TTH Watch Along, sponsored by deadly pandemics

[Jimmy Floyd]

With all sport cancelled until we die, we are all going to need something else to do and so as suggested by Boydy earlier, it's time to launch TTH Watch Along.

Now we've all watched different stuff, and our regular or random media viewing may be best kept in the usual threads. With this new void in our lives, however, and a possible lengthy spell of working from home for some, many of us may have the opportunity to catch up on some of the things we've missed, and flag them up for others. Some people may wish to go on the same watching journeys as other posters, while some may have their own quirky TV or movie desires to fulfil and post about.

The gap in my personal viewing history is film (or as our Trump-voting brethren call it, 'the movies'). Truth be told, I just haven't seen many films and I don't really understand the medium like other people do. As such, my personal mission launching from now and lasting either until I finish it, or until sport comes back (whichever is the sooner) will be to watch, review and rank every Oscar Best Picture winner since 1960 (year chosen so I don't have to sit through Ben Hur again), in order. This will no doubt land me some duds, but it's the easiest way to get a broad and somewhat representative history of generally good films. In doing this I hope to learn something, surprise myself, and maybe even enjoy a few of them as well.

I have seen a handful of the Best Picture winners before (fewer than 10, at first glance) but I'm hoping that by watching them all in sequence over a period of however long this takes, I will perhaps gain a new appreciation for life, the universe and everything. Or perhaps I will be bored senseless. Either way, there aren't going to be many goals scored in this calendar year, not even by Roy Krishna, so here I am.

Maybe you will join me for a few of these films, but maybe your own special viewing quest will be very different and more enjoyable. Post about it in here.

[Yevrah]

Brilliant idea and I'll join you in that. There are still a few that I haven't seen and if the start date means not watching Ben Hur again, I'm in.

I warn you now though, there are some proper turds in there.

[Boydy]

Yeah, very good idea for what to watch. I'll join in too, it'll introduce me to quite a few I've not seen.

It might be harder to get hold of some of the older ones though.

[Lewis]

It gets a bit ropey towards the back end, but the seventies looks like the best decade for it. The eighties was shocking, it has been hit and miss since.

[Lewis]

1238625067216429057

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

So many musicals in the 60s...

[Gray Fox]

Doesn't Yev have a Marvel-athon to finish?

[Yevrah]

I do, but I was doing that with a friend, now ex and I don't really have the impetus to do it on my own.

The films just aren't that good.

[Lewis]

You were giving the more solid ones sixes and sevens and weren't even into the better phases.

[Yevrah]

Yeah, that was all I was watching and it fucked with the scale. They'd all get revised downwards, bar perhaps Winter Soldier.

[Lewis]

Is that what you fell out over?

[Giggles]

Good idea.
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“Ben Hur and musicals”

https://i.imgur.com/zmvlczO.gif

[Shindig]

My only memory of Ben Hur is taking some of my mam's painkillers whilst having the flu, being knocked out for a few hours, and then waking up to find the film was still going.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I should add that some of these will involve a rental fee or the extra £5 MGM subscription on Prime/wherever, which I will pay because I'm only otherwise spending money on the mortgage, petrol and tinned lentils at the moment, but if you wish to use your wits to find them gratis then that may be preferable.

[Manc]

The seventies are proper tasty.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

70s do look the part.

00's is the decade I've seen the most, I'm only missing A Beautiful Mind.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Evidently, everything in the spoiler is a spoiler.

1.

Year: 1960
Film: The Apartment
Where Found: Amazon Prime / MGM
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley Maclaine and others
Comments before watching: This seems like a low-key start in many ways. Not only is this a film I have never watched, it is a film of which I have never heard. I've also never heard of the films it beat to the Oscar, other than John Wayne's The Alamo, so it may have been a weak year. Among the cast, only Jack Lemmon is familiar to me. It is also in black and white - not the only film in the Best Picture list to be in black and white, but I think the only one not made so for knowing reasons. This arrived as JFK took the oath, just on the cusp of the crossover to technicolour. As such, if you only have eyes for colour it may be one you wish to skip. I, however, have no such luxury, so off we go. The great thing about this is that I have absolutely no idea what to expect. I don't even know what sort of film this is.
Premise: Jack Lemmon is a junior office man who lets his superiors use his apartment for their carnal habits - to his own detriment.
Breakdown:

This is actually a simple, but well-constructed comedy - 60 years ago, such films could win Best Picture - with moments of absurdity and moments of heartfelt sincerity, the latter brought to life by the lead performances and by the charming hits of the theme music. There aren't many true laugh-out-loud moments but Jack Lemmon's performance is certainly a fine one. Without looking, it wouldn't surprise me if he was at least nominated for Best Actor. He was coming off Some Like It Hot at this point so must have been one of the biggest stars around, and it shows - his performance here is quite Hanksian, at least from the time when the younger Hanks was taking himself less seriously.

This is a New York film, in some respects a distant precursor to Woody Allen. Although it dates itself in many ways - the monochrome, the hats as plot devices, the topical references to Castro, Cuba and the space programme - in other ways it feels a long way ahead of its time. The titular apartment itself seems a bit like a time-machined version of the apartment in Seinfeld, right down to the idea of people letting themselves in and complaining about what snacks he has. Our protagonist Bud Baxter is not dissimilar to Jerry either, struggling to find his proper place in the absurdity around him, even if the character flaws are different and the acting skills are in another league entirely. The script is pretty sharp and although the plot verges into predictability at times (Chekhov's mirror, Chekhov's playing cards, Chekhov's sleeping pill...), there are also entertaining takes on familiar New York tropes: the liquor bar, the Jewish doctor (and a great walk-on from his wife), the smoothy-chops executive.

The story is a play on the idea of people selling their soul to climb the greasy pole, but it manages to be quite inventive with some of the side characters - I particularly liked the bitter, devious secretary - and the elevator-girl love interest is also well fleshed out. Our friend Bud is a funny, honest depiction of an urban bachelor. He spends a lot of time making up excuses and tall tales to get him out of embarrassing situations which, on the face of it, are not his fault. However, ultimately everything really is his fault, and he has to do something about it in the resolution.

Verdict: I was never bored, and although intelligent, understated comedies like this were made for decades afterwards (and may even reappear in the Best Picture parade), it made me sad that the format seems in terminal decline today, never mind being in the running for Best Picture. There will be weightier tomes than this to come, but I enjoyed it, and I suppose given I had never heard of it (perhaps saying more about me than it), it counts as a pleasant surprise. It's a shame that films like this don't cast a greater shadow over the collective memory than they do the critical one, but I suppose that's just the way it crumbles, cookie-wise.

League Table
An inevitable early lead. I wonder how long it will hold on.

1 The Apartment

[ScousePig]

Brilliant idea, for the structure if nothing else. It's Saturday lunch time and I already feel like it's half-term, and I've only seen The Apartment once.

[Shindig]

I'd be tempted to do something similar in the F1 thread to cover race weekends.

[Offshore Toon]

Crap idea. Make a coronavirus prediction thread.

[SvN]

The Apartment is brilliant. I'd have it ahead of Vertigo and and maybe just behind Strangers on a Train and Rear Window in the Hitchcock table.

[Shindig]

I do love Strangers on a Train.

[Manc]

Rope is tremendous.

[Ian]

Rope is tremendous.

This is correct.

I didn't like Vertigo at all.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The Apartment is brilliant. I'd have it ahead of Vertigo and and maybe just behind Strangers in a Train and Rear Window in the Hitchcock table.

Is it Hitchcock? I couldn't find any reference to him when I was reading in afterwards.

[Lewis]

Crap idea. Make a coronavirus prediction thread.

It will be just Floyd doing this. The rest of us will be doing the lunch/dinner/tea debate every three days and running an enormous Late Night Thread.

[Offshore Toon]

I'll come out of semi-retirement to make a few threads a day if I'm working from home.

[Lewis]

'Offshore's Office', taking over where Penaldo's Pleb Pit left off. :drool:

[Disco]

Crap idea. Make a coronavirus prediction thread.

You make one if you want it so much.

[ScousePig]

Crap idea. Make a coronavirus prediction thread.

Draft up some questions in the main thread and then start a new one for predictions only.

[Offshore Toon]

I will do if I nobody else does. I'm not being lazy, I just know there are others who have a better knowledge of the situation than I do.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Trust me, within a few days/weeks we're going to want to think about literally anything that isn't coronavirus.

[Offshore Toon]

Right, I'll do a draft thread.

[Shindig]

I feel like this should be more of a free for all rather than a film club. Videos of cool shit, preferably longer in length.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It can be whatever you want, as stated in the OP. I have had 3 hits at the 1961 film so far and hoping to drag myself to the end in the coming days.

[Shindig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByRKF1INOcU

I legitimately like this stuff in a Letters from America kind of way.

[SvN]

Is it Hitchcock? I couldn't find any reference to him when I was reading in afterwards.

I have spent years and years thinking it was a Hitchcock film. You've just blown my mind.

[Disco]

Are you thinking of Rear Window? That's Hitchcock and based around an apartment.

[SvN]

Nope, I know the film well, I just always assumed it was Hitchcock.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's by Billy Wilder who apparently fell out with Monroe when they worked on SLIH the previous year, hence why there's a rather cutting gag about her early on in The Apartment.

West Side Story is coming, fucking hell, there must be better times ahead than this.

[Shindig]

I'm thinking about watching The French Connection later but I think I'm remembering that I've already seen it. I remember the chase on the station platform and the bit where Hackman's taking the car apart for drugs or something.

[Boydy]

I can't see me watching any of these now. Can't even concentrate on an hour-long episode of a TV show at the minute.

[Yevrah]

That's what I'm struggling with. I can do work as I feel like I have a responsibility to the staff in my team to show leadership, and that won't wane, but afterwards all I'm doing is consuming more misery (which has actually been somewhat useful for work) and I'm not switching off at any point as a result.

I've had jobs before where there was a lot of driving and a lot of hours (I've done a few 3am finishes in the office and a few all-nighters, I mention for context not to sound like a twat), but the thing with that was I always knew at some point in the not too distant future I'd be able to hit the town and have a massive blow out, which would always get rid of the cobwebs and somewhat reset things. Then periodically I'd be able to go away somewhere nice and forget about work and everything and that was great. This job was easier than that, but now I've no idea when either of those things will happen again, and all I'm left with is watching Chris Whitty in macabre NHS adverts.

Couple that with the fact that I'm also single (which definitely has its plus points at times like this) and I've genuinely no idea when I'm going to get laid again. It could be months. 6 months? 12 months? who the fuck knows? What I do know is couple the two and it's just not healthy.

That said, I'll still get through the isolation and (as it stands currently) I'm one of the lucky ones and won't forget that in a hurry, if ever. What I now definitely do know though, is that I sure as shit won't be watching West Side Story again in a hurry.

Godspeed Jim.

[phonics]

I've been watching Suits. Easy mong watching.

I reccomend Drive to Survive for even those not interested in racing. It's very good.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've been watching Upstart Crow episodes to cheer myself up. It needs to be something with an immersive world and as far away from current reality as possible. And ideally with some laughs.

I'm also thinking about going balls deep in meditation.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've finished up The Vikings (good but loses a lot of what made it good in season 4, doubling the episodes in the season didn't help too), watched This Country (tremendous) and working my way through The IT Crowd (pretty damn good).

Think I'll do Peep Show next or finish one of the following: Black Sails, The Americans, Better Call Saul, Lucifer, The Blacklist, Preacher, Orphan Black or Blue Bloods.

[Kikó]

Might move to BCS next. Only 3 seasons into the Americans.

[Yevrah]

It's taken a global pandemic (and I don't believe for one minute they're not doing to encourage all of the people bumming around to get their credit cards out), but FIFA Ultimate Team has had some consistently good content for days now. Which will suffice for a while.

[Giggles]

I was going to start that Drive to Survive (which is difficult anyway as it’s one only for me) but a lad in work gave me Ford v Ferrari and Star Wars today so it’s well on the back burner now.

[Disco]

+1 for not being able to concentrate properly, just give me lockdown so I can be a hermit.

[Disco]

I've finished up The Vikings (good but loses a lot of what made it good in season 4, doubling the episodes in the season didn't help too), watched This Country (tremendous) and working my way through The IT Crowd (pretty damn good).

Think I'll do Peep Show next or finish one of the following: Black Sails, The Americans, Better Call Saul, Lucifer, The Blacklist, Preacher, Orphan Black or Blue Bloods.

I liked Vikings (except Rollo, fuck Rollo) but you're right, it drops off a huge cliff at a really obvious point which should have been the end of it.

[Shindig]

The opportunity has presented itself and I still feel like watching The Sopranos is going to be hard work.

[Manc]

I've opted for Line of Duty. Solid start by all accounts.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I liked Vikings (except Rollo, fuck Rollo) but you're right, it drops off a huge cliff at a really obvious point which should have been the end of it.

I like it but it's been tough since that point.

Still another 10 to go later in the year.

[Ian]

I'm gonna get Watchmen finished and the. Maybe actually watch Chernobyl

[Boydy]

One thing I have managed to watch a bit of (while drifting off in bed) is James Acaster's four part Netflix special. He's very good.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm gonna get Watchmen finished and the. Maybe actually watch Chernobyl
I need to do Chernobyl as well.

[Spikey M]

Anyone that hasn't done Chernobyl needs to sort their shit out.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If you think I'm watching Chernobyl in the middle of a pandemic you're going to have to think again.

[Giggles]

If you think I’m ever watching it after what I read about it then you’re deluded.

[Spikey M]

If you think I’m ever watching it after what I read about it then you’re deluded.

What have you read?

[Giggles]

What have you read?

Fuckers melting and people near vomiting watching it, etc.

[Spikey M]

Fuckers melting and people near vomiting watching it, etc.

It is hands down the best series I've ever seen. There's some grim parts, but how do you cover radiation poisoning without depicting radiation poisoning? You'd have to be incredibly weak to be bothered to the point of physical sickness.

[Giggles]

Most wouldn’t be but I’m no good with that shit at all. I won’t even watch the uncensored Supervet.

[Spikey M]

:D fair play, give it a pass.

[Shindig]

I don't find it gory, to be honest. The more brutal stuff is implied rather than shown.

[Spikey M]

I don't find it gory, to be honest. The more brutal stuff is implied rather than shown.

Me neither, but with the Supervet part considered there is the 'dog episode'.

[Shindig]

Pffft. That did nothing to me. Albanian Jimmy Nail was class, though.

[SincereTheRebel]

Watched Gemini man last night. Terrible.

[Giggles]

Not a watch but being at the desk more has rekindled the love of Virtual Pool 4. It’s even good on the iPad now.

[SvN]

The opportunity has presented itself and I still feel like watching The Sopranos is going to be hard work.

I always felt the same. I put it off for years, and now it's probably my favourite show of all time. It's immensely rewatchable.

[Ian]

I don't think I ever finished it but I suppose I'd probably be best starting from scratch if I was going to.

I'm considering a rewatch of The Shield at some point if it's on one of the usual streaming things.

[Boydy]

I don't think I ever finished it but I suppose I'd probably be best starting from scratch if I was going to.

I'm considering a rewatch of The Shield at some point if it's on one of the usual streaming things.
I think I read recently it's on All4 now.

Edit: just checked, it is.

[Ian]

But All4 is the wooooooooooooorst. :cry:

[SincereTheRebel]

Are we all actually watching something together as TTH?

[Kikó]

Who wants to join a fibbage game?

[Don]

Do I need a console?

[Kikó]

No - join zoom.

[Don]

Just tried to and my Samsung None doesn't have the required space. Plus you're all gay.








Looks fucking fun :(

[Giggles]

Who wants to join a fibbage game?
Fibbage?

[Giggles]

I did an online pub session on Zoom this evening. It was way better than expected and also as bad as expected at the same time.

[Boydy]

With Ian?

[Kikó]

Okay we've stopped for the night. Probably do an FM game tomorrow.

[Giggles]

Not with Ian. There was 27 of us split into different ‘tables’.

It’s way worse with hindsight and I’ll never do it again.

[Lewis]

With Ian?

I started one of them with him, but I laughed at the little pumps he had drawn himself to stand behind and he logged off.

[Disco]

That's probably his real house.

[Lewis]

The beer mats and jumble sale shit on the walls were definitely permanent fixtures, but wouldn't he have some proper ones in? These looked like they were cut out of cereal boxes.

[Disco]

Sure they weren't drawn onto his cardigan.

[Lewis]

He insisted on pretending to pull me a drink from one before we started, so they were definitely separate.

[Disco]

Fake pumps for fake mates innit.

[niko_cee]

Not with Ian. There was 27 of us split into different ‘tables’.

It’s way worse with hindsight and I’ll never do it again.

:D

[Giggles]

Someone has uploaded all the Reeling in the Years episodes 1962-2009 :drool:
Bring it on.

[Baz]

I’ve only just found this podcast that is like a pseudo-documentary about 6ix9ine:

https://open.spotify.com/show/1XLWIiPrPABevlKft6ImVG?si=wvMd2BEoTJiUQ_C07amsAg

I’M NOT CRYING YOU ARE.

[John Arne]

Enjoy.


https://youtu.be/0cHzpeOjosU

[Spoonsky]

Have you guys heard of Netflix Party?

[niko_cee]

Sounds more of a Hammer thing.

[Baz]

Yeah it’s a good idea, that Netflix party. Just your mates being cheapskates, really.

[Giggles]

Nice touch RTE :cool:

https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2020/0322/1124685-tipp-v-kilkenny-2014-all-ireland-hurling-final-updates/


https://youtu.be/1RpPtgzPY_o

[phonics]

If you ever wanted to do this, I've worked out how to stream the same video to people all watching a video at the same time as well as record their webcam/audio.

[Spikey M]

Take it to the porn thread.