Political Discussion

DownIsTheNewUp said:
Very excited for Alex Garland's new film and find the visceral reaction people are having hilarious. The guy writes some of the smartest sci-fi of the 21st century and people are worried it's going to be a pro-war movie? The test screenings have been very positive, trailers are always misleading.

It's also an A24 produced film, with their largest budget to date (by a wide margin) at 80 million. Considering the have the most consistently great output of anybody in the movie industry, I'm really hoping this thing doesn't bomb.

Thoughts?



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Obviously no one can say until they've seen the movie. However, this is a pretty weird "what if?" to be cogitating on, considering how much closer we are to an actual civil war than ever. I've gotten the impression the movie's going to avoid any real-world parallels, which seems especially baffling. I'll be the stick in the mud and say I'm not as enamored with Garland's work as others; he's collaborated on some great stuff, but most of his movies make overtures towards thematic depth which is eventually dashed on the rocks of third-act action climax. I'm downright baffled by Ex Machina's sterling reputation; it's a fine movie. Similarly, the trailers and images (such as this poster) lead me to believe we're getting more "it really makes ya think huh, man?" from Mr. Garland; all provocation, not much introspection.
 
ayayrawn said:
Also can't tell if you meant this for this thread or the movie thread
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Def meant for this thread. Movie nerds gonna movie nerd. More curious if it's on the radar people outside of our film obssessed bubble.

Bull Shannon said:
Obviously no one can say until they've seen the movie. However, this is a pretty weird "what if?" to be cogitating on, considering how much closer we are to an actual civil war than ever. I've gotten the impression the movie's going to avoid any real-world parallels, which seems especially baffling. I'll be the stick in the mud and say I'm not as enamored with Garland's work as others; he's collaborated on some great stuff, but most of his movies make overtures towards thematic depth which is eventually dashed on the rocks of third-act action climax. I'm downright baffled by Ex Machina's sterling reputation; it's a fine movie. Similarly, the trailers and images
(such as this poster) lead me to believe we're getting more "it really makes ya think huh, man?" from Mr. Garland; all provocation, not much introspection.
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I mean, like most, I found Men to be a complete mess. Abiet and quite memorable one. So I don't think Alex is beyond misses. But Ex Machina is one of my 10 or so favorite films from last decade so, clearly, we deeply disagree there. And every time I watch Annihilation, I walk away liking it even more-- though I also know people who have read the book and hate it.

Meanwhile, while Boyle is one of the most talented directors of his era, he is similar to Ridley Scott in that he is only as good as the script he has in hand... as evidenced by films like Yesterday, Trance and the Beach. So does Garland not deserve credit for 28 Days Later?

As to the "what if"... the fact that we are closer than ever is exactly why it's a topic worth meditating on. The people I know who have seen the film (pre-screenings) say that A) the trailers are misleading in that it's actually a quiet and meditative film for large portions of its runtime, B) that it's a deeply anti-war film that clearly set out to show how horrific a civil war would be and C) that the film largely focuses on journalists attempting to cover the war.

I'm far less concerned with the CA + Texas alliance and find the fixation of it within internet spaces funny. I'll have to see how things play out, but this is a 50m dollar film and, depending on the themes being explored, completely irrelevant to whether the film works. Both because CA and TX have a lot more in common than people think and because the film doesn't need to be completely grounded in our geo-political landscape in order to touch upon greater societal truths.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Meanwhile, while Boyle is one of the most talented directors of his era, he is similar to Ridley Scott in that he is only as good as the script he has in hand... as evidenced by films like Yesterday, Trance and the Beach. So does Garland not deserve credit for 28 Days Later?
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Funny you should mention because Garland also wrote The Beach lol
 
ayayrawn said:
Could've sworn he co-wrote the screenplay too, but you're right👍
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Funnily enough-- other than Men, my least favorite Garland film is probably Never Let Me Go. The book is exceptionally close to my heart and the film, while mostly well received, simply can't hold a candle to it. I'd guess that Garland learned a lot in adapting it and that the process shaped his approach to Annihilation. Never Let me Go sticks closely to the book in a way that highlights the inherent gap between the mediums. To my understanding, Annihilation doesn't even attempt to stick to the book's plot and instead deviates in an attempt to serve its medium while retaining core themes.

But now we are full blown into a conversation that probably belongs in the movie thread :LOL:
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
Very excited for Alex Garland's new film and find the visceral reaction people are having hilarious. The guy writes some of the smartest sci-fi of the 21st century and people are worried it's going to be a pro-war movie? The test screenings have been very positive, trailers are always misleading.

It's also an A24 produced film, with their largest budget to date (by a wide margin) at 50 million. Considering the have the most consistently great output of anybody in the movie industry, I'm really hoping this thing doesn't bomb.

Thoughts?



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The hand-wringing has to do with a large portion of the audience; the kind of people that worship Fight Club, The Matrix, or The Watchmen for all the wrong reasons might see this in much the same way, unintended propaganda of it all.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
The hand-wringing has to do with a large portion of the audience; the kind of people that worship Fight Club, The Matrix, or The Watchmen for all the wrong reasons might see this in much the same way, unintended propaganda of it all.
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A) Fight Club and Martix are stone cold classics and if Civil War is on their level, I'll be estatic even if a small subsect of dipshits can't think critically.

B) Those same dispshits aren't ever going to be capable of creating a civil war in this country. The only people who can trigger us getting to that point are politicans like Trump and JD Vance who are dead set on underming our constitution and electorial system.

And to that end, I'd argue that if the film is good, it may help economic leaning center right types to reconsider the implications of a 2nd Trump presidency. At least, that's far more likely that it having any impact on how the alt-right goes about its business.

C) Propaganda has intent and is created with the goal of short circuiting critical thinking. Or in the case of something like Rogan, is riddled in mistruths masquerading as intellectual conversation.

I understand what you are saying but it's not the right word for films that are misinterpreted but are actively encouraging critical thinking and are thematically layered.
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
Those same dispshits aren't ever going to be capable of creating a civil war in this country
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Those dipshits won’t, but they’ll sure as hell follow someone who is capable. January 6th was only the start.

DownIsTheNewUp said:
C) Propaganda has intent and is created with the goal of short circuiting critical thinking
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Wasn’t this kind of the point of Leave the World Behind? Ways to basically dismantle a nation and have it turn against itself.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
A) Fight Club and Martix are stone cold classics and if Civil War is on their level, I'll be estatic even if a small subsect of dipshits can't think critically.

B) Those same dispshits aren't ever going to be capable of creating a civil war in this country. The only people who can trigger us getting to that point are politicans like Trump and JD Vance who are dead set on underming our constitution and electorial system.

And to that end, I'd argue that if the film is good, it may help economic leaning center right types to reconsider the implications of a 2nd Trump presidency. At least, that's far more likely that it having any impact on how the alt-right goes about its business.

C) Propaganda has intent and is created with the goal of short circuiting critical thinking. Or in the case of something like Rogan, is riddled in mistruths masquerading as intellectual conversation.

I understand what you are saying but it's not the right word for films that are misinterpreted but are actively encouraging critical thinking and are thematically layered.
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Yeah, I agree with all of this. I was just offering up an explanation why some are nervous. I don’t think art should ever surrender to the dipshit lowest common denominator.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
The people who love Starship Troopers but are unable to recognize that all the human characters are fascists.
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Yet that doesn't change the fact that Starship Troopers is a masterpiece nor that it has had 0 impact on the rise of facism in this country or around the world.

Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Those dipshits won’t, but they’ll sure as hell follow someone who is capable. January 6th was only the start.



Wasn’t this kind of the point of Leave the World Behind? Ways to basically dismantle a nation and have it turn against itself.
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Agree with both of your points. But the larger point is that keeping Trump out of office prevents that (for now). And that waking up the people who don't like Trump but dismiss the threat he poses because they are frustrated with Biden (for a array of justifiable reasons) is what matters.

Not to mention that when you have Fox News openly embracing Vlad and an entire infrastructure feeding the masses misinformation, those people are already long lost.

The idea that (smart) art and comedy should worry about how its interpreted by the lowest common denominator is basically sacrilege to me. Half of this country's problem is that everyone has been dumbed down by things like reality TV and a constant chase for the lowest common denominator.
 
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
Yeah, I agree with all of this. I was just offering up an explanation why some are nervous. I don’t think art should ever surrender to the dipshit lowest common denominator.
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Yeah I know. We've had enough conversations over the years to understand your intent.

Funnily enough, I didn't see your comment until after basically typing the exact same thing in regards to the lowest common denominator.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Funnily enough-- other than Men, my least favorite Garland film is probably Never Let Me Go. The book is exceptionally close to my heart and the film, while mostly well received, simply can't hold a candle to it. I'd guess that Garland learned a lot in adapting it and that the process shaped his approach to Annihilation. Never Let me Go sticks closely to the book in a way that highlights the inherent gap between the mediums. To my understanding, Annihilation doesn't even attempt to stick to the book's plot and instead deviates in an attempt to serve its medium while retaining core themes.

But now we are full blown into a conversation that probably belongs in the movie thread :LOL:
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Not fully following this part of the thread but for some reason I am reminded of a reviewer’s observation while critiquing the film version of “The Prince Of Tides”, Pat Conroy’s powerful novel of family strife in the American South. He stated, basically, that you should never judge a book by its movie. So true.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Wow, that's weird. That YouTube video was February 18th Episode of John Oliver. Which appears t o have been pulled from YouTube now.

Anyways, here is a news story on the portion of the episode I was referring too.



deadline.com

‘Last Week Tonight’: John Oliver Returns To HBO & Offers To Pay Clarence Thomas $1M A Year To “Get The F*** Off The Supreme Court”

John Oliver started a new season of Last Week Tonight on HBO with a million-dollar offer to Clarence Thomas.
deadline.com deadline.com
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Looks like Team Discovery Channel is up to some fuckery again…
tvline.com

HBO Delaying Last Week Tonight Clips on YouTube

HBO has opted to delay adding 'Last Week Tonight' clips on YouTube — find out when they will be uploaded.
tvline.com tvline.com
 
I'm grateful that I paid off my credit cards over a year ago by taking a fixed rate loan out.

Despite having a credit score above 750 after paying them of, several of my cards variable APR are now over 29%! That is absolutely insane, highway robbery and should be illegal.

I'm scared for people who have to charge things because they have no money after paying for rent. Credit cards are much more dangerous now than they have ever been in the past.


While we are on the topic of everything being more expensive, car insurance on average across the country is up 20% over this time last year. While the fact that new cars are much more expensive accounts for some of why, as well as inflation, car insurance rates are still up more than they should be. And the car insurance companies are not giving any explanations other than new cars are more expensive and explanation. Was reading about it in it an article yesterday, and there were several hypotheses as to why this is, with the most likely one being plain old "greed".
 
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