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Aug. 3rd, 2022 09:15 pm
wednesday watches
It's been a couple of weeks! I went on holiday with no Internet, then immediately came home and got sick again, so haven't felt like posting. But I've watched a few things in that time!
Tolkien (film)
Been meaning to watch this one for a while, since it came out a few years ago, so when I saw it on the TV on holiday, I spent an afternoon watching it. I really enjoyed the parts about Tolkien's youth and friendship with the TCBS - the group had a wonderful brotherhood dynamic. Less impressed by the romance and the war scenes - which is odd, because I normally really like war films.
The True History of the Kelly Gang (film)
Tolkien set me on a Nicholas Hoult kick, because this always happens when an actor is attractive. So next, I watched The True History of the Kelly Gang, which I'd seen around after getting into 1917 but never seen. It... was a bit too gritty for my liking, which I should have known from the outset, but I do understand the complexity and the appeal.
Rebel in the Rye
Another Nicholas Hoult film, this one is a biopic of the life of JD Salinger, the reclusive author famous for his novel Catcher in the Rye. I studied that book at age 14 in school, and like most books studied in school, I didn't really like it. (Also the fact that that book is the epitome of the teenage male experience, or so I am told by every boy I've ever talked to about it, and I was in a class of 14/15 year old girls who just thought Holden was a twat.)
The biopic itself was... subpar? It has its moments, and it also has its long stretches where nothing much happened and I found myself drifting away. It was interesting to know a bit more about Salinger's life, though my opinion of the man himself from that is also rather subpar.
Equals (2015 film)
The last of the Nicholas Hoult Watching (for this week, because I do have Mad Max: Fury Road queued up to watch at some point.) This film is about a futuristic world where no one has emotions, and having emotions is seen as a disease and treated in stages like cancer, and people who have it tend to be isolated and ostracized and eventually taken to a facility where they're 'treated'/secluded. This was 2015, but after COVID I'm mostly just laughing at the whole premise, because it's a) overdone and b) seems off given the seven years since it released. But they didn't have the foresight back then, so...
It's about a guy who falls in love with a girl he works with despite everything, and how they have to deal with that. Which is fine, if the chemistry wasn't very eh. The aesthetics of the film were also the greyest, whitest thing I've ever seen, which works thematically but does not make for interesting watching.
There's also letterboxd review that says that they made Kristen Stewart play a M/F relationship whilst giving her the queerest haircut, which isn't wrong.
Medici: Masters of Florence - 1x06
Continuing with this! More political drama in Florence, and relationship drama for the Medicis. At this point, I'm mostly watching for the pretty costumes. And Piero & Lucrezia, the former of which is just Trying His Best Even Though He Fails 99% of the Time, and the latter of whom got trapped in a tricky situation with her mother-in-law because of her father-in-law which she didn't deserve because it wasn't her fault at all.
Still gonna finish the series though, beacuse the aesthetics are still gorgeous and I want to watch the other two seasons after this.
Tolkien (film)
Been meaning to watch this one for a while, since it came out a few years ago, so when I saw it on the TV on holiday, I spent an afternoon watching it. I really enjoyed the parts about Tolkien's youth and friendship with the TCBS - the group had a wonderful brotherhood dynamic. Less impressed by the romance and the war scenes - which is odd, because I normally really like war films.
The True History of the Kelly Gang (film)
Tolkien set me on a Nicholas Hoult kick, because this always happens when an actor is attractive. So next, I watched The True History of the Kelly Gang, which I'd seen around after getting into 1917 but never seen. It... was a bit too gritty for my liking, which I should have known from the outset, but I do understand the complexity and the appeal.
Rebel in the Rye
Another Nicholas Hoult film, this one is a biopic of the life of JD Salinger, the reclusive author famous for his novel Catcher in the Rye. I studied that book at age 14 in school, and like most books studied in school, I didn't really like it. (Also the fact that that book is the epitome of the teenage male experience, or so I am told by every boy I've ever talked to about it, and I was in a class of 14/15 year old girls who just thought Holden was a twat.)
The biopic itself was... subpar? It has its moments, and it also has its long stretches where nothing much happened and I found myself drifting away. It was interesting to know a bit more about Salinger's life, though my opinion of the man himself from that is also rather subpar.
Equals (2015 film)
The last of the Nicholas Hoult Watching (for this week, because I do have Mad Max: Fury Road queued up to watch at some point.) This film is about a futuristic world where no one has emotions, and having emotions is seen as a disease and treated in stages like cancer, and people who have it tend to be isolated and ostracized and eventually taken to a facility where they're 'treated'/secluded. This was 2015, but after COVID I'm mostly just laughing at the whole premise, because it's a) overdone and b) seems off given the seven years since it released. But they didn't have the foresight back then, so...
It's about a guy who falls in love with a girl he works with despite everything, and how they have to deal with that. Which is fine, if the chemistry wasn't very eh. The aesthetics of the film were also the greyest, whitest thing I've ever seen, which works thematically but does not make for interesting watching.
There's also letterboxd review that says that they made Kristen Stewart play a M/F relationship whilst giving her the queerest haircut, which isn't wrong.
Medici: Masters of Florence - 1x06
Continuing with this! More political drama in Florence, and relationship drama for the Medicis. At this point, I'm mostly watching for the pretty costumes. And Piero & Lucrezia, the former of which is just Trying His Best Even Though He Fails 99% of the Time, and the latter of whom got trapped in a tricky situation with her mother-in-law because of her father-in-law which she didn't deserve because it wasn't her fault at all.
Still gonna finish the series though, beacuse the aesthetics are still gorgeous and I want to watch the other two seasons after this.
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