DH and I watched The Gifted last weekend. S1 was advanced in math, altho nowhere near the level of the girl in the movie, but the scenes in the 1st grade classroom were somewhat familiar.
We caught a Jake Gilleynhaal movie called “Nocturnal Animals”. With Amy Adams, Isla Fischer, Laura Linney and Michael Shannon. It was quite good. Very intense.
We watched an excellent documentary on Netflix last night–The Last Magnificant. If you are a foodie or someone interested in the genesis of the farm-to-table movement in the US, this is a movie for you. A friend who worked for year in a high-end restaurant watched it with us and she really enjoyed it too. She said it really presented a great view of working in high-end restaurants.
The film focuses on Jeremiah Tower–one of the first celebrity chefs (Stars in CA) who worked with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse (Berkeley) and was instrumental in establishing the restaurant as a forerunner in fresh food/farm-to-table cuisine. Lots of famous chefs and food types (think Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali) are in the film
as well. If the topic interests you, this is a great documentary (be warned it isn’t impartial–but it does let you see many sides of a very talented and complicated chef/personality). My son-in-law isn’t interested in any of this, and he thought the film was an interesting change of pace.
Went to see Atomic Blond, starring Charlize Theron. A thinking person’s action film in my opinion. Glad to see a woman featured in this kind of picture. The sex scene is sort of pointless like it is in many American movies, but the film is a good interpretation of the spy game during the cold war.
@Bromfield2 I couldn’t find The Last Magnificient on Netflix. Is it a DVD?
^^I thought it was Netflix but it might have been one of the other Smart tv offerings. I know it wasn’t a DVD.
We just watched Get Out (DVD from the library). Highly recommend.
@Iglooo, it looks like The Last Magnificent is only available to either rent or buy on several platforms. I often use the justwatch website to find out where shows or movies are streaming.
https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=the%20last%20magnificent
That’s handy, Mom2jl, thx.
So what’s the difference between Acorntv via my Prime membership vs straight with Acorn? Price deals look the same.
Finally saw Dunkirk today. Overall, a pretty good movie, IMO. The cinematography and realism were excellent, but I found the music to be too distracting.
I think I actually prefer the 1958 version of Dunkirk over this one. It’s a bit less heavy-handed and dramatic, and has a more well-rounded story, covering both the lead-up to the extraction, and the situation at home in Britain. Nolan’s version is focused primarily around the extraction.
Trouble with the Curve, Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. It was pretty good for a free movie 
Finally saw Get Out - interestingly they showed his original ending after the credits. While depressing, I thought it was more realistic. (If you can quibble about realism in a movie that isn’t exactly realistic!) Glad I finally saw it.
@mathmom Shucks, I missed that original ending when I watched it.
As far as Dunkirk, for me, the musical score really added to the tension and intensity of the film and helped make the movie. I predict Oscars will be received for this.
It was certainly effective in manipulating your mood. I think Nolan’s musical scores work well for some of his other films like Inception, with fictional sci-fi storylines, but IMO feels out of place (too modern?) for something like Dunkirk. A soldier on the beach is not going to be hearing ticking clocks and shepard tones while getting shot at by aircraft… I think the movie would have been just as effective without these sounds. Regardless, I think you’re right, the movie will probably receive awards for its technical brilliance and sound score.
Overall, I think what bugged me most about 2017 Dunkirk though was that it felt so clinical/precise. It’s fast paced, efficient, and cold. Characters were not well developed, and as a result you don’t feel very attached to any particular person. It very much feels like an anti-war film, centered around impressive visuals and dramatic scenes.
I didn’t view it as anti-war so much as realistic which might be where the clinical and cold feeling you felt comes in. Realistic war movies can’t help but read as anti-war though, IMO, because it reminds us of the toll war takes and the fact that war sucks all around but in particular for those on the ground experiencing it first hand rather than tucked away in some war room somewhere. How do you make a realistic war movie that depicts life in the trenches without it coming across as anti-war? Most of those old 50s types movies were to John Waynish and apple pie-ish to me and totally unrealistic.
One of my favorite classes in college was War Movies. We watched WWII movies on a time line, so started with some filmed scenes of the invasion of Poland up through movies made in the 70’s and 80’s about the war. It has always been one of my favorite courses. I was very interesting to see the tone of the movies by when they were made. Movies like Midway with a lot of deaths and destruction were recruiting movies. Mrs. Miniver is about Dunkirk from the civilian side. The US government owned all the film stock during the war so the movie makers made what the government approved - recruiting cartoons, funny movies, war movies mostly set in Europe and very little set in the Pacific. As the War ended, the movies changed and took a more ‘we’re not perfect’ tone.
DH and I went to see “Wind River” yesterday afternoon as it was so gloomy out here on Long Island. This is by the same person who wrote last year’s “Hell and High Water”. It is about a crime on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, in the winter. Really held your interest and really was beautiful filmed, lots of snow. I would recommend.
Has anyone seen “Hacksaw Ridge”? If so, what did you think? I watched it last night, and I’m thinking about it in the context of the discussion of war movies.
To each their own I guess. B-) I like the patriotic, upbeat tone of the older war movies compared to the neutral (and in many cases anti-American), bleak tone of newer movies. The newer ones are certainly more realistic, but I find the classics much more enjoyable to watch.
This is very true. War movies filmed during the war were meant to boost the morale of the troops. Some of them were downright comical in how pro-American they were (1943’s Air Force is a classic example).
Went with my D to see The Big Sick at the theater. It probably could have been 15 minutes shorter, but we both enjoyed it. It would be fine to see at home if you want to wait a bit, but D was home for vacation so we sprung to see it in the theater on a rainy day.