Board 8 > B8 Movie Club Topic 1 - subtitle

(+) Yeah! (+)

That was a pretty impressive debut, 100% agree.

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Yay my turn. And the nominees are:

Little Women (2019)
Booksmart
Psycho
Three Identical Strangers
Lost in Translation


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Psycho
Three Identical Strangers
Lost in Translation

Saw Little Women and Booksmart. I've also seen Psycho but it was a long time ago and I should really give it another shot

not ranked

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Three Identical Strangers
Psycho (assuming it's the original)
Little Women

watching Thoroughbreds tonight

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Oh yeah, the original one.

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Whoops, completely forgot to watch this weeks movie (and finish last weeks).

Will watch all three this weekend.

Lost in Translation

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Lost in Translation
Booksmart

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Lost in Translation

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Booksmart

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although if Lost in Translation wins, I'll post a short essay I wrote on it for a first year uni class I took like 16 years ago. so that could be fun.

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so i saw the nom post on my phone right before i went to sleep and had a dream that after people voted, Raka came in and said "oh yeah i meant the Psycho remake"

Vote for any and all movies you would be interested in seeing for the next week (~Jan. 29th, NA). The movie with the most overall votes wins. You may rank your votes from most preferred to least (do not rank movies you would not vote for) so I don't have to @ you back in case of a tie. If you do not intend to vote and are fine with whatever wins, please reply with "No Vote" so there is as little of a waiting period as possible. If you list multiple movies in your vote but you are not ranking them, please include "Not Ranked" along with your vote (I will assume they are ranked otherwise). Please vote by Friday, Jan. 29th, 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Little Women (2019)
Booksmart (2019)
Psycho (1960)
Three Identical Strangers (2018)
Lost in Translation (2003)

@Aecioo
@Camden
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@CoolCly
@Mythiot
@Seginustemple
@Suprak_the_Stud
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I would've voted for the Psycho remake.

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kateee posted...

so i saw the nom post on my phone right before i went to sleep and had a dream that after people voted, Raka came in and said "oh yeah i meant the Psycho remake"

Thankfully you woke up from that nightmare.

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streaming availability:
Little Women (2019)
Booksmart (2019) - hulu
Psycho (1960)
Three Identical Strangers (2018) - hulu
Lost in Translation (2003) - amazon prime

Little Women
Lost in Translation

watched Booksmart and Psycho. thinking about actually rereading Little Women before watching if I do. that's been like 10+ years. i've also been meaning to rewatch Lost in Translation for like 10 years.

Thoroughbreds

I agree with what everyone says about the technical merits of this film. It's very well shot, the sound design is top-notch, the acting is great, and so on. There's just one big problem for me: I didn't care at all about the story. I'm not even entirely sure why. Part of it is the way the movie withholds so much information that the characters know, which made it hard to understand why stuff is happening. Part of it is that I personally don't like movies about rich people problems (even if this one is partially about how empty their lives are). Thoroughbreds is a good movie and I don't regret watching it or anything, but it's just not for me.

Raka_Putra posted...

...I thought the 'photo' was of her doing the unspeakable dirty with a horse...I'm glad it's not that lmao.

Also, I'm glad I'm not the only person whose mind went there. Seriously movie, I don't want to waste time wondering if you're being vague about stuff just so you can make this the big twist later on.

6/10
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Vote for next week:
Three Identical Strangers (2018)
Psycho (1960)

Trying to stick with movies I haven't seen. I also haven't seen Little Women, but I have very little interest in seeing it and I don't have a way to watch it anyway. I might rewatch Lost in Translation if it wins, but not Booksmart.
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Three Identical Strangers
Booksmart
Psycho
Lost in Translation
Little Women

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Psycho (1960)
Three Identical Strangers (2018)

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Booksmart and Three Identical Strangers would be the two I have easy access to, so put me down for those, please!

I finished Thoroughbreds like ten minutes ago! I'm gonna take some time to mull things over before I post a score for it.

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Little Women
Booksmart

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For Thoroughbreds:

I liked it! It was on In Bruges level of dark comedy, as that was one that had me smiling throughout. There were definitely scenes in here that felt like they dragged on for too long and even though the film was only an hour and a half, there were parts where I was like "oh ok that should've been edited out or down some". But, still, I thought the two leads were great and I thought they worked really well with each other. And there were a lot of scenes that got me to smile - I particularly loved the one with the two of them in the car with the drug dealer antagonizing him about having a gun or not.

I also thought there were a lot of really interesting shots. I was drawn in by the cinematography alone. (As an aside - man did this guy love filming that angle where they show someone walking from behind for like five to ten seconds. There was one part where you had them really close and Lily is walking to find her mom and then when that scene resolves some random kind is walking into the party.) I'm also surprised to hear this was the director's first film because it doesn't feel like it. Part of it might be how much it is paying homage to classic thrillers because you do see the same sort of shots here you would in those. I never felt like it was too much though, and I'd love to see more movies done in this same sort of style.

As for why I'm not ranking it higher...I guess I was as drawn in by the story as I could've been. Someone before commented on "masks" and that is certainly one good way to put it, but I felt a lot of things felt very sterile. And yes, a lot of that has to do with the characters and their obsession on image. Lily and her mom and her dad. Amanda contributes the same sort of problem, but for obviously different reasons. But when the drug dealer comes in, it is almost like a breath of fresh air because finally you have someone acting like a human. He has the same issue with wearing a mask, obviously, but he feels authentic in his inauthenticity. The other characters can feel a bit like rich, out of touch, almost robots at times. And, of course, this is intentional, but at the same time it makes it harder to really get involved with them as characters. When Amanda sort of sacrifices herself for Lily at the end, I wasn't like "oh no Amanda don't!" or "can't believe Lilly pulled this off, how conniving". I was along for the writing and the cinematography and the acting, but the characters and story just felt like they were sort of there.

I still recommend it though! I was into it while I was watching it, but it falls just a bit short of being the kind of movie I'd want to watch again, I think.

In Bruges - 9/10
Thoroughbreds - 7/10
Mother - 5/10

I know I keep switching my rating for Mother around. I might be doing this a little bit until we have more films on here so I have a bigger list to compare everything to. Sorry!

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So I don't know why I thought this, especially since the section from the wiki I posted earlier in the topic showing what I read before going into the movie shows it to be false, but I just started watching Thoroughbreds and I was 100% certain going into it that the main characters were sisters for whatever reason.

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I thought they were estranged sisters too.

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Thoroughbreds - 7/10

She obviously read the letter.

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uh oh

kateee posted...

uh oh

uh oh?

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No Vote

I gotta catch up on Thoroughbreds still I'm falling behind
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i need someone to break the tie lmao since it's tied down to everything lmao

and because i never saw this coming i didn't state a method of deciding beforehand WHOOPS

i have a technical solution if no tie break in the next 6 minutes though. not sure how many would agree with it though.

What if I change mine to Not Ranked?

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I can change mine to ranked as

Lost in Translation
Three Identical Strangers
Psycho


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oh lol

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It's a tie, which means it's officially Chaos Week. We must watch all five movies.

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=o

i don't think Snake actually changed so Johnbobb's change decides it i think.

double checking

uh okay so Lost in Translation and Three Identical Strangers each had 6 overall votes with 3 first place votes and 1 second place vote. 3IS had 2 unranked but LiT had 1 unranked and 1 4th place

JB changed and ranked LiT first so that gives it 4 first place votes which gives it the win.

so yeah sorry for the mess. i should have worked out a tiebreak situation beforehand. i thought we had enough of a base so that rankings would cover for ties.

i'll post my suggestions as to how this could be resolved if this happens again in the future. i personally don't think it's thaaat likely but if i guess if there's enough no-votes i guess it could happen

all right well if anybody feels upset you can just blame me. i'll write a follow-up post.

next movie is Lost in Translation (2003) directed by Sofia Coppola,

@Aecioo
@Camden
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@jcgamer107
@Johnbobb
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@SwiftyDC
@tyder21
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@Xeybozn

Not watching this week as I cant stream this one! See you all next week!

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Thoroughbreds (SPOILERS)

Johnbobb posted...

while there's nothing inherently "magical" about Thoroughbreds, there is that endlessly intriguing sense of something being off.

see I had that sense but not as a positive. the whole thing almost seemed to play out like Amanda's weird self-destructive fantasy, the way she was "getting" to people psychologically so quickly. I think maybe the main problem for me is I just didn't really like Amanda's character. I thought some of the family interactions were good. Anton Yelchin's character didn't come off quite right to me, either. It seemed to almost turn a corner a few times but never quite got there. I agree that visually it's pretty good.

Not the worst A24 movie I've seen, 5/10

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Thoroughbreds

7/10

This was a rewatch for me -- caught it in theaters back whenever it first released. Four big positives from me about this movie.

1) Love the premise! Found it pretty unique and wasn't really sure where it was going during my first watch. Sidenote: I was lowkey expecting the step-father to wander down the stairs at the end instead of Anya.

2) Olivia and Anya were great. Made me miss Anton though. People should check out Green Room.

3) The soundtrack slaps. At points it reminded me a lot of Punch-Drunk Love, which I watched a few months ago so it's still fairly fresh. Also that Tanya Tagaq song rules.

4) Always appreciate a tight 90 minute runtime.

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Oh one other thing - it was cool to see Alex Wolff for 5 seconds

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i haven't seen anything he's in but his brother (just found out) might be my least favorite actor ever for pure acting related reasons >_>

Lost in Translation

How did it take me this long to watch this, I don't know. I lived in Okinawa for 3 years and the one thing I regret not doing back then is taking a flight to mainland Japan and visiting Tokyo. That was 8 years ago. Why didn't I go and visit Tokyo? I was young, dumb, and all I cared about was going out and getting drunk. But it was the best of times and I miss it.

I knew Bill Murray was in this, but not Scarlett Johansson <3. I wish I was Bob running around Tokyo and making memories with her that she herself will look back on and smile. Every shot was just beautiful. This movie has kind of a sad ending with them going their separate ways and continuing on with what seems to be failing relationships, but the connection they had was real and something they will hold on to forever and that's not sad at all. I loved everything about this movie, it's quite inspiring. Like now I know what I really want to do in my life, and that's to get a job in Japan and live there.

I'm a sucker for movies like this and this is one I will definitely be watching again. 10/10 for me.

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this is the kind of movie i have to be in the mood for

although i've been waiting to be in the right mood for years though

i bought the bluray years ago and still haven't opened it. also has to do with the inconvenience of physical media i guess

Lost in Translation

It's hard to put into words what to say about this film, since it lays everything so bluntly out in full view, and I'm not saying this in a bad way, I respect the hell out of a movie that can really be this obvious and still penetrate the soul so deeply. Bob Harris and Charlotte have at least two things in common: they're both terrible directionless and spinning out of control, and they're lonely. Not just any kind of lonely: the kind of lonely where you can be in one of the world's biggest cities in crowds of people and feel just as lonely as if you were living in the deepest, darkest cave on Earth. A depressive, bland loneliness where nothing you say or do matters, it's all the same, whether it's trying to get your husband to stop working for a minute and have a little bit of interest in you, or you're choosing carpeting for your home office space. So, Bob and Charlotte enter each other's lives and yeah, I think there's definitely some Manic Pixie fantasy nonsense here for sure (on both parties I may add), but it's this strange sort of fantasy where it twists the knife into married life slowly while also at the same time somehow convincing you it just may be the best thing in the world. Interestingly, I find Bob and Charlotte connected more as the best friends each of them were missing, rather than strictly romantic partners, and I think it was a great decision to not turn them into strictly cheating adulterers. As a result, the empathy and emotion you feel between the highs and lows come across a lot stronger overall. It's less, "oh I hate my married life" and more "I want to feel like what it is to have fun again", shifting the focus in a more positive and relatable direction.

With that said, there's definitely no better to have said fun than in Tokyo, which is rendered gorgeously in this film. I want so desperately to be Charlotte sitting on her windowsill looking out at that sprawling city, so inviting yet so chaotic too. I like all the touches of Japanese culture, like karaoke and obsession with media, though it was getting a bit too comfortable with the more-than-slightly racist Japanese jokes (a product of its time, I suppose?). Despite this, I did still think the film was decently funny, Murray and Johansson are amazing together and they're were several fun sight gags like Bob holding that plush in the hospital waiting room.

Again, the film tends to speak for itself, and it's confident and steadfast in its message. It's just two people, each going through they're own transitive period as they figure themselves out, and no matter the age or what they do, it's a bit of soul-searching we all need to do sometimes, and we may even find it in the most unlikely of places. It's not a film I totally loved, the pacing can sometimes feel off and the Japanese culture jabs feel dated, but still, it's one where its themes and characters are something you cannot just ignore, especially in the often samey rom-com genre.

8/10

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