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What's that? @JammerLea's pick...

On a separate note, I am always amazed at the variety of movies people are watching on Letterboxd. I am seeing movies I've never heard of plus ones that sound intriguing. Well done everyone!

I'm stunned

I'm so excited I'm coming out of my shell.

I like soundtracks, but I get what you're saying. I find the 1776 one a bit disappointing because it's Franklin's understudy. I love the Hamilton soundtrack, but now that I've seen the show, I do see where some of the performance gets lost.

On a separate separate note, I would like to ask people's views on soundtracks. One reason the movie 1776 works is the cast had already performed the roles for several years and had time to explore. Supposedly William Daniels (as John Adams) was quite bombastic early in the stage run. As time went on he was able to find the humanity and subtlety. Yet listening to the Broadway soundtrack (I admit I haven't), created early in the run, those qualities wouldn't necessarily come through. I think it's the same with Hamilton. I received the CD soundtrack for my birthday a few weeks ago (a present from my cats) and have been interested in the differences with the Disney+ movie. I would love to buy a soundtrack made from the movie. Thoughts?

tl;dr Without David Byrne you get the Tom Tom Club.

............... silently?

I can't believe I'm going to do this but I have to defend the blow job scene. Wait, hear me out, I'm not defending their choice to test him under pressure with a gun to his head and a mouth on his penis. No. Rather, from a writer stand point I get what they were trying to establish. So the writer of this movie wants you to think that John Travolta is a mastermind on a complete other level. He's got plans on plans on plans, he's got you check mated before you know you're playing chess. To that end he needed a plan for if Stanley was to turn on them or not deliver the cash at some point. Why else would he fake Ginger being an undercover agent and have Stanley think she was an innocent victim if not for it to work to their advantage later. Their plan was if Stanley turned on them threaten Ginger because he will help her which is exactly what happens in the movie. However, part of this plan was stringing her up by her neck and have her life actually be in danger. As we know from the end of the movie she was in on it the entire time so they never wanted her to die so why would they hang her? They only did it because they knew she would be safe. When they meet Stanley they test his ability to perform under pressure and in a panicked state. When they see he was able to do something so fast they know that they have a 30 second window they could threaten Ginger's life during. That scene, as gross and uncomfortable as it was in service of them knowing Stanley could perform later on with Ginger's life in danger and her suffering no permanent damage. That is why that scene is there. As to why sex had to be involved? I can not defend that.

I just finished watching it and while I wouldn't say it is better than the first film, it isn't really any worse. It is VERY low budget, made in South Africa apparently, but the script is surprisingly strong and I actually found myself giving a shit about some of the characters and what happens to them. There are even a couple of pleasant surprises. I literally don't remember anything about the second one and I only saw it a month or two ago.

"Scott Is Not My Dad" by Sister City

They've been much more associated with much worse sexual deviants than me.

I guess the snow business is close too... What with the glitz and glamour of plow drivers.

Also, Hugh Jackman's character knowing enough about wines to go find some and not just grab random bottles is puzzling.

When the FBI guys have Gabriel's crime mansion under surveillance one of the agents says that it was leased 2 weeks ago by a blind corporation. That just made me wonder about the wine cellar. Did the house come with a stocked wine cellar? Or did Gabriel go through the trouble to stock the whole thing for the very short time they'd be living there?

MECHASHIVA! MECHASHIVA!

So I've been thinking more about this film, especially in light of the "Talking Heads To My Talking Heads" podcast. In the podcast, Scott and Scott do talk about how a lot of the songs on Fear Of Music were written in a jam session with the band and Brian Eno, and here, we've discussed about whether or not David Byrne was the driving force in the band or whether those jam sessions were where the magic came about. My take on it is, especially in light of the different versions of events created by distance and memory, is that... maybe it's both? U2 have written a lot of their songs, even entire albums, in similar jam sessions, but retained the "all songs written by U2" practice in all credit and publishing, which has undoubtedly helped them stay together as a band for over four decades. Talking Heads jam sessions were, I'm sure, incredibly collaborative, but I don't know what would have happened if David Byrne wasn't there. From his perspective, it probably does seem like he was the main songwriter contributor, while everyone else felt like it was equal contribution from the band members... which is why that U2 strategy is such a good idea in the long term. And honestly, I do think he was the unquestionable musical genius of the band, and that might have made him difficult to deal with personally, especially because he seems like he was on the autism spectrum at a time when that wasn't understood nearly as well as it is now. So even if everyone was present for the songwriting and jam sessions, it was David Byrne who enabled those amazing songs to come out. Sometimes when you are throwing in all these different ingredients together, you need an emulsifier to make things come together in a final way, to be cohesive. It seems like he was that ingredient, and without him, it Just wouldn't have worked. Obviously, it would be different if any ingredient was left out, and it would have been nice if he was more generous in giving songwriting credit (or not done straight up dick move things like telling a reporter the band had broken up before he'd actually told the band), but I think Talking Heads owe their magic to David Byrne.

I'd like to thank the academy for their consideration.

Nice.

Breeze for Greasy Hands

https://soundcloud.com/wobzymusic/comedy-bang-bang-submission-existential-plug

I like the live shows more to be honest. The energy is higher cause Paul, June and Jason are all trained live improv performers that can work off the audience. I think the ratio of live to studio episodes is perfect right now. Plus they earn the moneys (WAM) and Jason gets to berate the audience.

OMG I didn't think June was going to be in this ep because it was recorded the same night as Escape From LA. "All these words make me fucking sick." I love her so much.

I think this movie is in the same category as Crank/Crank 2 and Fast Five. So crazy and balls to the wall and funny and enjoyable. A lot of the fight scenes in it are pretty great. And Christopher Walken, I mean come on!