-The Guest (2014) (Should have been much better than it is, though.)
This was.....
awesome. What am absurdly great movie. Why did i like it? What is it? Man alive.
It's an interesting genre mash-up, but in the end I don't think it amounts to much more than that. But it has a killer style, and Dan Stevens is spectacularly good in it. He is also one distractingly gorgeous man.
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 Sun January 11, 2026 6:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
tragabigzanda wrote:Watched Obvious Child recently. It's a refreshing take on the modern romantic comedy. Jenny Slate and Jake Lacy have real chemistry, and Gaby Hoffman dials back the blithe edginess she has displayed in shows like Girls and Transparent, in the role aof Slate’s supportive bestie. The acting never feels contrived, the laughs are often and out loud, and the script respects the viewer’s intelligence and capacity for empathy as the story unfolds.
Also watched Black Hat. It's a return-to-form for Michael Mann after the sleepy Public Enemies. The standard good hackers vs. bad hackers story is amplified by Mann’s directing, and the whole thing basically feels like a more tech-heavy extended version of the shootout scene from Heat. While clunky dialogue, technical exposition, and a needless love story all take up space, the real thrill is watching the cat-and-mouse game unfold amidst Mann’s singular directing style. He makes the computer stuff feel fast-paced and thrilling, and the multiple action scenes are given a great jolt by the set design, cinematography, and score that lend an intentionally cold, almost sci-fi eeriness to the industrial locations throughout. Be forewarned that A) this is a story that demands your full attention and B) Chris Hemsworth is, inexplicably, bare-chested throughout the entire film. Still, it is an excellent entry into Mann’s body of work, and while I’d rank it below his best films (The Insider, Heat, The Last of the Mohicans, Manhunter, and Collateral), it easily ranks above his worst (Public Enemies, Miami Vice, and the draining Ali -- and I’ve never seen Thief, nor The Keep).
you should post this in the blackhat thread
And they say that a hero could save us
I'm not gonna stand here and wait
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 Sun January 11, 2026 6:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
(Should have been much better than it is, though.)
