What movies are you watching?

[VinylGuy]

Molly’s Game

This is pretty good. Intriguing true story of Molly Bloom, expertly played by Jessica Chastain.

Hostiles and The Square afterwards.

That’s a favorite , I love the movie and I love her there. Fascinating stuff with Tobey Maguire in real life.

[Anders]

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Had split feelings about this back in 2020, but brilliant at times. I think a second viewing is about time, more so than for most other movies.

[Anders]

Molly’s Game

This is pretty good. Intriguing true story of Molly Bloom, expertly played by Jessica Chastain.

Hostiles and The Square afterwards.

That’s a favorite , I love the movie and I love her there. Fascinating stuff with Tobey Maguire in real life.

Absolutely. I agree.

[Jorge]

The Post

Been looking forward to seeing this again. Some great writing, and terrific performances.

Thought this was awful.

Too bad. I’m having a good time seeing it again.

It's very good

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

The Player

Now we're talking

How many tweaks away is it from being a Lynch film?

[Jorge]

The Post

Been looking forward to seeing this again. Some great writing, and terrific performances.

Thought this was awful.

Too bad. I’m having a good time seeing it again.

It's very good

Stfu

Rude

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[Anders]

Believe you are overthinking it. It settles perfectiy into a history of movies about important newspaper events, and it’s not about Trump or 40 years, but about what happens in the movie. Nice use of Bob Odenkirk and Matthew Rhys.

[Anders]

Phantom Thread

Final movie of the weekend. Really enjoy watching Daniel Day-Lewis act.

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[Ello Sailor]

OMG

[The Argonaut]

The Post was always an odd movie to me. What was the central problem? The New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers and then the Washington Post agonizes over whether they should also publish the Pentagon Papers? And then they make a movie about how brave the Washington Post is? The better movie is probably about the Times, right? Never understood that movie

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[VinylGuy]

Trag is having quite a weekend

[Anders]

«In an online interview, Hannah said that her script is primarily a character study of Katharine Graham.
The Post, Hannah told Asmara Bhattacharya of the website Final Draft—which describes itself as a “Cast & Crew Entertainment Company”—“is not a whistleblower film. It is not about, necessarily, the Pentagon Papers. It’s about this woman [Graham] and how this event ended up being what changed her.”
“’She was a woman who had a voice,’ marvels Hannah, her voice lighting up whenever she speaks of Graham. ‘She stepped up and became the kind of person she would be for the rest of her life.’”

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[Jorge]

I’d also argue that the biggest failure of the post is that it’s mostly told through expository dialogue, and the point of entry for emotional engagement seems to be the veiled context of the Trump era. When it came out it felt like everyone was falling over themselves to say “See?! It’s JUST like what we’re going through now, the oress HAS to cover Trump!” Which as a political worldview makes a lot of sense to me. But as a movie, it felt like people were willing to ignore the fact that Katharine Graham is not a terribly sympathetic character, and Bradlee’s overtures on behalf of 1A are super on the nose and it’s frustrating to watch her character just kind of go along for the ride.

I just found the thing to be incredibly formulaic. And they’re trying to cover like 40 years of scandal by having characters deliver expository dialogue. This is not good movie making!

I think "the Power of the Press" movies can be pretty eyerolly at this point, but most of those complaints don't resonate with me at all. I don't care what characters are sympathetic (might better that they aren't), and I am stumped trying to think of how a movie like this could've been told if not through exposition. This is a really elegantly made film, with some typically gorgeous Spielberg/Kamiński blocking and composition, featuring great actors delivering great performances. It is Award Season fluff, but really, really high-quality. Gimme it.