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  • Bladerunner.

    Me and a friend watched it in a cinema on release aged 13. I'm very tall and my friend looked about 40. (Now he's over 50 and looks under 40.) You could get away with it in those days.

    On VCR release, our friend got his dad to buy a copy and we watched it on repeat at every opportunity. I've watched the Final Cut release many times, which I think is even better, and it's one of the very few films I will happily watch at any time.

    The documentary about the making of it is great to watch as well. Watch the film first though. I started reading Dick's books aged about 11 or 12 and was already hooked before the film. I think that prepared me a bit, along with other sci-fi I was reading by then.

    It's still my favourite film.

    • Just watched both bladerunner movies (idk which versions of them) and was rather underwhelmed. The cinematic grand setpieces i can apprechiate and see how they can be captivating for some but the story (or bith of them rather) wasnt very good imo. The worldbuilding is ambitious but the logic behind everything is lacking. Its just not "realistic" enough for me. I get thats sci-fi but for me it feels more like a fantasy movie like idk avatar or harry potter, rather than sci-fi which is supposed to play in our world/universe but with advanced tech. Things like not being able to distinguish replicants (first movie I just didnt buy. And then in the second one there is a gadget that can do just that.

      And also Ryan Gosling played pretty badly (maybe it was the script), no emotions, (almost) no storytelling in his mimic, emotions, in his character at all. He is almost like a wax figure, during watching I multiple times had to pause and complain to my co-watcher about his performance, as it too was unrealistic and too stoic for my taste

      • I feel like I'm the only person I know who really enjoyed the sheer visual masterpiece that was the second movie. Gosling is supposed to under-react here, and that he does well, right until the point that he breaks.

      • To be fair, you have to remember that the story the that the first film was based on was published in 1968. It's basically a form of the "Seinfeld isn't funny" trope. Just about every work of sci-fi, about being able to (or not) tell human from machine has borrowed one thing or another from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or the first Bladerunner film in one way or another. It's basically impossible not to.

        So I wonder if your opinion of it, watching it for the first time in 2024 could be colored by that. If all of those themes have been beaten to death again and again, satirized, parodied, meme-ified, then eventually cycling around to being cool again, then maybe you're noticing all of those things as the tropes/memes they became.

        I would say like half of Rick and Morty episodes are a take on a Philip K. Dick plot point. Had I not read his novels before being exposed to that stuff, I'm sure I would have probably caught more about how poorly written his female characters were, for example. But at the time I was just too blown away by the concepts this dude had come up with that it didn't matter to me.

  • My favorite movie of all time is Lord of the Rings, but most people have already seen that.

    I find that I recommend Warrior a whole lot. It is an awesome movie and most people haven't seen it.

  • The Matrix (1999). The one existential movie for all. Then, it's probably "Serenity" (2005). Then, probably Galaxy Quest (1999).

  • Dead Man directed by Jim Jarmusch.

    I am by no means a Johnny Depp fan but he provides a top tier performance alongside Gary Farmer.

    An acid western buddy movie about death, dying, and belief. Beautiful film with a beautiful score.

    • Just watched this for the first time a month or two ago on the Criterion Collection Blu Ray. Amazing film. Killer soundtrack by Neil Young that is clearly just him riffing while watching the movie.

      If anyone has access to them, I highly recommend the Criterion extra features. Very cool long form interview with Gary Farmer, and the audio bit where Jarmusch answers letters written in by fans (including one from Bill Hader asking him if he can be in one of his films) is just a joy to listen to. I could listen to that man speak about filmmaking for hours and not get bored.

  • Tampopo, by Itami Juso. Fair warning: get ahold of a reservation to the nearest Japanese restaurant, you're going to need it afterwards.

    Also, it's a western. About food. And an initiatic quest, the everlasting quest for perfection (in noodle-soup making).

  • I don't know about favorite of all time, but I recently watched "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and it was incredible. An instant classic in my mind and I'd somehow never heard of it. It's about Ireland in the 1920s and stars Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham (most people will know him as Davos from Game of Thrones). Beautifully shot and acted.

209 comments