Jorge wrote:I want to know why Malloy dislikes him so much
It's because Villeneuve Is a lot less clever than he thinks he is, and his formal sensibility aint Malloy's bag
Do you think he's every strived to be clever in the way that Nolan has? I don't get that from him at all. I think he's much more interested in mood (all his films) and size/spatial relationships (everything from the Mexico shootouts in Sicario to the ships in Dune). When I think of annoyingly clever film makers I think Nolan, Kevin Smith, Sorkin, people like that.
Ask Malloy
But you seem to be his spokesperson
Come on
Tell us Malloy's opinion
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Arrival
Blade Runner 2049
Prisoners (which I actively hate)
haven't seen Dune or Enemy (though I fucking goddamn ADORE the book it's based on, which was written by one of my all time favorite authors, Jose Saramago) or Sicario
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It's a nonsensical, overacted, mess. I should watch it again. But my memory is that there's literally nothing to like about it. It's plotting is obvious. The performances are pedestrian. I hate Hugh Jackman so much in that movie. the writing feels like it's done by Jorge's AI program.
At the time I had no idea it was a DV film. I enjoy so much of his stuff now that I really feel like I need to see it again. But fuck I hated the experience of watching it at the time.
Also FWIW my understanding of Enemy is that it's pretty different from the source material. The book is outstanding and haunting and wonderful. But, again, I haven't seen Enemy. I really, really want to though.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
epilogue wrote:Also FWIW my understanding of Enemy is that it's pretty different from the source material. The book is outstanding and haunting and wonderful. But, again, I haven't seen Enemy. I really, really want to though.
Yeah the movie plays more like Hitchcock. Still awesome, but it doesn't feel like Saramago, just based on the little I've read of his (basically Blindness, and another one I started and bailed on).
That's what I've heard from others. Obviously, as a huge Saramago fan, it bums me out. But I'm still super interested in the movie. Especially since my good friend Jake is in the movie.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 6:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
« The aliens have come to help humanity, for in 3,000 years they will need humanity's help in return. Banks realizes the "weapon" is their language, and learning it alters humans' linear perception of time, allowing them to experience "memories" of future events. Banks's visions of her daughter, Hannah, are revealed actually to be premonitions; her daughter will not be born until some time in the future.
Banks returns to the camp as it is being evacuated and tells Donnelly that the aliens' language is the "tool". She has a premonition of a United Nations event celebrating newfound unity following the alien arrival, in which Shang thanks her for having persuaded him to stop the attack by calling his private number and reciting his wife's dying words: "War doesn't make winners, only widows."
In the present, Banks steals CIA agent Halpern's satellite phone, and calls Shang's number to recite the words. The Chinese announce that they are standing down and release their twelfth of the message. The other countries follow suit, and the twelve spacecraft depart.
During the evacuation, Donnelly expresses his love for Banks. They talk about life choices and whether he would change them if he could see the future. Banks knows that she will agree to have a child with him despite knowing their fate: that Hannah will die from an incurable disease, and Donnelly will leave them after she reveals that she knew this.
