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Author Topic: A Decade of Filmspots  (Read 24939 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #70 on: November 25, 2016, 11:54:51 AM »
Well, he's seen Like Someone in Love, so he's good.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #71 on: November 25, 2016, 12:59:36 PM »
Well, he's seen Like Someone in Love Moonrise Kingdom, so he's good.

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #72 on: November 25, 2016, 02:25:20 PM »
Well, he's seen Like Someone in Love, so he's good.
Sorry to disappoint you, Sam. I only listed winners that I haven't seen.
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pixote

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #73 on: November 25, 2016, 02:29:51 PM »
Well, he's seen Like Someone in Love, so he's good.
Sorry to disappoint you, Sam. I only listed winners that I haven't seen.

It's possible that Sam meant to type Certified Copy instead of Like Someone in Love. Either that or he's still in denial that the latter film lost to The Hunt in the Best Non-English Language Film category.

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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #74 on: November 28, 2016, 10:37:57 AM »
Bridge of Spies (2015)

Bridge of Spies is a curious film. As Cold War sentiments against Russia escalate, Steven Spielberg revisits the height of the Cold War not to tell a story of nationalism or communist evils, but to tell a deeply humanist story. Spielberg once again taps into the humanity in all people and crafts a complex, warm, and principled piece of filmmaking.

James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is an exceptional lawyer who is given the thankless job of defending Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a suspected Russian spy. Instead of accepting the role of rolling over and letting the system convict Rudolf, James decides to follow the letter of the law, saying that even their enemies deserve the safeguards of the American legal system.

The true star of the film is Spielberg’s direction and Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography. The way the camera will move through a scene, the way Spielberg builds a moment, is a signature quality of his work. In an age where people cut dozens of time in a minute, Spielberg lets a shot breathe for a minute or two without being flashy. He wants the audience to lose themselves in the moment, not be impressed by his technical craft.

And yet the best direction in the world will only be of merit if it is in the service of something greater. In this case, it’s Spielberg’s humanism. US-Russian relations are spiraling downward day by day as more is learned about how Russian tampered with the 2016 American presidential election, it’s easy to villainize and dehumanize their people. Spielberg takes the high road.

The film is up-front about Abel being guilty. He is a Russian spy. Initially, it appears the film misses an opportunity to hook the audience into a mystery over whether or not he’s a spy. However, Spielberg takes that out of the equation and instead focuses on how even the guilty deserve basic rights of due process and fair judgement.

There are many other things to admire, such as the script by Matt Charman and the Coen Brothers, but it’s that straint of humanism, even for one’s enemy, that make Bridge of Spies exceptional. In a world where hate is being flung in every direction, it’s important to remember the power of love, even love for one’s enemies.

verbALs

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #75 on: November 28, 2016, 10:45:10 AM »
I heard today it was a village in Macedonia where kids are driving new SUVs from the money they made making up Donald Trump stories on Facebook. Heart warming free enterprise.  ;D

I thought the Coens major contribution was the torrent of hate the prosecutor faced. All the way to putting a sinister edge on pledging allegiance to the flag in a school.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2016, 11:35:44 AM by verbALs »
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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #76 on: November 29, 2016, 05:13:58 AM »
The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata, 2013)

An adaptation of a Japanese fairty tale. In a way I can live without moral lessons like these at this stage in my life. Initally the water color-ish drawings didn't do much for me but as the film played on the style felt more and more à point. At times when fear, anger or chaos were at hand the touch became much rawer which was nice to see.

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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #77 on: November 29, 2016, 08:35:00 AM »
Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Olivier Assayas always makes something new, different and thought-provoking with each film. Summer Hours examined the intersection of art and function, Irma Vep looked at the psychology of acting, Something in the Air explored revolt in cinema and Clouds of Sils Maria continues this trend by looking at age and death.

Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is an older actress who is offered a role in a play she previously performed in her youth, but now she will be cast as the older lead. Her assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart), tries to convince her that the role will be good for her, but Maria only becomes more insecure when she hears that she’d be playing against Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz), a child who is adored even though she often acts childish.

These three female character all represent different points in time for women. There’s the youth and beauty of Jo-Ann, the peak of beauty with Valentine, and then the winter of beauty with Maria. The youth enjoy themselves and their beauty while the old worry over aging and the impending sense of death that looms over them.

There’s a sense in which the old want to control and own the beauty of the youth. It’s a central idea to the play Maria is offered to lead in. Her character controls a much younger woman in a dominating lesbian relationship. Sex becomes a sort of way of owning youth, capturing some of its beauty by deriving pleasure from its body.

In the real world, Maria also owns Valentine to an extent, not in a sexual way, but professionally. Valentine is essentially a servant, managing Maria’s life and dealing with a lot of the tedious day to day details while Maria is caught up in her narcissism of self-worry and angst over being old. The prestige of age becomes another tool for controlling and capturing beauty.

Where the film doesn’t go, oddly enough, is how cinema is this tool that captures beauty. Even though Juliette Binoche is up in age and beginning to show a lot of those marks, cinema is a way to bottle up moments of her beauty. She can go back and see her beauty in films like Three Colors: Blue or The Lovers on the Bridge. Cinema makes beauty timeless.

Instead, Assayas explores how beauty and envy affect the dynamic of female relationships, whether they be sexual, professional, or personal. Perhaps, like humanity, Assayas sees cinema as something that has age on it. Beauty fades, cinema is dying, all must come to an end under the sun.

It’s hard to peg down Assayas’s films on a first viewing. This is a film ripe for a second viewing, a mark of many great films. In an age more and more fascinated with the beauty of youth, even to the point of sexualization of underaged girls, people who can control and own beauty become powerful. And yet that power can’t satisfy, it can’t stave off death, it can’t restore one’s youth. Physical beauty is ultimately empty, but that won’t stop the pursuit of youth.

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #78 on: December 11, 2016, 01:26:24 AM »


Black Swan  (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

I didn't think it would take me six years to finally get around to watching this. In fact, I think I promised Corndog that I'd watch it before the 2010 Filmspot ballots were due ... but I'm a jerk. The upside is that I went into this screening having no idea what to expect in terms of story or tone. If I knew anything about the film six years ago, I complete forgot it. And so I was surprised how close this veered to horror at times (Replusion didn't come to mind as a point of comparison until I read it in someone else's post; but it should have) and what an unpleasant watch it was. Not unpleasant in a bad way, necessarily; just more reminiscent of Requiem for a Dream than I would have expected in a ballet story.

I could probably save time writing a review by just editing together snippets from the reviews by FifthCityMuse and mañana. matt's mention of a "complete lack of subtext" made me laugh out loud in agreement. Perhaps it's an achievement for a film to be so unsubtle and yet simultaneously ambiguous. Opening with a dream seqeuence is a dangerous gambit in a film that turns surreal, putting me in the mindset of doubting everything I was seeing, almost to the point of indifference.

There's beauty here, though, and undeniable craftsmanship, and I can appreciate all of that, with or without interest in the melodramatic trappings. Portman has some great moments, but for me part of the reason her transformation into the black swan is so satisfying is that she overplays the antithesis in the first half. "No wonder she won the Oscar," I thought. "She's on the brink on tears in every scene, even while dancing!" The Filmspot win for Best Dramatic Scene is equally understandable, though I still would've voted for the Final Scene of Toy Story 3, had it been nominated.

I watched Black Swan under poor conditions and with distractions, so I think my appreciation of it could maybe increase with another look ... but I'm not sure it's a film I ever really want to revisit. Once might have been enough for me.

Grade: B-

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Junior

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Re: A Decade of Filmspots
« Reply #79 on: December 11, 2016, 01:33:15 AM »
My description of it for movie buffs is The Red Shoes by way of Repulsion and since both of those are on my Top 100 it's perhaps no surprise that this is, too. Love those following shots, and I also love the melodrama. Glad you got at least a little out of it.
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