Author Topic: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)  (Read 111671 times)

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #890 on: December 10, 2017, 01:43:50 PM »
When I originally wrote science (first quote) I meant finance. I don't know why I got mixed up, but I don't think it fundamentally changes the discussion, except for the examples and the quantity of movies made. Interestingly, there are many more movies about science than finance or economics, and I am not sure why. Both are comparatively complex.

(Is the grammar right there? Doesn't feel like it.)
« Last Edit: December 10, 2017, 01:48:58 PM by DarkeningHumour »
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #891 on: December 10, 2017, 03:53:17 PM »
I think it's because science can be used like magic, to make all manner of things happen, much of which has never been thought of before.  Finance is much more limited.  There's power there, but not unlimited.  Even the wealthiest person can, at best, pay a scientist to fulfill some crazy dream.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #892 on: December 12, 2017, 06:12:53 AM »
Quote
I wonder who your MVP was?

I gave this some thought, and I don't think it'd be possible to say. Everyone was good, but non one really stood out besides Irons who was the most bombastic but I'm not sure that makes his performance actually better, and Tucci which was really more about what his character represents than the actual performance.

I think we get the most out of Spacey as a character and I like his performance a lot.

Quote
Quote
You had the most interesting pairing of everyone during the month - a movie about people at the heart of finance one one hand and another about anti-capitalist hippies on the other. Was this on purpose? Your second movie is literally what everyone in Captain criticises all the time. Does Margin Call prove them right in your mind?

Not on purpose. I'm not sure this is really what Captain criticizes. Rather it criticizes the society that allows this to exist and be celebrated (monetarily if not culturally). They're thematically adjacent but don't really speak to or about each other. In fact, the few references to life outside the wall street bubble show a similar perspective towards "normal society" only with the conclusion of "let's exploit it" rather than Captain's "let's escape it."

Yes and no. Mass consumerism cannot be disassociated from debt and credit and the entire financial system. The free flow of capital, trading, etc. are the other side of the coin of what Viggo Mortensen likes to rail against so much. More homes means mortgages. More consumer spending means credit cards. Cheap money means deregulated markets. Mortensen probably would not criticise that as easily because his arguments are moral rather than technical, and he didn't strike me as the kind of guy who would invest time learning about financial theory.

Quote
Quote
This sounds a lot to me like the regular distance any person prone to self-reflection has to their native culture.

Yes and no. The insights and conclusions are probably pretty similar (at least from what I can tell from reading/hearing/seeing/ other people's views), but the perspective and particularly the experience is different. It's hard to really explain my experience without going in to much more detail than I want about my life, and I don't claim to have any super special insight but here's an example. Thanksgiving is a big holiday around here (not as big in Canada as in the US but still a no school or work, family and turkey day), but to me it is entirely meaningless and something I have no real first hand experience with, but it's something that I've always had awareness of despite the lack of identification. This is different from someone who grew up with it and at some point rejected it, it's different from someone who's own family never celebrated it but who otherwise identifies with the society that does and it's also different from someone who came here at an older age for whom it has always been something other people celebrate. We may all have similar opinions and judgements about it but the experience and perception is different in each case. None is better or worse than the other, or easier or harder to experience, but they are different. I've experienced all of the perspectives above in different things (there are also a ton of things big and small where I'm very much part the society and culture I live in sometimes willingly sometimes not, sometimes with self awareness and sometimes not). Captain Fantastic is as much a film about the different perspectives of its characters as it is about their views or the film's views on North American society and it's that perspective on perspectives that I was getting at. The film's commentary on society is fine, but it's not super insightful or complex, it's the film's in/out group dynamics and how they tie into the commentary on both North American Society and the family's own created pseudo society that give it a unique twist by trying to force the viewer into a different perspective that is different from self reflection even if self reflection can see the same things.

Point taken. I have trouble doing the exercise though, experiencing the oddity of American culture through the eyes of an outsider in a way that is fundamentally different from the intellectual understanding of what the criticism is and where the culture clash operates.
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #893 on: December 31, 2017, 02:16:52 PM »
Okay, it's been a month since DarkeningHumour's month has been over and I'm just getting to end it.  That gave everyone enough time to get more movies in and DH his responses.  It was a great month.

Bondo- Lady Vengeance
Bondo- Your Name
chardy999- San Junipero
chardy999- The Lego Movie
Dave the Necrobumper- Cabin in the Woods
jdc- All About Eve
Junior- All About Eve
KnockedOutLoaded- Wolf of Wall Street
KnockedOutLoaded- A Royal Affair
Martin Teller- Elle
oldkid- Captain Fantastic
oldkid- There Will Be Blood
1SO- Captain Fantastic
PeacefulAnarchy- Captain Fantastic
PeacefulAnarchy- Margin Call
pixote- The King and the Mockingbird
Sandy- A Royal Affair
Sandy- There Will Be Blood
Sandy- Magnolia
Teproc- Scott Pilgrim v. The World

Although we are only a day away from January, I want to make sure people know that we are posting each member a new thread for their films and responses.  Our first month of this new format is the last one in this round: Dave the Necrobumper. 
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #894 on: August 28, 2018, 08:05:01 AM »
I think I have to bow out of Top 100 Club. I have very little time to myself these days, and when I do manage to get a couple of hours, I always want to devote it to my own watchlist. The alternative is using the leisure time I share with my wife, and she rarely wants to watch a movie. I'm four weeks overdue to watch Romancing the Stone for 1SO, but while Carrie wants to see it with me, we always end up watching TV instead. Ditto for Bondo and Lady Bird (and/or Moonlight). I'll still try to get to these at some point, but I can't rightfully take up a slot in the rotation when I'm consistently late... or missing someone's turn entirely.

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #895 on: August 28, 2018, 07:22:38 PM »
Seeing as I'm on pace to miss 200+ movies in a year for the first time in...known history, I feel this on a deep level.

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #896 on: August 28, 2018, 07:54:57 PM »
I'm going to try to keep up, if only to motivate me to watch some movies each month. I've seen one for Bondo, just haven't written it up yet. Will probably come tomorrow.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #897 on: August 29, 2018, 05:30:21 PM »
I think I have to bow out of Top 100 Club. I have very little time to myself these days, and when I do manage to get a couple of hours, I always want to devote it to my own watchlist. The alternative is using the leisure time I share with my wife, and she rarely wants to watch a movie. I'm four weeks overdue to watch Romancing the Stone for 1SO, but while Carrie wants to see it with me, we always end up watching TV instead. Ditto for Bondo and Lady Bird (and/or Moonlight). I'll still try to get to these at some point, but I can't rightfully take up a slot in the rotation when I'm consistently late... or missing someone's turn entirely.

Ouch.  It's tough when the founder bows out.  But I get it.  Infants and work take up a lot of time.  I'll take you out of the rotation until you ask to be put back in.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

smirnoff

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26251
    • smirnoff's Top 100
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #898 on: August 29, 2018, 11:24:26 PM »


I've been riding the bench for a little while, but with Martin taking a breather I'll sub in to keep the numbers up. I'll jump in for September. You can stick me at the back of whatever the line is. :)

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #899 on: August 30, 2018, 01:42:28 AM »


I've been riding the bench for a little while, but with Martin taking a breather I'll sub in to keep the numbers up. I'll jump in for September. You can stick me at the back of whatever the line is. :)

Yea! I'll put you in!
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

 

love