Home
Blog

THinc Community Forum?

Taylor Holmes
Blog

THinc Community Forum?

Out here on THinc. I try my best to find interesting and thought provoking films to talk about. But dang, I’m busy. I still find time to land you guys multiple posts a week – but I wonder if the community would flourish even more than it currently does if I wasn’t a bottleneck. By that I mean, what if you had the opportunity to post interesting movies that you had just seen, in order to find others to discuss the movie with you.

Just thinking out loud currently.Many of you are just now discovering the site for the first time. Which, is really cool. I’m guessing I’ll have over 2 million unique visitors this year. Most though are searching for a very specific movie, they lurk, the may comment once, and then go. But I know that there are like 50 to 100 of you out there that are extremely vested in THinc.  And probably around 30% come back regularly. Which is pretty cool, seeing as though this is just a hobby. Like, a splinter of a hobby of a shadow of a hobby. It’s not even what I spend most of my “fun time” on. (That would be watching movies, reading books, playing video games.) But it’s a ton of fun when I get a chance to hang out and talk about whatever movie it is that is hot right now.

And heck, a community may give me a reason to participate more too! hahah. To see what movies you are all about right now? That would be fascinating. Occasionally you guys give me good ideas. But those moments are rare. What if you could register, and create a thread for Donnie Darko (which I have failed you all on by not posting a detailed review of) or even a different angle of a movie that I have posted about. I wonder if it would be frequented at all? Probably depends on how I promote the threads in the site itself.

Currently investigating what community plugins are even out there. So far I’ve found 4 or 5 really amazing plugins that might add all kinds of features to the site. And once it’s up and running? I dub many of you moderators, and away we go. Hrmmm. Might be a little polyanna-ish in my thinking. But it might be worth a trial run anyway? I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the topic. Could be that similar things happen in the community that happen on the site. 70-80% hit and run. 10-20% watch. And 10% engage really deeply. Which, if we have 2 million people swinging through, could be a half decent conversation over the course of a year. No matter the topic.

But what I love about the THinc. Community that is here, is that by and large you are all very very civil. Disagreements are kind and well thought out. Opinions are varied and the hate is so low. (I did get called an asshole yesterday, but that happens so so rarely that it really isn’t even worth noting.) It really is a rare place that that kind of civility happens on the web. I personally think it should be heralded and celebrated. Maybe even expanded.

I don’t know… thoughts?

Tay

Previous I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore Explained
Next Tour De Pharmacy HBO Hilarious Mockumentary
Taylor Holmes

Related Posts

47 Responses

  2. And because you were first to comment I’d make you President of the THinc. Forum. Just like that. Bam. And just like that you are important. Who knew? hahahah.

  3. Well, I’ll be more than glad to be the Important President of the Thinc. Forum as long as all I have to do is be a figurehead. :)

  4. Could I be CEO? :D Just being cheeky.

    I think your idea of an open forum would be fun. I already know what my first movie topic will be. And, yeah, it is to be a European film. What else would it be? :D

    Summer holiday in America is looking to be a fun time. :)

  5. But think of all the money you are missing out on! *the sound of chimes as I giggle uncontrollably*

  8. All I can “thinc” to contribute is validation: respect for the owner (Hello, Tay!) and commentators (people’s perceptions are fascinating–all unique and a few strangely not even close to what a movie presented). Also plan to purchase a cool looking slate or pink t-shirt from Society6 with the iconic Thinc logo.

  9. Hahaha!
    Well, as an update on this idea, I have installed 10 different bulletin board and community plugins for wordpress and hate them all. My next idea is to install a completely separate bulletin board solution that is just cross-linked back and forth. But that means a lot more work for me in order to get it implemented. And although I work in IT and do this stuff all the time, I don’t think I want to install it myself. So I’ll scrape together some cash and see if I can get someone to do it for me. So we will see. Give me a week and I’ll report back.

    As for the t-shirt, I should buy a pile and just give one to each of you that have commented here! hahaha. This is my particular favorite. Alright, I’ll respond back here in a little bit when I learn more. But yeah, I am dying to see you guys proposing your own movies, and own topics for conversation, and for new posts here. (Any of you want to guest post?!?)

  11. I found what I want to install. And I plan to do it myself… only glitch? 4 hour install and config. You got four hours to do it? Be my guest! But I don’t yet! Hahaha.

    But that’s a step forward none the less. Trust me, I want it up as badly as you do. Could just be you and me blitzkrieging zillions of cool movies at each other, but that works for me! Hahaha. Whatever it takes to find more wicked good (read, non-Hollywood trash) movies, I’ll do.

    Taylor
    Taylor

  12. Four hours! Have fun with that. :) I cannot wait until you find a suitable plug-in that is functional. This is going to be fun because I can choose my own movies. I have not seen any of the movies on your list. Some of them I might be able to on one of my aunt’s movie channels. She has so many. In America they have satellite dishes; we have them in France too but it is not as prevalent. I think the French watch less television. :) She has so many channels and move plug-ins. She also has it on her computer as well. Even with all of this, my sister and I barely watched anything because we do not know what to watch. One night, she suggested a show called ORPHAN BLACK. We were hooked after watching two episodes, staying up until three in the morning. We have watched every season that is free on Prime, averaging about four episodes or more per day at the height of our addiction. That show is so interesting because one woman plays multiple characters. Now we can watch it on television direct. She has turned us into Americans. :D

    Even if I could watch many of your movies listed here, I still would not. I do not like dark movies, or movies filled with violent endings. They make me feel bad. I lack the thick skin of most Americans, I think; I cannot watch too much horror or dark cinema with dark pessimistic endings no matter how good they are. This is not to say I cannot watch depressing movies. I can remember the first time I saw 37° 2 LE MATIN. I suppose you can call it a French classic, having won a Cesar. It was made more than a decade before I was born. So being a classic, I gave it a go, and it was crushing. I was in a slump for days because the ending just kills you. It is a typical French cinema with strong humanist leanings and of course, the existential overtones of ordinary people fighting the tides of an absurd world. If you like that kind of stuff, this is your movie. It starts off funny and engaging. The woman protagonist is fantastic, and then it goes south into absolute desolation. The ending shot reminds me of LE FEMME NIKITA, where the two male leads sit at a kitchen table smoking cigarettes and realize they have both lost Nikita forever, and that is how it ends. 37° 2 LE MATIN is in a league of its own and its ending leaves you crushed. The male lead sits at a kitchen table smoking a cigarette; end scene; end movie. Life goes on…it is just so austere. Perhaps I am too sensitive. I am still forced to admit that the movie is quite good, deserving its Oscar nod and Cesar win. I just…would not recommend it to people unless I know they are hardcore Francophile cinema lovers. If so, then this is your movie.

    If you ever do get the plug-in operational, I already have my movie picked out. It will be a mini-treatise on books made into movies and how books almost always trump film. This movie was a low-budget sleeper, and the book was not much better in the sense that it was no classic. Yet, one can never underestimate popularity. The movie took off in Europe becoming a sensation, whilst the book did likewise putting the writer on the map. Now his books are in demand, but his first book is still his strongest suit. The problem is they edited out so much of the book to make the movie, no doubt because it would have been controversial to go all the way; but why not go the distance when they hinted all over the movie about its dark themes. Instead, the movie was diluted, leaving those hints as dead ends. It those missing aspects that weaken the movie, which was strongly character-driven. Without those missing elements, the central character loses her cachet, robbing her of her true pathos. This movie could have been more than what it was. Nonetheless, of its type and genre, it is still one of my favorite movies proving I can watch a dark cinema and not be traumatized. I think as long as the characters exercise some form of humanity, I can empathize with them. If a character is completely without, then I have nothing to hold onto and if it goes south into utter darkness, then I lose interest because I find no point. No matter how dark a character is, there has to be a point of empathy. My friends have suggested I watch DEXTER, a series based on a criminal cannibal. This is not my kind of show but everyone says, the character is quite empathetic no matter how repugnant he is, that being a murdering cannibal. He is a psychopath, “with a conscience.” …Still not my kind of movie. :)

    Anyway, when you get the forum up and running, I will participate. Although, in another month, my sister and I will be taking off on a long road trip, so I will not be here as much.

  13. I’ve sent “THinc. Community Forum?” to a few people admired for their intelligence and tact asking if they would be interested in becoming a host. Their lives are full juggling business, university, and above all else, family. However, I hope they’ll consider your awesome hosting position.

    My preference for anonymity on the internet is strived for (yet, impossible) due to experiencing stolen identity. Plus, cowardly troll’s brainless grunts and name calling is an issue forums encounter I wouldn’t like to deal with if I were a host.

    Senta, I enjoy reading your “books” and mean this in sincerity because I value thoughtful intelligence…and you generously share such a gift.

    I disagree with opinion which places all Hollywood movies in a dumpster (so to speak). There are many deemed classics for good reason and often written, produced, directed, and starred “Europeans.”

    Books to movies don’t always work out. I like sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick and notice many sci-fi television and movies “borrowed” from his prolific stories.

    Blade Runner is my favorite sci-fi of all time. It’s adapted from PDK’s, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” I see the sequel, Blade Runner 2049, is on the THinc. list. Generally sequels cannot compare to the original but with today’s film technology, and the hope screenwriters keep in mind PDK’s complex humanity he imbued AI of the future, hopefully the sequel will be a success.

    Guess this comment is as long as a book, too. Haha! …and they lived happily ever after. The End. Finis.

  14. My father is the same way – he is very protective of me on the internet. He had me fib my age when I first came here because as I was writing I was always very self conscious of how people would interpret what I wrote, that maybe I would come across immature or inexperienced in cinema, so I wanted people to know I was a kid, but my da said fib by a year. Then I got a spurt of confidence when someone actually responded to one of my comments and I just told him the truth. Yes, I am very silly. My father laughed, but he was also concerned. We had another talk on the dangers of the internet. But he is a father so he worries. He will not let me join a lot of sites because I have to use my e-mail address and my address is French and involves my school and real name. I use it only to communicate in school matters, fellow students and other institutions of higher learning. For purchasing online, I do it through my father’s e-mail, which is basically the family e-mail. When I came to America, my aunt let me use one of her throwaway e-mails, addresses she uses for internet purchases. So I understand fully what you mean about remaining anonymous online, especially if you had your identity stolen. That is very bad indeed. I am sorry for you.

    I love all kinds of American cinema. I might even have more favorite American movies than any other countries, only because America makes so many movies! Hollywood is backed by so much money that they can make anything they want. Even if it bombs completely, they do not seem to care; they keep making them. I like American movies because they seem brighter. I cannot explain this to you. I tried to explain it in a comment somewhere but I know I failed. I always start with the fact that all movies are not real. They may appear real, gritty, whatever; it may have great, realistically timed dialogue; it may have great camera work, but movies are not real. They are not real life, because life does not take place in two hours. This morning, in the time it took me to get up, check phone messages, have breakfast, shower and dress is two hours. A movie life will have already finished and I have not even started my day. So, a movie is not real. Obviously, yes. :) So what is a movie? Simplistically, it is a condensation of emotions. In two hours or less, you will experience joy, sorrow, and possibly a life lesson. Enter French cinema. For the most part, it is very depressive because of the French psyche. My country, as most of Europe, has been damaged by horrific wars that have left deep scars that Americans have never experienced, and cannot even begin to fathom. Yes, there was the Trade Center towers, but that is not a war. That was a terrorist act. When your entire country has been reduced to rubble, your women raped, your men slaughtered, with mass fields of military cemeteries, with no food because the infrastructure has been decimated, that is a war. My generation has pretty much grown out of it, and we are more influenced by the world than French history. Not to say we have forgotten all the wars and what they meant (my da takes us to many cemeteries in France, especially Normandy, once a year; he lost relatives there) so that me and my sister will not forget that American soldiers died there to liberate France. He wants us to always appreciate that and to understand that it can always happen again, so be vigilant. I do not know if American kids think this way because America has always been safe, yes. But where I come from, war is always in the back of your mind. This is a type of scar, and I think it is what gave birth to French existentialism in French cinema. Existentialism in a nutshell is ordinary people trying to live life in a confusing and absurd world where fate can work horrifically against you. You will see this thread of thought in almost every French movie, even if it is a comedy. Thus, and this is a sweeping generalization, so forgive me, it is why French cinema “seems” more real, because the themes are often depressive. American cinema goes in the opposite direction. Even if the movie is depressive, Americans tie up the movie in a bow for the audience’s sake, i.e., “let us not depress them, let us give them a somewhat happy ending.” French directors will not do that. They will tell it like it is, from their point of view. In French cinema we do not always get what we want. It is one very big bittersweet compromise, or total loss. THIS is why I like a lot of American movies because you do not do this. Movies are a fantasy where everything works out even if it is tragic.

    I saw the movie SAVING PRIVATE RYAN only a few years ago, probably when I was about sixteen. My da had already seen it and he did not allow me to see it because it is very violent, but he told me it captured some of the grittiness of war. My sister being older wanted to see it, so I piggybacked it, I guess you can say, and I saw it along with her. I was stunned by the scope of it, yet I was not depressed. Indeed, aside from the utter brutality of the opening sequence, I forgot all about it after seeing it. I would say it was a good movie. It was huge in production (you could see and appreciate the money spent) and it told the story in a straight narrative. For all its horror, it ended on an up-note. Yes, everyone dies but Private Ryan lives and he lives a full life in memory of his comrades. This is very Spielberg. He created a movie all about war, yet you walk away unscathed because he maneuvers you so well through the carnage. He idealizes all his characters. This is in all of his movies; there is a sense of safety even if there is danger. …I hope I am sounding rational. This is hard to articulate why I like American movies, but it is for this reason that I like them – I can forget about them. They do not haunt me. Even the movie LOGAN does not haunt me. It was very dark and Logan dies tragically, giving his life for his daughter. Very sad. Yet, it does not last, because even though the movie is dark and gritty, everything is idealized. In French cinema, we do not have this. Very little is idealized. Can you imagine if a French director like Assayas made PRIVATE RYAN? You would have a nihilistic epic of the absurdity of war. No one would be idealized. Everyone would have faults that would be palpable. There would be no true heroes, only the bitter compromises of self and war. You would have a completely different movie. Would it be better? No. Maybe. Who knows? My point is I like American movies because of their idealism and optimism. Everything is brighter. Maybe it is only this way to me because I was raised on depressive European cinema where after watching a movie, you are haunted for days, literally. I saw PERSONAL SHOPPER weeks ago, and it still resonates and haunts me. In a previous comment, I said I saw 37° 2 LE MATIN because I heard it was a French classic. Boy, did I regret it. That movie can still make me sad just thinking about it. I can name any number of French movies and they are all depressing because no one really wins; life will not let you win.

    …So yes, I like American movies. I do not like all French movies; indeed, I am haunted by them. Not a good thing for a sensitive girl.

  15. So, as an update…
    I am currently talking to a developer who is looking into working with me to set it up. I’m currently leaning towards functionality and a look that runs something like this. Basically just a bulletin board that allows you to throw movies out there to discuss – and movies to ask to be reviewed. That sort of a thing.

    Taylor

  16. “PDK” typo is meant PKD for author Philip K. Dick. Also, auto spell finally recognized the THinc. logo after many stubborn re-edits.

    Science is currently in the process of creating AI and may possibly, in the far future, enable mind-reading–that will present some very awkward moments far removed from typos.

    Senta, we both may feel too passionately about the movie genres we love to serve as unbiased hosts. I think you’d make an excellent university professor–particularly teaching a class in French cinema:-)

  17. Senta, we seem to be commenting simultaneously! So a few comment boxes are not in succession.

    You present as a very knowledgeable, sane young person. It’s interesting to read about insights you’ve attained from experience lived thus far. I agree with your da’s initial advice: don’t mention your age on the internet. But that said, you really are an awesome person:-)

    I’ll be looking for your commentary should another film come along that leads us to seek Taylor’s THinc.

  18. My IT education is limited and now obsolete, Taylor, but the site directed to showed features worthy of adding to a cyber shopping cart. Thank you for all you do to keep this site running. I’m sure you’re busy, too, juggling many responsibilities.

  19. My sister and I are driving so I am on my mobile; not so easy to respond, but I agree with you completely. :) I am passionate over so many different kinds of movies and they are a mishmash of genres and languages. I grew up reading subtitles. :D In Europe, every other movie is in subtitles because Germany is right next door, Spain, etc. I could name so many American, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Brazilian cinemas that I have seen and feel so passionate about. There are so many gems out there. They are perhaps not the kind of movies that most Americans would like because they are very subtle and Americans do not do subtle well. Nothing hurts me more than when an American says, PERSONAL SHOPPER was boring. …ow. That is so sad. You try to explain it but they are not interested. You cannot make people like what they do not understand. LOGAN pushes buttons in hyper mode; it is relentless and Americans are weaned on those kinds of production values, so I understand. If I was raised with that kind of cinema, I imagine I would be the same. Again, I am revealing my age because my age group friends are all teens; they are not full adults so they watch things you might never watch and have no interest in foreign cinema, so for me to judge all Americans the same way…well, this site has somewhat proved me wrong because people here like foreign movies. :)

    My sister said to ask you if you like old black and white American movies. I do not understand why she is asking…she says she saw a comment of yours about an “old” movie. She does not know which one. She just wants to know if you are a person who likes old black and white American classics. This will sound terrible, and will perhaps reveal my age like nothing else will, but I have a hard time watching black and white movies. The acting was so different then and the picture quality is so bad. My sister likes them, but she is two years older so she is more…mature. :) She tried to get me to watch REBECCA, an old American mystery movie. For me, no color, no interest. Very bad, yes. :D My sister and mother like old American classics and they will sometimes bring home a DVD to watch; my father and I not so much. We like color. We are terrible. :)

    PS REBECCA was pretty good though…considering there was no color.:P

  20. So…hmm, is it going to be forum oriented, like people can click on a topic that someone posted and it opens into a separate page where you can carry on a convo? When someone says bulletin board I think of school graffiti walls; they are called bulletin boards but they are nothing more than a graffiti wall where people can write quotes, not thesis and novels like we do here. =D

  21. Interesting that you asked that – because I just asked the google that. There are ways to integrate PHPBB (the bulletin board) directly into a wordpress post, but I’m not sure the best way to make it happen.

    I could do a bucket of recent comments on the bulletin board in the right gutter, and at the bottom of all posts, and on the home page. Or, it can automatically connect the Blade Runner post over to the Blade Runner conversation over on the bulletin board. If that makes sense. I’d like to encourage more people to get into the bulletin board than not so that they cross pollenate more. So yeah, I’m thinking through that extensively right now.

    I just paypal’d a guy out of the Ukraine to get going on it. So I’m guessing within a week or so I’ll have a demo that I’ll invite everyone that comes through this post to use. And we’ll work together on how to set it up. For example, do we break it out into movie types at first?

    – Mind Jobs
    – Sci-Fi
    – Drama
    – Comedy
    – Monty Python

    ??? hahaha. I really need help on the setup of the board and how to make it so that it will logically make sense to everyone. But yeah, they are more like Reddit type discussing back and forths. But if they are connected to blog posts I’m sure they will have more bang for their buck.

    For example, if you are all about When Harry Met Sally, or whatever, and you post on the Bulletin Board, “MY THEORY ON WHY SALLY IS AN ALIEN IN ‘WHEN HARRY MET SALLY'” you’ll probably get some love from the 10 people that live out there. But you have no idea how much SEO juice I put into every single post I make on the site. Even the way I write the article is to help get it moved up the SEO results. I mean, that’s how you found it right Senta? hahah. Totally. But that won’t happen inside the Bulletin Board. It’ll just be a place where we can discuss that weird alien theory you have. Or whatever. But the two will begin to support the other and give SEO love to the other. And eventually the bulletin board will be giving back SEO love.

    I would argue that all you have been doing in the comments for my THinc. posts are just bulletin boarding. Comment – reply – reply reply reply – new comment – reply reply reply – new comment… etc. But I generally build a framework upon which the conversation is built around. I give a list of theories… or the internal logic of the movie… right? For your comment to work on the bulletin board it’d probably have to do some of that. Dunno.

    Again, I’m willing to try it, and re-jig it (does that translate to French? Re-Jigger? Wiggle it. Kentucky Windage it? Manhandle it into place?) until it starts to work. (1 hour elapse) Ok, so a lot of these plugins for wordpress really do a very tight alignment between the bulletin board and the wordpress blog. You don’t care this much, but here is what just one plug in can do:

    User integration. This includes a single sign-on, it synchronizes profiles with avatars, and includes user management. You can use external registration modules such as plugins for social media logins. It automatically creates user accounts between phpBB and WordPress. And you can easily set individual permissions.
    Template integration. Your phpBB forum appears within your WordPress site, or your WordPress site can appear within your phpBB forum’s header and footer. It analyzes your CSS and makes the necessary modifications to avoid CSS and HTML conflicts. It does not use iFrames.
    Behavior integration. This gives you word-censor features and allows you to use phpBB smilies.
    Cross posting. You can have it automatically—or manually if you choose—to crosspost between WordPress and your forum. It will even sync comments.
    WP-United also includes 10 widgets that displays information about the forum. They are configurable and even work with the other modules turned off. These widgets include latest posts, latest topics, current users online, statistics, an integrated login/meta/avatar/profile block, birthday list, quick poll, useful links, top bar with breadcrumbs, and a bottom bar that matches top bar.

    So, yeah… it’s all very interesting. I just know that we have a pretty cool little oasis here of people that like to chat and really hammer out ideas. And I was curious what might happen if we gave them all grenade launchers instead of bb-guns. hehehe. Still learning. But more importantly? Actual things are happening right now. (Well, not literally right now, because my developer is a sleep! hahah.)

  22. I do not know anything about how webpage plugins are created so you are talking way over my head. I could show maman what you wrote and she might be able to explain it to me because she is a programmer, but just because she can write mathematical/science programs does not mean she understands the intricacies of constructing a webpage. That is like saying I speak a language so I can understand any language. :) Nope. French is not English, although they are both languages.

    I suppose, yes, that is what I have been doing, commenting on a bulletin board of threads…of the only two movies of yours that I have seen! And yes, I have had fun doing that but right now I am at a stalemate. Unless there is another movie of yours I have seen or will see, then I am limited to PERSONAL SHOPPER and THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS, and it would be terribly wrong to start a thread that had nothing to do with the review you wrote. Very rude, so I cannot do this. Unless, there was a forum.

    My cousin is a 3D modeler…I think that is what it is called. Anyway, he does models and he belongs to a website. I watch him do his work, which is really fun because he can create anything in his computer. Anyway, he belongs to this website that has a type of bulletin board where people post questions, and he helps them with answers, or he looks for answers himself. Anyone belonging to the site can post there and reply, but anyone from offsite can read the bulletin and any entry without having to login. It is really nice. He can spend hours there looking for answers and being tutored by more experienced artists. It is beautifully set up. Here is the link:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/

    If you go there, click on any partition. They have partitions for different types of questions like New Users, Technical Help, etc, and in the lower portion, they have partitions for specific programs. His is Carrera , I think. I recall it was a pretty name. Anyway, click on a partition and it will open a string of posts. People post their questions here. If you click on a particular post, it will open up to a page where you can read the person’s question. Anyone who is a member can post a reply and the conversation can go on forever until the person’s problem is solved. This is what I imagined here, where I can post my own movie and anyone who wants to discuss it, can click on my post and begin replying as much as they want and it will only be about my movie. I could write a “novel” in there if I wanted. :) And so could anyone else. We could get into really deep cinematic aspects in a very comfortable setting. Although I imagine you might need moderators to make sure everyone stays civil, but you are a very small site and people here seem very nice and civil. This site I used as an example is enormous. My cousin says it is a world famous website. …I never heard of it. :p So, anyway, you can see what I was dreaming of. If you had a forum like that, it would be amazing! :D

  23. First things first – run these movies by your dad – trying to think of ambiguous not too dark movies – low on violence and high on thinking. And I ordered them by my idea of your likely hood of liking them. Hahaha. Yes. That is seriously subjected, seeing as though my data pool is just two movies deep. But maybe your Dad has seen a few? That would help to calibrate.

    1. The One I Love
    2. The Arrival
    3. Manchester by the Sea
    4. Before Sunrise
    5. La La Land
    6. Midnight Special
    7. Comet
    8. Frequencies
    9. Synchronicity
    10. Shimmer Lake
    11. Get Out
    12. Operation Avalanche

    I mean – what website or service do you know of that creates bespoke lists of anything? I smattered in all kinds of movies here. You really can’t go wrong with any of these 12. TWELVE!

    Taylor
    ps – say hey to Da for me.

  24. I talked with my da and he liked the idea of seeing ARRIVAL. I have looked at the advert and I like it! See, I do not know a lot of movies, especially American movies, so you have to tell me. I think Americans assume that their movies play all over the world the same way they play here, but it is not so. They must either be dubbed or captioned, and they only play in certain theatres, just like in America. For instance, I could not find a theatre in America that played PERSONAL SHOPPER. I would have to find an arthouse and they are hard to find if you do not know your way around. America is very big and very spread out. It takes hours to get somewhere. FYI, Paris is a small city, and its hub is walkable, or you can rent a bike. People do not realize this. You cannot walk across most American cities. :) I could not find any theatre that played PERSONAL SHOPPER. I had to watch it on iTunes when it recently came out. But if I want to watch WONDER WOMAN then it is playing at every theatre on every corner of America. …Although I hear it is a good movie. :) I imagine my friends will drag me to see it sooner or later. They dragged me to LOGAN and ROGUE ONE. I did not understand either one because they require you to know their backstories. I failed. :(

    I have seen BEFORE SUNRISE. It is an old movie, yes? Two lovers, one French, one American, Julie Delphy? My sister has the DVDs because it is almost a series. I liked the scripts. They are very natural. Do you have a critique page for that one? I looked at your movie page and I flipped through the first five or six pages, and there was no movie that I knew, so I gave up. But now I have something interesting to watch. When my father gets back home this weekend, we will rent ARRIVAL and I will tell you what I think. :) …This is not always a good thing. :D

  25. Arrival was the best movie of the year in my opinion. So deeply profound and insightful. And such a tricky right hook to it.

    Everyone’s opinion is valuable. Even when you are wrong! Hahahah. Just kidding. I look forward to hearing about it.

    Please know, I am widely traveled… and have seen movies all over the world. Most recently I had my passport stolen in a theater in Manila while watching the movie Warcraft. Worst movie ever by the way. My first date with my wife was to see Kenneth Branagh’s Mid Summer Night’s Dream in Edinburgh. I remember watching the Hudsucker Proxy in a theater near the Champ De’lise. Films in Interlaken – which one was my favorite? Gah. I’ll ask my wife. In Addis even. My favorite is when they dub the film, and then put some other language in the subtitles. If either is Spanish, I’ll do ok. Otherwise I am toast. I’ve had my translator translate out loud throughout before! Hahah. Church services that way too. I spent some of my college years in England and Europe, but now I work for an organization that helps children in desperate need around the world. So I find myself traveling fairly regularly.

    Arrival is good. I promise.

  26. Senta, I used to feel as you do about black and white films and it’s absolutely true many old films demonstrated “bad” over-acted scenes. Add to that maudlin background orchestration heavy on violins and interest begins to wane.

    It was my late husband who worked in the movie/television industry since he was a child (started acting in television commercials for Mattel Inc. toys) who explained the artistry and nuanced depth of b/w in both cinema and photography. He loved the film noir genre. Like many actors, he preferred making a living behind the camera. He was talented in camera and lighting but became an ace in sound. Sadly, the movie/television industry honored him as a sound engineer only after he died.

    Like you, Senta, I prefer watching movies in color allowing some exceptions like the comedy “Young Frankenstein” with the late, great Gene Wilder.

    On THinc.’s list is a sci-for soon to launch called, Valerian. It looks saturated in otherworldly color. Hopefully, it has a balance of meaningful storyline drawing viewers into the characters (or aliens/robots) relationships with humor interspersed as well since that may be the “brightness” you’ve mentioned, Senta, in American films.

    I adore movies that offer plot challenges, quirky storylines like “Donnie Darko” yet also seek escapism-type films and agree “The Arrival” was a very good movie.

  27. Taylor, you speak in IT geek a saposexual would sigh about. Haha

    Anyway, was wondering: Is an “in-mail” option on your drawing board for commentators so that off topic and friendly banter is eliminated from movie discussions?

  28. Saposexual! hahaha. L wins the quote o’ the day award. Nope, everyone else go home. Cause you aint got nothing on Saposexual! hahahaha. You hit the nail on the proverbial head my friend. So good.

    Yeah, the system I am installing is PHPBB and it allows person to person communication… I do believe anyway.

    That freaking made my day. hahahaha.

  29. Thx lol:-D

    Years ago I took courses in GIS on Linux OS. It was frustrating to learn after finishing a semester that the textbooks were deemed obsolete. Though I found reading them cures insomnia.

    Taylor, you’ve probably already perused the phpbb.com forum. It is a cool place to better serve your questions/needs than what’s been offered here in this thread so far. The site may help you find hosts, too.

  30. I saw a movie like this! It was dubbed in English but it had Hindi subtitles. Which brings me to the subject of dubs – I do not like them because they ruin the acting. Actors act with their voices as well as their bodies and emotions, and people who dub often do a very poor job. They can completely ruin a movie. Dubbed Russian movies are the worst. Give me subtitles any day.

    You are well traveled! My da is very big on travel and a firm believer in submersing oneself in as many different cultures as possible. He was determined that his daughters would visit many countries to meet people as they are, so that we could see first hand that people are pretty much the same all over the world. My favorite memories are the ones where we actually lived with people. In Vietnam, I spent two weeks in the countryside with a friend of my mother’s. We caught frogs in their fields and ate them! I know to Americans that sounds so gross; it is an acquired taste, yes. But we would go out with their children, and hunt for frogs; they were everywhere because their fields are very marshy. These frogs could be quite large. We would bring them home, prepare them and have a feast. If you like chicken, they are similar. :) But this is what is fun about experiencing cultures – you live as they live, not as you live. I ate their food cooked fresh over a fire or wood stove; I slept in a hammock; I bathed under a water faucet with a shower spout screwed onto it (talk about improvisation); I shat in a hole in the ground – I lived like they lived and it was wonderful!! When my sister and I went back to Hanoi to join our father, we stayed at a really nice hotel. It was terrible; it was too immaculate and shiny. The shower was too claustrophobic. There were no green marshes, or mist on the fields. or fresh open air. There were no big beautiful green bugs, nor hammocks, or bàngoai (grandmamas) to teach you wonderful things. In Vietnamese country culture, elders are HIGHLY respected and revered, and I really loved that. Country life was so simple; it was a place where people lived from day to day the same as they have lived for centuries. Yes, they were basically poor to Western culture, but to me they were far richer and more meaningful in their view of life than anything I have seen in my own culture. I loved the freedom, where each day you tended your patties, your chickens and your goats. Where else could you hop on a scooter whenever you wanted and ride pillion down a country road where every moment is an adventure. Maman teased us when we were back at the hotel. My sister and I were so sad, we wanted to go back to the countryside and be with our friends; forget the five-star hotel!

    People really should travel more and be open to the cultures of others; to appreciate how life is lived in different environs, to make lifelong friends. It is a beautiful thing. :)

  31. Oh, my goodness, you were part of the film industry! That is amazing to have been so close to it. Your husband’s profession must have allowed you a window into the inner workings of one of the most influential industries of the twentieth century, and counting. The stories you must be able to tell. If and when Taylor gets his forum up, you should do a piece on what it was like to be involved with the film industry, especially if your husband won such a prestigious award. I want to hear of it! I have just called your first forum. :)

    Well, it is good to know I am not the only one who does not care for B/W movies, especially since you were part of the industry. Now I do not feel as shallow. Maman always tries to woo me into watching really old movies with all the dancing and singing, but alas, I am not seduced. :D I did like SINGING IN THE RAIN, but it was in color. :p

    I am very much looking forward to VALERIAN! Hopefully, it will live up to the hype. I like Luc Besson. I have seen many of his movies; but of course, yes – he is a French director. :) I liked THE FIFTH ELEMENT. It was a French film shot with American actors so I am sure it played in America. He shot THE PROFESSIONAL with Jean Reno, one of my favorite French actors. That movie became notorious because people were assuming a paedophilic relationship between him and Matilda, but the world sees what it wants. It is a very sad movie. Besson is also the creator of LE FEMME NIKITA. I do not know if you have heard of it because it is a French movie, but it is a very sad story of a girl assassin. There are remakes but none top the original. Besson’s movie is very stylish. I have seen THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLANC-SEC, which even maman liked. It is very offbeat, but a fun fantasy romp. It is in French, so you will have to read subtitles. I saw his latest movie, LUCY. It was OK…sort of. :) My da said it could have been so much better, but that can be said for almost any movie. We will be first in line to see VALERIAN. :)

    And, yes, I am looking forward to this weekend to see THE ARRIVAL. The advert is really cool, so we shall see. :)

  33. The Professional and Le Femme Nikita did well in America, the latter so much so it was redone with different actors.

    I haven’t seen a lot of movies on Taylor’s list above so plan to check them out. Watched trailer for The One I Love and it looks like something not done before, definitely peaks interest.

    Wish I could dish about the movie industry but I wasn’t “in it” and for the short time my late husband acted in parts for children, I remember he said during “cattle calls” kids would be painfully critiqued as they stood just a few feet away from interviewers. He said, as many have lamented, it was a harsh and shallow atmosphere. Also, he never said a bad thing about anybody.

    It’s way off topic from “THinc. Community” but I have enjoyed you and hope Taylor gets the “inmail” feature soon.

    Cheers!

  34. Taylor, one more thing to say before leaving this thread regards your mentioning someone called you an a__hole the other day. Borrowing from a hilarious scene/quote in the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, tell ’em the THinc. community “sends a fart in their general direction.”

    Good luck with the phpBB install–hope all goes smoothly.

  35. You MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER and your FATHER SMELT OF ELDERBERRY…

    too funny. I’m a huuuuge. Python fan. I can literally quote that movie stem to stern.

    “Look, strange women, lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. Look, if I went round, saying I was king, just because some watery tart lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me awayyyy!”

  36. Well,
    The developer crashed my website about an hour ago for a while until I started screaming bloody murder! hahaha. So yeah, he’s working on it. Better him than me. A lot more there to do than I even realized. So ya, that 4 hour estimate? Bullocks. This weekend he is planning to make a lot of headway, so maybe. We shall see… and hopefully next week I’ll have a beta up and working for you few select folks to jump in and try out before we tell the others on the site… shhhhh. hahaha.

    Hopefully that’s the plan anyway. Gah.
    taylor

  37. I didn’t know how else to get this to you, so I’m just gonna leave a comment here.
    I would love an explanation for the movie Eyes Wide Shut! It was a really interesting movie with a brilliant plot, and after I was done watching it, there were so many questions still left unanswered in my mind. I tried to look for explanations online, but couldn’t find one that was completely satisfactory. So if you could take the trouble of maybe posting an explanation, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!

  39. Hey gang –
    The forum is now in test mode. There isn’t any content yet, and I haven’t integrated into this site really yet. But if you want to see it, sign up, and kick the tires a little please go here:

    https://taylorholmes.com/forum

    I think since almost 100% of what we talk about here is movies, I’ll organize it something like this, (but I am definitely open to suggestions)

    1. Mind Jobs
    2. Drama
    3. Sci-Fi
    4. Independent
    5. Unclassifieds
    6. Random chatter

    I may even start creating posts and content that I lock behind a password protected area, or added curated director’s cut type stuff that will require donations or moderator work to get into. But I’m still thinking. Definitely want feedback.

    Glad the forum is up. But been having a devil of a time gluing it into the actual posts themselves. But I’ll figure it out eventually.

    It’s funny how many comments this post has gotten. Shows that we need a place to chatter more. Alright. Let me know what you think of the forum. Nothing really to write in quite yet. But maybe tonight I’ll add a few of those divisions.

    Oh IMPORTANT – if you sign up and want to be a moderator that can approve new forums and approve your own comments please let me know. I will take days to moderate all your stuff and it’ll be faster if I have volunteers to help some.

    Thanks!
    Taylor

  41. Tay, I have hesitation about free phpBB after reading up on it. It’s like a breast implant so many women do these days not realizing a high percentage needs re-surgery corrections. It appears free software like phpBB gets hacked at least once.

    So many pitfalls about dicey plug ins, bloatware, and importance of keeping atop things. Can your amazing busy life allow you to maintain safety of this free software? I have “faith” you will try but because it’s a free software it has the potential for hacker shenanigans.

    Respectfully concerned, L

  42. Hey L, great comments. You do realize all those same concerns are viable arguments against WordPress as well right? And that is what we are chatting through currently.

    I have spent my entire career inside of IT, and could give doctoral level talks on security around PCI, PII, COPPA, even HIPPA etc. I keep my stuff up to date and make certain that my hardware and my installs are regularly patched. That is the most important thing for security. But bottom line? If you don’t want anyone to know something, you shouldn’t really do that thing online. The internet is inherently insecure. I should tell more stories about my internet hacking days. But id kinda prefer future employees not find out. Heheh.

    I’ll dig in and research some more about phpbb security and see. But I appreciate your concern.

    Taylor

  43. Hey Taylor, how do I delete my name/profile from the new forum. It seems deletions are not allowed? I was the first to join.

    Thank you, L

  45. ok thanks…
    got absolutely obliterated by spam in the past week as my real life had my attention averted. Definitely will have to figure out how to combat spam before I move forward. Lots of things will need to change I’m guessing. Login/registration seems chunky. And the integration into the blog is nasty. So, I’m now going to have to figure out a better way to integrate. But thanks for checking it out Judy.

    Taylor

  47. Just found this page, and I love the idea of a forum for this stuff! But it seems like it’s a no go at this point? If I may make a recommendation, you could start a Facebook group for THiNC, and link to it from this site. In my humble opinion, Facebook groups are way better than bulletin-board forums anyway, and they take care of all the problems you were running into here. I run quite a few of them for my various interests, and I’d be happy to help admin one for THiNC if you’re interested.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.