TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

Hey, no argument on that front.

[Syt]

Revising Anchorman to a 6.5. It has its moments, but I'm not a fan of Will Ferrell's deliberate overacting in some of his scenes (anytime he's crying, for example), and the tone keeps shifting jarringly between old time screwball comedy, and Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker movies; but where Z/A/Z had a quick staccato of sight gags and puns, Anchorman draws them out too much. It can work sometimes (think the Sideshow Bob rake scene in Simpsons' Cape Fear, which goes from funny to tedious to funny again), but for me they overstayed their welcome with the flute scene or the news teams battle royal. Not to mention that the plot is a bit all over the place.

[Capetan Mihali]

Dusty and Sweets McGee.  This really weird pseudo-documentary, pseudo-neorealist, pseudo-"Pop"/experimental movie came out in 1971, and basically just follows around a bunch of junkies, dealers, male hustlers, and petty thieves in various sordid tableaux of seedy late 60s/early 70s Hollywood.  And there is enough full frontal IV injection to probably go beyond needle porn -- a scene where the teenage boyfriend tries to hit a vein in his girlfriend's tongue with a smaller 26 gauge needle is pretty awful. 

(IV equipment changed a lot over the 70s; these kids are still using "binkies" made with a pacifier bulb, an eye dropper, a "collar" made of a strip of a dollar bill, and some copper wire -- then a point would be fitted in.  Mid-late 70s, disposable plastic syringes come into vogue and eventually take over.  Also the gauges used now are way smaller -- 28 or 29, even 30 or 31 is common.)

The junkies aren't actors, just junkies, according to a title card at the beginning.  But the dealers are portrayed by the cinematographer as well as the Father Knows Best kid, whose 1962 arrest for MJ possession ruined his career. (He appears looking awesome as a muscle-car obsessed dealer with a long greaser "DA" (duck's ass) hair cut and a very prominent swastika tattoo.) 

So that's kind of a weird intermingling in terms of who is doing what kind of acting.  The sound of top 40 radio announcers promising a "solid gold weekend" fade in and out of the film, to quite a good effect, as does the juxtaposition of "Blue Moon"/"Duke of Earl" era songs with the acid-rock of the day.  The plot is loose at best, with a lot of monologues, but ends abruptly with a bunch of (apparently fictional) action taking place.  But mostly, it's couples lying in bed having lackluster arguments about dope, or running around trying to get it.

Floyd Mutrux directed this.  I had no idea who that was, but it turns out that he was very well-regarded for a moment as a harbinger of New Hollywood.  In the 70s, Variety predicted that the five names to remember from that era of American cinema would be Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Malick, and Mutrux.  But somehow he fell off into obscurity. 

[celedhring]

Gotta say, I can't claim to have ever heard of him, nor his films (besides Freebie and the Bean, which apparently he wrote). His wikipedia article seems to suggest his career died with the 70s.

EDIT: He directed an Alan Freed biopic, now this could be interesting.

[Capetan Mihali]

I also watched The Savages (2007) -- not the Oliver Stone one -- a couple nights ago, and it was really pretty good.  Philip Seymour Hoffman was such a good actor, he really was.   And I thought Laura Linney was great in her role, too.  Also, I am the adult big brother to an adult little sister, and it doesn't seem like many movies take up that specific family relationship in depth, so I appreciated that at some level.

[Eddie Teach]

Rise of the Guardians. It was pretty cheesy.

[CountDeMoney]

Also, I am the adult big brother to an adult little sister, and it doesn't seem like many movies take up that specific family relationship in depth, so I appreciated that at some level.

Been there, done that.  She won.  Why watch a movie about it?

[Ideologue]

Also, I am the adult big brother to an adult little sister, and it doesn't seem like many movies take up that specific family relationship in depth, so I appreciated that at some level.

Been there, done that.  She won.  Why watch a movie about it?

Agreed.

[Queequeg]

I also watched The Savages (2007) -- not the Oliver Stone one -- a couple nights ago, and it was really pretty good.  Philip Seymour Hoffman was such a good actor, he really was.   And I thought Laura Linney was great in her role, too.  Also, I am the adult big brother to an adult little sister, and it doesn't seem like many movies take up that specific family relationship in depth, so I appreciated that at some level.

Gbenga Akinnagbe doesn't get nearly enough work.  I love that movie. 

[Ideologue]

I reviewed a couple of movies, one old, one new.  I also watched a third of Why Don't You Go Play in Hell?, but then it froze and I got overtired and crabby.

Ninotchka (1939).  The corruption of purity by capitalism's false promises has never seemed so sweet as in Lubitsch's fantastic dialectical romcom.  A+

The Babadook (2014).  And, representing the case for infanticide, The Babadook.  B+

[CountDeMoney]

The Babadook (2014).  And, representing the case for infanticide, The Babadook.  B+

But there seems to be a confusion between what is frightening and what is harrowing, for Jennifer Kent's strong debut is committed to the latter far more than it is the former.

There's some confusion here as well, mighty wordsmith.  Clue us in, Hephaestus.

[Ideologue]

It's more about being realistically unpleasant than supernaturally scary or horrific.

Like Fury, but, you know, this movie has a point.  Still, I can cut that clause.  Why not?  The idea remains the same.

I thought you'd at least like the title.

[CountDeMoney]

The title was good;  it's the longer sentences you have to work on sometimes.   

Also, in a belated and completely missed announcement, but longtime and rock-solid Japanese leading man Ken Takakura passed away last month from lymphoma, aged 83.

[Capetan Mihali]

Also, I am the adult big brother to an adult little sister, and it doesn't seem like many movies take up that specific family relationship in depth, so I appreciated that at some level.

Been there, done that.  She won.  Why watch a movie about it?

Agreed.

My adult little sister is getting progressively more neurotic (i.e. more like me) the older she gets.  And she was always the sane child!

[Norgy]

Some call it neurotic, I call it charming.