Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

I tend to think of Altman as not having made any stinkers. But MR T certainly was sub-par (I lasted 'til the end, not sure how). Never bothered w/Pret-a-Porter because I have zero affinity for fashion biz & people.

 

I took a couple of film/lit classes in college as free electives. The first was on auteurs (alas, not Zach's, this was decades ago). We studied Woody Allen, Robert Altman, and Francis Ford Coppola. I learned quite a bit in that class and got to appreciate films much more: The Conversation was a favorite, and while I got along fine with The Player and Short Cuts (thanks to Tom Waits), Nashville was a snooze-fest. I realize this is probably heresy but to a 20-year-old, it was interminable and unbearable.

The other class wasn't as good but I still loved it. It was taught by a great character, a retired playwright/screenplay writer. He named the course "Tough Guys in Film and Fiction." It was awesome.

 

My favorite Altman films were THE LONG GOODBYE (a truly great Raymond Chandler adaptation), THIEVES LIKE US, and McCABE & MRS. MILLER.

McCABE did things with dialogue & soundtrack that I'd never heard before--it's one of the best revisionist westerns ever.

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I liked CLOSE. I did not like THE OLD GUARD, as the whole depressed atmosphere/state of the main characters came off as contrived and unconvincing and the now obligatory gay relationship was even more so. Theron's acting seemed strained, like she did not quite know what to do with it. It took an interesting concept with a lot of potential and did little better than turn it into a soap opera. I think I will start with HAYWIRE...

 

You're right: THE OLD GUARD doesn't measure up to the other 3 films. It's a Sci-Fi gimmick film. I only added it because any film in which Charleze Theron kicks major ass is a must-see IMHO.

 

@purr1n only thing with villeneuve‘s dune is how much of the world will he keep intact? The weird steam punk meets bioengineering future world where three major religions (Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity) have been absorbed into a feudal empire in space and there is nothing DIGITAL at all and that movie looks DIGITAL

Will they even keep Paul as the Mahdi or is all the Islamic eschatology that the Space Witch chicks have been radicalizing the Fremen with (Herbert was too good) gone in favor of a teen movie dope who turns into The Crow after dropping acid? They cut out the batshit crazy last third of the book and will prob emphasize his destiny despite other characters getting prescient after smoking too much worm shit.

 

Gosford Park is very underrated. Great script. Great acting. Well-paced.

 

That was fun. Well constructed (not that there were not holes - these types of flicks always have them) and I really liked the casting. That deer through the backwind shield was hilarious!

I wish I could find more movies like this one - well crafted/written for what they are trying to do.

 

Also, Gina was absolutely dynamite and Ewan made for a great villain.

 

After seeing HAYWIRE (9 years after the fact), I'm puzzled as to why Gina didn't appear in a bunch more films suitable for her "particular set of skills." Or an episodic series a la JACK RYAN.

IMO she's strikingly attractive, can act rather well for this genre, and absolutely brings the pain in hand-to-hand combat.

 

Yea, like Jon Wick (at least the first one) the Jiu Jitsu in this movie was about as real as I have seen, and even her kickboxing was realistic sometimes. Still entirely too much high wire kung fu and dynamism to be truly "realistic" of course. Maybe she blew up to her Mandalorian proportions soon after and could not get the parts...

edit: I just looked her up and see she was a real MMA fighter in the past which I did not know lol!

 

Exactly--she's the real deal, a fighter who can kick ass in several styles. Another reason I'm baffled about her disappearance.

Obviously any actor can gain weight, get sick, decide to focus on family--any number of necessary life things that aren't acting. Still, I wish she was more visible/available in films.

 

Anything with the Netflix branding is 98% likely to suck hard. They have their own aesthetic and it's algorithmically engineered to be as bland as possible. Seriously, the Netflix algorithm tracks people's viewing habits, what part they turn it off, etc., and they use it as a guide to engineer their films. The studios had/have their own version of this, but they track box office... Netflix gets down to the microscopic level, so that's why all their movies look and sound the same.

You need a filmmaker with enough power, like Scorsese or Cuarón to break through and do their own thing.

 

Serious question: would any sane person be willing to tell Gina this to her face?

 

If you're right about that--if Netflix uses their TOTL algorithms for creative choices, as well as content serving--then they're more fucked up than I imagined. Many Hollywood studios run market analyses & audience tests, then try to get the data fed back into creative processes. But from what I can tell, it's not that easy to keep creativity "in the bottle," once real, live screenwriters, actors, director, and cinematographer get involved. Brilliant ideas have their own peculiar arc/momentum.

My first impression of Netflix a couple years back was how well the service "tracked" my onscreen choices. Nothing is left hanging: if I view 5" of some movie, then come back 18 months later (having totally forgotten it), there it is, ready to "Resume." And of course the contextual content suggestions are right on the money...so accurate they could probably be used for a Merck Manual psychiatric diagnosis (oops, just created a new Netflix division: "Netflix Behavioral Sciences").

By comparison, Prime Video is primitive, poorly implemented. They constantly screw up my content. I have to navigate around these errors every time I watch...

Navigation experience aside, I've been noticing a run of consistent excellence in Amazon-originated fiction series (ie, LOST BOYS; GOLIATH; HOMECOMING; BOSCH), also not seeing equivalent consistency in newer Netflix-originated fiction. Now you have me wondering if that's a real difference, rather than just a skimpy-sample (thus meaningless) comparison...

 

Lol! Folks in the martial arts world tend to be more honest about this and most things because there is no where to hide from yourself or the other guy.

I will have to check those out. You have several good points about Prime. Perhaps Amazon's looser check box approach is better for creativity/quality in the end.

 

Season 1 of Goliath is amazing but takes a f'ing dive off a cliff in the second season.

 

Sad to read the comment about GOLIATH, which is mightily impressing me in Season-1. It does many things right and few things wrong. Sorry to hear that Season-2 is a letdown.

I certainly saw that drop-off in JESSICA JONES, when the show fell apart in slow-motion after that very different & chilling Season-1. Even my favorite show of all on Netflix, STRANGER (brilliant Korean police & prosecutor procedural) dropped off somewhat after Season-1. I'm more than midway through Season-2; thankfully the gravitas & tension of this singular show have ramped up again [each seasons of STRANGER contains 16 episodes (!?!)].

Season-to-season variability is the bete noir of episodic television. After awhile drama fatigue sets in and new ideas don't come quite fast enough. If creativity was like a hot water tap one turns on at will (for as long as desired), reality would be an entirely different place.

 

hmm I think she’s great. But ymmv whatever.

I’ve seen Haywire and The Old Guard and liked both quite a bit. The martial arts in Haywire were awesome. I think The Old Guard was really carried almost completely by Charlize Theron. Amazing presence and performance. Without her I think I might agree with the other comment here a about the film. Except I could care less about a gay couple. Though I’m suspicious Netflix added it into the plot as part of their social perspective. Which I happen to agree with but don’t like seeing movies altered to add social/political agenda.

I’ll be sure to watch Close and Atomic Blonde! Thanks!