Emily’s NEW positivity and being nice to each other thread

[lavendersilk]

I liked the movie. The casting alone was wonderful. Murphy was excellent as was Downey Jr.

Part of me hated the sexualization of Tatlock, a psychiatrist IRL. And I felt including her arc was a little melodramatic (if broadly true). But, if you’re going to objectify women, then at least give us Florence Pugh being objectified. Murphy was also nude for the record.

Em

I didn't know Downey Jr. was in it. Love everything Murphy is in. Pugh too.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My wife want to see Oppenheimer. I'm of two minds. Having read his biography, I expect I'll be disappointed in the movie. Rarely do bio-pics do justice to their subject. Imitation Game is an example of bad portrayals.

It’s excellent. Maybe a little melodramatic and it is really Oppenheimer’s story, not The Manhattan Project. FWIW the guy who wrote the definitive account of The Project (800 pages of Pulitzer-winning academic research) said he thought it relatively true to its main subject.

Em

 

[ElectricBlue]

My wife want to see Oppenheimer. I'm of two minds. Having read his biography, I expect I'll be disappointed in the movie. Rarely do bio-pics do justice to their subject. Imitation Game is an example of bad portrayals.

It's worth it. I've not read the biography, but I know the history of the Manhattan Project and Oppenheimer's loss of clearance pretty well. The movie is accurate on most of that (Nolan used the transcripts of the Oppenheimer clearance hearings). Cillian Murphy is excellent as Oppenheimer.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Oppenheimer. It's about J Robert Oppenheimer and his involvement in the Manhattan Project and building the first atomic bombs.

Haven't seen it. Not yet. I'm waiting on the book. No, just kidding, we have talked about going but haven't.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

I need to watch that, apparently there are a bunch of jokes in Chicken Run that require viewing that movie.

It's a wonderful way to pass three or so hours. Just don't expect a warm and fuzzy ending.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

It's a wonderful way to pass three or so hours. Just don't expect a warm and fuzzy ending.

Just read a short bio on Steve McQueen. Wow, that guy led an amazing life.

 

[Sparky74]

Just read a short bio on Steve McQueen. Wow, that guy led an amazing life.

Yes he did and an amazing actor.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Yes he did and an amazing actor.

But he lacked self confidence in many ways. He always suspected his best friend and his wife of having affairs behind his back. His best buddy was Jim Garner who told him, and later the world, he wouldn't fuck a friends wife and certainly not his wife. McQueen took a sizable advance on salary for all his work and bought clothing to distribute between the kids in foster care in LA county as he grew up in foster care.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

But he lacked self confidence in many ways. He always suspected his best friend and his wife of having affairs behind his back. His best buddy was Jim Garner who told him, and later the world, he wouldn't fuck a friends wife and certainly not his wife. McQueen took a sizable advance on salary for all his work and bought clothing to distribute between the kids in foster care in LA county as he grew up in foster care.

Yeah his childhood was... awful. Probably played a big part in that lack of confidence.

 

[SimonDoom]

My wife want to see Oppenheimer. I'm of two minds. Having read his biography, I expect I'll be disappointed in the movie. Rarely do bio-pics do justice to their subject. Imitation Game is an example of bad portrayals.

I recommend it. Cillian Murphy is excellent, as are Robert Downey, Jr. and Emily Blunt. The movie works by focusing on certain aspects of his life rather than trying to tell the whole story. If you like Christopher Nolan movies I think you will like it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I recommend it. Cillian Murphy is excellent, as are Robert Downey, Jr. and Emily Blunt. The movie works by focusing on certain aspects of his life rather than trying to tell the whole story. If you like Christopher Nolan movies I think you will like it.

I didn’t think it was Blunt at her best. I mean she did what she could, but I have seen better performances from her.

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

Oppenheimer is also a great game of spot the actor. I only recognized Downey from his voice. Same with Oldman (he has a particular take on American accents). I didn’t recognize Florence at first until I saw her profile (and what a lovely profile it is). Hartnett was another.

Em

 

[alohadave]

I didn’t think it was Blunt at her best. I mean she did what she could, but I have seen better performances from her.

Em

There wasn't a whole lot for her to do.

 

[EmilyMiller]

There wasn't a whole lot for her to do.

Nolan is not renowned for his well-drawn female characters. Maybe Carrie Anne Moss in Memento, and… er…

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

Happy Monday:

Em

 

[Bramblethorn]

My wife want to see Oppenheimer. I'm of two minds. Having read his biography, I expect I'll be disappointed in the movie. Rarely do bio-pics do justice to their subject.

There was a lot I liked in it, but for my money it also felt a bit... over-egged? Leaning very heavily on the score and on SFX fantasy-visualisations to tell the audience THIS IS IMPORTANT when the subject matter is already inherently fascinating and didn't need to be sold quite so hard. At some points that got in the way of the dialogue; I couldn't hear the portentous final line between Einstein and Oppenheimer because the soundtrack was up too loud.

It also suffered a bit from "who was this guy again?" syndrome - if you're familiar with the bio that may not be so much of an issue for you, but I wasn't, and with dozens of characters popping up at various points in a non-chronological story it was easy to lose track of some of them. I recall another director talking about how he tried to give every character something visually distinctive to help the audience remember which was which, and a little bit of that wouldn't have gone astray here.

OTOH, I found the countdown to Trinity really gripping, perhaps because Nolan did ease off on fancy devices there and just let the inherent tension of that scenario do the work.

Imitation Game is an example of bad portrayals.

Ugh, yes. And don't get me started on the deliberate mispronunciation of "Euler".

 

[onehitwanda]

There was a lot I liked in it, but for my money it also felt a bit... over-egged? Leaning very heavily on the score and on SFX fantasy-visualisations to tell the audience THIS IS IMPORTANT when the subject matter is already inherently fascinating and didn't need to be sold quite so hard.

I have to confess I haven't seen Oppenheimer.

I've always found documentaries like Trinity and Beyond far more interesting than dramatisations of historical events.

 

[FeralSmile]

Ugh, yes. And don't get me started on the deliberate mispronunciation of "Euler".

Using the (incorrect) Greek pronunciation instead of the German is a very English thing to do though, especially in that context.

 

[onehitwanda]

btw. Nice to a see a page here without animated tits floppy around

https://sadanduseless.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/pisco-the-cat2.jpg

 

[EmilyMiller]

There was a lot I liked in it, but for my money it also felt a bit... over-egged? Leaning very heavily on the score and on SFX fantasy-visualisations to tell the audience THIS IS IMPORTANT when the subject matter is already inherently fascinating and didn't need to be sold quite so hard. At some points that got in the way of the dialogue; I couldn't hear the portentous final line between Einstein and Oppenheimer because the soundtrack was up too loud.

It also suffered a bit from "who was this guy again?" syndrome - if you're familiar with the bio that may not be so much of an issue for you, but I wasn't, and with dozens of characters popping up at various points in a non-chronological story it was easy to lose track of some of them. I recall another director talking about how he tried to give every character something visually distinctive to help the audience remember which was which, and a little bit of that wouldn't have gone astray here.

OTOH, I found the countdown to Trinity really gripping, perhaps because Nolan did ease off on fancy devices there and just let the inherent tension of that scenario do the work.



Ugh, yes. And don't get me started on the deliberate mispronunciation of "Euler".

I think the pace at which Nolan told the story (I heard it described as a conversation-based movie told at action movie pace), plus his trademark intertwining of timelines, plus the cast of characters, would be confusing to someone who doesn’t know the details of the actual events.

Then you get science fan-girls who are delighted with Feynman’s one line and the occasional bongo playing (which I think he might have not been into as early as Los Alamos, but I could be wrong).

Given that no one at Los Alamos recalls Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita post-Trinity, maybe Tatlock did have a sanskrit kink, but otherwise WTF was that about?

Em

 

[FeralSmile]

Given that no one at Los Alamos recalls Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita post-Trinity, maybe Tatlock did have a sanskrit kink, but otherwise WTF was that about?

Em

Wait, that's a common kink, right?

Right?

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha, right? You were all thinking it.

Right?

(waits expectantly)

...

...

 

[Bramblethorn]

I have to confess I haven't seen Oppenheimer.

I've always found documentaries like Trinity and Beyond far more interesting than dramatisations of historical events.

When I was young and foolish*, a girl I knew invited me to come along while she visited a friend of the family. Which is how I ended up making polite conversation with a very old man who had been one of the founders of the Manhattan Project; by then he must have been one of the very last of them.

It wasn't until many years later that I read his bio and really understood how crucial he'd been to the project's inception; without him, quite likely no Trinity, no Hiroshima, no Nagasaki. (Or at least, not in WWII; I'm sure we would've gotten around to atomic bombs sooner or later.)

I still think about that, once in a while. Just sitting there sharing tea and biscuits with death, destroyer of worlds.

*er

 

[lavendersilk]

When I was young and foolish*, a girl I knew invited me to come along while she visited a friend of the family. Which is how I ended up making polite conversation with a very old man who had been one of the founders of the Manhattan Project; by then he must have been one of the very last of them.

It wasn't until many years later that I read his bio and really understood how crucial he'd been to the project's inception; without him, quite likely no Trinity, no Hiroshima, no Nagasaki. (Or at least, not in WWII; I'm sure we would've gotten around to atomic bombs sooner or later.)

I still think about that, once in a while. Just sitting there sharing tea and biscuits with death, destroyer of worlds.

*er

If not us, then them. Wouldn't you think? Sad but true.

 

[SimonDoom]

Leaning very heavily on the score and on SFX fantasy-visualisations to tell the audience THIS IS IMPORTANT when the subject matter is already inherently fascinating and didn't need to be sold quite so hard. At some points that got in the way of the dialogue; I couldn't hear the portentous final line between Einstein and Oppenheimer because the soundtrack was up too loud.

This is very Nolanesque. I thought it was interesting that he chose someone other than Hans Zimmer to compose the score, but the score sounds very Hans Zimmerish. Many "wall of sound" moments.

The Nolanesque treatment of the subject worked for me in this movie, but it probably helped that I'd read histories of the subject matter and was not confused as I might otherwise have been.

 

[EmilyMiller]

When I was young and foolish*, a girl I knew invited me to come along while she visited a friend of the family. Which is how I ended up making polite conversation with a very old man who had been one of the founders of the Manhattan Project; by then he must have been one of the very last of them.

It wasn't until many years later that I read his bio and really understood how crucial he'd been to the project's inception; without him, quite likely no Trinity, no Hiroshima, no Nagasaki. (Or at least, not in WWII; I'm sure we would've gotten around to atomic bombs sooner or later.)

I still think about that, once in a while. Just sitting there sharing tea and biscuits with death, destroyer of worlds.

*er

Actually Oppenheimer, or one of his colleagues? If it’s confidential then of course please don’t say.

Em