What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

Quote: Evenbob

In the movie biz, this is called the 'meet cute'.

New Yorker May 22, 1937 Pg. 56:
“THE rest of the script is fine, I boys,” said Mr. Trumpett. “You’ve got a nice situation and I like the way you’ve handled your story line and I like your finish, but frankly I don’t like the beginning. They don’t meet cute.”

It sort of makes sense, since La La Land is set in the 1930's that they would stick to conventions established in the 1930's. It's also a well established convention that if you want a bunch of movie makers to give you an award, it is a safe bet that you should make a movie about making movies.

Quote: Pacomartin

“It sort of makes sense, since La La Land is set in the 1930's that they would stick to conventions established in the 1930's. It's also a well established convention that if you want a bunch of movie makers to give you an award, it is a safe bet that you should make a movie about making movies.

The Artist might be in the 1930's but La La Land has a Toyota Prius in it.

Quote: rxwine

The Artist might be in the 1930's but La La Land has a Toyota Prius in it.

My mistake. I thought the movie was set in the 1930's. It may be more evocative of a movie from the 1930's. I haven't seen it yet.

Quote: Pacomartin

but frankly I don’t like the beginning. They don’t meet cute.”
]

Wow, the meet cute has been around that
long. The opposite of real life. Never met
a meet cute romance, neither have most
people.

romance (n.) c. 1300, "a story, written or recited, of the adventures of a knight, hero, etc.," often one designed principally for entertainment," from Old French romanz "verse narrative" , originally an adverb, "in the vernacular language," from Vulgar Latin *romanice scribere "to write in a Romance language" , from Latin Romanicus "of or in the Roman style". The sense evolution is because medieval vernacular tales usually told chivalric adventures full of marvelous incidents and heroic deeds. In reference to literary works, often in Middle English meaning ones written in French but also applied to native compositions. Literary sense extended by 1660s to "a love story." Meaning "adventurous quality" first recorded 1801; that of "love affair" is from 1916. Romance novel attested from 1964.

Essentially, we have a 7 century evolution of the idea of Romance which lends it name to all the languages derived from Rome (Portuguese, Spansih, French, Italian, Romanian, and most of the English vocabulary) to the bulk of fiction written those centuries.

People are generally not interested in seeing "real life".

Quote: Pacomartin

People are generally not interested in seeing "real life".

In a romance, the knight vanquishes real life such as by making eight hardway bets in a row; in real life he sevens out.

How about a movie with people from the 1930s being brought to the modern era to view movies set in the 1930s?

Watched 2015's Z for Zachariah on the Amazon Prime recently.

The film only has three people in it: Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dr. Strange, The Martian, 12 Years a Slave, Children of Men), Chris Pine (Kirk from the recent Star Trek reboots) and Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn from the recent Suicide Squad comic book action film).

The contemporary post-apocalyptic story revolves around Robbie as a survivor of a widespread catastrophe that has poisoned the world with radiation, but for some reason (alluded to in the film as "maybe the wind currents"), spared the valley where she lives alone, operating a small farm that provides for her food needs. As the two other characters individually find their way to her farm, the inevitable triangle develops and comes to a somewhat surprising, but to me, satisfying conclusion.

The movie explores several different themes, Sci-Fi post-nuclear holocaust survival; Dramatic tension between the three characters who represent a mix of gender, race, religion and education; Love/Romance/Lust; The value of faith/religion; and Mystery as the backstory is not simply explained by a sequence behind the opening credits, a narrator nor a "news report" cutaway that seem so common in other films. It is a story for thinking adults.

That being said, many folks, so used to high tech Sci-Fi gadgets and big budget special effects will find this film boring and difficult to sit through. The story unwinds slowly, and there are only one or two characters on screen for large stretches. The film is a dramatic showcase for the actors, and Chiwetel Ejiofor really shines.

If you enjoyed, Winter's Bone, you will like this movie, as it has the same "feel".

I give it 7 Geiger counters out of 10.

Smiles now, but can anything good come from two men and one woman being the last people on Earth...

Live by Night
comes out tomorrow
I read the book
One of the best gangster books I have ever read
Takes place in Boston and Tampa
Its the middle book of a Dennis Lehane trilogy that I highly recommend.
What amazes me about the trailer is that it looks like they stayed pretty true to the book :-)

Some fans are complaining over this actor selected to play Michael Jackson including in the Jackson family.. IN the still, it does look like a rather bad choice, but amongst other characters it looks passable to me, especially after watching the trailer. All of them look like a bit off imitations.