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Author Topic: The Top 100 Club (Mar 2013 - Aug 2015)  (Read 441769 times)

Sandy

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4020 on: August 29, 2015, 12:18:10 PM »
Yay, Teproc!   Amélie at #2!

We share 7 movies. :)

Sandy

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4021 on: August 29, 2015, 12:28:04 PM »
That's probably half my top 250, probably the vast majority of it if you don't consider the whole film but only certain elements, or if you consider political and social opinions to be personal notes. Although sometimes it's not a conscious effort and I couldn't tell you what the personal connection is without sitting down and rewatching it with that in mind.

I feel the same way about needing to re-watch many, to find out how they are affecting me personally and if they still are. A nice exploration.


Quote
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) 6/10

If I only had two words for a reply, they would be Alfre Woodard!



But I have many words, so I'd like to think on your review and your questions today and reply this evening. Maybe I'll even get a chance to re-watch it! I'll be back...
« Last Edit: August 29, 2015, 10:55:12 PM by Sandy »

Sandy

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4022 on: August 29, 2015, 12:35:08 PM »
I should have followed up my interest in the film, by reading Walden. The quote emphasises those elements of, the movie that I felt the deepest- so much is "stripped away" as you identified.

I want to think on this too!

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I like that your response, holds no trace of a defence or justification. It simply indicates your confidence in your feelings for the movie. It's a film that hits very hard on an emotional level; but it's very easy to see why it's lack of explanation is not going to be to the taste of a lot of people.

Thank you. :) And I agree with you that it is easy to see why it's not for everyone.

For me it's just a matter of, I had an experience and it changed my perspective, in a big way.

Teproc

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4023 on: August 29, 2015, 04:44:53 PM »
Welcome Teproc! 

Yay, Teproc!   Amélie at #2!

We share 7 movies. :)

Thanks !

So...

Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997)

I've been wanting to watch Gattaca for a while (thanks for the excuse sandy !), mostly because I find eugenics to ba fascinating topic, one that I was eager to see this film wrestle with. Basically I wanted an introspection of what is it to be human, which is what all good science-fiction is.

That's certainly how it started out, with Ethan Hawke narrating through his childhood, establishing this hypothetical future where eugenics have progressed to the point that conception through sex is seen as an anomaly, and setting up a natural conflict between him (natural-born) and his younger brother (born of eugenics). It's all pretty interesting and going in a direction I didn't really expect by avoiding the full dystopia, and having a more realistic approach, where discrimination based on genetics is illegal but wildly practiced anyway.

Then we drop the familial setting very suddenly, as we follow our protagonist's attempt at becoming an astronaut, which he tries to achieve by assuming the identity of a "valid". Ok, so we have this contrast between Jude Law (the valid in question, perfect casting by the way), the guy born with everything but who did nothing but fall short of expectations, and Hawke, the scrappy underdog who's determined to reach the stars, literally. It all sounds a bit cliché, but it works, because of the speculative setting and how well science-fiction lends itself to broad allegories.

So there we are, this is a movie about free will and how humanity is all about ignoring the odds and just going for it, right ?

Well, it is, but before it gets there, Gattaca becomes some kind of a noir-ish psychological thriller for about 45 minutes, and I wasn't sure what to make of it. I'm still not sure. I suppose it's essential as a plot device to re-introduce a key character but... why ? I felt the same about Uma Thurman in this movie : she's pretty good, but she feels completely extraneous to the proceedings. It's not that any of it is bad, but it feels like an interlude before we get back to what everyone, Niccol included, is really interested in.

Thankfully, once we get back to those big themes, it does work very well. I was a bit worried going in that Hawke was too limited an actor to make it all work, and I wouldn't say he's great here, but he's good enough, and the final 20 minutes wrap the film up beautifully. It certainly gave me much to think about, and I expect it to stay with me, I just wish it had been a more coherent movie overall.

Rating : 7/10
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PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4024 on: August 29, 2015, 04:55:04 PM »
If I only had two words for a reply, they would be Alfrie Woodard!
Not a bad reply, she's certainly the best thing about the film, particularly once she gets past the requisite "hysterical disbelief" part of her character. If the film had more of her and Picard going back and forth it would be better for it. She wasn't in the film nearly enough, though.

Shadowlands (1993) 8/10
An unexciting film, but far from an uninteresting one. I don't know how accurate this is to reality, but I really like Hopkins' Lewis. He's very capable and very smart and unquestionably flawed, and the film doesn't sugarcoat any of these aspects. It makes him sympathetic without ever making you feel sorry for him, which in turn allows the film to explore his flaws a bit without becoming too preachy. It does at times become a little heavy handed, but it fits the characters so it never feels like it's the film telling you things but rather Lewis realizing them. There are some really great lines that cut to the heart of the situations, even if the conclusions they imply may not always be the ones I agree with. I can identify with Lewis' personality in the film, but for various reasons couldn't really connect with it emotionally. So in the end I very much appreciated the exploration of love, loss and faith, even if I was somewhat distanced. It's not the kind of film that I could love, but it's the kind of film I'm thankful for having watched because it does a really good job of presenting its perspective.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4025 on: August 29, 2015, 05:01:41 PM »
Welcome to the club Teproc. If you want you can also share your list in this thread, that way more people will be able to comment on it.

Is the list ranked ?
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Teproc

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4026 on: August 29, 2015, 05:04:44 PM »
Welcome to the club Teproc. If you want you can also share your list in this thread, that way more people will be able to comment on it.

Is the list ranked ?

I'll do that. Yes it is, though aside from the very top, the ranking is probably more indicative of how I felt about these today than in general. I'll probably revisit it every once in a while and it'll move around a bit.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4027 on: August 29, 2015, 05:05:58 PM »
And didn't you find the way they re-introduce the brother in the movie and how it is handled at the end felt a bit artificial ? It makes for a nice end to Hawke's character arc but it was too coincidentally done for my tastes.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4028 on: August 29, 2015, 05:12:56 PM »
I like your list. It is full of personal favourites but I particularly like to see someone finally giving The Avengers the appropriate consideration. I am sure the exclusion of Age of Ultron was only an oversight on your part.

Oh, and The Departed as first Scorsese ? Good man.
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Teproc

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Re: The Top 100 Club
« Reply #4029 on: August 29, 2015, 05:22:09 PM »
And didn't you find the way they re-introduce the brother in the movie and how it is handled at the end felt a bit artificial ? It makes for a nice end to Hawke's character arc but it was too coincidentally done for my tastes.

I didn't, perhaps because I was waiting for it to happen ? I thought it would happen with the Jeremy character before he started talking with a British accent, and when the cop showed up I basically immediately assumed it would be his brother. I was a little surprised by how casually that revelation is done, but I actually liked it : I don't think it's supposed to make you gasp, it simply serves the larger narrative and thematic purposes of the film. Yes it's coincidental, but it didn't really bother me.

Age of Ultron was... okay. I found it lacked the narrative drive that makes The Avengers work so well. Also, The Vision was hyped up and then... disappeared for twenty minutes and turned out to be just another dude pretty much ?

And well, I've see a grand total of two Scorsese, so that might change. I do love The Departed though.
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