Current Watching

[Hot Pepsi]

Do you mean Shelby Foote?

[Uncle Ethan]

Been rewatching The Civil War. Magnificent series with insights into how the USA has ended up where it is now. The writer who is interviewed regularly has a voice like honey.

[Hot Pepsi]

I recommend Loot, on Apple+. Very pleasant. Makes fun of rich people. Maya Rudolph.

[MsD]

Saltburn - I still think it was a good, fun, well-played and beautifully-shot film with an iconic ending.
Regarding the actions of Oliver (with the bicycle etc.) who’s to say he didn’t try a number of similar tricks that didn’t work, until that one did? He was the patient sort.

[MsD]

A couple of recent recommendations from me:

The Girl with the Bracelet, nicely played courtroom drama, and The Party, on Prime, with a truly stellar cast including Cillian Murphy and Kristin Scott Thomas.
I picked both of these as they’re quite short, but really good.
Not saying more, you can look them up if interested.

[ad hoc]

Yes I agree with AdC. Some Anderson films are great others don't work. But at least he has an aesthetic and a focus on cinematography and craft above story. I think film in general is on an upswing at the moment with last year producing some truly great films, and I could make a reasonable case* for Wes Anderson having a significant role in that shift

(*I'm not sure if the case would stand up to rigorous analysis, but it would definitely be my starting point)

[Sean of the Shed]

Just to be clear I've thoroughly enjoyed Wes Anderson films in the past (Fox, Budapest, Moonrise, Dogs, Tennenbaums) and look forward to future ones. I looked forward to Asteroid City but ended up disappointed.
It's perfectly possible to criticise an individual piece of work within their oeuvre you know. Good film makers can make shit films as well as good ones.

[Amor de Cosmos]

But, as HP says, it's great that someone like Wes Anderson gets to make Wes Anderson films. They aren't like anyone else's films, and sometimes they are great*. The world would be a much duller place if we didn't get Grand Budapest Hotel and only got troubled superheroes, troubled antiheroes, troubled mobsters, formulaic buddy comedies, formulaic romantic comedies, formulaic thrillers with someone being persuaded to do one last job, formulaic thrillers with a cop taking one last case, and formulaic thrillers starring Liam Neeson as someone who has retired but has a special set of skills.

* obviously, there are some people who don't think any Wes Anderson films are great.

Well quite. Given the formulaic bullshit that gets vomited onto our eyeballs these days Wes Anderson's flicks are light years away from being the worst things to complain about. And for every Asteroid City there's the Roald Dahl quartet. Which was, I think, a marriage made — if not in heaven — then some other interesting place .

[Hot Pepsi]

I’m watching the two-part Apple+ doc about Steve Martin.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QtK3jgh54lk?feature=shared

[Hot Pepsi]

Rushmore is the one I’m not sold on.

Except:
I like your nurse's uniform, guy.

These are O.R. scrubs.

O.R. they?

[Lang Spoon]

I loved the Grand Budapest Hotel completely the first time I saw it, was lukewarm the second. Perhaps because Herself not digging it was so palpable vibes wise. Its an incredible, perfect Fiennes performance even second time around, even if whole bits of it (all the Saoirse Ronan stuff, Defoe being Defoe) didnt work at all.

[Plodder]

Bottle Rocket and Mr. Fox were good, I'll give him that.

[San Bernardhinault]

I think there was a good half movie in Asteroid City - the inside part at Asteroid City, the Tom Hanks part - but the outer wrapper in black and white set in the theatre and documentary felt like a massive and pointless indulgence that served no useful purpose. I'd have enjoyed a more fleshed out version of the middle bit.

But, as HP says, it's great that someone like Wes Anderson gets to make Wes Anderson films. They aren't like anyone else's films, and sometimes they are great*. The world would be a much duller place if we didn't get Grand Budapest Hotel and only got troubled superheroes, troubled antiheroes, troubled mobsters, formulaic buddy comedies, formulaic romantic comedies, formulaic thrillers with someone being persuaded to do one last job, formulaic thrillers with a cop taking one last case, and formulaic thrillers starring Liam Neeson as someone who has retired but has a special set of skills.

* obviously, there are some people who don't think any Wes Anderson films are great.

[Cal Alamein]

Saw his debut film Bottle Rocket at the Lobo Theater in Albuqerque, New Mexico, when it came out. A thoroughly enjoyable and quality film from a young filmmaker.

Not to slam Wes A., but none of his future films were as exciting and fun as his debut. And not to say post-Bottle Rocket films are not w/out merit either.

Much like up and coming band releases an energetic and powerful debut album that hits you way harder than future releases

[RobW]

Asteroid City is a steaming pile of shite. His worst along with The Darjeeling Limited, though The French Dispatch wasn't so great either.

[diggedy derek]

This Town is a series by the Peaky Blinders guy about the Midlands and the birth of two-tone. Maybe it's deeply affecting, to me, I hate the way it's aethetising and mannerising something that was so raw and spontaneous. When they get these details wrong, the whole thing falls apart for me.

[Slightly Brown]

It’s the repetition. He’s just making the same film over and over.

[Hot Pepsi]

That’s not my experience. I liked all of his last few films a lot.

Still, I liked the two animated films the most.

[Hot Pepsi]

Asteroid City just completely overdid it with the West Anderson quirkiness. It was too self indulgent in the same way as a Michael Bay film is with CGI.
I think the problem is that Anderson had become too much of a big deal and has become surrounded by people on and off the set that just think the sun shines out of his arse for 24 hours a day and there is no longer a critical eye there to provide a filter.

I don’t agree with that at all.

He has his thing. Enough people like it to cover the costs of
making the film, plus some. The people that find it too extra can just go watch something else.

We have way too many films trying to appease a wide audience. Most of those are dull.

[Slightly Brown]

Seyfried is great in The Dropout. It was quite weird for me to see her in that kind of role because the only thing I knew her from before was singalonga-Abba. She is clearly more talented than just a musical turn.

Wes Anderson hasn't quite gone Tim Burton for me, but maybe that's because I am more charmed by whimsical symmetry tics than by cliched gothic; and because I'd watch Bill Murray, TIlda Swinton and Jeff Goldblum 100 times before I'd watch Johnny Depp. That said, when he's being his most arch-Anderson, like in parts of the most recent two (Asteroid City and French Despatch), it can get very grating. But Rushmore, Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr Fox, Isle of Dogs and Grand Budapest would be a good return for a career for almost anybody.

We met Bill Murray. We were at some golf thing becuase my step-daughter liked some dude that was playing. We went and watched Murray becuase of course you would and he immediately took a shine to Mrs Slightly. Coming over and talking. Laying it on thick. I’m standing there like a fanny pretending I don’t love the guy.

Cut to the end of the round and we go to the bar. Everyone is trying to get photos with him but we just chatted to him like a normal person. I buy him and gin & tonic as he tells us about him and Willem Dafoe doing yoga. Anyway. We say we’ve got to drive back to Edinburgh so nice to meet you. We’re walking through the carpark and he bursts out the fire door - I shit you not - and says “stay cool, people.” We waved, got in the car and sat in silence…then lost our shit. Did that just fucking happen? Anyway, he’s now married to my wife and I have an anecdote. That bits not true.

[Sean of the Shed]

Asteroid City just completely overdid it with the West Anderson quirkiness. It was too self indulgent in the same way as a Michael Bay film is with CGI.
I think the problem is that Anderson had become too much of a big deal and has become surrounded by people on and off the set that just think the sun shines out of his arse for 24 hours a day and there is no longer a critical eye there to provide a filter.

[DPDPDPDP]

Just finished watching ITV’s Six Four, a 4 part political-crime drama which had very good reviews and was set in Scotland. Extremely meh for me. A very confusing storyline with a very open ended conclusion which results in the viewer almost deciding how the story end, but which really shouts “there’s going to be a second series”

[Hot Pepsi]

I suspect our culture is better when we have more films like Asteroid City that some people score 100 and others score below 40, rather than a lot of movies that consistently get a lot of 60s and 70s.

[San Bernardhinault]

Seyfried is great in The Dropout. It was quite weird for me to see her in that kind of role because the only thing I knew her from before was singalonga-Abba. She is clearly more talented than just a musical turn.

Wes Anderson hasn't quite gone Tim Burton for me, but maybe that's because I am more charmed by whimsical symmetry tics than by cliched gothic; and because I'd watch Bill Murray, TIlda Swinton and Jeff Goldblum 100 times before I'd watch Johnny Depp. That said, when he's being his most arch-Anderson, like in parts of the most recent two (Asteroid City and French Despatch), it can get very grating. But Rushmore, Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr Fox, Isle of Dogs and Grand Budapest would be a good return for a career for almost anybody.

[Lang Spoon]

Asteroid City is just too much. Rushmore and The Royal Tenebaums were brilliant. But the dude just keeps making the same statement. I get he has a style but he’s like a great band that keeps playing the same tune. I’d love to see him do a film that was a bit different. You can’t just eat deserts all the time.

He's become as unbearable as Tim Burton for me.