Joined: 9 Oct 2021 Age: 56 Gender: Male Posts: 1,106 Location: Northern Nevada, USA
02 Oct 2023, 10:31 am
Double Retired wrote:
This movie is a lot of fun and you would likely enjoy it...IF you pay attention. If you don't pay close attention you probably will think it is an unpleasant, excessively violentgorymess.
Joined: 12 Apr 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 48,692 Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
03 Oct 2023, 9:54 pm
The Veil.
A documentary maker, whose father had been an FBI agent who had committed suicide following a mass cult suicide, convinces the lone survivor of the tragedy, who had been a little girl at the time, to accompany her to the cult compound. The documentarian learns something far more terrible had been happening there. Very good horror flick by Blum House studio.
_________________ -Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
Joined: 12 Nov 2021 Gender: Male Posts: 909 Location: Australia
04 Oct 2023, 8:08 pm
I also recently rewatched Dale and Tucker v Evil. I find it a very funny movie, especially because of the twist of the generic horror movie plot.
I watched The Creator at the movies last week. Set in a dystopian future where AI/robot/androids are in a battle with humans. The west want to eradicate them, the east embrace them. Visually a very striking movie. In regards to the plot line, it’s okay. There are quite a few unanswered questions, but overall I liked it.
A rich, old guy in Washington DC has a visiting maid and he has a live-in gardener ("Chance") for his walled-in garden. The gardener has been there—never leaving the home—since being a small child and has not gone to school, doesn't know how to read or write, has never been in a car, knows nothing about elevators, etc. He is a good gardener but in all other respects is a gentle, helpless, inexperienced fool.
When the old guy dies the gardener must leave the house with no money, no place to go, and no one to help him. He is completely clueless, helpless, and homeless on the streets of DC...walking with no destination in mind.
And then he lucks out, he is slightly injured by a limousine carrying the wife of an unbelievably rich and powerful man. While the gardener is recovering from his minor injury they have him stay in their well-staffed mansion. (They have a resident doctor because the rich man is dying. Supper for just the gardener, rich couple, and doctor—in the mansion's banquet hall—appeared to have about a dozen or so service staff in attendance!)
The gardener is polite and clueless and says and does very little. Which leaves ample space for the rich couple to make assumptions about (not really there) deep and profound meanings in what he is saying.
With enough money and connections you can get a fool on the path to the White House!
The film opened to positive reviews and gave Sellers a hit after many failed films outside of the Pink Panther series. Film critic Roger Ebert awarded a full grade of four out of four stars in his original print review. Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect grade of four stars, calling it "one of those rare films, a work of such electric comedy that you are more likely to watch it in amazement than to break down and laugh." Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "a stately, beautifully acted satire with a premise that's funny but fragile." Variety called it "an unusually fine film" that "represents Peter Sellers' most smashing work since the mid-1960s." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a gentle, exquisitely funny film," adding that "Sellers hasn't been so terrific—or had such terrific material—in years."
Modern viewers may be confused by the various characters--even the doctors--not immediately understanding that Chance is on the autism spectrum. Autism was horribly misunderstood and widely unknown, even among medical professionals, at the time this film was released. It was so taboo, most parents tried to hide their children's autism, resulting in the public not knowing much about it. A shift through the 1990s and 2000s from seeing autism as a taboo mental illness to current views of autism as neurodivergence (simply a different way of being) helped de-stigmatize autism, which allowed those in the ASD community to open up and educate the public.
I'll go as far as conceding the gardener might be Autistic. However, I'm not convinced his deficiencies can't just be attributed to the incredibly cloistered life he'd lead. What do you think?
P.S. I also wonder whether many Autistics could be more successful if they were raised differently.
_________________ When diagnosed I bought champagne! I finally knew why people were strange.
Joined: 9 Oct 2021 Age: 56 Gender: Male Posts: 1,106 Location: Northern Nevada, USA
05 Oct 2023, 11:11 am
Double Retired wrote:
Last night I watched Being There [1979]
"Db's trivia for Being There[/u][/url] includes: "Modern viewers may be confused by the various characters--even the doctors--not immediately understanding that Chance is on the autism spectrum."
I'll go as far as conceding the gardener might be Autistic. However, I'm not convinced his deficiencies can't just be attributed to the incredibly cloistered life he'd lead.
What do you think?
I think assigning Chance to the autism spectrum is a fair bit of head-canon. The supernatural ending to the film throws this diagnosis a bit askew, though, and when I first saw this movie in my early 20s, I thought of Chance as a "messiah" character.
Double Retired wrote:
P.S. I also wonder whether many Autistics could be more successful if they were raised differently.
Thought I try not to dwell too much on that, it's very difficult to resist the temptation to live one's life again in a different way, if only in the imagination. "What if?" is a powerful question.
Joined: 12 Apr 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 48,692 Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
05 Oct 2023, 3:13 pm
Don't Fear.
A group of friends stay over at an isolated lodge, which they later learn had been the site of centuries old witchcraft. Hearing news reports of a new airborne virus, they believe they can't leave the place, when they begin having paranoid delusions and hallucinations of their greatest fears, and then begin turning on each other. First rate horror film, and highly recommended.
_________________ -Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
Joined: 12 Apr 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 48,692 Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
06 Oct 2023, 3:51 am
Shriek Of The Mutilated.
Okay, there are very few good Bigfoot movies. That said, this one sets the bar about as low as it can get! The Yeti (or is it?) in question looks more like a were-sheepdog.
_________________ -Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
Joined: 11 Apr 2013 Gender: Male Posts: 2,205 Location: My House, US
06 Oct 2023, 7:25 am
GadgetGuru wrote:
Double Retired wrote:
Last night I watched Being There [1979]
"Db's trivia for Being There[/u][/url] includes: "Modern viewers may be confused by the various characters--even the doctors--not immediately understanding that Chance is on the autism spectrum."
I'll go as far as conceding the gardener might be Autistic. However, I'm not convinced his deficiencies can't just be attributed to the incredibly cloistered life he'd lead.
What do you think?
I think assigning Chance to the autism spectrum is a fair bit of head-canon. The supernatural ending to the film throws this diagnosis a bit askew, though, and when I first saw this movie in my early 20s, I thought of Chance as a "messiah" character.
Double Retired wrote:
P.S. I also wonder whether many Autistics could be more successful if they were raised differently.
Thought I try not to dwell too much on that, it's very difficult to resist the temptation to live one's life again in a different way, if only in the imagination. "What if?" is a powerful question.
This was one of my favorite films when it was released in 1979. Recently, I was wondering if Chance the Gardener was maybe on the spectrum? I don't think so. He reminded me more of Andy Warhol's persona. Andy would say things and let people and media interpret and build from that. I agree he is presented more of a Messiah character. Also, I'm not certain the spectrum was on the mind of Jerzy Kosinski when he wrote the novel in 1970. I could imagine Hal Ashby basing the character more on Andy Warhol than Autism in 1979. I have zero evidence that he based the character on Andy Warhol. The character just reminds me of clips I've seen of Andy from the sixties.
I was just thinking about watching Being There a couple days ago.
Joined: 12 Apr 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 48,692 Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
06 Oct 2023, 6:08 pm
Exegesis Lovecraft.
First rate documentary on the father of modern horror fiction, H.P. Lovecraft. Examined is his fiction and the bleak philosophy behind it. Also considered - of course - is Lovecraft's indefensible racism, especially as the filmmaker and documentarian is an Indian American who has had his dark night of the soul struggles with that issue, as have other Lovecraft fans of color (and there are more than I would have guessed!). In the end, the narrator concludes that Lovecraft was flawed, as is anyone, but that his fiction is worth preserving.
_________________ -Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
ocean started a brief exchange on 9. It persuaded me to get a copy which we watched last night.
We liked it!
My bride had never heard of the film and I sprung it on her last night. About five minutes into the film my bride asked whether Tim Burton had anything to do with it.
_________________ When diagnosed I bought champagne! I finally knew why people were strange.