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Author Topic: Ferris' GooseEgg Marathon: 40 great films from this decade  (Read 101402 times)

roujin

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How did Yi Yi not win all of these awards?

smirnoff

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Too loong! ;)

skjerva

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How did Yi Yi not win all of these awards?

hello? it isn't that good
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

roujin

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skjerva :(

I thought we were kindred spirits, but then I remember you don't like Yi Yi all that much...

We should probably convince Ferris to add in a Tsai film to this shindig. We're still buddies, right? RIGHT.

ferris

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I'm happy to see Apocalypto get some noms, even though the film turned you off.

A lot of films here I would like to catch up with.

Thought it deserved it.  Upon reflection I'm wanting up my grade on it a bit.  It has stuck with me a bit more than I thought it would
"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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smirnoff

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Shh! Listen..... do you hear that? It sounds like... like a second viewing! Only it's very distant. A year or two away at least.

:)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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ferris

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How did Yi Yi not win all of these awards?

hello? it isn't that good
:D

Perhaps. I was sorting through the screenshots this morning and caught myself enjoying the trip...a little
"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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ferris

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Goose Egg Marathon Film #21



Before Sunrise
(1996, Richard Linklater)

"No delusions, no projections, let just make tonight great"

This is not a 2000s film, so... why review it as part of my GooseEgg marathon?  Simply because I am including the sequel Before Sunset at the end of the marathon.  I took pixote's advice and made these bookends.  

So, I'd actually seen part of this before, back when it first came out.  I fell asleep about 20 minutes in and woke up towards the end.  I asked my wife if anything had happened and she replied "not really, they've just been talking the whole time".  All I had remembered from the early going was convesations by two priveleged white young adults whining about their life and parents and making sweeping generalizations about relationships and human nature.  MEH.  Had no interest in ever filling in the blanks or revisiting.

But due to the overwhelming recommendations of my brethren here I decided to give it another try.  I have to admit, the early going was a tug of war between my refusing to connect with the characters and enjoy this in any way and the film's absolute refusal to give up at completely winning me over.  About the time our young couple kissed in the ferris wheel I lost the battle.  This is a gem.  A real gem.  I totally missed the point the first time around.

First, I love how gutsy this is:  a film about two people talking.  The conversations are genuine.  These are conversations that only 20 somethings can have:  a strange mix of worldliness, "new knowledge" and odd insecurity.  It all comes out. I'm doing that thing where you try to anticipate the response to every line and I'm surprised over and over again at how perfect it is.  

Watching this is like getting to read Richard Linklater's personal blog posts for a month - with thoughts on such universal themes such as gender differences to such sweet, naive profundities like "we're each 1/50000 of a soul".  As a younger man I took those to be pretencious - but now I look back with nostalgia about having these kinds of endless idealistic devil-may-care conversations with friends - the ones that fall away as the weight of a life filled with diapers and mortgage payments make it just an effort to keep your head above water.

The first time I watched this Ethan Hawke came off as smarmy.  This time I came out thinking - wow he played that perfect: so guarded in the early going trying to impress but coming off as awkward and unsure.  But as the film goes on the outside layers evaporate as the two of them realize they have absolutely nothing to lose in trying to be their purest self - even if they're just not so sure what that purest self is?

Quick story: my wife and I are watching this together.  After that poetry scene, the Hawk character dismisses the ad hoc creativity as some kinda fill-in-the-blank gimmickery.  My wife and I look at each other with these knowing glances. She shakes her head and rolls her eyes.  We didn't even have to say anything.  It's a dozen or so perfect little things like this that is the subtle genius of this film.

I'm a bit short on giving this a A+ grade and I'm not sure why.  Can't quite put my finger on it.  But I am really glad y'all pushed me to watch this, and in particular to wait until later to see the sequel.  I think watching it 19 film from now will give me enough time to miss these character.

Sorry no more screenshots.  I watched it on IFC.

Verdict:
A precious, sweet and disarming little gem. Can't wait to watch the sequel

Grade: A  
"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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ferris

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Goose Egg Marathon Film #22



The Hurt Locker
(2009, Katherine Biggalo)

"Ya know, you can shoot people here.  You don't have to throw wrenches"

There has been a lot of talk and individual reviews on this lately, so I won't spend a lot of time on mine.  This was truly gripping and intense.  Katherine Biggalo is a front runner for best director this year and it's easy to see why.  Stylistic choices made for some pretty intense scenes.  



It's quite an eye-opener to see some of the stuff that's going on over there.



The "rougue" play-by-his-own-rules character arc I found a bit annoying - especially since it is pretty well lined up with detrators' attitudes about the cowboy mentality of the military in general.  But I guess the strength and professionalism of his mates more than balanced things out.  Just found it a bit boring.  Nevertheless, as has been pointed out before, Biggalo doesn't editorialize at all - it's just put forth is a pretty unflinching manner.



The ending was an interesting choice, and made me think this was less an Iraq movie and more an adrenaline junkie movie.  I'm not 100% sold on that, but I'm uh...pretty close. 

A few scenes will stick with me for quite awhile, and this is certainly a solid entry for 2009.  Whether or not it deserves all the Oscar hype it seems to be getting is another story for me.  But all-in-all I'm glad I checked this out.




Verdict:
Quite intense and very open-opening.  Very strong direction to be sure.  Overall pretty solid

Grade: B  
« Last Edit: January 29, 2010, 07:04:03 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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