What I watched in the last week
Jul. 23rd, 2020 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshorty The Old Guard
I wasn't going to check it out since I figured it was just another action movie but then I came across and article that mentioned it was about immortals and based on a comic book. I have such a soft spot for Highlander TV Series and its immortals that anything with immortals is appealing to me. So I checked it out. I enjoyed it. I really liked all the character moments and just conversations between them. I liked how they try not to become too jaded by helping others on what they think is right, as they put it in answering Nile. I don't care that much for action sequences but it was pretty good. Charlize Theron does really well in action movies - she was great in Mad Max and very good here. It is not the best movie ever but I had a good time and was entertained. I couldn't take the main villain seriously, though, because I knew he was played by the same person who played Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter movies. Looking forward to the sequel.
National Theater at Home: Amadeus
I think this is the last National Theater at Home offering and I'm very glad I checked it out and watched it. I've seen the movie "Amadeus" many times and love it very much but I never saw the play by Peter Shaffer that it was based on. This staging was beautiful and so was the music and all the musicians were so amazing. Salieri who was played by Lucian Msamati was amazing. Just the way he spoke, the accent he used and the way he acted; he was just brilliant. Mesmerizing. The only weakness for me was Mozart, because he was just too hectic and a bit too much and I don't know if it worked for me. I think the movie did such a great job that that Tom Hulce is just Mozart to me - he really conveyed the energy and the genius and the instability so much better. But otherwise it is a brilliant play and I'm really happy I watched it. For this one, I wish I was in the audience. I can't imagine how it would have felt live. -
Indian Matchmaking
I am not into dating reality shows. Like at all. The secondhand embarrassment usually makes me cringe. My reality show taste has been shows like Amazing Race, British Bake-Off, and occasionally marriage and babies lifetime shows and House Hunters. And even then, I don't really watch reality shows that much; I prefer scripted shows mostly. But I saw an article about this new Netflix show with a trailer so I checked it out and it was too addictive to stop.
Perhaps it is a cultural aspect since it always enjoy learning about social and cultural practices in past and present societies. And it is not like the idea of Matchmaking and arranged marriage is too foreign - in past and some present Jewish societies, matchmaker is a familiar character. It is not a thing is my life or my families life for many generations now but it is not like I see this process as completely weird or other or something that takes place somewhere else. My friend Yeva met with several modern matchmakers in the course of her dating life. Matchmaking makes sense in a lot of ways because many values people grow up with would be similar which raises possibility of success. My grad school roommate Usha, who was Indian, got married to her husband while I knew her and was very happy with her arranged marriage. I also met a woman on the plane to London when I was 25 who just got married that way. So I know real life people who used matchmaker. For South Asians in America on this show, it just seemed like a dating service with some extra vetting.
I think I kept watching and binging this show because I really liked many people on the show - many women and men looking for marriage and love here just seem so genuine and good people and you can't help rooting for them. And I liked seeing some glimpse into another culture. I've been reading such sad and depressing books dealing with history and possible futures that I think it was really nice to be distracted with this show. Even with some second hand embarrassment.
I wasn't going to check it out since I figured it was just another action movie but then I came across and article that mentioned it was about immortals and based on a comic book. I have such a soft spot for Highlander TV Series and its immortals that anything with immortals is appealing to me. So I checked it out. I enjoyed it. I really liked all the character moments and just conversations between them. I liked how they try not to become too jaded by helping others on what they think is right, as they put it in answering Nile. I don't care that much for action sequences but it was pretty good. Charlize Theron does really well in action movies - she was great in Mad Max and very good here. It is not the best movie ever but I had a good time and was entertained. I couldn't take the main villain seriously, though, because I knew he was played by the same person who played Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter movies. Looking forward to the sequel.
National Theater at Home: Amadeus
I think this is the last National Theater at Home offering and I'm very glad I checked it out and watched it. I've seen the movie "Amadeus" many times and love it very much but I never saw the play by Peter Shaffer that it was based on. This staging was beautiful and so was the music and all the musicians were so amazing. Salieri who was played by Lucian Msamati was amazing. Just the way he spoke, the accent he used and the way he acted; he was just brilliant. Mesmerizing. The only weakness for me was Mozart, because he was just too hectic and a bit too much and I don't know if it worked for me. I think the movie did such a great job that that Tom Hulce is just Mozart to me - he really conveyed the energy and the genius and the instability so much better. But otherwise it is a brilliant play and I'm really happy I watched it. For this one, I wish I was in the audience. I can't imagine how it would have felt live. -
Indian Matchmaking
I am not into dating reality shows. Like at all. The secondhand embarrassment usually makes me cringe. My reality show taste has been shows like Amazing Race, British Bake-Off, and occasionally marriage and babies lifetime shows and House Hunters. And even then, I don't really watch reality shows that much; I prefer scripted shows mostly. But I saw an article about this new Netflix show with a trailer so I checked it out and it was too addictive to stop.
Perhaps it is a cultural aspect since it always enjoy learning about social and cultural practices in past and present societies. And it is not like the idea of Matchmaking and arranged marriage is too foreign - in past and some present Jewish societies, matchmaker is a familiar character. It is not a thing is my life or my families life for many generations now but it is not like I see this process as completely weird or other or something that takes place somewhere else. My friend Yeva met with several modern matchmakers in the course of her dating life. Matchmaking makes sense in a lot of ways because many values people grow up with would be similar which raises possibility of success. My grad school roommate Usha, who was Indian, got married to her husband while I knew her and was very happy with her arranged marriage. I also met a woman on the plane to London when I was 25 who just got married that way. So I know real life people who used matchmaker. For South Asians in America on this show, it just seemed like a dating service with some extra vetting.
I think I kept watching and binging this show because I really liked many people on the show - many women and men looking for marriage and love here just seem so genuine and good people and you can't help rooting for them. And I liked seeing some glimpse into another culture. I've been reading such sad and depressing books dealing with history and possible futures that I think it was really nice to be distracted with this show. Even with some second hand embarrassment.