Anise (they/she)

If you were only 17 when you watched it and found it immature, you are unlikely to enjoy it this go-around.

Cloud Atlas did much better as a book than a movie. I am genuinely surprised that they tried to adapt it; it was never gojng to be anything but a confusing mess without the benefit of the long-format of a book to guide you. I’m curious why you considered it propaganda. It had an obvious central theme but that is the case for most cinema. It reads as communalist, which is unusual for most modern cinema which takes its cues from out hyper-individualist culture. Perhaps you see it as propaganda because it is so different from “normal” rugged individualist cinema. Do you consider Batman, The Punisher, Man on Fire, and Taken to be similar propaganda for individualist militant violence-as-solution ideas? Because they are. Aren’t American Gangster, Pursuit of Happiness, Wolf of Wallstreet, etc. capitalist propaganda? It’s easy to miss propaganda when it is reinforcing beliefs and values that you already have.

Him and Joss Whedon with the feet…

Directing students to go out into society and experiment on nonconsenting strangers is so gross. It’s very mild in the grand scheme of unethical shit that some scientists have done over the years (ex:Tuskegee Syphilis Study) but still, it is a lazy and thoughtless way to gather data.

Society wasn’t ready for Brokeback Mountain. It was important because of that though.

Oh yeah I’m a sucker for campy SciFi too. I ironically loved it when it came out, but I was much younger; it probably doesn’t hold up as well anymore.

Slackercore at its peak. It is not high cinema, and barely even passable comedy. However, when it came out it was the continuation of the conversation started by Up In Smoke and continued by Beerfest and Knocked Up (all of which are terrible of course). Artisticly, I think the genre and general vibe of these movies is an important counterbalance to the achievements focused infinite-growth buy-new-shiny undercurrents of our culture. The drunk/high/broke/dumb loser protagonists and the shitty low-brow humour are in some ways a refreshing rejection of obligatory grind capitalist culture. They offer an alternative way of existing: a dropout from trying to be the best, a logically hedonistic response to a cold uncaring meaningless universe, a trauma response to an exploitive society that chews people up and spits them out regardless of how hard they toil.

I’m probably over-analyzing these and they were likely just junk that studios pumpednout to make a cheap buck, but regardless of the intent of their inception I think the “art” is worthy of discussing on its own merits, or rather importantly, lack thereof.

To be fair, its kind of a lot. Probably not why they left, but the gratuitous N words in that scene got to me. I acknowledge that it is one of the great iconic movies of our time and when I was an edgy cringey teenager it was one of my favorites, but it is gratuitous in almost every way. I realize that’s the point but it’s hard for me to enjoy now.

Look no further than the world’s militaries for this. They drill drill drill until soldiers react automatically without having to think about how they will react in a hostile situation. Its not enough to learn what to do once if you want a fast response.

Imagine being so afraid of people who have slightly different beliefs from you that you think moving to a dictatorship is a good idea.