Mastodawn

David Cook May 22

Jason Lefkowitz

I cannot emphasize to you strongly enough just how right @jwz is about this

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/05/recent-movies-and-tv-30/

Recent movies and TV

Freaky Taies (2025): I have watched this three times. It is four interleaved stories, happening simultaneously in 1987, and the first one is a bunch of Gilman punks absolutely eviscerating some Nazis. If you aren't already in, I can't help you. It is "Pulp Oakland". The attention to detail is fantastic. Whoever made this.... was there. Also the Easter eggs! The cameos! The film references! ...

Jason Lefkowitz May 22

I know when people talk about movies like this it feels like you’re being assigned homework. But CASABLANCA is the opposite of homework. It’s moving, anti-fascist, humanist. It stirs the soul. If you’ve been avoiding it because it’s in black and white, you have been denying yourself a delicious treat just because it doesn’t come in a flashy wrapper.

Michael Wyman May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz and the music just kicks ass.

Michael Wyman May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz there are a handful of movies I know I can put on if nothing else sounds good. Casablanca is top of that list.

Viraptor May 22

@mwyman @jalefkowit @jwz play it again, Sam...

Queen of Chaos (Anarschism)May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz

There are a lot of great black and white films. Whenever I see people throwing the word "gaslighting" around, I ask them if they've ever actually seen the film the term comes from.

It really brings it home.

@CosmickTrigger @jalefkowit But when I say that I think Gaslight wasn't actually a very good movie, people think I'm doing a bit.

Queen of Chaos (Anarschism)May 22

@jwz @jalefkowit

I dunno. I liked it. I don't like a lot of black and white films but there's a few that I like a lot.

Like "Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!"

Piers Cawley May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz I was in my late forties when I finally saw it and… *fucking hell* why did I wait so long? What a film. Genuinely as good as, possibly better than, everyone says it is.

@jalefkowit
Then lighten the mood by following it with Barbwire, the most hilariously terrible remake.
@jwz

It's a good-ass movie.

@jalefkowit @jwz

Coach Pāṇini ®May 22

@dogfox @jalefkowit @jwz

If the cinematic emotion during the singing of "La Marseillaise“ doesn’t transmit thru the screen, something in you might be broken.

That’s okay.

You just need a tune-up.

Stefan Edward Jones May 22

@paninid @dogfox @jalefkowit

I occasionally play it when the current situation has me down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM

Casablanca La Marseillaise

YouTube

Violets and Velvet May 22

@paninid it's not cinematic, and i am not nationalistic (though i am a VOL) but this is my bring on the tears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llkwpwdk2ro

Yma o Hyd - Dafydd Iwan | Dafydd Iwan sings Yma o Hyd with lyrics and English translation | S4C

YouTube

Coach Pāṇini ®May 22

@velveteen100 what is a VOL?

Violets and Velvet May 22

@paninid UTK grad

Coach Pāṇini ®May 22

The campaign to name our next dog “Smokey” started today.

Dreaming of dad jazz.May 22

@paninid @dogfox @jalefkowit

I get choked up thinking about it.

The woman playing Yvonne singing with tears running down her face?

That's Madaline Labeau who was a refugee from the Nazis who fled with her Jewish husband Marcel Dalio to Canada. He played Emil the croupier.

The cast was full of refugees. Those emotions were real.

Dreaming of dad jazz.May 22

@paninid @dogfox @jalefkowit

Fun side note. Conrad Voight who played Nazi officer Major Strasser?

Also a refugee.

He fled with his Jewish wife to protect her.

Holy shit! I had no idea. That's amazing.

@michaelcoyote @paninid @jalefkowit

Dreaming of dad jazz.May 23

@dogfox @paninid @jalefkowit

It was somewhat shocking on one hand but on the other it made so much sense.

Hal Pomeranz May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz @mycrowgirl Always makes my list of top movies at all time. The humorous notes are what keep the movie from drowning in its own sentimentality.

Venya (he/him/dude) 🇺🇦May 22

@jalefkowit We bought this on BluRay about a year ago because I realized we'd never seen it and it was EXCELLENT

Jason Lefkowitz May 22

@venya One of those movies where you get mad when you finally see it because it turns out to have been as good as the annoying movie nerds were always saying 😆

@jalefkowit @venya all right, nerds. I’ve downloaded Casablanca and I’m watching it tonight.

If you’re wrong, I’m coming back tomorrow with choice words.

Jason Lefkowitz May 22

@xconde @venya Challenge accepted 😆

Hope you enjoy it!

@jalefkowit @venya quick update to say that I enjoyed Casablanca.

Thanks for the push to watch it, and here’s looking at you, kids!

Jason Lefkowitz May 27

@xconde @venya 🫡

babble encat May 22

@jalefkowit I quite liked Twelve Angry Men too, also black and white

Luke Kanies May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz this was exactly my reasoning for forcing my kids to watch it. They grumped, but overall I think they liked it. And yeah, suddenly a lot of cultural references clicked.

I’m working my way up to The Seven Samurai with them :)

@lkanies I don't think the kind of attention span needed for 7 Samurai exists anymore.

barsoomcore May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz if you haven’t seen CASABLANCA, then you don’t understand “cool” as a concept because nothing has ever been cooler than Humphrey Bogart in CASABLANCA.

@jalefkowit @jwz The only issue with watching Casablanca now is that its script has been referenced in so many other movies and used as pop culture tropes so often that it feels like one big meme.

Simon Cozens May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz being right? I'm shocked, SHOCKED.

@jalefkowit @jwz Bookmarked and noted... esp given that reaction to the murderbot book (I thought I was the only one)

@jalefkowit @jwz The Casablanca/Maltese-Falcon double feature I saw at maybe 15 was one of the better things to ever happen to me, pop-culture-understandingwise.

Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄May 22

@jalefkowit @jwz And really, you need to see Casablanca so you can understand the epic movie Barbwire.

@jalefkowit @jwz I watched it a year or so ago with low expectations, because, well, black and white. But wow it is a good film. And the quality of the Blueray release a couple of years ago is amazing. Thoroughly agree that people should watch Casablanca.