Thanks for the info I am fairly OK with that kind of thing as dramatic license Of course in such a big and complex disaster there were not like 3 guys at the centre of everything e.g the scene where the politburo chief and the key hero were going to fly through the plume? It was other people that did that (and crashed)
Yea, I did bunch of reading after as well and agree with what you said. I'm also happy I now have some relative knowledge of how a nuclear reactor works. Not sure if it will help me in life though.
Well there have also been a lot of Californians and Oregonians moving to Idaho that might've helped plant that seed, so to speak....
So this was a funny one for me, it originally came out when I was in maybe 1st grade. I saw the commercials, played with the toys, and played The Black Hole at recess with friends who had seen it, but I never did (we weren't much of a moviegoing family). So when I was scrolling through Disney+ and saw this cheesy shit I thought How could I not? And it was just as bad as I expected it would be, though I'm sure my 6-year-old self would've thought it was tremendous. Basically 2001: A Space Odyssey with the vibe of Escape from Witch Mountain plus a little Star Wars thrown in. If Mystery Science Theater never did this movie, they should.
Hustlers (2019) Dir. Lorene Scafaria We follow the story of Destiny and Ramona, as well as some of their friends and co-workers through the late noughties and early 2010s. Both women are strippers at a NY strip club. Ramona is an experienced performer who knows all the tricks of the trade. Destiny is newer and Ramona ends up taking her under her wing. For a while times are good and money is plenty. Then the 2008 financial crisis hits and it impacts their income by wiping out a significant amount of the Wall Street types they depended upon to be their bread and butter. So after enduring a barren period, Ramona takes matters into her own hands and decides to use subterfuge and drugs to force their male marks to spend a lot of money at the clubs. But how long can the group keeps this up without running into legal trouble? This was very enjoyable, like one half a female heist movie and one half a stripper movie. I can see why people were very complimentary of Jennifer Lopez' performance. Without a fierce embodiment by whoever played Ramona, this movie would have fallen apart. It really took me by surprise because I never was that impressed by any of JLo's acting. I know some people really like her work in "Out of Sight" but I never saw that as a particularly brilliant performance. This one is. So much so that I thought Constance Wu, her primary scene partner and foil, was a bit lightweight by comparison in some scenes. But JLo definitely deserved Oscars recognition for this performance and I think it's more proof that the Academy fails or refuses to properly recompense female-led stories and female story-tellers.
Went and saw Little Women directed by Greta Gerwig last night. (sorry, can't find a good image to link to) I thought it was outstanding. I had no connection to the source material except cultural osmosis over the years, so I didn't have any preconceived notions of how the story is "supposed to" be told. Gerwig's directing was really wonderful-- she got terrific performances out of all the leads that felt very free of the stuffiness you usually associate with period pieces, while at the same time I don't think it strayed into anachronism. She decided to film the events of the book out of order, relying heavily on flashbacks, which I actually thought was a brilliant choice and probably the best way to adapt a somewhat long book into a 2-hour movie.
I noted two anachronisms: 20th century shingles on a 19th century house, and a snippet of Dvorák's 12th string quartet which was composed a few years after Louis May Alcott died. I'm pretty sure that's why the Academy didn't nominate Gerwig in the Best Director category. In all seriousness, it was my favorite of the five movies we saw over the holidays.
Across the Universe (2007). A musical set in the Sixties to Beatles music. Pretty good way to spend a snowy afternoon.
The Night Has Eyes (1942) Dir. Leslie Arliss Marian Ives is a teacher at an all-girls boarding school. She intends to use her upcoming vacation days to visit the Yorkshire moors. She is joined for this trip by her friend and colleague Doris. Their intention is not touristic in nature, as they hope to find a trace of their friend Evelyn, who disappeared without a trace in these moors a year earlier. On their first day there, they themselves get lost in a storm and find refuge in an old, remote manor house. Its sole occupant is a reclusive former composer who does not enjoy company but has no choice but to give them sanctuary, with no other homes in the vicinity. After they get rained in, they are forced to stay for a while, during which Marian falls in love with their host. But is there more to the man than meets the eye? Something of a Gothic horror-mystery that is nicely shot but perhaps takes a bit too long to get going. The third act is very good though and its nighttime black and white photography is impressive.Cinematographer Günther Krampf was a one-time collaborator of both Murnau (Nosferatu!) and Pabst (Pandora's Box!) and this is very much apparent in his work on this film. James Mason leans a bit too much into the brooding tragic hero trope. Mary Clare is more impressive as the housekeeper.
Saw this last night and thought it was quite well done. Some of the hype surrounding it gave me the impression that it was going to be as intense from start to finish as the beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan. No, it's a much different film even if the plot thread is somewhat similar. It's much more similar to Dunkirk in style --- beautifully filmed (a lot of the visuals are stunning) and sparse dialogue. But despite the latter, it's quite well acted. Definitely one to see on the big screen, if you can. I also enjoyed the numerous cameos from other actors --- some very obvious; some of the "where-have-I-seen-that-guy-before-oh-yeah-that's-right" ilk.
Grace and Frankie -- Season 6 This was a fine TV show. Once. The original premise was interesting. Two guys, both married for 40 years, have been cheating on their wives for over 20 years. Except that they are cheating with each other. Since the husbands are NOT ditching their 75 year old wives for trophy wives, but have instead been struggling with their very sexuality for 20 years, does this make the cheating somehow reasonable, understandable, even OK? These two fractured families have to re-knit themselves into something new, and weird. And Grace and Frankie, who have all but loathed each other over the years, are forced into a new friendship. And it works. Well, it did. The show's premise has long since expired. Season 5 was characterized by having Grace and Frankie get into outlandish fights so that they could make up. My wife and I counted. There were at least 5 in a 10 episode season. This season, it's even worse. There is no really thread, just increasingly embarrassing predicaments that all the characters are thrown into. Except they're not really funny, just more cringeworthy. It's sad. The show should be put out to pasture, but there was one doozy of a cliffhanger, so we'll get one more season at least. I'll watch it, but it will be the watching while I'm doing laundry and the dishes kind of viewing experience.
Doctor Sleep (2019) Dir. Mike Flanagan 30+ years after he and his mother survived the Overlook Hotel, Danny Torrance is an alcoholic drifter who cannot shake the psychological scars he endured there. His life improves when he meets a man who helps him get his life back on track. As he finds some small measure of happiness, he also makes a psychic connection with Abra Stone, a young girl who shares his gift. Then one day Abra has a vision of a group of individuals torturing another gifted child to death to steal his shine in the process. Danny fears that the continued psychic attention Abra devotes to this sinister group will attract their notice, especially that of the group's mysterious leader, Rose the Hat. This is a very rare thing, a sequel to a classic film that is actually quite good. I won't go as far as saying this is as good as Kubrick's classic but Flanagan's devotion to the original is apparent in the careful recreation of the Overlook hotel whilst he is not afraid to do his own thing with the source material Stephen King provided in his follow-up novel. It's very well acted too, Ewan McGregor making a good adult Danny Torrance but especially Rebecca Ferguson (genuinely scary as Rose the Hat) and Kyleigh Curran (a very impressive child actress) leave a strong impression. Also, Jacob Tremblay's small supporting role might be the most impressive thing he has done (a performance so great it supposedly nearly traumatized his adult co-stars if Rebecca Ferguson is to be believed). My one minor quibble is that the climactic scenes perhaps don't have the pay-off which the build-up promised, but by that point I had already been thoroughly entertained for over two hours. Once again confirms that Mike Flanagan might be the most interesting horror auteur of American contemporary cinema.
Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (2019) Dir. Céline Sciamma At the end of the eighteen century, Marianne, a young female painter, gets a commission to paint a portrait of a young lady. To this end, she has to join the lady and her mother in their mansion on an isolated island off the coast of Brittany. Upon her arrival, she is informed that the painter's subject, Héloise, is unaware of the fact that Marianne is a painter. This is because Héloise would otherwise refuse to cooperate, since the painting is meant to be sent to her betrothed in Milan, a man who would give his final fiat to the nuptials upon approval of the portrait. Only Héloise is very much against the idea of marrying and would thus likely sabotage any such portrait if she knew of its creation. A ruse is used in which Marianne is presented to Héloise as a lady companion who can join her on her constitutional walks around the island and its beaches. This gives Marianne the time and opportunity to study Héloise's features and create the portrait without her subject posing for it. Over the course of her stay at the family manor and her work on the painting itself, Marianne feels her relationship towards Héloise shift drastically away from that of a mere painter and her subject. Wonderful film in every sense of the word. How this did not earn a best cinematography nomination from the Academy is beyond me. The amount of frames that are worthy of printing and putting on one's wall are innumerable. The composition of every single shot betrays an almost endearing degree of care. This is a deeply erotic film that entirely eschews the male gaze. At its core it's a film about patriarchy and its straight-jacket effect on women's lives, but it tells its story entirely without any meaningful male characters. There are three scenes that contain male characters, and unless I missed something, a man has an actual spoken line on only three occasions in this film (one of which is limited to a one word greeting "bonjour"). This film thus doesn't quite pass the Bechdel test as much as it obliterates it entirely. Yet even in their relative absence within the narrative, the unseen men hold great sway over these women's lives. The two leads are both terrific in very different roles, with Adèle Haenel's performance growing from the very passive to the incredibly passionate over the course of the film. There are many great scenes in this, but I doubt I'll think as much as about any 2019 movie scene as I will about the bonfire sequence that is used in the poster. In my "best of 2019 movies" list this is going straight to n°2 and it almost feels cruel to compare this and my n°1 ("Parasite") to each other. Both are terrific films that would have topped my annual list in many past years. It's a bit weird that in an otherwise rather fallow year, there were still two features that so towered above everything else. Very warmly recommended.
The Durrells in Corfu, the fourth and final season, and it held up well. Keeley Dawes is terrific as the mother (she was also in the film adaptation of J G Ballard's High Rise, so efforts are being made to track it down. Speaking if tracking down, there was some excellent directing in a few of the episodes, with some great camera work. Directed by Steve Barron. Who, the internet told me, was the director of A-Ha's legendary video for "Take On Me."
I haven't seen a film like that since Fellini's 8 1/2., where everything looked like a frameable still.
Safehouse (2012) It's the simplest of plots, told many times before. Seeming bad guy tells neophyte government worker his government isn't worth his fealty, and while manipulative and self-serving, the claim also turns out to be true. But you don't watch a morality tale for the tale, you watch it to see how the characters deal. And it was enjoyable to see Ryan Johnson and Denzel Washington deal with the pain of navigating their mental mazes, as well as the pain of getting glass shoved into their sides. I also liked the director's color sense. And after two decades of blue and orange action movies, it was cool to see a such vibrant and contrasty greens and pinks and reds in the township action scene. The extremely jumpy action scenes kind of spoiled things, however. And 2012 was probably the last year that ending would have been acceptable. It would have seemed naïve and cloying by the next year and it seems like a children's fairy-tale now.
Another Thin Man (1939) Dir. W.S. Van Dyke II We return to Nick and Nora Charles' lives just as they have become parents. Their plans of a quiet weekend are disturbed when Nora gets a phone call from Colonel McFay, the former business partner of her late father. He needs Nick's services as a retired private investigator to help him deal with death threats he is receiving from a former disgruntled employee who blames a ten year incarceration on the Colonel and expects to be compensated for the years spent behind bars. When the Colonel then does meet his demise, the police deem it a fairly open and shut case with the death threats and the fact that the man making them has seemingly disappeared completely. Nick doesn't think it's quite as simple and sees more than one suspect among the deceased' staff, family and associates. The third entry in the Thin Man series, still delightful thanks to the strong formula of leaning primarily on the strong interplay and chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy. Features Hollywood bad boy Tom Neal in a small supporting role. Worthy entry in the series.
A technological masterpiece but disappointing story IMO I get the need to set up a rather silly suicide mission trope - it is a war movie after all so fine. IMO great suspense from the outset, and the single shot technique worked very well for the trip into no man's land, and as far as the farm. Then things start to get a bit silly for half an hour or so with some kitten strangling and just bad plot development. The ruined city was amazing IMO - like doom in first person. But then the ending was pure corn. It continues to frustrate me that so many of these big budget technical films have such bad writing. Something that became apparent is there is no real payoff to this story at all. Then apparently that was the idea, but it all sat a bit oddly IMO
I don't want to post spoilers, but it seems there are some efforts to understand 1917 as an allegory like Dante's inferno. I find that all a little bit forced to be honest I keep coming back to the issue that there is only one central character to root for, but he has no real story There is just the journey
Seasons One and Two, and starting tonight, Season Three, of NBC's The Good Place, which hasn't disappointed. Watching it on the recommendation of a philosophy professor at my wife's college who, thanks to the show, no longer bristles at the obligation to introduce "the trolley problem" to her ethics class. Thankfully, we're watching it on DVD, so that on that episode we could freeze the frame to see a movie theater in the background advertising two movies: Strangers Under a Train and Bend it Like Bentham.
Ford vs. Ferrari (2019) Dir. James Mangold In the mid 1960s, the Ford motor company wants to change their image, especially with young consumers, and become more "sexy' by competing in racing events, specifically the 24 hours of Le Mans. They do not merely want to compete but they want to win it too. After an initial shortcut to this goal - a failed take-over bid of Ferrari which has dominated Le Mans for years - does not work out, they instead approach former race car driver turned car designer Carroll Shelby and give him the funds to design and build a race car good enough to go toe to toe with the best that Enzo Ferrari has to offer. The result of these efforts is the Ford GT40, but to win the race, Shelby believes he needs the very talented, mercurial and difficult Ken Miles behind the wheel, a tough sell to the Ford suits he has to report to. A pretty straightforward racing movie/biopic that turns out to be a good, entertaining watch. Doesn't try to reinvent the wheel by any means. Some of the race footage is properly impressive. Bale and Damon have good chemistry. A bit of an American-centric view of the rivalry with Ferrari but then it's an American feature, so... A total side-note, but I do wonder why this was marketed as "Le Mans 66" in Europe instead of the original American title of "Ford vs. Ferrari".
Probably the simplest explanation is best-- Americans would have very little idea what the title means because that kind of auto racing (and that particular event) are much more popular in Europe. That's just my guess.