What movie have you seen recently?

Spoderman: Across the Spiderverse is amazing. 10/10

They took everything that was great from the first film and made it even better.

I cried sad, happy and laughing tears.

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Yea just saw the new Spiderverse too, and the show really hits you in the parent. It spends a lot of time with the feelings and development of the side characters in the story especially the parents. It’s nice to see them used as actual characters and not just tools of destiny.

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It’s a hell of a movie. That’s some of the best cinematic animation I’ve ever seen. Hands down.

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On Sunday I went to the first public-ish screening of Wes Anderson’s new film Asteroid City. Wes Anderson was there for a discussion after the screening.

For starters, the movie leans hard into Wes’ trademark aesthetic. If you were expecting him to change his style, I don’t know what you were thinking.

I think for some reason I was going in with expectations of something that would hit a little bit harder emotionally. And it has those moments, but most of all I’d classify this as a comedy. I laughed more at this movie than I have in a very long time.

So what’s going on in the film is that you have some very advanced layered storytelling. There are a team of people, a screenwriter, a director, and a bunch of actors, putting on a stage play. You see them doing this in a monochrome square aspect ratio view of ‘50s Broadway in NYC. When they are actually performing the play you get a technicolor (Wes Anderson color palette) ultra widescreen of the set in Asteroid City.

Not only do you have those two layers, but there’s a third layer in that all the people we see are actually actors in the real world. And Scarlett Johansson has an even deeper layer as her character in the play is a famous actress.

And while the movie doesn’t break the fourth wall directly, that I remember, it constantly breaks the wall between these layers. It reminds me a bit of Watchmen in that way, with multiple ways to read a line of dialogue. Where a character says a line that could be something their character is saying in the play, or something they could be saying as the actor, and so on. Are they actors who are pretending to fall in love because the script of the play says to, or did they actually fall in love, that sort of thing.

The setting is what’s really wild in that it takes sort of all these different aspects of ‘50s Americana and combines them together. You get the western, the Happy Days, the military, the retro sci-fi, NYC Broadway, and even Looney Tunes and more. All these parts you know so well separately, and were happening at the same time, are put together in one place side by side to paint a more complete and striking picture of the era.

You should see this movie to see the actors’ performances, especially Scarlett Johansson’s. You should see it to have a lot of fun. See it to see some really beautiful shots. And you should see it to have a few things to think about.

These are the most memorable things Wes said after the film.

One of the original possible titles for the film was Automat. It makes a lot of sense after you see the film.

He fucking raved about Marlon Brando for a few minutes. You can see it all over this film.

They shot the film in Spain. He could have done an actual desert, but he didn’t want the whole crew to have to travel so far to the set back and forth. So he found big flat land in Spain that was close to a 4 star hotel. It was farm land, and they just paid everyone off, covered the land. This let everyone live together comfortably for the filming with the hotel right near all the sets.

Pretty much all the sets were actually built for real out there, even the ones that don’t look real because color grading. The desert sand blew away in a storm once, and they had to get more sand. This seems not great to me, because isn’t there a sand shortage?

There’s an alien in the film. Of course you already know the alien is played by Jeff Goldblum. Because of course, who else would it be? Also not a spoiler, since it’s in the opening credits “The Alien - Jeff Goldblum”.

Wes told a story about the hotel at night. He painted himself as the parent up on the balcony relaxing after work. All the actors were down below drinking, partying, etc. and he had to be the one who tells them to go to bed and such.

So he eavesdropped on a conversation amongst the actors below trying to read the script and understand the film. They had it all wrong. But he didn’t get up and go down there to explain to them. He just sat up there listening. Eventually the actors decided to call over Jeff and ask his opinion.

He was playing the piano or some such, but he came over to answer their questions. According to Wes, Jeff gave basically the perfect answer. He completely understood the film and explained it to the other actors beautifully.

Because of course it’s the alien that best understands this story.

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I saw the new Mission Impossible movie last night and it was super enjoyable.

At this point, either you love the Mission Impossible franchise and know what to expect or you don’t. This movie won’t change anyone’s mind.

I saw the movie in a Dolby theater and this was one of the rare movies that really took advantage of the amazing sound and rumble built into the seats. There were numerous times during the movie where the used the sound and rumble to really immerse the audience in what’s going on. There’s a car chase near the beginning where they drive over cobblestones and the chair rumbled and vibrated like I was driving over them also. It was cool.

I read a recent review of the Mission Impossible movie and it was an interesting take that the more I think about, the more I agree with.

Basically, the plot of Mission Impossible movies don’t matter. It’s usually nonsense. The entire movie is just an excuse to travel to cool locations, have insane stunts, and let Tom Cruise do crazy things.

The article compared Mission Impossible to a rock concert. There are no spoilers in a rock concert. You know the band is going to play a mix of their new songs and their classics. What’s unknown is the order they’re going to play them in.

It’s the same with Mission Impossible. Regardless of the plot, there will be a chase scene, Tom Cruise will run very intently, the team will go rogue, people will take off masks and reveal themselves to be not who you thought they were, Tom Cruise will run very intently some more, there will be a betrayal, there will be a double-cross and possible a triple-cross, messages will self-destruct after five minutes, Tom Cruise continues to run very very intently, and some amazing stunt work. The details don’t matter.

What did surprise me about Dead Reckoning (Part 1) was that it was a lot funnier than I expected and Hayley Atwell continues to be awesome.

If you like fun action movies, go see this, preferably in a theater with enhanced sound.

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I actually thought the action was toned down. Apart from that one scene near the end.

I saw it on an Imax screen, it was kind of a waste for me. Should have seen it on a regular screen.

It really didn’t take time to give you any good shots to appreciate the locations, maybe just the mountains.

I really don’t like the female characters. To be clear, I don’t mean the actors, I mean the characters that they play. They are literally just toys for Tom Cruise. What interesting traits they have is outweighed by the fact that they’re literally the most uninteresting love interest for Ethan Hunt.

Will they die or disappear? Who knows, who cares? It’s so unnecessary. It would be a better film without any of that weak romance.

Tom Cruise still stealing from Jackie Chan, but he’ll never be Jackie. But if you’re going to steal action ideas from someone, not a bad choice.

I finally watched Baby Driver and man, Edgar Wright doesn’t miss, does he?

Great stylish film about crime and music. Wright was kind of pigeonholed into comedy after the Cornetto Trilogy, but here he just shows up a heist thriller that has some witty jokes but is definitely more of an action romp than anything else. Fantastic chase scenes and action choreography set specifically to a great soundtrack.

Unfortunately there is a big anchor here with the presence of Kevin Spacey, who is a fantastic actor but by all accounts a terrible human being. But then again I didn’t pay money to see this film.

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Saw Oppenheimer in IMAX 70mm on Friday. Some career best performances from some of the actors. Loved the insane amount of detail for closeups and the soundtrack was very interesting. I highly recommend the film and doubly so if you can see it in one of the 19 70mm imax locations.

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Apparently, back in 1980, the BBC made a 7-part biographical miniseries about Oppenheimer staring Sam Waterston.

The entire thing is free (for now at least) on YouTube:

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Tonight I watched Last Night in Soho to catch up with Edgar Wright’s movies. Big genre change in this one, being a Horror film, and yeah, it’s proper horrifying. Definitely a must watch if you are into psycho-horror. Wright also of course does excellent work from a purely cinematic, and I routinely marvelled at the mirror-shots that are very frequent in this film.

Rewatched the 1986 adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors tonight. Excellent horror comedy musical. I am particularly impressed with the practical effects for the plants which is just some outstanding work from the puppet makers and puppeteers.

Tonight I watched Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. I haven’t cared about Shrek or any of its derivatives in like 20 years, and only watched it because of a recommendation from one of my favorite YouTubers, Super Eyepatch Wolf.

The story is fine, fitting but nothing to write home about. The voice acting is quite decent and other than the star roles done by franchise established people, it actually eshews the stunt casting that was prevalent when the Shrek franchise started out and generally in animated features from that era.

But hot fucking damn, the animation, art and direction of this film is absolutely incredible. SEW joked that Spider-verse shamed the american animation industry into taking risks, and you can definitely see them try to compete in that arena and very, very much hold their own in it. The fight scenes against the wolf alone are absolutely incredible and possibly the best animated fight scenes I have ever encountered, at least in 3D animation.

You absolutely should try this one because I guarantee you won’t regret it.

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Oppenheimer in IMAX 70mm has been extended till end of August, just picked up tix for my my 2nd 70mm showing at KOP outside Philly.

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I have long been hoping for someone to do a good take on the Manhattan Project but assuming that it probably wouldn’t make for a particularly popular movie and wouldn’t be particularly good. (There’s an endless supply of really bad, mostly forgotten, WWII movies already and usually on what should be more exciting topics.)

And I think if it wasn’t being made by Nolan, and wasn’t in this crazy 70mm epic IMAX showing like that, then I do think it would have not gotten much attention at all outside of the WWII nerds.

But even with Nolan doing it and all, I’m pleasantly surprised to hear so many people saying “Oh I watched it 2-3 times.” Cuz as a dedicated WWII nerd with a big attraction to seeing the Manhattan project on screen, I still haven’t made time to go see it, and I would be one of the ones that probably would go see it multiple times even if it was kinda meh. And yet I’m late to the party.

So I hope it is really engaging for people.

I’ve got tickets for Sunday.

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I’ve had this on my mind since seeing it. In the early days, when he’s studying in Europe. There’s what, dozens of scientists in the world working on quantum mechanics?

Now we teach it to every 20-year-old physics major.

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I loved Oppenheimer and think it’s an amazing movie, but I just don’t understand why or how people can see it multiple times.

When I was done watching it, I was emotionally and mentally exhausted. I thought it was great, but it’s not the type of movie I can see multiple times in short proximity. Maybe in 5 years or so, but I’d put Oppenheimer in the Schindler’s List category of great movies that I can’t watch that often because they’re too intense.

More power to the people who can do that though and I’m glad they’re enjoying it.

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I’m a big history nerd all over the place so don’t take me seeing it as too normal, but also I’m an even bigger film/cinema nerd in terms of the technical/mechanical side of movie production and presentation and seeing the whole film in 70 and specifically the new 70 mm B&W prints developed for the film is huge to me.

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I saw a lot of people saying they were emotionally exhausted by the film in the lead-up to my first viewing and I went in hungry for that sort of pathos, but did not have it walking out. I probably know too much about the time period and National Security / International Relations sausage factory to be shocked or aggrieved by anything in the film.

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That’s fair point sure but definitely have been seeing multiple sources talking about having seen it multiple times already so maybe there’s just a lot of takes I’m reading from people who are really into the art and science of film-making. Or maybe they’re nerds of physics or the Cold War?

Funnily enough because I’m used to hearing about Bohr and Feynman and Dirac and Fermi and so on for their contributions and involvement in the world of physics; and then atomic bombs and nuclear testing/physics as its own sort of special interest, for me I don’t often think of the Manhattan Project from a particularly WWII history lens. I mean obviously it was part of it, but it’s a discrete little packet of its own off in New Mexico. So despite being a typical WWII nerd, I’m just as much a physics/astronomy fan. So I think I’ve always put the project much more into the lane of being a part of “Physics History” where many of these people who were or would come to be famous were in this one particular pressure cooker in history. Or as the origin point of atomic weapons and the dawn of the Cold War.

So in that respect I keep thinking of Oppenheimer as a biopic about scientists that just happens to intersect with them making the big bomb, and as a result, the Cold War.

Now on the other hand, my sister says she just wants to see it for Cilian Murphy’s ass. And like, true.

Decision to Leave is a neo-noir with some fantastic cinematography. What a camera job.

Also it was pretty funny for a thriller(?) about a murder.