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It’s time to forget about Star Wars and start looking forward to Denis Villeneuve’s Upcoming Dune. First movie is set to be released this november. This movie series could very well become the SciFi equivalent of The Lord of the Rings

     
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i just watched Blow Up, The Conversation and Blow out, still, The Conversation holds my higher rank for these kinda movies, but Blow Out was a blast this time around, the ending is nerve wracking tho i knew how it will go to, they dont make movies like this no more and for a long while that is. i suggest the latter two;  Conversation and Blow out to anyone how had never seen, must watch.

     
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So usually I haven’t been able to sit through a movie since I was a teenager because I’ve become too anxious.

But with the Quarantine in effect

I watched Rough night, which is a hilarious black comedy, recommend it.

I watched the maze runner movies..  They are okay.  I usually get like mad if a movie is bad, but this is fine.

I watched the hunger games movies which… same.  It’s fine.  The story overall is really good, but the pacing is just SO SLOW.  And for no reason really.  Amazing actors especially from some of the younger kids in this movie, and I love the eccentric sci fi dress and hairstyles, very reminiscent of fifth element except with less goofiness.

And then I watched some movie about a homicide detective that meets a like restaurant/food critic journalist guy, and they have a crush on each other, and he uses his knowledge of food and restaurants and cooking to help her solve murders.  Which by the way, I thought this was like a stand alone feature film.  No, it’s a TV show, each episode in the series an HOUR LONG.

I know that movies should be more than male fantasies about heroism and womanizing, but some of these women’s fantasy movies get WEIRD.  My dad for whatever reason watches the Hallmark channel or the Lifetime channel a lot.  And all those movies have this weird like, out of touch with reality fantasies of men that are willing to be vulnerable because the independent woman taught them the true meaning of christmas or some other nonsense.

Except I also kind of love it in a trashy cliche kind of way.

     
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I just watched Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and this could be one of the worst movies ever made. Now I always found Scorsese’s gangster movies massively overrated (I liked his work whenever he tried something different, strangely enough) but at least they were somewhat enjoyable. This is actors way past their prime, some of whom look like animated corpses, walking around playing gangsters. The digital de-aging looks horrendous. And the damned thing is over 3 hours long. I had read before watching it that this was Scorsese’s “Once Upon A Time in America” but that is an insult to that great movie, there is no value at all to be found in this at all. Skip at all costs.

     
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I watched all seven Beethoven Movies in one day.  Beethoven the dog… not the musician.
Please send help.

***

But last night I went to visit mom, and she has netflix now.  I wanted to watch something like “Hidden Figures”  a movie about black-female “computers”  What they called low-level mathematicians back then.
I can’t recommend that movie enough.

SO I was looking for a similar experience, and I stumbled upon “Self Made” starring Octavia Spencer.  (goodness octavia spencer is in everything)

If you enjoy literature like “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”
or “Their eyes were watching god” Zora Neale Hurston
or “Black Boy” Richard Wright
or even classic black cinema, then I think you will immediately identify what kind of show Self Made is. (Black films used to come on local access channel here in town, and I loved it!  Wish they still did that!)

This is the story about a woman with no confidence, taking the risk to be bold in the world.  Several obstacles come up as she starts her own black hair-care company, but she perseveres. There’s even a lot of comparison between her own struggles, and the contemporary boxing world of the time, where black men were gaining respect as heavy-weight champions.  There’s even a scene where all the family is gathered around this ticker tape reading the fight updates, and Spencer’s character is envisioning herself in the boxing ring defeating her business competition.

There is numerous media that talks about black-women hair, and this does a good job at using it as a symbol for respect and confidence.

One of the most interesting things this show does is depict in-fighting in the black community, especially animus between mixed/light-skinned black women vs darker women.

My mother (who is 63 years old) had no clue that light-skinned black women were often treated better, and as more attractive or desirable compared to darker women.

I was very surprised that my mother seemed oblivious to this fact.  It’s something I remember learning clearly on my first day of middle school.  I went to a traditionally all-black school called “G.W. Carver Academy” and so I’d been exposed to far more black culture than my family I guess.

I had assumed that these truths were something my parents knew.  But they had never considered it.


If you’ve never seen Hidden Figures, please start with that.
But if you are like me, and just need more of that, then I whole-heartedly recommend “Self Made:  Story of Madam CJ Walker”

     
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Celebreon - 08 July 2020 04:08 PM

I watched all seven Beethoven Movies in one day.  Beethoven the dog… not the musician.
Please send help.

There’s nothing wrong with watching anything that makes you feel good - if those movies were so terrible why are there 7 of them? - right?  Laughing

Anyway thanks for the recommendations for ‘Hidden Figures’ & ‘Self Made’  Thumbs Up - I was looking for a break from my favourite fayre of Scandi-noir or equivalent.

‘Hidden Figures’ seems to be only available on Amazon prime to rent so I didn’t watch that as I already pay a subscription. 
But yes, I did find ‘Self Made’ on Netflix presented as a four part mini-series.

Yes, it is a very inspiring story well worth telling but in my mind it wasn’t told well in this mini-series that really didn’t do enough justice to the amazing achievement of an incredible black woman between the end & beginning of the 19th & 20th centuries respectively.

The series was interesting enough but I found it ‘lite’ & lacking in depth. 

Celebreon - 08 July 2020 04:08 PM

 
One of the most interesting things this show does is depict in-fighting in the black community, especially animus between mixed/light-skinned black women vs darker women.

I didn’t quite see it like that. I confess to not knowing too much about how acceptable interracial relationships were at the time but the actress who played Madame C’s adversary is bi-racial - if that was a fact for the adversary within this ‘true’ story then her background needed to be explained & why she’s accepted?
I get that to promote a product Madame CJ didn’t have quite the looks - that happens today so nothing new but it seems sad that you had to be ‘a little lighter in skin colour to be more attractive’ in order to promote products to black women? - that’s crazy.
My thought was that within a mini-series there’s a lot that could have been explored but wasn’t & the shallowness of the production was exemplified by the interjection of modern day hip-hop & rap.  Thumbs Up

     
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It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Just about everyone who was anyone in comedy in 1962 in a mad dash to find hidden treasure featuring the great Ethel Merman in perhaps her best role ever and some truly hair-raising stunts from the days long before CGI when if you saw it on screen someone had done it in real life, all set against beautiful Southern California desert scenery.

     

Warning- People won’t have as much of a sense of humor about you putting an Alka Seltzer in your mouth then staggering into a restaurant while shouting “THE VIRUS HAS MUTATED!” as you’d hope they would.

Consider this: People say “Ewwww!!!” when they hear about a guy having a hairy bum or hairy back, yet every Teddy Bear ever made has had both a hairy bum AND a hairy back and nobody complains about them; In fact, people think Teddy Bears are adorable.

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Stefan Turner - 27 July 2020 03:19 PM
Sage - 17 July 2020 01:20 AM

It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Just about everyone who was anyone in comedy in 1962 in a mad dash to find hidden treasure featuring the great Ethel Merman in perhaps her best role ever and some truly hair-raising stunts from the days long before CGI when if you saw it on screen someone had done it in real life, all set against beautiful Southern California desert scenery.

great movie

Indeed, and I only just realized that the link I posted to it doesn’t work!  Gasp

Anyway, the movie is available for viewing in HD and in it’s entirety FOR FREE on YouTube.  It’s a little over 2 1/2 hours long but won’t seem nearly so once you start watching it because the zany action comes hard and fast right from the start.

Here’s a documentary from 1990 or so about the making of the film-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYWJvbMgpsg&t=2834s

     

Warning- People won’t have as much of a sense of humor about you putting an Alka Seltzer in your mouth then staggering into a restaurant while shouting “THE VIRUS HAS MUTATED!” as you’d hope they would.

Consider this: People say “Ewwww!!!” when they hear about a guy having a hairy bum or hairy back, yet every Teddy Bear ever made has had both a hairy bum AND a hairy back and nobody complains about them; In fact, people think Teddy Bears are adorable.

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chrissie - 16 July 2020 08:49 AM
Celebreon - 08 July 2020 04:08 PM

I watched all seven Beethoven Movies in one day.  Beethoven the dog… not the musician.
Please send help.

There’s nothing wrong with watching anything that makes you feel good - if those movies were so terrible why are there 7 of them? - right?  Laughing

Anyway thanks for the recommendations for ‘Hidden Figures’ & ‘Self Made’  Thumbs Up - I was looking for a break from my favourite fayre of Scandi-noir or equivalent.

‘Hidden Figures’ seems to be only available on Amazon prime to rent so I didn’t watch that as I already pay a subscription. 
But yes, I did find ‘Self Made’ on Netflix presented as a four part mini-series.

Yes, it is a very inspiring story well worth telling but in my mind it wasn’t told well in this mini-series that really didn’t do enough justice to the amazing achievement of an incredible black woman between the end & beginning of the 19th & 20th centuries respectively.

The series was interesting enough but I found it ‘lite’ & lacking in depth. 

Celebreon - 08 July 2020 04:08 PM

 
One of the most interesting things this show does is depict in-fighting in the black community, especially animus between mixed/light-skinned black women vs darker women.

I didn’t quite see it like that. I confess to not knowing too much about how acceptable interracial relationships were at the time but the actress who played Madame C’s adversary is bi-racial - if that was a fact for the adversary within this ‘true’ story then her background needed to be explained & why she’s accepted?
I get that to promote a product Madame CJ didn’t have quite the looks - that happens today so nothing new but it seems sad that you had to be ‘a little lighter in skin colour to be more attractive’ in order to promote products to black women? - that’s crazy.
My thought was that within a mini-series there’s a lot that could have been explored but wasn’t & the shallowness of the production was exemplified by the interjection of modern day hip-hop & rap.  Thumbs Up

Yeah so mixed people tend to have thick, yet straighter hair that can be styled more easily, and sometimes is less wiry and soft which is why she will not allow CJ to sell her product and keeps telling her “she doesn’t have the look”

So the mixed lady that is her rival, she is telling people that her hair product will give them “white lady hair” basically, just like she has!  CJ even says to her, “You have that hair because your granny was raped.” 
So CJ is trying to say that black women can have great hair they are proud of, but that it’s wrong to present an impossible aspiration or having white-lady hair, when they can have beautiful and healthy black-woman hair instead.

I totally agree this mini-series misses a lot of opportunity, but I’m still over-all impressed.  Hell, the reason I know about black heavy-weights winning respect for their community is because I read a book in high school about the first black heavy-weight champion.

AND despite recent trends in promoting “natural and ethnic hair” African-American literature has always presented it as a cultural corner stone.

There is this passage/chapter from a book, and I can’t remember what it’s called.

All these black women are gathering once a month in someone’s kitchen so that they can use a hot comb on their hair and straighten it.

The young girl (probably the protagonist, I forget the name) desperately wants to get her hair straightened.  Half of it, is that she wants “straight white-lady hair” but it’s mostly because this is what all the adult-female members of her family did, and she wanted to be part of the group and hear the women’s gossip.
Eventually the older women let her do it, and she recalls how painful it was when the hot grease eventually dripped from the hot comb and onto her scalp.


(BTW if anyone else has an interest in afro-american literature I would love to remember the name of this book!)

But yeah, so I feel like Self-Made takes inspirations from really popular black literature, and then does less with them.

But at the same time, I’d rather these stories be told to the masses, even if it just sparks an interest in this stuff.

In far more contemporary settings, we still have movies like Barbershop and beautyshop that continue to emphasize the cultural corner-stone of hair care for these black communities! (although they are slapstick nonsense)

     
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This week I watched “A Beautiful Mind” 2001,

And it’s been a long time since a movie made me cry this hard.

This brought back a lot of painful personal memories, but I think it’s successful at doing so because it does an outstanding job at communicating the emotions of living with and loving someone struggling with schizophrenia.

I won’t spoil too much, and honestly, early on in the movie, it does a weak job at portraying mental illness, but I think it succeeds in making the viewer question if the events are real or imagined, and in that way, the audience can empathize with Nash, very similar to the story-telling device of MEMENTO helping the audience identify with that protagonist.

The first time a loved one show signs of schizophrenia, I think I just brushed it off as weird, but harmless initially.  The foundation of trust between two lovers starts pretty strong, so it’s easy to disregard and forgive little small way of thinking as quirks.

I didn’t realize how much I was in over my head until I was listening to him justify why he was god, or the devil or something outlandish.  And I realized, oh no, he’s deluded, and it could quickly become dangerous.

Seeing Nash struggle with ignoring his delusions, and trying to focus on his wife and work that need him is hard to watch.  I can think of a lot of times when my [ex?] boyfriend would struggle to focus, always getting sidetracked, and asking something simple like “will you go fetch this?” would result in him getting distracted and wandering off into the woods after something he saw moving, or investigating a sound he heard.

Getting him to sleep and take his medication reliably was impossible which is something well shown in the film too.  Refusing to take medicine, hiding medicine, being paranoid about it, all that and of course, it’s hard to catch them hiding the medicine until it’s too late, and they’ve been off it for days.

I remember going to visit in the mental health facility where we could only meet in this communal waiting room.  They beg to get them out of the facility, and they are hurt that you can’t do anything to save them.

I remember how painful it was to point out that “Who are you talking to?  There’s no one else in here?”

When I first witnessed his schizophrenic episode, I remember being 16 at the time, I’d already moved in with the guy, and was planning on getting married and everything.  At the worst of it, he couldn’t care for himself, or wouldn’t.  And I had this realization that the rest of my life would be looking after someone that was so out of touch with reality that he could probably never understand what I was doing or why.

A few months later, when one day he looked at me, and said “What happened, where was I for the last month?”  I cried because I thought finally, the lucidity may return to him at least intermittently.

It didn’t, and he died when we were 18, but still, I had hope then.

All that to say, great movie!  I recommend it whole-heartedly.  It makes some necessary sacrifices in the realism and portrayal of mental illness so it can be an entertaining movie, but the emotional core of living with schizophrenia is kept in tact and the film does a great job at communicating those emotions and the strain on family and lovers.

I almost thought they were going to take it in the direction of “The Awakenings” but thankfully, the tragedy is much different.

Hard to watch, but well worth it!

     
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i ve tried to be off Hollywood’s movie and its superficiality and jumped into some European cinema that past few days, The Spanish movie Platform was my start; is an amazing masterpiece i dont think any producer in Hollywood would come near it, must watch.
and French movie Climax is another great one tho its last 15-20 mins were too way over the top but i loved the experience.

     
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Advie - 31 July 2020 09:58 AM

i ve tried to be off Hollywood’s movie and its superficiality and jumped into some European cinema that past few days, The Spanish movie Platform was my start; is an amazing masterpiece i dont think any producer in Hollywood would come near it, must watch.

Thanks Advie for mentioning it Thumbs Up
I gave it a go as it was on Netflix & enjoyed a concept I hadn’t encountered before - well not precisely in that form.

The film was very entertaining but how did the woman looking for her daughter manage to go up & down? And if so why couldn’t she & the guy with the rope (who tried to climb up) both go up on the food platform?

The idea for the film was great but for me it didn’t go anywhere, was inconsistent & in my mind didn’t conclude satisfactorily - sorry but it wasn’t a masterpiece for me that was trying to promote a greater message that we already know Smile 

     
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chrissie - 01 August 2020 01:28 PM

The film was very entertaining but how did the woman looking for her daughter manage to go up & down? And if so why couldn’t she & the guy with the rope (who tried to climb up) both go up on the food platform?

The idea for the film was great but for me it didn’t go anywhere, was inconsistent & in my mind didn’t conclude satisfactorily - sorry but it wasn’t a masterpiece for me that was trying to promote a greater message that we already know Smile 

 

i feel you, true!, but inducing and exploring such a plot cant be judged by how it ends, i ve learned to look at many stories that way. but i agree that the ending was not up to the experience, and that the story is flawed with plot hole or two.

but as for the messages the movie exploring about poverty and classes I think what is good about the movie is not that it is addressing something new, but that you have seen what it is addressing with it saying. isn’t that the idea of art.

 

     
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i just finished The Putin Interviews by Oliver Stone, what intrigued me wasn’t Putin knowledge or vision, but the capability of Oliver Stone to take the dialogue to a different level all along that has never been witnessed before, i think this type of dialogue he had been able to sustain thru the movie is yet for people to grasp and understand, it is way ahead of its time and its the way of the future of how opposed people or governments should be discussing matters so openly with all the political shit that has been going on since the 2nd world war, really good a movie but its 4 hours long if you are interested in the subject.

     

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Sounds intriguing Advie, but I might pass. 4 minutes is usually too long to spend on any politician, let alone 4 hours (and let alone Putin).

Hm.. what did I watch lately?
I watched Palm Springs, which I probably would have said was pretty good if I paid less attention. The cast and comedy elements were entertaining enough, for a Groundhog Day style movie, it just totally failed to have any kind of point to it even on a relationship level. I don’t think anyone learned anything by the end.

The Killing of Two Lovers was better, bleak Utah setting and bleaker family falling apart. I’m not sure I grasp fully what the director/writer wanted to get across.

Vitalina Varela was easily the best of the bunch. It’s not something you can really review without spoilers, just loved the shadowy cinematography and the whole concept.

     

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