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[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

5 hours ago, Week said:

Really, really good documentary. Definitely one of those that feels astonishing that it isn't in the collective memory a la Jonestown, Waco, etc.

I just finished it. Amazing.

I don't know how to feel about the various players. One thing's for sure, the people of Antelope were complete assholes. They were hostile from the get go. Casually talking about killing these people in front of television cameras; and why? Because there's a diverse group of people who don't live the way they do and who aren't hysterical about sex? Bravo. It makes me wonder how the whole thing would have gone if there wasn't so much hostility from the get go. It was actually pretty impressive what they were able to accomplish.

Granted, the Rajneeshees definitely got way too reactionary, but you could see how they felt besieged. Some of the stuff going on at the government level was shameful.

That prosecutor was a real twat. When he's talking about the "dark aura in the courtroom" during Rajneesh's trail and the court reporter who said. "I only experienced this when I was in the room with the Ayatola." Yeah, that's just xenophobia, shithead. 

Law enforcement spent four years trying to get this guy. When you consider what was going on in the US at the time, it's insane. 

There's some ominous foreshadowing of Waco and Ruby Ridge. If these people were actually as bad as the public at large thought they were, it would have been much worse.

It's stunning how deep the documentary record is on this story. Not just news reports but video recorded by the Sanyassins themselves. Crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if they originally planned on a 2 hour documentary and just said, "there's no way", because there was just too much there. 

But watching it, it occurs to me that there's no Canadian television coverage included. You see English, German, and American but nothing from Canada. I wonder if my lack of awareness on this story is down to the fact that it just didn't make the news up here. 

[Veltigar]

I watched The Northman yesterday and was not impressed. The film's first two acts are rather good, but the third act is utter drivel. The greatest compliment I can give it is that it absolutely nails the atmosphere of the Viking age for me. The cinematography, the acting, sets, locations and costuming are all wonderful in evoking a world governed by completely different values and believe systems than our own.

I also really liked what they did with Nicole Kidman's character in particular. Very interesting path they chose there and it felt quite liberating to see something like that happen on screen. A shame that the film disappears up its own asshole for the conclusion.

I hate it when films belittle people of the past. They might not have had our well of scientific knowledge to draw from, nor benefit from a modern educational system, but these people knew how to survive in a brutal world. Here, everyone seems to have deactivated their brains, nowhere more egregiously so than the farm scenes

Spoiler

I thought Amleth would have gone about his bloody business in a more clever way, but it's all so obvious that he's behind it all. I cannot fathom how he could so easily move about the farm without anyone ratting him out or at least spotting him. Not to mention that preposterous scene where he abandons Ana Taylor Joy at the farm, where predictably the Vikings choose to execute all slaves to ensure that they got those who aided and abetted Amleth and then he magically reappears? What is this for nonsense?

I also feel like the film couldn't commit to the type of story it wanted to be. Is it a full-blown fantasy or is it one of those 'magic is not real, but because they believe in it, it appears so to them" kind of stories. It goes back and forth which I found unsatisfying to say the least.

The final fight was also hideously poor, with the final person to die by the sword being drawn in some of the poorest CGI I have seen in recent years. A stain on an otherwise pretty great-looking film.

I'd give it like a 6/10. In many ways, it reminded me of The Green Knight, only not as well-executed as that one.

[RhaenysBee]

I’m watching Killing Eve… or am I? What the hell am I watching? 

[IFR]

I watched Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Generally I do not like that type of inane humor, but the movie was surprisingly fun. It was fantastically idiotic, yet it worked.

4 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I watched The Northman yesterday and was not impressed. The film's first two acts are rather good, but the third act is utter drivel. The greatest compliment I can give it is that it absolutely nails the atmosphere of the Viking age for me. The cinematography, the acting, sets, locations and costuming are all wonderful in evoking a world governed by completely different values and believe systems than our own

It was hard to take any of the drama seriously because the Vikings as a people were utterly silly with their customs and rituals. 

But the movie was pretty enjoyable, albeit weirdly structured. The most fun was the revenge Edmond Dantes portion, but I don't know how I feel about the final confrontation. I liked it, but probably not for the reasons the director was aiming for. It was hilarious, like watching an Ed Wood/Tommy Wiseau movie.

[RumHam]

We Own This City is good so far. Not exactly surprising. Bernthal is great at making me hate him. Jamie Hector should be in more things. Mosaku is great in everything I've seen her in. It took me forever to figure out who the bald county cop with the beard who found the extraneous tracker was. Poot! Anyway I look forward to seeing all of their souls being crushed.

[Relic]

Finished Tokyo Vice. Pretty bold of the show not to circle back to the opening scene of the pilot. Guess they are 100% sure they will get a second season? 

[Ran]

Speaking of HBO shows... Both Winning Time and Tokyo Vice have gotten some tough questioning about the veracity of some of the things they depict and/or their source material. For Winning Time, Kareem Abdul Jabbar had some blunt words about the show's depiction of various figures, particularly Jeanie Buss and Jerry West.

And for Tokyo Vice, it seems the real Jake Adelstein may be a serial fabulist who has exaggerated and perhaps outright invented a number of incidents he's written about in his books and pieces for outlets.  (Err, and as Relic notes, there are spoilers about the show!)

[Relic]

1 minute ago, Ran said:

And for Tokyo Vice, it seems the real Jake Adelstein may be a serial fabulist who has exaggerated and perhaps outright invented a number of incidents he's written about in his books and pieces for outlets. 

oh man, some major spoilers in that article, haha. 

[dbunting]

I also watched The Northman this weekend, thought it was a big screen movie, where that format would aid in the experience. Yeah, no. I didn't like basically any of this movie except for some visuals. There are plenty of stand alone episodes of VIkings that I think were better than this and for way way less money.

Finished Ozark and still enjoyed it. Yes it was overboard on the story arc and was going too far the last season or two but I still enjoyed it.

Spoiler

Obviously it sucks that they killed Ruth, most fans fav character. They did do a better job of making me dislike Marty though, so that was good. Didn't care for the last scene too much, seeing the parents smile a little when their teenage son killed someone who wasn't threatening to kill them was a bit much.

Overall I loved the series. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

11 minutes ago, Ran said:

Speaking of HBO shows... Both Winning Time and Tokyo Vice have gotten some tough questioning about the veracity of some of the things they depict and/or their source material. For Winning Time, Kareem Abdul Jabbar had some blunt words about the show's depiction of various figures, particularly Jeanie Buss and Jerry West.

In an ironic way, real life West is handling the situation exactly like show West would have. And he's already clowned himself a bit with his comments about how he'd never break a golf club in a fit of rage because in his own memoir he talks about doing just that. I'm sure they're exaggerating it a good bit on the show, but they need to to have the dramatic effect.

The show is fictionalized to some extent, but McKay and his team did a ton of research.

[GallowKnight]

15 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I just finished it. Amazing.

I don't know how to feel about the various players. One thing's for sure, the people of Antelope were complete assholes. They were hostile from the get go. Casually talking about killing these people in front of television cameras; and why? Because there's a diverse group of people who don't live the way they do and who aren't hysterical about sex? Bravo. It makes me wonder how the whole thing would have gone if there wasn't so much hostility from the get go. It was actually pretty impressive what they were able to accomplish.

The silliest thing in the documentary was the fact that they put up a plaque in remembrance to their "victory" over the Rajneeshees.

[DMC]

32 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

In an ironic way, real life West is handling the situation exactly like show West would have.

Yeah it's pretty damn hilarious how big of a deal him and Kareem (who, btw, is a confirmed asshole) are making out of this compared to, say, the royal family's reaction to The Crown depicting almost all of them as vapid and/or horrible people.

[IFR]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

Speaking of HBO shows... Both Winning Time and Tokyo Vice have gotten some tough questioning about the veracity of some of the things they depict and/or their source material.

I'm not particularly bothered by this. I don't expose myself to Hollywood takes on historical events and people, or fiction in general, for the educational value, or even "finding truth in lies", as Le Guin would put it, and Abdul-Jabbar mentions in his op-ed.

Even a show like Chernobyl, which I thought was fantastic, played fast and loose with many elements of history, and while the show was mostly right with the nuke engineering stuff, on the health physics side the show was pretty far off the mark. And yet that was an example of a show that gave an earnest attempt at accuracy. Something like The Imitation Game, which apparently was lauded when it came out, was such a completely botched caricature of the events and personalities that it might as well have been a pure fabrication.

These works of entertainment that involve historical figures or events should never be treated as offering more than an amusing way of passing time, as far as I'm concerned.

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

And for Tokyo Vice, it seems the real Jake Adelstein may be a serial fabulist who has exaggerated and perhaps outright invented a number of incidents he's written about in his books and pieces for outlets.  (Err, and as Relic notes, there are spoilers about the show!)

One is shocked, shocked I say, to learn this.  Who could possibly have suspected this was even possible, much less likely, with such a character?  Nah, it's what one assumed.  (I didn't read the story in the same place as you, but I did one of the many others out there, a couple days ago, or something, I think.)

Nevertheless the television show is more entertaining than most, which might be too bad, but there it is. (Ansel Elgort was a guest at the Met Gala last night -- very downlo, compared to almost everyone else's over the top acres of see-through sartorial style.)   One certainly knows watching this series that whether it was 'inspired' by a supposedly real life memoir, what the show was doing was telling a story, which storytelling is to be expected to be um, more of an action thriller than um, a real life.  Especially for a kid that age.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

3 hours ago, GallowKnight said:

The silliest thing in the documentary was the fact that they put up a plaque in remembrance to their "victory" over the Rajneeshees.

Yeah, the one with the Edmund Burke quotation. I wanted to throw something at my TV.

Keep in mind, it's exactly the kind of idiotic, provincial thinking that fed the satanic panic of the 1980's and put the West Memphis Three in jail for half their lives. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Bagel! Butt Plugs! Taxes!!! MADNESS!!!

What an amazing film. Definitely deserves a few award nominations. Cinematography was great. Jamie Lee Curtis BRINGS. IT.

Eat my ass, Doctor Strange.

[Fez]

3 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Bagel! Butt Plugs! Taxes!!! MADNESS!!!

What an amazing film. Definitely deserves a few award nominations. Cinematography was great. Jamie Lee Curtis BRINGS. IT.

Eat my ass, Doctor Strange.

I just saw this too; it was simply incredible. It's an absurdist comedy, family drama, sci-fi adventure that has no business working but it does. It really does. And the underlying message hit like a ton of bricks, in a good way. One of the most memorable movies in a long time with so many incredible scenes. The one that will stick with me the most was when there was maybe a minute where the movie was completely silent except for some wind; and the entire theater was completely silent too. You could've heard a pin drop. Not only was the scene great, but I can't remember the last time I've seen an audience that invested in what was happening.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

18 minutes ago, Fez said:

The one that will stick with me the most was when there was maybe a minute where the movie was completely silent except for some wind; and the entire theater was completely silent too. You could've heard a pin drop. Not only was the scene great, but I can't remember the last time I've seen an audience that invested in what was happening.

I really regret not seeing A Quiet Place in a theater. Have to imagine that's how everyone felt.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

I just saw this too; it was simply incredible. It's an absurdist comedy, family drama, sci-fi adventure that has no business working but it does. It really does. And the underlying message hit like a ton of bricks, in a good way. One of the most memorable movies in a long time with so many incredible scenes. The one that will stick with me the most was when there was maybe a minute where the movie was completely silent except for some wind; and the entire theater was completely silent too. You could've heard a pin drop. Not only was the scene great, but I can't remember the last time I've seen an audience that invested in what was happening.

I'm not gonna lie; I may have had something in my eye when...

Spoiler

...the googley eye rock fell over the cliff...

... because I'm an asshole sometimes. 

There were maybe 4 people in the theater. It was a matinee and it appears this theater is still distancing for some reason. I was right up front in my usual seat. I couldn't hear anyone else in the theater but I'm pretty sure they could hear me. That movie was hilarious. You know when I'm laughing and stomping my feet on the ground I'm having a good time. 

ETA: Short Round!

[RumHam]

6 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Eat my ass, Doctor Strange.

I think this comment got it banned in china.