Amy Santiago from Brooklyn Nine Nine AND Jim from The Office, how could I not love this?
Not quite sure why (since I’m not particularly a Metal fan), but ended up watching Metal Lords while reconvalescing. Basically the story of 2 misfit youths forming a Metal Band/coming-of-age story and - as you’d expect from a Netflix production - it’s about as cliche as it comes. All the boxes are ticked; basically every single thing you’d expect to happen in a film of this type happens. Tries to flirt with some heavy themes, but then quickly moves on.
That being said, it’s pretty well acted and filmed, and it delivers the kind of sweet/metal story you’d expect. An easy 1 1/2 hours with some quality music (unless you don’t like metal, of course). Noticed afterwards that Tom Morello (Rage against the Machine) was executive producer on the music, which I guess explains it (one of the few metal bands I’ve watched live, and their production was absolutely amazing).
Just saw The Wonder, starring the marvellous Florence Pugh. Not 100% sure it’s on Netflix everywhere, but it went straight there in the UK so I imagine so. Pugh gives a fantastic performance and it’s definitely well made, but it didn’t fully work for me (for instance there’s an unusual framing device which is completely lost on me). I imagine it might work better for people with different life experiences though. Also, if it will help @tomchick overcome his Netflix movie aversion, Toby Jones is in it.
Can confirm it is in the USA
“different life experiences”? I’m super curious now… I’ve had some of those.
I don’t really want to spoil the plot, so I’m avoiding details, but suffice it to say I’m not a person of faith so that aspect doesn’t resonate with me the way it might for some and also there’s also some dark backstory revealed that thankfully I have no experience with.
I definitely wouldn’t want to dissuade anyone from watching it. Indeed, I’d love to discuss it in more detail.
I’ve listened to an interview with the director that emphasised the importance of doubt (for believers and non-believers), and the framing device goes out of its way to stress the power of believing in stories, but like I say, my atheist and largely trauma free upbringing makes the film read much more straightforwardly than it might otherwise, and as it seems was intended. It came across to me as a story of how the Church and fervent belief fucked up a child’s life (possibly two, although England also gets a share of the blame there), and was willing to kill her to sustain itself. Now, God knows (haha) that pre- , ooh, 1990 Ireland needed an anti-Church polemic, this one didn’t seem to have the nuance it thought it did and accordingly it was a lot less affecting than I had hoped.
Oh, also, Wendell & Wild is pretty great.
Hey, I just watched The Wonder. I feel kind of the same as you. A really well made movie (Pugh is great, as always). I didn’t get the framing device either.
It’s funny to think that this exact story could have been told in so many different ways, and most of them would have been totally uninteresting to me. Somehow the bleak setting, the deliberate pacing, and the tense but quiet interactions of the characters made it work for me.
I also agree that I didn’t think it was very ambiguous. It’s pretty clear to me who the bad people are in this situation. But even if the filmmaker intended it to be more ambiguous than we took it to be, I think that’s ok, because to me the movie wasn’t really about assigning blame or separating right from wrong. It was about Pugh being put in a messed up situation, and using her life experiences to inform her actions. And I was on board for that.
I want to thank you all for the recommendation from a year ago for Fable, the killer who doesn’t kill. The two action sequences in that are completely buck-wild.
— Alan
I’m in. I’m a sucker for a good Poe mystery. I even liked The Raven with John Cusack.
Bullet Train with Brad Pitt is on Netflix. I watched it. Rather silly and over the top but otherwise enjoyable.
I actually wanted to know if the shinkansen line the movie was using was real. They show the train departing from Tokyo station with the first stop at Shinagawa, bound for Kyoto, so it’s the Tokaido shinkansen. Although they go past Kyoto they never make it to Osaka, the line just ends…
Wow, that’s a hell of a cast. Might have to sign back up to Netflix for this one.
It’s been over 20 years since I’ve hopped on a Shinkansen, but it looked accurate enough (not like the old ones).
I watched Bullet Train with my kid a few weeks back. It’s ok. The talking between the two fruit guys is a little long during the first half hour. The back stories are a little long. It’s good after about the first hour. At least for us.
When it comes to movies, “based on a true story” usually implies a certain style. Or rather, a certain lack of it: a bland “just the facts ma’am” approach.
Not so with The Stranger, an Australian thriller directed by Thomas M. Wright that definitely has its own terse style. While there is a fairly standard “based on a true story” narrative in there, the package it’s presented in - the direction, editing, sound design - makes it stand out.
Without giving anything away, the basic premise is: a loner falls in with a vast criminal organization. But it very quickly develops that neither the loner nor the organization are what they initially appear to be.
This reminds me of what happens to be the #1 movie on Netflix right this minute, Villeneuve’s Prisoners from back in 2013. Both are low-budget thrillers where the director uses technique instead of money to impress. And both had me saying when the movie was over, “I wanna see this guy’s next movie.”
Watched Pale Blue Eye last night in a theater. I love the atmosphere and how it’s shot–production design is top notch. Bale’s character is nicely tortured, and the depiction of Poe I felt was pretty spot-on (though I couldn’t help to think of Henry Melling in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs during certain shots). The plot is… well, interesting, until it gets to a certain point, and it just falls off the rails. There weren’t a lot of people in the theater, and the people that were there were laughing at it–and not in a good way. And the end sequence was not really necessary I felt. Overall–kinda disappointing.
— Alan
Ok, so the plan now is to wait for 1/6 when it’s on Netflix. Thanks for taking one for the team!
For those who just want the list.
The List
- RRR
- Baahubali movies
- The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill
- Day Shift
- Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning
- Lost Bullet
- The IP Man Franchise
- Mosul
- Illang: The Wolf Brigade
- Psychokinesis
- The Debt collector Movies
- Paper Tigers
- Den of Thieves
- Security
- Jailbreak
- The Night Comes For Us
- Sentinelle