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Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684771 times)

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5210 on: October 29, 2020, 05:26:21 PM »
Here's FLY review of Borat from the perspective of Rudy G: "Very nice, I like...NOT!"

Thought the new one was pretty funny, but not as funny as the first.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5211 on: October 29, 2020, 08:32:27 PM »
Yes, God, Yes

It is hard for me to not see this as existing in the shadow of Saved! Alice (Natalia Dyer) is a student at a religious high school (in this case Catholic rather than evangelical) faced with the contradictions between religious teachings and hormones...and also how full of it everyone else acting like they are pure or that it is easy are. There is certainly a fair amount of nostalgia to be found here in the AIM chats and the soundtrack and the adolescent awkwardness. The stage is set slightly by a rumor going around about Alice that ruins her pristine reputation, and her feeling a bit a bit put back finding out that the Church considers masturbation to be a sin. A trip to a church retreat is the perfect setting to throw her doubts into sharp contrast. It all feels a bit pat but enjoyable, but lacking that zing of conviction that Saved! has.

dusty bottoms

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5212 on: October 30, 2020, 09:12:31 AM »
Those are my three favorites by Koreeda, but he has others well worth your time.

So tell me what you think, these are the next three I think I'll watch from Koreeda:
Maborosi
After Life
Nobody Knows or Still Walking

I love Koreda. Maborosi is my favourite of his. Absolutely beautiful film, as all of his are. Nobody Knows and Shoplifters would be next but 'I wish' is also very very good. I've not seen Hana, After the Storm and his English Language one he did last year. His ability to make films from the ordinary, mundane family matters is astonishing. I bought the Blu Ray box set last year 'Of Flesh and Blood' - just 3 films but it's presented in a beautiful box with some lovely text included.
"Listen up, there's a storm coming.......... like nothing you've ever seen.......... and not a one of you.......... is prepared for it"

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5213 on: October 30, 2020, 12:46:17 PM »
The Truth is probably more French language than English language from Koreeda. It is also very good. Bit of a Clouds of Sils Maria vibe.

One of These Days

When I read the description for this film in the festival guide, about a contest where people have to keep a hand on a pick-up and the last one standing wins it, it was clear this was a spiritual descendant of They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Of course, I also thought it was going to be a documentary. Like the dance marathons that TSHDT was based on, I assume this narrative film is based of real contests (a trend that Brooklyn Nine-Nine made fun of in the form of a stroller giveaway) and those contests certainly beg similar questions about free will in a capitalist system that lets people hit rock bottom.

Thematically, it is definitely interest to contrast this film against TSHDT. That film, set in Los Angeles, with its Hollywood strivers amid the depression had a different vibe then this modern day film set in small town Louisiana dealing with some of the small town malaise that affects much of the country outside the superstar metros. At a minimum, it seems this contest, unlike the one in TSHDT, is on the up and up, and victory actually does mean receiving a windfall of a truck probably in the 50-100k range (I don't know truck prices other than a bunch of people who claim to be poor drive them even though they are extremely expensive). And I don't know if it speaks to people becoming soft or different conditions in the contest, but this one lasts a whole lot less time. But more central to the difference is the centrality of masculinity, especially a floundering/toxic form. Certainly in TSHDT there is some sniping between contestants but in this we see a more overt animosity.

The film itself is offered from two perspectives, which kind of transfer at the midpoint. We start with Joan (Carrie Preston) who is the marketing person with the car dealership that sponsors the event, and it is from her that we get the most desperate defenses of the event as fun rather than exploitative. Then we hand to Kyle (Joe Cole) who is struggling to be the provider for his wife and child that he/society says he should be. It is into that weakness that his primary rival in the contest jams his thumb. And as the tension builds, and the contestants get more delirious, things escalate. From a stylistic standpoint, that change in the perspectives is subtle until a very much unsubtle decision for the final portion of the film makes it more obvious. Though the film is certainly not told in the reverse chronology of Memento or Irreversible, there is a certain sense of using a gentle ending to highlight the tragedy in one respect but soften it in another. This is in contrast to TSHDT's unbroken bleakness.

Anyway, this is certainly not the masterpiece of pacing and acting and cinema as a whole that TSHDT is, but it is a worthwhile updating of the concept to remind us that we haven't come far enough in averting despair in spite all our prosperity as a society.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2020, 01:35:19 PM by Bondo »

Teproc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5214 on: October 30, 2020, 01:00:36 PM »
La vérité/The Truth is definitely a French film, though there is some English in it, because of Ethan Hawke's character.
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5215 on: October 30, 2020, 08:54:20 PM »
Ema

The still advertising this one in the festival guide made it look like a fun dance film. Granted, one could say that about Climax. Directed by Pablo Larrain and featuring Gael Garcia Bernal (who is aging into salt and pepper fox), it was another that had more credentials behind it. But center of course is the title character Ema (Mariana di Girolamo) a dancer who ends up marrying choreographer Gaston (Bernal), though we are thrown into the tempest as we find out their adopted son has done a couple particularly bad things and has either been given away or taken away from them, causing friction in their relationship. This sparks a wave of artistic and sexual adventure alongside her kick-ass gang of fellow dancers.

For a film with a bit of a pall hanging over it, it does manage to be fairly upbeat with lots of great dancing and quite a bit of sex. Larrain shoots it in lush color and gets the tone right. Unfortunately the story just seems all over the place and ultimately ineffectual. Given that, I kind of wish it ditched the sadness and just fully leaned into the women and the dancing and the sex.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5216 on: October 30, 2020, 09:07:40 PM »
Watched that sucker two nights ago with PFF (after missing out on the May debut on Mubi because I didn't bother to sign up as I'm mostly spotty results wise on the Larrain I've seen), and I think we're mostly on the same page. The visuals and music were incredibly striking to me, but I never got too engaged in the beats of the plot and found myself more appreciative of it than full on enjoying, even as someone who can easily be taken by the sadness that is found in there.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5217 on: October 31, 2020, 10:20:07 AM »
Undine

I guess I was acquainted with the mythology at work here through Neil Jordan's Ondine, which was enjoyable enough, and probably various references made by The Decemberists. This film is a bit odd in setting up the mythology though as it doesn't really introduce it but then takes it at face value. In a very early scene Undine (Paula Beer) is being broken up with and tells him very directly that she will have to kill him and it all seems to be taken very normal, like, yes, we know this is a water nymph among us who goes by these rules.

As the film builds up her character, it spends multiple scenes with her in her job as a historian of urban planning, giving lectures in a room with a large model replica of Berlin in different eras, from early founding periods, pre-war, under the GDR and post-reunification. It seems a bit of an aside (though an interesting one if you are an urban planning nerd) until one starts to think that Undine's romantic drama is actually a metaphor for reunification, how one goes from devoted commitment from one ideology (and how it manifests itself in the physical space) to another, and the friction in making that movie.

But sometimes what happens with this kind of metaphor is you hit a point in the film where it really clicks, but then you have to finish the story and it becomes difficult to write a satisfying conclusion to the textual narrative while also retaining respect for the subtextual narrative. I am not sure this film entirely maintains that balance, but it still becomes my favorite Petzold film by some measure.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5218 on: October 31, 2020, 12:41:39 PM »
Think I landed on the other side of the balance on this one, sadly, as it was my most anticipated going in, and my admiration for Transit continued to grow during the Fest it played. Visually sharp though, but I always kind of felt removed from this, with it hitting more on a surface level than a complete cinematic experience, as it were. Still good, but I'd maybe even put it a bit behind Phoenix, which I'm mostly positive to mixed on as well. Do think that your reading is valid though, and the way Petzold threads it or begins to reveal it is compelling, but didn't fully work for me. Suppose it just works out that way sometimes though.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5219 on: November 01, 2020, 06:17:10 AM »
Over the Moon (2020 Glen Keane)

Well this one annoyed me. Why, because are lead character is one who does something that gets my goat. Her mother has died and several years later her father finds a new love. Our protagonist tells her father to leave her because they do not need her. I realise the character is a child, but it is so selfish and horrible to effectively say to one of your parents be alone, die alone. In the end she comes around (which was pretty obviously going to happen), but sorry it is a character trait I hate. Otherwise the film has some very colourful scenes and some good songs. One of the characters looks like a character from Angry Birds and there is a sound reference to Tron. The colourful scenes stopped this getting a much worse rating.

Rating: 65 / 100

 

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