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Poll

What's your favorite film by David O. Russell?

haven't seen any
3 (7.7%)
don't like any
1 (2.6%)
Spanking the Monkey
0 (0%)
Flirting with Disaster
2 (5.1%)
Three Kings
16 (41%)
I Heart Huckabees
6 (15.4%)
The Fighter
3 (7.7%)
Silver Linings Playbook
3 (7.7%)
American Hustle
5 (12.8%)
Joy
0 (0%)
Canterbury Glass
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 39

Author Topic: Russell, David O.  (Read 8681 times)

Totoro

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Re: Russell, David O.
« Reply #70 on: February 23, 2016, 03:40:19 PM »
I'm not sure what you're trying to extract - it's everywhere, it pervades every scene and every scene is a piece of a puzzle I have no interest in solving. If you don't see that, that's good for you!

This just sounds like you're projecting onto the film then. Or worse, you're just going along with the rather large critical opposition which is mostly a sect of reactionary critics  to his films' collection of accolades (despite the fact that accolades has no bearing on the actual film). Russell's films got nominated for X Academy Awards?! Clearly, it must be Oscar bait which means they're self-important and smug...

It's a line of thinking that I've seen time and time again with vocal Russell detractors. They then go on to say how much of a dick Russell is on set like that has anything to do with the quality of his movies...

I don't see any smugness - because there isn't any. I would be the first to know too. These films aren't self-important but pointedly self-aware satires on American idealism. Silver Linings Playbook doesn't operate with any presumption of being an important film - it just focuses on the characters and how they're tied to the theme of the American Dream in conflict with collective mental illness. American Hustle argues in a pretty straightforward fashion that American identity is based on appreciating the imitation more than the original. These films aren't like Dennis Villeneuve or Inarritu beating the themes at you twenty-four frames per second with overt symbols or gestures. They're decidedly middlebrow and don't need to be examined to be enjoyed. It took me several viewings to see the layers underneath Playbook & Hustle, but they are there and they're pretty subtle too.

Even I Heart Huckabees mocks new age thinking pretty riotously while also respecting it.

Fine satire is pretty rare these days and often misinterpreted, verbals. You either tap in or you don't. I honestly don't get these smug claims though. Lack of evidence in the narrative doesn't propel conversation forward either.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Russell, David O.
« Reply #71 on: February 23, 2016, 07:32:25 PM »
Ok. A film like Birdman is in another league as concerns smugness and self importance but it doesn't make it a bad film. The energy levels. The fireworks involved. Very much a la DOR. Brio. To counterpoint Listen Up Philip is as smug etc but I just want to rub a grapefruit into its face. So the strength of the reaction may be more important than whether it's positive or negative.

But in any of those films actually pinpointing a smug or self important moment is really tough. Schwartzmann in LuP is insufferable and deliberately so. The acid he pours on his ex which Moss to her discredit enjoys immensely (foreshadowing what he does to her ) is self important ie where do you get the right to treat someone that badly? I can't think of anything DOR does that compared to this pseudo intellectual bile and that Schwartzmann gets his in a karmic revenge sense doesn't really matter. He is so horrible you just want him off screen so I didn't care what happened to him. Wishing bad things on people you don't like is childish. So a film that enjoys his comeuppance is similarly childish which mixed with the clever claptrap leaves it feeling bloody messy.  DOR is an Eton Mess.

You seem to be confusing the supposed smugness of the movie with the actual smugness of its title character. Sure, Schwartzmann has smugness in spades here, but that doesn't make the movie itself smug. The qualities of the movie come from the audiovisual language it employs, its style and how it treats its subject matter. Mommy is a purposefully and noticeably pretentious movie with its use of a 1:1 aspect ratio and the like ; even if it all ends up working. Birdman is equally gimmicky and artistic in a flashy way, whatever one may think about the movie. Now I myself would not say O. Russel is a smug director because I have never found that in his work, but if you are going to look for smugness there, look at the film, not the characters.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Russell, David O.
« Reply #72 on: February 23, 2016, 07:33:57 PM »
I'm not sure what you're trying to extract - it's everywhere, it pervades every scene and every scene is a piece of a puzzle I have no interest in solving. If you don't see that, that's good for you!

This just sounds like you're projecting onto the film then. Or worse, you're just going along with the rather large critical opposition which is mostly a sect of reactionary critics  to his films' collection of accolades (despite the fact that accolades has no bearing on the actual film). Russell's films got nominated for X Academy Awards?! Clearly, it must be Oscar bait which means they're self-important and smug...

I have to agree that if you cannot point out specific instances of a characteristic you blame a movie for having, your overall argument gets pretty weak.
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verbALs

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Re: Russell, David O.
« Reply #73 on: February 23, 2016, 11:31:43 PM »
Ok. A film like Birdman is in another league as concerns smugness and self importance but it doesn't make it a bad film. The energy levels. The fireworks involved. Very much a la DOR. Brio. To counterpoint Listen Up Philip is as smug etc but I just want to rub a grapefruit into its face. So the strength of the reaction may be more important than whether it's positive or negative.

But in any of those films actually pinpointing a smug or self important moment is really tough. Schwartzmann in LuP is insufferable and deliberately so. The acid he pours on his ex which Moss to her discredit enjoys immensely (foreshadowing what he does to her ) is self important ie where do you get the right to treat someone that badly? I can't think of anything DOR does that compared to this pseudo intellectual bile and that Schwartzmann gets his in a karmic revenge sense doesn't really matter. He is so horrible you just want him off screen so I didn't care what happened to him. Wishing bad things on people you don't like is childish. So a film that enjoys his comeuppance is similarly childish which mixed with the clever claptrap leaves it feeling bloody messy.  DOR is an Eton Mess.

You seem to be confusing the supposed smugness of the movie with the actual smugness of its title character. Sure, Schwartzmann has smugness in spades here, but that doesn't make the movie itself smug. The qualities of the movie come from the audiovisual language it employs, its style and how it treats its subject matter. Mommy is a purposefully and noticeably pretentious movie with its use of a 1:1 aspect ratio and the like ; even if it all ends up working. Birdman is equally gimmicky and artistic in a flashy way, whatever one may think about the movie. Now I myself would not say O. Russel is a smug director because I have never found that in his work, but if you are going to look for smugness there, look at the film, not the characters.

I don't really know how to look at a film without looking at its characters but perhaps you can teach me how.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Russell, David O.
« Reply #74 on: February 23, 2016, 11:54:46 PM »
It's not about not looking at them but recognizing that their views are not necessarily those of the movie. Scrooge is not a misanthropic work just because its main character is a spiteful curmudgeon.
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verbALs

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Re: Russell, David O.
« Reply #75 on: February 24, 2016, 05:16:11 AM »
ok thanks. So an actual example of self importance would be didactism. A film like Network (one of my absolute faves) has been said to be trying to tell you something. Now it's message might seem important to me hence why I might like it so much but if you feel it has nothing to teach but has that tone it could be said to be self important. Essentially though it is in the eye of the beholder. Again subjective.

But in that sense DOR has rarely tried teaching anyone anything. He tells stories. I'm going to have to think of examples and then see if any apply to his films.
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verbALs

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Re: Russell, David O. - Director's Best
« Reply #76 on: February 24, 2016, 07:31:23 AM »
1. American Hustle
2. Joy
3. 3 Kings
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. The Fighter
6. Huckabees

Actually I assume I've seen Huckabees. I can't remember much about it. The Fighter may have been good but I, similarly, paid it scant attention. Hence I think he has shot onto a higher level recently. I won't put SLP above 3 Kings;

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Corndog

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Re: Russell, David O.
« Reply #77 on: March 30, 2016, 09:51:30 AM »
1. Silver Linings Playbook (4)
2. The Fighter (3.5)
3. Three Kings (3)
4. American Hustle (3)
5. I Heart Huckabees (2.5)
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Russell, David O. - Director's Best
« Reply #78 on: March 30, 2016, 09:55:37 PM »
American Hustle
Silver Linings Playbook
Three Kings

The Fighter
Joy


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