Current Watching

[WOM]

Current Watching

Ginger Yellow wrote: Missed off my previous list, because it started airing before April: Big Little Lies, HBO's star-studded dark satire(?) of UMC suburban parenthood. It's really good.

Seconded. Really strong, and great to the very last scene.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Current Watching

Several of the series already mentioned. Also Fargo, The Last Kingdom which is quite silly but it'll do as a placeholder until Vikings returns. Genius the bio of Einstein on National Geographic, big names, well produced but Ron Howard. National Treasure with Robbie Coltrane, dark but superbly acted. The Good Fight continues to impress with its soapy political topicality. The Son AMC's Western based on Mexican/Texan conflict along the border in 1915. Interesting, but Pierce Brosnan is a totally implausible eighty-year-old.

[tracteurgarcon]

Current Watching

WOM wrote:

Missed off my previous list, because it started airing before April: Big Little Lies, HBO's star-studded dark satire(?) of UMC suburban parenthood. It's really good.

Seconded. Really strong, and great to the very last scene.

I concur.

I, kind of, half watched the first episode and almost wrote it off as a glossy, Desperate Housewives kind of show, but I'm so glad I went back and watched it properly.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Current Watching

'Big Little Lies' thread

[Levin]

The Battle of Algiers is good isn't it?

I don't have much to add beyond that. Oh except that I'm finally using my bfi membership.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Battle of Algiers is astonishing. I have shoehorned it into many a module's screening list at work and even students who normally yawn at one of my 'history lessons through film' are gripped and impressed.

I have been watching The 100, up to season 3 now. It's rubbish, really- 'Hollyoaks in space' (or maybe, given the large no of Aussies in the cast 'Neighbours in space') - but I have a longstanding interest in dystopian sci-fi and the young people seem to like it, so I will cling on for now.

[This post brought to you from 'sublime to the ridiculous prodcutions']

[Levin]

Astonishing is the word. I'm glad I got to see it at the cinema as well, with the excellent Morricone soundtrack at full volume. If I have one criticism it's that I think the coda isn't really necessary. Why not end it with the end of the battle if you assume that your audience will know that Algeria achieved independence?

I keep meaning to start a thread about how much knowledge of a film/play the viewer is expected to have before seeing something but can't find the right words to express it, at least not in a way that will lead to a discussion. How much exposition can you avoid having characters say because it's been absorbed in advertising and reviews? Under the Skin can only get away with the lack of dialogue because everything written about it says that it's about an Alien in Scotland.

I have since last night added some books on the Algerian war to my wishlist. It also reminded me that I have a board/war game on Algeria on its way to me.

Edit: There have been quite a lot of dystopian sci-fi series made in america in the past few years haven't there? I have a friend who watches a lot of the SciFi channel and I've seen bits of an angels rule las vegas thing and something post apoc where the American flag was banned. I guess one of those isn't really sci fi is it?

[Felicity, I guess so]

I think the latter sounds like 'Revolution'. I lasted about half the 1st series on that. Equally built around 'hot young actors to appeal to the teen audience...' There's definitely a book to be written about why almost all the YA novels/films/tv are dystopian at the moment.

Altogether now 'NOOOOOO FEEEEWTURE FOR YEEEEEW!!'

There I've even come up with the title.

[Levin]

Yes, Revolution is the one. The Electricity stopped working so we made America illegal.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Watched Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland yesterday. I'd not seen it since it was first televised in 1966, but remembered being vaguely disappointed and couldn't remember why. Now I do. In many ways it's a shambles. Miller clearly has little directoral ability, particularly when it comes to dealing with actors and pacing a scene. The girl who plays Alice looks right but is beyond hopeless at delivering a line. So, yes for those reasons it's a bit of a mess. However it's a very interesting and curious mess. To begin with the cinematography and art direction is excellent. The film has the look of Victorian photographs, not just in costuming but also in cluttery set dressing, and the tonal quality of its black & white imagery. Secondly it has a slew of actors who are able to transcend Miller's shortcomings: Perter Cook as the Mad Hatter; Peter Sellars, the Red King; Michael Redgrave, the Caterpillar; Leo McKern, the Duchess; Alan Bennett, the Mouse and especially Sir John Gielgud and Malcolm Muggeridge (really!) as the Mock Turtle and Gryphon respectively. Structurally everything about it is wrong — for example the tea-party is tortuously boring and seems to go forever — it underlines the point for sure, but Miller insists on doing so literally. In a way though you get hypnotized both by his incompetence, and the overall look of the film, as much as you do Ravi Shankar's sitar that provides the soundtrack. Worth watching in the 'here and now' as a period piece about an earlier period piece.

[Wouter D]

Just watched the first episode of the Sopranos. If it keeps up this level, we're going to do all six series over the summer.

[ursus arctos]

Probably biased because of the familiarity of the milieu, but you may want to start clearing your calendar

[Eggchaser]

Casablanca on Amazon Prime. Still amazing, even with three quarters of a bottle of champagne and three beers assaulting the senses.

[beak]

I've not properly watched owt in ages, having been compelled to watch stuff for my work (Dutch experimental film) and my studies (early sound film). Having got all of that out of the way I treated myself to 2001 on 70mm. Not as good as I remember it being, but still dead ace. Going to see it again on Tuesday, as I've a friend who wants to watch it and I get free tickets. Doing a cinema double-bill of that then Taxi Driver. Then going to watch Raging Bull on the Thursday (this is all part of a big Scorsese thing at EYE, if you are noticing a small pattern there).

Also I binge watched all of the new Twin Peaks, quickly getting over the not-arsedness the first two episodes got in me somehow.

[Gangster Octopus]

Watched Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland yesterday. I'd not seen it since it was first televised in 1966, but remembered being vaguely disappointed and couldn't remember why. Now I do.

Glad you said that, 'cos I remember being disappointed too. But that's 'cos I was a child, and wanted to see cartoons...

[ian.64]

Working my way through the second series of Curb Your Enthusiasm currently. I know there was a thread devoted to it on the old OTF site - and doubtless all aspects have been well and truly chewed over - and I can say I'm being well entertained by it, however I'm a little annoyed every time I watch it. Perhaps I sympathise a little too much with Larry David's plight, fictionalised though it is, but the universe he resides in - peopled by too many unwilling to see his side of the story whenever there's a major fuck-up that goes widely beyond his control - seems too contrived, too deliberately set up to ensure he's always on the receiving end. Perhaps that was the joke, but there are times when I find myself going 'oh, come on' when the domino effect caused by David assumes slightly ridiculous proportions. Yep, David's fictionalised self acts like a dick sometimes, but the irritatingly painful consequences that ensue make it seem that the series should be subtitled 'Adventures With Amazing Unreasonable Assholes'.

I'm probably opening myself to a right critical clip around the ear - and I must stress I do enjoy this show - but am I the only one that feels this? Or am I missing some kind of point?

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

'Rake' on Netflix. Awesomely excellent Australian legal black comedy drama thing. All four seasons. Richard Roxburgh is fantastic as Cleaver Greene, but is also supported by a uniformly brilliant cast.

[Amor de Cosmos]

We really like Rake too. Though I do think seasons three and four are bit of step down.

[Hot Pepsi]

'Rake' on Netflix. Awesomely excellent Australian legal black comedy drama thing. All four seasons. Richard Roxburgh is fantastic as Cleaver Greene, but is also supported by a uniformly brilliant cast.

They tried an American version with Greg Kinnear in the lead role and the setting in LA, but Fox didn't give it much of a chance and cancelled it before Kinnear even had much of a chance to do the talk show circuit to promote it. I liked that version, but I also like the Australian one a lot, though I have to pause a few times an episode to go into a wiki hole on Australian law and/or geography.

I've been watching mostly garbage and thinking I'm done with TV.

I wasted a big chunk of last weekend watching the first season of Shooter on netflix. It's a USA show based sort of on the film with Mark Wahlberg, but mostly on the books it's based on. Not sure why I find it appealing. It's kinda right wing, I suppose, and it loses steam part way through. I just wanted to see how it wrapped up. I won't bother with season 2.

Watched all of Friends from College, because it has such a good cast and is occasionally very funny, but overall, not good. It's bad enough that it's another comedy about attractive affluent people in New York, but it's grating to see affluent attractive people in New York in their 40s act like they're 23. I found that part sort of hard to believe. In my experience, that shit works itself out by age 32-35.

Only show I'm really committed to is TURN, which is almost over. Best portrayal of the American Revolution on film that I know of. Lots of details are fictionalized, but I think it gets the general vibe of it right. Canadians might not like how Simcoe is the main villain, other than Benedict Arnold. Lots of people seem to think it's inaccurate. I'm not convinced that it is.

[Wouter D]

Probably biased because of the familiarity of the milieu, but you may want to start clearing your calendar

You weren't wrong about that. Eight episodes in, and we're hooked alright.

[Levin]

I'm probably going to go see Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets this weekend. Despite knowing that it is almost certainly going to be rubbish.

[San Bernardhinault]

I've watched the first half of Ozark on Netflix, and so far I'm mostly loving it.

It's pretty fun. It stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. The basic premise is that a financial advisor has to run away with his family to the Ozarks because of dodgy money laundering for drugs cartels. A little bit of Breaking Bad in here, definitely.

On the downsides:

Its characteristation of Missouri White Trash is distinctly dodgy
There are a couple of plot holes that are bothering me at the moment - I'm hoping they get fixed, but doubt it
It's got that modern Prestige TV thing. Long, lingering, unnecessary "artsy" shots. Some mumbled dialogue. None of the characters is actually a decent human being

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yes. Ozark's been criticized, like other Netflix series's, for being driven by audience data rather than originality. Breaking Bad is an obvious model, even to the extent of co-starring Julia Garner (who's very good here.) That said it's watchable enough and well written, plus Laura Linney's always good to see in anything. Finally, there's not a heck of competition on TV at the moment it must be said,* though the new series of Ray Donovan begins Sunday, this season with Susan Sarandon.

* A slight exception is I'm Dying Up Here, set in and around the stand-up comedy clubs of LA in the early 70s. Without ever actually blowing you away, it has a many fine small moments, and the virtue of originality.

[Gerontophile]

Watching the Reginald D Hunter documentaries on the Beeb about "Songs of the South" which is pretty good. His bits to camera are a teensy bit stilted, but the actual voiceover is superb. Worth a watch if you have any interest in it at all. Or like looking at pretty pictures.

And after a quick shufti, they are available on Youtube.

[Eggchaser]

Watching that too. Excellent.