Literally just last night I was reading about how Bill Murray had to be replaced by Steve Carell for Asteroid City because he caught covid in 2022, it’s not a week of work it’s more like a month at minimum and that’s if the disease doesn’t fuck you up due to severity + age + comorbidities + post infection recovery. It’s a nice balm to think it’s just a few days of sneezing but it still is a clusterfuck of a thing to catch for most people

Brooke Shields net worth - $40M

The point of Taxi Driver isn’t that society is bad, and things just suck. It’s much more a commentary on the choices Travis Bickle have made and the person he is. Ironically, much like what you’re suggesting, things aren’t bad for Travis because society is harsh and people are mean to him. Things are bad for Travis because he’s a mentally and emotionally unwell person who instead of working on himself obsesses on the negatives of his life and the surrounding world… but is unwilling or unable to make real changes to his lifestyle or attitude.

It’s important because the negative aspects of Travis are the negative aspects in most of us but taken to the extreme. A lot of us don’t take accountability for the state of our lives, for the decisions we’ve made, a lot of our displacing blame and don’t actively deal with our emotional turmoil. But instead displace it on the world around us. There’s a lot of anger in the world just like Travis’s who ultimately decides to channel his anger in an extreme act of random violence which is also unfortunately how a lot of people channel their turmoil in this country and world too. It’s a character study that has only gotten more relevant tbh.

So yeah, if anything Taxi Driver is In itself a criticism of the negativity and cynicism you’re describing but it criticizes those things by exploring a deeply flawed protagonist who brings us into his deeply flawed world view by the very design of the story. It criticizes it by portraying it.

If you just wanna watch happy movies that make you feel good about how things are that’s fine. But don’t try to portray it as like noble or something or like what the world needs more of. There are plenty of mindless entertaining movies that people love and are available if that’s your thing. If anything there are less and less movies that aren’t just mindless entertainment around. And if those are what appeal to you that’s valid but it almost verges on fascist to be like: “yo let’s not have negative portrayal of how things are if they bum people out too much. Let’s instead disingenuously make art about how everything is golden and if you try hard enough all your wildest dreams will come true.” Like that’s not the point of storytelling or art.

Being asked to come into work when you’re covid positive is insane to me

So yes there was a big dance scene which was filmed in LA. And yes it was cut.

Batman ?

It’s based on a book

So the movie is bad because it’s violent and the main character is a bad guy?

[deleted]

Thank you for your courage.

> I’m genuinely confused on why people like these kinds of movies, when there’s more upbeat inspiring movie flicks... Honestly movies in my opinion should have a positive influence on people, they should really inspire people to chase after their dreams and to be hopeful.

Lmao.

> The world honestly isn’t a bad place.

ROFLMAO

Hunh. Never knew this, but yeah

> In 1980, 14-year-old Shields was the youngest fashion model ever to appear on the cover of Vogue. Later that same year, Shields appeared in controversial print and TV ads for Calvin Klein jeans. The TV ad included her saying the famous tagline: "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." Brooke Shields ads would help catapult Klein's career to super-designer status.

She also dated Michael Jackson in the 90s, weird

You could say it about any great screen presence who leaves too soon, but Leslie is one of those where I do stop from time to time and wonder what he might have gifted us had he still been here.

I don’t even get the criticism here. Rocky and Forrest Gump have made hundreds of millions over the years and got the healthiest budgets to begin with. Taxi Driver and American Psycho had modest budgets and box office returns, and maintain popularity mostly within critics and film geeks like us. I’m confident if you asked around at any gathering of people in roughly the same age group, you’d find far more familiar with FG and Rocky than you will AP and and TD.

TL;DR: Hollywood and viewers have already voted with their dollar.

Idk if you’ve seen the Michael Keaton Batman movies but I highly recommend them.

They’re not as realistic as The Batman, but they’ve got pretty much the same vibe, and actually The Batman has the same characters as Batman Returns. Batman Returns is way ‘artsier’ than The Batman, but it’s also extremely dark, and the villains (especially The Penguin) are very vivid.

That’s crazy! I’m in food production, and the official company stance as of May 22 is “If you feel well enough to work, you’re fine. If you’re COVID positive, wear a mask if you want to.”

Dirty Pretty Things

The Night Porter

Chelsea Girls

Yep, this is the only one on the list I agree with. I loved The Batman too, but hated most of the other suggestions (except Bladerunner).

Bonus if you can find the directors cut.

I'm not reading that. Your punctuation/formatting is Bickle-ing my brain.

Great book. Can’t wait to see the movie.

When I lend it to people I absolutely insist they go in blind, but stick around for the “post-credit sequence”

> They definitely spiced up the story with a lot of fictionalized drama

Yep, when I was watching it I was thinking "there's no way that happened, or that, or that, or that and there definitely wasn't a CAR CHASE to the airport" etc and so on

Either way, I really enjoyed it and recommend that everyone watch The Gaming Historian's - The Story of Tetris

🤡

I’m up to date, baby girl.

🤡