Watch, Watched, Watching: November Rain

[Isis]

On 11/17/2022 at 3:05 PM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

1899, the new show from the creators of Dark dropped today on Netflix. I'm really looking forward to watching this over the weekend.

 

Will probably start this tonight. I accidentally saw a Guardian review yesterday that gave it 2/5 stars (surprisingly it was not by that buffoon who called Bear McCreary a hack). I think they said it was slow. Anyway, I will see for myself.

I know it's not the right thread but I listened to a nice little podcast called Case 63 this week. It features Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaacs (it's basically just the two of them) in a scifi drama where a patient seen by a therapist claims to be from the future. The best thing about it is that it's really short. Each of the ten episodes is only 10-15 minutes long. It's free on Spotify.

[Corvinus85]

23 minutes ago, Isis said:

Will probably start this tonight. I accidentally saw a Guardian review yesterday that gave it 2/5 stars (surprisingly it was not by that buffoon who called Bear McCreary a hack). I think they said it was slow. Anyway, I will see for myself.

Excuse me, what? There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this... stupidity.

[Zorral]

Today, right now, our local public radio station's noon-2PM talk show is featuring discussion with Ta-Nehisi Coates around Black Panther: Wakanda Forever -- and !!!! -- the  S.S. Rajamouli around RRR. The theme of both discussions is super heroes and history, in the movies.  They are good discussions.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Watched the 1934 version of The Count of Monte Cristo. It's really incredible what they were able to do so long ago. The film visually holds up for the most part outside of some of the sailing scenes. And the Priest's cell is gorgeous. It's not an entirely faithful adaptation, but who cares, there haven't been many. Wish someone would finally turn this book into a good miniseries. 

It's free with commercials if you have Prime.

[Zorral]

With episode 6, now we know what that war was, that so bonded the Burton posse, while so physically damaging Connor -- and we also know why Connor got so maimed. 

Spoiler

The war was in/with Texas -- North Carolina going to war with Texas is kind of hard to swallow, yes -- and Connor was suckered into trying to save a dog that the Texans had wired up as a bomb.

How many episodes is the Peripheral to be? I'm thinking with the state we are in now, maybe two more eps, which is what I expect, won't be enough to wind it all up.  There's been no announcement of a second season, despite it capturing the largest share of the streaming audience in October. 

[Corvinus85]

Finally saw Everything Everywhere All At Once. It's been a while since I've seen such a crazy movie, but it also had a lot of heart. I about died of laughter at some of the action scenes. 

[JGP]

lol

Everything Everywhere Becomes Circle Again. My daughters checked out, well, my oldest didn't entirely but she started drawing on her ipad, I loved it. At heart, a sublime family movie. 

 

[Ramsay B.]

I’m kinda fucked up and put on a random episode of GoT… l season 4 ep 1. Forgot it has 2 of the best scenes ever: Oberyn’s intro, and Sandor/Arya meet up with the Tickler. So sad what it became after this season.

[Isis]

16 hours ago, Zorral said:

With episode 6, now we know what that war was, that so bonded the Burton posse, while so physically damaging Connor -- and we also know why Connor got so maimed. 

  Hide contents

The war was in/with Texas -- North Carolina going to war with Texas is kind of hard to swallow, yes -- and Connor was suckered into trying to save a dog that the Texans had wired up as a bomb.

How many episodes is the Peripheral to be? I'm thinking with the state we are in now, maybe two more eps, which is what I expect, won't be enough to wind it all up.  There's been no announcement of a second season, despite it capturing the largest share of the streaming audience in October. 

I read that there are two more episodes to go. I guess there has to be a second season then as this is not enough time to conclude the storyline at the current rate - Lowbeer having only just been introduced in ep 6.

Burton and his pals were bonded by their tech as much as their shared experiences. 

Love this show. "Is that salt water?" If it finishes in two weeks it'll just overlap with the return of His Dark Materials. <3

Started watching 1899 yesterday, we are two eps in. Pretty much on par with what I was expecting/hoping it would be.

[Veltigar]

On 11/15/2022 at 9:01 PM, JGP said:

I crushed this series over the weekend. Understated twists [nothing jaw dropping or completely unexpected] but they were set up well and handled more in a character revealing way as opposed to plot shocks. Nothing felt forced, or overtly graphic [ie: massacre porn] and end sequence hit me surprisingly hard.

Blunt and Spencer as the leads were great and had good chemistry.

It's already out in full? I thought I had to watch in on a weekly basis on the BBC XD

[JGP]

On Prime in Canada, yep. All 6 eps.

[Nictarion]

Watched a couple films last night. The first was The Wonder. It was ok. Probably not something I’d ever watch again, but Florence Pugh was fantastic as per usual. It’s worth seeing for her alone. It has an interesting (and unexpected) way it opens and closes the film. 

The 2nd was Crimes of the Future. Vintage David Conenberg sci-fi body horror with a good cast (Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart). I liked it, but I would really only recommend this one to fans of some of his more out there stuff (Scanners, Videodrome, Crash, etc). 

[RhaenysBee]

53 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

The 2nd was Crimes of the Future. Vintage David Conenberg sci-fi body horror with a good cast (Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart). I liked it, but I would really only recommend this one to fans of some of his more out there stuff (Scanners, Videodrome, Crash, etc). 

Ah, I really want to watch this. There’s nothing like a Viggo Mortensen x David Cronenberg collab and it’ll be interesting to see Cronenberg return to his roots. The refined psychological drama detour never quite worked out as it should have.  The Fly and Videodrome were okay, it was more Existenz and Naked Lunch that stood out to me. Jeremy Irons x David Cronenberg combo produced the most disturbing movies, I don’t know which creeped me out more. 

[RhaenysBee]

I’m trying to watch Slumberland, which is a sweet albeit failed attempt at a darling children’s movie with a ton of psychological subtext and takeaway. It ended up being mediocre (though not downright terrible) The problems: casting, acting, an excess of loud, gratuitous and obnoxious action scenes.
 

Spoiler

The story is far far far better than the Boy called Christmas of whatever that trainwreck was called, the child actor however is just as… well not great. With a bit more care, a bit less action and cgi, a bit better casting it could have been as adorable and meaningful as Inside Out.
Jason Momoa bless his heart is not meant for this role and it’s a bit too transparent that he’s trying to channel his inner Johnny Depp because this role was meant to be played by Johnny Depp. Jason Momoa is the type of actor who is meant for certain types of roles and just doesn’t work for other roles. Chris O’Dowd was actually really good and his character should have had some of the screen time that was wasted on cgi action scenes. 

 

[Slurktan]

22 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Finally saw Everything Everywhere All At Once. It's been a while since I've seen such a crazy movie, but it also had a lot of heart. I about died of laughter at some of the action scenes. 

I honestly think Short Round might get nominated for an Oscar.  Michelle Yeoh is great but he's the the heart of the movie.  His eyes are so expressive.

[Nictarion]

24 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

I honestly think Short Round might get nominated for an Oscar.  Michelle Yeoh is great but he's the the heart of the movie.  His eyes are so expressive.

It was a hell of a return to acting. 

[Gigei]

Finished Foundation. I heard it was bad so I didn't watch when it was airing. Lee Pace was excellent and his bits of the story (Empire) were the best by far. The Terminus and Gaal/Seldon bits were awful, sadly.

[Ran]

2 hours ago, Gigei said:

Finished Foundation. I heard it was bad so I didn't watch when it was airing. Lee Pace was excellent and his bits of the story (Empire) were the best by far. The Terminus and Gaal/Seldon bits were awful, sadly.

Yeah, that was the general opinion for those who discussed it in the Foundation thread: the invented stuff with the Genetic Dynasty and Lee Pace was far and away more interesting than the drab, flat adaptation on Terminus.

[Isis]

Went to see The Menu last night (love having a decent 10 screen cinema five minutes walk from my house) and I thought it was hilarious. For those of us who lean into the whole tasting notes scene it makes you feel a little bit ?complicit? As a certified beer judge who laps up every episode of Chef's Table I know there is a fine line between being a massive nerd about something you love, which others see as just food or just beer and being a pretentious, insufferable arse who bores people to death in a patronising way. I know quite a few of the former but I know at least twice as many of the latter (we all know they're the loudest).

This films hits all the cliches and caricatures we expect to see and in some ways (for a horribly shocking film) it is a bit obvious at times. But I loved it. Love Ralph Fiennes (perpetually), and Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are good as well. Sometimes things can be satisfying even when they aren't terribly clever, just well done. I can only assume that they must have approached the producers of Chef's Table before they made this because it's far too heavily referenced directly and indirectly for them to just casually utilise the show.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Slumberland:

It's a good thing we Canadians have a sense of humor about national stereotypes. Otherwise we might have a problem, eh? I laughed.

I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would. Funny. Heartfelt. Trippy visuals. Surprisingly great production values. 

Mamoa kills it in this role.

Recommend.