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

[RedEyedGhost]

On 2/1/2021 at 5:49 AM, Mark Antony said:

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

One of my favorite comedies ever.  I don't even know how many times I had to pause it to compose myself after laughing hysterically.  Some amazing build up throughout the episodes.

 

Watched the 4K version of The Lord of the Rings last Sunday.  My god, just visually stunning. 

A few weeks earlier I streamed all of The Hobbit on a Sunday as well after having purchased the blu rays from Target for like $12 before Christmas.  I had never seen any of them, and wasn't too worried about hating them at that price... but I actually quite enjoyed it   Probably helped that I had extremely low expectations and was able to watch it all at once.

Recently rewatched the first two seasons of Chuck.  Such a fun show.  Vicky Vail, Vicky Vicky Vail.

After seeing a passing comment about Banshee upthread, I looked to see if it was back on Prime.  It wasn't, so now I own it.  Will probably watch that soon, but I also recently got the HD version of The Shield so that will probably come first.

Watched Groundhog Day a couple of weeks ago, of course.  Yesterday, in the same vein, I watched The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, quite enjoyable and decent ending.

Saw Tenet last week, and quite enjoyed it.  The audio was intense, a bit too much so at times.

Will finish season 5 of Agents of SHIELD on Wednesday.  Still liking this series quite a lot.  This is probably my least favorite season though. 

They really do love them some clairvoyant people on this show don't they

  I am quite excited to see where the final two seasons go as apparently Thanos is attacking Earth right now (episode 20), and a little bit dreading to see who falls victim to the snap.  I do like that they've looped back around to where they ended season one.

[TheLastWolf]

16 hours ago, Veltigar said:

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. 

It made it to the first Oscar/Academy Award shortlist for Best International/Foreign feature film... 

Interestingly, an Indian film by a Malayali director, Lijo Jose Pellissery, touted to be the contemporary of Satyajit Ray, Jallikattu, which was the official entry of the country, didn't make it to the shortlist.

I actually watched it after reading the review by the only Indian critic I trust to decide to spend two hours of my time to watch an Indian film (India produces films as fast and numerous as babies, gonna overtake China in both the departments). Bharadwaj Rangan of Film Companion.

It was a masterclass. Unlike the usual mainstream 'masala' shit, the haunting score, the technical finesse, cinematography, sound mixing, editing, powerful visuals, proper use of natural light, mob mentality, psychologically thrilling, beautiful hill tropical forest landscapes, celebration of food and a wacko take on the toxic masculinity, defiant females, macho chauvinistic misogynistic culture etc all delved into profoundly in just 90 minutes. 

 

Another Indie attraction... 

 

Rotterdam International Film Festival. First Indian film. Tiger award. 

[felice]

34 minutes ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Will finish season 5 of Agents of SHIELD on Wednesday.

  Hide contents

  I am quite excited to see where the final two seasons go as apparently Thanos is attacking Earth right now (episode 20), and a little bit dreading to see who falls victim to the snap.

 

Spoiler

There is no snap in the AOS universe; they basically stop pretending to be part of the MCU at this point. It's not their fault, the movie people weren't keeping them in the loop on what they were planning.

 

[J. Stargaryen]

I really enjoyed The Queen's Gambit. Being a former chess aficionado, I was only disappointed in the lack of drawn games, as well as the pronunciation of "Alekhine" which is pronounced al-YECK-in, or something like that. The German spelling of Aljechin makes this is a little clearer, IMO. Overall, very enjoyable series.

[Isis]

14 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.

Interestingly, the release of this film was the impetus for me to read Fingersmith (which I really enjoyed) and then somehow I forgot about going to see the film and subsequently still haven't seen it.

[Ran]

2 minutes ago, Isis said:

Interestingly, the release of this film was the impetus for me to read Fingersmith (which I really enjoyed) and then somehow I forgot about going to see the film and subsequently still haven't seen it.

One thing it shares with the novel -- and which I should have mentioned -- is that the central character is a con artist. Between this and Parasite, con artists doing their things seem to have been in vogue in South Korean cinema at the time.

[3CityApache]

5 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

 

  Hide contents

little bit dreading to see who falls victim to the snap. 

 

Spoiler

No worries whatsoever.

 

[Veltigar]

18 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

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

The weird thing was that it was totally 100% historically inaccurate as well. They basically invented that sub plot. Have to admit I didn't dislike it, but it does feel kind of unnecessary when you take that into account.

7 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

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.

I member that movie  

19 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

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

So... how old is she exactly? 

22 hours ago, Heartofice said:

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. 
 

Never really understood the love people have for Eternal Sunshine. It's one of those films I put in the severely overrated category, but I'll probably get flack for that one XD

22 hours ago, Heartofice said:

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

What I dislike about these films is more the futility they inspire in me. I can do depressing and weird if done right, but I feel like Anomalisa and I'm thinking of Ending Things never gave me a reason to invest. 

His oeuvre is a bit like Malevich's Black Square. Perhaps not impressive on its own, but it gets power from the context in which it is made. It's good that someone out there isn't making cookie cutter conveyor belt products, but that's about all I can say in defense of his directorial efforts.

21 hours ago, Isis said:

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

Most of it was forgettable but the 

Spoiler

ancient japanese sex robot reveal did scar me for life 

 

6 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

It made it to the first Oscar/Academy Award shortlist for Best International/Foreign feature film... 

Normally, I'd say that it once again proves the Academy Awards' lack of relevance, but I haven't seen enough of the competition here to judge. Perhaps it was a poor year for foreign films? 

Anyways, Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen are a match made in heaven usually. Both acclaimed, the story at first glance is interesting and there is the tragedy of Vinterberg's daughter dying during production to propel it forward. Not to mention that I hope people realize that Jagten should have been given the award years ago instead of rewarding La Grande Belezza (or the great Felini rip-off as I like to call it).

6 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

I actually watched it after reading the review by the only Indian critic I trust to decide to spend two hours of my time to watch an Indian film (India produces films as fast and numerous as babies, gonna overtake China in both the departments). Bharadwaj Rangan of Film Companion.

I

This is interesting, I'm going to check his writing out. A good film critic is invaluable and I have never found a good one for Bollywood films  Thanks for sharing!

 

[3CityApache]

44 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

Never really understood the love people have for Eternal Sunshine. It's one of those films I put in the severely overrated category, but I'll probably get flack for that one XD

I loved it when I first saw it all those years ago, but I showed it to my daughters just few weeks ago, and - surprisingly enough - it was just meh for me this time (girls didn't love it either).

[Heartofice]

I think Eternal Sunshine highlights  everything good about Kaufman’s style and maybe why he needs to be working in collaboration with a visual director. 
 

It has these familiar elements that I see in his later work, a self loathing loser , co dependant relationships, internal monologue , grim depressing tone.. but it is counter balanced by Gondrys crazy style and some wonderful life affirming moments.

I didn’t think much of it first time but have seen it dozens of times since and I actually think it gets better every single time. It really is one of the most romantic movies I know, because it’s about 2 people who genuinely share a connection that feels real. Even if their relationship is often a mess.

Plus the way the movies deals with memory is phenomenal, probably the most accurate on screen version of how I think memories and dreams kinda feel. 
 

Those scenes where he is losing his memories of Clementine and trying to desperately cling to them are just wonderful, so sad and so touching. Even more when you realise he’s talking to himself and his own made up version of Clem.

Contrast that with Synecdoche, which as far as I could tell doesn’t really have any of those moments of wonder and delight, it’s all grim. Maybe it gets better later on, I never got far enough to know, although I do know what happens and what it’s about. 
 

And then Being John Malkovic which is also dark and unpleasant but also totally hilarious and brings delight from its sheer creativity and a sense that anything can happen. So many amazing scenes in that movie.

Maybe I should try harder with Kaufman’s new stuff but it just doesn’t seem to have the same effect 

[TheLastWolf]

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

Normally, I'd say that it once again proves the Academy Awards' lack of relevance, but I haven't seen enough of the competition here to judge. Perhaps it was a poor year for foreign films? 

Lack of relevance. True. But there are good foreign films this year. Just that the voters can't spare the time to watch all the entries and when it was a... 

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

Anyways, Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen are a match made in heaven usually. Both acclaimed, the story at first glance is interesting and there is the tragedy of Vinterberg's daughter dying during production to propel it forward. Not to mention that I hope people realize that Jagten should have been given the award years ago instead of rewarding La Grande Belezza (or the great Felini rip-off as I like to call it).

These two. 

Rangan said it best... 

Spoiler

There was a period in the 1990s and 2000s when almost every year a Pedro Almodóvar film would be tipped to make it to the shortlist. Of course, this has a little to do with the merits of this marvellous director (and god knows I worship his work). But it’s also that he had been canonised by the time: by festivals, by international critics, and most importantly, the American paying public who routinely made Almodóvar films among the highest-grossing at the box office. So, as an Oscar voter, when you have a hundred films you need to watch and don’t have two hundred hours, an Almodóvar becomes a safe bet. “I haven’t yet watched it, but it’s an Almodóvar. It has to be good, right?”

Plus 

Spoiler

If Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu had indeed ended up in that list, it would have been more of a fluke. This has nothing to do with the merits of this marvellously directed movie. It also has little to do with the admittedly important fact that – after a film is submitted for the Best International Film Oscar – we do not (or perhaps cannot, financially speaking) campaign hard enough. It has, I think, more to do with the perception of India as a “country that makes good movies” 

All from the link I embedded earlier 

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1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

This is interesting, I'm going to check his writing out. A good film critic is invaluable and I have never found a good one for Bollywood films  Thanks for sharing

Anytime. 

A small correction I'd like to make 

India is probably the most culturally, ethnically, linguistically, topographically, spiritually/religiously diverse country. 22 official languages plus 200 more, 800 dialects. I won't go into the other diversities now. So as I was saying, just because Hindi (Bollywood) is the predominant language doesn't mean that we can equate it with Indian cinema. There are a lot of other 'woods'. Molly. Tolly. Kolly. Hell, Jolly. Don't ask me which one is which language. Tamil. Malayalam and Bengali are the most intellectual, art cinema culture rich ones. In the reverse order of my listing. Hindi due to the sheer volume produces less percentage of great cinema. But Bengali gave the world Satyajit Ray and I'm grateful for that. The Apu Trilogy is an all time favorite of mine. 

That's all 

[Vaughn]

5 hours ago, Isis said:

Interestingly, the release of this film was the impetus for me to read Fingersmith (which I really enjoyed) and then somehow I forgot about going to see the film and subsequently still haven't seen it.

Fingersmith was one of my favorite Dahl short stories in the 'Henry Sugar' book. SIde note - the wonderful life of 'Henry Sugar' seems like someone would have made a movie out of it already?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, Veltigar said:

So... how old is she exactly? 

31. You'd be shocked how many people don't know the movie is a straight ripoff. 

[Veltigar]

3 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Lack of relevance. True. But there are good foreign films this year. Just that the voters can't spare the time to watch all the entries and when it was a... 

These two. 

Rangan said it best... 

  Reveal hidden contents

There was a period in the 1990s and 2000s when almost every year a Pedro Almodóvar film would be tipped to make it to the shortlist. Of course, this has a little to do with the merits of this marvellous director (and god knows I worship his work). But it’s also that he had been canonised by the time: by festivals, by international critics, and most importantly, the American paying public who routinely made Almodóvar films among the highest-grossing at the box office. So, as an Oscar voter, when you have a hundred films you need to watch and don’t have two hundred hours, an Almodóvar becomes a safe bet. “I haven’t yet watched it, but it’s an Almodóvar. It has to be good, right?”

Plus 

  Hide contents

If Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu had indeed ended up in that list, it would have been more of a fluke. This has nothing to do with the merits of this marvellously directed movie. It also has little to do with the admittedly important fact that – after a film is submitted for the Best International Film Oscar – we do not (or perhaps cannot, financially speaking) campaign hard enough. It has, I think, more to do with the perception of India as a “country that makes good movies” 

All from the link I embedded earlier 

 

Yeah, I read it. Good summation although I'm not sure whether the final argument goes for Another Round. Is Denmark a nation knows for making good movies? You have Vinterberg and Refn but apart from their filmography (which isn't entirely Danish, Vinterberg made Far From the Madding Crowd before Another Round and Refn's ego has been too big for Denmark for years now) I can't really think of Denmark as a film-making nation.

3 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

A small correction I'd like to make 

India is probably the most culturally, ethnically, linguistically, topographically, spiritually/religiously diverse country. 22 official languages plus 200 more, 800 dialects. I won't go into the other diversities now. So as I was saying, just because Hindi (Bollywood) is the predominant language doesn't mean that we can equate it with Indian cinema. There are a lot of other 'woods'. Molly. Tolly. Kolly. Hell, Jolly. Don't ask me which one is which language. Tamil. Malayalam and Bengali are the most intellectual, art cinema culture rich ones. In the reverse order of my listing. Hindi due to the sheer volume produces less percentage of great cinema. But Bengali gave the world Satyajit Ray and I'm grateful for that. The Apu Trilogy is an all time favorite of mine. 

That's all 

I know about the different 'Woods but it's kind of a mouthful to refer to. Anyways, I will not argue with the diversity of India. There are a few aspects of diversity you mention where it isn't strictly speaking number one (I recall a study from a few years ago that put Singapore on top) and linguistically speaking it has been well documented that Papua New Guinea cannot be beaten for diversity (They have like +800 languages)., but I reckon India ranks high on all the aspects above and therefore is the most diverse across all categories.

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

31. You'd be shocked how many people don't know the movie is a straight ripoff. 

Glad to hear she's off age XD

Anyways, I can imagine that you don't see the connection between a beloved child hood property and the bard straight away if you haven't though about it deeply. It is more problematic when people point it out and don't immediately see how much sense "Lion King = Hamlet with the stars of Tiger King" makes  

[Ran]

3 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

Is Denmark a nation knows for making good movies? You have Vinterberg and Refn but apart from their filmography (which isn't entirely Danish, Vinterberg made Far From the Madding Crowd before Another Round and Refn's ego has been too big for Denmark for years now) I can't really think of Denmark as a film-making nation.

Lars von Trier is the biggest name, really. He co-authored the "Dogme 95" manifesto with Vinterberg but is much more notable if you compare filmographies.

[Veltigar]

38 minutes ago, Ran said:

Lars von Trier is the biggest name, really. He co-authored the "Dogme 95" manifesto with Vinterberg but is much more notable if you compare filmographies.

Ah yes, forgot about him! 

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

31. You'd be shocked how many people don't know the movie is a straight ripoff. 

 

It's not a ripoff if you improve on the source.


That's also why The Fast and the Furious is not a Point Break ripoff.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

It's not a ripoff if you improve on the source.


That's also why The Fast and the Furious is not a Point Break ripoff.

I'd be remiss if I didn't address you with this:

 

 

 

[Underfoot]

3 hours ago, Vaughn said:

Fingersmith was one of my favorite Dahl short stories in the 'Henry Sugar' book. SIde note - the wonderful life of 'Henry Sugar' seems like someone would have made a movie out of it already?

that's likely a VERY different fingersmith

[Zorral]

Sarah Waters's 2002 novel Fingersmith was a two-part BBC series (2005) too.   A good one.  So was the novel good.