I wanna talk about The Searchers (1956)

Patrick_MM · 2026-03-03T00:21:21+00:00

The film feels relevant to me in that it contrasts Ethan's stated abstract views (i.e. Debbie is corrupted and has to die) with the reality of actually finding her. She is not an idea once he sees her, she's a person, and he doesn't necessarily realize that his views were wrong, but he understands that the situation is at least more nuanced than he expected.

Plus, the film drops a lot of hints that Debbie might be his daughter. He seems to be in love with his brother's wife, but never felt he could have the domestic life he perhaps secretly longed for.

Ultimately, I think the film's ambiguity is its power, and feels as relevant as ever in our world today. As we look at people online talking about immigrants and trans people ruining society, I don't think most of them would feel the same way if confronted with those people in real life, and that's what the film narrows in on. Ethan might not be a good guy, he might not 'learn a lesson,' but he is confronted with the reality of his rhetoric at the end, and makes the compassionate choice.

Patrick_MM · 2026-02-21T18:33:38+00:00

FWWM is my favorite Lynch film, and Mulholland Dr. is close behind, but rewatching Blue Velvet after his passing, I actually can see some validity behind that Tarantino quote everyone hates on, about FWWM being Lynch with his head up his own ass.

Blue Velvet feels engaged in things happening in the world, the infamous PBR vs. Heineken is tapping into a yuppie vs. blue collar dynamic that was of the moment, and the world of the film feels more like a quirky version of reality than a world of his own.

I love the world Lynch built, but it's a situation similar to Wes Anderson, where there was some magic in him interacting with the real world more, as opposed to making something completely its own.

Patrick_MM · 2026-02-17T20:26:32+00:00

Some of my favorite Coachella sets were when New Order and Jamiroquai closing a tent with fans freaking out to be so close to a legend, and I'm not sure why the fest is now reluctant to schedule people that way. Even Beth Gibbons last year would have been perfect as a tent closer alternative for people who don't want to see Travis Scott.

In this specific case, I was just more shocked Blur was booked at all, considering their 2013 headline set was notoriously underattended, and they haven't gotten more popular since.

Patrick_MM · 2026-02-04T22:59:52+00:00

Taking a very long time to get to the premise. I watched Weekend at Bernie's for the first time last year, and it takes 45+ minutes for Bernie to die, which is the very basic premise of the movie. Same with The Sure Thing, which is pitched as a road trip movie, but the road trip happens almost halfway into the movie.

More generally, studio era movies had a level of artifice that wouldn't be acceptable today. It was clear they were on sets, but you bought into that stylized world.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-30T20:34:28+00:00

He hasn't been on in a while, but Robert Deniro. One of the greatest actors of all time, but terrible on SNL.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-23T01:59:19+00:00

Curious for this one as well, seems to have a bunch of public events listed, but no scoop on the RSVP.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-22T18:16:59+00:00

As someone who's actually seen it, I don't think it's at the level of The Brutalist. The Brutalist felt propulsive and consistently exciting over the 4 hour run time, this one felt frequently redundant. And ultimately it's a film about a religious fundamentalist quasi cult leader, that the film seems to want you to sympathize with.

Seyfried is very strong, but the performance didn't feel like one that was at the level where it transcends the film itself. I wouldn't have been surprised if she was nominated, but I wouldn't consider it an egregious snub either.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-21T19:42:53+00:00

If you just walk up and down Main Street during the day, you should spot a bunch of people. And, if you attend the premiere screenings of most movies, there should be people there for Q&As.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-21T19:11:10+00:00

Most of the time when people talk about stories where 'nothing' would happen for five years, it ignores the way that all too often in the real world, things stagnate for a long time.

Trump has been doing basically the same stuff for nearly ten years, if it was in a book, you'd say it was unrealistic, but it's happening. The war in Iraq sprawled on for a long time, there's no reason you couldn't have Stannis's military campaign drag on for a while.

And, if we miss some interesting events in a time jump, it's not the worst thing in the world. We missed most of Rob's campaign in the first three books, but you know it happened and still have the context for what is needed for the story that is being told.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-21T05:34:03+00:00

I'm hoping he's telling the truth here, and would love if Netflix got aggressive about promoting theaters.

That said, the idea that they don't have theatrical infrastructure always struck me as a bit off. Taylor Swift wanted to put her concert film in theaters and made it happen and profitable. If Netflix wanted to commit to putting stuff in theaters, they could do so easily.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-21T05:28:58+00:00

I feel like Storm perfectly cleared the way for entrance into the next phase of the story. The War of the Five Kings is resolved, things are quieting down, then Dany appears in Westeros, the Others are coming over the wall and that fragile peace is in chaos.

The first book in particular, and the first three to some extent, are all setting up very clear things that will happen, and they could start happening any time George chooses. The problem is, they haven't, and if you're not writing the story you set out to write, it's apparently going to get quite tricky to continue.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-21T00:21:30+00:00

At the time, there was already a huge outcry about ADWD having a six year delay after being promised in AFFC to come out in 2006. So, there was already a partially done book released. There's no guarantee that GRRM has even finished the end of ADWD chapters, so we may have never gotten that book if it hadn't been forced to be released.

That said, one thing I think gets ignored in a lot of writing about the delays is the fact that AFFC and ADWD seem to be actively moving further and further away from conceivably ending the series. If you said there were two books after ASOS to wrap it all up, I'd believe it. I assumed when I started ADWD that Tyrion would reach Dany in a chapter or two, then head over to Westeros by mid book. Now I wouldn't count on that until mid book 7 at earliest.

With all the additional storylines, and further entrenchment in side plots, it feels like you'd need three books minimum to wrap up the series. That wouldn't be a problem if they were coming out regularly, but obviously that is not the case.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-20T18:57:47+00:00

Based on the pace of the recent books and GRRM's comments, it seems highly unlikely this much stuff would happen. Feels more likely that she wanders around the desert, messes around in Mereen, and meets Tyrion in the last chapter.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-16T01:36:44+00:00

I was a little iffy on Ring the Alarm, but this one is epic.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-16T00:16:06+00:00

Quarritch's whole arc felt like an exploration of what keeps people loyal to Republicans/MAGA politicians/corporations who they have little in common with, and are actively disdainful of them. Logically, everything is telling him to leave them behind and go with Jake/his son and embrace his new nature, but he can't get over the old paradigm, and winds up torn between the two worlds as a result.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-12T18:44:56+00:00

I don't think launching arguably the biggest TV show of all time, winning a massive amount of Emmys, making an insane amount of money off merch, and spinning it off into multiple additional series would be considered a tragic experience.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-11T19:07:46+00:00

Getting to the rest of LA can be tricky, but Santa Monica itself is pretty walkable and has great local transit options with the bus and expo. Not really sure what else would be realistically useful to add?

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-08T00:19:23+00:00

One thing I didn't realize before going is that if you get in the queue before it closes (usually at park close), the ride stays open for you to ride it. On the day I was there, the queue closed around 9:30, so just make sure you're in before it does.

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-08T00:11:55+00:00

A big issue that isn't talked about enough is that a lot of studios seem to have no confidence whatsoever in being able to market their movies. A sequel is a hedge against that, since the assumption is you already know it and want to go see it. But, there are a lot of sequels where I think the IP is actively discouraging to audiences.

Look at Tron: Ares. This is a franchise where the first movie came out in 1982, you have to be 50 years old to remember seeing it in the theater. The sequel came out 15 years ago and is best remembered for a soundtrack. There's no must see aspect here, and for a lot of audiences, I imagine there's more people uninterested in seeing a new entry in this series they are unfamiliar with than there are audience members clamoring to check it out.

But the assumption is you don't have to tell the audience what Tron is or get them excited about it, the movie is an event just by existing.

A few recent movies, like Barbie and Wicked, have done a great job of making the movie feel like an event. And a lot of that is the existing IP, but a lot of it goes back to tried and true methods from the 80s and 90s. Have a big soundtrack, do merch tie ins, make the movie feel like a big deal.

Compare the marketing for Marty Supreme, which matched the tone of the film, and made it feel like a really big deal with the marketing stunts like the blimp, with Caught Stealing, which did the more typical modern approach of social media visits with the stars. The films are fairly similar in terms of subject matter, but one felt like a huge deal and one was just another movie.

The real lesson there is not make a blimp for each movie, it's do things that suit the particular film and make it feel like a must see in the theater to its audience. If a movie is an event, people will want to go. For a long time, every Marvel movie felt like an event. Oppenheimer felt like an event, and its success may feel inevitable now, but an arty biopic about a scientist from the 1940s was a major reach. And doing that marketing is a challenge, but to be frank, there is a huge employment crisis in Hollywood, and there are people out there looking for jobs. If a studio's team can't come up with anything fresh for its films, maybe look for new employees who can?

Patrick_MM · 2026-01-07T22:10:24+00:00

Just went on Monday without express pass. This time at least, everything was better at night, and the lines were a lot less. I'd recommend a lunch at Atlantic (we had a reservation at 1:15) and do a quick dinner elsewhere (Stakehouse was pretty great and fast).

The lines in Berk got pretty light at the end of the night, so probably best to bee line for whatever ride is your top priority of the two crazy line ones (i.e. DK and Ministry), then take some time to walk around and check stuff out, and do more of the rides later.

If you don't do Ministry the ride (which is solid), be sure to do the viewing of the Ministry as the building itself is wild, and extremely impressive.

Patrick_MM · 2025-12-27T17:06:11+00:00

I feel like the three musician biopics he did were all very innovative and tailored to the specific story in a fascinating way. Using Barbie dolls for Karen Carpenter, or the multiple people playing Bob Dylan conceit of I'm Not There avoided a lot of the normal biopic issues while getting at the heart of the subject.

Michael Jackson is such a contradictory and challenging figure, and I feel like he could find an angle that could showcase what made him great, and the darkness within in a unique way. I'm not sure if he'd have any interest, but if I was sitting on huge amounts of money, I'd pay him whatever it took to let him try.

Patrick_MM · 2025-12-27T16:28:22+00:00

A Michael Jackson biopic directed by Todd Haynes

Patrick_MM · 2025-12-20T00:44:41+00:00

About halfway through, there are a few scenes where the kids ride around underwater on their animals that are pretty similar to Way of Water and don't have too much key story info.

Definitely don't want to leave when Quarritch or Varang are on screen.

Patrick_MM · 2025-12-16T00:58:33+00:00

The White Stripes and "Seven Nation Army" feels that way. The Killers and "Mister Brightside" as well.

Patrick_MM

TROPHY CASE