28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Rowland]

In other Facebook filmmaker news, Monte Hellman is encouraging his thousands of friends to give Road to Nowhere a '10' on IMDB.

I'd probably give it a 3 or 4. Sorry Monte.

[Stay Puft]

Though there are some perhaps interesting things being done with the possibilities of narrative, I suppose, but still anyway you interpret that ending it strikes me as obnoxious.

Hmmm, why obnoxious? I admit that's a curious reaction to me. I didn't find anything about the film to be twee.

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I'm not sure how many other ways there are to interpret the ending than crushing disillusionment.

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Quite interested to get your reaction to Oslo, August 31st (I already put some brief reactions in its thread).

[elixir]

Hmmm, why obnoxious? I admit that's a curious reaction to me. I didn't find anything about the film to be twee.

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I'm not sure how many other ways there are to interpret the ending than crushing disillusionment.

]

Quite interested to get your reaction to Oslo, August 31st (I already put some brief reactions in its thread).

Hey, I really liked it actually. I suppose I focused on the negatives too much. As for twee, idk, I just found digressions like the opening one and various others in the first hour to just be a tad irritating and not revealing, whereas something like when Phillip imagines pushing his friend in the water and it triggers all these memories and pained desires and its just great...as are the two other passages i singled out.
As for the end, obnoxious was an overstatement, but it sort of just fizzled out and,my subjective biases wanted more headon tackling of the subjects especially the tragic romance. Though you are right that it does do that in a certain way so i suppose it is just vague dissatisfaction...the ending, the fiction begins when it starts saying would i guess but im not sure...

Ill write in that that thread but i liked oslo even more and i certainly think trier is someone to watch.

[Stay Puft]

Hey, I really liked it actually.

Oh, I know! Your original post is fair, I just wanted clarification on why you found the ending obnoxious, so thanks for the reply.

As for the end, obnoxious was an overstatement, but it sort of just fizzled out and,my subjective biases wanted more headon tackling of the subjects especially the tragic romance. Though you are right that it does do that in a certain way so i suppose it is just vague dissatisfaction...the ending, the fiction begins when it starts saying would i guess but im not sure...

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Yeah, the whole "happy" ending is a fiction, or a projection, going back to the beginning of the film, when Phillip and Erik are talking about their plans for the future, how they want to be successful writers, blah, blah, blah... they have this whole narrative for their own lives, and the tragedy of the film is in the disconnect between the stories they want to write (the images they have of themselves) and the stories they end up writing (their lived experiences).

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Ill write in that that thread but i liked oslo even more and i certainly think trier is someone to watch.

Oh, cool. I look forward to some impressions from someone who has seen it more recently (I tried to write something but my memory sucks too much for more than a single rambling paragraph).

[B-side]

It's the most exciting thing that's happened in my life in many a moon.:sad:

[MadMan]

I use it when talented directors fall back on their tropes too much and veer towards self-parody territory.

Such as:
Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic
PT Anderson's Magnolia
Tarantino's Death Proof (which I still liked for the most part)
Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding
David Lynch's Wild at Heart
To name a few examples.

I didn't hate any of these (well maybe Wild at Heart), but it felt like the directors were spinning their wheels and not getting out of their comfort zone enough. Or in the case of Magnolia: reading their own "he's a genius" fawning press and making something overcooked and overlong.

Out of the ones I've seen on this list, I find The Life Aquatic and Wild At Heart to both be truly great movies. I liked Death Proof well enough, sure, but I don't think that it was self parody so much as QT making it really quickly, complete with the whole "I could direct a movie while in bed" mentality.

Well, the blu-ray for a trip to the moon looks astonishing

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/A-Trip.../36593/#Review

Whoa. That's a must buy/watch.

Nobody warned me that Bottle Rocket was so much better than the rest of Anderson's films.

Its better than The Darjeeling Limited/Hotel Chavalier and Fantastic Mr. Fox, but that's about it.

[Melville]

Ah, same.

Thoughts on Tourneur/Lewton films generally? I'm not sure if there are more I should see.

[B-side]

Thoughts on Tourneur/Lewton films generally? I'm not sure if there are more I should see.

I've enjoyed the two I've seen -- I Walked with a Zombie and Cat People -- but I wasn't in love with them. Granted, I'm not big on horror in general, so it was likely inevitable that I wouldn't find them tremendously fruitful experiences. I hear The Leopard Man and The Seventh Victim are good.

[Melville]

I've enjoyed the two I've seen -- I Walked with a Zombie and Cat People -- but I wasn't in love with them. Granted, I'm not big on horror in general, so it was likely inevitable that I wouldn't find them tremendously fruitful experiences. I hear The Leopard Man and The Seventh Victim are good.

Hm. Seventh Victim sounds good. I'll check that one out.

[Rowland]

The Curse of the Cat People, its goofy name notwithstanding, is viewed by many, myself included on some days, as the best of Lewton's bunch, and it barely resembles a horror film.

[Rowland]

Okay, so like, I don't get how Universal Soldier: Regeneration was as good as it was.

It's one of the best action films of the last few years, which is an amazing feat given its roots and pedigree. I hope its director John Hyams, son of super-hack Peter Hyams, has a productive career ahead of him. Since this film, he's made Dragon Eyes, which I believe may have actually just recently been released (trailer), and he has yet another Universal Soldier sequel scheduled to be released later this year.

[Morris Schæffer]

It's one of the best action films of the last few years, which is an amazing feat given its roots and pedigree. I hope its director John Hyams, son of super-hack Peter Hyams, has a productive career ahead of him. Since this film, he's made Dragon Eyes, which I believe may have actually just recently been released (trailer), and he has yet another Universal Soldier sequel scheduled to be released later this year.

Or not given that my granny could have made a sequel superior to part two. . But yeah fun movie although part of the charm was sort of The Expendables factor in that aging action stars should never die.

[B-side]

High Noon kinda confuses me. I went in thinking it was going to be an allegorical critique of McCarthyism -- this idea formed mostly around the fact that John Wayne hated it and called it the most un-American movie ever made -- but I didn't come out thinking that. It was probably a dumb idea to go in thinking that. Rather, the film seems to me to be a pretty blunt endorsement of the sort of bullheaded, misguided politics of the Red Scare. Kane is made to be the lone brave man in town. The only person willing to take on the murderers. Everybody else is too afraid or indifferent. Granted, the situation is complicated just a bit by his wife's pacifism and the recruitment scenes in the bar and church, but that wasn't enough to truly gray the black and white ethics at play. Zinnemann was German, so you might think he'd have a slightly different take on this, and it was produced by Stanley Kramer, who was supposedly liberal. Obviously, to be a fan of westerns, one has to be able to tolerate macho politics, and I can appreciate a narrative endorsing bravery, but the political atmosphere surrounding this one is making me reel a bit. Typically, I don't allow speculative politics to dictate my opinion of a movie much, if at all, so this is a tough situation.

[Irish]

Well on the bright side (ha!), we got Rio Bravo out of it, so that turned out to be a good deal.

[Thirdmango]

Life Aquatic is my personal favorite Anderson.

[Mr. McGibblets]

High Noon kinda confuses me. I went in thinking it was going to be an allegorical critique of McCarthyism -- this idea formed mostly around the fact that John Wayne hated it and called it the most un-American movie ever made -- but I didn't come out thinking that. It was probably a dumb idea to go in thinking that. Rather, the film seems to me to be a pretty blunt endorsement of the sort of bullheaded, misguided politics of the Red Scare. Kane is made to be the lone brave man in town. The only person willing to take on the murderers. Everybody else is too afraid or indifferent. Granted, the situation is complicated just a bit by his wife's pacifism and the recruitment scenes in the bar and church, but that wasn't enough to truly gray the black and white ethics at play. Zinnemann was German, so you might think he'd have a slightly different take on this, and it was produced by Stanley Kramer, who was supposedly liberal. Obviously, to be a fan of westerns, one has to be able to tolerate macho politics, and I can appreciate a narrative endorsing bravery, but the political atmosphere surrounding this one is making me reel a bit. Typically, I don't allow speculative politics to dictate my opinion of a movie much, if at all, so this is a tough situation.

The bad guys in the film are supposed to represent McCarthyism, not communism. The people in the film are afraid to stand up to them, as people in America were afraid to stand up against it. They're willing to leave the victims of McCarthy to deal with it by themselves.

[Rowland]

But yeah fun movie although part of the charm was sort of The Expendables factor in that aging action stars should never die.

And unlike The Expendables, it really mines that subtext in a relatively rich manner, by DTV standards for sure.

[Yxklyx]

The Curse of the Cat People, its goofy name notwithstanding, is viewed by many, myself included on some days, as the best of Lewton's bunch, and it barely resembles a horror film.

I much prefer the last three Val Lewton's over the earlier films.

The Body Snatcher
Isle of the Dead
Bedlam

[MadMan]

The only Val Lewton produced movies I haven't seen yet are Curse of the Cat People, Ghost Ship and Bedlam. I have TCM to thank for that. Also the TCM documentary on Val Lewton was really quite good and very interesting.

As much as I like discussing politics, I've viewed High Noon twice and really have not even been interested by why it was made, or what the movie's symbolism is. I just find it to be an expertly made, truly great western with film performances from its talented cast.

[Ivan Drago]

Possession (1981) - ****

I'm really thinking about seeing this when it comes to my arthouse theater near me soon as a repertory film. However, I saw the trailer for it before Battle Royale, and my friends who saw it with me chuckled over how cheesy it looked. Is this not the case?

[Qrazy]

The bad guys in the film are supposed to represent McCarthyism, not communism. The people in the film are afraid to stand up to them, as people in America were afraid to stand up against it. They're willing to leave the victims of McCarthy to deal with it by themselves.

Indeed.

[Melville]

I'm really thinking about seeing this when it comes to my arthouse theater near me soon as a repertory film. However, I saw the trailer for it before Battle Royale, and my friends who saw it with me chuckled over how cheesy it looked. Is this not the case?

It's amazing. In my top 10 (see my av). It's so unhinged and portentous that you might find it cheesy, but it seems like something you'd like.

EDIT: also, it seems like something you could enjoy for its ridiculousness even if you didn't think it was great.

[Dead & Messed Up]

The Curse of the Cat People, its goofy name notwithstanding, is viewed by many, myself included on some days, as the best of Lewton's bunch, and it barely resembles a horror film.

I prefer the straightforward success of Cat People to Curse, although the latter is still excellent in my eyes.

Honestly, I love The Leopard Man the most right now.

[D_Davis]

I hope you do. Seriously, I don't think you'll regret it.

Yeah. It's pretty much a whole other movie.

[Qrazy]

Hm. Seventh Victim sounds good. I'll check that one out.

Yeah I think it's my favorite of all those.