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[DMC]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

I think you may be right. Last example I can think of, off hand, is Good Will Hunting, and before that... School Daze, maybe?

If you're gonna mention School Daze how can you omit School Ties?!?

But yeah, definitely agree that those type of films were much more common back then.

[Ran]

15 minutes ago, DMC said:

If you're gonna mention School Daze how can you omit School Ties?!?

Never seen School Ties, for some reason, though I remember the trailer for it for reasons inexplicable to me. I should correct that. 

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

the lag time with Netflix.

I know, right!  At least it means there's something to look forward to, when there's so much going on that is terrible.

[Spockydog]

Watched episode six of The Shining Girls on Apple.

Was really enjoying it so far, but then they had to do and do a 

Spoiler

magic fucking time house. Why did she have to write about a magic fucking time house? Pick a time, any time you like, and walk through the door. It all feels very Mr Benn.

It's so disappointing. Was hoping for something a bit more sophisticated than that.

Though, Elizabeth Moss is amazing. As usual.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

On 5/19/2022 at 12:57 PM, Zorral said:

BTW for Derry Girls lovers, the Guardian today has up the most laudatory, celebratory review and assessment of the final season and the final Finale.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/may/18/derry-girls-finale-review-absolutely-cracker

 

I didn't know it was the final season.

Spoil nothing about season 3 of Derry Girls. That goes for all you weirdos. It isn't playing in Canada yet and I'm in kind of a fragile emotional state right now, fuckers. 

On 5/20/2022 at 4:08 AM, Heartofice said:

I can't remember a movie that left me with a tired face from smiling as much as Everything, Everywhere All At Once.

That's what happens when you don't exercise those muscles enough you grumpy man. 

-

Shoresy Ep 3, 4

The plot thickens. Quite a few laugh out loud moments. Episode 4 featured an interesting cameo and some really very interesting humor involving a racially diverse adoptive family. Like, "Holy shit!" kind of interesting. Shoresy is kind of an asshole. 

[Isis]

Still watching Raised by Wolves S1 but the longer it goes on the less interesting I am finding it. Plus, the palette is tiresome (all greyed out and monochrome). I just struggle to care. I think we have maybe two eps left so I will see it out.

Yesterday we watched The Wind as I had to have a reprieve from RbW and that didn't really do much for me either. I was expecting something on a par with The Witch but it really wasn't anything like as good as that. It could be that I wasn't really in the mood for that type of film (slow psychological horror). Has anyone else watched this?

[Veltigar]

I finished the third season of Derry Girls as well as Call Me By Your Name over the last couple of days. I also started watching the third season of Atlanta.

I'll start with Derry Girls, as it is always nice to start with a glowing review. On the one hand, I'm so sad for it to end. I have been a fan of the show from the time it first aired back in 2018 and remember just how much joy it brought me back then (I even retrieved the first thread about Derry Girls on this board, made by yours truly back in February 2018. We really need a new thread for it). It's always cool to discover a gem like that and see how a fanbase can grow over the years. 

On the other hand, I'm glad that it ended on such a high-note. I would lie if I'd say that I didn't want more content (and in a world where Downton Abbey can have two movies, why shouldn't we be able to get a Derry Girls reunion?), but if it ends where it did I'll be happy. 

In general, I would say that the first five episodes of the last season are the best episodes of the entire show. They do a lot of stuff that I won't describe here so as to spare @Deadlines? What Deadlines? forlorn Canadian soul, but the way they jump around genres and play with your expectations is great. The humor is on point as always, with plenty of familiar faces popping in for their glory lap and with Sister Michael again stealing the show every single time she graces the screen with her presence.

If I have to give one point of criticism, I would say that the penultimate episode in particular is not as good as the first five. This sadly also has some knock-off effects in the finale, which ends on a very emotional note, but first has some rough patches to navigate through. These episodes are definitely not bad either, but I just felt like we could have used some more breathing time for what happens in those episodes. Some massive spoilers ahead for the entire season:

Spoiler

I also feel like in those episodes the absence of Claire is most keenly felt. I actually hadn't really noticed how little she figured in the other episodes (props to the team for making it all feel so organic), but the death of her father and the subsequent move to another school as described in those two final episodes lacked weight for me because we did not spent enough time on it.

Another thing I'm kind of sorry about is the kiss between Erin and James. I was never big into shipping them, but when they started their kiss it was really sweet. I would have liked them to have ended up together at the end of the series but perhaps that's just the romantic in me speaking.

Also loved the Liam Neeson cameo. Great that he's a fan and wanted to take part. He was hilarious in episodes one, but it also felt poignant to see him in the final episode casting his vote for peace. At a time that the GFA are threatened, it's good to see how much it meant for people. The fact that the older actors probably all voted back in the day and have seen their country transform in the 25 years since made it a massively emotional scene for me.

My next review for Call Me By Your Name is going to be a lot shorter. I didn't get the hype. Due to circumstances I saw relatively few movies in the period between let us say 2017 and 2019 (the Bladerunner sequel is one of the few that I can remember). I have been slowly catching up over the years, but I have to say that with the exception of Arrival I don't feel like I missed out a lot. 

I had hope that Call Me By Your Name would prove another exception, but I ended up needing five days to finish it. It's just way too pretentious. I also felt it took way too long to get going in my opinion. By the end some spark of life finally occurred but not enough to really make the viewing experience worth the effort I would say. 

I also started the third season of Atlanta and watched two episodes so far. I am missing some humor here. It's like they saw how everyone loved the Teddy Perkins episode and decided to base their entire season on it. Will see how it plays out.

[Ramsay B.]

7 hours ago, Isis said:

Yesterday we watched The Wind as I had to have a reprieve from RbW and that didn't really do much for me either. I was expecting something on a par with The Witch but it really wasn't anything like as good as that. It could be that I wasn't really in the mood for that type of film (slow psychological horror). Has anyone else watched this?

I watched it a few years ago and don’t remember much besides it being very slow and dull. I also wasn’t expecting it to be on the level of something like The Witch, so it delivered in that aspect.

I finished Outer Range a couple of days ago. Shit got weird towards the end. Overall I liked it. The cast was good and the mystery kept me interested. I have no idea where they’re gonna go if they have another season though. 
 

Spoiler

I saw the Autumn is Amy thing pretty early on, but Royal being from the 1800’s was surprising.

Billy and Autumn’s love affair was good while it lasted. Their bank scene cracked me up.

 

[Spockydog]

10 hours ago, Isis said:

Still watching Raised by Wolves S1 but the longer it goes on the less interesting I am finding it. Plus, the palette is tiresome (all greyed out and monochrome). I just struggle to care. I think we have maybe two eps left so I will see it out.

It's worth sticking with. In season two, the action switches to the 'Tropical Zone', where the landscape isn't quite as dull.

Season 2 is also absolutely off the rails. In a good way though. It's totally bonkers.

[Kalbear]

Raised by wolves is not actually worth sticking with and gets significantly stupider.

It definitely is off the rails, but it has plotting consistent with a 7 year old coming off of dental anesthetic being prompted about what they think about mom.

[WarGalley]

I finished Season 5 of Better Call Saul. Excellent show, loved the desert episode and Lalo Salamanca is an excellent villain. Even after 5 seasons, I can’t believe they pulled off a spin -off show of this quality. I can’t think of any other spin off series done this well. maybe a Fargo if we’re counting movies for the source material.

Also still only on Episode 2 of Outer Range. I’m not really into these supernatural mystery shows but I’ll give it my John from Cincinnati rule where they need to explain some stuff by episode 4 or else I’m out.

Also keeping up with the Friday drops of Bosch: Legacy. Same show, different title.

Will finish Ozark last.

[Jaxom 1974]

Currently watching the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers movie on Disney+...getting past the fact that I  find Andy Samberg's voice to be nails-on-chalkboard screechingly bad...its bonkers so far...and no, Bonkers has not made an appearance...

[Zorral]

Current offerings on HBO have several actors we've seen a great deal of over the years.

The Staircase (2022) has Sophie Turner -- very thin, nothing left of the girl who played Sansa.

Gemma Whelan is in The Murders At White House Farm (2020), and so is Alfie Allen. In this show they aren't related though Alfie's character is the murderer's BBF.  In this show there is also Stephen Joseph Graham, who was Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire.

Several actors from The Wire are in We Own This City (2022).  Delaney Williams is again a cop, but not at all like Landsman. As is the case with Domenick Lombardozzi, who played Herc -- this time he's an investigator of cops, not a lazy cop who likes to cut corners and ignore the rules.  Jamie Hector, who plays a brainy, honest cop on WOTC, who rises honestly in the ranks, was also in the Amazon Prime series, Bosch -- which was, like Bosch: Legacy on Freevee, an Overmyer production. (Overmyer was an exec producer for the 2013 Boardwalk Empire season.)

 

[RumHam]

40 minutes ago, Zorral said:

As is the case with Domenick Lombardozzi, who played Herc -- this time he's an investigator of cops, not a lazy cop who likes to cut corners and ignore the rules. 

Isn't he the police union guy?

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Bonkers has not made an appearance...

Holy shit that takes me back. I have not thought about that show in years. I was so sad when they retooled it and the main human character switched. I can't even remember which was first.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Gaslit.

Brilliantly funny political thriller about the Nixon adminsistration with John Dean as the central figure. There cinematographer is the same guy who worked on Everything everywhere all at once. He definitely has a style and I like looking at it.

Sean Penn is uncanny. Julia Roberts should be in everything. Shea Wingam is amazing as G. Gordon Liddy.

Recommend.  

[RumHam]

Barry continues to kill it (sorry.) His brainstorming session about ways to mess with the studio lady was so great

Spoiler

"replace her dog with a slightly different dog"

 

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Gaslit.

Brilliantly funny political thriller about the Nixon adminsistration with John Dean as the central figure. There cinematographer is the same guy who worked on Everything everywhere all at once. He definitely has a style and I like looking at it.

Sean Penn is uncanny. Julia Roberts should be in everything. Shea Wingam is amazing as G. Gordon Liddy.

Recommend.  

I plan to see Gaslit largely because of this

https://twitter.com/davidclewis/status/1514314705011200006

[Veltigar]

I watched two films yesterday whose reception could not have been more different at the time of their release. One film was Ravenous, a horror film with a great cast (Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Neal McDonough, Jeremy Davis, etc.) that bombed badly back in the day but is now considered as a cult classic. The other one was Top Gun, which cleaned out the box office, ruled the 1980s and also had an unbelievably great cast (Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Anthony Edwards, Tim Robbins, etc.).

I'll start with Ravenous (1999). I had actually never heard about this film, but after the Northman I watched some video essays about the 13th Warrior because of the related subject matter. In one of those reviews, the 13th Warrior was compared unfavorably to Ravenous so I decided to check it out.

I'll fight that video essayist for slagging the 13th Warrior, but he was right that Ravenous is a delightful film. It takes places somewhere during the Mexican-American war in a remote outpost of the frontier. The film's core monster is the Wendigo of Native American folklore. Both of which are big plusses because this lore and this time period are not often see on screen.

It's very funny, but in an understated way. I can believe that it bombed because it is tricky to market a film like this.  The dry, sly understated humor of it is the main draw, but because it is so subtle and there is gore in the film you cannot easily market it as a comedy. For a pure horror flick on the other hand, it misses some gore and scares. It's very good at balancing both genres but it sets itself up to fail commercially because of it.

Apart from the excellent cast, the sly jokes and its setting, the film also has some very great scenes in it. Particularly in the beginning of the film there were some takes I found very inspiring like

Spoiler

The army diner after Guy Pearce receives his decoration. Every officer has this slab of red meat in front of them and the way they dig in... It's truly off-putting. The director (Antonia Bird) was a vegetarian and it shows.

The other film I saw was of course Top Gun. Everyone has probably seen it already, but if you haven't, do yourself a favor and go watch it now. This is probably the biggest film from the eighties and you can see why it broke the box office and became such a phenomenon (it also fundamentally altered the movie business. Apparently international tours with press junkets and local premiers where an invention of Tom Cruise for this film. Not to mention the fact that the Top Gun VHS was one of the first to be democratically priced for people to own themselves, thereby kickstarting the home video market)

Its cast is an embarrassment of riches (Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, etc.) and it is so intricately plotted (It's propaganda for the Navy, disguised as a sports movie, disguised as a gay romance, disguised as an action movie) that it manages to offer something for everyone. 

It also has one of the best soundtracks of any film I can remember, with its original music having become iconic in its own right. Add to that the fact that its subject matter (pilots and their jets) are inherently cinematic and that Tony Scott was a great action director and you can understand why this inspired such fervor.

I have tickets for the sequel tomorrow and I cannot wait  36 years is a long time to wait, but now I'm praying for a legacy sequel that does not disappoint for once.

[Ran]

One of the earliest  films I remember seeing in the movie theater --it's weird but the only other two I remember before then are a re-release of Lady and the Tramp in Italy, Return of the Jedi when we stayed a summer with my grandmother in Miami, and Supergirl seen ... I don't remember where exactly, maybe Georgia, maybe Fort Bragg  [eh, must have been a matinee at Fort Ord in the late 80s]-- was Top Gun, seen in Colombus, Georgia when I was 8. I don't really remember the film, per se, just remember my parents taking us. It may possibly have been a drive-in screening, too, I vaguely remember we went to one.

But yeah, it's a pretty major film in the development of the industry! The 80s was a time of increasingly kinetic direction happening in music videos and commercials, places where Scott cut his teeth and really developed his style, and it just meshed perfectly with the vibe in the mid-80s. And a little jingoism never hurt, too.