Movies Watched -- Animal Kingdom (2010)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

113 minute running time so 20 to 30 minutes too long … star-studded Australian cast, a crime family movie … I didn’t buy any of it, wasn’t believable, it just didn’t ring true. Ben Mendelsohn plays a good bad guy, I loved him in Bloodline … the evil matriarch, Jacki Weaver, also good, I’ve seen her in a ton of things … I wasn’t thrilled with this cycle-of-violence movie, though John Farr liked it. .. I say you can give it a miss.

You’ve smoked yourself silly

Movies Watched -- Far From Men (2014)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

101 minute running time … Aragorn son of Arathorn is a schoolteacher in Algeria in 1956, feels like 1856 … the story of the prisoner transfer was a little contrived, but I liked this movie … Viggo is multilingual, he can switch from French to Spanish to Arabic and it all sounds fine to my untrained ear … I think I may have been able to trim a bit, but the running time wasn’t terrible, right at the sacred 100 minute mark … this was a John Farr reco (Viggo “gives a performance of quiet intensity,” which is true) and I have to say I second it with a green-go rating. You’ll like it if you’re a sensitive, intelligent, educated, middle-aged white man living on the east coast of Murka who is very glad he doesn’t live in 1956 Algeria.

You’re alive!

Just Because You Hate Trading Doesn't Mean I Do

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Mall Cop once again perfectly on point in today’s stream:

"I'm 34, what the heck am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? Of course I'll keep doing what I'm great at and what I enjoy. It's like asking some great musician, 'hey, why don't you retire?' when [they] just reach success. Most people who are not successful at trading, they hate trading, so all they are thinking about is to make enough money so they don't have to trade. That's the problem. Most traders are not where they want to be. Very few traders are where they want to be, so they kind of project their own situation on others.

For me at this point it's not even a job, it's a hobby. I feel I have total control, I have very low expectations, and I can afford to have low expectations because I have a lot of money, and I don't need to make money every day, every month. I feel no pressure, I just try to be the best trader I can be. I just go with the flow ... and I don't trade a lot of hours, I only trade a few hours a day ... it's not like I'm sitting here eight hours and trading.

No one would ever ask that question to an athlete or a musician or an artist, but somehow I, as a trader, get that question all the time. Just because you hate trading doesn't mean I do.”

Movies Watched -- Goodnight Mommy (2014)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In High German … 99 minute running time, so the perfect length … this was a deeply disturbing horror movie from Austria that I actually enjoyed and give a recommended (green-go) rating to, but if you are squeamish or easily upset you should NEVER see this movie … I can’t say too much about it since it’s such an easy movie to spoil, but it’s really well made and gives you a sense of unease from start to finish. Thanks to John Farr for the reco.

Wo ist unsere mutter?

The Mystery of Mark

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Mall Cop correct once again:

"That's the problem with [him]. He's a marketer and I don't think he makes a lot of money from his trading. He keeps trading these illiquid stocks. He could be trading an account worth hundreds of millions, but for some reason he's not, because his focus is on selling courses. But his methodology is sound, I think his trading books are great. The problem is he's pumping these thin stocks to his followers so he can get these great returns on the investing championship so he can sell more courses and books and stuff. I have no idea why he hasn't just scaled up his trading, he would make ten times more money with ninety percent less effort."

Movies Watched -- Sorry We Missed You (2019)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

101 minute running time … this is more poor white English trash porn from Ken Loach … Loach a specialist in this stuff. You see they weren’t always poor and awful, they were good, honest, respectable, upstanding white people who have now sunk so low as to become delivery men of Amazon packages (if male) and caregivers for the old and retarded (if female). This is so depressing that you want to slit your wrists after watching it. Who on God’s green earth watches this stuff for entertainment? Hard pass!

(That said, young Ken Loach made one of the greatest movies of all time, “Kes.”)

Don’t do it, Dad

Movies Watched -- Lord of War (2006)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

121 minute running time, but felt like an eternity … great opening sequence and then it all went downhill from there … Nic Coppola has a certain charm, but this movie was all over the place, sort of like it was made by a committee, and it ended with endless talking … there was some promise in parts, but ultimately terrible. You can give it a miss, I should have….

Ann Hornaday got it right: “… the filmmaker relies too heavily on a didactic, epigrammatic script; Yuri doesn't talk or relate to other characters, but simply delivers a series of rules and apercus that could have resulted from a collaboration between Hunter Thompson and Oscar Wilde. ‘Lord of War’ has a hip, gonzo energy to it and it's often transfixing to watch and listen to. But it's finally just as empty as the man it's about.”

Nicely staged shot