Films you've seen recently and would recommend WITH reservations

mixed_biscuits

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Being a certain race or class doesn't guarantee knowing that much about the range of experiences involved. Also some combinations of race, class and situation are quite rare so they might never be described if it weren't for others researching/imagining outside their own domain.

Also, things like Zadie Smith's fantastic White Teeth would never be attempted.

That said, when I read even journalistic accounts of scenes in which I've been involved I often find them quite off the mark in many respects. Hence the adage 'write from what you know'.
 

william kent

Well-known member
I've never been compared to Orson Welles (having been compared to numerous actors—Jack Black being the obvious one)

but now I'm seeing it, there are definite similarities

the slightly upturned pig nose, the knotted brow, the fleshy underlip that begs to be kissed
Screenshot from 2023-11-12 12-48-43.png
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy


Summary: Two speed alpinists compete to climb gigantic mountains fastest, egged on by a growing media circus (i guess this sort of thing is big news in Switzerland)

Reservations because 1) it's another one of those "climber/alpinist driven to extremes by their obsession, will tragedy ensure?" films 2) i've read some comments suggesting the doc is biased in favour of one of the alpinists...

But—absolutely amazing footage of absolutely unbelievable athletic feats (Standard) and (not so standard) an examination of how money/fame can force people into risking absolutely everything (their reputations and lives, e.g.)

Also has one of those classic (perhaps journalistically conjured) rivalries between the obsessive hard working guy and the haribo-scoffing dude man.
 

Murphy

cat malogen


Summary: Two speed alpinists compete to climb gigantic mountains fastest, egged on by a growing media circus (i guess this sort of thing is big news in Switzerland)

Reservations because 1) it's another one of those "climber/alpinist driven to extremes by their obsession, will tragedy ensure?" films 2) i've read some comments suggesting the doc is biased in favour of one of the alpinists...

But—absolutely amazing footage of absolutely unbelievable athletic feats (Standard) and (not so standard) an examination of how money/fame can force people into risking absolutely everything (their reputations and lives, e.g.)

Also has one of those classic (perhaps journalistically conjured) rivalries between the obsessive hard working guy and the haribo-scoffing dude man.


seen this?


similar - matches it for mid-climb videos of panoramic vistas but, climb by climb, increasingly difficult routes are undertaken all while a film crew attempt to keep up with a lad who seems born to ascend summits

a raft of mountaineering greats spill in as talking faces but the grit of the film exists in its remote locations and routes which require a myriad of climbing techniques

genuinely surreal levels of attainment (summiting) through to relationships, motivation, unforgettable views and cosmic indifference at the finale
 

william kent

Well-known member


Summary: Two speed alpinists compete to climb gigantic mountains fastest, egged on by a growing media circus (i guess this sort of thing is big news in Switzerland)

Reservations because 1) it's another one of those "climber/alpinist driven to extremes by their obsession, will tragedy ensure?" films 2) i've read some comments suggesting the doc is biased in favour of one of the alpinists...

But—absolutely amazing footage of absolutely unbelievable athletic feats (Standard) and (not so standard) an examination of how money/fame can force people into risking absolutely everything (their reputations and lives, e.g.)

Also has one of those classic (perhaps journalistically conjured) rivalries between the obsessive hard working guy and the haribo-scoffing dude man.


Bloke in the thumbnail looks like someone face swapped Mick Lynch and Lampard.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
Highly Dangerous. A British spy film. I don't really do old British films, finding them a bit uptight, but this one was watchable. Some nice sequences and a good tension. I'm going to try a few different Margaret Lockwood films.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
To Catch a Thief

Was chatting about Hitchcock and my mate told me I'd missed this one. I thought it was alright but not top tier Hitchcock.
 

luka

Well-known member
have you seen this its got the actor from rise of the footsolider in it so it could be good?

 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Oppenheimer, which a quick search shows has only popped up in the 'would NOT recommend' thread.

I have half a mind to stick it in the 'unreservedly recommend' thread because I really did like it quite a bit, but there's no doubt that it's jam packed with all of Nolan's flaws—cringey exposition, clunky dialogue, bombastic music etc.

However, I will also say that there's something so WEIRD about Nolan's films, including their flaws, that makes them worth watching. Like the editing. The first hour or so is a bit like the typical Hollywood biopic but it moves along at such a ridiculously frantic pace that it feels almost avant-garde. And although I was rolling my eyes a lot and also feeling turned off by the absence of breathing space (this is the opposite of 'slow cinema'), the pace definitely hooked me in.

Then there's the way it's shot, all those IMAX shots—which make predictable sense applied to sweeping (gorgeous) aerial shots of landscapes but also render these fairly standard dialogue scenes hyper-vivid.

The sequence leading up to the first test is really gripping, tense and anxiety inducing. There's a sense of horror accruing around the bomb, this cursed object. The explosion itself, as many have said, was a big let-down visually, it just doesn't manage to convey the scale of the explosion at all, which is a shame, because everything leading up to it manages to convey the scale of the threat. (Also there's these snapshots of the quantuum world in Oppenheimer's mind that are effective in inducing dread, presumably done with CGI, as the bomb arguably should have been.)

I didn't fancy watching this at the cinema /IMAX much at all (mainly due to the length but also I didn't really understand what was so interesting about Oppenheimer) but now I wish I had.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
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