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Author Topic: Ferris' GooseEgg Marathon: 40 great films from this decade  (Read 101418 times)

smirnoff

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2009, 07:06:17 AM »
This is great!

ferris

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2009, 09:24:52 AM »
I'm only missing United 93 from that lineup. It'll be fun to relive these through you. You, on the other hand, can live vicariously through yourself.

:)
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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roujin

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #12 on: November 09, 2009, 09:30:52 AM »

ferris

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #13 on: November 09, 2009, 09:31:16 AM »
If you have time at the end, I strongly recommend adding the film that just missed the cut.  Requiem for a Dream is my 2nd favorite movie of the decade.

Maybe this poll will help persuade you.

I'll catch up with both Requiem for a Dream and In the Bedroom as well, but probably not as part of this marathon. (But thanks for that encouragement!).  Probably I'll need a break after these 9 (I'm thinking a two week steady diet of Laverne and Shirley episodes)
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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Corndog

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #14 on: November 09, 2009, 09:52:32 AM »
That almost looks like Roger Waters. Who is it?
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #15 on: November 09, 2009, 02:58:35 PM »
I'm Not There is fantastic.

ferris

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #16 on: November 11, 2009, 07:27:19 PM »


Goose Egg Marathon Film #1



What a great start to this marathon.  What a fabulous, haunting beautiful film this is.  I loved every minute of it.  I've watched it three times in as many days.  I went back and listened to the Filmspotting review (somewhere around ep 180) and those guys don't have any idea what they're talking about.

First of all:
This may be hands down the most-beautifully shot film ever put to celluloid.  I didn't know going in, but within ten minutes I turned to my wife and said, "this HAS to be Roger Deakins".  (sure enough!) But credit to director Andrew Dominik as well.  It's one thing to get a great shot of a sunset with the perfect cloud cover.  But to have the actors and entire crew there in the perfect light and conditions takes a ton of patience. You can see this patience OVER AND OVER in this film.  It is an eye popping marvel.






The first 23 minutes:
The first 23 minutes of this film is incredible.  You get a voice over narration introducing the character of Jesse James.  It's told in anecdote form like from a nickle comic.  It's pretty obvious early on that we can't entirely count on the narrators accounts (the blinking eye things was particularily funny) which I take to be  Dominik's way of saying - ok this isn't exactly a biopic.  We get a brief introduction to what remains of the James gang and then an incredible sequence of the Train Robery.  

I literally watched that 23 minute sequence 3 more times.







The "Epic"
No doubt the director set out to make an Epic.  Expansive wide shots, 2:36 runtime and larger-than-life characters.  In my mind it is a "quiet epic".  There is not a great deal of action after that first 23 minutes.  It's completely a character study:  two guys: one devolving after alienation from his family and a life of glory on the wane, the other exasperatingly in a continual state of being inches from legendary status.   The film takes a lot of time studying these guys - their reactions to each other, the qualities of hidden strength and hidden weakness.  







Acting:
I'm not really a Brad Pitt hater, but I'd never really considered him more than a handsome servicble line-delivery-device.  Here he is truly larger-than-life.  The film does a great job of making you feel weight when Jesse in the room - especially in the late going.

The real discovery here is Casey Affleck - who, to this point I'd never give much consideration.  He plays Bob Ford so pitch perfect, you seriously want to punch this guy in the face all the time.  There is a scene toward the end where something is revealed in a newspaper.  As a result Bob leaves to another room and sits deflated in a chair.  I don't know how it reads in the script, but his body language was incredible here.  I remember having this feeling as a kid waiting for my Dad to get home from work.  He nails it.





The Narrator:
Normally I'm not a big fan of voice over narration, but here it's done about as effectively as I've ever seen.  I loved it.  The voice actor is credited as Hugh Ross, but there's really nothing of note from his IMDB page.  But he was strangely perfect in this.  He had Richard Dreyfus quality.

The Ending
I loved the scenes leading up to the assissination itself.  Clearly Jesse had resolved himself to an end and let it come to pass.  Why he chose a guy like Bob Ford remains a mystery - probably figuring that it was far better than being taken in by authorities.  The fact that Bob Ford so fleetingly acheives legendary status is the bitter irony of the film.  His final undoing in Colorado underscores this.  I love the fact you know from the very title of the movie exactly how this is all going to turn out, and you sit there waiting.  The suspense is incredible.  It's just like in There Will Be Blood, the title and the score just gives you this sense of forboding - you know it's coming, you just don't know how and when.  It's almost better to know in that respect.

The Score:
Perfect.  Cylcing through a 5 chord progression alternating through whole-note and a waltz beat - then those straining strings foreshadowing doom.  Fabulous.



Negatives:
Welp.  Hmmm....It was about 10-15 minutes too long.  Now I've been through this film three times.  I cannot say definitively which scenes should go out or be chopped shorter.  In fact I've almost convinced myself it's fine the way it is.  But somehow I just didn't care about Bob Ford's girlfriend in Colorado, or scenes like the "burial" of Wood or the scene with Dick and Bob in the sheriff's (mayors? governors?) office was just fat that needed trimming.

Final Thoughts:

I loved it.  I believe this is Top 100 worthy.  I highly recommend it to those who can be a little patient and who love to be treated with an eyeful of great cinematography.





Verdict:
An instant Top 100 for me.  Haunting, beautiful, and suspenseful.   Very much the epic it was aiming to be

Grade: 
A+  (Easy)
« Last Edit: January 29, 2010, 04:35:08 PM by ferris »
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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Bill Thompson

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #17 on: November 11, 2009, 07:37:59 PM »
Great write-up Ferris, I loved this movie as well. The night train robbery most sticks out in my mind, especially the shot of Jesse walking from the darkness into the fog with his bandanna across his face and his guns in his hands at his sides.

Corndog

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #18 on: November 11, 2009, 07:41:33 PM »
Great write-up Ferris, I loved this movie as well. The night train robbery most sticks out in my mind, especially the shot of Jesse walking from the darkness into the fog with his bandanna across his face and his guns in his hands at his sides.

what he said
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

Clovis8

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: Ten Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #19 on: November 11, 2009, 07:48:52 PM »
[brag]
I sure live in a beautiful province!
[/brag]



I loved it as well. Easily one of the best looking films of the decade.

 

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