Saw Asteroid City tonight. Thought it was ok. I don’t think Wes is really maturing as a filmmaker.
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I quite enjoyed Past Lives. A thoughtful and quiet film about fate, culture, and the nature of love; Past Lives charms with a sweet-without-coming-off-saccharine script and natural performances from its three leads. Greta Lee balances a really honest performance with these wonderful unspoken layers in her character. This performance is juxtaposed against her two emotionally-naked suitors performed by Teo Yoo and John Magaro. I like that the film switches between different filmic languages as Nora switches between Korean and American contexts. All that I love about this movie now on the table, I was extremely bothered by the bokeh look of many of the close-ups in this film. I often forgive the look in other films as it almost feels like an excuse for inexpensive green screen shots (“that’s not cheap CGI, that’s our look!”), but here it comes across exceedingly ugly. This didn’t ruin the film for me. It was like finding a hair in my soup. Oh well. I still enjoyed the rest of the meal.
4/5
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Black Widow was… okay.
It is not a bad film, but I already have watched the same film a thousand times.
I guess that the more films I watch, the more I appreciate the charming of a film.
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I watched the new Netflix kids’ film Nimona. I enjoyed how unabashedly fun it was. A lot of kids’ movies forget about the fun that kids’ movies are allowed to have. They choose a sobriety, at least in their climaxes, that used to be exclusive to Oscar-baiting dramas. Nimona is just goofing around! I don’t think all the goofing around lands. What is considered “cringe” will vary from person to person, but there is a dabbing joke and a dumb man counting incorrectly; Some first-drafty jokes in my opinion. Also, I just was not a fan of the cell shaded style of this film. You can smell the budget occasionally (did Netflix say they’d make the gay film but only for half the cost?), especially if you look into the background of crowd scenes and see the unanimated extras. Whatever the cause of the visual issue, I can envision a prettier version of this film. Regardless, it is fun. I like fun.
3/5
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I highly, highly recommend the graphic novel, if you haven’t read it yet.
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I finished season 3 of the Witcher last night.
They screwed it in my opinion. It’s pacing is awful, they end at the weirdest point and it’s going to make the actor switch horribly obvious, and there’s so much going on in 5 episodes that it just becomes a mess. Only got two cool monster designs, way less action scenes and really weird character arcs.
It feels rushed, horribly so.
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I started watching Burn Notice, a show I had not seen before and it is just silly fun with more (plot) holes than a fishing net, I love it and the cast is great. I did not know Bruce Campbell was in it when I started, otherwise I probably would have watched it earlier, the role fits him like a glove.
Michael : Would you put some pants on?
Sam Axe : What? I work better when I can breathe down there!
Disclaimer: I am on pain medication, so that could make everything better. 
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This show, Monk, and Psych are fantastic. I would highly recommend watching any of them.
Also, Psych holds up very well and has a very satisfying ending if you make it far enough in, which I can’t say for most of TV unfortunately. USA had some of the best original programming around that time.
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Triangle of Sadness weaves a pointed yet broad comedy out of class, sex, ability, survival, gender roles, status, politics, and hospitality. I have some nitpicks (stuff on the level of there being sloppy ADR), but I do think it mostly excels at the stuff it wants to excel at. That being said, I don’t know if it is for me. I like my films a bit more focused in their storytelling. This isn’t a knock against the film, but my personal preference. I love stories with 1-3 characters to follow. Triangle of Sadness is an ensemble piece whose cast expands even in the finale act. To be clear, I like all the characters! I just wish the movie focused more on Carl, Yaya, and Abigail. As a person who works in the hospitality industry, I liked the films exploration of class through that lens. I can attest to its depictions being closer to reality than you might think. The forced smiles of the yacht staff is something to which I deeply relate.
A really well done film that just wasn’t my cup of tea.
3/5
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It’s arguably Ruben Östlund’s weakest film. If you haven’t watched his others, I highly recommend them.
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The only one I’ve seen. What would you recommend?
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Which one is most like 
Christopher Nolan?
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I recently watched Little Shop of Horrors for the first time, and really enjoyed it. Great and catchy songs, fun story full of dark comedy. But I’ve gotta say, the theatrical ending is incredibly lame, and the original ending they wanted to do is 100 times better and even elevates the film as a whole. The moral of the story is, test screening audiences are WEAK and will not survive the winter. It’s a good thing the option is available on Blu-ray to see the alternate ending… if only for the amazing practical effects they pulled off for it. I think this movie might be my favorite for puppetwork as far as 80s Muppet mania goes.
I also recently watched My Dinner with Andre, at a friend’s strong recommendation. I think it might be my new least favorite movie of all time. What’s annoying is I’m not even against the concept of “it’s just two guys having dinner, chatting for two hours” for a movie. I’m down for something artsy every now and then, and I like me a good podcast. But everything about this was so boring to me. About 80% of the whole thing was just one guy rambling about his hippie/cult world tour, always at the exact same cadence, never letting the other guy get a word in. Then toward the end we get a tiny bit of philosophical discussion. “Isn’t modern life just lame and completely unauthentic?” vs “Eh, I don’t know, sometimes something kind of nice happens in day-to-day boring life – that isn’t completely not real, right? Maybe?” I guess I just wanted to think something like “oh, that’s an interesting idea!” at some point, and then I at least would’ve called the movie okay (though 100% not needing to be a movie – should’ve been a Reader’s Digest article).
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Start with Force Majeure.
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This post is for folks to sob about Drag Race. Pull up a chair, @BMO
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I can’t. I simply can’t.
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I started watching the show Devs. I like Alex Garland as a creative and have enjoyed all of the movies he has directed (not including Dredd which I’ve heard rumors that he actually directed and wikipedia has him as the “Uncredited” director). Ex Machina, Annihilation, and especially Men are movies that stick in my brain and I either come back to or I have a strong desire to see them again. This is because there is meaning to mine out of these films. Not everything is laid bare immediately. Rewatches and examination are encouraged by the text. I’m one episode in to Devs, and I’m a bit concerned that it is too obvious. So I’m going to write down what I’m guessing is happening in Devs, and I’ll circle back later to see if I’m right. Spoilers? IDK, but I’ll blur my prediction just in case.
The devs are working on a sort of immortality/bring back the dead code. Nick Offerman is doing this because his daughter, who the big statue is of, died. However, they have kinda cracked the code. The person is able to come back to life, but that person’s “soul” (for lack of a better term) is gone. I believe that’s how Sergei came back to life and then lit himself on fire. I also think Allison Pill (pretty sure that is the actress’ name) is the resurrected daughter of Nick Offerman.
Anyway, I hope I’m wrong, and this all seems silly in a few weeks when I finish the show.
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Rewatching Twin Peaks because Nextlander (former Giant Bomb guys) are about to do a podcast where they watch and talk about it, and it’s been so long since I last saw it so I wanted to refamiliarize myself with it.
I don’t think I ever finished season 3 because I remember hating it when it came out, but I don’t remember exactly why so I’m curious how I’ll feel about it this time.
btw if anyone’s a Twin Peaks fan I recommend also checking out Riget (The Kingdom) by Lars von Trier. It’s Trier doing a take on Twin Peaks, and it’s really good imo. At least the first two seasons, I didn’t like the new one that came out recently.
Also rewatching Search Party for like the third time. One of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. It made a lot of sense when I saw that Michael Showalter was one of the creators and writers, because it has that absurdist and silly type of humor that reminds me a lot of Stella and Wet Hot American Summer. Also great casting in that show.
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I look forward to hearing from you when you’re done the show. I’ll share what I thought once you’re done.
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Cool. I love race cars
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