Oh yeah, One Very Important Thought I left out about Detective Pikachu:
There is one scene that is pretty much a straight-up Super Smash Bros Melee match between Pikachu and Mewtwo on Pokefloats.
This kind of sounds a bit like what I was saying about Detective Pikachu reminding me of Chinese TV adverts. Watching TV over there was a bewildering experience because of all the fast moving scenes, cutting frequently and eventually being unable to tell whether itâs still the same advert or the next one.
This, plus what I remember of Chinese blockbusters in recent years like Painted Skin 2, makes me think they just really love piling on the spectacle with fancy editing and cinematic flourishes
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I watched First Man. Its the one about Neil Armstrong. Played by Ryan Gosling.
I thought it was really good. I have no clue how âaccurateâ it was to Neilâs actual life and/or personality and affectations.
But, as its own sort of inspired thing, I thought it was real good. It focuses really close in, on Neil, and how he reconciles with lifeâs trials. Both personally and professionally. But it doesnât bog down on any of it. We get brief pauses to take in something and then the movie keeps moving. And you eventually get a sense thatâs part of how Neil is (may have been) dealing.
Its actually not much of a space movie. So I wouldnât go into it expecting a bunch of exposition on that. Its all certainly a very bold setting for this story. But its really just about Neil. However, the directing is very effect and really sells the mechanical and physical realities during cockpit shots of various contraptions and aircraft, leading up to the moon walk.
Some of the music/soundtrack choices were kind of eccentric. I like it all and thought it all worked. There were a couple of scenes where I was consciously wondering how that music was chosen and why it was working for me, even though I was actively questioning it.
Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy were both excellent. And all supporting cast worked well.
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Like Whiplash, this was really meaningful to me as it dove into the separation and inhuman nature of devotion towards work and excellence. The flattening emotional aspect one takes on with professionalism. The weakening ability to commit and make decisions in everything else as core competency concomitantly increases, as you become aware of your weak mastery and strive to avoid it.
The distance that stress creates from everyone closest
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Honestly, out of all the movie I saw in theaters last year, First Man was the one that I really appreciated actually being in a dark room wit a huge screen and taking it all in. The moon sequence was shot in IMAX and between the perspective as he first looks out onto the surface and the absolute and unyielding stillness of the view (probably one of the few times Iâll say something nice about digital projection), it struck me as truly awe inspiring
AND THEN GREEN BOOK WON THE OSCAR WHILE FIRST MAN WASNâT EVEN NOMINATED AND I REALIZED THAT LIFE IS SUFFERING
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all is vanity
sorry neil 
I mean he probably knew better than anybody
I was broke and v. depressed when First Man came out and thought âit will get another run during awards seasonâ but then it wasnât nominated for shit which goes to show that you canât count on anything in this mixed-up crazy world full of Green Books and Bohemian Rhapsodies, etc.
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could you imagine being the poor guy at Comcast NBC Universal And I Think Thereâs Another Company In There and having to pick two movies from last year to do concentrated awards season campaigns for and your dart landed on Green Book instead of First Man and you ruined Spike Leeâs pity Oscar
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I was feeling nostalgic toward the 90âs.
I watched Clueless for the first time. Iâm not a Jane Austin fan so I donât know how it holds up as an adaption of Emma, but as a coming of age movie itâs good.
Down To The Sea In Ships (1922) is a movie about whaling where they just got a camera on a real whaling boat and filmed some real whaling.
It basically contains within it a documentary of the whaling trade
it has some good bits about the whale and whalers seen through a biblical or romantic lens
(Patience is the name of a character btw)
There is an interlude scene where a lady billows by the shore in excitement at seeing pelicans diving for fish with this beautiful shot
There is a good scene at the end where the crew worries over a bad omen
which results in a storm, which is partially shot in negative
There is also some weird old movie shit like an asian man played by a white man who is said to be âalmost white anywayâ and he pretends to be white to get married to a quaker lady
and a strange uncomfortable scene where a child rips another childâs tooth out with a string for fun, which i wont show a picture of
anyway yeah this movie is on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWs3zGueWDs
sorry for all the pix
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this is my shiiiiiiiiiiit
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attn @shrug
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Going to put this here because Even though it was a TV Show itâs a Criterion release. Been watching Fassbinders Eight Hours Donât Make A Day.
It is very very good. Fassbinderâs team always does good work. This being about Factory workers trying to unionize into better working conditions against an oppressive capitalist West Germany is good stuff. It is not without moments that are as good as any modern comedy and heavy gutpunches that set up the next episode.
It has a cast of 20 and everyone of them feels like a real person. It is as good as any modern prestige TV maybe better at only being 5 episodes-8.5 hours of a planned 8 episodes. It does such an incredible job that oneâs personal problems affect the world around them even if they donât know it.
A Synopsis of the Second Episode: Grandma seizes a public building and opens up an illegal daycare.
All the fashion is great and does a good job to influence your opinion of each character. It has slightly backed off on the insane camera angles in Episode 3, but Episode 1 is filled with camera angles and imagery that had me screaming standing on my couch.
It has these wideshots so that you can see everyoneâs collective reaction and how that feeds into what they say next. How each person internalizes.
Two women characters decide to be friends and then it cuts back to them 30 minutes later just hanging out establishing yeah they became friends.
Itâs also setting up the family you have vs the family you make.
Then there is a scene with a newspaper editor that just makes your skin crawl. Nothing happens (I think) but even thinking about it now makes my skin crawl.
Shrug donât watch they wear watches and rings on the factory floor and I do have clinched fists the entire time in fear.
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You just wonder what happened to that cinematographic prowess, a few decades later⌠just think of âHead full of Honeyâ , and shudder in fear and despair.
Luckily, thatâs not indicative of what german filmmakers are capable of, as Babylon Berlin seems to have seen some moderate success around the world, too.
Oh totally meant to shout out @bib because I bought this with them!
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hell yeeeeeah a love fassbinder, iâll watch this soon too
did i talk you into getting ali too or am i making that up
fassbinder really is one of the best. those longer shots with minimal to no camera movement always leave me in the edge, too. there are some amazing examples of this in âthe bitter tears of petra von kantâ.
that man really was a theatre guy through and through
Iâve read a lot about this movie but never watched it! I will if my eyes ever stop acting up.
According to Popular Whaling History Leviathan they filmed dramatic and sailing scenes on genuine New Bedford whaling ships, but for all the whaling they hired a fishing schooner out of Gloucester. Refitted it for whaling and trained the cast on the sail to the whale fishery. The lead threw practice harpoons at porpoises.
Many animals were harmed specifically for the making of this film.
Owners decided to send one of the New Bedford ships on One Last Hunt after they pulled it out for filming. It ran aground on an island just off shore the night after it set it out.
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Ah thank you for the info! I was curious about the logistics, especially since it was filmed so close to the absolute end of whaling in America.