The Movie (and TV show) Watching Thread

[John Dule]

Watched Morbius last night. It's obviously bad, but it's also not in the bottom ten superhero movies released in the past ten years.

[DaleCooper]

Watched Morbius last night. It's obviously bad, but it's also not in the bottom ten superhero movies released in the past ten years.

I wouldn't really call them movies.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Watched Morbius last night. It's obviously bad, but it's also not in the bottom ten superhero movies released in the past ten years.

There's a line in it that just made me laugh upon hearing it, he says "To bats this is deadly, but to humans...it's lethal!"

Those are synonyms. They mean the exact same thing.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Watched Morbius last night. It's obviously bad, but it's also not in the bottom ten superhero movies released in the past ten years.

There's a line in it that just made me laugh upon hearing it, he says "To bats this is deadly, but to humans...it's lethal!"

Those are synonyms. They mean the exact same thing.

I don't know the context, and I don't think I either need nor want to. As Dule himself would say, flawless writing. 5/7.

[John Dule]

Watched Morbius last night. It's obviously bad, but it's also not in the bottom ten superhero movies released in the past ten years.

I just completed the set by watching Madame Web. My housemates and I pirated a camcorder recording off a Bengali website that had random pop-up ads for cricket gambling websites during the most serious scenes in the movie, which really enhanced the experience. This was a fun time, and I seriously advise everyone to watch this with some friends (provided you don't pay a dime to do so).

[Progressive Pessimist]

Watched Morbius last night. It's obviously bad, but it's also not in the bottom ten superhero movies released in the past ten years.

I just completed the set by watching Madame Web. My housemates and I pirated a camcorder recording off a Bengali website that had random pop-up ads for cricket gambling websites during the most serious scenes in the movie, which really enhanced the experience. This was a fun time, and I seriously advise everyone to watch this with some friends (provided you don't pay a dime to do so).

That's how I intend to watch it.

[Ferguson97]

I just finished "Jury Duty". Very fun show. Good for Ronald for being a good sport and all, but if that happened to me, I would have probably lost my mind.

[GoTfan]

Seeing Dune Part II tonight. Opening night in Australia.

[Flats the Flounder]

Trying to watch as many of the Oscar-nominated movies as I can before the ceremony. Here's my ranking of them so far from favorite to least favorite:

Killers of the Flower Moon 9.5/10
Poor Things 9/10
The Zone of Interest 9/10
Anatomy of a Fall 8/10
Past Lives 7.5/10
Oppenheimer 6.5/10
American Fiction 6/10
Barbie 6/10

Still want to see the Holdovers and May December.

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Just came back from seeing Dune: Part II. And holy hell, it's gotta be one of the, if not, the best movie released this year.

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

I saw Inside Man last night. Very solid heist movie. Kinda left me wondering who the title referred to. There’s the obvious candidate, but I was left wondering about Jodie Foster’s character, especially with some of her lines at the end when she was talking to the mayor.

Just came back from seeing Dune: Part II. And holy hell, it's gotta be one of the, if not, the best movie released this year.

Good to know. Heading out to see it in a couple hours. I liked the first one better having seen it again, so maybe I’ll like this one more since it concludes the first book. Felt like a lot of mythology and build up in the first one.

[John Dule]

I'm seeing Dune II in about 45 minutes. In the meantime, some thoughts on Drive-Away Dolls, the latest Coen Brother movie.



In interviews, Ethan Coen has described Drive-Away Dolls as a raunchy lesbian B-movie that's not trying to say anything particularly deep. As embarrassing as it is for such a seasoned director to set the bar this low, it's even more embarrassing that he still failed to clear it. This movie is a mess; it feels more like a rough cut for a test screening than a finished product, and it pales in comparison even to the scores of lesser imitators the Coens have spawned. March has hardly begun, yet it's hard to see another movie taking the title of 2024's Biggest Letdown.

The blame is not entirely on Coen. This movie was co-written by his wife Tricia Cooke and based on an idea she had almost 25 years ago (which might explain why the story feels so stale). Cooke, who served as the Coens' editor on The Big Lebowski and O Brother Where Art Thou, clearly cobbled together a rudimentary pastiche of plot points from the Brothers' best movies when assembling this premise. From the MacGuffin briefcase to the incompetent hitman duo arguing in a car, every hallmark of the Coens is present here-- albeit in the most low-energy form imaginable. This is probably why Ethan Coen executes this task with the sullen resentfulness of a man whose wife has asked him to do the dishes.

A bad premise can sometimes be saved by compelling performances, but that is not the case here. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan lack chemistry, and unlike the Coen's better leads, they don't balance out their cartoonishness with any genuine emotion or heart. The characters are a standard Odd Couple pairing, but defined in the broadest possible terms. Qualley's foulmouthed dive-bar lesbian is a groan-inducing caricature. Her accent is ridiculous, and her constant use of Southern phrases like "honey girl" turn the character into a one-dimensional self-parody. Viswanathan, playing an uptight office worker, is given little to do aside from looking uncomfortable and exasperated; to accomplish this, she falls back on the same two or three facial expressions. Their comedic timing is off, and at no point do their line readings feel like anything but recitations from the script.

The contrast with similar Coen creations like H.I. McDunnough or Ulysses Everett McGill could not be starker-- while those characters were indeed laughable cartoons, they were also given opportunities to show genuine emotion, self-reflection, and regret. No such layered characterization is present here. These characters undergo no growth, nor do they make any significant decisions in their own story. Their involvement with the plot is mostly passive, which in turn creates a passive viewing experience.

One might expect a movie conceived by a professional editor to at least be well-edited. One would be wrong. Drive-Away Dolls is plagued by cuts that break the flow of the story, embarrassing PowerPoint-style scene transitions, and strangely edited sequences that seemingly omit huge chunks of the story. In one scene, Viswanathan is shown speaking to the police. Suddenly the film cuts to her in jail, never showing the rest of the interaction. Qualley, back at their hotel room, notices she's missing and looks concerned. Immediately after this, both characters are shown driving away in a car-- apparently Qualley found out her friend was in jail, went to get her, got her out, and checked out of the hotel off-camera. The sequence is incredibly jarring, and even more so given how little payoff it ultimately has.

Every time I've seen a Coen Brothers movie in recent years, I've hoped against hope that their next outing might be better. But after seeing this hastily assembled student film, I think I'll have to give up on that. This movie represents an obscene lack of effort (and quite frankly, disrespect for its audience) that has no precedent in either of the Coens' filmography. The takeaway is clear: Cooke should stick with editing, and Ethan should stick with Joel.

[John Dule]

Was gonna make this my sig but now I'm using it to declare jihad on the mods for blocking me from adding signatures for six months.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Was gonna make this my sig but now I'm using it to declare jihad on the mods for blocking me from adding signatures for six months.

MUAD'DIB! MUAD'DIB! LONG LIVE THE FIGHTER!

[John Dule]

Anyone here seen the John Brown biopic series The Good Lord Bird? I'm four episodes in right now. Ethan Hawke's performance is fantastic, but I'm a little iffy on some of the choices the show made in its portrayal of Frederick Douglass. Also, why is the thing told from the perspective of a fictional transvestite?

[GoTfan]

Anyone here seen the John Brown biopic series The Good Lord Bird? I'm four episodes in right now. Ethan Hawke's performance is fantastic, but I'm a little iffy on some of the choices the show made in its portrayal of Frederick Douglass. Also, why is the thing told from the perspective of a fictional transvestite?

Douglass is apparently on record as being a womaniser, so it's not too far out of character.

A lot of the story makes more sense with the context the book gives, but Ethan Hawke remains fantastic in his portrayal of John Brown.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Ran (乱), a samurai drama by Akira Kurosawa and one of his famous films, from 1985. Reduced me to crying more than once. Though 150+ minutes long it did not feel like that. Lived up to expectations, though I don't know if I would call it the best Japanese film ever, I certainly don't have huge complaints. I guess I rate it 8.5 out of 10.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

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Good lord, what a giant hot mess with Hidetora and his sons. The follies of his adoption of the German nobility style of land inheritance notwithstanding, the designated heir lacks political acumen and is helpless before his politically poisonous wife Lady Kaede, who shows her acumen in turning his sons against the mighty Hidetora. How unfortunate it is for the clan that its sons destroy each other...with the entire clan being reduced to ashes by the end. In the end, it got what it got deserved, tbh. By acting in a disunified way it left itself open to Lady Kaede's machinations, and that's on them. While it was a real tear-jerker how Hidetora died, in the end the clan still sinks into the ashes, along with the forts from which it once commanded mightily over the entire valley. Comes to mind the haiku: 夏草や兵どもが夢の跡/卯花に兼房みゆる白毛哉曾良. (A thicket of summer grass is all that remains of the dreams amd ambitions of ancient warriors. I caught a glimpse of the frosty hair of Kanefusa wavering among the white blossoms of unohana) For all of Hidetora's conquering prowess, he was defeated by Kaede who used her position closer to the heart of power to ruthlessly destroy him and his kin.

All in all the grievous mistrust between various individuals within a clan, in a situation manipulated by a woman unhappy about how her relatives were treated. What could possibly go wrong? Everything.

[T'Chenka]

I finally got around to watching Troll 2.

It lived up to the hype. Just an absolutely terrible movie, but so so enjoyable. Belongs up there with The Room by Tommy Wiseau as one of the best worst movies of all time.

[Progressive Pessimist]

There was a lot of discussion about 'Poor Things' in the awards thread, but I saw it last night and figured my thoughts were better left here.

It made me feel like a filthy pervert, but I enjoyed it immensely for its visual style alone. I also grew to understand why Emma Stone won the Oscar for her role here-it is probably her most unconventional performance yet and encompassed a lot of physicality while not getting into full...r-word territory, especially as her character physically grows and changes throughout the film. Also she gets nude a lot and is uglied up a bit. That's just about every Oscar checkbox ticked right there. Not undeservedly though.

Mark Ruffalo was also a stand-out. He was hilarious as far as controlling philanderers go. Lots of the humor worked for me actually. I laughed a lot at this steampunk, Victorian fever dream of a movie.

While I liked the film a lot, I would consider it Lanthimos' second best film after 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer.' I just love that sick movie for whatever morbid reason.

I also still have to see 'Killers of the Flower Moon' and 'The Holdovers,' so those might usurp the position of my favorite film if 2023 when I finally watch them.

And as for the quasi-feminist angle, I get why it's been subject to some debate, as many feminist topics can be, but it mostly worked for me. It was a little uncomfortable at first seeing a woman with an infant's brain be taken advantage of, yet as the movie went on it became clear that was kind of the point as Bella ended up maturing, learning about the world, and finding her independence. The discomfort is intentional, as with all Lanthimos films.

Overall I thought it was an engaging character piece by one of Hollywood's newest surrealist auteurs, done in a way where his filmmaking techniques are evolving and somehow becoming more accessible to wider audiences.

[Independents for Nihilism]

Just watched American Fiction, since I don't think I'm quite prepared for Poor Things. I was interrupted midway through which may have affected my opinion, but I liked it - not just the main thrust about his book, but how the film made a point of highlighting how Ellison thinks his life is sh*t, which is contextualized with his relationships with his family and other people around him, and how he has to juggle that. It was good old-fashioned family drama, ranging from the mundane all the way up to the Oscar-baity, but serving as a good contrast to the absurdity he's thrust into when he writes his stereotypical novel. I wasn't quite as keen on the non-ending - maybe the point was to show that in real stories, things don't all get tied up neatly in a bow, and life just goes on, with all of us, black or white or whatever, having to just make the most of it. Or perhaps it was to show that the book he wrote wasn't the point at all, since aside from his bitterness he did it to support his mom anyway. Or maybe it was just, almost literally, a cop-out. I would have liked to have seen everything come to a proper climax, but eh, I still enjoyed it, and it's good food for thought. Probably a solid 4/5, maybe a little less when I sleep on it.

[LabourJersey]

Just finished the "MASTERS OF THE AIR" miniseries on AppleTV+ with Austin Butler.

Thought it was fairly good, especially since I didn't know very much about the Army Air Force's efforts in World War II. Also had interesting side plots on the Tuskegee Airmen and the European resistance.

The pacing of the show isn't good, though. The first six episodes cover about six months in 1943, the last three cover the remaining two years of the war, and feel disjoined.

[T'Chenka]

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
director Rose Glass

7.5 out of 10

Very very good. If you wondering if you should see it, ask yourself if this sounds good to you: gay A24 neo-noir 80s acid western.

Also, this is one of those movies that has at least one thing if not more that could be considered a big spoiler, so try to go in to the movie knowing as little as possible.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I saw 'Dune: Part Two' yesterday, and with it was the first I saw of the new 'Planet of the Apes' movie.

I loved 'War' and thought the previous two were okay, but I'm a bit apprehensive about this one not having Matt Reeves direct it. Also it appears fairly derivative of the original 1968 film. I hope for the best with it though.

Did any of you have any thoughts on it?

[T'Chenka]

Did any of you have any thoughts on it?

I don't think Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is gonna be a great film. It looks like it will probably be good, but it being great or it being garbage both seem unlikely to me. 5 or 6 or 7 out of 10, probably.

[T'Chenka]

大象席地而坐 (2018)
"An Elephant Sitting Still"
director Hu Bo

9.0 / 10

An absolutely great film. In my top 50 of all time and my top 20 of the 2010s decade. There's so much to praise and I don't want to post a long review. Directing and acting is great, lots of long one-take shots and scenes. Soundtrack is good and the way it's used in the film is great. Themes are characters are developed reasonably well. The downside (for some): it's a nearly 4 hour long drama film not in the English language. Strong recommended.