Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each.For further details visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks
is School Competition (Not sports - could be singing, music, science)
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Typically when movies feature some sort of school competition, they tend to be of the sports variety, so I thought it'll be interesting to have a non sports theme since there really are a lot of other competitive activities schools and their students participate in.
Cheaters (2000)
Cheaters (2000)
Whiplash (2014)
A young drummer is taught by an incredibly demanding instructor. J.K. Simmons was great as the villainous instructor but I'm underwhelmed by the movie as a whole. While I don't think it's far fetched; I don't know about the slapping and throwing furniture, but throwing books and board erasers happen in classrooms and aren't sports coaches also this aggressive verbally? So why would it be surprising that music instructors be so too? Still at times it does feel like it's just going for the shock factor with the Andrew character practicing until his fingers bleed and the instructor character with his ruthless actions.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
A magic tournament. Not having read the books, this movie was notable for showing that magic was practiced internationally and I think it was also the first one to show the death of a Hogwarts student.
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Great picks! Whiplash is arguably one of the best films of 2014. I still can't believe I forgot about Harry Potter. That movie fits so well!
ReplyDeleteI think the HP movies only featured the magic tournament once; even I almost forgot about it.
DeleteI never saw Cheaters, I can't believe I didn't think of Whiplash that's one od my favorite films. I also choose HP.
ReplyDeleteSame as in the books :) last book I read in the series, the 5th got became boring.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Cheaters and I still really need and want to see Whiplash.
I still haven't read HP, even though I really want to.
DeleteCheaters is a TV movie, so maybe that's why it's not as well known.
Great choices for the theme. I haven't seen your first but it sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe Harry Potter films are so much about competition but I usually think of the Quidditch games which are a sport so I didn't consider them, not thinking about the magic contests which fit quite well.
JK Simmons is great and scary in Whiplash, by far the best part of the film which like you I thought was only okay. The fact of him practicing until his hands bled didn't strike me as that outlandish though. I've read where Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers would rehearse their dance numbers until their feet bled to make them look effortless and have heard the same about many ballet dancers so it doesn't seem that unusual that other artists would be equally intense in their preparation.
Oh Black Swan had a scene where the main character like took off her shoes. I think she had blisters and there could have a bit of bleeding, though like not dripping with blood. I used to play sports in school and our hands and fingers used to get blisters, but we generally took care of them and try to patch it up really quick with band aids and those liquid bandages things. You just don't want instances where you're bleeding and with swollen fingers because how do you even play then? And if your hands are in bad shape, it's probably because you are using bad technique. So yeah that part of the movie I found a little outlandish because Andrew was like sweating and bleeding and I was wondering how he could still maintain a good grip on those drumsticks. There were a few movie articles that tackle the bloody hands in Whiplash when the movie came out asking drummers how it was in reality, it seems that while they do bleed from blisters it wasn't to the extent depicted on screen and that he could be holding his sticks wrong.
DeleteReally liked Whiplash. Simmons was phenomenal. Haven't seen the others, but I am in the midst of correcting my HP blindness.
ReplyDeleteYour kids getting you into HP?
DeleteReally liked Whiplash. Simmons was phenomenal. Haven't seen the others, but I am in the midst of correcting my HP blindness.
ReplyDeleteThe Harry Potter one is a great pick! Haven't thought of that. It's one of my favourite HP movies and of course I also enjoyed the book :)
ReplyDeleteI was very close to picking Goblet of Fire myself. Love Whiplash! Great picks!
ReplyDelete