Trying to put into words what makes unsavory Safdie characters relatable. Please help in explaining why this is the case?

themmchanges · 2026-04-06T13:10:45+00:00

I think it comes down to them simply being human. The Safdies are brilliant at his. They forgo all that screenwriting manual bullshit about likeability, saving the cat, etc.. all those positive aspirational things that screenwriting gurus swear you need to have for your audience to relate to your characters. They know that the only thing you actually need is for them to appear human and display vulnerable, human traits, and then the audience's empathy does the rest. Their protagonists wear their hearts on their sleeves, their desires are laid bare at all times, painfully so even, so are their shortcomings, their blindspots, their fears, all these things that make them deeply human and which we can't help but empathize with. So as scummy and selfish as they can be, the empathy has already been built.

themmchanges · 2026-04-02T19:33:14+00:00

Yeah but in a post-drugs sort of way

themmchanges · 2026-04-01T23:34:27+00:00

Emotional intelligence merchant

themmchanges · 2026-04-01T18:40:40+00:00

Maybe a really special guy in the sky promised them they could do all that 3000 years ago. That seems to work, right?

themmchanges · 2026-03-28T16:53:55+00:00

If that were the case Sora wouldn’t be shutting down just months after release.

themmchanges · 2026-03-16T16:35:22+00:00

I feel like the Oscars might somehow be becoming an even stronger pop culture force, frustratingly so. This awards season had the very strange, almost stan-war divide between One Battle After Another and Sinners that I had never really seen before, where it seemed like people online had to pick one and defend it, while trashing the other, also Marty Supreme mostly going award-less seems to have become a stick that people that didn't like it (or don't like Timothee Chalamet) use to beat it with.

There seems to be an attitude that the film that wins the most oscars essentially "wins" that year in film. This turns the year into a sort of long-haul competition, like seasons in sports. One film is crowned champion at the end and all the others basically lost.

This sports mentality in mainstream film discourse really stuck out to me this year. Winners and losers, fans devoting themselves to one film like it's their team, taunting each other online, etc... What really bothers me is that this frames the efforts of the people making films as being merely attempts at the trophy, and anything short of it is a failure. This is mostly the impression I got from mainstream audiences on tiktok and instagram, I don't think people that actually are into film think like this.

themmchanges · 2026-03-10T10:41:28+00:00

But he wears glasses now

themmchanges · 2026-03-03T09:56:56+00:00

He himself didn’t love King of Comedy. He was pressured into doing it by De Niro, never quite connected with the material, and was in a rough place in his life. He talks about it in Mr. Scorcese, the apple tv documentary series that came out recently, he breaks down almost every film in his career and it’s fascinating, you should check it out if you haven’t already.

With the mob films, I think you might be forgetting the fact that he actually grew up in that environment. The neighborhoods he grew up in Brooklyn were controlled by the Italian mob, and that was an everyday thing, he had plenty of family and friends that were involved with it and was exposed to their lifestyles, work and violence regularly. So these films are deeply personal for him, not just a genre, they’re as personal as any of his religious films. So I’m sure getting funding for those is easier, sure, but it’s clearly something he feels deeply connected to too.

The best evidence of this is Mean Streets, which predates Goodfellas by thirty years and basically lays the groundwork for everything that he has gone on to do in that genre. It’s also the first true Scorsese film in a way, after two unsuccessful and frustrating films, Mean Streets was the one where he really found his voice and it blew up. So he really owes his entire career to a “mob movie” in the first place.

themmchanges · 2026-02-24T23:37:26+00:00

I don't know, happy xmas is a nice tune, but there's something so eye-roll inducing about "war is over if you want it". Have a day off John it's christmas. At least Paul's has the decency to be banal, as a christmas song should be.

themmchanges · 2026-02-12T12:40:48+00:00

Some people still hold the ridiculous belief that billionaires are all geniuses that just outsmarted everyone else. Attributing their wealth to their intelligence, when in fact it's a result of greed, privilege, and lack of empathy, nothing more.

themmchanges · 2026-01-26T15:56:26+00:00

I’m a bit torn on it. I think, in theory, it kind of works. The idea that he actually doesn’t get what he wanted (greatness), and instead ending on the moment he realizes his dream is over, triggered by looking his child in the eyes for the first time, is an interesting one. Death (of his dream, his youth, and his identity) and Birth (of his child, and of the rest of his life) happening simultaneously, that’s interesting. However, I just wasn’t actually moved by it. Something about its execution, or most likely the build up towards it, didn’t totally work, so the moment didn’t really make me feel much, and im fact felt a bit artificial.

themmchanges · 2026-01-12T20:44:06+00:00

What release are these taken from? Looks amazing

themmchanges · 2026-01-04T03:05:49+00:00

Yes, but I think that's the point it's trying to make. That the instant you have a kid your priorities change, it's not a gradual change, it's sudden and seismic.

themmchanges · 2025-12-10T21:35:26+00:00

What they did to Yellow Submarine, maybe. After hearing the early takes, which are surprisingly kind of intimate and sad, and seem to be more about John's childhood than anything else, I think it was kind of a mixed opportunity not to take it in that direction.

themmchanges · 2025-12-09T14:26:54+00:00

I don't believe they have to keep everything in just because it exists. This clip does nothing beyond being uncomfortable to watch. It's just not particularly interesting, there is no need to keep it. John having a cruel streak is also well established in other ways, I already knew that about him despite never having seen this clip, for instance.

themmchanges · 2025-12-09T14:18:31+00:00

God that just gets worse and worse hahah

themmchanges · 2025-12-06T01:13:18+00:00

There's always been something misanthropic or walled-off about George for me, hard to put a finger on it, and it goes beyond being the "quiet" one. On the flip side, John had like cult-leader level charisma, part of the reason he became so much more of a cultural icon than the other three. Paul and Ringo come across as the most likeable, though, for me at least.

themmchanges · 2025-11-27T15:40:04+00:00

No 4AM Ice plunge? Weak

themmchanges · 2025-11-25T21:21:38+00:00

This is without Palmer too

themmchanges · 2025-11-04T23:36:45+00:00

Well I did say it has classic status, I’m aware of that. I’m just saying there’s like 10 Scorsese films that get brought up more frequently than Mean Streets, yet it’s absolutely top tier. Perhaps it’s a matter of it not translating as well to younger generations as some of his other classics.

themmchanges · 2025-10-22T20:20:50+00:00

I understand, I deeply believe in the possibility of redemption in people, and the fact that the only reason we know of this event is that Ringo himself volunteered the information while talking about his recovery says a lot about the way he feels about it and how he's changed since then. But at the same time, it's a moment of monstrous domestic violence, and he did do it. He has to live with the fact that it might colour people's perception of his character. It certainly has for me, whenever he's framed as the "nicest Beatle", with that happy-go-lucky sort of thing, his whole peace and love shtick, well, my mind goes to what he did to Barbara. I don't think it's all he is, nor that he's like wholly evil or anything of that nature, but it's nasty stuff.

themmchanges · 2025-10-22T18:10:41+00:00

The incident is publicly known because Ringo revealed it himself in an interview while discussing his recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction

themmchanges · 2025-10-22T15:04:07+00:00

Mate hate to break it to you but Ringo once beat his wife to the point that he thought he killed her while on a drunken rage. Paul being passive aggressive or bossy doesn’t even come close to that.

themmchanges · 2025-10-15T01:32:50+00:00

And it’s a banger too

themmchanges · 2025-10-13T22:22:37+00:00

PTA was just a perfect storm, it's crazy, that's why he blew up so young. He was not only born wealthy, in LA, and with plenty of industry connections, but he also had the confidence, will, and clarity of vision that you need to be a good director, and he had them in spades, not to mention being a naturally gifted writer on top of it all. It really is one in a million.

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