Watch, Watched, Watching: Those Bloodthirsty Gods!

[Whiskeyjack]

Thought Wind River was great.

And really sad.

[Astromech]

I watched the Brazilian western, The Killer. I liked it, reminded me a bit of a spaghetti western. It was slightly muddled in the middle where additional characters were thrown into the mix, but all came together in the end.

Longmire, The Punisher and Mudbound all release today on Netflix. This next week will be fantastic.

[Zorral]

Wind River (2017) Ironically, this was a Weinstein production, from which the film severed ties in October,

Murder in winter, on a Wyoming res.  A professional hunter, who is divorced from a native woman, evidently due to the mysterious murder of their daughter which has happened prior to the opening.  He finds another dead young woman while hunting a mother mountain lion and her young, who have taken to killing livestock.  Her death is the film’s opening, a prolonged death running barefoot in the snow, breathing freezing air. The examiner determines she has been been violently assaulted sexually and otherwise either multiple times or by multiple assailants. But the death cannot be listed as homicide since it was breathing freezing air that burst her lungs, and which ultimately killed her.

In some ways this is pure gun and ammo porn.

It’s also shot with that signature graceful, authoritive surface that tells the audience  they are about to experience a solid entertainment, in the old-school sense of that word applied to Hollywood films. Nothing that will truly disturb them will be on offer, either in action, character or story. Whether or not there is violence, all will end as it should, and the viewer is going to enjoy going on the ride.  Which itself some viewers may well find disturbing as at the end, with two fathers, one native, one white, sitting together grieving the loss of their native daughters, exchanging wise-cracks, a title card states that missing persons statistics are kept for every demographic except Native American women, whose numbers remain unknown.

It’s the same authority that is the signature of the on-screen presence these days of Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and which no one had so completely as Paul Newman, from whom, presumably Redford learned a great deal. Newman could say more by standing, sitting or watching than most actors could in 20 minutes of on screen action. 

As well, Redford has had much experience shooting in snow-covered mountains in his own star turns in movies such as Downhill Racer,  Jeremiah Johnson, The Electric Horseman and The Horse Whisperer among others in his long, distinguished career as actor, director, producer.  These snow-covered mountains are virtually the backyard of Sundance, Utah’s, first citizen, Robert Redford -- which is where Wind River premiered and was picked up by Weinstein productions for a theatrical release, if I understand the film's history correctly.

BTW, the lovely Longmire televison series, its final season up on netflix today, set in a fictional Wyoming that is really New Mexico, has the same gloss and authority, but stumbles a whole lot, and frequently is disturbing in terms of character, action and storyline, i.e. a less comfy viewing.

 

[Eggegg]

Haha, Thank you for posting the plot.. as I realised I went to the cinema to see Wind River!  Shows how much of it I remembered. I thought it was an absolutely bang average movie quite honestly. Nothing particularly interesting or memorable about it (except maybe that scene with Jon Bernthal). 

I went in with zero idea what the movie even was, and was kind of disappointed that it wasn't really much of anything at all. A message about Native Americans in the US which I feel like I've seen in every movie / tv show that includes native americans, and a not especially interesting murder that resolved itself too easily. 

 

 

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Eggegg said:

Haha, Thank you for posting the plot.. as I realised I went to the cinema to see Wind River!  Shows how much of it I remembered. I thought it was an absolutely bang average movie quite honestly. Nothing particularly interesting or memorable about it (except maybe that scene with Jon Bernthal). 

I went in with zero idea what the movie even was, and was kind of disappointed that it wasn't really much of anything at all. A message about Native Americans in the US which I feel like I've seen in every movie / tv show that includes native americans, and a not especially interesting murder that resolved itself too easily. 

 

 

Yah -- that's the whole story, which is provided to the viewer in the first 5 minutes.  All that's left for the rest of the film to occupy itself is who done it.  The surface is quite satisfying, but there's little beneath, and what is, does come through as, to put it kindly, glib.  However, one does feel that all the production, writing and filming honchos are so familiar and at ease with the locations and the matters that they didn't realize that this is how it would come across to other viewers.  OTOH, hey, it could be intentional, as so many think its the best thing they've watched all year.

[Nictarion]

11 hours ago, Whiskeyjack said:

Thought Wind River was great.

And really sad.

Those stats at the end were both heartbreaking and infuriating. 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

On 11/15/2017 at 1:33 PM, PetyrPunkinhead said:

Damn, that looks amazing! Why have I not heard of this? 

*researches online*

Oh, it's because it's on Amazon Prime in the US. They're the worst about promo. Definitely adding this to my watchlist.

 

On 11/16/2017 at 6:51 AM, Nictarion said:

You all have me interested in Fortitude. Might give it a go after I binge Punisher. 

Thread -

 

[l2 0 5 5]

I'm flying through the first season of The Expanse. Anyone else watch the show?

[HexMachina]

6 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

I'm flying through the first season of The Expanse. Anyone else watch the show?

There’s a thread a few ages back. It’s pretty popular on here and well liked by most, both those who have and have not read the books. Season 2 improved on an already brilliant first season imo. Awesome cast, gripping plot, fascinating world(s) and characters. 

[Veltigar]

I saw Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here earlier today. I didn't completely love it, but it's definitely a great film and deserving of the praise it gets. I would describe it as a less-exciting, but more human companion piece to Taxi Driver. Joaquin Phoenix was mesmerizing to look at, he deserved to win that the acting prize at Cannes. The rest of the cast was also good,, in particular Ekaterina Samsonov, who has a bright career ahead of her if she can keep this up.

The music was probably my favourite part of the film. Jonny Greenwood is a very talented man, as was already apparent from his previous collaborations with P.T. Anderson. The score is exciting, thrilling and at the same time very good at invoking this feeling of 'being damaged.'

The story was solid, but perhaps a bit too familiar. The director found a way around that by focussing on the damaged humanity of Joaquin Phoenix' bulked out machine man of character. That's the film's primary selling point but she also put less focus on the violence inherent to the film's story. It never feels like it fetishizes the actions of its main character (unlike Taxi Driver, which does glorify Travis Bickle's attacks just a little), which is commendable. Unfortunately, that also had the consequence, at least for me, that the story was slightly less engrossing, because the film sort of skipped a lot of possibilities for some prime action setpieces. That's why in the end I enjoyed it, understand its greatness but still didn't completely love it. 

EDIT: I also thought the film was superbly edited. Forgot to mention that earlier.

[l2 0 5 5]

16 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

There’s a thread a few ages back. It’s pretty popular on here and well liked by most, both those who have and have not read the books. Season 2 improved on an already brilliant first season imo. Awesome cast, gripping plot, fascinating world(s) and characters. 

Good to hear. Looking forward to season 2.

[RedEyedGhost]

I just watched Wakefield.  It was... different, interesting, frustrating, well acted.

[WarGalley]

Finished Banshee. I'm definitely going to miss this show and it's characters. The ending was nostalgia on steroids -- real tear jerker for show fans and a satisfying ending.

Spoiler

The serial killer / Satanic cult storyline kept reminding me of an episode of Buffy the Vampire slayer (probably because of Eliza Dushku). I thought it was a completely unnecessary plotline and out of tone with the other seasons of Banshee. They should have stuck with the takedown of Kai Proctor, neo Nazis and the search for Job storylines. There's enough material there for an 8 episode final season.

Now on to Punisher.

[Nictarion]

Curb was extra silly tonight. Kind of reminiscent of the Seinfeld series finale.

Larry threatening the kid so he could have sex with the mom was classic though.

[RedEyedGhost]

I watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for the umpteenth time tonight.  Just as good as the first time.  

"Welcome to Marathon. May I help you?" NSFW

Aww, he's drunk. How would he know where we're going?

 

1 hour ago, Nictarion said:

Curb was extra silly tonight. Kind of reminiscent of the Seinfeld series finale.

 

  Hide contents

Larry threatening the kid so he could have sex with the mom was classic though.

 

That was pretty damn good, especially the

Michael J Fox stuff

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

"Shameless" has been interesting this Season. They are actually doing a "Good Frank" with K. Macy's character and even though thats an enormous twist, i'm actually enjoying it.

eta: I saw "The Great Wall" tonight on HBO. I thought it was really great. I could be wrong, but I think they used that same Director that made "Raise the Red Lantern" and all those great Gong Li movies in the past.

[briantw]

On 11/19/2017 at 11:52 PM, Nictarion said:

Curb was extra silly tonight. Kind of reminiscent of the Seinfeld series finale.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Larry threatening the kid so he could have sex with the mom was classic though.

 

The scenes with the guy investigating Larry were hilarious.  

Spoiler

His grin when he asked, "So, Larry refused to follow Jewish orthodoxy?" was fantastic. 

 

[JonArryn]

On 2017-11-17 at 7:25 PM, Astromech said:

I watched the Brazilian western, The Killer. I liked it, reminded me a bit of a spaghetti western. It was slightly muddled in the middle where additional characters were thrown into the mix, but all came together in the end.

Longmire, The Punisher and Mudbound all release today on Netflix. This next week will be fantastic.

Mudbound was dissappointing. Actually most movies from Netflix have been. They have a lot of really good shows. But their movies don't work imo. I watched 6 Days, and that was a quite bad movie. Mudbound had a really good trailer so I thougt they'd make a hit with that one. But the characters were so cardboard that it became unengaging very fast. And the story was nonexistant. Considering the premise here they could have done something much more engaging than what they did. 

2 episodes into The Punisher and really like it. Continuing on from Daredevils brilliant second season. 

[PetyrPunkinhead]

There's so much new entertainment coming at me lately I can't keep up. (I'm behind on TWD, Curb, SNL, & Brooklyn Nine-Nine.) I saw Wonder and Justice League at the cinema this weekend. Both were good but not great. They were about what I expected from their trailers, and I thought both were worthy of my money to see on the big screen.

I'm half way through Punisher S1 on Netflix. Disappointed Frank literally ditched the skull in the first episode. I'm not sure what it is with the aversion to the skull logo, but there've been at least two scenes so far where I was like, "Damn. That would've been cooler if he had on his logo." It seems like a minor nitpick, but for an old school comic book fan it's equivalent of seeing Batman fight without his cape.

[Astromech]

23 hours ago, JonArryn said:

Mudbound was dissappointing. Actually most movies from Netflix have been. They have a lot of really good shows. But their movies don't work imo. I watched 6 Days, and that was a quite bad movie. Mudbound had a really good trailer so I thougt they'd make a hit with that one. But the characters were so cardboard that it became unengaging very fast. And the story was nonexistant. Considering the premise here they could have done something much more engaging than what they did. 

2 episodes into The Punisher and really like it. Continuing on from Daredevils brilliant second season. 

Damn, that's disappointing about Mudbound. I'll still watch it, but my expectations are a bit tempered now. I have to agree with your concerning Netflix movies. I haven't really been blown away by any and those I liked were not fantastic.

I have two episodes left of the final season of Longmire and I'm happy to be back with these characters in Absaroka County, but the show is flying through stories trying to touch base with a number of different arcs to wrap up any loose ends. Some of these arcs are also a bit minor, so a waste of screen time imo. Shame this is the final season.

Slowly working through The Punisher. I think I'm finally through the early build up episodes. At least I hope I am.

Finished Longmire. I felt it was one of the weaker seasons . . .

Spoiler

 due to reasons I mention above in addition to the final two episodes. I always disliked the idea of Walt and Vic together. Those last two episodes were just awkward. Possibly the most awkward love scene I've watched in a  while. Walt and Vic having to each drink more vodka to do the deed was just hilarious. In addition, Vic's entire storyline form the previous season was just rushed through and wrapped up to get her and Walt together in the end. There was a bit of depression and grief after she lost the baby, when the showrunners had nothing else for her to do. And don't get me started on her losing the baby. You had to be willfully blind to not see that coming. The Walt/Vic arc was my biggest complaint. I thought it never should have happened, but if it did, it should've been handled much better. I wonder where Travis disappeared to? Back to his mom's?

I  liked the resolution of some the other character arcs. Henry's being the best. I was happy for him. He always seemed the most altruistic character in the series and it was fitting for him to take over the casino and the welfare of his people. His arc from last season and kidnapping  wrapped up too quickly, but I'm a bit understanding with the rushing of storylines since it was the last season. I didn't like the rush of storylines, but understand the showrunners' desire for closure. I simply wanted more out each character's arc. This season could've used a few more episodes.

Ferg's arc this season was pretty good. One of the better arcs of the season. Not much to complain about there except for his non-reaction to taking a life.

Cady's resolution was just . . . wtf? She's running for sheriff? Umm, no. I loved her as the good-intentioned, naive legal-aid attorney for the Cheyenne Reservation, but sheriff? And Walt though she would be a great sheriff? Because she knows the law?I'm still shaking my head in disbelief about that one. Walt probably knows she'll probably be disbarred for her actions this season. However, her and Zach worked for me. They actually had on-screen chemistry. I was happy the showrunners brought him back. He's a great addition to the Absaroka County Sheriff's Department.

Poor Jacob Night Horse. What happened to this character? He went from being  a great antagonist to an absolute doormat of a character. I realize Malachi was the big bad in the series, but Jacob was simply butchered as a character this season.

I also hated having the Irish mob back.