The Fora: A Higher Education Community

This weekend was finally Barbenheimer for old people.  We thought both were very well done with very good performances.  We watched Barbie on Friday.  They really went with it full tilt, and I think that can make or break a movie like that.  I did not really expect to need a tissue or that it would be so visually interesting that I could hardly look away from it! Definitely want some of her outfits!  It was a fun, funny, and enjoyable Friday movie.

Oppenheimer was last night.  I was dreading it a bit because of the length and subject matter (dense), but it was so intensely told and quite captivating.  I hate to say that I wish it were a bit longer, because there were so many interesting scientists and exchanges going on, but I guess I will just have to do a lot of background reading.  I looked into nuclear physics a bit today, but it's not sticking too well.  I hadn't realized it was a Christopher Nolan film, and true to form there are some aspects that can be interpreted in various ways (including some kind of shocking events that are shown quickly and then never brought up again?!).  He tells the story from a couple viewpoints, using color or black and white, and I guess that's important in figuring out what actually happened in some cases.  My husband knows much more about the physics and history, so he knew more about what was going on.  I wish I had seen it before we visited the Trinity site.  I don't think they're doing the April open house this year, supposedly for budgetary reasons, but I wonder about the timing.  Anyway, more reading to do! I'm guessing a lot more people are looking up how to enrich uranium these days, so hopefully that's not as much of a red flag.

If you liked Oppenheimer, then I highly suggest reading both American Prometheus and Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens. The first is the source biogrpahy for Oppenheimer the movie. It covers a lot of the tangential relationships and the more interesting aspects of the Oppenheimer's upbringing and education. It's a very well written biography.
    The second is a biography of Frank Oppenheimer, the younger brother. He had  an equally interesting but less well known career including working on the Manhattan Project with his brother. The highlight that lovers of popular science will appreciate is his founding the the Exploratorium in San Francisco. You can thank him (or not!) for the entire movement of interactive displays in science museums as a result. This one is ultimately more uplifting that American Prometheus, as you might guess.

Thanks for the recommendations, mythbuster! My husband has American Prometheus (he's currently listening to it) and The Making of the Atomic Bomb (which he said was outstanding), but we don't have the one about Frank.  And thanks especially for mentioning that one, because I had meant to look him up.  I didn't get a good sense from the movie about his role or background.  I'll look into that book.  That's neat about the Exploratorium and interactive science displays!

Has anyone seen Poor Things? That's the latest to hit the local theater.

Quote from: RatGuy on January 22, 2024, 08:31:34 AMHas anyone seen Poor Things? That's the latest to hit the local theater.

Haven't seen it yet, but it is supposed to be great.

Have you seen The Lobster or The Favourite? Both weird (and great) films from the same director.

Saw two interesting movies recently. Polite Society takes place in India and is about a girl who wants to become a movie stuntwoman. She uses the action-heroine skills she is cultivating through martial arts training in order to rescue her older sister from an arranged marriage to a charismatic, smooth, looks-good-on-paper guy, who with his mother actually has an over-the-top evil agenda. There's a few rather icky moments, but the family loyalty and don't-give-up-on-your-dreams messages are nice, and there's a cool dance scene with beautiful costumes and cool music.

The other movie is Pawn Sacrifice, a based-on-a-true-story film with Tobey Maguire as chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, battling mental illness as he tries to become world chess champion by beating Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky during the Cold War. Their game 6 was described as the greatest game of chess ever played. Like the play Proof, the movie looked at the link between genius and madness. Fischer's sister wanted his managers to take him to a doctor after he sent her some seriously weird letters, but they didn't want to because they were afraid treatment would destroy Fischer's chess brilliance, and it was important to the country in the Cold War atmosphere that Fischer win. When Mr. Larimar asked me what I thought of the movie when we finished it, I said, "Interesting and tragic." It made me wonder what would have happened to Fischer if he were playing today.

Larimar

"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (1967) on Kanopy
I had seen a few minutes of this movie adaptation of the Broadway musical on TV years ago and stumbled across it on Kanopy last week. Fun watch!
I also saw this musical performed on stage in my senior year of college. It was a student production and the public was welcome to attend.

We watched two sports movies this weekend, both free on Prime.  Friday was Air, a recent movie about Nike's attempts to get Michael Jordan as a spokesperson.  From what I've read, there's a lot of truth to the story, though it may have been embellished a bit, and some of the people involved had larger or smaller roles than what was shown on screen.  It was a pretty fast-paced and interesting story about how they decided on him, took a major risk, and tried to build the brand around him.  It was also interesting to think about Nike being third, after Adidas and Converse, having started primarily as a running shoe company with a basketball division on the brink of being disbanded.  The amounts of $ are pretty staggering.

Also fast-paced was last night's Rollerball, the original 1975 version.  We had thought about watching it because two of the characters in Daisy Jones and the Six (set during that time period) went to see it several times in quick succession.  They were kind of knuckleheads, so who knows why that made the movie appealing.  Still, it was free, so we gave it a try.  If I hadn't read the IMDB synopsis, I'm not sure I would have understood the universe in which it was set.  Basically, this is some futuristic tale in which there aren't really nations anymore, just several corporations (each in charge of something different like energy, food, ...) working in conjunction to keep things moving smoothly and keep the individuals in their places.  They do this through several means, including this game of rollerball, which is pretty brutal (injuries are common, and deaths are not uncommon).  James Caan is the star of the Houston team (defending champs), but the corporations are trying to force him out and make him retire.  It's a very intense movie.  Sometimes I felt as though I were on drugs (and may have needed to take more).  It's really not explained very well but is quite action-packed, and I enjoyed it and found it interesting to contemplate their world.  The set and feel kind of reminded me of Soylent Green at times. 

We watched The Holdovers tonight. Very well done. The choice of music was inspired throughout. It's incredible that the actor playing the private-school student actually was a private-school student at the school where they filmed the movie, and where they held auditions. His performance was fine enough that you'd think he'd been in movies for years. The evocation of 1971 was also very well done, and evoked a lot of rueful nostalgia.

Quote from: Hegemony on February 04, 2024, 01:24:05 AMWe watched The Holdovers tonight. Very well done. The choice of music was inspired throughout. It's incredible that the actor playing the private-school student actually was a private-school student at the school where they filmed the movie, and where they held auditions. His performance was fine enough that you'd think he'd been in movies for years. The evocation of 1971 was also very well done, and evoked a lot of rueful nostalgia.

I'd seen a bunch of news about the movie but no personal reviews, so thanks! Will check this one out.

We watched Hairspray (2007) on Fridayand Thief last night.  I had seen that version of Hairspray before and thought it was really fun with some good music and dancing.  My husband enjoyed it as well.  I see that there are very mixed reviews on IMDB.  Some absolutely love it, some absolutely hate it.  The latter appear to be folks who had seen the earlier film version (apparently not a musical) and/or thought Travolta was terrible in it.  Some thought Walken was also terrible in it! I thought they were pretty adorable.  To each his own, I guess.  I would like to see the earlier version at some point.

I had not heard of Thief until James Caan passed away and a friend of mine (screenwriter who has some really interesting insights on movies) said that this was his favorite of Caan's roles.  I picked it up then but just got around to watching it last night.  I was surprised to see that was a year and a half ago.  Anyway, the story is about a thief (shocker!) who decides to pull off one last score that will set him up for the life he has wanted.  We both thought it was a pretty intense (though not as much as the Caan movie we saw last weekend) and good action movie and character study.  I also enjoyed thinking about the symbolism and learning trivia about some of the actors.  I don't want to give too much away.  It's Michael Mann's directorial debut, so if you like his movies and have not seen this one, check it out.

Quote from: Hegemony on February 04, 2024, 01:24:05 AMWe watched The Holdovers tonight. Very well done. The choice of music was inspired throughout. It's incredible that the actor playing the private-school student actually was a private-school student at the school where they filmed the movie, and where they held auditions. His performance was fine enough that you'd think he'd been in movies for years. The evocation of 1971 was also very well done, and evoked a lot of rueful nostalgia.

Great movie. I enjoyed it also.

We ordered The Holdovers and hope to watch it soon!

Friday was The Cowboy Way, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Woody Harrelson (and a couple other famous people).  I had seen it a long time ago, and it came up in my feed somewhere, so why not.  It's about two NM cowboys who have to travel to NYC to help a friend out, and plenty of hijinks ensue along the way.  Maybe it's a dumb movie, but I just kind of like the pair of them together.  I don't think it pretends to be a "film" in any way.  It was fun for a Friday.

Last night was Bohemian Rhapsody.  After reading the 200+ trivia items on IMDB, I see that it's not completely historically accurate.  I assume that was due to the perspectives of the folks who authorized it (Brian May and Roger Taylor, mostly, from what I've read) and to some artistic license to make the story flow more compellingly.  I thought the story was told very well and that Rami Malek was pretty amazing as Freddie.  It ended up being a multiple-tissue movie but had some funny and exciting points along the way.  I remember Live Aid though had no idea who Queen was at the time and am not sure I even saw them perform.  My only memory is trying to convince my mom that I should be allowed to stay up and watch my favorite performer! I randomly chose Bob Dylan out of the late-night lineup for that role and then pronounced his last name as "Die-lan" and unsurprisingly was sent to bed on time.  I'm actually not a fan of his to this day, so no big loss, I guess (maybe I would have been? thanks, Mom!).  Still, it was quite a long list of talented performers, and I wish I had picked a name I could pronounce so that I could have watched more of the show (though I'm still not sure it would have worked).  Anyway, we both thought it was an excellent movie. 

I watched Live Aid as it happened, and it was fine, but not a lifelong treasured memory or anything. I mainly remembered the engaged couple who gave their savings for a down payment on a house to Live Aid instead.

Last night we watched "Anatomy of a Fall," which is one of the nominees for the Oscar this year. I won't say it's one of the "contenders," because there's no way it will win. We were unexpectedly bored. None of the characters is likable, and I didn't really care what the verdict was. It's the same dilemma as "My Cousin Rachel" (Did she do it, or didn't she?), but less involving. Good performances and all, but slow.

We watched Ricochet (Denzel) and The Holdovers (Giamatti) this weekend.  Ricochet is about a police officer (Denzel) who nails a bad guy (Lithgow), and the latter vows revenge and puts his plan into action some time later after Denzel becomes an ADA.  This was another movie Kevin Pollak mentioned in his book, and I had skipped the spoilers so had the opportunity to go back and listen to that part after watching.  Nothing that exciting, just some detail about plot points and how they unfolded on set.  Anyway, this movie is wild.  The directing felt very melodramatic at times.  Between Ice-T, Jesse The Body Ventura, and some really crazy happenings, it was quite a ride.  The revenge plot makes almost no sense but is still fun to watch play out.

As Hegemony and Sun_Worshiper said, The Holdovers was great.  I also can't believe the main teen actor didn't have a wealth of prior acting experience! One thing I liked a lot was that nothing particularly obvious happened.  I mean that in so many movies you can just see a romantic pairing or some bad decision consequence coming a mile away, but they really stayed away from so much of that and developed the characters as individuals who are maybe more similar to each other than they had expected.  I might have liked to have learned more about the characters, but I also think it's to the movie's credit not to go into a whole long thing for each of them but just kind of put the gestalt out there.  The movie also just felt nice, if that makes any sense.  I enjoyed my time while watching.

We finally watched Oppenheimer. I had been dreading it a bit, but it was everything ab_grp said earlier in this thread. Suspenseful and interesting all the way through. Really superb dialogue. Beautifully shot. If it wins the Oscar, I won't be angry.