28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Pop Trash]

Going back to Twilight Zone, I'll say that what Spielberg does here is ten times better than what he tries to do over again in Hook. Maybe it's the Scatman Crothers.

All four are wonderful though on their own. It might be the best "multi-director" movie I can think of.

Yeah I always liked this. It grabs you from the "wanna see something really scary?..." bit with Akroyd. I never understood why it got the critical thrashing, unless it just had to do with the controversy with Landis and the guy who got his head chopped off by a helicopter.

[Izzy Black]

Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 78

The best I've seen by Hou, this is a gorgeously impressionistic ode to the power of art as a balm for the drudgery of the mundane, a means of expression for the physically/emotionally dislocated, and a universal source of communication that defies cultural and generational rifts, anchored by Juliette Binoche's impassioned performance and Hou's breathtakingly calibrated formal mastery, all reflective surfaces and a deceptively straightforward technique that proves slyly expressive, so that every movement and cut feels ripe with meaning. I could just watch lovely footage of the red balloon, itself an obvious but elegant metaphor, floating all about Paris, the contrast between its stark red and the earthly color scheme of the city a sight to behold, but this is a thematically loaded picture that I imagine offering something new with each viewing, as every work of art as multi-faceted and generous as this one does. Hell, Hou somehow manages to make the mere discovery of a heretofore hidden room of the apartment that most of the film resides in feel profound with a single elegant motion of his camera. And best of all, there isn't a single malicious bone in its body, purely humanistic without ever condescending to the audience. Just fantastic... writing about this in retrospect, I'm tempted now to raise my score even higher, but another viewing is warranted just to be safe. There was a scene or two I felt could have been condensed or excised entirely, and I was split about the blatantly surrogate function of the Chinese nanny character, however appropriate given the nature of the project.

The good 'ole reliable humanizer.

Great review. Superb film.

[D_Davis]

Red Cliff: Part 2, is awesome. While not as good as a stand alone film as part 1, I have remind myself that it is not a stand alone. Red Cliff really was one 4+ hour film split down the middle. So in part 2, we're just getting part of act II and act III.

However, the final battle is incredible. It's a nearly 40 minute long extended action sequence featuring a kick ass naval battle and on-foot assault of a huge fortress. It rivals the Helm's Deep sequence in execution and excitement.

I did feel, however, that there were things cut from part 2: little moments of exposition and set up that could have made the drama better.

I am really looking forward to watching Red Cliff as one move - the way it should be watched. Unfortunately, one of the attorneys at my work has part 1 right now, so I'll have to wait awhile to do this.

I am now very, very excited to see what John Woo does next. Because he is back in a major way.

[Spinal]

If I've watched the first 25 minutes of Primer and am bored senseless, is there any reason to continue? Does it pick up?

[Pop Trash]

If I've watched the first 25 minutes of Primer and am bored senseless, is there any reason to continue? Does it pick up?

No.

[D_Davis]

If I've watched the first 25 minutes of Primer and am bored senseless, is there any reason to continue? Does it pick up?

Nope.

[megladon8]

Red Cliff: Part 2, is awesome. While not as good as a stand alone film as part 1, I have remind myself that it is not a stand alone. Red Cliff really was one 4+ hour film split down the middle. So in part 2, we're just getting part of act II and act III.

However, the final battle is incredible. It's a nearly 40 minute long extended action sequence featuring a kick ass naval battle and on-foot assault of a huge fortress. It rivals the Helm's Deep sequence in execution and excitement.

I did feel, however, that there were things cut from part 2: little moments of exposition and set up that could have made the drama better.

I am really looking forward to watching Red Cliff as one move - the way it should be watched. Unfortunately, one of the attorneys at my work has part 1 right now, so I'll have to wait awhile to do this.

I am now very, very excited to see what John Woo does next. Because he is back in a major way.

This is really great to hear. John Woo had too much talent to go out with movies like Paycheck.

I still really want to see The Killer. Rumor was that it was going to get a Dragon Dynasty "ultimate" treatment, ala Hard Boiled...but so far nothing's come of that.

[Ezee E]

If I've watched the first 25 minutes of Primer and am bored senseless, is there any reason to continue? Does it pick up?

If you don't like it now, you probably could careless later.

Its technical approach to time-travel is better than any other movie, and I found that interesting, but I wouldn't argue with anyone that finds it tiresome.

[number8]

I don't think I'll ever watch Primer again, but it was somewhat fascinating to watch the first time.

It's kind of like the audio/visual version of a physicist writing an essay about time travel for fellow time traveling enthusiasts.

[Qrazy]

I don't know. I think things do change rather drastically in the second half of Primer.

[Sycophant]

Weekend:
Because I can't stop thinking about it for some reason, I think I'm going to rewatch Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone tomorrow and it'll be the only movie I watch this weekend.

[Rowland]

Dong (Jia Zhangke, 2008) 66

Brushed off by most as a middling prologue to Still Life, this 66-minute documentary actually functions as a remarkable companion piece to the fictional film it precedes. I'm not sure how well it would work on its own terms, but having seen Still Life and listened to Zhangke describe the circumstances behind the evolution of these projects, it's impossible not to scrutinize this picture through that prism. Doing so proves unexpectedly rewarding however, as you witness the ostensible subject being documented (Chinese realist painter Liu Xiao-dong) gradually become overshadowed by Zhangke's engagement in the social environments Dong is attempting (and largely failing) to embody through his work.

Zhangke begins the documentary as being generally attentive to Dong as he waxes philosophical over his approach to artistic inspiration, most of it unenlightening, and you sense that Zhangke agrees, as his camera begins to wander from his subject increasingly often, catching glimpses of suggestive details in his environments that prove far more revelatory than the mediocre artist his project was supposed to be documenting. Furthermore, he begins to suggest that Dong's fussy, shallow approach to the environments is symptomatic of the very social ills they are uncovering, exposing artifice and contrasting local color with Dong's alien presence, until finally they wind up in Taiwan, and instead of attempting to capture something raw, Dong pussies out by painting a blatantly artificial mural of seductive young brothel girls, allegedly because the social environment is so exotic as to being beyond his comprehension.

By this point, Zhangke is including assorted shots of Dong sleeping and traveling at cross purposes with the locals, seemingly betraying the artist's lack of engagement with these environments, until Zhangke decides to leave the artist in his studio (at one point drifting away mid-sentence!) to follow the brothel employees and record their lives outside their semi-nude posing for Dong. A turning point arrives when one of the girls receives news that her town was flooded and her family may possibly be missing, which seems to stir Zhangke's social consciousness and perhaps remind him of the situation at the Three Gorges Dam, where the documentary began and he ultimately abandons Dong to return to, in order to develop his Still Life feature.

The ending is particularly revealing, as Dong hypocritically discusses in his closing interview the need to seriously empathize with your subjects, from which Zhangke cuts to a blind Taiwanese man being led through a carnival by a barker while presenting a change jar, without a single person opting to contribute any change, a more vital encapsulation of the disregard for the destitute than anything Dong can muster. Two weeks later, Zhangke began filming Still Life...

[Rowland]

The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981) 76

A superbly-judged genre exercise, its apocalyptic milieu sharply rendered and immediately engrossing in large part because of its mythic minimalism, allowing Miller's defiantly visual storytelling to impart most of its lean narrative, which immensely benefits the immersion level and visceral impact of the piece. The pacing is refreshingly relaxed by today's standards, the humor delightfully eccentric, the archetypal characters convincingly sketched, the crushing desolation of the landscape strikingly evinced, and the action set pieces, excepting a minor sloppy moment or two, intelligibly elaborate without devolving into incoherence or excessive gimmickry. Kudos as well for the periodic grace notes, my favorite being the photo kept by Humungus, suggesting a tragic past and with it a modicum of humanity in its depraved villain.

[Rowland]

Red (Lucky McKee & Trygve Allister Diesen, 2008) 52

A manipulative quasi-revenge tale that would have benefited from the two sides being less blatantly stacked, with more in the way of moral nuance being explored (our protagonist questioning the judgment in his actions and experiencing remorse in the final scene feels tossed off, the antagonists are southern hick caricatures and self-preserving brutes), a less contrived series of escalating tensions in the third act, and the trimming of a subplot or two. The piece is nevertheless afforded credibility and a charged emotionality in Brian Cox's soulfully dignified, arrestingly intense performance and a deliberately low-key formal strategy punctuated by flashes of elegant impressionism, the most haunting example being a simple dolly towards an open door that, in concordance with Cox's skillfully calibrated performance, elevates a shamelessly melodramatic monologue to poetry.

[megladon8]

Rowland, you're totally making me want to give The Road Warrior another go, and see if I can get to appreciate it.

And it's a bit disappointing to learn that Red isn't too great. Jen has it coming in from the library tomorrow, so we'll see it at some point this week.


Oh and to whoever it was who was asking (checking...OK, dreamdead) [REC] was...fucking terrifying. Seriously, that was a very, very scary movie. The entire last 10 minutes I think I almost drew blood from my hands I was clenching them so hard.

And, like most great horror films, the social commentary was quite poignant, this time looking at the selfishness and irrational behaviour exhibited by people in stressful situations.

[MadMan]

Role Models was pretty funny, and fairly enjoyable as well. And yes I find it amusing that even though its build as your usual stupid buddy comedy that a message of children needing guidence actually shines through near the end. Interesting. Not as good as many of the other comedies I saw from 2008, but still one of the best ones from that year.

[dreamdead]

Powell and Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going! has a solid if not rather archetypal spin on how common life transforms into love in otherwise bourgeois people. Though the narrator is unneeded and creates a distance that the film must then overcome, it's fascinating to watch a film like this when women were still given agency and maturity to sort through what they desire in life, be it security or passion, as well as foundation on matters of faith, even if they're used more as plot elements than as full-fledged consideration. I like the reversal of narrative logic in the curse that finishes the film, even if it's a tad too dependent on last-second confession.

James Foley's Fear is so thoroughly grounded in mid-'90s aesthetics, overwrought and materialistic, that it acquires an odd Marxist quality that's likely fully unintentional. To be sure, this story where Mark Wahlberg exists as a bad boy who contrives a life of virtue to ease Reese Witherspoon into loving him is thoroughly psychologically grounded, with the power play and paternal instincts of William Petersen dueling with Wahlberg, However, the film's insistence on Witherspoon's character wearing mini-skirts and adhering to high school appearances despite her personal travails is oddly fascinating. There's maybe three instances where she busts out jeans or something to cover her body, and when her character is ostensibly suffering such torment, it's perplexing to see her attired as she is; doing a Marxist reading on her conformist need to fit in with the aesthetics of clothing, regardless of her sufferings, would make this otherwise rote if committed thriller more valuable to film history.

[megladon8]

To dreamdead or anyone else who's seen Quarantine, I'm curious about the ending/explanation of the viral outbreak.

What was explained in [REC] was different from anything I've ever seen in a horror before, and was executed really well. As I said earlier, the final 10 minutes of that movie were nothing short of terrifying.

[Ezee E]

Looking forward to [REC] whenever it comes out on Netflix.

[Dead & Messed Up]

So Stuck was disgustingly good. Nice to see that Gordon hasn't lost his skill at gallows humor.

[balmakboor]

Not such a good weekend.

Frozen River was pretty horrible. I now have to find some way to make my "review" which is really more of a promo for our film society screening sound favorable. I guess I'll focus on Melissa Leo's performance.

Watchmen wasn't horrible but it stuck too faithfully to the source material and never found a way to breathe on its own.

I'll be watching Dear Zachary tonight, I suspect.

[megladon8]

So Stuck was disgustingly good. Nice to see that Gordon hasn't lost his skill at gallows humor.

I must see this one. I love Stuart Gordon, and between you, Rowland and Raiders all loving it, I am dying to see it!

[Raiders]

I must see this one. I love Stuart Gordon, and between you, Rowland and Raiders all loving it, I am dying to see it!

I haven't seen it. Maybe you're thinking of Spinal and/or Sven, both of whom I believed really liked/loved it.

[Sycophant]

I haven't seen it. Maybe you're thinking of Spinal and/or Sven, both of whom I believed really liked/loved it.

Raiders, in the absence of Sven and in consideration of your joint "Minority Report" effort, his opinions have been transferred to you. Enjoy Mission to Mars, dawg.

[megladon8]

I haven't seen it. Maybe you're thinking of Spinal and/or Sven, both of whom I believed really liked/loved it.

I guess it was. Sorry.