Movies and TV

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Just watched First Man. Loved the test flight scenes, very well done & anxiety-inducing. I like that they showed tons of meaningful close-ups of dashboard instruments, they added to the realism and sense of extreme danger.

Agree with Muddy that it was low-key to a fault, and I coulda used a bit more time on the Moon itself. But I get that this was meant as a POV family drama first.

Surprised to learn that K. Vonnegut was anti-NASA.

8.4 Mattys
 
The Oscar nominations haven't been announced yet (that will be Jan 22 with the awards Feb. 24th), but continuing with movies that I am positive will be in the action:

The Favourite (2018)

Emma Stone boob alert!!! We get Emma Stone boob!!!!!

Anyway, so, this is from Director Yorgos Lanthimos. The only other thing of his I've seen was The Lobster - which I did not love - 4.4 out of 10 - and where I got the strong impression he is going to be one of these very self-indulgent directors. I'm not big on that.

The Favourite had some of that directorial self-indulgence - but quite a bit less. It's a pretty clever tale of royal-court scheminess. It's not really about anything; there's no grand theme that I can see. Like, The Lobster was a dystopian future thing - let's look at the error of our ways - but The Favourite is just a yarn. Kinda fun period piece. The Performances are great. Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone.

6.9 out of 10

When I do a movie write-up at gamelive, I like to end it with some kind of pic. Hmmm, what pic should I use here? Hmmm . . .


tn_4.jpg
 
MrX
Seems that if anyone can do even a decent job at comedy, they tend to be surprisingly good at anything else.

The reverse is decidedly not true.


Very true regarding the reverse. coughRobertDenirocough

I chose my words badly there. Just to be clear, I was trying to agree. i.e. - guise who are proficient at drama - like Deniro - are not automatically good at comedy. Decidedly not.

Thinking back on Green Book, Mahershala Ali had a few comic relief scenes. My impression: going forward, he's going to be - or at least should be - a drama-only guy.
 
Although I only really like about 4 of their songs, I really enjoyed the Netflix documentary on Rush.

It was interesting to see all of the rock star fans they have talk about how influential they were. And I finally know the name of a song I always liked but never caught the title (Subdivisions).

Neil Peart had a real tough stretch at one point in his life. Enough to break a man.
 
The Favourite (2018)

Emma Stone boob alert!!! We get Emma Stone boob!!!!!

Anyway, so, this is from Director Yorgos Lanthimos. The only other thing of his I've seen was The Lobster - which I did not love - 4.4 out of 10 - and where I got the strong impression he is going to be one of these very self-indulgent directors. I'm not big on that.

The Favourite had some of that directorial self-indulgence - but quite a bit less. It's a pretty clever tale of royal-court scheminess. It's not really about anything; there's no grand theme that I can see. Like, The Lobster was a dystopian future thing - let's look at the error of our ways - but The Favourite is just a yarn. Kinda fun period piece. The Performances are great. Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone.

6.9 out of 10

I'd say that The Favourite was the best movie I saw in 2018. Loved every minute of it.

For the record, I didn't like The Lobster and thought Killing of a Sacred Deer was just okay. Haven't seen Dogtooth. I appreciated that he's doing something unique, but those movies didn't do a thing for me.

I hope he continues to direct other people's stories instead of writing/directing.
 
For those of you who enjoy foreign stuff, Ricardo Trogi's 1991 is a decent riff on the coming-of-age-while-traveling-abroad trope. Trogi is a second generation Italian Quebecer. Movie is a lot like L'auberge espagnole (2002) but with quirkier lead actor and that adorable Quebec accent.

I found most characters to be damn annoying.:thumbsdown:
 
Vice (2018)

I feel a sigplay coming on. I'll be checking the odds on Christian Bale for Best Actor the minute the Oscar nominees are announced. Fabulous performance (with a big assist to the hair and make-up people).

Anyway, this is a fun biopic about an American war criminal. It's by the same guy that did The Big Short and the style is very similar - but the subject matter is much easier to understand. Many laugh-out-loud moments for me.

It must have been tempting as hell to call this movie Dick - but I guess there's already an American politics movie called Dick - so Vice. I'll go 7.8 out of 10.

iu
 
The Oscar nominations haven't been announced yet (that will be Jan 22 with the awards Feb. 24th), but continuing with movies that I am positive will be in the action:

The Favourite (2018)

Emma Stone boob alert!!! We get Emma Stone boob!!!!!

Anyway, so, this is from Director Yorgos Lanthimos. The only other thing of his I've seen was The Lobster - which I did not love - 4.4 out of 10 - and where I got the strong impression he is going to be one of these very self-indulgent directors. I'm not big on that.

The Favourite had some of that directorial self-indulgence - but quite a bit less. It's a pretty clever tale of royal-court scheminess. It's not really about anything; there's no grand theme that I can see. Like, The Lobster was a dystopian future thing - let's look at the error of our ways - but The Favourite is just a yarn. Kinda fun period piece. The Performances are great. Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone.

6.9 out of 10

When I do a movie write-up at gamelive, I like to end it with some kind of pic. Hmmm, what pic should I use here? Hmmm . . .


tn_4.jpg
I grew up with Emily (Emma). We did community theatre together in Arizona. She was at my 12th birthday party.
 
The final season of Game of Thrones finally has a premiere date.

HBO announced that the megahit series will debut its eighth and final season on April 14.


:handshake:
 
I don't feel any need to mark that on my calendar. I'm confident there will be many reminders as it approaches.
 
Here is a random post-Golden-Globes prediction: Bohemian Rhapsody will NOT win the Best Picture Oscar.


Okay smarty-pants, and now I have finally seen it and I gotta say . . .

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

It's really good. Very entertaining. I understand that many details are contrived and the timeline is out of whack for dramatic purposes - but that is the case with most based-on-truth movies. Best Picture winner Argo comes immediately to mind. Whatever, in this case, those dramatic purposes are achieved. It's impossibly neat and tidy - manipulative - but very satisfying. It's a people-pleaser.

They tricked me for a couple of hours into thinking I care about Queens music more than I actually do.

I am always a huge sucker for portrayals of seminal moments of creative stuff that has gone on to be BIG in my life and times. This movie has that in spades.

Could it win Best Picture? Maybe. It might even have my vote. I have to give it a higher rating than anything else so far (although I may end up raising my rating for First Man - and I have several more movies to see.)

8.1 out of 10

iu
 
One afterthought: reference is made in the movie to the song, I'm in Love With My Car. I was a Queen fan when they were happening - I got most of their albums as they were coming out - but that song? The title was ringing bells like crazy but I could not put actual music to it in my head.

So I called it up on YouTube.

Oh yeah, now I remember. What an atrocious song.