Live Action Film Recommendations

So I just got back from Joe Bob's Jamboree, and I saw two great recent indie movies that easily outclassed anything hollywood put out this year in the important ways

Tennessee Gothic - A movie I can only describe as a "horror romantic comedy" wherein a trio of hillbilly's all end up nailing the same Succubus in rural TN

Loss Prevention - an uproariously funny Spy comedy where dueling corporations end up embroiling a simple Lesbian Bartender and her estranged Dad in a sprawling and twist filled plot filled with Jokes, Gunfights, and the most "Far Cry" bad guy I've seen in a film

To the guy up there who asked about Come and See up there, I've seen it. It's a great movie to pair with a strong Indica when you wanna contemplate just how terrible fascism is

I've heard good things about John Wick and its sequels, but right now the original is the only one of the three not available on Netflix for me to watch. Should i first watch John Wick, or can I watch the sequels immediately without any issues?

You're going to be pretty lost if you watch the sequels without having watched the first, I think. Definitely watch it first.

Alright. I've heard so much good that I think it's safe to put money on it.

How do people generally feel about the 2019 Little Women? I'm interested in it mostly for its cast, with veterans and up-and-comers aplenty.

Been over a month, but for those wondering: it's funny, bittersweet and has an amazing cast. Definitely give it a go.

Recommending The Fallout, a drama about a high schooler in the wake of a school shooting. It just became available on HBO Max; as soon as it was done I ran to make the page. Jenna Ortega is tremendous.

Edited by Synchronicity on Jan 28th 2022 at 11:18:50 AM

I realize that not only this movie does not have a Tvtropes entry, I haven't found it being even mentioned around here.

Saeed Roustayi's Just 6.5 is an absolute masterpiece, and one of the most brutal thrillers I've ever seen. It's about a narc detective in Teheran trying to dismantle a drug trafficking ring, with the caveat that in Iran, you can be hanged for possession of very small quantities of drugs.

It also manages to completely avoid manicheism, and is riveting from beginning to end, with some scenes even managing to be outright poetic. Oh, and it's also super depressing.

It's something like an Iranian American Gangster, but much, much darker.

What's manicheism?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism

When talking about media, the idea of a simplistic opposition between blatantly good heroes and blatantly evil villains (aka Black-and-White Morality).

Recommendations for martial arts movies?

To ward off the obvious suggestions, I have already watched both Raids, Ong-Bak, The Man of Tai-Chi and most Jackie Chan flicks.

And I have watched the first Ip-Man and am perfectly aware there are sequels, so don't bother bringing those up.

If you haven't watched Kung Fu Hustle you need to do that right now.

I did, as a matter of fact!

The Brazillian dub cast the Henpecked Husband as Seu Madruga, it's fucking brilliant.

I just saw the worst parts of Megan Is Missing and I really need a hug, a palette cleanser, and something adorable right now

So for nostalgia's sake I decided to rewatch a certain nineties superhero film costarring a particular teenage sitcom costar of a certain SNL alum... you know, the one that introduced a particular ska punk song. (Yes, it was introduced by a live action superhero film, not the animated film I know everyone under thirty is thinking of.)

Edited by TwinBird on May 14th 2023 at 7:54:35 AM

I'm hesitant to ask for fear of both where the discussion could go and for the answers I'll get, but could I get some suggestions of movies that are considered ideologically poisoned today?

Movies that would fit alongside Triumph of the Will, Birth of a Nation, and Song of the South. Not just any, for want of better words, "cancelled" or "un-woke" movies, but the ones that most people can agree should be avoided or handled with care for promoting political or social values that have been driven from the mainstream, preferably famously so. Not just excessive/graphic sexuality and violence. Not just showing these ideologies unflinchingly but still as unmistakably evil.

I'm considering including Glen or Glenda, but I don't know if as a society we've yet put that to rest.

If I decide to include religious controversy, maybe The Last Temptation of Christ gets included, but I think that's more just regular controversy than poison. Plandemic is definitely too recent.

Loose Change, the 9/11 inside job documentary, might be at least a better example of promoting a perspective most would not find welcome in the public square.

I should say that my goal is to demonstrate analysis of such media while placing it in appropriate context and framing its ideologies safely without endorsing them.

Just got out of They Cloned Tyrone. Strong recommendation. Shares a few plot points with Undercover Brother, but takes itself MUCH more seriously.

How about They Died With Their Boots On and Rhodes of Africa? Both films are pretty reprehensible. https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/apr/20/rhodes-of-africa-slightly-less-offensive-than-the-man-himself

They Died With Their Boots On pins George Armstrong Custer's acts of aggression on a fictional character and portrays him as sympathetic to the Lakota. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/feb/11/reel-history-errol-flynn-little-bighorn-general-custer

The Green Berets. A laughably absurd attempt to graft Incorruptible Pure Pureness onto the US's invasion of Vietnam. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/11/the-green-berets-reel-history-john-wayne-vietnam-war

Maybe One Little Indian? The whole "white captive child raised by Native Americans" issue is a can of worms, but I think we can all agree that this film handled it and other things very badly. (I wasn't a fan of News of the World but I think it approached this better than One Little Indian did.) https://thegreatdisneymovieride.home.blog/2021/12/29/one-little-indian-1973/

Santa Fe Trail, definitely. John Brown is the film's villain. (People don't talk about this movie enough, honestly. It stars Ronald Reagan!)

Gone With the Wind, only slightly less anti-Black than The Birth of a Nation. Atypical for this list of mine, in that it's a "canonical" film. I'm mostly giving you films that have deservedly faded into obscurity.

On the subject of religious controversy, The Da Vinci Code and Agora contain some absurd anti-Christian fabrications.

Edited by StarformDCX on Aug 27th 2023 at 12:10:44 PM

Thanks for the tips. Maybe sometime I'll see a John Wayne movie I can actually recommend, but it seems like a lot of his stuff aged really poorly.

I am quite fond of Stagecoach. A very simple and efficient film.

I'm fond of Red River and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. They both have problematic elements, but that doesn't ruin my enjoyment of them. YMMV.

EDIT: In my list of films that fight for evil, I focused exclusively on racist films. Here are some of the most sexist films.

I think we can all agree that Last Tango in Paris, a movie in which the director and the male star literally conspired to rape the female star on camera, and in which the female star is naked much more frequently than the male star, counts.

Carousel (1956) has its female characters repeatedly shrug off the fact that the male lead likes to hit them.

Revenge of the Nerds and Sixteen Candles make light of rape and portray it sympathetically. Blade Runner and Straw Dogs also arguably portray rape sympathetically.

Once Upon a Time in the West ends with the female lead being told told that she should just take it if men sexually harass her. She doesn't try to rebut this and the character uttering this is a character the film has been totally sympathetic to up to this point. (She is also a rape victim!)

Edited by StarformDCX on Aug 30th 2023 at 11:01:11 AM

I'm here to recommend a French action crime film called AKA. The main premise is Adam Franco an agent from the French Government is sent to infiltrate a crime syndicate who has ties to a notorious terrorist. That said the ending reveals that the French Government is the real villains who turn on Adam when he outlives his usefulness. The movie is on Netflix in the United State if anyone is interested in checking it out

What are your favourite films of 2023 to date?

Mine: Oppenheimer, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Tetris, and Black Berry.

Here are some really good under-the-radar documentaries from the last few years for anyone’s who interested (most of which can be found on Amazon Prime).

• Drop The Needle (A deep dive into the underground hip-hop and techno movements of Ontario, through the lens of music store Play De Record)
• Bye Bye Barry (The introspective career of Barry Sanders, who suddenly retired from the football scene at his peak)
• The Grizzlie Truth (A look into the sordid history and mystery of The Vancouver Grizzlies, Canada’s other basketball team)

Well, I just watched The Family Plan. It’s harmless and decent. One thing I did note is how well they portrayed the villains. Just these a-holes who are insisting this man is something he hasn’t been for a long time and forcing him to give up his family.