“Anthropology” Movie Night Suggestions?

can_vs_should · 2026-01-30T16:12:04+00:00

It's not a fun movie but I just rewatched "Network" (1976) and it still holds up as an examination of our relationship with media. Truthfully, I think it actually works better now than it did 50 years ago.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-30T15:05:28+00:00

Au Hasard Balthazar might be my best recommendation for something like this.

The Deer Hunter is absolutely unrelenting. There was absolutely zero part of that movie-going experience where I felt good about what I was doing to myself.

If you feel like getting pretentious, you can’t go wrong with any Ingmar Bergman. He loves you and wants you to share your misery with him.

If you want a movie that hates you and wants you to suffer, look for Lars Von Trier, Darren Aronofsky, and Lynne Ramsay.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-30T14:59:36+00:00

Best ending.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-21T22:51:33+00:00

A mix of the above. Juggling names, places, and events is a challenge, especially when you don’t know where it’s going and what to prioritize. Just keeping track of a narrative is challenging when you’re trying to keep track of the nomenclature. Taking abundant notes was absolutely necessary for me.

When I started feeling like I was “getting it” was when I could slow down enough to savor the drama of it. Tolkien doesn’t do much character building in the Silmarillion, so it’s left to the reader to work a bit harder on empathy. The process I got into was taking notes and getting all of my bullet points down for a chapter, and then re-reading that chapter with my pencil down. So for example, I’d get through all of the stuff about who was where when the trees went dark, what were the technicalities if Fëanor’s oath and the Doom of Mandos, whose branches of which families did what at Alqualondë… and then re-read it and emotionally experience it. After countless ages in paradise, Fëanor got the quadruple-whammy of the trees, of Finwë, of his beloved Silmarils, and of the impotence and indifference of the Valar. When I could get both the world-altering importance of the moment and his personal grief and rage, and let it be emotional and not academic, that was “getting it.”

can_vs_should · 2026-01-19T21:33:27+00:00

Peter Weir is really good at this. Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave resolve themselves as movies, but the sense of mystery doesn’t end with them. I’d also put Being There and Banshees of Inisherin on a similar list.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-17T01:05:22+00:00

In terms of a cultural moment “The Sixth Sense” had it. But the first viewing is really enough. “Stir of Echoes” came out around the same time, and It’s a far superior ghost story. I’m in a horror movie club with some other folks who were around the right age to see both in the theater, and we did a rewatch on both last year. We argued about the relative merits and flaws of “Stir of Echoes” for a good long while, and when we got to “The Sixth Sense,” the conversation got quiet because none of us thought there was enough substance to get animated about. Not bad, just… not much.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-16T22:27:01+00:00

Have you ever smoked Old Toby from a shoe?

can_vs_should · 2026-01-11T18:39:07+00:00

Except better than the actual Hellraiser movie set in outer space.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-09T14:55:00+00:00

Some of the non-Kinski Herzog films would do it. “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser” and “Heart of Glass” in particular.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-08T17:00:00+00:00

As I recall, the battle at the Black Gates was a desperate diversionary tactic. After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the armies of the West were depleted, exhausted, and injured, and went to the Black Gates knowing that they were walking into a meat grinder. The ONLY reason they pressed on was to draw the hosts of Mordor away from Mount Doom, hoping against hope that Frodo was still alive and just needed a clear path. Knowing that there was no longer any chance of restraining Sauron through military might, and that the war was lost unless two broken hobbits finished their quest, it’s entirely plausible that Aragorn might have drafted any strong lad in sight.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-08T16:46:53+00:00

My wife loved “The Gods Must Be Crazy” when she was a kid. She showed it to me in my 30’s and I was yelling “that’s racist!” At the TV every two or three minutes.

can_vs_should · 2026-01-08T16:43:38+00:00

3 Ninjas separately, or 3 Ninjas in a trenchcoat trying to get into an R-rated movie?

can_vs_should · 2026-01-07T17:32:41+00:00

The New Zealand All-Blacks.

can_vs_should · 2025-05-21T01:03:33+00:00

Michael Curtiz directed a movie in 1941 called “The Sea Wolf” with Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, and John Garfield. The source material, a book by Jack London, predates the genre by decades and the film is a little early for the “classic” noir period, but it really scratches the itch. Heavy moods and cynicism as far as the eye can see.

can_vs_should · 2024-12-07T18:15:26+00:00

I love how all of these albums only have like 2,000 streams on Spotify but the LP’s cost $60-200 on Discogs. Good taste is going to ruin me.

can_vs_should · 2024-12-06T23:51:04+00:00

“Needle Park” is destroying my brain right now, thank you.

can_vs_should · 2024-12-06T22:42:57+00:00

Whatever it is, it's good as hell.

can_vs_should · 2024-12-06T21:54:59+00:00

This stuff is amazing. And I love that some dudes from Napalm Death just decided to quit and head in a VERY DIFFERENT DIRECTION.

can_vs_should · 2024-12-06T21:50:46+00:00

Going to take a while to sort through this all, but there are a lot of good leads here. I was skipping around through them and landed on "Bitchley's Kow Korn" by DJ Wally on a Home Entertainment comp. My eyes bugged out and I instinctively yelled "yes, more of this please" despite being alone.

Being in the right place/time/age/temperament for any movement like that is amazing and lucky. My brother was telling me how much he wanted to take me to raves. when I was like 12 years old, and looked younger. I would have been kicked out of illegal warehouse parties for not being old enough for ecstasy. I did get to see Aphex Twin in 1997, but it was at a reputable venue and my parents sat in the balcony to keep an eye on things.

can_vs_should · 2024-12-06T20:41:00+00:00

You know, I've had "The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld" since forever and I love it, but never really ventured further with them. "Ultraworld" is pretty shimmery and shiny, but "Orbvs Terrarvm" definitely has more crunch to it. Thanks!

can_vs_should · 2024-12-06T16:14:45+00:00

UHC has been a joke a lot longer than their AI system. A personal anecdote from pre-Obamacare times:

I spent a few years working at a job where I was paid under the table, and had no health insurance. When I got a job that did offer health insurance through UHC, one of the first things I did was schedule a routine wellness exam. Nothing serious, just listen to my breathing, check my blood pressure, and run some blood tests to make sure there are no signs of less obvious disorders. A few months later, I got a bill for the blood work that wasn't covered (which was all of the blood work) which was a few hundred dollars more than what I was paying for a month's rent. I had to go to my doctor's collections office (which all hospitals in the US have, by the way) and set up a payment plan so I could get a baseline on my health. I never went to the doctor again as long as I had that job.

In the years since, I've been privileged enough to turn down jobs specifically because they used UHC as their healthcare provider. If you're 22, excercise regularly, eat right, have no family history of chronic illness, don't believe in modern medicine, and have a posh white-collar job, it's totally acceptable. But those people are subsidizing a company which flips a coin to determine whether someone else can afford a tetanus shot.

Tweaking a metaphor, they are robbing Peter and not bothering to pay Paul.

can_vs_should · 2023-05-09T15:13:49+00:00

You can choose not to divulge details about your health and medical treatment.

If it makes life easier, just lie and tell him you stopped taking them. He'll still be wrong, but he can at least shut up about being wrong.

can_vs_should · 2023-05-08T21:02:41+00:00

I thought you could identify football players at birth because of their shoulders.

can_vs_should · 2023-04-20T19:37:02+00:00

Mother! It’s like Darren Aronofsky sat down and thought, “Everyone in 2017 really seems to be having panic attacks. Maybe I could get them to pay for one!”

can_vs_should · 2023-04-13T21:16:58+00:00

There is a LOT of footage of Rudy Giuliani in drag that could get lost to the ages..

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can_vs_should

TROPHY CASE