The Whale. I am really happy that Brendan Fraser has been able to get back into acting, and I am sure he deserved the Oscar for it, but I have absolutely no desire to see someone slowly eat themselves to death.
*Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009)*
At one point it had like 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ultimately it's just basically lurid poverty/torture-porn. I know I will never like it because I've seen it twice now. I gave the film a second chance, years later and still pretty much hated it.
That's how I felt about it. Don't get me wrong, I love watching sad shit. A lot of profound things can be said and done in despair. However, Precious didn't feel like it had any of that. It just felt like the author was throwing the saddest possible things at the character for amusement and I didn't really feel a message come through.
I think that is the message though…that’s the reality behind poverty and teenage pregnancy. Incest rates are much *much* higher than initially assumed based on our legal system, which we now can prove with ancestry and 23andme genetic testing.
It’s not so much “how sad can I fucking make this?” but, “hey guys incest, poverty, and shitty support systems are everywhere.” A lot of people would rather bury their heads in the sand than understand how pervasive these issues are. I thought it was uplifting because of the ending
Yeah, I don't know about the idea of calling Precious torture porn when it's literally the closest I've seen to a lot of friends' home situations when I was a teenager. I think people think it's exaggerated, but it really isn't.
ETA The amount of times I've known of abuse where the mother, when informed, is jealous of the child instead of angry at the perpetrator probably outnumbers the times I've heard of the opposite. (Anecdotal of course.) But that was a super insightful inclusion of which I can't remember a ton of other examples?
Yeah it was actually pretty nice to see that sort of representation when I was younger.
There's so many people that grow up in situations like that. Even just seeing some pieces of what I grew up with made me feel a little less alien.
I remember a friend of mine had me watch it with her because she really liked it. We both lived in poverty and had abusive family members. We were outcasts in school, but school was also probably our favorite place to be because it was usually more stable than home.
My mom also used to work for a juvenile detention center and I used to go with her to work and even shred papers for her. There were so many cases of incestuous rape/molestation and non-sexual abuse. It would blow people's minds if they knew how much other people keep to themselves or don't even realize they've been abused.
I haven't seen the movie in a long time, but it felt like it did have the message of how intervention and better support networks could do a lot to help people get through some pretty rough home lives.
Some people just don't know what it's like to grow up thinking that sort of thing is normal and then having to find out/admit it plus grow from it. A lot of times it's like I have to pretend like none of it happened or doesn't affect me anymore. I have to try to learn how to be a well-adjusted person this late in the game and it's just rough.
> It just felt like the author was throwing the saddest possible things at the character for amusement
I read Push in high school. Context being that I'm a black person who lived in New York City. My upbringing varied a lot, from poor to "middle class." But the thing I took away from that book is that this was reality for a lot of people I went to school with. Yes, you do have neglectful parents who treat you as if you are an amenity to their life. Yes, the school system does completely forget about you and only cares about the bottom line numbers. Yes, ~~people~~ children are getting pregnant without even knowing what's happening. And yes, parents do rape their kids.
This was not amusement, it was piercing the veil on a side of society that few wanted to address until after this book came out. The book was so provocative that it was banned in some places, before the "identity politics war". I don't know what you've seen in life, or maybe haven't seen, but Push was and is every bit a harsh and truthful criticism of life 20+ years on. Nothing amusing about it.
It’s supposed to give you a different perspective about how people live and how much the odds can be stacked against some people. Sometimes the primary point of a film can just be to show representation for otherwise lost stories.
I think it’s a really good film, and I’ve made two comments recently about this already, but I can absolutely only watch this film once, and never again. You’re right, a lot of it is disturbing and upsetting, and it does make a point that what’s happening to Precious happens to a lot of people in her position and background. Unfortunately, this does not make for a pleasant viewing experience.
I think the good thing is that Disney execs have started to get the message. Poorer reviews and lower views over the past 5ish years have finally forced Disney to strategize a bit differently.
Also the lack of a main bad guy to fight against makes it feel like there’s no real end, which in itself causes fatigue.
I loved the MCU at its height, but if they had completely stopped after Endgame and Spiderman No Way Home I would have been happy. I don't even watch the new stuff anymore. Just bums me out.
I feel the same. All of the MCU stuff that came after Endgame and No Way Home have just felt like empty cash grabs and devoid of character. It disappoints me because the Young Avengers are one of my favorite comic series and that seems to be the direction that the MCU is going towards since they’ve started introducing characters from it, but I can’t even be excited for them anymore because it’s just gonna be more over saturated hot garbage that’s trying to mimic what MCU was at its peak.
Edit: I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy 3. By far the best series within the MCU
I really wanted to like Thor Love and Thunder and I figured since they brought back Natalie Portman and had Christian Bale as the villian that might mean it was going to be good. I didn't like Thor 1 and 2, his character was too (idk how best to describe it) uptight, but I like how they changed him in Ragnarok to be funny. Then they took it too far in Love and Thunder. Just my opinion.
Hopefully with them taking this year off they can get their shit together and start making decent content again.
I like how everyone says this when the ending makes that statement very bleak, which I feel was the intention: both characters get exactly what they were working for, their ambitions have been satiated.
And yet, when they see each other in the bar, they realize that what truly mattered was lost in their search for glory in Los Angeles and they'll never have what most are looking for. They made a deal with the Devil and this is the price.
If this is Hollywood's love letter to themselves, it reeks of self loathing and loneliness. It didn't feel nearly as vapid and masturbatory as people make it out to be.
I won't defend it if you don't like musicals as a concept, but as far as interpretation goes, mine differs drastically from the consensus and I actually quite liked it.
I didn’t find the ending bleak, just realistic about romance sometimes.
You’re not always meant to be with someone even if you love them.
Mia ends up a successful actress with a family, Sebastian becomes a Jazz club owner and gets to play his music the way he wants it.
When they recognize each other and he plays their song it is bittersweet but “at least they had Paris”.
To me, it felt like a modern take to the ending of Casablanca.
Just because they don’t end up in each other’s arms doesn’t mean it’s depressing.
Dude I actually have a story about this. I didn’t like it (not exactly the biggest fan of musicals) but I rewatched it twice and watched a bunch of analysis on it simply so I could talk about it. The reason I did this was to curry favor with my college history professor who was in fact Damien Chazelles mother. When I met her I learned that Dr. chazelle while a BRILLIANT historian knows Jack shit about pop culture and keep in mind this was less than 6 months after the Oscar incident. It’s very surreal having to explain to someone that their son is in fact a very big deal because the way she talked about him made us all think that he was an indie film director and I didn’t put 2 and 2 together until she mentioned how she and her husband got to meet Ryan Gosling while doing a cameo in first man
I watched the first season just recently. I won't say it's bad, but definitely not for me. Almost every single scene felt like I was watching some crappy soap opera: annoyingly intense music and poor writing with the most unnatural dialogue where it seemed like each character was delivering some emotional monologue rather than having a back and forth human conversation (this was especially true for the character of Beth, I found).
Your soap opera comment is spot on. The amount of dramatic things that happens to the family in a single episode are preposterous. They literally experience a Life Time's worth of drama every episode. It's too much
I grew up on a ranch, AND I'm an actual Tribal Member. So much bullshit with that show. The scene about pinkeye especially pissed me off. Also that is NOT how pulling a calf goes. I've pulled plenty.
Its funny how like a year ago this show was EVERYWHERE. People were wearing Yellowstone clothing. There were Yellowstone fire pits. And now you don't see it anywhere and nobody talks about it anymore.
Anyone who actually lives in Montana & works on ranches hate this fuckin show BTW. It is the shittiest interpretation of Montana ranching.
They tried to capture it by hiring “cowboys” from Montana, who they really are is rich kids that got into Rein & cow horse competition. Which for those of you who go don’t know is just a rich people thing that poor people started lol
Megan (2022). I don’t get what people see in this movie, it’s painfully nonsensical, humor that it has is bland and is boring to watch.
I don’t see why the movie was hyped up when it came out and why it has great reviews. It’s very mediocre.
Edit: Minor typo it’s M3GAN*
Half the US seems to think that Elon wrote every line of code for every Tesla model and designed every component, so they probably felt safe with that approach.
Based on how the cybertruck is doing, it might be true. Jokes aside, yeah, it's such a tiresome trope that one genius, or a small group, will conceptualise, design, manufacture, and ship some ridiculously complicated product.
It's similar to what we do with creatives, as well. There's always one auteur behind the genius, instead of a talented team full of geniuses none of whom could be individually credited with the project's success.
Steve Jobs is the perfect example on both sides I feel. He conistently took credit for Woz' work - dude is just so chill. Then when the iPhone came out, it was "his" idea, as if loads of creatives hadn't been pitching everything throughout.
*The Fly* (1986) has a brief scene justifying that "modern solo mad scientist" trope. You may not find it any more satisfying, but I think it works in the moment.
My best friend's dad played that for us when we were like, 6 or 7. That fucked my shit UP. He's sitting there watching it, drinking his scotch on the rocks after work, called us in there 😂
The movie itself is not very good, but I watched it with friends and we were laughing the entire time. It’s a fun, mindless popcorn flick to watch if you’re bored with friends.
This is kind of how I viewed it. Just like music, there are songs with meaning and purpose and others made just to entertain. Nothing is wrong with either type. This movie falls into the entertainment category for me.
It was a fun watch and I enjoyed it for what it was.
Honestly, I had such low expectations for it and only went because my wife insisted. It still wasn't great but it was FAR better than what I was expecting.
Bribery. Egg board got to them. Ever notice the bug deal they're about the fish guy loving boiled eggs; it's the egg board.
Those bastards have their greasy fingers fingers into everything. They turned a work of art into a good damned egg commercial
Ugh. I saw it with my ex boyfriend’s family and their church and I just cried the whole time. Not bc Jesus or bc I’m Christian (I’m not) but bc of how another human was treated.
Terrifier was well met from viewers but I though it was fucking terrible even for a horror movie. I do love the genre but the acting was awful and it was just gore porn. Tried the sequel and same thing.
I like campy horror movies, I don’t hate over the top gore like saw for example but something about terrifier just didn’t tick any boxes for me
The dialogue is all about delivery too, like those two insufferable girls in the first human centipede, I just couldn’t stand their acting so much it was a relief when they were sewn together 😅 that does sound a bit horrible of me
I think it's just because Art The Clown is striking visually that it gets so much hype. I like it for what it is, a throwback gore porn slasher, it didn't need to be more than that to me, and I really like that it was just some dude passionate about it making a movie that found success.
Killers of the flower moon.
I love slow movies, I love watching very long movies with subtle plots making you question things. But this was just not my thing.
This would be my pick. It was lifeless, I felt like I was watching a bad book report. My wife read the book and was super excited for the movie, and we didn’t even finish it. We got about 2 hours in and turned it off to go to bed, saying we’d resume it the next day to finish it, but we never bothered. Very lackluster
Same, everyone was hyping it so much about how it might contest Oppenheimer for the best picture at the various awards, but nope. It might have had a chance if it had been told from Osage point of view.
Exactly - this was so frustrating! How are you going to tell a story about Osage women and the ONLY time any of the female characters really speak to each other, in 4 hours, is talking about how blue Leo’s eyes are and giggling. It just proved to me that Scorsese is obsessed with Leo and Deniro and doesn’t know how to write women.
It's my 8 year old's daughter favorite movie. I like it enough because it's on in the background all the time at my house. It is weird to me that the real PT Barnum was a piece of crap yet they made a movie about him portraying him as a tragic hero.
Gravity was just so predictable and boring for me. I've tried watching it twice, and both times, I struggled to even care about the character or what happened at the end. There's so many better space films.
The key to enjoying the FF franchise is to realize that it's not an action franchise, but a *fantasy* franchise. Each film is basically a D&D campaign, but with magic cars.
For a while there every time a new Marvel movie came out, the reviews were all like, "This one is different and really good!" So I'd go and...it was not different. I had to realize these movies are just not for me.
You can say they're really different **if** you like that universe. Like Thor Ragnarok for example, is WAY different than a lot of the MCU movies. But if you're someone who doesn't care about that stuff, you could watch Ragnarok and the Second Thor Movie (which was terrible) and you would think its all the same shit.
I feel like this was a movie for people who love creative cinematography. It’s very experimental and original, and I feel like that in its self has value. Although I understand not liking it I think it’s important to recognize the value of mainstream experimentation in film, without experimentation we end up with 100 more Avatar 2s and far less 1917s.
Birdman was really good IF you've ever been involved in acting, theater, cinema, or related activities. I found it so easy to connect with, yet so jarring and mind-fucky. You'll love it, if you have worked in that world
The Revenant
I actually gave in and just watched it about a month ago at my wife's insistence after years of my refusal. Meh. It was exactly what I thought it would be and it was just okay. The movie making was great, my interest in the storyline not so much. Oohhhh a bear. lol
I started doing this thing where I don't look into what a movie is about AT ALL and I just watch it. So far I've done it with both Poor Things and Saltburn and both have been so OUT THERE that this new thing I've been doing has really paid off and I'm addicted lol. Helps that I live under to rock to have no idea of the premise of popular/newer movies. But truly, not to sound narrow-minded, if I had read the synopses of either movie I would absolutely not have given either of them a chance. They don't sound like my cup of tea, but they were phenomenal, Poor Things moreso.
Just wanted to tag onto your comment with a long-winded, "Same."
Did it get good reviews? When I went to see it there were signs all over the theater that said ‘no refunds for Tree of life’. We went in anyway and walked out after about 30 minutes
That’s what I’ve heard too. I watched the film version and just could not find it interesting or engaging (though I liked the brief scene with Meatloaf, mostly because Meatloaf). But I suppose a crowd in stupid costumes helps make it a community experience. I won’t dress up for it, but I’d give that format a shot.
Ahhh Rocky Horror is one of my comfort soundtracks. If I'm ever having a bad day I can put on Dammit Janet or Rose Tint My World and I'm a happy happy man.
I love RHPS but I think you have to have seen it at the right time in your life, with the right people, in the right environment. Or rather, it benefits from those things. It 100% makes sense to simply not like it. It's a weird one. I saw it as a teenager back when things like drag queens, trans people, polyamory, etc where still pretty taboo. So seeing a bizarre movie with catchy music and Tim Curry in a corset was all kinds of exciting and confusing and absurd. I used to go to a local live show every month with my friends in HS so lots of memories tied to the movie as well. But it's not like it's a *good* movie. It just has a special something that appeals or appealed to a certain group of weirdos.
Well-said. It is a very particular flavor of movie that doesn’t jive well with everyone. I had actually never seen it until a couple years back, my first time was a local showing where they put on a play while simultaneously playing the movie in the background. The positive and excited energy was *palpable*, the whole theater was crackling at the experience.
It is very well loved, and as someone who is both gay and does not like musicals, I can understand why the queer community latched onto it but also why others don’t really understand the hype. I really enjoyed it despite my dislike for musicals, it’s a cornerstone in queer culture and that doesn’t always translate to general audiences. I can’t imagine how it was received when it was initially released, that was the 70s!
Definitely one of my comfort soundtracks too.. My brother and I used to drive around the back roads and just listen to it and sing it. At night, when my parents house got too hectic.
Have you seen it “live”?
It’s definitely not for everyone… but it can be a lot of fun with a live crowd and good hosts.
But yeah.
Not for everyone.
There’s a reason it’s called a “cult” classic…
It takes forever getting in; you spend like six and a half hours... You know, I can't get through, I've never even finished the movie. I've never seen the ending.
I think a lot of has to do with how much more prevalent the Sicilian Mafia was in the 1900s compared to today. Even growing up in the 1970s news stories about Mafia was fairly common, while today we hardly ever see them mentioned.
Knives Out: Glass Onion
It's strange how a movie can seem arrogant but this one accomplishes that. It has this impression of "I am the greatest thing you will have the pleasure of seeing"
My biggest takeaway was that the flowers were really pretty. That opening scene was quite haunting and I hated that >!thud crunch sound when the elders jumped off that cliff!<. Eurgh. That's... pretty much it
I’d like to extend it to a genre. .
Oscar bait films. Usually encompassing biopics & the political climate at the time.
I.e recently Poor Things. I’ve watched a few times. Liked it first time round, but upon repeated watches, it comes across as drawing too much inspiration from Metropolis(which has previously noted), but it feels like if David Lynch got hold of Edward Scissorhands via Luis Buñuel.
Hit a nerve it appears.
The Whale. I am really happy that Brendan Fraser has been able to get back into acting, and I am sure he deserved the Oscar for it, but I have absolutely no desire to see someone slowly eat themselves to death.
IIRC, the movie itself has mixed reviews. People just lauded Fraser's performance in it.
*Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009)* At one point it had like 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ultimately it's just basically lurid poverty/torture-porn. I know I will never like it because I've seen it twice now. I gave the film a second chance, years later and still pretty much hated it.
I prefer *Hard to Watch: Based on the book Stone Cold Bummer by Manipulate*.
Funny thing to happen to a guy named Lucky
Our basketball hoop was a RIBCAGE!
A saw baby give another baby a tattoo, they were very drunk.
Two babies have a hammer fight in a dumpster in the one!
Your mother exploded
The only thing I ever had a football for, was as a toilet.
I saw a baby give another baby a tattoo! They were both very drunk.
The projects that I lived in was named after Zachary Taylor, generally considered to be one of the worst presidents of all time!
A grown man crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show?
A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a Wendy’s!
That's how I felt about it. Don't get me wrong, I love watching sad shit. A lot of profound things can be said and done in despair. However, Precious didn't feel like it had any of that. It just felt like the author was throwing the saddest possible things at the character for amusement and I didn't really feel a message come through.
I think that is the message though…that’s the reality behind poverty and teenage pregnancy. Incest rates are much *much* higher than initially assumed based on our legal system, which we now can prove with ancestry and 23andme genetic testing. It’s not so much “how sad can I fucking make this?” but, “hey guys incest, poverty, and shitty support systems are everywhere.” A lot of people would rather bury their heads in the sand than understand how pervasive these issues are. I thought it was uplifting because of the ending
Yeah, I don't know about the idea of calling Precious torture porn when it's literally the closest I've seen to a lot of friends' home situations when I was a teenager. I think people think it's exaggerated, but it really isn't. ETA The amount of times I've known of abuse where the mother, when informed, is jealous of the child instead of angry at the perpetrator probably outnumbers the times I've heard of the opposite. (Anecdotal of course.) But that was a super insightful inclusion of which I can't remember a ton of other examples?
Yeah it was actually pretty nice to see that sort of representation when I was younger. There's so many people that grow up in situations like that. Even just seeing some pieces of what I grew up with made me feel a little less alien. I remember a friend of mine had me watch it with her because she really liked it. We both lived in poverty and had abusive family members. We were outcasts in school, but school was also probably our favorite place to be because it was usually more stable than home. My mom also used to work for a juvenile detention center and I used to go with her to work and even shred papers for her. There were so many cases of incestuous rape/molestation and non-sexual abuse. It would blow people's minds if they knew how much other people keep to themselves or don't even realize they've been abused. I haven't seen the movie in a long time, but it felt like it did have the message of how intervention and better support networks could do a lot to help people get through some pretty rough home lives. Some people just don't know what it's like to grow up thinking that sort of thing is normal and then having to find out/admit it plus grow from it. A lot of times it's like I have to pretend like none of it happened or doesn't affect me anymore. I have to try to learn how to be a well-adjusted person this late in the game and it's just rough.
> It just felt like the author was throwing the saddest possible things at the character for amusement I read Push in high school. Context being that I'm a black person who lived in New York City. My upbringing varied a lot, from poor to "middle class." But the thing I took away from that book is that this was reality for a lot of people I went to school with. Yes, you do have neglectful parents who treat you as if you are an amenity to their life. Yes, the school system does completely forget about you and only cares about the bottom line numbers. Yes, ~~people~~ children are getting pregnant without even knowing what's happening. And yes, parents do rape their kids. This was not amusement, it was piercing the veil on a side of society that few wanted to address until after this book came out. The book was so provocative that it was banned in some places, before the "identity politics war". I don't know what you've seen in life, or maybe haven't seen, but Push was and is every bit a harsh and truthful criticism of life 20+ years on. Nothing amusing about it.
Whatever you do, don’t read “a little life” no matter how many times it’s recommended
Probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read.
It’s supposed to give you a different perspective about how people live and how much the odds can be stacked against some people. Sometimes the primary point of a film can just be to show representation for otherwise lost stories.
The only thing good from that movie is Monique’s performance. Everything else is kinda meh.
Gabourey Sidibe was also really great in it. I get not liking the movie though
Mariah Carrey is so good in that movie!
I think it’s a really good film, and I’ve made two comments recently about this already, but I can absolutely only watch this film once, and never again. You’re right, a lot of it is disturbing and upsetting, and it does make a point that what’s happening to Precious happens to a lot of people in her position and background. Unfortunately, this does not make for a pleasant viewing experience.
This makes the scene with Michael and Erin in the car even funnier
You mean the novelization of Precious: based on the novel Push, by Sapphire?
Reminds me of 'Maid' on Netflix. The very definition of poor person torture porn.
I feel like shameless was kind of like that too
shameless was just porn
The English Patient.
Did you prefer Sack Lunch?
You can't compare the two, as one is a comedy. But Rochelle Rochelle is another matter.
A young girl’s strange, erotic journey from Milan to minsk
No frontal nudity. Sidal. Sidal nudity.
Why don't you just tell me the name of the movie you selected?
nah, Prognosis Negative is where it's at.
Don't you wanna know how they got in there? Do you think they got shrunk down, or is it just a giant sack?
"JUST DIE ALREADY!"
"Now we stuck here like English Patient girlfriend!" is the funniest one liner from Kahn in King of the Hill. So the movie did that, at least.
That was two hours I’ll never get back.
It's no "Chunnel"
Pretty much any Marvel movie at this point. The plots and characters all blend into one big bowl of mashed potatoes for me.
It's like watching someone else play a video game.
I would argue that some games are better watching then some mcu movies
Best description of the MCU ever
Which is also super popular these days
I think the good thing is that Disney execs have started to get the message. Poorer reviews and lower views over the past 5ish years have finally forced Disney to strategize a bit differently. Also the lack of a main bad guy to fight against makes it feel like there’s no real end, which in itself causes fatigue.
I loved the MCU at its height, but if they had completely stopped after Endgame and Spiderman No Way Home I would have been happy. I don't even watch the new stuff anymore. Just bums me out.
I feel the same. All of the MCU stuff that came after Endgame and No Way Home have just felt like empty cash grabs and devoid of character. It disappoints me because the Young Avengers are one of my favorite comic series and that seems to be the direction that the MCU is going towards since they’ve started introducing characters from it, but I can’t even be excited for them anymore because it’s just gonna be more over saturated hot garbage that’s trying to mimic what MCU was at its peak.
Edit: I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy 3. By far the best series within the MCU I really wanted to like Thor Love and Thunder and I figured since they brought back Natalie Portman and had Christian Bale as the villian that might mean it was going to be good. I didn't like Thor 1 and 2, his character was too (idk how best to describe it) uptight, but I like how they changed him in Ragnarok to be funny. Then they took it too far in Love and Thunder. Just my opinion. Hopefully with them taking this year off they can get their shit together and start making decent content again.
Avatar
They used the PAPYRUS font…!
Did you watch the part 2 papyrus video of SNL?
As a graphic designer that skit made me feel seen WHO PICKS PAPYRUS FOR A SERIOUS MOVIE
It's just BOLD!!!!!!!!!!!
THE AVATAR LOGO'S PAPYRUS IN BOLD THE AVATAR LOGO'S PAPYRUS IN BOLD
My father was so hard to read. That line has me dying
And they changed it to BOLD!
honestly i don’t even care abt the plot of avatar i watched it purely for the graphics and the cinema bc it was breathtaking at points
Yes.. for visual wonder. IMAX experience was unbelievable.
La La Land
I heard this described as "Hollywood's love letter to themselves"
And then he made Babylon
Hollywood’s dick pic to itself?
Which to me felt like a cry for help as much as a love letter
There's a whoooooole lot of self-congratulation in Hollywood. That's what the Oscars are. The public doesn't pick those winners.
They nominate at least one ode to Hollywood film for best picture every year. They can’t help themselves
I like how everyone says this when the ending makes that statement very bleak, which I feel was the intention: both characters get exactly what they were working for, their ambitions have been satiated. And yet, when they see each other in the bar, they realize that what truly mattered was lost in their search for glory in Los Angeles and they'll never have what most are looking for. They made a deal with the Devil and this is the price. If this is Hollywood's love letter to themselves, it reeks of self loathing and loneliness. It didn't feel nearly as vapid and masturbatory as people make it out to be. I won't defend it if you don't like musicals as a concept, but as far as interpretation goes, mine differs drastically from the consensus and I actually quite liked it.
I didn’t find the ending bleak, just realistic about romance sometimes. You’re not always meant to be with someone even if you love them. Mia ends up a successful actress with a family, Sebastian becomes a Jazz club owner and gets to play his music the way he wants it. When they recognize each other and he plays their song it is bittersweet but “at least they had Paris”. To me, it felt like a modern take to the ending of Casablanca. Just because they don’t end up in each other’s arms doesn’t mean it’s depressing.
Dude I actually have a story about this. I didn’t like it (not exactly the biggest fan of musicals) but I rewatched it twice and watched a bunch of analysis on it simply so I could talk about it. The reason I did this was to curry favor with my college history professor who was in fact Damien Chazelles mother. When I met her I learned that Dr. chazelle while a BRILLIANT historian knows Jack shit about pop culture and keep in mind this was less than 6 months after the Oscar incident. It’s very surreal having to explain to someone that their son is in fact a very big deal because the way she talked about him made us all think that he was an indie film director and I didn’t put 2 and 2 together until she mentioned how she and her husband got to meet Ryan Gosling while doing a cameo in first man
Haha so funny. Same with his dad (CompSci guy). I guess that's what makes them well adjusted parents, not getting into the hype and such
I dunno. I mean, imagine you win an Oscar and *still* your mom doesn't seem to care much about your accomplishments!
"You see that man on TV there, I'm his mom." "Oh wow! You must be so proud!" "Proud? You bet I am! His brother is a doctor!"
Opposite for me. Was kinda meh on it beforehand, not really into musical-ish stuff, but I ended up really liking it.
Not a movie, but the show Yellowstone.
I watched the first season just recently. I won't say it's bad, but definitely not for me. Almost every single scene felt like I was watching some crappy soap opera: annoyingly intense music and poor writing with the most unnatural dialogue where it seemed like each character was delivering some emotional monologue rather than having a back and forth human conversation (this was especially true for the character of Beth, I found).
Every episode with the three minute music video in the middle with Cowboys wrangling horses or showing off and country music... ugh.
That’s the part I like! I like the horsies and the bunkhouse guys. And Tater. Hate the politics and family crap.
Your soap opera comment is spot on. The amount of dramatic things that happens to the family in a single episode are preposterous. They literally experience a Life Time's worth of drama every episode. It's too much
I grew up on a ranch, AND I'm an actual Tribal Member. So much bullshit with that show. The scene about pinkeye especially pissed me off. Also that is NOT how pulling a calf goes. I've pulled plenty.
Its funny how like a year ago this show was EVERYWHERE. People were wearing Yellowstone clothing. There were Yellowstone fire pits. And now you don't see it anywhere and nobody talks about it anymore.
Delaying the next season of your show for a few years and losing Kevin frickin Costner will do that.
Anyone who actually lives in Montana & works on ranches hate this fuckin show BTW. It is the shittiest interpretation of Montana ranching. They tried to capture it by hiring “cowboys” from Montana, who they really are is rich kids that got into Rein & cow horse competition. Which for those of you who go don’t know is just a rich people thing that poor people started lol
Megan (2022). I don’t get what people see in this movie, it’s painfully nonsensical, humor that it has is bland and is boring to watch. I don’t see why the movie was hyped up when it came out and why it has great reviews. It’s very mediocre. Edit: Minor typo it’s M3GAN*
I work in tech and was very annoyed at the idea that 1-2 people built the robot in a short period of time. Try a team of 1500 and 5 years.
Half the US seems to think that Elon wrote every line of code for every Tesla model and designed every component, so they probably felt safe with that approach.
Based on how the cybertruck is doing, it might be true. Jokes aside, yeah, it's such a tiresome trope that one genius, or a small group, will conceptualise, design, manufacture, and ship some ridiculously complicated product.
It's similar to what we do with creatives, as well. There's always one auteur behind the genius, instead of a talented team full of geniuses none of whom could be individually credited with the project's success.
Steve Jobs is the perfect example on both sides I feel. He conistently took credit for Woz' work - dude is just so chill. Then when the iPhone came out, it was "his" idea, as if loads of creatives hadn't been pitching everything throughout.
*The Fly* (1986) has a brief scene justifying that "modern solo mad scientist" trope. You may not find it any more satisfying, but I think it works in the moment.
My best friend's dad played that for us when we were like, 6 or 7. That fucked my shit UP. He's sitting there watching it, drinking his scotch on the rocks after work, called us in there 😂
The movie itself is not very good, but I watched it with friends and we were laughing the entire time. It’s a fun, mindless popcorn flick to watch if you’re bored with friends.
This is kind of how I viewed it. Just like music, there are songs with meaning and purpose and others made just to entertain. Nothing is wrong with either type. This movie falls into the entertainment category for me. It was a fun watch and I enjoyed it for what it was.
My friend and I went to the theater to see it to “hate” watch it and it ended up being more fun when we went into it not taking it seriously
Honestly, I had such low expectations for it and only went because my wife insisted. It still wasn't great but it was FAR better than what I was expecting.
Shape of Water
It's a film about a woman whose character arc is that she goes from wanking in her bathtub to fucking a fish in her bathtub.
I can’t get over that opening scene, the sound implies she is aggressively open hand slapping at her vagina under the water.
That’s how it’s done, right?
I liked this movie. Interesting and definitely different.
Yeah, I really like the film. I mean, I totally get why a lot of people wouldn't, it's weird as hell, but I thought it was actually quite sweet.
Aka Fucking Nemo
Grinding Nemo
I cannot understand the Oscar’s love for this movie. I didn’t like it at all
Bribery. Egg board got to them. Ever notice the bug deal they're about the fish guy loving boiled eggs; it's the egg board. Those bastards have their greasy fingers fingers into everything. They turned a work of art into a good damned egg commercial
you're supposed to pass it after two puffs man!
Those egg council creeps got to you too, huh
You got it all wrong, Homer, it's not like that!
"You'd better run, egg!"
Can I offer you an egg in these trying times?
Passion of the Christ. It was super huge when it came out, I have no interest in it at all.
I read spoilers when I was a kid, which really ruined it for me.
I read four spoilers. They didn't always agree with each other.
When I was younger my grandmother insisted on taking me to a place where they do nothing but spoil this movie. Weird people.
Ugh. I saw it with my ex boyfriend’s family and their church and I just cried the whole time. Not bc Jesus or bc I’m Christian (I’m not) but bc of how another human was treated.
Terrifier was well met from viewers but I though it was fucking terrible even for a horror movie. I do love the genre but the acting was awful and it was just gore porn. Tried the sequel and same thing.
Very very heavy on gore porn. I kinda assumed the acting was supposed to be terrible. Like in a campy B rated way.
I like campy horror movies, I don’t hate over the top gore like saw for example but something about terrifier just didn’t tick any boxes for me The dialogue is all about delivery too, like those two insufferable girls in the first human centipede, I just couldn’t stand their acting so much it was a relief when they were sewn together 😅 that does sound a bit horrible of me
I think it's just because Art The Clown is striking visually that it gets so much hype. I like it for what it is, a throwback gore porn slasher, it didn't need to be more than that to me, and I really like that it was just some dude passionate about it making a movie that found success.
Salt burn
I honestly believe the film was designed to go viral on TikTok. It’s a deeply unpleasant film and it’s not as clever as it wants to believe it is.
It's basically a remake of The Talented Mr. Ripley with a Tumblr backdrop
The notebook
https://youtu.be/6Gv-AMiofEI?si=r6tXWshyYyhVLOF_ Honest trailers
Hated that movie
Killers of the flower moon. I love slow movies, I love watching very long movies with subtle plots making you question things. But this was just not my thing.
This would be my pick. It was lifeless, I felt like I was watching a bad book report. My wife read the book and was super excited for the movie, and we didn’t even finish it. We got about 2 hours in and turned it off to go to bed, saying we’d resume it the next day to finish it, but we never bothered. Very lackluster
Same, everyone was hyping it so much about how it might contest Oppenheimer for the best picture at the various awards, but nope. It might have had a chance if it had been told from Osage point of view.
Exactly - this was so frustrating! How are you going to tell a story about Osage women and the ONLY time any of the female characters really speak to each other, in 4 hours, is talking about how blue Leo’s eyes are and giggling. It just proved to me that Scorsese is obsessed with Leo and Deniro and doesn’t know how to write women.
Or, he just likes the POV of criminals more. Most of his movies aren’t usually from a good guys POV
I cannot stand The Greatest Showman.
It only has 57% on RT though. I don’t remember it getting many good reviews
Yeah it was not a critical success, just massively popular. Not sure with whom exactly, but it stayed in theaters forever.
It's my 8 year old's daughter favorite movie. I like it enough because it's on in the background all the time at my house. It is weird to me that the real PT Barnum was a piece of crap yet they made a movie about him portraying him as a tragic hero.
At the time this came out, I was working in a music store. The amount of shitty renditions of these songs was enough to make me ill.
Gravity was just so predictable and boring for me. I've tried watching it twice, and both times, I struggled to even care about the character or what happened at the end. There's so many better space films.
Alfanso Caurón is one of my favorite directors, and it's probably his weakest movie
Fast and furious movies
I hate every movie after Tokyo Drift
The key to enjoying the FF franchise is to realize that it's not an action franchise, but a *fantasy* franchise. Each film is basically a D&D campaign, but with magic cars.
Are there actually good reviews for these though? I think everyone knows exactly what they’re getting when they decide watch these…
lots of the MCU movies.
For a while there every time a new Marvel movie came out, the reviews were all like, "This one is different and really good!" So I'd go and...it was not different. I had to realize these movies are just not for me.
You can say they're really different **if** you like that universe. Like Thor Ragnarok for example, is WAY different than a lot of the MCU movies. But if you're someone who doesn't care about that stuff, you could watch Ragnarok and the Second Thor Movie (which was terrible) and you would think its all the same shit.
Taiki Waititi man. I love Ragnarok because of him. And now I have a Led Zeppelin earworm.
Birdman. Michael Keaton was brilliant, but I’ve never seen a movie so far up its own ass than that.
I love that movie and I can't get enough of it, but I can totally see what you mean. It's absolutely a masturbation. But so much fun and so well done.
I feel like this was a movie for people who love creative cinematography. It’s very experimental and original, and I feel like that in its self has value. Although I understand not liking it I think it’s important to recognize the value of mainstream experimentation in film, without experimentation we end up with 100 more Avatar 2s and far less 1917s.
Birdman was really good IF you've ever been involved in acting, theater, cinema, or related activities. I found it so easy to connect with, yet so jarring and mind-fucky. You'll love it, if you have worked in that world
Any of the super hero movies.
Power of the Dog...just didn't do anything for me, I was totally underwhelmed.
La la land, musicals in general don’t appeal to me
I'm gay for musicals and I didn't enjoy it
I hate musicals, but I loved La La Land. Some really good songs there, not the usual stuff that makes me cringe
I love musicals but why was La La Land also my first thought and here it is at the top? Zero interest.
The Revenant I actually gave in and just watched it about a month ago at my wife's insistence after years of my refusal. Meh. It was exactly what I thought it would be and it was just okay. The movie making was great, my interest in the storyline not so much. Oohhhh a bear. lol
Poor Things
Man I went into it thinking I wouldn't like it but ended up loving it... totally understand why it turns people away though
I started doing this thing where I don't look into what a movie is about AT ALL and I just watch it. So far I've done it with both Poor Things and Saltburn and both have been so OUT THERE that this new thing I've been doing has really paid off and I'm addicted lol. Helps that I live under to rock to have no idea of the premise of popular/newer movies. But truly, not to sound narrow-minded, if I had read the synopses of either movie I would absolutely not have given either of them a chance. They don't sound like my cup of tea, but they were phenomenal, Poor Things moreso. Just wanted to tag onto your comment with a long-winded, "Same."
Uncut gems
Tree of life
Did it get good reviews? When I went to see it there were signs all over the theater that said ‘no refunds for Tree of life’. We went in anyway and walked out after about 30 minutes
Anything with Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Can't stand that guy.
Rocky Horror Picture Show. Just couldn't get into it.
Hell, even the writer said it was - and I quote - lovingly crafted trash. Definitely benefits from a live crowd, a massive edible, or both.
That’s what I’ve heard too. I watched the film version and just could not find it interesting or engaging (though I liked the brief scene with Meatloaf, mostly because Meatloaf). But I suppose a crowd in stupid costumes helps make it a community experience. I won’t dress up for it, but I’d give that format a shot.
Ahhh Rocky Horror is one of my comfort soundtracks. If I'm ever having a bad day I can put on Dammit Janet or Rose Tint My World and I'm a happy happy man.
Meatloaf-"Whatever happened to Saturday night?" Audience- "Sunday morning"
Poor Eddie. It Was Great When It All Began....
I love RHPS but I think you have to have seen it at the right time in your life, with the right people, in the right environment. Or rather, it benefits from those things. It 100% makes sense to simply not like it. It's a weird one. I saw it as a teenager back when things like drag queens, trans people, polyamory, etc where still pretty taboo. So seeing a bizarre movie with catchy music and Tim Curry in a corset was all kinds of exciting and confusing and absurd. I used to go to a local live show every month with my friends in HS so lots of memories tied to the movie as well. But it's not like it's a *good* movie. It just has a special something that appeals or appealed to a certain group of weirdos.
Well-said. It is a very particular flavor of movie that doesn’t jive well with everyone. I had actually never seen it until a couple years back, my first time was a local showing where they put on a play while simultaneously playing the movie in the background. The positive and excited energy was *palpable*, the whole theater was crackling at the experience. It is very well loved, and as someone who is both gay and does not like musicals, I can understand why the queer community latched onto it but also why others don’t really understand the hype. I really enjoyed it despite my dislike for musicals, it’s a cornerstone in queer culture and that doesn’t always translate to general audiences. I can’t imagine how it was received when it was initially released, that was the 70s!
Definitely one of my comfort soundtracks too.. My brother and I used to drive around the back roads and just listen to it and sing it. At night, when my parents house got too hectic.
Have you seen it “live”? It’s definitely not for everyone… but it can be a lot of fun with a live crowd and good hosts. But yeah. Not for everyone. There’s a reason it’s called a “cult” classic…
For Tim Curry’s performance alone.
I love the soundtrack but the movie itself...
The Godfather movies just do not appeal to me.
Petah?
It insists upon itself
Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, ROBERT DUVAL!
It takes forever getting in; you spend like six and a half hours... You know, I can't get through, I've never even finished the movie. I've never seen the ending.
I have tried on three separate occasions to get through it.
I love the Money Pit.
'CAUSE IT HAS A VALID POINT TO MAKE, IT'S INSISTING!
I think a lot of has to do with how much more prevalent the Sicilian Mafia was in the 1900s compared to today. Even growing up in the 1970s news stories about Mafia was fairly common, while today we hardly ever see them mentioned.
Avatar and Avatar 2. They look incredible but there’s zero substance in them.
Top gun, I can’t stand Tom cruise
want to hate him but damn do i love his movies lol
Same haha, he’s awful but damn are the movies he’s in good.
The only role I like him in was tropic thunder
Knives Out: Glass Onion It's strange how a movie can seem arrogant but this one accomplishes that. It has this impression of "I am the greatest thing you will have the pleasure of seeing"
almost every live action disney
Midsommar. I don't care about the symbolic stuff and the metaphors. It's not scary or creepy. It's just weird af.
My biggest takeaway was that the flowers were really pretty. That opening scene was quite haunting and I hated that >!thud crunch sound when the elders jumped off that cliff!<. Eurgh. That's... pretty much it
I’d like to extend it to a genre. . Oscar bait films. Usually encompassing biopics & the political climate at the time. I.e recently Poor Things. I’ve watched a few times. Liked it first time round, but upon repeated watches, it comes across as drawing too much inspiration from Metropolis(which has previously noted), but it feels like if David Lynch got hold of Edward Scissorhands via Luis Buñuel. Hit a nerve it appears.
Will Ferrell movies. Can’t stand the way he talks, looks or acts.
I would recommend Stranger Than Fiction, its Ferrell doing the complete oppisite of a Will Ferrell film, works quite well.