The Movie (and TV show) Watching Thread

[Progressive Pessimist]

I've been rewatching 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' lately, so I haven't seen too many movies recently. But sometimes I'll record movies I have never seen before on my cable DVR if I see thy are going to air, and come back to them at times. One such movie was 'Catch Me if You Can.'

It was fine. Everything was fine. It was a fairly serviceable biopic about a mildly interesting individual, but not something that is going to stick with me. Check fraud can only be made so interesting. I guess John Williams' score stuck out a bit, it's different from his usual ones. And I guess I won't forget the absurdity of Leonardo DiCaprio's (who was also fine, but not particularly spectacular) character escaping from an airplane through the toilet too. There was no explanation provided.

Perhaps I'll also talk about 'Beasts of No Nation' which was the last movie I watched on Netflix before returning my cozy 'Avatar' rabbit hole. I saw this movie when it first came out in 2015 and for some reason decided to re-watch it in spite of how depressing and grim it is. I wish it caught on more because I think it's one of the best movies of the 2010's. It's certainly one of the most underrated at least, mainly because it was also the very first Netflix produced feature film, and for that reason it wasn't nominated for too many awards. It's a really f***ed up loss-of-innocence story, basically, about a young African boy who has to join a child soldier army to survive in the midst of his (unnamed) country's brutal civil war. I know, it doesn't sound like a very appealing watch, and it kind of isn't. As I said, it's extremely bleak but within that there is a lot of beauty too. It's one of the most brilliantly shot movies I have ever seen and it succeeds at almost everything else it does as well to me with Idris Elba being one of the biggest of the movie's standouts. He should have been nominated for his performance here. His performance and his character of The Commandant are very compelling. I don't have a single flaw with this movie. Well, okay, maybe there is the fact that watching it with subtitles is almost necessary. The movie is in English, but there are some very strong accents that you will need to deal with. That's not the movie's fault though, and actually probably enhances it even more. Give it a watch, but prepare yourself for some really heavy content.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Rosemary's Baby

Directed by Roman Polanski.

Was this movie incomparable to any other film ever made in the 1960's?

Why did my parent's and teacher's not let me watch this film in the 1970's when I was a child?

Will I ever be the same after watching it?

Unlikely.

Stunning film. Don't read the internet trailer notes or spoilers. Just turn it on, sit back and enjoy.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I've seen Waves now... the third film I've seen in the cinema post-lockdown, following If Beale Street Could Talk and Richard Jewell. I certainly found Waves to be strongest of the three. The father-son conflict with a well-meaning, but domineering father who ultimately contributes to destroying his son's life with that kind of behaviour was strongly resonating with me due to my own experiences in that matter. It also approached the subject matter in a sensible and tender was. Pretty beautiful landscape pictures of Florida too. In a way it also dealt with the issue of racism, but with a new twist... the films centers on a relatively well-off, privileged African-American family which nonetheless is still somehow affected by racism albeit in form of a more subtle background noise.

One could say that I'm currently in the process of going through the last films that came out of America. Due to the new flareup of COVID-19 in the USA most English-language releases have again be postponed now, sometimes indefinitely. This includes the forementioned Tenet by Christopher Nolan that I had been looking forward to. It almost seems like Corona is slowly killing Hollywood. Conincidentally, most trailers that were shown before the start of the movie yesterday seemed to be French, in two cases Italian and Finnish respectively. Sometime this week I had also seen an article on that phenomenon, a potential rise of the European cinema against the backdrop of the Coronavirus pandemic.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Queen & Slim

Probably one of the most BLM films I've ever seen. It was essentially Black Lives Matter: The (Road) Movie. So, full-on Marxism, the whole 130 minutes of it.   Quite coincidentally, the subway station I used to get home afterwards was also the Karl-Marx-Straße station, so you could say that overall I had a pretty Marxist evening last night.

[Meclazine for Israel]

The Wailing (2016)

Wow! If the quality of films in a country is related to it's standard of cultural and social wealth, then South Korea is a rapidly developing nation.

Phenomenal film. A visceral experience for the senses.

[T'Chenka]

PK (bollywood film 2014)

Hilarious and triggered a bunch of religious conservatives in India. What more can you ask for?

[John Dule]

The Wailing (2016)

Wow! If the quality of films in a country is related to it's standard of cultural and social wealth, then South Korea is a rapidly developing nation.

Phenomenal film. A visceral experience for the senses.

Saw this a couple months ago. I liked it enough, but I wasn't sure what to make of the ending.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I finally saw 'Jojo Rabbit' and there was a lot I liked about it: for on thing there is the fact that everyone actually attempted a German accent (even if they were terrible like Rebel Wilson's) in contrast to something like 'Valkyrie' where all the Nazis had either American or English accents which was just jarring. I liked that Nazi Germany was actually portrayed with warm, pastel colors that set this movie apart from other World War II films. I liked the pure weirdness of a coming-of-age dramedy set during one of the darkest times in human history which also featured an imaginary buffoonish Hitler. By the way, the marketing makes the film appear to be mostly about Jojo's relationship with imaginary Hitler, but it's more of a device used to portray Jojo's changing perspective on his nation during this time. It's kind of a gimmick more than anything, but the movie is about so much more than that.

So it sounds like I loved this movie, right? For some reason that I just can't put finger on, I came a bit short of loving it. I liked it a lot, but something about it just left me not feeling much and that's a tough admission since there are a lot of funny moments and even some really depressing moments. I did laugh and I did feel sad at one point, but in very middling ways. Maybe it's because of some very predictable moments that undercut all that? Maybe it's because of the fairly simplistic and obvious message that it shares with most World War II films? I mean, sure, it's an important message too that probably needs to be emphasized as much as ever in these current times, but I've seen it before far too many times. I just don't know what was preventing me from loving this movie. I would still definitely recommend this film for how unique it is though. Watch it yourself and perhaps you can help me identify why it was slightly less compelling than I wanted it to be.

That reminds me though of another Holocaust film I watched for the first time:'Sophie's Choice.' Obviously this film and its content is so famous that almost everyone knows what it's about-a "Sophie's Choice" has almost become a meme and part of our lexicon. So with that being all I knew about the film I was actually very surprised to find that the film was about more than that. It's mainly about a love triangle between Sophie, her unstable boyfriend, and our bland protagonist who is an aspiring Southern writer who moves to a Brooklyn apartment where Sophie and her boyfriend are his neighbors. And that aspect was thoroughly uninteresting to me. I kind of hated it. I get that it works within the themes of Sophie having yet another choice in her life, but her past in German occupied Poland is the real interesting part of the movie that I almost wish was just the movie in its entirety. The whole love triangle reminded me of 'Cabaret's,' and I hate 'Cabaret!' Here at least there weren't pointless songs, and Meryl Streep is truly phenomenal in the role here. It lives up to everything I've heard about it and serves as a reminder of why she is regarded as such a legendary actress. I may not know a perfect Polish accent when I hear one, but she seemed to nail that and the emotions of her character to the nines. She is easily the best part of this film and elevated it over 'Cabaret' even as I still found it somewhat disappointing and losing my interest at times.

[Wikipedia delenda est]

Just watched Cromwell (1970), which is available for free on YouTube. Alec Guinness gave such a sympathetic performance as Charles I that even I, ardent Roundhead that I am, felt sorry for the man.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Oh boy! This thread is back! I haven't actually watched that many new movies since my last post, I've been watching 'Primal' and re-watching 'The Legend of Korra'  lately. And you all might be relieved to see that I actually don't have much to say about these two films that I have seen recently:

-'Birds of Prey' (it should have been titled 'Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey'): DC's fourth best movie, that's still not saying much though. It's infinitely better than the movie it's a sequel to though: 'Suicide Squad.' It shares one flaw with that movie where the soundtrack was kind of bad and distracting with all the pop songs they used. The only other thing I can really say about it is that it was the Harley Quinn show and was decent when that's what was happening, the Birds of Prey got in the way and honestly weren't really that necessary. Ewan McGregor stole the movie for me, as usual. I just love that guy. Also I am so sick of these R-rated comic book movies using the same template of our antihero bonding with a child being central to the story. Seriously, it's happened three times with 'Logan,' 'Deadpool 2,' and now this. And I am mixed to negative on all of them. This type of story has got to go, it's getting old and never works for me! Oddly I think I hate 'Logan' the most of these three since it takes itself much more seriously than the other two.

-'Munich': I saw it for the first time. It's another lesser Spielberg movies that was fine but honestly ended up being very forgettable. Seriously, I don't remember much about it other than the fact that I think a movie about the actual Munich hostage situation would have been more interesting than the movie we got about its aftermath.

However, 'Cats' is premiering on HBO next week! I have it recorded. I am so excited to watch this nightmare!

[Middle-aged Europe]

Last film I had actually seen in the theater was Tenet. Since then most new productions seemed to have been pushed back again to some date in 2021 at the earliest.

Streaming-wise I recently saw John Frankenheimer's Seconds with Rock Hudson in the main role as well as Duncan Jones' most recent film Mute (and before that, Cuties ).

Seconds: A surreal, kafkaesque, disturbing experience which is further amplified by the movie still being shot in black and white. It's quiet good although not really light fare.

Mute: ...or as I like to call it: Blade Runner: Berlin. It's a okayish, watchable neo-noir sci-fi crime drama which - as I had just indicated - rips-off more well-known productions. Since I do in fact live in Berlin, the film is probably more interesting/hilarious than for other people due to the overly futuristic face-lift some locations got.

[WarmPotato]

Boku No Pico... Just kidding! Idiocracy!

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

I just saw Casablanca for the first time last night. It has definitely aged, but I think that it was still very good. A lot of lines that are still referenced today.

I’ve also recently seen Emperor’s New Groove, the three new Star Trek movies, both Princess Diaries, Doc Hollywood, and the three Back to the Future movies.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I just saw Casablanca for the first time last night. It has definitely aged, but I think that it was still very good. A lot of lines that are still referenced today.

Casablanca is definitely dated, but that just makes it an even more charming time capsule for what movies were like at the time. It gets bonus points for being a movie that the Hays Code actually improved: the censors wouldn't let them do a phoned-in "romantic" ending where Ilsa leaves Victor for Rick.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Three great movies I have watched in the last month. I won't say anything about them other then you will enjoy them not knowing anything going in.

(a) Horse Girl



(b) 12 Hour Shift



(c) Green Book



Three very thought provoking films that wont insult your intelligence.

All 3 left me wanting more. If you do watch them, watch Green Book on December 23rd for extra special effect.

[T'Chenka]

Watched this week:

The Office (UK) - season 1
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
Scott Pilgrim vs The World

[Santander]

It's close enough to Christmas that I think I can watch Die Hard. Watch it every year.

[Progressive Pessimist]

It's close enough to Christmas that I think I can watch Die Hard. Watch it every year.

F*** yes! Though I can watch it anytime it's on, but it's part of my Christmas movie trifecta of the three films I always watch at this time of year: 'Die Hard,' 'Gremlins,' and 'Jingle All the Way' (a bad film but one that is underrated in how absurd and ridiculous it is. I love it!).

And yes, 'Die Hard' is a Christmas movie. As far as I'm concerned as long as Christmas factors into a movie's plot, it can be considered one.

[T'Chenka]

It's close enough to Christmas that I think I can watch Die Hard. Watch it every year.

F*** yes! Though I can watch it anytime it's on, but it's part of my Christmas movie trifecta of the three films I always watch at this time of year: 'Die Hard,' 'Gremlins,' and 'Jingle All the Way' (a bad film but one that is underrated in how absurd and ridiculous it is. I love it!).

And yes, 'Die Hard' is a Christmas movie. As far as I'm concerned as long as Christmas factors into a movie's plot, it can be considered one.

The guy who wrote the screenplay for Die Hard says it is absolutely a Christmas movie.

[Santander]

Next up is Love, Actually, another one of my cheesy Christmas favorites.

"Remember kids, don't buy drugs... Become a pop star and they give them to you for free."

[DINGO Joe]

Saw Barbarella for the first time.  Definitely falls in the "So bad it's actually really bad" category. 

[Tender Branson]

Not really a movie, but I watch the mystery series „Manifest“ right now.

I’d like to re-watch the „Planet of the Apes“ series as well during the vacation.

[John Dule]

Next up is Love, Actually, another one of my cheesy Christmas favorites.

This is hands-down the most offensive post you've ever made on this site.

[Santander]

Next up is Love, Actually, another one of my cheesy Christmas favorites.

This is hands-down the most offensive post you've ever made on this site.

It takes a real man to admit they like Hugh Grant movies.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) is on YouTube for free, English sound but Spanish subtitles:

The 1969 film "Z!", about the military dictatorship in Greece and the cover up of a political assassination, is also online:

Watership Down:

Italian musicarello "Howlers on the Dock", from 1960. These films didn't really have much of a plot, but were mostly "for fun" films that were more about promoting music rather than an actual movie with a storyline. This one was also about promoting blue jeans, and features many famous Italian singers and actors such as Mina Mazzini, Joe Sentiri, Adriano Celentano, Elke Sommer, Marliu Tolo, and Bruno Martino. Italians called singers of this late-50s/early-60s style of rock 'n roll as "Howlers". Italian only, no subtitles:

The 1986 USSR film "Come and See", a hyperrealistic war horror film about the Nazi occupation of Belarus. WARNING: extremely graphic and disturbing, with violent murder and implied rape scenes. Has original Russian sound, but choice of official subtitles in English, German, Spanish, and Italian:

"The Signalman", a Charles Dickens supernatural horror story, was made by the BBC into a short film in 1976. Tradition is to watch this on Christmas:

"100 Years of Silence", a documentary about the German genocides in Namibia (then German Southwest Africa) in the 1900s decade:

"All Quiet on the Western Front", from 1979, available in English here: