Recent good movies, just going in release order off my letterboxd, although I have to be careful to include only "Hollywood" here:
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple - beautifully shot and a beautiful theme about what humanity is
- One Battle After Another - it's PTA, all his movies are good
- Bugonia - incredible dark comedy
- Weapons - fun little horror comedy movie
- Sinners - just won an oscar for the soundtrack, not a perfect movie but a fun watch with some incredible scenes
- Companion
- Nosferatu - incredibly atmospheric
- The Surfer - total trip with good old Nicholas Cage
- Love Lies Bleeding - just a fun, a bit crazy movie
- Dream Scenario - another trippy Cage movie
- Poor Things
- Oppenheimer ...
- Renfield
- The Menu
- The Banshees of Insherin
- Barbarian (same director as Weapons)
- Prey
- Bullet Train - fun action movie
- The Northman
- The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
- The Invisible Man - most effective horror movie I've ever seen
- The Gentlemen
- Joker -how close can you get to looking like Taxi Driver without being Taxi Driver ...
- The Vast of Night - some scenes that really draw you in and pretty nostalgic
in 2019 now, so I won't continue, but there are plenty of good movies made nowadays, and I won't say I've seen even a close amount of them from the past few years. Of course I'm watching these at home, not in theatres, so that's certainly an argument.
That's naive. Copyright doesn't just apply to software. There already have been countless lawsuits about copying music long before the term "open source" was invented. No, changing the lyrics a bit doesn't circumvent copyright. Nor does translating a Stephen King novel to German and switching the names of the places and characters.
A court ordered the first Nosferatu movie to be destroyed because it had too many similarities to Dracula. Despite the fact that the movie makes rather large deviations from the original.
If Claude was indeed asked to reimplement the existing codebase, just in Rust and a bit optimized, that could well be a copyright violation. Just like rephrasing A Song ot Ice and Fire a bit, and switching to a different language, doesn't remove its copyright.
I shared the sentiment of this thread for a long time - have a nice setup at home and love to pause/rewind - but started to visit a small cinema as part of a club, to watch new and canvas-worthy flicks like Nosferatu and Brutalist. Regular hall with no fancy tech. It was a transformative experience, 20-30 fellow movie lovers, diverse of all ages. Smell of popcorn, you can turn and exchange a few commentary sentences (if you're the type), the grasps of people during a scene, the sense of leaving while credits roll and hasty deep discourses in the atrium.
I kinda got those remarks from Coppola and Tarantino that I found of "old man yelling at cloud" category before.
The big global business behind it surely is dead - for non-blockbuster genres - but I can't imagine the culture behind it going for a long time. It's the societal standard to enjoy this genre, and a tradition the streaming industry builds upon and uses, there is nothing else. The above flicks had minimal budget in terms of Hollywood. Cinema is here to stay.
I went to see Nosferatu at the opening weekend here, at the local IMAX. It was completely packed, and I was a bit worried when I saw >60% were teenagers.
To my pleasant surprise everyone was quiet. I didn't see or hear a single phone, and only the occasional muffled crumpling of some snacks. During the long quiet parts I'm sure you could hear a pin drop.
So at least here in Norway it's still possible to enjoy a movie at the theater.
I'm glad to see typography getting some attention again. For a while it seemed every film was either using a previously-existing brand logo (any superhero film, for instance), or used some Roman serif typeface—usually Trajan.
That Nosferatu is just superb. I want to watch the film just for the title typeface, let alone other recommendations for it, especially one that says it does cosmic horror very well.
Let’s talk horror films. You know, the ones that make you question whether that creak in your house is just the wind… or something far worse. Well, brace yourself, because the official trailer for the gothic horror masterpiece Nosferatu just dropped, and let me tell you—it's not just another vampire flick. This is the movie that will redefine the genre. Oh, and if you thought you were safe from those late-night chills—you’re not. This trailer doesn’t just hint at what’s coming; it teases, seduces, and then slaps you with dread so thick, you'll forget what the sun looks like.
It’s Not Just Horror—It’s Gothic Horror: What That Means for Your Sanity
Let’s get one thing straight. Nosferatu isn’t your run-of-the-mill, garlic-and-stakes, cape-wearing vampire movie. It’s gothic horror. You know, that genre that thrives on shadows, psychological unease, and making you wonder if your mind is playing tricks on you (spoiler: it’s not).
The trailer establishes a sublime sense of dread, which is fancy critic-speak for “you’re going to be squirming in your seat for a while.” Imagine: fog-drenched landscapes, ominous castles, and a supernatural force that feels like it’s always one step behind you, breathing down your neck. (No, you can’t shake it off.) If you love feeling unsettled, if you crave that slow-burn tension where every shadow hides unspeakable terror—congratulations, you’ve found your new favorite movie.
Love, Death, and Everything Else Millennials Avoid Talking About
But wait, there’s more. Nosferatu isn’t just about the creeping horror of a vampire stalking its prey. Oh no, that would be too easy. The trailer hints at a love story—one that’s as dark and twisted as the creature lurking in the shadows. Think Twilight, but instead of sparkly vampires, you get an ancient evil who would rather feast on your soul than take you to prom.
Here’s where it gets juicy. This love story isn’t all roses and rainbows—it’s tangled up with the looming threat of death. (Classic, right?) The trailer gives us just enough dialogue to hint that the main character is about to face some life-or-death choices, and spoiler alert: death may not even be the worst option. This is the kind of tragic romance where one wrong move could cost you your humanity, and not in a cute “oops, I sent the wrong text” kind of way.
If you're a sucker for forbidden love wrapped in a tapestry of doom, then you're already halfway sold on this movie. The question is: are you brave enough to see how it ends?
A Battle for the Soul—But Who’s Really Winning?
One of the most tantalizing elements of the Nosferatu trailer is its subtle promise of a face-off between humanity and an unseen force. Now, we’re not talking about a quick dust-up where the good guys prevail, and everyone goes home. This isn’t that kind of film.
Instead, it leaves you hanging with a haunting question: Can you really defeat evil, or does it just swallow you whole and leave behind an empty shell of your former self? (Deep, right?)
Every scene in the trailer drips with this impending sense of confrontation. The creature—presumably Nosferatu himself—isn’t just here to terrorize; he’s here to corrupt, to twist, and to transform. The audience is left on the edge of their seats, wondering if our protagonists will walk away victorious… or if they’ll become something much darker by the end of the film.
But here’s the kicker: we’re not even sure if the characters want to win. They might be seduced by the power Nosferatu represents, making their internal struggle just as gripping as any fangs-to-throat action. The whole film seems to be building up to this ultimate question: Can you fight the darkness, or do you just give in and hope it doesn’t devour you too quickly?
Right. That director almost certainly chose that particular film because that particular grain lent the film the vibe they were looking for. Directors always look for ways to implement their artistic vision within the bounds of the medium, but the end results is almost certainly their artistic vision. A lot of that missing information is missing for a reason. Surely someone could use AI to invent things that go in all of the little shadows in Nosferatu, or steady the handheld video camera footage David Lynch was into for a while, but those things serve a purpose.
If people want to AI-enhance movies for their own viewing pleasure, then great. Watch it in reversed color or with a face-swap for all I care. But "improving" the original by inventing detail that the director probably never wanted to show to begin with is a parlor trick devoid of any artistic merit.
Another thing. I buy most movies I like on iTunes, but I have an issue with the films one of my favorite directors; Werner Herzog. The company that distributes his films on iTunes has decided to mostly make his films available with only a dubbed English soundtrack rather than the original German with subtitles. Even though I don't speak German, hearing the original actors voices gives me a better feel of what the director was doing. Herzog actually shot and edited two different versions of Nosferatu, but his ear for english, or his actors comfort with English make the english version clunky and stilted. In Aguirre, the Wrath of God, the voice actor doing the English for Klaus Kinski can't convey the delusional desperation in the closing speech to the monkeys on the drifting raft the way Kinski's voice can.
Interestingly, I recently bought Almodovar's Women on Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. It defaults to a dubbed version, so every time I watch it, I have to reconfigure my AppleTV to play the Spanish, but add english subtitles (a setting that I have to back out when done because it screws up all my other films). Its funny because several of the characters in the film are actors that do voice dubbing, and there are several scenes where they are dubbing an American film into Spanish. Translating that to a english language film it seems like she is dubbing an English language film into English. kind of absurd.
Interestingly, my sense has been that Netflix's recommendation engine does a poorer job now than it did 10 years ago. I always assumed that it was because they used to use fairly straightforward collaborative filtering, and now they seem to be heavily focused on looking for stuff that's somehow cosmetically similar to other stuff I've watched.
So, like, instead of saying, "You liked Nosferatu? Well, other people who liked Nosferatu also liked Ran, so let's suggest that," it now goes, "Hey, that's a vampire movie! How about Blade?"
I also recommend his documentary on his contentious relationship with his long time collaborator Klaus Kinski: "My Best Fiend".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Best_Fiend
Kinski was a very, shall we say, capricious actor (also, a psychopath and as, it turned out later, child molester) whose intense acting had a big part in the success of Herzog's earlier movies (Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, Nosferatu). During the filming of Aguirre (in the middle of the jungle), Herzog supposedly forced Kinski to fulfill his contract at gun point. The natives which were hired to help and act in the film also offered to kill Kinski for Herzog because he was such a maniac.
Hacker Cinema
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Recent good movies, just going in release order off my letterboxd, although I have to be careful to include only "Hollywood" here:
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple - beautifully shot and a beautiful theme about what humanity is
- One Battle After Another - it's PTA, all his movies are good
- Bugonia - incredible dark comedy
- Weapons - fun little horror comedy movie
- Sinners - just won an oscar for the soundtrack, not a perfect movie but a fun watch with some incredible scenes
- Companion
- Nosferatu - incredibly atmospheric
- The Surfer - total trip with good old Nicholas Cage
- Love Lies Bleeding - just a fun, a bit crazy movie
- Dream Scenario - another trippy Cage movie
- Poor Things
- Oppenheimer ...
- Renfield
- The Menu
- The Banshees of Insherin
- Barbarian (same director as Weapons)
- Prey
- Bullet Train - fun action movie
- The Northman
- The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
- The Invisible Man - most effective horror movie I've ever seen
- The Gentlemen
- Joker -how close can you get to looking like Taxi Driver without being Taxi Driver ...
- The Vast of Night - some scenes that really draw you in and pretty nostalgic
in 2019 now, so I won't continue, but there are plenty of good movies made nowadays, and I won't say I've seen even a close amount of them from the past few years. Of course I'm watching these at home, not in theatres, so that's certainly an argument.
That's naive. Copyright doesn't just apply to software. There already have been countless lawsuits about copying music long before the term "open source" was invented. No, changing the lyrics a bit doesn't circumvent copyright. Nor does translating a Stephen King novel to German and switching the names of the places and characters.
A court ordered the first Nosferatu movie to be destroyed because it had too many similarities to Dracula. Despite the fact that the movie makes rather large deviations from the original.
If Claude was indeed asked to reimplement the existing codebase, just in Rust and a bit optimized, that could well be a copyright violation. Just like rephrasing A Song ot Ice and Fire a bit, and switching to a different language, doesn't remove its copyright.
You can only think of 2 notable films since 2022?
* American Fiction
* The Holdovers
* Oppenheimer
* Perfect Days(!)
* Nosferatu
* Conclave
* Challengers
* The Mastermind
I can rattle off more but those seem pretty hard to argue with. All of them are better than EEAAO.
I shared the sentiment of this thread for a long time - have a nice setup at home and love to pause/rewind - but started to visit a small cinema as part of a club, to watch new and canvas-worthy flicks like Nosferatu and Brutalist. Regular hall with no fancy tech. It was a transformative experience, 20-30 fellow movie lovers, diverse of all ages. Smell of popcorn, you can turn and exchange a few commentary sentences (if you're the type), the grasps of people during a scene, the sense of leaving while credits roll and hasty deep discourses in the atrium.
I kinda got those remarks from Coppola and Tarantino that I found of "old man yelling at cloud" category before.
The big global business behind it surely is dead - for non-blockbuster genres - but I can't imagine the culture behind it going for a long time. It's the societal standard to enjoy this genre, and a tradition the streaming industry builds upon and uses, there is nothing else. The above flicks had minimal budget in terms of Hollywood. Cinema is here to stay.
I went to see Nosferatu at the opening weekend here, at the local IMAX. It was completely packed, and I was a bit worried when I saw >60% were teenagers.
To my pleasant surprise everyone was quiet. I didn't see or hear a single phone, and only the occasional muffled crumpling of some snacks. During the long quiet parts I'm sure you could hear a pin drop.
So at least here in Norway it's still possible to enjoy a movie at the theater.
I'm glad to see typography getting some attention again. For a while it seemed every film was either using a previously-existing brand logo (any superhero film, for instance), or used some Roman serif typeface—usually Trajan.
That Nosferatu is just superb. I want to watch the film just for the title typeface, let alone other recommendations for it, especially one that says it does cosmic horror very well.
Let’s talk horror films. You know, the ones that make you question whether that creak in your house is just the wind… or something far worse. Well, brace yourself, because the official trailer for the gothic horror masterpiece Nosferatu just dropped, and let me tell you—it's not just another vampire flick. This is the movie that will redefine the genre. Oh, and if you thought you were safe from those late-night chills—you’re not. This trailer doesn’t just hint at what’s coming; it teases, seduces, and then slaps you with dread so thick, you'll forget what the sun looks like.
It’s Not Just Horror—It’s Gothic Horror: What That Means for Your Sanity
Let’s get one thing straight. Nosferatu isn’t your run-of-the-mill, garlic-and-stakes, cape-wearing vampire movie. It’s gothic horror. You know, that genre that thrives on shadows, psychological unease, and making you wonder if your mind is playing tricks on you (spoiler: it’s not).
The trailer establishes a sublime sense of dread, which is fancy critic-speak for “you’re going to be squirming in your seat for a while.” Imagine: fog-drenched landscapes, ominous castles, and a supernatural force that feels like it’s always one step behind you, breathing down your neck. (No, you can’t shake it off.) If you love feeling unsettled, if you crave that slow-burn tension where every shadow hides unspeakable terror—congratulations, you’ve found your new favorite movie.
Love, Death, and Everything Else Millennials Avoid Talking About
But wait, there’s more. Nosferatu isn’t just about the creeping horror of a vampire stalking its prey. Oh no, that would be too easy. The trailer hints at a love story—one that’s as dark and twisted as the creature lurking in the shadows. Think Twilight, but instead of sparkly vampires, you get an ancient evil who would rather feast on your soul than take you to prom.
Here’s where it gets juicy. This love story isn’t all roses and rainbows—it’s tangled up with the looming threat of death. (Classic, right?) The trailer gives us just enough dialogue to hint that the main character is about to face some life-or-death choices, and spoiler alert: death may not even be the worst option. This is the kind of tragic romance where one wrong move could cost you your humanity, and not in a cute “oops, I sent the wrong text” kind of way.
If you're a sucker for forbidden love wrapped in a tapestry of doom, then you're already halfway sold on this movie. The question is: are you brave enough to see how it ends?
A Battle for the Soul—But Who’s Really Winning?
One of the most tantalizing elements of the Nosferatu trailer is its subtle promise of a face-off between humanity and an unseen force. Now, we’re not talking about a quick dust-up where the good guys prevail, and everyone goes home. This isn’t that kind of film.
Instead, it leaves you hanging with a haunting question: Can you really defeat evil, or does it just swallow you whole and leave behind an empty shell of your former self? (Deep, right?)
Every scene in the trailer drips with this impending sense of confrontation. The creature—presumably Nosferatu himself—isn’t just here to terrorize; he’s here to corrupt, to twist, and to transform. The audience is left on the edge of their seats, wondering if our protagonists will walk away victorious… or if they’ll become something much darker by the end of the film.
But here’s the kicker: we’re not even sure if the characters want to win. They might be seduced by the power Nosferatu represents, making their internal struggle just as gripping as any fangs-to-throat action. The whole film seems to be building up to this ultimate question: Can you fight the darkness, or do you just give in and hope it doesn’t devour you too quickly?
Right. That director almost certainly chose that particular film because that particular grain lent the film the vibe they were looking for. Directors always look for ways to implement their artistic vision within the bounds of the medium, but the end results is almost certainly their artistic vision. A lot of that missing information is missing for a reason. Surely someone could use AI to invent things that go in all of the little shadows in Nosferatu, or steady the handheld video camera footage David Lynch was into for a while, but those things serve a purpose.
If people want to AI-enhance movies for their own viewing pleasure, then great. Watch it in reversed color or with a face-swap for all I care. But "improving" the original by inventing detail that the director probably never wanted to show to begin with is a parlor trick devoid of any artistic merit.
Also: M, I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Nosferatu, a bunch of Bogart, Gable, Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movies.
> b) Languages.
Another thing. I buy most movies I like on iTunes, but I have an issue with the films one of my favorite directors; Werner Herzog. The company that distributes his films on iTunes has decided to mostly make his films available with only a dubbed English soundtrack rather than the original German with subtitles. Even though I don't speak German, hearing the original actors voices gives me a better feel of what the director was doing. Herzog actually shot and edited two different versions of Nosferatu, but his ear for english, or his actors comfort with English make the english version clunky and stilted. In Aguirre, the Wrath of God, the voice actor doing the English for Klaus Kinski can't convey the delusional desperation in the closing speech to the monkeys on the drifting raft the way Kinski's voice can.
Interestingly, I recently bought Almodovar's Women on Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. It defaults to a dubbed version, so every time I watch it, I have to reconfigure my AppleTV to play the Spanish, but add english subtitles (a setting that I have to back out when done because it screws up all my other films). Its funny because several of the characters in the film are actors that do voice dubbing, and there are several scenes where they are dubbing an American film into Spanish. Translating that to a english language film it seems like she is dubbing an English language film into English. kind of absurd.
Interestingly, my sense has been that Netflix's recommendation engine does a poorer job now than it did 10 years ago. I always assumed that it was because they used to use fairly straightforward collaborative filtering, and now they seem to be heavily focused on looking for stuff that's somehow cosmetically similar to other stuff I've watched.
So, like, instead of saying, "You liked Nosferatu? Well, other people who liked Nosferatu also liked Ran, so let's suggest that," it now goes, "Hey, that's a vampire movie! How about Blade?"
I also recommend his documentary on his contentious relationship with his long time collaborator Klaus Kinski: "My Best Fiend". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Best_Fiend
Kinski was a very, shall we say, capricious actor (also, a psychopath and as, it turned out later, child molester) whose intense acting had a big part in the success of Herzog's earlier movies (Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, Nosferatu). During the filming of Aguirre (in the middle of the jungle), Herzog supposedly forced Kinski to fulfill his contract at gun point. The natives which were hired to help and act in the film also offered to kill Kinski for Herzog because he was such a maniac.