What movies have you been watching?

[EscapeVelocity2020]

"Die Hart" - just out on Prime.  I liked his work in "True Story" (a series), his humor really works on me, but he also manages to carry some interesting themes and messages.

[lost_in_the_endless_aisle]

The Fabelmans  -- This had a few things going for it (including the absurd and unexpected David Lynch cameo), and wasn't as schmaltzy and onanistic as I feared. A few very good scenes, including that with the school bully and a very nice self-referential joke. Seth Rogan generally revolts me but he managed to do a good job in this. Still, it seemed unremarkable overall.

[Serendip]

Shoplifters
a Japanese film was quite lovely and sad at the same time
"a tender film about a family comprised of thieves, murderers, kidnappers, scammers, and liars"

I found it at my local library in the foreign film section.

[farmecologist]

Off topic a bit...but I swear I watch YouTube FAR more than any other media lately.  An absolute ton of great content, if you can find it.  I'm into nonfiction stuff ( history, etc... ) and now that I have a large list of subscribed channels, I rarely watch any paid streaming services or movies anymore.

If it wasn't for my wife, I would ditch the paid streaming services and just rent the occasional movie...

I understand! Fan of Extra History myself, for example, and sometimes quite entertained by TierZoo. (Also an embarrassingly large amount of basketball analysis.) Cumulatively comparable in quantity to all viewing of movies and series combined (in which vein, watched House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, but rarely watch single films).

Sorry for the sidetrack, movie fans. :)

Check out the "History FOR Granite" Youtube channel...some of the most fascinating ancient egyptian historical analysis I have ever seen.  And NO pseudoscience crap... I'm really disappointed how the "history" channel and every other mainstream "science" and "history" channels ended up. 

Yeah...sorry movie fans.  However, it is loosely related in that some of us rarely watch movies anymore...much less mainstream television/streaming. 

 

[slackmax]

The Oscar Nominated SHort Films, Live Action.  (For 2022, I think) .  Very good.  Six films, the second is my favorite. A woman in a small Norwegian (?) town steals a tram, learns how to drive it, and fun frolicks ensue.   

[EscapeVelocity2020]

Off topic a bit...but I swear I watch YouTube FAR more than any other media lately.  An absolute ton of great content, if you can find it.  I'm into nonfiction stuff ( history, etc... ) and now that I have a large list of subscribed channels, I rarely watch any paid streaming services or movies anymore.

If it wasn't for my wife, I would ditch the paid streaming services and just rent the occasional movie...

I understand! Fan of Extra History myself, for example, and sometimes quite entertained by TierZoo. (Also an embarrassingly large amount of basketball analysis.) Cumulatively comparable in quantity to all viewing of movies and series combined (in which vein, watched House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, but rarely watch single films).

Sorry for the sidetrack, movie fans. :)

Check out the "History FOR Granite" Youtube channel...some of the most fascinating ancient egyptian historical analysis I have ever seen.  And NO pseudoscience crap... I'm really disappointed how the "history" channel and every other mainstream "science" and "history" channels ended up. 

Yeah...sorry movie fans.  However, it is loosely related in that some of us rarely watch movies anymore...much less mainstream television/streaming.

You should start a thread, what YouTube stuff have you been watching, if you're interested.  I try to limit my YT since it spirals in to rabbit holes and suddenly an hour is gone and I'm neither relaxed nor get that sense of completeness.  I always end up with a long list of interesting 'suggested' videos and then get disgusted with myself at all the time I've wasted, even though I'm watching at 1.75x LOL.

[iris lily]

She Said, which was a solid journalism procedural about the NYT investigation that broke the Harvey Weinstein story.

The main takeaway for me was that FAR more attention and effort needs to go into highlighting the systemic nature of these types of acts/crimes, b/c that is clearly where the foundation of the problem is.

For example, while the sheer extent/number of the crimes of Weinstein and Epstein were not known to me, I absolutely knew about the general activities of both men DECADES before these stories 'officially' broke. The Weinstein stuff I heard about consistently by the late 90s, and the Epstein stuff I heard about in the early to mid 2000s (though not the extent of who was or might have been involved with him, though that wouldn't have been hard to speculate either, had I done a little googling).

If I (as a random woman from the Midwest who is totally unconnected to the entertainment industry) knew about this stuff, that means almost everyone remotely connected to the industry must have known at least what I knew, and probably FAR more than I knew.

And yet, no one investigated in any organized way...and the legal system protected and in some cases actively enabled the ongoing activities of these men.

I really wish the film had done more than touch on that aspect of things.

I found that film to be competent, but dramatically uninteresting. It’s pretty much what I expected, straightforward storytelling.

The last dramatized investigative journalism piece I watched was the one about the Catholic Church’s cover up of child predators. That one was good. This one, not so much.

It was interesting how a couple of the actresses involved in the real thing played themselves. It’s also interesting how they portrayed Harry Weinstein, full face on screen but with his back to us, and also on the telephone.

I will also bet that Weinstein in real life was focused on Gwyneth Paltrow because it’s funny – odd how often he asked about her in this film. They basically is films on real life stuff.

[iris lily]

Of the Oscar nominated films I have seen Tar, a well produced film that has interesting bits about the high level professional music world.

Also watched “Triangle  of Sadness” which is a black comedy about class and wealth  so black it almost isn’t a comedy. With smarter editing it might have been my favorite film of the year, but early scenes drug on too long.

[sui generis]

How It Ends (2021) - a woman and the embodiment of her younger self walk around on the last day before a meteor is going to hit the earth. I liked it. There was a sparse bleak beauty to the visual style, the girl who played her younger self was really good, and it was poignant. I can see why people would be divided on it but I fell into the group that it worked for.

Watched this last night and thought it was fun and silly and sweet!  Loved the drop-ins by all kinds of favorites I haven't seen in years like Fred Armisen, Bradley Whitford, Helen Hunt, plus all the people from It's Always Sunny.

[Tigerpine]

Doctor Zhivalgo (1965)  This was an excellent movie.  Since it's over three hours long, we only watched half at a time, but it was worth the watch.

[sui generis]

We watched "A Hero" which is, essentially, about one person's social media journey but extra interesting since it's set in Iran.

[LaineyAZ]

Doctor Zhivalgo (1965)  This was an excellent movie.  Since it's over three hours long, we only watched half at a time, but it was worth the watch.

This brings up a funny memory.  A woman told this story about the movie Sound of Music.  She'd seen it on VHS as a child and thought it was really lovely. 
When she got in college someone mentioned the Nazi scenes in the movie and she said, What Nazis?  Turns out when Sound of Music was released for sale it was on two VHS tapes and her dad had bought it used and there was only one tape in the box.  She'd thought the movie ended with Maria getting married and never saw the second half!

[sui generis]

Doctor Zhivalgo (1965)  This was an excellent movie.  Since it's over three hours long, we only watched half at a time, but it was worth the watch.

This brings up a funny memory.  A woman told this story about the movie Sound of Music.  She'd seen it on VHS as a child and thought it was really lovely. 
When she got in college someone mentioned the Nazi scenes in the movie and she said, What Nazis?  Turns out when Sound of Music was released for sale it was on two VHS tapes and her dad had bought it used and there was only one tape in the box.  She'd thought the movie ended with Maria getting married and never saw the second half!

Yet another great story from This American Life.  Here's the link: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/717/audience-of-one/act-three-10

[sonofsven]

Pitch Black.
Sci fi/horror. First movie in the three part "Riddick" series.
All are worth watching, all are currently on Netflix

[GuitarStv]

Pitch Black.
Sci fi/horror. First movie in the three part "Riddick" series.
All are worth watching, all are currently on Netflix

I've heard that they're OK before . . . but still can't get past the insurmountable roadblock of Vin being the lead.  :P

[Tyson]

Watched Call Me by Your Name this past week, and Lady on Fire the week before that.  I watched them with my daughter, who's 16 and gay, it's good to see high quality movies with these themes. 

[techwiz]

Slowly been re-watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. There are many parts I had forgotten, making it that much more enjoyable re-watching them.     

[sonofsven]

Pitch Black.
Sci fi/horror. First movie in the three part "Riddick" series.
All are worth watching, all are currently on Netflix

I've heard that they're OK before . . . but still can't get past the insurmountable roadblock of Vin being the lead.  :P

I won't try to convince you he's a great actor, but Pitch Black did land at #3 on this list from The Guardian on his best performances
[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/04/all-vin-diesels-film-performances-ranked]

[eyesonthehorizon]

Pitch Black.
Sci fi/horror. First movie in the three part "Riddick" series.
All are worth watching, all are currently on Netflix

I've heard that they're OK before . . . but still can't get past the insurmountable roadblock of Vin being the lead.  :P

I won't try to convince you he's a great actor, but Pitch Black did land at #3 on this list from The Guardian on his best performances
[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/04/all-vin-diesels-film-performances-ranked]

Having been subjected to several of his other 2000s action flicks, the Riddick series is the main thing I've enjoyed him in. He sells the character.

[daverobev]

I watched Nomadland the other day - been wanting to watch it since it came out; I read the book a few years ago, like Frances McDermond, so I was excited when I realised I could stream it. It got good reviews as well.

But I was very disappointed, actually. It felt like a film made to look good to win awards. Lots of wide shots, not much dialog; the dialog that was there felt like it was interview material from the book but it just didn't feel naturally spoken (again, it's been a while since I read the book). A little too much show-not-tell, perhaps.

It just felt stiff, that the conversion from non-fiction to sort of fiction didn't quite work. Wooden, awkward. Not bad but just not what I'd hyped it up to be, somehow.

[Serendip]

@daverobev - I hadn’t heard much about Nomadland before I saw it so it was just an interesting and sortof sad film to me. Actually I’d like to read the book now :)

Just watched the 70’s Scorsese film about The Band— The Last Waltz.  It’s referenced so often in musical circles and I enjoyed the more recent documentary by Robbie Robertson called Once Were Brothers.
So much musical talents and so many lives marred by drugs and addiction.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

This thread seems to be succumbing to the general trend of the Hollywood Box Office slumping - https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/04/2023-movie-box-office-needs-strong-second-half-after-inconsistent-start.html

With movies like a seventh Mission: Impossible film, "Dead Reckoning Part One", it's no wonder to me that nobody is rushing out to the theaters...  Do we really need more Indiana Jones, Transformers, or Disney live action remakes?

[Miss Piggy]

I'm not much of a movie-goer, but I'm oddly interested in the upcoming Barbie movie. I just really want to see how she and Ken will be brought to life. Anyone else here planning to see it?

[Raenia]

We haven't been to a new release in quite a while, though we recently saw a re-release of Kiki's Delivery Service that was showing at our local theater. We're also looking forward to Oppenheimer and Dune part 2.

Haven't seen anything else pop up that looked worth the effort recently.

[sonofsven]

"All Is Lost", starring Robert Redford. In fact, he's the only actor that appears and the dialogue consists entirely of about ten words.
He's on a solo blue water sailboat cruise when things slowly unravel. A master class in overcoming adversity, only to face more adversity.
I watched on YouTube "free with ads".

[Zamboni]

I'm not much of a movie-goer, but I'm oddly interested in the upcoming Barbie movie. I just really want to see how she and Ken will be brought to life. Anyone else here planning to see it?

Barbie and Ken in the Toy Story series cracked me up, mostly because I used to have a partner who wanted to try on clothes to show me and thought that was a fun time. He also was Latino, so we all got a kick out of Buzz Lightyear in Spanish mode which I think was in the same one. I thought Abuela was going to crack a rib laughing so hard over Spanish-mode Buzz.

I have committed to see Barbie and then Oppenheimer as a double feature with my daughter at her request. That should be weird.

[evme]

"Air" on Prime Video. I remember seeing a Super Bowl ad for this movie and some of the dialogue seemed sooo cringey. But it got good reviews so I decided to give it a look and I ended up LOVING it. Just a really well made, fun movie that knows exactly what it wants to be.

[dignam]

We go to the theater once, maybe twice per year.  Just saw "No Hard Feelings", and it was better than I expected.  It's sort of a romcom, but not a ton of laughs and not a ton of romance; though there were a couple hilarious scenes.  Almost more of a narrative on haves vs have nots and their insecurities.

[evme]

Past Lives. It's a beautiful Korean film that will likely get nominated for some Academy Awards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA244xewjcI

[mspym]

Past Lives. It's a beautiful Korean film that will likely get nominated for some Academy Awards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA244xewjcI

That was one of my favourite films this year. It's so good.

[alcon835]

Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse will probably be my movie of the year. One of the all time great films, honestly. Highly recommended if you're into that sort of thing.

[Roadrunner53]

65 on Netflix. It was a DUD in my opinion.

[haflander]

65 on Netflix. It was a DUD in my opinion.

Funny, I randomly watched half of it last night too. I like sci-fi and Adam Driver, but it's just not well done in my opinion. He usually makes good movie choices, so this is a surprise. Maybe they offered him a ton of money and/or he just wanted to do a dinosaur movie? Very similar to Will Smith's After Earth. The CGI looks like it's from >10 years ago. I'll probably watch the last half of it just to finish it. It makes me want to watch the original Planet of the Apes, but Idk that I can convince the DW to watch it with me.

[Roadrunner53]

65 was just dumb. Almost no dialog in the movie because the kid couldn't speak English. A few flashbacks of the character's sick child, random killer dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. Maybe I missed it but I didn't hear the explanation of what the space mission was all about and why all the cryogenic people were on board. Unless there was a copilot I missed, he was alone on the mission which is pretty bizarre. The movie was a big nothing! The best part of the movie was the big disgusting bug on Adam Drivers neck that he killed. LOL!

[iris lily]

I watched “take care of Maya “on Netflix, a documentary about a family torn apart by a child’s ill health, and the intervention of child protective services.

 It was told from the point of view of the family who went through hell. But there’s certainly a lot untold about the treatments they got for their daughter, the doctor  who prescribed them, and his shady participation in the whole thing.

The big overview lesson is don’t let your children or your family enter the system, any government system really. Be it the justice system, or the welfare system, best to stay away.

[Zamboni]

I now have matinee tickets to Barbie and Oppenheimer on opening day, separated by lunch at the mall.

Been watching Tom Hanks movies recently, so the most recent movies I have streamed are:
A Man Called Otto
The Circle
Sully
All very different and all good. The Circle really freaked me out due to being in cult-like corporate atmospheres myself, and how close it is to our dystopian reality, frankly.

Also streamed The Hateful Eight. Not my favorite Tarantino movie, that's for sure, although I do generally like westerns.

Tried to watch Bullet Train, but just couldn't get through it.

[Sandi_k]

@Zamboni - we also tried to watch Hateful Eight and hated it; never finished it.

And if you didn't like Bullet Train, then avoid Snow Piercer at all costs. Maybe one of the worst movies, ever, that I've seen. Although The Guyver and Millenium are hard to displace in that ranking. ;)

[Serendip]

Watched The Graduate last night…and enjoyed it more than expected. Aspects of the story do not hold well but the music and some cinematic shots were amazing. 

[calimom]

Watched The Graduate last night…and enjoyed it more than expected. Aspects of the story do not hold well but the music and some cinematic shots were amazing.

"Plastics" The cinematography in The Graduate is like a Master Class in filmmaking.

I recently saw Asteroid City at the theater, probably the only way to see it well. Such a cast! So visual, and the plot meanders all over the place and almost seems beside the point.

[LaineyAZ]

Gaslighting - the 1944 film with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.  Better than I expected since so many of these older dramas are overwrought and overacted. 
A great way to pass the time while living through the summer Heat Dome. 

[evme]

Gaslighting - the 1944 film with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.  Better than I expected since so many of these older dramas are overwrought and overacted. 
A great way to pass the time while living through the summer Heat Dome.

I think it's just called "Gaslight". I saw this years ago and it's pretty creepy. Been wanting to watch again.

[mspym]

A new film - Limbo - by Ivan Sen, who did the Mystery Road films. Super interesting cold case story, set in the outback by Coober Peddy. The visuals and pacing is so good.

[slackmax]

Saw Oppenheimer at the 3:30 matinee. We got there 15 minutes early to get a good seat, and the place was already packed full of other seniors!

The movie was intense, and interesting. But I was sorry I went. One of those movies. Good movie but would rather be doing something else. 

Shows the back room politics going on around nuclear weapons.

I have ZERO interest in watching the new movie Barbie. Some dude came out before Oppenheimer started and was talking about 'BarbenHeimer' in which people watch both movies on the same weekend. Totally made up nonsense 'Barbenheimer' to hype both movies. No one is going to watch both movies. Totally opposite types of movies.     

[Kris]

Saw Oppenheimer at the 3:30 matinee. We got there 15 minutes early to get a good seat, and the place was already packed full of other seniors!

The movie was intense, and interesting. But I was sorry I went. One of those movies. Good movie but would rather be doing something else. 

Shows the back room politics going on around nuclear weapons.

I have ZERO interest in watching the new movie Barbie. Some dude came out before Oppenheimer started and was talking about 'BarbenHeimer' in which people watch both movies on the same weekend. Totally made up nonsense 'Barbenheimer' to hype both movies. No one is going to watch both movies. Totally opposite types of movies.   

I am 100% going to watch both movies. So is DH. Excited for both.

[Metalcat]

Saw Oppenheimer at the 3:30 matinee. We got there 15 minutes early to get a good seat, and the place was already packed full of other seniors!

The movie was intense, and interesting. But I was sorry I went. One of those movies. Good movie but would rather be doing something else. 

Shows the back room politics going on around nuclear weapons.

I have ZERO interest in watching the new movie Barbie. Some dude came out before Oppenheimer started and was talking about 'BarbenHeimer' in which people watch both movies on the same weekend. Totally made up nonsense 'Barbenheimer' to hype both movies. No one is going to watch both movies. Totally opposite types of movies.   

A LOT of people are watching them back to back, they have been marketed this way.

[wenchsenior]

Saw Oppenheimer, thought it was great (if emotionally very disturbing in the last third). Only real flaw is Nolan's usual one in that he's either uninterested in or incapable of writing female characters, but at this point that's a feature that I just shrug and accept. Otherwise an excellent screenplay that had to do a huge lift of illuminating a fundamentally contradictory and unknowable character while making complicated physics AND politics understandable.

Cillian Murphy absolutely killed; really exciting to see him get a high-profile role worthy of his talent.

[Adventine]

I'm watching both Barbie and Oppenheimer... when they come out on streaming so I can reactivate free streaming trials.

People can be genuinely interested in wildly different movies!

[wenchsenior]

Saw Oppenheimer at the 3:30 matinee. We got there 15 minutes early to get a good seat, and the place was already packed full of other seniors!

The movie was intense, and interesting. But I was sorry I went. One of those movies. Good movie but would rather be doing something else. 

Shows the back room politics going on around nuclear weapons.

I have ZERO interest in watching the new movie Barbie. Some dude came out before Oppenheimer started and was talking about 'BarbenHeimer' in which people watch both movies on the same weekend. Totally made up nonsense 'Barbenheimer' to hype both movies. No one is going to watch both movies. Totally opposite types of movies.   

The correct term according to my husband is Oppenharbie (b/c you need Barbie as a palate cleanser after the emotional wringer of Oppenheimer). And in fact apparently a couple hundred thousand people so far have made this double feature a 'thing'. I believe this is the single biggest box office weekend in history (or one of them anyway), so regardless of whether the same people are going to both films (as I certainly will), it's a big win for movies in an otherwise lackluster year for blockbuster.

[Fresh Bread]

Yep, I'll be watching both.

[mspym]

I have tickets for  Barbie tonight and I am pretty excited, I like Gerwig as a director.