At The Movies

Fourth Monday Movie Day: Oscars Edition

125 Comments

Coming on Sunday. Who do you like?

Best picture
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape Of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Directing
Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread)
Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape Of Water)

Actress in a leading role
Sally Hawkins (The Shape Of Water)
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)
Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)
Meryl Streep (The Post)

Actor in a leading role
Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name)
Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread)
Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)
Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)
Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.)

Writing (original screenplay)
Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Screenplay by Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor; story by Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape Of Water)
Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Writing (adapted screenplay)
James Ivory (Call Me By Your Name)
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (The Disaster Artist)
Screenplay by Scott Frank, James Mangold and Michael Green; story by James Mangold (Logan)
Aaron Sorkin (Molly's Game)
Screenplay by Virgil Williams and Dee Rees (Mudbound)

Animated feature film
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

Music (original song)
"Mighty River" by Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson (Mudbound)
"Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens (Call Me By Your Name)
"Remember Me" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Coco)
"Stand Up for Something" by Diane Warren and Lonnie R. Lynn (aka Common) (Marshall)
"This is Me" by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (The Greatest Showman)

Documentary (feature)
Abacus: Small Enough To Jail
Faces Places
Icarus
Last Men In Aleppo
Strong Island

Documentary (short subject)
Edith + Eddie
Heaven Is A Traffic Jam On The 405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop

Foreign language film
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
The Insult (Lebanon)
Loveless (Russia)
On Body And Soul (Hungary)
The Square (Sweden)

Actor in a supporting role
Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project)
Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Richard Jenkins (The Shape Of Water)
Christopher Plummer (All The Money In The World)
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Actress in a supporting role
Mary J. Blige (Mudbound)
Allison Janney (I, Tonya)
Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread)
Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)
Octavia Spencer (The Shape Of Water)

Makeup and hairstyling
Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick (Darkest Hour)
Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard (Victoria & Abdul)
Arjen Tuiten (Wonder)

Film editing
Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos (Baby Driver)
Lee Smith (Dunkirk)
Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya)
Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape Of Water)
Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Visual effects
John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover (Blade Runner 2049)
Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner and Dan Sudick (Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2)
Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza and Mike Meinardus (Kong: Skull Island)
Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon and Joel Whist (War For The Planet Of The Apes)

Music (original score)
Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk)
Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread)
Alexandre Desplat (The Shape Of Water)
John Williams (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Carter Burwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Short film (live action)
DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O'Clock
My Nephew Emmett
The Silent Child
Watu Wote/All Of Us

Short film (animated)
Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Lou
Negative Space
Revolting Rhymes

Sound mixing
Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin and Mary H. Ellis (Baby Driver)
Ron Bartless, Doug Hemphill and Mac Ruth (Blade Runner 2049)
Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker and Gary A. Rizzo (Dunkirk)
Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern and Glen Gauthier (The Shape Of Water)
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)

Sound editing
Julian Slater (Baby Driver)
Mark Mangini and Theo Green (Blade Runner 2049)
Richard King and Alex Gibson (Dunkirk)
Nathan Robitaille and Nelson Ferreira (The Shape Of Water)
Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)

Costume design
Jacqueline Durran (Beauty And The Beast)
Jacqueline Durran (Darkest Hour)
Mark Bridges (Phantom Thread)
Luis Sequeira (The Shape Of Water)
Consolata Boyle (Victoria & Abdul)

Cinematography
Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049)
Bruno Delbonnel (Darkest Hour)
Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk)
Rachel Morrison (Mudbound)
Dan Lausten (The Shape Of Water)

Production design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer (Beauty And The Beast)
Dennis Gassner and Alessandra Querzola (Blade Runner 2049)
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer (Darkest Hour)
Nathan Crowley and Gary Fettis (Dunkirk)
Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin (The Shape Of Water)

125 thoughts on “Fourth Monday Movie Day: Oscars Edition”

  1. I actually saw The Shape of Water, and while it wasn't my favorite movie to come out in 2017, it IS the only one I saw that was nominated for best picture. It was good. I hope Richard Jenkins will 's for supporting actor.

    Black Panther is great. Top 3 Marvel, with definitely my favorite villain (and the intro that villain gets is up there with Dark Knight's Joker). I'll want to watch this again.

    Battle of the Sexes. Tennis movie with Emma Stone and Steve Carrell. Carrell is pretty much spot on, but Stone is merely okay. Plus, the movie grinds to a complete halt every time her love interest shows up (and the actress plays that love interest pretty lifeless, which is unfortunate, because the movie spends a lot of time with this couple). The tennis looks nice, at least.

    The new jumanji movie was more fun than I guess I would've expected. Dwayne Johnson is a delight, as usual, and this is probably the first time I've tolerated Kevin Hart in a movie.

    1. I am looking forward to Grinding Nemo coming out on Blu-ray as I really want to watch it.

      Jumanji was definitely way better than it had any right to be. Did you ever see Central Intelligence? I'm not a huge Hart fan but I thought he was fun in that, and it's probably the Rock's most charming role yet.

    3. We saw Loving Vincent at the local publicly-funded-artist-film-venue. Very cool, each frame of the film was painted - most of them based on actual Van Gogh paintings. Was real good. And ended with Don McLean's Starry, Starry Night.

  2. The only best picture nominee I've seen is Get Out and it was far and away the best film I saw all year.

  3. The only Best Picture films I've seen are Get Out, Lady Bird, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I'll be thrilled if either of the first two win. I watched Three Billboards on my flight home a couple weeks back and dear god did I loathe it.

    I really want to see The Shape of Water, Phantom Thread, and Call Me By Your Name. Not a lot of interest in the others. Mayyyyyybe Dunkirk.

    1. I find the divergent opinions on Three Billboards interesting.

      I really liked it. Uncomfortable, lots of what I thought was effective, black humor. Weird.

      loved Lady Bird. loved The Post. The Mrs saw and really liked The Shape of Water. Have not seen the rest.

    2. I just read the plot synopsis of Billboards. Not what I guessed from the title at all. (There weren't enough ads for already-released movies during the Olympics.)
      Wondering if Lady Bird is about Johnson's wife or the beetle...

          1. I expect them any day now.

            'Spoiler' SelectShow

  5. Caught up with The Good Place

    Actual Spoiler SelectShow

    1. I haven't caught up yet. I'm about halfway through season two, though, and I think Michael Schur has earned a lifetime pass from me for shows that I will "give a shot" no matter what. (even though I hated The Office.)

        1. *snrk*

          In fairness, Linds maintains, and I've come around to the idea that The Office deserves to be thought of right around Modern Family (though, in my opinion it's at least a solid tier above). A few great seasons, a decent one or two, and ridiculously diminishing returns thereafter. The later seasons of that show were brutal. The second half of the last one somewhat saved it.

          Parks and Rec is clearly a far superior show.

          1. I think I'd take Office's peak? Parks & Rec is most definitely the better show to watch in totem, though seasons 2-4 or so of The Office still strike me as Schur's masterstroke.

            Though, The Good Place is creeping up there.

            1. The peaks of the two shows (Office and Parks & Rec) are definitely the highest of any televised comedy I've seen (the Good Place is definitely creeping up there - that show surprises me AND gives me a good belly laugh nearly every episode). I still give the edge to Parks & Rec, though.

              1. First off, I've spent way to much time thinking about this in my life.

                Second, the absolute best televised comedy is still Arrested Development.

                Third, IMO, Season 3 of The Office, ending with him popping in during her interview in that last episode... that's probably the absolute highest peak of any televised comedy show. The Office was fun before and after that, but that was something completely special. But so much of its greatness rests on that precise, brilliant execution. Take that moment away, and it's clearly behind Parks and Rec overall, which had more consistent strength throughout.

                    1. I think we've discussed this before, but the third season became stretched real thin in my mind, starting with that Rita nonsense.

                      I never got around to 4, actually. From what I heard, didn't sound like I was missing much.

                    3. Season 4 is fine. I'd argue that it would feel like the exact same show if they had edited it the same way they did the first three seasons. Instead, each episode focused on one or two storylines so they could avoid paying exorbitant per-episode appearance fees to the actors.

        2. I mean, I'm not telling anyone that its a terrible show and they shouldn't watch it, and I'm the first to admit I only watched three episodes. I just really disliked it and couldn't see myself changing my mind. I only have so many hours in the day, you know? I didn't let it stop me from watching and loving Parks and Rec and The Good Place, or anything like that. My delay there was no longer having any kind of DVR technology.

          1. And as stated before, most everyone disliked the first season, myself included. If you like the writing and complex relationships in Schur's other shows, you'd like the same things about this one. There's really no question at all.

            1. I did, and it was a slog. But, it didn't have any actors I have an irrational dislike for that I couldn't get past like I have in The Office with a certain person I won't mention because it seems to start arguments.

          3. I also will not be watching The Office, but for different reasons: it's just too late and there are too many. There's a few shows in this vein for me . Though I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy them, I have enough trouble as it is keeping up with the shows I'm trying to keep up with now. Shows like The Office (Mad Men also comes to mind, and several others) just seem like too big of commitments when I'm currently not wanting for new programming.

            2. Oh yeah. When checking out a show, I'm like "It was cancelled after one season? Great!"
              or "It was a number-one hit that was widely praised for its entire 14-season run? No Way."

              I only watched Parks & Rec because EAR started streaming them after I'd watched parts of the first two seasons via antenna back in the day. When we got to the end, she realized she just jumped into the middle of season 2. I thought that she had watched them with me then, but she said no. We tried re-watching them but it didn't take.

              I don't know if I ever watched season 1 of the Office.

    2. We started watching that on Sunday. I think Netflix only has the first season so we should be caught up through that soon.

      1. I switched over to (the really terrible) NBC Roku app to watch season 2. I did sign in with a cable provider though, so I don't know if you can watch over-the-air shows without one or not.

        1. Looks like it's available on Hulu but only the last five episodes. That's fine though, we buy all of our TV shows via Amazon and watch it that way. No commercials and a decent Roku app.

          1. Yeah... The first season was all up on Hulu, so I assumed the same would happen on season 2.
            But no, so I'm going to have to wait until the entire thing's on NetFlix.
            I really hate that 5-episode thing for cord-cutters. Because how am I supposed to remember that a show's starting again?
            I can see that it makes sense for broadcast watchers that miss an episode though.

        2. NBC Roku app... do I have to give them money or something for that? Or just watch commercials?
          EAR watches some things through a PBS Roku app that doesn't appear to have fast-forwarding or rewinding available.

          1. I don't know what is available if you don't have a login. I login with my dad's cable account and that gets me all their shows, albeit with plenty of commercials.

  6. Haven't seen any of the nominees.

    Watched Black Panther last week and enjoyed it a lot. Caught Frost/Nixon last night; always appreciate the Marc McClure or Clint Howard appearances.

    Season one of Star Trek: Discovery ended and it didn't suck. Still not sure what to think yet.

    Counterpart on Starz has been on a roll, and JK Simmons is eating up the dual roles. Great cold-warish espionage with a Fringe premise.

  7. The Movie Grammys seems as relevant to what I care about as the Music Grammys, so I’m not invested. Plus, I haven’t been to a cinema in over two years. (Hail, Caesar! was our last in-theatre movie.)

    I finished watching Amazon’s Patriot last week. What a sad, dark, absolutely hilarious show. The premise* is delightful. I’m looking forward to the next season, whenever that’s released.

    '* Minimal Spoilers' SelectShow

    Last night I started the second season of The Expanse. It took me a few minutes to reorient myself, as it took forever for SyFy to hand it off to Amazon for streaming. Looking forward to catching up so I can fall behind again when the next season starts airing in April.

    I see Battlestar Galactica recently arrived on Amazon, too. I should probably take the opportunity to rewatch some favorite episodes.

  8. I needed some laundry viewing yesterday, so I watched The Life Aquatic again. While I like it, I still am not sure if it's actually a good movie or not.

      1. Yeah, I've expressed my belief before that Wes Anderson is best when his style is directed at younger and more innocent viewers. His cynicism can really spike the end of his more-adult movies. (If I want that feeling, I can watch a Werner Herzog documentary.)
        Fantastic Mr. Fox is a favorite, and I thought Moonrise Kingdom was pretty good.
        I see he has a new animated feature coming, The Isle of Dogs. PG-13 so... maybe?

  10. It's increasingly easier to forget about Movie Day as I continue to see almost no movies, which I really want to change, but I have such a hard time fitting them into the schedule anywhere.

    I did get a bunch of movie tickets today that are good for a year, so I've been surfing the coming attractions to see what catches my eye.

    As usual, it's way too early for me to have seen any noms, as I'm typically stuck well in the past. I have Moonlight at home right now and have to watch it in pieces because it's so damned heavy compared to the other forms of entertainment I've been giving my time to. If anyone wants me to comment on the 15-20 hours of pro wrestling I watch per week, just say the word!

  12. +1, Spooky, though I'm starting to get back in the movie groove.

    Of the past two rounds of best picture nominees, I've seen La La Land (I loved it, sorry) and Hidden Figures (it was a good movie to watch, especially with my three daughters). That's it.

    We watched The Big Sick this weekend. We actually started The Nice Guys and a minute into it, when the car crashes, we both looked at each other and said "we've seen this before!" Anyway, The Big Sick is great and you should watch it.

    My eldest was on a mission to watch all of the Marvel movie universe movies, in part because of her crush on Tom Holland. I was never a giant fan of the movies, but who am I to turn down spending hours and hours watching action movies with my daughter? So this winter we went back and watched them all in some sort of intentional order. Last week we finally got caught up, streaming Thor: Ragnarok (fun!) and then going to Black Panther in the theater. It was her first theater Marvel movie and she wanted to go right back in and watch it again. It was quite a movie!

    So that's it. I've been getting back into watching movies. But watching Marvel movies has taken my time from "serious" films. (Also, having a wife who mostly only wants to watch light comedies or occasional action movies makes it challenging.) [Also, there is so much good TV.]

    Oh, I recently did one more big upgrade to our family room home theater. It really does need to end here for about 5 years. Anyway, that gives me a great reason to watch a movie!

    1. I do, of course, have to ask about the upgrade. Projector? Kaleidoscape? Audio?

      Our situations with the wives are similar. The Milkmaid won't do horror or even action, for the most part. My chances to see darker fare are relegated to the late hours.

      1. I do, of course, have to ask about the upgrade. Projector? Kaleidoscape? Audio?

        Heh. I figured you'd ask. 🙂

        A couple years ago I went from a 1999 Kenwood dolby digital 5.1 system and 50" Panasonic plasma to Atmos 5.1.2 (with upfiring atmos) and a BenQ projector with 92" screen (as big as would fit in this space, unfortunately). Turned out going to HD audio was a bigger upgrade than I realized it would be so eventually I wanted to push it a bit further. This time I did one more jump to Atmos 7.2.4 (with ceiling speakers) and a JVC fauxK projector. It's an upgrade nearly as significant as the initial upgrade to HD audio and projector. I don't think any other major equipment upgrades are going to hit this hard for quite a few years.

        (You'll probably ask about speakers. Still rocking 5 channels of the ol' MB Quart QLC speakers that stopped being produced in the early 90s. Temporary rando Pioneer Andrew Jones bookshelf speakers for surround 6 & 7. Ceilings are KEF Ci160qr. I replaced an old Sony sub with 2 SVS subs. If I'm being honest even though I said I don't need an upgrade…I could see myself looking at moving the base layer to KEF speakers at some point. I believe my center channel is the weak point right now. Going to make myself listen to this system for a year before digging into that, though.)

          1. Absolutely. I can't remember the last time I had a bachelor weekend, because that would be perfect for doing a Blade Runner + Blade Runner 2049 double feature. I hear they are referencey discs. I don't remember loving Blade Runner, but I still want to sit down and rewatch it as well as wanting to see the new one.

            1. In anticipation of seeing 2049 in the theater (which didn't happen), I went out and purchased the Director's Cut of the original ... which I hadn't seen all of in probably 15 years. Wow.
              My basement set-up is a mix of components for which I don't know the specs (I appreciate a good system, but am not a connoisseur). It works, though our house is so old that if I play anything too loud, you can hear/feel it on the 2nd floor ... which can wake kids up ... because I can only watch my movies or 'swearing' music after bedtime or in an empty house. Interwebz images suggest these are what I have (I know the brands, just not the models).
              60" LG Plasma T.V. (circa 2006)
              Infinity Primus floor standing ('04)*
              Yamaha home theater receiver (not sure of the make/model, but probably an old HTR 5740)*
              Yamaha center, side and back (NS-AP1500C, NS-AP1500S) Speakers *
              Yamaha YST-SW010 subwoofer*

              *all purchased together with "my" share of money received when we married, plus added funding of my own.

              1. That sounds like a nice place to spend time! It's nice to have it established that you'll have some surround sound and it's something you value. You can always change things later that way, without having to fight the initial battle of putting speakers here or there.

                And since you enjoy what you have I strongly encourage you not to go digging into different options. It gets expensive, both in time and money. ENJOY WHAT YOU HAVE NOW!! WATCH A MOVIE!

                because I can only watch my movies or 'swearing' music after bedtime or in an empty house

                I feel ya. My kids are now 13, 10, and 7. I've taken an ornery path over the past year or so, which is basically I'm going to watch stuff at a fairly decent volume even while they're going to bed. Sometimes even on a weeknight. Turns out after months of conditioning they learn to go to sleep even with a little bit of booming and vibration.

                Reading that, I'm kind of rude, aren't I? I don't do it _that_ often.

                Language is tough. My BiL and I have been watching an episode of Game of Thrones every week or two for a long while as I'm catching him up on the series. At some point I just stopped caring too much and kind of try to ignore the fact that they're probably hearing the words. It helps once you get a kid into middle school because protecting them from language becomes a losing battle.

                In anticipation of seeing 2049 in the theater (which didn't happen), I went out and purchased the Director's Cut of the original ... which I hadn't seen all of in probably 15 years. Wow.

                You're getting me excited!

                1. It helps once you get a kid into middle school because protecting them from language becomes a losing battle.
                  Stupid homeschooling maintaining my kids' innocence.

                  2. At the risk of completely taking the conversation away from movies, I'm curious to know whether this is an intentional decision to shield your kids from swear words/certain language or more of an incidental effect of homeschooling. If the former, I'm curious to know about the thinking behind it.

                    1. I'm curious as well. My daughter is 13 and if she started dropping F-bombs tomorrow, I wouldn't care, nor can I think of a good reason to care.

                    2. I don't want to speak for AMR, but I am of the mind that politeness, manners, "style" of communication, etc. all matter, and that casual use of curse words/certain language tends to cut against that. I think there is something to be said for encouraging consumption of more "appropriate" fare, not as an effort to protect innocence (because at some point that's going to be shattered by reality anyway), but more as an effort at self-monitoring, awareness, and restraint. Essentially, because we make reality a better place when we interact with it in a way that is sensitive towards others. Violence tends to desensitize. Language tends to desensitize. Etc. Not always, not always to an extreme, etc... but it does have that effect, and I would rather encourage my children to be sensitive (not in a "shy away from" sense, but more in an "awareness" sense) to such things than not.

                    3. The distinction is that violence is a bad thing, and swearing isn't. People worry that swearing will lead to more swearing, which is just one meaningless thing leading to more meaningless things.

                      As for style and politeness, this argument isn't particularly persuasive as every study done on swearing has determined that swearing is more common among the intelligent and creative. Why, logically, should I care about someone's profanity hangup when they have no reasonable argument against it? I certainly don't go out of my way to swear, but biting my lip to avoid it gains me nothing but stress as I bottle up emotion.

                      Maybe "politeness" specifically isn't spoken to here, but I'd sooner rethink what politeness is than classify swearing as some kind of problem. My dad's generation is full of folks who treat swear words as some frightening boogeyman, and I frankly find it hilarious. My dad always thought it was a big deal if we swore and when I pointed out that I didn't care about swearing, he said it was going to be different when I had kids. I've had kids now, and unfortunately for him, I still don't care if they swear (they don't actually swear. I don't think either of them is even particularly interested in doing so, which is, I suppose, ironic or something).

                      My English teacher in 11th and 12th grade, who was otherwise well put together, insisted that people "only swore if they couldn't think of a different word to use." She actually peddled that idiocy in her critiques of writing, which is terrible advice. While I'm not this extreme, I subscribe more to something...Seth Rogen?...said a few years back: "If you're writing a script about adults and there's no swearing, you're being dishonest."

                      I know I'm totally off the rails here, but I'm just fascinated and amused by the idea that swearing is naughty. It just seems like an attitude that people should outgrow at some point.

                    4. I actually agree with a lot of what you've written. Any rule that cares about swearing as "naughty" per se is, I think, foolish. But it can be naughty, and often is lazy (which is, I suspect, what your teacher was getting at. Her universalizing the rule doesn't make it false in all cases, only in the cases where it is false.). I'm intrigued by these studies you mention as, in my experience, that certainly isn't the case. I would suspect that well-used swearing tends to flourish among the creative and intelligent, while "naughty" and "lazy" swearing tends to flourish among the less creative and less well-behaved, and that in the middle there is a swath who tend to swear less.

                      As for the politeness point... my description above re: approaching the world with sensitivity is exactly an effort to "rethink what politeness is." I want my children to be actively thinking about this, throughout their lives. Language matters. Indeed, what I (and I suspect you) consider "swear words" are simply different from the swears of previous generations. We're offended when someone uses the N-word, or denigrates someone with "faggot" or calls something "retarded." I trust you'd be disappointed if your daughters used that language. Why? Because language has power. The ideas expressed by previous curse words don't shock us any more, the ideas expressed by these ones do. That's a function of societal change, but in terms of what you describe, I think it would be accurate to say that those are our new "boogeyman" words.

                      In this way, I think that swearing can be a bad thing. It often isn't so, but much depends on the word, context, audience, etc. But if swearing leads to casualness of language, and casualness of language leads to offensiveness, that's bad. So I'd like my kids to be "sensitive" towards language. To be thoughtful about it. To realize its power. Someone like yourself can want all of those exact same things and not have the kids avoid swearing at all, but I suspect it is harder to accomplish that task. If exposure to swearing desensitizes one to the offense that language can cause, it's harder to be aware of those offenses. Of course, that doesn't make the absolute rule against (traditional) swearing any more correct. It shouldn't be absolute, and I wouldn't teach it as such.

                    5. Be assured that if I felt swearing was a slippery slope toward hate speech, I would definitely cut off swearing at the source. I would, of course, be devastated if my kids used hate speech. These words have power that we can't control.

                      Words like fuck, shit and ass have power over which I think we have total control. They can be effectively normalized to the point where they have no real meaning, as they tend to be visceral catch-alls that can be used in a myriad of ways. Any power wielded by these words tends to be the result of us telling each other that they're supposed to have power.

                      It does seem like we agree a lot here.

                    6. I would suspect that well-used swearing tends to flourish among the creative and intelligent, while "naughty" and "lazy" swearing tends to flourish among the less creative and less well-behaved, and that in the middle there is a swath who tend to swear less.

                      I don't think you meant it this way but it feels classist. Creative profanity is okay and smart people do that while dumb people aren't? It's all profanity and it's all fine. We need to separate the "politeness" of the message from its actual content and evaluate that. You can be a true gentleman while advocating for genocide or swear so much the censors render you unintelligible while asking for coffee. Speech can be violence, but not because someone swore.

                    7. I'll have to think on the classism bit. Is it classist to say "intelligent people swear better than unintelligent people"? I suppose if you suppose intelligence and class are linked. I don't tend to think that, I guess. So there are lots of creative-class people I find to lack intelligence, and lots of lower-class people I find to be rather brilliant.

                      I guess Spooky made the claim re: intelligence and cursing, and I... find that to not be my experience. I guess that's all I was trying to say. Maybe that is my response.

                    8. I choose not to swear in the same way that I choose to not to remove my shirt in public: I have no doubt regardless of the situation or audience that it is preferred.

                    9. I didn't "make the claim," Philo; I've read about numerous studies to that end. Your experience is a sample size of one, and these studies aim higher than that.

                    10. Seems I’m not the only one to ring the bell and walk away ‘round here /cough-Pepper-cough/

                      The most thought I’ve given to swearing is to try to understand my audience and reign in my predilections accordingly. I swear like a sailor nearly all the time, including with certain work associates and even a couple of sr. leaders. On the other hand, I never do in front of the elected officials I interact with (for roughly the same reason my beard is conservatively trimmed and my hair is short) and only rarely in the presence of my mother or kids. I also don’t employ cursing in any of my testimony or professional writing...though some days...some days I am sorely tempted.

      2. The Milkmaid won't do horror or even action, for the most part. My chances to see darker fare are relegated to the late hours.

        I'm glad I'm not really a horror person, so it keeps one genre off the table. (Though I should probably watch Get Out, huh?) At least The Wife will do action. TBH, she probably would like to watch action more than me! Mainly it's that she doesn't prioritize watching movies too highly whereas I prioritize it a little more than I should. 🙂

        1. Similar. EAR started a new NetFlix "User" for me and then restricted the main one to PG-13 and lower because she was tired of a) my "dark" choices infecting the suggestions and b) pulling up movies that look OK but have jarring extreme violence.
          I'm not that happy with the situation because only the main account is on the Blu-Ray player that doesn't auto-play the next title. So if I fall asleep and I wake up 4 episodes later. I haven't poked around any more to see if there's a way to stop that.
          I'll pick what I want to watch next, or if I want to watch the credits, thank you very much.

        2. My imagination is too vivid for me to watch horror movies and not have them stick around in my head. Having said that, Get Out isn't really a horror movie. I'm not sure what genera that movie actually falls into, but calling it a horror movie doesn't do it justice.

          1. Have to differentiate between slasher movies and horror movies. I personally don't care for slasher films, but Cabin in the Woods was a great exception.

            I did watch Cloverfield Paradox. Like most space-based movies, I found it poorly lacking on the science side of it: at no point are researchers on a large space station orbiting Earth actually working in a vacuum (see what I did there?) and deciding things on their own, as there would be constant contact with the planet and a stream of suggestions/instructions from there.

  13. My wife and I used to watch all the best picture nominees each year, but have fallen behind the past few years. There are enough available on Redbox or Amazon that a month ago we thought we could make it this year before the ceremony, but we've been too busy to keep up with it.

    So far, we've only seen Dunkirk, Get Out, and Ladybird. I loved Get Out and Ladybird. I thought Dunkirk was fine, but nothing all that great.

    In the other categories, I've seen Logan, Coco, Baby Driver, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Blade Runner, and Beauty and the Beast. Other than the last two, I think I'd prefer any of them as best picture over Dunkirk. Probably Wonder Woman, too; I still don't understand how that didn't get nominated for anything.

      1. Blade Runner didn't really do it for me. It looked great, and have no arguments against it winning the categories it's nominated for, but I just couldn't get all that into it, and kept falling asleep.

    2. It's been a while since I watched it, but Dunkirk was a very good film. There are still scenes that haunt me. Nolan's best film.

  14. Of the Best Pics, I've only seen Get Out and The Shape of Water. The former was such a surprisingly good movie, that I don't know if I appreciated it enough on first watch. The Shape was ... something. Pretty & unexpected. Kind-of interesting ... I don't see it as Best Picture material though.

    In other categories, I've seen Mudbound, Logan, Baby Driver, The Boss Baby, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Blade Runner 2049, Beauty And The Beast and Kong: Skull Island. Of these, Logan for Writing (adapted screenplay), Mary J. Blige for Actress in a Supporting Role (Mudbound), the crew(s) from Blade Runner 2049 for Visual effects and Sound editing and Baby Driver's Sound mixing are things I can still point to as amazingly well done. I haven't seen enough of all the others to say these are the 'best', I distinctly recall each of these achievements.

  15. I have completely given up on Walking Dead. Stef is watching it without me, more just out of curiosity than enjoyment. I don't miss it.

    Did see Get Out. Loved it a whole lot. Not as entertaining as Cabin in the Woods, but I very much enjoyed the movie's weight.

      1. I'm starting to feel about Walking Dead the way I ended up feeling about Lost... do the show runners have any ideas yet how this thing ends?

  16. Home viewing threadjack! (NetFlix)
    Anyone else watch The End of the F***ing World yet? It's awesome.
    Also, I really liked Everything Sucks, but it's not as good as the above.

    1. I actually did see the first episode of that, and plan on continuing late at night sometime. It could go off in so many different directions, and I'm dying to see which way it heads.

    2. I recently watched them both. I didn't love It's the End... but it was good.

      Everything Sucks was decent after a slow start.

      I also watched When We First Met. It's exactly what you'd expect. Entertaining enough.

      I'll endorse Rectify once again. All 4 seasons are on Netflix and the seasons are pretty short - 8-10 46 minute episodes.

  17. I've seen Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Get Out, and 3 Billboards. I'd probably go with Dunkirk right now. I may try to see Shape of Water before Sunday.

    All were pretty good but Lady Bird was a little too slight for me, well acted of course. 3 Billboards was just too much of a downer. There really isn't a sympathetic character here, although all the main characters also had some nice nuance. I was happy that it wasn't predictable and went is places I didn't expect.

    Black Panther was good, although I'm looking forward more to where this character goes now that we've done with the origin story.

    Been watching Vinyl on HBO and while some of the scenes and music from 1973 is pretty great, the overall story is a hot mess. Started Westworld too.

    Finally caught up with House of Cards. Oh My God how far this show has fallen.

    Finally I finished The Leftovers. This show is mind-blowing. I wish more had seen it to discuss further.

    1. I've been debating whether to watch more of House of Cards (I'm pretty sure I'm only midway through season two).

      Besides the obvious, I know that it sputters in quality and the final season isn't even likely to feature the central character. Given how few shows I manage to finish, that might not be an ending worth chasing.

      2. Linds and I have tried a half dozen times to power our way through season 3, but it's SUCH a slog (except for Free). She keeps saying we have to pick it back up, and I'm like "but do we ACTUALLY have to do that?"

    2. I was really on the fence after the 2nd season of House of Cards. I loved the 1st as it progressed and the beginning of the 2nd was pretty crazy. I ended up finishing season 3 and stopping there.

      1. I think I'm the only person who actually enjoyed Season 3, but man Season 4 was drag and Season 5 was a scattershot of nothingness and outlandishness.

      2. I watched episode 1, and kindof like episode 1 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Glee*, it was so packed that I've been reluctant to watch any more.

        *back in the over-the-air days. I missed episode 2 and that decided it. That "pocket veto" of dropping a series is now gone with modern technology. I have to either decide that no, I'm not going to finish it and take it out of my queue, or live with it taking up space in the queue.

  18. Over lunch today I started watching this oddball: Making Contact OR Joey. Last year sometime the existence of this movie came to light (was it someone here?). I couldn't believe I'd never heard of it before. I read a little about it and decided I had to see it.

    I sometimes dabble with this oddball Blu-Ray rental service, 3D Bluray Rental. They are slow, but they rent 3D discs and now 4k. They also take suggestions, so a year ago I asked them to get Making Contact in stock.

    Flash forward to a year later. I actually rented it. It is a hot mess. Haven't quite finished it yet, but this review (spoiler alert) seems to capture it:

    Actual Spoiler SelectShow

    (Incidentally, this is the perfect type of movie that I'd actually want to stream. No concerns, really, about audio or video quality. Yet it's nowhere to be found. Can't even pay to rent or buy it streaming. I guess that would eat into their disc sales?!)

    (Also, apparently there is an "original" version that is 20 minutes longer, somehow better, and not on the disc I have. I'd be curious to know if there is a version that has an edit of the movie that makes a lick of sense. Not curious enough to watch it again!)

  19. I've watched a few select episodes of ST:DS9 and Parks and Rec lately. A good amount of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee too.

    We watched Inside Out and Despicable Me 3 with the kids recently. Inside Out was okay, but nowhere near Pixar's best. DM3 was incredibly disappointing after the earlier efforts. Go figure.

    I finished all of Altered Carbon and while it wasn't a great show, it was a solid, good enough show. The action was better than I expected, and everything was explained well enough that you didn't have to try hard to follow, you could just ride along.

    A Futile and Stupid Gesture and The Polka King, two "funny" Netflix biopics that were both worth watching, but only if you think you'd be interested in the subject material.

    The first two episodes of Black Mirror Season 4. I'm starting to think this show may have run out of steam. The first episode was probably my least favorite of all I've seen, and the second one had a few too many obvious places where they chose to over-explain rather than embrace nuance, where earlier seasons would have gone more nuanced.

    1. Inside Out is a top 15 movie of all-time for me. Because of my son I've probably seen it 20+ times now, and I still laugh every time and cry like a baby every time. Phyllis Smith kills every scene she voices.

  21. Anybody watching Ash vs. Evil Dead? I was highly skeptical when I first heard about it (especially after what I heard was a terrible remake of the original movie), but those fears were ridiculously unfounded. Though they nod to the past, there's definitely no wallowing in nostalgia. They've created a fun new world that's been a joy to romp through. First 2 seasons up on NF now (I'm about midway through the 2nd after staying up way too late watching them last night).

    1. I've watched the first episode and I'm on board. I would have watched more, but I started The Good Place the day after I watched that first episode. Now that I'm caught up on that, I can get back to Ash.

        1. I knew because there should be a law that Bruce Campbell is on everyone's tv for at least 20 minutes per day, every day.

  22. The wife and I binged the first season of Everything Sucks! on Netflix last weekend. It was an enjoyable 5 hours.

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