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Thread: 28 Film Discussion Threads Later

  1. #71626
    Producer Yxklyx's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    Dude, the year just started

    While I dig all the comic book movies, I totally agree with you.

    I was the kid getting slapped around and called nerd for hiding comic books inside class books in school, so I'm living in heaven right now...but I'm also burdened with an internet critics eye, so I don't deny the flaws. I also know comic book stuff isn't everybody's bag, there's a rather heavy suspension of disbelief aspect that some of us are cool with, and others aren't (which is totally understandable).
    I agree with baby doll - but I also feel that the super-hero genre is saturated. I like some super heroes films too and am somewhat interested in Mitchell's take.

  2. #71627
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    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    Back in the '50s and '60s, it was still possible to shame people into seeing auteur films by Bergman, Buñuel, and Satyajit Ray, because it was commonly thought that watching trashy exploitation movies wasn't a suitable pastime for educated adults, but now anything goes--except, that is, watching anything that's actually good or stating that L'Année dernière Ã* Marienbad, Persona, and Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie are just better than, aesthetically superior to, any Marvel movie.
    Can't rep you again for some reason but this was a great post. (And personally, I wouldn't mind a long winded rant about how postmodernism is the devil. I might even make one myself).

    This part at the end tho caught my eye, because what qualifies as "anything that's actually good" is obviously up for debate and also because I think such comparisons are always a little ... wonky? Between ~60 year old international arthouse cinema and the current blockbuster climate, I mean. We got corporate behemoths sitting on culture now. A 1:1 comparison doesn't make sense to me.

    Like: "7 Men from Now," "The Tale of Zatoichi," and "Man in the Shadows" are all from a similar period as some of the films you named (roughly '57 to '62), all of them cheaply made B-movies, and all of them could probably go toe to toe in terms of craft and care with your average workaday nouvelle vague whatever. There's great sequences in these movies, and technique --- camera, lighting, editing --- is used to underline the material, not supplant it. I don't know what else anyone could want from the movies beyond a good story well told.
    Last edited by Irish; 01-12-2022 at 04:04 PM.

  3. #71628
    Quote Quoting Irish (view post)
    Can't rep you again for some reason but this was a great post. (And personally, I wouldn't mind a long winded rant about how postmodernism is the devil. I might even make one myself).

    This part at the end tho caught my eye, because what qualifies as "anything that's actually good" is obviously up for debate and also because I think such comparisons are always a little ... wonky? Between ~60 year old international arthouse cinema and the current blockbuster climate, I mean. We got corporate behemoths sitting on culture now. A 1:1 comparison doesn't make sense to me.

    Like: "7 Men from Now," "The Tale of Zatoichi," and "Man in the Shadows" are all from a similar period as some of the films you named (roughly '57 to '62), all of them cheaply made B-movies, and all of them could probably go toe to toe in terms of craft and care with your average workaday nouvelle vague whatever. There's great sequences in these movies, and technique --- camera, lighting, editing --- is used to underline the material, not supplant it. I don't know what else anyone could want from the movies beyond a good story well told.
    I haven't seen the films you're referring to, but I think the important point here is that you're making a case for these films in terms of their aesthetic merit, which I haven't seen anyone do for contemporary blockbusters, or at least not very persuasively. As for making one-to-one comparisons between corporate blockbusters and old art house movies, obviously it's something of an apples and oranges comparison, but if we're going to take the pluralist position that super-hero movies, comic books, YA novels, and video games are all Art, I think it's incumbent upon people who champion such works to make the case that the best examples of these genres offer aesthetic experiences comparable in richness with, for instance, the novels of Jane Austen and the paintings of Caravaggio. Life is short and there's a lot of art to engage with; "good for its genre" just doesn't cut it for me.
    Just because...
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    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

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  4. #71629
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    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    but if we're going to take the pluralist position that super-hero movies, comic books, YA novels, and video games are all Art, I think it's incumbent upon people who champion such works to make the case that the best examples of these genres offer aesthetic experiences comparable in richness with, for instance, the novels of Jane Austen and the paintings of Caravaggio.
    I dunno .. I see that bolded part there as a big leap, and as a mistake on your part (and trans', even though I agree with you both).

    You're engaging with a weirdly low brow argument and doing it on somebody else's terms. Cf: the whole fuss around Scorsese v Marvel.

    Not everything is art and it doesn't need to be, either. I always wanna ask the stans why such-and-such requires a specific status to be worthy of attention. Can't it just be good craft? There's value in that and the work is still just as cool.

    I think it's incumbent upon people who champion such works to make the case that the best examples of these genres offer aesthetic experiences comparable in richness with, for instance, the novels of Jane Austen and the paintings of Caravaggio.
    Not sure why something would need to be best-in-class (Austen, Carravaggio, etc) to be worth attention, either. Also not sure that's what you meant to imply.

    I agree claims to superiority should be backed up. On the other hand, I think the reference points here are all over the place. For one, it seems like the North American cultural memory only stretches back 20 or 25 years ... and man that ain't pretty. You can drop Goddard's or Sirk's or Powell's or any other name you like into a conversation and get nothing back but a blank stare. So now what? You gotta teach Remedial Cinema Studies 101 before you can even have a conversation...

    Because if you look at the last 25 years of mainstream Hollywood, with it's broad appeal and lowest common denominator, the Marvel shit doesn't appear half bad. I'd personally rather watch "Generic Marvel Movie #29" than "Michael Bay Shits on Screen, Part XVIII."

    For two, there's a whole lotta baggage around this material (and the unabashed love of it) that comes straight from the comic books. A lot of those reference points are junk, but I'd seriously put up "Watchmen" or "Dark Phoenix" or Frank Miller's runs on "Daredevil" and "Batman" against any other 20th century American art you could name. Without hesitating.
    Last edited by Irish; 01-12-2022 at 06:35 PM.

  5. #71630
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    I haven't really commented on the Scorsese v Marvel thing because I've found the whole thing...odd. I don't see why Marvel fans (or whatever) care what anyone thinks. I have no problem liking comic book movies and Scorsese, at the same time! I must be a wizard!

    Again, I totally get it if people aren't into the comic book movies.

  6. #71631
    Quote Quoting Irish (view post)
    I dunno .. I see that bolded part there as a big leap, and as a mistake on your part (and trans', even though I agree with you both).

    You're engaging with a weirdly low brow argument and doing it on somebody else's terms. Cf: the whole fuss around Scorsese v Marvel.

    Not everything is art and it doesn't need to be, either. I always wanna ask the stans why such-and-such requires a specific status to be worthy of attention. Can't it just be good craft? There's value in that and the work is still just as cool.
    I think in the context of the 1950s and 1960s, toppling the high/low art binary was a positive development since it made it possible to take classical Hollywood cinema, jazz, and other forms of popular culture seriously. It's no longer controversial to argue, for instance, that Howard Hawks is a greater filmmaker than Ingmar Bergman, or as one art critic has claimed, that R. Crumb is the Bruegel of the twentieth century, and that's as it should be. What I take issue with is ditching aesthetic standards altogether, which is fundamentally unserious. Contrary to the article I linked earlier, Justin Beiber is not just as good as Bach, and to claim otherwise is to diminish the importance of music. The implication of such a claim isn't that we should take Beiber seriously but that all music, even Bach's, is something frivolous not worth taking seriously, that the classics are overrated so we might as well listen to garbage.

    Not sure why something would need to be best-in-class (Austen, Carravaggio, etc) to be worth attention, either. Also not sure that's what you meant to imply.

    I agree claims to superiority should be backed up. On the other hand, I think the reference points here are all over the place. For one, it seems like the North American cultural memory only stretches back 20 or 25 years ... and man that ain't pretty. You can drop Goddard's or Sirk's or Powell's or any other name you like into a conversation and get nothing back but a blank stare. So now what? You gotta teach Remedial Cinema Studies 101 before you can even have a conversation...

    Because if you look at the last 25 years of mainstream Hollywood, with it's broad appeal and lowest common denominator, the Marvel shit doesn't appear half bad. I'd personally rather watch "Generic Marvel Movie #29" than "Michael Bay Shits on Screen, Part XVIII."

    For two, there's a whole lotta baggage around this material (and the unabashed love of it) that comes straight from the comic books. A lot of those reference points are junk, but I'd seriously put up "Watchmen" or "Dark Phoenix" or Frank Miller's runs on "Daredevil" and "Batman" against any other 20th century American art you could name. Without hesitating.
    I agree that something doesn't have to be the best-in-class to be worthy of attention (I liked Pain and Gain), but I find it a little depressing how low people's expectations are. Whenever I read think pieces about some dreadful Netflix series that the author knows is bad but can't stop watching, I feel like Sarah Jessica Parker's character in Ed Wood; I just want to shout at the screen, "You people are wasting your lives watching and writing about crap!"
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
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    The (New) World

  7. #71632
    I don't have any particular bias against the Marvel movies personally; in fact, I actually like some of them a lot, and I don't see a problem with them or any other "just for fun" popcorn movies being designed primarily just to entertain general audiences, because I think there's always going to be a demand that needs to be filled for movies like that. Not every movie needs to be *insert random arthouse classic here*, after all. However, I do have a problem with the way that they squeeze other movies out, whether it be them taking up multiple screens that should be used to show other films, the way they continue the ongoing stratification of Hollywood productions into either being really big or really small (leaving mid-budget fare increasingly a thing of the past), or the way they even homogenize films within the Superhero genre itself, leaving riskier, more ambitious past examples like The Dark Knight or Logan increasingly unlikely to see in the future, as Disney continues to absorb other intellectual properties into its corporate hivemind... that's what I have a problem with.

  8. #71633
    Speaking of Marvel...

    The best films of 2021, and where film criticism stands in 2022

    Spider-Man‘s dominance on the big screen, which initially seemed like a win, feels like a final blow on the theatrical model. If it wasn’t clear before, it is now: the corporations have won. Disney and Netflix are the de facto rulers of the cultural sphere, and its most ardent fans are also sore winners — unable to concede even the mildest criticism. Film critics, an all-around pathetic group of art lovers, have been reduced to villains. The situation has never felt grimmer.

  9. #71634
    Quote Quoting StuSmallz (view post)
    I don't have any particular bias against the Marvel movies personally; in fact, I actually like some of them a lot, and I don't see a problem with them or any other "just for fun" popcorn movies being designed primarily just to entertain general audiences, because I think there's always going to be a demand that needs to be filled for movies like that. Not every movie needs to be *insert random arthouse classic here*, after all. However, I do have a problem with the way that they squeeze other movies out, whether it be them taking up multiple screens that should be used to show other films, the way they continue the ongoing stratification of Hollywood productions into either being really big or really small (leaving mid-budget fare increasingly a thing of the past), or the way they even homogenize films within the Superhero genre itself, leaving riskier, more ambitious past examples like The Dark Knight or Logan increasingly unlikely to see in the future, as Disney continues to absorb other intellectual properties into its corporate hivemind... that's what I have a problem with.
    I have no problem with unserious fun; the problem with the super-hero movies I've seen is that, aside from Feuillade's Judex and Franju's 1963 remake, they aren't actually fun, even when they don't take themselves way too seriously. (I actually slightly prefer The Dark Knight Rises over its immediate predecessors--which I regard as the capitalist equivalent of plodding Stalinist epics--not only because it has Anne Hathaway in a skin-tight catsuit, but because the story is so silly it's almost funny, especially the whole prison escape scene with other prisoners inexplicably chanting in unison.) But what I mainly object to is the relativist claim that corporate super-hero movies are just as great as the classics--a claim premised on the notion that the classics aren't really that great and that light entertainment is the most we can expect from art (nevermind that the super-hero movies I've seen manifestly fail to deliver even that).
    Last edited by baby doll; 01-13-2022 at 06:21 AM.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  10. #71635
    Quote Quoting Irish (view post)
    I dunno .. I see that bolded part there as a big leap, and as a mistake on your part (and trans', even though I agree with you both).

    You're engaging with a weirdly low brow argument and doing it on somebody else's terms. Cf: the whole fuss around Scorsese v Marvel.

    Not everything is art and it doesn't need to be, either. I always wanna ask the stans why such-and-such requires a specific status to be worthy of attention. Can't it just be good craft? There's value in that and the work is still just as cool.
    I just want to point out that I definitely do not think every movie needs to be art. Movies have different purposes, and that is perfectly fine. When I dislike a specific Marvel movie (e.g., Black Panther, Black Widow...), I'm not comparing it to In the Mood for Love or anything like that - I'm judging it on its own terms, and mostly I don't think many of the Marvel movies are doing anything all that great within the tentpole movie arena, certainly nothing that approaches my favorites like Speed, Face Off, Mission Impossible Fallout etc. Marvel has their formula, I just happen to find it really fucking boring most of the time.

    As I've said, I'm happy for Marvel movies to exist. People like them, they make money, they keep theaters afloat at the moment... no problem. I don't need to watch them. What annoys me are those fans who ONLY care about big tentpoles and (a) cheer the idea of theaters being the sole reserve of mindless action/fantasy and want everything else to be relegated to streaming and/or (b) get personally insulted if you dare dislike one of those tentpole products as if criticism is either an attack on them or an indication of being a killjoy.

    My most unpopular (read: snobby) opinion is that it is very sad for any 30/40/50 year old to call themselves a movie fan and only watch big blockbusters (teenagers get a pass of course, because, well they are teenagers. For many, movies are just something to do with friends rather than an actually hobby or something). Movie studies catering for teenage tastes makes sense, but to me the problem is the number of grown ass adults who claim to be movie fans that have not evolved past teenage tastes who are actively dismissive of anything that is not "fun" and "entertaining". (Note: this does not include grown-ass adults who don't really care about movies in general and will just watch whatever is on or reaches critical mass. They have always existed and aren't the problem)
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  11. #71636
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    With all the qualifications described, I think we all on same page, trans. Hell, Duke and I are probably about the most guilty of nearing such descriptions, but I still feel we both as likely to watch latest comic book movie as we are any foreign independent flick (maybe I shouldn't speak for him). Sure we probably don't seek out some as much as baby doll, but I don't feel anyone on MC in particular falls into the full mainstream crowd.

  12. #71637
    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    With all the qualifications described, I think we all on same page, trans. Hell, Duke and I are probably about the most guilty of nearing such descriptions, but I still feel we both as likely to watch latest comic book movie as we are any foreign independent flick (maybe I shouldn't speak for him). Sure we probably don't seek out some as much as baby doll, but I don't feel anyone on MC in particular falls into the full mainstream crowd.
    Nah, I wouldn't put either of you anywhere near that description. Liking comic book movies does not invalidate any self-professed "movie fan" status at all; hell, just liking ONLY comic book movies on its own is not a problem (why would it be? Like what you like), as long as you don't actively denigrate those who like more... diverse movie choices and you aren't excited by the prospect of theaters ONLY showing what you like. Over at reddit on the box office subreddit, it is dispiriting to see all the self-professed movie fans cheering on Marvel's bottom line while sneering at other movies underperforming with "well, they should have gone to streaming" or "maybe they should have made something people want to watch". We slowly seem to be training a generation who not only want to watch ONLY big blockbusters (as I said, not necessarily a problem) but who are actively dismissive of anything else (this is bad).

    To add as an illustration: When The Last Duel flopped, there were a large number of comments along the lines of "I didn't want to go to the theater to watch someone get raped. When I go to the theater, I want to be entertained!" - there just seems to be fewer and fewer people interested in being challenged by a film, and who think theater showings should exclusively be theme park rides.
    Last edited by transmogrifier; 01-14-2022 at 12:56 AM.
    Last 10 Movies Seen
    (90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)

    Run
    (2020) 64
    The Whistlers
    (2019
    ) 55
    Pawn (2020) 62
    Matilda (1996) 37
    The Town that Dreaded Sundown
    (1976) 61
    Moby Dick (2011) 50

    Soul
    (2020) 64

    Heroic Duo
    (2003) 55
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  13. #71638
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting transmogrifier (view post)
    Nah, I wouldn't put either of you anywhere near that description. Liking comic book movies does not invalidate any self-professed "movie fan" status at all; hell, just liking ONLY comic book movies on its own is not a problem (why would it be? Like what you like), as long as you don't actively denigrate those who like more... diverse movie choices and you aren't excited by the prospect of theaters ONLY showing what you like. Over at reddit on the box office subreddit, it is dispiriting to see all the self-professed movie fans cheering on Marvel's bottom line while sneering at other movies underperforming with "well, they should have gone to streaming" or "maybe they should have made something people want to watch". We slowly seem to be training a generation who not only want to watch ONLY big blockbusters (as I said, not necessarily a problem) but who are actively dismissive of anything else (this is bad).

    To add as an illustration: When The Last Duel flopped, there were a large number of comments along the lines of "I didn't want to go to the theater to watch someone get raped. When I go to the theater, I want to be entertained!" - there just seems to be fewer and fewer people interested in being challenged by a film, and who think theater showings should exclusively be theme park rides.
    This continues to encourage me to avoid reddit lol

  14. #71639
    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    This continues to encourage me to avoid reddit lol
    I like reddit because you can choose the subreddits you want. It is useless for discussing movies though because any opinion that goes against the prevailing acceptable beliefs is downvoted and buried, perpetuating the hivemind.
    Last 10 Movies Seen
    (90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)

    Run
    (2020) 64
    The Whistlers
    (2019
    ) 55
    Pawn (2020) 62
    Matilda (1996) 37
    The Town that Dreaded Sundown
    (1976) 61
    Moby Dick (2011) 50

    Soul
    (2020) 64

    Heroic Duo
    (2003) 55
    A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
    As Tears Go By (1988) 65

    Stuff at Letterboxd
    Listening Habits at LastFM

  15. #71640
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Watch what you like and let others do the same.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  16. #71641
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    Reddit is awful and should be destroyed.
    Blog!

    And it's happened once again
    I'll turn to a friend
    Someone that understands
    And sees through the master plan
    But everybody's gone
    And I've been here for too long
    To face this on my own
    Well, I guess this is growing up

  17. #71642
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Joker was fine.

    Phoenix's performance is awe-inspiring. Incredible stuff.

    The movie surrounding it...not so much. It's fine. Gets frighteningly close to romanticizing mental illness, and oversimplifies some very complex discussions on the subject.

    Phoenix deserved the Oscar, though.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  18. #71643
    I have now seen every Ghibli movie at least once. 100% legendary studio. Incredible output. Even the movies near the bottom of my list have plenty of redeeming qualities (save for the putrid Earwig). The way things have trended for the past decade makes me hope How Do You Live is the studio's final film. The last one I checked off the list, From Up on Poppy Hill, was very emotional, a redemption for Goro in my eyes. No surprise dad helped with the script.

    1. The Tale of Princess Kaguya *****
    2. My Neighbor Totoro *****
    3. Only Yesterday ****
    4. Spirited Away ****
    5. My Neighbors the Yamadas ****

    6. Princess Mononoke ****
    7. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind ****
    8. From Up on Poppy Hill ***
    9. The Wind Rises ***
    10. Whisper of the Heart ***

    11. The Cat Returns ***
    12. Castle In the Sky ***
    13. Grave of the Fireflies ***
    14. Howl's Moving Castle ***
    15. Porco Rosso ***

    16. Kiki's Delivery Service ***
    17. Ponyo ***
    18. Ocean Waves ***
    19. Arrietty **
    20. Pom Poko **

    21. Tales from Earthsea **
    22. When Marnie Was There **
    23. Earwig and the Witch *

  19. #71644
    Cinematographer StanleyK's Avatar
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    Despite the annoying gimmick, Searching is a kind of decent film, up until the ridiculous twist ending. Just once, I'd like to see...

    [
    ]

    Sadly the catch is if someone recommends a movie like that, it's a dead giveaway of the ending. Oh well.

  20. #71645
    Cinematographer StanleyK's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
    I have now seen every Ghibli movie at least once. 100% legendary studio. Incredible output. Even the movies near the bottom of my list have plenty of redeeming qualities (save for the putrid Earwig). The way things have trended for the past decade makes me hope How Do You Live is the studio's final film. The last one I checked off the list, From Up on Poppy Hill, was very emotional, a redemption for Goro in my eyes. No surprise dad helped with the script.
    You've got Kiki's Delivery Service awfully low on that list.



    Quote Quoting megladon8
    Joker was fine.

    Phoenix's performance is awe-inspiring. Incredible stuff.

    The movie surrounding it...not so much. It's fine. Gets frighteningly close to romanticizing mental illness, and oversimplifies some very complex discussions on the subject.

    Phoenix deserved the Oscar, though.
    It was basically a watered down version of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy.

    I don't even think Phoenix was that good. No actor has topped Nicholson's turn as the Joker imo.

  21. #71646
    Quote Quoting StanleyK (view post)
    It was basically a watered down version of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy.

    I don't even think Phoenix was that good. No actor has topped Nicholson's turn as the Joker imo.
    I don't think so; Nicholson essentially sleep-walked his way through that role, and he was far more "Joker-ish" in something like The Shining. As far as oncreen takes on Bat baddies go, Ledger's Joker and Pfeiffer's Catwoman were both far superior:


  22. #71647
    Quote Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
    I have now seen every Ghibli movie at least once. 100% legendary studio. Incredible output. Even the movies near the bottom of my list have plenty of redeeming qualities (save for the putrid Earwig). The way things have trended for the past decade makes me hope How Do You Live is the studio's final film. The last one I checked off the list, From Up on Poppy Hill, was very emotional, a redemption for Goro in my eyes. No surprise dad helped with the script.

    1. The Tale of Princess Kaguya *****
    2. My Neighbor Totoro *****
    3. Only Yesterday ****
    4. Spirited Away ****
    5. My Neighbors the Yamadas ****

    6. Princess Mononoke ****
    7. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind ****
    8. From Up on Poppy Hill ***
    9. The Wind Rises ***
    10. Whisper of the Heart ***

    11. The Cat Returns ***
    12. Castle In the Sky ***
    13. Grave of the Fireflies ***
    14. Howl's Moving Castle ***
    15. Porco Rosso ***

    16. Kiki's Delivery Service ***
    17. Ponyo ***
    18. Ocean Waves ***
    19. Arrietty **
    20. Pom Poko **

    21. Tales from Earthsea **
    22. When Marnie Was There **
    23. Earwig and the Witch *
    Have ye watched Castle of Cagliostro and Gauche the Cellist? Although they're not Ghibli per se, they were made by Miyazaki and Takahata and are very good.

    Also, The Red Turtle is technically a Ghibli too.
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    Raging Bull (M. Scorsese, 1980)
    Network (S. Lumet, 1976) ☆
    Sideways (A. Payne, 2004) ☆

    First time ☆

  23. #71648
    My list, BTW:

    26. Earwig and the Witch
    25. Tales from Earthsea
    24. The Cat Returns
    23. Ocean Waves
    22. Pom Poko
    21. Gauche the Cellist
    20. Ponyo
    19. My Neighbors the Yamadas
    18. From Up on Poppy Hill
    17. Arrietty
    16. When Marnie Was There
    15. Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
    14. Howl's Moving Castle
    13. The Wind Rises
    12. Castle In the Sky
    11. Only Yesterday
    10. Porco Rosso
    9. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
    8. Grave of the Fireflies
    7. My Neighbor Totoro
    6. Kiki's Delivery Service
    5. The Red Turtle
    4. Whisper of the Heart
    3. Spirited Away
    2. The Tale of Princess Kaguya
    1. Princess Mononoke
    Last Seen:
    Pantheon, S2 (C. Silverstein, 2023) ☆
    Pantheon, S1 (C. Silverstein, 2022)
    Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garc?a (S. Peckinpah, 1974)
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden, Dragon (A. Lee, 2000)
    Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (J. McNaughton, 1986) ☆
    Blowup (M. Antonioni, 1966) ☆
    Io capitano (M. Garrone, 2023) ☆
    Raging Bull (M. Scorsese, 1980)
    Network (S. Lumet, 1976) ☆
    Sideways (A. Payne, 2004) ☆

    First time ☆

  24. #71649
    U ZU MA KI Spun Lepton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Twin Cities
    Posts
    7,403
    Scavenger Hunt from 1979 was a movie I A-FREAKING-DORED when I was a little kid. I swear, I watched it at least 2 dozen times when I was little. I remember thinking Richard Mulligan's slapstick was *chef's kiss*. This week I found it available on Kino Cult and nostalgia just exploded in my brain. (Not literally.) I had to make some popcorn and watch it immediately.

    You might think this is the point where I talk about how it doesn't hold up ... but it does!! I mean, it's no GREAT movie, by any stretch. It feels a little overlong at 2 hours, but it's light and breezy with a lot of over-the-top performances. Richard Mulligan still shines. His expressions and mannerisms reminiscent of the old silent-era slapstick movies. As a kid I didn't appreciate the cast, but holy cow, what a line-up. Richard Benjamin, Cloris Leachman, Roddy McDowell, Richard Masur, Tony Randall, Cleavon Little, James Coco, Robert Morley, and cameos by Vincent Price, Ruth Gordon, Stephen Furst, Scatman Crothers, Meat Loaf, and freaking Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    7/10

    I plan to seek out its spiritual companion, Midnight Madness, another movie about a scavenger hunt that came out right around the same time. Only thing I remember from that one is a very young Michael J. Fox is in it.
    Last edited by Spun Lepton; 01-22-2022 at 06:33 PM.
    My YouTube Channel: Grim Street Grindhouse
    My Top 100 Horror Movies OF ALL TIME.

  25. #71650
    Last Seen:
    Pantheon, S2 (C. Silverstein, 2023) ☆
    Pantheon, S1 (C. Silverstein, 2022)
    Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garc?a (S. Peckinpah, 1974)
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden, Dragon (A. Lee, 2000)
    Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (J. McNaughton, 1986) ☆
    Blowup (M. Antonioni, 1966) ☆
    Io capitano (M. Garrone, 2023) ☆
    Raging Bull (M. Scorsese, 1980)
    Network (S. Lumet, 1976) ☆
    Sideways (A. Payne, 2004) ☆

    First time ☆

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