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#41
Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread
Last post by celedhring - Today at 04:09:06 AMNickel Boys
Story about a black boy unfairly interned in a segregated reform school from hell for juveniles in the 1960s-70s. It is based in a real school which wasn't closed until the 2000s, and given what we see - fucking hell.
Anyway, the most salient bit of the movie is that it is entirely shot in first person. This is at equal times breath-taking and disconcerting. There have been many attempts at shooting a movie entirely in first person. The most notorious, is - I think - Lady of the Lake, which used POV camera as the way to faithfully translate Chandler's first-person hardboiled narrative. That movie didn't work, but again, interesting experiment.
Here, too, there's an attempt to use it in a way that makes sense. The movie is built as fragmented memories from one of the survivors of the school (two, as at one point the movie starts switching perspectives), and we experience the story throug his eyes, reliving these memories. I haven't read the original novel but I suppose its written similarly. For what it's worth, the Oscar-nominated screenplay really makes a great job of building the narrative through these very fragmented small moments, and build a compeling relationship between the two main characters and their friendship and different worldviews.
The POV conceit sometimes works and produces great evocative and/or harrowing moments, but in many others you just feel there's only half a scene in there - with people talking to you while you hear a disembodied voice replying back. There's an unsettling power in that but I think it's just too hard to keep throughout a nearly 150 minute movie. In time, for me the POV style grew more annoying than anything else, getting in the way of the story and its emotional heft. Again, as a very deliberate stylistic experiment (and with a good - if certainly harrowing - story) it's certainly worth checking out. But I don't think it quite works despite the talent on display both in front and behind the camera.
Story about a black boy unfairly interned in a segregated reform school from hell for juveniles in the 1960s-70s. It is based in a real school which wasn't closed until the 2000s, and given what we see - fucking hell.
Anyway, the most salient bit of the movie is that it is entirely shot in first person. This is at equal times breath-taking and disconcerting. There have been many attempts at shooting a movie entirely in first person. The most notorious, is - I think - Lady of the Lake, which used POV camera as the way to faithfully translate Chandler's first-person hardboiled narrative. That movie didn't work, but again, interesting experiment.
Here, too, there's an attempt to use it in a way that makes sense. The movie is built as fragmented memories from one of the survivors of the school (two, as at one point the movie starts switching perspectives), and we experience the story throug his eyes, reliving these memories. I haven't read the original novel but I suppose its written similarly. For what it's worth, the Oscar-nominated screenplay really makes a great job of building the narrative through these very fragmented small moments, and build a compeling relationship between the two main characters and their friendship and different worldviews.
The POV conceit sometimes works and produces great evocative and/or harrowing moments, but in many others you just feel there's only half a scene in there - with people talking to you while you hear a disembodied voice replying back. There's an unsettling power in that but I think it's just too hard to keep throughout a nearly 150 minute movie. In time, for me the POV style grew more annoying than anything else, getting in the way of the story and its emotional heft. Again, as a very deliberate stylistic experiment (and with a good - if certainly harrowing - story) it's certainly worth checking out. But I don't think it quite works despite the talent on display both in front and behind the camera.
#42
Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...
Last post by DGuller - Today at 12:37:11 AMQuote from: Tamas on October 12, 2025, 08:34:23 PMPerhaps it was an awkward phrasing of it. What I meant was that I am hoping I am right, and this is why European response has been extremely muted.Awkward or not, it was very clear what you meant.
#43
Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...
Last post by Richard Hakluyt - October 12, 2025, 11:18:37 PMThe armed forces and police in the UK swear allegiance to the monarch. This is irrelevant nearly all of the time of course. But, if an unpopular government tried to hijack the system and become a dictatorship becomes relevant. I think the same applies in Canada. Of course the authoritarians might be very popular, which would make any interference by the King less likely.
#44
Off the Record / Re: Baseball
Last post by jimmy olsen - October 12, 2025, 11:12:31 PMAt least the Yankees lost in the end. 
#45
Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023
Last post by Admiral Yi - October 12, 2025, 11:06:29 PMQuote from: The Minsky Moment on October 12, 2025, 10:46:36 PMBy destroying the housing, the shops, the businesses, the offices, the mosques and churches, the coffee shops and restaurants, the social clubs, the hospitals and the clinics. By rendering the entire population destitute and jobless, by destroying all meaningful economic activity, forcing the entire population to be nearly completely reliant on outside aid.
What other organized body is left in Gaza other than Hamas?
Are you saying before the invasion civic society other than Hamas *did* exist in Gaza?
The article mentions opposition based on tribe.
#46
Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023
Last post by The Minsky Moment - October 12, 2025, 10:46:36 PMQuote from: Admiral Yi on October 12, 2025, 09:56:52 PMHow did Israel destroy any possible expression of Palestinian civil society?
By destroying the housing, the shops, the businesses, the offices, the mosques and churches, the coffee shops and restaurants, the social clubs, the hospitals and the clinics. By rendering the entire population destitute and jobless, by destroying all meaningful economic activity, forcing the entire population to be nearly completely reliant on outside aid.
What other organized body is left in Gaza other than Hamas?
#47
Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...
Last post by Tonitrus - October 12, 2025, 10:02:50 PMThis line from John Adams seems apropros...in predicting our weaknesses:
QuoteBut should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
#48
Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023
Last post by Admiral Yi - October 12, 2025, 09:56:52 PMQuote from: The Minsky Moment on October 12, 2025, 07:59:06 PMYes of course. Between Hamas and Israel, any possible expression of Palestinian civil society in Gaza has been utterly destroyed. Hamas is all there is left to fill the vacuum. Which of course serves the Likudniks just fine because it ensures Gaza will remain weak and isolated and destitute, as well as feed their hard-line security narrative. It's a symbiotic relationship.
How did Israel destroy any possible expression of Palestinian civil society?
#49
Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023
Last post by Razgovory - October 12, 2025, 08:54:03 PMI guess someone should do something about that. Maybe Canada? The UK? South Africa? Ireland? I dunno.
#50
Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...
Last post by Tamas - October 12, 2025, 08:34:23 PMPerhaps it was an awkward phrasing of it. What I meant was that I am hoping I am right, and this is why European response has been extremely muted.