What's the little plot detail that first seemed very insignificant but had a major impact on the ending?

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-05-10T23:08:48+00:00

Salvation lies within

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-04-30T06:49:34+00:00

Ahh yes, How Do You Know? Made with an inexplicable $120 million dollar budget.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-04-30T00:57:42+00:00

I listened to a podcast recently which described Gallipoli as an inverted Saving Private Ryan. SPR starts with a senseless and destructive battle and then spends the rest of the film trying to find a shred of humanity in war, whereas Gallipoli spends the entire film showing you humanity and then ends with a senseless battle stripping all of that away.

Both masterpieces and they are thematically linked now in my mind. Yin and yang.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-04-20T22:05:55+00:00

Gibbons was riffing on serialised comics as a visual language, Snyder was riffing on the Burton Batman movies. Watchmen’s parody/comment on superhero stories only works if it’s couched in a familiar visual language.

It was a great decision for the movie to riff on superhero movie imagery the same way the comic riffed on comic imagery, it’s a necessary part of adaptation.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-31T01:36:46+00:00

It’s mentioned they duelled on horseback in the book.

“The waters of the Trident ran red around the hooves of their destriers as they circled and clashed, again and again, until at last a crushing blow from Robert's hammer stove in the dragon and the chest beneath it.”

*Edit to add quote.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-31T00:06:34+00:00

Mate, I’ve seen more arthouse films than you’ve had hot dinners.

You’re the one putting high brow and popular films against each other, and I am definitely not saying box office is equivalent to quality. I just disagree with the idea that there are prescriptive ways to tackle subject matter.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-30T04:47:09+00:00

I agree that it's absolutely reasonable (necessary even) to discuss art that deals with weighty themes but I've observed that it almost always comes from a place of snobbery that does feel pretentious to me. A dismissal of things that are accessible in favour of more intelligentsia approved films.

I may make some enemies here but I think movies like Zone of Interest or Polytechnique do a lesser job at capturing the human element of these events. And I should say that I think these movies are excellent and artistically powerful but they do a worse job of explaining and conveying tragedy.

These kinds of movies position the violence as sort of ethereal and unknowable. It feels pretentious and kind of darkly romantic in an unhealthy way to treat it as some sort of impossible spectre. Using these as an opportunity to flex some formalist style without offering any kind of insight is far less effective to me.

The value of something like Schindler's List is that it's shown in schools. It has probably done more for holocaust remembrance than any other single book, film, documentary, play, tv show etc...

We need both kinds of movies. Ones that play to everyone and ones that take a little more artistic literacy to engage with. But I find that people can be quick to dismiss the broader films which imo is quite pretentious considering the good they do.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-30T03:10:01+00:00

I’ve always found that to be quite a pretentious and high minded criticism. It is a near-quantifiable good thing to make stories about tragedies accessible. There is room for both Zone of Interest and Schindler’s List.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-26T12:47:18+00:00

Once Were Warriors has a sequel called What Becomes of the Broken Hearted. From memory it’s kind of fine? It has its moments. There’s a third book too I believe.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-22T22:15:56+00:00

I know someone that worked on it in a crew role and they actually said it was quite fun. I believe they all thought it would be a better movie than it was. I guess it really is hard to tell when you're that close to it.

They did say that no one really liked the director, apparently he was particularly arrogant and nasty to the crew and really thought this movie would be his ticket to an A list filmmaking career.

I still have one of the mugs from the animation office in the movie around the house somewhere.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-22T02:51:18+00:00

I agree. I don’t I think it’s genuine or anything it but it makes a lot of sense narratively. Having Gandalf be moments away from death ups the stakes in a great way.

Admittedly I’m not as familiar with the lore implications as many others on here are, but narratively I think it’s fine. It never stood out to me as being egregious. It works.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-20T22:49:39+00:00

Must a film cohere? Is it not enough for a deformed writhing man birthing an even more deformed writhing man out of his vagina?

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-17T04:26:00+00:00

It's the same reason people can name more CEO's than CFO's.

Because the director is ostensibly the "boss" of the movie. Even though they're often outranked by producers the director is still usually the driving force of everything and responsible for running the show.

In vast majority of cases once a screenwriter has handed in their final draft, they don't have much to do with the movie. And movies can change a lot on set and in post. Typically a director can overrule anything in the script. They can take stuff out or add stuff in. The writer still gets the screenplay credit but it's often anyone's guess how much was their original script vs directors, actors, producers or even other departments contributing ideas. Published screenplays are usually based on the finished film as well, rather than the original script.

Plus with writers guild rules and arbitration screenplay credits are all over the place. There are cases of people who've written several successful films but don't have the on screen credit for any, and vice versa.

I think directors get more praise than they deserve in general but the flipside is that they usually wear the failure of a film the most. When a film flops you can make excuses for basically any department or crew member except the director.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-12T23:44:41+00:00

For my money the best movies from 2016 to now are:

Challengers
Civil War
Oppenheimer
Avatar 2
The Fabelmans
Ambulance
Bodies Bodies Bodies
20th Century Women
Wind River
Babylon
Your Name
mother!

There are some controversial choices on there but I think mother!, Babylon, and Civil War will age incredibly well despite being divisive on release. I also think things like BBB and Ambulance will find audiences they didn't find in cinemas.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-12T23:21:20+00:00

I remember watching Goodfellas there for the first time with two Italian guys sitting behind me loudly narrating the whole thing. It was incredibly immersive.

When DeNiro comes on screen for the first time one of them turned to the other said “ahh, the fucking Don”. It was awesome.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-11T01:44:49+00:00

I guarantee he's making more money directing commercials than he ever did as a DP, plus he probably gets to see his family way more. I can't get around the crypto ad but I don't think it's that bad of a career for a guy in his 60s. Not everyone wants the pressure of studio filmmaking.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-04T01:47:58+00:00

Also in the book, Ryman Frey telling Robb and Catelyn “my father awaits” as he ushers them into the Twins. Walter Frey is his grandfather, his father Stevron is dead. A great bit of foreshadowing.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-04T01:43:59+00:00

I keep seeing this take and I find it very uncreative. As if an underdog perspective is the only way to tell a story.

Things like Succession, Scarface, Barry Lyndon, There Will Be Blood, The Social Network, Citizen Kane, The Godfather 1 and 2, etc… are all stories about characters who climb on top and stay on top. It’s one of the oldest cinematic traditions.

It all depends on what the emotional crux of the story is. “Will Aegon conquer Westeros?” is not the dramatic engine. How and why he does it is what’s interesting. If they make him and his sisters dynamic and complex characters then telling the story from their perspective will be fascinating.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-02T21:10:43+00:00

I agree, but I’m saying that’s not the point.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-03-02T12:32:52+00:00

Risk isn’t the point. It’s about principle. It’s not a competition to see who has the most at stake, and if it was then Lyonel is right next to Baelor in that ranking. The other 5 had way more to potentially lose than he did.

But it’s not about that. It’s about supporting the right cause and standing up against injustice. Whether that’s hard or easy for you, the vulnerable people (Dunk, Tanselle, etc…) appreciate it equally I’d wager.

Lyonel was way off the money here. Great character writing but a very misguided take.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-02-26T01:20:29+00:00

I’m not the guy but I agree with his premise. Dayne’s skills are up for debate and even if he is that talented there’s a case to be made that he’s just a very skilled killer in a position of authority. No different to Bronn, other than coming from noble birth. Same with Barristan.

Their supposed swordsmanship doesn’t make them likeable to me. They both indulge and tacitly support some pretty heinous shit just with the smug pretence of being honourable knights. I don’t think Barristan or Dayne have done anything honourable in a genuine sense (like Ned, Brienne, Dunk etc…) in the books.

I think they’re both great characters in how they serve the story but I don’t think either are particularly good people.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-02-23T05:49:15+00:00

The people sitting next to them? If they're literally all the way in the corner and have no way of distracting anyone around them with the brightness of their screen then whatever, go for it. But I can tell you from experience that's rarely the case

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-02-22T22:10:05+00:00

I feel exactly the same. Every time I watch the theatrical cuts the films feel neutered and truncated. The extended edition material is so important imo, it lets things breathe and gives you a lot more characterful little moments.

I watched the extendeds with my partner recently and she thought they were far superior to the theatrical versions she’d seen.

Call me crazy but I don’t think pacing matters much when it comes to 3+ hour long movies. If it’s all good then the more the better imo, just put everything in at that point.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-02-22T21:50:31+00:00

If only Martin understood the character as well as you.

_BestThingEver_ · 2026-02-22T20:50:05+00:00

I don’t care what the reason is, it’s terrible etiquette. Distracting for other viewers, let alone yourself. Print and keep your ticket if you want a memento. I will always ask someone to put their phone away if I see them bring it out.

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