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

[Isis]

On 2/11/2021 at 9:50 PM, Ran said:

Agreed. But I really need to watch the Alec Guinness adaptation at some point. Not available on anything streaming in Sweden, near as I can tell. Do you lucky folk get to stream it whenever you want on Iplayer, I wonder?

No, but we have it on DVD.

[JGP]

3 hours ago, RumHam said:

Did anyone watch the premier of the Silence of the Lambs sequel series that can't mention Lecter? I'm morbidly curious. 

Yes. The actress playing Clarice is pumping way more of the Jullianne Moore version [meh] as opposed to Jodie Foster's [yea]

Other than that, I'm more positively mixed. It was a kind of huh what ok first episode, but I suppose important set up for Clarice to arrive at her stance come the end. Going forward, the psychological dynamic between Senator Martin, her daughter [that Clarice saved from Wild Bill] and the titular character could be interesting? I'll keep tuning in until they blow it, though there's promise that could be realized if they don't.  

 

edit: Buffalo Bill, not Wild Bill lol

[ithanos]

Watched The White Tiger. Engrossing first half but then it dragged, to my mind, in the middle, and then the last third felt too rushed. I hope leads to more gritty films of the like - that hold a light to the incredible social & economic contrasts across the Indian subcontinent. Not always an easy watch but a good start.

Also watched News of the World. Its funny that after all these years and numerous roles that this is Hank's first Western, but his Captain Kidd, with echoes of past characters from Saving Private Ryan to Greyhound, sits a horse rather nicely. It's also director Paul Greengrass' first Western. He casting of Helena Zengel to portray Johanna and resisting the temptation to make the character too smart aleckey was the right choice.
   
When the trailer came out it didn't dawn on me what the title was about. Its revealed in the opening scene and I'll admit a moment of glee about it all. The only thing that I was bothered about was that in a time and place of horses and horse drawn wagons, twin tracks, clearly made from motorized vehicles, kinda pulls me out of the era this was intended to be. I appreciate that these scenes were shot on location (and they looked glorious for it) but I guess the budget to digitally alter these modern tracks would've been excessive.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Have been bingeing thru the seasons of Man in the High Castle, just a few episodes left to see.

I understand there a minthc thread somewheres in the forum so i'll be interested to read others impressions over there soon.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 2/13/2021 at 8:52 PM, DireWolfSpirit said:

Have been bingeing thru the seasons of Man in the High Castle, just a few episodes left to see.

I understand there a minthc thread somewheres in the forum so i'll be interested to read others impressions over there soon.

I've really meant to watch this past the first season.

Anyways, this morning the woman I'm seeing and I got up a little after seven. I asked her if she'd ever seen Point Break before. She was like yeah and it sucks, but I put it on anyways. It seems she had only seen the awful remake. 

She loved it.

[ithanos]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Anyways, this morning the woman I'm seeing and I got up a little after seven. I asked her if she'd ever seen Point Break before. She was like yeah and it sucks, but I put it on anyways. It seems she had only seen the awful remake. 

She loved it.

Just a guess, but next time ask her if she's seen... Total Recall, The Wicker Man and Planet of the Apes. If the names Colin Farrell, Nicholas Cage and Mark Wahlberg pop up, then you owe it to good decency to enlighten her with better screenings.

[Veltigar]

I saw quite a lot of films and series recently. Too many to really write up, but The Dig with Carrey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes was as good as advertised. Resident Alien, Allan Tudyck's new show on sci-fi continuous to be be a light piece of fluff in a rather enjoyable way. I also find myself enjoying the new episodes of WandaVision I was ready to check out after the first three, but the fourth one got me back again. It is now getting better every week.

Tried to watch The Wanting Mare, but that turned out to be one of the most pretentiously boring pieces of schlock I have started in quite some time. I quit after half-an-hour. Been enjoying The Reagans, the documentary about proto-Trump which is very well made. Got one episode left of that.

I watched Another Round from Thomas Vinterberg last weekend. It stars Mads Mikkelsen and after their previous partnership (the devastating Jagten) I had high hopes of this. It turned out to be just okay. Never would have imagined them making such a completely forgettable film together. 

I'm Thinking of Ending Things was next. I know Kaufman is a darling of the indie crowd but this felt like such a pointless film. Especially the car scenes which go on and on and literally go nowhere. Apparently one of his quotes is " I don't know what the hell a third act is" and I'm glad at least he knows that himself. Still have to see Synecdoche and some of the stuff he's written for other directors but what I have seen of his so far doesn't really give me an incentive to delve deeper into his back catalog. 

[Heartofice]

I’m generally very disappointed at myself for not being able to get through any of Kaufman’s directorial movies. I pride myself on loving everything his did up till after Eternal Sunshine but honestly Synecdoche was a serious drag to watch, like it was causing me physical pain, and it tried 3-4 times. 
 

Anomalisa just couldn’t grab me either.

There is something about his new stuff which is just so depressing that I can’t bring myself to watch. All of his older movies were grim in their own way but also had an amazing energy and creativity about them to counter balance it, the language and insanity drew you in. 
 

Haven’t felt any of that in his recent work. I’m thinking of Ending things is on my list and I am interested in seeing it, but I fear it’s another one I will just drop out of

[Isis]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

 

Anomalisa just couldn’t grab me either.

Wow. I hated this. Completely forgot it existed until you just mentioned it. 

We have been catching up on S1 of Snowpiercer. We originally only watched the first two episodes and then just got bored and wandered off for about six months. But I have a problem with finishing series and my husband gets cross with me because we have this endless list of stuff that I've started and not finished. It doesn't bother me but it does bother him. *shrug* Anyway, we zipped through another few eps. For about two of those I was just trying to figure out whether Jennifer Connolly had aged gracefully (as a very rich person can) or had her face ironed (botox). It doesn't really grab me but I think I can get to the end of S1. What DID grab me though was the homebrew recipe I spotted scrawled above the front window of the train though. They seem to be able to do lots of stuff on the train so perhaps they can grow high quality malt and hops. 

Then I started trying to polish off Fear the Walking Dead which I had also become bored with ages and ages ago. Incredibly, I thought I was stuck in S2 and I watched a whole boring episode before the deja vu set in and I realised that I'd stopped near the end of S3! So I'm now near the end of S4 and this season is so much better than the other 3. Basically, since Morgan appeared the quality went up and it was on a par with The Walking Dead (before it got too awful). Honestly don't know why the first three seasons are so painfully slow and boring. How did they get away with that? 

Oh, and homebrew popped in Fear the Walking Dead too. They absolutely nailed the craft beer bore persona. That guy claimed he was growing hops on his roof (definitely possible). But I'm more doubtful about being able to grow high quality grain during a zombie apocalypse.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 hours ago, ithanos said:

Just a guess, but next time ask her if she's seen... Total Recall, The Wicker Man and Planet of the Apes. If the names Colin Farrell, Nicholas Cage and Mark Wahlberg pop up, then you owe it to good decency to enlighten her with better screenings.

She was shocked when I told her Lion King is a ripoff of Shakespeare. 

Also, in 2021, are we allowed to laugh at Nic Cage punching a woman while wearing a bear costume? 

[Isis]

22 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

She was shocked when I told her Lion King is a ripoff of Shakespeare. 

Also, in 2021, are we allowed to laugh at Nic Cage punching a woman while wearing a bear costume? 

You can't pour bees.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, Isis said:

You can't pour bees.

If you had watched Jupiter Ascending, you would know that "bee's don't lie." 

 

[Week]

35 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

If you had watched Jupiter Ascending, you would know that "bee's don't lie." 

 

Why would you torture yourself doing a thing like that? 

[Cas Stark]

The Dig.  Liked it a lot, as someone else said, could have done w/out the Lily James romantic sub plot.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

32 minutes ago, Week said:

Why would you torture yourself doing a thing like that? 

You're welcome:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cinephobe-ep-5-jupiter-ascending/id1486118282?i=1000479396465

[Ran]

Watched Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden, which (to my surprise) is an adaptation of a 2002 historical novel titled Fingersmith set in Victorian England. It transposes the action to Japanese-occupied Korea, and from what I can tell cuts out one or two twists from the novel while adding substantially more sexual perversion to it. It's basically an erotic thriller, and a very good one. Amazing costuming and set design, great cinematography, and in particular a really beautiful central theme from frequent Park collaborator Jo Yeong-wook. 

Park is, of course, best known (at least to Western audiences) for Oldboy. This is a decidedly less grimey film, but no less dark given the subject matter.

[Martini Sigil]

I'm in the middle of season 2 of Get Shorty... holy cow this is fun AF 

 

[WarGalley]

48 minutes ago, Martini Sigil said:

I'm in the middle of season 2 of Get Shorty... holy cow this is fun AF 

 

Yeah solid show.

[Mexal]

6 hours ago, Ran said:

Watched Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden, which (to my surprise) is an adaptation of a 2002 historical novel titled Fingersmith set in Victorian England. It transposes the action to Japanese-occupied Korea, and from what I can tell cuts out one or two twists from the novel while adding substantially more sexual perversion to it. It's basically an erotic thriller, and a very good one. Amazing costuming and set design, great cinematography, and in particular a really beautiful central theme from frequent Park collaborator Jo Yeong-wook. 

Park is, of course, best known (at least to Western audiences) for Oldboy. This is a decidedly less grimey film, but no less dark given the subject matter.

I loved this. We watched it a few months back and was totally enraptured. 

Because of this thread, we watched Shadow on Friday. Really good movie. Thought it was going to be a bit more action heavy but it wasn't and I was totally there for it. The colors were really beautiful, even if it was very monochromatic. Basically the opposite as Hero and House of Flying Daggers yet still equally as gorgeous. 

[Corvinus85]

Not actually a watched scenario, but the shitty weather across much of the US made me want to watch The Day After Tomorrow,  but I couldn't find it for free, just available for rent. Not quite worth it.