Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Tools    





To bang my Richard Brooks recommendation drum once more, I think fans of BATTLE OF ALGIERS should check out his adaptation of SOMETHING OF VALUE, a Robert Ruark novel about the Mau Mau uprising. It predates Pontecorvo’s film by nearly a decade and while its a little more Hollywood in its messaging and casting (Rock Hudson and Sydney Poitier star), I was stunned by how revolutionary its politics and style seemed compared to its contemporaries. It’s certainly trying to evoke reality and criticize the nature of colonialism on a level that wouldn’t seem commonplace until the 60s.

Also, Poitier is incredible in it.
I've had Battle of Algiers on my watchlist for a while, but I added the other one too. Sounds interesting.
__________________
Check out my podcast: The Movie Loot!



My last paragraph is why you don’t know what you’re talking about.

To take it to the nazi extreme, if someone made a biopic about Hitler, cut out everything related to the Holocaust, humanized him and had him say “I think this war was my greatest mistake” before shooting himself, and portraying that death as a tragedy, how would you view the politics of that film?

Choosing a subject is important when making a film and they chose Chris Kyle, someone you’re admittedly ignorant of. They then chose to alter this man’s life into something admirable and noble. That’s another choice. All of these are in service of the usual conservative war machine justification that exists rampantly in America, a country from which you are not from nor intimately familiar with the political spheres. That would be fine if you didn’t argue to stay ignorant of the impact that this is going to have on the American reading or AMERICAN Sniper.

Films exist in a societal context and some of them carry abhorrent ideas in that context. This film is among them.
Your first Chris Kyle comparison of an actual human being is Adolf Hitler. Wow, just wow.



Please note he said "to take it to the nazi extreme," which is an acknowledgement that they shouldn't be equated. It's pretty common to invoke the Nazis to establish a principle or philosophical boundary. It's so common it spurred the creation of something called "Godwin's Law," which posits that the first person to invoke Hitler or the Nazis automatically loses the argument. Regardless, it's a common shortcut to demonstrate the limits of a principle, and not necessarily (let alone usually) a suggestion that something is akin to Hitler or the Nazis.

Anyway, that said, carry on, but please (continue to) be civil.



Your first Chris Kyle comparison of an actual human being is Adolf Hitler. Wow, just wow.
I wasn’t comparing Chris Kyle to Hitler as a human being. I was creating a hypothetical to emphasize the principle of the necessity of context when adapting the life of a real person.

If you can’t grasp that, it’s no wonder we’re having this disagreement in the first place.



Please note he said "to take it to the nazi extreme," which is an acknowledgement that they shouldn't be equated. It's pretty common to invoke the Nazis to establish a principle or philosophical boundary. It's so common it spurred the creation of something called "Godwin's Law," which posits that the first person to invoke Hitler or the Nazis automatically loses the argument. Regardless, it's a common shortcut to demonstrate the limits of a principle, and not necessarily (let alone usually) a suggestion that something is akin to Hitler or the Nazis.

Anyway, that said, carry on, but please (continue to) be civil.
A quick addendum on your point:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-e...624-story.html

“*It still serves us as a tool to recognize specious comparisons to Nazism — but also, by contrast, to recognize comparisons that aren’t. And sometimes the comparisons can spot the earliest symptoms of horrific “attitudes, actions and language” well before our society falls prey to the full-blown disease”- Godwin

Given the nature that I’m using it rather than calling Chris Kyle Hitler, I think the notion of “automatically losing the argument” neither applies here nor originates from Godwin himself.*



A quick addendum on your point:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-e...624-story.html

“*It still serves us as a tool to recognize specious comparisons to Nazism — but also, by contrast, to recognize comparisons that aren’t. And sometimes the comparisons can spot the earliest symptoms of horrific “attitudes, actions and language” well before our society falls prey to the full-blown disease”- Godwin

Given the nature that I’m using it rather than calling Chris Kyle Hitler, I think the notion of “automatically losing the argument” neither applies here nor originates from Godwin himself.*
Oh, I don't think Godwin's Law was ever reasonable if taken literally, since the Nazis are very useful for establishing shared principles quickly and easily and hastening the speed with which the actual disagreement can be identified. First time I heard it I just assumed it was more tongue-in-cheek than anything.



Oh, I don't think Godwin's Law was ever reasonable if taken literally, since the Nazis are very useful for establishing shared principles quickly and easily and hastening the speed with which the actual disagreement can be identified. First time I heard it I just assumed it was more tongue-in-cheek than anything.
I think that’s exactly how Godwin intended it to be used but like all the paradigms that become meme-fied, like the Bechdel Test, it takes on its own life and often gets applied like an actual meaningful rule, rather than a concept to notice a trend.



Videodrome (1983)

***3/4 out of 5.

Rich in cinematography and performances, it features a complex and innovative plot regarding the corruption and power theme. It does have a few slow moments, but overall one of Cronenberg's best as of now. I need to watch more of his films.



Registered User
I can't even remember the last movie I saw as they are all mostly woke junk now and not worth watching.



Videodrome (1983)

***3/4 out of 5.

Rich in cinematography and performances, it features a complex and innovative plot regarding the corruption and power theme. It does have a few slow moments, but overall one of Cronenberg's best as of now. I need to watch more of his films.
Naked Lunch is probably his most similar to Videodrome and well worth seeking out. I think the Fly is my favorite from his body horror era.



Naked Lunch is probably his most similar to Videodrome and well worth seeking out. I think the Fly is my favorite from his body horror era.
I'll give it a watch, i've seen four Cronenberg's movies; Existenz was meh, but i thought History Of Violence, Videodrome and Crash were all great on their own.

What i like about Cronenberg that his narratives are complex and tackle on powerful themes, and he has his own style yet his movies are all 90-100 minutes long and accessible to moviegoers.

I wasn't much impressed with Lynch's work besides Mulholland Drive so i think this films are more of my cup of tea.



Naked Lunch is probably his most similar to Videodrome and well worth seeking out. I think the Fly is my favorite from his body horror era.

I agree that Naked Lunch is the most logical step for fans of Videodrome.



Dead Ringers is more subdued, but should be considered as well.


As I've made well known on other forums though, his early work is his most interesting, made at a time where his deep and creepy and brilliantly subversive thoughts hadn't yet caught up to how much of a master he'd become. There is something hard to explain about the terror of those first three or four horror films he barfed out. Something that couldn't have been articulated the same way by the precision he eventually became better known for.



Underwater -This is a perfectly serviceable thriller in the "trapped miles below the sea" genre. There's been others like Leviathan, The Abyss, Deepstar Six and Deep Blue and this borrows liberally from them and other plotlines. In fact, the one big difference this can claim is that it was made and released in 2020. That's mostly it. Still though it's not a slog in any sense of the word. There's a strong cast featuring Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel and Jessica Henwick plus decent cinematography. And director William Eubank (whose last feature was the criminally underrated The Signal) knows how to establish and then ratchet up tension. I think it might have existed adequately as a straight up escape and survival thriller without the introduction of a well worn "previously unknown species" trope. Honestly, outside of maybe padding an undernourished script these underwater monsters don't add much to the proceedings. Watch this if you're partial to the subgenre otherwise it's okay to skip it. 75/100




I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Kaufman, 2020)

It's been some time since I've been compelled to jot some thoughts down after watching a film, but here I am. I'll start off by saying my limited experience with Kaufman has been a mixed bag. LOVE Being John Malkovich (written by), likeEternal Sunshine (written by), and HATE Synecdoche, New York. This falls somewhere in the middle.

I'd break this experience up into three pieces
1. The Car Scenes
2. The Farmhouse
3. The School



Similarly to how the woman gets annoyed with Jake for being overly pretentious, I definitely felt this through much of the car scene dialogues. How much of this was intentional and how much was Kaufman to flex, I don't know. Probably comes down to the adaptation and I have not read the original book. There's a few clever moments in here however, perhaps if you've seen A Woman Under The Influence and Oklahoma five times, you'd pick up more than me who hasn't seen those in near a decade- but for me man at 15-20 mins a piece these car scenes could just feel overly elongated. Despite speaking only like two cliche overly pretentious grad students could, somehow always to keep me engaged, and a bit tense however, especially in the second series where Jake keeps asking if we're going back to the farmhouse. The feel created in these moments was actually surprisingly well done, in this stranded world- similar to how the woman describes her painting I guess. Although she seems perfectly calm, there's an unnerving presence.



The Farmhouse is the absolutely brilliant part of the film, my God was this unsettling, surreal, and extremely uncomfortable. Cloest thing to Eraserhead I've ever seen, and that's one of my top ten films so this is huge praise for me. In this 30-40 minute scene Kaufman takes on surrealism as well as Bunuel, Lynch, or Svanmajer. It's also on level of scariness as some modern greats of Get out and Us. I believe this is the only part of the movie where I picked up some of the symbolism, and there's some interesting statements on aging through out. I can't say I gathered a hollistic picture of what's being said- if there really is anything- but I was STRESSED through this whole interaction. Which is hard to do with 0 character build (the woman doesn't even have a name) and very little emotional response from our protagonist- outside of confusion. Never fear. As I said this is a modern Eraserhead, would've made an amazing stand alone short film



And then came the school scene, where our backgorund janitor is finally tied in! And this is where the film completely lost me, my God. All the drama, all the intensity, all the chilliness of it just went away the minute they started dancing and there forward. I no longer care enough to dissect any meaning , I'm no longer engaged, I no longer feel anything watching this. I'm sure for other audience this is the mind blowing moment where we can connect all the odd dots, for me this is the moment Kaufman fails in carrying the energy. And I can't really expect him too. This final series feel ADHD, over done, and frankly empty to me.


It's hard for me to tie this altogether, since as a viewer I did fail too- and as a movie it failed to keep me. But there's still something special about this Netflix original. Oddly it would've felt more complete to me if it ended about 35 mins early, when she confronts the janitor. But hey I'm not as smart as Kaufman or the quantum physicist and wanna be diligent scholar who are our protagonists (are they)? But the farmhouse stretch is enough for me to reccomend this unique horror experience

Overall:


__________________
Yeah, there's no body mutilation in it



I wasn’t comparing Chris Kyle to Hitler as a human being. I was creating a hypothetical to emphasize the principle of the necessity of context when adapting the life of a real person.

If you can’t grasp that, it’s no wonder we’re having this disagreement in the first place.
Hypothetical or otherwise mentioning Hitler and the atrocities involving the Holocaust potentially being humanised to that of Chris Kyle’s is abhorrent. You began by claiming this to be an extreme example which kind of lets you off the hook in comparing the genocidal maniacs name to what we saw in American sniper, why use an extreme example in the first place? An extreme example not being worthy of comparison makes the mentioning of it futile, so you obviously feel there is a fairly strong comparison.

Questioning somebody’s political views to how they’d feel seeing mercy shown to Hitler, this dumb biopic you created in your mind has no place in this discussion.
__________________
"If you're good at something never do it for free".



The point of invoking something extreme is to establish a principle. The proper response is to either acknowledge agreement in principle and focus on disagreement as to degree, or to explain why the comparison is invalid in kind, and not merely in degree.



Trespass against us (2016)

This was a decent effort about the trials and tribulations of gypsies living in Kent. Fassbender did a good job but (as in life) it's hard to really identify if you are not Romany yourself. The entertaining fact for me is the language between the main characters....like an open but undisclosed code. The tale itself is good and think it leans on some real life audacious raids not far from me.

Solid and interesting :



Trespass against us (2016)

This was a decent effort about the trials and tribulations of gypsies living in Kent. Fassbender did a good job but (as in life) it's hard to really identify if you are not Romany yourself. The entertaining fact for me is the language between the main characters....like an open but undisclosed code. The tale itself is good and think it leans on some real life audacious raids not far from me.

Solid and interesting :
Meant Gloucs. Apologies



Hypothetical or otherwise mentioning Hitler and the atrocities involving the Holocaust potentially being humanised to that of Chris Kyle’s is abhorrent. You began by claiming this to be an extreme example which kind of lets you off the hook in comparing the genocidal maniacs name to what we saw in American sniper, why use an extreme example in the first place? An extreme example not being worthy of comparison makes the mentioning of it futile, so you obviously feel there is a fairly strong comparison.

Questioning somebody’s political views to how they’d feel seeing mercy shown to Hitler, this dumb biopic you created in your has no place in this discussion.
Save your indignation. Chris Kyle WAS a terrible person and war criminal that bragged about how he followed orders to break Geneva accords and extrajudicially killing 30 US citizens in NOLA after Katrina (which is heavily disputed but him thinking it’s a story that makes him look good says a lot). It’s not as though I compared Hitler to an actor I don’t like.

It wasn’t that it wasn’t worthy of comparison. It is. It illustrates why white washing abhorrent figures to be heroic is problematic.

What may not be worthy is the effort of engaging you in this conversation, as you’ve yet to offer a single cogent point to defend this film.