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Author Topic: Top 100 Club: 1SO  (Read 51340 times)

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #170 on: March 28, 2019, 09:39:43 PM »
I remember wondering if Duryea is telling the truth because he sounds like a man who's absolutely convinced himself. Somebody who is a frightening presence can still be right occasionally, and probably won't know the right way to make his case. This is the Film Noir talking, what happens if the person who's right happens to be a terrible human being by nature? It's a role made for Duryea. I think this would be in my Top 3 with Too Late For Tears and Scarlet Street.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #171 on: March 28, 2019, 10:01:32 PM »
The Man From Nowhere (2010 Jeong-beom Lee)

At first this looked like it was going to be a variation on Leon, but that changes. This is a film that builds, and builds, and builds. The tension is there a little, but it is more the violence and the evil that is presented that builds. By and large this is not a nice bunch of people. Still, in something unusual for the South Korean films I have seen, the cops are not particularly incompetent or corrupt.

Won Bin as Cha Tae-sik is good, he has the moves and does the emotive parts of his role well. However it was Sae-ron Kim as Jeong So-mi that impressed me, a very assured performance across all the different parts of her role.

An uninspiring title, but a pretty good film.

Rating: 76 / 100

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #172 on: March 29, 2019, 03:17:37 AM »
Virtue (1932)

A nice Pre-Code that I appreciate mostly for the actors and the genre blending. At times it's a screwball comedy, at others a romance, and at others a proto-noirish drama. It's not really hung up on any of that, it just is all those things naturally and it's an enjoyable time with Lombard and O'Brien and even Ward Bond is fine here. It's funny because this is a story that fits perfectly with the spirit of the code, but I doubt could have been made a few years later without making a lot of implications much more implied, and that makes it contextually interesting but outside of that it's not much more than a good time.

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #173 on: March 29, 2019, 06:18:57 AM »
I included Man From Nowhere because it’s rarely mentioned among the Korean wave, but it’s one of the best of that group.

I included Virtue because those are three actors I watch a lot who don’t get many opportunities to show their dramatic skills. O’Brien in particular usually plays it loud and fast. That’s what makes this such a treat.

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #174 on: April 03, 2019, 08:38:01 PM »
Thanks everyone for taking a look at some of my favorite films to share. Next time out I will probably keep these lists and make some small adjustments to them.

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #175 on: April 04, 2019, 10:48:08 PM »
Thanks everyone for taking a look at some of my favorite films to share. Next time out I will probably keep these lists and make some small adjustments to them.

Two more reviews coming your way. I'm a little behind. :)

oldkid

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #176 on: April 04, 2019, 11:17:14 PM »
I have two more films as well
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #177 on: April 05, 2019, 12:01:58 AM »
Wichita



I spent the whole movie wondering where I knew Joel McCrea from (answer: Sullivan's Travels). He's such an everyman man, perfectly suited for the role and perfectly, ubiquitously anonymous. My apologies Mr. McCrea. I won't forget you again. I'm afraid I did the same thing with Vera Miles. I had to look up her bio afterwards to remind me that she's Laurie in The Searchers. Two for two. I thought I was better at this than this! Lloyd Bridges was impossible to miss, nor was Jack Elam. Does that make up for my other misses? Not really, but I'm going to count them as such anyway. 


I can see Canyon Passage in this film, for sure. Some of the shots were rich texturally, such as this one! Look at the detail from the prop department!



This setup is used from different angles and distances for just a few scenes. It's impressive in it's completeness and makes me want to go camping. :)

The other Canyon Passage trait is the casual brutal nature of the storytelling. I get lulled into a nice Western story and then everything goes sideways! The body count is vastly lower, but the style still throws me.

Overall I am satisfied with the film. It does everything a good Western should. Good story. Good conflict. Good Legend making.

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #178 on: April 05, 2019, 01:13:45 AM »
Though he's a bit too goody-goody (even Stewart has darkness in his saddlebags) Joel McCrea stood out for me once I started watching his Westerns, and the three he made under Jacques Tourneur make a nice little trilogy.

Does this mean you haven't seen The More the Merrier with McCrea, Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn? It's a thoroughly charming 1940s rom-com.

It took the longest time for Vera Miles to stand out to me. Psycho didn't do it. Liberty Valance didn't do it. Where it finally stuck was two guilty pleasures of mine, The FBI Story (1959) also starring James Stewart and Hellfighters (1968) where she plays John Wayne's ex-wife. It seems she's always entangled with one or the other.

Over the years, I've started moving past the director's attention to detail (many years) and have started fixating on how well he creates a sense of community. His westerns especially have a great feel for characters working together to deal with a few bad eggs, and not just the leads but many of the small parts.

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Re: Top 100 Club: 1SO
« Reply #179 on: April 08, 2019, 04:46:57 PM »
The Music Room

My previous experience with Ray caused me to expect an intricate plot with brilliant undertones.  Here, the tone is all, and plot is sparse. We watch a man’s obsession with the finer things in life slowly erode all the grandeur his ancestors had established.  What is most surprising to me are the long musical interludes, both beautiful and tragic.  We are allowed to sit in contemplation of the context, as the music empowers the pathetic nature of the story to be epic and at times overpowering.

In a sense, this is a counter to  Scent of The Green Papaya, which is a meditation of the joy and beauty of everyday life.  Here, we have a mediation on gradual destruction and sorrow.  A symphony to the tune of Fall of the House of Usher.

Powerful filmmaking, showing the power of.a gentle touch and of precise tone-management.

4/5
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

 

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