Watch, Watching, Watch -- Why do movies have to end so soon?

[Nictarion]

Finished season 4 part 1 of Ozark. Good stuff. Julia Garner will likely be winning another Emmy for episode 7. She is just flat out amazing in this show. 

One minor question from that episode - what was the stuff that Ruth was getting from her mom’s old friend? 

[polishgenius]

I'm always surprised that people read the ending of Whiplash as triumphant. It's a downer ending for me and

Spoiler

I don't think it at all endorsed the idea that abuse is necessary for great music. Sure, it showed that abusers can get great music out of their students, but at the end of the day for me it was a film mostly about a guy abandoning or driving away all his family and healthy contacts for the high of proving he can do something that ultmately by that stage he didn't enjoy for itself.

 

[ljkeane]

5 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I'm always surprised that people read the ending of Whiplash as triumphant. It's a downer ending for me and

  Hide contents

I don't think it at all endorsed the idea that abuse is necessary for great music. Sure, it showed that abusers can get great music out of their students, but at the end of the day for me it was a film mostly about a guy abandoning or driving away all his family and healthy contacts for the high of proving he can do something that ultmately by that stage he didn't enjoy for itself.

 

Yeah that was my reaction too.

Spoiler

He's completely destroyed his life in the pursuit of being a great jazz drummer.

Firstly don't do the obsession to the point of ruining your life thing. Secondly a jazz drummer? If you're going to be a great musician that's definitely the worst possible way to do it.

 

[Crixus]

22 hours ago, Isis said:

Pretty sure I am also on 4. I watched it in real time (downloaded via links on LJ communities obviously). Then I bought the boxset and watched the whole thing again a few years after. Then I watched it again with my husband when we got together in 2010. So it's been a long time since I watched it last. When I say comfort watch, I just mean that I have lots of attachment to it. I recall all the threads on here, trying to solve all the mysteries. Those were more innocent times. 

Yeah, my first watch was also real-time and I was hooked! Joined Fuselage (site) and everything. Highlights include communicating (once) with Terry O Quinn, lol. 

[TheLastWolf]

Finally, Hitchcock's Birds

Not his best, yet, signature touches with a flourish

[Veltigar]

Watched Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon (2021) yesterday. It's a black-and-white film about a radio journalist (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who gets roped into taking care of his nephew (who is not played by a white era Michael Jackson risen from the dead, despite of what you might think) and then takes him on a trip across the USA.

It's an A24 production so you know by now what you can expect. I thought it was a nice, intimate little film of a type that isn't often made anymore. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in a break from watching films full of violence and explosions  

[Week]

5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

It's an A24 production so you know by now what you can expect.

I can't read or hear 'A24' without finishing - "A...24 year old man would like this movie" which was a dumb Twitter joke.

I don't think it is particularly true considering that I think I, a dozen years older now, like their movies more now than I would've back then when I was younger. Still, it makes me laugh each time.

[briantw]

Finally got around to binging Midnight Mass.  Overall, I enjoyed it.  The show's treatment of vampirism, which is very much in the Anne Rice mold, mingles well with Christianity, and so everything comes together pretty well.  The whole thing felt like a Stephen King novel.  Hell, Bev might as well have stepped out of one of his novels, because there's a character exactly like her in almost all of them.  

I would, however, argue that an island with like fourteen people on it is quite possibly the worst hideout imaginable for a vampire.

Also...

Spoiler

Those two kids who survived are fucked, right?  They're either going to end up in jail or an asylum because no one is going to believe their story.

 

[Mindwalker]

I'm just watching the first ep of Resident Alien, season 2 (yay!) and I realize I forgot half of what happened in season 1...  Might have to rewatch.

I'm still on team Harry, but the skinbags are getting to him.

ETA: Thinking about maybe watching Yellowjackets.

[Ramsay B.]

Just caught The Bling Ring on one of the movie channels. Rich kids steal stuff from celebs mansions and then get caught at the end. That’s it. Basically no drama involved. It is based on true events but it felt like Sofia Coppola tried to make this as boring as possible. The acting was also subpar for the most part.

I started watching Gomorrah s5. Laughed at this exchange in ep 1 for whatever reason:

Spoiler

Levante guy: You disgust me.

Genny: Fair enough

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Mindwalker said:

ETA: Thinking about maybe watching Yellowjackets.

This is why gifs should be allowed.

[Mindwalker]

Hmmm. now I'm a tad disturbed.

8 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

This is why gifs should be allowed.

 

[Ramsay B.]

I concur with Jack and Tywin. Just watch it!

[briantw]

16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

This is why gifs should be allowed.

They should be allowed because modern communication is like 63% gif.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

Hmmm. now I'm a tad disturbed.

 

The show will disturb you a lot more than Jack. It's honestly one of the best watches I've had in years. After you catch the first few episodes, tread carefully into the thread about the first season. Spoilers are everywhere.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I'll have to add my croak to the choir. Stop fucking around and just watch Yellowjackets.

Magnolia: First time in a long time. I totally forgot it's 3 hours long. Damn what a great film. Easily Tom Cruise's best performance. Phillip Seymour Hoffman should have gotten a nomination. Love the cinematography. This is the kind of movie that makes me wish they'd go back to shooting on film. 

[Ran]

Lets see..

 

Watched One Night in the Miami right around the sad news that director Regina King's only son had passed away. Such a tragedy. The film itself feels very much like a filmed play, and I'm not sure it made the leap to the silver screen perfectly. That said, Leslie Odom, Jr. as Sam Cooke was worth the price of admission alone, and his awards-season plaudits were all well deserved. All the other performers did well, of course, and I particularly liked Eli Goree's rendition of Cassius Clay/the future Muhammad Ali. 

Watched the new season of Ozark. Liked it pretty well, I was feeling Bateman's performance more compared to the last couple of seasons as he watches Wendy start cracking up, and what @Nictarion said re: Julia Garner and the final episode.

Spoiler

How such a tiny woman can exude so much raw rage in her performance, I do not know.

I have two nitpicks:

Spoiler

I think it was a mistake to start the season with a look into the second part of the season. I'm sure there'll be some misdirection here, but it made it pretty plain that the Byrdes were going to make it through most of the season perfectly well. If we hadn't had that, there was always the fear that Jonah was going to get himself killed by Darlene or Javi Elizondo, at least.

Also, speaking of Javi, I think it's sad that they couldn't have had him in the prior season, or at least some references to him. He's playing an awfully prominent role for someone who is brand new.

I also decided to pick up The Righteous Gemstones and binged through it to the present season. I had no idea it had so many Comedy Bang Bang alums -- Edi Patterson (Judy) and Tim Baltz (BJ) are both regulars (Bean Dip and Randy Snutz!), and I just realized that KJ -- BJ's sister -- is Baltz's real life wife Lily Sullivan (who has done a bunch of characters on CBB, most notably Francesca Bolognese and 24 Hour Fitness employee Bicky [the Ohioan with the Australian accent because she spent a month there on vacation, and who most recently changed her name to Lily Sullivan leading to a bunch of roles in movies and TV,. such as Jungle, Rake, and the limited series Picnic at Hanging Rock... LOL]). The show is not exactly what I expected, and I admit I'm not much of a Danny McBride fan... but this one is fun, and John Goodman this season so far has been great.

Favorite characters have to be Judy, Keefe, and definitely Baby Billy Freeman (but then, when isn't Walter Goggins great?)

Part way through Spy City, a British spy thriller set in Cold War Berlin and starring Dominic Cooper. It's blandly mediocre and I think I'm dropping it if this third episode doesn't take a turn. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy made me itch for more of the same, but this doesn't do it for me. 

Oh, and we rushed through Station Eleven, which we've posted about in the dedicated thread. Wonderful show. 

 

[Heartofice]

Finished latest part one season of Ozark. Agree with Ran here that Bateman was very good in small moments, the show is actually at its best when he’s more than just a device for pushing the narrative forward, and unfortunately he does end up being that quite a bit.

I enjoyed myself , though there is an element of fatigue setting in with this show, there are only so much of these never ending problems a person can take. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Gemini Man

Jesus what a lump of shit. 2 hours of "meh" with one good action sequence. That's about it. When the credits rolled I might have been heard to say, "Ang Lee directed this?!?"

Oh, I admire truly naked product placement in film and this one was pretty solid. Just have them enter a store before it's attacked and have them crawl past the cases of Budweiser and bags of Doritos while being shot at. Still not on the same level as Red Notice though.  

[Week]

The Last Duel was complete trash. Poorly acted, scripted, directed. The duel itself - mostly the joust - was the only worthwhile part.