Watch, Watched, Watching : Series or Stand Alone? Home or Theater?

[Derfel Cadarn]

Heh. Time for a rewatch

 

[dog-days]

I watched Isle of Dogs last night after remembering that I like Wes Anderson and realising that I could rent it cheaply on Amazon. I did enjoy it, though it felt like an inferior version of Fantastic Mr Fox. I spent a lot of the time wondering what the response to it was like in Japan, and to what extent it was orientalising, to what extent it was ironically orientalising, and to what extent it was unironically anime-fanboying. 

[Zorral]

Two have landed on Netflix: the final season of Dear White People, which evidently is mostly, like, you know, a musical?  hmmm; and Ganglands, for which the trailers have looked interesting enough I'll give it a try.

https://www.leisurebyte.com/netflix-ganglands-review-drugs-rivalries-death/

Sometime, anyway.  So little watching time. I'm still in the middle re-watching the most recent Last Kingdom series.

[Ran]

4 hours ago, dog-days said:

I watched Isle of Dogs last night after remembering that I like Wes Anderson and realising that I could rent it cheaply on Amazon. I did enjoy it, though it felt like an inferior version of Fantastic Mr Fox. I spent a lot of the time wondering what the response to it was like in Japan, and to what extent it was orientalising, to what extent it was ironically orientalising, and to what extent it was unironically anime-fanboying. 

Wonderful film. There was a gorgeous, 360-degree "behind the scenes" video which features the cast voicing the characters, and then you can pan over and see the puppet animators at work, sped up tremendously so you get a sense of the level of work needed to create what you see. Fantastic thing:

As to Japan, there was a review in the Japan Times where the reviewer (an Anglo based in Japan) watched the press screening in Tokyo. He had this to say after addressing the criticisms it got (especially from Asian-Americans or people who felt themselves in a position to speak for Asian-Americans) after it made the first festival rounds:

Quote

In Japan, though, audiences are likely to enjoy “Isle of Dogs” with fewer caveats. Watching it at a recent press screening, the biggest laugh came when one of Atari’s canine companions wistfully observed, “I wish somebody spoke his language.”

For viewers who do speak his language, the experience of watching Anderson’s film is very different. They may find themselves wondering if the script couldn’t have included a few in-jokes for Japanese speakers, like the adult-oriented gags in Pixar movies. They’ll probably appreciate the film’s fastidiously detailed world — a deliberately ugly retro-futurist landscape with 1950s Japan aesthetics, and frequent nods to the work of Akira Kurosawa and Seijun Suzuki — without worrying about exoticization or appropriation.

 

[dog-days]

11 hours ago, Ran said:

 

 

Just watched the feature - wonderful. I loved Jeff Goldblum speaking through Duke. I'm half-convinced now that Goldblum is really a husky that just shifts into human form during the day. 

[Veltigar]

Went to the theatre for a double feature tonight and left thinking that I should have steered clear from one of the films I ended up seeing if I wanted to be a happier man.

The first movie I saw was Free Guy, which is an atrociously bad film. I'm not sure what kind of dirt they had over Ryan Reynolds, but it must be Manchurian Candidate level intense for him to waste his Deadpool good will on this shit. It was clear to me that no one in the creative team behind this film must have ever played a computer game in their life, nor did any of them have any idea how viral internet fame works. 

The way the film developed was so preposterous and lazy, I cannot believe how this script ended up on the black list of most liked scripts in Hollywood before it was turned into a movie. If  I had to summarize my gripes with this film in one sentence, I would say that the action was rote, the characters cliché, the VFX unimpressive, the acting uninspired and the comedy non-existing. If you really wanted to prove that not even Taika Waititi can turn a turd into a gemstone, you have succeeded. Please stop making shit like this Hollywood.

In sharp contrast, the second film I saw was a rather delightful surprise. I was expecting standard MCU fare with a little bit of Asian sauce in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but I am pleased to say that it was much better than that. Tony Chiu-Wai Leung was amazing as the Mandarin and his character was very sympathetic despite being a villain. With the exception of maybe Killmonger, he's by a long stretch the best Marvel villain to date and I was moved by his story. 

The fights were pretty rad for an American film and I really liked the effects work. For once no sky beam in the sky, but some nice creature action in the third act and that was much appreciated. The entire cast was clearly having fun and with the exception of some minor sequencing issues within the script and some plot holes with weaponry and stuff, I thought it was a damn fine blockbuster film overall. It also has perhaps my favorite MCU after credit scene, involving a certain character from another MCU franchise and the main characters having a good time.  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I had mixed feelings about Once Upon a time in Hollywood after the first viewing, but the third time around I really feel I get what QT was going for. It's not his best work, but it's still excellent, and the attention to detail is exceptional.

In the last month or so I've watched Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upon a time in Mexico, Once Upton a time in...the Revolution, or whatever it's officially called, and now Hollywood. I think it's time to revisit Jill McBain, Cheyenne (not gonna lie, a name I'd consider for my first born, boy or girl), Frank and Harmonica. 

[RhaenysBee]

I’m watching See. Mixed feelings.

The “children” are still astoundingly insufferable. They are the single most painful aspect of the show, way ahead of the plot holes. 

Spoiler

Especially Kofun who I suspect was intentionally turned into a damsel and a clumsy and awfully stupid one at that. Sadly the writers don’t quite realize that this makes his characterization just bad and not progressive. Haniwa is terribly entitled and rude for absolutely nothing, she’s barely any more use to anybody than Kofun and not significantly cleverer either. 

The plot doesn’t often make sense and even when it does, it does so very conveniently. 
convenience is however pretty consistent throughout the script so one can just settle for the not think too much about it strategy. (This doesn’t make the plot holes disappear per se, they’ll still drive you nuts. Or they do me) 

Spoiler

It was surprisingly easy to get into Trivantes(?) and it was equally easy to get out. compass warrior friends happen upon people as easily as slavers or other enemies do when the plot requires. 

The queen, as annoying as ever, is the only character who knows what she’s doing and shaping events rather than reacting to them and that’s a breath of fresh air in the story. She’s irritating, vile, clever and plays the long game, everything Littlefinger stopped being somewhere around season 5. The perfect character to love to hate. Harlan also seems to be on this path to interestingness. Maghra is a very likable character who’s trying but so far failing to swim with the big fish. 

The other storyline that keeps me in front of the screen is Edo’s back story, who is yet another strong and fascinating new kid on the block. And also the hope that we’ll at some point explore Jason Momoa’s past and it won’t be 100% retcon. 

Overall the story keeps me interested and invested in spite of its flaws. The world building is rich though not without contradictions.  The characters are fascinating and there’s a lot of room to develop them, except for the “children”, there’s no hope for them.  

[Isis]

We watched Midnight Mass at the weekend. I liked a lot of things about it. For starters, it has plenty to say about organised religion and insular communities. I did find it a bit overly sentimental* at times - yes, I know that it is about life and death but I actually had to forward through one scene as it just went ON AND ON AND ON, hitting the audience over the head with the point and being incredibly dull in the process. But yeah, overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

 

*similar to The Haunting of Hill House, yes

[Spockydog]

12 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

I’m watching See. Mixed feelings.

Tell me about it. Blind humans living in a forest full of large predators without getting eaten. Not only avoiding getting eaten, but blind humans navigating said forest like they were born in freakin' Rivendell. GTFOH.

I see they've added Dave Bautista to their stellar cast of thespian heavyweights. 

I like Apple TV. They've made some really good shows, but this is not one of them. Whatever the televisual equivalent of doggerel is, this is it. Dreadful show.

[Annara Snow]

47 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Tell me about it. Blind humans living in a forest full of large predators without getting eaten. Not only avoiding getting eaten, but blind humans navigating said forest like they were born in freakin' Rivendell. GTFOH.

I see they've added Dave Bautista to their stellar cast of thespian heavyweights. 

I like Apple TV. They've made some really good shows, but this is not one of them. Whatever the televisual equivalent of doggerel is, this is it. Dreadful show.

I only saw the pilot last year and dropped it immediately. Ridiculous premise and there was nothing about the execution that made me want to watch further.

(Dave Bautista was pretty great in Guardians and Blade Runner 2049 though.)

[Knight of Ashes]

Black Widow

Coulda been more.

Shoulda been more.

[Annara Snow]

1 hour ago, Knight of Ashes said:

Black Widow

Coulda been more.

Shoulda been more.

More and much sooner.

[RumHam]

Black Widow really did feel like they were checking off a box in the laziest way possible.

[Heartofice]

Squid Game,  basically sums up why I just prefer Korean stuff to Japanese stuff. On paper this is basically Alice in Borderland, kinda similar premise, but almost everything about it is more interesting in a way that good Korean movies tend to be.

Its the same old ‘people go into a crazy lethal game’ set up , but it adds in the sort of down on their luck characters who feel real and social commentary on equality and poverty that something like Alice really lacked.

Where Alice felt like a real life Anime, this feels like something really well made.

Ok I’m only one episode in so it might all go downhill but so far I really like it

[RhaenysBee]

10 hours ago, Spockydog said:

Tell me about it. Blind humans living in a forest full of large predators without getting eaten. Not only avoiding getting eaten, but blind humans navigating said forest like they were born in freakin' Rivendell. GTFOH.

I see they've added Dave Bautista to their stellar cast of thespian heavyweights. 

I like Apple TV. They've made some really good shows, but this is not one of them. Whatever the televisual equivalent of doggerel is, this is it. Dreadful show.

Well it would appear to me that your feelings aren’t mixed at all  But certainly, I can absolutely see why someone would decidedly dislike this series. 

Blindness doesn’t equal being a prey animal. The series clearly has a fantastic take on blindness (as well as everything else) and there were certainly scenes that made me raise my brows, and I do have some questions about the world building, but generally the majority of it falls into the I can still believe this category for me. Which may be completely wrong. Either way, the blind premise is the least of my problems with See. 

Dave Bautista is fine by me too. It’s the plot holes that kill me. And the “children”. When I do abandon this thing, it will be because of the “children”. Insufferable. 

[Ramsay B.]

16 hours ago, Isis said:

We watched Midnight Mass at the weekend. I liked a lot of things about it. For starters, it has plenty to say about organised religion and insular communities. I did find it a bit overly sentimental* at times - yes, I know that it is about life and death but I actually had to forward through one scene as it just went ON AND ON AND ON, hitting the audience over the head with the point and being incredibly dull in the process. But yeah, overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

 

*similar to The Haunting of Hill House, yes

I’m 3 episodes in and it does get pretty talky at times. I caught my mind wandering last episode some. I will continue it though. Interested to know what scene you had to skip over(or at least what episode).

Agree with others,  Black Widow was meh at best.

[Veltigar]

Caught an episode of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones yesterday. The one where he is serving in the Belgian army in Africa during WWI. I haven't seen this series in years, but I don't understand why it isn't more popular based on this one episode.

There are a lot of things in there you couldn't get away with saying or showing today (although Indy does get called out on his colonialist thinking), but that is true for the entirety of Indiana Jones and people still love all three films. I quite like the characters and I appreciate that they do things like showing the progress of the Great War in Sub-Saharan Africa (which I can't really think is done elsewhere). I might check out other episodes.

15 hours ago, RumHam said:

Black Widow really did feel like they were checking off a box in the laziest way possible.

I'll be the contrarian, I thought Black Widow was one of the stronger MCU efforts. Sure, it should have come out years ago and it is largely devoid of stakes with a forgettable villain and some obvious political point scoring but that's pretty much every MCU film.

What made it stronger than the average outing were Florence Pugh and David Harbour. Those are two of the best supporting characters in any MCU film. Between Black Widow, Loki and Shang-Chi I actually feel like the MCU is on a bit of a hot streak right now. Still far from the best thing in theatres, but decent nonetheless. 

 

 

[Heartofice]

That WW1 episode is the one I always remember, because I can’t think of another time I’ve ever seen the Belgian army on screen! That’s one of the reasons I liked the show , it seemed to be happy to shove Indy into different unusual situations in historical contexts. I don’t remember too much else of the show but that really stood out 

[RumHam]

5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Florence Pugh and David Harbour. Those are two of the best supporting characters in any MCU film. 

They were the highlights for sure, but I wish the movie actually had something to say about Natasha beyond "she might have ditched the avengers had she not been reminded of her old adoptive family" 

Then there was also a lot of stupid plot stuff, which I'd be more forgiving of if it was a more entertaining movie. 

I've really gotta see Shang-Chi.