Recent Posts

1

Marathons / Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors

« Last post by Dave the Necrobumper on Yesterday at 10:42:07 PM »

The one time I saw The Russians are Coming it was a bit of fun silliness.

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Television & Sports / Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched

« Last post by Sam the Cinema Snob on Yesterday at 09:10:59 PM »

Yea, I gave up on The Mentalist with maybe 6-7 episodes left. The last season is just bad. Does all the things shows shouldn't do as they go later on. Jane and Lisbon don't work as a couple and introducing new characters and then trying to make us care for them a lot in only a few episodes so that we're invested in their sideplots just does not work. This could have been like a great 3-4 season 12 episode series, instead it's just above average TV which isn't good enough to get a recommendation for me since it's such a massive time investment for not that great a return.

I guess what I'm saying is go watch The Wire instead.

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Filmspots / Re: Filmspots 2020: Official Nominations

« Last post by goodguy on Yesterday at 08:54:52 PM »

Well, if that's not enough minutes per $$, you can watch DAU. Degeneration where you get 360 for 3. 

EDIT: Oops, I forgot, because pixote asked about it here, that didn't get a Filmspots nomination.

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Show Discussion / #821: Rocky (7 From '76) / Detour ('40s Noir #4) / '80s Madness Champ

« Last post by saltine on Yesterday at 08:52:53 PM »

Whatever backlash ROCKY has received over the years for beating out the likes of "Taxi Driver," "All The President's Men" and "Network" for the 1977 Best Picture Oscar, it has largely faded as people discover - or rediscover - that the populist hit that spawned a mostly forgettable (and occasionally ridiculous) franchise has more in common with its gritty '70s peers than it gets credit for. Among those who remain unconvinced, however, is Josh. Thankfully, Adam comes to Rocky's defense and the two go 15 rounds before ending the review in a split decision. Plus, raves for the nasty '45 Noir DETOUR - part of the '40s Noir Marathon - and the winner of Filmspotting Madness—Best of the '80s.

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Marathons / 1SO vs. All the Directors - Norman Jewison

« Last post by 1SO on Yesterday at 08:33:00 PM »

#352 Norman Jewison Ranked List

With 2 Essentials, multiple Oscar nominations and a career spanning several genres, Jewison strikes me as a person you can hire for anything who may occasionally deliver far better than you were hoping for.

DEFINITE:
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966) is a major blindspot

MAYBE:
The Statement (2003) is a thriller starring Michael Caine and Tilda Swinton. I just learned this exists.
The Art of Love (1965) is a rom-com starring James Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer and Angie Dickinson. Sounds like my kind of movie.

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Directors / Re: Gibney, Alex

« Last post by 1SO on Yesterday at 08:23:08 PM »

Updated Rankings

The Armstrong Lie (2013)
★ ★ ★ - Okay
Gibney is obsessed with what drove Lance Armstrong’s decision to attempt a comeback, one which imploded when the cyclist’s doping scandal came out. He seems to believe if Armstrong stayed out of the spotlight he would’ve gotten away with it, but I’m not so sure because the scandal was bubbling right at the surface all the time. He also seems frustrated to not have a definitive answer to his question, which misses all the evidence of a person who saw stagnation as death, someone who had to keep rewriting his myth even if/though it destroyed him.


Totally Under Control (2020)
★ ★
Bondo is right. With all the insight of a prime time news special, Gibney is on autopilot recapping the mismanagement of the COVID pandemic. There’s a little more about the flaw in the initial test, that allowed the US Government to essentially stop testing people completely, believing this would keep the numbers down. It’s the decision of an idiot, topped only by what I think is Trump’s most destructive moment, when he off-handed commented that wearing a mask is voluntary and he wouldn’t be doing it. There’s also a bit of Michael Moore muckraking, which I hope is because of this particular outrage and not a new spin Gibney plans to use.

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Movie Talk / Re: Respond to the last movie you watched

« Last post by 1SO on Yesterday at 06:55:26 PM »

I had to research Inside Out, the director's last film and for most the best Pixar of the 2010s. Thought maybe it slipped your mind, but actually you agree with me about that film's flaws.


Eric, you want movies to do too much. Netflix (actually Paramount) and Aaron Sorkin are trying to entertain you first. Sorkin is a student of the classical style of storytelling. He admits he knew nothing about the Chicago 7 when Spielberg first approached him years ago. He found books and a living witness and learned from them enough to craft his story. He doesn't claim to be a scholar on the subject, but he knows how to write characters and dialogue.

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Filmspots / Re: Filmspots 2020: Official Nominations

« Last post by Bondo on Yesterday at 06:15:54 PM »

Just saw that in addition to being a $5 rental, Heimat is a 220 minute film. That’s a hard nope.

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Filmspots / Re: FYC 2020 - General

« Last post by Sam the Cinema Snob on Yesterday at 05:55:08 PM »

It took me three times to finally get through I'm Thinking of Ending Things. I lost the ability to find any useful meaning in it and that lost my ability to care. It came across as a bad faith film, intentionally opaque to the point of F*** You to the audience. Those kind of films make me want to upend a card table.

Sounds like a Kaufman movie. I'm so dreading watching it but I feel I should watch all the best picture noms to be an informed voter.

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Movie Talk / Re: Respond to the last movie you watched

« Last post by Sam the Cinema Snob on Yesterday at 05:52:25 PM »

I thought about waiting and writing something longer but honestly, I've got too much to do in the next week and I'm behind on my other writing projects:

Soul (2020)

Best Pixar movie since Ratatouille. I love the after/beforelife stuff and how the 2D managerial figures and integrated into the 3D world. Its representation reminded me of C.S. Lewis' description of heaven in The Great Divide where everything is hyper-real to the point it can't be felt. The animation here is so playful and stylized in a way that makes me appreciate the computer generated graphics for once.

I worried about the Brave-like turn when Joe gets stuck in the body of a cat early on, but it works surprisingly well because we also get 22 who is a soul whose never had a body inside Joe's body getting to experience all the sensations of what it's like to have a body. What could have just been stupid, childish hijinks for laughs comes across as a profound, sensory experience of what it means to be an embodied soul, how our physical reality impacts our spiritual being.

I joked back when they announced this project that it was going to be Gnosticism the movie (a religious belief that the spiritual world is better than the physical world), but this film actually does a great job of showing the pleasures of both physical and spiritual existence and while I obviously don't think ever single detail is how it really is, it's obviously shaping the world to tell this story.

And, of course, I love all the Jazz stuff. It reminded me of Kids on the Slope with the painstaking detail to the fingerwork of the players here. Add in the visual flourishes of the animation and it's a sensory delight to experience the expressiveness of jazz.

Most Pixar films post Ratatouille I've seen once and felt ambivalent or worse on. I've seen Wall-E several times and really only dig everything up until the humans. Incredibles 2 I've seen several times and is okay, but more because I get to spend more time with characters I like and less because the plot is any good (it isn't). I do need to double back and see Onward. I patently refuse to watch Cars 2/3. Soul is so good I could see myself owning it and watching it once a year or so. It's that good.

Still, it's no Mind Game.