Movies/TV worth watching (or at least discussing)

[Nrrrrvous]

If you like Anna Taylor Joy and like period pieces you should consider The Witch. I would imagine this would be one of her earlier star roles.

Warning - it's not for everyone. It's extremely disturbing to the core of your bone in places, and it crosses lines in a couple places that probably should not be crossed. But those seek to be disturbing and underscore evil. It's sort of like a coming of age piece, but it's definitely a type of horror movie. With the accents you'll have to watch it in a quiet room, pay close attention, and I watched it twice to understand all that was said.

It's one of those movies where you'll either say it was one of the worst movies you've ever seen or one of the best. I thought it was one of the best - a story well told, well-acted, and blows you away if you get into it.

Taylor-Joy's performance is stunning and this film was expertly made and directed. The language used is completely authentic for the period.

I watched The Witch a couple years ago. Thought it was good but I might have to give it a second watching, since, like you said, I think I missed a lot of the dialog the first time through.

If you haven't seen Split. I highly recommend it. She is the "lead" girl to be kidnapped. She is great and James McAvoy is phenomenal.

[JasonEvans]

... from the director of the brilliant Pick of the Litter (if you love dogs and have not seen Pick... SEE IT NOW!!)

So, someone PM'd me asking about Pick of the Litter and I figured I would educate all of you who have not seen this amazing film. Pick of the litter follows 5 puppies on the journey to try to be a guide dog for the blind. It is not easy as even dogs who are bred specifically for this purpose have only a small chance of learning the habits and exhibiting the traits that it takes to become the eyes for a blind human being. The film not only gives us a peek at this training, but also takes us inside the world of the people who volunteer to train these animals. We also meet some blind folks who are hoping to get a guide dog and talk about how it would change their life.

The film is heartwarming, sad, enlightening, and emotional. It is 81 minutes long and will be among the best 81 minutes to you spend this week. It is currently 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and I am actively looking for the 3% who did not like it so I can hunt them down and take away their film critic card.

Here is a trailer... prepare to tear up a little bit.


Pick of the Litter is currently streaming on Netflix... do yourself a favor and watch it.

[rsvman]

My wife and I just finished watching 11.22.63 last night. I understand from others that it deviates quite a bit from the book. Having said that, I found it enjoyable. It got a little overly brutal in parts for my taste, but overall I liked it.

[YmoBeThere]

So, someone PM'd me asking about Pick of the Litter and I figured I would educate all of you who have not seen this amazing film. Pick of the litter follows 5 puppies on the journey to try to be a guide dog for the blind. It is not easy as even dogs who are bred specifically for this purpose have only a small chance of learning the habits and exhibiting the traits that it takes to become the eyes for a blind human being. The film not only gives us a peek at this training, but also takes us inside the world of the people who volunteer to train these animals. We also meet some blind folks who are hoping to get a guide dog and talk about how it would change their life.

The film is heartwarming, sad, enlightening, and emotional. It is 81 minutes long and will be among the best 81 minutes to you spend this week. It is currently 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and I am actively looking for the 3% who did not like it so I can hunt them down and take away their film critic card.

Here is a trailer... prepare to tear up a little bit.


Pick of the Litter is currently streaming on Netflix... do yourself a favor and watch it.

My cousin and one of her sons have now trained two dogs that are serving as guide dogs for blind persons. Very rewarding work.

[weezie]

...Pick of the Litter...

Would it be too sad for young children to watch?

[JasonEvans]

Would it be too sad for young children to watch?

Not at all... not really a sad movie. Spoiler alert: the dogs that don't make it to be guide dogs still end up in a good place anyway.

I don't know how young the kids you are talking about are, but I suspect that any kid over about 8 would really enjoy this flick cause... PUPPIES!!

[weezie]

Yes, 8 years old, Thanks.

[WillJ]

1. "My Happy Family" (Georgia, Netflix, 2018). Definitely the best Georgian movie I've ever seen! 50-ish Tbilisi woman finds her longtime husband annoying even though everyone else finds him unobjectionable. Turns out she has her reasons. Patty liked this movie! (3 stars out of 4).
2. Honeyland (North Macedonia, Netflix, 2018). Documentary. Middle-aged beekeeper takes care of her dying mother while living in stone hut. Nomads move in next door and, through their carelessness, kill all her bees. Slow moving, but I’m starting to like that. (3 stars)
3. Zorba the Greek (Greece, Prime, 1964) A beautiful widow is murdered by the men in her village because she won’t sleep with any of them. Zorba and his stolid English friend are sad, but ultimately Zorba’s joie de vivre wins out. I want to go to Crete. 2.5 stars.
4. Men of the Arena (Somalia, Prime, 2018) A documentary follows two handsome Somalian athletes. I'm pretty sure it's the best movie ever about a soccer game between Somalia and Rwanda (spoiler - Rwanda wins). 2.5 stars.
5. Dark Waters (Egypt, Prime, 1956) Omar Sharif’s first movie! The heroine picks Omar’s character over another suitor, but he's such an angry, jealous character that it's hard to understand why. Oh, Omar’s character looks a lot like Omar Sharif! 2.5 stars.
6. Halfaouine (Tunisia, Netflix, 1990) Imagine Superbad mixed with Casablanca. If you were ever wondering about the propriety of taking a 13-year old boy into a locker room full of naked women...well, I would advise against it. 3 stars.
7. Battle of Algiers (Algeria, Prime, 1966) Lightly fictionalized drama about the events leading up to Algerian independence in 1962. Some think this is the best movie about politics and violence, and I can see why. 3.5 stars
8. Mimosas (Morocco, Prime, 2017) An oddball mystic joins a pair of young men taking an old sheik on a trek across the Atlas Mountains to die in his now-deserted hometown. The sheik dies mid-trip, which raises issues of what obligation the trio have to deliver his body, about which opinions vary. Odd but affecting. 3 stars.
9. The Wedding Party (Nigeria, Netflix, 2017) Confection about the shenanigans surrounding the marriage of some well-off Nigerians. It’s from Nollywood, but it could have been from Hollywood, which is not a good thing. 2 stars.
10. Saving Mbango (Cameroon, Prime, 2020) A young couple both succeed and fail in the face of a callous family. The two main leads were very charismatic and appealing, and it has a lot of economics in it, too. I saw this as a Watch Party with my friend Viola, a Cameroonian business superstar (seriously!) and now I’m FB friends with the talented scriptwriter, too….which I think is cool. 3.5 stars
11. Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan, Prime, 1994) Early Ang Lee movie about a chef and his three daughters’ attempts to balance adulting with filial obligations. I picked up some cooking tips. Lee has an interesting life story himself. Born in Taiwan, he went to graduate school in US, floundered professionally while his wife supported him, and then found great success in both Taiwanese and American films (e.g., Life of Pi). 3.5 stars
12. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (New Zealand, Netflix, 2016) This movie brought Taika Waititi to a wider audience, and I can see why. It is basically a road movie, although the road is a trek through the North Island hinterland and the couple is a 13-year old Maori orphan and a cranky Sam Neill. Strange, comic and affecting at different times. 3 stars
13. Mad Max: Thunder Road (Australia, Prime, 2015) This movie sucked. But if you want to spend two hours watching a masculinized Charlize Theron drive a truck full of young women escaping from a post-apocalyptic patriarchy, then please have at it. A Me-Too version of Rambo, which I don’t mean as a compliment. 1.5 stars.
14. Kartini: Princess of Java (Indonesia, Netflix, 2017) Javanese princess rebels at being secluded until such time as she is arranged to be married. She is ultimately married to a (relatively) progressive husband who accepts her three conditions of marriage: 1) I will not wash my husband's feet, 2) I will not fulfill the duties of a regent's wife and 3) my husband will help me build a school for poor girls. Also, polygamy is not a great thing. 2.5 stars
15. Lighthouse of the Orcas (Argentina, Netflix, 2017) A Spanish woman visits a hunky, Orca-loving naturalist who her autistic son has taken a shine to in a National Geographic video. The romance is fine, but the setting is absolutely spectacular, as if the high plains of Texas met the California coast. Patagonia? Si! Also, some good tips on cooking ram testicles. 2.5 stars
16. Gloria (Chile, Prime, 2013) 50-ish woman is ignored by her children, but the senior single scene in Santiago is hot! Older, Chilean men, alas, are still men. Perhaps the only movie that ends with oldsters dancing to a Laura Branigan disco song. 3 stars.
17. Eternity (Peru, Prime, 2016) Very old couple live in a stone hut in the mountains above Lake Titicaca and kvetch about their son who never visits. Patty asked me whether I really liked it or whether I just wanted to say that I had watched a Peruvian movie. Still thinking. 2.5 stars (if you can get the subtitles to work).
18. Flight (Jamaica, Prime/HBO, 2018) A short about two boys who build cardboard telescopes and spacesuits to feed their obsession with the moon. Their parents are initially not sympathetic, but one of the dads eventually gets on board with the fantasy. Patty asks whether I liked it because it didn’t challenge my ADHD. Still thinking. 3 stars.
19. Woman at War (Iceland, Prime, 2018) 50-ish ecoterrorist destroys lines delivering thermally-generated power. She’s a bad-I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this., but I’m not sure why she thinks thermal power is a problem. The soundtrack - mostly an Icelandic trio of drums, tuba and piano – is played by onscreen musicians, rather like a Greek chorus. Kind of works. 2.5 stars.
20. Ran (Japan, Prime, 1985) King Lear in 17th century Japan with Lady Macbeth and a gay Fool. Some of the characters deliver their lines at maximum intensity, like Noh theater it seems, and some of the makeup is theatrical as well. This movie made me realize how terrifying a cavalry charge is when you're a foot soldier. This is heresy, but I can only give it 3 stars.
21. Road North (Finland, Prime, 2012) Slovenly father returns from abroad to loosen up his middle-aged son who’s a tightly-wound pianist. They drive north from Helsinki in search of the women they’ve let down in earlier lives. This movie has stuck with me, perhaps because Finland is beautiful in the summer. 3 stars.
22. Sincerely Yours, Dhaka (Bangladesh, Netflix, 2019) This is a concatenation of eleven shorts, all shot in the biggest city in Bangladesh, and it’s the best movie I’ve seen in my tour. Murder, infidelity, comedy, strife related to gender and ethnicity – like the Prince spaghetti sauce commercial used to say – “It’s in there.” 4 stars.
23. The King’s Choice (Norway, Prime, 2016) Norway is being invaded in 1940, and the king refuses to be their stooge (of course the Nazis found another quisling – Quisling!) King was a good dude, but perhaps Norway should just get rid of the monarchy altogether. Duh. 2.5 stars
24. Children of Men (England, Amazon, 2006) No babies for twenty years induces chaos, and England is a fortress trying to expel refugees. Contrived, overcomplicated dystopia, but the part about how parents baby their dogs when their kids grow up? Guilty as charged. 2 stars.
25. The Eagle Huntress (Mongolia, Prime, 2017) Documentary. Teenage daughter bonds with father when they catch a wild eaglet and train it to hunt foxes in the winter mountains. Lots of girl power, only occasionally over the top. People will vary in how they respond to this movie, but I cried. 3.5 stars
26. Battleship Potemkin (Russia, 1926, Prime) Silent propaganda film – “Comrades! Let us not eat maggots!” – but interesting depiction of 1905 naval mutiny. The brilliantly depicted massacre on the Odessa steps (not steppes) didn’t happen, but it could have. 3.5 stars
27. Glory (Bulgaria, 2016, Prime) Stuttering linesman’s return of found cash brings him in contact with self-absorbed urban PR flack. It doesn’t work out well for either one of them. This Chicago economist sees the residue of communism in some of the corruption, but something like this could happen almost anywhere. 3.0 stars.
28. 1945 (Hungary, 2017, Prime) Two Jews create havoc as they silently walk, like two lawmen in a Western, through a Hungarian village in August 1945. Residents hide their loot and point fingers, leading to death and jilted brides, only to find out that the Jews only wanted to visit the cemetery. Shot in beautiful black and white. 3.5 stars.
29. Ludo (Faroe Islands, 2014, Prime). Best Faroese movie ever! Also, the only Faroese movie ever. Father and nine-year old daughter struggle to live with their mentally ill wife/mother. Summer is beautiful with the warmish weather, the beautiful seascapes, and the long days. Wonder what she’s like in the winter? Sadly, the movie’s bad. 1.5 stars.
30. Steppe Man (Azerbaijan, 2014, Prime). Modernity encroaches while a dying father teaches handsome son to herd camels. City girl shows up as she runs away from her skeezy boyfriend and, after some false romantic steps, she becomes pregnant. Skeezy ex-boyfriend shows up to ask, as the movie ends, whether it’s really Steppe Man’s baby. Unclear resolution. I really like watching camels chew. 2.5 stars.
31. Olympia (Germany, 1938, Prime). Opening ten minutes is the best part, as Greek statues morph into naked German athletes of both sexes. A racist propaganda film, of course, but Riefenstahl did show black Americans winning the long and high jumps and a Korean (running for Japan!) winning the marathon. No, Amazon, “German words” do not count as subtitles. 1.5 stars
32. Dear Albania (Albania, 2015, Prime) ADHD-addled documentary visit led by pretty, vain Albanian-American actress (Eliza Dushku). She vamps too much and commits the unforgiveable sin of dating a former UNC basketball player, but she ultimately lets the camera listen to some real Albanians. 1.0 star.
33. Raise the Red Lantern (China, 1991, Prime) More polygamy! Young woman becomes 4th Mistress to warlord in 1920s China, the wives living in separate rooms around a claustrophobic courtyard. Who do you hate most when you are 4th Mistress to a callous, absent warlord? Second Mistress! 3.5 stars.
34. Red Apples (Armenia, 2016, Prime). A short. A woman marches her son’s bride to the gynecologist after she fails to stain the sheets on her wedding night. (She knew because she checked.) Doctor finds that bride’s hymen is intact - phew! – but bride’s enthusiasm for her new family may not be. 2.5 stars.
35. 3 Idiots (India, 2009, Netflix). Three engineering students rebel against convention and their professor. My cackling when the villains pee on a live wire – twice - earned me disapproving spousal looks. Steven Spielberg watched this three times for its mix of ribaldry and emotional authenticity. And because it’s Bollywood, they break out randomly into awesome music videos. 4 stars.
36. Rome, Open City (Italy, 1946, Prime). Hell breaks loose on the eve of the American occupation of Rome as Nazis and Fascists track down the underground. It earned its status as a neorealist icon through its unflinching depiction of torture. Ingrid Bergmann wrote Rossellini a fan letter after watching this movie, so I guess there would be no Isabella Rossellini without it. 4 stars.
37. Ixcanul (Guatemala, 2015, Prime). Best Kaqchikel language movie ever! Teenage girl from poor family is betrothed to decent, boring manager of coffee plantation, but she gets pregnant by poor kid who promptly leaves for US. Girl and mother believe snakes are scared of pregnant women, but they’re not. Porcine actor really nails his butchering scene. 2.5 stars.
38. Timbuktu (Mauritania, 2014, Prime) Gun-wielding fundamentalists invade Timbuktu, banning soccer and music, forcing women to cover up, and stoning adulterers to death. For reasons I don’t understand, they give the town’s lone Haitian woman a pass. Herdsman with beautiful wife and daughter gets in deadly scrape with neighbor who has killed his cow (more great acting from our 4-legged friends). He can’t raise the blood money and, well, this version of Sharia law is unforgiving. 3.5 stars
39. Black Orpheus (Brazil, 1959, Prime). The Greek myth transplanted to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival. Handsome Orpheus has two beautiful women who love him, and he chooses Eurydice, the one played by the actress from Pittsburgh. Who is that chasing them through the streets in a skeleton masque? Death. 3.0 stars.
40. Lumumba (Congo, 2000, Prime) Patrice Lumumba and Congo gain independence in 1959, but the country struggles with secession and continued western interference. Was Belgium the worst colonial power? Oui, je pense. Is Congolese music excellent? Oui. Was President-for-Life Mobuto (a Judas to Lumumba’s Jesus) the anti-Mandela? Oui encore. 3.5 stars.
41. Village Without Women (Serbia, 2010, Amazon). Documentary. Three, 40ish Serbian brothers raise sheep on lonely farm. Two brothers make do with Playboy, but one decides to get married, like the neighbor down the hill with the cute Albanian wife. He primps, gets his documents in line, and takes the bus to Albania for a matchmaking event. It’s affecting when things don’t work out. 2.5 stars.
42. Man of Aran (Ireland, 1934, Prime) Documentary about life on barren rocks where the residents literally farm dirt….by director of “Nanook of the North,” a film about Inuits that I saw as a schoolboy. The director brought Nanook over from Canada to lead the Irish on an anachronistic hunt for basking sharks. The shark was real, but the documentary was phony. 1.5 stars
43. The Longest Distance (Venezuela, 2013, Prime). Mom is murdered on terrifying streets of Caracas and dad then struggles to raise 8-year old son. Boy runs away and forms a sweet relationship with a struggling young man and, together, they journey to see boy’s dying grandmother at her hut in the beautiful savanna and mountains of southeastern Venezuela. I ask the movie gods what it means that I find the dying grandma kind of hot. “It means you’re old,” they say. 3.0 stars
44. Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia, 2015, Prime). Shaman ushers two white botanists, one in 1900 and one in 1940, through the Amazon jungle in search of healing plants. They record his language before it disappears among the missions and the rubber plantations. An Amazonian Apocalypse Now. 2.5 stars.
45. Whisky (Uruguay, 2004, Prime). Aging, Jewish, comically stolid factory owner arranges for aging, repressed bookkeeper to act as his wife during a visit by his brother. Peppy brother makes the fake wife smile when they leave Montevideo for the beach, and that’s just unforgiveable. “Whisky” is used to make people smile in photographs, like “cheese” in the U.S. The movie is supposed to be a comedy, but the young director committed suicide after making it. 3.0 stars.
46. Kafou (Haiti, 2017, Prime). A half-movie. The relationship between two minor league thugs hits an impasse when one of them realizes that the kidnap victim in their trunk is his uncle. Uncle flees into poor neighborhood, leading to confusion and tragedy. Note to self: only rent 4-wheel drive vehicles in Port-au-Prince. 2.5 stars
47. Arrows of the Thunder Dragon (Bhutan, 2013, Prime) Grandfather teaches archery to brother and sister in rural, 1970s Bhutan. Brother leaves sister behind to compete against team in big-city Thimphu, only to find that the city-slickers (and their cheerleaders!) cheat and talk trash. Sister later makes the Olympic team. Did she beat Geena Davis? 2.0 stars
48. White Sun (Nepal, 2016, Prime). As peace breaks out after a bitter civil war, Maoist rebel returns to home village to find his ex-wife, his royalist brother, and their father’s corpse. Custom requires that the brothers – and only the brothers - carry the corpse to the river for a ceremony. The brothers squabble and each calls in armed help, leading the corpse to sit on the river path for days, attended by the village elders. May lower castes walk by the brahmin’s corpse? No, they may not. 3.0 stars
49. Sleepwalking Land (Mozambique, 2007, Prime). Boy treks with old man to find his mother amid 1980s Civil War. In the detritus of an atrocity, boy finds a diary that tells of a young man, an Indian shopkeeper, and a beautiful woman who is looking for her son. Magical realism ensues, including summoned rivers and floating buses. Was it magical realism, however, when the old man taught the boy how to masturbate? 3.0 stars.
50. A Translator (Cuba, 2018, Prime) Literature professor is dragooned into translating for pediatric Chernobyl victims brought to Cuban hospitals in years after 1987. Cuban wife says that prof’s digs are way too nice, but the movie does address the change in Cuban living standards after the Russian subsidies stopped in 1989. The oncologist looks like Lenin and the contemporary Cuban newscast laments the destruction of that well-known symbol of liberty – the Berlin Wall. 3.0 stars.
51. Sugarcane Shadows (Mauritius, 2014, Prime). The sugar mill is closing to make way for French-sponsored, Chinese-built resort villas, leading to strife between the Indo-, Franco-, Sino-, and Afro-Mauritians. Kind of a mash-up of “Do the Right Thing” and those now-quaint 1980s movies that wondered how Americans would respond to Japanese economic colonialism. Mauritius is beautiful, an Indian Ocean version of Oahu. 3.0 stars

[-jk]

Wow, quite the list! But how can you not have that lovely city, Bruges? It has medieval architecture and parks with nooks and crannies!

-jk

[OldPhiKap]

Wow, quite the list! But how can you not have that lovely city, Bruges? It has medieval architecture and parks with nooks and crannies!

-jk

"They’re filming midgets!!!”

[OldPhiKap]

Wow, quite the list! But how can you not have that lovely city, Bruges? It has medieval architecture and parks with nooks and crannies!

-jk

"They’re filming midgets!!!”

SonPK in Koningin Astridpark exploring the alcoves (you use this word, “alcoves”?)

168648F5-D0A3-4D05-9A40-E91769F6BADB.jpg

(Gazebo in background — my son has the whole Colin Farrell thing going anyway).

[YmoBeThere]

An undergrad recently took a quantitative approach to ranking the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. The first link discusses his methodology, the second is his actual list.

https://arts.duke.edu/news/brandon-xies-500-greatest-movies-of-all-time/



https://letterboxd.com/reelstats/lis...ime-according/

[Stray Gator]

SonPK in Koningin Astridpark exploring the alcoves (you use this word, “alcoves”?)

168648F5-D0A3-4D05-9A40-E91769F6BADB.jpg

(Gazebo in background — my son has the whole Colin Farrell thing going anyway).

Nice! And I'll take that as an invitation to post some of our other favorite Bruges photos . . .

IMG_20170723_173327873_HDR -- View looking westward along Groenerei Canal from Meestraat Bridge,.jpgIMG_20170722_120119474 -- View along the Dijver Canal south of Bonifacius Bridge, in Bruges, Bel.jpgIMG_20170722_120611395_HDR -- Buildings along the east side of the Dijver Canal below Bonifacius.jpgIMG_20170722_194715444_HDR -- View along Groenerei Canal towards Meestraat Bridge from the bridg.jpgIMG_20170723_103735195_HDR -- Statue of Bruges lion with shield on Leeuwenbrug (Lion Bridge) in .jpg

[Stray Gator]

Can't resist adding a couple more . . .

IMG_20170723_104356899 -- Flower gardens along Augustijnenrei Canal south of Ezelstraat Bridge, .jpgIMG_20170722_220604992 -- View of the Bruges Belfry Tower looking northwest across Dijver Canal .jpg

[OldPhiKap]

Bruges is gorgeous — and your hotel suggestion (IIRC) was spot on!

Ready to go back. Hell, ready to go anywhere.

[Stray Gator]

Bruges is gorgeous — and your hotel suggestion (IIRC) was spot on!

Ready to go back. Hell, ready to go anywhere.

Delighted to hear that you enjoyed your visit to Bruges and your stay at the lovely and ideally located Grand Hotel Casselbergh! And yes, like you and so many others -- including our great pal Budwom -- we're eager to get the jab so that we can resume our journeys, especially those priceless adventures exploring the Old World . . .

[dudog84]

PBS is airing a 3-part series, "Rise of the Nazis". Fascinating, and disturbing, viewing that everyone should be interested in. You really should look for it on your local PBS station/website, but if you can't find it here it is on mine:

https://video.wucftv.org/show/rise-nazis/

[Phredd3]

So, someone PM'd me asking about Pick of the Litter and I figured I would educate all of you who have not seen this amazing film. Pick of the litter follows 5 puppies on the journey to try to be a guide dog for the blind.

Pick of the Litter is currently streaming on Netflix... do yourself a favor and watch it.

Thanks to you and the poster who PMed you prompting the summary. I was dead tired this weekend, and this was the perfect interesting-but-simple, feel-good story to spend marking an hour and a half. A well-done documentary. I loved the side story of the PTSD puppy raiser.

[Phredd3]

Can't resist adding a couple more . . .
IMG_20170722_220604992 -- View of the Bruges Belfry Tower looking northwest across Dijver Canal .jpg

I love this iconic bell tower, which I've been lucky enough to ascend. And of course, later, we heard it's carillon. Happy not to do that when within mere feet of the bells! I don't get to travel much, so that was a memorable trip.

[OldPhiKap]

I love this iconic bell tower, which I've been lucky enough to ascend. And of course, later, we heard it's carillon. Happy not to do that when within mere feet of the bells! I don't get to travel much, so that was a memorable trip.

Those are some winding stairs to the top! But a wonderful view.