TV/Movies Megathread

[Sheilbh]

I loved Sunak posting about the family voting to go to see Barbie. Yeah, sure, the kids would have loved Oppenheimer (are they even allowed to see it in the UK?)

It's one of those wonky "top politicians pretending to be normal people" twitter posts that I absolutely love. 

Yeah - same. And, no, they couldn't - it's a 15 in the UK.

I find the whole PM participating in internet culture thing a bit weird. It feels like the walls between the internet and normal people/the real world are collapsing - which may just be generation given Sunak was born in 1980. But only a few years ago you had Blair who wouldn't have his own phone or email, or Cameron "too many tweets makes a twat" attitudes.

It is not. It's one of those "Born in the USA"-kinda phenoms were people absolutely miss the point of the work and embrace it at as a celebration of the subject matter when it's actually a cautionary tale.

My God. I did not know that with Social Network. I love the film but....I hadn't even thought of that as a possible reading

[FunkMonk]

Like Wolf of Wall Street?

Well, a bit more subtle.

Social Network is about how ambition and power will destroy any meaningful relationship you have. Zuckerberg creates an empire on the promise of facilitating connection among people, while at the end of the film he himself has relinquished - by choice or by circumstance - any kind of real connection and tries to replace them with the illusion provided by his social media (the last scene is the best of the film).

Of course, I can see the startup bros watching it and thinking "yes, this is what i want".

It boggles my mind how anyone with half a brain could come away from The Social Network and think "Wow, I should be like Zuckerberg".

[Tamas]

Syt the Social Network is well worth watching.

[Duque de Bragança]

Like Wolf of Wall Street?

Well, a bit more subtle.

Social Network is about how ambition and power will destroy any meaningful relationship you have. Zuckerberg creates an empire on the promise of facilitating connection among people, while at the end of the film he himself has relinquished - by choice or by circumstance - any kind of real connection and tries to replace them with the illusion provided by his social media (the last scene is the best of the film).

Of course, I can see the startup bros watching it and thinking "yes, this is what i want".

It boggles my mind how anyone with half a brain could come away from The Social Network and think "Wow, I should be like Zuckerberg".

With so many "tracksuits"  watching De Palma's Scarface and idolising Tony Montana, I am not surprised. 

[Sheilbh]

Syt the Social Network is well worth watching.

It's really good. Up there with Zodiac in my favourite Fincher films.

[Josquius]

I'm not getting the barbenheimer thing. It's way beyond a casual Internet joke. Is it really so rare two very different films are released the same day?

[HVC]

Meme marketing is all the had. Because of the strike actors aren't out there doing the circuit

[Darth Wagtaros]

I'm not getting the barbenheimer thing. It's way beyond a casual Internet joke. Is it really so rare two very different films are released the same day?

Guerrilla marketing. 

[Savonarola]

Festival (1967)

This is a documentary which covers the Newport Folk Festival from 1963 to 1966.  This is a time of change in folk music, at the beginning of the period people were almost exclusively singing folk songs from a century ago, by then end they were almost all singer-songwriters.  It's also a period of change in music as well, at the beginning folk (as well as jazz) would have been the dominant music forms for college students, while at the end it would have been rock.  Bob Dylan is largely responsible for both developments and he features prominently in the film.

The film focuses mostly on the (then) younger generation of folk musicians, Dylan, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul and Mary and especially Joan Baez.  (At this period Joan was enormously popular, she was still being mobbed for autographs, but she's also photogenic and funny.)  There's some nods to the previous generation, Pete Seeger, Odetta and Son House get a couple songs in.  Most of the other musicians get short shrift, Donovan, Johnny Cash, Howling Wolf, Buffy Ste Marie, the Staple Singers, Paul Butterfield and a number of other acts don't even get a complete song in.  The film's biggest flaw is that it doesn't list the name of the performers; if you're not a big fan of mid-60s folk you probably won't know who most of the performers are.

[celedhring]

Saw Oppenheimer. It's Nolan shooting a biographical drama like he's making Inception. When it works, it's a ride like no other, but a lot of time you just kinda want the film to settle down a little bit. Maybe I'm old. Really, many stretches of the film feel like a stretched out movie trailer. With people talking like they're in a movie trailer.

But I did enjoy it overall, mind. For a movie so long, you're never bored. The cast is stupidly good and acting is top notch, particularly RDJ. I hope that now that he's over with the Marvel nonsense he does more meaty parts.

[Gups]

Good review Cel and similar to my thoughts. Jumps around quite a lot so can get confusing - looking forward to watching it again in a year or two with subtitles as I'm sure I missed quite a few subtleties. My son and I both gave it an 8/10.

[Savonarola]

Sing and Like It (1934)

Nat Pendleton plays a gangster who controls the kidnapping and safe cracking racket in New York, but is reduced to tears by Zasu Pitts' rendition of the song "Your Mother."  So he threatens Edward Horton (the mad genius of Broadway) to put her in his upcoming show.  This then turns into a wicked satire of the theater, surprising for the age, it would be almost twenty years before "All About Eve".

The movie is definitely from a different time, for one thing domestic violence is milked for laughs, and it lacks any big stars; but that allows character actors Edward Horton and Ned Sparks (and arguably Zasu Pitts) to have some of their better performances.

[Sheilbh]

Loved Barbie. Perhaps not as much as the casting director loved Sex Education, but close.

[garbon]

Loved Barbie. Perhaps not as much as the casting director loved Sex Education, but close.

It was wild how much of that cast was in it.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Secret Invasion didn't manage to make the ending any better than the rest.  Could have skipped it entirely.

I enjoy the Grand Tour, but these people really need to watch their shit.  Being a raging tool will work if you are a superstar, not an Amazon Prime show - after getting kicked off BBC.