What-cha-what-cha-what-cha Watched?

[Mole]

The Aussie Trance Designer

Please name your favorite films, Victor.

I don't actually have a favourite film. I've been watching films since I was a little boy and I think my way of watching has changed.

At first I identified with the hero and saw movies as a guide to life. And then I saw movies as a place to take my girlfriend. And now I see movies as an opportunity for social criticism.

I am somewhat limited as most of the movies I see are from the USA, and so I get a lot of practice criticising the US. However I do attend film festivals and so get a taste other countries.

But actually I go to movies to enter the filmic trance. I find films take me deep into trance and I have to be careful to slowly decompress afterwards over a cup of coffee.

So perhaps I am changing again and I have had my fill of passive filmic trance. Perhaps I want to be a trance designer and perhaps my next move is to make short videos myself.

And this is in tune with our current national project of bringing laser light through optic fibre into every Australian home.

The practical benefit for me is that my upload speed will go from about 400 kps to 1 gig per second. And this will make me a producer to the world.

Australia has been characterised by the tyranny of distance, but 1 gig a second brings you within reach of the Aussie trance designer.

 

[Nicodemus]

I don't actually have a favourite film.

You can list more than one.

 

[Mole]

American Dream or American Nightmare?

I saw the movie, "The Social Network", last night and it is the American Dream reproduced in loving detail.

I found it particularly sickening as we don't share the American Dream rather we have something better which we put into practice every day, and it is the greatest good for the greatest number.

Unfortunately Hollywood reproduces American propaganda for the world just as their drones are still burning little girls alive in Pakistan.

And as we watched the triumph of the American Dream we discovered it is simply salvation through money - in the case of, "The Social Network", one billion dollars.

Yes, only 2% of those burnt alive in Pakistan by drones, driven by geeks in the USA, are jihadi, the rest are innocent civilians, roasted in their homes, their weddings and in their community halls. And a percentage of those are sure to be innocent, little Pakistani girls.

For them the American Dream is the American Nightmare.

 

[feierdd]

Hi!Veronica Mars Seasons 1-3 DVD Boxset is a not bad tv show!Veronica Mars DVD is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. Veronica Mars Seasons 1-3 premiered on September 22, 2004 during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007.Veronica Mars Seasons 1-3 DVD is set in the fictional town of Neptune, California, and stars Kristen Bell as the title character, a student who progresses from high school to college while moonlighting as a private investigator under the tutelage of her detective father.The first two seasons of Veronica Mars Seasons 1-3 DVD Boxset each had a season-long mystery arc, introduced in the first episode of the season and solved in the season finale. The third season took a different format, focusing on smaller mystery arcs that would last the course of several episodes.

 

[Mole]

Made in Dagenham

I have just come out of the movie, "Made in Dagenham".

It's about British workers struggling against the owners of the Ford Motor Company.

And the British women workers won their struggle to the extent of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Legislation across the civilized world.

However the owners had the last say and now the owners no longer pay a living wage to any individual to support a family. So families must now be supported by two wage earners or one person working two or more jobs to support a family. In short the owners struck back by creating the working poor and a middle class who need two wage earners to support a family.

Still, it is a great movie with fully realised characters and an engrossing story. I recommend you see it.

 

[Ginkgo]

I recently watched the Silence of the Lambs.

I was impressed by the creative character of Hannibal Lector and the actor. Hannibal isn't a run-of-the-mill serial killer, and serial killers aren't run of the mill either. He is exceptional in his near omniscient intellect and his civilized demeanor, which contrasts with his brutal and more infamous aspects. His ever-whirring calculations and his tendencies of using people resemble that of a full-fledged psychopath or sociopath, but his last concern for Buffalo Bill's arrest suggests that he has some drop of authentic decency. In any case, he is the most complex and impressive antagonist I have ever seen. While his guise as a gentleman hides his complexities, it also shines a spot light on obvious mysteries.

The odd part about Silence of the Lambs was that, other than Buffalo Bill's strange sex talk and his demands for lotion, there weren't any definitive moments. I'm never going to recall a particular scene and think "wow, that's what Silence of the Lambs was about". But I guess those definitive moments roam in the territory of cult classics, not evenly spread goodness like Silence of the Lambs.

 

[Ginkgo]

The Social Network:

The most impressing quality of this movie was that it wasn't just another teen movie of typical high-school/college drama. Instead of drop-shocking you straight into an academic atmosphere, it forces you to look from the outside-in - in to the social network and how facebook was conceived. The setting was entirely organic and realistic, but because it lacked the more contrived elements of modern cinema, it's meaning was somewhat nebulous and lost to the crowd. Fit with unlinear story-telling, much like The Event, Lost, or one of Quentin Tarentino's films, I'm going to have to categorize this as a postmodern film. The only recognizable lesson given was the reminder that ambition often causes corruption and moral drift. While the main character's ambition was not pushed by self-interest as much as it was spontaneous passion and innovation, he still burned his friends along the way.

While Victor praises "the greatest good for the greatest number", it was exactly this breed of agenda (along with giving the finger to The Man) that made the main character blind to his closer relationships. Usually, when a market is expanded or globalized, it sheds its essential values in favor of establishing a monopoly.

While it was skillful in production, it's re-watch value is relatively low. Once you piece it all together, it loses it's entertainment value. Still worth watching.

 

[Totenkindly]

I watched Sunshine, over the weekend, directed by Danny Boyle (director of "28 Days Later" and "Slumdog Millionaire" among other things), and starring a fairly impressive cast headed by Cillian Murphy.

Kinda of your "space mission goes to hell" plot all over again -- the sun is dying, Earth is freezing over, the Icarus II has to take a bomb payload to the sun to sort of "jumpstart it" again, and the Icarus I had been lost seven years prior for unknown reasons.

That pretty much sets up the rest of the story.

I like Boyle's cleaner approach (more like Michael Mann or Ridley Scott) vs more artsy/surreal approaches (like Burton or Lucas). The characters also come off as pretty realistic and nuanced rather than stereotypes; one character, Mace, could have easily become the "baddie" since he was on people's cases a lot and sometimes unfairly, but it was clear that, from a T perspective, he was putting the mission first and remaining dutiful to that responsibility even when it threatened his own life, as opposed to one of the other crew members who seemed more amiable but when push came to shove was extremely resistant to putting his own life on the line.

I can see why it didn't do great in theaters -- it's more about psychological and philosophical drama within the scifi/space setting, much like the remake of Solaris with George Clooney a few years ago, any action in the movie is subservient to the characters and their moral choices -- but I really enjoyed watching it on BluRay at home.

(The hilarious thing is that I had never really heard of this movie until a few months ago, and only thought of it when I saw it on sale at Best Buy, so I bought it and watched it over the weekend... and then I was talking with my eldest son the next day, we started discussing movies he wants to see, most of them very mainstream and widely known pictures, and then he says, "Oh yeah, there's this movie called Sunshine..." Wow.)

 

[highlander]

A marathon of movies last weekend:

Book of Eli - Pretty good actually
Winter's Bone - Good but not really my thing
Miss March - Predictably stupid but with some pretty funny parts
Deep Impact - This was awesome.
Crazy Heart - It was OK. Good movie I suppose but not the kind I enjoy as much

 

[Mole]

Oz and the Enlightenment

While Victor praises "the greatest good for the greatest number"...

Rather than praising the greatest good for the greatest number, it is a a philosophy we live every day.

This philosophy is called Utilitarianism. And Utilitarianism is a philosophy of the Enlightenment. And Oz is based on the Enlightenment rather than religion and a bourgeois revolution.

 

[Unkindloving]

The Lost Boys 3: The Thirst
Undeniably corny vampire movie, which is expected. Corey Feldman, although I adore him, clung to his acting skills when he was young, but completely lost them as he aged. The dialogue drags on in places, but it has its amusing moments. There are many unnecessary flashbacks to the first movie, which is a cult classic and shouldn't be touched upon in this inherently campy threequel. The action is much less than the second one, which I would recommend for a laugh.
Final note- while the vampires look fairly cool, they are all pretty weak. You get your ass handed to you by Corey Feldman and you're asking to be degraded .
Predators
I enjoyed this movie. I've never sat through any of the previous Predator flicks, apart from AvP, which is certainly a sad fate.
Adrien Brody is a weird 'bad ass' for me. He makes it work, but it takes a bit of getting used to. His character's development was rushed after a point, but gives off the illusion that it isn't. There's a comic relief character, who I liked immensely. I would have liked to see more character development for him, or at least to properly hear it.
Anyway, there was backstory and allusion to the first Predator movie, which was neat. The aesthetic and action was intact. It was overall a good balance of what was needed. I also liked the ending, which I will not detail in the slightest. I'm sure it can procure a love/hate relationship.
The Walking Dead
While this is a TV series, it's about Zombies and, oh man, do I love me some Zombies!
I've been feeling an empty hole in my life and I couldn't figure out why until I saw a preview. The first episode was great. You can tell that there is enough time for the series to let the emotions run high. They can develop characters, feed into their feelings, and still maintain enough gore and action to satisfy passing zombie fans. The atmosphere is awesome too. There are so many moments that feel critical, but don't become cheapened by shock value.
I won't blather on more about that since it's new, but I'd say go download it or something.

I watched Sunshine, over the weekend, directed by Danny Boyle (director of "28 Days Later" and "Slumdog Millionaire" among other things), and starring a fairly impressive cast headed by Cillian Murphy.

I loved this movie. There are a lot of sci fi themed films that go over the top and miss that realism mark that really makes them for me. Even something like Event Horizon, while over the top, kept a realistic look at the situation.
Beyond that, Cillian Murphy is .

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Currently an engrossing drama on HBO called In Treatment.

It's all about Psychology.

 

[Mole]

The American

Yesterday I saw the movie, "The American".

It's about reaching out hopelessly to the abusive mother.

The abusive mother reverses the roles of parent and child, and instead of the parent listening to the emotions of the child, the child is expected to listen to the neurotic emotions of the parent. And the child is expected to listen to the emotions of the parent while under threat of abuse.

It's an exquisite trap for a child to be in, for the child internalises the abusive relationship. And even as an adult still reaches out hopelessly to the abusive mother.

This is never spelled out in the movie, rather it is beautifully and truthfully conveyed by images - the image of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, and the classic image of the golden-hearted prostitute.

For we idealise the abusive mother, just as we idealise the Virgin Mary and the golden-hearted prostitute, even as we reach out hopelessly to them.

And in the movie we identify with a hitman and we kill and kill again, but we can never kill the abusive mother within, because she is hidden behind our shinning idealisation.

And so we die inside, hypnotised by the shinning ideal in front of us.

 

[Nicodemus]

I missed the abusive mother altogether. What do you make of 'Le Samourai', Victor?

 

[Mole]

Hiding in Full View

I missed the abusive mother altogether.

It's interesting that we tend to miss the abusive mother even though the Virgin Mary and the golden-hearted prostitute are in our face.

For these idealisations hide the reality of the abusive mother.

The fact of the abusive mother cannot be faced by the child so it is necessary for survival to hide her in idealisations.

And even in the last few frames of, "The American", the protagonist is reaching out to the golden-hearted prostitute in paradise in front of him as he is dying, but we can't see, we daren't see, what is happening in front of our eyes.

 

[highlander]

Prince of Persia - it was pretty good.

 

[Mole]

Don't ask, don't tell.

I missed the abusive mother altogether. What do you make of 'Le Samourai', Victor?

It seems that, "Le Samourai", was a precursor to, "The American". And I found, "The American", to be a more interesting movie.

But like any work of art, we only get out of it what we bring to it. So the symbolism of the Virgin Mary and the golden-hearted prostitute jumped out at me.

Also the obvious fact that the protagonist was damaged and damaging, asked the question, who emotionally damaged him. And as he spent the movie chasing the golden-hearted prostitute while avoiding his demons, it wasn't hard to guess that it was his mother. It was his mother he was appealing to even as she abused him.

Whether the scriptwriters knew this was the sub-text to the movie, or whether this sub-text was entirely unconscious, I don't know.

I suspect it was unconscious as the symbolism was carried out as if in a dream, and all the more effective for it.

But of course, "The American", was made for the mass audience and needed to recoup its enormous investment, so the abusive mother could not be presented to the mass audience, it must remain a secret.

So I rely upon you, Nicodemus, don't tell anyone.

 

[Nicodemus]

Fear not, Victor! I shall not tell rumors.

 

[Mole]

Fear not, Victor! I shall not tell rumors.

Mum's the word.

 

[disregard]

Dog Day Afternoon!