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pop culture

Oscar-Bait Movies? Yes, please

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I’m not getting into The Last Jedi yet, but yes, I’ve seen it (three times) and I fucking love it.  I’m so pissed that the music from my favorite trailer is NOT in the official soundtrack though.  WTF, Lucasfilm?

This post today is all about some of the recent movies we’ve seen that are complete Oscar frontrunners, and happily, they’ve all been very good movies!

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

We saw this two weekends ago as it’s getting a bit wider of a release, finally.  Long story short, it’s a fantastically beautiful and sensual movie, which happens to focus on a budding gay romance in gorgeous Northern Italian rustic scenery some time in the 1980s.  Armie Hammer is a hunk of a man and Timothee Chalamet is the more earth-bound guy that gets a summer in Armie Hammer’s orbit.  The gorgeous scenery and slow but sure seduction between these two is captivating, but let’s be honest, this is a complete gay fantasy.  Nevertheless, it’s such a well-done movie that it’s hard not to get swept up into the fantasy. It helps all the performances are amazing, and critics are rightfully talking about one scene/monologue that the father figure has at the end, as it’s quite a stunner.   Funny, erotic, emotional and mesmerizing – don’t be surprised if it wins Oscars this year.

Here’s the trailer:

Next up….

The Disaster Artist (2017)

It’s possible you’ve never heard of the movie called The Room, a justifiably terrible movie made by Tommy Wiseau.  It came out in 2003 and almost immediately jumped into that weird world of cult movies, this one getting the branding of sooooooooooooooo bad it’s good.  Like, I used to say Showgirls was so bad it’s good, but there’s still a lot of decent stuff in Showgirls.  The Room is just bad all around, and in very weird, confounding ways.  Full disclosure:  I’ve not seen The Room, but have seen the scenes most people talk about and I’ve read plenty and listened to the “How Did This Get Made” podcast for it, which had a special guest of Greg Sestero, who is the guy who helped Tommy Wiseau make the movie and co-stars in it with him as “Mark.”

Basically, The Disaster Artist is the tale of how this movie came to be.   James Franco is the director and mastermind of this masterpiece and also stars as Tommy Wiseau, and holy hell, he’s amazing.  Not only is it an amazing retelling of the entire story from Greg and Tommy meeting in acting class up to and including the creation of The Room and its premiere, but the movie is fucking hilarious.  You do not need to have seen The Room to enjoy this movie as The Disaster Artist lets you in on the joke:  Tommy Wiseau is not a human.  It’s not clear at all who he really is or where he gets the money to make this movie, and he’s got absolutely no acting ability.  But Tommy had passion and with Greg’s help and encouragement, they get there.  They destroy their careers in the process, but managed to become infamous.  And here we are with this movie, so I guess it’s the silver lining.

The cast in this movie is thrilling.  Dave Franco, James’ brother, is the co-lead of this movie and does a fantastic job playing the straight man to Tommy.  Dave Franco is also super hot.  A giant assembly of comedians from that crew is also here, like Seth Rogen, Paul Scheer, and Alison Brie.  Amazingly, this movie has every likelihood of getting Oscar nominations and James Franco would certainly deserve one for acting, and who knows, maybe directing?  I highly recommend catching this movie if you can, otherwise you’re just teaaaring me apaaaahrt!!!!

And finally, at least in this post….let’s get to:

Lady Bird (2017)

A very ‘feels real’ movie about a senior in a Sacramento high school who calls herself “Lady Bird.”  Lady Bird wants nothing more than to leave for a New York college but the trouble is that her family can’t afford that kind of college and she’s also a little bit unqualified academically to make it.   So she gets invested this last year of high school to make it happen.  Of course over the course of this year, situations at school and home serve to get in the way.  Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird is amazing, but it was just wonderful to see Laurie Metcalf as her mother.  You’ll be seeing both of their names likely as Oscar nominees as they both giving stunning performances.  You’d think this is purely a drama from my notes here, but there is a lot of funny stuff to be found in this movie.  And of the three movies listed here, this one had me in tears many times.  Hopefully that’s not a deal breaker, as it’s a movie well worth seeing.  Check out the trailer:

And that’s that.   Stay tuned for my thoughts on The Last Jedi as well as whatever the hell else I can think of to post about.  I have so many pictures still to get through it makes me nervous.  🙂

just a post, pop culture

Some Fun Stuff on Day 2 of 2018

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I’m naive enough (still) to think that I can crank out a post every day as a potential resolution.  We all know that is some bullshit, but hey, I’m gonna try.   BTW, the main reason I think I get behind is I have these major ambitions to post giant picture sets and that is a lot of work, at least I make it so.  Anyway, here are some things I stumbled upon in the Internet (h/t to Joe Reid’s list here: https://decider.com/2017/12/19/joe-reid-best-of-2017/) that made me laugh and I need to preserve.

First up is this comedy duo that has thus far made 3 videos of famous “power couples” and holy shit I’m dying at how funny these are.  I also kinda love how much she (Sudi Green) reminds me of Maya Rudolph and how hot and gay he (Matt Rogers) is.    The first video in the playlist below is Caesar & Cleopatra, but is followed by the Evil Queen / Magic Mirror and then by Britney / Justin.  So good.

One show that came out on Netflix last year (2017 was last year, craaaaazy) was a reboot of One Day at a Time and it’s fantastic and hilarious, this time centered on a Cuban-American family in Echo Park.  The updated theme song by Gloria Estefan is catchy as all get out, but in advance of Season 2 (coming out later this month), they did an homage to the original theme song and credits:

If you have Netflix, do yourself a favor and watch the first season of One Day at a Time.   You’ll thank me later.

Other shows to keep in mind if you’ve got an open schedule that we’ve been ripping through and loving and I’ll likely revisit in later posts:

  • I Love You America (Hulu):  From Sarah Silverman who gets real and funny about all sorts of issues we are experiencing in our country.
  • Mindhunter (Netflix):  This show is intense and awesome and set in the late 1970s and way better than I expected.  Set amidst the FBI trying to wrap its head around how to understand and capture serial killers.  Some great performances.
  • Future Man (Hulu):  A show that pushes so many of our pop-culture sci-fi buttons and has super charming leads in Josh Hutcherson, Eliza Coupe, and strangely/weirdly hot Derek Wilson.  Funny, action-y, and just fun.
  • The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon):  Holy shit this show is fantastic.  Set in the 1950s, it focuses on an UWS Jewish woman whose husband leaves her and she ends up finding out she’s really good at stand up comedy.  Kinda modeled on Joan Rivers, it’s just an overall fantastic cast and show from the woman who created the Gilmore Girls.

In the next bit of random, here’s a clip from the recent critical hit movie, Call Me By Your Name.  Larry & I saw this last week and it’s marvelous and very much a gay fantasy, but damn if it isn’t captivating nonetheless.  The clip below is just a gander of the hunky Armie Hammer dancing – enjoy:

I think another post will be needed to get into the many recent movies we’ve been seeing….and yes, I’ve seen The Last Jedi three times so far and I like it even more each time.   PORGS FOREVER.