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AlmostAGhost

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Posts posted by AlmostAGhost

  2. Posted

    22 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

    No, I like the idea, but at the moment, I have a hard enough time keeping up with what everything as it is. I may follow along unofficially, but I just can’t promise a commitment for the time being.

    I do have some Jimmy Stewart westerns on my watch list, though. So I may just bump them up :) 

    I mean, the way I'm picturing it is there's no commitment.  Just do it as you can.  Certainly not to get in the way of HDTGM, Unspooled, Musical Mondays at all.  No coordination, or rules. I enjoyed having Holiday movies to fill my time/mood in December and wanted to carry that on.  Anyway I'll start a thread tomorrow if we do want to share any thoughts on films watched.

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    21 minutes ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

    I'm willing to theme some movie watching around westerns for the month! It's a little bit late notice, but Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is streaming on HBO Go, but expiring tonight. 

    There's plenty to choose from still... I have noticed a whole mess of Clint Eastwood films on Amazon Prime I'm stoked to check out.

    1 minute ago, Cameron H. said:

    That’s what I would think, too. I’m ready with my pick. So if you guys want me to go ahead with it, I will. Let me know. I’m just trying to keep our discussions to mini-episode weeks. 

    I'd say, make the pick and if anything, we can adjust the 'watch by' date a week when we find out on Friday what's up for sure

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    On 12/26/2018 at 9:19 AM, AlmostAGhost said:

    So while we wait, I was wondering... do people want to do "theme months" like how a few of us were binging holiday Christmas romance movies through December?  I know a few you were doing horror movies in October too.  We could come up with a new theme every month.  We don't have to watch the same stuff, no set amount, nothing strict: just in your spare time and maybe we just have a thread to share what we've found/like/dislike?  I liked having a theme to make my choice of what to watch easier lol.  Themes could be anything: genres, countries, "starts with a certain letter," an actual specific theme, anything that has enough choice to keep it interesting. Should we keep this going every month?

    Even though nobody seemed super interested, my theme for January is going to be cowboy/westerns.  Follow me on Letterboxd to see what movies I dig up.  (I'm basing this off Unspooled's first two picks for January being westerns. I'm going all in this month.)

    • Like 2

  6. Posted

    If TCM wants to be on top of things, they should match up with Unspooled.  Like put all the Mr. Tibbs movies up there this week, maybe another Jewison movie or two, and they'd monopolize my viewing for sure.  Throw Searchers and a handful of John Wayne classics up next week, etc.  I always wish I had more time to explore the movies adjacent to the AFI/Unspooled (by director or content), but we only get a week before the next movie and that would be so handy.

    Also when are Paul & Amy going to host some programming on there?  And Paul & June & Jason too.  There's some untapped potential for TCM!  Call me TCM

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    I would argue the opposite: this is still wildly relevant today. People still look at people of color and women in their jobs as they did Mr. Tibbs - a range of disdain to low expectations. Very little has changed.  I mean, he got arrested solely for reading while black, which still to this day happens constantly (and have triggered the Black Lives Matter movement).

    What I like about the movie is what they said in the episode: it's not full of monologuing or preaching or whatnot.  I found the police case to be realistic in that regard too -- instead of showing a racially charged murder to condemn racism, the movie focuses on a regular murder and shows the racism all around that. It's in the autopsy, in the coworkers and boss, in the victim's wife, in the interrogation suspects.  If Tibbs showed up down there and solved a KKK murder case or something, that starts to push into melodrama.  Instead, it reflects reality, showing us how deeply racism is embedded in the everyday routine.

    That's also why I believe it gets a balance in not just being about racism. It is about a murder case.  The comments on society just come along with that.

    • Like 5

  9. Posted

    I had never seen this movie before, and I loved it.  It was very satisfying, like slapping an old racist.

    I even liked it as a procedural.  There's a few styles of procedurals - and this is the sort of old-fashioned version, in how the viewer doesn't know what it is going on and so you have to just take the evidence as the detectives discover them.  It can feel random or convenient.  More modern versions either let the viewer puzzle it out via clues, or just flat-up show you the crime first, so you're ahead of the detectives (cat & mouse style).  I don't really have a preference myself, and when the focus is pretty much purely on the detective the old version is more than fine.

     

    • Like 3

  10. Posted

    So while we wait, I was wondering... do people want to do "theme months" like how a few of us were binging holiday Christmas romance movies through December?  I know a few you were doing horror movies in October too.  We could come up with a new theme every month.  We don't have to watch the same stuff, no set amount, nothing strict: just in your spare time and maybe we just have a thread to share what we've found/like/dislike?  I liked having a theme to make my choice of what to watch easier lol.  Themes could be anything: genres, countries, "starts with a certain letter," an actual specific theme, anything that has enough choice to keep it interesting. Should we keep this going every month?

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

    Cast Danica McKellar or Lacey Chabert and you've got a movie. Call me, Hallmark!

    As I've been watching all these terrible mostly-charmless holiday movies, I think we need to move to get Earwolf improvisers in more of these.  They'll still be pretty bad movies, but the charm level will certainly improve a million times. Danica and Lacey are just stealing jobs from Wild Horses if you ask me.

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

    I once saw my neighbor, who I just would amiably small talk to around the building, unexpectedly at lunch during work when we didn't realize we worked so close.  We didn't acknowledge each other because we were both confused by it and were like 'huh what' until we brought it up a few weeks later.

    I sort of agree that Cinderella isn't the most interesting of fairy tales.  I'm also sort of always wishing for an explanation as to WHY the Fairy Godmother helps her.  I guess just because she's a good person?  But I need more back story about the Fairy Godmother. 

    The adaptions I've preferred are maybe a little darker in showing just how abused/miserable her life is at the beginning (the 1914 version I posted does this well, they show her sleeping on sticks and stuff).   None I've seen really make me FEEL the love between Cinderella and the Prince though.  It just happens because.  I feel like there's a lot of room to flesh this fairy tale out but nobody really does.

    • Like 4

  20. Posted

    42 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

    Serious question.  Why did the slipper survive when everything else vanished at midnight?  I admit I never considered that until watching this yesterday.  I was wondering how Whitney was going to explain the midnight limitation,  To the writers' credit she effectively said "It's a movie.  Relax."  I liked that but it got me wondering.

    Yea this happens in every version of Cinderella I've seen (and I watched 6 different ones this weekend haha) so it's just part of the lore.  I keep waiting for at least one version to explain it.

    • Like 3

  21. Posted

    Yea I did watch it in the '90s and then again last week (though it took me like 3 or 4 sittings).  I don't love it, but I think it's ok.  Very basically, I think my criticism is the lack of artistry/poetry in the filmmaking side of it.  It does feel to me less like a movie open to arguing about though, for sure.  I feel like anything critical I think, I have to also go "but I do recognize this and that..."  But then, that does sort of match how I feel about it -- I do really like the emotional tale of Schindler and how it builds to his ending scene, but really am not so sure I'm behind the filmmaking used to tell it. 

    A lot of positive reactions note how beautifully shot the film is, but I just don't think it's interestingly shot at all.  I get that being 'plain' or making it feel like a documentary/reality is a valid way to go, so I don't particularly hold this against the movie.  But I don't know what people are seeing there?

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    28 minutes ago, bleary said:

    I watched Buster Scruggs on my phone on a plane

    Nah that's still your phone, which is fine.  I think we mean watching on the back of the seat in front of you, where films are edited, squished into the square, seemingly lower resolution, etc.

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    I watch a lot of stuff on my phone, and I know most people mock that, but I kind of enjoy it. It is almost easier for me to immerse myself in the film and filmmaking than if I were just to watch on a tv or laptop.

    Watching classic or new stuff on a plane is stupid tho, for sure

    (Still trying to find time / mood to finish Schindler's List, so haven't listened to the ep yet.)

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