Author Topic: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013  (Read 35204 times)

MartinTeller

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #80 on: March 04, 2013, 10:48:27 PM »
A lot of the greatness of OAT is that apocalyptic ending.  So grim.  Fantastic score and sound design, too.  I'm glad you liked it, although clearly you have more issues with it than I do.  It's damn near perfect to me.

MartinTeller

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #81 on: March 04, 2013, 10:49:39 PM »

Cops starts out with Buster's gal telling him she doesn't want anything to do with him until he becomes a big businessman.  Through a fortunate, zany series of events, he comes into some furniture he hopes to make a profit on.  But then he interrupts a policeman parade and gets every cop in the city chasing him.  I didn't really find much of this that funny, but the ladder gag is pretty great.  The opening is interesting in that it shows the transitory, "easy come, easy go" nature of material possessions.  And the ending ramps up nicely to full-blown choas.  But I felt bad for that family who lost all their stuff, there really should been some kind of button on that.  Rating: Fair (68) [6.8]



The Play House was more my speed.  The opening marks a link between Méliès and the Oscar Levant sequence in An American in Paris, as Buster dreams of being the orchestra, talent, crew and audience in the theater where he works as a lowly stagehand.  It's delightful (except for some blackface bits) and inventive.  After he wakes up, it becomes pretty much just gag-gag-gag without much forward momentum plotwise... but the gags are consistently funny enough to make up for the lack of a narrative throughline.  Again, events reach absurd proportions as a small water tank ends up flooding out the entire room.  I still would place One Week as Keaton's best short, but this one is pretty solid.  Rating: Good (75) [7.5]

1SO

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #82 on: March 05, 2013, 05:31:57 PM »
A Short Film About Love
Except for White and Camera Buff, I don't care to swim in the deep pool of discussion that Kieslowski invites with his films. Others (like Sam) carry on the conversation very well, while I simply feel like I'm drowning. Watching this, all I can really say is "yup, that's a Kieslowski film alright."
RATING: 7

Jared

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #83 on: March 06, 2013, 10:10:25 AM »
Orlando

Tilda Swinton plays a person who mysteriously lives 400 years, changing gender back and forth along the way. Based on the Virginia Woolf story, this is one Ive been meaning to watch for awhile. Have to say that I appreciated this quite a bit, but at the same time I cant really say I enjoyed it. The movie just sort of went by, a little slow at times.

Swinton is terrific in the lead role, and the costumes, art direction, makeup etc are all really well done. It just didnt equal the sum of its parts for me, and I wouldnt be too enthusiastic about recommending it to anyone.

Rating Project Score: 5

1SO

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #84 on: March 06, 2013, 10:30:38 AM »
Agree completely. During parts of it I thought "this is kind of fun", but then the ponderousness of the production, the over attention to costumes and drapery, would dry that fun out. A film that is interesting to watch even though it is occasionally dull.

It's an excellent performance, as typical of Swinton. However, she's a much better actress in general now than she was back then. You can still see some of the qualities of a neophyte on screen. She's up to the difficult part, but I'm certain she would be even better (and by quite a bit) if tackling the role today.

Rating Project Score: 6
« Last Edit: March 06, 2013, 10:37:42 AM by 1SO »

MartinTeller

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #85 on: March 06, 2013, 10:46:44 AM »
:(

I don't like this communal watchlist thing any more

Junior

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #86 on: March 06, 2013, 10:47:53 AM »
I like the book a lot, the movie is pretty good. I think I gave it a seven.
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1SO

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #87 on: March 06, 2013, 11:26:47 AM »
:(

I don't like this communal watchlist thing any more

Once this month is over, I'll go back to my Mega-Watchlist and write about Visage, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Shame, 6ixtynin9, The Seventh Victim, The Americanization of Emily, Beyond the Forest, Dillinger Is Dead, The Match Factory Girl, The Golden Thread, Through a Glass Darkly and Touki Bouki.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #88 on: March 06, 2013, 11:32:45 AM »
:(

I don't like this communal watchlist thing any more
Yea, it's been brutal.  :-\

MartinTeller

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #89 on: March 06, 2013, 11:40:38 AM »
Once this month is over, I'll go back to my Mega-Watchlist and write about Visage, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Shame, 6ixtynin9, The Seventh Victim, The Americanization of Emily, Beyond the Forest, Dillinger Is Dead, The Match Factory Girl, The Golden Thread, Through a Glass Darkly and Touki Bouki.

My predictions:

Visage - *
Even Dwarfs Started Small - * 1/2, maybe **
Shame - ** 1/2
6ixtynin9 - ***
The Seventh Victim - ** 1/2
The Americanization of Emily - ***, maybe even *** 1/2
Beyond the Forest - ** 1/2
Dillinger Is Dead - * 1/2
The Match Factory Girl - ** 1/2
The Golden Thread - ** 1/2
Through a Glass Darkly - ** 1/2
Touki Bouki - **

these estimates might be too optimistic