Last movie you watched?

[Panflute]

Blackfish (2013)

A documentary on the moral implications of keeping killer whales in captivity. The narrative focuses on the killer whale Tilikum, who was involved in 3 fatal incidents with humans; most famously the killing of his trainer Dawn Brancheau. However, the movie also discusses the practices of marine parks at large – Sea World in particular – ranging from the capturing of wild killer whales to their exploitation of animals for entertainment and the subsequent covering up of incidents between killer whales and trainers – even to other trainers.

At this point it shouldn't be news that there are some serious moral problems with keeping animals in a tank that contains literally 1 millionth of the quantity of water that the same animals would traverse in a single day in the wild. However, what did shock me is the lengths that Sea World went through to cover up incidents, both non-fatal and fatal to their own personnel. Fatal attacks being reported as drownings, or pinned on the mistakes of very experienced trainers. There is also a part in the movie where Sea World sell one of their killer whales to a marine park in Spain, while said park was clearly not designed to house such animals, and many of the trainers had never even been in contact with killer whales before. It just paints a picture of an organization that does everything to maximize its profit at the cost of both animals and humans (one of the killer whales in the Spanish park ended up killing a trainer). This is even outside of the more basic question of whether or not killer whales should be held in captivity to begin with.

One thing that I regret about this movie is that you never get to hear Sea World's side of the story. According to the makers, Sea World repeatedly denied requests to co-operate with the documentary, which, in my view, can only be interpreted as a tacit admission of guilt, as well as a conscious move that would allow them to dismiss Blackfish as propaganda (which is exactly what they ended up doing). Yet with a lot of the people you hear being former Sea World trainers and biologists, there just seems to be very little ground to view Sea World as an organization with an inkling of moral fibre, nor to see the practice of keeping marine mammals for our own entertainment as something that we should cling on to.

Some Kind of Monster (2004)

Having grown up on the music of Metallica and still being very into the band around the time this documentary was released, I'm glad I never ended up seeing it back in the day. Having seen some very cringey clips over the years, I finally mustered the amount of morbid fascination required to watch this movie.

And sweet Jesus, was it ruthless.

The documentary follows Metallica as they're in the process of writing and recording their new album, which would turn out to be the much maligned St. Anger. Only it's clear from the beginning that these people have lost touch with reality and each other and spend more time bickering over absolutely everything in the most childish, passive-aggressive ways possible. This is all against the backdrop of their long-time bass player Jason Newstead having recently quit the band.

In order to 'heal' their band and prevent it from completely falling apart, they have enlisted a therapist called Phil Towle to bring everyone back together. Every segment with Towle is almost surreal to behold, as he embodies just about every stereotype about California lawyers: obnoxiously expensive (40k a month), only talks in meaningless one-liners, and only seems to be there to enrich himself. Every concrete piece of advice he gives seems to be the opposite of what any half-way competent psychotherapist would give you, with the absolute kicker being how defensive he gets when frontman James Hetfield implies that the band wants to part ways with him. He comes across as a grade A huckster and it didn't surprise me to learn after watching this that he isn't even a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist.

The rest of the movie is equally surreal. There is a part where Lars Ulrich tries out a new, botched syncopatic drumming style and utterly failing, after which his bandmates tell him to just do his usual thing (which of course devolves into yet another huge argument). In another segment, former guitarist and now Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has an emotional talk with Ulrich, talking about how pissed he still is about getting kicked out the band 2 decades after it happened. Then there is Hetfield going into rehab for his alcoholism, coming back months later only to have the exact same arguments with Ulrich. If you showed this to someone who has somehow managed to remain unaware of Metallica thus far, they'd probably think this was a mockumentary in the vein of Spinal Tap.

Still, this documentary does provide some insights into the band that somehow makes you sympathize more with them. In one part, Ulrich lets his father Torben hear a preview of one of the upcoming album's tracks, and the latter straight-up tells his son that, if it were up to him, he'd delete that track from the album. Later, Ulrich confesses that he's always felt a bit estranged from Hetfield, saying the frontman had a bigger bond with Mustaine, with Ulrich being the quiet guy from Europe who didn't really know how to behave in the crazy American metal scene of the early '80s. It goes to show there's more to Ulrich than just being an asshole, and he still just feels an extreme obligation to prove himself. And inbetween you failing to add some flair to your drumming 20 years down the line and your father telling you your new shit sucks, that is a rough spot to be in.

All in all, a truly bizarre film that I still don't quite know what to make of, but while it was entertaining in its own way, I find myself wondering what the band were hoping to achieve by putting this footage out there for everyone to see.

[True Blue]

Ready Player One

Meh 6/10

[Toinho]

On 27/09/2019 at 03:06, Panflute said:

Blackfish (2013)

A documentary on the moral implications of keeping killer whales in captivity. The narrative focuses on the killer whale Tilikum, who was involved in 3 fatal incidents with humans; most famously the killing of his trainer Dawn Brancheau. However, the movie also discusses the practices of marine parks at large – Sea World in particular – ranging from the capturing of wild killer whales to their exploitation of animals for entertainment and the subsequent covering up of incidents between killer whales and trainers – even to other trainers.

At this point it shouldn't be news that there are some serious moral problems with keeping animals in a tank that contains literally 1 millionth of the quantity of water that the same animals would traverse in a single day in the wild. However, what did shock me is the lengths that Sea World went through to cover up incidents, both non-fatal and fatal to their own personnel. Fatal attacks being reported as drownings, or pinned on the mistakes of very experienced trainers. There is also a part in the movie where Sea World sell one of their killer whales to a marine park in Spain, while said park was clearly not designed to house such animals, and many of the trainers had never even been in contact with killer whales before. It just paints a picture of an organization that does everything to maximize its profit at the cost of both animals and humans (one of the killer whales in the Spanish park ended up killing a trainer). This is even outside of the more basic question of whether or not killer whales should be held in captivity to begin with.

One thing that I regret about this movie is that you never get to hear Sea World's side of the story. According to the makers, Sea World repeatedly denied requests to co-operate with the documentary, which, in my view, can only be interpreted as a tacit admission of guilt, as well as a conscious move that would allow them to dismiss Blackfish as propaganda (which is exactly what they ended up doing). Yet with a lot of the people you hear being former Sea World trainers and biologists, there just seems to be very little ground to view Sea World as an organization with an inkling of moral fibre, nor to see the practice of keeping marine mammals for our own entertainment as something that we should cling on to.

Some Kind of Monster (2004)

Having grown up on the music of Metallica and still being very into the band around the time this documentary was released, I'm glad I never ended up seeing it back in the day. Having seen some very cringey clips over the years, I finally mustered the amount of morbid fascination required to watch this movie.

And sweet Jesus, was it ruthless.

The documentary follows Metallica as they're in the process of writing and recording their new album, which would turn out to be the much maligned St. Anger. Only it's clear from the beginning that these people have lost touch with reality and each other and spend more time bickering over absolutely everything in the most childish, passive-aggressive ways possible. This is all against the backdrop of their long-time bass player Jason Newstead having recently quit the band.

In order to 'heal' their band and prevent it from completely falling apart, they have enlisted a therapist called Phil Towle to bring everyone back together. Every segment with Towle is almost surreal to behold, as he embodies just about every stereotype about California lawyers: obnoxiously expensive (40k a month), only talks in meaningless one-liners, and only seems to be there to enrich himself. Every concrete piece of advice he gives seems to be the opposite of what any half-way competent psychotherapist would give you, with the absolute kicker being how defensive he gets when frontman James Hetfield implies that the band wants to part ways with him. He comes across as a grade A huckster and it didn't surprise me to learn after watching this that he isn't even a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist.

The rest of the movie is equally surreal. There is a part where Lars Ulrich tries out a new, botched syncopatic drumming style and utterly failing, after which his bandmates tell him to just do his usual thing (which of course devolves into yet another huge argument). In another segment, former guitarist and now Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has an emotional talk with Ulrich, talking about how pissed he still is about getting kicked out the band 2 decades after it happened. Then there is Hetfield going into rehab for his alcoholism, coming back months later only to have the exact same arguments with Ulrich. If you showed this to someone who has somehow managed to remain unaware of Metallica thus far, they'd probably think this was a mockumentary in the vein of Spinal Tap.

Still, this documentary does provide some insights into the band that somehow makes you sympathize more with them. In one part, Ulrich lets his father Torben hear a preview of one of the upcoming album's tracks, and the latter straight-up tells his son that, if it were up to him, he'd delete that track from the album. Later, Ulrich confesses that he's always felt a bit estranged from Hetfield, saying the frontman had a bigger bond with Mustaine, with Ulrich being the quiet guy from Europe who didn't really know how to behave in the crazy American metal scene of the early '80s. It goes to show there's more to Ulrich than just being an asshole, and he still just feels an extreme obligation to prove himself. And inbetween you failing to add some flair to your drumming 20 years down the line and your father telling you your new shit sucks, that is a rough spot to be in.

All in all, a truly bizarre film that I still don't quite know what to make of, but while it was entertaining in its own way, I find myself wondering what the band were hoping to achieve by putting this footage out there for everyone to see.

Re: Metallica. I was meant to see them in two weeks but they’ve just cancelled their Australia and New Zealand tour as Hetfield ‘S addictions continue. 

[Panflute]

On 29/09/2019 at 03:53, Toinho said:

Re: Metallica. I was meant to see them in two weeks but they’ve just cancelled their Australia and New Zealand tour as Hetfield ‘S addictions continue. 

It's just sad at this point. Kinda assumed all of those guys would be clean now that they're well into their 50s.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Panflute

[Pyfish+]

Watched Deadpool and Deadpool 2 the other night. Not as funny as I expected but still had a few laughs. Decent films!

[Cicero]

They’re overrated 

[Pyfish+]

9 minutes ago, Cicero said:

They’re overrated 

Deadpool? Absolutely. I think they were bigged up that much to promote them and my friends have been banging on about them for so long that it just didn't match up to the hype when I watched them both.

[Tommy]

Good Bye, Lenin! (2003)

For me, still the best German movie. It's funny, sad, has a very interesting topic, nostalgic, wonderfully acted and the most beautiful soundtrack I've ever heard. 

9/10

 

[True Blue]

Joker (2019)

Phoenix 10/10

The movie 8.5/10

[Cicero]

7 hours ago, True Blue said:

Joker (2019)

Phoenix 10/10

The movie 8.5/10

You’ve given me a hard on. Seeing it tomorrow with the wife who doesn’t like super hero movies. Told her it isn’t one. 

 

[Cicero]

Joker 9/10

Amazing. In every sense imaginable. 

[True Blue]

On 06/10/2019 at 04:00, Cicero said:

Joker 9/10

Amazing. In every sense imaginable. 

Did the wifey enjoy it

[Cicero]

8 hours ago, True Blue said:

Did the wifey enjoy it

She thought it was very good, and she hates super hero films. 

She cried when Arthur found out what happened to him. 

[True Blue]

Just now, Cicero said:

She thought it was very good, and she hates super hero films. 

She cried when Arthur found out what happened to him. 

Well it was basically a movie about the current reality, how people struggle with mental illness and what they can become from it. Phoenix did the job as expected, i can see a Oscar heading his way but perhaps only a nominations because of the extremely violent theme.

[Pyfish+]

Watched Hocus Pocus because the girlfriend was raving about it. It's alright I guess.

[Rab]

Joker

10/10

Anyone that says otherwise please email iwishtobebanned@talkfootball365.com thanks

[IgnisExcubitor]

On 21/09/2019 at 06:15, Toinho said:

Did you ever watch Your Name? (kimi no na wa) 

It somehow was amazing. 

Edit: just to clarify it’s not a Ghibli movie but epic all the same 

One of the best romantic films I've seen. 

Totally did not see the  twist coming. They set the whole thing up so beautifully with the rice sake, threads and comet. Just perfect. 

The only issue was that I watched this with my younger cousin and the boob grabbing bits were weird. 

Overall though it was a brilliant flick. 

[Rick]

Joker - 7/10 

Masterful performance from Phoenix but masterpiece of a film? Do me a favour. Unoriginal, and without much of a plot. I didn’t find it anything special other than an amazing performance from Phoenix. 

[Rick]

Call me by your name - 10/10

Beautiful film. Perfect performances from everybody involved. Resonated with me so much, cried several times.

[Inverted]

Joker: 7.5/10

I enjoyed it a lot but I ink there were some moments and particular decisions in it that, if made differently, could easily have made it a much much better film. 

[Cicero]

I find it astounding that in this day in age, people still refuse to try and ‘understand’ these types of people. The biggest outlash for JOKER was that it tried to sympathise with the villain, in order to make it look like it was society that betrayed him. 

Hilarious how people either refuse or are in denial that this in most cases, is true. 

It’s a unique dive into a mentally ill person’s psyche, and the events that drove him into ultimate madness. As if learning and understanding what brought him to this behavior, won’t help us spot it before it goes to far. 

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Cicero

[Tommy]

19 hours ago, Rick said:

Call me by your name - 10/10

Beautiful film. Perfect performances from everybody involved. Resonated with me so much, cried several times.

Timothée Chalamet is such a wonderful young actor. Looking forward to his future projects. Can't wait to see "The King" when it comes out on Netflix. 

[The Artful Dodger]

19 hours ago, Cicero said:

I find it astounding that in this day in age, people still refuse to try and ‘understand’ these types of people. The biggest outlash for JOKER was that it tried to sympathise with the villain, in order to make it look like it was society that betrayed him. 

Hilarious how people either refuse or are in denial that this in most cases, is true. 

It’s a unique dive into a mentally ill person’s psyche, and the events that drove him into ultimate madness. As if learning and understanding what brought him to this behavior, won’t help us spot it before it goes to far. 

 

It's a superb film.

Bizarre that it seems to be attracting criticism from all sides, the 'left' saying that it's apologising for Incel culture, whatever the fuck that is and then the 'right' saying it's trying to blame society for the crimes of individuals. That's a sign of success I suppose.

Really enjoyed it, would urge anyone to watch. I barely ever go to the pictures nowadays but glad I did for this.

[RandoEFC+]

Watching Joker tonight, looking forward to it after what I've heard.

[IgnisExcubitor]

Just stepped out of the Joker  movie. I loved it.

To be honest it's basically Taxi Driver plus King of Comedy. And Scorsese should be proud of what they have done with this movie that seems clearly inspired by his two movies. Hell, the knock-knock practice bit reminded me of the 'Are you talking to me' bit.

It goes without saying Phoenix is amazing in this. 

Also, I can see why the left is upset with this movie, even though Arthur Fleck makes it clear he doesn't believe in anything.

Thomas Wayne seems inspired by Trump and the clown movement reminds you of Antifa thugs - wearing masks, going after cops, rioting, etc. 

Edited October 15, 2019 by IgnisExcubitor