FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Cordelia » Fri Apr 26, 2019 10:33 am

Finally watched VICE but its style didn’t work for me (the trailer was deceptive!). My two cents I ...felt like I was watching a sequel to 'Fahrenheit 9/11' w/a cast of well-known actors playing the bad guys along with 'Kurt-the-narrator' in the part of Michael Moore.

Especially couldn’t get w/Steve Carell as Rumsfeld (he strikes me as too ‘nice’ to be such a self-assured, ruthless liar).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnSBo7rIQLI

I don't know what actor could play him now but can imagine Anthony Hopkins or Gene Hackman from 20-30 years ago.

After a while the graphics, cartoons, metaphorical inserts, fly-fishing, etc. .. were too obvious & gimmicky (the Cheneys reciting Shakespearean verse as pillow talk?); more an animated collage w/all the bits & pieces thrown in, resulting in an incoherent jumble rather than a well designed and crafted composition ‘meriting’ best picture awards.

Amy Adams should have gotten a best actress Oscar for her performance imo, and at first I didn’t even realize it was Sam Rockwell playing 'W' – he was great as usual.

But watching Alfred Molina :hug1: as the restaurant maître d' reciting the menu options made the film worth the watch.
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We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby chump » Sun May 19, 2019 9:07 am



The Green Book was great! I was ready to turn it off at first, but decided to give it twenty minutes, and was glad I did because Viggo Mortenson was funny as shit, and the entire cast was actually classic in a road trip tale that took me back to the simpler daze of singing sixties.

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby kelley » Sun May 19, 2019 3:06 pm

'The Favourite'

Yorgos just killed it with this bleak farce of fractious wit and dark cynicism

'The Lobster' was a very good film but this one is above and beyond

Everything filmmaking should be and rarely is these days

A brilliant production from top to bottom-- casting, writing, sets, cinematography, score, everything

All three lead actresses are brilliant but Emma Stone knocks it out of the park

What a performance-- subtle physical comedy and much much more

All in all lots of rewards for what seems something of a trifle

IMO a near-genius allegory

(and of the painterly EFX the fisheye lens I loved most of all)
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby JackRiddler » Sun May 19, 2019 4:26 pm

.

kelley:

You don't mention Dogtooth, of course, which is without compare.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31795

The assertive if tongue-in-cheek title of that thread (I wanted a "game" in which people saw it before saying anything) caused some angry responses, but discussion was interesting.

Lobster didn't do it for me like that.

I really liked The Favourite, too! Everything you say. One of the best movies about "royals" ever (not that another comes to mind). Except I liked Rachel Weisz best, what do you know? I laughed unconrollably during the early "you look like a beaver" scene, wherein I realized what the point of the film really was. I also felt that as didactic fiction it was only two omitted scenes short of perfection. Though short, the first of my ideas especially might have bust the clearly restricted budget, or been too much on the nose:

- Jump cut to the court in Vienna or Paris. No explanation. Two, three, as many as five minute scene. Don't even know what should be in it. The scenario can differ radically from the one in Britain, long as it is equally ridiculous and the royals and courtiers depicted are also brutal and obsequious and scheming as they slap each other around while incidentally talking about decisions in the same bloody war. This scene should not relate directly in any way to the stuff depicted in Britain. Nothing of whatever it is is mentioned or indicated once the scene is done and we resume with Anne's court. (Any suggestions?)

- Jump cut to Marlborough's tent. He is feeling frustration and futility as he navigates matters of logistics and supply, reluctantly orders expropriations and flies into a rage about changes in the market price for carrots and beets since last week.

I found The Favourite positively Kubrickian as a work of what I'd call higher realism (despite the anachronistic elements), a sociology. You say allegory. How so? Dogtooth certainly was, although at the same time it could easily have been treated as the literal story of one family in realistic mode (just bumped the old thread to highlight a post by Willow that made this point). Can you expand on what you see as allegorical in The Favourite?

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby kelley » Mon May 20, 2019 6:23 pm

Hi Jack.

The idea of allegory didn't hit me until the very end. It was the dissolve with the multiplying rabbits that did it.

Kubrick had also crossed my mind, but I dismissed the thought as one of superficial resemblance based on style. This was a mistake. The film is indeed made as a type of realism, and that was where allegory became compelling.

The final sequence brought to mind the story of Jacques Lacan out in the channel with a crew of Breton fisherman. As one of them pulled up his nets he noticed a tin can stuck in it along with the catch, and exclaimed to Lacan, 'See that can? See it? Well, it doesn't see you!' Lacan was devastated by this encounter.

I think we agree 'The Favorite' is more than a comedy of manners. It's so dark. While it's probably easily read as a commentary on neoliberal social climbing, the film becomes much more disturbing when considered as a meditation on the utter indifference of nature, and how through convention, which is linguistic, humankind makes its own copies of nature and excels at this unparalleled mimetic act, with all this implies. I've never seen this addressed so astutely in a film.

It's absolutely chilling. Yorgos is far more subtle than Herzog or Von Triers with similar observations, and yes-- as terrifying as Kubrick in his completely realist approach. What an excellent work.

So short answer, yes to realism, and yes to allegory. Reconciling the two, or perhaps not, makes things even more interesting, and is a terrific feat. Good stuff.
Last edited by kelley on Mon May 20, 2019 6:43 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby kelley » Mon May 20, 2019 6:39 pm

ps-- imo Donald Barthleme did something similar in his 'Snow White' book.
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby chump » Sat Jun 01, 2019 7:23 pm

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby JackRiddler » Sun Jun 02, 2019 11:18 am

That is great kelley and a lot to think about. I'm glad you saw Dogtooth finally!
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Elvis » Sun Jun 02, 2019 4:10 pm

I usually devour anything about Nixon but I still haven't seen Oliver Stone's movie; I just can't accept Anthony Hopkins as Nixon. I guess I could get used to it.

The best Nixon portrayal in my opinion was by Rip Torn, in the 1979 CBS miniseries "Blind Ambition." All three networks around that time each produced a miniseries about Watergate.

There are better scenes with Torn—who really nails some of the idiosyncracies—but this is the only stand-alone I found on YouTube:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j41OEvJ-5E

Apparently, the entire series is on YouTube, if anyone's interested.


That "Green Book" movie looks like something I'd enjoy.


I haven't watched a movie in years.
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Harvey » Mon Jun 24, 2019 6:38 am

Best I've seen in a good long while. Avoids the mechanistic button pushing, sight's itself instead on the difficulty of resolution, which is embedded in the structures, themselves necessarily fantastic. A masterpiece.

And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"


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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Harvey » Wed Jul 17, 2019 4:12 pm

Another quite remarkable film, Hagazussa

And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"


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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby 8bitagent » Thu Aug 08, 2019 3:59 am

From the director of Four Lions, comes a comedy based on the infamous 2006 Miami Libery 7/Seats Tower "Terror" threat plot that was so bizarre it was immediately outed in the media as a fake FBI terror sting operation
"The Day Shall Come"


This looks seriously bizarre and hilarious.
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby 8bitagent » Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:03 am



Had a fun time watching this in theaters, even tho I can see why a lot would find it very long and boring with the dialogue. Also I'll admit, I got taken in by the surprise twist shocking ending.

Also just the Bruce Lee scenes alone make this worth seeing. Also side note, I got caught up on two random different times by the production of this in Hollywood last summer when they were filming(one coming out of a record store, then a month later coming out of a restaurant with friends)
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Jerky » Sat Oct 05, 2019 11:18 pm

Just watched this one now.

It's pretty great. A magnificent companion piece to Four Lions.

Morris' righteous fury is tempered into a satirical weapon of devastating effectiveness, without ever losing touch with its humanity, and the humanity of the characters involved in these tragic, all too real events.

It begins with the following text on the screen: "Based on a hundred true stories." In a recent interview, Morris said it was actually closer to 300.

Highly recommended.

8bitagent » 08 Aug 2019 07:59 wrote:From the director of Four Lions, comes a comedy based on the infamous 2006 Miami Libery 7/Seats Tower "Terror" threat plot that was so bizarre it was immediately outed in the media as a fake FBI terror sting operation
"The Day Shall Come"


This looks seriously bizarre and hilarious.
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Jerky » Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:14 am

Here's my review of THE DAY SHALL COME

Christopher Morris is, in my opinion, a talent on par with Stanley Kubrick, and the Anglosphere’s single greatest satirist since none other than Johnathan Swift. His output has always been outstanding, beginning in the 90’s with surreal pranks and dada-style antics on the radio, followed up with some of the most revolutionary and controversial “comedy” television in the history of the medium (The Day Today, Brass Eye, the too-good-for-its-own-good Nathan Barley, and the absolutely terrifying Jam), leading up to 2010’s Four Lions, his magnificent debut feature film about bumbling Islamic terrorists in the UK.

And then… radio silence. Oh, sure, he directed a few episode of his pal Armando Iannucci’s excellent HBO series VEEP, and he’s made a handful of onscreen appearances (perhaps most memorably as the sinister boss-man Denholm Reynholm in The IT Crowd). But for six long years, we heard only snippets from the man. And then, a couple years ago, we learned that he was working on a new project. Another film! Slowly, information about this new project began to leak out in dribs and drabs. It was to be another terrorism-related film, but very different from Four Lions. It was to be set in the USA… Miami. It was to be shot in Dominican Republic. It was to be called The Day Shall Come. It was to star Anna Kendrick.

And then, last week, it came out. And I watched it. And I was underwhelmed.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad. And it’s quite funny. And it has some important and true things to say about the moral rot, hypocrisy and idiocy at the heart of the post 9/11 War On Terror. It is also incisive about both racism in the USA, and the inherent insufficiency of the rhetoric and the attitudes that have risen up to confront these problems. And the jokes are good, and land with admirable regularity. It deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible… and I think a Black audience in particular would appreciate what it has to offer.

It’s just that, on first viewing at least, unlike most of Morris’ previous work, it didn't feel like an unparalleled work of staggering genius.

So, what’s it about? Well, “based on a hundred true stories”, it’s about how the FBI sets up vulnerable, damaged people by offering them loads of money and weapons, and when the targets of their schemes show up to pick up what’s been offered, they arrest them, tell the world they stopped the next 9/11, lock them up and throw away the key.

It’s worthy. It’s funny. It’s available online for relatively cheap. It just didn’t knock my socks off, that’s all.
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