ruderrocket

I loved The Leftovers, especially season 3, and am glad it got this high on the strength of a few votes. Easily on the short list for my favorite shows of all time. The way it got its characters from Point A to Point Z was so satisfying and sooo fucking earned. It took these characters who were broken (with good reason), almost irreparably so, and got them to the point where by the end of it all, we could say that even if all their shit wasn't fixed, some sort of corner had been turned. The first season was bleak to the point that it got hard to watch, and even though the succeeding seasons never let go of the despair and anguish at the core of the show and its premise, the show was able to expand its emotional palette and show us the good, the joy, the sheer fucking hope that can come with trying to be resilient in an incredibly fucked up world. And it did this without sentiment or token attempts at making us feel nice and fuzzy inside. This is incredibly corny, but The Leftovers is one of those pieces of pop culture that made me want to try harder to come to terms with my own shit, so yeah, definitely my number one show of the year haha. Also, it had some of the funniest, most surreal, most entertaining TV moments of the year (w/ scenes featuring the Wu Tang Clan, lion cult sex orgies, and spy adventure fantasy lands), and for my money, one of the best TV love stories of all time. Yeah, I really liked this show.

1. The Leftovers 2. Better Call Saul 3. Bojack Horseman 4. The Handmaid's Tale 5. The Americans 6. Better Things 7. The Good Place 8. The Deuce 9. Rick and Morty 10. GLOW 11. Catastrophe 12. Master of None 13. Nathan for You 14. Review with Forrest Macneil 15. Boku No Hero Academia __

September 24-30: 147. 25th Hour (2002) 148. The Tree of Life (2011) 149. A Ghost Story (2017) 150. Kingsman: Golden Circle (2017) 151. Infernal Affairs (2002) 152. Rear Window (1954) 153. Enchanted (2007) 154. Okja (2017)

Started a 365 movies challenge at the start of the year, but haven't really been able to keep at it. I'm at 147 right now. I have a soft goal of hitting 200 before the year ends, but at this point, I'm not all too fussed about reaching that number. ____ List of movies I've watched so far:

I want to commit to writing my thoughts on the movies I watch, so I'll try to use this thread for that. Don't expect much in the way of coherence or insight, I tend to just vomit out my thoughts and impressions. ___ Movies I've watched this week: 142. Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh, 2017) -Not much to say about this one. There were fun moments, and Channing Tatum and Adam Driver make a convincing pair of siblings. It didn't really make that big of an impression on me, even though I did dig the working class take on Ocean's 11. 143. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) -I am a sucker for snappy, tit-for-tat dialogue, so I loved this movie. Cary Grant is delightful as the cut-throat scallywag asshole of a news editor, and he and Rosalind Russell have a great rapport. 144. Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002) -My favorite PTA film. Best known as the "Adam Sandler deconstruction movie", for good reason, but even with all that metatextual stuff aside, it works as an incredibly sweet, moving story of a lonely, anxious, overall sadsack being able to connect and fall in love with another person. Everything in this movie works, from the creepy, dissonant score, to the use of colors and lens flare, and especially Adam Sandler's lead performance. He's so good in this. In particular, I'm thinking of the mini-anxiety attack after his first encounter with Emily Watson, and the moment where he stands up to his overbearing sister over the phone. Speaking of Emily Watson, it's fair to say that her character was drawn a bit thinly, and that we weren't really made to understand why exactly she was attracted to him, but for me, it works. Mainly because it's hinted all throughout that she's just as lonely, and sad, and fucked up as Adam Sandler's character (the stalking, the wearing the same red dress, the note about her being an only child and wishing she had a big family like Barry's). Anyways, I love this movie. 145. mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017) -This movie is a ride, and I really liked it. The biblical parallels are not at all subtle, but I don't think they were trying to be. It's an over-the-top mess of a movie, which I would say is part of the appeal. And for all the (valid) critique of the script and the anvil-on-the-head approach to symbolism, I don't think its an empty movie. It works as a black comedy bastardizing the Bible, but it's also fun to read as Aronofsky reflecting on his own creative process, even if that reflection was inadvertent. I don't want to say too much about the plot, but the fact that this movie is so clearly a vanity project is actually really interesting when put side by side with what happens in the story. What kept me from loving this was the lead performance by Jennifer Lawrence. I am not a hater of Lawrence, but she never reached the level of "unhinged" that the material called for, and given how central she is to everything that happens, it's a big handicap. But all in all, I enjoyed mother!, and wish that this kind of insane, narcissistic auteur-driven type work is rewarded. 146. Respeto (Treb Monteras, 2017) -This is a local film (I'm from the Philippines), so unless an online copy is released somewhere, this probably won't be accessible to anyone not in the country. Which is a shame because it's great. The movie is set in one of the slums in Metro Manila and is focused on a group of friends who are into fliptop (a Filipino appropriation of freestyle hip hop and rap battles). Basically, they're a bunch of degenerates who come from troubled families and like to rap. The main character, Hendrix, delivers drugs for his sister's boyfriend, and ends up losing some of the money. In order to get the money back, they try to rob this old man (a former activist during our country's time under martial law), get caught, and end up having to do community service for the old man. What elevates this movie is the way it comments on our current situation here in the Philippines (our President is currently implementing a war on drugs which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Filipinos, mostly members of the urban poor) and does it through a very small-scale story of a teenager trying to use free-style rap to win the respect of his peers. I'm sorry if this commentary was incoherent, there really is a lot going on in the movie, and some knowledge of the socio-political and cultural context is probably necessary to really understand it. Still, it's an angry film for angry times, and I think that's something people can relate to across cultures.

Watched Silence last week and loved it (probably in part because of my own experience having grown up around Jesuits and ignatian spirituality.) If I had watched it before making my ballot, it probably would've taken my number 10 slot (sorry 20th Century Women). Certain Women got high on my ballot mainly on the strength of the third act w/ Kristen Stewart and Lily Gladstone. I would've wanted The Handmaiden to place higher, but I'm just glad it made it at all. Probably my favorite Park Chan-Wook movie, although I've only watched 3, so take that with a grain of salt.

All-time (no particular order): 1. Deadwood 2. The Office (US) 3. Freaks and Geeks 4. Neon Genesis Evangelion 5. The Wire Current: Better Call Saul The Good Place Game of Thrones The Americans Rick and Morty

1. Moonlight 2. Arrival 3. Certain Women 4. Manchester by the Sea 5. Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) 6. La La Land 7. Hail, Caesar! 8. Hell or High Water 9. The Handmaiden 10. 20th Century Women

1. Dragon Ball (keep in mind, not Dragonball Z) 2. Rugrats 3. Adventures of Pete and Pete 4. Hey Arnold! 5. Johnny Bravo 6. Teen Titans 7. Powerpuff Girls 8. Samurai Jack 9. Justice League 10. Boy Meets World

Scrubs. Season 7 especially was pretty bad. But season 8 was a good end to the series.

Embedding isn't really working for me right now, so i'll just post links to videos. Gun to my head, I'd have to choose between the openings of Freaks and Geeks ( ), Cowboy Bebop ( ) and Cheers ( ). Cheers is in there mainly on the strength of nostalgia. Some of my most vivid memories from when I was younger involve watching Cheers on VCR with my mom (I'm just guessing that it was on VCR, not really sure). I remember I memorizing the lyrics of the song, and always trying to copy the face of the kid in the last picture of the credits.

I really love Scrubs, but why do you think Louie is a pile of shit?

Hmm, at this point, is the "vote for everything rule" still necessarily? If the purpose of the rule was to make sure that all match-ups had some votes, you don't really need it anymore, since at this point, almost all of these shows have a good amount of supporters. It'd be a shame if a really close match-up ended up being decided by a "didn't watch either, flipped a coin" vote. It's your tourney though. Votes sent!

EASTERN BRACKET 1) Community vs. 4) The Office (U.S) 3) The Walking Dead vs. 2) Seinfeld CENTRAL BRACKET 9) Game of Thrones vs. 4) Breaking Bad 3) South Park vs. 15) Sons of Anarchy MOUNTAIN BRACKET 1) The Simpsons vs. 4) The Sopranos 14) Louie vs. 2) Scrubs PACIFIC BRACKET 1) Arrested Development vs. 13) The A-Team 6) Futurama vs. 2) The Wire From the votes so far, looks like The Wire isn't making it to the next round Well, if it goes out here, at least it's to Futurama, another show which I love.