Watch, Watched, Watching: My Queen's Gambit brings all the boys to the yard

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

That's an exact quote of what Mulligan said to NYT, which started this all. So, no, you are the one missing the root of her complaint, since she was misconstruing what he was saying to begin with.

 

That exact quote in no way validates the idea that her problem was she's upset about her not being hot. Even when you selectively ommit the ending of that sentence - "they didn't think I was hot enough to pull off this kind of ruse" - which puts a whole different context on what she's saying that you're trying to ignore. Even moreso when you add the rest (emphasis mine): " ‘Really? For this film, you’re going to write something that is so transparent? Now? In 2020?’"
 

2 hours ago, Ran said:

He was not saying she wasn't "hot enough", even though that's how she construes it, and indeed was not commenting on her attractiveness at all. He was commenting on there being a strange "meta" quality to hair, makeup, and accent choices that he didn't understand the intent behind,

This was certainly part of his comment, but as soon as he implied that it looks bad on Mulligan but would have worked with Robbie, it becomes about her appearance and that of Robbie. He might not have been trying to say that - I agree that it almost certainly wasn't his intent - but accidental cruel and pointless sexism is still cruel and pointless sexism and should still be called out. There are myriad ways to say that there were odd design choices that he didn't get without invoking appearance. There are even ways he could have said he thought Mulligan was the wrong pick for the context and someone else would have been better, but it needed more work than 'bad drag but uh Margot Robbie' to get that point across.

[Ran]

34 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

Wait...what? Scorsese had nothing to do with that film as far as I know. He definitely didn’t direct it. 

 

LOl. Luhrman of course. Stupid me, I keep getting infected by fucking Entourage which had the lead in Scorsese's version Great Gatsby for some bloody reason.

3 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

That exact quote in no way validates the idea that her problem was she's upset about her not being hot.

Then why is Variety being thanked by her for its apology to a review that is all about alleged " insensitive language and insinuation"?

She is 100% upset that he allegedly criticized her as "not attractive enough", when I guess what one should say is that he thought the camp look they gave her was a distraction that would have possibly better served a pretty-but-weak actress like Margot Robbie rather than a pretty-but-strong actress like Carey Mulligan.

 

3 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

" ‘Really? For this film, you’re going to write something that is so transparent? Now? In 2020?’"
 

 

His whole critique is about the camp look they give her seeming out of place and inexplicable to him. Whether she agrees or disagrees, the fact that the film's director made deliberate choices like that hair and makeup suggest they 100% intended them, and so they are absolutely okay to comment on.

So, yes, for this film which goes out of its way to present its character in garish hair and makeup, it is entirely appropriate to comment on it. Not to degrade her as a performer -- again, reading between the lines of his comments, he clearly thinks she's a better actress than Robbie! -- but to question what the film was trying to say with those choices.

[polishgenius]

32 minutes ago, Ran said:

 

So, yes, for this film which goes out of its way to present its character in garish hair and makeup, it is entirely appropriate to comment on it.

Of course it is but do it properly. The accusation 'looks like a man in drag' is a very common way of putting women down by saying they look ugly in a manly way- his use of the term probably didn't mean to invoke that but he has no excuses for not being aware of that connotation and invoking it is rank carelesness at best.

 

 

34 minutes ago, Ran said:

again, reading between the lines of his comments, he clearly thinks she's a better actress than Robbie!

I don't think this helps your point at all. He thinks Mulligan is a better actor than Robbie but he thinks Robbie would have been better in this role. Why? Having Robbie wouldn't automatically make the hair and makeup choices less garish, so what is the point of the comparison, of bringing Robbie up in this context at all? 

[Veltigar]

I see Promising Young Woman is as controversial here as it is in the outside world. I will have to thread carefully then, luckily that is my specialty  I wanted to wait a day to let the movie sink in, but I'm happy to note that my opinion hasn't been swayed by a night of repose.

I thought this was a great movie all things considered. Very different from what I was anticipating, but it is really good at misdirecting you into believing that it is a far more mundane flick than it really is.  From the trailers, I was anticipating a violent revenge film and I would have been fine with it. I would say that the first 4/5th of the film is coded that way and if it had ended just like that I would have enjoyed it already as it is definitely a few steps above what those films can usually offer in terms of style and acting. Fortunately enough, the film's finally 1/5 takes a far more interesting approach which greatly elevates its overall standing. I'll get into that a bit more when I start using spoiler tags, but first some general remarks about other things I greatly admired about the film.

First, there are the performances. I really missed Carey Muligan. There was a time, early on in the last decade that she was seemingly everywhere but I feel like she disappeared after Far from the Madding Crowd. I don't know whether she decided to take a break for whatever reason or that she just made a string of unfortunate career choices, but with this film she has come back in force. I don't know what her competition is, but I would definitely feel like she deserved the Award for best actress, that's how great this performance was. She's playing a pretty mysterious character throughout the film and keeps her cards close to her chest. The film does a great job coloring all the details around her, but she can't really reveal anything. I wouldn't even know how to begin playing that, but she does it, which is just amazing.

All the other performers are great as well. Alfred Molina steals the few scenes he's in, but for the rest I'm just very happy that all these big name actors agreed to appear as sleaze bags. Taking in isolation, that alone would have elevated the film, because you have all these actors who are usually known for playing these all-american good guys and here they are shown as predators. It reminds me a bit of casting Henry Fonda as Frank in Once Upon in the West. Here you have this icon of American cinema, with those amazing blue eyes and he just does the most despicable shit. 

Apart from the performances, I was also completely enamored with the style and direction of this film. I'm a sucker for these very stylized, hyper-reality type of movies and Promising Young Woman certainly has that in spades. I think Chris Stuckmann, in the video shared by @Nictarion, described the visual DNA of this movie as "candy-like" and that is a very good approximation. I feel like this entire film was very stereotypically "girly" from the music choices (with a brilliant use of Toxic by Britney Spears leading the way) to the candy and unicorns aesthetic with lots of pink and pastel colors. It sort of reminded me of going to the toy store as a little boy and then taking a wrong turn and entering into the aisle with all the barbie crap. Just this massive wall of pink. I wonder whether a guy could have made this really. 

Given how confident this film was, I was very surprised to read that Emerald Fennell is a first-time director. TIt reminds me a bit of seeing the first films by Nicholas Winding Refn. Not that they have much in common style-wise, but more in the idea that both of their debuts were so self-confident and strongly identifiable as their own thing.

I read on IMDB that Fennell was also a show runner on the second season of Killing Eve. I remember that that season was very controversial, but since I thought season 1 was absolutely godawful I never watched her season. Based on this movie though, I'd almost be willing to go out and see it.  Safe to say I'll keep my eye on Emerald and I'm looking forward to see what she does next. It will probably be another gem.

Now that I have covered the acting, directing, style and music I have to go into spoiler territory, so don't click on the spoilertags before you have seen it, because I'll basically spoil the entire film below. If you don't care about spoilers and still want to read what I have to say, I'd advice to first watch the trailer for some context:

Spoiler

As stated above, I think for literally 4/5 of Promising Young Woman, the film feels very predictable. It's still highly enjoyable due to the performances and directing, but it doesn't appear to go much beyond that.

The way the plot is set up in the first five minutes is basically "Here is Carey Muligan's character. Something really bad happened to her friend and that messed with her soul, now she's exacting revenge on rapists by killing men who fail her consent test."

If that sounds basic, then you'd be right. It gets worse though. A while into the film, she meats a former class mate. He's a pediatric surgeon, quite funny and he seems to be very much into her. In short, he's just a little bit too perfect. Basically from the moment he appears, you know he must be sullied somehow and that he probably had something to do with Nina's rape and murder/suicide.

There aren't very many surprises there when the movie unfolds almost exactly that way during "I", "II",  and "III". The only false note is when she gets taken to a flat by McLovin'. I was expecting violence to break out, but oddly enough she just walks away. I could rationalize that I was still watching the same stereotypical revenge fantasy however, because Muligan's character gives an explanation why she walks away. I assumed at the time that we were basically seeing a Taxi Driver situation, where the director was going to spare the violence for the final outburst and try and preserve our sympathies for Muligan up until then. 

Anyways, the movie keeps on going and the next time something weird happens is when "IIII" appears on the screen. Before that, I was assuming that the "I's" were Roman numerals indicating the act number, but all of a sudden it became clear that the "I's" were used in the same way as in her notebook. It was at that exact time that the movie steps up immensely from an enjoyable and well-made guilty pleasure to a masterful work of art in my opinion. 

As it turns out, the violent revenge fantasy set up by the first five minutes (and very much reinforced by the trailers which sell this as a horror/thriller type of film) was always a misdirect. After her first encounter with a douche bag nice guy in '"I" she's depicted with what I thought was blood on her thighs (which lead me and I guess most of the rest of the audience to conclude that she murdered him), but it actually turned out to be ketchup from the hot dog she's eating.

In actual fact, throughout the film, she hasn't harmed a soul. The only thing she has done throughout the film is confront predatory guys with their douchy behavior and then she always walked away. This allows the character to remain morally pure (I guess that and the fact that 2/5 main villains in the film are females saves this film from being another victim of the culture war) and makes the sacrifice she makes in the end, when she finally confronts the guy who raped her friend, and basically provokes her own murder, all the more poignant.  

Those last 10 minutes, which included her murder, were absolutely brilliant. To watch the murder of Carey's character for whom we have been rooting; well that was superbly uncomfortable. The way it was shot, with the suffocation taking well over 2 minutes, also made it feel real. It actually reminded me a bit of the ending of Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, which we discussed at length a few weeks back. The long lingering of the camera gave the scene this voyeuristic feel and I think it really drove home the point that the events in this movie aren't that far from what we see in reality. Unfortunately, femicide and so called "nice guys" raping women are still big problems even today. 

What made it even worse was that the perpetrator, who up to that point had been this maniacal rapist in my mind, turned out to be anything but a super villian. In  fact, he was extremely pathetic, the biggest worm since Grimma from the Lord of the Rings. I don't know why, but his weakness somehow made the whole ordeal even more horrific. A powerful villain can be twisted into a figure of admiration (e.g. how some people think Christian Bale's character in American Psycho is a roll model), but weakness remains forever despicable.  

That whole sequence was a twist I hadn't seen coming, but the movie doesn't stop there. The murderer's best man enters and instead of freaking out, he comforts the murderer and then they just calmly get rid of Carey's corpse. To make maters worse, they seem to get away with it. The cops go visit Carey's douche bag boyfriend and instead of redeeming himself, he just reveals himself to be an even more despicable sod than what had been revealed so far. The villains seem to get away with everything, because Carey couldn't be traced.

This basically meant that she would be forgotten and that these assholes would yet again walk away with everything. They'd get their perfect wedding, with their perfect bikini model wife and then they would get to enjoy their perfect rich, privileged kind of life. 

If the movie had stopped there, it would have been superbly depressing, but it does not. A "IIII" appears and it turns out that Carey planned for her own death and now they all get apprehended and send to jail. That was another brilliant twist I didn't see coming, but totally in line with the character Mulligan has been portraying. She was a very promising young woman after all, so naturally she would not make any rookie mistakes like the one she seemed to make right before she was murdered. It also makes complete sense that she would sacrifice itself, because she is so traumatized by all the darkness around her that she had nothing left to live for. 

And that is when the real thing hit me, namely that I don't know what to feel about this film. At first glance, Muligan's character won because all the perpetrators are going to jail, but in the end, that doesn't really mean anything. Their arrest and jail time will in no way compensate for the death of not one, but two promising young women who could have done so much more, who had the right to so much more. All the punishment in the world can't right the wrong that was initially done and thus our satisfaction in the villains' downfall is just empty posturing.

It is in that ambiguity of feeling, which reflects real life, that this film's brilliance lies. 

EDIT: This must be the longest review I have ever written. Still, for anyone who saw the film, I think it is well worth your time  

EDIT2: And even in the longest review I have ever written, it seems I forgot something. I also found this film to be remarkably witty. There is a real spark to the dialogue which is just another mark of strength it has going for it.

[Veltigar]

A friend shamed me into watching Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny. I remember their song Tribute quite fondly, but for some reason I cannot remember having ever seen the movie, so I decided what the hell, some light fare might be a good antidote for the times we live in today. 

I read on IMDB that this movie was panned by critics and that Jack Black made a vow never to write another movie again because the critical backlash to Tenacious D made him lose his confidence. After the heady mediation on justice and retribution that was Promising Young Woman, I'm glad that I learned this little fact by watching Tenacious D. It is proof that at least sometimes, justice is a real thing. 

This is a real turd of a movie. Not particularly funny, without much in the way of memorable music (nothing that comes even close to Tribute). It's one of these films that makes me wonder what qualifies people to make movies anyways. This must have cost a few millions to make but it's just so terrible. Who ever believed this was a good idea?

[DMC]

24 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

This is a real turd of a movie.

I remember giving it a shot years ago because, like you, a friend was insistent.  Turned it off after maybe 10 minutes tops.

[Argonath Diver]

The songs worked great in their original HBO Tenacious D series. Then probably better as an album. They were my all time favorite live show, also. I was a big fanboy for years and years. That movie was atrocious, though. Removed all the charm from the series, and somehow a lot of the music for the film was terrible. I think the shtick really only worked as a lo-fi,  low budget vibe,  anyway. 

[Zorral]

Promising Young Woman is so not appealing to me.

However Mulligan was very good in The Dig -- as was Ralph Fiennes, and others.  Very old-fashioned sort of film.

The Dig takes place in 1939, at what becomes called the site of Sutton Hoo.  Watched while a variety of WWII era pop music playing on a radio in the other room leaked into the headphones through which I was hearing the film.

We travel to the dead, and the dead travel to us.  Time slips when we confront palpable evidence of the past such as fingerprints in paint, paint applied by the hands thousands of years ago. 

We begin with images of Ancient Egyptian rulers' images in a book read by one of the protagonists. We conclude with the reburial of the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon ship to protect the dig site from WWII's aerial blitz.  Throughout is threaded the child's enthralled imaginative play with space travel. The child effortlessly holds the past, the present and future simultaneously. The site's invading Saxons' ship enthralls him as much as his imagined space invaders' ships, while he carries the present-day concern for his mother's ill-health, and others whom he loves who are called to fight the nazis. Invasions, those of past, present and future, all at once, are the center of his life.

The scripted drama gives us as the heroes of archaeology, those who have been lost and written out of the discoveries. The vast inequalities of social and class division, the imposed national political, hereditary, economic hierarchies are imposed upon the site, mirroring those of society at large, past and present. This is a story of some of those and how they are the ones who made the Sutton Hoo discoveries: the non-wealthy, those lacking formal academic bestowed degrees, women, those who are classed as "merely laborers," yet, without whom nothing can be done, whenever then is, whenever now is, whether building the pyramids or rediscovering them. These who tend to be forgotten or written out of history even as they were the history movers and shakers.

Even entire groups who historically were movers and shakers, creators of  the history that we study, can be written mostly out. Merovingian!  They said the word Merovingian and Merovingians!  Merovingian objects in grave ship's burial chamber.  Now this is unlikely to have had the same electrifying effect on other watchers -- see, written out of history -- but it sure did on this one, a Merovingian watcher if there ever was one. 

Now I want a cat or dog, so I can name him or her Basil Brown. after the character played by Ralph Fiennes.  I will call dog or cat Baz. 

[polishgenius]

15 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Now this is unlikely to have had the same electrifying effect on other watchers -- see, written out of history

Lies, we've all seen The Matrix Reloaded

[Zorral]

6 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Lies, we've all seen The Matrix Reloaded

Nope.  I haven't seen it! But if there are Merovingians in it, maybe I should?  What do they do?

[polishgenius]

Just now, Zorral said:

Nope.  I haven't seen it! But if there are Merovingians in it, maybe I should?  What do they do?

 

I wouldn't, you'd be disappointed- there's a character called The Merovingian, a sort of cyber-gangster whose name is almost certainly taken for the character because of the bollocks conspiracy theories about the Merovingians being direct descendants of Jesus, which gives some symbology to who this character is.

[Veltigar]

Watching Alfred Molina's excellent turn in Promising Young Woman made me want to revisit some of his previous work. It's crazy how large his output has been over the years and it really is a shame he's not much more widely known. I remember him very fondly for example as the villain in White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf and Dudley do-Right (Aka Canadian superman), so I decided to rewatch a film with him.

I opted for Spiderman 2, because I remember him being excellent in the role of Doc Oc and since he's apparently returning to the role, I thought that would be a good idea. It's shocking to see him in that film and realize he's now almost seventy years old. Time has been pretty kind on him it seems, because apart from having more grey in his hair he doesn't look much older than fifty in Promising Young Woman.

He really is great in the role and I'm kind of excited to see him again. I'll be drafting this review based on notes I'll make during the movie, just as a nice change. I hope Molina draws another few nice roles like that over the next couple of years because this is a man who deserves to be acting until the very end. He's that good. He elevates Spiderman 2, which is otherwise quite cringe-worthy and doesn't really have enough of his character in it.

In fact, watching it, I remember why I hate Spiderman so much. Peter Parker really is such a loser and even by the low, low standards of superhero films this world just doesn't make sense at all. Why the fuck are we pretending like Peter Parker, with the powers he has, would have to worry about money ever again? In a world where Red Bull throws bundles of cash at any extreme athlete, you just know Peter could set up a sweet business earning him enough money to keep comfortable while he's doing his studies (and which would probably be more time efficient than delivering pizza's and providing JK Simmons with selfies). I don't understand at all why he's keeping his identity secret, apart from the beef Harry has with Spiderman (which is dumb as well), but even then he could definitely figure something out that allows him to keep his identity secret while cashing in.

It's also just absolutely ridiculous that the Spiderman set-up as shown in these movies could be maintained. I know these films are from a time just before smartphones became ubiquitous, but there were already camera phones back in 2004, not to mention that there is plenty of CCTV cameras and other sources that should reveal Peter Parker's poorly maintained front straightaway (especially since the idiot seems to take his mask off every time he can). In this movie, he literally intervenes into a robbery by taking over the getaway car of a bunch of gun-wielding villains (who were stupid enough to shoot at police officers...) and then he drives that same car away to M.J. play and leaves it in front of the door while a police officer threatens to have it towed away... Do finger prints not exist in this movie? Or DNA? It's really insulting the audience's intelligence in my opinion, but then this movie doesn't really give a shit. Peter Parker retires for a few days and all of a sudden New York sees a 75% increase in crime... Do the screenwriters understand how fucking ridiculous that is? They must have had a very dim view of human nature if it takes a masked clown with spider jizz powers to keep NYC from going completely bonkers (and how incompetent is the police in this world?)

The casting in this film is also so weird. With the exception of Alfred Molina and James Franco, I don't find any of the leads well cast (and Franco is more like hilariously awful than actually good). Toby Macguirre is a little dweep and he makes an already risible character so much worse. I actively root for him to fail. Tom Holland is a much better choice for Spiderman, because I at least want to give him a chance. Kirsten Dunst is just terrible as MJ (how the fuck does a woman like that score an astronaut who went to the fucking moon). I dislike seeing the two of them together so the ending made me gag a little.  

I'm at the point where the science experiment goes wrong... I forgot that the experiment would also take place there in that old-time warehouse in what looks like the center of NYC, which is such a terrible space for experiments. It's not clean or sterile and it's in the middle of NYC. Even if we ignore the safety aspect, it seems quite unlikely that Oscorp would pay NYC rent prices for something that could be done better, safer and cheaper elsewhere. 

There is also a weird amount of slapstick in this movie. All things considered I prefer the quips of the MCU brand of humor. The ending is also barf-worthy. Poor guy she ditches at the alter. I'm surprised by how much I disliked this film. It is just so aggressively... early 2000. A bit like Limp Bizkit. All in all a waste of a good Alfred Molina performance. Can't wait to see him in a film with a better Spiderman in a better decade. 

3 hours ago, DMC said:

I remember giving it a shot years ago because, like you, a friend was insistent.  Turned it off after maybe 10 minutes tops.

You were a wiser man than I was.

38 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Promising Young Woman is so not appealing to me.

However Mulligan was very good in The Dig -- as was Ralph Fiennes, and others.  Very old-fashioned sort of film.

The Dig takes place in 1939, at what becomes called the site of Sutton Hoo.  Watched while a variety of WWII era pop music playing on a radio in the other room leaked into the headphones through which I was hearing the film.

You're missing out. I'll actually watch The Dig later this weeks when I visit my folks. Curious to see how it goes as The Observer gave it a pretty solid review. 

 

[Heartofice]

It's been a long time since I properly watched Spiderman 2, but I think you've gone into it thinking a little too deeply. My love for the movie is based on how 'comic book' it feels, far more than almost any other superhero movies. It really got the tone right in almost every way. I really don't think you can watch it and start thinking 'oh people would take photos', its almost not existing in our universe, it's much more of a living cartoon and all the better for it.

Plus I really think Maguire is a great Peter Parker, I like Holland, but Maguire really makes me feel sorry for him, again I think he gets the tone just right when it comes to Pete, and I have far more of a sense who he is than any subsequent version. 

Also, I think the humour is great, it's stupid and over the top, very much Raimi, I laughed out loud a few times I recall.

I have to think the above review of the movie was written by the Grinch.

[Heartofice]

I started watching Dead to Me out of sheer lack of crap to watch with the family. I certainly am not interested in Bridgerton which is basically Gossip Girl in a frock. 

As for Dead to me, I still have no idea what it is. I get the sense that it's a dark comedy, and that it's all building up to something, but at no point does it ever feel like there is anything there worth being revealed. Every episode basically lets us know what is happening and it's rarely surprising. I'm watching because the two leads are very watchable. Christina Applegate is actually brilliant as a hard nosed middle aged woman, really fits her well when it's not how I really imagine her. Also Linda Cardellini is FIT, whatever age she is. She is better looking than ever!

It's enjoyable, I just don't get what I'm watching.

[Mark Antony]

Took me a while but watching Peep Show and it’s fucking hilarious. Haven’t been able to stop watching or stop laughing 

[Vaughn]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

I started watching Dead to Me out of sheer lack of crap to watch with the family. I certainly am not interested in Bridgerton which is basically Gossip Girl in a frock.

I watched some of Dead to Me and while well made, excellently acted, etc... I guess I stopped watching because I found the secret being kept by LC stressful, for lack of a better description. I enjoyed their interactions and was dreading the presumed future trainwreck when it is revealed.

Haven't watched 'Promising Young Woman' yet, but having read a spoiler about it

Spoiler

I can't believe Piz turned out to be a murderer. Team Logan I guess.

 

[Veltigar]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

It's been a long time since I properly watched Spiderman 2, but I think you've gone into it thinking a little too deeply. My love for the movie is based on how 'comic book' it feels, far more than almost any other superhero movies. It really got the tone right in almost every way. I really don't think you can watch it and start thinking 'oh people would take photos', its almost not existing in our universe, it's much more of a living cartoon and all the better for it.

Plus I really think Maguire is a great Peter Parker, I like Holland, but Maguire really makes me feel sorry for him, again I think he gets the tone just right when it comes to Pete, and I have far more of a sense who he is than any subsequent version. 

Also, I think the humour is great, it's stupid and over the top, very much Raimi, I laughed out loud a few times I recall.

I have to think the above review of the movie was written by the Grinch.

I can't help it that I cannot turn my brain off  This movie makes no sense whatsoever, even by the standards of its own universe. I guess it's the character partly. I have never liked Spiderman, there is just something grating about that particular character. Still, the last film with Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal was pretty good, so the fact that this is so much worse must partly be the result of Maquire

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I have to think the above review of the movie was written by the Grinch.

Never cared that much for Jim Carrey XD

 

[Heartofice]

1 minute ago, Veltigar said:

I can't help it that I cannot turn my brain off  This movie makes no sense whatsoever, even by the standards of its own universe. I guess it's the character partly. I have never liked Spiderman, there is just something grating about that particular character. Still, the last film with Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal was pretty good, so the fact that this is so much worse must partly be the result of Maquire

Never cared that much for Jim Carrey XD

 

Thats probably the difference, I was always a big fan of the cartoons growing up, and I think Raimi's movies do a really great job of capturing that aesthetic! I thought the last Spidey movie was actually pretty naff, outside of Gyllenhaal, I barely remember it. I'd say Spiderman 2 and Spiderverse are head and shoulders above all the other attempts. 

[Veltigar]

20 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Thats probably the difference, I was always a big fan of the cartoons growing up, and I think Raimi's movies do a really great job of capturing that aesthetic! I thought the last Spidey movie was actually pretty naff, outside of Gyllenhaal, I barely remember it. I'd say Spiderman 2 and Spiderverse are head and shoulders above all the other attempts. 

Exactly, so pretty good! I don't remember being insanely bored by it or wishing that someone was waterboarding me instead of having to sit through the film, which is pretty good 

[Maithanet]

On 1/30/2021 at 2:16 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

We finally got into Schitts Creek and are really enjoying it.  We’re in the middle of S2.

We watched the pilot a couple of times over the years and chuckled once or twice but weren’t grabbed by the fish-out-of-water premise it set up — it felt a bit tired and hackneyed. But when we went back to it and gave it a few more episodes, the humor really comes from the characters rather than the forced situation.  Dan Levy is really good in it.

Definitely recommended if anyone else is as late to this as we were.

My wife and I are watching this as well, we're halfway through season 4.  It is a show that takes some time to find its footing.  Throughout season 1, three of the four family members are completely insufferable, which made it very hard to watch.  In later seasons only Moira is a chore to watch, and the supporting cast gets more screen time.