Whoops, I was a baited. Sorry, Morganna — looks like the sparring is over. I win.
Off to the Malle.
It was a writer segue so justified but rules are rules so I'll concede. Of course since you introduced Hill Street Blues, that was a fun show .
Speaking of being baited I can't find Hard Days Night or the Dylan documentary so I'm between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Law and Order SVU, and there I go breaking the rules again. Some people never change.
I see Searching for Sugerman in leaving Netflix at the end of the month - if you haven't seen it - it's a great documentary. Here's some other movies leaving this month:
I see Searching for Sugerman in leaving Netflix at the end of the month - if you haven't seen it - it's a great documentary. Here's some other movies leaving this month:
Finally caught up with Hamilton streaming on Disney. Curious what other people thought of it.
The hip hop music and dance aspect of it (almost the whole thing since there is very little straight dialog) was first rate and entertaining.
Beyond that, clocking in at a nearly interminable 2 hours and 40 minutes, it had nothing as far as I could tell. Not that it was obligated to have one but I detected no theme or message about race (occasionally, it was mentioned that one or more of the historical figures was anti-slavery). Nor did it even have anything remotely informative or thought provoking to say about the Revolution. Like many a hokey old school Hollywood or Broadway show set "in history," it really wasn't about history at all but was rather a personal melodrama. It was about two extremely ambitious young men destined to turn on each other. That theme is captured by the central recurring lyric "I ain't gonna miss my shot."
So fun, yes, but less than what I expected given the almost unprecedented hype surrounding it.
So fun, yes, but less than what I expected given the almost unprecedented hype surrounding it.
I also saw it on Disney+ this weekend, for the first time. I always resisted it because of what you rightly call the almost unprecedented hype surrounding it. For some reason, The New York Times is still obsessed with the damn thing. The Times is never satisfied to publish one story about Hamilton when it can publish 3 or 4 or 5.
However, and it's hard for me to admit it, I thought it was uniquely, stunningly original. Yes, it was neither a screed about racism nor an accurate historical re-telling. It was a personal vision of history, acknowledging and incorporating the historical scope of musical styles and story telling. The casting and the musical styles demonstrated clearly and powerfully, the white and conventional perspective we bring to American history's telling and its meaning.
I'm not a theatre person. I don't like Sondheim. I don't go to Broadway shows. That emperor more often than not has no clothes on. But this was a brilliant, unique creative vision brought to glorious, joyous life.
I don’t know about entirely original; the debt to Jesus Christ Superstar, right down to the comedic king turns of Herod and George, seemed strong to me. But I wouldn’t use the term melodrama either, with its connotation of exaggerated manipulation of emotion. The human relationships — among family, friends, rivals, peers and superiors — struck me as unembellished, and very moving because of that.
Uninformative? I guess that depends on what you go into it with. I learned enough. The rules and role of dueling — a practice I thought was indeed meant to be a death match — were by themselves a seminar I appreciated.
Anyway, count me among the fans. (Saw it on Broadway in January; would love to watch the Miranda cast, so debating whether to sign up for Disney+ just for Hamilton.)
My wife and I have never seen Bye Bye Birdie, so we recorded it last night. Looking forward to filling that gap in our ouvre.
Always saw Bye Bye Birdie as a time capsule that existed Just before all the assassinations and subsequent societal change. There’s a poignant moment in there where the Russian envoy wishes President Kennedy a long life. The film may have been released just prior to or immediately after his assassination. Can’t recall. Paul Lynde’s performance is excellent and very funny. Ann Margaret, whose role in the film was apparently juiced up compared to the play, seemed a bit too “mature” for a high schooler. The premise is the drafting of Elvis into the army and I always wondered how great it would have been to actually see him play himself in that role.
I watched Bombshell, the movie about Roger Ailes' sexual harassment scandal at Fox News.
The movie was pretty good, not great. However, Charlize Theron was fantastic as Megyn Kelly. She IS Megyn Kelly. Margot Robbie was also excellent.
I'm looking forward to watching it. Did you watch the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice? Russell Crowe was amazing. He transformed himself into a man who was completely cringe-worthy. Not the Russell Crowe of Gladiator, not the Russell Crowe of A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man or The Insider.
Not a big fan of lists because they’re usually compiled by morons. In any case, #1 is fine, although I believe it’s widely accepted that Godfather 2 was the better film, Vertigo should be in the top 3, and Raging Bull, which is all the way near the bottom, should at least be in the top 5.
Not a big fan of lists because they’re usually compiled by morons. In any case, #1 is fine, although I believe it’s widely accepted that Godfather 2 was the better film, Vertigo should be in the top 3, and Raging Bull, which is all the way near the bottom, should at least be in the top 5.
Yeah, I wrote a post slamming the list, but I decided not to post it.
I kind of gave up when I saw
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
was on the list.
As a rule, I don't think you can possibly add a movie to a top 100 list that's not at least 5 years old. 10 is better.
So what was number 1? The Godfather?
ETA: so I scrolled through the whole list, because I'm a sucker for lists.
My thoughts:
Boyhood? LOL
I think Citizen Kane is the greatest American movie and it's not even possible for any movie to ever surpass it, because it was so revolutionary in so many ways, besides being a completely captivating story. I say this as an enormous Godfather fan - but best ever? Nope.
The list had way too many post 2000 movies.
I didn't see The Red Shoes on the list, which is nuts. (Did I miss it?)
All in all, one of the worst Best Of lists I've seen. It would be nice to actually see it as a list though.
“Stacker compiled data on thousands of American movies to come up with a Stacker score—a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic ratings. To qualify as American, the film had to be produced by American production studios, though this doesn’t mean the film is necessarily in English or takes place on American soil. The film also had to have at least 5,000 IMDb user votes. Ties were broken by Metascore, and further ties were broken by IMDb user rating. Here are the 100 greatest American movies of all time.”
As a scrollable list (broken down by tens), rather than a slide show:
Yeah, I wrote a post slamming the list, but I decided not to post it.
I kind of gave up when I saw
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
was on the list.
As a rule, I don't think you can possibly add a movie to a top 100 list that's not at least 5 years old. 10 is better.
So what was number 1? The Godfather?
ETA: so I scrolled through the whole list, because I'm a sucker for lists.
My thoughts:
Boyhood? LOL
I think Citizen Kane is the greatest American movie and it's not even possible for any movie to ever surpass it, because it was so revolutionary in so many ways, besides being a completely captivating story. I say this as an enormous Godfather fan - but best ever? Nope.
The list had way too many post 2000 movies.
I didn't see The Red Shoes on the list, which is nuts. (Did I miss it?)
All in all, one of the worst Best Of lists I've seen. It would be nice to actually see it as a list though.
I was disappointed in the end of the list picks and as they start at 100 you don't get to the many good ones till you get to the top 50 or so.
And there I found some classics, picking the order that I would place them in would be time consuming but other than the fact that no way would I place Godfather as number one, there was a good selection of favorites.
To name a few
#3 12 Angry Men
#4 Rear Window
#6 Citizen Kane
#7 Vertigo
#8 Schindler's List
#11 Psycho
#12 Sweet Smell of Success
#14 Dr. Strangelove
#16 Wizard of Oz
#17 All About Eve
#19 Some Like It Hot
#22 Notorious
#23 Night of the Hunter
#28 Double Indemnity
#30 Streetcar Named Desire
#34 The Apartment
#39 The Maltese Falcon
#41 Grapes of Wrath
#42 Rosemary's Baby
#44 The Philadelphia Story
#45 Anatomy of a Murder
#51 It's A Wonderful Life
#67 The Manchurian Candidate
#77 Alien
#80 Shawshank Redemption
#87 Annie Hall
# 88 On the Waterfront (I would put this in my top 10)
Despite what is missing from the list or a few of the awful picks, does anyone find the above samples bad films?
Looks interesting. Will check it out. I like Jason Sudeikis. I've seen We're the Millers about ten times now. Cable seems to show it every few weeks.