movies

Bird man and the whale come to mind

This happens a lot with old movies.

A film comes out that's revolutionary, so every film after it copies it. Future eyes lack that context, so they just see something that looks like everything else they've seen.

Citizen Kane is a good example. The writing, editing, and cinematography were revolutionary at the time. But, through a modern lens, it appears very ordinary because it's very similar to every copycat that followed it.

We compare the slop of the present to the masterpieces of the past because we don't remember the slop of the past.

It's not just you, my friend.

Among many movies, I felt that way about Killers of the Flower Moon and it literally took me to fall into a random convo with the girl who cleans my office at work before I found a like-minded individual.

That movie and The Irishman were piss, but everybody insists they are masterpieces because Scorsese made them. Scorsese is just like James Cameron and Fancis Ford Coppola where they have reached an age and are so accomplished that they have lost touch with the world and are surrounded by yes men who don't dare tell them no. And so they make very long and very shitty movies that are more for themselves than they are for anybody else. At least, Cameron is able to make his avatar slop entertaining while you're watching it even if it is forgettable af.

Killers of the Flower Moon was particularly infuriating for me because it was so clearly just Scorsese making yet another movie about white men who are shitty, while pushing the native Americans off to the wayside as supporting casts in the movie that was supposed to be about them.

I read the book too because people kept telling me my opinion was wrong and that this was a good movie that is very faithful to the book. Well, clearly every person who claimed this, did not read the book because the book very much stays with the native Americans and their perspective and the case is treated the way it normally would when you have a conspiracy/murder mystery. You get invested in this people, you fear for them and the revelations are horrible.

Scorsese was like: how about we make the movie entirely about the bad guys and we have no reveals ever because we are told exactly what and how things happen from the start and treat the native Americans like they are ignorant, brain dead idiots who fall for the easiest trick in the book? Yeah, let's do that. Let's make the natives stupid and naive and have the conmen be super obviously evil and gross too, to the point that we don't understand how any of these native Americans could have ever called them friend or family. Let's race swap the only nice white man in the movie too. He was native American in real life,, but for whatever reason they made him white in the movie. I still don't know why they did that. I thought this was supposed to be authentic to real life. We do not race swap historical figures. I thought we all agreed that it was dumb when they made Anne Boleyn black. It's also dumb when we make a native American man white in a movie about how white men committed systematic murders on native Americans to get their money.

Oh, let's also make the movie 4 hours long and throw a temper tantrum when cinemas around the world implement intermissions so that movie goers have a chance to pee and get refreshments. No no, this slop is ART and Scorsese-manchild wants you to sit through all 4 hours of his slop because it's his movie.

Piss movie. I hated it so much and nobody agreed with me until I spoke to my cleaning lady who completely understood where I was coming from.

The book is so much better. Such a well crafted blueprint for a suspenseful movie or TV show about a horrific chapter in native American history and how oil money attracts all the predators and vultures in the world to eat you and your family until nothing is left. Not even bone fragments.

But no. Scorsese cannot make movies from any other perspective than that of white men with corrupt souls so, sorry, native Americans. You gotta be supporting casts in your own friggin story.

Amazing. Piss movie. It riles me up everytime I think about it and it riles me up even more how much undeserved praise it recieved. Piss. Movie.

it's the former, not the latter

I'm bitter and old, AND movies have gotten worse. All those things are true.

I have better now luck with TV shows. Currently, Pluribus is good.

I'm on here now, because I couldn't find anything to watch tonight. I'm hoping One Battle After Another is good, we'll see. Often, I turn off a new movie less than 15 minutes in.

It's my opinion on Citizen Kane, and I'll die on that hill. It's just... fine. Nothing extra.

I can understand that I could have been something novel and groundbreaking back then, but calling it the best movie ever made in our time is just beyond me.

"damn kids get out my lawn"

Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Mostly I just wondered why the movie was made in the first place. Sure, examining the tragedy of creating an intelligent being that cannot mature and cannot let go of emotional attachments by design is interesting... but the meandering, pointless story had like three places it could have ended and just ..... didn't, finally topping it off with a 'bittersweet' ending that seemingly had no purpose besides to give some catharsis to the audience despite being so out of left field that it had no relation to the rest of the story. It could have been an art book showing off the scenery instead of bothering to throw an aimlessly wandering robot child into it.

KPop Demon Hunters came out this year.

It sounds like a cheesy kids' movie. It even kinda looks like one. Or, at least, before it got super popular when everybody realised "hey, this movie is actually really good" and started playing the soundtrack nonstop between viewings. And not just little kids, middle-aged people like it, too. I've been watching and loving movies for about 40 years, and I remember seeing Mortal Kombat (1995) in theaters, and being just floored by that opening. Cheesy yes, but techno music with sound bytes from the game (the Super NES/Genesis game!) while flames roasted the dragon logo? Movie intros usually aren't that cool. Movies aren't meant to be a thrill ride. They play the long con. KPop Demon Hunters was the first one in a long time (I guess 30 years) that gave me the same feeling. I felt it when the first song hit. Then the scenes with the light flashing in the plane windows. I knew I was in for one hell of a ride. I've seen it four or five times now, and it doesn't get old. It may not be good like a Scorcese or Tarantino movie, but it's fun, and that's good. It's more fun than all the recent-ish Star Wars movies. I remember when those were fun. Someone lost the memo.

Movies don't have to be good if they're fun. A lot of people liked Minecraft, Five Nights at Freddy's, The Emoji Movie... I haven't seen any of them. But KPop Demon Hunters looked pretty stupid, too, until I gave it a chance. If a movie makes you forget about the bad shit in the world for a couple hours, it's done its job. Let's stop asking much more than that from movies. Sure, I have a niche I absolutely love (smart/weird flicks like I Origins, Predestination, Donnie Darko... even if they're pseudo-intellectual, if I can dig into it, I love that shit) but a fun dumb movie is cool in my books.

See, I find, that "critically acclaimed" and "popular" usually don't go well together. However, something with just critical acclaim from people I like (and sometimes a Criterion release) tends to be some of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed.

But to the meme's point, Tarkovsky's Solaris was boring, and hard to understand for me, so much so I didn't ever finish it. I'll have to try again maybe from a different perspective.