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Quote from: lotr-sam0711 on June 09, 2010, 11:58:30 AMThe Box (2009)What's in the box?....a steaming pile of..... I agree with your take, although I think your expectations were probably pretty low which helped.
The Box (2009)What's in the box?
Quote from: lotr-sam0711 on June 09, 2010, 11:58:30 AMThe Box (2009)What's in the box?I figured you'd like it. I agree with you that this film isn't so far away from really being something. I do like the concept. The way Kelly executes it though... I found it so clunky. And the pacing is nothing short of lethargic (the trailer made it look like a thriller). Attempts at spookiness fail completely (like the kid holding up two fingers etc).
Quote from: smirnoff on June 09, 2010, 12:30:30 PMQuote from: lotr-sam0711 on June 09, 2010, 11:58:30 AMThe Box (2009)What's in the box?I figured you'd like it. I agree with you that this film isn't so far away from really being something. I do like the concept. The way Kelly executes it though... I found it so clunky. And the pacing is nothing short of lethargic (the trailer made it look like a thriller). Attempts at spookiness fail completely (like the kid holding up two fingers etc).Yea, I could see that. My dad watched it with me and he said it was way too slow for him. He was like, Hichcock would have made that film suspenseful and shorter. And I was like Yea, but it wouldn't have aliens. And Kelly is really my biggest problem with the film. The direction is just so poor. Give this to Lynch or someone who knows how to make films like this.
I like him when he's good. Which is to say when his films don't hinge upon one big twist.
Quote from: zarodinu on June 08, 2010, 11:38:40 PMMary and MaxThis movie is like a vagina with teeth. You think you are in for something pleasant and fun, but it has different plans for you altogether. Have you seen his short "Harvie Krumpet"? This guy specializes in gallows comedy that is surprisingly poignant. I'm really looking forward to "Mary And Max".
Mary and MaxThis movie is like a vagina with teeth. You think you are in for something pleasant and fun, but it has different plans for you altogether.
I definitely wouldn't give a vagina with teeth 10/10Mary and Max however is an amazing film. 10/10
Quote from: lotr-sam0711 on June 09, 2010, 01:01:36 PMI like him when he's good. Which is to say when his films don't hinge upon one big twist.Wait, who are you talking about?
Shamalamadingdong
Oh man, The Box was the first film of Kelly's where I felt he truly showed a nice visual progression as a director, I do think above all else The Box is a visually special film.
I feel like I may be too lazy for this.
Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, 2010)Fascinating, unsettling crime drama, opening with Josh and his mum sitting on the couch watching Deal or No Deal, and ending with Josh giving his grandma a cuddle. A film where family constrains and corrodes, creating this weird insular, nebulous universe filled with resigned, laconic paranoia, intense connections (especially Jacki Weaver's grandma), and in Josh's case, a withdrawn, inarticulate watchfulness. The police of the armed robbery squad, or the drug squad - the ones in plainclothes - come across as these ominous figures in suits, as inexplicable and omnipresent as the suits in the Matrix, but sitting in Fords outside suburban homes. A strange film, seemingly following the narrative of a boy's education in the underworld, it refuses to go down well-worn paths, instead opting for mood and atmosphere, echoing the nihilistic drift of the protagonists in the family in response to ruthless, crooked protagonists of the state. Where sullen paranoiacs lash out at the nearest convenient target. At times I was not convinced by this, as it refuses to go down the well-worn path of the classic cinematic narrative (one thinks of Un prophete, and the education and ascent of a young man in the ways and hierarchy of the crime world), but the downward spiral has its own power. The score has shadows of the 80s with its synthetic tones and drones, and the cinematography captures the urban nightscape - especially the lighting - and the bleached 'burbs wonderfully. The Cody family ensemble is superb - especially Weaver as the matriarch, and Mendelsohn as Uncle Andrew - and Frecheville as the young Josh is either a genius, or his blank, downcast nature has been well-used by the director. I don't know. Kids these days are just so hard to read.