Saw The Great Dictator (1940) today. It was amazing and biting and yet in retrospect not harsh enough.
Definitely watch it if you have access and time.
Definitely watch it if you have access and time.
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I went to see Dark Phoenix today with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greenygal. It was a perfectly enjoyable X-men movie, very solid and watchable. I don't see why the reviewers dislike it so much.
I think the death in the movie was better integrated into the plot that Black Widow's death in Endgame, and didn't seem like it was added in to get rid of an actor.
Also, oddly, the X-men universe felt more committed to the passage of time and the changes having superpowers might cause in a world than the MCU is.
Lastly, it was nice to see conflict between various characters over ethics and how to do activism given serious narrative weight. Sometimes I don't feel that the MCU does that, but the Xmen has always had the narrative of integrationism vs separatism baked into it. How much do you sacrifice to a cause before you're done? How much should you?
greenygal. It was a perfectly enjoyable X-men movie, very solid and watchable. I don't see why the reviewers dislike it so much.I think the death in the movie was better integrated into the plot that Black Widow's death in Endgame, and didn't seem like it was added in to get rid of an actor.
Also, oddly, the X-men universe felt more committed to the passage of time and the changes having superpowers might cause in a world than the MCU is.
Lastly, it was nice to see conflict between various characters over ethics and how to do activism given serious narrative weight. Sometimes I don't feel that the MCU does that, but the Xmen has always had the narrative of integrationism vs separatism baked into it. How much do you sacrifice to a cause before you're done? How much should you?
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I went with a friend to see Nina Paley's new film Seder Masochism, about the story of Exodus and her own family's religious identity, today.
You should definitely see it if you like animation at all. Paley also is part of an anti-copyright movement, so it's free to download from the website.
The use of music, personal interviews, animation, and stock footage is amazing.
You should definitely see it if you like animation at all. Paley also is part of an anti-copyright movement, so it's free to download from the website.
The use of music, personal interviews, animation, and stock footage is amazing.
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I went to see Apollo 11 tonight with fabrisse. If it's playing near you, I definitely recommend seeing it -- using only archival video and sound, with a modern soundtrack and modern chyrons, it tells the story of the Apollo 11 launch and mission.
It's pretty darned amazing, and definitely had some footage I hadn't seen before, like the fly-overs of the dark side of the moon, and actual footage of the earthrise.
fabrisse. If it's playing near you, I definitely recommend seeing it -- using only archival video and sound, with a modern soundtrack and modern chyrons, it tells the story of the Apollo 11 launch and mission.It's pretty darned amazing, and definitely had some footage I hadn't seen before, like the fly-overs of the dark side of the moon, and actual footage of the earthrise.
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I saw Aquaman yesterday with fabrisse. The first scene with Black Manta against Aquaman showed me why the reviewers haven't been enthusiastic about this film -- the emotional beats were all over the map, and couldn't keep a coherent mood or the tension going in the scene.
It's a visually gorgeous movie, and Arthur's relationship with his dad is a highlight of the character interactions. It's nice to see a superhero who has a family that he cares about and is involved with. Jason Momoa looks fabulous, and when he's allowed to go toward more comedic and human moments he's really good.
As to the plot, well, it held together well enough. It was interesting that no Old Mentor Figure died, which is unusual for a hero's origin story, but Aquaman is older than the usual young hero, so maybe he doesn't need someone to die for him to grow up?
Today,greenygal, pleasance, and A Pseudonym To Be Named Later went to see Synetic Theater's adaptation of My Father's Dragon. The show had a minimal cast playing the Cat, the Boy, and three ensemble members playing everything else, mostly with puppets. The puppets were amazing, especially the rhino, which was a two-person costume that was about the size of an actual rhinoceros, and the crocodile, which was only the part of a crocodile that might be above water while swimming, and was pushed across stage floor by the ensemble. There was also a good warthog, some sort of adorable, angry rodent, a lion (with glowing eyes and a mouth that opened to roar), and a gorilla that was a giant mask and two fist that each took a person to operate.
Next month they're doing an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, which should be interesting.
fabrisse. The first scene with Black Manta against Aquaman showed me why the reviewers haven't been enthusiastic about this film -- the emotional beats were all over the map, and couldn't keep a coherent mood or the tension going in the scene.It's a visually gorgeous movie, and Arthur's relationship with his dad is a highlight of the character interactions. It's nice to see a superhero who has a family that he cares about and is involved with. Jason Momoa looks fabulous, and when he's allowed to go toward more comedic and human moments he's really good.
As to the plot, well, it held together well enough. It was interesting that no Old Mentor Figure died, which is unusual for a hero's origin story, but Aquaman is older than the usual young hero, so maybe he doesn't need someone to die for him to grow up?
Today,
greenygal, pleasance, and A Pseudonym To Be Named Later went to see Synetic Theater's adaptation of My Father's Dragon. The show had a minimal cast playing the Cat, the Boy, and three ensemble members playing everything else, mostly with puppets. The puppets were amazing, especially the rhino, which was a two-person costume that was about the size of an actual rhinoceros, and the crocodile, which was only the part of a crocodile that might be above water while swimming, and was pushed across stage floor by the ensemble. There was also a good warthog, some sort of adorable, angry rodent, a lion (with glowing eyes and a mouth that opened to roar), and a gorilla that was a giant mask and two fist that each took a person to operate. Next month they're doing an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, which should be interesting.
I went to see Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse yesterday with greenygal, pleasance, fabrisse, and A Pseudonym to be Named Later.
It was amazing! It was gloriously beautifully comic-booky (and this despite the fact that we seemed to have gotten the 3D print instead of the regular one), the various art styles enhanced the story in the ways that the best comic art does (including use of written sound effects!), the actors all did phenomenal jobs, and there were real emotional beats that showed that there were real consequences.
And it had hands-down my favorite interpretations of Doctor Octopus ever!
Also, stay for the post-credits scene at the very end! It's a doozy!
PS I want to see it again, if anyone local is interested?
greenygal, pleasance, fabrisse, and A Pseudonym to be Named Later.It was amazing! It was gloriously beautifully comic-booky (and this despite the fact that we seemed to have gotten the 3D print instead of the regular one), the various art styles enhanced the story in the ways that the best comic art does (including use of written sound effects!), the actors all did phenomenal jobs, and there were real emotional beats that showed that there were real consequences.
And it had hands-down my favorite interpretations of Doctor Octopus ever!
Also, stay for the post-credits scene at the very end! It's a doozy!
PS I want to see it again, if anyone local is interested?
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I went to the eye doctor this morning, and as a result of that I now get to put eyedrops in both eyes every evening. Fun.
Afterwards, I met up withfabrisse at the NMAI; I was waiting for her in the coffeeshop/espresso bar as a sweet older couple bought me a chai latte after I helped them find the building. They were from New Mexico, so we talked about green chiles and how hard it was to find them on this side of the Mississippi as we walked around the road closures and construction downtown.
Today and tomorrow are the Native Art Show, held in the rotunda. It was really amazing to see all the different tables. There were a lot of silversmiths (it's something of a Navaho specialty) but also basketry, sculpture, jewelry, furriers, and more. The fine arts photographer had some amazing pieces --fabrisse especially liked The Light Within, taken at Rattlesnake Canyon. I picked up a lot of cards.
Afterwards, I walked over to Gallery Place (the Green Line at L'Enfant was closed, so walking was definitely the faster option), and met withpleasance and greenygal to see Ralph Breaks The Internet, which was a lot of fun, had a good emotional story at its core, and let its character grown and change without making any of them the bad guy.
Then we ate Bibibop, a fast-casual chain based on Korean cuisine. Then we walked through the Downtown Holiday Market. I bought two glass barrettes and a leather belt with a design of planets for myself.
Also, swung by the Bed, Bath, and Beyond store -- which while I did pick up Brita water filters and some chocolate, didn't have the rubber duck novelty tea infuser, or any tea infuser that we could find. I guess that will have to be an online order, along with a tea mug that I won't feel bad about leaving at the office. Currently I'm using my Carnation Hot Chocolate mug, but that has a bit of sentimental value, since it's from my childhood. I want one that I'll like, but won't feel too bad about if it gets damaged -- preferably with a geeky theme.
Afterwards, I met up with
fabrisse at the NMAI; I was waiting for her in the coffeeshop/espresso bar as a sweet older couple bought me a chai latte after I helped them find the building. They were from New Mexico, so we talked about green chiles and how hard it was to find them on this side of the Mississippi as we walked around the road closures and construction downtown.Today and tomorrow are the Native Art Show, held in the rotunda. It was really amazing to see all the different tables. There were a lot of silversmiths (it's something of a Navaho specialty) but also basketry, sculpture, jewelry, furriers, and more. The fine arts photographer had some amazing pieces --
fabrisse especially liked The Light Within, taken at Rattlesnake Canyon. I picked up a lot of cards.Afterwards, I walked over to Gallery Place (the Green Line at L'Enfant was closed, so walking was definitely the faster option), and met with
pleasance and greenygal to see Ralph Breaks The Internet, which was a lot of fun, had a good emotional story at its core, and let its character grown and change without making any of them the bad guy.Then we ate Bibibop, a fast-casual chain based on Korean cuisine. Then we walked through the Downtown Holiday Market. I bought two glass barrettes and a leather belt with a design of planets for myself.
Also, swung by the Bed, Bath, and Beyond store -- which while I did pick up Brita water filters and some chocolate, didn't have the rubber duck novelty tea infuser, or any tea infuser that we could find. I guess that will have to be an online order, along with a tea mug that I won't feel bad about leaving at the office. Currently I'm using my Carnation Hot Chocolate mug, but that has a bit of sentimental value, since it's from my childhood. I want one that I'll like, but won't feel too bad about if it gets damaged -- preferably with a geeky theme.
The Noir City DC them this year is "Film Noir A to B -- CLASSY As and TRASHY Bs!" which explains why ever showing is a double-feature.
This Gun for Hire -- a Veronica Lake/Alan Ladd film from 1942 which really holds up. Veronica Lake is a nightclub magician who accidentally winds up embroiled with a hitman who is out to get the man who double-crossed him, who is also the nightclub owner who just hired her for his business. It's based on a Graham Greene story.
Quiet Please, Murder is about an art forger, the antiquarian book dealer who is his accomplice, and the way their scheme to sell multiple forged copies of a stolen Shakespeare first edition blows up when the book dealer goes against her partner's orders about avoid selling to a buyer with Nazi connections. The story gets complicated when the art forger arranges a murder in a public library to cover for the theft of more rare books, and a private detective gets into the mix. George Sanders plays the art forgers, and for the first ten minutes it was impossible to listen to him without imaging Shere Khan saying those lines.
This Gun for Hire -- a Veronica Lake/Alan Ladd film from 1942 which really holds up. Veronica Lake is a nightclub magician who accidentally winds up embroiled with a hitman who is out to get the man who double-crossed him, who is also the nightclub owner who just hired her for his business. It's based on a Graham Greene story.
Quiet Please, Murder is about an art forger, the antiquarian book dealer who is his accomplice, and the way their scheme to sell multiple forged copies of a stolen Shakespeare first edition blows up when the book dealer goes against her partner's orders about avoid selling to a buyer with Nazi connections. The story gets complicated when the art forger arranges a murder in a public library to cover for the theft of more rare books, and a private detective gets into the mix. George Sanders plays the art forgers, and for the first ten minutes it was impossible to listen to him without imaging Shere Khan saying those lines.
I went to see On The Town today, as the local arthouse is celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s centennial.
It was a lot of fun, though the museum dance sequence did not age well -- the dancing itself was fine, but the costuming and drums were pretty racist.
Otoh, it was quite hilarious to see how the two sailors not played by Gene Kelly (meaning Jules Munshin and Frank Sinatra (playing a naive young sailor, wtf?)) were basically scooped up by their respective girls immediately and decidely.
I mean, when Claire (who is studying anthropology to get over her obsession with men; ‘is it working?’ ‘almost’) dips Ozzie into a kiss, that’s when the others show up to find them in a clinch, and Hildy the cab driver (who insisted Sinatra’s Chip sit next to her before she’d drive the others around) first line of dialogue to Claire is:
“Dr. Kinsey, I presume?”
This movie came out in 1949. Kinsey published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948. No one in the original audience would have missed that joke.
Also, Claire first notices Ozzie because he’s standing next to a caveman reconstruction, and looks quite like it. So she spends the rest of the movie calling him ‘Specimen’ and he seems quite all right with it.
One thing I love about Gene Kelly movies (besides the singing and the amazing dancing) is that while his characters tend to have a hard edge to them, they are never dicks to women. Even though Gabe winds up with Hildy’s disaster of a roommate for a while, he turns her down gently at the end of the night *and* gives her a pep talk about her finding the right guy eventually. And when it turns out the girl he has been pursuing all day is not the high-society girl he thought she was, but an aspiring dancer making ends met at as a ‘cooch dancer’ at Coney Island he really doesn’t care, because he likes her for her.
It was a lot of fun, though the museum dance sequence did not age well -- the dancing itself was fine, but the costuming and drums were pretty racist.
Otoh, it was quite hilarious to see how the two sailors not played by Gene Kelly (meaning Jules Munshin and Frank Sinatra (playing a naive young sailor, wtf?)) were basically scooped up by their respective girls immediately and decidely.
I mean, when Claire (who is studying anthropology to get over her obsession with men; ‘is it working?’ ‘almost’) dips Ozzie into a kiss, that’s when the others show up to find them in a clinch, and Hildy the cab driver (who insisted Sinatra’s Chip sit next to her before she’d drive the others around) first line of dialogue to Claire is:
“Dr. Kinsey, I presume?”
This movie came out in 1949. Kinsey published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948. No one in the original audience would have missed that joke.
Also, Claire first notices Ozzie because he’s standing next to a caveman reconstruction, and looks quite like it. So she spends the rest of the movie calling him ‘Specimen’ and he seems quite all right with it.
One thing I love about Gene Kelly movies (besides the singing and the amazing dancing) is that while his characters tend to have a hard edge to them, they are never dicks to women. Even though Gabe winds up with Hildy’s disaster of a roommate for a while, he turns her down gently at the end of the night *and* gives her a pep talk about her finding the right guy eventually. And when it turns out the girl he has been pursuing all day is not the high-society girl he thought she was, but an aspiring dancer making ends met at as a ‘cooch dancer’ at Coney Island he really doesn’t care, because he likes her for her.
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I went with my friend A to see A Matter of Life and Death (AKA Stairway to Heaven) today -- it's a 1946 film about a bomber pilot who miraculously survives bailing out without a parachute, and then has the celestial bureaucracy come after him because one of their conductors missed him when he was supposed to be collected.
The conceit of the living world being in Technicolor and the next world in black and white really worked well, and there were some hilarious character notes, like when a bomber crew of Americans come into the heavenly processing area and are delighted to find a Coke machine, or when the first jury is replaced for being made up exclusively of people who would have a bias against the pilot for being English, and the new jury is made up exclusively of 1st generation Americans of exactly the same ethnicities! Also, the judge of the afterlife trial had an excellent Voice of God, and will be an actor I "Hey, it's that guy!" in the future.
On Friday,fabrisse, A, and I went to see the Mixed Masters ballet program at the Kennedy Center. It was Serenade by George Balanchine, Symphonic Variations by Fredrick Ashton, and The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody) by Jerome Robbins, which was hilarious -- and I've never seen a comedic ballet before!
The conceit of the living world being in Technicolor and the next world in black and white really worked well, and there were some hilarious character notes, like when a bomber crew of Americans come into the heavenly processing area and are delighted to find a Coke machine, or when the first jury is replaced for being made up exclusively of people who would have a bias against the pilot for being English, and the new jury is made up exclusively of 1st generation Americans of exactly the same ethnicities! Also, the judge of the afterlife trial had an excellent Voice of God, and will be an actor I "Hey, it's that guy!" in the future.
On Friday,
fabrisse, A, and I went to see the Mixed Masters ballet program at the Kennedy Center. It was Serenade by George Balanchine, Symphonic Variations by Fredrick Ashton, and The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody) by Jerome Robbins, which was hilarious -- and I've never seen a comedic ballet before!Tags:
I went to see A Wrinkle In Time today with fabrisse and pleasance, and while it's not a perfect movie -- it could have been another 20 minutes, easily -- it was gorgeous and worth watching.
If you have tween relatives, this is definitely a movie to take them to.
Then we went to Teaism for lunch, and finally tried something other than my usual -- the Korean brisket sandwich, which was fantastic but very very messy, as the au jus, mayo, and gochuhjang dripped right through the bread, despite how crusty it was.
fabrisse and pleasance, and while it's not a perfect movie -- it could have been another 20 minutes, easily -- it was gorgeous and worth watching.If you have tween relatives, this is definitely a movie to take them to.
Then we went to Teaism for lunch, and finally tried something other than my usual -- the Korean brisket sandwich, which was fantastic but very very messy, as the au jus, mayo, and gochuhjang dripped right through the bread, despite how crusty it was.
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Pink lady and crimson crisp apples, pita, hummus, and bougatsa from Baklava Couture -- no savories today, as their power went out from the wind-storm before they could make them.
Also, went withfabrisse, temve, and A Person To Be Pseudonymed Later to see Loving Vincent which was stunning and you should all see it if you get a chance -- a biography of Vincent Van Gogh animated by painted glass technique and designed to look like his artwork. It was amazing!
Also, went with
fabrisse, temve, and A Person To Be Pseudonymed Later to see Loving Vincent which was stunning and you should all see it if you get a chance -- a biography of Vincent Van Gogh animated by painted glass technique and designed to look like his artwork. It was amazing!Tags:
I just got back from seeing Black Panther, and now I want to see 18 more movies based on afrofuturism! It was amazing, and you should go see it!
Yesterday, I went to see Coco with A (person to by psuedonymed later). It's a gorgeous Pixar movie about a young boy who wants to be a musician even though his family is firmly anti-music due to the fact that his great-grandmother's father abandoned the family almost 100 years ago.
( So, onto the story... )
There's a twist in the movie that I won't spoil, but I definitely suggest you bring kleenex when you go. It doesn't pull its punches -- this is a movie about family, including dead family, and that means people die and talk about death.
( So, onto the story... )
There's a twist in the movie that I won't spoil, but I definitely suggest you bring kleenex when you go. It doesn't pull its punches -- this is a movie about family, including dead family, and that means people die and talk about death.
I went to see The Shape of Water today -- aka, Guillermo Del Toro remixes The Creature from the Black Lagoon
( It was amazing! Del Toro doesn't disappoint! )
Del Toro totally deserves that Golden Globe for this movie. It's not quite my favorite of his movies, but since I'm never going to watch Pan's Labyrinth (amazing! gorgeous! so brutal that twice in theaters was enough for me! but I recommend seeing it once!) I can happily place it in the top three.
Also, another entry into Canadian Actor Bingo -- David Hewlett was kind of a surprise. Imagine Rodney McKay as a insecure security chief during the Cold War; he was definitely using some of the same mannerisms for this movie. I also spotted Nigel Bennett and Jon Kapelos. This is not too surprising, because it was filmed in and around Toronto, even though it's set in Baltimore.
There is a brief scene of animal harm (the fishman mistakes a cat for food), some sexual creepiness (the villain creeps on the heroine, in a fairly terrifying scene), and a good bit of violence and gore, so be warned if any of these things are triggers.
( It was amazing! Del Toro doesn't disappoint! )
Del Toro totally deserves that Golden Globe for this movie. It's not quite my favorite of his movies, but since I'm never going to watch Pan's Labyrinth (amazing! gorgeous! so brutal that twice in theaters was enough for me! but I recommend seeing it once!) I can happily place it in the top three.
Also, another entry into Canadian Actor Bingo -- David Hewlett was kind of a surprise. Imagine Rodney McKay as a insecure security chief during the Cold War; he was definitely using some of the same mannerisms for this movie. I also spotted Nigel Bennett and Jon Kapelos. This is not too surprising, because it was filmed in and around Toronto, even though it's set in Baltimore.
There is a brief scene of animal harm (the fishman mistakes a cat for food), some sexual creepiness (the villain creeps on the heroine, in a fairly terrifying scene), and a good bit of violence and gore, so be warned if any of these things are triggers.
I went to see The Killing (1956) on Wednesday by myself, and the double feature The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974) and Charley Varrick with A (person to be pseudonymed later).
The Killing was excellent noir, full of chiascuro and dutch angles, with a tight tight script, including the final escape with the money being foiled by airline safety regulations!
For the double feature, Eddie Mueller, who hosts Noir Alley on Turner Classic Movies if you have that on cable, was there to introduce both movies. Since the theme of Noir City this year is "The Big Knockover: Heists, Hold-ups, and Schemes Gone Wrong", the Noir Foundation included several movies that are strictly speaking outside of the classic Noir genre, but are classics demonstrating the evolution of heist movies. Thus, we had 'Walter Matthau night' with the double feature.
( The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974) )
( Charley Varrick )
And tonight, because I wanted to, I made Flemish Waffles from Everyone Eats Well In Belgium. I omitted the cognac, because making waffles taste of alcohol is pretty much a Do-Not-Want for me, but they were pretty tasty nevertheless, and I have a stack of waffles for breakfast for the week; I'm still getting used to my waffle iron, and it's a bit tricky to get it adjusted to be Just Crispy Enough. The waffle was especially good with the salted brown sugar peach jam I put up several weeks ago, and tomorrow I might try it with the rest of the black raspberry preserve I have open, or the pear compote. Maybe someday I'll get some pearl sugar and try the recipe for Leige waffles -- though I think I'd need a different waffle iron to actually get them perfectly right.
The Killing was excellent noir, full of chiascuro and dutch angles, with a tight tight script, including the final escape with the money being foiled by airline safety regulations!
For the double feature, Eddie Mueller, who hosts Noir Alley on Turner Classic Movies if you have that on cable, was there to introduce both movies. Since the theme of Noir City this year is "The Big Knockover: Heists, Hold-ups, and Schemes Gone Wrong", the Noir Foundation included several movies that are strictly speaking outside of the classic Noir genre, but are classics demonstrating the evolution of heist movies. Thus, we had 'Walter Matthau night' with the double feature.
( The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974) )
( Charley Varrick )
And tonight, because I wanted to, I made Flemish Waffles from Everyone Eats Well In Belgium. I omitted the cognac, because making waffles taste of alcohol is pretty much a Do-Not-Want for me, but they were pretty tasty nevertheless, and I have a stack of waffles for breakfast for the week; I'm still getting used to my waffle iron, and it's a bit tricky to get it adjusted to be Just Crispy Enough. The waffle was especially good with the salted brown sugar peach jam I put up several weeks ago, and tomorrow I might try it with the rest of the black raspberry preserve I have open, or the pear compote. Maybe someday I'll get some pearl sugar and try the recipe for Leige waffles -- though I think I'd need a different waffle iron to actually get them perfectly right.
Went to see Gaslight (1944) with A (person without a pseudonym) and greenygal; ellen_fremedon was supposed to join us, but the theater was sold out before she got there... for some reason, they were showing it in one of the smaller cinemas, instead of in the biggest one, which is at least twice as large and wouldn't have been as ridiculously sold out.
It was an excellent film, this print in 35 mm, and still completely relevant and at moments hard to watch. And it passes the Bechdel Test in the first 15 minutes! If you get a chance to see it on the big screen, it's definitely worth it.
This wasn't officially part of the Noir City DC film festival, but it was a nice run up to that. Next week is, though, and I might be seeing three movies next Saturday: Kansas City Confidential, Criss-Cross, and The Asphalt Jungle, with Sunday's White Heat a strong possibility as well.
I am definitely going to see the double-feature of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 & Charley Varrick on Friday, October 20th, if anyone wants to join me.
greenygal; ellen_fremedon was supposed to join us, but the theater was sold out before she got there... for some reason, they were showing it in one of the smaller cinemas, instead of in the biggest one, which is at least twice as large and wouldn't have been as ridiculously sold out.It was an excellent film, this print in 35 mm, and still completely relevant and at moments hard to watch. And it passes the Bechdel Test in the first 15 minutes! If you get a chance to see it on the big screen, it's definitely worth it.
This wasn't officially part of the Noir City DC film festival, but it was a nice run up to that. Next week is, though, and I might be seeing three movies next Saturday: Kansas City Confidential, Criss-Cross, and The Asphalt Jungle, with Sunday's White Heat a strong possibility as well.
I am definitely going to see the double-feature of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 & Charley Varrick on Friday, October 20th, if anyone wants to join me.
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I went with fabrisse, greenygal, and A Person Without A Psuedonym to see Dunkirk today.
I highly recommend it, especially if you can see it in a dedicated 70mm screen. There are deaths -- it's a war movie -- but gore is actually fairly minimal. The tension, otoh, is intense. Hans Zimmer scored the movie with the recurring motif of a ticking watch, and even when you can hear the watch, there's a relentless rhythm under the score. And when there's no score, it's usually because the music is replaced with something awful, like the screaming of a Stuka bomber.
The movie is surprisingly short -- just 106 minutes -- and has three intertwining sections: The Mole, about the soldiers on the beach and the mole which is the only way of loading soldiers onto the big ships, as there is no harbor they have access to and loading from the beach would require ships with a draft of three feet or less; The Sea, about one of the Little Ships of Dunkirk; and The Air, about an RAF pilot.
I do suggest you go with someone whose hand you can grab, because as I said, the movie is intense.
fabrisse, greenygal, and A Person Without A Psuedonym to see Dunkirk today.I highly recommend it, especially if you can see it in a dedicated 70mm screen. There are deaths -- it's a war movie -- but gore is actually fairly minimal. The tension, otoh, is intense. Hans Zimmer scored the movie with the recurring motif of a ticking watch, and even when you can hear the watch, there's a relentless rhythm under the score. And when there's no score, it's usually because the music is replaced with something awful, like the screaming of a Stuka bomber.
The movie is surprisingly short -- just 106 minutes -- and has three intertwining sections: The Mole, about the soldiers on the beach and the mole which is the only way of loading soldiers onto the big ships, as there is no harbor they have access to and loading from the beach would require ships with a draft of three feet or less; The Sea, about one of the Little Ships of Dunkirk; and The Air, about an RAF pilot.
I do suggest you go with someone whose hand you can grab, because as I said, the movie is intense.
I went to see Singing in the Rain with greenygal and friend today as there was a special showing for the 65th anniversary.
It holds up pretty well, and it's interesting to see how the background extras aren't perfect Hollywood faces and bodies. One does wonder how Lina Lamont was able to get the contract that becomes so important for the end of the movie, as the terms she has are incredible for a 1920s movie star.
Afterward,greenygal and I went to Pi Pizza for dinner. We wound up speculating about how actors would work in a universe with daemons a la Pullman's Dark Materials, and thought maybe there would be stunt daemons with their people off camera, with that being a way to break into acting.
Right as we were leaving, an anti-Trump anti-fascist protest came down the street, and I wound up explain to a 10-year-old that it was a protest and she'd probably see a lot of them in the next week. She was very concerned and astonished, and possibly had never seen anything like it. Hopefully all the coming protests will be as peaceful at that one.
greenygal and friend today as there was a special showing for the 65th anniversary.It holds up pretty well, and it's interesting to see how the background extras aren't perfect Hollywood faces and bodies. One does wonder how Lina Lamont was able to get the contract that becomes so important for the end of the movie, as the terms she has are incredible for a 1920s movie star.
Afterward,
greenygal and I went to Pi Pizza for dinner. We wound up speculating about how actors would work in a universe with daemons a la Pullman's Dark Materials, and thought maybe there would be stunt daemons with their people off camera, with that being a way to break into acting.Right as we were leaving, an anti-Trump anti-fascist protest came down the street, and I wound up explain to a 10-year-old that it was a protest and she'd probably see a lot of them in the next week. She was very concerned and astonished, and possibly had never seen anything like it. Hopefully all the coming protests will be as peaceful at that one.
I went to see Hidden Figures on Saturday with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fabrisse -- the film about the African-America women who worked as computers for NASA during the run-up to the Friendship 7 launch. As a movie, it's well paced, keeps track of the 3 main characters well, and does a good job of making math and computer programming dramatic, which isn't always the easiest thing.
It also doesn't play down the fact that while NASA was a place that employed many African-American mathematicians and engineers, it was still a segregated employer in an America where segregation was legal and government-enforced. There are a lot of white characters in the movie who enforce fairly awful cultural norms without thinking, because they've never had to think about them before.
fabrisse -- the film about the African-America women who worked as computers for NASA during the run-up to the Friendship 7 launch. As a movie, it's well paced, keeps track of the 3 main characters well, and does a good job of making math and computer programming dramatic, which isn't always the easiest thing.It also doesn't play down the fact that while NASA was a place that employed many African-American mathematicians and engineers, it was still a segregated employer in an America where segregation was legal and government-enforced. There are a lot of white characters in the movie who enforce fairly awful cultural norms without thinking, because they've never had to think about them before.
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