Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched (Jan 2011 - Nov 2013)  (Read 2532494 times)

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20070 on: November 03, 2013, 12:58:15 PM »
Gimme The Loot (2012)

Hmm, if only there were an efficient way for me to summarize my view of graffiti "artists." Oh yeah:
I think they are scum.

As my 80s Bracket verdict for Style Wars indicated, it would be hard work for a film to make me emotionally invest in characters whose identities are so wrapped up in petty criminality. With early scenes involving shoplifting spray paint (and thus making one more white shopkeeper inherently wary of all black patrons...is it racism or rationality) and jumping the turnstyle in the subway, the film really was giving them a big hole to climb out of.

It is a testament to the writing and the acting of Gimme The Loop that they do just that. Malcolm (Ty Hickson) and Sophia (Tashiana Washington), in their efforts to get $500 that will get them into Citi Field "Shea Stadium" to tag the big apple that comes out when a HR is hit, are just so naively innocent in their attempts to wear the toughness of their neighborhood that one can't help but come to love them. While the quest provides some forward momentum and a time limit on the story, it ultimately is a MacGuffin.

A couple of the strongest scenes in the film involve Ginnie (Zoe Lescaze), a pretty white girl from a wealthier family who meets Malcolm when he comes to deliver drugs for her. The contrast of the two main scenes, one when they are alone and one when she is surrounded by friends, is a fascinating insight into class and race relations, and their first scene is really revelatory of Malcolm as here is someone with whom he doesn't have to put on the false front of street machismo.

This is kind of what makes indie films so great. It is a film that doesn't need complex premises or fancy technical feats. It doesn't need contrived plot points to heighten emotion. It just needs to create characters who are engaging and exist in a reasonably believable world and ideally it should be efficient, which Gimme The Loot certainly is at 80 minutes. I'm not sure this will be a highly resonant film for me but it is an effortless and rewarding viewing experience.

4/5

Melvil

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20071 on: November 03, 2013, 02:24:24 PM »

The Visitor (Giulio Paradisi, 1979)

That poster is way too cool for this movie. :-[ The opening scene is pretty fantastic, promising an epic sci-fi tale full of insane other-worldly imagery, but that promise quickly disappears as we jump to modern day Atlanta and the sci-fi elements all but disappear for the majority of the film. While disappointing, that alone does not damn the film if the rest is good, but it is not. It's a nearly incoherent mess. Things happen for little to no reason, entire plotlines disappear from the story or lead nowhere, the dialogue is cliche and awful ("Power corrupts...And absolute power corrupts absolutely...but we need that power").

There is a fair share of unintentional humor as a result, but it's not at a level that really makes it worth watching for that angle.

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20072 on: November 03, 2013, 02:43:45 PM »
I suspected. The trailer was insane, but so was the trailer for Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Melvil

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20073 on: November 03, 2013, 03:04:34 PM »
Yeah, unfortunately if you've seen the trailer you've seen most of the insane bits. With a few notable exceptions, the rest is disappointingly mundane or tedious.

MartinTeller

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20074 on: November 03, 2013, 03:32:32 PM »
Glad you enjoyed GTL, Bondo.  I'd forgotten you had that thing about graffiti.

Sandy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20075 on: November 03, 2013, 04:45:11 PM »
This thread got away from me before I could reply about Our Song. Great review Martin. Seems like such a memorable movie.

So many other enjoyable reviews... Keep them coming :D, even if I don't respond, I'm reading them all.

oldkid

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20076 on: November 03, 2013, 05:34:39 PM »
The showing of Gravity I saw was remarkably silent.  Perhaps the rest of the audience were as caught up by it as I was.  Perhaps watching it in a half-empty theatre was good for the movie.  Hard to get one of those now, I suspect.

Before Midnight (2013)



What I find amazing about the "Before" films by Linkater, Delpy and Hawke, is how they grow with me.  Before Sunrise I saw many years after its release and found it the most sophmoric of efforts.  Especially I found Jessie's character unlikable, but I still found the romantic element to be full of spark and the conversation of interest.

Before Sunrise, which takes place nine years after the first film, was a remarkable improvement for me.  The maturity of both characters was marked both emotionally and intellectually.  We were clearly seeing the same people, yet different many years apart.  As the movie grows, so does the spark we saw in the first film until it was clear that this romance was fated.  I understood this film, and it struck my soul.  This was romance as I knew it, if perhaps a bit more intellectual.  Two souls marked for life.

Before Midnight, however, is a big question mark.  The characters have matured again, physically and emotionally, and time has worn on them.  There is sorrow over past decisions and anger over how trapped they are in the life they choose.  There is much speech about the necessity of being transitory, but still flashes of the romantic in the first two films.

This also is romance as I understand it now.  Anger, desperate decisions, insecurity, attachment worn by years. This film isn't about romance, it's about the life that grows out of romance.  It's about decisions that can't be turned back and the continuous process of creating a life together, and how difficult each decision could be. 

It reminds me strongly of Certified Copy and the themes explored in that film, which was clearly influenced by the Before films.  In Certified Copy, it explores the change and yet the sameness of a relationship over many years, almost trying to put Before Sunrise and Before Midnight in a single film. 

The strength of Before Midnight, however, is the strength of the characters the three writers created.  It is exciting to participate in the scintillating conversation between these two vibrant people.  This time, there are more characters, many as powerful as the initial two.  Especially two elderly actors, who give powerful points about the power and movement of love.  The discussion around the table is one of the most powerful scenes in the whole series, and possibly the most fascinating discussion about gender and love since Plato's Symposium.

Yes, it a movie full of talking.  And it is a rollercoaster of emotion and depth.  The final scene is a powerful conclusion for the trilogy, should the trio decide to retire this series.

DONT TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!  Please, Linklater and team, come back again in nine years.  I have so much to learn, and I don't want to lose these friends of mine.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Melvil

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20077 on: November 03, 2013, 06:04:10 PM »
Very nice, oldkid! That reminds me how much I need to see Midnight again. It's remarkable how well each entry works as an evolution of the same premise. So few films have a way to explore a relationship this fully.

As a sidenote, I'm most interested in seeing how I feel about that meal discussion scene the next time around. I really found it to be one of the most problematic scenes of the series, and I'm fascinated that you and others feel exactly the opposite about it. I may have to probe you for more of your thoughts on that when I get around to watching it again.

MartinTeller

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20078 on: November 03, 2013, 06:32:34 PM »

Wreck-It Ralph - Some humor is just reference humor.  Typified by shows I can't stand like "Family Guy" and "The Big Bang Theory", it basically consists of "blah blah blah pop culture reference" and that's supposed to be the big laugh.  As if the mere fact of bringing to mind some thing you recognize is funny in itself.  Wreck-It Ralph isn't quite that simplistic, but in general I felt like references to things I enjoyed in my youth -- videogames like "Tapper" or "Metal Gear Solid" or the famous Konami code -- were being tossed out willy-nilly, just for the sake of the adults in the audience to go "heh, yeah I recognize that."  A few were used cleverly rather than merely shoehorned in, but for the most part it felt like nostalgia abuse.

As for the story of the film, it's still formulaic children's fare.  With John Lasseter in the Executive Producer chair, it's little surprise that the movie feels like a hodge-podge of Pixar movies... a little bit of Toy Story, a little bit of Monsters Inc, and nothing very original despite the videogame setting.  It's the same journey with the same characters, the same predictable beats.  There are some arbitrary universe rules invented to create the requisite obstacles that build to a somewhat tedious, adrenaline-goosing climax.

Still, there is at least one honestly moving moment, formulaic or no.  And Sarah Silverman's characterization of Vanellope is undeniably adorable.  I had just hoped for a film that broke the mold a little more, rather than coating it in slightly different colors.  Rating: Fair (65)

oldkid

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20079 on: November 03, 2013, 06:32:58 PM »
Posting more comments in spoiler thread.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky