Jump to content

Watch, Watched, Watching: November Rain

Ramsay B.

By Ramsay B.,
in Entertainment

 Share

Recommended Posts

Tywin et al. Council Member

Tywin et al.

Posted
Posted

Allison Janney is a talented actress, but before tonight I would have doubted her as a credible action star, especially now that she's in her 60's. However she crushed it in Lou, which came out two months ago on Netflix. Not the best movie though I'd still check it out if the theme appeals to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Heartofice Council Member

Heartofice

Posted
Posted
On 11/15/2022 at 2:52 AM, Jaxom 1974 said:

The Crown certainly does its level best to vilify Diana in Season 5, don't they...?

So I've finished the season now and I'm really not seeing this at all. I don't think she was vilified, it just wasn't the usual 100% sympathetic version of Diana we usually get, and I am totally fine with that, she gets held up as a saint far too often, but she was the same as anyone else. I think they did a reasonable job of showing how the relationship between her and Charles could break down. I did like the scene towards the end where it looks like they are going to let bygones be bygones but it all turns sour, that seemed to make sense.

On the whole though, I thought this season of The Crown was pretty poor. Maybe it's the time period and the events but it all felt so cheap and tacky and poorly done. Some of the episodes are flat out terrible and very amateur in the way they are shot and put together. The performances on the whole are very good, Staunton looks incredibly like Queenie and Debicki I think gives probably the best Diana performance I've ever seen, making her feel human for once. 

The treatment of Charles I thought was very peculiar however. It felt like a lot of energy was put into presenting him as this forward thinking man of the people. There might be an element of truth there but hes still a grumpy old git with some old school ideas. Was this all done in sync with his PR dept?
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mexal Council Member

Mexal

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 11/21/2022 at 4:19 AM, Isis said:

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.

As a big fan of tasting menus and a strong hate for overly pretentious people, I cannot wait to watch this. Glad to hear it hit the right notes.

Edited by Mexal
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Quijote Light Council Member

Quijote Light

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

True Romance, how come Tarantino didn't make it himself

I think the story is that he had two or three scripts, but though the studio wanted all of them, they would only agree to his directing one. He chose Reservoir Dogs. 
 

I think I prefer Scott’s version with Clarence surviving. 

Edited by Quijote Light
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ran Council Member

Ran

Posted
Posted

A few films watched:

Notes on a Scandal -- Heard about this on the Screen Drafts podcast. It's a 2006 film starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, and it's a tense, terrific little film about a new art teacher at a school (Blanchett) who falls under the eye of the veteran battle-axe history teacher played by Dench. Much of the film is framed by scenes of Dench's character, Barabra, writing in her diary about her acid observations about the school, its staff and students... and about Blanchett's character, Sheba, who gets herself involved in an affair with a 15-year-old student, and how everything plays out. As the movie goes on, you start to realize that Barbara herself is a central antagonist of the film, and the more scenes we get, the darker and darker her character becomes. Good stuff.

A Christmas Story Christmas -- Amazing that they got so much of the cast together from the original and classic film, but this one was about as mediocre as one could expect. It was mostly going through the motions. I was very amused by Ralphie imagining himself winning the Pulitzer Prize with his science fiction opus, though, because he envisioned all the nominees standing up on a stage like it was a beauty contest... and up there with him were lookalikes for Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, and Anne McCaffrey. Heh.

On 11/21/2022 at 10:19 AM, Isis said:

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.

Also saw this at the theatre (it was this or Triangle of Sadness, and I couldn't resist this one)! Loved the film, pitch black satire that it was. Anya Taylor-Joy and Hoult were really very good but like you I'm a huge fan of Fiennes and he knocks it out of the park.  

It was definitely having fun with Chef's Table.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Corvinus85 Council Member

Corvinus85

Posted
Posted

Signed up for Netflix again. The first thing I watched was Enola Holmes 2. meh. Brown overacted the hell out of some scenes and Cavill wasn't given as much to do as I remember from the first movie. However, I liked the historical infusion with the match factory women, not that I'm familiar with the event. And Moriarity was good, too.

Then I noticed season 2 of the German show Barbarians was out and started that. I got incredibly annoyed right away when Germanicus was called Germanicus before he actually scored any victories against the GERMANIC tribes, so I quit. Way to screw up a simple historical fact. I may return to the show when I'm in a different mood.

But right now 1899 seems to be an intriguing show so I gave that a try. Episode 1 was good and it has my interest.

Then I remembered I still need to watch season 3 of Derry Girls so I watched the first episode of that. So much silly fun. Love it.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zorral Council Member

Zorral

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

I got incredibly annoyed right away when Germanicus was called Germanicus before he actually scored any victories against the GERMANIC tribes, so I quit. Way to screw up a simple historical fact.

:D  My biggest problem was getting Robert Graves's indelible characterization in I, Claudius of Tiberius and Germanicus out of my head!  :cheers:

For whatever reasons -- which I tend to believe the primary one was the pandemic shut-down, etc. -- this season, like so many programs that have returned post-pandemic after such long interruption, wasn't as involving as the previous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hauberk Council Member

hauberk

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Wife, mother, and MiL sitting in the other room watching Spirited and I'm again struck by the idea that I actually enjoy just about everything about Ryan Reynolds, except his movies...

Watched it with my daughters last night and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it - either it was really good, my distaste for Ferrell (aside from Stranger Than Fiction and Talledega Nights) has mellowed or Reynolds was capable of overcoming that distaste. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...