Physicists review Oppenheimer:
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Beautiful sensuous humane story, gorgeously filmed. I loved it.
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The obvious way to settle this for good is to re-open Woomera’s Maralinga site and detonate a device in the 20 to 30 kiloton range.
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I recently watched Wednesday, and it was… fine… but I also felt like there was something that bothered me about it that I couldn’t really put my finger on… Maybe this sort of gets at it?
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This was excellent. I’ve never been a fan of Tim Burton’s films, and this covered the reasons very well. She even nailed why I can’t stand to hear Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” because most of the time it’s used in the same manner as Harry Belafonte’s performances. 
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The idea of someone transitioning while embedded with the Taliban sounds more like the plot of a dramatic movie than a real-life situation. But for Australian journalist Jordan Bryon, this was exactly where he found himself when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021. He had been living in the country for five years, providing coverage for The New York Times. While making these stories, his own very personal one emerged too, and it forms the basis of his documentary Transition, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in June.
This powerful, mind-blowing film combines hand-held footage with cinematic landscape shots and tightly framed interviews with Taliban members. It alternates between terrifying, funny, sweet and devastating. Bryon makes a jaunty but dedicated protagonist, one who has kept his trans identity a secret from his subjects.
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Godland was a doozy.
If PTA shot a Sigur Ros video as an homage to Ingmar Bergman.
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It wasn’t easy to get Nimona made. The beloved graphic novel, created by trans author ND Stevenson, was optioned way back in 2015 by Fox to become an animated feature film. The film was nearly 75% complete when the Disney-Fox merger occurred in 2021. Blue Sky, the studio working on Nimona, shut down. Along with it went Nimona, destined to never see the light of day.
But in 2022, Netflix surprised fans with news that the company, alongside Annapurna Pictures, had revived the project. Nimona is now available to stream, and it’s nothing short of a miracle. Because the film is a powerful trans allegory that’s come along when its audience needs it most.
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Japanese film festival.
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Given the reality that many women in hollywood face, not only in general terms of sexual harassment and being defined by the male gaze, but also in terms of how they’ve sometimes been treated while on set, such as with Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris:
It’s not a huge surprise that many women (and men) would start to stand up for themselves with regards to gratitious sex on screen and not want to do it… So, no it’s not because people are “prudes”… it’s because there is a very long history of exploitation in hollywood, including sexual exploitation that has weighed heavier on women than men. Far too many films just throw in a sex scene for the hell of it, whether or not the plot actually demands it. If you’re going to have sexuality, make it make sense, don’t just throw it in to get an R rating and greater notoriety. Just look at that recent film about Marilyn Monroe… Why the fuck did you need a film that basically was just a few hours of a woman being abused? You don’t. Why not a film about how Monroe sought greater control over her career, or her role in starting a production company? To far too many people, she wasn’t an actor with talent, she was a set of tits and thighs… This documentary series was one of the few that did that:
For the most part - it’s all about her looks and her struggles… it’s pretty dehumanizing, if you ask me…
Here is the trailer for that film which seems pretty okay…
I liked The Favorite, but I can’t say I liked The Lobster… there was something off-putting about that film for me, that I can’t really put my finger on… but The Favorite was great.
This has been whinging about “auteurs” with dr. Mindysan…
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One of the most unsettling things about his movies is that people do not emote, like, at all.
I didn’t even really notice until The Killing of a Sacred Deer, but now I look for any outward sign of emotion in one of his movies. They are few and far between.
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Maybe that was part of why I didn’t care for it… But there was certainly some emotion in The Favorite? Wasn’t there? 
I’ve not seen the Killing of a Sacred Deer yet… Did you like that one, compared to the Lobster?
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He’s excellent. It’s okay. Lots of great visuals, the quality of the art is excellent. We enjoyed it but it’s gone from the mind in seconds.
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Same for me with The Lobster, and yes, the deadpan affect everyone affected nearly all the time was part of what put me off. It all seemed so contrived. Also felt ike a failed Wes Anderson imitation.
Still willing to try The Favorite tho, thanks for the rec!
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The cast of that film certainly helps. I mean, Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz? Yes please!
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The Killing of a Sacred Deer is my favorite of his movies. It’s a lot more polished than The Lobster, and loosely based on a play by Euripides, which makes it feel more tightly structured. It is just as off-putting, though.
Not as off-putting as Dogtooth, though. I wouldn’t recommend Dogtooth on a full stomach.
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