A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)- classic, great Halloween movie, Wes a master of horror. Johnny Depo’s on screen debut too!
Wanted to bump this, how do people feel this compares to Carpenter’s Halloween? The score/theme in Halloween can’t be topped but they’re kind of similar with similar quality direction. I’d prob still give the edge to Halloween.
Didn't know in which thread to put this, but I watched the Queen's Gambit, and really enjoyed it. I'm slightly disappointed in the sense I thought it had the potential for greatness, and in the end it's just very good.
The last episode, which is the best rated on IMDb feels a little too conventional (going back to the orphanage, the way she wins in Moscow...) It works, but I enjoyed better the darker corner of the show, especially Marielle Heller's character, beautifully written and portrayed. The relationship between Beth and her is truly moving.
I'm revisiting Spielberg, the filmmaker whose cumulative work means most to me and is likely the greatest living filmmaker today, and his work in the 21st Century is some of the most underrated of the last 20 years. The breadth of genre, subject and mastery of style is just extraordinary.
Minority Report is my favorite of this period, but his greatest achievement may be the two-hander of War of the Worlds and Munich, both quickly made and released months apart. His two genre meditations on 9/11 are as morally probing as they are terrifying and laced with ghoulish, hyperreal, nightmarish imagery. I hope his later work one day gets its real due.
I fucking LOVE Minority Report and Munich. Recently saw the original War of the Worlds for the first time and rewatched Spielbergs War of the Worlds the day after. His directing and those massive set pieces are just so engaging.
Do you think we'll ever get to see Spielberg's more cynical and depressing side again?
I mean... I know this isn't a popular take, but I think we kinda just did with Ready Player One. Wildly misunderstood movie. The only thing more depressing than it's militarized corporation dystopia is the fact all art (ever) has been reduced to empty facts and trivia that obscures the real heart and soul of the artist and any "meaning" whatsoever.
Halliday is also very much a surrogate for Spielberg reflecting on what, if anything, he has meaningfully contributed to the world as a human being rather beyond pop-culture trivia. It's telling the way to "solve" the Easter Egg hunt is to simply understand Halliday as a person and an artist and how that has manifested inside the world itself.
It's also a sober meditation on the internet / information age, where our only modes of expression is by branding ourselves with existing IP while still joyously celebrating its meaning through our own lens. Hence Spielberg doing to The Shining what Olivia Cooke does to the Akira bike. That's not to say Ready Player One is a misunderstood masterpiece (it's not---a lot of that dialogue is oooph) but there's an awful lot going on in it, much of it cynical and imo depressing beneath the whiz bang special effects.
Never reaches its potential but younger Cronenberg was on to something with this one. In narrative reminded me a lot of Inception with bizarre and captivating imagery throughout. A step in the right direction for Cronenberg but still leaves more to be desired.
