I think content creators need to start taking a hard look at themselves and think "Do I really need to make this into a tv show?"

I thought Bateman was legitimately impressive in The Gift. He played a pathological liar/bully scarily well and his breakdown at the end still earns some sympathy with the audience. Also his argument with Rebecca Hall where he gets petty and sanctimonious was too real.

I heartily agree. There's Chris Nolan (who's Dunkirk is apparently showing up every blockbuster this year) and then there's everyone else. I knew the end was near when I saw the Beauty and the Beast trailer and the rose was CGI. A rose! They fucking exist in real life!

So now that McCain is pretty close to the end, any chance he'll go off on his party and tell Trump to go fuck himself? I mean he's got nothing to lose.

Bingo!

I found that shot so self indulgent, mostly because the director had not established a visual grammar that would call for it. It's all austere close ups and medium shots until he just decides to track for 7 minutes. You really have to lay the groundwork for that type of stuff.

Yeah me too. Hoping it pulls a Justified, which had its worth season then ended with maybe it's best.

I caught it on tv a few years ago, like 15 years after I saw it. I've since bought it on blu ray. It's amazingly paced and remarkably structured. I seriously think they should teach it in screenwriting classes. Everything that's set up is paid off. So satisfying.

Anyone else think this looks a little like a Tropic Thunder parody? "Thin actor Gary Oldman is now…bloated human toad version of Winston Churchill!"

That's a good choice. I was kind of dissing Oliver Stone. His movies always look like what we think of as drama but often play like unintentional comedies.

That's why I kind of refuse to watch any Showtime show. Every single one follows the same path: a great first season or one great season among six others that are repetitive. That and I can't stand their "house style." Whatever cinematographers they hire or cameras they use, it's just unpleasant to look at.

I was so elated The Americans got nominated for Best Drama last year and this year I'm so elated it was snubbed. What a disappointing, laborious, and poorly structured season of television that was.

How you get seven seasons out of a show like Shameless is just baffling to me. Is that the standard model for every showtime hit?

Aren't you describing an Oliver Stone movie?

At least the basic principles of filmmaking are followed and to a mostly classy degree in Apes. I can point you to filmmakers of varying degrees of professional in this youtube age who don't know fuck all what to do with a digital camera even though they have immense power in their hands. The standard may be higher…

Yeah I used to watch the Ape marathon on AMC back when they would run the series and show a documentary on it. They did the same with Alien and The Fly and my little movie going self couldn't get enough. I think like the Alien series, all the Apes films are valid in some way. Battle might be a little boring, but it's…

I had access to a 16mm film camera last year but alas, we didn't have the budget or access to facilities to purchase film. :'(

As a budding cinematographer who was born right in the boom of the digital age and has never gotten to use film, old lenses on high end digital cameras is a great way to go. It'll never totally capture the texture of film but the results are still lovely. Rogue One was one of the best looking movies last year.

You're crazy. I'll take dancing bears any day!

Amazing Spider Man 2 has the special distinction of being directed by the same guy yet somehow feeling like a different director. Just shows you how much of a non auteur Marc Webb is. Though I did enjoy his first Amazing Spider Man.