Recent movie playlist

[darkness]

I actually watched a movie!

Irresistible - I get what Jon Stewart was going for here, showing how our election system is broken and how the media feeds into it. But it's a little too cliche and there were places that were pretty cringe worthy in how obvious he was trying to beat the audience over the head with his message. It also goes for the big city folk bad, small town folk good B.S. that is more worthy of a Hallmark tv movie.

[TC]

Succession - blew through S1 over the weekend. started slow but i did get into it pretty well. watched the first episode of S2 last night too just to see where it was going after that ending of S1. looks good so far. if you want some great high-dollar billionaire power drama, start with Billions, but this looks to be a good second.

second season was great. holy fuck that ending. some very clever foreshadowing in that episode too. can't wait for S3. probably going to re-watch S1 now that i've seen where this goes just to see how they built the characters again. recommended show.

not surprised at all every major cast member got an emmy nom.

[TC]

Palm Springs - while i think all the hype this has recently is a bit much, this was a fun little flick. best go into it knowing nothing about it. some great LOL moments, but also a lot of lull. not great, but a fun watch.

The Beach House - i don't know what all the people saying this is a great lovecraftian movie are on, but they are mistaken. this is a film that wants you to think it's a lovecraft-esque film, but it is actually a collage of a ton of other movies you've seen before, all of which are better. ultimately frustrating, with a ridiculous ending. don't waste time.

[_Marcus_]

Mortal Engines - Hard to enjoy a film where you absolutely DO NOT buy the premise from the start. Looked good from time to time, looked absolutely awful (hello worst green screen-scenes since LOTR) at times too. Do not watch.

[TC]

The Alienist - wrapped S1 and started S2 over the weekend. it's basically a darker sherlock holmes with some slight twists. S1 was set in late 19th century (1896), S2 early 20th (i guess? they are unclear). dakota fanning's character's over-emphasis on the "wh" at the beginning of "wh" words is fascinating. she does it seamlessly. but boy is it distracting. i laugh every time. anyway, it's...ok? i guess they're based on a series (?) of books. first season was what i would call very good, but there were a lot of things left unexplained. S2 jumps ahead some time... a couple/few years i suppose... and loses teddy roosevelt as a character, which is a shame. the actor was great, as he was in boardwalk empire, and looked like a younger teddy. we also lose michael ironside's JP morgan, and sean young's character (she was nearly unrecognizable in this). we keep ted levine and his inexplicable hatred of... detectives, i guess? it's never really explained what his fucking problem is. we also keep main guy's friend and excellent michael shannon impersonator. and we gain a kevin spacey impersonator and WR hearst enters the picture. i don't know about S2 yet but the show in general being set when it is, it's great to look at. i can't imagine how much they spend on sets. S1's central crime was murder of young boys dressed as girls (boy whores), S2's is baby kidnapping/murder. so yeah, it's dark, but at the same time it's on TNT, so...

[TC]

Host - remote seance with a group of friends, shit happens. zoom-based short film (clocks in at just under an hour) filmed entirely during this pandemic. it starts slow but is actually a really well-done little flick. nothing super original but it's pretty impressive how it was done. check it out.

In Search Of Darkness - aims to be the end-all, be-all of '80s horror film docs. they go year by year, grabbing a couple handful of titles each year to have their commentators/guests talk about. very ambitious, and is 4.5h long, but still tons of omissions and questionable includes. also, at least a couple of the commentators have a very clear agenda and are fucking annoying as shit. i would have cut them entirely. in fact, just let joe bob do the entire thing and it would have been leagues better. i guess it's ok for someone that wasn't alive then and/or hasn't seen any of the films, but was ultimately disappointing as i had high hopes for it.

[TC]

ok you want to laugh? for the last several months, our "wind down" TV when we go to bed has been classic game shows. it's both fascinating and hilarious. in particular, lately we've been stuck on The Match Game from 1978. i didn't realize at the time how creepy and pervy gene is. it's really kind of insane through today's lens. anyway, you want a goof, search "buzzr" on amazon prime. they have tons of classic game shows. it's pretty great.

[darkness]

in particular, lately we've been stuck on The Match Game from 1978. i didn't realize at the time how creepy and pervy gene is.

I watched the first episode of '78. I'm filing a restraining order against Rayburn now. Yikes, that guy sends off major perv vibes!

[TC]

stay tuned, it gets way worse. and the show is just completely unhinged. one time, the entire cast of carol burnette just wanders onto the set. sometimes gene yells at people behind the sets or the lighting guy. it's extremely bizarre. also, all the "celebs" go off and change clothes between episodes while the contestants don't, as they clearly film a few episodes in a day. they never thought people would be paying that much attention, but it's amusing to watch them all act like it's a new day most of the time. sometimes they don't, and it's pretty amusing. really, the whole show is kind of chaos. we have been trying to figure out what drugs exactly are in the green room, but obviously lots of alcohol.

[TC]

this aired may 25, 1978. start at 1:25. gene was trying to warn us all!

[darkness]

Gene is behind all this! Someone must have disturbed his corpse and let the virus out.

[TC]

The Swamp - recommended for anyone who thinks that elected officials actually do the job of representing the people rather than the bidding of the lobbyist groups. crazy to see how much fund raising is expected from them. thanks a lot, newt.

Ad Astra - not a bad film at all. pretty interesting in fact. the pace reminds me of a malick film. while there are some harrowing sequences, don't expect a space action flick. it's very deliberately paced. sometimes it feels like it's happening in real time.

Speed Cubers - a brief and entertaining doc that gives a glimpse into the insane world of rubick's cube addicts.

[klimov]

Ad Astra is excellent, one of the best of 2019 alongside OUATIH and The Lighthouse (and Fanny Lye, of course).

[TC]

The Alienist - wrapped S1 and started S2 over the weekend. it's basically a darker sherlock holmes with some slight twists. S1 was set in late 19th century (1896), S2 early 20th (i guess? they are unclear). dakota fanning's character's over-emphasis on the "wh" at the beginning of "wh" words is fascinating. she does it seamlessly. but boy is it distracting. i laugh every time. anyway, it's...ok? i guess they're based on a series (?) of books. first season was what i would call very good, but there were a lot of things left unexplained. S2 jumps ahead some time... a couple/few years i suppose... and loses teddy roosevelt as a character, which is a shame. the actor was great, as he was in boardwalk empire, and looked like a younger teddy. we also lose michael ironside's JP morgan, and sean young's character (she was nearly unrecognizable in this). we keep ted levine and his inexplicable hatred of... detectives, i guess? it's never really explained what his fucking problem is. we also keep main guy's friend and excellent michael shannon impersonator. and we gain a kevin spacey impersonator and WR hearst enters the picture. i don't know about S2 yet but the show in general being set when it is, it's great to look at. i can't imagine how much they spend on sets. S1's central crime was murder of young boys dressed as girls (boy whores), S2's is baby kidnapping/murder. so yeah, it's dark, but at the same time it's on TNT, so...

S2 turned out to be pretty cool. they played fast & loose this season. sometimes it felt like they filmed scenes that later got cut and we were just supposed to assume what happened. i am thinking of one in particular, and they even showed it in a "previously on" recap at the beginning of the next episode. but a few times the things that happened were just left unexplained and never came back to them. there were also a few times where the main guy used his disabled arm. also it seemed like the main story concluded halfway through, but the path forward from there turned out to be pretty cool. all that aside, it was still pretty cool. don't know if it gets renewed for S3, and apparently the author hasn't finished the third book yet either, but if you're looking for something different to watch, i'd say give it a shot.

[TC]

The Umbrella Academy - threw this on to see if it was any good. started out very slowly, but picked up in the back 1/3 of S1 to a pretty great ending. yes, lots of pretty ridiculous plot holes and overlooked shit, but pretty entertaining if you can get past ellen page and her 5-head. started S2, fantastic beginning. we'll see where this goes.

[_Marcus_]

Project Power - this is supposed to be, from what I can tell, Netflix latest push to get a popcorn-flick/superhero-flick franchise going. And boy, they have their work cut out for 'em... Absolutely abysmal.

[TC]

Project Power - this is supposed to be, from what I can tell, Netflix latest push to get a popcorn-flick/superhero-flick franchise going. And boy, they have their work cut out for 'em... Absolutely abysmal.

yeah that looked dumb as fuck. wasn't going to bother. glad i didn't.

[TC]

The Umbrella Academy - threw this on to see if it was any good. started out very slowly, but picked up in the back 1/3 of S1 to a pretty great ending. yes, lots of pretty ridiculous plot holes and overlooked shit, but pretty entertaining if you can get past ellen page and her 5-head. started S2, fantastic beginning. we'll see where this goes.

S2 was pretty great. enjoyed it more than S1 actually. pretty cool show. if they get S3, it should be pretty interesting, given that ending.

[TC]

Jojo Rabbit - was pretty amusing. several LOL moments. very well acted, particularly by the two children leading the way. reminded me of a wes anderson film, only trying far less hard to be cutesy and with no scenes of characters walking across the screen.

The Death And Resurrection Show - really wanted to love this killing joke "documentary" but... most of the interviews are nigh-unintelligible, with shitty audio. it is difficult to understand some of the folks as it is - i don't think i picked up one word that french chick said - don't need poor audio with music piped under it as well. also, it really only barely scratches the surface on so many things. jaz makes a statement or tells a story that any living human would have a thousand follow-up questions about, but we just move on to the next thing. it bounces around time too - one minute it's 1982, then they're playing music from the 2003 album, then we go back to 1985, etc. maybe new fans might find it helpful, but it's really a shame given what it could have been.

[TC]

Class Action Park - a little light on details, and a lot of things told out of order. plus, most of the last 1/3 of it is dedicated to one victim's family. still, some action park is better than no action park.

Enemy - not sure how this passed by me in 2013. jake gyllenhaal plays two roles (i guess?). directed by denis villeneuve. based on a novel apparently. reminded me somewhat of lost highway. i quite enjoyed it, except for that ending. i read several analyses of it but it still doesn't really make any sense. i didn't see it coming, i'll give it that. it's relatively short. if you haven't seen it, i recommend checking it out.