OT: Capitals Cinema Club: TV and Movies

[usiel]

The SAG contract is bad. I’ve only seen a little of the collective agreed agreement and I don’t like it and I’ll be voting no Stand strong union.

Admittedly haven't read any deep analysis of it.

 

[HeyMattyB]

The SAG contract is bad. I’ve only seen a little of the collective agreed agreement and I don’t like it and I’ll be voting no Stand strong union.

Well that's a bummer. I also haven't dug into the details. What are the major points you disagree with?

 

[twabby]

Well that's a bummer. I also haven't dug into the details. What are the major points you disagree with?

Yeah I'm also interested in what you don't like about it.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Omg @usiel Severance…..wow. That finished well. That’s writing genius on display there….and Ben Stiller Directing….great acting by the cast…..a little hard to get into, but damn….great recommendation.

 

[usiel]

Omg @usiel Severance…..wow. That finished well. That’s writing genius on display there….and Ben Stiller Directing….great acting by the cast…..a little hard to get into, but damn….great recommendation.

Awesome always glad to hear!

Severance Season 2: Confirmation, Cast, Story & Everything We Know

Here's what we know about Severance season 2.

screenrant.com

There have also been eight new cast members added for Severance season 2 in undisclosed roles (via Variety). The new Severance cast members in the third season will include Gwendoline Christie (The Sandman), Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Bob Balaban (The French Dispatch), Merrit Wever (Godless), Robby Benson (Beauty and the Beast), Stefano Carannante (Mirabilia), John Noble (The Lord of the Rings), and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Tourist). There's been no hints or teases when it comes to the characters these cast members are playing, however.

 

[HTFN]

This is relatively old (2018) while not being old because it's just standup and not a classic, but I was f***ing blown away by James Acaster's Netflix series "Repertoire".

It's four specials all layered into each other in a way that all loop back on the original, but it's so well done that you could probably watch any individual episode and not miss a joke. Some might be absurd and worth laughing at while not fully understanding, but by the time you've seen all four (and no matter where you started) it's a virtually perfect circle that keeps making some top notch callbacks to other specials.

Spoiler: Repertoire

James Acaster plays James Acaster, undercover cop infiltrating a gang selling drugs to comedians and losing his marriage to the case, "real" name Pat Springleaf, who infiltrates the SW6 gang. By special 2 he's just talking about the gang like he's in the gang, and about how he had to move after giving away his address. By special 3 he's talking about his previous activity in a honey scam and how he went into witness protection. Special 4, he's taken on his witpro character Pat Springleaf and gets married, only to become an undercover cop taking on the name James Acaster to infiltrate the comedy business

Whole thing's goddamn hilarious if standup, and particularly dry British standup, is your thing, but even if it's not I don't know another mode/medium of anything that is quite like this in the way it's written and told. Probably the only comedy special I can think of that gets funnier on a re-watch, because once you see the full loop you get all the jokes that seemed weird but funny enough. Second time around, it's one of the tidiest, cleanest standup sets I've ever seen.

 

[HTFN]

tv series "Our Flag Means Death" on hbo max

2 episodes in. Im liking it.

Taiki Waititi directed a few episodes and definitely has the 'What We Do In the Shadows" light hearted dead pan comedy approach

I finally got around to this, I’m not really queer by any extension of the word but even I was like “f*** yeah, this is such positive representation” and the show’s funny as hell to boot so it’s not even really coasting on it.

Like even just as a media exercise, if that’s how someone needed to think about it to engage with it, it’s fascinating to watch a show where non-heteronormative relationships outnumber all others by like 4-to-1, it’s basically an exercise in role reversal. It’s not a show about that either, it’s a bumble f*** pirate adventure, which lends all these romances the exact same credence we’d see in other shows the way we more commonly expect.

Hilarious, clever comedy on top of some really impressive shit as contemporary media

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Yeah I'm also interested in what you don't like about it.

In general, the raises were 6 to 11% depending on what you were doing on the day.
AI protections seem very lacking and leaves the corporations with a lot of leverage.
Streaming residuals have not been released yet but I have a feeling it’s gonna be about 6 to 11% and could stay 0% like now

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

For all my horror fan friends on HFCaps. Also please tell me how it is because I sure as shit will not be watching this

 

[Calicaps]

For all my horror fan friends on HFCaps. Also please tell me how it is because I sure as shit will not be watching this

 

[HeyMattyB]

Last night, I watched the first episode of The Curse, the new Nathan Fielder (Nathan For You, The Rehearsal) + Emma Stone show on Showtime. And hoooo boy. It was something.

Even if you're already familiar with and enjoy Nathan Fielder's brand of "Oh man he's so painfully awkward/creepy and it makes me so uncomfortable" humor, do not make the mistake I did of thinking that means you're prepared for The Curse.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

The Killer was solid…

 

[HTFN]

The Killer was solid…

was alright, honestly not spectacular.

they were good vignettes but as a collective piece it was missing something

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

was alright, honestly not spectacular.

they were good vignettes but as a collective piece it was missing something

For a streaming movie….I’ll take it. Solid means solid, not spectacular. Solid is a 3-3.25 on my 5 star scale. I was entertained.

 

[HTFN]

For a streaming movie….I’ll take it.

Oh sure, for a streaming movie, it totally worked as a space filler/time killer/pretty interesting thing, and like I said if you were to take all the individual chapters as vignettes you'd probably be inclined to see another handful of them, either as individual little missions or hopefully working up to a better collective whole.

For a Fincher movie I was like "uhhh.... this is missing a huge something" and I felt like contrary to a lot of his other stuff, it was missing an emotional human tether. Fassbender was too detached to sell how much it mattered to him so outside of the functional points of revenge it was really hard to tell just how important it was. I think you could watch the whole thing and reasonably conclude that he's as irritated about being burned as he is about his loved one suffering based on how the film portrays his priorities, thought process, and capacity for compassion.

Just pulling up a quick and dirty imdb list, but like... Seven, Gone Girl, Zodiac, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, all of these sell their environments in a similar way as far as the filmmaking language (depending on theme), no doubt he's a craftsman, but they have such great emotional tethers that you get very personally invested in them almost by default and there just felt like a total absence of one this time around.

I think that may have even been intentional and it just didn't work, and my biggest piece of "evidence" surrounding this is to watch how the music actually plays in the film, because I thought it was cleverly done but hard to identify with. Fassbender's character calls music a focusing tool for him, and so very interestingly every time we see him play music from then on, if we're watching the scene from his perspective/space we hear absolutely nothing, but when he does something to break containment like opening his van door or taking out a headphone we suddenly hear what he's listening to, but only from the outsider perspective. It's a fascinating way to relate the character's headspace but it also inherently separates you from him, you're not able to experience what he's experiencing on an innate level because (in my opinion) it takes away elements of his sensory experience, and you're constantly just on the outside looking in.

There's something there to chew on but it's very difficult compared to the relative ease of empathy in his other films.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

See I liked that for a Fincher movie, it wasn’t overly complex.

Fassbender‘s narrative character was off, maybe on the spectrum at times….


Lots of things you could dissect, but I like a good hitman movie….

 

[HTFN]

See I liked that for a Fincher movie, it wasn’t overly complex.

Fassbender‘s narrative character was off, maybe on the spectrum at times….


Lots of things you could dissect, but I like a good hitman movie….

This is a weird one for me because I literally agree with all of what you said, I just wasn't geared for it. I think if I didn't know it was a Fincher movie until the very end I'd be like "goddamn, that was interesting" but I saw it right away and expected something... extra. Didn't know what, but expected something slightly more layered and less simple based on his history and this was not quite that.

Like, I liked his internal monologue, I liked a lot of what happened, but I just found it hard to really latch on to the guy without fully understanding what motivated him. I know the emotional tie should have been that but I couldn't really fully get with whether he cared or if it was another dispassionate part of being a hitman.

Personally I think I'd have wanted another 2-3 chapters to really resolve everything past the original arc, and then his character would really flesh out, but he just sits in this weird middle ground.

 

[Jags]

See I liked that for a Fincher movie, it wasn’t overly complex.

Fassbender‘s narrative character was off, maybe on the spectrum at times….


Lots of things you could dissect, but I like a good hitman movie….

Totally agree with this. I had the same thought along the "maybe on the spectrum" and "good hitman movie" because it reminded me of The Accountant with Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick.

Gavin O'Connor has done a bunch of stuff in the last decade or so that I've really enjoyed (Mare of Easttown, Warrior, The Americans), and this flick had great characters and a murderer's row of supporting players (Bernthal, Smart, Simmons, Lithgow). But overall it was a pretty straight-ahead hitman movie.

I went into The Killer expecting something deeper entirely because of Fincher. But I found that it punched at the same level as The Accountant. As hitman movies go, a step above Soderbergh's Haywire (pretty good if you haven't seen it), and Statham's first Mechanic movie.

Definitely liked it, but not up to Fincher's par. If he's going to keep working with Netflix, I'd prefer he brought back Mindhunter. I was really bummed when they cancelled that.

 

[PlushMinus]

See I liked that for a Fincher movie, it wasn’t overly complex.

Fassbender‘s narrative character was off, maybe on the spectrum at times….


Lots of things you could dissect, but I like a good hitman movie….

Fassbender's narrative for the first 15 minutes almost made me switch off.

I'm glad I didn't - the rest of the movie was decent.

This movie was a little like a book I read a few months ago called Seventeen by John Brownlow.
If you are a "reader" I highly recommend it

 

[RedRocking]

Oh sure, for a streaming movie, it totally worked as a space filler/time killer/pretty interesting thing, and like I said if you were to take all the individual chapters as vignettes you'd probably be inclined to see another handful of them, either as individual little missions or hopefully working up to a better collective whole.

For a Fincher movie I was like "uhhh.... this is missing a huge something" and I felt like contrary to a lot of his other stuff, it was missing an emotional human tether. Fassbender was too detached to sell how much it mattered to him so outside of the functional points of revenge it was really hard to tell just how important it was. I think you could watch the whole thing and reasonably conclude that he's as irritated about being burned as he is about his loved one suffering based on how the film portrays his priorities, thought process, and capacity for compassion.

Just pulling up a quick and dirty imdb list, but like... Seven, Gone Girl, Zodiac, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, all of these sell their environments in a similar way as far as the filmmaking language (depending on theme), no doubt he's a craftsman, but they have such great emotional tethers that you get very personally invested in them almost by default and there just felt like a total absence of one this time around.

I think that may have even been intentional and it just didn't work, and my biggest piece of "evidence" surrounding this is to watch how the music actually plays in the film, because I thought it was cleverly done but hard to identify with. Fassbender's character calls music a focusing tool for him, and so very interestingly every time we see him play music from then on, if we're watching the scene from his perspective/space we hear absolutely nothing, but when he does something to break containment like opening his van door or taking out a headphone we suddenly hear what he's listening to, but only from the outsider perspective. It's a fascinating way to relate the character's headspace but it also inherently separates you from him, you're not able to experience what he's experiencing on an innate level because (in my opinion) it takes away elements of his sensory experience, and you're constantly just on the outside looking in.

There's something there to chew on but it's very difficult compared to the relative ease of empathy in his other films.

Yea, I liked The Killer, but agree that it didn’t wow me as much as a typical Fincher movie. I’d be interested in watching it again though, as I think there might be some more depth to some of the themes and ideas that didn’t quite come together on a first watch. And Fincher films are always re-watchable just for the the level craftsmanship he puts into everything.

Speaking of the music, I found all of The Smiths to be kinda distracting - I was sorta chuckling as I heard which songs/lyrics they’d use for each particular scene. Especially since Morrissey is bellowing and whining about death (in one sense or another) in most of those songs. It almost become like a game or a gimmick - where might they use song x, or I bet they save “There Is A Light that Never Goes Out” for the end. And…yep! lol.

 

[HTFN]

Totally agree with this. I had the same thought along the "maybe on the spectrum" and "good hitman movie" because it reminded me of The Accountant with Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick.

Gavin O'Connor has done a bunch of stuff in the last decade or so that I've really enjoyed (Mare of Easttown, Warrior, The Americans), and this flick had great characters and a murderer's row of supporting players (Bernthal, Smart, Simmons, Lithgow). But overall it was a pretty straight-ahead hitman movie.

I went into The Killer expecting something deeper entirely because of Fincher. But I found that it punched at the same level as The Accountant. As hitman movies go, a step above Soderbergh's Haywire (pretty good if you haven't seen it), and Statham's first Mechanic movie.

Definitely liked it, but not up to Fincher's par. If he's going to keep working with Netflix, I'd prefer he brought back Mindhunter. I was really bummed when they cancelled that.

I thought it punched even shallower (if that's a thing, I guess). Not in a mean spirited way, but in a less detailed way.

At least by the end of The Accountant you know his character's on the spectrum, and his routine is abnormal but not outrageous to the point where yeah, it may not be the most conventional interpretation, but people on the spectrum aren't usually hyper abused hitmen either. Still, his relationship to sound and his processing of emotions is way better related to the viewer as far as being atypical and on the spectrum, and before the end of the movie I'd say most people see that because of the way it's done.

Frankly, I didn't get an immediate spectrum quality because he just doesn't give any tells, and it makes him seem much more like a "traditional" hitman as we know them in movies. Even in his internal monologue he says something like "I just don't give a f***" and it sort of sets his own tone for the film. If it's a spectrum think it's so light that most other killers in film would probably land around there. It's like saying Anton Chigurh was on the spectrum, it may well be true but it didn't factor into the film at all. With The Accountant at least it mattered and circled back for the character.

 

[notDkristich]

Thanks for Blue Eye Samurai (netflix) recommendation. Being Netflix, I was unprepared for all the full frontal nudity scenes.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Finally finished the last season of Ted Lasso that took a while to get through. Those were a long episodes each were like a movie.

Great ending to a great show

 

[ChaosLord]

I'm 6 episodes into Pluto: the animated series, 2 episodes to go.

Mind. blown.

Put it this way: if Blue Eye Samurai is the perfect rock concert, then Pluto is the perfect symphony.

It took them 6 years to make this series, and it shows: the animation, the music, the voice acting, and especially the story, all breath-taking.

Its a slow burn. It starts off like some annoying old man, wheezing about his life story. You'll fidget, you'll look at your watch, you'll sigh, you'll wonder what's for lunch. And then, by episode 4, the s**t hits the fan, and the series takes off like Astroboy's jet-pack. You won't be able to tear your eyes away. You'll be so invested that you won't even be aware of your surroundings. Its that good.

I'm taking a break, playing GOW: Ragnarok, then I'll watch the last two episodes tonight. Can't wait.

EDIT: I'm afraid I spoke too soon. The ending is bad. Awful. Brutal. I mean, Game of Thrones bad. If they had gone with a very simple, safe, "good prevails over evil" ending, this would have been a decent series. But the ending is such a mess it kind of ruins the whole experience for me. A real shame, because the first 6 episodes or so are terrific. I'd still recommend a single viewing, just because the animation is so amazing. But beyond that, I'm not so sure.

 

[usiel]

Decided my big stack of hardmedia blurays/4k discs needs some attention. Currently watching the House of the Dragon S1 4k discs (through about 4 episodes). The dolby true HD audio is beastly. Typically I like the DTS Master HD over it but for some reasons captures the audio subtleties. Really need to swap in the new Pioneer receiver I picked up last year for the 10 year old Pioneer this weekend.

Also plowed through Yellowstone S3 and a couple of episodes into S4 on regular bluray.