TV/Movies Megathread

[Josquius]

I saw Conclave.
Lots of people had said it's good so no surprise. But yes. It was good. Not what I would have expected from the synopsis - hence not watching it when it was new.

I also saw Captain America Brave New World.... Meh. Nothing to really enjoy here. By the book. As expected.

Better Man was another I've seen recently. A Robbie Williams biopic, of all things, but where Williams voices himself as a chimp. It's actually quite decent.
 I can't help but notice all the chinese names around its production. I wonder if there's some financial hijinks here. As its a weird film to see made - even a flat Robbie Williams biopic would be let alone with the chimp factor

+

So, Dr Who is on pause.
Disney aren't renewing their contract and the BBC isn't sure how to go forward.
This is key to why Gutwa left. Understandably he wants reliability in life.
The rumour mill suggests they guy behind Babylon 5 is angling to take over. He has just moved to the UK. He claims he has no solid work lined up yet but would love that job....

Interesting - doesn't seem like a surprise.

I only watched a couple of episodes because I really like Russell T Davies and Gatwa. But it just felt a bit "off" I'm not sure why - wasn't sure if it was Disney's requirements or that Davies' style felt new and quite fun and exciting in 2005 and maybe doesn't now (especially because I actually think his best stuff is really grounded in a particular sort of British life/gay Coronation Street fan sensibility - which I'm not sure sits well with Disney and trying to make it global).

I've continued to watch every episode though I do think it's almost out of duty than the show being particularly great.
Even right back to cappaldi and smith it has had its moments but also a lot of dross.
Trying to pack so much into just 45 mins and how silly it can be....
My fingers are crossed the relaunch sees better paced quality stories told over multiple episodes that aren't all "omfg this most ultimate evil ever will destroy the universe unless we believe the doctor is awesome"

[Darth Wagtaros]

I thought Gutwa was OK, but the dialogue and the story lines were crap.  Like Doctor Who could always be good or bad, but the last few series leaned heavily towards bad.  

[celedhring]

Yesterday I rewatched Toby Dammit, by Fellini, which remains my favorite Edgar Allan Poe adaptation despite all the Vincent Price ones (some of which I also love).

Anyway, in the episode Terence Stamp's titular character hallucinates with a creepy little girl playing with her ball, and he assumes it's the devil taunting him. And I was wondering what was ground zero of the horror "creepy little kid" trope. Was it Village of the Damned or is there something older? I don't recall them being a feature in gothic horror literature, for example.

[Sheilbh]

I think maybe the 19th century? Not proper Gothic-Gothic, but I'm fairly sure a couple of Elizabeth Gaskell's ghost stories feature creepy kids who may or may not be ghosts.

I think it's maybe the flip-side of Victorian sentimentalism about children and childhood (like in Dickens) which is, I think, often a reforming project against the real life horrors for children (poor houses, factory work, debtors' prison etc)?

[Savonarola]

I think maybe the 19th century? Not proper Gothic-Gothic, but I'm fairly sure a couple of Elizabeth Gaskell's ghost stories feature creepy kids who may or may not be ghosts.

I think it's maybe the flip-side of Victorian sentimentalism about children and childhood (like in Dickens) which is, I think, often a reforming project against the real life horrors for children (poor houses, factory work, debtors' prison etc)?

The Turn of the Screw (Henry James) was 1898 and certainly has creepy kids.  I'm not familiar with Gaskell's writing, though that would have been earlier.

[Sheilbh]

I've only actually read her ghost stories - there's a Penguin Edition of them called Gothic Tales. There's one story I can't fully remember the details of, The Old Nurse's Tale, which from is a  nurse telling a new governess a ghost story from her past about a ghostly girl roaming the moors outside - who then starts haunting the new governess.

I saw a stage version a couple of year's ago at Christmas (the ghost season) at a theatre in London's last surviving Victorian music hall, which was also attended by Judi Dench and Richard E Grant

[Savonarola]

The Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)

This is the earliest known film to have an all black cast, and the first film to depict a romance between black characters seriously.  This would have been progressive for the era, the first Broadway play to depict a serious romance between black characters wasn't until 1921 (Shuffle Along, the song "I'm Just Wild About Harry" comes from it.)  For this reason the film was never completed or released since it was expected to be a flop in the south.  By our standards it looks racist (though by no means the worst film of the era) relying heavily on stereotypes and racist tropes.

The film was recovered by a curator of film at MOMA from a vault from whomever acquired Biograph.  It was restored by MOMA, no records or script from the film exist so the restorers had to scour entertainment and society papers from the era to even put a cast list together.  The restorers put together the scenes in the most logical order, and will show different takes of the same scene.

The film was intended as a vehicle for vaudeville star Bert Williams; who was an enormous star in the era, but today might be remembered only for his signature song "Nobody."  (Weirdly Williams' character is in blackface, but none of the other cast members are.)  Williams' fellow Ziegfield Follies performer, WC Fields, described him as "The funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew."  Racism took it's toll and he drank himself to death in 1922.

Williams really does a good job in this film; he's really funny.  He'd only make a couple more short films.

[celedhring]

I think maybe the 19th century? Not proper Gothic-Gothic, but I'm fairly sure a couple of Elizabeth Gaskell's ghost stories feature creepy kids who may or may not be ghosts.

I think it's maybe the flip-side of Victorian sentimentalism about children and childhood (like in Dickens) which is, I think, often a reforming project against the real life horrors for children (poor houses, factory work, debtors' prison etc)?

I actually have an old Penguin Gaskell collection than I bought *decades* ago when I wanted to get better at English. I think I will pick it up again 

[Bauer]

Watched netflix show Trainwreck, Mayor of Mayhem episode.  About the legendary Toronto mayor Rob Ford... aka the real life Chris Farley.

I had forgotten some of that stuff, brought back some laughs. 

[Tamas]

Speaking of remakes (kinda...feels more like the 80's Dragnet film)...

I am...very skeptical.

Omg what's the point, the original holds up.

[The Brain]

Conclave. The Pope has died, so men in dresses must make holy smoke. It's a good movie with good actors, I was entertained. It paints a very positive picture of the Catholic Church ("yes the Church has problems, but is dealing with them and has a critical mass of decent people at the top"), but the movie is fiction so OK. More problematic from a movie perspective is that it has a "magic minority person", which I think is lazy writing.

[Sheilbh]

I enjoyed it a lot. I really enjoyed Brian O'Byrne as Ralph Fiennes assistant just popping up every 20 minutes with some crucial information he should have provided earlier

I recently watched The Rule of Jenny Pen which is really good care home horror film starring John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush. Between it and Conclave it's been quite odd seeing how great Lithgow is as I'm of an age where I basically only knew him from Third Rock from the Sun

And I'm going to see him in Giant on the West End at the minute where he plays Roald Dahl during the storm around his anti-semitic comments which has had rave reviews particularly for Lithgow.

[Josquius]

Conclave. The Pope has died, so men in dresses must make holy smoke. It's a good movie with good actors, I was entertained. It paints a very positive picture of the Catholic Church ("yes the Church has problems, but is dealing with them and has a critical mass of decent people at the top"), but the movie is fiction so OK. More problematic from a movie perspective is that it has a "magic minority person", which I think is lazy writing.

From what I've heard the novel was a bit better on this and the Mexican guy (Filipino in the book) stood out less with the main cast being more diverse.
Though they wanted to cast top anglo actors so anglicised them.

In the novel I imagine they spent more time developing everyone too so the Mexican stood out a lot less obviously.
The film did shout "one of these 5 guys is the winner and since this one is the weird outsider it's probably him"

[mongers]

Thoroughly enjoying watching 'Breaking Bad' for the 2nd time, last episode I watched last night was 'The Fly', where he faces off against a fly that's 'contaminating' his lab.

This evening, some large flies started appearing downstairs, traced their origin to an old family  plant of some age, remember that same thing happened last summer when the heat/humidity reached about what it is now.

So I went medieval on them, swatter, anti-aphid spray (only thing to hand) and banishing the plant to the garden solved it, but it surprised me just how instinctively the 'old dead eyes of a killer' response kicked in. 

Then I recognised the coincidence, talk about life imitating art! 

[Syt]

A Man On The Inside. By Michael Schur (The Office, The Good Place, Parks & Rec ... ). Starring Ted Danson, Stephanie Beatriz (Diaz from Brooklyn 99), Mary Elizabeth Ellis (the Waitress from Always Sunny), plus Sally Struthers (All in the Family), Eugene Cordero (Pillboi from Good Place, Rutherford on Lower Decks), Susan Ruttam (LA Law), Mark Evan Jackson ...

Ted Danson is a widower taking a job with a private investigator to infiltrate a retirement community to help catch a jewelry thief.

Very cute and wholesome, quite heartfelt, and I'M NOT CRYING DURING THE LAST EPISODE!

I guess with all of us getting up in age, it starts hitting closer to home.

An enjoyable, slow paced cozy watch.