FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

[Jerky]

Hell or High Water is fantastic.

I just watched Brigsby Bear, which was super charming and full of kindness and innocence and warmth, despite the dark undertones of the basic storyline.

I recommend it.

[Cordelia]

References in other threads to BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate) reminded me that Adrian Lyne's film 'Jacob's Ladder' is horrific & heart-wrenching in its depiction of how the drug may have been used by the U.S. military on American combat troops in Vietnam.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr_vkaObH-Q

(Experimentation done at Edgewood Arsenal, one especially scary place among many in Washington area environs)
BZ and Secret U.S. Government Experimentation | MEDIA ROOTS – Reporting From Outside Party Lines http://mediaroots.org/bz/

[chump]

https://youtu.be/KuDQOMICfr0
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I, Tanya was a ‘white trash’ wonder well worth watching… wonderful actually, I wuv this woman!

[JackRiddler]

https://youtu.be/KuDQOMICfr0
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I, Tanya was a ‘white trash’ wonder well worth watching… wonderful actually, I wuv this woman!

Oh yeah, this is fucking great. Did I not endorse it yet? Watch it! Seriously!

[Jerky]

So the new Avengers movie is surprisingly good. Probably too mainstream for most here, but the action takes place on such a huge canvas that it is so far beyond the usual militaristic metaphors that it approaches genuinely mythological proportions.

If you like, or have ever liked, superhero antics, this one is highly recommended.

J.

[vince]

So the new Avengers movie is surprisingly good. Probably too mainstream for most here, but the action takes place on such a huge canvas that it is so far beyond the usual militaristic metaphors that it approaches genuinely mythological proportions.

If you like, or have ever liked, superhero antics, this one is highly recommended.

J.

There's so many people in it;
PLEASE tell me there's at least ONE "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" reference!

[tron]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkYhFBQSeJ8

[Jerky]

So the new Avengers movie is surprisingly good. Probably too mainstream for most here, but the action takes place on such a huge canvas that it is so far beyond the usual militaristic metaphors that it approaches genuinely mythological proportions.

If you like, or have ever liked, superhero antics, this one is highly recommended.

J.

There's so many people in it;
PLEASE tell me there's at least ONE "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" reference!

Hmmm... I suppose some of the scenes with Spider-Man and Iron Man first boarding the donut-shaped spaceship are reminiscent of Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney in the wire-crawling scene.

[JackRiddler]

Are we at peak superhero yet?

Past 365 days: 7 out of the top 20 are comic book superheroes. (Marvel's six all well ahead of the DC flagship-flop).
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/past365.htm

Spider-Man and Thor were the good ones, by the way. Fun, in any case. (Not in the top 100 for the last 365 days, Logan was probably the best of the recent lot.)

But how does one distinguish these as a "superhero" genre apart from the Star Wars movies in the top 20, which are also full of super-powered individuals and despite the space opera pretense are full of magic even more ridiculous than the comic book supers? (In fact, this franchise makes the Marvel stuff look like very witty literature.) Out of the top 20 I count I think two not involving superpowers or magic, though one (Dunkirk) is probably tres propagandistic, haven't seen it. This has been different, at times.

.

[DrEvil]

^^Dunkirk is dogshit.

All the characters are cardboard cutouts you couldn't care less about. At most you see three planes in the air and a handful of small boats in the water, and maybe a couple hundred guys standing in line at the beach. Nolan's refusal to use any kind of digital effects compromised the whole thing from the beginning, and it shows.

Many scenes are shown several times from different viewpoints, which might have worked if you cared about any of the people involved (which you don't), but ends up feeling like pretentious filler to make the whole sorry mess feature length. The soundtrack also sucks. It's novel for about ten minutes and then becomes incredibly annoying and grating.

And then there's the ending. Dear god. My eyeballs rolled so hard they got whiplash. It's wildly unrealistic and completely unnecessary (look everyone! It's a famous actor breaking the laws of physics!).

The best thing I can say about the movie is that it's not Interstellar.

[chump]

I had no idea that Hedy Lamarr was such a heady, lovely lady:

“I’ll read you something pretty:

‘People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish alternative motives.

Do good anyway.

The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll be kicked into the teeth.

Give the world the best you got anyway. ‘“

(link to video)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters ... ilm/10248/

Hedy Lamarr never publicly talked about her life as an inventor and so her family thought her story died when she did. However, in 2016, director Alexandra Dean and producer Adam Haggiag unearthed four never-before-heard audio tapes of Lamarr speaking on the record about her incredible life, finally giving her the chance to tell her own story.

…

Hedy’s invention is now the basis for secure WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS technology

With an estimated market value of $30 billion. “

[Jerky]

Childhood of a Leader, for a great many reasons, not least of which is the incredible Scott Walker score.

[chump]

This brutal, heart-wrenching German made movie was well worth watching - while my wife was flipping from Flip and Flop to Fixer Upper…

I turned the film off at about 40 minutes because it is subtitled and I was too sleepy. At first, it seemed a little long and a bit overwrought. But, the very next night - on Father’s Day evening, while my bodacious babe was batting her lashes at a show called Bar Rescue and the babbling bobble heads on NBC, I escaped again to absorb the rest of this foreign film, and it actually evolved into a very well done emotional drama - by someone who seems to understand the sad reality of people in training to blast their neighbors.

https://youtu.be/UyjnzhXJlHU
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Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing

Published on Nov 2, 2017

Out of nowhere, Katja’s life falls apart when her husband Nuri and little son Rocco are killed in a bomb attack. Her friends and family try to give her the support she needs, and Katja somehow manages to make it through the funeral. But the mind numbing search for the perpetrators and reasons behind the senseless killing complicate Katja’s painful mourning, opening wounds and doubts. Danilo, a lawyer and Nuri’s best friend, represents Katja in the eventual trial against the two suspects: a young couple from the neo-Nazi scene. The trial pushes Katja to the edge, but there’s simply no alternative for her: she wants justice.

[chump]

I never even consider the Oscars anymore, but this award winning film was a twisted, unpredictable story beautifully portrayed by a wide, wide range of excellent actors.

https://youtu.be/Jit3YhGx5pU
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https://www.insideedition.com/real-stor ... ouri-40961

A Texas family who inspired the acclaimed film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is breaking down the story behind the Oscar-nominated film.

The movie has racked up a total of seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. It has already won numerous Golden Globes, BAFTA and SAG honors.

In the film, Frances McDormand plays a grieving mother who rents out three billboards to shame police into solving her daughter's rape and murder. 

Now, the Texas family who became the real-life inspiration for the film is discussing the case. 

Since 1991, the Fulton family of Vidor, Tex., has been putting up billboards demanding that cops make an arrest in the cold case murder of Kathy Page. 

“My dad inspired that movie by putting those signs up,” Sherry Valentine, Page's sister, told Inside Edition. 

Page was a married mom of two and was found dead in a car wreck 100 yards from her home. The family claims it was murder. 
 
An investigation determined the victim had her nose broken and was strangled. In addition, the police probe found that her body had been placed in the car after she had been slain.  

Bloodstains were found on her underwear and skin, but none on her outer clothing.

The billboards, which appear on a road outside Vidor, have been up ever since, serving as a public expression of the family's frustration. They say they are up because they want to be heard and are seeking justice. 

...

[Cordelia]

This brutal, heart-wrenching German made movie was well worth watching - while my wife was flipping from Flip and Flop to Fixer Upper…

I turned the film off at about 40 minutes because it is subtitled and I was too sleepy. At first, it seemed a little long and a bit overwrought. But, the very next night - on Father’s Day evening, while my bodacious babe was batting her lashes at a show called Bar Rescue and the babbling bobble heads on NBC, I escaped again to absorb the rest of this foreign film, and it actually evolved into a very well done emotional drama - by someone who seems to understand the sad reality of people in training to blast their neighbors.

https://youtu.be/UyjnzhXJlHU
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Thanks for the tip on this film. I hadn't seen Diane Kruger before, thought her extraordinary as the grieving wife/mother trying to map a course after an unspeakable tragedy (along w/the resulting family/friend estrangements, guilt, rage...).

The Neo-Nazis as the perpetrators didn't work for me, it's not a political film; thought the bombing would have worked better as maybe a vendetta by a drug dealer from her husband's criminal past or a former fellow inmate carrying a long grudge. Kruger's in almost every scene and had to carry the film w/o it becoming depressing. Found the ending sudden, shocking, but in keeping with her character's loss. (completing the unfinished Samurai tattoo was a great touch).

Watched a (rare) good film from Redbox last night,...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRsiW5c29Sk





Geoffrey Rush gave a great tour de force performance as the self-critical, self-deprecating, self-absorbed Giacometti, never happy w/his work (I've never liked his art, so had to agree w/him, also w/his critique of Picasso), but lovable & fun to be around. The other players, a carefree prostitute who is his mistress, his long-suffering wife, brother, and the portrait sitter are wonderful. Really liked Giacometti's wry, ironic brother and the play between the two. Film set mostly in his dark window-less studio filled w/unfinished work and detritus so the scenes outside, in cafes, and especially the spin in his mistress's vintage sports car are welcome. (Disappointed though that the opera house ball under Chagall's ceiling didn't take place.)