Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched (Jan 2011 - Nov 2013)  (Read 2532529 times)

FLYmeatwad

  • An Acronym
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28785
  • I am trying to impress myself. I have yet to do it
    • Processed Grass
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18470 on: May 02, 2013, 09:30:27 PM »
I like parts of that Herzog film.

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18471 on: May 02, 2013, 10:03:49 PM »
Did you narrow that list down?

A little bit.  I started with 18 or 19.

Lobby

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2762
    • The Velvet Café
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18472 on: May 03, 2013, 08:34:21 AM »
A perfect film for a night at the theatre with your teenager

“So what do you think? What makes us into who we are? Genes or environment?”
I tossed out the question to my 18 year old daughter as we were making our way home from The Place Beyond the Pines. I wasn’t sure of the answer myself, so I really wanted to know her view on it.

It was one of those precious mother-daughter moments that can’t be planned or forced, but come to you as a grace. I picked it up and wrapped it and stored it in my memory bank, painfully aware of the countdown timer. Before I know it she’ll have moved on in her life and nights and conversations like this will be few and far between.

Men adrift in the world
I really hadn’t expected the night to turn out like this. To be completely honest I had feared the worst. It was the late night screening on a Friday, a time slot marked with exhaustion. Thinking back at the previous movie by this director, Blue Valentine, I wondered if I’d manage to stay awake at all. As much as I had liked it, I also remembered how slow it had been and how I had struggled not to fall asleep on the couch. Would this be the same thing?

But it wasn’t. The movies do have some things in common. They both feature Ryan Gosling playing a working class guy who is bruised by life and circumstances. Not a hero, but at some level still someone you can root for, despite his flaws. Both are about men adrift in the world, a bit at loss in their masculinity, how to be a husband, a son or a father.

What makes The Place Beyond the Pines different to Blue Valentine is that it has more of story, with a beginning, a middle section and an end. It does meander a bit, especially if you do what we did: enter the theatre without knowing anything about the plot (which only makes it better). But it’s never aimless and when all pieces have fallen into place, you end up with a hard hitting, beautifully constructed drama in three acts with roots back to the old Greeks.

Far from falling asleep, I was on my toes, wondering what turn the movie would take next and where life eventually would take those characters. They were hardly people that would end up as my friends in real life, and yet I found myself caring a lot. For all their flaws and shortcomings, I never lost hope that they’d straighten up their lives, somehow overcoming the mighty tide of genes and circumstances they were up against.

The answer
“Both”, my daughter said finally. “I think it’s both. But mostly environment”.

I nodded. That’s what I had been taught at school as well and it made sense. But then I looked at her a second time and decided that in her case it was neither. Our offspring is so much better in every way than any of her parents: wiser, smarter, more energetic, a ton prettier and with a social talent that both of us lacked. Neither genes, nor environment could explain who she had become or predict where she was going. There were other powers at work. Destiny? Luck? Norns spinning  their threads in a secret place beyond the pines? Who knows?

What I did know was that I loved this movie – all of it, including the third act, which some critics apparently have some issues with. And so did my daughter.

If you’re planning to go to a theatre with your teenager, I urge you: don’t automatically pick one of the summer blockbusters. This indie gem might serve you much better as a starting point for an interesting conversation that goes beyond the pines.

The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance, US 2013) My rating:4,5/5
http://thevelvetcafe.wordpress.com/  - where I think aloud about movies

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18473 on: May 03, 2013, 03:14:15 PM »
I've pretty much been avoiding that one because I didn't like Blue Valentine at all.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18474 on: May 03, 2013, 04:05:05 PM »
I'm not sure about Place Beyond the Pines, but I give Lobby a 5/5 for being a mother!

And a writer.  I so enjoyed reading that.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

sdb_1970

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2294
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18475 on: May 03, 2013, 04:14:18 PM »
Iron Man 3 is the best Iron Man movie ever! …  Bring it on, Man of Steel! … It’s the official start of Summer Movie Season 2013, and I want to throw my hat into the ring for getting a ”persuasive” quote onto a TV ad or DVD cover.  How about a sidebar on a webpage? ... from a review of Iron Man 3 (2013)
letterboxd

[insert pithy expression of false modesty here]

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18476 on: May 03, 2013, 05:47:19 PM »

Crimson Gold - As the film opens, Hussein (Hossain Emadeddin) is in the middle of a store robbery.  The victim trips an alarm, bringing down the gates and locking them both in.  Hussein shoots the man and then himself.  Then the film takes us back to learn more about Hussein and how he got to this point.  He learn that he and his friend Ali (Kamyar Sheisi) have taken up purse-snatching.  We learn that Hussein plans to marry Ali’s sister (Azita Rayeji).  We learn that he delivers pizzas.  We learn that he fought in the military, and his hulking size is due to cortisone he takes for some unnamed ailment or injury.  And we learn of the humiliations he’s suffered.

Written by Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi, this movie has more overt “drama” in its first three minutes than perhaps all of their other movies combined.  Robbery, murder, suicide… these aren’t events we often in Iranian cinema.  However, they do not take us on a wild ride of car chases and shootouts and tough guy banter.  The journey is more subdued and psychological, demonstrating the chasm between the haves and have-nots, and the slowly building rage inside Hussein as he gets condescended to by those who have had better fortune in life.

Panahi and Kiarostami have strong observational skills, and each of the episodes displays at least one or two wonderful little insights about human behavior.  Hussein’s silent sulking after being snubbed by a jeweler.  The old crime veteran trying to impress with his wisdom.  The man who tries to be casual and flippant about his opulent wealth.  Some moments are even quite comic.  A couple is arrested leaving a party… the man protests that they’re married and the cop says “Yeah right, like married people would go out.”

But this isn’t among the best for either filmmaker.  For one thing, the events we see are ostensibly to provide some psychological rationale for Hussein’s acts in the beginning, but it doesn’t really accomplish that.  It goes part of the way there, but there’s too much of a leap.  Also, the theme of class difference is hammered home a bit too heavily, certainly in comparison to the more subtle social commentary we’ve seen from both Panahi and Kiarostami.  We know these guys are capable of finer nuance.

Nonetheless, although it doesn’t work in the grand sense, it works in smaller ways.  It’s worth seeing as an easy film to watch with some very good moments and the unusual presence of Emadeddin.  Rating: Good (72)

Lobby

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2762
    • The Velvet Café
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18477 on: May 04, 2013, 12:56:45 AM »
I'm not sure about Place Beyond the Pines, but I give Lobby a 5/5 for being a mother!

And a writer.  I so enjoyed reading that.

Awww, thanks Oldkid!

@Bondo: I definitely think you'd enjoy this one a great deal more than Blue Valentine.
http://thevelvetcafe.wordpress.com/  - where I think aloud about movies

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18478 on: May 04, 2013, 01:58:37 AM »

Nosferatu Phantom der Nacht (rewatch) - This is my third time watching this movie, with five years between each viewing.  Each time I like it a little more than the last.  I suppose that as I get older and more patient, the slow pacing bothers me less and less.  This time around I found myself just easing into the haunting rhythms of it, not having that nagging wish that Herzog would just get on with it already.  The gentle pace allows the eeriness to sink in, with the aid of another fantastic Popol Vuh score (and gorgeous use of Wagner).

I regret that I did not revisit Murnau's original beforehand to make comparisons easier.  But I would say now that I prefer Klaus Kinski's rendition of Nosferatu to Max Schreck's.  Of the five films Kinski did with Herzog, this is his most restrained performance... impressive considering the character is wide open for hammy interpretations.  Kinski plays the vampire with a leaden sorrow.  This isn't the raving madman of Cobra Verde or the megalomaniacal madman of Aguirre or the pathetic madman of Woyzeck or the ambitious madman of Fitzcarraldo (1, 2, 3, 4... yep, got all the madmen).  This is a character who has a deep sadness within him, a yearning not to conquer his victims but to be free of the need to do so.

And Kinski isn't the film's only strong asset.  Isabelle Adjani has not only striking gothic beauty but understands the gothic tones of the story.  It's a very romantic performance, for lack of being able to think of a better word.  And of course, Herzog has a gift for crafting remarkable images, like the dessicated corpses that open the film, or the creepy detail and geography of the castle, the lines of pallbearers carrying caskets through the town square.  And rats.  So many rats.  Linking Dracula to the plague allows Herzog to flood the locations with vermin.  In one scene, a few remaining survivors are feasting in the square, trying to live their last moments in joy.  In the next shot, the table is free of humans and covered in rats.

Weaknesses?  Not enough Nosferatu.  I respect Herzog's instincts to hold back and keep him more of a mystery, but it's such a wonderful turn by Kinski that I can't help wanting more.  And perhaps as counterpoint to Kinski's restraint, Roland Topor goes very broad as Renfield.  It's an irritating performance.  And finally, if you're the nitpicky type, there are some lapses in logic... but one shouldn't be worrying about logic when dealing with Herzog.

It'll be interesting to see how I feel about this film in another five years.  Rating: Very Good (84)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #18479 on: May 04, 2013, 02:06:02 AM »
One of my favorite Herzog's, and the closest to Aguirre where the powerful images and surreal moments are more important than the story. The makeup on Adjani as well as Kinski is perfect, and the sheer volume of rats in a non-CGI world is unbelievable.

 

love