Author Topic: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)  (Read 111681 times)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #770 on: November 03, 2017, 04:09:39 AM »
It all makes sense to me, especially the thread per person instead of month part.
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Teproc

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #771 on: November 03, 2017, 04:14:48 AM »
It all makes sense to me, especially the thread per person instead of month part.

Agreed.
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chardy999

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #772 on: November 05, 2017, 03:26:50 AM »
Yeah that is a good idea. Just have to ensure you're 'subscribed' to each person's thread.
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chardy999

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #773 on: November 06, 2017, 05:32:23 AM »
Black Mirror: San Junipero (2016)



Completely devoid of any prior knowledge of this series I assumed that this would be one of many short stories, alive with its only pop and pizzazz. Two women find forbidden love in a supernatural world stretched over the time continuum. It’s a story worthy of exploration that this film doesn’t have time for. A romance formed from no discernible connection that pays lip service to its authenticity once the concepts of time and space are brought into play.

Simultaneously ostentatious and melodramatic both in tired clichés early and in overwrought speeches later on, San Junipero is falsely earnest, undermining the very values in purports to uphold.

And why play God on Earth? Why manufacture love, when you have, by definition, eternity to find it.

4/10.


Sorry there wasn't more butter on my popcorn DH. How could you find value in a relationship involving someone still alive when the episode itself placed such value on being dead together? And how could you be captivated by this relationship? These characters are not developed and a sad story about an off-screen husband isn't going to change that.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #774 on: November 07, 2017, 11:29:55 AM »
Bloody, sweaty hell...


Okay, chardy, my man, let's do this.

Quote from: chardy who is mistaken
Two women find forbidden love in a supernatural world ...

Right away I have to take issue. The world is not supernatural, it's a software, a technology created virtual reality. And if you think I am not going to nitpick about the terminology, well, I am. Lots. That's probably what 70% of this month is going to be about. Just wait until someone watches The Cabin in the Woods and calls it a horror movie.

Quote from: chardy not liking great things
... stretched over the time continuum. It’s a story worthy of exploration that this film doesn’t have time for. A romance formed from no discernible connection that pays lip service to its authenticity once the concepts of time and space are brought into play.

I am not sure what stretched over the time continuum means here. The story takes place in a limited number of days. The characters are plugged into the system once a week for a few hours and my best estimation is that a few weeks go by between the first and last scenes of the episode.

If it is paying lip service to anything at all, surely it must be the singularity and euthanasia. Those themes, beyond the relationship stuff, are what the episode is about after all. Every BM episode takes one one more sci-fi concepts and applies them to real life and thinks about what a world with flying cops or luminescent apples would look like.

A big part of the enjoyment of San Junipero is figuring our what is going on, which is not that complicated, but is really freaking cool when you think about it. People can plug into this virtual, perfect world and enjoy themselves as much as they want. In this specific situation, it turns out they are escaping the shackles of old age and disease. They are liberated from their bodies, able to establish connections based solely on each other's actions because everyone is young and attractive. It's the ultimate set up for escapism and authenticity.


How you can say the two of them have no discernible connection? One of them loses her virginity to the other while we see the second one fall for her and deal with her grief and feelings of betrayal.

Quote from: chardy from the upside down world
Simultaneously ostentatious and melodramatic both in tired clichés early and in overwrought speeches later on, San Junipero is falsely earnest, undermining the very values in purports to uphold.

Which values would that be? The right of people to dispose of their own bodies? A general belief in science's capacity to better the lives of people? I don't think the story takes a moral stance where the romance is concerned because it clearly shows how various choices here would be utterly understandable. It just has this uplifting belief in people's ability to make each other happy which is quite unique to the BM episodes I have watched, which are basically all horror stories. Maybe that is why it is so much better.

Quote from: heartless chardy
Sorry there wasn't more butter on my popcorn DH. How could you find value in a relationship involving someone still alive when the episode itself placed such value on being dead together? And how could you be captivated by this relationship? These characters are not developed and a sad story about an off-screen husband isn't going to change that.

The death scene is beside the point. Their bodies could remain alive where they are while their minds wander and the result would be the same. The important thing is that they get a new beginning, a new chance at life and happiness, the opportunity for a new great love story. When you learn that the redhead has been paralysed since her adolescence and never got to be with someone, that is a heartbreaking scene, and San Junipero means she gets to right that wrong. To see her finally bloom after so many years is a touching thing that the episodes handles with such tenderness.

The husband character doesn't need to ever be shown to me for that part of the story to matter. Surely you care about plenty of things in movies that are told, rather than shown. Most of Sophie's backstory in Sophie's Choice for example (except for the obvious one scene) ; ditto for the guy she's dating. You call the speeches melodramatic but when she tells that story that is one powerful piece of acting and I wouldn't change a thing about the acting. It's a great moment of on screen empathy that has you root for their relationship and then makes you feel like a bastard for not giving more thought to what that might imply for the characters.

To conclude:


(I jest.)

That's what I've got for now, if you want to continue, I am sure I can find Beth some more wine somewhere.
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oldkid

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #775 on: November 07, 2017, 12:57:23 PM »
I think that this is where we do actually lose something without the rest of the series.

Black Mirror is about the "next step" in technology and their moral consequences.  Often they are not sci fi at all, but are dealing with technology we currently have, creating situations we haven't seen yet.  But most of the time, like in SJ, they deal with a technology we haven't yet seen, but could be developed.

So the focus is usually on the technology.  In this episode, it is the unfolding of the technology and the characters over the time of the episode that are so great.  This is a very different kind of Black Mirror story.  Perhaps the characterizations are shallow, but that's par for the course for Black Mirror, because it usually focuses on technology.  But here, it is the mystery of the people, less than the technology, that is at play.  The characters may be shallow, but the reveal is fascinating.

I wouldn't put this in the top five of Black Mirror episodes myself, but I do think it is well done.
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1SO

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #776 on: November 08, 2017, 10:14:40 PM »
"What kind of crazy person celebrates Noam Chomsky's birthday like it's some kind of official holiday? Why can't we celebrate Christmas like the rest of the entire world?"
"You would prefer to celebrate a magical fictitious elf instead of a living humanitarian who's done so much to promote human rights and understanding?"



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* * * - Very Good


DH, you weren't around for the frequent discussions over Lukas Moodysson, where I was an admirer but not as much a fan as the rest of the community. Among Moodysson's acclaimed work is Together (Tillsammans) about a community of individuals who live different from society's normal laws and the impact it is having on their children. The few things I liked about that film is the heart of this film, which I like considerably more.

"Interesting" is a non-word. You know you're supposed to avoid it. Be specific."

Writer/director does an excellent job stacking the deck in Ben's favor, without creating a cute/quirky family only found in a screenwriters imagination. The family is initially presented as being in excellent physical and mental condition, certainly better than sister Harper, her husband Dave and their TV zombie offspring. This rest stop's real purpose is to show how superior Ben's way of life is, but it's done in a fully-dimensional, honest way.

"I know nothing! I am a freak because of you! You made us freaks! And Mom knew that! She understood! Unless it comes out of a CINECAST!ing book, I don't know anything about anything!"

After some great convincing that Ben's radically different approach yields great results, we get to Grandpa and learn that this family doesn't have it all figured out after all. I love the structure of the film, where the final third turns to bite everything we've come to know. The children aren't in such excellent mental OR physical shape. One even believes that this way of life might've come from Mom's mental illness or might've led to her deteriorating when she could've used treatment. As I write it all down, I see the simplicity of the story, but it's not a flaw here because of the honesty. It's too rare to find a film where the hero unorthodox methods are treated like something to be celebrated followed by critiquing them as deeply flawed, just like that one-dimensional Grandfather shows himself to be much more wise and compassionate.

The ending reminded me of a much praised scene from Toni Erdmann where an unusual song selection becomes a moment of great catharsis. I though this film did it better.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2020, 04:31:06 PM by 1SO »

pixote

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #777 on: November 08, 2017, 10:18:53 PM »
I've been curious to watch that film, but Frank Langella's role just look so very thankless in the trailer, to the point where I continue to dread the thought of watching those scenes.

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oldkid

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #778 on: November 09, 2017, 03:24:20 AM »
Langella's role in the trailer is how he begins in the film.  But he doesn't stay there.  Interesting portrayal, honestly.  Thoughtful.  Worthy of the great actor.
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Teproc

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #779 on: November 09, 2017, 04:02:20 AM »
Yeah, it's not a huge part but it's worthy and he makes the best of it.
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