I wasn't confused. Villians have accents.

Beirut, Brad Anderson, 2018

This one came and went in the theaters, but it's in a tight, political thriller. It stars Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Shea Whigham, Dean Norris, and Mark Pellegrino. Hamm is a master negotiator who used to work for the US in Beirut in the 70s, and is called back by the CIA to help get back the kidnapped Chief of Station, Pellegrino.

Worth a watch.

I read that the songwriters (Diane Warren being one) said that it's not supposed to be bad, just a fun pop/dance song.

Ha. Fooled again.

The Endless - 7/10 (Highly Enjoyable)

In other words, bad.

If there was a single person who I would most like to erase from existence in order to improve the world of music, it would probably be Diane Warren.

Trivia question: which classic horror actor portrayed the full cycle of all four classic horror monsters (i.e., played Dracula, the mummy, Frankenstein's monster, and the wolfman)?

a star is born does present a debate between rockism and poptimism, with jackson maine's opinions epitomizing rockism, and because bradley cooper also directs the movie it's easy to think that the film itself favors that side. it's also easy to see why posters in this forum favor rockism, as its proponents tend to skew toward an older, straight white male demographic.

however, the titular star of the film is portrayed by lady gaga, an avatar of poptimism who made her career by being a pop provocateur extraordinaire. her presence -- indeed, her ascendance -- in this film is a powerful counterargument against the assumption that ally's pop turn is "bad."

Well put! Her best pop was transcendent in its strangeness but also wildly popular.

Poptimism. Never heard of that before.

There is a debate? There is plenty of artistic value in pop music. How ignorant does someone have to be to debate that?

What does Ally think about Ally's pop album? I have no idea.

[spoiler]She pushes back twice against Gav as he tries to mold her into a popstar. First, she jettisons her backup dancers at the last minute before a small show; he admonishes her and she gets on board with the team dance routines thereafter. Later, he tells her to dye her hair and she says something like "My hair is part of who I am" then shows up with dyed hair later, albeit not the platinum blonde that Gav suggested.

Is this her finding herself and leaning into natural pop tendencies, maybe even breaking away from Jackson's strict rock n'roll puritanism? You could maybe convince me of that, especially in relation to her initial discovery moment: a campy performance in a drag bar. But the movie doesn't really give us any sign that Ally is truly in control or even endorses where her stardom is taking her.[/spoiler]


Haha, I thought it was the exact opposite. It came off to me as a purposefully bad song that Lady Gaga made good because imbuing meaning into songs about dudes with nice asses is basically her whole catalog(I'm a Gaga fan, obviously).

There is plenty of bad pop music and there is plenty of bad rock music. Neither genre has a monopoly on good quality songs.

I find it close-minded to put rock on a pedestal, especially for non-Americans/non-anglo-saxons

Everytime I turn on a modern pop radio station, every song I hear sounds like it's purposefully bad. Sometimes makes me wonder if the whole world is gaslighting me, as I don't understand how anyone can enjoy any of that crap.

Oh, also, your spoiler tags didn't work.

[Spoiler][/spoiler]

They're not spoiler tags, they're spoil tags.

Generally speaking, most of what gets radio play is incredibly superficial. However, I always find it laughable when people talk about how bad today's music is when the only new music they listen to is what they hear on the radio. Of course, there are some good songs that get radio play, but if you're only representation of what music sounds like today is what other people tell you to listen to, then I would argue you don't really know what today's music sounds like.

Pop music is not one of my favorite genres, but there is definitely gold there. I would label Michael Jackson as pop and he made lots of amazing music. Bruno Mars is a good example today.

Please note, I did not say there is no good music being made today. I know there is plenty, both by new artists and legacy artists. But there is no good recent music being played on commercial radio, as far as I can tell.

just finished blackkklansman. what an amazing movie. it has one of the best endings I've ever seen.

Extinction

A Netflix movie. Lizzy Caplan and Micheal Pena have whatever the opposite of chemistry is. The movie starts out terrible but but turns into an average Twilight Zone episode. Not the worst but I wouldn't recommend.

I think that's pretty much it. Movies shouldn't spell out everything for the audience.

Just saw an interview with Gaga and Cooper, and all the singing in the movie was recorded live...no lip-syncing to a track.

Sisters Brothers... Great vivid cinematography, superb art direction, amazing acting (specially by Gyllenhaal) and a real beautiful unconventional way of storytelling.

Don't expect a linear morality tale.

I really want to see that.

I kept waiting for a heavy subtext payoff of the story to show itself because the story elements are very finely detailed, but there really wasn't one I could readily see. It's just a strange story of redemption with the redeeming payoff being not what one would expect.

There are lite comedic moments, but the movie is far from a dark comedy.