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Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 683992 times)

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #370 on: January 30, 2017, 08:26:49 AM »
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015).

The Fits doesn't knock you, but it rocks you in a gentle kind of way during it's short runtime. Like a meditation sort of. Storywise I never understood what the fits themselves were supposed to symbolize, but that in itself did not detract much from the experience. Well composed images and good editing were the biggest pay-offs. A curious, non-rethorical, question: does the movie say anything special about the black experience. Had we viewed it differently if it had been set within a non-black community?

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jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #371 on: January 30, 2017, 12:40:40 PM »
I have been trying to finish this one for 10 days...

Silence
Martin Scorsese (2016)


The script only gets intellectually interesting during the discussions in its last third, when Garfield is confronted with the Inquisitor and Liam Neeson. There is no doubt the Japanese authorities are the villains of the story and the history, but the Jesuits are not blameless either, and it is in the allotment of blame and reason that these exchanges shine. The Inquisitor is not a barbarian fundamentalist but a learned man fighting for the sovereignty of his country. Neeson has become enlightened in the cultural realities of Japan that make it hard to preach Catholicism there. His explanation of how Garfield's converts are not real Christians is one of the movie's highlights and the kind of scene I would have loved to see more of. Garfield is deaf to most of their points. A lot of his arguments are right but he speaks out of emotion and faith, not intellectual conviction.

To my mind there were scores of superior stories that could have been told about this period and place, about this same subject even, especially with these means. I resent the film a bit for taking this marvellous opportunity and wasting it so, even if that is unfair. There is another point that I do not believe to be unfair though. Here we have a movie about Portuguese (is any of them a Spaniard?) men in Japan and all Europeans are played by Anglo-Saxons. It is not as if English-washing were anything new, but if there is ever an opportunity to play a movie in real language, surely this is it? A director's darling project, a historical piece, non-dead languages. Is this about mass audience appeal ? Is Silence supposed to attract large crowds ?

4/10

This... 

I was bothered by this film.. and while it briefly started to explore what could have been an interesting area in what it meant to convert somebody without ever thinking do they really have any idea of what you are really preaching... it didn't go enough into those kind of debates.

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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #372 on: January 30, 2017, 01:19:11 PM »
As someone who spent years trying to preach the gospel of Adam and Josh to Asian populations, these are questions jdc feels deeply.
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #373 on: January 30, 2017, 06:03:33 PM »
I probably won't have time to write about Silence anytime soon, so will need to rewatch it before I get a review out...which means waiting for the blu release.

The Jungle Book: I was cheering for Shere Khan. By the end of the movie Mowgli kind of proves him right, what with the bee genocide and the burning down a huge swath of the jungle.

Yep. Humans are the worst.

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1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #374 on: January 30, 2017, 11:05:21 PM »

Ringing Bell (1978)

I've been teasing this one all day, and watching it I was thinking about how it plays to someone depending on what they know and expectations. If you went into it completely innocent and thinking it was a kids film, there's dialogue right at the beginning that sets this up as a Bambi experience. There are cute moments with the prancing lamb, but the threat of the wolf beyond the fence all but tells you this will contain some death. A quick loving scene between the lamb and his mom and you can easily figure out where the story is headed.

For a while, this was my problem. The film is only 46 minutes long, so there's no time to build the world or introduce characters. There's only enough time to focus on impending doom. So, if you go in cold you catch on quick and if you go in knowing what the film is really about everything is too stripped down for emotional resonance. The scene where wolf kills mom has a couple of interesting shots, but there's no real emotional gutting, no matter how much the baby lamb cries and wails. (And yeah, there's a brief moment here where I'm thinking, "why was I interested in watching this again?")

The stage is set for Tarantino's Bambi 2, but here is where things get very interesting, and Japanese in terms of questioning the path of revenge. The lamb directly confronts the wolf and asks to be trained to be a wolf and not a sheep (unsubtle metaphor). The wolf agrees, and a unique relationship forms between them that humanizes the wolf while it sharpens the sheep's anger. I'm stopping there, but I wanted to give you a flavor of what an interesting turn the story takes.

Tonally this is as consistent as a South Korean film, which is to say it's not and yet it kind of is. The brief cute moments don't match up with the Watership Down scenes of darkness and violence, but having them both in the same movie is such an interesting approach. Also, while the violence is harsh it isn't bloody, which makes it easier to take seriously and not dismiss it as being manipulative for cheap thrills.
Rating: * * * - Very Good

There's a dubbed version on YouTube which I've read is terrible. I was able to find it with subtitles.

oldkid

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #375 on: January 30, 2017, 11:46:24 PM »
This seems VERY interesting to me, but it also seems out of the blue for you.  What caused you to seek it out?
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1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #376 on: January 30, 2017, 11:53:20 PM »
I found another interesting list of recommended horror movies. I'm not interested in going back in time for my chronological marathon, so I started looking with 1978, saw the poster, read the synopsis and I was immediately struck by the combination of a sweet animated lamb and the film being on a horror list.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #377 on: January 31, 2017, 03:21:39 AM »
I probably won't have time to write about Silence anytime soon, so will need to rewatch it before I get a review out...which means waiting for the blu release.

The Jungle Book: I was cheering for Shere Khan. By the end of the movie Mowgli kind of proves him right, what with the bee genocide and the burning down a huge swath of the jungle.

Yep. Humans are the worst.

You sure your name isn't "Sam"?
I adhere strongly to the doctrine of total depravity.

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pixote

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #378 on: January 31, 2017, 09:38:46 PM »


Green Room  (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015)

With a little more personality, this successfully tense thriller with horror leanings (but no real overt horror elements) could perhaps have been among the year's top films. As is, it's a moderately entertaining but ultimately forgettable exercise in dread. The script has to strain to stretch out the appealingly simple premise to feature length, though it smartly does so by just briskly stating the rules of the situation and immediately moving on, without wasting time trying to turn the incredible credible. It's a good strategy for keeping the focus on the atmosphere, which the film's real strength, much more so than its story or characters. Patrick Stewart's presence is ultimately something of a red herring, the way he underplays his character. The context begs him to take over the film in bravura fashion, but the role never allows him that opportunity. I'm curious now to give Blue Ruin a look, partly to explore Saulnier more but also to see what else Macon Blair can do. (edit: I was referring to Blair's acting potential, but apparently his directorial debut just won a prize at Sundance, so never mind.)

Grade: B-

pixote
« Last Edit: January 31, 2017, 09:43:23 PM by pixote »
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1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #379 on: January 31, 2017, 09:44:02 PM »
NOW, you're curious about Blue Ruin? What's held you back? Just not enough time or did you read a bad review from someone you trust?

 

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