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HBO documentary: In the Shadow of the Towers: Stuvesant High

Really emotional, im not gonna lie I shed some tears half way through this. 

It's interviews of (now adult) students who were at thier high school just blocks away from 9/11 attacks. What they witnessed and thier stories, the life altering traumatic aftermath. 

Most of the students interviewed were from immigrant fanilies and thier stories are compelling.

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Rewatched Catch Me If You Can, again because of The Rewatchables. Fun film, though it's basically a complete fabrication based on serial liar Frank Abagnale Jr.'s wildly embellished claims about his life. Almost every thing he said about himself, other than that he was a convicted con artist, was a lie. But charismatic performance from DiCaprio goes a long way. There's even a moment -- just a brief moment -- where he impersonates Christopher Walken, who's playing his father (it's the dinner scene in New Orleans, when he's supposed to say grace, and retells his father's story about two mice.)

And finally seen Tár. It was worth the wait. Cate Blanchett gives an absolutely bravura performance as Lydia Tár, famous conductor who ends up enmeshed in various scandals that threaten her career, and has merited every award and award nomination she's gotten.  Todd Field is incredibly unprolific, but he's made three deep, incisive, complicated films starring some of Hollywood's best performers over the course of 20-odd years, and I look forward to whatever he comes up with in 2038 or thereabouts (looking at his pace).

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Finally got around to watching Drunken Angel, the first collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune. Exciting to see Kurosawa still working out some his visual style and also venting out some of his frustration during the occupation period. Mifune's performance was great, and I would have loved to see him in a suave James Bond type role.

All Quiet on the Western Front, and I was rather disappointed in the film. A lot of the scenes were very perfunctory and had almost no emotional impact on me, so when key moments occurred, it felt meaningless and somewhat manipulative. It also felt as if the film was manufactured to win awards by utilising Hollywood style filmmaking in what is supposed to be an antiwar film and was only helped by the story not providing an opportunity for elaborate grandiose scenes. I would recommend giving Come and See a watch for those who haven't seen it, as it actually succeeds where this fails.

Living was a good watch, although completely unnecessary if you've already seen the original masterpiece. 

The Whale was pretty much the most try-hard movie of the awards season, which I suspect is why it got such a limited number of nominations. Fraser and Hong Chau deliver performances that rise way above the lacklustre material they were given to work with. Sadie Sink on the other, lacks the experience of the former two and looked really terrible, it's one of those characters where defenders will claim "she's a teenager, that's how they behave" as a way to excuse such terrible writing. And the final scene was one of the most comical things I've seen in a while. I almost fell off the couch at how pompous the whole thing played out. I wonder if the editor turned to look at Aronofsky and dared to ask him, "are there really no better takes of this scene?"


Aftersun was the best of the bunch I saw. It's like the type of movie Sofia Coppola tried to make with Somewhere, but it actually succeeds. I loved that there was no need for the dad to do a monologue about depression and dissatisfaction with life, instead it's all just shown visually and with Paul Mescal's subdued yet brilliant performance. Oddly enough, some of the visual style reminded me a lot of Spring Breakers.

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1 hour ago, Cashless Society said:

I wonder if the editor turned to look at Aronofsky and dared to ask him, "are there really no better takes of this scene?"

There was a point in time where I considered Aronofsky to be the most exciting and interesting director out there. I still love The Fountain as I think it sort of justifies its pretentious style with Jackmans amazing performance. But it’s been so long since I’ve been anything other than underwhelmed by his movies that I’m starting to think he’s someone more in the ‘pretentious hack’ category with M Night. Not that bad yet but it would be easy to re-examine his work and think he’s not actually very good. 

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V for Vendetta, right down to the credit songs, perfectly researched and executed theme. But it's a 9 with a unplaceable missing something to make it a 10.

Children of Men, I cried after a long time. Really long time. Took me some time to even realize. Pull my finger. Pull my finger. Pull my. And the childbirth. Phew. The catharsis I didnt know I needed or even deserved. 

In Bruges. So that I can watch Banshees better satisfied. 

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6 hours ago, Heartofice said:

There was a point in time where I considered Aronofsky to be the most exciting and interesting director out there. I still love The Fountain as I think it sort of justifies its pretentious style with Jackmans amazing performance. But it’s been so long since I’ve been anything other than underwhelmed by his movies that I’m starting to think he’s someone more in the ‘pretentious hack’ category with M Night. Not that bad yet but it would be easy to re-examine his work and think he’s not actually very good. 

I see what you're saying, but I wouldn't say it's "pretentious hack" category. Rather that, similar to M. Night, having too much success early in his career has now left him in a state of "can I still live up to this reputation?" phase. Where now he’s overdoing it. M. Night got over this hurdle after the Will and Jaden vehicle that crashed and burned and no one in Hollywood was willing to finance his films any longer. I wonder what it would take for Aronofsky to get over his hurdle.

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6 hours ago, Cashless Society said:

Finally got around to watching Drunken Angel, the first collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune. Exciting to see Kurosawa still working out some his visual style and also venting out some of his frustration during the occupation period. Mifune's performance was great, and I would have loved to see him in a suave James Bond type role.

What a great film, and one of the great director-actor collaborations. Maybe the greatest, honestly.

6 hours ago, Cashless Society said:

I would recommend giving Come and See a watch for those who haven't seen it, as it actually succeeds where this fails.

Brutal, harrowing film. I do think it gives a very different perspective than All Quiet gives, and I think that's equally valid, but for me it's a bit apples-and-oranges. That said, yeah, All Quiet is very Hollywood.

6 hours ago, Cashless Society said:

Living was a good watch, although completely unnecessary if you've already seen the original masterpiece. 

That answers that question for me. I'll just rewatch Ikiru. I love Nighy and all, I'm sure it's very fine, but... I don't know, the original is just perfection.

6 hours ago, Cashless Society said:

"


Aftersun was the best of the bunch I saw. It's like the type of movie Sofia Coppola tried to make with Somewhere, but it actually succeeds. I loved that there was no need for the dad to do a monologue about depression and dissatisfaction with life, instead it's all just shown visually and with Paul Mescal's subdued yet brilliant performance.

Brilliant film. Glad it's gotten some awards recognition, but it's easily in the top ten films of the year for me.

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Watched Creed and Creed II this weekend. I liked both well enough, thought they did some things very well and some other things too much like the originals. I don't put these on par with Rocky and Rocky II but maybe ahead of the other Rocky sequels.

Spoiler

I really liked the end of Creed II where Drago loses but he and his father bond over the shared loss, the throwing in of the towel etc. They did that part of the story well. I just didn't like the whole son vs son part of it.

Thought about seeing Creed III in theaters but didn't do it, same with Cocaine bear. Just can't get motivated to see either one.

Also watched Outlast  on Netflix. Best way I can describe it is a cross between Survivor and Alone. 16 players dropped off in remote Alaska with minimal supplies forced to create teams with no notice or discussion.  Not very many rules, basically you have to be on a team to be there and you can't get voted off, that's about it. No host, no narrator.  It gets pretty insane and really ugly and hopefully someone else watches it because to me..

Spoiler

Jill is fucking insane. Like she really needs help. She reminds me of a lot of people I see on the news who turn everything bad they do to someone else against them and justify it, and truly believe they are the ones who are morally right. Sadly she reminds me of my cousin who since Trump has come to prominence has really gone off the deep end.

I want to make sure I'm not the only one who thinks that.

I thought it was going to get even worse than it did.

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I'm trying to watch the new Luthor movie, but it's taking itself so incredibly seriously that it's hard to pay attention. Andy Serkis' bafflingly bad hair is not helping anything. Every scene Elba is in, I can't help but think of this skit.

Spoiler

 

 

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Endeavour has finished. Went out with a bang, I would say. :(

It's tempting to re-watch the original Morse but I think it will be a disappointment after this. Sorry, but the acting is better in Endeavour. Also, Morse is not an especially nice person and the older he gets, the more miserable and depressing he gets.

That said: 

Spoiler

I am so glad that they didn't have him confess his love for Joan right after she got married as that would have been such an absolutely horrible selfish thing to do to do to a person. I would have been enraged if he had done that. Altough, I did think while I was watching it: well, this is quite on brand for Morse. 

 

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Finished a rewatch of Everything Everywhere All at Once. I developed a greater appreciation for Stephanie Hsu's performance, which I certainly liked but I think the first time I watched I was so exhausted by the frenetic absurdism that the last few minutes didn't really stick. This time I broke the viewing up over two days, and it's still an exhaustingly over-stuffed film, lacking discipline that could easily have been 15-20 minutes shorter. But from the scene where Waymond asks for everyone to be kind on to the end, it's still quite effective in how it pulls at the heart strings. End of the day, it did have something meaningful at its heart that shines through despite the excesses of the directors.

(Speaking of excesses of the directors, did not realize Daniel Scheinert cast himself as the BDSM-loving district manager who proceeds to get spanked by Michelle Yeoh. Was all the absurdity in the film there to check that item off the bucket list without anyone being the wiser? Heh.)

Edited by Ran
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Watched the Luther movie, which has now hit Netflix. It's fine for what it is, but it feels disconnected from the TV show, partly because... well, it is, there's basically no reference to the ending of the last season, and partly because they're clearly using a budget and it departs a bit from that Luther style, especially towards the end. 

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I finally got around to season 1 of The Terror. What a fantastic series. 10/10. No, I didn't have a problem with manbearpig. 

I'm also going down the rabbit hole on Terror/Franklin Expedition stuff. the VFX showreel is incredible. I never would have guessed some of the stuff that wasn't a practical effect. My brain is grinding on Franklin expedition theories presently.  

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I continue to watch old movies.  The late 1940s threw out an eclectic set of movies.  I had never seen Brief Encounter before.  You can see why it gets attention.  Very well acted and seemed quite a controversial storyline for that time.  Very well constructed story with a moral quandry.  

My favourite movies were probably the Treasure of Sierra Madre and Its a Wonderful Life though.  The former has Humphrey Bogart in major scene-chewing mode.  Not the movie I expected, as I expected a more cynical movie.  And that is in there but there is a lot more to this movie.  Adventure, comedy etc.

I also didn't remember how socialist Its a Wonderful Life was.  Its the people v Big Finance.  Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that it effectively destroyed Frank Capra's career and it only became famous in the 1970s.  Either way, I found it impossible to be unaffected by that story.

Out of the Past (or Build you Gallows High) is an old fashioned film noir.  Some older movies can be viewed as slow.  This rips along, with betrayals, plot twists etc.  Very early Mitchum and Kirk Douglas.

And the Third Man.  This was my least favourite.  Still a good movie and a fascinating view of Vienna post WW2 but I spent most of the movie waiting for Orson Welles to show up.  And admittedly, its quite a role for him.  The film just goes through the motions till then IMO, in a very well presented way but nothing very ambitious.

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32 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I finally got around to season 1 of The Terror. What a fantastic series. 10/10. No, I didn't have a problem with manbearpig. 

I'm also going down the rabbit hole on Terror/Franklin Expedition stuff. the VFX showreel is incredible. I never would have guessed some of the stuff that wasn't a practical effect. My brain is grinding on Franklin expedition theories presently.  

The book is really good and different enough to be worth reading. 

A lot of those artic and antarctic explorations that ended badly make for interesting reading. What's crazy to me is that Franklin had a disastrous artic mission before his famous lost expedition, and decided to go back. I love this bit:

Quote

 

Of the four voyageurs who had left Franklin's party to return to Hood and Richardson, only Terohaute reached the camp, having taken several days to cover the 4 miles (6.4 km) from where they left Franklin. He told the Britons that he had become separated from the others, and assumed they would be following. Whatever doubts the officers may have had about his story gave way to gratitude when he presented them with meat, which he said had come from a hare and partridge he had managed to kill on the way. Two days later he went hunting and brought back meat he said came from a wolf he had found. The Britons were delighted, and eagerly devoured the meat.[31]

Over the next few days, however, Terohaute's behaviour became more and more erratic. He disappeared for short periods, refusing to say where he had gone. He would not gather tripe de roche, and would sneak and eat meat at night after believing his companions were asleep. When asked to go hunting he refused, replying that "there are no animals, you had better kill and eat me."[32] He later accused the Britons of having eaten his uncle.

At some point—Richardson's journal is unclear on when—Richardson and Hood began to suspect that Terohaute had killed the three missing voyageurs, and was disappearing from camp to feed on their corpses. The "wolf meat" they had eaten was probably human flesh. On 20 October, while Richardson and Hepburn were foraging, they heard a shot from the camp. They found Hood dead, and Terohaute standing with a gun in his hand.[33]

Terohaute's explanation was that Hood had been cleaning his gun and that it had gone off, shooting him through the head. The claim was self-evidently absurd; the rifle was too long for a man to shoot himself with, moreover Hood had been shot in the back of the head, apparently while reading a book on Christian scripture. But with Terohaute stronger than them and armed, there was nothing John Hepburn and Richardson could do for the next three days, as Terohaute refused to let them out of his sight and became more and more aggressive, repeatedly asking to know if they thought he had murdered Hood. Finally, on 23 October, Terohaute left them for a short time on the pretenses of gathering lichen. Richardson took the opportunity to load his pistol, and on Terohaute's return, shot him dead.[34] They discovered that Terohaute had, in fact, not collected any lichen at all but actually had prepared a rifle; seemingly it was to be used on the two not long after rejoining them.

 

 

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1 hour ago, RumHam said:

The book is really good and different enough to be worth reading. 

A lot of those artic and antarctic explorations that ended badly make for interesting reading. What's crazy to me is that Franklin had a disastrous artic mission before his famous lost expedition, and decided to go back. I love this bit:

 

I'm not so sure about this. Franklins Coppermine expedition had a horrendous motality rate (50%), but that was an overland expedition. And despite a series of colossal fuck ups, he was still considered a hero. I love this bit:

Quote

There were also dark murmurings about what exactly had happened to Hood and Terohaute. The only account of the incident was Richardson's, published after consultation with Franklin, and there was nothing to prove that he and Hepburn had not killed and eaten Hood and the four voyageurs themselves. Wentzel, the North West Company interpreter who was blamed for failing to ensure that Fort Enterprise was stocked, went so far as to accuse Richardson of murder, and demanded that he be brought to trial. Back subsequently wrote to him that "to tell the truth Wentzel, things have taken place which must not be known." The Admiralty launched no official inquiry and the matter was quietly dropped.

Classic.

But, considering the mad shit they were attempting, the naval expeditions had, on balance, relatively low casualty rates. Short of a ship actually sinking into the sea, I don't think there were any other expeditions where everyone died.

Even the 1829 expedition led by Sir John Ross (which is discussed in a great scene with Blanky and Fitzjames), where those guys were out there for almost 4 years; they only lost 3 men (out of 29). You could approach those kinds of mortality rates in a coal mine or a factory in Birmingham in Victorian England at the time. 

I would say this gave them a degree of overconfidence that contributed to the Franklin expedition's failure. It's telling that, despite how well prepared that expedition was, the one thing they apparently never considered was overland escape. If they had, they would have had light weight sledges, canoes instead of the big heavy rafts meant for open water and clothing like the Inuit. 

From the amended Victory Point note, it's obvious that something is burning through the crew at an incredible rate during the winter of '47-'48, and for some reason it was disproportionately killing officers: more than 1/3rd of them in 11 months vs. 1/6th of the combined crew. 

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5 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I started to watch Barry.

I can't remember the last time a show made me want to jump into the next episode and just binge the whole thing so completely. Hader is so fun to watch. I wasn't sure this show would work for me, but I'm loving it.

It gets dark as fuck, but stays excellent. You've timed it right, final season is due out in April. 

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