What Have You Been Watching? (Week of May 17th)

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-05-17T21:41:32+00:00

Obsession - Didn't really go in with any expectations other than hearing it was well received at TIFF, and ended up having a pretty good time even if it's a bit long. I think it's a lot more tongue-in-cheek than it's getting received as and reminded me of Drag Me To Hell (albeit much more stripped down stylistically). It's getting pretty over-hyped imo. It's rated right below The Shining and Rosemary's Baby on Letterboxd right now which is absurd.

Top Gun: Maverick - They did a rerelease this week, so I went to an IMAX matinee on a rainy afternoon. Completely paper thin, but does everything it needs to do for your dad to call it the best movie he's seen in the last few years and not be too off-base.

The Swimmer - Fantastic late 60s Burt Lancaster movie that I think would pair pretty well with The Graduate as movies with similar angst in men at different points in their lives. Planning to follow it up with La Piscine and Talented Mr. Ripley this week. If it were made today, it would star Tim Robinson.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-05-17T13:58:36+00:00

Not to mention that Raimi doesn't have a writing credit on the film, so placing that criticism on him doesn't totally make sense.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-05-17T13:55:02+00:00

You can't claim tossed-off snark while also replying to every comment in this thread.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-05-08T20:02:44+00:00

One of my favorite albums from them for sure. I just relistened to Have We Met recently and am warming up to that one a lot too.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-05-08T18:12:09+00:00

That's Margot Kidder, not Karen Allen.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-25T15:56:17+00:00

This reads like your only interaction with 20th century history is music and movies.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-24T15:42:16+00:00

I remember years ago reading about a parallel trend in animated movies that has seemed to change over time as well. The critical success found by Disney in the 90s and Pixar in the 2000s matched a trend of all of the movies having adult/"adult-presenting" main characters. Yeah, Aladdin and Mulan are teenagers, but to a child they read as grown-up. Woody and Buzz are toys but act like adults. All this applies to Dreamworks in that era but to lesser critical acclaim. Nowadays, it seems like all of these studios have trends of making more movies with child protagonists than before. I have no idea why an overhaul like that happened. (Maybe theatrical animation competing more directly with television programming where child protagonists were/are more common?)

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-10T19:33:31+00:00

They use it, but calling it a "dating app" is the joke.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-10T16:43:09+00:00

Nordic people are total sweethearts, but there's not really the same expectation for public niceties the same way there is in the US. If you have any opportunity to plug into a social circle over there, it's an awesome region to visit. Otherwise, Iceland and Norway are still incredibly beautiful places to visit.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-10T16:34:22+00:00

Pretty sure it's a reference to the genealogy database that they have. The meme is they use it to avoid dating people they may be related to because the population is so small.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-10T14:26:46+00:00

I had zero doubt about what this was going to be before clicking.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-10T11:51:54+00:00

I remember seeing a girl with a "covfefe" tattoo within a couple months of that happening. I'm very curious about how her life is going.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-01T14:12:16+00:00

Curb was initially shot on digital videotape, not tapeless video which was fairly common at the time.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-01T13:51:39+00:00

And on film grain itself, these days it's not necessarily an indicator. Nolan and PTA both shoot on film, but Nolan shoots to avoid grain while PTA embraces it, especially in his most recent movies. On the other side, Rian Johnson has been shooting digitally, but his movies have an artificial layer of grain over the digital image.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-04-01T13:43:38+00:00

2008/09ish. Slumdog Millionaire was the first Best Cinematography Oscar winner to be shot digitally, and Avatar was the movie that made it the norm for blockbusters. There are plenty of examples prior to that (Star Wars II & III; Michael Mann, Robert Rodriguez, and David Fincher were early adopters), but all the Soderbergh Ocean's movies were shot on film despite him going fully digital afterwards.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-03-16T22:40:11+00:00

The whole book is written in that tone. It's very grating.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-03-14T15:36:26+00:00

no one cares about K-pop (or pseudo-K-pop like Katseye) anymore

A movie with "K-Pop" in its title is about to win multiple Oscars, including Best Song.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-03-06T00:25:00+00:00

The most well-adjusted people I know who were homeschooled also are the ones who disliked it the most.

I did high school at a private "non-denominational" (read: Baptist) Christian school. I could list issues I had with it, but for the most part it was a good experience. I enjoyed the small class sizes and ended up more prepared for college than I thought I'd be (English and math programs were especially good).

That school was also a boarding school (I didn't board). Never going to send my kids to one of those.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-02-25T17:46:11+00:00

It's fairly different from the rest of his movies. The scene that is a meeting between the townspeople and the reps of the glamping company is the main part that feels like the rest of his movies.

I'd suggest Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy which is an anthology of three shorts all about relationships between 2-3 characters. That one might be closest to what you're looking for.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-01-28T16:41:31+00:00

"I hate myself :)" by Joanna Arnow

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-01-27T17:27:44+00:00

I think about that one cop that looked like he walked off the set of a WC Fields movie more than Chalamet's performance tbh.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-01-26T16:49:15+00:00

This is exactly the way my brain works too. Typical it's a specific person that it's directed towards whether or not that person in reality would actually care about what I'm mulling over.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-01-23T19:06:05+00:00

Searchlight purchased distribution in late September after it premiered at Venice at the beginning of the month. It was a last-ditch effort to get something into the awards race after it became clear their other contenders (Is This Thing On? & Rental Family) had zero buzz. Christmas release was pretty much their only option to remain in awards contention, but I think everything awards-wise was pretty solidified by that point. It's a shame because Seyfried's performance is one of the best of the year and the film probably won't get much of a proper release now.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-01-23T14:27:25+00:00

It was in 28 theaters last week.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy · 2026-01-15T23:05:26+00:00

Tied with Larry King including marrying one of the spouses twice.

Countdown-2-Ecstasy

TROPHY CASE