Recent movie playlist

[TC]

The Hunt - man am i late to the game on this film. i saw that it was a mads film and people liked it, so i checked it out. it is so tense, and intense, and mads just chews up the scenery. such a powerful film, and really, it predicted the future of how one person saying a thing can completely destroy a person's life. highly recommended viewing. i'll be watching it again for sure.

Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes - watched this over the weekend. it was certainly interesting, but only by virtue of ted bundy and his crimes being endlessly fascinating to me. the series itself is not great for a couple reasons. first, it starts with the guy saying he has over 100 hours of audio from bundy. by the end of it, you have heard maybe 15 complete minutes from bundy, and nothing really new or revelational. i realize of course that if there had been some crazy revelation they sat on for decades, they'd be in jail, so it's not like i was expecting a confession or anything, but something that i didn't know would have been nice. so you're telling me that in 100 hours of tape, these are the most interesting parts? yikes, what a bore he must have been (which i find hard to believe. tedious and annoying, narcissistic and egomaniacal, sure.) also, in many (many) parts, the sentences they piece together from him are clearly from different sessions, which immediately makes the whole thing suspect, like they are manufacturing statements or context in this way. anyway, if you are a follower of true crime, this is a nice summary of bundy and some of what he did, from the beginning through the circus that was the court case. that's about it. i'd rate it "meh". go watch the deliberate stranger, if you can find it.

[_Marcus_]

A Quiet Place - Well, that was sort of disappointing. The premise is nice and all, and the actors give it their best (Emily Blunt is always a fine thespian). But goddamn, I haven't seen a film break it's own set rules this much in a long time. It's basically a script issue. For instance - why do the family have an entire wall dedicated to family photos or whatever, where every frame hangs on a nail in the wall all while the film makes it clear that pretty much any sudden sound attracts the creatures? A slight breeze and those photos fly right off the wall and death is imminent. The film is FULL of those types of details going against it's own premise.

[_Marcus_]

First Reformed - Quite blown away by this. Didn't think Schafer still had it in him but man, this was really something.

[TC]

First Reformed - Quite blown away by this. Didn't think Schafer still had it in him but man, this was really something.

yeah it was pretty great.

[_Marcus_]

It's completely insane that it got an Oscar nomination for best screenplay but not best picture.

[TC]

It's completely insane that it got an Oscar nomination for best screenplay but not best picture.

black panther was a much better film.

[_Marcus_]

Or Pedofilian Rhapsody...

[TC]

Velvet Buzzsaw - this was a fun one. i won't say much so it isn't spoiled. i don't understand what happened at the end, i may have missed something. i recommend watching it. don't know why it's hitting so low on lettrboxd. i gave it 3.5/5. well-acted, well-written piece.

[_Marcus_]

The Blackcoats Daughter - A very nice, slow horror burn. The sound design is top notch and the droning music as well. Very atmospheric and like I said, takes it time.

[O-dot]

Sorry for not contributing much to this thread lately. The wife and I are working our way through "The Americans" whenever we have a free evening. But I appreciate the other notes here.

[big d note]

We took our kids (8&11) to see Apollo 11 the other day. It was really impressive how they cut it all together with original footage and no new narration or anything (just a few simple animations that were new). Each step in the mission was so tense! My son liked it and my daughter thought it was meh of course, but I think it was good for both of them to see it.

[TC]

My take on this compared to You're The Worst was that, despite their supposed loutishness, the leads on YTW are actually likeable, whereas the couple on Married both seemed worthy of repeated face punchings in any given scene.

just got caught up on YTW, watched the season finale last night. holy crap i didn't see that coming, then he leaves? they really ARE the worst.

don't know if anyone else kept up with this show, but the series finale was last month. i just finished the last three episodes over the weekend. it had a sort of uncharacteristically happy ending for this show, and it was actually immensely satisfying. the show doesn't get talked about enough. it really was something. i'm glad they made it five seasons. i'm going to miss their characters.

[TC]

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile - yes, another bundy film. ephron is FANTASTIC as bundy. really, really good. but this film is kind of a snooze fest. it breezes over much of the detail as it's kind of told from the girlfriend's perspective. the big reveal at the end was also entirely fabricated, giving many uneducated viewers a very wrong opinion of how things went down before he died. but again, ephron was really great. that's about all i can say for this film.

[TC]

Wine Country - poehler & fey get the SNL girls gang back together for some middle-aged hijinks. pay offs are exactly as you'd expect, and want. some great laughs here, and was so good to see them all having fun together again. i guess melissa mccarthy wasn't available so they got a replacement that is basically melissa mccarthy to tag along. she had some great lines. really, the film was nothing over the top amazing, but it was, again, exactly as you'd expect. if the idea of all of them together again interests you, you'll like this film.

[TC]

Barry - not a movie, but have to mention this show is fucking great. the season finale is easily the best-written season finale i've seen all week, by far. please watch this show.

Chernobyl - also not a movie, but hair-raising, nerve-wracking, terrifying television. i'm only two episodes in and am blown away, and i lived through the reality.

[darkness]

Vice - starts off good, kind of loses it towards the end. Also reminds me a lot of Stone's "W."

[_Marcus_]

Watched the two seasons of the Castlevania animated series on Netflix and was kind of blown away by how good it was. Very solid writing, good acting and some real nasty visuals. You don't need to be a fan of the games to enjoy them, but it helps I guess? Worth your time, for sure.

[TC]

Living With Yourself - highly recommended paul rudd sci-fi comedy on netflix. a really fun watch.

[TC]

Mean Streets - i had never seen this and wanted to watch it before the irishman. it's really a crazy film. felt like i was watching a jordorowsky film. it's a nigh-psychedelic take on 70's thug life in NYC. bizarre, but interesting to look back at where scorsese started with these types of films in light of where he took them later. don't know that i need to see it again.

Fear X - was in the mood for some refn so jammed this one i hadn't seen. tuturro is great in this, and surprise appearance of james remar was welcome. had a high-tension, ominous vibe that made me feel like this was his take on lost highway. not insofar as plot, but just general kind of ambiguously tense, high-stakes film. ratings put it in the 50% range, i think that's very underrated. worth checking out. an early take on what will become modern-day refn feel and tone.

Pusher trilogy - after that, wanted more refn, and i hadn't seen any of these somehow. holy shit these were a blast. was great to see refn doing something completely different out of the gate, then going to revisit it when he had already kind of changed his overall tonal approach to filmmaking. the first one being his first film was fantastic. what a way to come out of the gate. second one was darker for me, with the baby and family concerns, but also great. but really, i think the third one is my favorite, even though no mads. it's just one crazy day for milo and is high-stress throughout with some over-the-top gore. found out looking these up after the trilogy that pusher has been remade several times now. unreal. the basic plot is kind of generic - drug deal goes bad/drug dealer makes poor decisions - so why do a remake? why not do an original take on that? seems easy enough. but i imagine they are all pretty terrible, because, again - why? but for refn, has to be pretty crazy seeing your first movie get remade so many times, so quickly. anyway, loved these.

[_Marcus_]

One Cut of the Dead - An absolute delight! Without spoiling too much (try to avoid spoilers in general for this one), it's a zombie comedy about a film crew, shooting a zombie film, then being attacked by real zombies. But there's so much more to it. And it's absurdly funny at times.