Author Topic: Top 100 Club: JDC  (Read 25067 times)

Jeff Schroeck

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #30 on: February 25, 2018, 04:56:27 PM »
The Squid and the Whale

Never have I been as irritated at Jeff Daniels and Jesse Eisenberg as I was in the first ten minutes of this film. 

I felt the same about Jeff Daniels. Then about 15-20 minutes in I considered how fun it might've been to play such a despicable monster, in the way it 's probably fun to play a cartoon supervillain, and it made his character more palatable.

chardy999

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #31 on: February 27, 2018, 03:43:00 AM »
The Act of Killing – Joshua Oppenheimer (2012)



While fictional killers can be brushed aside, real killers, in documentaries, are often unsettling and disturbing. What they are often not is fascinating. Anwar, once a perfunctory murderer in the Indonesian genocide of the 60’s, shines brightly in his later years, deft on his feet, and warm with his words as he delights in being the centre of attention and, indeed, bringing attention to the work of his life that claimed a million communist lives, a thousand of which he was personally responsible for.

There is a joy and remorselessness that is quite astounding in Anwar and his fellow criminals as they agree to re-enact scenes of their various murders, detailing the process where anybody who stood up to them was labelled a communist and then trialled, found guilty, tortured and killed. I’m not sure how much of this was Oppenheimer’s idea because who the hell would think of asking that? Perhaps their wilful ignorance of how humans should behave gave him some idea, perhaps it was how Indonesia has still done nothing to address these war crimes 50 years later, perhaps it’s because the political party continues on today, spouting hate (and without a clear policy of their own), or perhaps it’s because they place pride in the title of ‘gangster’ which, of course, means free man. It is still truly distressing and astonishing that these monsters can proudly proclaim they are free men and believe that absolves them from all accountability for their actions.

The movie pivots on the development of these re-enactments as various characters begin to consider the events. The children of today are confused and scared but in the monsters of the past we see some realisation which means the whole exercise isn’t pointless beyond a horrific historical lesson. This is a little clumsily done narratively but the ridiculousness of the content allows for some occasional messy delivery. The tone is measured and patient and allows the drama to evolve naturally and with a story so rich it deserves to speak for itself.

7/10
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Junior

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #32 on: February 27, 2018, 11:23:04 AM »
Gonna try to get to Benny's Video tonight.
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PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #33 on: February 27, 2018, 01:30:30 PM »
This month has been a mess for me, but I did get around to The World of Kanako last night. Although I wasn't as put off as Martin by the first third, his description is pretty accurate, it's a nihilistic narrative mess that mistakes obfuscation for cleverness and while it has some interesting scenes they're overwhelmed by the constant timeline switching and rather unlikeable lead. I'm not sure Martin would have liked where the movie goes much more than what he saw, the style remains in your face and indulgent and the content only gets more violent and despicable, and the film doesn't stop the timeline switching. It does, however, become a lot more coherent and there are little specks of humanity that make all the violence not just empty indulgence but a somewhat effective, if over the top, example of downward spirals and negative influence. The contrast that makes it a heavy downer in content but a fun stylish romp in tone is a bit weird and I prefer when films lean a bit more heavily one way or the other, but I enjoyed it overall.

I'll see if I can get to Thirst tonight and maybe Benny's Video tomorrow.

jdc

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #34 on: February 27, 2018, 07:10:43 PM »
This month has been a mess for me, but I did get around to The World of Kanako last night. Although I wasn't as put off as Martin by the first third, his description is pretty accurate, it's a nihilistic narrative mess that mistakes obfuscation for cleverness and while it has some interesting scenes they're overwhelmed by the constant timeline switching and rather unlikeable lead. I'm not sure Martin would have liked where the movie goes much more than what he saw, the style remains in your face and indulgent and the content only gets more violent and despicable, and the film doesn't stop the timeline switching. It does, however, become a lot more coherent and there are little specks of humanity that make all the violence not just empty indulgence but a somewhat effective, if over the top, example of downward spirals and negative influence. The contrast that makes it a heavy downer in content but a fun stylish romp in tone is a bit weird and I prefer when films lean a bit more heavily one way or the other, but I enjoyed it overall.

I'll see if I can get to Thirst tonight and maybe Benny's Video tomorrow.

Benny's Video certainly won't be more enjoyable but certainly isn't stylistic. Thirst is probably a better balance but still a lot to go through in a short time.

Thanks for getting through it and even enjoying it to an extent
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jdc

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #35 on: February 27, 2018, 07:14:39 PM »
The Act of Killing – Joshua Oppenheimer (2012)



While fictional killers can be brushed aside, real killers, in documentaries, are often unsettling and disturbing. What they are often not is fascinating. Anwar, once a perfunctory murderer in the Indonesian genocide of the 60’s, shines brightly in his later years, deft on his feet, and warm with his words as he delights in being the centre of attention and, indeed, bringing attention to the work of his life that claimed a million communist lives, a thousand of which he was personally responsible for.

There is a joy and remorselessness that is quite astounding in Anwar and his fellow criminals as they agree to re-enact scenes of their various murders, detailing the process where anybody who stood up to them was labelled a communist and then trialled, found guilty, tortured and killed. I’m not sure how much of this was Oppenheimer’s idea because who the hell would think of asking that? Perhaps their wilful ignorance of how humans should behave gave him some idea, perhaps it was how Indonesia has still done nothing to address these war crimes 50 years later, perhaps it’s because the political party continues on today, spouting hate (and without a clear policy of their own), or perhaps it’s because they place pride in the title of ‘gangster’ which, of course, means free man. It is still truly distressing and astonishing that these monsters can proudly proclaim they are free men and believe that absolves them from all accountability for their actions.

The movie pivots on the development of these re-enactments as various characters begin to consider the events. The children of today are confused and scared but in the monsters of the past we see some realisation which means the whole exercise isn’t pointless beyond a horrific historical lesson. This is a little clumsily done narratively but the ridiculousness of the content allows for some occasional messy delivery. The tone is measured and patient and allows the drama to evolve naturally and with a story so rich it deserves to speak for itself.

7/10

I probably should cheat and make this entry and The Look of Silence as one, it sort of depended on which one I watched more recently that I prefer. There is an extended cut of The Act of Killing but I am not sure I will revisit it. You should also watch the follow up if you get a chance. I think it is more condensed as well
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“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #36 on: February 27, 2018, 10:47:19 PM »
jdc, I had to go out of town, but will watch This is Spinal Tap when I get home. Also, KOL and I are talking about American Psycho and I’ll post something about that when I get back to my computer.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #37 on: February 28, 2018, 05:13:28 AM »
Whiplash (2014 - Damien Chazelle)

Oh what a poisonous couple Fletcher (J K Simmons) and Neiman (Miles Teller) make, in many ways they are perfect together, but boy is it a toxic relationship. Fletcher believes in himself and his path completely. Neiman is focused and a cold. These are 2 characters that have some sterling traits (Fletcher less so) and a darkness to them and they make great music together.

Neiman's focus and coldness comes through in the scene when he dumps his girlfriend. He has plotted what he sees as the path of the relationship, which he sees ending badly because of his focus on drumming. Then gives her no chance to rebut that view and ends it. He is open and honest about his reasons. It is a brutal and truthful ending of the relationship, truthful in that he does not sugarcoat his reasons. It also seems that her pain is not touching him, he looks like a person who has done what needs to be done.

Fletcher is passionate, driven and vile. He cries about the death of a former student, but from what we learn later about the death, is he crying because a person has died, or that his chance to have helped build a Charlie Parker has died.

The final performance was fantastic, I love the music of this film, even though I could not tell if he was rushing or dragging.

I could see the greatness in The Godfather, but this film makes me feel its greatness.

Rating: 90 / 100

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #38 on: February 28, 2018, 12:47:42 PM »
Benny's Video

Benny's Video is a movie about a young boy in the early 90s who kills a young girl because he doesn't seem to understand that there is a difference between the real world and the one(s) he sees in his videotapes. If that were all this movie was, I'd be ready to write it off as outdated at best and wrongheaded at worst. We've seen enough studies to know that violence depicted on screen (or in books, or in videogames) doesn't turn people into killers. Luckily there is more to the movie than that. Indeed, it is the second act, wherein we see Benny walk around the city as if nothing has happened and then tell his parents about the girl (whose body is in his closet) and what he did to her, that the movie gets really good. We see the parents reason with each other about what to do with the girl's body, and what to do with their son. And then we see their decision play out.

It's that attention to the wider situation that the parents' involvement brings that really makes the movie interesting and still relevant. It becomes not a critique of media that you might see in a lesser episode of Black Mirror but rather an indictement of the upper-middle class lifestyle that Benny's family leads. They're surrounded by replications of art, the dinner table is crowded by posters and photos from museums around the world. The older daughter is engaged in what she calls a game but is really a pyramid scheme where she and her friends frivolously spread their money amongst each other. There's a sense that the parents have almost no comprehension of who Benny is, or how he got that way (though it seems the answer to the latter lies within the former). Benny's room is a shrine to the videocassette, and we see him rewinding and replaying first the slaughter of a pig that he filmed at the beginning of the movie and then the slaughter of the girl that he captured as it was happening. As the parents try to deal with their murderous kid's actions, it becomes clearer and clearer that he doesn't comprehend what he has done, and his parents don't try to force a reckoning. If we are to blame anybody for this, we should start with Benny, then his parents, then a society that lets a family like this live as if they were doing nothing wrong. In a world where parents are disconnected from their kids, how can we expect the kids to value the lives of others?

The movie is very well made, Michael Haneke knows how to film this kind of detachment (see also The White Ribbon and Funny Games, which could concievably be a sequel to this as one of the torturers in that film is played by the boy who plays Benny in this one) and he does so by not having too many close-ups. We almost always see a good deal of the surrounding environment that the characters are situated within, and he uses Benny's camera and video setup really well in the murder scene (and later). It's an impressive movie, even if its also quite offputting (I almost quit in the first 2 minutes). I think it could have been 90 minutes which might have made it into a masterpiece. It has some of that foreign movie slowness that sometimes gets in the way of brilliance. But it's still worth a watch, if you can.

B+.
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smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: JDC
« Reply #39 on: February 28, 2018, 05:43:52 PM »
The final performance was fantastic, I love the music of this film, even though I could not tell if he was rushing or dragging.

Do you think it's possible that he wasn't doing either?