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| Befade |
 Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 12:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Gromit: Are you streaming anything over there? Isn’t that available? Over here we don’t need to buy that many dvds because so many movies are on Netflix, etc. in fact it’s a challenge to limit what you watch. There are too many choices. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 12:53 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Never heard of those three, Gromit. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 2:41 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Dvd's are cheap here.
China has it set up so that the internet within China (ie to Chinese sites) is fast, but overseas is slow. I have a Slingbox so I do stream my parents cable tv, mainly for basketball games. But the quality is rather erratic. Occasionally I'll watch some films noir on youtube.
Funny story:
I'm in the small dvd store. Their large male cat rubs against my legs.
I say in a soothing voice "Hey sweetie ... "
And the other customer, a mid-20's girl, turns around and stares at me.
We're only a few feet apart.
I point down and say "The Cat ...." |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 1:58 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Well, BlackkKlansman was really interesting.
I really enjoyed the film. Best Spike Lee in a long time. A great odd story. Spike goes through racist film history and US racial history. And then ties it to the present day in a gut-punch coda. There are 3 very interesting and impressive speeches in the film -- Baldwin's opening, the Stokely Carmichael lecture in the middle and the Belafonte history lesson at the end. All were pretty gripping. Loved that Spike used Belafonte, a genuine civil rights legend (reminiscent of how Spike brought in Ossie Davis and Ruby Lee for Do the Right Thing, though there they had dramatic/character parts).
I liked how the Jewish issue was brought in, as Adam Driver's detective is forced to question his assumptions and identity for the first time. I liked the tension between working for change from the inside and agitating from outside the system. Spike seems to say that both are necessary. I even like that complexity in the wake of #blacklivesmatter.
To nitpick:
The tone wobbles at times. Sometimes the danger seems somewhat perfunctory. And I found it unlikely that the head of the black student union would have not much of a social life going on and have time for the not-so-committed stranger who turns up. There's some sloppiness present: The scene of catching the racist cop seemed shoehorned in at the end. White Ron's cover getting blown gets dropped, so seemed unnecessary too. I can overlook all of that, but it kept it from being a masterpiece.
My other concern which gnawed at me all film is why didn't the white detective just take over the entire undercover gig and talk on the phone as well as show up. There would be less risk of exposure, ranging from the voice discrepancy to not knowing all the details of what black Ron said, to having Ron perhaps both on the phone and physically somewhere with Klan members. I realize it's based on a true story and apparently how it played out, but it seemed strange and risky to me.
I hope this film does/did well, gets some awards and is seen by many. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:26 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:45 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I find it odd that two films from 2018 -- Sorry to Bother You & BlackkKlansman -- feature a black guy talking in a white voice over the phone. Not sure what this exactly means.
I will note that films rarely touch on light skin "blacks" "passing" for white, or skin tone differences within the black community, or how American race concepts are still tainted by the "one-drop" rule so that anyone with slightly black features/blood is labeled black. The latter two especially seem ripe for examination. How we define race is pretty offensive and overdue for a rethink, but nobody seems much concerned . . . |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 4:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| I’m aware of blacks having prejudice against those with darker skin. Maybe from Toni Morrison’s books. Some of Thomas Jefferson ‘s ancestors passed for white. On the PBS show Finding Your Roots it was revealed that Carly Simon had a grandmother who immigrated from Cuba. And because Cuba had more African slaves than the U.S. most Cubans have some African blood. And so does Carly Simon. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:18 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Buster Scruggs is pretty good. For some reason I had low expectations. A lot of it seemed derivative of earlier Coen films.
The Buster Scruggs episode to lead off has Tim Blake Nelson in a character that seems to combine his and Clooney's characters from O Brother Where Art thou. With Big Lebowski fantasy elements. A distinctly Coen take on a familiar tale of the next fastest gun.
I liked the chapter with the wagon train to Oregon and the brother dying (and the little doggie getting along). Zoe Kazan & Bill Heck are quite good in that.
There are some gorgeous compositions of the Western landscapes. A good time was had by all. I'm reading short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and it kind of fit in nicely with the tone/tenor/times of Buster Scruggs stories. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: I find it odd that two films from 2018 -- Sorry to Bother You & BlackkKlansman -- feature a black guy talking in a white voice over the phone. Not sure what this exactly means.
I thought BlacKkKlansman was the best film of the year, and found Sorry to Bother You a severe disappointment on every level. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 2:13 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:01 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12892
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I've seen "BlacKKKlansman" among their best picture nominees and "The Favourite" among their other nominees. Adam Driver, Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz are all deserving. "Roma" is the one I'm most anxious to see. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 8:26 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6945
Location: Black Hills
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| Yes. I hadn't even heard of Vox Lux. Didn't make it to Stixville. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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"Private Life," streaming on Netflix, may be my favorite movie of 2018. Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn, already two of my favorite film actors, equal or top their previous work as a middle-aged couple trying desperately to conceive a child and going a little crazy in the process. Their step-niece comes to visit and agrees to be their egg donor. Her mother Molly Shannon has a whole bunch to say about that. Horror and hilarity ensue.
The movie is achingly real and totally on point, occasionally bruisingly sad and sometimes fall-out-of-your-chair funny, thanks to ace writer-director Tamara Jenkins. And it introduces (to me at least) a wonderful new actor named Kayli Carter as the niece. As for Hahn and Giamatti, words fail me. Hahn is a stunningly versatile actor and Giamatti has not been this unforgettable since 2004's "Sideways."
This is a great film. Period. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:15 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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I Am Ali was disappointing. They had access to a lot of Ali home recordings (he liked to record phone conversations with his young children telling them they'll love hearing these when they are grown up). The interviews with his now-grown children show that this doc is family/estate approved. And so we get a lot of people, including Jim Brown and Ali family members telling what a great person Ali was. Someone suggest he was the greatest perosn of the 20th C. Then George Foreman tops that by saying that Ali was the greatest person who ever walked the Earth.
There are some good Ali clips and anecdotes. But most are rather brief, and I felt like you could go to Youtube and watch 2 hours of Ali vids and get more. Indeed i've done just that. Funny, this is the first time I thought sifting through youtube videos was better than the documentary film I was watching.
I didn't particularly like the structure of the video in whcih each interviewee offered one anecdote or theme then we moved on to something else Ali related. Hell, I thought there might be some tonal problems when the opening credits begin with some rock music, which didn't seem like what Ali would be listening to. We get more soul music later, but the music choices weren't terribly inspired or well-used throughout (some too obvious, others not interesting, etc.)
So basically the structure seems just a way of stringing together unrelated quick hits, and the music passable. I just don't think they had any purpose or concept in mind except to say what a great guy Ali was and to mine the family archives they had access to. It's not a bad overview of Ali and I guess a fine enough intro for those knowing little about the man. But depth is lacking and nothing is extended or looked into much at all. Except what a great guy Ali was
There have been a number of good and very good Ali docs in the past decade. All better than this. My favorite is Facing Ali in which a dozen fighters who got in the ring with Ali look back on their careers. With some clips of Ali interspersed. Poignant and fairly brilliant. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:48 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Maybe I meant to pick up Private Life but went with Life Itself instead. Not a good move. Life Itself is kind of a mess. A few generations of depressed people who experience some tragedies. And then when they are moping they recall the family tragedies (they didn't actually witness) and see their family members usually just before the tragedy.
The tone seems off throughout. It starts with 2 or 3 different false beginnings, which lurch about and are more distracting than disorienting or clever or whatever they were going for. It's like some random cross between Margarite and Synechdoche, NY. I found it very hard to get involved with, and certain scenes and ideas rubbed me the wrong way. I started to restructuring scenes to make them more satisfying.
Because it tries to incorporate a number of families and generations it rushes through tragedies and we don't really get to know anyone. And we get far too much narration. The cast sounded impressive: Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Samuel L Jackson. But the script lets everyone down.
it's not awful but I cna't imagine anyone really warming up to this.
The writer/director created the Tv show This is Us, which I'd never heard of, but seemed reasonably acclaimed. This film seemed like a year's worth of Tv episodes smashed into one not-so-coherent 2 hour film. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:04 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6945
Location: Black Hills
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I liked "Vice," an amusing and unapologetically mocking dark comedy, but it definitely has some weak spots. Steve Carell is somehow just wrong as Donald Rumsfeld and made me intensely aware that he was Steve Carell doing a caricature. Almost cartoonish. And I could say much the same about Sam Rockwell as GW Bush (admittedly, Josh Brolin is a tough act to follow). I would also question the degree of coldness that is imputed to Cheney (not that he wasn't a bastard) in regard to his daughter's congress race and her tossing her sister under the Sanctity of Marriage bus. While one can argue that Cheney was some sort of evil puppet-master of the W administration, I tend to think it was likely more of an ensemble effort. There were some informative sidebars and captions that deliver some interesting information (a bit reminiscent of The Big Short) for younger viewers who may not have been aware of Cheney's adherence to the concept of the "unitary executive."
It's the kind of movie that should send any honest person off to spend a few hours fact-checking. Unfortunately, most viewers will probably just place a few checkmarks on either a Knew That checklist or a Fake News checklist. |
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