The Movie (and TV show) Watching Thread

[T'Chenka]

Oppenheimer was very good but flawed IMO. The movie feels like a 5 or 6 hour movie / mini-series being crunched down to 3 hours. A million things happen and the movie moves forward scene by scene by scene at a brisk pace, never slowing down for a moment to let the scene or the audience breathe. Like I said, very good film. Could have definitely been better though (IMO).

[Progressive Pessimist]

Oppenheimer was very good but flawed IMO. The movie feels like a 5 or 6 hour movie / mini-series being crunched down to 3 hours. A million things happen and the movie moves forward scene by scene by scene at a brisk pace, never slowing down for a moment to let the scene or the audience breathe. Like I said, very good film. Could have definitely been better though (IMO).

And that's exactly what I was worried about...I will always take a miniseries over a movie, but Nolan seems to be very much a purist when it comes to how his art made. Let's not forget how he insisted that 'Tenet' come out in theaters exclusively.

[T'Chenka]

Barbie was disappointing and is definitely overrated IMO but still overall an above-average film. Very good but not great. The production design, costumes, hair, makeup are all GREAT. The directing is very good. Ryan Gosling is excellent. Margot Robbie is very good. To be perfectly frank and maybe too honest, a couple of the supporting actresses had me simping extremely hard, which can never hurt I guess.

The massive problem with Barbie is the writing, plot, character depth and development. There is stuff there that works very well, stuff that works "just okay", and things that are acceptable but kind of mediocre. The story and writing mostly can't match everything else in the movie and they drag it down.

I can't decide on 7.0 or 6.5 out of 10. I'll have to figure that out later. But definitely 3.5 / 5 stars territory.

[T'Chenka]

Another thing I'll say about Barbie :

The movie is very feminist but also IMO a little problematic I think. I don't want to get into details or spoilers discussing it here, but the specific way that certain things were written in the movie make the movie seem kind overall kind of "cringe twitter feminist" instead of just "normal feminist", when in fact it would have been very very easy to just tweak a few lines of dialogue and write maybe one scene slightly differently, and it wouldn't be that way.

Basically, the writers have given the right wing culture warriors a bunch of ammo to use and made a movie that a lot of non-extremist progressives may find problematic. It may or may not give little girls the wrong message. Very frustrating when it very easily didn't have to be this way. This was supposed to be one of those cultural phenomenon movies with progressive ideas, and depending on how you want to interpret the movie, it might just be a problematic mess (or not).

Kind of a wasted opportunity... maybe... depending on how you interpret things in the film. People can private message me if they really want more specifics I suppose. Not really wanting to do a spoiler discussion in this thread.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Another thing I'll say about Barbie :

The movie is very feminist but also IMO a little problematic I think. I don't want to get into details or spoilers discussing it here, but the specific way that certain things were written in the movie make the movie seem kind overall kind of "cringe twitter feminist" instead of just "normal feminist", when in fact it would have been very very easy to just tweak a few lines of dialogue and write maybe one scene slightly differently, and it wouldn't be that way.

Basically, the writers have given the right wing culture warriors a bunch of ammo to use and made a movie that a lot of non-extremist progressives may find problematic. It may or may not give little girls the wrong message. Very frustrating when it very easily didn't have to be this way. This was supposed to be one of those cultural phenomenon movies with progressive ideas, and depending on how you want to interpret the movie, it might just be a problematic mess (or not).

Kind of a wasted opportunity... maybe... depending on how you interpret things in the film. People can private message me if they really want more specifics I suppose. Not really wanting to do a spoiler discussion in this thread.

Now I'm interested in this movie.

[nicholas.slaydon]

Another thing I'll say about Barbie :

The movie is very feminist but also IMO a little problematic I think. I don't want to get into details or spoilers discussing it here, but the specific way that certain things were written in the movie make the movie seem kind overall kind of "cringe twitter feminist" instead of just "normal feminist", when in fact it would have been very very easy to just tweak a few lines of dialogue and write maybe one scene slightly differently, and it wouldn't be that way.

Basically, the writers have given the right wing culture warriors a bunch of ammo to use and made a movie that a lot of non-extremist progressives may find problematic. It may or may not give little girls the wrong message. Very frustrating when it very easily didn't have to be this way. This was supposed to be one of those cultural phenomenon movies with progressive ideas, and depending on how you want to interpret the movie, it might just be a problematic mess (or not).

Kind of a wasted opportunity... maybe... depending on how you interpret things in the film. People can private message me if they really want more specifics I suppose. Not really wanting to do a spoiler discussion in this thread.

I agree, and I think that the problem with Barbie is that it had all the subtlety of a blunt axe. I actually think that Baumbach was probably the biggest problem with the film on the whole. If you are familiar with Baumbach and Gerwig's works, it was not at all hard to tell which parts of the movie were written more by Baumbach and which ones were written more by Gerwig, and the parts of the film that I felt had the greatest emotional impact, and subtlety were the ones that felt more like Gerwig's writing. It was just a far too heavy handed film.

[RFK Jr.’s Brain Worm]

I finally saw See How They Run tonight (7/28). I had hoped to catch it in theaters, but never had the chance. Honestly, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t. Wasn’t that impressed by it. Saoirse Ronan’s character was fun and Adrien Brody’s was alright at times, but I was kind of disappointed by Sam Rockwell especially since I had rewatched Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Wednesday. I liked him in Jojo Rabbit too. Granted, some of it may have been the material that he was given in See How They Run.

Speaking of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I liked it a lot more than I had remembered. Caught some things that I hadn’t noticed before (only my third time seeing it: theaters and then once a few years ago). Rockwell was good in this and honestly, I think most of the other actors were too. Can’t name someone who I didn’t like here. I love quoting Douglas Adams and it was fun to be reminded of how absurdly funny H2G2 is.

Barbenheimer double feature coming up on Sunday for me. I’ll catch up on what everyone has said about them after that.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

I'm glad I watched Oppenheimer in the cinema, because I really felt the great music, bangs and kabooms. Now this is how I want they to shoot Discovery Channel programs.

I'm also surprised how Nolan managed to create a strong dramatic suspense with a Terminator 3-like ending in an initially boring biography of a busy scientist with little melodrama and no drama in his life. This film must be included to the tutorials of cinematographic universities.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

I should also note that my conflict with my own bladder was superior to Oppenheimer's conflict with Strauss. How do you deal with this during three-hour movie shows?

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

I should also note that my conflict with my own bladder was superior to Oppenheimer's conflict with Strauss.

Many such cases.

How do you deal with this during three-hour movie shows?

Usually, I just pause the movie and go pee, but that's because I don't usually go to movie theaters.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

I should also note that my conflict with my own bladder was superior to Oppenheimer's conflict with Strauss.

Many such cases.

How do you deal with this during three-hour movie shows?

Usually, I just pause the movie and go pee, but that's because I don't usually go to movie theaters.

It's very resourceful.

I think cinema owners should do an intermission in the middle of movies of two hours or more.

[Ferguson97]

I just finished binging The West Wing. Very excellent television.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

I watched the first season to the end and I'm disappointed. Instead of answering at least a third of the questions asked and giving me a catharsis when I, it seems to me, is already close to the answer (Victor boy's nightmare world?), they just dumped a bus from the sky with another fifty characters. As if about a hundred undisclosed characters are not enough, these doodles in the background, from time to time shouting "hurrah" and nothing more.

What if the second season ended the same way? Is there any point in wasting time on it?

Yes, the second season did indeed end the same way. Only one answer was received: how to kill these monsters, but this season did not show whether this method works, and in general it has ceased to be relevant, because now people are killed not by polite monsters, but by Freddy Krueger with cicadas. And instead of answering the questions of the first season, the authors dumped a truckload of new questions. Instead of the idea of gradually exploring the world, which I was excited about, here was the idea of the sake of riddles for the sake of riddles.

I'm also disappointed with how the writers dealt with Randall, especially at the end of the season. He gave the series something that the authors completely missed in the first season — the conflict within the commune. Dale and the girl who killed her brother are too small and weak for a real dramatic conflict with the leaders of the commune. It seemed that by the second season, the authors realized their mistake, but it seems that not completely.

I definitely won't watch the third season. Although this series is very exciting, despite the lack of answers and extremely annoying sagging with melodramatic jelly, which the authors wedged right in the middle of plot points of tension. Despite the poor development of the potential, the series had really big potential. I would warmly welcome fantasy that would go this way: an absolutely incomprehensible, completely unexplored world in which you become a pioneer just by leaving your home. And what is important, the viewer also does not know anything about this world and cannot even read about it on fandom.com.

I also note that I am very annoyed by the way people cut each other's throats here. A very cheap TV cliché that should have died out in an age where everyone can see Islamists and drug cartel thugs actually cutting throats. It's not as easy as to drop a line with a marker on a whiteboard.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I should also note that my conflict with my own bladder was superior to Oppenheimer's conflict with Strauss.

Many such cases.

How do you deal with this during three-hour movie shows?

Usually, I just pause the movie and go pee, but that's because I don't usually go to movie theaters.

It's very resourceful.

I think cinema owners should do an intermission in the middle of movies of two hours or more.

Anything less is disrespect to filmgoers.

[Mr. Smith]

Saw Oppenheimer yesterday, but BBC also has a mini-series...I might check that one out soon. Most of these epics work better that way.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

16. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - 5/10
18. Citizen Kane (1941) - 3/10

4. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) - 8/10

Literally lmao'd at this, thank you.

I rate how i want, no need to shame others. I'm aware that I rate subjectively, and that this doesn't mean that a film is objectively worse. Those two films have enough fans, so will have some merit, but i'm not gonna give something 9 or 10 if i didn't care for the story.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

JULY

1. Fehérlófia [Son of the White Mare] (1981) - 10/10
2. Eshtebak [Clash] (2016) - 9/10
3. Verdens verste menneske [The Worst Person in the World] (2021) - 8/10
4. Dial M for Murder (1954) - 8/10
5. Notorious (1946) - 8/10
6. An Cailín Ciúin [The Quiet Girl] (2022) - 8/10
7. Strangers on a Train (1951) - 8/10
8. Hotel Mumbai (2018) - 8/10
9. Boze Cialo [Corpus Christi] (2019) - 8/10
10. Le jeune Ahmed [The Young Ahmed] (2019) - 7/10

11. The Bourne Supremacy (2004) - 7/10
12. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) - 7/10
13. #Saraitda [#Alive] (2020) - 7/10
14. The Birds (1963) - 7/10
15. The Night of the Hunter (1955) - 7/10
16. The Bourne Identity (*) (2001) - 7/10
17. Im Westen nichts Neues [All Quiet on the Western Front] (2022) - 7/10
18. La battaglia di Algeri [The Battle of Algiers] (1966) - 6/10
19. Funny Games (1997) - 6/10
20. Ôdishon [Audition] (1999) - 6/10

21. El hoyo [The Platform] (2019) - 6/10
22. Athena (2022) - 6/10
23. The Boondock Saints (1999) - 6/10
24. O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) - 6/10
25. Ma vie de courgette [My Life as a Zucchini] (2016) - 6/10
26. Jumper (2008) - 5/10
27. Kynodontas [Dogtooth] (2009) - 5/10
28. Det sjunde insgelet [The Seventh Seal] (1957) - 5/10
29. Ke zai ni xindi de mingzi [Your Name Engraved Herein] (2020) - 5/10
30. Paradise Now (2005) - 5/10
31. Mionga ki Ôbo: Mar e Selva [Sea and the Jungle] (2005) - 4/10
32. Vals im bashir [Waltz with Bashir] (2008) - 2/10

(*) = rewatch

SHORTS:
Shelter (2016)
The Greatest Living Show (2023)

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Also, Lawrence of Arabia had excellent cinematography. I gave it that. And I noticed that. The main problem for me with that film is that I didn't care for the character of Lawrence or the story itself a bit. Even though i was able to keep attention for 3 hours and 30 minutes (which in its own already is an achievement of me).

Most people alive will never bother to watch this film, i at least gave it a chance. And yes, it has excellent cinematography. So did The Bridge on the River Kwai (where I did like the story a lot more), so I certainly appreciate Lean as a director already for that film (or the cinematographer of both films).

When it comes to Citizen Kane, i don't think i really was able to follow or understand the story which is why I gave it that rating, so it's of course my shortcoming, not the shortcoming of the film. But to Orson Welles' credit, i really liked his acting performance in The Third Man (a film i gave 10/10).

I have specific tastes, epics and especially historic epics are probably at a natural disadvantage already. I've rated most i've seen probably lower than average. It's just not really the genre i'm into.

Judge me on the films I like, not on the films I dislike or am less into. It's impossible to like and understand every masterpiece (in every arts aspect) in the world.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Yes, the second season did indeed end the same way. Only one answer was received: how to kill these monsters, but this season did not show whether this method works, and in general it has ceased to be relevant, because now people are killed not by polite monsters, but by Freddy Krueger with cicadas. And instead of answering the questions of the first season, the authors dumped a truckload of new questions. Instead of the idea of gradually exploring the world, which I was excited about, here was the idea of the sake of riddles for the sake of riddles.

I'm also disappointed with how the writers dealt with Randall, especially at the end of the season. He gave the series something that the authors completely missed in the first season — the conflict within the commune. Dale and the girl who killed her brother are too small and weak for a real dramatic conflict with the leaders of the commune. It seemed that by the second season, the authors realized their mistake, but it seems that not completely.

I definitely won't watch the third season. Although this series is very exciting, despite the lack of answers and extremely annoying sagging with melodramatic jelly, which the authors wedged right in the middle of plot points of tension. Despite the poor development of the potential, the series had really big potential. I would warmly welcome fantasy that would go this way: an absolutely incomprehensible, completely unexplored world in which you become a pioneer just by leaving your home. And what is important, the viewer also does not know anything about this world and cannot even read about it on fandom.com.

I think there were obvious simple ways to make this series better:

- Instead of sending a bus at the end of the first season, it made sense from the first episode to have a confrontation between three groups: Boyd, Donna and Randall.

- Don't break suspense with Santa Barbara-style melodramatic nonsense.

- To answer part of the questions at the end of the first season, even if some of the answers would be misleading. Because when they just throw out questions, like forget it, and generate a new bunch of questions, bringing it to the point of absurdity, it seems that this is the case when neural networks were used for the key points of the scenario. They could have fixed Lost's bugs, but somehow they made them worse, especially in an era where Lost 2 will not work (I'm done so I can afford to finally mention it).

Perhaps the ideal format would be where the first episode asks questions about the setting, the next episode answers one or two of them, but adds a new one as a cliffhanger, main or additional.

[John Dule]

I just finished binging The West Wing. Very excellent television.

There are two TV shows that can change a progressive fourteen-year old’s life: Game of Thrones and The West Wing. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves dragons.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Yesterday I finished watching Farzar. It gave me vivid impressions and also made me think about some things. But I'm missing something.

In their cartoons, Waco O'Guin and Roger Black found and for some reason abandoned three things that were highly addictive for me: bullying celebrities, a CBT-loving woman, and a ranger uniform. I would like to see it again. They could also give up on jokes and focus entirely on satire, parody, brutal punches, crazy twists, gore and drama (they have drama in potential, but they break it in the bud). This is a goldmine and for this I watch their animated series, and their cringe humor is superfluous here. Also I don't understand why they stopped using the occupational genre and went into the space opera. Maybe it's a way for them to cover up an occupational series about politicians, which would be dangerous for them in the openly form?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Got another Marvel review here: 'Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.'

Probably the best post-Endgame Marvel movie. It actually managed to make me tear up at CGI animals and have more sympathy for them than I had for Aunt Tomei and Black Widow when they died. I have a real soft spot for animals though, so if you're like me this movie actually might be pretty brutal to watch, surprisingly. If those scenes were a movie alone it might be the best thing Marvel ever produced. It might also be the darkest Marvel ever has gotten but is still balanced out by the classic humor style this series is known for. And here it probably is less tonally inconsistent than the last two, surprisingly enough. Combine that with some very creative, kind of disturbing Dr. Moreau-inspired plotline and even a very bizarre teratoma-like setting in one part that is as unique as it is gross. Not to mention, our main characters and their dynamics feeling more fleshed out than ever, especially Gamorra and Nebula who almost feel like inverses of themselves from the first movie. And that's especially compelling with Gamora since she was always the least interesting Guardian-existing kind of just to have a relationship with Peter Quill. They all get something to do in this movie and it doesn't feel too centric on one character like the last one did with Peter, even though it's ostensibly Rocket's story. The antagonist was also great-not the most complex villain but one you absolutely love to hate. It also features Marvel's first f-bomb.

The movie isn't without its faults of course. Like the other two movies this one has a climax that kind of goes on way too long and it is yet another Marvel movie that relies on using innocent children as a McGuffin to elicit sympathy from the audience, as if the cute animals and their hardship wasn't enough. Granted, it feels less cheap than in something like 'Love and Thunder' since you recognize the consequences better of what these kids will go through instead of just being a mere bargaining chip. But overall it's become a trope I am sick of. Also, you will be a little bit lost if you haven't watched the 'Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.' It introduces an entire important setting, a new major character, a revelation about Peter's relationship with Mantis, and a bit more. I didn't watch the special so I had to look up information about it afterwards to clear up those details.

Undoubtedly, it's still the best entry into the MCEU in quite a few years and I definitely will watch it again at some point. It's a very satisfying resolution to what is, in my opinion, the best trilogy of all the Marvel properties. And James Gunn will be missed as a director in the franchise.

The only thing I'm unsure about is whether I like this one better than Volume 2 or not, I might need to re-watch it which I haven't in awhile. It's definitely better than the first though, and that one is still one of the best Marvel movies, full-stop.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Yesterday I watched Princess Iron Fan (1941). It's rather unusual for a modern view that the main antagonist is a charming girl who does nothing bad, and the conflict lies only in the fact that the protagonists are trying by all means to take away her fan. After I got the information about the original character of the princess, as far as I understood her villainy is explained in Journey to the West, which the Chinese audience is obviously familiar with from childhood: instead of extinguishing the Fiery Mountains once and for all, so that the peasants can safely grow crops, she extinguished them once a year in exchange for peasant products. Perhaps because of the poor translation of the animated film into Russian, I did not understand this idea, or it just was not shown here. Because of this, the heroes looked like anti-heroes who are just trying to rob a respectable married woman. But I'm used to stories about Aldar Köse and Nasreddin Hodja, so I could do without showing the villainy of the antagonist.

In general, the manner of presentation is surprisingly modern. Modern dynamics, modern carelessness (despite the superbly painted backdrops in the fashion of that time), modern gray morality (at least from the point of view of someone not familiar with the details of Journey to the West), modern humor and modern rough rotoscopy. Fantasy setting with original magic, which gods and demons own, with its own geography and its own rules, in contrast to the children's fairy tales of the then Disney. Also the scene where the Monkey King climbs the realistic internal organs of the princess looks modern. And I was surprised that there is a karaoke song here. Overall, I love this film. Even aside from its pioneering status, it's an outstanding work.

[T'Chenka]

Enemy (2013, director Denis Villeneuve) was one hell of a trip. Definitely worth watching for a bit of a mindf__k and then try to figure out what it all meant. I'm purposefully being vague as it's one of those films where it's a lot better to know very very little going into it.

Would love to see more people check it out. A bit of a headscratcher, but you can always lurk reddit discussions to see the interpretations of others.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Yesterday I watched the season of Smiling Friends. It does not have an interesting cross-cutting plot, like in Farzar or Paradise PD, and the episodes are very short, but it has a lot more innovative techniques. For example, in the last season of Paradise PD, the authors used scary inserts with photos of muppets twice and once a punchy insert with a green screen of a real person. In Smiling Friends, its authors can insert muppets, real people, 3D models, plasticine figures and everything else at every step. Moreover, each character is depicted in a style that matches his personality. This is an amazing art find. And this find is just one of many. If I were an animator, I would steal ideas from here like from a cornucopia.