Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[The Cat]

Donnie Darko
Die Hard
Everything Everywhere all at once
Cloud Atlas
Inside Out
Wolves of Wallstreet
Barbie
Taxi Driver
Rocky
Lawrence of Arabia.​

 

[Totenkindly]

Donnie Darko
Die Hard
Everything Everywhere all at once
Cloud Atlas
Inside Out
Wolves of Wallstreet
Barbie
Taxi Driver
Rocky
Lawrence of Arabia.​

wtf lol -- I have seen all of them but Lawrence of Arabia, and I've been planning to watch it for some time but never got around to it yet. (Does watching "Prometheus" count?)

The title for one of those is actually "The Wolf of Wall Street".

Better yet, I would say
- 3 of them, I really love and will always rewatch
- 2 more I really like but aren't quite on the same level -- but I'd rewatch (just not as often)
- 3 more are good but might never rewatch
- I didn't really enjoy Rocky much (it's a landmark film, but just okay), and there's a weird scene of the times where he uncomfortably pushes himself on Adrian.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Donnie Darko
Die Hard
Everything Everywhere all at once
Cloud Atlas
Inside Out
Wolves of Wallstreet
Barbie
Taxi Driver
Rocky
Lawrence of Arabia.​

• Donnie Darko: I would put this as number one on the list for you. It's a bizzare, unique film, and there's nothing else like it. I don't think Kelly's subsequent work is terrible, but it doesn't have the same magic. I'm actually shocked you haven't seen this because it seems right up your alley.
• Cloud Atlas: This movie is pretty cool. The only movies of the Wachowskis I've seen and didn't care for are Jupiter Ascending and the third Matrix film. I applaud the way they swing for the fences, usually. What if people were actually connected across time, reincarnating, but playing a different role each time? It's an intriguing notion, that maybe we were all alive before, but were somebody else.
• Barbie: This is kind of fun and a smarter movie thanthe first glance suggests. It's more of a social satire about sexism that happens to also be a toy commercial.
• Taxi Driver: I remember what happens, but I don't remember the overarching themes, except for vigilantism being bad (which isn't a theme I find compelling). It's not bad, but it's not my favorite Scorsese film (that would be either Goodfellas or Gangs of New York). Also, a young Jodie Foster is in this in an extremely uncomfortable role.
• Lawrence of Arabia: This one is also definitely worth a watch. I feel like people think this movie is racist. I imagine it's because they see it as being a "White Savior" movie. I have to wonder if those people ever saw the second half of this film.
  
  The movie is very critical of British colonialism and sympathetic to the Arabs. It's been a while since I've seen it, but if I remember correctly, Lawrence realizes that he has been a tool for replacing one Empire for another and hates himself for it.

On Rocky, I've actually never seen this despite my Philly roots. I'll get around to it someday.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Here's how to make sense of Southland Tales: It's a depiction of how contemporary evangelicals imagined the events in Book of Revelation would unfurl.

Consider Wallace Shawn as a billionaire promoting green technology who has associations with Karl Marx. This was before Elon Musk aligning with the right and muddying the waters.

 

[The Cat]

There's just some movies. I don't doubt they're really good, but Im saving them for something. Like if I ever need to see something new that is old I'm covered ten times before I have to figure out a new way to exist. One of those in case of emergency mental automated protocols activate.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

There's just some movies. I don't doubt they're really good, but Im saving them for something. Like if I ever need to see something new that is old I'm covered ten times before I have to figure out a new way to exist. One of those in case of emergency mental automated protocols activate.

You should watch Donnie Darko, at least.

 

[Totenkindly]

You should watch Donnie Darko, at least.

I prefer the Theatrical Cut on this one. I think it has more welcome ambiguity.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Oh, there is one thing I forgot with regards to Lawrence of Arabia. It has Alec Guiness playing an Arab. It's on the level of the original West Side Story, I'd say. It's not Breakfast at Tiffany's bad or anything.

 

[Totenkindly]

Oh, there is one thing I forgot with regards to Lawrence of Arabia. It has Alec Guiness playing an Arab. It's on the level of the original West Side Story, I'd say. It's not Breakfast at Tiffany's bad or anything.

BaT honestly isn't bad, aside from Mr. Yellow Face.
Although I have no inclination to watch it again either, maybe I'll watch a different Hepburn film.

 

[Red Herring]

Dr Zhivago has an Egyptian playing a Russian.

Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji to an English mother and an Indian father) might have become famous playing Ghandi but also repeatedly played Persians (3x IIRC) and Ashkenazi Jews (3x that I know of) as well as at least one Latino besides the occasional Indian role.

Yul Brunner, who got a kick out of keeping his roots a mystery but was born in Russia, has played an Egyptian, a Burmese, a Native American, a Japanese-American, diverse Europeans and a Mexican ... to name but a few.

I get majority actors not stealing roles from minority actors but playing something you are not is...acting (as long as it is done respectfully).


EDIT: I'm obviously not defending the cringe scenes in Breakfast at Tiffany's (which would have been spiteful even if played by an actual Japanese Person)

 

[Red Herring]

I guess Kingsley and Brynner particularly got away with such diverse roles because - being of mixed decent - they just looked vaguely "ethnic" to many White viewers without being easy to place.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Let me clarify something: I'm not against gray morality or antiheroes. I love a lot of works like that. I'm bothered when every single thing coming out is this, which is the case now. There's room for both.

Yeah I love some gray morality, but I’m also annoyed by what seems like every show and film trying to do grey morality. They all want to clone the success of breaking bad and GoT, it seems.

I am also annoyed by attempts to inject grey morality into old franchises that were originally more about the aspirational morality, like I’m not really interested in seeing that done to Tolkien’s universe.

And Tolkien’s characters still had their share of flaws. Guys like Boromir and Theoden (probably my two favorite human characters) may have stumbled but they ultimately found their way and did right in the end. As much as I’d like to be like a Gandalf, I look to Boromir and Theoden as more realistic role models and examples to follow in light of my own flaws

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Yeah I love some gray morality, but I’m also annoyed by what seems like every show and film trying to do grey morality. They all want to clone the success of breaking bad and GoT, it seems.

I am also annoyed by attempts to inject grey morality into old franchises that were originally more about the aspirational morality, like I’m not really interested in seeing that done to Tolkien’s universe.

Like Star Wars! I hate the Acolyte the more I think about it.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

BaT honestly isn't bad, aside from Mr. Yellow Face.
Although I have no inclination to watch it again either, maybe I'll watch a different Hepburn film.

I'm not talking about the quality of movies, but rather the fact that these movies have white people playing non-white people. In West Side Story you have Natalie Wood playing a Puerto Rican.

Dr Zhivago has an Egyptian playing a Russian.

I forgot about that one.

Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji to an English mother and an Indian father) might have become famous playing Ghandi but also repeatedly played Persians (3x IIRC) and Ashkenazi Jews (3x that I know of) as well as at least one Latino besides the occasional Indian role.

I forgot about Ben Kingsley in Schindler's List, too.

Yul Brunner, who got a kick out of keeping his roots a mystery but was born in Russia, has played an Egyptian, a Burmese, a Native American, a Japanese-American, diverse Europeans and a Mexican ... to name but a few.

I get majority actors not stealing roles from minority actors but playing something you are not is...acting (as long as it is done respectfully).

There's also old Westerns where the Native Americans were usually played by Italians and Jews.

EDIT: I'm obviously not defending the cringe scenes in Breakfast at Tiffany's (which would have been spiteful even if played by an actual Japanese Person)

Yeah, Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's as Holly's Japanese landlord is pretty awful.

 

[The Cat]

I'm not talking about the quality of movies, but rather the fact that these movies have white people playing non-white people. In West Side Story you have Natalie Wood playing a Puerto Rican.

It's almost like they're....acting. Wild.

 

[The Cat]

John Rhys Davies was great as Sallah. Alfred Molina was good in Maverick. Robert Downey Jr was good in Tropic Thunder. Angel Coulvey was good as Guennivere. Idris Elba was good in Dark Tower despite the movie not being all that great. But yeah, acting is acting the actor is pretending to be someone that theyre not.

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[The Cat]

Gotham did it better If the Joker is a virus instead of a person Gotham did it better. And that was made for television.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

John Rhys Davies was great as Sallah. Alfred Molina was good in Maverick. Robert Downey Jr was good in Tropic Thunder. Angel Coulvey was good as Guennivere. Idris Elba was good in Dark Tower despite the movie not being all that great. But yeah, acting is acting the actor is pretending to be someone that theyre not.

Ok, so I'm not trying to ruin anybody's enjoyment of anything. I try not to be one of those self-righteous people that do stuff like that because they fail at affecting change in any meaningful way.

I can't say, though, that it's not unfortunate how often Hollywood has avoided casting nonwhite actors in nonwhite roles. It's often been the rule and not the exception. For a long time, the only roles nonwhite actors were good for ere as extras, and sometimes not even that.

I'm glad that effort is being made to correct this now.

That doesn't mean you can't watch and enjoy those older movies.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Gotham did it better If the Joker is a virus instead of a person Gotham did it better. And that was made for television.

The musical numbers mostly don't work because the music is kind of boring.