Be Excellent To Each Other

I keep meaning to watch Whiplash 'cause everyone says it's really good but I can't get past the whole 'jazz drummer' thing. (I mean, surely with it being jazz, you just make it up as you go along.)

I did note its appearance on Netflix so there's no excuse I suppose.

I both hated it and then couldn't get it out my mind. Mimi loved it.

It's very much an intense film, and you almost don't know who to have sympathies with, but in answer to the earlier question, probably too far.

It was incredible, and oh my God do you not get jazz.

I don't really like jazz, it wasn't Bach's best contribution to the musical world.

Jazz is best heard live, preferably in a darkened smoky room. I struggle listening to recordings, with the obvious exception of anything by Duke Ellington or Fats Waller.

My old friend Richie's review nails it for me:

I don't like jazz, but the film is good. It's about jazz, but it's not 'about' jazz, you feel me?

But there is loads of Jazz music in it.

So it's a musical, is it?

It is a musical, yes.

Well, the plot doesn't advance without the songs.

IT SO DOES

You could cut out that last performance, and the film would never end!

Spot on

Oh. You're right. In particular

It is both technically correct, and amazing that it sends Grim... into a rage.

Not a musical.

That film sounds dull as shit, tbf.

I'm not much for Jazz, but I do like the bit in the Jazz club in Collateral which I re-watched last night. That said, I do prefer the bit where Audioslave's 'Shadow on the Sun' plays in the scene with the Coyote.

Other film stuff - I've found a new favourite film to run in the background on Netflix on the TV while I'm playing games on the laptop. 'The Big Short' is a good film anyway, but you can also enjoy it without really watching whats going on on-screen. Also, while the film has Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale, my favourite performance is that of Steve Carell - he does a very good line in angry disbelief.

Speak of Steve Carell, I also liked the deadpanning from last night's Golden Globes

I know exactly what you mean, but it's very much not.

does it have any splosions or spaceships?

Carell is fucking great in that film.

The ultimate example of this is Locke, of course.

Which is a great film.

Indeed.

[edit] How did his accent sound to Welsh ears?

I'd read it was so awful that I ended up mildly but pleasantly surprised. It was certainly dodgy in places (including bits where he pushed it too far and ended up sounding Indian) but it didn't yank me out of the film or anything. Overall I thought it was OK.

Obviously my own Welsh accent credentials are deeply dubious, however.

The concrete will be poured!

I do a really bad impression of Tom Hardy doing a not entirely convincing Welsh accent.

Why did they make him Welsh anyway? He could have just been from wherever Tom Hardy is from, and it would have saved him from trying to do the accent.

Yeah, I wondered this.

Saw Assassins Creed last night. A great pop corn film, very similar idea (not quite the same) to the games.

Basically a lot of runny, jumpy slashy bits. Both now and the the aniumus.

I quite enjoyed it.

Assassins Creed last night.

Now what? I don't feel any different.

Watched Bridge of Spies over the weekend. It's everything you would expect from the people involved really - entertaining, suspenseful and really well acted with a superb script and atmospheric visuals.

"Would it help?" should be the answer to so many things only I can't say it like Mark Rylance does.

Watch Tower Block the other night, staring the lovely Sheridan Smith and some other people you remember from Doctors or ITV crime dramas. It's a good concept, and gets pretty brutal and tense. However, a lot of the characters seemed fairly chill about the hell being unleashed around them, which gets in the way of the scariness a bit.

Overall 1/3 of a star for sideboob.

Was it Smith's?

Yes!

Colour me interested.

Color you in line, behind me.

Expectations Management: About 1.5 secs of side boob in total. However, she is pretty cool in it over all - a pleasingly assertive, taking-the-lead protagonist.

Problem is that he's a clone of Patrick Stewart, and he would sound too much like Patrick Stewart if he didn't put a voice on.

\
"Make it so, bitch."

Ooooof

If you haven't seen Warrior, see Warrior.

I have a sudden craving for ice cream.

She's a very fine ship.


I played a sailor on it once. Almost fell in when ramming a cannon.

Make this happen, Gaz.

On top of getting to drool over Mr Hardy, it's also a really good film.