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| bartist |
 Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 8:40 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Alan Partridge is a 2013 film based on Steve Coogan's radio/tv character. Much fun is had with such tropes as hostage taking, the silliness of call-in radio shows, the usurpation of local media by big conglomerates, and an angry Irishman. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 11:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Gromit......I watched Mary & Max but was not as taken with it as you. Visually, artistically it was fascinating. Some of the humor was very testy. For my viewing it started out as a story about loneliness. I can relate to this especially now with the virus isolating. If you’ve ever watched the MTV show Catfish you’ll realize how many people get involved in lengthy online relationships with people they’ve never met. If you’ve ever wondered how many people want to feel less alone...this show will enlighten you.
This starting point interested me. I didn’t need to see it veer to Mary’s drunk mother or Max’s Asperger symptoms. The loneliness issue never got dealt with successfully...Sigh. And because I have a 16 year old grandson with Aspergers I have a different perspective. My grandson is very affectionate, loves to be teased, is very aware of girls’ bodies and will touch until told not too. He had a laughing fit watching the female Ghostbusters and is a big fan of Planet of the Apes. I find him sweet and enjoyable to be around.
So I guess I’d say the film has a very negative perspective on dealing with difficult issues. Yes, Max gives his tv characters collection to Mary but that wasn’t enough to satisfy me. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:35 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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The look of the film is great. The film develops two rounded characters, even if they are often frustrating and difficult, and besieged by circumstances. It is a rather bleak worldview with limited hope peaking through here and there.
Some of the W&G style jokes: after Max is attacked by a bird on the streets of NY he goes to the hospital to the Bird Injury Ward. When Mary keeps checking her mailbox after Max stops writing, we see a few snails in her mailbox. Next check, a few more snails. Underscores how unused the mailbox has become, but also a subtle reference to what we now call "snail mail." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:38 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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| I've never seen the Tv show Catfish, but thought the film Catfish was pretty mediocre and no idea why that became the term for such online deception. A much better documentary on the same subject from the same period was talhotblond. Not contrived like Catfish, and a genuine powerful climax (again unlike CF). |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:39 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| The Voices (2014) is a grotesque and grisly black comedy that gets some good performances from its cast and somehow manages to descend into deep realms of the preposterous without breaking up. Ryan Reynolds is a schizophrenic who has a psychotic break, ends up killing three people, and yet remains a really nice guy. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:42 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: I've never seen the Tv show Catfish, but thought the film Catfish was pretty mediocre and no idea why that became the term for such online deception. A much better documentary on the same subject from the same period was talhotblond. Not contrived like Catfish, and a genuine powerful climax (again unlike CF).
Wasn't the term from something about how cod are shipped with catfish? I've mostly forgotten the film, and mostly wanted to. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:34 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| I remember Talhotblond. The Catfish tv shows features mostly young people who get involved in love relationships with people who will never meet them. Some of these online relationships last for years. Yet the mystery remains: who is this person texting me day and night? That’s the basis of the show...doing the tech detective work to find out who the catfish really is and how they really feel about about each other. This show reveals how desperately people want a connection to someone who cares about them....even if it turns out to be a fantasy. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:20 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| Such movies show how desperately people need to walk out their (expletive, possibly several expletives) front door. Even if it's just baby steps. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:24 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
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Location: St. Louis
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bartist wrote: The Voices (2014) is a grotesque and grisly black comedy that gets some good performances from its cast and somehow manages to descend into deep realms of the preposterous without breaking up. Ryan Reynolds is a schizophrenic who has a psychotic break, ends up killing three people, and yet remains a really nice guy.
Greatly underrated movie. Though I think their soundtrack should've had at least one Talking Heads track. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:47 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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bartist wrote: gromit wrote: I've never seen the Tv show Catfish, but thought the film Catfish was pretty mediocre and no idea why that became the term for such online deception. A much better documentary on the same subject from the same period was talhotblond. Not contrived like Catfish, and a genuine powerful climax (again unlike CF).
Wasn't the term from something about how cod are shipped with catfish? I've mostly forgotten the film, and mostly wanted to.
Looked it up and you're right. So it's a rather dumb contrived term/title as well.
The funny thing is the catfish among the vats of cod are beneficial troublemakers. But in human terms, such people are annoying unhelpful and generally destructive. But in the quote that the term comes from, the guy notes that the catfish are beneficial, but opines so are these duplicitous liars as they make life more interesting and existence would be dull if everybody were honest. Huh? So it's a rather fatuous usage. For the comparison to make sense, he has to assert that such lairs and conmen (and con-women) are useful/positive in some way.
It matches the film. A good deal of contrivance and not that credible. But somewhat interesting |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 9:46 am |
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knox wrote: bartist wrote: The Voices (2014) is a grotesque and grisly black comedy that gets some good performances from its cast and somehow manages to descend into deep realms of the preposterous without breaking up. Ryan Reynolds is a schizophrenic who has a psychotic break, ends up killing three people, and yet remains a really nice guy.
Greatly underrated movie. Though I think their soundtrack should've had at least one Talking Heads track.
Haha. Would be a good meta joke. You might also like Small Apartments, another notably weird indie film with a strong ensemble and a nice guy who is accidentally responsible for a death. The lead, Matt Lucas, was Nardole on Dr. Who. Also some nice turns by veteran comic actors like Billy Crystal and Peter Stormare. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 4:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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knox wrote: bartist wrote: The Voices (2014) is a grotesque and grisly black comedy that gets some good performances from its cast and somehow manages to descend into deep realms of the preposterous without breaking up. Ryan Reynolds is a schizophrenic who has a psychotic break, ends up killing three people, and yet remains a really nice guy.
Greatly underrated movie. Though I think their soundtrack should've had at least one Talking Heads track.
I've read enough about "The Voices" to know I don't want to see it. SPOILER ALERT I don't want to see Anna Kendrick's head severed from her body and kept on ice. (Or do I have that wrong? If so, I might consider watching.) |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:11 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: knox wrote: bartist wrote: The Voices (2014) is a grotesque and grisly black comedy that gets some good performances from its cast and somehow manages to descend into deep realms of the preposterous without breaking up. Ryan Reynolds is a schizophrenic who has a psychotic break, ends up killing three people, and yet remains a really nice guy.
Greatly underrated movie. Though I think their soundtrack should've had at least one Talking Heads track.
I've read enough about "The Voices" to know I don't want to see it. SPOILER ALERT I don't want to see Anna Kendrick's head severed from her body and kept on ice. (Or do I have that wrong? If so, I might consider watching.)
Unless it's still alive. That would be an acting challenge. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:52 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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| You DO want to see the heads of Anna Kendrick and Gemma Atherton talking and generally doing some pretty amusing, er, tete a tete. In the school of black comedy, they both move to the head of the class. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:33 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| So she has a good head off her shoulders? |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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