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Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched (Jan 2011 - Nov 2013)  (Read 2532162 times)

verbALs

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7090 on: September 05, 2011, 12:03:45 PM »
No, limbo felt so poorly constructed, executed, explained, justified that it felt like you could escape it just by clicking your shoes together. It felt like a construction just large enough to satisfy it's tragic plot line. All surface, how do you live down there for years?
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

edgar00

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7091 on: September 05, 2011, 12:10:13 PM »
Inception

With this, my third or fourth viewing, I'm finally comfortable calling this one a masterpiece (of sorts). Ugh! Believe me I hate using that word as much as you probably hate hearing it. Masterpiece, what nonsense! But I've got to do it.

Emotionally this film only gets me about three quarters of the way there. When DeCaprio goes for it he hits it 100% out of the park BUT the scenes get cut a little short and the power of the moment is not fully realized. The climax too isn't as cathartic as I feel like it could have been or should have been. Tom's story is very compelling but in the end not full-powered in that emotional way.

Who knows, maybe in the writing a choice had to be made and it came down to the ending being either emotionally fulfilling, philosophically fulfilling or some diminished blend of the two. Nolan opted for the philosophical ending I think. At least that's my take, that it was a sacrifice that had to be made and not some inherent shortcoming.

*Nolan apologist alarm*


Saying you're an apologist means that liking/loving a Nolan film is somehow wrong. Which is absolute BS. It's actually more popular to dislike him now than to like him among us cinephiles it seems. SIGH.

Wait, when did this happen? It's not cool to love Inception?
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-James Bond: A little. But I won't consider myself to be in trouble until I start weeping blood.

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smirnoff

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7092 on: September 05, 2011, 12:10:23 PM »
No, limbo felt so poorly constructed, executed, explained, justified that it felt like you could escape it just by clicking your shoes together. It felt like a construction just large enough to satisfy it's tragic plot line. All surface, how do you live down there for years?

Hungrily, I expect. Unless you can project yourself some Kraft Dinner. :-\

Bondo

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7093 on: September 05, 2011, 12:26:20 PM »
The thing that gets me on the Inception criticism is that it concerns itself a lot with plot hole aspects that seem kind of incidental. I don't feel like enough people sufficiently engage the film's ideas, the deep emotional bases for mundane decision making. As a political scientist who has read a lot about political socialization and why we hold the political beliefs we do, this approach by Nolan was really fascinating to me. The way I read some critiques it almost sounds like they are suggesting the film is entirely superficial. I mean, with the whole "aren't they bouncing around in the other room" question, it is valid, but what would the response be, to have a shot of them bouncing around? Now add these shots to cover every other "but hey, what about..." situation and suddenly you have a six hour film that everyone hates. I'm not sure any film can withstand that level of scrutiny.

Lobby

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7094 on: September 05, 2011, 01:58:44 PM »
I've never understood being "conformist". I like what I like. If it so happens that hundreds of other people like it as well... good for them.

Awww. You've clearly never been a punk rocker. ;)
Some things never change I suppose.
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Lobby

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7095 on: September 05, 2011, 02:01:43 PM »
Lobby I sure hope you don't feel hestitant to give your true opinion! 

No way! I chose this hedgehog as my avatar for a reason. While I'm kind of soft and squisy deep down, I've got a nice skin to protect me. So no worries! :) I'll soon post my take on The New World.  8)
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Totoro

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7096 on: September 05, 2011, 03:00:17 PM »
Bah, this is getting derailed. One thing I don't get is the attack that Inception isn't "dreamy" enough, that somehow there's a rubric to write and direct dreams. I don't know about you, but not all of my dreams seem to be directed by Lynch or Gilliam! I'd say Nolan has captured the "Am I dreaming?" quality of dreams better than anyone else.

From my outlook, it always seems as if film critics are harder on Nolan's films or come up with bizarre complaints (like the one I just mentioned). Not enough credit is given by cinephiles it sometimes seems.

But then again, Hitchcock wasn't really appreciated back in his day either. ;)

'Noke

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7097 on: September 05, 2011, 03:21:38 PM »
Which of those are top 100 picks verbALs?
I actually consider a lot of movies to be life-changing! I take them to my heart and they melt into my personality.

Lobby

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7098 on: September 05, 2011, 03:50:44 PM »
The New World (Terrence Malick, US, 2005)

Deep down I knew I was doing it wrong as I watched Terrence Malick's The New World from 2005.

My TV screen would have been huge with the measures of the early 80s, but 2011, it looks comparatively tiny and underwhelming, fine for watching news or a simple TV show, but not the standard you need for an optimal Malick experience. I knew that the score and the cinematography probably was a shadow of what it must have been when it was shown in a proper cinema.

Watching it at home also inevitably meant that I was exposed to distractions. I had breaks to refill my coffee mug, answer the phone and to tend to my physical needs whenever they came up. All those things I wouldn't dream of doing in a theatre.

Reoccurring disruptions is something you don't wish for any movie, but they're particularly harmful to this one. It has a fluid, dreamy and hazy narrative, which asks for your full attention and immersion. You really shouldn't watch it in any other way than one long, beautiful sweep. But I did. I cut it into several pieces.

I’m telling you all this about the circumstances, to put my take on Malick into a context. Maybe this write-up will be a little bit unfair. Maybe I would have reacted differently had I seen it the proper way. It is what it is. At least you can't say I'm not honest with you.

Pocahontas x 3
The first time I watched the Pocahontas story on screen was in the form of a Disney movie, which I guess I didn't like very much. I never returned to it once I was sure that my girls were capable to watch it on their own. And I don't remember a thing from it apart from noticing that the songs were boring.

In my second Pocahontas movie, the princess had suddenly gone blue, tall and moved to outer space. The sailing boats were accordingly replaced with space shuttles. After a start which I found OK (as a vivid online computer game player, I thought the avatar idea as such was pretty nice), the movie went downhill quickly. The final thirty minutes were miserable, containing a tedious, pointless and misplaced chasing sequence, which looked like the leftovers from a Vietnam movie.

Fast forward to this third take on Pocahontas. And to start on the positive side, it was by far the best one of the lot.

A fairy tale
The story of The New World simple and resembles and is more of a fairy tale than an attempt to reconstruct history. In its core, it's a tale about love with complications. Boy meets girl, love springs up at first sight and grows quickly, they overcome difficulties, but circumstances keep the couple apart. A new love pops up and eventually the girl will face a tricky choice situation. Easy enough.
There’s also a second theme, the story of a paradise lost because of the evil, greedy conquerors from the western civilization who bring violence, death, illness and disaster to the poor, innocent, indigenous people.

Or as John Smith puts it in one of the many voiceovers:

“They are gentle, loving, faithful, lacking in all guile and trickery. The words denoting lying, deceit, greed, envy, slander, and forgiveness have never been heard. They have no jealousy, no sense of possession. Real, what I thought a dream.”

It's not complicated. While The Tree of Life puzzled and challenged me intellectually, The New World takes the straight road from point A to point B.

Sometimes the story proceeds slowly. Accompanied by classical music we follow the camera on its exploring tours, investigating trees, fields and waters. It reminds a bit of the sceneries in Tree of Life, but without the dinosaurs and galaxies.

Sometimes the story takes sudden leaps, letting months or years pass within seconds.

Not once did I find myself at a loss about what was going on. In one way I suppose this is a good thing, but in another way it was as if a bit of the magic was gone. Something was lacking. A feeling. A tremble. A touch.

I also expect movie characters to show more than one dimension. I want them to feel like real people, being a blend of good and bad, of light and darkness. Mixed and a little bit messed up. I imagine that I learn something about myself as I watch how they struggle with their lives and their conflicting thoughts and emotions.

But Pocahontas isn’t mixed or messed up at all. Just as the Mother in The Tree of Life, she's playful, so close to the nature that she's sort of divine. She's not a real person anymore than those fairy tale Indians and I can't relate to her and her people. They  feel a bit stereotypical, as if they'd been modelled after an article in a very old encyclopedia.

A pretty movie
Another thought I couldn't get out of my mind was how pretty everything was. Pocahontas was pretty, the Indians were pretty, the landscape was pretty, every single soul apart from the ugly Englishmen were pretty, but if you looked closely enough, I'd say they were pretty too, at least when they were back in England.

All those pretty images. What do they represent? And what am I supposed to do with them? Don't tell me "shampoo advertising", because that thought is just rude and I forced it out of my head as soon as it popped up.

While I’m in the section for mixed whining, I have to mention Colin Farrell, playing the part of John Smith, the first guy to fall in love with Pocahontas.

I don’t know what's wrong with him, but he looks the same way throughout the entire film, carrying that typical look-at-the-sad-and-tragic-abandoned puppy-face. I don’t normally have anything against Farrell as an actor, but I don’t think this role was a good fit for him.

Q’orianka Kilcher on the other hand was perfect as Pocahontas.

The verdict
So where do I land in my final verdict over The New World? Obviously I do have some complaints, of which some might have to do with that I watched it "the wrong way". On the other hand I'm not immune against all the beauty and his efforts to make movie poetry. It's a good movie for someone like me who like nature photography and bittersweet love stories.
 
I don't personally consider Malick a genius, but I can understand and respect that others may feel that way.

And maybe I'll get fonder of him as I watch more of his works and see the pattern, how they all relate to each other. I'm definitely not done with him yet.

My rating: a weak 4/5
« Last Edit: September 05, 2011, 03:57:02 PM by Lobby »
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #7099 on: September 05, 2011, 04:25:51 PM »
Interesting that you found it a damnation of western civilization. What I think the movie does well is not play the blame game. It's an inevitable conflict and no one side is to be blamed.

I think Smith's notions of the natives is very idealized, something Malick plays with in the images, showing that Smith twists what he sees into some dreamlike world.

It's one of those rare films where I find that there's just a bit more too it than the last time I saw it.