I am extremely disappointed by your clearly factually incorrect opinion on Nolan. — AmadeusD

All I can do is quote myself:

The actors try their best, but it’s 3 hours of bells and whistles that tries desperately to be a “masterpiece,” when in reality it’s just an empty, boring, and enervating piece of shit. — Mikie

Well said, if I don’t say so myself.

If it helps, I've not seen Oppenheimer - you could be right.

But I conclude that given his hit rate (prior to Oppy) is 100%, I simply must dismiss this as trollish games :D

I remember liking Memento, but that was 20 years ago. Never saw Insomnia. The Batmans were OK. Didn’t care for Dunkirk— another bloated, engineered, noisy crapper. Inception was cool at times, but also a little overcooked.

Nolan has unfortunately become a try-hard. He makes movies that try to be what he thinks audiences consider masterpieces. What you end up with is something that has elements of gravitas and profundity but really is just a chore to watch.

Ok, that's a bit different from your previous take LOL.

Hmm, yeah Memento is good, but it was essentially nicked, and improved by a French film called Irreversible by Gaspar Noe.

I think Nolan's films are great - they're Hollywood, but Hollywood for less-stupid people haha. To be honest, though, the only one of his films that i think is an objectively 'good' film in the sense of coherence, style, dimension, dynamics, acting, cinematography etc.. is Interstellar. The rest have their moments of stupidity (excepting Batman.. It's already ridiculous).

Interstellar — AmadeusD

It’s the one I haven’t seen.

Car crashes.

Learning From Le Guin | Kim Stanley Robinson

A first draft of history: "January 6th"

Democracy on Trial
Frontline documentary


aired 30Jan24

Krysař or The Pied Piper, a Czechoslovakian animated film from 1986.

I've been watching the British detective series Midsomer Murders. It really is bland, predictable pap with atrocious Mickey Mousing incidental music. Perhaps this is why it is so popular with pensioners all around the world.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." 

~William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

“I was talking about time. It’s so hard for me to believe in it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it’s not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place — the picture of it — stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don’t think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.”

~Toni Morrison, Beloved

Percy Jackson and The Olympians.

Weirdly compelling watch, for what it is - pre-teen mythical drama.

I just watched Gerald's Game. I mean come on, another movie with ped*philia scenes? Does anyone disbelieve at this point that Stephen King has a few TB on his hardrive? It is like when Tarantino writes pointless scenes where actresses put their feet in someone's mouth and casts himself into the role, but more terrible.

Just finished watching the series last night, and i do recommend:

Just tried to get through Tár, the Cate Blanchett vehicle. Lasted an hour. I found it dull, theatrical and self-aware. Blanchett's mannered performance feels like a recital and the character fails to come alive. A torrent of clever dialogue hemorrhaging from the mouths of characters, especially Cate's, has an enervating effect. It all feels deeply contrived. I hear the second half is better. I might brave it later on.

Watching Schitt’s Creek. On season 3– pretty funny, light. Nothing groundbreaking or that interesting.

I’d give it a B.

Wycliffe, Dalziel and Pascoe, Silent Witness....
I'm revisiting the old BBC series I used to watch on PBS. Don't like most of them as much as I did then - except Poirot: I never tire of Poirot.
Alternatively, The West Wing on DVD. Very tiring!

Saw the rest of Tár, and it picked up in the second half. It turns out to be something of a gothic/psychological thriller and feels a little like a languorous and formalist Kubrick movie. Not even sure how much of Tár's story really happens and how much is in the character's mind. But it's still boring...

Looking forward to watching the Lex Fridman hosted debate between Benny Morris and Norm Finkelstein next week. Unfortunately he’s added some doofus YouTuber who doesn’t know shit from shinola on the podcast as well.

Just watched Season 2 of Succession. I was largely indifferent to Season 1, so revisited this show late. Two is much better. It's a fairly unpleasant watch (the people in it are all dreadful) and Logan Roy, the gruff paterfamilias, is not especially well written but is very well performed. As presented, for me it's hard to accept Logan as a business genius or a key 20th century innovator in media and news distribution. The fact he is a billionaire, a Murdoch analogue, we just have to accept. To me he seems more like a low-calorie King Lear, but Cox is strong enough to avoid it feeling cartoony.

Gross.

A beautiful dramatic show plotted in Francoist Spain. The story is about the sweet melancholy of the members of a rich family who suffer from the anxiety of a twisted past. There are other good actors and characters around who interpret the average problems of that specific era. The passional love of two lesbians and the frustration of a woman for not being respected in her job just for gender issues, etc. The scenario is Toledo. (1958)

I just watched Color Out of Space from 2019. I loved it. My kind of film. Some people say it’s best to be stoned while watching it, but I say there’s no need, since the film itself is in a sense totally wasted.

Gave Annihilation (2018) (sci-fi) another spin.
Had forgotten how creepy the screaming bear-thing is.
Also reminds me a bit of Solaris (2002).
I suppose, in a way, it renders something we would likely think of as alive, a lifeform of sorts, whether we (can) recognize it as intelligent or not.
Defying our/human understanding, hard to relate to in an anthropocentric sense, alien.
Relatings-to is by the human characters and their interactions.

Have a cold and binge-watched almost two seasons of Tokyo Vice. Didn't skip through any of it, and I normally skip through series like that.

Also, the new Dune II didn't disappoint.

Male kangaroos fighting.

People sentimentalise kangas, but really they are vicious thugs and can grow taller than a human male. Recently I watched a mob of kangas in the bush. I was reminded of this clip from David Attenborough.

Speaking on animals fighting, I watched this recently:

Screw crocs, mammal power :strong:


Very nice.

"The Game". A 1997 seldom-known, underrated gem starring Michael Douglas.

Only 50 minutes in, but I have to say I like it a lot. And I quit drinking so that's not just my "everything is great because it exists, therefore is intrinsically fascinating" mindset talking either.

Part surreal, to the point its almost supernatural or mystical, without being any of the two whatsoever. Lot of people in power pulling strings and creating scenarios that are virtually impossible, yet nothing is left unexplained. Psychological thriller, I guess. Not directly heavy on the philosophy but many subtle and indirect touches on philosophy of mind, will not disappoint someone watching it solely for the philosophical value, I'd wager.

I’ve seen that. It was a long time ago but I know I liked it. MD is always an engaging presence.