What Hollywood is doing transcends this because they aren't using progressive ideas to sell otherwise-good products, they're using progressive ideas to sell explicitly bad ones. Normal people don't know much about this stuff, but somehow they're always bored and angry whenever someone talks about it. This is some straight-up operant conditioning ****.

I really don't know people that objectively think Game of Thrones last season was bad. I don't even understand how it can be considered bad. It was rushed and lot's of things were not addressed but the action and acting was consistent with the rest of the series. I can understand people that don't think Star Wars (post OT) is bad. Most probably don't have a deep connection with the franchise nor any preconceived expectations. In the case of Game of Thrones I'm guessing only a tiny portion of the audience have read the books and the conclusion to the novels hasn't even been written yet.

Their seems to be a fair amount of "outrage" in online media about how women were treated in season 8. I think it's garbage but it's not hard to find. I wasn't even looking for it.

As far as politics in the Marvel film franchise, it seems pretty ambiguous to me. You can see what you want in it. Civil War is probably the most overtly political but I can up with multiple valid arguments contrasting Stark and Rogers views as each from both sides, if that makes sense. In other words, each one of them can be viewed as either more left or right depending upon how you interpret them.

which ones are ambiguous, the ones where arms manufacturers finance terrorism for profit, the ones where the US government flirts with fascism, or Thor: The Dark World

Remember that one where the US government drove a small construction company out of business by reneging on a contract so they could give it no-bid to a huge defense contractor?

You consider those political? Hmm.

One movie about how US+arms manufacturer=fascism, no. After ten? Yes.

I don't consider realistic elements to be overtly political especially when there isn't some obvious agenda behind it.

That doesn't mean it's not political. It just means you agree with it.

That's a poor inference.

Social media at work.

I haven’t seen many of those movies, and maybe it’s an outlier, but I thought Black Panther was actually stunning in being so overtly pro-establishment. In effect, it had the Do The Right Thing binary between 1. Malcom X recognizing the necessity of violence to secure black rights and 2. MLK’s advocacy of non-violent resistance, but while Do The Right Thing argued that those views were complimentary, Black Panther sought to show that Malcom X was wrong and MLK was right.

The MCU movies also have an identitarian element to them, which influences how they’re marketed. That’s kind of undeniable. For whatever reason (and perhaps you’re right, that it’s deliberate), in the case of Star Wars it seems to be much more grating to people.

Or not. Maybe some people find the identity stuff in SW grating because everything else about those movies is already so disappointing.

Actually, I had to see this a few times for it to really sink in. I think you've really nailed it although, to be honest, I don't really feel like [new] Star Wars legitimately does much in the way of identity politics other than now every other stormtrooper has breasts.

Man, Season 2 of The Wire ages like fine wine. First watch I didn't like it, but this time it stood out. The destruction of blue collar white families in a neoliberal age is portrayed beautifully.

Huh, so the long rumored Deadwood movie released on HBO the other day. I had no idea, convenient timing considering a recent re-subscription to HBO Now for Game of Thrones.

Is the "real" HBO Now interface better than the one provided by amazon via their channel/add-on deal? They essentially give 3 categories (movies, tv shows, "late night" [and "late night" only has "spawn" since disney took over]). No way to sort or search or anything.

I don't know. I'm accessing it through Hulu right now. I used it in the past and it was pretty full featured to include their adult programming but that also makes me not want to use the app as I don't remember seeing any obvious way to block that but there probably was. Hulu gives a few more options than what you describe.

How much do you like Deadwood? I plan to watch it, I watched the first episode and was slightly annoyed by them dropped "cocksucker" like fifty times in the first twenty minutes of dialogue. Interesting how "cocksucker" is now a dated early 2000's insult.

Another shoutout to The Wire. We're approaching the end of Season 4. The Wire ruins television. No other show has ever really come close to it imo in terms of the writing. It's like how when you feed a cat canned food they don't want to eat dry food.

I've been watching The Chef Show.

It's fine!

I liked it. I really would have gotten to it much sooner if I had realized Timothy Olyphant was in it. I really never paid much attention to him until Justified came around. And if I had known anything about Ian McShane it would have been a definite no-brainer much sooner. As far as the insult, it's jarring at first but pretty rapidly morphs into an oddly charming feature of the show. I don't think an episode goes by without the word although that would be an interesting bit of trivia. You will be watching an episode later on and actually notice you haven't heard the word and wonder about whether or not you'll hear it. Then you do! LOL. I meant to keep up with how many times in was in the wrap up film.

I like food

is the wire good

ye

i heard it was

So Chernobyl is pretty good, but I always wish things like this were set in a fictional setting so that people wouldnt get dumb ideas about real world things. Like the Hurt Locker, good movie, ****ty film about the American occupation of Iraq. But then they wouldn't win awards because they wouldnt be topical and hard hitting

Meh, like TLJ, I hated Hurt Locker before it was cool. Here at massassi, that is. In the military pretty much everyone hated that movie and not for some odd reason that some might think. We hate it because it is stupid and wildly inaccurate although I must confess. I never could make it to the end. I guess if you don't know anything about the subject matter, like civilians or Air Force personnel, you might think it's well done but trust me. It's not.

As I said, it's not accurate (trust me I also know) but it is well done. Trust me, I know.

me trust know i

I trust spooks opinion more for a bunch of reasons

its because my hair is luxurious

As far as a movie about people goes (whether or not it's technically accurate or relevant to the real people or families involved in those occupations), it seems to me like the ending was the important part. But I'd guess if you couldn't make it to the ending because there were too many rivets or w/e, you probably wouldn't agree with that assessment.

I would agree. That's why, especially in the case of this movie, I think the 'war is a drug' tagline could have been gotten across as or more effectively in some sort of fictional setting. Again though, that will never win awards because, uh, well, probably lots of reasons.

I remember when we had this discussion ten years ago the same notion was stated, that this inaccurate film was "well done". No veteran I ever talked to agreed with that sentiment. I read the Wikipedia summary to see what I missed at the end and it must be very poorly written because I can't imagine how that conclusion was important.

Chernobyl was good, so long as you watch it with the mindset it's dramatized you won't have confusion.

Actually, I wasn't trying to offer a contradictory opinion or dispute his notion that it was a good film. I was actually agreeing with his idea that it was a bad film about the Iraq war. A lot of veterans just happen to disagree with it being a good movie. I was also annoyed by all of the conservative commentators praising the film which heightened my disappointment when I saw it.



It took me three or four tries of sitting through Van Helsing to make it to the end of that movie.

In regards to what do you think it’s misleading?

How many veterans who really appreciate film as a medium did you talk to? For example, lots of veterans currently think Range 15 was actually a good film.

Mostly about particular dangers with nuclear. Like "the baby absorbed all of the radiation". Or implying there's danger to whats-her-name from being around Vasily, there's not. They also blew the dangers of a further explosion out of proportion. Much of it is pretty realistic though, so it does deserve some credit. But a few lines are out there.

Most of the Soviet politics are represented very well, except the parts about literally creating a perimeter to keep citizens in. They were definitely worried about creating a panic but not that much.

I'd give it like an A- rating for accuracy, a nearly flawless grade.

Oh yeah, I've read about that bit with the pregnant lady.

Good questions. Next ask a tobacco lobbyist what he thinks of Thank You for Smoking.