Second time I saw Poor Things, and loved it even more. Now I want to see The Lobster.
Has anyone watched the remake of Mean Girls? I never quite understood the cult following for the original movie, but I may have been to old when it came out. The reviews for the new version aren’t great, and I’m not sure I really need to see what being in junior high in the states can be like. I hear enough about it from parent friends. Yikes.
Forever grateful to have gotten my education in Germany, where one never had to spend more than the morning at school, save for very few afternoon activities. The mean girls simply didn’t matter, nor did cliques. Damn near paradise if you ask me.
The Lobster is excellent but it is a black BLACK (like, pitch black) comedy. It’s definitely of the more sorta ‘nasty’ period of Lanthimos, which runs from Dogtooth through Killing of a Sacred Deer. The Favourite and now Poor Things are departures in both form, tone, and theme for him.
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Idiocracy … [m]ight have been more palatable when it first came out IYKWIM
“Idiocracy and Black Mirror were not GOALS, goddamnit!”
-me, pretty much constantly the last 7-8 years.
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I just watched the remake!
Road House (2024) -dir. Doug Liman
In form, Road House is a western. Or a samurai/ronin story. An innocent bar/ranch/village is under siege from a big businessman/evil cattle Baron/malicious bandit king. A loner hero is brought to town, a dangerous man of few words. He is kind to children and dogs. The evil gang attacks. A side character might be sacrificed to raise the stakes. Eventually, a showdown, the evil businessman /baron/bandit is defeated, and the hero rides off into the sunset.
The classic Swayze version transposes this to the ‘world’ of bar bouncers with a minimum of fuss, no mind for the rather ludicrous set up, and gets by on the very considerable charms of Swayze and Sam Elliott, the snakey oiliness of Ben Gazzara , a few very quotable lines. (“Be nice. ‘Til it’s time to not be nice.”) and an awesome soundtrack w Jeff Healey. Also a fair amount of obligatory female nudity, as well as Swayze-butt. It was the 80’s, after all.
The remake makes the premise a tad more believable, making Jake Gyllenhaal an ex-UFC fighter, explaining his martial skills, and relocates to action to the Florida Keys, where a little bigger than life drama (and the occasional man-eating gator) make slightly more sense than the idea of famous bouncers in Jasper, MO.
There’s a bookstore instead of Redd’s Garage, where the Western model is shoved right in your face, with Elliot’s character name make a fun little Easter egg. The only nudity belongs to the film’s evil champion, AFC fighter and reportedly all around asshole Connor McGregor. While his physical prowess and physique are indeed very impressive, his performance, if you can call it that, is bad bordering on parody. He’s trying to be funny. He fails spectacularly. But in failing, is almost as good as if he succeeded. His walk alone should be seen to be believed.
It’s not great, but it doesn’t egregiously dishonor the spirit of the original, and does enough of its own thing that I’d call it fine. If you have Amazon Prime anyway, there’s way worse things you could watch.
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Sounds right down my alley 
All good things must come to an end. The final episode of Curb was well done, maybe even my favorite episode of the last season, which was as uneven as the previous two. The joke about Mexican food was hilarious, and having Jerry there and ending it similar to Seinfeld seemed fitting.
The WashPo had a nice take on it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/2024/04/08/curb-your-enthusiasm-series-finale/
The Regime also ended, and I’m now not sure what I watched. Satire, sure, but about what? Eh.
I thought the Curb finale was a solid B+. Wrapped things up nicely. Susie and Leon were hilarious as always. Allison Janney was funny too. Wish we had seen more Funkhousers.
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TBH I never found Leon funny at all, and think the season where his entire fam moves into Larry’s house was the weakest for me. Susie Essman OTOH never fails to crack me up 
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Finished American Rust yesterday. The final episode makes me think that show ain’t quite done yet.
It was enjoyable, especially when the cloudy skies and dilapidated buildings of rural PA are only too familiar
Currently reading the NYT review of *Civil War*, the previews of which made us wonder why anyone would unleash such a depressing vision well before November… BUT I’ve enjoyed Garland’s œuvre in the past (Ex Machina, the brilliant Men, and 28 Days Later, just to name a few), so we may go see it.
#LOLSOB
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I deliberately didn’t watch this until almost all the episodes were out, despite so much chatter around me insisting that I need to WATCH IT!
Started, and now I’m miffed that I didn’t wait for ALL the episodes, because now I have to WAIT for the last two 
Just so good.
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@small_h I finally had the time to read Cat Person. Wow. Thank you for the recommendation! I will say the movie sticks pretty closely to the story. Have you had a chance to watch it yet?
I have not, but I intend to.
Re: Garland’s Civil War
I’ve seen some teasers and heard quick blurbs about it and decided that, much like Zone of Interest, it’s probably a very good film that I, personally, do not want to watch right now.
The world seems poised on a cliff edge, and my personal life events are enough stress an agitation for me presently. Maybe, after November (assuming sane heads prevail), I will feel secure enough in the world to watch something about people wanting to end it.
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Are you me?
Watching American Rust.
Oh, I will definitely watch Zone of Interest.
Maybe we’ll have to get real high for the Civil War flick? We shall see.
Went on a bit of a Ripley binge last night… we had a ridic early meal due to impending thunder storms, so we managed to watch FIVE episodes. At first I was bitching about it being in B&W (yeah, I can be one of those people sometimes 
), but I pretty much immediately ate my words.
I’d forgotten most of the plot of the movie (and now kinda wanna rewatch the Matt Damon flick), and enjoyed it tremendously so far. The cinematography alone is breathtakingly stunning.
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Thanks! That sounds interesting.
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