Current Watching

[Gangster Octopus]

Simpsons did a joke about it too.

[ad hoc]

I'm aware of that. (30 Rock did a joke about that). I don't see how the actors make a living doing it that way.

Well I guess they are not only in one show. They do other stuff.

[Lang Spoon]

We've just started the Gomorrah tv series, as if Dogman wasn't enough bleak Terroni misery. Fuck me, it's good. If horrible. Don Pietro's gaff is like an Australian's nightmare.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Well I guess they are not only in one show. They do other stuff.

....producing one of the now-gone quirks of British broadcasting, the voice over at the end of a sitcom saying "Richard Briers can be seen in Oops Where's My Trousers at the Alhambra Theatre in Milton Keynes" or whatever.

[Benjm]

I saw Richard Briers do an onstage interview at the National Theatre a couple of years before he died. He was very funny and self-deprecating about the life of a jobbing actor and how a coveted role would be one in a West End play that didn't run on too long so that you could get back to Putney or Richmond by 11pm.

We watched Molly's Game last night. Jessica Chastain is brilliant in it and Idris Elba a good foil for her. There's one particularly hokey plot device but it isn't too smart aleck-y for Aaron Sorkin sceptics. I don't know anything about Molly Bloom apart from the film so can't speculate about how accurately it represents her.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I saw Richard Briers do an onstage interview at the National Theatre a couple of years before he died. He was very funny and self-deprecating about the life of a jobbing actor and how a coveted role would be one in a West End play that didn't run on too long so that you could get back to Putney or Richmond by 11pm.

I've mentioned it on here previously but I saw Rodney Bewes' one man Edinburgh show a year or two before he died and he was equally self-deprecating and open about the financial realities of being an ageing, "fairly famous" actor.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

In fact reading those two posts together suggests we should agree between us not to go to see any more ageing actors on stage (although obviously it's a moot point currently).

[elguapo4]

In fact reading those two posts together suggests we should agree between us not to go to see any more ageing actors on stage (although obviously it's a moot point currently).

They were both " a couple of years " before they died. It's not as if they pointed, gasping " You!" before keeling over.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

They were both " a couple of years " before they died. It's not as if they pointed, gasping " You!" before keeling over.

True, but I did have a ticket to see Nirvana when, well y'know (I still have the unripped ticket, it is the only thing I have which the kids will argue about when I shuffle off my own metaphorical stage).

I never did manage to see Nicholas Parsons at Edinburgh, so I can't take any share of that blame.

[Benjm]

We find that many mature performers working in a solo format are happy to guarantee our absence by means of a small regular payment without asking too many questions about precise timescales.

[Hot Pepsi]

Just to see what it was like, I checked out Young Sheldon, the BBT prequel. It starts out with Sheldon starting the ninth grade at age 9 in Texas in 1989.

It’s not a profound exploration of Whiteness and toxic masculinity or anything like that, but it is surprisingly good. It is not a live-audience multicam thing like BBT. It’s single camera. I don’t even know if I’d call it a sitcom. It does the voice over like The Wonder Years.

Sheldon’s mom is played by Zoe Perry, the daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who played her on BBT, so the resemblance is uncanny. His grandmother is played by Annie Potts, an underappreciated national treasure. I forget who plays the dad, but he is also effective.

[Hot Pepsi]

I saw Richard Briers do an onstage interview at the National Theatre a couple of years before he died. He was very funny and self-deprecating about the life of a jobbing actor and how a coveted role would be one in a West End play that didn't run on too long so that you could get back to Putney or Richmond by 11pm.

We watched Molly's Game last night. Jessica Chastain is brilliant in it and Idris Elba a good foil for her. There's one particularly hokey plot device but it isn't too smart aleck-y for Aaron Sorkin sceptics. I don't know anything about Molly Bloom apart from the film so can't speculate about how accurately it represents her.

It was ok. I read some suggestions it would have been better if Sorkin wrote it and let somebody more experienced, like David Fincher, direct it. But I don’t think that would have helped.

The main problem is that the story really isn’t as interesting as it thinks it is. It seemed like it was trying to hard to create a convenient arc for Molly that just didn’t fit - her skiing career ended badly so she was trying to compensate by being a big shot in something else to satisfy her dad. Or something. Even if that is true, I found it hard to sympathize with her “problems” and it seems like she didn’t really learn anything. She just got caught. But what she was did wasn’t really that bad anyway. She basically avoided taxes and lied about it for a while. Oh, and she ran illegal poker games, but as far as I can tell, they’re only illegal because the big casino owners have paid politicians to protect their interests. Who cares?

Apparently the Michael Cera character is based on Tobey Macguire. Not a flattering portrayal. Not coincidentally, he’s not really famous anymore.

Her brother is Jeremy Bloom who skiied in the Olympics and was drafted by the Eagles but he blew his knee out. Now he’s rich running some kind of B2B enterprise solutions thing and telling other people how to maximize their potential and all that. He also founded a charity to help old people do things on their bucket list. It was named for his grandma, but he changed it to his name ‘cos “branding.”

In real life, the whole family seems to be so driven and ambitious for glory and success that it’s kind of off-putting. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted her dad as my psychologist.

[Benjm]

You are right, Hot Pepsi. There is less to the film than meets the eye and the main tension that it fails to reconcile is the downplaying of the character's actions to maintain sympathy for her while simultaneously assuming that they are interesting enough to carry a film. Even the horrible dad is ultimately shown in a positive light. What met the eye was entertaining enough though. I have zero interest in poker and gambling and this didn't grate as much as a lot of self consciously hip casino and/or heist films do.

[Hot Pepsi]

It has great actors. Chastain is magnetic and, of course, Idris Elba is always good in those “I’m too old for this shit” roles.

[San Bernardhinault]

It's a very watchable film. I don't think it's a particularly good film - it's very Sorkin, and not in a good way - but it's easy to watch. I feel like Costner's character was taken straight from one of his many other roles of grumpy old sports coach.

[WOM]

I was a big West Wing fan, but god does Sorkin's writing make my teeth hurt. His and David Mamet's.

[Benjm]

More watchable than good is spot on, SB.

I really can't handle Chris O'Dowd in films. I expected him to start saying, "A poker game...in a Sea Park?"

I may need to register a vote for Jessica Chastain on the Any Old Shite thread.

[Hot Pepsi]

Mamet has turned into a right-wing dick.

[redkyle81]

I know I’m probably a bit late to it but I’m almost through the first season of Babylon Berlin. I wasn’t really sure about it before I started but I have found it very compelling

[danielmak]

I assume this one has been discussed already, but I watched Ad Astra last night. Parts of the film seemed to be ripped right out of Apocalypse Now and other parts straight from Gravity. But on the whole, it was ok. Not something I would need to see a second time, but I had no expectations going into it and the film was generally entertaining.

[Nefertiti2]

Started watching Midnight Diner on Netflix and enjoying it a lot so far. Anyone else seen it?

[Lang Spoon]

I know I’m probably a bit late to it but I’m almost through the first season of Babylon Berlin. I wasn’t really sure about it before I started but I have found it very compelling

we were really enjoying that, then season 3 seemed like a fugging Scooby Doo mystery, bailed after episode 3.

[S. aureus]

I love Midnight Diner. Someone on otf recommended it a while back, but I don't recall who anymore.

[Nefertiti2]

I assume this one has been discussed upthread, but Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories is really, really good. It's on Netflix in the US. The gist of the story is that a guy owns a small restaurant in Tokyo that is open from midnight until 7am. There are about 5-6 regulars that appears in the episodes and then some new folks about whom the story tends to focus. It's not a fast moving show but a really thoughtful comedic drama. As I understand it, what is on Netflix is from Season 4 in Japan and listed as Season 1 here, which is a shame. It would have been nice if they would have added all 4 seasons. Also, the first episode is good but not as good as others so my recommendation is to at least do the first two.

Thanks S. aureus for the heads up- and to danielmak.

[hobbes]

I assume this one has been discussed already, but I watched Ad Astra last night. Parts of the film seemed to be ripped right out of Apocalypse Now and other parts straight from Gravity. But on the whole, it was ok. Not something I would need to see a second time, but I had no expectations going into it and the film was generally entertaining.

I saw it at the cinema. Generally, if it's science fiction, my critical faculties disappear. Put a spaceship and some lasers in it and I'd watch nearly anything. I even rewatched Battle Beyond the Stars recently when it popped up on Netflix.

But bugger me, the only film I've ever seen duller, more irritating and more pointless than Ad Astra was the Thin Red Line. And I've seen The Love Guru.