Match Cut Madness 3: Best of the 00s

**baby doll** · 08-30-2021, 12:15 AM

Speaking of Children of Men, I was in a bookshop flipping through a collection of James Wood reviews when I came upon this quote from his review of Cormac McCarthy's The Road:

If Britain, in Children of Men, twenty years hence, is ruled by a totalitarian dictator who can round up immigrants and put them in cages, why can't this same all-powerful ruler clean up the garbage? [...] It is the common weakness of novels such as Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, Doris Lessing's The Memoirs of a Survivor, P.D. James's Children of Men, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, or even Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange and Orwell's 1984, that they are all to some extent science-fiction allegories in which the author extrapolates from the present, using hypothetical developments in the future to comment on crises that he or she sees as already imminent in his or her own time. [...] There is nothing wrong with any of this, except that some essential illusionistic pressure is taken off the novelist, who can then merely describe the life that we know but with a twist, the old world that most of us recognize but that is suddenly more horrid to live in.

**transmogrifier** · 08-30-2021, 02:49 AM

Quoting Ezee E (view post)

Get YiYi the fuck outta here. Easiest path ever.

Nah - from most difficult to easiest path:

1. Memento (Assassination of Jesse James - In the Mood for Love - There Will Be Blood) - I voted against it in the first two rounds
2. Before Sunset (Adaptation - Spring Summer Fall Winter... and Spring - Mulholland Dr.)
3. Children of Men (Battle Royale - Ratatouille - Zodiac) - should have lost in the 1st and 3rd round
4. Yi Yi (The Incredibles - FOTR - Inglourious Basterds)
5. Spirited Away (The Descent - Punch-Drunk Love - 25th Hour)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Primer - Finding Nemo - Shaun of the Dead)
7. Wall-E (Kung Fu Hustle - Y Tu Mama Tambien - A Serious Man)
8. No Country for Old Men (Moon - Requiem for a Dream - Kill Bill Vol. 1) - this was always a favorite, but boy did it come up against some average films

**Ezee E** · 08-30-2021, 05:10 AM

I take that back. Spirited Away had an easy ride.

But still, get the hell out of here

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-30-2021, 03:13 PM

Quoting transmogrifier (view post)

Nah - from most difficult to easiest path:

1. Memento (Assassination of Jesse James - In the Mood for Love - There Will Be Blood) - I voted against it in the first two rounds
2. Before Sunset (Adaptation - Spring Summer Fall Winter... and Spring - Mulholland Dr.)
3. Children of Men (Battle Royale - Ratatouille - Zodiac) - should have lost in the 1st and 3rd round
4. Yi Yi (The Incredibles - FOTR - Inglourious Basterds)
5. Spirited Away (The Descent - Punch-Drunk Love - 25th Hour)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Primer - Finding Nemo - Shaun of the Dead)
7. Wall-E (Kung Fu Hustle - Y Tu Mama Tambien - A Serious Man)
8. No Country for Old Men (Moon - Requiem for a Dream - Kill Bill Vol. 1) - this was always a favorite, but boy did it come up against some average films

I agree with almost all of this, except I think Yi Yi's path was more difficult than you say, and Children of Men's was less difficult.

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-30-2021, 03:15 PM

With ~24 hours left to go, we have one really close match-up:

Wall-E vs. Yi Yi

If you've been thinking about voting and have a preference in these match-ups (or any others), now would be a great time to vote by posting in this thread or sending me a PM.

**quido8_5** · 08-31-2021, 02:33 PM

Fuck it: Yi Yi.

I really wanted to rewatch Yi Yi before voting, but I just couldn't find that much time. I haven't seen Yi Yi in a while but when I my top 50 list over a decade ago, it was number two, only behind Eternal Sunshine. Even though I have watched Wall E eight times in the last year (and just grew more deeply enamored with it), I can't go against a movie that was so formative and still resonates.

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-31-2021, 05:04 PM

The Elite Eight is now closed. Here are MC's results:

[

Show Spoiler

]

**Philip J. Fry** · 08-31-2021, 05:11 PM

At least I've seen all of the final four.

**Ezee E** · 08-31-2021, 05:12 PM

Miyazaki taking this.

**Peng** · 08-31-2021, 05:17 PM

What the lord giveth (Memento), the lord taketh away (Before Sunset).

Also should have known my comment about non-American films never/barely making it in these threads would come back to bite me lol, since the only one left here is my least favorite among the four (love and still think it very good, just the other three I love so much more).

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-31-2021, 05:33 PM

Quoting Ezee E (view post)

Miyazaki taking this.

I would be 100% okay with this regardless of how I end up voting.

**Yxklyx** · 08-31-2021, 07:27 PM

I'd like to watch Spirited Away again but don't see it Streaming anywhere. Anyone here use Kanopy through their local library - maybe it's there.

**Dukefrukem** · 08-31-2021, 07:53 PM

Quoting Yxklyx (view post)

I'd like to watch Spirited Away again but don't see it Streaming anywhere. Anyone here use Kanopy through their local library - maybe it's there.

It's streaming on HBOMax.

https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/spirited-away

**Idioteque Stalker** · 08-31-2021, 08:35 PM

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

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento vs. Wall-E

The Stories Told by the Final Four

-- In the 80s Madness Final Four, it was High-Brow vs. Low-Brow. With a prestigious champion (Do the Right Thing) followed by two genre films (The Shining and Aliens, leaving Amadeus on the outside looking in), neither camp ended up the clear winner. For the 90s, somehow to the chagrin of its own voting body, it was Jarod's Picks. With Goodfellas as champion, followed by Pulp Fiction and Fargo -- and Boogie Nights left shriveling in the cold -- these four ensemble crime dramedies are movies Match Cut hates to love.

-- With merely a single #1 seed left surviving, nobody would have predicted MC's Final Four of the 00s. In an adjacent timeline it could've been Art-House Auteurs (Lynch and WKW) vs. Hollywood Mainstays (Coens and Tarantino); in yet another we may have followed in Filmspotting's footsteps with Westerns (No Country and TWWB) vs. Sci-Fi/Fantasy (Eternal Sunshine and LOTR). But now that the votes are in and the dust has settled, which movies are left standing? In the future when, for posterity, bards sing song of the 00s, which names will be upon their quivering tongue? What shall be the story of this madness?

-- Animated vs. Live-Action, you say? Well okay then! Spirited Away and Wall-E have not only broken the previous record for animated films in MC Madness -- either one now has a legitimate shot at taking the crown. In fact, an all-animated championship is a real possibility. On the other hand, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has been a favorite throughout the tournament, while Memento is coming off several major upsets in a row (that's right, people: Christopher Nolan smells of an underdog).

Who will advance to the championship and make MC Madness history? Live-action or animated? Actors or illustrators? Memory or imagination? Find out when voting closes in three days!

**Philip J. Fry** · 08-31-2021, 08:47 PM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento vs. WALL-E

**Skitch** · 08-31-2021, 08:48 PM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento vs. Wall-E

Eternal Sunshine shouldn't have made it this far. In the battle of "which movie holds up", I'd say Momento over ESOTSM, and thats seeing both in the last 6 months.

**transmogrifier** · 08-31-2021, 10:50 PM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (this should be the final match-up for these four films; damn bracket!)
Memento vs. WALL-E

(Here is the real best four of the decade: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Before Sunset, Mulholland Drive, In the Mood for Love)

**baby doll** · 08-31-2021, 11:03 PM

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind > Spirited Away (but I love both)
Wall-E > Memento (but both are wildly overrated)

**baby doll** · 08-31-2021, 11:35 PM

Quoting transmogrifier (view post)

Here is the real best four of the decade:

In the Mood for Love, Mulholland Dr., La mujer sin cabeza, Vincere

**Idioteque Stalker** · 09-01-2021, 12:02 AM

Quoting baby doll (view post)

La mujer sin cabeza

Watchlisted. Enjoyed La Cienaga.

EDIT: My personal top four would be Eternal Sunshine, Crouching Tiger, Russian Ark, and either Wall-E or Spirited Away.

**Lazlo** · 09-01-2021, 12:09 AM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento vs. Wall-E

**Peng** · 09-01-2021, 03:36 AM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento vs. Wall-E

**DFA1979** · 09-01-2021, 04:24 AM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-Oof, tough.
Memento vs. WALL-E-Huh this is weird but ok.

**Ivan Drago** · 09-01-2021, 05:14 AM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento vs. Wall-E

**Yxklyx** · 09-01-2021, 11:22 AM

Spirited Away vs. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento vs. Wall-E

Edit: Personal Top Four: Mulholland Drive, Amelie, LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, Donnie Darko

(all from 2001, I think movie makers fed off others in their profession like what happened in '39)

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

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