Anyone watching this season of Drag Race?
2 Likes
Naturally. But with Canada, UK, New Zealand, Allstars and the original show, does Drag Race every really start or end? It’s becoming one huge continuous experience and do seasons really exist anynore? Lol.
1 Like
I’m ignoring everything but the flagship at this point. And All Stars, I suppose.
Thoughts?
1 Like
Thought on ignoring everything or thoughts on the new season? 
I prefer the fact that they combined group one and two right off the bat, but sixteen queens is a helluva lot! Marsha Marsha Marsha started off stronger than I expected, and I think the first elimination was fair. I don’t have any standout favourites quite yet. What about you?
Also Allstars Season 7, the season of winners, is conceivable the best the show has been in ages, and I don’t know how they can ever top it. Second to that, season 14 of the main show was also exceptional, and I worry season 15 won’t or can’t match it. Time will tell.
1 Like
I feel like I should root for the hometown CT folks but they’re pretty meh. I like Anetra, Jax, Marcia, and my money’s on Sasha Colby. Bosco tweeted a while ago “Sasha Colby on drag race is like Beyonce competing on American Idol.”
1 Like
I wonder about Sasha Colby because while I don’t doubt she has the skills to win, sometimes I think Ru likes featuring big names with no intention to hand them the win because it’s great for the show and the drama.
1 Like
I think RuPaul likes sticking it to the icons, for whatever perverse reason. See Tamisha Iman, Vivacious, Victoria Parker, etc. I’m hoping Sasha fares better. She’s got the chops.
2 Likes
Got a few quick films to rattle off if anybody cares, hah!
Banshees of Inisherin is a fantastic little black comedy where two friends start feuding due to… Some reason. Set during the Irish Civil War it’s a bleakly funny reunion for Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
Also saw M3GAN and it’s a whole lot of campy fun. The message is about as subtle as a car crashing through a store window, but it’s funny and a perfect popcorn munching movie if you don’t wanna think too hard.
Finally got around to Nope and I’m still blown away by Jordan Peele’s ability to tell stories like these. One of those films where it’s best not to say too much, but after 3 films I’m willing to argue that Peele has one of the best 3 film runs of any director. Also, Keke Palmer with the wicked Akira bike slide is a highlight of any film ever made by anybody ever, hahaha!
Finally, I watched Smile just the other day and I was very disappointed. It’s just a few jump scares that are more laughable than terrifying unless you’re particularly susceptible to jumps. Also the message seems convoluted, I’m sure it’s not what they meant but it really does seem to suggest that if you have trauma you can never get better until you’re dead or kill yourself. And I really don’t think I’m being unfair in that interpretation, it’s wild…
2 Likes
We are totally at odds in regards to Nope and Smile. I found the former boring and underwhelming and the later one of the best horror films I’ve seen in recent memory. Not saying you’re wrong, just giving a different opinion.
Speaking of horror films, Barbarian was really fun and I recommend it as a non-standard horror film. I also watched The Pale Blue Eyes which I also really enjoyed. Harry Melling is brilliant as Alan Edgar Poe and I did not see the twist comic at all.
2 Likes
I like Nope for it’s imagery, the way it deals with topics around Hollywood productions such as what constitutes a consenting participant in Hollywood (especially in regards to children, animals), and its acting and exceptional pacing. I also found it conceptually unsettling even if it’s not scary. I also thought it was quite pretty and has some beautiful camera work. I also enjoyed that Peel trusted his audience to understand the themes of the film a bit more than he did with Us and didn’t dive headfirst into extensive exposition in Nope. I have yet to see Smile but I’ve heard people compare it favourably to Oculus which give me pause.
Barbarian was fun, if not a tiny bit predictable but I did appreciate that it seemed like a genuine attempt by an American filmmaker to create what was essentially a French New Extremity film. Perhaps that’s why I found it a little bit predictable, because it was pulling straight from movies like Martyrs, but that didn’t decrease my enjoyment.
2 Likes
I like Nope for it’s imagery, the way it deals with topics around Hollywood productions such as what constitutes a consenting participant in Hollywood (especially in regards to children, animals), and its acting and exceptional pacing. I also found it conceptually unsettling if not outright scary. I also thought it was quite pretty and has some beautiful camera work. I also enjoyed that Peel trusted his audience to understand the themes of the film a bit more than he did with Us and didn’t dive headfirst into extensive exposition in Nope . I have yet to see Smile but I’ve heard people compare it favourably to Oculus which give me pause.
I’m clearly culturally deprived then because I didn’t get any of that. I thought Nope was badly paced, poorly written, and not at scary. The alien was a cool idea I guess, but badly implemented.
I also found the whole thing with the ape pointless. I understand what he was trying to say, but he’d already done that with the horses and the ape plot has nothing to do with the overarching story of the film.
But then I think Joker is a waste of time, so what do I know? 
1 Like
The ape parallels the creature in a different way than the horse does. And I would say the chimp is a key element to one of the overarching themes of the film, which is the entertainer / Hollywood desire to turn the wild into a filmable and thus comodified object, and the ultimate failure of that desire to manifest its desired outcome. The horse plays a dual role in the film, In juxtaposition to the creature the horse is both its likeness (a symbol of the wild) and its opposition (taxable vs taxable, as well as prey vs predator). The chimp is more of a one-to-one comparisonwith the creature, and thus serves as symbolic parallel and narrative foreshadowing. There is a symbolic and practical relationship between Steven Yeun’s character (as a child and adult) with the chimp and the creature. Ultimately the tragedy of his character is a destiny to repeat the mistakes of others in pursuit of the same goal. But there is also another element there, that Yeun’s character survived the chimp and is also eternally doomed to chase the same rush he felt on the brink of death (and that rush is matched by others such as the rush of the perfect shot, the rush of taming the wild and so on).
I think it’s a rather poetic film, one steeped old and new myths about Hollywood and a desire to transform them into something tangible for the audience through the mode of the creature feature. It’s far from perfect, but I had a good time. And like I said, I don’t think it’s scary, and I’m not certain it’s ever meant to be. I think the closest to fear we can get is awe, and that’s intentional. but I would suggest that’s how most creature features operate.
I’m not fully certain how that relates to Nope but I’ll suggest that there are probably people who like both, people who like only one of the two, and people who dislike both, and liking or disliking one or the other probably isn’t a predictor of whether not you’ll like or dislike the other one.
2 Likes
I just mentioned Joker because 99% of people seem to think it’s the greatest film ever made while I thought it was pretty rubbish. Just illustrating my “strange” taste in films.
2 Likes
I thought only incels liked Joker.
But seriously it’s just a bad version of The King of Comedy. People should watch that instead.
1 Like
Ha! Not heard that but probably true!
It felt like someone wanted to do a new Falling Down (not seen King of Comedy, will check it out) and some exec went “but what if it’s The Joker” and then they tried to shoehorn all the Batman/ Joker stuff into it.
What I mean is, if it wasn’t called The Joker and you removed the poorly handled Wayne stuff, it could have been any original character and probably a better movie for it.
2 Likes
I don’t think you’re too far off. Although I believe Phillips has cited Scorsese’s film as one source of inspiration, I believe his original draft script lacked the Joker spin, and that was added to give it a hook because no one prior to that addition felt it was worth picking up for production.
1 Like
Saw Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumainia today and while it wasn’t as good as the previous Ant-Man films it was still an enjoyable experience. All the actors were great, and Jonathan Majors makes for a brilliant Kang. Unfortunately Evangeline Lilly and Bill Murray felt pretty underused.
The way MODOK was introduced was great. I really wasn’t sure how it would work given that he’s pretty silly even in the comics, but I think they managed it well.
Ultimately it suffers from being the film that sets up everything going forward, but it’s still an enjoyable film.
1 Like
We watched Skinamarink last night and while it’s an interesting filmic experiment and there were a lot of things that I enjoyed about it, it sadly wasn’t scary or unsettling in they ways I’ve seen and heard described
Re-watched The Lair of the White Worm for the first time in years last night. As expected it always a wonderful campy time!
1 Like
So, for a bit of fun, how about the five WORST movies you’ve ever seen? The ones that in your opinion have no redeeming qualities whatsoever (so, not “so-bad-it’s-good”, just plain bad).
Mine would be
- Assassins’ Creed
- Ghostbusters 2016
- 50 Shades of Grey
- Batman Vs Superman
- Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
1 Like
I thought I should try out a new show for the new year… I got Futurama because my friend suggested I’d like it a while back. I got a good deal on it
Unfortunately, having a bit of trouble watching them because the first discs are scratched; and I think I scratched them further attempting to unscratch them. The rest might be fine, though
The boxes are kind of unusual
2 Likes