Recent movie playlist

[TC]

i thought we had a post in here about the Raniere / NXIVM thing, but i can't find it. so far, the docuseries about it - The Vow - is two episodes in, and it's fucking creepy as shit. really anxious to see more of it.

[_Marcus_]

Teenage Bounty Hunters - A very enjoyable, well written and excellent cast comedy on Netflix. Dont miss it.

[TC]

Taken - no, the 2002 steven spielberg mini-series. rewatched this whole thing again as it had been probably 10 years. it's still great. bummed me out to see anton yelchin. he was so good. dakota fanning is great. emily bergl, joel gretsch, john hawkes, and in particular matt frewer are all great. heather donahue is so hateable. this appears to be the last major thing she did. while the car travel in the last two episodes is fucking ludicrous - it's like time travel, and once you notice it you can't unsee it - and the very end is beyond drawn out, the show still holds up. i love it.

Cobra Kai - now that it's finally on a platform i have, figured i'd toss on an episode to see if it held up to the hype. four hours later and i've watched the first 8 episodes. it's so good. a delicious dose of nostalgia served up on a current-day plate, and it's beyond enjoyable. anxious to see if this holds up over another season.

[TC]

Cobra Kai - now that it's finally on a platform i have, figured i'd toss on an episode to see if it held up to the hype. four hours later and i've watched the first 8 episodes. it's so good. a delicious dose of nostalgia served up on a current-day plate, and it's beyond enjoyable. anxious to see if this holds up over another season.

finished s2 last night. it fell off a bit but was still cool. lots of ways s3 could go.

[TC]

Vivarium - Mark Zuckerberg leads a Sisyphean nightmare and literal echo chamber where the only way out is dying. How appropriate. Jonathan Aris is by far the best part of this, and he's only in it for a few minutes. I think "vivarium" must be Latin for "do not watch".

Sicario - i wasn't really sure what this was going to be, but i wanted to catch up on my denis before dune. i figured some drug cartel shoot 'em up. it's much more than that. i loved it. it was full of "hey, that guy!" moments too. heard the sequel is disappointing (not denis) but it's not streaming anywhere so... as my letterboxd review says: "Dr. Martin Stein retires from the Legends, joins the FBI, and directs Mary Poppins to aid Thanos and Dr. Gonzo to dismantle a cartel."

[TC]

The Night Of - not sure why i passed this up in 2016 but just watched the 8-episode limited series. it's really fucking good. apparently gandolfini was originally going to play the turturro character and filmed two days before he died. but he's still exec prod on this, as it was years in the making. would have been really interesting to see where gandolfini took this, but turturro is really great in this, as he is in almost everything he's in. highly recommend watching this, if you haven't seen it. chalky white (michael kenneth williams) is fantastic in this, as is bill camp. the only knock i can say about this is that by the time you get to the end of this, you realize that every main character in this outside of turturro, williams, and camp's characters, is a complete fucking idiot and doing everything possible to destroy the case. but it's also kind of amusing to see that.

[_Marcus_]

Cobra Kai - now that it's finally on a platform i have, figured i'd toss on an episode to see if it held up to the hype. four hours later and i've watched the first 8 episodes. it's so good. a delicious dose of nostalgia served up on a current-day plate, and it's beyond enjoyable. anxious to see if this holds up over another season.

finished s2 last night. it fell off a bit but was still cool. lots of ways s3 could go.

We are six episodes into season 1 and this show should NOT be as good as it is. It's got charm, humor and drama. Well written, well cast, well acted. Pleasently surprised!

[TC]

told you!

I'm Thinking Of Ending Things - i like weird movies, but holy shit is this a weird movie. the dinner scene with toni collette is so uncomfortably great. the second half of this film takes a very weird (even for it) turn. i honestly don't know what to make of this film. it's fucking weird. reviews seem to be all over the map. i'm not quite on the side of "i'm thinking of ending my netflix subscription" but i'm not on the 5-stars side either. as much as i kind of don't want to, i feel like i should watch it again. i probably won't. fuck it's odd.

Raised By Wolves - new HBO series by Ridley Scott. what happened to him? i made it three episodes before i couldn't take any more and gave up. there are a couple good exploding human scenes, and the idea of religion vs science turning into a war is interesting, but this is a giant fucking dud. god is it boring. and i don't give a shit about a group of kids.

[_Marcus_]

I know, I know... You were not the only one who spoke higly of Cobra Kai, but I guess I just didn't believe it? Anyway, the writing on this show IS the show. It fleshes out what was once one-dimensional characters and builds on the "lessons" learned in the first film (and the third, tbh). Me and the missus were on the edge of our seats, while also laughing our asses of (when LaRusso calls the medics in the last episode of s01... Man...). It's wonderfully self-aware.

[TC]

The Mutilator - although Shudder retains the "Fall Break" title screen, ala the OG VHS. i remembered loving this so much when it came out, watching it many times. based on that memory i've been touting it as an underrated classic all these years. revisited last night and boy is it a giant piece of shit. so much ridiculous plot and terrible acting with very little pay off. no one even seems to mind when they are murdered. and that music, holy shit. i did end up loving it, but for entirely unintentional reasons. it was pretty hilariously bad.

[darkness]

Seems the masses have spoken and it's finally time to give Cobra Kai a spin.

[_Marcus_]

Seems the masses have spoken and it's finally time to give Cobra Kai a spin.

A spin... kick?

*sees myself out*

[TC]

Daniel Isn't Real - mis-marketed as a horror movie, which it definitely isn't. it does have a couple scenes with great effects though. starts like it might be a horror movie with a "bang" about a minute in, then an abrupt slow down. ended up being pretty cool. don't think i need to see it again, but it was ok. served to make me more horrified at schizophrenia for sure.

[TC]

The Social Dilemma - none of this was new information for me, but i think about it quite a bit. should be required viewing for anyone who uses social media. quite good.

[_Marcus_]

I thought this was an excellent, quite frightening docu. Yeah, you probably know all about the facts presented but they manage to frame it in a way that really strikes a chord. Required viewing is right.

[TC]

Spiral - (2019 Kurtis David Harder film). The first half of this will piss you off with the ridiculous, inexplicable choices and actions. But it doesn't go where you think it's going. That's being said, films probably shouldn't try to hit the same notes that Hereditary did so masterfully. It's not going to work out for you very well, particularly when paired with forced social commentary.

Gwen - Not really a horror film, but certainly horrific. Atmosphere for days. If it set out to show that you don't need supernatural elements to be scary, mission accomplished. Will be thinking about this one for a while but likely not rewatchable like The VVitch or Hagazussa.

[TC]

Challenger: The Final Flight - 4-part Netflix doc on the doomed NASA mission. really great, filled with things i had forgotten, told from the perspective of people as close to the thing as you can get. at the end, they even set themselves up for a sequel (seriously, sadly). recommended.

[_Marcus_]

Cobra Kai - now that it's finally on a platform i have, figured i'd toss on an episode to see if it held up to the hype. four hours later and i've watched the first 8 episodes. it's so good. a delicious dose of nostalgia served up on a current-day plate, and it's beyond enjoyable. anxious to see if this holds up over another season.

finished s2 last night. it fell off a bit but was still cool. lots of ways s3 could go.

I love how they opened up the amount of possibilitys for s3. The last episode was bonkers in so many ways.