Recommend a Movie/Documentary/Show
Ahavati said:1883
Just wow.
I want to expand upon this. I finished episode 6 last night. I had no idea Faith Hill and Tim McGraw were actors? And pretty good ones too.
That being said, it also stars Sam Eliot, Billy Bob Thornton, and even Tom Hanks in a cameo role. The narration by a young Jennifer Lawrence, Isabel May, ( written by the show's creator, Taylor Sheridan ) is pure poetics and gives me goosebumps. Either this man channeled living back then, or he's read so many books on the era that they're infused in his heart.
I remember watching westerns with my father. He loved them. Me? Not so much because I felt they were inauthentic and "Hollywooded" for entertainment purposes. Always painting the Native Americans as the bad guys. This doesn't do that. It's a more realistic approach to relations between settlers and tribes. I'm glad I decided to watch it on a "whim".
Just wow.
I want to expand upon this. I finished episode 6 last night. I had no idea Faith Hill and Tim McGraw were actors? And pretty good ones too.
That being said, it also stars Sam Eliot, Billy Bob Thornton, and even Tom Hanks in a cameo role. The narration by a young Jennifer Lawrence, Isabel May, ( written by the show's creator, Taylor Sheridan ) is pure poetics and gives me goosebumps. Either this man channeled living back then, or he's read so many books on the era that they're infused in his heart.
I remember watching westerns with my father. He loved them. Me? Not so much because I felt they were inauthentic and "Hollywooded" for entertainment purposes. Always painting the Native Americans as the bad guys. This doesn't do that. It's a more realistic approach to relations between settlers and tribes. I'm glad I decided to watch it on a "whim".
I introduced my grandson to 'The Twilight Zone' and he is obsessed. We are halfway through season three. He has forgone all other programming. Who knew? I keep forgetting there's generations out there who haven't seen or even heard of what we once enjoyed. So, anyway, he is the same age as I was when I watched it with my father. Those are times I've never forgotten, and I know he won't either. Sometimes making memories is much more important than what's showing on the T.V., and old reruns are chock-full of memorable experiences: remembered and created.
Netflix: Leave the World Behind, based on the novel by Rumaan Alam
WHY did they even bother making this movie?! More importantly, WHY did Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, and Kevin Bacon agree to star in it? Don't misunderstand me—their acting was superior, especially Robert's character portrayal. But that ending?! Wait? What? Seriously?
Read the book.
WHY did they even bother making this movie?! More importantly, WHY did Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, and Kevin Bacon agree to star in it? Don't misunderstand me—their acting was superior, especially Robert's character portrayal. But that ending?! Wait? What? Seriously?
Read the book.
Netflix's new no.1 movie thriller deserves more than its 40% Rotten Tomatoes score
No. No it doesn't. Next to Dexter, it was the worst ending ever. Ever.
Ahavati said:Netflix: Leave the World Behind, based on the novel by Rumaan Alam
WHY did they even bother making this movie?! More importantly, WHY did Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, and Kevin Bacon agree to star in it? Don't misunderstand me—their acting was superior, especially Robert's character portrayal. But that ending?! Wait? What? Seriously?
Read the book.
No. No it doesn't. Next to Dexter, it was the worst ending ever. Ever.
Ahavati said:Netflix: Leave the World Behind, based on the novel by Rumaan Alam
WHY did they even bother making this movie?! More importantly, WHY did Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, and Kevin Bacon agree to star in it? Don't misunderstand me—their acting was superior, especially Robert's character portrayal. But that ending?! Wait? What? Seriously?
Read the book.
Leave the World Behind 4 Stars out of 5. One of the best films of 2023...a film that destabilizes our idea of art. We are so use to our novels and films having an ending that ties everything in a neat little bundle. Our fairytales have happy endings, the big bad wolf is caught...Clint Eastwood kills the baddy...Poirot discovers who the murderer is. This film leaves you in the air like a Cormac McCarthy novel. We humans need an ending, this is why we invent gods, religions, spiritual paths that "know" all the answers...can give us an "ending". We need to have a meaning to all of...well...all of "this".
But...
“The point is there ain't no point.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
Before I discuss this amazing film...Spoiler Alert.
To begin with, if I watch a film based on the biology of the human body and all of its intricacies, at the end of that film I will say that I did not understand at least 75% of the content. Why? Because I have not read books about the subject, I have not put the effort into the study of the human body as a biologist has put into the subject. If a human body expert tells me that I didn't understand due to the fact that I haven't studied the subject enough they would be absolutely correct...is that an insult to me? No! It is a simple fact...it is NOT a personal insult...unless I'm emotionally thin skinned, which, thankfully I am not.
"The strange thing about the collapse of civilizations is that almost no one ever really sees it coming, or at least no one sees it soon enough. By the time the collapse of a society becomes a readily apparent and inescapable fact, it is already well past the point where anything can be done. Hope frequently gets in the way of a clear and precise apprehension of the looming ruination. Delusion and denial are often present. Wishful thinking, even.
"The Age of Nihilism (An Inquiry into the Death of Western Democracy or, the Consequences of Philosophy) by Curtis R. McManus. Friesen Press 2018.
Where can one start with incredible film? The acting was of the highest order, not a bad performance in the entire film. The story is complex to say the least and open to many interpretations, it's like watching Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey for the first time. In the case of 2001 in order to dig into the depths of the film you would have to have read a lot of Nietzsche's books, in particular Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which Friedrich wrote between 1883-1885. With out having read this text you would be left wondering, "What the fuck is that embryo at the end of the film?
Leave the World Behind is one of those films, like a Christopher Nolan film, that requires the viewer to bring a lot of knowledge to the screen, which means a lot of hard work on your part, particularly if you want to grasp the phenomenal ending to the film.
The warning of our overuse of technology is quite evident in the film right from the very beginning. It follows on from the likes of Martin Heidegger, not that it is all bad, but we can quite easily let it control our lives. In 2001 Kubrick gives us the same warning:
"Open the pod-bay door Hal. I can't do that Dave."
Who is America's enemy? We don't know. But as Kevin Bacon's character points out, it could be anyone, as we now have so many. Cultural hegemonism is a very powerful enemy...a Coca-Cola sign in a third world country can easily give birth to hatred. Young 12 year old boys and girls digging cobalt out of the Democratic Republic of Congo so that we can all run our Apple phones can also give rise to hatred and resentment. So the enemy is everywhere and nowhere.
I think that Julia Roberts character is the key to so much of the film, and she is very good. Her role as a high-flying Advertising guru is very important to the nihilistic undertones of the film. She states on several occasions that she detests human beings, actually hates them. Her job has turned her into a very dark misanthrope. She sees how easy it is to turn human beings into pathetic little consumers, or as Nietzsche called them, "The Last Man/Woman". Or as Herbet Marcuse wrote in his profound 1964 book, One Dimensional Man:
“We may distinguish both true and false needs. “False” are those which are superimposed upon the individual by particular social interests in his repression: the needs which perpetuate toil, aggressiveness, misery, and injustice. Their satisfaction might be most gratifying to the individual, but this happiness is not a condition which has to be maintained and protected if it serves to arrest the development of the ability (his own and others) to recognize the disease of the whole and grasp the chances of curing the disease. The result then is euphoria in unhappiness. Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs.”
The deer and the flamingos. I must admit that I loved the use of these beautiful and peaceful creatures in the film. The deer are there in numbers, menacing and pitiless...we humans are soon leaving this beautiful planet which in all of human history we have contributed absolutely zilch to the welfare of the eco system. The flamingos turn a human luxury item, a swimming pool, into a pond. Just a brilliant part of the film. It plunges you into the whole falseness of so much of our so-called environmental movement. We hate fossil fuels like coal and oil...but less than 30% of the world's population, many of the "greenies", are quite happy to fly off on a jetliner for their once-a-year escape holiday from their boring little existences. In Existential philosophy that is called "bad faith", more commonly known as hypocrisy. We could add this to the underlying misanthropy of the entire film. Brilliant!
We could go on, the film has so much and much more.
The ending. "Friends".
This is what makes the film truly great. Add the fact that Mathew Perry passed away only recently was sadly, perfect timing for the film's release. The television series was one of the most popular comedy series in the history of television. It ran from 1994-2004 and was watched all over the world; I watched it. And as the young woman says in the film, it was a show that was about something that wasn't real. It was so "unreal" that it never really touched on anything that was in the real world...wars, poverty. 9/11, politics...it was a pure fantasy world, it was heaven in the small screen. It was a place we could escape to at the end of an ordinary human day...after the horrors of the 6 0'clock evening news and a couple of stiff drinks.
When Perry sadly drowned the internet went into overdrive, the world was heavy into mourning. But they weren't mourning for Perry, after all, like most celebrities, most of us didn't even know the guy, only what we'd read in tabloid magazines. No. The world of "Friends" were mourning the death of Chandler Bing...Chandler Bing was dead.
The use of Friends in the film, in particular the ending points directly at the heart of the human condition. It points to the concept known as "hyper-reality". Hyper-reality: an image or simulation, or an aggregate of images and simulations, that either distorts the reality it purports to depict or does not in fact depict anything with a real existence at all, but which nonetheless comes to constitute reality.
I have watched the film twice and I will watch it again soon.
To finish, a quote from the great Guy Debord's book, "The Society of the Spectacle" (1967).
"The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. It's sole message is: "What appears is good; what is good appears." The passive acceptance it demands is already effectively imposed by its monopoly of appearances, its manner of appearing without any reply."
Cheers...Harry
But...
“The point is there ain't no point.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
Before I discuss this amazing film...Spoiler Alert.
To begin with, if I watch a film based on the biology of the human body and all of its intricacies, at the end of that film I will say that I did not understand at least 75% of the content. Why? Because I have not read books about the subject, I have not put the effort into the study of the human body as a biologist has put into the subject. If a human body expert tells me that I didn't understand due to the fact that I haven't studied the subject enough they would be absolutely correct...is that an insult to me? No! It is a simple fact...it is NOT a personal insult...unless I'm emotionally thin skinned, which, thankfully I am not.
"The strange thing about the collapse of civilizations is that almost no one ever really sees it coming, or at least no one sees it soon enough. By the time the collapse of a society becomes a readily apparent and inescapable fact, it is already well past the point where anything can be done. Hope frequently gets in the way of a clear and precise apprehension of the looming ruination. Delusion and denial are often present. Wishful thinking, even.
"The Age of Nihilism (An Inquiry into the Death of Western Democracy or, the Consequences of Philosophy) by Curtis R. McManus. Friesen Press 2018.
Where can one start with incredible film? The acting was of the highest order, not a bad performance in the entire film. The story is complex to say the least and open to many interpretations, it's like watching Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey for the first time. In the case of 2001 in order to dig into the depths of the film you would have to have read a lot of Nietzsche's books, in particular Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which Friedrich wrote between 1883-1885. With out having read this text you would be left wondering, "What the fuck is that embryo at the end of the film?
Leave the World Behind is one of those films, like a Christopher Nolan film, that requires the viewer to bring a lot of knowledge to the screen, which means a lot of hard work on your part, particularly if you want to grasp the phenomenal ending to the film.
The warning of our overuse of technology is quite evident in the film right from the very beginning. It follows on from the likes of Martin Heidegger, not that it is all bad, but we can quite easily let it control our lives. In 2001 Kubrick gives us the same warning:
"Open the pod-bay door Hal. I can't do that Dave."
Who is America's enemy? We don't know. But as Kevin Bacon's character points out, it could be anyone, as we now have so many. Cultural hegemonism is a very powerful enemy...a Coca-Cola sign in a third world country can easily give birth to hatred. Young 12 year old boys and girls digging cobalt out of the Democratic Republic of Congo so that we can all run our Apple phones can also give rise to hatred and resentment. So the enemy is everywhere and nowhere.
I think that Julia Roberts character is the key to so much of the film, and she is very good. Her role as a high-flying Advertising guru is very important to the nihilistic undertones of the film. She states on several occasions that she detests human beings, actually hates them. Her job has turned her into a very dark misanthrope. She sees how easy it is to turn human beings into pathetic little consumers, or as Nietzsche called them, "The Last Man/Woman". Or as Herbet Marcuse wrote in his profound 1964 book, One Dimensional Man:
“We may distinguish both true and false needs. “False” are those which are superimposed upon the individual by particular social interests in his repression: the needs which perpetuate toil, aggressiveness, misery, and injustice. Their satisfaction might be most gratifying to the individual, but this happiness is not a condition which has to be maintained and protected if it serves to arrest the development of the ability (his own and others) to recognize the disease of the whole and grasp the chances of curing the disease. The result then is euphoria in unhappiness. Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs.”
The deer and the flamingos. I must admit that I loved the use of these beautiful and peaceful creatures in the film. The deer are there in numbers, menacing and pitiless...we humans are soon leaving this beautiful planet which in all of human history we have contributed absolutely zilch to the welfare of the eco system. The flamingos turn a human luxury item, a swimming pool, into a pond. Just a brilliant part of the film. It plunges you into the whole falseness of so much of our so-called environmental movement. We hate fossil fuels like coal and oil...but less than 30% of the world's population, many of the "greenies", are quite happy to fly off on a jetliner for their once-a-year escape holiday from their boring little existences. In Existential philosophy that is called "bad faith", more commonly known as hypocrisy. We could add this to the underlying misanthropy of the entire film. Brilliant!
We could go on, the film has so much and much more.
The ending. "Friends".
This is what makes the film truly great. Add the fact that Mathew Perry passed away only recently was sadly, perfect timing for the film's release. The television series was one of the most popular comedy series in the history of television. It ran from 1994-2004 and was watched all over the world; I watched it. And as the young woman says in the film, it was a show that was about something that wasn't real. It was so "unreal" that it never really touched on anything that was in the real world...wars, poverty. 9/11, politics...it was a pure fantasy world, it was heaven in the small screen. It was a place we could escape to at the end of an ordinary human day...after the horrors of the 6 0'clock evening news and a couple of stiff drinks.
When Perry sadly drowned the internet went into overdrive, the world was heavy into mourning. But they weren't mourning for Perry, after all, like most celebrities, most of us didn't even know the guy, only what we'd read in tabloid magazines. No. The world of "Friends" were mourning the death of Chandler Bing...Chandler Bing was dead.
The use of Friends in the film, in particular the ending points directly at the heart of the human condition. It points to the concept known as "hyper-reality". Hyper-reality: an image or simulation, or an aggregate of images and simulations, that either distorts the reality it purports to depict or does not in fact depict anything with a real existence at all, but which nonetheless comes to constitute reality.
I have watched the film twice and I will watch it again soon.
To finish, a quote from the great Guy Debord's book, "The Society of the Spectacle" (1967).
"The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. It's sole message is: "What appears is good; what is good appears." The passive acceptance it demands is already effectively imposed by its monopoly of appearances, its manner of appearing without any reply."
Cheers...Harry
Hahahaha! Good on you, Harry! I've enjoyed plenty of movies that were disliked by critics and viewers alike! I'm an ending snob. That goes for poetry as well as books and films. And it doesn't have to be a happy, fairytale ending. Some of the best endings were when the protagonist lost their life. As sad and disappointing as it was, it was at least an ending.
Our fairytales have happy endings, the big bad wolf is caught...Clint Eastwood kills the baddy...Poirot discovers who the murderer is. This film leaves you in the air like a Cormac McCarthy novel. We humans need an ending, this is why we invent gods, religions, spiritual paths that "know" all the answers...can give us an "ending". We need to have a meaning to all of...well...all of "this".
But...
McCarthy is an amazing writer, but in the film adaptation of "The Road" the ending is anything but fairytale because the father, played by Viggo Mortensen, succumbs to what I believe is tuberculosis. We know the boy finds a family who adopts him; however, you don't know what becomes of the boy or the world. There are hints throughout the film that he grows up to become a saviour because of his kindness, but we don't know for sure. I rather enjoy some open endings because it allows the reader/viewer to personally interpret the overall direction and thus ending.
And while the acting in Leave the World Behind was superior ( as previously mentioned ), the ending flat out sucked for me. I read an article this morning that echoed my sentiments to a tee by viewers, who also loved the acting but rated it 37%, even lower than Rotten Tomatoes! That doesn't mean many out there won't enjoy it, such as yourself!
Our fairytales have happy endings, the big bad wolf is caught...Clint Eastwood kills the baddy...Poirot discovers who the murderer is. This film leaves you in the air like a Cormac McCarthy novel. We humans need an ending, this is why we invent gods, religions, spiritual paths that "know" all the answers...can give us an "ending". We need to have a meaning to all of...well...all of "this".
But...
McCarthy is an amazing writer, but in the film adaptation of "The Road" the ending is anything but fairytale because the father, played by Viggo Mortensen, succumbs to what I believe is tuberculosis. We know the boy finds a family who adopts him; however, you don't know what becomes of the boy or the world. There are hints throughout the film that he grows up to become a saviour because of his kindness, but we don't know for sure. I rather enjoy some open endings because it allows the reader/viewer to personally interpret the overall direction and thus ending.
And while the acting in Leave the World Behind was superior ( as previously mentioned ), the ending flat out sucked for me. I read an article this morning that echoed my sentiments to a tee by viewers, who also loved the acting but rated it 37%, even lower than Rotten Tomatoes! That doesn't mean many out there won't enjoy it, such as yourself!
I agree with Harry, I heard much negativity about the movie, but was favorably impressed, especially by the growth in Julia Robert’s character. I enjoy foreign films, which often end suddenly leaving questions unanswered. I find it stimulating.
When Ethan Hawke says he’s basically helpless due to reliance on technology it reminded me of a study I read about grade school children who could not make the connection between the chicken they eat with the animal it came from.
The final scene left me with mixed feelings of hope and dread.
When Ethan Hawke says he’s basically helpless due to reliance on technology it reminded me of a study I read about grade school children who could not make the connection between the chicken they eat with the animal it came from.
The final scene left me with mixed feelings of hope and dread.
Hello A...yest The Road is my favorite novel, it did win both the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. They had to tone the film down for sure, I mean, the world wasn't ready for the cannibalism, cooking and eating a new born baby, I think Viggo, who is my favorite actor by the way, would have said, not yet. The ending has most people confused, my wife included until I explained to her that the young girl had to see the ending of this iconic television program, a TV show about a pure fantasy world. The last episode is very important...the last episode was set in stone, it couldn't change...it was the fate of "Friends"...there is no alternative ending...she turns it on...end movie...leave the world behind.
Something that has similarities in regards to the fatalism of this film is Fitzgeralds, Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The characters in the story cling to conformity and tradition, but Benjamin is there as a reminder that unexpected things happen which one cannot control. While Benjamin cannot force people to understand or accept him, those very same people have no choice but to accept the reality of the changing world around them.
The ancient Stoics were fatalistic in a cosmic sense, as am I, in each moment I have a choice to be made, once I make and act on that choice...my fate is sealed...and as Stoic philosophers like Seneca were quick to point out, it is how you deal with your fate that either leaves you in a state of ataraxia, or in a state of frustration and suffering, wishing things were different, wishing you could change the past, of course you cannot. That's why mindfulness is the most important aspect of the Buddha's message, karma is what each of us creates with each passing moment, and in each moment choices must be made...when crossing a busy street you either look both ways before crossing, or you choose not to...karma is neither negative or positive...karma is always neutral, it is the fruit that grows from your choices that is either good or bad. Of course you can always look both ways before crossing a busy street, I do...but I can never stop someone from running a red light and killing me...my wife...my child...so yes, I can control some of my fate...but much of it, as the Stoic Philosophers rightly pointed out, is beyond my control...such is life.
As a Fatalist nothing upsets me and I have only one fear...I fear that I am fated to outlive my wife...you see I am also a greedy son of a bitch, I want her to suffer not me LOL.
I am currently reading one of my favorite living philosophers new book, John Gray; his new book is titled, The New Leviathans, it based on the 17th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes' book, The Leviathan.
"Humans do not desire good; the good is whatever they desire." John Gray.
Well my friend it has been a wonderful discussion, thank you for your reply.
Cheers and Happy Christmas A.
Harry
Something that has similarities in regards to the fatalism of this film is Fitzgeralds, Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The characters in the story cling to conformity and tradition, but Benjamin is there as a reminder that unexpected things happen which one cannot control. While Benjamin cannot force people to understand or accept him, those very same people have no choice but to accept the reality of the changing world around them.
The ancient Stoics were fatalistic in a cosmic sense, as am I, in each moment I have a choice to be made, once I make and act on that choice...my fate is sealed...and as Stoic philosophers like Seneca were quick to point out, it is how you deal with your fate that either leaves you in a state of ataraxia, or in a state of frustration and suffering, wishing things were different, wishing you could change the past, of course you cannot. That's why mindfulness is the most important aspect of the Buddha's message, karma is what each of us creates with each passing moment, and in each moment choices must be made...when crossing a busy street you either look both ways before crossing, or you choose not to...karma is neither negative or positive...karma is always neutral, it is the fruit that grows from your choices that is either good or bad. Of course you can always look both ways before crossing a busy street, I do...but I can never stop someone from running a red light and killing me...my wife...my child...so yes, I can control some of my fate...but much of it, as the Stoic Philosophers rightly pointed out, is beyond my control...such is life.
As a Fatalist nothing upsets me and I have only one fear...I fear that I am fated to outlive my wife...you see I am also a greedy son of a bitch, I want her to suffer not me LOL.
I am currently reading one of my favorite living philosophers new book, John Gray; his new book is titled, The New Leviathans, it based on the 17th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes' book, The Leviathan.
"Humans do not desire good; the good is whatever they desire." John Gray.
Well my friend it has been a wonderful discussion, thank you for your reply.
Cheers and Happy Christmas A.
Harry
