Leaderboard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma's_Choice https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2107523/quotes

I’m not done with the episode, but I’m shocked how they feel like Stingo is some kind of interloper into Sophie and Nathan’s relationship. From the beginning, for reasons that are unclear, they are the ones always pulling him into their vortex. Now, if you were to ask Stingo, I’d say *he* would probably say that he was an interloper, but they are the ones coaxing him to play piano with them. He doesn’t just say, Move over, I got this.” They invite him to dinner. They invite him to Coney Island - and not, like, Melvin or any of the other residents of the house. I feel like they see Stingo as being like them - an artist and free spirit- but in desperate need of experience. I mean, another visual metaphor I would point to is the three of them in Sophie and Nathan’s sex hammock. To me, it’s not that he’s a third wheel so much as the whole relationship is somewhat open and fluid. In my opinion, I also wouldn’t classify Stingo as “incel” as that implies a certain level of anger and entitlement that I just don’t feel is present in his character. He doesn’t hate or resent Nathan. He doesn’t act like he’s “owed” anything - at least not to me. I don’t feel like he’s just pretending to be her friend in order to get close. He just feels naive, which is something he tells us right at the beginning. He hasn’t had a life yet and is suddenly faced with two people who have lived too much life. Honestly, I’m still surprised that Amy and Paul (And iTunes apparently) classify this as a romance, but if we are, then I’d say the romance is between all three of them.

Are there any other movies that I’m missing? Is Winter’s Tale Holiday related?

It’s cool to take a picture of your dead lover if they are really SpottieOttieDopaliscious, right? We watched:

At the risk of being unpopular, I didn't really like this movie much at all. It was a chore to get through. I can respect it for its acting. Kevin Kline really surprised me out of everyone. Other than the scene with titular choice and one of the scenes of Kevin Kline viciously berating Sophie, this didn't do anything for me. I can respect it but otherwise a big meh. I don't know if I just wasn't in the mood for this kind of movie when I watched it. This one just felt like homework.

ANSWER ME!

Ooh! See, I thought that he put the flask away and was giving up the sauce to win his family back. I guess really, the only parts of the film that stuck with me was Dre's story line!

Right, he put away the flask and then during the credits they showed a liquor bottle with the Rooster brand label on it.

He put away a flask for to make something more fancy and legit, I think

This. He came up with Rooster brand hooch.

Didn't it end with Rooster running his own giant peach champagne farm?

Did Rooster want out of the business? I suppose he was wanting to spend more time with his wife and kids, but I didn't get the sense that there was something else he was planning on doing after leaving the speakeasy? Again, maybe I just missed this whole part of the plot?

Terrence Howard is known to not be great with numbers or math.

The 25 grand was what Spats was asking to buy him out so he could retire. Why Terrence Howard thinks he is owed that money is unclear to me.

Sorry guys, I had only watched the first half of the movie at the time of my comment. In the second half, Rooster pays back the $1100, but Terrence Howard says the deal was for “25 large.” I think that’s 25 grand?

Rooster owed $1100 to Terrence Howard. Not sure about the other debts.

First off, I liked this this movie. I watched it a second time over the weekend and thought it was pretty enjoyable. You can tell the director's main work is music videos. The musical numbers and the flourishes like the animated flask and the cuckoo clocks over Dre's bed show a real familiarity with creating a scene and mood. As for the plot ... well, that was kind of sparse. One thing that bugged me was that I didn't really get why the club was so important. Why it was so important for Rooster to take it over, and exactly how much in debt he was. I thought Terrance Howard taking out Spats and Ace kind of came out of nowhere, and I never really got a sense of him as a villain. I'm also not real sure why this was set in the prohibition era, aside from just a stylistic choice. Sure, they were smuggling hooch into the club, but I didn't think there was ever any real concern about the cops busting them up. Overall, basically, the stakes felt pretty low. To me, Dre seemed not so much low energy, as just sad and emotionally burdened. I liked his performance, and his chemistry with Angel/Sally. Their story was probably my favorite part of the movie. And the end with Busby Berkeley-esque musical number at the end and through the credits. I also felt the song Dre does while dressing Angel/Sally's body for burial was the weakest, but the rest of the music was really fun. Very Outkast. And final thought - what is with prohibition-era musicals and scoundrels named Rooster? (ahem, Annie).

I wouldn’t say “confounded” exactly. I got it, I just wasn’t feeling it. The only thing I didn’t get was why “Angel” was mad at him when she found out he knew her secret. Like, that’s ideal! Now you don’t have to go through the whole “fess up and have him mad at you for lying” thing. You’re in the clear!

I knew this would be a mixed bag in reaction when I picked it -- some of us will just be in the right mood and enjoy the hell out of it, and others will be confounded. Maybe that's true for every movie, but I think melodramatic hiphop musicals set in the '30s can feel like there are way too many angles going on. I can see the low energy critique but for me, but I think, for Dre at least, that was a character choice. Also thinking about it, the romance brings me in: I liked Dre and Paula together and felt their story. If it wasn't there, I would've certainly felt more cut off from the story.

This was essentially my take (although I watched it alone and *did* bail a couple of times ). It’s not that it was bad. It’s parts were all solid, but not the sum of the parts. Honestly, I found the plot to be kind of dull. Take out the music, and occasional visual flair, and the plot was a pretty basic Prohibition Era drama. Everything was pretty predictable. I mean, who at this point isn’t like “That’s going to stop a bullet” when a character is handed a Bible? It also didn’t help that André and Boi play most everything so unflappably low energy. Aside from the music, I never really felt like they were in it, and consequently, I was never really in it. It’s not that it was bad, but my focus kept wandering as I watched.

Seriously, I liked this movie. Very glad AlmostAGhost streamed it because the group chat helped me make sense of it. I might have bailed a few times otherwise and taken it in chunks. In the middle it seemed like the musical Chicago with musical numbers strung through by a bare plot but it got more emotional as it went on. Good pick!

This movie was IdleWILD, am I right? Hello? Is this thing on?

Okay so all the Skinny Rock talk made got me to do a quick google and rediscover a rock photo jem. And then of course the Mantzoukas similarly couldn't be ignored, and so I give you Rockzoukas:

I've been holding off, saving my 1000th post because I couldn't think of anything sufficiently epic. Well, I'm glad I waited! Here goes... This episode was good, I liked it!

Good episode