Match Cut Madness 3: Best of the 00s

**quido8_5** · 08-27-2021, 12:51 AM

Quoting DFA1979 (view post)

I honestly have little interest in seeing any of the trilogy. Please tell me how it is any different from your average white people meet cute movie.

That's a fair point for the first one, even if it is more impressionistic and believable than most meet cute movies. Before Sunset, though, is the inverse of a meet cute movie. With a surprising amount of dexterity it weaves through the numerous ways that people can drift through life, making decisions that are simultaneously profound and regrettable. It is an 80-minute* glimpse into the early adulthood of these characters who we met as idealistic 20s-somethings. The ending is beautiful and that's all I'm going to say about that. If Before Sunset is the inverse of Sunrise, because it still maintains some sense of idealized romanticism, Before Midnight is 100 the opposite... but that's for another time. For right now: it's 80 minutes of your life that you could either a) regret about as much as watching three episodes of some binge-y TV show, or b) absolutely adore. I mean, the choice is yours... :goes to watch three episodes of The Chair:

* The fact that it unravels in real time, if nothing else, makes it worth a viewing-- some of the best editing of the decade.

Quoting DFA1979 (view post)

I really shouldn't post while drinking but fuck it I don't care today. Think I'll watch Dogtooth when I get home sounds like it's messed up enough for how I feel right now.

Wait, we're supposed to post on here when we're not drinking?

**DFA1979** · 08-27-2021, 08:03 AM

Quoting dreamdead (view post)

Waaaaaaaay back in 2008, I wrote the following for the non-administrative top 50. I stand by pretty much all of it, though some of the NGO talk would probably warrant greater coverage in how the characters struggle to be good liberals...

Cool. I can't remember if I read it or not so I checked it out. Good review, I might watch the trilogy after all.

**DFA1979** · 08-27-2021, 08:06 AM

baby doll's Inglourious Basterds post is straight cringe but I'm the problem around here? I guess no one wanted to get paragraphed posted to death I guess.

**DFA1979** · 08-27-2021, 08:08 AM

Quoting quido8_5 (view post)

That's a fair point for the first one, even if it is more impressionistic and believable than most meet cute movies. Before Sunset, though, is the inverse of a meet cute movie. With a surprising amount of dexterity it weaves through the numerous ways that people can drift through life, making decisions that are simultaneously profound and regrettable. It is an 80-minute* glimpse into the early adulthood of these characters who we met as idealistic 20s-somethings. The ending is beautiful and that's all I'm going to say about that. If Before Sunset is the inverse of Sunrise, because it still maintains some sense of idealized romanticism, Before Midnight is 100 the opposite... but that's for another time. For right now: it's 80 minutes of your life that you could either a) regret about as much as watching three episodes of some binge-y TV show, or b) absolutely adore. I mean, the choice is yours... :goes to watch three episodes of The Chair:

* The fact that it unravels in real time, if nothing else, makes it worth a viewing-- some of the best editing of the decade.

Wait, we're supposed to post on here when we're not drinking?

Nah post drunk if you want. Do whatever it used to be a free and open forum with members. Once.

**StuSmallz** · 08-27-2021, 08:14 AM

Quoting DFA1979 (view post)

baby doll's Inglourious Basterds post is straight cringe but I'm the problem around here? I guess no one wanted to get paragraphed posted to death I guess.

Cringe how? He was just expressing his personal opinion.

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-27-2021, 04:41 PM

The Sweet Sixteen is now closed. Here are MC's results:

[

Show Spoiler

]

**Peng** · 08-27-2021, 04:54 PM

Wow, all my preference except one (Lee vs Miyazaki, which I can't be mad about because anything non-American, including Miyazaki's own films, have always withered away last few threads, and I need to rewatch the latter anyway since it's been over a decade).

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-27-2021, 05:01 PM

This will be our strongest Elite Eight yet if you ask me.

**megladon8** · 08-27-2021, 05:29 PM

I'm astounded that Memento won in its match.

**quido8_5** · 08-27-2021, 05:56 PM

Agree with both stalker and meg. I think this elite is quite a bit better (and less expected) than the previous decades. I can't believe Memento won either, but depending on the match-up, I could actually vote for it this round. Madness.

**Lazlo** · 08-27-2021, 06:27 PM

Bit of a bug in the system with Yi Yi, which I should have seen by now but haven't. If we're all honest, seems like the people who haven't seen it won't vote and the people who have really like it and will vote to the point where it could be the champion just based off the passion of a few who've seen it. It'll just keep rolling for a while.

I mean, nothing to be done about it, them's the rules, but it's interesting to see it take down some of my favorites and I couldn't defend them. Guess I oughta see it finally. I bet it's great!

**Skitch** · 08-27-2021, 07:26 PM

I feel like Wall-E has been skating on easy matchups.

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-27-2021, 07:45 PM

Voting for the Elite Eight is now open! Vote now by posting in this thread or sending me a PM.

No Country for Old Men vs. Spirited Away
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vs. Before Sunset
Memento vs. Children of Men
Wall-E vs. Yi Yi

Contenders or Pretenders?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of two movies to enjoy multiple blowout victories (the other is No Country for Old Men). In the Elite Eight's premier match-up, the Gondry/Kaufman juggernaut -- one of only two remaining #1 seeds -- goes head-to-head with Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, red-hot after arguably the biggest upset of the tournament so far: a nailbiter victory over David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Either of these 2004 romances could conceivably become MC Madness champion under different bracket circumstances, but MCers have a choice to make: hop on the plane and forget all about Jesse and Celine or systematically erase Joel and Clementine from memory?

The last hope for 00s superstar Christopher Nolan, Memento has fought tooth-and-nail to get this far. Coming off back-to-back nailbiter victories over WKW's In the Mood for Love and #1 seed There Will Be Blood, a battle-tested Memento now matches up with Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, which has quietly amassed three solid-if-unexceptional victories in a row over Battle Royale, Ratatouille, and Zodiac. If Cuaron's film has been winning in its sleep, upon waking will it be groggy or rejuvenated; conversely, has Memento's tough road to the Elite Eight left it weary or resolute?

Even if it doesn't advance any further, Edward Yang's Yi Yi is now the benchmark against which all other live-action, non-English language movies will be tested in Madness going forward -- and is furthermore tied (along with Ed Wood from Madness 2) for the greatest number of upsets. Can this Cinderella story possibly continue, or will Andrew Stanton's Wall-E trash-compact its way into our hearts and break into the Final Four?

Find out when voting closes in four days!

**Philip J. Fry** · 08-27-2021, 07:51 PM

No Country for Old Men vs. Spirited Away
Memento vs. Children of Men

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-27-2021, 07:54 PM

Quoting Philip J. Fry (view post)

No Country for Old Men vs. Spirited Away

Oh good -- you're back. Somebody hacked your account and voted a few days ago.

**Yxklyx** · 08-27-2021, 07:57 PM

No Country for Old Men vs. Spirited Away - easy choice
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vs. Before Sunset - incredibly easy choice
Memento vs. Children of Men - another incredibly easy choice
Wall-E vs. Yi Yi - tough call, the former's strength lies in the first half/third but the latter is solid throughout

**Skitch** · 08-27-2021, 08:09 PM

No Country for Old Men vs. Spirited Away - Yes, No Country has some beautiful tripod shots of scenery, but just think about how much hand drawn work went into Spirited Away. The detail is incredible. I feel like the story has many more layers than No Country. Spirited Away deserves your vote!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vs. Before Sunset
Memento vs. Children of Men
Wall-E vs. Yi Yi

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-27-2021, 08:09 PM

Quoting Skitch (view post)

I feel like Wall-E has been skating on easy matchups.

I would say Kung Fu Hustle was an easy match-up in R1, except that one was actually closer than you might think. I would call Y Tu Mama Tambien a neutral match-up (neither easy nor hard), but it definitely could've been a rougher go in R2 had Wall-E gone up against, say, Amelie. And, yeah, the match-up against Sweet Sixteen underdog A Serious Man wasn't the biggest test of strength of that round, but ASM did take out The Dark Knight, so... yeah, I dunno.

EDIT: I feel like No Country and Eternal Sunshine have had the easiest roads to this point. But maybe they just make it look easy.

**Skitch** · 08-27-2021, 08:18 PM

Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)

I would say Kung Fu Hustle was an easy match-up in R1, except that one was actually closer than you might think. I would call Y Tu Mama Tambien a neutral match-up (neither easy nor hard), but it definitely could've been a rougher go in R2 had Wall-E gone up against, say, Amelie. And, yeah, the match-up against Sweet Sixteen underdog A Serious Man wasn't the biggest test of strength of that round, but ASM did take out The Dark Knight, so... yeah, I dunno.

EDIT: I feel like No Country and Eternal Sunshine have had the easiest roads to this point. But maybe they just make it look easy.

I think this is the first time I voted for Wall E. I'm not wild about it, its a good movie, but not my favorite Pixar.

**baby doll** · 08-27-2021, 08:58 PM

Spirited Away > No Country for Old Men
Before Sunset > Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Children of Men > Memento
Yi Yi > Wall-E

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-27-2021, 09:07 PM

Quoting Lazlo (view post)

Bit of a bug in the system with Yi Yi, which I should have seen by now but haven't. If we're all honest, seems like the people who haven't seen it won't vote and the people who have really like it and will vote to the point where it could be the champion just based off the passion of a few who've seen it. It'll just keep rolling for a while.

I mean, nothing to be done about it, them's the rules, but it's interesting to see it take down some of my favorites and I couldn't defend them. Guess I oughta see it finally. I bet it's great!

This got me thinking: Which movies from each Madness Elite Eight have the lowest viewership numbers on LB?

80s Madness: Stop Making Sense (58k, lost to tournament runner-up The Shining)
90s Madness: Ed Wood (102k, lost third place winner Fargo)
00s Madness: Yi Yi (53k)

I don't think the relatively lower popularity of Stop Making Sense gave it an advantage. I do, however, believe Vagabond (currently at 31k and in the 20s at the time) may have benefited from its obscurity relative to the movies it overcame on the way to the Sweet Sixteen: Raising Arizona and Die Hard. The Vagabond match-ups had the lowest recorded votes in any Madness tournament. The Yi Yi match-ups aren't nearly as low, but they still average about half of the total voting body in any given round.

I can't speak for others, but there are movies in this tournament I perfer over Yi Yi -- Yi Yi just hasn't matched up with them (yet).

**baby doll** · 08-27-2021, 09:59 PM

Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)

I can't speak for others, but there are movies in this tournament I perfer over Yi Yi -- Yi Yi just hasn't matched up with them (yet).

If we were doing a ranked ballot:

Yi Yi
Before Sunset
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Spirited Away
No Country for Old Men
Wall-E
Children of Men
Memento

**quido8_5** · 08-27-2021, 10:02 PM

Quoting Lazlo (view post)

Bit of a bug in the system with Yi Yi, which I should have seen by now but haven't. If we're all honest, seems like the people who haven't seen it won't vote and the people who have really like it and will vote to the point where it could be the champion just based off the passion of a few who've seen it. It'll just keep rolling for a while.

I mean, nothing to be done about it, them's the rules, but it's interesting to see it take down some of my favorites and I couldn't defend them. Guess I oughta see it finally. I bet it's great!

I've thought about this and, to a certain extent, it is definitely a bug in the system. Conversely, a case could be made for the system working especially well in this situation. Over the course of previous movie madness competitions (especially the 80s) I watched movies that I otherwise wouldn't have-- sometimes to support a film I truly loved, sometimes out of spite. So, if this tournament makes me watch movies I otherwise wouldn't have (at least, at this time). Some were great, some weren't, but it was always interesting. You may or may not like Yi Yi, but it's worth watching even if you end up hating it. Plus, this is a film that people get passionate about because, if it resonates with you, then there's the possibility that it sneaks into your favorite films of all time.

No Country for Old Men vs. Spirited Away
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vs. Before Sunset - Damn it, this is why we have rank-order lists!
Memento vs. Children of Men - my 17 year old self would be so proud!
Wall-E vs. Yi Yi -

I'm honestly torn. When is this round wrapping up? Given what I said above, this may seem like an obvious choice; however, I've watched Wall-E maybe half a dozen times in the last year and it keeps getting better. I haven't watched Yi Yi in seven years. For Wall-E, as Yxklyx noted, the second third of the movie is pretty pedestrian. Still, it's potentially the funniest third of the movie and the last third relies on the second. Obviously, this takes a little bit of mental gymnastics, which makes me wonder if Yi Yi is the clear winner for me. Difficult to make the decision without a more recent viewing of Yi Yi (which I would love to have, if at all possible).

**Philip J. Fry** · 08-27-2021, 10:06 PM

Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)

Oh good -- you're back. Somebody hacked your account and voted a few days ago.

I was tempted to vote No Country, though.

**Ezee E** · 08-27-2021, 10:38 PM

No Country for Old Men vs. Spirited Away
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vs. Before Sunset
Memento vs. Children of Men
Wall-E vs. Yi Yi

Thread: Match Cut Madness 3: Best of the 00s

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