Author Topic: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob  (Read 19561 times)

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2018, 09:19:47 PM »
Sam, your Top 100 has a handful of Shorts. Thinking about watching them all and then posting my thoughts in a ranked order.

29. The Old Mill (1937)
30. Night and Fog (1956)
32. One Froggy Evening (1955)
43. One Week (1920)
48. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
49. The House is Black (1963)
94. The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #11 on: October 03, 2018, 06:55:13 AM »
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943 Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid)

Is this a time loop or is it a dream or something else, your guess is as good as mine. I watched this with a modern score, rather than silent or with the 1959 Teiji Ito score. I was mostly captivated by this film, the close-ups of the eye were a problem for me to watch, I kept expecting bad things to happen to the eye.

The build up is well done, at first you are not sure what is going on, but slowly you are drawn deeper and deeper into the world. By the end you are sure of what is going on, except in no way can you be, because this world's reality is too unstable. My favourite 2 scenes were Maya going up the stairs like a drunk; and the double of Maya. The latter was very cleanly done, I would almost say Maya must have an identical twin.

It's funny, I can sort of see a connection between this film and The Old Mill.

It is hard to rate this, particular because it is a short, and I have trouble giving those a number grade. So I will give is a phrase rating.

Rating: Interestingly Weird

MartinTeller

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #12 on: October 03, 2018, 08:28:03 AM »
I kept expecting bad things to happen to the eye.

Buñuel has traumatized us all.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #13 on: October 03, 2018, 11:18:05 AM »
Sam, your Top 100 has a handful of Shorts. Thinking about watching them all and then posting my thoughts in a ranked order.
That works for me. I doubt you'd enjoy Shirin.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #14 on: October 03, 2018, 03:10:21 PM »
I kept expecting bad things to happen to the eye.

Buñuel has traumatized us all.

Indeed

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #15 on: October 06, 2018, 10:50:47 PM »
Scream (mildly spoilery)

I forgot who the killer(s) were, so it's definitely been a while... since whenever it first came out I guess. I vaguely remember it being an effective horror... I would have been a teen at the time, much like the characters in the movie, and a little more susceptible to the scares on offer.

I still enjoyed the mystery aspect of it. The movie throws loads of clues at you so you're left suspecting everyone, with every possible motive. There's lots of misdirection. Some of it obvious, some recognizable in hindsight. Even though you recognize the director is carpet bombing you with red herrings, the movie isn't necessarily any worse for it. You also recognize a lot of those red herrings won't be red herrings at all. It's just part of the fun.

I'm not over the moon about it, but it's fair romp and the core idea behind it is a good one. Watching Friday The 13th prior to watching this made me feel smart when it got to the killer's trivia question at the end. :)

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #16 on: October 10, 2018, 07:43:27 PM »
Scream (1996 Wes Craven)

Well this one has the same problem Psycho had a few months ago, I knew a fair bit about the film going in. Including 2 key points Drew dies early and there are 2 killers. Still this is a good film and it can weather that storm.

We have a bunch of eye candy teens and twenty somethings, and bodies piling up. There is a really good mystery here, so it is not just about the horror it is about who done it. I am assuming Craven has taken that from the classic Giallo movies, but given the meta-ness of this movie and my lack of horror knowledge it is just as likely from a range of sources.

There are a few jump scares, but fortunately the movie does not rely on them for the tension. The blood and guts are there, but not too strongly. There are some really good layers to the action, the scene near the end with Halloween on the TV and people watching the room from a van, very nicely done.

I would definitely recommend this to most people, but it will not be going into my top 100.

Rating: 77 / 100

Bondo

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #17 on: October 10, 2018, 09:16:21 PM »
Cat People

I feel like Sam would prefer I not like the movie I watch for him because if I loved it he would have to rethink its placement. Such is the nature of our inverse preferences. I'm excited to say that this fit the bill. As a possible Shocktober crossover, I found it rather tame. I'd call it noir sooner than horror, though it isn't not horror. I feel like whatever the opposite of a meet cute is how Kent and Simone come together at the zoo here. He throws out a few mildly goofy lines and she is apparently so sold she invites him straight into her place for a drink. Irina Dubrovna doesn't bring much to the role so any sparks of chemistry are smothered.

The title and the mystery come from the legent Simone explains about her Eastern European ancestors, something about witches who turn to cats and are I guess evil and were vanquished by a guy except for a few escapees. Apparently if they climax in bed they transform into panthers and presumably consume their partner. Very preying mantis, a touch femme fatale, and pretty significantly sexist in its othering of feminine power. But any annoyance I might draw from the concept was not felt while watching because I just found the whole thing rather plodding (an accomplishment for a rather short film) and undercooked. The Schrader remake sounds like it could be more my speed.

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #18 on: October 11, 2018, 12:00:28 AM »
Cat People

But any annoyance I might draw from the concept was not felt while watching because I just found the whole thing rather plodding (an accomplishment for a rather short film) and undercooked. The Schrader remake sounds like it could be more my speed.
The front half of the remake is on par, but the back half is very much more for you.

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #19 on: October 16, 2018, 10:59:08 PM »
Scream



Short conversation after viewing...

(Knocked Out Loaded and I were talking about Phantom Thread and different ways films challenge us.)

Sandy: ...I was super challenged this evening!
KOL: In a good way?
Sandy: I don't know! I watched Scream.
KOL:  ;D
Sandy: People getting mutilated, hacked up, shot, stabbed... This is something people enjoy? They like the adrenaline rush? ???
KOL: Maybe
Sandy: I don't know... I feel a little less human, like it brought something into me that diminishes me some.
KOL: So, in a way you feel that you have hurt yourself?
Sandy: It's as if I need to replace what I saw with other things, like the need to heal my soul, I guess.
KOL: I sense that it was a less than a good experience.
Sandy: It's hard to define good. I'm not desensitized from watching numerous horror movies, so it's raw to me. I'm an empath for goodness sake! I don't have enough protective filters!
KOL: Your empathic capacities means that you enjoyed Scream less?
Sandy: I don't watch films lightly. They affect me.
KOL: That is a cool aspect. Scream's stupid setup never takes me there. I remain unaffected because there is so little realism there from the get go.
Sandy: The blood :(
KOL: It is just paint!
Sandy: It is?! :D
KOL:I hope! :D
Sandy: Why can't I sit back unattached and say, "It's just paint"? ...In these type of movies, I'm the type to clutch someone's arm and peak out from under a blanket... It must be why guys like to watch horror with their dates. :)
KOL: That is a valid point I never have thought of!
Sandy: Seems pretty smart. And the real value I see in such films. ;)
KOL: It makes perfect sense! We have deconstructed the genre!



I think I came at horror backwards. I've bypassed all the modern classic horror films and went right into the meta spoof ones, mainly Scream and Cabin in the Woods. Perhaps this way, if I do watch the others, I will have one level of separation from them and can watch with a more neutral eye. I'll take any buffering I can get! :)

Personally, I was very impressed with Scream. I didn't know the story, so everything was new to me and it unfolded as if I were sitting in a theatre in 1996. Pretty neat trick, which is a big anomaly, I'm sure! A little horror goes a long way, but I have Alien sitting here at my desk and now that I've had a week to decompress from Scream, it's time to dive back in! Wish me luck. :)