Recent comments in /f/Films

celebratedrecluse wrote

When a nation feels threatened, it gets swole. Germans and Norwegians became obsessed with individual self-improvement through physical fitness around the end of the Napoleonic Era. British citizens took up this Physical Culture as the 19th century—and their empire—began to wane. And yoga, in its current practice as a form of meditative strength training, came out of the Indian Independence movement of the 1920s and 30s.

The impetus of these movements isn’t fitness for the sake of pleasure, for the pure joys of strength and physical beauty. It’s competitive. It’s about getting strong enough to fight The Enemy, whoever that may be.

Today’s stars are action figures, not action heroes. Those perfect bodies exist only for the purpose of inflicting violence upon others. To have fun is to become weak, to let your team down, and to give the enemy a chance to win

This cinematic trend reflects the culture around it. Even before the pandemic hit, Millennials and Zoomers were less sexually active than the generation before them. Maybe we’re too anxious about the Apocalypse; maybe we’re too broke to go out; maybe having to live with roommates or our parents makes it a little awkward to bring a partner home; maybe there are chemicals in the environment screwing up our hormones; maybe we don’t know how to navigate human sexuality outside of rape culture; maybe being raised on the message that our bodies are a nation-ending menace has dampened our enthusiasm for physical pleasure.

Eating disorders have steadily increased, though. We are still getting our bodies ready to fight The Enemy, and since we are at war with an abstract concept, the enemy is invisible and ethereal. To defeat it, our bodies must lose solidity as well.

Very relevant in the era of coronavirus quarantine. The desexualization, and more importantly the de-desire-ification of life, has reached an undeniable height.

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existential1 wrote

I suspected something like this when i first saw it and didn't watch cuz I knew it was gonna be disappointing...which is a shame. But the mark of equity in film-making or any art is when films with non-white leads are allowed to fail just as much as white-led films. So maybe it's a positive in that sense.

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_caspar_ wrote

Reply to comment by !deleted23972 in by !deleted23972

my only complaint is it gets unnecessarily repetitive since they replay the same scenes too often in my opinion. depicts a bizarre Weimar era Berlin that if I had to choose what place and time to visit, would be in the top 5 for sure. would like to read the novel someday.

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_caspar_ wrote

Reply to by !deleted23972

its been years since Ive seen it. maybe worth a revisit. Ive enjoyed just about anything Fassbinder has directed, but top favorites are: World on a Wire, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Chinese Roulette, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and In a Year with Thirteen Moons.

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AnarcheAmor wrote (edited )

Other things like Dir. Jenkins' choice to make Zeus the patron god and creator of Amazons and Diana's father, Ares being able to kill all the other gods and being the sole reason why Diana was born, and a whole list of other choices seems to be driven by some half-baked patriarchal feminism that rejects the woman-centric storytelling of traditional Wonder Woman storylines for something that wraps the women of the film in a blanket of male leadership and guidance that wavers between being subtle and overt.

If the patriarchy branded feminism doesn't turn you off, how about the cisheteronormativity? Remember that part where Diana tells Steve that men are only needed for reproduction just for her to turn around and fall in love with the guy (to the point that she remained heartbroken for his death for more than a century), or her reactions to a baby crying because of course, somehow, she knows how to be maternal coming from an island where babies outside of herself never existed, or her overall characterization basically being "born sexy yesterday"? Yeah? Well combined with the mentioned above love affair between her mom and Zeus, you start to see my problem.

Combine this with the already well noted politics surrounding Gal Gadot, superhero mythology, etc., and Wonder Woman is a blockbuster neoliberal cocktail of the worst kind. Keep in mind, this has been Wonder Woman's comic book trajectory for decades now but it hits a new low when you take Etta, the nazi-punching sorority sister, multiple time savior of Wonder Woman, and turn her into a secretary stereotype for Wonder Woman to make a quip and give us one those try-on haul scenes that pops up in every movie about a woman.

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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

I hate films that involve wish-fulfillment because they tend to involve terrible writing. Another example is "Bruce Almighty".

If you granted every person in the world one wish, for every person seeking wealth or power or the death of enemies there would be at least one asking for a cure for cancer, the return of a dead loved one, or an end to domestic violence.

It makes Wonder Woman's speech at the end of the film ridiculous, when she says the world was flawed but their wishes are making it worse and they have to renounce them. At its core, this kind of story is a defense of the status quo - the theme that the world can't be better than it is because the average person is too selfish. Fuck that.

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UnlikelyCommittee wrote

The Marvel movies aren't exactly revolutionary material. But I feel their movies at least nod their head to actual bad stuff.

Like, in the first Iron Man, initially bad guy is your token scary arab terrorist group. Ends up being US arms manufacturers and the systems that create war. (A far more plausible scenario for actual bad guys).

In the end their messages are always washed out tho, but the directors there at least seem to be "good people" more often than not.

Generally the DC universe feels a bit more bootlicky to me.

I just enjoy the big explosions and shit tho. I'm a simple guy. I take my heavy culture in paper form.

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jinzo wrote

I can't stand movies nowadays. Like, are there that many SJW Karens to pander for, or they aiming for the people that turn their brain off and want to see flashy effects with hot actors instead of a good story. yes, I'm talking about the classic Fast & Furious fans.

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jaidedctrl wrote (edited )

Was WW particularly political? I just remember glorifying US soldiers (political), and Nazi Germany having mutant juice or something..?

EDIT: Ok maybe the whole "savior" schtick that's inherent in superhero movies is sorta political? "We need a good guy with insane, uncheck power to save us!"

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crime wrote

Ha! Chatterbox and the Latter Day Satanists sampled this a few years back. Recognized it right away, but had never seen the source material.

song: https://chatterboxandthelatterdaysatanists.bandcamp.com/track/hands-in-your-pockets-chatterbox

Bonus points to you, cause I found a new album they relaeased a couple weeks ago while digging up this track. Nostalgia blast. Thanks!

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kin wrote

This movie didn't impressed me, dunno what I was expecting but I felt that so much was left out to deliver this story. And I have a recollection of an early better movie about the same trial, but I can't find it now, maybe a false memory triggered by my the delayed release.

One good point is Sacha Baron Cohen doing a good Abbie Hoffman impression.

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