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Movies
Mar 14, 2020 2:21:17 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 14, 2020 2:21:17 GMT -5
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Movies
Mar 14, 2020 4:53:03 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 14, 2020 4:53:03 GMT -5
Just saw John Wick Chapter 3. It was OK. The formula is getting a little tired, though. The first one was great because, for me, I really wanted him to get revenge on that dumbass (who’s played by the actor who played Theon in Game of Thrones) for killing his dog. The choreography was good, too. The second and third ones, I didn’t really care anymore. Thinking it over ... one of the main problems is that they are trying to explain all the stuff they left unexplained in the first movie. Like, why is there a luxury hotel for assassins in the middle of Manhattan? Why do they pay for everything with gold coins? Etc. It was just *cool* that they had this whole underground ecosystem, despite that it made no sense. The second movie (and even more the third movie) has tried to fill in the backstory and explain that the "high table" sets all these rules (and enforces them ruthlessly). Sadly, every explanation makes the whole thing more mundane and less intriguing, which is the opposite of what made the first John Wick more than just a standard revenge action flick.
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Mar 14, 2020 9:25:44 GMT -5
Post by maplespear on Mar 14, 2020 9:25:44 GMT -5
Took my son to "Onward" ...awesomely good movie. And Pixar does it again.
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Mar 14, 2020 14:15:53 GMT -5
Post by yoda on Mar 14, 2020 14:15:53 GMT -5
Hell or High Water (2016) A great movie about a couple of bank robbing brothers. Probably one of my all-time favorites. Lots of local west Texas color. Almost every scene is exceptional. Great writing. Great acting. Chris Pine's best acting performance. Ben Foster is the real star. I can't think of a film Ben Foster was in that I hated, especially one where he's a lead. That boy deserves an Oscar some day. I liked this movie too. Ben Foster is good but I usually also enjoy most movies The Dude is in.
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Mar 15, 2020 22:36:09 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgang on Mar 15, 2020 22:36:09 GMT -5
Call Me By Your Name (2018) An Oscar Best Picture-nominated film that was widely praised. I didn't think it was all that special or even a good film, but I loved the fact that the filmmakers and the characters didn't make a big deal of homosexuality -- even though the film is a coming-of-age tale of a gay (bisexual?) teen. Music was great. The atmosphere was great. But I can't spell out why I didn't like it so much. Maybe because it was understated, as if nothing was going on?
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Mar 16, 2020 4:07:24 GMT -5
Post by madonna on Mar 16, 2020 4:07:24 GMT -5
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Mar 18, 2020 12:00:25 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgang on Mar 18, 2020 12:00:25 GMT -5
Some movies should be seen together. I'm not just talking about trilogies and sequels and such. For example, recently I watched The Post (2017), the Steven Spielberg film about the Washington Post and its decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. The last scene of this movie was the break-in by the burglars at Watergate. Following this movie, I watched All the President's Men (1976) about the Washington Post's pursuit of Nixon crimes at Watergate. The first scene of this movie is the Watergate break-in. Spielberg, in The Post, made his final scene look almost exactly like the first scene in All the President's Men. Ben Bradlee, the Washington Post's Editor-in-Chief, was a key figure in both films.
Now, I'm watching The Darkest Hour (2017) about Winston Churchill during World War II. In one crucial scene, Churchill and his war cabinet are discussing what to do with the major disaster at Dunkirk. Churchill then formulate a plan calling for civilian boats to evacuate the soldiers out of Dunkirk. At this point, you should stop watching The Darkest Hour (2017) and watch Dunkirk (2017) instead. In Dunkirk (2017), we now see Churchill's plan in motion. After this film, return to The Darkest Hour (2017), where you left off.
The same can be said for Rogue One (2016), which should be viewed first then followed by Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977). At the end of Rogue One (2016), we see the rebel handing the plans of the Death Star to Princess Leia. At the beginning of Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977), we see Princess Leia's journey with those plans.
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Mar 18, 2020 12:10:39 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 18, 2020 12:10:39 GMT -5
Speaking of movies about newspapers, I have good memories of the 1994 movie "The Paper".
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Mar 21, 2020 20:00:29 GMT -5
Post by holidayhusker on Mar 21, 2020 20:00:29 GMT -5
fantastic Neflix short series called Self Made, the story about Madam CJ Walker and her beauty company. A must watch for all us in captivity.
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Movies
Mar 21, 2020 20:43:25 GMT -5
Post by bbg95 on Mar 21, 2020 20:43:25 GMT -5
Speaking of movies about newspapers, I have good memories of the 1994 movie "The Paper". Despite having a degree in print journalism, I really can't think of that many movies I have seen about newspapers. Out of curiosity, I did a search for the best movies about journalism and came across this list from the Poynter Institute. I have only seen the 25th movie on the list (Almost Famous, which is a great movie, though I classify it more as a music movie than a journalism movie, even if the protagonist is an aspiring magazine writer) and the 1st (All the President's Men, which I think I watched in one of my journalism classes and didn't leave that much of an impression on me--obviously, it's a movie about a very important journalism story, but most movies from that era weren't exactly moving at a brisk pace). Actually, I seem to have a vague recollection of watching Citizen Kane at some point, but I remember almost nothing about it beyond "Rosebud." Anyway, it seems that journalists are somewhat ubiquitous in all kinds of movies, and yet, I don't think too many are particularly memorable for being journalists (Clark Kent and Peter Parker are journalists, but that's not what makes them interesting--in fact, the portrayal of journalism in Batman vs. Superman was so bad that it was legitimately embarrassing). I will say that even though some journalists didn't care for it (as I think it hit a bit too close to home), Season 5 of The Wire has a pretty good depiction of a newsroom. That season is rightfully maligned for other reasons, but I did enjoy the newspaper subplot. In particular, the editor of the city desk, Gus, was one of my favorite characters in the entire show and one of the best fictional journalists of all time.
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Mar 21, 2020 21:05:25 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 21, 2020 21:05:25 GMT -5
Speaking of movies about newspapers, I have good memories of the 1994 movie "The Paper". Despite having a degree in print journalism, I really can't think of that many movies I have seen about newspapers. Out of curiosity, I did a search for the best movies about journalism and came across this list from the Poynter Institute. I've seen seven of those. I like their writeup of The Paper. A "guilty pleasure for anyone who has ever worked in a newspaper office". When I saw it I was only a few years out from having spent six years as a writer and editor for the MIT student newspaper, The Tech. I suppose that's why I liked it so much -- it very much felt like some of the hectic late nights I spent in the Tech office. One of my fellow Tech editors is now an instructor or fellow or something at the Poynter Institute, though his main job is as an editor at the Dallas Morning News. I do think Almost Famous is more about the kid (the Cameron Crowe character) than the band, so I think it's legit to call it a journalism movie.
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Mar 21, 2020 21:18:57 GMT -5
Post by bbg95 on Mar 21, 2020 21:18:57 GMT -5
Despite having a degree in print journalism, I really can't think of that many movies I have seen about newspapers. Out of curiosity, I did a search for the best movies about journalism and came across this list from the Poynter Institute. I've seen seven of those. I like their writeup of The Paper. A "guilty pleasure for anyone who has ever worked in a newspaper office". When I saw it I was only a few years out from having spent six years as a writer and editor for the MIT student newspaper, The Tech. I suppose that's why I liked it so much -- it very much felt like some of the hectic late nights I spent in the Tech office. One of my fellow Tech editors is now an instructor or fellow or something at the Poynter Institute, though his main job is as an editor at the Dallas Morning News. I do think Almost Famous is more about the kid (the Cameron Crowe character) than the band, so I think it's legit to call it a journalism movie. Yeah, you may be right on Almost Famous. I just tend to think of "journalism movies" as those pretty centered around a newsroom, but that's probably too rigid. Just how I think of it as a former journalist myself. I may need to check out The Paper. Looking back at the synopsis, I was stunned to see Lynne Thigpen, who I didn't even realize was an actress. I know her from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, which was a game show on PBS that was sort of like a much more entertaining version of a National Geography Bee (my dad worked for PBS for most of his career, so it was on a lot). Out of curiosity, which beat/desk were you covering at The Tech? I was a women's volleyball beat reporter and sports editor at my college paper. Most of my fellow editors got out of journalism, but one is now living abroad and has been published in the NY Times and The Atlantic, among others.
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Mar 21, 2020 21:39:53 GMT -5
Post by volleylearner on Mar 21, 2020 21:39:53 GMT -5
Speaking of movies about newspapers, I have good memories of the 1994 movie "The Paper". Despite having a degree in print journalism, I really can't think of that many movies I have seen about newspapers. Out of curiosity, I did a search for the best movies about journalism and came across this list from the Poynter Institute. I have only seen the 25th movie on the list (Almost Famous, which is a great movie, though I classify it more as a music movie than a journalism movie, even if the protagonist is an aspiring magazine writer) and the 1st (All the President's Men, which I think I watched in one of my journalism classes and didn't leave that much of an impression on me--obviously, it's a movie about a very important journalism story, but most movies from that era weren't exactly moving at a brisk pace). Actually, I seem to have a vague recollection of watching Citizen Kane at some point, but I remember almost nothing about it beyond "Rosebud." Wow, I'm surprised I have seen so many on that list (14)--though I have not see The Paper. Lot of great movies on that list. Absence of Malice is one of my favorites. I probably would not put Broadcast News that high.
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Mar 21, 2020 23:11:41 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 21, 2020 23:11:41 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, which beat/desk were you covering at The Tech? I was a women's volleyball beat reporter and sports editor at my college paper. Most of my fellow editors got out of journalism, but one is now living abroad and has been published in the NY Times and The Atlantic, among others. news reporter -> associate news editor -> "senior editor" (sort of editor-without-portfolio) -> opinion editor -> chairman -> sports editor -> grad student who kind of hung around the office from time to time but had a full-time job as an engineer Most people who worked for the Tech did not become professional journalists, but a surprising number did. My first news editor, Tom Huang, became (as I mentioned above) an editor for the Dallas Morning News (despite his masters degree in electrical engineering). Some people became bloggers or authors. One guy who was there a year ahead of me (Simson Garfinkel) has written more than a dozen books on computer security. MIT did not have a journalism program -- at the Tech we all just learned journalism by doing it. There were basically four groups of people there: newsroom, production shop, photography, and business office. Business office got commissions on ads sold, but everybody else got paid in pizza once a week.
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Mar 22, 2020 0:23:50 GMT -5
Post by bbg95 on Mar 22, 2020 0:23:50 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, which beat/desk were you covering at The Tech? I was a women's volleyball beat reporter and sports editor at my college paper. Most of my fellow editors got out of journalism, but one is now living abroad and has been published in the NY Times and The Atlantic, among others. news reporter -> associate news editor -> "senior editor" (sort of editor-without-portfolio) -> opinion editor -> chairman -> sports editor -> grad student who kind of hung around the office from time to time but had a full-time job as an engineer Most people who worked for the Tech did not become professional journalists, but a surprising number did. My first news editor, Tom Huang, became (as I mentioned above) an editor for the Dallas Morning News (despite his masters degree in electrical engineering). Some people became bloggers or authors. One guy who was there a year ahead of me (Simson Garfinkel) has written more than a dozen books on computer security. MIT did not have a journalism program -- at the Tech we all just learned journalism by doing it. There were basically four groups of people there: newsroom, production shop, photography, and business office. Business office got commissions on ads sold, but everybody else got paid in pizza once a week. Interesting. I guess that makes sense with MIT not having a journalism program. At BYU, the reporters were entirely print journalism majors and public relations majors who worked in the newsroom for a semester to fulfill a required class. Everyone (25-30 reporters) had a beat, and you had to write two articles per week (this was easy for sports reporters, as you just wrote a preview and a recap each week, along with an occasional feature). The editors were paid, though it was not much more than minimum wage. But it was a good part-time job during school. It was unusual to be an editor for more than a semester, unless you went from one of the desk editors (city x2, sports x2, campus and arts) to the news editor. But even then, it was like two semesters max because they (the newsroom was mostly student-run, but there were some experienced journalists who oversaw the operation and had final say) wanted to give more students the experience of being an editor. This was actually fine, as I parlayed that into a paid internship with the Deseret News and then an internship with the NY Daily News. There were also designers and photographers, and they tended to stick around longer. I know there were people who sold ads too, but I didn't really interact with them, and I believe they were advertising majors (also in the communications department). At any rate, I think I will watch The Paper tomorrow. It has a great cast (Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, etc.).
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