I’ve been on a Netflix Documentary binge lately. Some recommendations :
Blackfish is a very powerful film.
It’s actually not about fish. It’s about one black Killer Whale (a mammal). But IMO, it’s really yet another film about the effects of allowing Corporations (in this case, Sea World) to do most anything they want in the pursuit of profits.
If your children ever clamor for you to take them to Sea World, take a look at this film first and then consider showing it to them before you go.
Many people would disagree. But I think it would provide children with a wonderful experience in social responsibility and if they decide to get involved in the struggle to shut down Sea World - or at least to eat into their profits by educating people about the harm they do, I think any children will get some great benefits and have a lot more entertainment from that. More so than they could ever get by watching a bunch of mammals who have been tortured and forced to jump around in order to entertain a group of obese adults and avoid starvation by being fed a bunch of dead fish.
IMO, Killer Whales do not want to be handed a bunch of dead fish. They are called “Killers” because they live to hunt and kill in order to eat. Not jump up and down in order to be fed cold dead fish. I’m sorry. But that really ticks me off.
If the children would join a group and march in front of a Sea World in an effort to educate people into not giving them any money, IMO, that would provide them with some great exercise and help them become healthier than they ever could by sitting on their asses and watching some poor tortured mammals go through the paces forced on them by trainers.
The movie illustrates what happens when some thousand pound mammal decides “Enough is Enough” and strikes back at the humans who have tortured it for most of its life.
Some people will hate this film but others will love it. It’s really tragic in one sense because it’s about the death of a fairly innocent young lady. But it’s very empowering in another sense because it’s also about people organizing to educate others as to what this corporation is all about as well as other corporations.
I apologize if I sound like I’ve gone off the deep end and I’m ranting in an insane kind of way. But this film is just so powerful that simply remembering the experience of seeing it has set me off.
Another great film (well, I think it’s great) is “The Corporation”
I really wish I would have seen this film when I was a young teenager - maybe 12 to 14 years old. You may want to watch both these films before showing them to any children.
Mrs. FtG read This Is Where I Leave You last week and liked it a lot, so the film based on it became our MotW. I didn’t know much about the movie outside of the actors (Bateman and Fey) appearing on talk shows and seemingly obsessing over Jane Fonda’s fake boobs in the movie.
I wasn’t expecting much since it’s only 43% at Rotten Tomatoes (33% top critics) and I think that’s a fair ranking.
Not really much of a story. Mostly a series of vignettes about a weird family. Figured out the “big surprise” very early on. I really don’t think Bateman’s character really learned anything or grew, at least in a long term way.
Some really good secondary actors: Corey Stoll (House of Cards, current Homeland) does a nice job at comedy. Adam Driver is also nice, but his character is a little too close to the one on Girls. Tina Fey’s role didn’t give her much to do.
The soundtrack at times was quite nice. But I wouldn’t rate this as a bad enough movie with a great soundtrack to qualify for that recent thread.
BTW: Some character names and events were changed for the movie, as per Mrs. FtG.
Watched “The World’s End”, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Always entertaining to watch those two together. It did get a little old and long with all the fighting of alien robots.
I saw Birdman on Sunday night and thought it was pretty fantastic.
Keaton’s character isn’t just a thinly-veiled version of himself, but there’s no doubt that his career arc and personal life gave him a lot to work with in here. He’s fantastic, and really shows his chops as an actor – which is doubly impressive given how tricky it can be to act like an actor acting. At varying levels of “quality.”
The secondary cast really shine, too. Zach Galifinakis brings a really good understated performance. Ed Norton is fantastic.
The cinematography and staging are fascinating and inventive. You get a really unique sense of timing and space. It’s meant to seem like almost the entire movie is a single continuous take, and the effect is hypnotic and intense.
All of the above wouldn’t mean much if the script was lousy, but it isn’t. Funny, poignant, engaging…it hits a lot of solid notes.
Saw Rush last night.
About the 76’ Formula 1 season and the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. I thought it was pretty great.
I knew nothing of the story going in but knew it was based on true events. Awesome since real life racing stories trump anything hollywood can come up with.
From reading some articles and interviews afterwards it sounds like they stuck to what really happened throughout.
I LOVED this movie. I saw all 3 in the chain. [rec]2 takes place at the same time as [rec] but through different character’s eyes. Also, really good. [rec]3…not so much
[rec] was made into an American film called Quarantine with Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter). Also, excellent.
Or most recent MotW was* The One I Love* with Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss.
A couple in therapy goes to a “retreat” recommended by their therapist (Ted Danson). Really odd stuff ensues.
I don’t want to say, not even in spoilers, what happens. It’s more fun to see it unfold. (Hence I recommend avoiding sites where spoilers are likely to be given.)
I liked it. Mrs. FtG not so much. One of those “buy the premise …” situations. It’s more for the Safety Not Guaranteed crowd. (Also by the Duplasses.)
It’s a two character (?) film. Certain subtle traits have to conveyed by the actors. Duplass does a reasonable job while Moss pretty much nails it.
It’s a family-made film. The brothers Duplass co-exec. produce it. Charlie McDowell (son of Malcolm and step-son of Danson) directs.
One quirk: The movie has two Oscar winners in incredibly minor roles. One just a small voice-only part, the other briefly seen in the background.
I saw St vincent. If you are a Bill Murray fan, run, dont walk to see it.
It’s one of those “grouchy old men” films, kinda like Gran Torino. Its also very interesting to contrast & compare, since Clint turned his film into a bit of a action film, whereas St Vincent is more realistic.
Thirded Grand Budapest Hotel. I am a big Wes Anderson fan and I really enjoyed it.
I also recommend Dear White People. I’m into critical race theory so this was right up my alley. However, I expected it to be predominantly about white people being racist, a sort of laundry list cataloging white sins. It’s really not about white people at all, though there are definitely some white people doing some racist things. It’s really about personal identity and how we come to terms with the fact that we are always a part of someone else’s agenda. Most of the people in the story are being used in some way, and how they grapple with that is relevant to any person regardless of race.
The movie isn’t perfect but even flawed it has a sort of genius about it. It is a film that analyzes itself. You start off thinking it has a very clear simplistic message but then was the film is over you begin to realize the complexities it is grappling with. My husband found the culminating scenes reminiscent of Do the Right Thing. But the way the film worked best for me is that it really showed the core of suffering that drives every activist. It’s easy to get caught up in high minded academic discussions of race, but films like this are a reminder that the reason we care about this shit is because people get hurt.
And even though I’m white, it left me with a lot to think about with regards to my own life and identity.
I’m on it.
Next on my list to see is Django Unchained. I’m a tad nervous because I can be squeamish with depictions of intense suffering, but I also love Tarantino so I gotta go for it.
I recently watched “It,” a silent film starring Clara Bow. This is the film that dubbed her “The ‘It’ Girl.” It’s a Cinderella-like story about a girl who’s a clerk in a department store, who’s attracted to her rich and handsome boss. And although the feeling’s mutual, their relationship is not a smooth one. In it, Ms. Bow demonstrates what a versatile actress she was, and how she personified “It” . . . a combination of animal magnetism, irresistible attractiveness and humor. A totally enjoyable film . . . and unlike many silents, always kept my attention throughout.
Because this movie really digs into ideas about race and racial identity, it’s a very welcome change from what’s usually out there. It’s not so much about how blacks have to deal with white prejudice and attitudes, although that’s present, but it’s much more about how blacks have to deal with assimilation and the complicated navigation of white and black expectations of themselves and each other. So from the standpoint of being quite novel and provocative, it’s wonderful. It should lead to some great conversation.
But I want to say that the plot, the dialogue, the acting, and the direction are pathetic and amateurish. None of the reviews I’ve looked at are willing to acknowledge these flaws, and while they don’t totally undermine the value of the film, they certainly did detract from it for me. I hope a lot of people see it, although I’m sure it won’t get a wide audience. But it’s a worth see just for the sake of seeing a movie with such important and significant underlying issues.
Saw this recently as part of a work team event. Our department hired out a small (luxury) cinema, had a department meeting, with PowerPoints on the big screen, and then watched this movie.
I rather enjoyed the meeting. 
“Gone Girl”, good movie in my view and would recommend it to fellow Dopers, Rosamund Pike is a fantastic actress and very attractive, she should get more roles.
I would have liked the ending to be different, but 10/10 for me.
A second recommendation for The World’s End, A Band Called Death and Blue Ruin. I thought they were all very worthy of anyone’s time.
Lately I’ve watched* The One I Love, Child of God, Calvary, Only Lovers Left Alive, God’s Pocket, The Rover*, and Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present. They’re not to everyone’s taste but I would say they’re all good productions.
They’re, pretty much, quite unusual films that didn’t do all that well at the Box Office. Most also have some narrative behind them, something to ponder on and read about.
Also, if you haven’t watched the series Fargo (I thought everyone had but it seems not) I highly recommend having a binge on that, particular, odd-fest.
I’m not sure I would say these elements were ‘‘pathetic’’ but I agree that the underlying mechanism driving the movie was kind of at a level above the more superficial elements of it. What is special about the film isn’t its presentation but rather the ideas it grapples with.
About Time About Time (2013) - IMDb
Gorgeous movie. Not too famous but I really think this movie deserves much more audience. I was fooled into watching this because the description said “Science Fiction”. Well, yes, there is time travel, but…
I don’t want to spoil the story because I am grateful to have watched it without knowing what it was about. I’ll just say that at one point I cried my eyes out, but it is not a tragic movie. It deals with love, death, relationships and familly. Time travel is a mere excuse.
It’s not pretentious and it is perfectly narrated and acted.
Give it a chance!
Pride. British movie that came out this year. Based on the factual story of a group of London based gay and lesbian people raising money for the miners strike in '84 and '85, and the miners union being unwilling to accept it.
Everyone I know who has seen it said great things about it.
For me, it was a painful visit to events and themes of my early adulthood. I cried from the opening scene until I got home. And intermittently for three days afterwards.
It’s hardly verite, but way too close to my own history for me to be objective.
It stars Imenda Staunton, Bill Nighy and Dominic ‘McNulty’ West.
MiM
I saw Fury last weekend. A good solid war movie that I’d recommend. It was a very brutal film but that was its point - it was about how war brutalizes people.
Our MotW: Lucky Them with Toni Collette. She’s a semi-washed up writer for a Seattle music magazine (headed up by the ever-present Oliver Platt) who is assigned to find out what happened to ex-rocker idol/boyfriend who disappeared 10 years earlier. Her personal issues, mainly having a thing for musicians, keep getting in the way.
Along the way, she encounters Thomas Haden Church as a rich, clueless doofus. Seemingly the blandest secondary character you’ll ever see, but Church pulls off a really good non-transformation transformation. While still staying clueless, etc., for the most part, he really adds a major reflecting board to the movie.
Really funny at times. I started wishing that the whole movie had the same level of humor, but that’s not the main mood of the movie. Some darker stuff is required. I mean, she has seahorses named Kurt and Courtney and one of them dies. Very grim, right?
Note to filmmakers: Yes, you can pull off a really “Wow, I can’t believe …” thing. But then the audience is taken out of the movie and isn’t paying attention so much anymore. Cool, sure. But very distracting.
Still a pretty good film. Well made, edited, etc. Very good acting. Plus lots of shots of Seattle and environs. (But doesn’t explain why NYFilm keeps getting involved in things set in the PNW.)
This week’s amazingly small use of an Oscar winner had Joanne Woodward doing a small voice thing. She was also a producer and the project is a Paul Newman foundation related thing.