Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

What does "Tar tunnel" mean? Some connection to the film?

 

Yes there are a couple of shots in the film of her driving/riding through this tunnel. It's the Queens/Midtown tunnel in NYC. Very distinctive blue, yellow, and white tile.

 

I was hoping that would be the answer.

I haven't been in the Queens/Midtown tunnel for many years. After going to college on Long Island & using the QMT often in those years, I vowed to never go back. I lapsed once, a long time ago.

 

The Banshees of Inisherin, 2022. Had I been even ten years younger than I am now, I don’t think I would have appreciated this film as much as I did. Brendan Gleeson & Colin Farrell are superb & perfectly cast in this movie. I’m not going to try and explain the plot or the movie itself. I find it too difficult to keep it short when I do. I’ll just say that it’s a human story about friendship, loss, getting older, realizing how precious time is and each main character goes thorough an introspective examination of who they thought they were, who they are and what the future holds for them. Each in their own way, each at different stages of their lives, each discovering that the routine life they’d enjoyed inevitably changes and time has its reverberations. A simple story in a simple setting at a simple time with ordinary people who experience profound realizations due to life’s circumstances. Films of this genre are scarce nowadays. As I mentioned at the beginning, I believe it helps if you’re a certain age, having lived and felt the different phases of life based on the age of the characters. I can certainly identify with the character Colm (Brendan Gleason) being the same age and having similar outlooks and thoughts about what time I have left and how to spend it in the best way I can.

 

Just finished episode-9 (of 10) of Netflix' THE NIGHT AGENT. Really enjoying this and will be sorry when it's over. Those are 2 statements I can only make about a handful of shows on Netflix and Prime.

Just started watching the new Netflix film, KILL BOKSOON. It's irresistable to me: it's Korean, filled with gunplay and deadly fighting, and has a rather nuanced/different lead character. The action is well done (a necessity in this genre), the writing is inventive, and the non-action scenes with the lead character have an appealing vibe of snappy/deadly drollery. So far, so good with KILL BOKSOON.

 

Please split this out... I rarely visit this thread due to the potential for spoilers, but this deserves its own thread

 

Not sure if I've posted here before about Prime's TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN. Season-3 just started, and so far (2 episodes in), it's a real doozie.

This is big-time streaming content, among the best, most expensive things Prime has ever done. This is marquee-value content, and looks the part. The exotic, frequently changing international locale, deep cast of characters, and thrilling action set-pieces all bring that point home. Prime has lavished much talent and a deep budget on this show, and the results are there in every scene.

We'll leave aside how you may feel about Tom Clancy's fiction; the "But I'm just an analyst" absurdity at the center of the main character's back-story; and the ever-present risk of descent into jingoism porn. The reasons I keep coming back include strong writing, fine acting, and the well-articulated tension of living the life of espionage.

I'm a sucker for this kind of material...right now this show is really scratching that itch...

 

Already reviewed by our great @ColtMrFire , I still would like to share this because Trailers from Hell does wonderful commentary on generally old and relatively obscure films and its usually all contained within the length of the movie trailer which means its a quick analysis or some interesting trivia. I chose to share Robocop since its one most would know. TfH is great nostalgia.

Warning!: this particular narrator Dan Ireland (passed in 2016). sad

 

The video by @ColtMrFire taught me many things about ROBOCOP. This video by Dan Ireland gives even more context.

I have to admit to taking this film lightly when it first came out. In my defense, it was the '80s, an era when a succession of big-budget, violent & innovative sci-fi films hit the screens. Though both the narrative of this film and its technical execution (direction, special effects, dialogue) really were different and boundary-pushing, they didn't stand out as much then as they do now. I'm especially reminded of that jaw-dropping "boardroom" scene with the robotic machine gun (which was just nuts).

• It also has Miguel Ferrer, one of my favorite love-to-hate him actors ever. He played so many evil shitheads, so well, that it was easy to forget what a gifted character actor he was
• And his parents! His mother was the great singer, Rosemary Clooney & his father was Jose Ferrer, a huge star of stage and screen

It's even more noteworthy that this was Vanderhoeven's first big-$$ sci-fi film, as well as his first Hollywood film. That's really remarkable.

BTW, Peter Weller is still out there doing great acting. He has aged into a really fine character actor. Most recently I saw him do fine work in Netflix' LONGMIRE.

 

I'm 6 episodes into the 8-episode season-3 of TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN on Prime. This is a thrilling series that often feels like 8 consecutive 50 minute films. Production values here are very high, with a dizzying array of constantly changing foreign locales in play--with a number of locations designed to look like seats of power of major countries.

The action set pieces (multiple & well executed) get most of the attention, but for me, it's the acting that really dazzles. John Krasinski, Michael Kelly and Wendell Pierce continue their terrific work in this series, but it's the two female leads who are blowing my mind:

• Betty Gabriel plays Elizabeth Wright, the steely, fearless top CIA official who runs Jack Ryan (Krasinski) & James Greer (Pierce). Betty is a compelling actress I somehow never saw before. I'm really liking her performance & will seek out other films she was in, including GET OUT (gotta see that one)
• German actress Nina Hoss plays Alena Kovac, President of Czechoslovakia. It's a true powerhouse performance. She has to look and act/react like a real President would, and she does it brilliantly. Again, I somehow never saw her act before, but will remedy that soon with a couple of her films.

Every now and then episodic TV hits the jackpot & nails it. TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN does this. Every penny of the obviously big budget is right there onscreen. Amazon Prime has a production pattern quite unlike Netflix': they put out far fewer original series, but some of them are among the best streaming content available IMO (ie, BOSCH; GOLIATH; and this).

 

Hey @Pharmaboy, have you ever watched any of the series Extaordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix. It's up your alley being a Korean show. It has received good reviews, for whatever that's worth. Let me know what your opinion is please.

And thanks for the Jack Ryan recommendation. I will give that a look starting tonight.

 

No, haven't seen any of it. Had it bookmarked at one point, but never watched.

I'm very fond of Korean police procedurals and revenge epics, but have done far less well with series having romantic &/or comedy elements like this one, which also deals with autism of the main character.

Guess I just haven't been interested enough to try it yet. Sorry I have no information for you.

 

I've had a huge crush on her since I saw her in Homeland. She's a great actress. One on Homeland's qualities was its cast of supporting actors, especially F. Murray Abraham and Rupert Friend. It's too bad she didn't have more screen time.

 

I never saw HOMELAND (no access) and never heard of Nina Hoss until season-3 of JACK RYAN. But I'm making up for lost time. I'm 2/3s through A MOST WANTED MAN, the John le Carre adaptation that was Phillip Seymour Hoffman's final performance (both actors are very good in it); and will next rent PHOENIX, a 2014 German film that won a number of awards (she is described as being amazing in it).

Nina had so many scenes with men & so few with women alone in JACK RYAN, that I didn't realize how tall she is (5'11"). However, in her numerous scenes with Phillip Seymore Hoffman, it's easy to see both her height and physical grace.

She's quite a talent...I'm just playing catch-up now.

 

Have to get something off my chest about director/writer Nicolas Winding Refn.

Last year I began watching TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG on Prime Video. The title has a ring to it and the series stars some actors I like, so I dove in. I never made it past the 1/2-way point of Episode-2. It took me awhile to realize it, but this director's "style" (a series of long scenes with glacially paced dialogue & camera movement) was so obtrusive, so reliably robbing each scene of drama, that I couldn't bear it. I threw up my hands and gave up on a promising series. I think what finished me off was a pan that took 20 seconds to complete, and then when it was done, nothing happened (again).

Mind you, I've seen a ton of cinama from all over the world in which slow pace, slow camera work, and halting (or absent) dialogue are defining creative traits of a film, usually enhanced by nuanced, clever cinematography that builds something visual around the slow pace. I can handle slow. But "slow" the way Nicolas Winding Refn does it simply defeated me.

OK, I moved on. The other night I began watching an intriguing looking Danish series, COPENHAGEN COWBOY. It's a strange story set in a strange place (what looks like a middle-class house in central Europe), featuring a bunch of sex-trafficked women and what look like criminals who keep them captive. OK, not delightful, but not every story has to be pleasant. The cinematography, saturated colors and clever use of light & shadow are to my liking. But about 2/3s of the way through episode-1, I felt a naggingly familiar thing: this show is very slow, painfully so. The camera moves millimeters at a time; there are long pauses with no dialogue and nothing happening; and lots of blank facial expressions. It reminded me somehow of TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG, despite the fact that the story is very different. "What are the odds it's the same director?" I thought.

Sure enough when the credits rolled at the end of Episode-1, there was the director's name: Nicolas Winding Refn.

I have just one question for this man: what the f**k?

I don't enjoy being critical, but this director's stuff is too much like watching paint dry...

 

I think Ozu was a master of this type of directing. Tokyo Story is a masterpiece based on this technique. Some scenes especially the ones involving the elderly parents by themselves, are nuanced but we can understand exactly what they’re living/ going through/ experiencing in that moment.

 

Somehow I only saw part of one Ozu movie (100% my bad -- he's a master director). Think it was TOKYO STORY. Ozu did a very special, empathetic iteration of the "not much happens" style. A LOT was happening under the surface of each scene. The viewer needed the smarts to sit still and really observe. Context was everything. I think Ozu found visual expression of the deeply anchored manners and inhibitions of Japanese social interaction during the '40s/'50s, when everything had coded meaning. He literally was filming social context.

I saw nearly all the films of Ingmar Bergman. Several of my favorites (PERSONA; WINTER LIGHT) included lengthy scenes that were visually static, sometimes also silent; yet there was tremendous tension underlying the stasis. In PERSONA there was a notably static hospital scene with just Liv Ullman in the frame. It was very dimly lit. Not much happened. But the viewer knew this deeply troubled woman was bottoming out. The soundtrack was soft, evocative. A ghostly excerpt of Mozart's "Magic Flute" gave the scene great depth. We watched a woman who'd lost the ability to speak--but could still think and feel. Powerful stuff.

IMO onscreen stasis is not disqualifying at all--but for it to really work, it would be done judiciously to express the context of a nuanced story.

 

Tonight I had the pleasure of catching THE LAST STARFIGHTER on the big screen. I've seen this movie many times and it was a staple of my 80s childhood, but I missed the theatrical run upon its release. So finally getting a chance to see it in a theater was a treat.

And man this movie is dated. But it's dated in a way that Hollywood should be ashamed of. At times it's cheesy and hokey and the audience was guffawing alot, but it reminded me of a time when Hollywood wasn't so f'ing cynical and tried to tell inspirational, heart warming stories without pushing an agenda or trying to subvert expectations in some bizarre, self referential, post modern, hip/cool way. Hollywood has gotten waaaaaaay too self conscious. They're like an awkward teenager at the school dance. The Last Starfighter feels like a mature adult that isn't afraid to show its softer, more playful side. I forgot how damn funny the film is! The humor was really well done and it wasn't afraid to push certain sexual boundaries but never felt tasteless or crude.

The visual FX, while groundbreaking at the time (it was one of the first to use large scale CGI for the dogfight and space sequences), is kind of laughable now... and yet, it still had this ability to suck you in and you felt the sense of scale with the visual FX, even though the textures were obviously very outdated.

The film borrows HEAVILY from the first Star Wars (NOT the prequels), and you can really see how obsessed Hollywood was with that heroes journey stuff back in the 80s... but hey, it works, and that part of the film doesn't feel dated, since those archetypes are primal and will always reach deep into our subconscious.

Seeing this tonight really made me sad for the current state of movies, and I feel Hollywood desperately needs to get back to these old, primal forms of storytelling, with succinct but well rounded characters that aren't winking at the audience, humor that doesn't overdo it but isn't afraid to offend anybody, elegant, inspirational themes that aren't trying to be hip or edgy or cynical or post modern. Top Gun Maverick is a film I keep bringing up that perfectly balances old school storytelling with modern sensibilities. But Hollywood is notoriously stubborn and slow to adapt, and unfortunately only people like Cruise seem to be able to retain and push these kinds of stories anymore.

And MAN what a soundtrack! Back when films had large scale, bold, romantic and inspirational scores as opposed to the Hans Zimmer inspired crap we get now.

A sequel has been in the works for what feels like decades, but the rights to the property have always been a legal mess. Apparently there's real momentum on the sequel now though, with a sizzle reel and everything.

 

Watched this one yesterday and loved it. If you liked The Menu (and agreed many people don't), it should appeal to you. Same sort of crazy.



Palme d'or winner at Cannes last year, have to recommend.

 

I would see this one for Woody Harrelson. He has a long history with satire (KINGPIN, among a number of others).

Required viewing to prepare for both films you mention: THE DISCRETE CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Luis Bunuel had the magic touch for satire).