Good stuff. Well, not really. Heavy subject matter, if anything. And the retching sound at the end was all too real for me (as someone that once went through an OD).
Honestly, I do like the subject matter of fascism (and especially neo-fascism nowadays). There's the pre-fascist era, when it was just being developed, from the 1890s onward, and then there's when it was actually coined by Benito Mussolini onward. And then there's post-1945. Operation Paperclip, the rise of the white power movement in the 1980s and the terrorist attacks of the 1990s. And not to mention the "fourth empire" of the Ku Klux Klan during the Obama years.
I live in Virginia and that's where the fiasco at Charlottesville happened with people invoking the "great replacement theory" meme, and you can connect that to "white extinction anxiety" during the late 1800s to 20th century.
The movie evoked all these thoughts for me and the normalization of it. I see it with several of my family members too. We are living through the growth of a new fascism in the United States, I feel.
Recently showed my child They Live and he absolutely loved it. One of my all time favorite films, so it was really nice to share something like that with him and have it catch on with him. He's been quoting some lines from it on and off since we watched it.
I didn't want to recommend the perverts' guide to ideology because I felt it would've been too on the nose, and also because Zizek suuuuucks. But alas.
Zizek opens The Perverts' guide with an analysis of They Live, which is really interesting and introduces the concept of ideology that the film will use rather well. I would recommend watching it after watching They Live if you feel like it
Zizek sucks ass at this point, but his work on ideology is still unmatched in my opinion, and I chose the username after watching The Pervert's guide, and before Zizek kept having shitty take aster shitty take. I just can't be fucked with creating a new account.
Zizek['s]...work on ideology is still unmatched in my opinion
Am I a joke to you?
Took me forever to actually get around to watching it. Knew about only from meme's and pop culture references from over the last 20 years. I was actually expecting a much worse movie from the "Cracked dot com" style articles that I had read about it... its not a great movie by any stretch but its was a more solid watch than I was anticipating.
Beau is Afraid. Funniest movie in decades, I finally feel seen, Aster done it again
i deeply regret watching that one lol
but i tend to have bad opinions
lol I know another friend that regretted watching it, but I personally liked it (but I knew that it wouldn't be for everyone, with good reason too).
Saw End of Evangelion in the theater, though I have seen it before years ago. It was something else in the theater though.
I watched May December on Netflix. I thought it was fine, and had some great performances, but it didn't amaze me.
Dune 2 was quite good.
Definitely watch Dune. it's like living in an alternate universe where Marvel movie didn't have such a huge influence on blockbusters. Which, even if you like marvel, you have to admit we're getting a lot of lately and a change of pace is good.
Yeah Zone isn't about the banality of evil, it's about the mundanity of evil
Anything can be made mundane. Just ask a manager at some fancy party night club where the customers are having the time of their life every night but he’s just adding up receipts, ordering more product, and doing the other mundane things that running any business entails. Lol. That would also be a good movie i think. The mundanity of capitalism/bureaucracy/ etc.
I think the director said it was about the benality if evil, but I dont see how when the woman screamed at her slave that she would have her husband turn her to ashes.
I'm kinda skeptical Glazer said that, he doesn't strike me as an Arendthead
Perhaps he was referring to the commandant or the contractors he was working with, not the wife
Poor Things. An interesting concept and I thought it was executed pretty well. It's a wildly uncomfortable ride for a while though.
Oh God, not sure how I feel about "uncomfortable" films, even if it's only uncomfortable for a while, mind you.
I just watched this last night with my partner and wildly uncomfortable is the word for it. It is truly a movie made by Hollywood sickos. I really don't like the sexualization of children or Lolita themes.
The movie is explicitly criticizing the sexualization of children. Mark Ruffalo's character is clearly portrayed as a villain, and making you uncomfortable about that whole situation is the point. The Lolita comparison is apt, since that novel is also a scathing critique of pedophilia.
I saw American Fiction the day after the Oscars without having any idea it won one.
I liked it a lot, although it has issues. It's genuinely funny in places and sorrowful in others. It does a good job of bringing the act of writing to the screen, which is a very hard thing to do. Some of the satire is pretty spot on, but it's also based on a book from 20 years ago and can feel it in places. It does some not-unique but well executed fourth wall breaks which really tie into its general theme. The way it deals with some of the themes does sort of let the film off the hook for fence sitting on some themes though. The cast is bloody superb though and give great performances. It's pretty amazing looking considering it was made for no money (in movie terms) and in about four weeks or something.
I enjoyed that one. I thought it took a while setting up the story before getting to the premise but it was worth it.
Yeah, it seems like "Oscar-bait" but good "Oscar-bait." I may watch it.
Anatomy of a Fall. It stars the same German actress that played the commandant's wife.
Dune 2, I liked how they made some effort to follow the books. Most adaptations don’t make any.
Hopefully they use the time skip leading to Dune Messiah’s adaptation to undo some of the deviations that came near the end which could have major impact.
Highly recommend the books if you end up liking the movies, they explore lots of interesting themes.
Dune 2 was genuinely my favorite theater experience ever. I honestly can't stop thinking about it. I read the first book a while back so I was eager to see a new adaptation, and it blew me away.
Hell yeah! The scenes shot using infrared (if you know, you know. No spoilers for anyone else who sees this) were the first ones of that style I’ve seen and it blew me away. I was wondering how they did that until I read an interview that mentioned it.
That whole scene was incredible, and I appreciate that there's an in-universe reason for it too. It's all such a fun ride, it doesn't feel anywhere close to three hours for me. I'll be sad when it's out of theaters.
Gonin, Yakuza movie about finding companionship at the absolute lowest rung of society, then blowing the fuck out of some yakuza morons for pushing you too far and fucking your whole life up as a consequence.
Not a very cheery film but very stylish and cool, Beat Takeshi is in it.
I should warn that there's at least one scene of sexual assault in there, just so you know.
I watched Dune 2. I may watch 3 more movies by the end of the year and one of those will be Dune 2 again. I just don't care much for movies in general, so seeing more than 2 in a year is honestly kind of shocking.
Same. I've watched 5 movies this year so far. That's a lot more than before.
I watched Dune 2 and it is a well done adaptation of the original text, that I feel improves on it. I am currently more interested in Dungeon Meshi and Three Body Problem. Both really great!
I've been watching a lot of Iranian movies lately. I just watched Children of Heaven last night - beautiful movie, but pretty depressing as Iranian movies tend to be.
Do you have any other recommendations? Never watched any Iranian movies before.
The Lizard is pretty funny. it's about a guy who escapes prison by pretending to be a cleric. anti-clerical, but a deeply religious movie I think.
probably the most 'accessible' drama would be one of Asghar Farhadi's movies. A Separation and About Elly are both really good.
but Abbas Kiarostami is one of my favorite directors now - Taste of Cherry, Where Is the Friend's House, Close-Up are all incredible. the cinematography is top class, any frame from his movies could be a painting.
