Author Topic: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame  (Read 27730 times)

Paul Phoenix

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #230 on: April 03, 2016, 06:20:35 AM »
I think I've explained how much fun Rear Window is. I've seen Shoot em up.

Your explanation of the fun in Rear Window reminds me of films like The Avengers and Scott Pilgrim, unfortunately... I like my fun to be more bombastic.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone." - Lance Clayton (played by Robin Williams), World's Greatest Dad

Eternally seeking variety. 'Tis the spice of life for me.

verbALs

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #231 on: April 03, 2016, 06:22:21 AM »
A matter completely of taste. Avengers good. Scott Pilgrim messy but god bless Edgar Wright. What do you think of Shaun of the Dead?

I hate the phrase "watch it again". its pompous. Lets suppose you watch RW again, I you want (and Vertigo from the sounds of it). I think that fun is going to be more your expectation and it might hit you a thousand fold more next time. You went looking for auteurial heft, am I right?
« Last Edit: April 03, 2016, 06:24:23 AM by verbALs »
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

Paul Phoenix

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #232 on: April 03, 2016, 06:27:03 AM »
A matter completely of taste. Avengers good. Scott Pilgrim messy but god bless Edgar Wright. What do you think of Shaun of the Dead?

I hate the phrase "watch it again". its pompous. Lets suppose you watch RW again, I you want (and Vertigo from the sounds of it). I think that fun is going to be more your expectation and it might hit you a thousand fold more next time. You went looking for auteurial heft, am I right?

Shaun of the Dead was satirical fun. I love that kind of fun too. It's like hanging out with a bunch of movie geeks while making fun of the terrible cliches in movies.

I might watch RW in the future just to do it justice and give it a proper review this time. Yeah, I went in looking for the auteurial heft since it's a big name like Hitchcock. I think the best I could do with the score is probably a 4/5 though. I mean, I'm a hard man to impress. :P I only have about 30 films that I really like in my "Top 50 List" of favorite movies in the Top 100 Club.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone." - Lance Clayton (played by Robin Williams), World's Greatest Dad

Eternally seeking variety. 'Tis the spice of life for me.

verbALs

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #233 on: April 03, 2016, 06:38:15 AM »
Its a good review. Your pov comes across very clearly and articulately.

Paul you are at a point in a journey that I envy. ;D Watching RW is just a joy to see someone doing; whatever the results. it wasn't my number 2 film when I saw it in the 80s at a cinema on the Kings Road. It'll all happen.

I did my film education in front of people here and I took advice up to a certain point and then went my own way (Pierrot le fou I think...I just thought, that's enough, screw that). The point at which you need advice and then you don't is an interesting one. Im not giving you advice now. Im saying its useful up to a point.

You might find watching Kurosawa he isn't saying anything deep like Hidden Fortress and then he is Ikiru. Bergman is less changeable and goes from deep to the mouth of madness in terms of profundity- you can feel yourself shaking apart at what he is showing you (literally insanity).

But what a journey.

Maybe shift this list of shame thing into the thread that's here. Let others in on the journey. Get them to pick a film for you.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2016, 06:42:27 AM by verbALs »
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

Paul Phoenix

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #234 on: April 03, 2016, 07:05:34 AM »
Now as far as rating films highly because they say something. They might say something very important but they don't say nothing as brilliantly as Hitchcock says nothing. I'm being rhetorical. Hitch is saying lots just by mirroring life in a way that is so exactingly honest in a way that is completely beyond 99% of other directors. I'm underestimating. We have Kurosawa and Kubrick and Bergman, who are that incisive. If you want to say that Bergman is "better" because he "says stuff" in his films, that's fine and a matter completely of taste. Nobody made a film like Hitch. OK Kurosawa. Hawks...erm Spielberg early on. I won't be silly to make a point. its say its a finite exclusive club. Melville. Wilder......I'll stop. ;D

This reminds me of the days when a film was merely about a plastic bag flying in the wind. It didn't say anything. It's merely life on-screen. I guess there is a charm to that that I haven't quite grasped. We millennials are spoiled with movies heavily focused on narratives, as opposed to abstract films about nothing. So, it will take me a significant amount of period to adjust and appreciate that style of old.

Say a decade or two.

I'm just kidding. You might be surprised, but I have enjoyed similar stories about nothing in the past. There's this anime, Mushishi, that's about nothing. Like, literally just a doctor who goes around curing people. That's the plot. The drama is minimum, though there existed some exposition. And this form of storytelling you're describing is often called the "slice of life" genre, right? I personally enjoyed the genre on some level in anime (I've always preferred animation over real people; more interesting). I find them boring sometimes because there's no story, but I could at least appreciate the sentiment of watching life imitated on-screen. So I might just come around to Hitchcock's realistic portrayal of life in his movies in the future.

That being said, I never did associate Hitchcock with slice-of-life. He's always been the suspense director for me, the predecessor to Fincher. I mean, he's the Master of Suspense, c'mon. ;D So you should understand why I was caught a bit off guard going into RW. I was expecting to have my mind twisted and turned the way Fincher so often did to me, the way I felt watching Vertigo.

Maybe shift this list of shame thing into the thread that's here. Let others in on the journey. Get them to pick a film for you.

I really want to. Believe me, ever since I've taken an interest in the Top 100 Club, I wanted to join in on the List of Shame thread too. But now is just not really the time, I feel. I mean, working through Teproc's list alone was exhaustive enough, but working through my own list of Kurosawa,  Bergman, Truffaut, and whatnot? Uh uh. It would just be like Coppola and The Godfather trilogy all over again. So yeah, I want to take it slow, on my own pace. One day, I would be in a mood for profundity, and that's when I'll probably post my list in the List of Shame thread. ;)
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone." - Lance Clayton (played by Robin Williams), World's Greatest Dad

Eternally seeking variety. 'Tis the spice of life for me.

verbALs

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #235 on: April 03, 2016, 07:14:18 AM »
Yeah one thing leads to another. People like Kurosawa and Bergman are simply waypoints that you will pass through naturally, because so much of film comes from them; like Hitch. I think they'll be a point where it seems inevitable to watch Seven Samurai or Scenes From A Marriage. Ill be there watching! ;D

Lot of "plastic bag flying in the wind" movies being made now. How about Under the Skin or Upstream Color? Lot of badass cop movies as well like Rampart or Killer Joe. The past just keeps rolling through the present into the future.
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

Paul Phoenix

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #236 on: April 03, 2016, 07:30:12 AM »
Lot of "plastic bag flying in the wind" movies being made now. How about Under the Skin or Upstream Color?

The thing about abstract films like ex_machina, they are best taken on single servings, and with the proper mentality to analyze, not enjoy. I mean, if I had taken ex_machina on face value as a sci-fi drama film, that would have made for a very poor experience, and I wouldn't have been as amazed. So, when it comes to films like "Under the Skin", I feel like it's best if I also save them for days when I'm ready to sit down for an entire day and think about what I had just watched. I know myself, and I usually take that long to understand even a fraction of abstract films like that. Discussing with forum members help, but again, that requires the spare time of an entire day, and the mood to sit down for that whole day focusing on that one movie. Doesn't help that I find myself sleeping a lot these days (I even slept 20 minutes into RW and had to rewind the movie from the start so as not to have an incoherent movie experience).

Lot of badass cop movies as well like Rampart or Killer Joe.

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Two bright stars with a shining career ahead of them, particularly the former. I'm seeing a path of Oscars for them.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone." - Lance Clayton (played by Robin Williams), World's Greatest Dad

Eternally seeking variety. 'Tis the spice of life for me.

verbALs

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Re: Paul Phoenix's List of Shame
« Reply #237 on: April 03, 2016, 07:31:17 AM »
True Detective, man

Classic introvert. Stuff runs you over and it takes time to work out what hit you. If you don't let people shout you out of a conversation, try that intimidation crap, you are starting to win. You'll learn more for being sensitive and cherishing it. Not hating it about yourself.

But enough of my two penny psychology. Hitchcock/ Truffaut
« Last Edit: April 03, 2016, 07:37:01 AM by verbALs »
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy