It's essentially like from the journalists' perspective? That's my impression.. I might check it out in the future but no big rush to see this in the theaater
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 23:10 (two months ago) link
Yea entirely from theirs
― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 9 April 2024 23:14 (two months ago) link
I'll let you know. I may go to a screening tonight.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 April 2024 09:28 (two months ago) link
I thought it was very very good
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Monday, 15 April 2024 04:24 (two months ago) link
Annihilation is screening this month at the imax screen at the OMSI Sci-Fi Film Fest in Portland, OR.
They are also screening Stalker.
(Not Solaris, tho, which is disappointing)
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Monday, 15 April 2024 05:41 (two months ago) link
Nice write-up Neanderthal. I saw this yesterday and enjoyed it
― your mom goes to limgrave (dog latin), Monday, 15 April 2024 08:33 (two months ago) link
my kid came home from school annoyed today that his government teacher went off on the movie in a very predictable fashion, primarily that there wasn't enough explicit stuff about race and that 'the only person of color sacrificed himself for a white girl'. my son didn't want to get into it with her but was fuming that she overlooked the explicitly cuban journalist, and that she seemed to not pick up on every element of subtext in the film (like, the entire Jesse Plemmons sequence). It's a complaint I've seen a lot online. IMO it's really quite obvious that Offerman is a Trump stand-in (third term, 'greatest victory in the history of mankind', 'antifa massacre', disbanding the FBI); it's only the inclusion of Texas in the WF that makes this not a 100% proxy for the current situation. I did think perhaps it would have been wise to not have a white girl as the main protagonist, but then she would not have lived past the Jesse Plemmons scene and would never have made it to the end of the movie. I think the film did an amazing job of telling a story from a unique POV, and developed very realistic characters for whom the viewer builds an incredible amount of empathy in 2 hours.
The final 15 minutes or so of this film are among the most intense scenes I've ever seen in a theater (I generally avoid war films).
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, 16 April 2024 00:05 (two months ago) link
(I guess that actor is Brazillian but since the character was from Florida I assumed he was Cuban)
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, 16 April 2024 00:09 (two months ago) link
This was a great film with a terrible name that almost kept me from watching it. Glad it didn't
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 11:23 (two months ago) link
I've seen your takeaway in lots of places, but I still can't quite bring myself to watch this, at least not in the theaters. Maybe it is just the title, but the title is terrible enough to give it the discomforting tinge of from-the-headlines exploitation.
Obviously "Civil War" is a great title, very eye-catching, but what would have been a better fit?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 19 April 2024 12:11 (two months ago) link
(By both great and terrible title, I mean, yeah, it's certainly eye-catching, from a marketing standpoint, which is great, but it's terrible because of what it conveys, which may or may not reflect the plot/premise of the film itself, which I and of course others find uncomfortable, given this country sometimes feels like it is teetering on the brink.)
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 19 April 2024 12:20 (two months ago) link
Josh you should go watch it. If it's about civil war, it's maybe 1% of what the movie is about. Just pretend it was called "war journalist - 5 stars and two thumbs up from everyone - best picture nominee".
I think it has more to say about the current situation in Gaza than the sitch in America. But then again I'm not a US citizen so maybe it is saying things to US citizens that our kind aren't picking up (doubt it tho)
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 12:57 (two months ago) link
I think this film particularly benefits from the cinema experience too. There are many tense scenes made more palpable by it.
I found the "cars" scene more tense than the obviously tense scene that came afterwards. My heart rate was up!
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 13:01 (two months ago) link
Maybe a terrible headline could help
https://i.postimg.cc/CxWWHBR4/Screenshot-20240419-231131-Chrome.jpg
It really doesn't want to say much at all about "civil war", but it's a great backdrop for the things it does want to say
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 13:13 (two months ago) link
Loved the cowardice of this movie. Great stuff! 👍
it's an accurate headline. Josh, you won't lose much by skipping this movie
― Nhex, Friday, 19 April 2024 13:20 (two months ago) link
yeah reviews like that are, IMO, off base; as I said above, it's like they can't deal with subtext. Subtext is not cowardice.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 19 April 2024 13:20 (two months ago) link
subtext is for cowards, as the Garth Marengi meme frequently reminds us
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 19 April 2024 13:31 (two months ago) link
Akm otm. Poor reflection on the viewer if they come away from this thinking "wimpy politics".
also apparently Lee dies at the end? I thought kevlar + no blood meant she just got knocked down big time.... kinda the ending I prefer tbh
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 13:32 (two months ago) link
yeah she dies, as it's meant to show how the events of the movie eventually break through her hardened shell. Earlier she implies in the movie that if Jessie was shot and killed, she would shoot it dispassionately like a journalist, so we're meant to see that the earlier events of the film change her a bit when she actually runs to her rescue instead of shooting Jessie's death
― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal), Friday, 19 April 2024 13:48 (two months ago) link
I got that, I actually thought it was one of the only groan worthy moments of the film. I just didn't think they made it super clear she died. Think it's less "groany" if she didn't so I'm choosing to believe that's what happened. Kevlar!!!!
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 13:59 (two months ago) link
I thought her breakdown during the siege did enough to clarify "hard exterior broken. Real woman feeling things again". And it did so in a not so tropey way. The sacrifice for the younger version of herself was so telegraphed I wish they missed it. But oh well. Didn't ruin the film, but it was its low point imo
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 14:01 (two months ago) link
can we discuss the film without making little digs at each other? thx
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 19 April 2024 14:03 (two months ago) link
That's fair, I apologies for my "poor reflection on the viewer" post. Sorry.
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 14:22 (two months ago) link
Nothing could make me interested in seeing this movie
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 19 April 2024 14:46 (two months ago) link
otm
― budo jeru, Friday, 19 April 2024 14:50 (two months ago) link
Wouldn't go quite that far, if it turns out that at some point a character turns to the camera and goes "what's so civil about war anyway?" that might sway me.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 19 April 2024 14:50 (two months ago) link
if Axl Rose made an appearance it might've been worth it
― Nhex, Friday, 19 April 2024 15:26 (two months ago) link
i'm frankly confused by the resistance to viewing this film
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 19 April 2024 15:48 (two months ago) link
It seems stupid and NPR-brained and Garland's previous movies, Annihilation aside, weren't that great?
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Friday, 19 April 2024 15:50 (two months ago) link
I guess I like his work more than you do as I think most of the movies he's written the screenplays for are good. I don't know what "NPR-brained" means.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:00 (two months ago) link
"NPR brained" to Uri Berliner means something different than it probably does to you, and to me.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:01 (two months ago) link
Putting California and Texas on the same side of the fictional war is enough for me to decide that this is a fundamentally unserious work of fiction
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:04 (two months ago) link
it's actually about ethics in photojournalism
― ivy., Friday, 19 April 2024 16:07 (two months ago) link
I will die on the hill that Men is a very good horror film, and the ending is inspired
― glumdalclitch, Friday, 19 April 2024 16:08 (two months ago) link
lol I watched Annihilation, stuck it in my top 20, and I have no memory of it.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:19 (two months ago) link
They say the name of the movie at the end
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:19 (two months ago) link
More like they are it is the name of the movie
― glumdalclitch, Friday, 19 April 2024 16:22 (two months ago) link
The California-Texas alliance, the president who's coded as a mixture of Biden and Trump, the reference to an "Antifa massacre" without a clarification on whether Antifa was massacred or committed the massacre, the strict avoidance of actual political ideology throughout the film, the general anxiety over partisanship/political tensions without ever taking a side... I do think of this movie as profoundly politically unserious in a particularly American liberal way. It's trying so hard to avoid angering any viewers that it ties itself into incoherent knots. NPR brained is right.
― OneSecondBefore, Friday, 19 April 2024 16:22 (two months ago) link
The movie isn't about the politics that lead to Civil War, it's about a hyperbolic depiction of what it would actually look like.
Offerman didn't code as Biden to me AT ALL. his opening monologue is Trumpian and he disbands the FBI, and illegally stays in office a third term, and drops missiles on Americans, all while insisting he's winning the war even as his own army is surrendering. What exactly about that codes as Biden?
For those itt bragging about how you won't see it, congrats, you want a medal? You can either trust those of us who have seen it and aren't NPR brained or you can keep insisting the movie is what you say it is without ever seeing it. Your choice
― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:34 (two months ago) link
Like I'll gladly have discussion with people who have seen it and disagree with me but I ain't gonna debate it with people who haven't and still inexplicably want to say what it is
― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:37 (two months ago) link
Neaderthal OTM, I don't see any Biden coding here; the actual states involved in the WF are beside the point; and I don't think it's unclear at all what the 'antifa massacre' meant.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:59 (two months ago) link
but maybe the film is an interesting palimpset that strengthens or amplifies the viewer's biases and preconceived notions?
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 19 April 2024 17:00 (two months ago) link
Just putting this out there: https://newrepublic.com/article/180080/civil-wars-mystifying-vision-american-meltdown
― Are you addicted to struggling with your horse? (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 19 April 2024 18:31 (two months ago) link
it's actually about ethics in photojournalism― ivy., Saturday, 20 April 2024 02:07 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― ivy., Saturday, 20 April 2024 02:07 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 22:02 (two months ago) link
lol Ivy
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 19 April 2024 22:05 (two months ago) link
Also an obvious otm to Neando's post. The problem with the above article (and many like it) is it assumes that the movie is trying to be a political vehicle when that is not the impression I get from it at all. It seemed to me the movie was trying to be a character study, a high-tension thriller, and a look at the ethics/world of war journalism. It does the last two of those well, the first one too if you can put up with a couple lame tropes in the process.
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 22:08 (two months ago) link
Yes, the problem is that it is not trying to be political, in fact trying very hard to be not political
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 19 April 2024 22:10 (two months ago) link
Well, we disagree on whether that's a problem. I am thankful politics is a tool for art to use, not an inherent essence which defines its worth... but to each their own!
― H.P, Friday, 19 April 2024 22:19 (two months ago) link
silby you haven't even seen the film so I'm not sure how you can say it's trying very hard not to be political.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 19 April 2024 22:58 (two months ago) link