Author Topic: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 395664 times)

michael x

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1207
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1870 on: October 17, 2012, 10:11:00 PM »
Silkwood

Charming, just as so many of Nora Ephron's screenplays were. The dialogue is excellent, but not memorable. However, I've never been one for social issue films, and Silkwood's core is a social issue. I tend not to find these films intrinsically compelling. In this particular film, a nuclear facility is mistreating its workers by exposing them to high levels of radiation. Meryl Streep's character, Karen Silkwood, works at the plant and becomes a crusader against the plant's practices during the course of the film. This is all based off of a real-life story, as I understand. She mixes a bit of covert skulking to gather evidence and a bit of yelling at the management.

I didn't find the film compelling, but it's not terrible or anything. I'm trying to be very careful to be fair with this film. I had to break up the viewing into 2 halves, unfortunately. There certainly are undeniable pleasures in watching Streep deliver a Nora Ephron screenplay.

Ordinary People

Like Silkwood, Ordinary People might be described as "Oscar-bait". It focuses on a Serious issue, uses a conventional structure, and gives plenty of room for its actors to emote. One difference here is that the issue is personal.

(I actually went into this film knowing absolutely nothing about it. It's been a long time since I watched a film without having read a review somewhere, watched the trailer, or even glanced at an IMDb summary. It was actually quite refreshing and, in this particular case, I think it added to the experience. Given that, I'm going to studiously attempt to avoid any sort of spoiler-ish information.)

The film is nothing ground-breaking, formally or otherwise, but I found the viewing experience cathartic as I invested in these characters and became emotionally involved in their struggles.

Verdict: Ordinary People moves on. Apologies for not writing more! I wanted to get the verdict in as soon as I could.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2012, 02:12:24 PM by michael x »

BlueVoid

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1841
    • Movie Fodder
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1871 on: October 18, 2012, 01:09:27 AM »
Great job Michael!

By my count that only leaves one verdict left. Is this where we all gang up on Keith?
Former blog on FlickChart: The Depths of Obscurity
Letterboxd 
iCM
Twitter

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1872 on: October 18, 2012, 12:33:34 PM »
I found the viewing experience cathartic as I invested in these characters and became emotionally involved in their struggles.

Exactly!

pixote
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

Beavermoose

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 5006
  • Samsonite! I was way off!
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1873 on: October 24, 2012, 01:27:25 AM »
Missing (Costa-Gavras)



This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)



These are the expressions I had on my face while watching these movies. Missing is well constructed film with some good acting and interesting character conflicts. But mostly its pretty slow and sad.

Spinal Tap is one louder. A masterpiece of faux-docu hilarity.

Verdict: Spinal Tap wins

michael x

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1207
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1874 on: October 24, 2012, 11:33:59 AM »
Man, you had to do this matchup and the Empire vs Do the Right Thing? You get all the tough matchups. I probably would have gone the same way here, but it's close.

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1875 on: October 24, 2012, 11:50:50 AM »
I liked Missing and may be less of a supporter of Spinal Tap than most but it is still the right call I feel.

Jared

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1876 on: October 24, 2012, 12:52:55 PM »
I liked Missing, but when it got down to three or four matchups left in this round I neglected to take another because of that and one or two other films....rewatching it wouldve felt like homework.

Like Bondo, less of a Spinal Tap fan than most, but think the right choice was made. Its better every time I watch it (3 times so far I think)

¡Keith!

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26774
  • Bitch, I been around since LimeWire.
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1877 on: October 24, 2012, 02:51:05 PM »
Imma try to get a brief write up in after the fest and before bed, no work tomorrow.

¡Keith!

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26774
  • Bitch, I been around since LimeWire.
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1878 on: October 30, 2012, 08:45:09 PM »
So that totally happened ::).

Not gonna do much specific writing about Blade Runner

So Ross McElwee is like, a really, really nice guy. This is probably one reason why his borderline exploitative constant camera accompaniment doesn't get him knocked out by a various assortment of family, friends, southern belles and various eccentrics. The other reason is because a lot of those southern belles will do just about anything for the camera. Sherman's March is a 2.5 hour trek thru the failed lovelife of the filmmaker - though he plays some minor lip service to stated the initial reason for heading south, recounting General Tecumseh Sherman's march to the sea during the civil way. The problem with this is that this is 2.5 hours of bad quality video that amounts to absolutely nothing. Your humble narrator is just a dope and he's either alternately being passed up for better things or pushed into situations he's not really comfortable in. Also, the south has eccentric personalities - a shocking revelation to be sure. Perhaps some may identify with the struggles of one Ross McElwee but i mostly just wanted to punch the screen. In this match-up, as in his life, the nice gut finishes last.

March is absolutely no competition for Blade Runner - I found it hard to believe that it could possibly have been better than the previous two films it was up against but it seems like Gotham & Tiny had reactions to it's opponents similar to my reaction for this. Blade Runner is a film bursting with life, characters who are searching to understand life, who want so desperately to live, who are a tribute to the human spirit... March is just dispiriting. I don't have a problem with inactive protagonists - if done correctly, they can be some of the most interesting characters but March fails to reach the ontological heights of Ridley Scott's masterpiece. Both films touch a good deal on memory, but in March, the effect is pure solipsism. As presented, these characters are ciphers given import only though the memories and lens of McElwee. The jouissance experienced by Pat comes from doing cellulite exercises for Ross's camera, Roy just loves living.

On the technical side, this is the most lopsided match-up of all time.

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1879 on: October 30, 2012, 09:45:06 PM »
I wanna see Sherman's March a lot :)