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Post by Incandescence 112 on Jun 17, 2022 14:24:23 GMT -8
Bridging off that previous comment... This week, I watched a quartet of critically acclaimed dramas - four films that are have garnered a lot of praise and are all in or near the Letterboxd Top 250. My responses to these films overall was a bit mixed. Here are my thoughts, in ascending order of preference: Synecdoche, New York - I was really looking forward to this film, given my love for much of Charlie Kaufman's screen work and for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as an actor. But I'm sorry - as the cool kids say, I simply could not with this movie. It's so aloof and fragmented, so cryptically detached (presumably by intent) to actual human reality that I could not find anything to latch onto. Occasionally an interesting visual (i.e. the house on fire) would perk things up, but hardly enough to sustain full interest. I could tell that the cast was doing good work, but I could not tell you what it was they were working towards. My brain checked out after 30 minutes and it was all downhill from there. My take on Kaufman is that he is a very talented screenwriter who works best when he's opposite a director not named himself who can rein in his more outré sensibilities and keep his mind from disappearing into the clouds. Boogie Nights - So um, I actually went into this film thinking it was going to be about disco. Oops! Saturday Night Fever this ain't. It's a daunting film at 155 minutes, but thankfully the script presented several, um, opportunities to hit the fast-forward button. My overall thoughts are quite similar to Licorice Pizza, in that there are a lot of interesting individual scenes that never really come together in a cohesive whole, in part because the film doesn't really explore its characters as much as it professes to. I know that Paul Thomas Anderson gets a lot of praise for not "judging" his characters re. their myriad misbehaviors, but that makes it a little difficult to discern what the point of the film is. The porn industry ruins lives and breeds a lot of amoral personalities? I mean... yes? I won't knock this film too hard, since a lot of people here really seem to love it. It's fine, didn't hate it or anything, but really didn't connect with much of it. Chungking Express - My second Wong Kar-Wai film. I really liked In the Mood for Love, and was eager to check out his other films. The first half of Chungking Express includes a lot of what I enjoyed about ItMfL - a pair of great leads, palpable romantic tension, some amazing visuals (Wong has a great eye for making visuals pop in the most dimly lit scenes), and a complex shades-of-grey story. The second half of the film... ehhhh. The Tony Leung story is all right, but it goes on way too long and doesn't have nearly as much to say. And while "California Dreamin'" is a catchy song, hearing it played half-a-dozen times in half-a-dozen scenes got real gooey, real fast. Certainly a good film with an appealing cast, but a little too frontloaded. (I'd give the first story four stars and the second three stars, so law of averages and whatnot.) Black Swan - Quite a bit too much fingernail and toenail damage, though obviously the film isn't aiming for a pleasant experience. With that in mind, I really liked it. Great cast, evocative story, incredible cinematography. I haven't seen most of Darren Aronofsky's films, but the reasons behind his polarizing reputation (is he a genius or a psycho? Or both?) are on full display here. This is not a film that will appeal to everyone - and frankly, I wasn't expecting it to appeal to me, but it was the best film I watched this week. Much credit due to Natalie Portman, who nails the portrayal of a girl-next-door's descent into madness. Not particularly subtle in its visuals (i.e. the character's clothing as reflection of mood), but also rich in subtext, without ever losing sight of the compelling character at its center. Huh. I guess Punch Drunk Love might end up being your favorite PTA film. Magnolia, The Master, and Inherent Vice are all pretty hard to love. Inherent Vice and Magnolia, in particular, are two prime examples for me of films with some fantastic moments in them that just don't cohere into a satisfying whole.
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Post by ThirdMan on Jun 17, 2022 15:51:40 GMT -8
I've only watched Inherent Vice once, but I recall thinking it was a ton of fun. I don't know: maybe I'm just really into shaggy-dog detective stories, where "serious" matters are handled in an offbeat, deadpan manner. It's certainly got a loose, free-flowing structure, but I was quite amused by it. Enjoyed it more than much of Joaquin Phoenix's more serious work, even with PTA. The Master leaned too heavily on repetitive behavioral patterns, and I found much of it very tedious, as a result: to me, it didn't find "the fascinating in the mundane".
I think Jeremy will definitely have a hard time with Magnolia, which deals heavily in characters wallowing in misery. I'd be interested in his thoughts on Cruise's performance. though, as it's one of the few times in the past 25 years that he didn't just play (what we perceive to be) himself onscreen. I knew Boogie Nights wouldn't appeal to Jeremy much, on account of the sexual content and whatnot.
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 18, 2022 19:10:47 GMT -8
I really do need to start reading film synopses beforehand. Too often I just want to avoid spoilers and just go based on what I've heard the most positive press about. Oh well.
Of the remaining PTA films I haven't seen, Inherent Vice sounds the most interesting. Magnolia sounds like it could have some of the problems I've had with PTA's other films, and particularly wearying in that it's over three hours long. Cruise's performance does sound interesting, though.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jun 18, 2022 21:12:39 GMT -8
Cruise is phenomenal in Magnolia (and you'll finally understand Xander's "respect the cruller!" bit from "Once More with Feeling!!!" ). The first ten minutes with the Ricky Jay narration is also pretty memorable and function almost like a Pixar short before the film itself, and there's some really interesting and effective use of montage; I love Aimee Mann (don't we all?) so her contributions to the soundtrack (alongside some excellent Supertramp tunes) helps to carry the movie across the finish line. But I think the movie struggles a little bit with momentum, in part because there are a lot of scenes where ONE F*((*&ING CHARACTER SCREAMS AT ANOTHER F&(&*(ING CHARACTER!!! and PTA kind of overrated how exciting or funny or cathartic those moments are in aggregate. But some people, including the late unkinhead, really really love the film and I understand why they do, even if I kind of wanted to doze off during it (and probably wouldn't have missed that much had I taken out any random 30 minute chunk in the middle of it, it being one of those movies).
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Post by ThirdMan on Jun 19, 2022 18:13:42 GMT -8
Well, Jeremy, you won't see someone pull out a thirteen-inch penis in Magnolia. But you will hear someone say, "Respect the c*ck, and tame the p**sy." So, it's a trade-off, of sorts.
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 20, 2022 18:34:31 GMT -8
Well, technically I didn't see that in Boogie Nights either, since by this point I've become quite adept at knowing when to avert my eyes or skip 15 seconds ahead. (Although the latter option remains an issue on HBO Max - where I watched the film - since hitting that button could easily nuke the whole movie. Great streaming service, but lousy UI.) Anyway, point taken.
Oh hey, Hard Eight is barely an hour-forty. That film already sounds awesome.
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 30, 2022 20:26:07 GMT -8
Watched a bunch of acclaimed movies this week, and loved them! Well, most of them.
Persona - After whiffing a couple of times on Bergman films, I finally found one that really clicked. This is a simply told yet incredibly layered film about identity and human connection, with two riveting women at the center. The opening imagery presented as a bit over-the-top, but once the story begins, it lands in surprising and riveting ways. Lots of allegory at work here, but can also be appreciated as a great interpersonal character drama. I didn't fully understand the ending, but also didn't mind; this is a film that's all about the journey, and a great journey it is.
What's Up Doc? - Terrific screwball farce that pointedly modernizes the appeal of 1930s slapstick comedy for 1970s audiences, with a plot that zigs and zags around over a dozen neurotic characters, layering in multiple running gags and callback jokes throughout its tightly constructed screenplay. The gags - both visual and verbal - are often hilarious, and the cast (including the at-their-peaks Ryan O'Neal and Barbara Streisand) is terrific. The film's final exchange remains, a full fifty years later, one of the finest bits of Hollywood trolling put to film.
Annie Hall - Woody Allen is gross. Now that I've made my Woody Allen disclaimer, let's talk about the movie. It's very good! The script has that inimitably Jewish sense of humor that kind of feels anti-Semitic but comes from a place of integrity, so it's all good. The romance at the center never truly feels believable, but that works to the film's advantage in painting a dry and inevitably doomed example of love in 1970s New York. I don't mind the fact that this beat Star Wars for Best Picture, though I do wish that Snow White sequence had been longer.
Midsommar - And here's where my hot streak hit a wall. After three years of hearing all the hype, I finally sat down with all 140 minutes of Film Twitter's favorite horror movie. And... it did not work. At all. The characters were stagnant and the story spun its wheels for two-plus hours, offering nothing scary or (as some viewers fins it) funny. The combination of nigh-everlasting brightness and dissonant score made for a laborious viewing experience, and the constant bird's-eye shots actively diminished what little investment I could muster. A handful of impressive camera angles and Florence Pugh's central performance stand out, but the rest of the film did almost nothing for me. Apologies. I still believe in Pugh supremacy.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Jul 2, 2022 14:57:28 GMT -8
Watched a bunch of acclaimed movies this week, and loved them! Well, most of them. Midsommar - And here's where my hot streak hit a wall. After three years of hearing all the hype, I finally sat down with all 140 minutes of Film Twitter's favorite horror movie. And... it did not work. At all. The characters were stagnant and the story spun its wheels for two-plus hours, offering nothing scary or (as some viewers fins it) funny. The combination of nigh-everlasting brightness and dissonant score made for a laborious viewing experience, and the constant bird's-eye shots actively diminished what little investment I could muster. A handful of impressive camera angles and Florence Pugh's central performance stand out, but the rest of the film did almost nothing for me. Apologies. I still believe in Pugh supremacy. I'm not a fan of the horror genre as a whole, but yeah, I didn't like Midsommar at all either. I highly recommend The Wicker Man if you haven't seen it (or if you have, watch it again!). It's much snappier, with an all time great performance by Christopher Lee.
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Post by Jeremy on Jul 3, 2022 6:59:24 GMT -8
That's not the one where Nicholas Cage wears a bear suit and screams about bees, is it? I don't think that's the one with Christopher Lee but we should probably clarify.
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Post by ThirdMan on Jul 3, 2022 16:27:17 GMT -8
That's not the one where Nicholas Cage wears a bear suit and screams about bees, is it? I don't think that's the one with Christopher Lee but we should probably clarify. The Neil LaBute remake of The Wicker Man was very poorly-reviewed. The 1973 original, starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, is considered a cult-classic.
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Post by Jeremy on Jul 24, 2022 19:43:08 GMT -8
Was on vacation last week and didn't have opportunities to post updates, but I watched a whole bunch of old and not-so-old movies. I might need to split this into two posts, one now and one later.
Se7en - The most horrifying moment of this bleak, sadistic murder story was seeing Richard Schiff without his beard. Wait, no. David Fincher presents a variety of cruel, dark, harrowing situations for its protagonists to endure and investigate, and the last 30 minutes to an excellent job of bringing it all together. Unfortunately, the preceding 90 minutes are kind of dull and impersonal. Freeman and Pitt's characters don't work well beyond the archetypes they embody, and the film takes far too long to build up to its climax. Thumbs-up overall, but not a film I'm rushing to revisit.
The Thing - Incredibly effective thriller film that plays like a shock-horror version of 12 Angry Men. Carefully building its tension, parceling out just enough info to the audience whenever the need arises, John Carpenter creates a twisted, Alien-esque feature with some of the most unbelievable (in every sense) special effects to grace the big screen. The scares are meticulously doled out for maximum effect, heightened by the palpable sense of fear, dread, and paranoia that grows throughout the film.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - The better of the two Miloš Forman films I've watched this year - great as Amadeus was, it felt needlessly fattened at the center. ("Oh yeah, well you're needlessly fattened at the center!" Zing.) OFOtCN is an expertly-crafted and (with the exception of a drawn-out boating sequence) meticulously paced psycho-drama, with uniformly great performances, from Nicholson and Fletcher down to Christopher Lloyd in an impressive film debut. The film tests the audience's stress endurance, presenting a slew of seemingly insane characters and revealing their inner sympathies, then subjecting them to a series of emotional highs and lows, all while sure-handedly developing Nurse Ratched as one of the silver screen's most memorable villains. (Until Netflix had to go and ruin that.)
The Wolf of Wall Street - I kind of swore years ago that I would never watch this film, but I've lately been on something of an Oscars kick (watching a lot of the Best Picture nominees of recent years), so I decided to take the plunge. Considering that it's three solid hours long, I was never really bored, but at a certain point, the excess of excess put my mind on the fritz. No matter how ironically detached the film may fancy itself in its depiction of sex, drugs, and misogynistic debauchery, at a certain point it veers into self-indulgence, and the film's more serious intentions buckle under the weight of frat-boy comedy. DiCaprio holds it all together with his performance, but between the accent, attitude, and fourth-wall cracks, it's very difficult to forget that it is a performance. Certainly some memorable scenes (for good and ill) throughout the runtime, but the whole does not measure up to the parts.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 2, 2022 14:45:31 GMT -8
Haven't updated this in a while. Shame on me!
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - The first 30 minutes of this film are so spectacular - so meticulous in writing, pacing, and visuals - that the rest of the movie almost feels anticlimactic by comparison. But it's still a compelling film throughout, a heartbreaking yet at times uplifting story about overcoming the most insurmountable odds to communicate and live a life. This is another one of those films that I first became aware of through a Simpsons parody, although this film is certainly miles better than that lame and immature Treehouse of Horror segment. Of note is how the film's alphabet subtitles have been tweaked from French to English spelling, which was a bit distracting at first before I learned to roll with it. Also I don't mean to sound sexist or anything, but all the women in this movie kinda look the same. Still very good, and recommended.
Dog Day Afternoon - My attempt to watch Breaking in the theater this week was interrupted by some loud nudniks in the back row, but back at home, I was able to sit through the entire Sidney Lumet film to which it's drawn many comparisons. A tense and vivid thriller with great work from Al Pacino and his Godfather costar John Cazale (who sadly passed away a couple of years after completing the film), DDA does great work wringing two hours of story out of a seemingly simple, Murphy's Law-driven premise, only starting to wear in its final stretch. A perfect viewing for late August, given the setting and title, though I expect I would've enjoyed it at any time of year.
The Usual Suspects - Color me unimpressed. I was aware going in that there was a major twist to this film, but I was not aware that said twist would kind of undermine the film as a whole. But even leaving that aside, the film - while slick and impressively made, and never really boring - suffers from a lot of cookie-cutter characters and a bloated sense of self-importance. It's fine overall, but I doubt this is one I'll revisit. (Also Kevin Spacey ick, etc.)
City of God - Highly engaging depiction of the slums of Rio de Janeiro, equal parts funny and devastating, with a top-notch young cast - particularly impressive considering how most of the actors were unknowns at the time. (Alice Braga appears to be the breakout, though Leandro Firmino is the film's MVP.) Incredibly evocative and personal, though stylized to the point of exhausting - watching the quick-cutting and hyper-edited camerawork, while always keeping one eye on the subtitles across the bottom of the screen, eventually gave me a bit of a headache. But this is my fault for having sensitive eyes and not speaking fluent Portuguese. Like I said, shame on me!
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 5, 2022 9:40:53 GMT -8
Time once again for a filmography ranking!
I've now completed the oeuvre of Christopher Nolan, a director I generally like even if his fandom tends to be among the more irritating on the Interwebs. (Yes, I'm aware he is the only visionary talent remaining in Hollywood, guys, please get out of my mentions.) Though he often dabbles in puzzle-box mysteries, to the point that some of his films lack a compelling human center, Nolan shows remarkable skill at framing a great shot, and has gotten plenty of mileage with a franchise that explores power dynamics and the threat of institutional corruption, elevating the superhero genre as a whole in the late '00s. His female characters leave something to be desired, and the spamming of the Inception trailer sound effect has long since warmed over its initial effect, but his ability to direct high-concept big-budget films that draw both critical and commercial praise is certainly worth commending.
With that preface out of the way, here's my full ranking of the Christopher Nolan filmography:
11. Tenet - Nolan's most recent film is unfortunately his weakest - a bloated, confusing, often numbing exercise in time travel and palindromic filmmaking. Some inspired bits of editing are diminished by one-note characters and a sea of exposition that (on the occasions when you can hear it through the painfully overworked sound mixing) fails to captivate or inspire so much as frustrate and annoy.
10. The Dark Knight Rises - Nolan's Batman trilogy ends on a whimper with this ambitious but limply executed actioner, which trades much of the captivation of the first two films for ludicrous plot developments and a turgid middle act. Tom Hardy's Bane quickly devolves into camp, and much of the initial goodwill is drained away by the time we reach the finale. Anne Hathaway's Catwoman is the main highlight, if at times forced into the larger plot.
9. Following - Nolan's micro-budget debut is impressive for its cost-effective production, but not particularly compelling, and its jutting use of non-linear storytelling feels rather forced. Love that runtime, though.
8. Insomnia - Decent detective thriller that pits Al Pacino's demon-plagued investigator against Robin Williams' mind-manipulating killer. Very dry with almost no humor or personality to speak of, but quite intriguing when the two leads start sharing screentime.
7. Memento - Some inspired use of time-cutting and out-of-sequence storytelling, plus a brash central performance from guy Ritchie, but the whole enterprise just leaves me cold. One of the defining "appreciate more than enjoy it" films.
6. Interstellar - There are parts of this film that are utterly brilliant and other parts that are absolutely idiotic. Easily the most inconsistent film in Nolan's catalog. Smack in the middle it goes.
5. Inception - The best of Nolan's mind-benders, the story still feels a bit too clever for its own good (the dream world makes about as much sense as it needs to, at any point in the film). But it looks and sounds great, and unlike Tenet, it actually remembered to have a compelling narrative hook at the outset.
4. Batman Begins - A strong opening to the Dark Knight trilogy, and a good reboot for its hero in general following the franchise-killing Batman and Robin. Not every adjustment and alteration to the character's mythos works, but it makes for one of the strongest superhero origin films of its or any other era.
3. Dunkirk - Pure spectacle, with great use of practical effects and effective camerawork. Eat your heart out, Top Gun: Maverick.
2. The Prestige - Honestly surprised by how much I liked this one. A twisty, tragic thriller with electric (hahaha) performances from Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, who play their characters' rivalry is one for the ages, all framed against an extravagant turn-of-the-century backdrop. Some real movie magic at work here.
1. The Dark Knight - Still a high point for blockbuster cinema. Impeccably written, grappling with consequential themes about power dynamics that resonated in the period it was made and continue to reverberate today. Wonderfully cast, with Heath Ledger bringing pure chaos to the silver screen. And it just looks amazing throughout. Rivaled only by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as the greatest of superhero films.
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Post by ThirdMan on Sept 5, 2022 15:25:34 GMT -8
There's so much overlap in thematic ambition but also (and perhaps more significantly) ridiculous plot contrivances between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises that it kind of makes me laugh how some folks can love one so much while hating the other. But ultimately, it generally comes down to how much one is able to enjoy Tom Hardy's Bane character, which is absolutely intended (by actor and filmmaker) to have a camp bend to it.
Also, as visual spectacle, Rises' third act wipes the floor with Begins', which is horrendously edited, especially during the subway-car sequence (cool shot when Batman flies out of the subway car, but beyond that, visually incoherent to the extreme). And the less said about the subway-control-center operator ("If it hits the water tower, it's gonna blow!"), the better.
Anyways, I'm not suggesting that Rises is among Nolan's best, but certainly that it's more in the middle somewhere. As is Begins. Tenet is very impersonal, though, so much so that I haven't gotten around to giving it a second look yet, despite it being available for free on Netflix. I will eventually, though.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 5, 2022 17:52:56 GMT -8
I think I mentioned this during our discussion about The Batman a few months back, but I'd say that plot contrivances are more worthy of critique if the story and characters aren't compelling enough to obscure/forgive them. The Dark Knight has plenty of plot conveniences, but the story is riveting enough to forgive them (plus some of them actually work within the confines of the story; Ledger's Joker becomes even more unsettling as an agent of destruction if it seems like the mechanisms of Gotham bend towards him).
Dark Knight Rises has great visual spectacle, I'll grant (even if there are far too many daytime scenes for a Batman film), but I can hear the gears grinding in every scene as the film tries to tie together the themes of the first two films and bring it all to a close. Didn't care for the ending either, though I do respect what Nolan was going for. Still, I probably do need to revisit it at some point; it's been a few years since I sat through its entirety.
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