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Author Topic: DOCember 2017  (Read 18081 times)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2017, 06:13:25 AM »
I think I have access to Betting on Zero but saw middling reviews of it somewhere. The John Oliver piece was quite good on its own.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2017, 06:37:40 AM »
I am having trouble finding documentary lists to browse for things I would like to watch. Anyone have good recommendations?
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1SO

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2017, 11:41:36 PM »
Going through my Essentials for DH recommendations:
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Mistaken For Strangers
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Capturing the Friedmans

Also recommended:
Grizzly Man
American Movie
Amy
The Five Obstructions
Catfish
Tower


smirnoff

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2017, 12:01:14 AM »
That’ll be an interesting one. On one hand I saw the John Oliver segment on Herbalife and believe it. On the other, I have good friends who run a shake shop to sell Herbalife products.

Oh, very interesting then. To be honest I think Ackman's presentation (an event the doc builds towards) is as good or better than the doc itself. They have different priorities of course, but as an investment thesis ackman's presentation is terrifically thorough and persuasive. It's beautiful in it's thoroughness really. And that's what makes it so interesting. He's so fundamentally right, and yet as an investment it's been a turd. That disparity is happening all the time in the markets, but this is such a fine example of it. The story contains in it all the maddening realities of investing, perhaps most of all that the market can stay irrational longer that you can stay solvent.

jdc

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2017, 12:28:25 AM »
That’ll be an interesting one. On one hand I saw the John Oliver segment on Herbalife and believe it. On the other, I have good friends who run a shake shop to sell Herbalife products.

Has that friend tried to get you involved in Herbalife? I haven't encountered anybody involved in it before though have known a few people and some friends that had been involved in similar schemes.  At least for the few that were close friends, they were quick to realize that the passive income that they were going to potentially earn in their spare time wasn't going justify the effort. They dropped out early before getting involved.

But those that tried to get me involved, I realized that they had no use for friends that didn't follow them down that hole, their whole life and free time outside their actual job had to be tied to building their "business"

I watched the Doc a few weeks ago, it was not bad but not too compelling in the end for me
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2017, 04:29:22 AM »
I've seen these:

Grizzly Man
Amy
Tower

The problem I have with the rest of the list is that I primarily look for documentaries about things I am inherently interested in. They don't have to be about my three favourite subjects ever, but I would rather have a prior interest in them. The titles on your list do not quite fit the bill.

The issue, browsing the internet, is that there are not many good topic-oriented documentary lists, especially about the things I am interested in.

I have been watching Cosmos though, thinking of writing about that.
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Bondo

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2017, 05:57:20 AM »
Has that friend tried to get you involved in Herbalife?

She talked about a membership that gets a discount on orders, not sure if that would be the first step into the pyramid. But it hasn't been a repeated or intense push, just one or two mentions. I'm content to just buy product from her as a means of supporting her small business, with no other commitment to Herbalife. And by buy product I just mean tea/shakes at the storefront she runs and maybe shake mix to have at work because I will admit their shake mix is tastier than protein powders and the like.

Bondo

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #17 on: November 22, 2017, 10:05:38 PM »
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)

Not having much of a background on the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, the controversy I was more familiar with was not the Jesse Helms led obvious panic from the right at the work's sexual nature but rather the critique from the left of a particular objectification of black men. As presented here, attempting a pretty full context of his work and his life, it seems difficult to buy into the leftist complaint since so much of his earlier work featuring white men is of a similar nature to his later focus on black men. As two models, one white and one black, who posed for a famous photo together note, Mapplethorpe's objectives were generally aesthetic and not political or heavily thematic. There isn't a rich subtext here, there is just artistry of composition and it is a valuable art. If the leftist complaint is wrong, Helms' complaint is spot on, this is definitely highly explicit material that would shock and offend prissy CINECAST!ers like Jesse Helms, which is why they should probably not go to art shows of this nature. My god, plenty of art is made that isn't for me; I don't go around saying it shouldn't exist. (Is this where pixote pulls the perfect quote from antiquity to prove I do say that?)

The film does feel overly long, often spending too much time in moments of Mapplethorpe's life that don't bring illumination of the work which is the real point of interest here. The more it contextualized and showed the work, the more I was involved. The more it dove into the workings of his personal life and path to success, the more I started checking the time. Ultimately it does end up on the positive side of the ledger and I feel better having this cultural lacuna filled in.

Bondo

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #18 on: November 23, 2017, 09:36:19 AM »
Kedi (2016)

Kitties! I mean, it's hard to mess up 80 minutes of kitties being adorable. Even the 8-minute making of featurette is a must watch because it is more kitties being adorable. Also the deleted and extended scenes. Because. Adorable. Kitties.

Aside from the obvious though, Kedi deserves accolades for its excellent cinematography, putting us down, or up, at cat level and better getting us into their world. Aside from montages of cats in Istanbul generally, the film structures itself around the story of a handful of cats and one of their humans who can provide a bit more context. I'm sure the film is guilty of a certain amount of anthropomorphism in telling these cat's stories, but that is our nature and the film is not just about the cats but significantly the role they play in our lives. So unlike many nature documentaries, it is justified here.

Anyway, it would be hard to imagine someone who wouldn't adore this film. Because. Adorable. Kitties!

DarkeningHumour

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Re: DOCember 2017
« Reply #19 on: November 23, 2017, 09:39:42 AM »
The Lion in Your Living Room

KITTIES!!!!

6/5

I'm drunk!

Do you always find a cat documentary on DOCember? It's starting to sound like a tradition.
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