The rare film that becomes a cult film before release
expresso's comments
Don't Look Up (2021)
irdulili
21 points
2 years ago.
Having seen this, I’m now convinced that Leonardo DiCaprio can play anybody. Also, wow. What a scary film. It’s up there with Idiocracy and The Strain in terms of unflinching realism when it comes to how this machine called society works.
Brave New World (2020)
Apparently you either love this or meh it. As a series standing alone, I thought it was excellent. It’s compelling and fast paced, it’s visually stunning, and the acting was appropriately superficial with a layer of nuance underneath. It’s eerie how much of the pathology in these two worlds and their societies is literally outside our front door, this week, today. This is not faithful to the book and if you’re looking for that this will probably piss you off. It’s more like a 2020 riff on the themes and building blocks and moral questions raised by the book - which was written almost 100 years ago and feels like it was written today. Huxley’s vision was amazingly prescient. We now have ever-more-sophisticated AI, wearables, facial and microexpression recognition, global network connectivity, and the largest country in the world has a centralized mass digital ranking system which is compulsory for all its citizens and eliminates personal privacy. It’s one step away from doing this by mobile devices to attaching it to your head. This level of technology is very near on the horizon and we will face the same issues and choices when it evolves into us. 5/5
Utopia (2013)
Going back for a rewatch. The cinematography by Ole Bratt Birkelund is stunning. Every single item, piece of clothing, furniture, every single piece of color and scenery and the geometry on the screen is meticulously planned.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Straight to cult classics, this is what will actually happen if there is a NEO in my lifetime
Constellation (2024) S1 E4
Lazeistheman2
3 points
1 month ago.
At this rate their will be a 100% chance of no season 2. The episodes are being made out of place. Story is confusing and no one knows what’s going on really. Its laughable. The potential in this show is very good but is currently being run by what it seems to be, 8 year old’s.
expresso
7 points
1 month ago.
Given the way Apple+ has renewed Invasion 2 times, I wouldn’t count on it ;)
The Night Agent (2023)
So he’s not Matt Damon and it’s a pretty clear homage to Bourne but I thought it was solid - great fast-paced thriller and a good cast. Decent binge.
The Green Knight (2021)
expresso
6 points
2 years ago. (Contains Spoilers)
LOVED IT 5/5
Highbrow review with spoilers:
This is not a movie or trying to be one. It’s a tone poem composed in film. It’s an arthouse thinkpiece. In the moment we are inhabiting, most people come to medieval subject matter expecting action and saga (hi there, Game of Thrones). This is not a narrative about a physical quest, it’s an inner imagination of going on a quest. The story of the film is superficially framed as a medieval romance. That comes from the original Gawain poem. The film actually takes place in a dream world where Gawain fantasizes, primarily about himself. There’s a lot of navel gazing here. Time is stretchy, interactions seem random and are either long or fleeting depending on what has the most meaning to Gawain and his inner monologue. When his inner narrative lingers over the things he is and the things he aspires to be the film is painfully slow. Nothing happens as he turns over these details and savors them one by one. He repeats to himself that he’s a nobody and not a knight, Arthur can’t even properly pronounce his name, yet Arthur singles him out and asks him to sit at his side in the place of honor, and he’s not even related to Arthur (what could that possibly mean?) then he allows himself to become Arthur. That is the beginning scene. As everyone who has tried to watch this knows, it’s the first several minutes and it’s excruciatingly slow. It’s self-indulgent directing and smells really arty-farty because the director hasn’t really won your attention yet. It’s a bad artistic call that makes people give up and tune out. (I actually fell asleep and had to get caffeine and stick it out to the scene where Gawain finally sets out with all his new shiny gear.) Gawain is every noob in Fortnite. Within five minutes of putting his character in play, some random kid from a field and two girls strip him of all his gear and weapons before he can even get off a shot, and hogtie him. Dev Patel was just fantastic in this part of the film - I personally lived his cringey shame while he was helpless and squirming like a worm. It’s Gawain’s nature to do things on impulse and then replay with slight variations to taste different realities and emotional outcomes, so he fantasizes that he never leaves this spot, he dies alone tied up in the woods, and decomposes in place. Then he shifts back to his reality. At Winifred’s cabin he plays with both the deserted and inhabited possibilities in the same scene. While it’s deserted the bed is empty so he sleeps in it. In the alternate reality Winifred is alive and chasing him out. In the deserted cabin she’s a skull at the bottom of a spring to be matched with a skeleton in a burial arrangement on a not-empty bed. In the alternate universe she becomes his wife. I agree this film is arty. It’s arty in the literal sense to the point of being an in-joke: I see several scenes which are staged paintings from various European eras. Dev Patel’s elongated face and large eyes are Byzantine iconography come to life, the melancholy saint painted on a wood triptych. The king and queen literally wear gilded haloes lifted from Dark Ages religious art. Saint Winifred is a plump Renaissance woman with delicate hair and ethereal dress. The wife has opulent clothing in rich tones and pearl earrings, like a woman in a Vermeer. She uses camera obscura and methods that won’t be developed for several centuries to mechanically capture a portrait of Gawain, at a time when all images of people are drawn or painted by hand. I have big love for the stylized visual composition of this film. It uses a duotone color palette of dull yellow and muddy blue to saturate the tones of the clothing and in some cases stain the sky. It looks trippy and postmodern to you and me but nicely also reflects an ancient world with a limited number of textiles and dyes. You’re supposed to be challenged by this film. You’re either going to love that or hate it.
Silo (2023) S1 E6
expresso
6 points
10 months ago. (Contains Spoilers)
I was just thinking early in this episode, why are there no cameras? Perfect timing. This show frustrates me with the slow pace but it allows them to make the smallest reveal full of impact.
Versailles (2015)
expresso
6 points
10 months ago.
I forgot how good this is. The production is simply stunning. George Blagden is an underused actor.
Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin (2023) S1 E3
expresso
6 points
4 months ago.
This is an amazing series - half hard science and half adventure travel. I had never heard of this pre-Incan civilization that was wiped out by the Inca in a war. It’s fascinating to see them use LIDAR and other advanced technology to uncover ruins and find things that have never been mapped or catalogued.
The English (2022) S1 E6
expresso
6 points
1 year ago.
Absolutely devastating. This is a brilliant show. I’m not sure I would survive watching it again.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) S1 E5
This was a perfect episode. TOS homage to Vulcan battle music? Check. Whimsy? Check. Balls-out captain risky meta-move? Check. Personal predicament that echos the major episode predicament? Check. Tens across the board. They Did What Needed To Be Done.
Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard (TV Special 2021) (2021)
expresso
6 points
2 years ago.
Fossil hunting, stone tool making, spear throwing and a mammoth dig with David Attenborough on a cozy Sunday afternoon :)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) S2 E10
expresso
8 points
8 months ago. (Contains Spoilers)
Now that’s what I call some real Trek <3 slithery aliens, sassy flying, AND SCOTTY!!! 6/5 phasers
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
THEDEVIANTONE
-7 points
2 months ago.
yes he has …this one ive posted the link to is based on real events Henry Cavill sound of freedom they tried to ban it from release if you search it you will see all the comments coming from people saying its not based on real events and so on but it is tim ballard is portrayed by henry and its all about the child abductions and being sold into slavery just goes to show how pedos expose theselves by trying to put the movie down disgusting filthy animals https://youtu.be/Rt0kp4VW1cI
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2014) S11 E1
expresso
5 points
2 months ago.
ONE MILLION DOLLARS is a time-honored way to get the public’s attention - watching the traditional media to see whether it gets picked up and covered
Constellation (2024)
CollideDuhScope
5 points
2 months ago.
Black crab it is.
I enjoyed Black Crab, the length of the ordeal made me feel like I was there.
Katla (2021)
This is about perfect - so much great stuff to chew on. The characters are fascinating to begin with and you learn so much more about them as they react to the strangeness of what’s going on. Have to watch it over again to make sure I got everything. Looks like there might be a Season 2.
Lucifer (2016)
expresso
5 points
3 years ago.
Lucifer season 5A dropped today (Friday August 21). There are an additional 8 episodes in season 5B which are scheduled to begin filming in October 2020 which would mean a release date summer 2021. It’s likely that filming of season 5B will be delayed due to covid. It was announced that a season 6 has been approved pending contracts.
For All Mankind (2019) S3 E2
expresso
5 points
1 year ago. (Contains Spoilers)
I have been waiting for someone to give Margo the smackdown, this was very satisfying.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) S1 E4
Dante89
4 points
1 year ago. (Contains Spoilers)
Kinda disappointed at this. It was very cool and great to see Obi-Wan remembering that he once was a Jedi Master. And not so cool to see Vader breaking character and the whole thing about Leia.
expresso
5 points
1 year ago.
He just seems so…delicate. Like he’s in remission from cancer. No heroic confidence here.
Dark Winds (2022)
expresso
5 points
1 year ago.
Zahn McClarnon has been been paying dues as a character actor for a long time - he earned this and I can’t wait :)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2014) S11 E1
grasshopper rex
5 points
2 months ago.
Paying him to quit wouldn’t be bribery.
expresso
5 points
2 months ago.
Confirm that. John Oliver does not have matters before the court. Harlan Crow and all the others who shower gifts on Thomas, routinely have matters directly before the court. They are guilty of at least circumstantial bribery. People get paid to retire from jobs all the time (“golden parachute”). Depends on the specific terms of that agreement, but legal.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
greyfur
2 points
4 months ago.
I sure hope your right, really like the Aquaman movies, to me they have been among the best ones. Growing up I never really paid much attention to the guy in the comics, but Jason really brings something to the role that makes you really like the guy and you just want to root for him. He just makes you really LIKE Aquaman…
Loki (2021)
My #2: I was BLOWN AWAY by the mid-century period way this was done. Just as good as Legion in that regard - we got the 50’s cartoons, the 60’s Jetsons vibe, the swingin 70’s with the colored appliances, some of the tech was what I can only call midcentury retro futuro-steampunk. I’m a little bit bored with using the timeline, it’s almost become a crutch in a lot of series, but here I love it. Loki is the OG chaotic character. Of course he can subvert all those protective layers. Takes him 15 minutes to figure out the vulnerabilities in the tech and the people and exploit them. I love everything about this :)
Night Sky (2022)
So frustrating this will not have a season 2, it is so awesome! Makes that last episode pure torture….
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)
Sometimes on Saturday night you just want to pull the lever on the CheezWhiz can and take a hit. I came here looking for mindless funny and was not disappointed. 5/5 Cheetos
Moonhaven (2022)
Reminds me of Foundation - if dystopia-utopia is your thing this is your show, and ignore the ratings sites. There’s a handful of people who are clearly spawning sockpuppet accounts everywhere so they can downvote this show into oblivion.
Poker Face (2023)
expresso
5 points
1 year ago.
Natasha plays Natasha in every single role and that’s just fine by me.
Will always rewatch 100x anything with Timothy Olyphant 5/5