films to deal with interracial marriage in a serious manner. Predates Guess Who's Coming to Dinner by 3 years.
- Nothing But a Man (1964) - Realistic depiction of life in a racist society, consisting of a constant soul-crushing barrage of minor aggressions instead of huge explosions of hate. Selected for preservation in the Library of Congress and considered to be an important example of neorealism.
- Black Girl (1966) - One of the first African films by an African filmmaker to receive international attention and acclaim. Shows the lasting damage and effects of colonialism both in the colonized country and the lives of those displaced as a result of it.
- In the Heat of the Night (1967) - Tackled racial tensions in the South in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - One of the few films of the time depicting interracial marriage in a positive light and a serious way. Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
- Black Panthers (1968) - Documents a small but significant moment in the history of the fight against racism in the US, the Free Huey movement championed by the Black Panthers.
- Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) - Considered an important film in the history of African American cinema, and credited as one of the pioneers of the blaxploitation genre.
- She's Gotta Have It (1986) - The debut film of famed director Spike Lee, an ahead of its time depiction of polyamory and female independence, it showed Brooklyn's black community in a light that drew media attention and focus to its artists and musicians following its release.
- Daughters of the Dust (1991) - The first by an African American woman to gain a general theatrical release (in 1991!). Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
- Malcolm X (1992) - A biopic of civil rights leader Malcolm X, also directed by Spike Lee. Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
- Girlhood (2014) - The film discusses and challenges conceptions of race, gender and class; Sciamma's goal was to capture the stories of black teenagers, characters she claims are generally underdeveloped in French films.
- Moonlight (2016) - Barry Jenkins' meditation on black sense of masculinity and the struggles of LGBT members in the contemporary American black community became the first film with an all-black cast to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
- Get Out (2017) - With this film exploring the exploitative horror of the modern white liberal brand of racism, Jordan Peele became the first black writer to win the Best Original Screenplay category at the Oscars, as well as the first to earn a Best Director nomination and a Best Picture nomination for a debut film.
- The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) - A film that explores the gentrification of San Francisco and the struggles in personal identity that arise from it.
I'd love to hear any feedback on the list or if you're gonna watch anything from it, and suggestions for any movies to add to it, especially between the 20s and 50s and the 90s and 00s, since those are especially massive gaps in my knowledge.
8 votes -
The Lighthouse – A short visual analysis
9 votes -
What is your favorite opening scene in a movie?
Or favorite opening scenes, you can post more than one if you want.
27 votes -
Mad Max at forty: How the low-budget original remains a film-making feat
7 votes -
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which was supposed to open three years ago, will open its doors in December, as revealed during Sunday night's Oscars. It's currently $100 million over budget.
5 votes -
The French Dispatch | Official trailer
10 votes -
Insider account of the breakdown of Seattle's Cinerama theater
8 votes -
An Unserious Man: The Jewish Currents editorial staff reflects on Uncut Gems
6 votes -
I don’t want to be the strong female lead
21 votes -
'Parasite' wins Best Picture
23 votes -
1917 editor Lee Smith reveals the truth about Sam Mendes' one-shot film
1917 editor Lee Smith reveals the truth about Sam Mendes' one-shot film This is my favourite passage from this article: He asked [a journalist] how long the film shoot was; she looked at her...
1917 editor Lee Smith reveals the truth about Sam Mendes' one-shot film
This is my favourite passage from this article:
He asked [a journalist] how long the film shoot was; she looked at her notes, said four months. How many days a week? Five.
Do you think they never turned the camera off, he said; just do the maths. "And she went, 'Oh, right'."
8 votes -
The Jesus Rolls | Official trailer
13 votes -
Sam Raimi in talks to direct ‘Doctor Strange 2’
7 votes -
The Prince of Egypt - A forgotten masterpiece
9 votes -
Kirk Douglas, indomitable icon of Hollywood's Golden Age, dies at 103
9 votes -
‘Edge of Democracy’ looks at Brazil with outrage and heartbreak
5 votes -
Jair Bolsonaro government attacks Oscar nominee Petra Costa as 'anti-Brazil activist'
10 votes -
Norwegian Dag Johan Haugerud's 'Beware Of Children' came away the biggest winner at the 43rd Göteborg Film Festival, scoring the best Nordic film prize
6 votes -
Oscars spotlight: The 2020 nominations for Best Screenplay
8 votes -
MoviePass and its parent company have both filed for bankruptcy and will liquidate their assets
6 votes -
1917 (2019) — Spoiler-free discussion thread
Trailer topic Wikipedia I watched it last week. Fantastic movie. I don't watch many war movies (in fact this is one of my first ones), but I really, really liked it. I didn't even notice the two...
I watched it last week. Fantastic movie. I don't watch many war movies (in fact this is one of my first ones), but I really, really liked it. I didn't even notice the two hours go by.
The one-shot effect is really well done, and I enjoyed trying to spot the transitions.
It's not an exceptional movie or anything like that, but it's one of the rare times I just went into the theater and came out exceedingly satisfied.
11 votes