26 Reply by litomnivore

(133 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Yeah, Fassbender is part of that pool of UK and Irish actors that you see almost everywhere, and then they hit it big, and they really are everywhere… If you've not seen Hunger, the 2008 film about Bobby Sands, he's absolutely harrowing in it, including a sixteen-minute take. Brr.

I'm going to take advantage of my ignorance by seeing this first and seeing if it works for me as someone who has never seen Alien. This particular viral video fascinates me. Fassbender's performance, as seen in this piece, looks absolutely astonishing. He's coming at the Uncanny Valley from the human side, rather than the robotic side, and it's both compelling and creepy.

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27 Topic by litomnivore

(109 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Okay, cats, here's the deal.

I was raised in a pop cultural wasteland. Circumstance conspired against tiny litomnivore, and, while I may able to drive and vote and drink, I have never seen The Wizard of Oz. Nary a frame. (Okay, two minutes in a doctor's office. But the point remains!) I saw the original Star Wars trilogy last week (theatrical cuts, of course). I've been working backwards from Mystery Science Theater 3000 long enough. The center cannot hold, people. I need guidance.

So, I ask you, kind forum, what movies are, to you, essential viewing for the care and feeding of a budding cinephile? What are movies you are aghast people haven't seen? What is your absolute favorite movie of all time? And, if you care to share and make me feel less uncultured, what piece of essential viewing have you missed out on?

Assume nothing. (Well, I have seen the The Lord of the Rings trilogy roughly eight million times.) I don't care about genre. I don't care about what language it's in. I do care that it is available on DVD, since I don't have access to a VHS player most of the time.

Let's do this!

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28 Reply by litomnivore

(13 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Howard Shore's work for The Lord of the Rings is obviously one of my favorites. If you want your mind blown by the attention to detail in that score, I recommend checking out A Magpie's Nest; a regular at TheOneRing.Net forums maintains this website, and it's ridiculously in-depth. Every piece of chorus used in the score has been translated into one of Tolkien's languages, and she's got the lyrics.

I've been getting to know John Williams' stuff recently, and I did not realize that his Superman theme was already firmly embedded in my bones via pop cultural osmosis. That's impactful, man.

I'll offer up most everything by Michael Kamen, the gentleman who scored Brazil. I know him from adoring the soundtrack to Disney's 1993 version of The Three Musketeers as a little kid and, obviously, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. (I have a thing for cheesy mid-nineties period action films. It is very specific.) I've only got the soundtracks to those, but in both I'm fascinated by how he can involve the Award Bait song into the score, make it feel organic and natural, and make that song feel ultimately earned.

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29 Reply by litomnivore

(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

I actually saw this a few weeks ago and enjoyed it, more for the issues it raised than as a documentary itself. I really enjoyed this episode as a discussion of structure in a documentary; thanks, guys!

As a non-Star Wars fan (I kind of just watched the original trilogy last week…), I've always been fascinated by the fandom's relationship to Lucas, and I thought that The People Vs. George Lucas offered an even-handed look at that; yeah, there was plenty of nitpicks that people familiar with arguments against the prequels or Lucas in general have heard eight million times, but there were also people taking Lucas' side and defending his right to do whatever he wants with his intellectual property. As you guys mentioned, I think there is an issue of entitlement—he ruined my favorite childhood movies, now he sucks!—involved, but there's also the give and take of a creator and his fans in the digital age, which is something we're still hashing out. Fandom, especially, tends to operate on a "THE AUTHOR IS DEAD!" level, so to have a creator who is so visibly still kicking, even in texts that are now thirty years old, complicates things a lot.

As you guys say, Joss Whedon as a good example of a creator involved but not too involved with his fans and who doesn't take himself so seriously. I think, as a non-Star Wars person and general young'un, I'm so used to Lucas as he is now—reclusive and reviled by his fanbase—that I was kind of stunned to see his reputation beforehand as brought up both in the documentary and in this episode.

So, not a good example of the documentary form, but, as someone this documentary might be defended as being for, it succeeded in bringing up interesting questions. I came away feeling a lot more thoughtful about Lucas.

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30 Reply by litomnivore

(431 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I'm Clare, a book blogger, college student, aspiring book editor… essentially, I'm a big old book nerd who plans on becoming a librarian if the whole "breaking into the publishing industry" thing doesn't work out. (If you're interested in my bookish ramblings, you can find my blog here! Say hey, I'm pretty good about responding to comments.) I am, shockingly enough, not a cat person.

I found DIF last year, I think; I stumbled across it (something something RiffTrax? Something something RiffTrax comparison, I think), bookmarked it, and then didn't think about it until last month, when I started listening to it, and now it's pretty much playing on my iPod constantly.

I actually don't remember my worst injury; as a really little kid, this huge neighborhood dog bit me in the face. My brother says I was annoying the dog, my mom swears it was unprovoked. I believe my brother more, because I was a really annoying kid. I ended up with a small facial scar that looks like I somehow have a single solitary dimple. Considering the dog could have gone for my eyes, I think I lucked out. Amazingly, I'm not scared of dogs.

Pizza? I'd say margherita generally, but we have this chain called Mellow Mushroom down South that's amazing, and the one closest to me has this mushroom, garlic, and aioli miracle that I dream about.

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