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Post by guttersnipe on Jan 3, 2024 15:41:14 GMT -8
I found The Ratcatcher to be the most interesting of the four shorts, mainly because it seemed so uncharacteristic of both Anderson and Dahl; in the former case that he deviates far from his idiosyncratic fixation with characters ill-fitting their uniform in showcasing a frankly disturbing human oid in threadbare scruffs, and in the latter case that I never knew Dahl ventured so dark into human behaviour. In any case, I really appreciated the artificial narrowing of focus and literal plunges into darkness. As for Chicken Run, it's hardly a wheel-reinventor, but it boasted a particularly strong colour palette and maintained a surprisingly creepy Holocaust-by-way-of-Toy Story 3 vibe in the gaslighting scenes as the chickens enter the farm "playground". It suited us just fine as we settled down and awaited the fireworks. Incidentally, partly thanks to spending part of the year managing a cinema, I also had a relatively deep-dive on 2023, but even then would feel uncomfortable making my own Bottom 10 for the year as nothing I saw was that bad... except for Cocaine Cougar, a film so execrable it makes something like Poseidon Rex look like Children of Paradise. Oh, and you absolutely called it on the Mickey Mouse slasher.
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Post by Jeremy on Jan 3, 2024 17:21:43 GMT -8
I think I would have liked The Ratcatcher more if it had actually featured a stop-motion animated rat. Actually surprised that Wes Anderson resisted the temptation, considering his proficiency with stop-motion in the past. But in general, I enjoyed all of Anderson's Dahl shorts, and I like how Netflix allows for a showcase of some of the author's darker and less kid-friendly stories. On a semi-related note, have you seen Revolting Rhymes? I wrote a little about it a few years back; it's one of the more interesting Dahl adaptations I've come across, serving a dark and surprisingly violent riff on Franctured Fairy Tales that is still technically made for kids. I don't know if it entirely works, but it's a fun watch (and features an interesting "friendship" between Red Riding Hood and Snow White). Incidentally, partly thanks to spending part of the year managing a cinema, I also had a relatively deep-dive on 2023, but even then would feel uncomfortable making my own Bottom 10 for the year as nothing I saw was that bad... except for Cocaine Cougar, a film so execrable it makes something like Poseidon Rex look like Children of Paradise. Oh, and you absolutely called it on the Mickey Mouse slasher.I'll be honest, I think my "Bottom 10" pieces might come off as a bit harsher than they're meant to. Mainly they're intended to give me an opportunity to flex the snark for a bit of year-end fun, but there's never a year that I watch ten truly bad movies, which means I need to include a lot of films that simply settle on "disappointing" or "mediocre." Which of course doesn't mean they're exempt from criticism, but it can make some of the films I mention come off as worse than they are by dint of association. (For the record, I thought Beau is Afraid was still far better than Blood and Honey.) And yes, the Steamboat Killy trend (for lack of a better term) was no shock, although I am surprised by how quickly these indie studios have started capitalizing on it.
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