I'm pretty much with you on "The Baseclogger". I've seen all of those and the only things I would change is bumping Whiplash up to probably a 9 for me and Blue Ruin up to a 7, I liked Blue Ruin a lot.
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Whiplash is a brilliant piece of filmmaking, and maybe I will come to appreciate it further with additional viewings, but my knock on it was that I just wasn't as breath-taken by it in the theater as the others I rated higher.
I guess you could get away with putting some of those movies into the indie/artsy fartsy category or the awards bait category, but I felt that group of films best represented my tastes. Those were the movies I went into with really high expectations, so in most cases a 6/10 just represents disappointment on my part, but I'd still much rather watch one of the movies from that category than, say, Edge of Tomorrow.... ;)
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Finally saw Kingsman tonight. Excellent, really excellent.
Good description of the Birdman. I was about a third of the way though it and suddenly realized...ummm...the camera hasn't cut away once has it? The entire flick is filmed in one take (not totally...but damned near). That was one of the most impressive pieces of cinematography I've ever seen. Good movie, excellent acting...but the direction...wowsers.
I'm watching a The Lego Movie for the first time.
This is amazing.
The Lego movie is Awesome. Everything is Awesome.
Has anyone seen The Babadook? On the whole, a pretty original concept, well-executed. It did occasionally give in to some horror movie cliches, but there were enough bits I'd never seen before to make up for it. There was a fair amount of subtext as well, something lacking in even the new breed of not-so-violent horror films. I like it that no real explanation for the book's sudden appearance was given (this isn't even a consideration). I do worry about the little boy, though; he's either a precociously good actor or one strange kid.
The ending was something new, I thought. Won't say more.
When it's raining, I'll use the treadmill in the morning since I can't go out for my morning walk. When I do, I look for something to watch on my iPad while I walk (so I can use my headphones and not wake my wife earlier than she gets up). This morning I started watching a Netflix documentary titled The Battered Bastards of Baseball about the actor Bing Russell creating an independent Single A baseball team in Portland, Oregon that played in the otherwise affiliated Northwest League. I'm just about twenty minutes into it, but it looks interesting. The several seasons they played in that league, I think when I checked, it showed they had winning seasons each year.
Here's the trailer https://youtu.be/RA76b5Hhvxg - as I said, it's available on Netflix.
It's been a while since there's been a good Johnny Depp movie. This one looks promising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE3e3hGF2jc
Those of you who like documentaries, here are a few recommendations from the last few years. Many of these are still streaming on Netflix
Great
Muscle Shoals
20 Feet from Stardom
Searching for Sugarman
A Band Called Death
Battered Bastards of Baseball
Survive and Advance (maybe my favorite 30 for 30)
Man on Wire (okay... this is 7 years old now, but see it anyway)
Beware of Mr. BAker
Enjoyable
How to Grow a Band (about the Punch Brothers)
Shut up and Play the Hits (about the last days of LCD Soundsystem)
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Pelotero
Pony Excess (30 for 30)
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
56 Up
Greenwich Village: Music that Defined a Generation
Whitey: USA v Whitey Bulger