MetaFilter

As if the metaphor weren't obvious enough, the scheming kids are just playing ka-Roy-oke, mouthing the words of rapacious capitalism over Logan's original version and doing about as well as Connor does with Leonard Cohen. They are intimately familiar with the tune, but they can't sing for toffee.

I wonder if this season will see a reversal of the flee-father dynamic of the first three seasons, with each one slowly coming back to Logan's side (Connor, now Roman ... by… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:07 AM on April 4, 2023

The Making of Tom Wambsgans

posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:30 PM on March 27, 2023

The dog in this one is a killer, not killed. And you're rooting for the dog. And the dog is pivotal to the plot, near the end.

FWIW, John Wick Director Explains Why the Dog Had to Die in the Original Film
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 5:37 PM on March 24, 2023

SUNDAY UPDATE: Keanu Reeves, Age 58, Having Biggest Box Office Hit in 20 Years with “John Wick 4” — $73.5 Mil Weekend!
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 10:47 AM on March 26, 2023

The best kills in John Wick: Chapter 4, ranked
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:24 PM on March 26, 2023

I saw this last night on the big screen. I had watched it in December on an inflight tiny screen while sleeping intermittently and so last night's post-Oscar viewing was really the first time. It's great. Everybody's great in it and it really pulls a Marvel-esque universe into something for everyone.

One thing I think I spotted was Stephanie Hsu's character, in the fight scene in the woods, at the start of it when she is pulling her sword out of the infinity of other… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:36 AM on March 18, 2023

The mistake is to think this film is about Pádraic and Colm; it's really about Siobhan. She's the main character.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:18 AM on February 4, 2023

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is a movie about men—their stupidity, their ambitions, and their inability to communicate—but the Irish actress is the secret to the film’s success
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:55 PM on February 28, 2023

They missed a joke, should have come out with a straitjacket for Woody.

(Though TBH I only peeked at that opening monologue because some people on the internet were freaking out about it, and, well, meh. The controversial bit wasn't funny, nor really very controversial, or even legible. Fake outrage! The best kind!)
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:29 AM on February 27, 2023

I can remember seeing this when it came out. It might have been the first movie I went to see for a second time later on. It was harrowing and especially because it was so far away from my own experience (California, laid-back fuck war &c). Hutton was the one who stood out for me, and I can remember looking out for him in other movies thereafter. He was good in "Ordinary People," too, which I never did see in the theater, only much later when it ran on TV.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:25 AM on February 27, 2023

Best line: "that's really M.O.D.O.F.K."

I found this one ridiculous but enjoyable. Not unlike the most recent Thor movie.

They wasted Bill Murray, though. He seemed into his Kylar character.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 5:04 PM on February 18, 2023

Oh, and Daphne telling Harper "Maybe you should get a trainer" seems particularly loaded given that Harper expressed interest in have kids, but they clearly aren't having sex.

This was my read too. She says she is going to show a picture of her blonde, blue-eyed trainer, but then shows the kids. I read that as: "Harper, you need to have a kid."

That the trainer is the babyfather never crossed my mind, but it's also fairly obviously the case!
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:11 AM on January 27, 2023

I read these in December, really liked The Passenger except for the bizarro bits with the Thalidomide Kid and the rest of Alicia's hallucinations; I liked Stella Maris a lot better than I had thought I would, because I thought it would be all about those visions and even though it was, it wasn't. There's a lot of hifalutin mock (or real, how would I know?) mathematical philosophy in Stella Maris, like as if Gödel, Escher, Bach came to dinner, but McCarthy's language is just too beautiful to… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:14 PM on January 5, 2023

It's a field Gladney single-handedly invented in 1968 and has been pursuing enthusiastically ever since!
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:26 PM on January 2, 2023

the movie has many infraction points, if your comparison is traditional whodunits. I knew it was going to be a great ride when Benoit solved Miles' mystery theatre setup like the Poirot-alike he is at the first dinner. Air quotes on blood diamonds, chef's kiss.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:55 AM on December 27, 2022

MetaFilter: most things aren't very good and this wasn't really an exception
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 9:47 AM on December 27, 2022

Also, what type of business is Alpha?

It's a grift
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:47 PM on December 27, 2022

Indiebound link
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 10:36 AM on December 3, 2022

Psychedelic Furs for the soundtrack win.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:25 PM on November 30, 2022

It's both better than and worse than you expect. It's ... hard.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:21 PM on November 26, 2022

I read this. It was OK, with some funny / interesting parts. I really didn't care for the whole parrot arc of it though, that just got tiresome after a (short) while.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 8:30 AM on November 22, 2022

American writer William Gaddis has a cameo in Ganja & Hess, playing a guest at a poolside party.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 8:25 AM on November 22, 2022

Includes the t#r b#by scene, in which cartoonishly awful racism ruins a lovely metaphor forever. [CW: cartoonishly awful racism]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:24 PM on November 1, 2022

Go Giants!
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:12 PM on October 29, 2022

I love this movie. It's by far my favorite Wilder. And the book is good too.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:38 PM on October 21, 2022

*mind blown*

does it explain why that watermelon is there?
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:16 AM on October 13, 2022

I love the Fletch books. I had fun at the first Fletch movie fully aware it was mostly a Chevy Chase vehicle & not entirely faithful to the book. I am looking forward to seeing this one, though I don't see how Jon Hamm fits the part.

I never thought I would ever say this about him, but I would cast Owen Wilson. [Unless the Spicoli-era Sean Penn were available...]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 11:56 AM on September 20, 2022

Lightfish scene at the end, post credits, FTW
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:35 AM on September 15, 2022

I saw this when it came out and thought to myself that this director had captured the ambience I was imagining when I read "Gravity's Rainbow;" that's the gritty, stylized, black and white smokefilled world that Pynchon fills with his WWII extravaganza.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 7:41 AM on September 14, 2022

Con Air is one of the greatest movies ever made. It just is.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:40 PM on August 11, 2022

There's a Loki!
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:30 PM on July 7, 2022

They stuck the landing.

Though the scene with Albert felt oddly unresolved; he gives Barry a pass even though he catches him burying a body, tells him this has to end "starting now" and then fade to black. Didn't really work for me, but that was the only thing.

Loved NoHo Hank's rescue of Cristobal, plus the final look of pure panic in his eyes.

Loved Fuches' turn to the Raven, and Sally exorcising her demons… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:35 AM on June 14, 2022

‘Barry’ and the Importance of Consequences

But—and this is the key to the show, as well as the point that makes it relevant to our own lives—he’ll never be done if he’s never made to pay any price for what he’s done. In the parlance of our times: he fucked around and didn’t find out, so he’s going to keep fucking around, to the detriment of society. Barry is, at heart, a show about a guy you like and want to see get his act together to the point that you’re… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:32 AM on June 20, 2022

I was moved by the fact that there was no Charles Bradley fanfare before the title card. Silenced, indeed.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:22 PM on June 7, 2022

‘Barry’ Scores Season 4 Renewal At HBO
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 10:18 AM on June 8, 2022

At What Point Do We Stop Calling ‘Barry’ a Comedy?
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:10 PM on June 10, 2022

I was so excited for this movie when it opened that I went to the theater with my best friends three hours early, to make sure we got a good place in line. After about an hour we realized there wasn't going to be a line. We went off and had Chinese food for dinner, then came back. We were the only ones in the theater.

And we loved that movie! (We had loved the book, loved Harry Dean Stanton, and were in high school...)

(I'm sure it's hardly an… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:32 PM on June 8, 2022

Phoebe Cates married Kevin Kline.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 2:24 PM on June 8, 2022

Somehow the most emotionally healthy character in the show now?

NoHo Hank is an honest man, he's honest with himself and with others.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:51 AM on June 3, 2022

There are a few aspects of it that haven't aged well, which do tarnish the book somewhat.

I would love to hear what people think about this. I felt all the way through that eventually I would stumble on something that made me think this ("this hasn't aged well") and it never really happened (for me). I mean, it's from 1962, but even still feels very progressive (and digressive!) and I would dearly love to know what someone other than me found that made them think that.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:07 PM on April 10, 2022

Neon Buys Rights To Dorothy Baker Novel ‘Cassandra At The Wedding’; Sets Sarah Delappe To Adapt and Sarah DeLappe to Adapt Dorothy Baker Novel “Cassandra at the Wedding” for Neon
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:51 PM on April 10, 2022

Pattinson's trembling lips should be for an Oscar. Maybe also his permanent three o'clock shadow.

This was a big, grim, loud, forcibly epic movie that probably went too far with the backlit heroic ending. The Batman was a bit too kissy, Catwoman could have been a bit more badass, Turturro could have done more with Falcone than just phoning it in from central casting, and poor Alfred was no Michael Caine. But Comissioner Gordon was very good, so was the Penguin, and so… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 4:36 PM on March 5, 2022

Also, for those who didn't stay to the very end or who blinked when it flashed on screen, the YOU ARE EL is www.rataalada.com
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 10:11 AM on March 6, 2022

I wonder if there was ever filmed a scene between Bruce Wayne and the "accountants," one of whom might very well have been the Riddler. That was set up at the beginning, but then just completely elided.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 12:17 AM on March 7, 2022

"I'll be back"
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 3:12 PM on February 26, 2022

Dan wakes up in his own bed, at home. He goes to LMG to confront Virgil, who claims he had a breakdown and had to be taken from the compound. Tells Dan to forget the whole thing. The main focus of the episode is on the past, the story of Iris Vos, the Comet Kharon and the making of the snuff film in the basement of the Vos mansion. Dan and Mark watch the resulting movie, and the invocation of the demon. They decide they need to see if there's anyone still alive from the Visser, and they discover… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 6:25 AM on February 11, 2022

This is an outlier of an episode, a whole other cast in a whole other setting. Felt a little bit like a "Titanic" side story (upstairs downstairs, plus the maid's called Rose...). Very neat effect with the blood welling into the ridges of the icon during the sacrifice scene. The demon's arrival is very Indiana Joneslike. And there's some interesting twinning, maybe not intentional (Emma the Baldung could be Melody; Rose Jess and Iris ... Sam? or Tamara?)
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 6:29 AM on February 11, 2022

I'm finding the junkie / lost boys story a bit of a sidetrack. We really don't need any more evidence that Sam's a creep.
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 6:21 AM on February 10, 2022

I guess I will have to check out the podcast now. [I hate podcasts]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 1:42 PM on February 10, 2022

Mark visits Dan at the compound but can't come in. Mark has discovered Dan's predecessor, Thomas, who died in a single-car accident after his work at the compound scanning old soap operas. Mark buys a collection of books and a film from the William Crest collection. Melody wakes up in Sam's apartment. Dan restores the tape his father made for him. Virgil checks in. Annabelle's in the hospital. Melody confronts Cassandra, there's something in the Visser ... could be the mold. Melody finds the… [more]
posted to FanFare by chavenet at 6:15 AM on February 10, 2022