Author Topic: Latest Movie Thread (Read 852913 times)

ChaosphereIX · « **Reply #3260 on:** October 19, 2019, 12:35:38 am »

Joker was fantastic. Oscar worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix.

rrocket · « **Reply #3261 on:** October 19, 2019, 06:40:50 am »

IQ watched Parasite yesterday. Said it was easily best movie she's watched this year..or in awhile for that matter.

Also watched Midsommar and said it was facked up (in a good way).

dirtyjeffer · « **Reply #3262 on:** October 19, 2019, 11:06:29 am »

Quote from: Cadure on October 19, 2019, 02:44:18 am

Quote from: ChaosphereIX on October 19, 2019, 12:35:38 am
Joker was fantastic. Oscar worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix.

After it finished I turned to my wife and said....flawless.

Michael Moore posted a great statement regarding this movie.

here it is:

On Wednesday night I attended the New York Film Festival and witnessed a cinematic masterpiece, the film that last month won the top prize as the Best Film of the Venice International Film Festival. It’s called “Joker” — and all we Americans have heard about this movie is that we should fear it and stay away from it. We’ve been told it’s violent and sick and morally corrupt — an incitement and celebration of murder. We’ve been told that police will be at every screening this weekend in case of “trouble.” Our country is in deep despair, our constitution is in shreds, a rogue maniac from Queens has access to the nuclear codes — but for some reason, it’s a movie we should be afraid of.

I would suggest the opposite: The greater danger to society may be if you DON’T go see this movie. Because the story it tells and the issues it raises are so profound, so necessary, that if you look away from the genius of this work of art, you will miss the gift of the mirror it is offering us. Yes, there’s a disturbed clown in that mirror, but he’s not alone — we’re standing right there beside him.

“Joker” is no superhero or supervillain or comic book movie. The film is set somewhere in the ‘70s or ‘80s in Gotham City - and the filmmakers make no attempt to disguise it for anything other than what it is: New York City, the headquarters of all evil: the rich who rule us, the banks and corporations for whom we serve, the media which feeds us a daily diet “news” they think we should absorb. This past week, a week when a sitting President indicted himself because, in true Joker style, he was laughing himself silly at Mueller’s and the Dems’ inability to stop him, so he just quadrupled down and handed them everything they needed. But even then, after ten days of his flaunting his guilt, he was still sitting with his KFC grease-stained nuclear codes in the Oval Office, so he told
Captain Sketchy to fire up the helicopter, the sound of its blades revving up, meant only to alert the reporters to scurry outside for the daily “press conference” — Trump walks outside into the deafening cacophony of the whirlybird and publicly and feloniously asks the Peoples Republic of China to interfere in our 2020 election by sending him dirt on the Bidens. He and his magic carpet of hair then walked away and, other than the citizen howls of “CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!”, nothing happened. As “Joker” opens this weekend, Joker, Jr. Is still still sitting at John F. Kennedy’s desk in the Oval Office on the days he shows up to work, dreaming of his next conquest and debauchery.

But this movie is not about Trump. It’s about the America that gave us Trump — the America which feels no need to help the outcast, the destitute. The America where the filthy rich just get richer and filthier.

Except in this story a discomfiting question is posed: What if one day the dispossessed decide to fight back? And I don’t mean with a clipboard registering people to vote. People are worried this movie may be too violent for them. Really? Considering everything we’re living through in real life? You allow your school to conduct “active shooter drills” with your children, permanently, emotionally damaging them as we show these little ones
that this is the life we’ve created for them. “Joker” makes it clear we don’t really want to get to the bottom of this, or to try to understand why innocent people turn in to Jokers after they can no longer keep it together. No one wants to ask why two smart boys skipped their 4th-hour AP French Philosophy class at Columbine High to slaughter 12 students and a teacher. Who would dare ask why the son of a vice-president of General Electric would go into Sandy Hook Elementary in
Newtown, CT and blow the tiny bodies apart of 20 first-graders. Or why did 53% of White women vote for the presidential candidate who, on tape, reveled in his talent as a sexual predator?

The fear and outcry over “Joker” is a ruse. It’s a distraction so that we don’t look at the real violence tearing up our fellow human beings — 30 million Americans who don’t have health insurance is an act of violence. Millions of abused women and children living in fear is an act of violence. Cramming 59 students like worthless sardines into classrooms in Detroit is an act of violence.

As the news media stands by for the next mass shooting, you and your neighbors and co-workers have already been shot numerous times, shot straight through all of your hearts and hopes and dreams. Your pension is long gone. You’re in debt for the next 30 years because you committed the crime of wanting an education. You have actually thought about not having children because you don’t have the heart to bring them onto a dying planet where they are given a 20-year death-by-climate-change sentence at birth. The violence in “Joker”? Stop! Most of the violence in the movie is perpetrated on the Joker himself, a person in need of help, someone trying to survive on the margins of a greedy society. His crime is that he can’t get help. His crime is that he is the butt of a joke played on HIM by the rich and famous. When the Joker decides he can no longer take it — yes, you will feel awful. Not because of the (minimal) blood on the screen, but because deep down, you were cheering him on - and if you’re honest when that happens, you will thank this movie for connecting you to a new desire — not to run to the nearest exit to save your own ass but rather to stand and fight and focus your attention on the nonviolent power you hold in your hands every single day. Thank you Joaquin Phoenix, Todd Phillips, Warner Bros. and all who made this important movie for this important time. I loved this film’s multiple homages to Taxi Driver, Network, The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon. How long has it been since we’ve seen a movie aspire to the level of Stanley Kubrick? Go see this film. Take your teens. Take your resolve.

johngenx · « **Reply #3263 on:** October 19, 2019, 12:01:25 pm »

Quote from: Cadure on October 19, 2019, 11:47:00 am

Great, and truth based, review.

You're kidding, right? Woven into Moores review are his "radical left wing" beliefs that corporations should serve people, not the other way around. That the wealthy should be taxed and the money used to build public health care and education and we need to stop increasing income and wealth disparity. Pure capitalism ignores human rights and rewards only the greediest of the greedy.

Téd123 · « **Reply #3264 on:** October 19, 2019, 02:59:51 pm »

The despair of Gotham City in this movie is probably the result of the democrats being the ruling party for the past fifty years.

This movie doesn't have a huge "eat the rich" message, but it is present as a minor plot device to get certain characters to meet and certain events to happen.

johngenx · « **Reply #3265 on:** October 19, 2019, 04:59:25 pm »

And those damn socialists making sure poor people have access to health care and education and opportunity to participate in the capitalist system.

Basically everything Moore stands for in terms of creating an egalitarian society that doesn’t forsake its weakest or most vulnerable members is contrary to pretty much 100% of your political posts. Did you even read his review?

johngenx · « **Reply #3266 on:** October 19, 2019, 05:16:22 pm »

Pure market economies exist. Pure planned economies don’t. We have some that say they are when they are simply totalitarian regimes that oppress the majority to the benefit of a very few.

The nations with the highest standards of living have the strongest middle classes, a large system of shared resources and highly transparent and accountable government. This typically involves a capitalist market economy that is supported and regulated by socialistic systems and programs.

quadzilla · « **Reply #3267 on:** October 19, 2019, 06:33:01 pm »

Take your political crap somewhere else and stop ruining a good movie thread.

rrocket · « **Reply #3268 on:** October 19, 2019, 06:39:20 pm »

Quote from: quadzilla on October 19, 2019, 06:33:01 pm

Take your political crap somewhere else and stop ruining a good movie thread. [emoji14]

X1000

Niklasky · « **Reply #3269 on:** October 19, 2019, 06:56:30 pm »

Michael Moore tends to have that effect on people...

Niklasky · « **Reply #3270 on:** October 19, 2019, 07:00:33 pm »

Back on the topic of Joker, I read someone comment that while there are "feel good movies", well, Joker is a "feel bad movie".

I thought that was funny, and kinda true...

sailor723 · « **Reply #3271 on:** October 19, 2019, 07:17:03 pm »

My wife took me to Downton Abbey a couple of weeks ago. Mildly disappointing if you are a fan of the show. It was like a series of vignettes and some seemed a little contrived. You could tell they felt the need to give every character their little story line and at least a couple of scenes......... made the film seen kind of disjointed.

BWII · « **Reply #3272 on:** October 20, 2019, 08:23:11 am »

Far from Joker - Zombieland 2 was pleasantly mindlessly entertaining. And WTF?! Does Emma Stone only get cuter and cuter as she gets older?? Good lord she's perfect...I'd give her an Emmy if I had one.

Brig · « **Reply #3273 on:** October 21, 2019, 05:56:57 pm »

This upset me and infuriated me - probably because it was so well done. The courage displayed by these young ladies is incredible. I could also listen to Judge Aquilina all day.

https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/at-the-heart-of-gold-inside-the-usa-gymnastics-scandal/about

"Based on years of research by producers Dr. Steven Ungerleider and David Ulich (Munich ‘72 and Beyond) and featuring brave testimonials from the athletes at the center of the story, director Erin Lee Carr’s (Mommy Dead and Dearest and the upcoming I Love You, Now Die) powerful documentary, At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal, reveals a dangerous system that prioritized winning over everything else, including protecting young female athletes. Through interviews with dozens of survivors, as well as coaches, lawyers and journalists, the film exposes an environment in which young women spent their youth competing for victory on a world stage, juxtaposed against a culture where abuse was hidden, and lives were forever damaged."

Great_Big_Abyss · « **Reply #3274 on:** October 22, 2019, 10:54:39 am »

Quote from: BWII on October 20, 2019, 08:23:11 am

Far from Joker - Zombieland 2 was pleasantly mindlessly entertaining. And WTF?! Does Emma Stone only get cuter and cuter as she gets older?? Good lord she's perfect...I'd give her an Emmy if I had one.

Yup. I like Emma Stone. She's like Lindsay Lohan if Lohan hadn't gotten all gross and druggie.

PJungnitsch · « **Reply #3275 on:** October 22, 2019, 12:18:39 pm »

Finally saw 'Vice' on Amazon Prime, and thought it was as good. Unusual way to tell a story, but effective and darkly funny

Maybe not spot on, see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-dick-cheney-of-vice-just-craves-power-the-reality-was-worse/2018/12/27/9f8effae-09f7-11e9-88e3-989a3e456820_story.html

But close enough

rrocket · « **Reply #3276 on:** October 23, 2019, 07:29:36 pm »

If you loved The Dawn Wall and Free Solo (I did!), you'll probably want to see this:

https://deadspin.com/the-nose-speed-record-captures-alex-honnold-and-tommy-c-1839238182

johngenx · « **Reply #3277 on:** October 23, 2019, 07:40:04 pm »

I loved Dawn Wall. Tommy Caldwell is one of the classiest big wall rock-jocks in the world. Humble and low-key and going back to help KJ finish was the best part of the climb. I ran into him and Sonnie Trotter a few times when they were working The Diamond on Mt. Louis in the Bow Valley. Both dudes are super chill. One rainy day they were in town at the climbing gym belaying people.

I've never met Brad Gobright, but know some climbers that have and say the guy is hilarious and downright dangerous - true of all free soloists, but he's not meticulous like Honnold.

rrocket · « **Reply #3278 on:** October 23, 2019, 08:11:01 pm »

Quote from: johngenx on October 23, 2019, 07:40:04 pm

I loved Dawn Wall. Tommy Caldwell is one of the classiest big wall rock-jocks in the world. Humble and low-key and going back to help KJ finish was the best part of the climb. I ran into him and Sonnie Trotter a few times when they were working The Diamond on Mt. Louis in the Bow Valley. Both dudes are super chill. One rainy day they were in town at the climbing gym belaying people.

I've never met Brad Gobright, but know some climbers that have and say the guy is hilarious and downright dangerous - true of all free soloists, but he's not meticulous like Honnold.

Crazily so......but in his game, you have to be if you want it to be long term.

Jaeger · « **Reply #3279 on:** October 23, 2019, 08:34:37 pm »

Quote from: Brig on October 21, 2019, 05:56:57 pm

This upset me and infuriated me - probably because it was so well done. The courage displayed by these young ladies is incredible. I could also listen to Judge Aquilina all day.

https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/at-the-heart-of-gold-inside-the-usa-gymnastics-scandal/about

"Based on years of research by producers Dr. Steven Ungerleider and David Ulich (Munich ‘72 and Beyond) and featuring brave testimonials from the athletes at the center of the story, director Erin Lee Carr’s (Mommy Dead and Dearest and the upcoming I Love You, Now Die) powerful documentary, At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal, reveals a dangerous system that prioritized winning over everything else, including protecting young female athletes. Through interviews with dozens of survivors, as well as coaches, lawyers and journalists, the film exposes an environment in which young women spent their youth competing for victory on a world stage, juxtaposed against a culture where abuse was hidden, and lives were forever damaged."

I see red just thinking about it.