Movies Thread

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roostra said:
For Lonestar, are you talking about the John Sayles directed movie? Because that is a phenomenal flick - he is such a good director and I am going to make a separate post about Matewan, which is one of my favorite movies ever.
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Absolutely John Sayles!!

And MATEWAN is so great. It is available free on YouTube.

MATEWAN:
2:13 Hours

Watched Brother From Another Planet back during the pandemic. Still holds up too.

Don’t sleep on Men With Guns either. It’s a great pic set in Civil War torn Central America. Sayles read the book, The long Night of White Chickens by Francisco Goldman (a buddy of mine) and pulled a single line from it and developed it into that film. Goldman then worked with him on the production.
 
liked superman a fair bit. with it being nearly a given that a CBM is going to be DoD propaganda, this one breaks delightfully from convention.
 
donbosco said:
Absolutely John Sayles!!

And MATEWAN is so great. It is available free on YouTube.

MATEWAN:
2:13 Hours

Watched Brother From Another Planet back during the pandemic. Still holds up too.

Don’t sleep on Men With Guns either. It’s a great pic set in Civil War torn Central America. Sayles read the book, The long Night of White Chickens by Francisco Goldman (a buddy of mine) and pulled a single line from it and developed it into that film. Goldman then worked with him on the production.
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Lonestar is a beloved film of mine and the soundtrack is amazing.

Matewan is also great (and more closely tied to my paternal family history), also highly recommended. But Eight Men Out is probably his most accessible film (outside of training wheels films Alligator & the Howling, for which he co-wrote the screenplays).
 
nycfan said:
Yeah, I am considering watching again, which I do not often do. It was a bit of an overstuffed narrative but extremely well directed.
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Ryan Coogler has a good track record with Black Panther and his other films.

I heard an interview with him that was the catalyst for watching Sinners.
 
UNCatTech said:
Are you saying it didn't have propaganda?
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i'm saying it wasn't blatant state-sponsored propaganda. so many of these superhero movies have superheroes as stand-ins for and/or collaborators with the US military and act as implicit endorsement of their causes. most of them have to have their scripts approved by the Department of Defense so that they can borrow military equipment for cheap or free. this superman, without spoiling too much, is very much acting on his own.

beyond that, it depends what your definition of propaganda is. it's certainly got an ideology, and a somewhat coherent politics with some relevance to current goings-on, but i don't know if that makes it propaganda.
 
Saw the film Sovereign last night, and my first impression is that it jumps into at least the top three films of 2025. It's justifiably an instant contender for many awards, but first of all for best actor for Nick Offerman. He has recently stunned me with brilliant acting in the masterpiece science fiction series DEVS, and yet again in his single episode in the first season of The Last of Us. He could have a huge future in films now.

The topic of the film--based on true events-- is about another current and scary stripe of the growing American ideological madness, one that has a big but not total overlap with the Trump/Republican madness. It's the idea some people have that they are "sovereign" and can reject any government law or statute at any time. Rather than show the trailer, which gives away too much I think, I will show you a short clip from the film:


 
Finally watched Sinners last night. SPOILERS.

In terms of overall quality, the first half was better than expected and the back half was exactly what I expected. It all went to shit for me once the vampire nonsense ramped up. In that sense it reminded me of a shinier and bigger budget From Dusk Til Dawn.

I thought Coogler tried to cram several movies into one and didn’t pull it off. The music angle was great, and similar to that of Crossroads. The sociological and historical angle was also building into something worthwhile. Although, I felt like the cast lacked any heavies outside of Jordan (x2) so they were just kinda strutting around unopposed. I thought the Capone boys or some Irish mobsters would eventually be introduced, but instead we got some goofy pale folk-singing vampire. The Choctaw never even came back, which was a missed opportunity.

The supernatural element was headed in a cool direction and I think there was a way to weave that in without selling out with a full-on ridiculous fiery bloodbath. Boring.

Good direction? In a technical sense, sure. Twin stuff by the same actor always annoys me in movies, but they did it well enough I guess. But part of good directing is making the hard decisions to narrow down focus and get your editing aligned with a coherent vision. I’d say Coogler failed there. It was a bit of a mess.

All in all I thought it was worth watching, but no better than a C+.
If this is one of the best of the year, bummer.
 
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