Gryzemuis on 23/9/2020 at 14:43
In that case, I'm not sure it's worth the money. TBH, I'm not sure if any tv-series or film these days is worth the money.
Anyway, not many people seem to have seen Sharp Objects. Maybe because it was on HBO. That's why I mentioned it.
Sulphur on 23/9/2020 at 15:00
People see HBO. People see Sharp Objects. At least, I did. It's a good story, but elevated by its cast and editing into something really well-crafted. Gillian Flynn calls it a 'feminist fairytale', and while I can see why, it's really more of an extended, disturbing journey through a more personal sort of darkness.
smallfry on 23/9/2020 at 23:00
I watched (
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399664/) The Night Manager a little while ago, a spy drama miniseries starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. I thought it was surprisingly good and kept me sufficiently distracted.
Thirith on 24/9/2020 at 11:05
If you liked that one, you may want to check out the BBC's subsequent John Le Carré adaptation, The Little Drummer Girl. While not perfect, it's very good, has a great cast and strong direction by Chan-wook Park.
rachel on 25/9/2020 at 09:15
Thanks for the rec, Thirith, I'll check it out. :thumb:
SubJeff on 26/9/2020 at 00:12
Yep. I hope it's finding it's feet again.
henke on 26/9/2020 at 20:03
I'm thinking of ending things
Yeah, that was good. I felt it. And I'm sure ttlg is full of just-past-their-prime sad fuckers who might feel this movie strongly as well. Pour yourself a drink and watch it, it'll be worth the time.
demagogue on 27/9/2020 at 03:44
First Cow.
Okay, so there's this recent trend of lowkey American historical art dramas. Eggers has been doing it with proto-horror (The Lighthouse and The Witch), which is more like 19th Century style mystery stories in the style of Edgar Allen Poe, as they're not actually scary. They're atmospheric, but even that is really understated. They're filmed in 4:3 aspect ratio (old style), with some dirty filter, high contrast, muted colors.
So First Cow would be the proto-heist brand of this style. There's not really action involved; I mean the central heist involves the titular cow. It's also a story about proto-capitalism, taming the wilds, and identity in the early US, while these things were still congealing and before any of them were really solid. It's set in Oregon territory I think around the mid-1830s to early 1840s (another review was saying 1820s, but they mentioned gold prospecting and the inflow of people as if the Oregon Trail was just getting up and running). Anyway, it's a good setting. It's on the tail end of a trapping economy (which had always been kind of proto-national; a pure mix of nationalities intersecting more with prejudices and national instincts than what we'd call "nationality" today), something more than transient wandering trapper hovels but still far from what you'd call organized settlements, in that shadowland in between, in a territory that wasn't distinguishably American yet; whites were still a minority, and you had different groups claiming a kind of ownership or national vision for the place, the Native nations, Russians, Brits, Canadians, Americans, and then one of the main characters is a very cosmopolitan (de-centered if not entirely de-nationalized) Chinese. Above all this is a buddy movie between a sensitive white guy and an adventurous Chinese guy that just naturally bond and work together with a kind of proto-entrepreneural spirit, and that's what ties the movie together.
It's not telling any grand epic narrative. Everything is shot and acted very lowkey, in little movements and asides in dialog, and the little interactions between friends and strangers, and that bigger backdrop is just hanging in the background. I like this style, and I like these recent movies expressing it. It's such an antidote to the mainstream ADD-addled hyber-blockbusters.
Tocky on 28/9/2020 at 03:30
Dexter. I'm sure everyone has seen it. I'm not sure why I hadn't. The first three seasons are very interesting which means I'm in for a fall in the fourth right? I guess I never thought I would like a serial killer but a serial killer of serial killers is okay by me it turns out. He is surprisingly human and doesn't credit himself with being so nearly enough. Hey, we all have secrets. Forgive yourself.
Sulphur on 28/9/2020 at 03:50
I stopped watching around season three because while I was morbidly (heh heh) curious, at that point it was getting be too much of a bad thing. Questionable plot and formulaic characters aside, it wasn't interested in anything but soapy contrivances and jerking characters along for the ride. I hear it gets much worse after season 4, but I'd had enough of its paper-thin psychodrama well before.
