Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

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Jameron
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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by Jameron » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:47 pm

Bloody Mary wrote:13 Reasons Why
I'm part way through this (Clay is just about to listen to his tape).

Curious fact: Clay is played by Dylan Minnette, who also played Kenny in Let Me In.

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"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was … himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."

Bloody Mary
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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by Bloody Mary » Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:51 pm

Jameron wrote:
Bloody Mary wrote:13 Reasons Why
I'm part way through this (Clay is just about to listen to his tape).

Curious fact: Clay is played by Dylan Minnette, who also played Kenny in Let Me In.

.

I'm open to hearing what you think! :)

As for my last movie, I just saw The Eyes of my Mother on Netflix, in which an isolated girl becomes fascinated with violence and uses it to relieve her loneliness. It is quite atmospheric and gorgeously shot, but opposite to what I would expect from an arty film, the violence is overstated to a trashy-horror level. It's not really a new concept either, with the basic theme of a child damaged by her/his home life eventually going off the rails. (Slight spoiler) In a scene or two the MC's desperation for social contact strikes a chord, but I'm having difficulty connecting that to her penchant for torture. Other somewhat-similar movies like Carrie and May had troubled protagonists, but they weren't murderous to the level of actually enjoying inflicting prolonged misery, which made their behavior more understandable within the context.

Another thing that bugged me was the plot holes. Characters walk right into their doom through making unbelievably stupid decisions (there's that trashy horror again!), and the natural conclusion finally shows up only when it's convenient to the plot, not when it logically would have occurred. I didn't hate the movie, but I have to say the best thing about it was the farmhouse where most of it takes place. It really was a beautiful house.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWLNn5kk0iU

Also on Netflix there's Evolution (2015). Hope this one lives up to the trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yvLuHH9Ay8
"Do not go gentle into that good night . . . Rage, rage against the dying of the light." -Dylan Thomas

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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by gattoparde59 » Wed Apr 26, 2017 1:58 am

Trainspotting.

Been a while since I saw this last. Fun to see all the Scottish actors that I have since seen in other films like Kelly MacDonald and Peter Mullan.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by a_contemplative_life » Wed Apr 26, 2017 3:14 am

PeteMork wrote:
Nightrider wrote:
Look what I found Pete...It's a pretty elaborate set. I wonder which of those little guys is Gregory Peck?
Wow! I had a lot of toy soldiers as a kid, from snipers to guys throwing hand grenades; but nothing that came close to this.
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Jameron
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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by Jameron » Sun Apr 30, 2017 9:49 am

Fatal Frame (2014)

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Largely predictable Japanese schoolgirl ghostly adventures ... I liked it. :D

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"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was … himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."

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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by a_contemplative_life » Sun Apr 30, 2017 2:19 pm

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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by Jameron » Tue May 02, 2017 6:52 pm

Bloody Mary wrote:
Jameron wrote:
Bloody Mary wrote:13 Reasons Why
I'm part way through this (Clay is just about to listen to his tape).

Curious fact: Clay is played by Dylan Minnette, who also played Kenny in Let Me In.

.

I'm open to hearing what you think! :)
I quite enjoyed the format of the show where every episode was a different person's interactions with Hannah. I know Clay was the vehicle to our understanding of the story but I thought he was the best character in the show, I get the feeling I was supposed to think that. Having said that, I was shocked at one point to learn that the events were spread out over two years (I think I got that right, I think Hannah mentioned that it all started happening two years ago), so maybe the format was a bit misleading in that aspect, idk.

*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****

I didn't like Hannah much. I didn't dislike her, but I doubt I would have been friends with her irl. She seemed to either overreact or shut down when things didn't go her way. I felt she was beginning to fall in love with Clay, or thought she was, but then she was very nasty to him in the bedroom at that party. I know that it was due to what Bryce had done but if she thought so much of Clay why push him away, and worse, why blame him for leaving when she told him to go? She knew that he was a "nice guy", an "innocent", not a player like the others, and yet she expected him to be well versed in emotional doublespeak and understand that she wanted him to stay even though she was pushing him away? That scene was really frustrating when coupled with her saying that him going added to the "reasons why". Gah! She did a very similar thing with the Counsellor, she made him start thinking that she was at the end of her tether and then brushed it away but blamed him as well for not following her out of the room and pursuing it. I feel very strongly that in both of those situations she would have overreacted if Clay or the Counsellor had done what she said later that they should have done.

I can't speak to the accuracy of the portrayal of school life in America, but one thing bothered me every episode, those actors were way too old to play high school kids.

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"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was … himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."

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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by Bloody Mary » Tue May 02, 2017 10:12 pm

Jameron wrote:
*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****

I didn't like Hannah much. I didn't dislike her, but I doubt I would have been friends with her irl. She seemed to either overreact or shut down when things didn't go her way. I felt she was beginning to fall in love with Clay, or thought she was, but then she was very nasty to him in the bedroom at that party. I know that it was due to what Bryce had done but if she thought so much of Clay why push him away, and worse, why blame him for leaving when she told him to go? She knew that he was a "nice guy", an "innocent", not a player like the others, and yet she expected him to be well versed in emotional doublespeak and understand that she wanted him to stay even though she was pushing him away? That scene was really frustrating when coupled with her saying that him going added to the "reasons why". Gah! She did a very similar thing with the Counsellor, she made him start thinking that she was at the end of her tether and then brushed it away but blamed him as well for not following her out of the room and pursuing it. I feel very strongly that in both of those situations she would have overreacted if Clay or the Counsellor had done what she said later that they should have done.
.
I felt the same way about that scene in the bedroom with Clay. They obviously were aiming throughout the series for making Hannah imperfect instead of a virtuous martyr, but went a little too far so that it's very difficult to understand why she included Clay in her reasons. It was so frustrating that she failed to consider how believing that he was responsible for her suicide (even though she eventually told him in the tapes that he wasn't) would affect him, maybe even give him a reason to harm himself. She kept saying that people's actions affect others, but apparently didn't think about that in regard to her closest friend. It's not that her immaturity itself bothers me so much; it's that it makes her reasoning seem less natural, what other kids her age might do, and more self-centered even than her peers.

I've heard that one warning sign of suicidal thoughts is a sudden change in appearance, which she did when she cut her hair short. I think one of the "reasons" was that she didn't feel any different after she did - nothing changed. But what did she really expect? Hannah could have adopted a new clothing style, given herself a makeover, but all she did was cut her hair. It's a haircut, not that big of a change. So what?

I've gone back and forth about whether to add this to the list of things that bother me. It bothers me that her final reason was that she was raped. Rape is a horrible thing to happen to someone, I realize trauma is a reason for many people's suicides, and it's not surprising that a troubled kid would want to hurt herself because of that. But the whole series and especially the ending seemed to me to follow a narrative that the worst possible thing to happen to a woman is to be sexually-abused, as if it's the culmination of all trauma, almost like defining women by their sexuality. It was as if the writers couldn't come up with anything more creative and individualized, so they hit on the solution that was most obvious since Hannah is female.
I agree that she wasn't working very well with the counsellor, but still, he behaved quite doltishly. When she all but told him that she had been raped, he should not have suggested that she move on. Knowing from what she told him that a traumatic crime had been committed against her, he should have notified her parents and done what he could to see that she received proper counseling, and that Bryce was prosecuted for her own and others' safety. In other instances (reading the poem in class instead of trying to find out who needed help, for example), but especially at that time, the school let her down in a massive way. I find it incredibly hard to believe that a school would ignore something like that in the present day, for legal as well as moral reasons, but it nevertheless was extremely negligent.
"Do not go gentle into that good night . . . Rage, rage against the dying of the light." -Dylan Thomas

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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by a_contemplative_life » Wed May 03, 2017 1:13 am

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An underrated classic from 1986. "The Name of the Rose is a 1986 Italian-French-German drama mystery film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on the book of the same name by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery stars as the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Christian Slater is his apprentice Adso of Melk, who are called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval abbey."

I really like Sean Connery in his role and this film is beautifully shot. The story takes awhile to unfold, but it's worth it.

There is a very interesting love scene in the middle of the film between the apprentice and a peasant girl played by Valentina Vargas. The intoxicated feeling of "first love" experienced by Adso reminded me of Oskar's falling for Eli in LTROI.
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Re: Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

Post by dongregg » Wed May 03, 2017 1:25 am

The Name of the Rose is such a great book! Thanks for recommending the film. I hope I can watch it sometime. :)
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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