Avaitor wrote:
I'm interested in Bates Motel, but it's there among a bunch of shows that I want to watch but I'm not sure if I'll ever get to it. I do like Vera Farmiga, though!
I'd seen Vera Farmiga in other things, but she was out-of-the-park fantastic on Bates Motel. But Freddie Highmore was great, too. I thought Max Thierot and Nestor Carbonell were pretty good as well (the latter was another one I'd seen in other things and was only really impressed by him here). I honestly never expected to love that show as much as I did when I finally watched it. Actually writing about it right now makes me wish I could watch it again.
Sadly I haven't seen Seven Samurai although I've seen the anime, Samurai 7, and I like it enough to own it. I apologize for being dense, but which PIXAR film is it like (out of curiosity)?
Listening to most often lately:
Taylor Swift ~ "Elizabeth Taylor"
Katy Perry ~ "bandaid"
Meghan Trainor ~ "Still Don't Care"
Disney Duster wrote:Haha, thanks for replying about my Citizen Kane watch Avaitor and JeanGreyForever.
I haven't seen the film so I'm sorry that I couldn't talk more about it with you. I'm intrigued now as to just why people call this the best film ever made because you said you're convinced now as well.
We’re a dyad in the Force. Two that are one. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it." - Kylo Ren "I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." - Rey
BTW, I think it's interesting that we were all discussing Baby Driver a few days back and now a lot of allegations have come out against Ansel Elgort that he has sexually assaulted minors. And apparently Baby Driver has three actors accused of sexual assault now.
We’re a dyad in the Force. Two that are one. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it." - Kylo Ren "I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." - Rey
@Disney's Divinity- A Bug's Life takes the general plot from Seven Samurai. It's not 100%, but you can tell that Lasseter had it on his mind.
DVDBuff1 wrote:^ I know about Ansel, and obviously Kevin Spacey, but who's the third actor?
Jamie Foxx has allegations as well.
Apparently Jon Hamm is no angel, either. He was part of a pretty brutal hazing attack back in college. It's even mentioned in his Wikipedia article, which I'd recommend checking out on your own.
DVDBuff1 wrote:^ I know about Ansel, and obviously Kevin Spacey, but who's the third actor?
Jamie Foxx has allegations as well.
Apparently Jon Hamm is no angel, either. He was part of a pretty brutal hazing attack back in college. It's even mentioned in his Wikipedia article, which I'd recommend checking out on your own.
I have to admit that my interest in seeing Baby Driver has just shot down to zero. Especially since I had no idea that Jamie Foxx is problematic as well until this Ansel stuff came out.
Never heard of anything about Jon Hamm. That's disappointing and I'll check it out for sure on Wiki.
Disney Duster wrote:Not Ansel! He's gonna be in West Side Story! I hope the allegations aren't true!
They are true, a lot of girls have come out and spoken and they've all shared photographic evidence of texts and snapshots as well. He's really gross telling these girls that they can't tell anyone else about meeting him because it could hurt his career if he was found out. That means he 100% knew what he was doing was wrong. And I'm reading past interviews with him and it turns out he's always been really creepy and never exactly tried to hide it. https://talentrecap.com/ansel-elgort-sa ... -surfaced/ “Girls love it when you have some nerdy things in your room. It makes you look less threatening, even though I’m, like, very threatening. I’m the most threatening guy ever.”
A lot of people are talking about boycotting West Side Story now. Especially since his co-star was underage when shooting began.
We’re a dyad in the Force. Two that are one. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it." - Kylo Ren "I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." - Rey
Aw, man. I really liked Ansel. I didn't know anything about him other than through Baby Driver, but I am also a really bad judge of character in general. I am disheartened.
I wasn't super into him but I did think he was somewhat attractive. Not anymore especially now that I've seen some of his weird pics on Instagram and his views on what a perfect girlfriend would be like. Which is ironic since he's been with his girlfriend since high school but clearly he cheated on her so many times.
His stans don't seem over him though because they're all commenting on social media about how "lucky" those girls are and how they wish they could have been in their place. A few have called those girls ungrateful and said they would have loved to have been assaulted by him and it gets even more graphic than that.
We’re a dyad in the Force. Two that are one. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it." - Kylo Ren "I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." - Rey
With some actors you can kinda tell there's something skeevy about them. James Franco is an example. But there are always some who come as a big surprise.
And I'm glad to hear someone think Citizen Kane isn't the best film ever made. It's been built up so much in my head from the way everyone talks about it that I'm sure I would find it disappointing when I finally saw it.
We’re a dyad in the Force. Two that are one. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it." - Kylo Ren "I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." - Rey
Citizen Kane is definitely a really good film...I did a report on it for one of my film classes in college and watched it so. many. times. and I never thought it was "the best." But certainly enjoyable.
Anyway, I'll go through movie night's #31-40 now. Almost catching up to where we're currently at!
31- 12 Angry Men- I knew this would be a hit, because it's such a rightful crowd-pleaser. It's basically a bottle movie, which is thematically rich and more cinematically interesting than given credit for. And it did deliver some strong conversations and a captivated crowd. And just as it was fun to see some of my friends recognize George Sanders voice in All About Eve, here we enjoyed hearing John Fielder not sounding too far off from Piglet.
32- Dr. Strangelove- A slightly smaller crowd than anticipated, but we finally got a Kubrick feature in! I wasn't too impressed with the film the first time I saw it ages ago- I don't think that I grasped the irony in its humor as well, but now it clicks, especially with the disastrous administration we currently have. Another feature which resulted in good conversations, and enjoying Peter Sellers and Slim Pickens' performances.
33- Vertigo- This is our last run-in with Hitchcock, and somehow his most acclaimed film is the last of them. This is honestly one that I don't quite love as much as others, but I give it credit for giving me a different experience each time I watch it. It's an incredible mix of cinematography, music, and passionate acting complied together. My friends thought that Scotty was the absolute worst, which isn't wrong, so it was fun to see their reactions. And this was a rare time when we watched something from the bonus features, this time watching the alternate European ending, which somehow ends things on a safer note. That's wild, because the US is traditionally more sanctimonious.
34- Rosemary's Baby- Another one we missed, for a variety of reasons. My horror allergic friends gave this a hard pass; another friend who is about as well-experienced with film as I am prefer Polanski's Repulsion and would have rather watched this; while I'll concede that this is an incredibly well-made film, I wasn't in the mood to watch it; and we couldn't find it streaming at the time, either. Now it's on Prime, but I doubt that we'll go back to it.
35- The Dark Knight- I was gung-ho about this film when it first came out. I thought that this was the future of super hero movies, if not blockbusters in general, and that Christopher Nolan was a director worth keeping an eye on. It's only sort-of become a standard for super hero movies (the other big comic book adaptation of 2008 ultimately became the more important film, which we'll get to later), and my opinion on Nolan has soured since. But I still enjoy part of this film. it's lowkey propaganda, but the performances are good outside of Bale's, and it has pretty solid pacing. One person was unfamiliar with the movie, and hadn't seen Batman Begins, so it was fun to see her reaction. She liked it, and picked up on the points from the previous film pretty quickly.
36- Gone with the Wind- We had consolidated our group at this point, but I was surprised to see how lowly attended this was. I know a couple of friends weren't up for such a long film at the time, but you'd think this would be the one that would interest most people. It was just me and two others, one of which really enjoyed its scope and melodrama, while the other liked it to a lesser extent, and got particularly frustrated with how disjointed the last act turned out. Obviously the problematic material was scrutinized (I mean, if you haven't seen it in a while, it literally starts off with a note about the glorious days of the antebellum south), but it's still a fun, if uncomfortable watch.
37- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly- This is one of my all-time favorites, but also on the long side, so I wasn't sure about the turn-out. It was pretty decent though, and everyone got on board with its myth building and thoughtful character writing, which is brilliantly mixed together with strong action and powerful camera work. Everyone agreed that it didn't drag despite pushing 3 hours.
38- Tokyo Story- This was unfamiliar to everyone else, and I'll admit that it's been a few years since I've seen it myself. But despite a slow beginning, we all eased into it. The film does a good job of giving both sides their due- we see how the children's indifference to their parents livelihood affects them, but also learn why they feel this way about their own parents. It's expertly built, and a hell of a watch.
39- High Noon- The previous few films were all well over two hours, so it was nice to see something so short for once, heh. It's also interesting to see such a different kind of western than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, although this isn't quite a traditional one itself. It was another hit, but we did notice how the deputy's arc didn't get resolved, and Grace Kelly felt short-changed until the end. Apparently Hitchcock wasn't a fan of her work here either, which is why he sought to give her stronger characters in his films. And yes, we talked about McCarthyism.
40- The Grapes of Wrath- I haven't read the novel, but I do know how it ends, and luckily we don't see that here. My friends who read it were worried about that, but thankfully it doesn't happen. It's another good one, I forgot how socialist it is.
I know that Gone with the Wind is a sensitive subject right now and I personally don't want to come off as someone who defends the film's racist portrayals and depictions cause I do think it has a lot of problematic aspects, especially the way slavery is seen as not so bad cause the white masters were good and kind. However I do think its romanticism of the "Old South" and "The Cause" is more nuanced than people are giving it credit for. Basically the story is told through Scarlett's point of view and Ashley is a metaphor for the Old South.
Apparently Ansel Elgort is not the only one with a controversy these days. Ansel Elgort being exposed inspired some girls to reveal they've been sexually assaulted by Justin Bieber.
That's great that John Fielder was in 12 Angry Men. I've never seen him in anything that wasn't Disney related.
Dr. Strangelove is a film I only know about because people of my parents' generation kept thinking Doctor Strange was based off of that.
Rosemary's Baby I watched several years ago and while I generally don't watch horror films, I did watch this one and it wasn't too frightening at least not to me. But I can see how it would make some people incredibly uncomfortable.
I've never been a huge Batman or DC fan so to be honest, The Dark Knight never swept me away like it did with others. One of my best friends was obsessed with this film though and I remember it was always playing at various parties I went to, much to my annoyance lol since I couldn't see the hype at all. Never even bothered watching the third film in the trilogy.
Gone with the Wind is a film I tend to watch in installments because 4 hours in one sitting is a bit too much for me. Which is ironic because I can watch several 2 hour films in a row, but I guess I find Gone with the Wind more emotionally draining. I never thought of Ashley as a metaphor for the Old South though. To be honest, I always found his character to be a dud which is a shame because Leslie Howard is a really good actor in general, but he's a bit wasted in this role. I can never understand Scarlett's obsession with him.
Never seen The Grapes of Wrath film but I had to read the book in high school and I despised it. So not my cup of tea.
We’re a dyad in the Force. Two that are one. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it." - Kylo Ren "I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." - Rey
JeanGreyForever wrote:I can never understand Scarlett's obsession with him.
This. Ever since I was a kid, I thought this, too. *But* it was an infatuation, where the idea of Ashley in Scarlett's mind was been way bigger than reality ever would be. So we think Ashley wasn't "worthy" of her love, but she built him up in her mind to be the best man ever, everything she could want, etc., so even if we know, even if Ashley knows that he isn't *that* person, Scarlett's put him on such a pedestal that reality doesn't even matter to her; the "real" Ashley has been replaced in her mind by "pedestal" Ashley.
(Sorry I didn't write that better; I'm exhausted.)
Gone With the Wind has always been one of my favorite non-Disney films ever since I was a child, even as a liberal Southerner who rolls my eyes when I see people with a Confederate flag hanging in their yards. Even as fiction, it's a nice window looking back at that time, and to say it's entertaining is an understatement. It's been quite a while since I've sat down and watched it again, but I remember one of the parts of the film that always stayed with me is when several black men are murdered off-screen, and not even the character that's treated by everyone as this great, saintly, unbelievably moral person (Melanie, Scarlett's foil) gives one iota about them.
I watched Dr. Strangelove in my highschool English class. What can I say, my teacher was awesome and largely what had inspired me to become a teacher. Also love Rosemary's Baby and The Dark Knight.
Listening to most often lately:
Taylor Swift ~ "Elizabeth Taylor"
Katy Perry ~ "bandaid"
Meghan Trainor ~ "Still Don't Care"
I apologize for being dense, but which PIXAR film is it like (out of curiosity)?
