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Seen any good movies lately?

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  • Avatar: The Way of Water - Saw it again today for the second time and I didn’t notice the length until the final act. It could have definitely been trimmed a few times cause some scenes felt repetitive. Anyway, I did notice a few more things from this second watch especially with concern to the differences between the Na’vi tribes.

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    • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - I didn’t realize the movie would already be released on digital so fast after it’s theatrical release (days before Christmas) making it only 3 weeks since. I didn’t know what to expect, but from the story and the animation style this one is just as good if not better than his debut in Shrek 2. [SPOILER] The ending with them heading to Far Fat Away is an obvious indication that a new Shrek film is heading to development and/or it’s already happening and it’s just a matter of time before it’s officially announced[/SPOILER]

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      • Rented The Fabelmans the other day. I thought that it had its moments. However, it ends up superficial. It covers the life of Sammy (an alter ego for Steven Spielberg) from 1952 to c. the late 1960s. I find myself comparing it to Kenneth Branagh's recent autobiographical film Belfast. However, Belfast focused on one specific period of time in the life of Buddy (an alter ego for Branagh).

        Sammy feels like he's lived a spoiled, and sheltered life. Just about everyone encourages him, in his desire to become a filmmaker. His father calls it a "hobby" a couple of times, but is still willing to spend $80 (c. $800 in 2023) on a film editing machine for his son. Seth Rogan goes out and buys him a professional camera. No one ever tries to put him down. For the first 80 minutes, apart from when Sammy starts to realize that his mother might have a thing for Rogan, Sammy's allowed to live in this bubble, where everything is about him making movies and being in a happy place.

        It's first after 80 minutes, that he comes to a new school (in what appears to be his final year of high school) and experiences antisemitism (something that appears to have no been present in his life before) for seemingly the first time. Compare this to Belfast, where the August 1969 riots breaks out, mere minutes into the film, and The Troubles remains present in the film, until Buddy's family moves to England (because they're not safe in Belfast anymore).

        After Sammy's trouble in school is taken care of, thanks to the magic of film, there is soon a one year time jump. Sammy's now living in Los Angeles. We get one scene, where Sammy laments about writing letters, attempting to break into Hollywood, without ever getting a letter back. We're not shown months of Sammy writing letters, and waiting for answers that never come. Nor how Sammy knew exactly where to send said letters (did he spend weeks or months just attempting to get the addresses?). And the scene ends with him finding a reply from CBS. They then cut to Sammy being in a meeting with the co-creator of Hogan's Heroes, who instantly gets him a meeting with John Ford. We're not shown Sammy's struggles with getting into the film business, so we're left with the impression that everything came easy for Sammy (AKA Steven Allan Spielberg). That he's never really had to struggle to get anywhere in life.

        My favorite part is when Sammy's sisters start asking him about when/if he'll have female heroes in his movies (women being largely abscent from his newest one). Could this be co-writer Spielberg openly admitting to often giving women the shaft? (to focus on boys, and father-son issues.) Shia LaBeouf's character in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was originally supposed to be a girl (with George Lucas having established a daughter in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles), but Spielberg objected and insisted on the character being a boy. Heck, Sammy in The Fabelmans have three sisters, but they're essentially background noise. I couldn't tell you their names, nor are they given much to do. Be it with the drama relating to their parents divorce, or other stuff (does anyone of them also experience antisemitism in school?). Do they have any dreams of their own? How do they feel about people spending plenty of money on Sammy's dreams and ambitions? Sammy gets a film editor, costing $80. Did they also get something? Even the mother isn't very developed. The film refuses to go into if she is unhappy being stuck in wife and mother mode, when she's clearly a talented piantist. Does such a concept exist in Spielberg's mind (that a woman might be unhappy and feel unfullfilled, even frustrated, with being just a wife and mother)?
        Last edited by jon-el87; 07-29-2023, 05:09 AM.

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        • Perhaps a little bit OT.

          A while back, I bought the film A Haunting in Venice (2023) on iTunes (I hadn't borthered to watch it at the local movie theater). Didn't think that it was the best Agatha Christie adaptation. Though, it was nice to see them break the pattern. With Branagh starting with Murder on the Orient Express, then doing Death on the Nile, it felt like they were just repeating the adaptations done in the 1970s and 1980s (you almost expected them to do Evil Under the Sun as the third one).

          Today I clicked on Disney+, to see what's new. And what's the first thing I see has just been made available on Disney+? A Haunting in Venice. If this doesn't embody the current media landscape, I don't know what does. I don't need to go watch a movie at the movie theater, nor rent or buy it on iTunes (or other platform). I can just wait until it's dropped on the company's streaming service (within a few months of the theatrical release), and the cost of viewing a film essentially vanishes in the monthly subscription fee (and I'm likely to watch more than one thing on there per month). No wonder box office numbers are down.

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          • Checked out the Barbie movie a few days back. Enjoyed it. Even if it got a bit preachy in places, and, being produced by Mattel, you realize that there's only so much critique of the Barbie IP that the film is allowed it make. Even after watching the movie, you're left thinking: okay, what about all the girls who struggle with body issues and eating disorders because of this toy? And what about the materialistic/comsumeristic lifestyle that the Barbie toyline promotes?

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            • North by Northwest (1959).

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