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bartist
Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 8:40 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
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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bartist
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:39 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
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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bartist
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:42 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
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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knox
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:20 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1245 Location: St. Louis
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1245 Location: St. Louis
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
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 Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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 Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
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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Syd
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:33 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
So she has a good head off her shoulders?

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