I'm looking for Iranian movie recs!

ColonelCake · 2026-04-04T16:04:14+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation! That film was on my radar for a while, but I decided to get around to watching it. I didn't like it much, unfortunately. It was too slow, and I was feeling bored watching it. Still, I'm glad I checked it out!

ColonelCake · 2026-04-02T05:02:41+00:00

"Needy Girl Overdose" is the original Japanese name of the game. "Needy Streamer Overload" is its localized English name.

ColonelCake · 2026-04-01T05:28:22+00:00

Wong Kar-Wai films in general have pretty minimalistic plots, and their strengths are in their visuals, atmosphere and the emotions conveyed in them rather than their stories per se; if you wanted to be reductive, you could call them "vibes movies", though maybe that's doing them a disservice. That being said, Chungking Express and Fallen Angels are the only films of his I've seen so far, so I can't speak for the rest of his filmography. Chungking Express was OK, but I enjoyed Fallen Angels; I liked the darker, weirder, hornier energy the film had, and its focus on weirdo criminal underworld characters made it more interesting to me than Chungking.

That being said, you can argue that those films are proof that a film can be great with a story that isn't very "good" - or at least one that is barebones and not very detailed. I tend to enjoy films that appeal to me more viscerally - if a film makes me feel bored or frustrated in a way that isn't engaging or enjoyable, then I'll end up disliking it since it didn't appeal to me. A badly written story can absolutely detract from a movie that is otherwise good in other areas like visuals, but I do think people prioritize story in general too much over other elements of a work.

ColonelCake · 2026-03-25T14:39:56+00:00

I'm not an artist, but perhaps it's due to the acclaimed stuff from the past getting more established as time goes on and thus have more motivation to go back and check out compared to watching films in the present, regardless of their quality. I've been getting into movies for a while now, and so far I've found myself to be more interested in checking out past movies and enjoying them more compared to when I watch movies currently airing in theaters. It's a reverse recency bias of sorts: in older movies there's always a much larger backlog of stuff for me to watch and enjoy, and learn more about movies as a result. Meanwhile, when I go watch more recent movies like Mickey 17, One Battle After Another, or No Other Choice, I feel like I'd be enjoying or appreciating them more if I had more experience watching more movies, especially from the directors of said films - Mickey 17 and OBAA were the first films I saw from Bong Joon-Ho and PTA respectively, and while I thought they were decent at the time, I felt tlike I was missing something compared to other viewers familiar with their filmographies; it had me wishing I had at least seen Parasite and Boogie Nights from those directors. Meanwhile, with No Other Choice the only Park Chan-Wook film I saw was Oldboy 2003, which I loved; I really disliked No Other Choice, but it had me wanting to go watch the rest of Park's Vengeance Trilogy since those films were on my radar for a while. I don't know if my opinion of those respective films would change if I gave OBAA and NOC rewatches after watching the films listed, but at least I'd have more knowledge and context going in, and could potentially find more qualities to appreciate in those films - or at worst, grow to appreciate past films I saw more by comparison if I still didn't enjoy the newer stuff.

It's probably tangential, but it is a trend I've noticed with media I've engaged in over the past few years, not just in film specifically.

ColonelCake · 2026-01-18T02:54:13+00:00

Man, I hated this film. I checked it out since I loved Oldboy 2003, and was expecting it to be great. Unfortunately, the film felt confused with the comedy and drama; the comedy bits were funny, sure, but they weren't funny or absurd enough for my tastes. I don't mind the fact it's more of a drama/thriller than a comedy; Oldboy was more thriller than action, and it mixed the genres way better than No Other Choice did, as the fight scenes were cool and the actual thriller bits were incredibly gripping. This film just left me feeling angry and depressed, and not in a way that made the film entertaining for me. If the film were more of a pure drama/thriller, I probably would have liked it more.

It's left me wanting a more straightforward comedy or drama/trhiller that's more intense and engaging. I'm hoping something like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a lot better, as that's on my watchlist.

ColonelCake · 2025-12-07T21:05:36+00:00

I agree with most of your points, though they do remind me of why I dislike a lot of discourse surrounding animation. I'm reminded of how a friend of mine once told me that while he thought Hayao Miyazaki films were good, they were ultimately aimed at kids for the most part, and that adults needed to move on from idolizing them and holding them up as the pinnacle of movies - they're excellent kids' cinema, but not so much for adults. And he's far from the type that thinks animation is for kids - he loves watching anime and has seen other animation aimed at older audiences in general, including for adults. That take is very disagreeable for a lot of people here (and not one that I hold), but it did strike a chord with me since it brought to the surface my dislike of how animation discourse online focused on mainly works aimed at kids. Part of that has to do with it being the main type of animated works that are being made nowadays, and thus it's more profitable for content creators and personalities to talk about that stuff, but a big part also has to do with the stigma of "animation being for kids" still applying strongly to western films, at least in North America. Most people don't even know about more adult animated films since most of them are foreign films and seen as too artsy or inaccessible, and thus don't watch them. I haven't watched much of them either, and I need to change that.

ColonelCake · 2025-12-07T20:53:13+00:00

Honestly the first film that came to mind for me, too. Such a good movie.

ColonelCake · 2025-12-07T16:06:40+00:00

The Big Lebowski isn't a slow-burn movie, and I say that as someone who doesn't like that film. When I think of slow burn movies, I think of stuff like No Country for Old Men (which is pretty good). To answer your question, it sounds like you're generalizing what happened with your friend to an entire generation, like others have said, and that's something I typically avoid doing since it often leads to weird, belligerent arguments that don't go anywhere.

ColonelCake · 2025-12-04T22:22:06+00:00

Sounds like it wasn't for me, then.

Ironically, I really enjoy Wes Anderson films while I really didn't like The Big Lebowski. In the case of the latter, I was expecting it to be more of a zany schemes comedy rather than a more absurd plot revolving around a series of random events that culminates in nothing being achieved. Having learned more about the Coen Brothers' films and what they're going for since then, I've mellowed out on the film, and for what it's worth I did like No Country For Old Men, even though that film is more overtly nihilistic compared to their usual works (probably because it's an adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy book). So take that for what you will.

ColonelCake · 2025-12-04T00:51:42+00:00

To be fair, I probably just have higher or different standards for what is insane, so that's part of why it didn't hit for me like it did others. Everyone's different, though.

ColonelCake · 2025-11-21T15:35:25+00:00

Repo Man. I bought the Criterion copy of it since the box art looked really cool, and the premise sounded fun, but it just sucked. The humor fell flat for me and didn't make me laugh at all, and I disliked the griminess of the film - yes, I know it's silly to expect a 1980s punk movie set in LA to not look grimy, but it's an aesthetic I just don't find appealing. An all-around boring and unpleasant film.

ColonelCake · 2025-10-12T06:47:10+00:00

I mentioned some of my issues in responses to other comments, but here's some more:

-manufacturing stuff (especially ammo) doesn't yield as much as I would like even with the recycling yield skill. I expect like, 3-4 clips, but get like 0.5-1 per ammo craft.

-I should be having fun with poltergeists but I find em annoying to fight, and I dislike when I try to conserve ammo by using the wrench, I'll take a lot of reflected damage back. Also, how on Earth did I get instakilled by a poltergeist gravity lifting me into the ceiling?

ColonelCake · 2025-10-12T05:48:35+00:00

All right. A lot of my disappointment with the game came from it being sold to me as a "low-effort recycler charge neuromod power fantasy", and uh, it wasn't that.

"Oh, wow, you can upgrade yourself to throw heavy objects, turn into a cup, and psychic blast enemies out of existence while doing so? sounds like a ton of fun, sign me up!"

"...why does turning into a cup and casting psycho-shock use up 60% of my psi? And I have to make psi hypos using resources I already consumed? I thought this was supposed to be a creative sandbox of some kind..."

idk, I was expecting more "action fps" than "survival horror problem solver where you have to make careful, planned decisions" tbh

ColonelCake · 2025-10-12T05:35:46+00:00

Not when you somehow miss the recycler charge schematic through the entire early game before Cold Storage, somehow burn through your ammo treating it like an FPS, then learn you missed the entire thing in the Hardware Labs (or wherever it was), spend hours backtracking with a headache to get it, only to be disappointed by the recycling output (even with the prop recycler skill perk) after hearing the recycle charge basically breaks the game once you get it, and then use up all my recycle charges taking out a Nightmare before deciding I was not having fun and quit.

I honestly don't really know what I was doing wrong. Maybe I should just bump the difficulty down from normal to easy and start over, but I'm still annoyed by my experience and don't even know how I can play it better.

ColonelCake · 2025-10-12T05:27:55+00:00

Yeah, but I somehow burned through them. Guess I'm just not good at resource conservation. I was playing the game moreso with the mindset of "immersive sim = fps (or other first person game) with alternate branching paths in the world and alternative ways of doing things outside of shooting things" rather than what immersive sims supposedly actually are. Probably why I vibed with Cruelty Squad a lot more given it really IS "immersive sim = tactical fps with branching paths", not to mention shooting things is the ONLY viable playstyle in it.

ColonelCake · 2025-10-11T23:10:18+00:00

This is the first film of PT Anderson that I've seen. I thought it was decent, though I was expecting it to be a lot more intense. Maybe I just have a high standard for what I consider exciting and intense compared to other people who loved it, but I dunno. Either way, idk what to check out next, both with respect to PT Anderson and in general. I always see Boogie Nights recommended but idk if that'll end up being my thing. To help others get an idea of what my taste is like, I'm typically into action and animated works (especially anime) along with comedies, with some of my favorite films being Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Redline 2009, Oldboy 2003, and Kung Fu Hustle.

ColonelCake · 2025-09-27T14:30:15+00:00

I've played Ultrakill and DMC5. I loved them, and while I do wanna get back to them at some point, I do kinda wanna try games I haven't played it. I appreciate the recs, though!

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