28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Qrazy]

Let Me In may very well be the better film, Qrazy. Give that one a go.

I'm not overly fond of either, btw.

Meh, my problems with the initial film are I don't really care that much for the story itself so I don't think I'll be watching another adaptation for a while. Some day maybe.

[Qrazy]

Not totally, but on this point, his monologue reaffirms a number of observations that Willard makes on the journey about the differences between American soldiers and the Viet Cong ("Charlie doesn't get much USO"), which are meant to explain why the US lost the war.

No.

[Boner M]

Blissfully Yours (2002) ****

yes yes a billion times yes.

[dreamdead]

yes yes a billion times yes.

I'm really hoping to do a Joe marathon this summer and rewatch this, Tropical Malady, and Syndromes and a Century. I grant that Joe's fallen into a trend with bifurcated narratives and city-to-rural/past-to-present explorations, but I find myself drawn to his more recent films just because of when I've last seen them. I think rewatches would elucidate how they actually stack up more.

[Rowland]

I haven't had any motivation to watch movies lately, thanks to a decrease in free time due to real-life-related shit, an increased desire to play videogames, and uninspiring choices in theaters, but with both The Kid With a Bike and The Deep Blue Sea opening this week, maybe I can rekindle the flame.

In regards to a few recent repeat viewings, Machete is still fun and curiously endearing for its blunt political commentary, but it's also one of Rodriguez's least inspired efforts in terms of cinematic craft, most of the film playing like it was conceived on auto-pilot. I argued two years ago that this worked in the film's favor because it emulates the dashed-off style of real low-budget exploitation, but now too much of it just plays as lazy and uninspired. Still, I like the film more than not, it's cute.

And while I thought revisiting Resident Evil: Afterlife on blu-ray with a massive television set to 1080p would be an ideal environment to reassess the film, in light of the kinder evaluations Anderson's work has been garnering in certain critical circles, it turns out instead that I liked it even less this time around. Granted, it's kind of amusing as cheesy spectacle at a few points, the score rocks, the visual luster has its ogle-worthy moments, and it's nice to see what's happening during most of the set pieces with relative clarity, albeit too often through the obnoxious overuse of slow-mo. These minor attributes are cancelled out and then some however by how much of a deadeningly vacuous grind the film is as a whole, utterly lacking in creativity, wit, coherent thought, and emotion of any discernible kind.

[StanleyK]

I love Joe, but Blissfully Yours left me cold both times I saw it. It's the one film of his where I think the stillness and deliberate pace work against its effect rather than enhancing it.

[StanleyK]

I have a question regarding Persona.

[

Show Spoiler

Very near the end, when Alma is having a verbal hemorrhage and banging her fists on the table and such, she draws blood from her arm with her fingernails, makes Elisabet drink it, and then slaps the shit out of her. The significance of this eludes me.

]

Any ideas?

[Qrazy]

I have a question regarding Persona.

[

Show Spoiler

Very near the end, when Alma is having a verbal hemorrhage and banging her fists on the table and such, she draws blood from her arm with her fingernails, makes Elisabet drink it, and then slaps the shit out of her. The significance of this eludes me.

]

Any ideas?

She's a bitch?

[Spinal]

Let Me In may very well be the better film, Qrazy. Give that one a go.

I'm not overly fond of either, btw.

He'd be better off reading the book.

[Russ]

He'd be better off reading the book.

A friend of mine had this to say about the book:

The book is a mixed read - Ajvide Lindqvist has a talent for setting stages and getting pop-culture details right (the novel's set in 1981), but he also has an annoying habit of "getting into the heads" of more or less every single goddamn character in the book, speaking in their voices at every chance he gets ("Lacke felt good about tonight"; "Oskar thought about his Mom"; "The nurse enjoyed her cigarette break"). This could've been interesting if it was just the heads of Eli, Oskar and maybe Eli's companion Håkan, but we get EVERYBODY, down to a jogger who will be dead in 20 seconds, and (and I'm not kidding) a fucking squirrel, observing something from a distance. That's some Douglas Adams/Hitchhiker's GTTG shit, and it made me almost hate the book at times - if he'd thrown out that storytelling device the novel would've been 280 pages instead of 450.

[Spinal]

That's someone's personal preference. I don't see what's inherently wrong with that device.

[Melville]

I have a question regarding Persona.

[

Show Spoiler

Very near the end, when Alma is having a verbal hemorrhage and banging her fists on the table and such, she draws blood from her arm with her fingernails, makes Elisabet drink it, and then slaps the shit out of her. The significance of this eludes me.

]

Any ideas?

I haven't seen it in a few years, but here's what I'd guess:
[

Show Spoiler

Elisabeth has vampiric connotations throughout the movie. She sucks Alma's identity away. In at least a few images, she literally looks like a ghostly creature. But really, she says almost nothing for most of the time: she just watches; Alma offers up her own identity, giving it over to Elisabeth by exposing it, making it something in the eyes of the Other (for example, in the scene where she reminisces about the beach, while Elisabeth silently watches her). Alma is complicit in Elisabeth's vampirism. She's angry at both herself and Elisabeth for that, for making herself known to herself in an ugly way. The scene in question sounds to me—I don't actually remember it—to be a physical parallel to that vampiric relationship, in which Alma's complicity is manifest. But it's a conscious paralleling on Alma's part. She wants to remove the unstated ambiguities of the situation by bringing it into the open. She expresses her rage at herself and Elisabeth basically by re-enacting their relationship and punishing Elisabeth for it.

]

[Rowland]

The Ghost Writer is even more beautiful than I recalled, every scene popping with expertly controlled, evocatively framed formal interest. Also smarter, funnier, etc. Perhaps I was swayed a bit by the mixed reception upon its release, but I'm now firmly on the film's side. Love Polanski etc.

[Derek]

Perhaps I was swayed a bit by the mixed reception upon its release, but I'm now firmly on the film's side. Love Polanski etc.

Wasn't this pretty much universally loved by critics and MC alike? I remember being one of the only people not to care much for it when it came out.

[Pop Trash]

Spot on review:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/re...itanic-3d/6171

I've long been annoyed by Titanic haterz mentioning the dialogue as the reason why the movie "sucks" as if movies should be judged like stand-up comedy routines. Read a fuckin' book about direction people.

[Rowland]

Wasn't this pretty much universally loved by critics and MC alike? I remember being one of the only people not to care much for it when it came out.

By mixed, I suppose I meant that it was generally well-received but not loved, which is the impression I had regarding its reception around these parts and amidst many of the critics I hold in a higher esteem than the general consensus that I generally don't pay much mind.

[Derek]

By mixed, I suppose I meant that it was generally well-received but not loved, which is the impression I had regarding its reception around these parts and amidst many of the critics I hold in a higher esteem than the general consensus that I generally don't pay much mind.

I'm pretty sure it made the top 10 of 2010 the MC end of year poll and was fairly high on Slant's, FilmComment's and IndieWire best of lists as well. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, just not a film I'd ever associate with a mixed reception.

[Rowland]

I'm pretty sure it made the top 10 of 2010 the MC end of year poll and was fairly high on Slant's, FilmComment's and IndieWire best of lists as well. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, just not a film I'd ever associate with a mixed reception.

Yeah, you're probably right. I just did a bit of research and discovered that there were only a few notably lukewarm responses from D'Angelo, RS, and Sicinski, and I recalled trans and yourself not liking it.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Bong Joon-Ho's Mother rocked my socks off and then back on again. Should've figured, given how much I loved Memories of Murder and The Host, but still amazed by how he blends comedy and suspense and tragedy. Can't wait to scope out Barking Dogs Never Bite.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Bong Joon-Ho's Mother rocked my socks off and then back on again. Should've figured, given how much I loved Memories of Murder and The Host, but still amazed by how he blends comedy and suspense and tragedy. Can't wait to scope out Barking Dogs Never Bite.

Yeah, I'd still likely rank Mother above everything else I saw in 2010.

[Qrazy]

Yeah, I would say Mother is his best film. I wasn't entirely won over until that one. Very engaging, poignant stuff.

[Boner M]

Well, Bellflower certainly does a bang-up job outlining what a dubious virtue 'originality' is. Double feature with Certified Copy, perhaps.

[B-side]

Yeah, we saw it on Twitter, Ian. Move along. Geez.

[Boner M]

Yeah, we saw it on Twitter, Ian. Move along. Geez.

Cover blown.

[Ezee E]

Mother is great indeed. Probably the best "twist ending" in the past 5 years.