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View Full Version : The Tall Man (Pascal Laugier)



Bosco B Thug
09-01-2012, 12:43 AM
http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/66115/The_Tall_Man_2.jpg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1658837/

Bosco B Thug
09-01-2012, 01:04 AM
Don't read any reviews. If you had any appreciation for Martyrs, you should just give this one a blind chance if it comes near you (and you've got the time, money, and interest to spare). I went in blind and feel all the better for it.

It has things to offer. It's not exactly well-made - it's got the DTV vibe and some kooky construction; the first 30 minutes are pretty rough - but rest assured this has Laugier written all over it.

Dukefrukem
09-04-2012, 06:52 PM
Don't read any reviews. If you had any appreciation for Martyrs, you should just give this one a blind chance if it comes near you (and you've got the time, money, and interest to spare). I went in blind and feel all the better for it.

It has things to offer. It's not exactly well-made - it's got the DTV vibe and some kooky construction; the first 30 minutes are pretty rough - but rest assured this has Laugier written all over it.

You know, I JUST discovered this was directed by Laugier, and my love for Martyrs made me begin to research this. So glad I searched on MC before going to the internet. I see you gave it a B-. That's great news.

EvilShoe
09-25-2012, 07:57 PM
Yeah, this definitely works best if you go in blind.

The third act is a bit rushed, but it's still worth a look. Don't really want to say more.

Rowland
09-26-2012, 01:18 AM
Less devastating than Martyrs perhaps, this remains another ambitious genre deconstruction by Laugier, diabolically clever in its construction and thorny in its philosophical knottiness. That said, how about toning it down a bit with the transitional wipes next time?

Bosco B Thug
09-26-2012, 05:13 AM
Wonderful. While it's less devastating than Martyrs, this remains another staggeringly ambitious, clever, and thorny genre deconstruction by Laugier. I'm officially a fanboy.
So many structural and narrative affinities to Martyrs. Not surprised. It's also a bit like that other movie you like.

And had as an avatar at one point.

That rhymes with Bon Laby Bon.

transmogrifier
09-27-2012, 12:24 PM
One of those films that you can't really pin down quality-wise for the majority of its running time, simply because the narrative convolutions require the thing to stick the landing to ultimately establish whether there was a point to it all in the first place.

In this case = yes, but with reservations. There's not a hell of a lot of shading in the margins to get excited about - it mostly looks just drab and functional, which suits the setting, I guess - but the whodunnit/whydunnit plot does all the heavy lifting, and does it well, efficiently creating tension and generating intrigue while at the same time acting confident that the destination was going to make it all worth while.

And it is, but it's all a little tame and pat to be labelled a massive win, even if the very final scene makes a last-minute grab for profundity that unfortunately isn't exactly built on any grand theme the film has been sneakily establishing throughout.

Still, an entertaining warm blanket of a film to wrap yourself in.

megladon8
09-27-2012, 12:42 PM
The reception this is getting (particularly on here) is really surprising.

Can't say the trailer did much of anything for me. It looked awful, actually.

number8
09-27-2012, 04:58 PM
Speaking of Laugier, I just saw this hilarious quote by the dude who's directing the US remake of Martyrs:


"Martyrs is very nihilistic," he told 24 Frames. "The American approach [that I'm looking at] would go through all that darkness but then give a glimmer of hope. You don't have to shoot yourself when it's over."

Dukefrukem
09-27-2012, 05:37 PM
Speaking of Laugier, I just saw this hilarious quote by the dude who's directing the US remake of Martyrs:

Is that funny because it's true? Martyrs is definitely a downer movie, as brutal as A Serbian Film and equally exhausting.

number8
09-27-2012, 05:40 PM
Is that funny because it's true? Martyrs is definitely a downer movie, as brutal as A Serbian Film and equally exhausting.

I just think that sentiment is so quaint. "Oh what a depressing movie. Don't worry, I'll make my version brighter because we can't handle that shit in America."

Dukefrukem
09-27-2012, 05:57 PM
I just think that sentiment is so quaint. "Oh what a depressing movie. Don't worry, I'll make my version brighter because we can't handle that shit in America."

Ah I gotcha. When you put it that way it sounds like it was either a studio or money issue. Americans generally do not like movies that don't result in a happy ending which may result in lower box office. They're probably going to make the ending;

To allow the second girl to escape, only after witnessing the brutal torture of the first girl

megladon8
09-27-2012, 09:06 PM
*sigh*

Guess I'll remove Martyrs from my Halloween marathon.

Spoiler tags, please!!

EyesWideOpen
09-28-2012, 02:10 AM
This was fantastic. Glad I listened to your recommendations.

Dukefrukem
09-29-2012, 12:35 AM
Don't read any reviews. If you had any appreciation for Martyrs, you should just give this one a blind chance if it comes near you (and you've got the time, money, and interest to spare). I went in blind and feel all the better for it.

After I finished watching it tonight, I started googling reviews, and saw this one at JPP.net (http://www.justpressplay.net/reviews/9923-the-tall-man.html), and was gonna ask 8 why his boy wrote the shortest review on the planet where he pretty much says this movie is "terrible" and that Biel can't act. And then I remembered... oh yeh, it's one of those movies that you can't really talk about.

Anyway, I liked this enough. Wasn't great. Could have been better in some areas.

specifically the living conditions

Dukefrukem
09-29-2012, 12:43 AM
Someone could have told me that I forgot to close the spoiler tag above!

Dead & Messed Up
09-29-2012, 05:46 AM
I just think that sentiment is so quaint. "Oh what a depressing movie. Don't worry, I'll make my version brighter because we can't handle that shit in America."

Also, it kinda misses the entire point.

The original film is horribly depressing because Laugier wants to put the audience through an approximation of the systematic and unrelenting punishments the heroine experiences.

megladon8
10-02-2012, 10:27 AM
What an odd movie.

More thoughts to come, but yeah, it's nothing if not unpredictable.

megladon8
10-02-2012, 08:45 PM
Jeez, still processing this.

I think it's admirable that Laugier presented things fairly evenly, not siding on the issue at hand but rather showing both the pains and the reasoning on both sides.

I found the voiceover narration quite intrusive, but I loved the final bit...

...where the girl talks about loving all three of her mothers.

I wish the V/O had been cut up until that final part. It ended the film on a really interesting note.

Also, holy crap at Jessica Biel. Up until now I saw her as a fairly typical Hollywood pretty face without much talent. But wow, she was pretty great in this.

Winston*
06-03-2013, 10:17 PM
I'm not sure about this one.

To set up the film as being about the fear of losing one's child, then morph into Gone Baby Gone doesn't sit right with me. Good to know that all the children that disappear in America each year end up in affluent big city households

megladon8
06-04-2013, 07:08 PM
I don't think the film made that implication at all.

Winston*
06-04-2013, 08:58 PM
How does it not?

Opens with text talking about the number of children that go missing every year.

Moves into this small town where a bunch of children have gone missing.

Reveals that that these children have not actually been killed, but been relocated by the 'Tall Man'.

Makes reference that there are other Tall Men out there.