Author Topic: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)  (Read 111726 times)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #810 on: November 15, 2017, 02:08:30 PM »
So it is an anxiety thing rather than a reaction to gore and such?
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Bondo

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #811 on: November 15, 2017, 06:39:31 PM »
Your Name (2016)

This is a tough film to pin down. Based on what I'd read, I was prepared for how it started, descendant from a long line of body-swap comedies, and the smaller sub-set of gender swap. And aside from it being a touch slow out of the gates on actually finding the swapees interesting, this is what the first act delivers. I could be a bit disappointed that it doesn't take a deep dive into gender ramifications, though it has hints at certain constraints of gender expectations and ways that blurring the lines might make things better. In this latter way, the relationship that Taki nominally fosters with a co-worker is rather sweet. I'd say that clearly what I need is for a girl to inhabit my body every few days to help me develop a relationship, but then in the gender theory sense, a girl inhabits my body every day and it doesn't do me a lot of good (such that I'd argue the film is perhaps overly rosy).

But then the film takes a pretty sharp turn that I'll be very delicate about, but I think it is safe to say it suddenly becomes much more in Shinkai's oeuvre, that of examining relationships over space and time, and the focus on gender melts away completely to focus on these two characters who have swapped bodies and their bond. The middle act that is the largest part of the film is perhaps the most complex and flimsiest at the same time, but it effectively moves the dramatic pieces into place for the film's final gambit when it drops the emotional boom, and effectively so.

It didn't ultimately connect with me like 5 Centimeters Per Second, but is definitely another strong effort from the animation director whose work I most anticipate with the somewhat retirement of Studio Ghibli.

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #812 on: November 20, 2017, 01:19:34 AM »
Captain Fantastic 9/10
I don't know if this is as good as it felt or if it just seems that way because I've watched so little the last few months, but I really enjoyed this. It has its predictable moments amid the quirky setup, but what makes it work is the underlying genuineness of the performances and personalities. Everyone is sympathetically imperfect and there's a grounding to their personalities and the group dynamic that makes all the strangeness seem normal and the normality seem strange. It's not an easy balance to pull off, and it's what makes the film's exploration of what "society," "knowledge," and cultural norms mean so effective; Allowing us to see ourselves through another's eyes is probably an even more daunting task than seeing others through their own eyes, though it helps that I'm detached enough from the "normality" the film is using as contrast to have a leg up on that perspective. It's also nice that the serious themes are explored with levity that makes for a fun, and occasionally outright funny, viewing experience.

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #813 on: November 20, 2017, 06:29:10 AM »
The Wolf Of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)

It is impossible not to admire the level of craftsmanship that has gone into making this movie. The photography and the editing is superb and I love the way Scorsese always let music accompany the images on the screen (no Rolling Stones song this time around, though). The acting is solid. The playing time at 3 hours is massive. It is like a family pizza with extra topping on it.

Spending that amount of time together with these deplorable people, however, kind of made me want to punch the movie in the face. I wish I had a constructive way of channeling in real life the disgust I feel for these persons and their behavior. I can give the movie a credit for that, sort of. I rarely get this wound because of reasons such as these.

One final note, on the Battle of the Muses poll. The current result (17-1) is a bit unflattering for Leonardo DiCaprio, to say the least, but understandable as Scorsese's filmmaking 35-40 year's ago feels original and much less like a product, compared to his recent ones.

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Extraordinary (81-100˚) | Very good (61-80˚) | Good (41-60˚) | Fair (21-40˚) | Poor (0-20˚)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #814 on: November 20, 2017, 06:58:13 AM »
Right, I have been procrastinating, it's time to get back into the game.

Lady Vengeance (2005)

In spite my concerns given my history with Park's other films and much of Korean cinema in general, there is quite a lot to like here. Geum-ja is a captivating character that the film spends a lot of time on building a sympathetic groundwork. We open on her being released from prison, though the circumstances of how she got there are murky until later. The interactions with her various cell-mates displays a knack for helping others out of problems, and we hear her referred to as an angel. In this way the film plays with conception of good and evil, of sin and redemption, in a more sophisticated way than a lot of revenge films that are content to just show wrong and resolution.

My biggest struggle, especially in the first half, was just the chaotic nature of the storytelling which jumps this way and that to include many tertiary characters, with similar jumps about in time. This left me more confused about who was who and what was what than I think was intentional. The second half really focuses in a lot more thankfully, and pays off in brutal fashion a building theme of parental pain, that there is no greater violation than the loss of a child.

Excepting pretty much all the scenes that involve English, I can definitely see how this film would make someone's top-100, even if it was unable to quite land the knockout blow for me.

There are two halves to this movie, and unless you know where the second one is going, it is difficult to appreciate the first one. I am a bit scared about rewatching Lady Vengeance, which should be a prime candidate for the rewatches I have been doing, because I don't know how well the entire thing would work this time around.

The second half of the movie is what it is all about for me. It gets real dark real quickly and Chan-wook knows just how to get you there. The build up to the resolution is a thing to relish. There are many scenes that are theatre-like but nothing sounds fake. Chan-wook is adept in delving into the horror of mankind and showing us the faces of pain but his movies never relish it.

And then there is the visual element of the second half, and that blows one away. There are so many exquisite shots you could make a solid wallpaper collection just from that second hour. I vividly remember the blossoms towards the end. The way the movie entwines beauty and pain is exquisite.

I couldn't find a fitting gif for your review, so here, have a power glove instead:

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DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #815 on: November 20, 2017, 06:59:37 AM »
I love how Captain Fantastic is becoming the breakthrough movie of the month. That's juts the sort of thing one hopes for during one's month. It just goes to show y'all should listen to me when I recommend stuff at the end of the year. It could have gotten so many more nominations...
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #816 on: November 20, 2017, 07:15:05 AM »
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.

Sure, I'll take your definition. Didn't really make a huge difference til I read oldkid's comment about what the series is doing - if it is more technology-focussed I can see why it forgoes characterisation to emphasis more challenging social concepts. Regardless, it does neither well...

I am inherently more interested in the technology, so that's one point in the plus column for me.

Quote
Quote from: DH
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.

Things exist in the real world on these days and forever in San Junipero death-land. That's really forever.

The whole things feel false because I feel like the writer is trying to write about love, and I believe they think they are writing about love, but all it does to me is undermine love for cheap party tricks and the pursuit of pleasure in this alternate reality. If these people are destined to be together forever then they deserve the respect of being together for eternity in San Junipero in death. They play it as though their life itself has no value in the living - unless they get a taste of what death could be like in this utopia - one where you get to choose the decade you deem most desirable.

The rest of your comments revolve around you feeling empathy for this joint-world that bemused me at best and angered me mostly.

I have hope that the specifics of this episode didn't sit well with me, and that I'd get more out of others, but San Junipero is sitting even worse with me a week after watching it.

I am not entirely sure of what you mean every time you talk about living and death. One of the points the episode makes is that body death does not equate mental death once we reach the singularity, and that we are not shackled by our mortality. The difference between software and the real world becomes inconsequential, maybe, and one is as alive in San Junipero as one is IRL.

I do not think, however, that we are meant to believe they will be together forever. They will be together for a while, and maybe they are in love, maybe not. That they have some kind of bond is, I think, unquestionable. Eventually they will probably split ways be with new people. They have eternity to themselves and the ways of man do not change with the scenery. The point the ending of the movie makes, as I read it, is that there is value in this choice, in pursuing life after the heart stops beating, in leaving the real world behind and starting afresh, in letting go, in moving on. You are still allowed happiness and we get to revel in the freedom of being allowed to choose for ourselves what becomes of us.


Also, a virgin met the love of her death after a lifetime of pain, and that's sweet.
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chardy999

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #817 on: November 21, 2017, 04:49:46 PM »
I feel like we pretty much agree on the content with polar opposite perspectives.

I am going to watch The LEGO Movie next. This never would have happened. If that’s not what the Top 100 Club is about, I don’t know what is.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #818 on: November 21, 2017, 07:06:05 PM »
Wait, what? chardy is watching an animated movie? Because of me? Miracles do happen!


You're gonna have a blast. If you've got any sense, that is.
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chardy999

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #819 on: November 22, 2017, 05:56:24 AM »
The Lego Movie – Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (2014)



I loved Legos as a kid. I was wildly creative and ambitious; I recall getting a 12+ year old truck on my 7th birthday and once I was done I started incorporating it with marbles and other toys to build a new world. That’s a philosophy shared by the Lego men in this energetic action film. There is so much of everything and that’s how Lego should be and, as we know, everything is awesome.

There’s a good commitment to nostalgia. I like seeing the dragons and the ships and the ghost with Morgan Freeman’s voice. But this is a kids movie. I would have loved it as a kid, but I am an adult. The tropes are as boring as they are familiar: the cookie cutter leader with malevolent plans, the bad cop trying to be good, the girl saved, and the very modern everyman superhero. I’ll give it credit for using the real people at the end to tie it together but it’s all a bit clever and calculated and commercial.

My rating as a 7 year old: 10/10
My rating as a old curmudgeon: 5/10.
 

I'll happily watch an Archer marathon to make it up, DH.
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