It’s not a classic or anything (the whole scenario is pretty op only contrived) but it has some solid laughs, decent performances and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Obviously the social commentary is limited/lib AF but that comes with the territory. Sterling K Brown is really good and I’d like to see him get Supporting (to the extent that I care).

really really didn’t like it (and I’ve liked pretty much every other yogurt lanthimos joint). one or two-joke movie stretched to agonizing length. rehashed tim burton garbage aesthetic. one-note supporting characters they did nothing with over 140 mins. totally frictionless / conflict-free - everyone loves bella everywhere she goes and the pathetic men are obviously no match. also a small thing but the “means of production” shit was embarrassingly wrong. I did chuckle at willem dafoe saying “cocaine”

didn’t like oppy or barbie either but the trinity test was cool and I get nominating big well-liked event movies even if the america farrera monologue made me want to die

I’ve seen 8/10 of the best pic nominees and would rank them thusly

Zone of Interest > Holdovers > American Fiction > Killers of the Flower Moon > Anatomy of a Fall >>>>> Oppenheimer > Barbie > Poor Things

Poor Things and Barbie already have the same plot.

I was there and I’m here to tell you kevin smith sucks

the Russian stuff in The Americans is (mostly) considerably less cringe - it feels like they at least made an effort to give all the principal Russian characters some interiority and not just be cold operators or whatever, and iirc they worked with Russian translators and a decent number of Russian actors to make their dialogue relatively credible. the show was created by an ex-CIA guy who now writes books like this which should tell you a lot about the politics of the show (in short “both sides bad but also both sides rational”). in general it’s wittier and better written than FAM by a lot mainly cause it can’t coast on cool space shit. also, wigs.

I thought the show was watchable slop for the first couple seasons but the more they felt the need to depict/include Russian characters the worse it got. I know The Americans wasn’t perfect but it seems like a master class of balance and characterization by comparison.

This is the only realistic part of the show!

I actually had an OK-ish chat with my dad about transness…he’s a huge contrarian and a pedant which makes talking about many things quite annoying, but thankfully he is not on social media at all so he is not completely pilled in any one direction. Once I introduced the phrase “decoupling sex and gender” he was able to at least grasp that, so…baby steps. But who knows where we’ll be at next year.

Brexit prompted a lot of treat manufacturers in the UK to cut animal byproducts out of their stuff iirc, have to think there’s more of that on the way

Two from this year I enjoyed: Talk to Me, a funny and gruesome riff on “viral media” that’s actually sharp and well-written for a change, and Birth/Rebirth, a gnarly and atmospheric Frankenstein story in a modern setting.

this mf said ingelligent

It is unfortunately not all projection, at least on race issues.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/6/8/chinas-backlash-against-little-mermaid-exposes-hollywood-dilemma

I don’t think anyone at Amazon is really “minding the shop” in terms of the specifics of the content they produce at the level of meddling with individual plot decisions like that.

I got that. It didn’t help, in fact it just kinda made me wonder why every other character wasn’t lined up behind her instead since she’s obviously infallible.