Schweedie

Yeah, Silvie did (the darkhaired one). But I got the impression Sandy DID know about them, but just didn't particularly mind - she asked later on "And how's Silvie McGann?" and just laughed when he pretended to be oblivious. I watched this movie for the fourth time the other day, first homeviewing after seeing it three times in the cinema, and it still hit me just as hard as the first time. It's not perfect, there are bits I'd cut or change, but I still absolutely love it.

Precisely, in particular the bolded. To me, that excerpt just describes what the movie could have been if it had done some things differently, not what it actually did. Someone in this thread said earlier that it would've been interesting if Jim had died, and the movie had ended with Aurora facing the same choice he did. That would've been a way for them to ask, "What if you were the one drowning?" But by just making it into a typical love story, they failed at that.

I think he got pretty strong pretty quickly which caused him to come down with a case of hubris, overestimating his own importance and strength and wanting to prove it all the time. (So yes, stupid, basically.) Pablo Schreiber isn't at all how I pictured Mad Sweeney when I read the book and I was a little thrown off by him when we first saw him, but damn, Schreiber is killing it. His face when he realised he was screwed and that brief pause before "Oh, you're an arsehole" had me cackling out loud. Something about Laura felt off to me this week, though - I don't know what it was, direction or acting, but she just seemed different from last week. I liked her better last week.

Look, I don't usually respond to being emotionally manipulated with overly sappy stuff. I roll my eyes at the end of Dead Poets Society and Pay It Forward, and felt nothing at Million Dollar Baby. But apparently when there are dogs involved all bets are off regardless of how sentimentally sappy it is, because I watched A Dog's Purpose this weekend and it was ugly. We're not talking, like, tears gently running down my cheeks, we are talking full on ugly sobbing and snotting while at the same time scolding myself, "for god's sake pull it together!" I didn't even think it was a good movie, but I cried more than when I watched Les Misérables or even Toy Story 3.

Much Ado! Oh, he's hilarious in that. Unintentionally, I guess, but still. I remember when we watched that for English class in high school and when he had one of his major villainous moments the entire class burst out laughing at once. Actually, Kenneth Branagh's Benedick in that one is one of my favourite performances in general. He's the ultimate Benedick for me there.

Well, this was great. Even before it went full horror-movie-style it was just so uncomfortable. I didn't figure out the real twist on what they wanted Chris and the others for until they properly revealed it - like others have said, I really thought they were "just" hypnotising them into being their servants in whatever way they wanted them to be. I was with Rod, I thought "Ewww, sex slave!" when poor Andre-as-Logan was spinning around in front of that admiring crowd. (I do hope they got Andre out in the end, too.) But all those awkward interactions at the party made so much sense when you realised - the guy talking about golf and asking to see Chris' form, the lady with the elderly feeble husband ogling the hell out of him... When Jeremy went to pick Chris up in the wheelchair I was actually wondering if he was going to end up helping him, and that his gross behaviour might have been some sort of attempt to warn Chris and scare him off before it got that far, because it seemed weird that he would be so much less subtle than the rest of the family. But no, I guess he he really just was that unhinged. It was a nice touch that dad Armitage mentioned that Jeremy was studying medicine just like his old man, because they would need to always pass the torch on so that someone would be able to actually perform the procedure. I wonder if the slight robotic-ness of the ones we saw was down to some sort of struggle to control the body, or if the people who'd taken over the bodies just were bad at acting normal.

Every time I so much as think about Andy Samberg's face and delivery of the "Nice try trying to hurt my feelings" line when Rosa insulted "Lead the way hombre" I start laughing to myself. He really is great at face-acting.

God yes. He's so *little*. And to me the hair and beard looks really weird and fake on him - I'm also very excited for the film, but that bit of casting was a misfire for me. I don't know who I would've preferred, but he's just... wrong. And I agree that they could've tried to make James Franco less good looking, but he definitely has the potential to be a brilliant Tommy. Seth Rogen as Sandy Schklair is pretty inspired, as is Josh Hutcherson as Philip Haldiman. Man, I really am looking forward to seeing this.

Ooh, interesting! I have one of these, sort of - Girl with a Pearl Earring. It could just be my mind playing tricks on me, but I saw it in the cinema when it came out, and when I saw it again years later (well, it doesn't quite fit in the "many years later" category) I could've SWORN the ending was different. In my head there was a scene where Griet goes to the house and finds out that Vermeer wanted her to have the earrings, but his wife refuses to give them to her, and later on after that, the cook fulfils his wishes by delivering them to Griet. But that scene at the house wasn't there, so the cook just came by and gave them to her with no preamble. I still don't know if I just remember it wrong, but - seriously, I could've sworn I saw that scene the first time.

I was wondering if anyone have any thoughts on Alive (1993) and the book it was adapted from, The Story of the Andes Survivors? I was nine when that film came out and I remember being completely awed by it and the fact that it was a true story, and it's one of those films I've re-watched a lot, but I'd never actually read the book until only just recently. And now after having read it I wish the adaption had been better, because as a film it's not really that great. The acting is pretty wooden from a lot of the guys, the actors mostly seem too old for their youth to really come across, and they don't even look all that much worse for wear at the end of the film than they did at the beginning. And not including Nando and Canessa's final expedition makes it suffer as well, I think, because the ending is so abrupt. A part of me wants a better film version because their story deserves it, but at the same time... I mean, the details are such that making another film feels sort of exploitative.

I'm SO happy this took Best Original Screenplay. It was the one award I desperately wanted it to win; Kenneth Lonergan wrote a fantastic script here.

Yeah, I really, really don't see that happening. I haven't heard anything at all about who they're after for Ariel, but I wouldn't be surprised if they go with Emma Stone (if she's interested). ETA - I could see Jane Levy, too, but I don't know that she's a big enough name.

That was something I wondered about when I watched it, too - whether they just decided to make them close friends because it would make for a better way to tell their stories, or if it was true. Another favourite thing I remembered after a second viewing: in the end, when Kirsten Dunst's character brings her girls to learn about the IBM and she introduces Dorothy to them as Mrs. Vaughan, after them having been 'Dorothy' vs 'Mrs. Mitchell' until then. Small moment, but it said a lot.

Has anyone caught Indian film Dangal? It's a (dramatised) biography of a national champion wrestler who always regretted he couldn't win a gold medal for his country, and ended up training his daughters to be wrestlers in an attempt to do so through them. From what I understand female wrestlers were pretty much unheard of in India before Geeta and Babita Phogat. Great film - a bit long, two and a half hours and could have been trimmed down a bit, but really gripping. It shows how girls were/are often viewed in India and how they have to fight to be seen as worthy. And the actual wrestling scenes are brilliant, especially when the girls are still children. A lot of intensity there.

Best wishes for Louis! Just a quick update about my dog-yearning - I've applied to volunteer at the shelter where I've been looking at dogs, which I'm pretty excited about. And who knows, maybe one day a dog comes in that I completely fall in love with and can't resist.

My first thought was Bridesmaids, heh, but that doesn't fit time-wise, I guess. (And to be fair, I guess the problem there was actually that there weren't *enough* toilets.)

Good point with the bolded. That's definitely also something to take away from it. There were no cheers or anything like that for any of those things when I saw it, but it's interesting how much (white) people generally seem to enjoy scenes like that. Is it because they'd - well, we - would like to think they'd do the same thing and be the "hero"? I wonder how many people who cheered for those scenes would actually take an active stand against an equivalent today.

Man, that's a really terrible answer from Melfi there. "Who cares who does the right thing"? I read the restroom scene a bit differently when I watched the movie, though - I didn't take it as a saviour moment; I took it as a reminder of how important it is that those with privilege and power do their part in tearing down barriers. That if you have that power, you have to be aware of it and use it. But I'm sure they could've found another way to get that across that didn't play on the saviour trope.

Oh yes, this. I don't particularly mind the unreliable narrator if I know *why* they're unreliable and there's a good reason for it, and Still Alice is a great example of that.

I finally, after 22 years of listening to them, got to see Green Day live on Saturday. I'm still on a high that I can't get down from and am living off videos people are sharing on YouTube and Instagram - they were fantastic. Billie Joe Armstrong isn't quite as wild and insanely energetic as he's been (due to sobriety?) but damn, that hasn't taken anything away from his performance. He's bloody brilliant. Great mix of songs from the old days (even from Kerplunk) and ones from the new album, and they did Jesus of Suburbia all the way through, which was incredible. They're one hell of a band on stage. And there was something really cathartic about belting along to American Idiot, I gotta say.

I was SO pleased for their win tonight. Since they're not going to win any individual awards it was wonderful to see their brilliant performances acknowledged this way, and Taraji's speech was brilliant. They really were a great ensemble cast, every single one in the film.

I never took his declining on the lunch and reconnecting with her as anything to actually do with *her* or how she'd treated him - I've no doubt he felt he deserved whatever she said to him (she says "I was wrong" and he says "No") and it probably wasn't worse than anything he said to himself. Seeing her just brought everything back because of what she represented and made it hurt too much, and he couldn't do it. Which is totally understandable at that point, he wasn't in a place where he could accept any kind of forgiveness or compassion from her. (In my head, because this stupid movie invaded my brain, he will eventually get to that point later post-movie ending. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.) So yeah, I think he was justified, so to speak, in turning her down, but I do think it was all to do with him and not with her.

I watched The Fellowship of the Ring again recently, and the "Concerning Hobbits" bit - you know, the music playing while the camera movies through the Shire and Hobbiton and we see the hobbits going about their business - is genuinely one of my favourite things ever. I remember I started crying a little when I saw it in the cinema because it was just so perfect. I can't even properly explain why that little part feels so important to me, but oh, I love it.

I'm really, really disappointed Hidden Figures didn't do better. Happy for Octavia Spencer and its screenplay/Best Picture noms, obviously, but Taraji P Henson was robbed. Thought it should've made Costume and Styling, too. Best Adapted Screenplay seems like a really tough category this year, doesn't it? Very pleased for Lucas Hedges! Didn't actually expect him to get in. I just want Manchester to win Screenplay. As much as I love it I could deal with it losing any other category but that one. I know La La Land is probably going to take all the big ones, but - if it really does get Screenplay over Manchester, I'm going to throw something. Disappointed that they missed out on an Editing nomination, too. I thought it worked so well with the constant unannounced flashbacks.

I've actually been looking at that - there's a shelter not too far from me where I've been pining for dogs on the website, so I'm thinking of checking whether they need any volunteers. Actually, there was a specific pup on their 'up for adoption' page that caught my heart... Just look at that face! And his floppy ears! Definitely loads of dogs do well in apartments, and I've pretty much got a dog park for a neighbour plus I live near some great nature trails. So the environment is right, at least. It's mostly that I'm afraid my flat isn't big enough, because I'm not at all a small-dog person. (I mean, I'm not planning on getting a Great Dane or a Mastiff, but say, Am-Staff size. A little smaller than a Lab.) Then again, you're supposed make sure your dog gets its exercise and activity outside, not indoors. Totally planning on borrowing the family dog. And this is a good time of year to test your will, too - it's easier to get up at 6am and walk your dog in the summer than it is right now.