[goodguy]

[79] 06/06 Pays (2016) Chloé Robichaud

Is this worth seeking out?
I really liked her debut feature Sarah Prefers to Run and didn't even know she made another one since then. The trailer and description doesn't make it look very promising, though.

It's a bit of a different tone. This one is more of a subtle satire on politics and industry, but the focus is still on the female characters and on how they have to navigate these spaces. I enjoyed it, it's less tense than Sarah Prefers to Run.

Thanks. I guess it depends on how easy it is to get a hold on it from here (haven't checked yet).

[Will]

[First Time Viewings] x [Mid-Year Update]

10/10:

Fat Girl, Law & Order (1969), Mystery Train, Robocop, The Sacrifice, Starship Troopers, Taipei Story

9/10:

Basic Training, Boyz n the Hood, Dead Ringers, Down by Law, Drugstore Cowboy, La Haine, The Love Witch, Memories of Murder, Naked Lunch, A Night at the Opera, Night of the Living Dead (1968), Titicut Follies, Yi Yi, Zodiac

[Dave the Necrobumper]

[First Time Viewings] x [Mid-Year Update]

10/10:

Robocop, Starship Troopers

do tell

[Will]

[First Time Viewings] x [Mid-Year Update]

10/10:

Robocop, Starship Troopers

do tell

Sure!

ROBOCOP review, copy/pasted from my letterboxd:

All due respect to James Whale, but this is the best adaptation of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN.

It took me far too long to see this masterpiece. I blame all of the film canons that ignore putting this high their on lists. ROBOCOP birthed modern day action movies, American Sci Fi satire, and pretty much every good superhero movie made today.

So many things to love in this film. Let's make a list:

x Sweeping wide angle long takes.
x Camera almost always at a hip level which not only shows the full stature of the characters but associates us with the guns that they use.
x Enough negative space allowed in cinematography so that we can see the true breadth of the expressive yet minimalist production design.
x Characters established through action not dialogue (Murphy with his gun-flip maneuver, Lewis with her wrestling).
x Saturday Morning Cartoon movie sensibility - police popping bubblegum, villains cackling as they escape, random insert of urine stained pants to portray a businessman's fear of a superior, etc.
x No exposition between Murphy's death and rebirth, the set-ups presented in the world-building is enough for the audience to fill in the blanks.
x Again, the cinematography during this sequence - a series of POV shots over a length of time - blew me away in its breathtaking efficiency.
x Random commercials/news show clips interspersed amongst the story contribute to world-building along with keeping interest.
x ED-209 defeated by stairs not only serves a metaphor of human technology defeating android technology but there's a moment of sympathy for the monster as it screams in agony (?) in its attempts to get up that is surprisingly poignant. This rival project would never be seen as legitimate because it does not resemble the human form like Robocop does. It is the Neanderthal to Robocop's Cro-Magnon.

STARSHIP TROOPERS is far more difficult to write about, so I just limited it to a little blurb, also from letterboxd:

“Come on you apes! You want to live forever?”

Gee Golly, isn’t war fun?

The more you indulge in the cliches of war, the likelier people will see it for what it truly is: silly. Most anti-war movies are still pro-military industrial complex. You see the destruction, but you also see the glory and the triumph (PLATOON, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, DUNKIRK). Verhoeven knows that people love this genre so in order to make a good war movie, the script must be anti-military industrial complex. How else to achieve this but to push everything to its extremes?

[Dave the Necrobumper]

Thanks. It is funny but I never thought of Robocop as a Frankenstein adaption, but now you mention it, it is face-palm obvious. There are so many great elements to the film as you list and the ads were a very nice innovation.

[Sam the Cinema Snob]

I thought everyone knew Robocop was about Jesus.

[Will]

[First Time Viewings] x [October Update]

10/10:

Cabaret, Desert Hearts, Fat Girl, Law & Order (1969), Mystery Train, Robocop, The Sacrifice, A Silent Voice, Starship Troopers, Taipei Story

9/10:

Basic Training, Boyz n the Hood, Dance Girl Dance, Dead Ringers, Down by Law, Drugstore Cowboy, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Honeyland, La Haine, Little Women (1994), The Love Witch, Marty, Memories of Murder, Naked Lunch, A Night at the Opera, Night of the Living Dead (1968), Parasite, Smithereens, Titicut Follies, Yi Yi, Zodiac