28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Rowland]

1. Pan's Labyrinth (***½)
2. Bubble (n/a)
3. Children of Men (****)
4. The Departed (**½)
5. The Lives of Others (n/a)
6. United 93 (**½)
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima (n/a, ***)
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (**)
9. Babel (**)
10. Man Push Cart (n/a)

[Sycophant]

1. Pan's Labyrinth ****
2. Bubble ***½
3. Children of Men ****
4. The Departed **½
5. The Lives of Others ***½
6. United 93 (unseen)
7. Flags of Our Fathers **½
7b. Letters From Iwo Jima ****
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (unseen)
9. Babel *½
10. Man Push Cart ***½

[Watashi]

The more I think about Enchanted, the less I like it. You are right, iosos, that Spall is the main highlight (he shares my name!) in this film. Sarandon is pretty terrible in her limited screentime.

The ending contradicts the entire message of the film so bad, it's almost laughable: [

Show Spoiler

so Nancy just lets Giselle marry Robert why exactly...? It's never explained why he is Giselle's one true kiss or anything. There is no real love between them expect that she likes to tell his daughter stories. Lame. It would have been better if Giselle brought Nancy and Robert together instead of supplying the lame old fairy tale ending the film was so openly mocking.

]

Oh well, we'll always have A Goofy Movie.

[Watashi]

1. Pan's Labyrinth - 9.0
2. Bubble n/a
3. Children of Men - 7.5
4. The Departed - 9.5
5. The Lives of Others - 8.5
6. United 93 - 9.0
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - 6.0 / 9.0
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - 9.0
9. Babel - 8.5
10. Man Push Cart n/a

[Lucky]

I think this is the list I agree with Ebert the most on. I share 6 out of 10 of those movies on my own list:

Pan's Labyrinth
The Lives of Others
The Departed
Manderlay
Perfume
The Painted Veil
United 93
Notes on a Scandal
Children of Men
Casino Royale

[Kurosawa Fan]

Not a bad list:

1. Pan's Labyrinth - 9.5
2. Bubble - N/A
3. Children of Men - 10.0
4. The Departed - 7.5
5. The Lives of Others - 9.5
6. United 93 - 9.0
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - N/A
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - N/A
9. Babel - 7.0
10. Man Push Cart - 7.5

[Qrazy]

Pan's Labyrinth is a kick ass fairy tale, but as a film about the Spanish civil war and Franco's dictatorship, I was hoping for something more grownup... like The Spirit of the Beehive. I liked Bubble both times I watched it, though so many months later, I can't say I remember it especially well--pretty much my reaction to most of Soderbergh's art movies (one wants to celebrate his ecclecticism, but his work is beginning to seem more and more dilletantish).

Speaking of, I don't get Clint Eastwood. Period. Mystic River was solid in a very conventional way, though I pretty much forgot it the instant I left the theater, and his last three movies have gotten worse and worse.

Completely agree with all of this.

I'm a little less hard on Children of Men, Babel and The Departed although for different reasons they all fall short of their respective marks... or rather I wish that their marks had been aimed farther afield.

[Melville]

For some reason my taste was at odds with the critical consensus last year.

1. Pan's Labyrinth - 7
2. Bubble - 7.5
3. Children of Men - 7.5
4. The Departed - 6
5. The Lives of Others - 6.5
6. United 93 - 7.5
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - N/A / 5.5
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - N/A
9. Babel - 6
10. Man Push Cart - N/A


However, I agree with the consensus that Werckmeister Harmonies is pretty great. Tarr does some really interesting things with his camera. My favorite shots: a silhouette of a figure standing in front of a passing truck, the truck's paneled side being the only thing indicating motion; a figure walking toward the horizon, eventually vanishing, leaving a still image with music still indicating the passage of time; and two tiny figures walking along diverging paths, moving so slowly that the image almost appears still. All three shots beautifully isolate space and time while pointing out their inextricable links in ways that only a film can. I'll definitely be pondering those shots for a while. I also loved how the camera takes on the perspective of an observer who is actually present in the opening scene, as a figure approaches a character standing beside it, or as it circles around the circling people enacting the solar eclipse. Great stuff.

[Boner M]

Did you read my thoughts a few pages back?

I did, and they're good thoughts. I can't agree that it's needlessly bombastic or overblown; the whole film and it's oft-erratic stylistic choices felt perfectly in-sync with how McCandless experienced his sensually overwhelming journey. Even when it resembled the Discovery channel or a Gatorade commercial, I wondered if Penn was making a statement on the role of the media in shaping how we experience the beauty and purity of nature. I guess the fact that he doesn't ever explicitly acknowledge this role means that some of the visual cliches remain just cliches rather than explorations of them, but I liked that it provides space for projection. I think it's one of those films that is kept on such an intensely subjective realm that so many of it's flaws go hand-in-hand with it's strengths, but I thought the lack of any kind of ironic distance toward McCandless made it quite enthralling and moving even if I don't necessarily agree with the romanticized view of his odyssey.

Just curious, in what ways the book differ in tone? I don't usually read a book if I've already seen the film it's based on, but I might make an exception in this case.

[Duncan]

1. Pan's Labyrinth - 5.5
2. Bubble - n/a
3. Children of Men - 8.5
4. The Departed - 7.5
5. The Lives of Others - 6.5
6. United 93 - 9.0
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - n/a
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - n/a
9. Babel - 5.0
10. Man Push Cart - n/a

[Boner M]

1. Pan's Labyrinth - 6.5
2. Bubble - N/A
3. Children of Men - 9
4. The Departed - 8
5. The Lives of Others - 7.5
6. United 93 - 7.5
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - N/A / 7.5
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - 7.5
9. Babel - 4.5
10. Man Push Cart - N/A

Meh.

[NickGlass]

1. Pan's Labyrinth: 5.0
2. Bubble: 6.5
3. Children of Men: 7.5
4. The Departed: 6.5
5. The Lives of Others: 7.0
6. United 93: 5.5
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima: 4.0 (the latter)
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer: Didn't see. Not sure if I ever will.
9. Babel: 5.0
10. Man Push Cart: I'd like to see.

[Derek]

1. Pan's Labyrinth - 8.0
2. Bubble - 4.0
3. Children of Men - 8.5
4. The Departed - 7.5
5. The Lives of Others - 7.5
6. United 93 - 5.0
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - 5.5/ 7.5
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - N/A
9. Babel - 6.0
10. Man Push Cart - N/A

[Derek]

Surviving Desire (Hartley, 1991) - 8

Any thoughts on this one? It's my favorite of Hartley's after Trust. I found it interesting that when an interviewer commented that it was their favorite of his films, he quickly said it was his least favorite. I actually think the extremely brief running time (I'm pretty sure its less than a full hour) heightens the comedic effect of his elliptical editing style, particularly in the hysterical progression of Henry's character from feeling alone to oppressed by the pressure of his newfound relationship. It's also fitting that this film has his most glaring homage to Godard w/the dance scene considering the constant quoting from literary sources.

[Derek]

So, I finally saw one of the Extended LOTR's and I guess it'd been too long since I last saw it to notice too many of the differences. As a stand alone film, I still don't think Fellowship is as impressive as Two Towers as it's really just one set piece after another. It's still very entertaining and fitting to watch after Thanksgiving dinner if only to see something more bloated and overstuffed than everyone's stomachs. Though honestly, I never really got all that antsy despite the running time.

[eternity]

I think all these action spoofs like Hot Fuzz or Shoot 'Em Up are worthless when we already have James Cameron's True Lies existing. The ultimate tounge-in-cheek action film, only rivaled by another Ahnuld movie, Last Action Hero. It's perfect.

[eternity]

1. Pan's Labyrinth - 9.0
2. Bubble - N/A
3. Children of Men - 8.5
4. The Departed - 8.5
5. The Lives of Others - N/A
6. United 93 - 8.0
7. Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - 5.0/6.0
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - 4.0
9. Babel - 2.0
10. Man Push Cart - N/A

[Melville]

Even when it resembled the Discovery channel or a Gatorade commercial

Heh. I think the most overblown part was definitely the sister's narration, which was just trite.

Just curious, in what ways the book differ in tone?

I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure. I've heard that it makes its critiques of McCandless' philosophy, and the literary tradition that he's inspired by, a lot more explicit.

I don't usually read a book if I've already seen the film it's based on, but I might make an exception in this case.

Do you mean that you don't read a book if you've already seen a film based upon it? That's a pretty odd stance, since so many great books are adapted into mediocre movies.

[megladon8]

I've only seen 3 on Ebert's list.

[Boner M]

Do you mean that you don't read a book if you've already seen a film based upon it? That's a pretty odd stance, since so many great books are adapted into mediocre movies.

I dunno, I can never seem to get the film out of my head when I go back and read the novel, and it ends up affecting my opinion for the worse. Most recently this happened with A Scanner Darkly.

Any thoughts on this one?

I really love the way Hartley maintains a balance between satirising the people who live their lives too cerebrally, while never becoming anti-intellectual in any way. The way the characters state the subtext seems like an annoying gimmick at first, but the absurdity of the proceedings eventually grow to the point that their distance from any kind of emotion gives the film a subtext of its own. It kinda reminded me of A Zed and Two Noughts (or most Godard films, really), in the sense that the level of citation and various allusion becomes so dense and fast-paced that instead of inviting academic readings, it's just becomes absurdly funny - implying a need to simply feel rather than understand.

Also, The Great Outdoors rock. I wish I could find some of their stuff anywhere.

[Spinal]

The whimsy of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is as forced as the rhyme in the film's title. Beyond Jason Bateman's performance, there is little worth while.

[Watashi]

The whimsy of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is as forced as the rhyme in the film's title. Beyond Jason Bateman's performance, there is little worth while.

Boo-urns.

This and Galaxy Quest, Spinal?

What happened to your fun side? :sad:

[Rowland]

The whimsy of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is as forced as the rhyme in the film's title. Beyond Jason Bateman's performance, there is little worth while.

This is delicious irony considering the main theme of the film.

[Watashi]

This is delicious irony considering the main theme of the film.

Er, try taking Sarcasm 101 again.

[Boner M]

Er, try again.

The entire film is a METAPHOR for Zac Helm's underappreciated awesomeness.