Raxivace's 2017 List of Movies or (Neo-General Chat)

[Raxivace]

So here's my list of movies I've seen so far this year. If you want to hear about what I thought of any of these specifically, just ask. As I post new films I'll try and add a line or two about them though.

1. Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces

2. Exam

3. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

4. Shadow of the Blair Witch

5. Blair Witch

6. Silence (2016)

7. Kundun

8. Shutter Island (Rewatch)

9. Secret in Their Eyes

10. Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love

11. Hell or High Water

12. Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (Rewatch)

13. Lion (2016)

14. Manchester by the Sea

15. La La Land

16. Fences (2016)

[Gendo]

Of those, the only one I've seen is Shutter Island, which I liked. I definitely want to see La La Land.

I didn't care for the original Blair Witch Project, so I have no interest in seeing the sequel or reboot.

[Raxivace]

The new Blair Witch is also a sequel, believe it or not. If you didn't like the original though I really doubt you'd like the newer movie.

Shutter Island was interesting to revisit since the first time I saw it I really didn't care for it. The twist just didn't work at all for me, like Scorsese was trying and failing to be David Lynch, though rewatching the film...the twist still doesn't quite work for me all the way, but I forgot how damn good the rest of the movie is. The period costume design, the set design of the buildings, the casting and performances etc. are all just great to watch and look at.

[Islandmur]

I really didn't see what made the Blair Witch so popular (i'm thinking it was the new filming technique of the time) , it gave me a headache to watch. I actually liked the 2nd one more and I know people found it horrible. Haven't seen the remake yet.

I liked Shutter Island, though I was confused at the beginning and I "think" I understood the ending. It's my understanding and i'll stick to it.

Tried watching the secret in their eyes but nope didn't hook me.

don't know the other movies

[Eva Yojimbo]

6. Silence (2016)

9. Secret in Their Eyes

13. Lion (2016)

14. Manchester by the Sea

15. La La Land

16. Fences (2016)

Thoughts on these? They'll all be going on my Netflix queue soon. I'm assuming the SitE was the remake: did you ever see the original? I remember really liking the original, though I can't recall much about it. I'm most looking forward to La La Land. I know it mightily impressed even some of the most jaded cinephiles over at FG.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I really didn't see what made the Blair Witch so popular (i'm thinking it was the new filming technique of the time)

Yep, you hit it. It was a pretty novel idea to shoot a horror film like a student documentary. I know a few people who even thought it was real.

[Raxivace]

17. Le Petit Soldat - I'm a little surprised that Godard made this right after Breathless, since while it has the content you might expect from early Godard...it's got like none of the formal inventiveness we associate with him now. It feels super conventional, but well done conventionality. I kind of feel like its a what a non-stupid version of Funny Games would look like, particularly in the last third or so of the film.

I actually liked the 2nd one more and I know people found it horrible.

I liked it. It's actually a weird movie in a lot of ways, since its presented as a sequel to the in-universe mockumentary Shadow of the Blair Witch as much as the original film, featuring interviews with "real" townspeople that are mad that Hollywood is making this trashy movie about a "real" tragedy. It becomes this weird, Umineko-ish thing about how art can distort our perceptions of history- both in its presentation as well as the plot of the actual movie itself.

It was also directed by Joe Berlinger, famous for being half of the duo behind the Paradise Lost trilogy, and its kind of hard not to view the movie through that lens.

6. Silence (2016)

9. Secret in Their Eyes

13. Lion (2016)

14. Manchester by the Sea

15. La La Land

16. Fences (2016)

Thoughts on these? They'll all be going on my Netflix queue soon. I'm assuming the SitE was the remake: did you ever see the original? I remember really liking the original, though I can't recall much about it. I'm most looking forward to La La Land. I know it mightily impressed even some of the most jaded cinephiles over at FG.

I wasn't aware of there being another SiTE- the one I saw was from 2015, and Google tells me it was a remake of a 2009 Argentinian film. It felt like a fairly conventional crime film to me, though one with fairly regressive values.

La La Land I quite liked. If Birdman was cynical about the Hollywood machine, La La Land is bittersweet as it feels there's something noble about pursuing dreams however absurd they might be. At the same time, its also critical of nostalgia- we see a lot of the same Jazz references that were in Whiplash. That movie laments that the world doesn't want another Charlie Parker. This movie laments that being a slave to tradition is what prevents the next Parker or whoever from coming about. This extends to being a commentary on throwback movies themselves, and the need to update genres. Beyond that its a lot of fun, I liked the songs and performances, and there's a really sad sequence at the end of the film that's super remarkable.

Lion is decent but unremarkable as a film for the most part. I saw a comparison to Philomena from a few years ago, and I feel that's pretty apt. Good performances though.

Fences has good acting, really good script, but man it kind of suffers from what you would expect a stage adaptation directed by a guy without a lot of experience like Denzel Washington would. I probably wouldn't have given this a Best Picture nomination, but would have thrown Best Actor and Best Actress nominations to Denzel and Viola Davis.

Manchester by the Sea I really liked. Its set up like your typical overcoming tragedy type of Oscar baity film, but it ends with Affleck unable to overcome and giving up. Really good character piece, really strong performance by Casey Affleck in his Assassination of Jesse James mode. Surprising amount of black humor too, though it never felt tasteless to me.

Silence is the best Scorsese has been in a while (At least aesthetically), forming a capstone on a trilogy that started with The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun. It just comes off as a really genuine struggle about faith in almost absurdist conditions- in a weird way it kind of reminded me of Welles' The Trial, but about priests in Japan instead. I dunno how it compares to the Japanese version from the 70's but I really liked this version.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Thanks for the mini reviews on the new stuff. The Welles/Trial comparison with The Silence certainly piqued my interest. I got a pretty retro, semi-neo-noir vibe from the original SitE. I just remember liking it (gave it a 7.5 IIRC), but don't remember much beyond that.

17. Le Petit Soldat - I'm a little surprised that Godard made this right after Breathless, since while it has the content you might expect from early Godard...it's got like none of the formal inventiveness we associate with him now. It feels super conventional, but well done conventionality. I kind of feel like its a what a non-stupid version of Funny Games would look like, particularly in the last third or so of the film.

Yep, it's the most conventional (and probably serious) of early Godard, but I agree it's "well-done conventionality." Another solid 7.5 from me. Les Carabiniers is closer to a more typically Godardian "unconventional" take on the war film, replete with detached sardonicism and mythological referents.

[Raxivace]

18. Million Dollar Baby - So I generally enjoy Clint Eastwood's movies, and had decided to save this one for a while. Watching it today its pretty decent but I don't think I would have given it the Best Picture Oscar, certainly not over The Aviator. The ending was surprising, with it maybe being the most notable thing here. With this one checked off the list, I've now seen 46 of the Best Picture winners.

19. James Lipton Takes On Three - Probably shouldn't even count this on here, but it was a roundtable discussion between Lipton, Eastwood, Freeman, and Swank. If you like MDB its interesting, though personally I think the name makes it sound like the most hilarious porno ever.

Thanks for the mini reviews on the new stuff. The Welles/Trial comparison with The Silence certainly piqued my interest.

I don't want to stretch the comparison too much in case I'm setting up bad expectations, but that's what it made me think of. A more common comparison I've seen is that its a sort of spiritual Apocalypse Now, as its about a priest going to foreign land to find out if a missing, more famous priest has "gone native', so to speak. Silence is still very much its own film though.

Yep, it's the most conventional (and probably serious) of early Godard, but I agree it's "well-done conventionality." Another solid 7.5 from me. Les Carabiniers is closer to a more typically Godardian "unconventional" take on the war film, replete with detached sardonicism and mythological referents.

Do you have any thoughts on why Godard made Le Petit Soldat the way he did? I almost feel like it would make more sense if he made this kind of film before Breathless, but being made afterwards makes it strange in its normalcy.

I look forward to Les Carabiniers. It's actually the next on my list of Godards to watch, with Contempt right after.

Damn did this guy make a lot of movies in the 60's. Its like a third of his entire catalogue.

[Gendo]

18. Million Dollar Baby - So I generally enjoy Clint Eastwood's movies, and had decided to save this one for a while. Watching it today its pretty decent but I don't think I would have given it the Best Picture Oscar, certainly not over The Aviator. The ending was surprising, with it maybe being the most notable thing here. With this one checked off the list, I've now seen 46 of the Best Picture winners.

Yeah I remember being disappointed by that one,but a lot of it came from me not knowing ahead of time what kind of movie it was. I thought it was a boxing movie like Rocky or something! So I'll watch it again some day with the proper mindset. But yeah, Aviator was much better.

[Raxivace]

What's funny is that the Rocky sequels do deal with similar themes as Million Dollar Baby- Creed in particular has the specter of Apollo being killed in the ring in Rocky IV haunting over Adonnis' entire quest, the film hinting that he'll probably meet the same end as his father some day. It's interesting seeing similar themes in the same genre done in such different ways by filmmakers as different as Eastwood and Avildsen/Stallone/Coogler.

[Eva Yojimbo]

18. Million Dollar Baby

Another I thought was in the good/solid range, but I agree it wasn't great and not deserving of Best Picture... but, then again, it's precisely the kind of reasonably well-made, conservative, serious, sentimental stuff the Academy goes for.

A more common comparison I've seen is that its a sort of spiritual Apocalypse Now, as its about a priest going to foreign land to find out if a missing, more famous priest has "gone native', so to speak. Silence is still very much its own film though.

Ha, as if comparing to Apocalypse Now lowers the expectations? On the Apocalypse Now-esque front, you might be interested in a film I saw a bit ago called Embrace of the Serpent. It has a vaguely similar premise, but it's more Aguirre-like in how hallucinatory/dreamlike it is.

Do you have any thoughts on why Godard made Le Petit Soldat the way he did? I almost feel like it would make more sense if he made this kind of film before Breathless, but being made afterwards makes it strange in its normalcy.

I look forward to Les Carabiniers. It's actually the next on my list of Godards to watch, with Contempt right after.

Damn did this guy make a lot of movies in the 60's. Its like a third of his entire catalogue.

Good question that I don't have an answer to. Perhaps he briefly thought that it was incumbent on him to do a "serious" film after all the praise for Breathless? Who knows. In any case, it's one of the many paths his early work pointed to that he didn't pursue further.

Les Carabiniers is one of Godard's more minor films, I'd say, but like all of his has some interesting stuff sprinkled throughout.

Indeed, and it's helpful that most of his best work is in the 60s too, though I've become uniquely attracted to his post-80s work.

[Raxivace]

20. The English Patient - I had trouble really getting hooked into this one, though I think that's less of a fault of the film than the fact I felt pretty sick today. Otherwise I liked several aspects of the movie- namely how soft the more romantic scenes felt, as well as the back and forth between Norman Osborne and Lord Voldemort. Also, seeing a pre-Lost by nearly a decade Naveen Andrews was pretty neat.

I have a feeling this is a movie I'd dig a lot more on a better day. 47/90 Best Picture Winners seen.

Ha, as if comparing to Apocalypse Now lowers the expectations?

Well, you got me there. :P

I've made a note to check out that Embrace of the Serpent movie.

[Raxivace]

I guess people haven't seen The English Patient. :(

21. Moonlight - A quiet movie about emotional vulnerability in people that Hollywood is usually all too quick to reduce to stereotypes, particularly in movies like The Blind Side.

It has a really interesting narrative structure too, which kind of reminds me of something like Boyhood in that while we're following a boy into his young adult years, we elide over what are typical movie plotlines (Though its clear what's being elided over is important to the characters and had an effect on their lives) to focus on smaller intimacies. Also its a good love story. Hard for me to talk too much about this one but it was one of my favorite movies I've seen from 2016 so far. I highly recommend it.

[Derived Absurdity]

have literally not heard one single bad or critical thing about Moonlight yet

[Eva Yojimbo]

I guess people haven't seen The English Patient.

I have but it's been a very long time, like VHS rented from brick-and-mortar long time.

[Islandmur]

I guess people haven't seen The English Patient.

I have but it's been a very long time, like VHS rented from brick-and-mortar long time.

Pff I have all of V original series in VHS... there is only one problem.. I got a bad copy that has absolutely ZERO voice overs. I keep it as a momento lol

[Raxivace]

Let me ask you all this then: Is The English Patient the Best Picture Winner of the 90's to ultimately hold the least relevance?

Here all of the winners of that decade:

Dances With Wolves (1990)*

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Unforgiven (1992)

Schindler's List (1993)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Braveheart (1995)

The English Patient (1996)

Titanic (1997)

Shakespeare in Love (1998)

American Beauty (1999)

It seems like every other movie remains some kind of cultural touchstone, even if its only to complain about other movies (Such as those that derided Avatar as "Dances With Wolves in Space") or to complain that they won as in the case of people still mad that Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan (Or if they're cool, they're mad that it beat The Thin Red Line).

In comparison...when was the last time any of you even last thought of The English Patient before this thread? If so, why for this film and not any of the other 90's Winners?

*I should note that Dances With Wolves is the only one from this decade I still haven't seen yet since its like a billion hours long, but it's also not quite relevant to the point I'm making here.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I guess people haven't seen The English Patient.

I have but it's been a very long time, like VHS rented from brick-and-mortar long time.

Pff I have all of V original series in VHS... there is only one problem.. I got a bad copy that has absolutely ZERO voice overs. I keep it as a momento lol

I have at least gotten rid of all my old VHS stuff, save for some home movies I'm too lazy to transfer to some digital archive.

Let me ask you all this then: Is The English Patient the Best Picture Winner of the 90's to ultimately hold the least relevance?

I think it's between that and Shakespeare in Love, which most now seem to agree is bad-to-mediocre. I also think it's a case that most of those other films are either acknowledged classics (Unforgiven, Lambs) or controversial classics (Schindler's List, Gump, Braveheart, Titanic, American Beauty, Dances). TEP is more in the "good-but-forgettable" class.

[Raxivace]

22. Hidden Figures - I'm really conflicted on this one. I love that I actually learned some stuff about the history of NASA, the contributions of African-Americans to one of our most important accomplishments as a country, and what may be the first film I've ever seen period about black lady scientists. That all being said, it still feels a bit watered down in a let's-write-this-to-guarantee-Oscar-nominations way that films like The Imitation Game suffer from, on top of being directed in a kind of inoffensive way too. It certainly makes it palatable to an audience that wouldn't watch a documentary on the subject, but still.

Also, must every historical movie end now with images of the actors being juxtaposed against the real people they portrayed in the film over the credits? What exactly is this supposed to accomplish? I first noticed this trend when Argo came out and have never been quite sure what its trying to say, let alone what it actually might be saying in these films.

[Anakin McFly]

Also, must every historical movie end now with images of the actors being juxtaposed against the real people they portrayed in the film over the credits? What exactly is this supposed to accomplish?

It's probably to let people know that this was what the actual people looked like, so that they can connect the events they just watched on screen with the real people rather than just the actors.

[Raxivace]

23. Hacksaw Ridge - I don't really know how to feel about this one. I think its tempting to view this as Gibson's "apology" for that certain incident he was involved in many years ago, being a film about saving lives. The way it plays out though it feels more like a response to criticisms of violence in Braveheart from all those years ago to me. Even with that in mind, there's an extended battle sequence that's brutal to the point of feeling almost bloodlusty in its presentation. Should a movie about a nonviolent medic have so much action?

It also feels like a bizarro version of Silence too, since its also a period piece about Andrew Garfield having his faith tested by violence in Japan.

Also, must every historical movie end now with images of the actors being juxtaposed against the real people they portrayed in the film over the credits? What exactly is this supposed to accomplish?

It's probably to let people know that this was what the actual people looked like, so that they can connect the events they just watched on screen with the real people rather than just the actors.

I think this is the intent to some extent, but it strikes me as...kind of cynical almost, as if the movie wouldn't stand as strong if they didn't pull out historical pictures or documentary footage or interviews as is the case in Hacksaw Ridge and Eastwood's Sully.

[Raxivace]

I started watching an anime called Macross 7. It's about a rock 'n' roll band who fight some kind of space vampires with a giant robot and I think the lead guitarist of the band is implied to be some kind of real vampire?

Very strange show but I'm digging it so far.

[Eva Yojimbo]

That sounds nothing like the original Macross. :|

[Raxivace]

That sounds nothing like the original Macross. :|

That seems to be the intent to some extent. One of the characters from the original SDF Macross, much older now, complains that he "doesn't connect to the music kids play now" and whatnot.

The themes from the original show about conflict between civilians and the military in wartime are all here. There's just also this weird vampire thing.

EDIT: Thinking about it too, as different as it is from prior installments Macross 7 also came out the same year as Mobile Fighter G Gundam which is radically different from all the previous Gundam series that came before. Both shows also came out the year before Eva did.

It seems the mid-90's was kind of the time for strange mecha shows.

[BruceSmith78]

have literally not heard one single bad or critical thing about Moonlight yet

I didn't like a lot of the dialogue in Moonlight. A few scenes felt contrived and forced instead of organic, and it was because of what they were saying - poorly written, unnatural conversations. I liked the movie though, great characters and the acting was top notch. I gave it a 7/10.

[Raxivace]

24. Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark - The original 1975 Space Battleship Yamato (Also known as Star Blazers in some territories) sits in an interesting historical space as one of the last notable sci-fi franchises to come about right before Star Wars. A kind of dystopian spin on Star Trek (Though still ultimately optimistic), it depicted an Earth that is now on the brink of distinction after humanity first comes into contact with alien life forms known as the Gamillans in space. However a third party, a separate faction of more sympathetic aliens, sends a message to the humans to travel hundreds of thousands of light years away to the planet Iscandar, where they have special technology that could help save Earth. Scientists predict that Earth only has about a year before it and humanity collapses entirely, so they all hedge their bets on the titular Space Battleship Yamato to journey across the stars to Iscandar. Along the way though, the Gamillans stand in their way...

It was a successful show and went on to be fairly influential (Particularly in its home country of Japan). Several years ago there was a remake of the series entitled Space Battleship Yamato 2199, which modernized the setting, expanded the cast, and was meant to appeal to both fans of the original and new comers alike. Odyssey of the Celestial Ark is a side story set during this retelling, and has the crew of the Yamato find a strange planet upon their journey after barely escaping a deadly battle. On this planet they something most unusual- what appears to be a hotel from Earth. In investigating the hotel they find some stranded aliens who reveal they've been trapped there themselves for weeks. Our intrepid heroes go "Uh wtf are you people smoking" but then find that they're now trapped as well, as the doors in the weird hotel have vanished and the whole thing kind of turns into The Exterminating Angel in space. Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

It's a pretty pulpy movie from a pretty pulpy franchise and I quite enjoyed it. You're not gonna get any huge insights into the characters that you wouldn't have gotten from the show by watching it, but the whole 2199 story is just a fun space adventure story in a way I wish things like Abrams' frenetic Star Trek movies were closer to in tone and style.

25. Florence Foster Jenkins - The original 1975 Space Battleship Yamato (Also known as Star Blazers in some territories) sits in an interesting historical space as one of the last notable sci-fi franchises to come about right before Star Wars. That has nothing to do with the story of Florence Foster Jenkins though, one of the most notoriously bad opera singers ever apparently. The movie is fairly conventional biopic, and from what I can tell it mostly exists as an acting exercise for Meryl Streep. Streep is good, but we all know that by this point.

I think my biggest issue with the movie is that I couldn't help but compare it to Citizen Kane, which features a character a subplot with a character that goes through mostly the same arc but done in a better way. I don't know for sure if Welles based the Susan character in Kane off of Jenkins but it seems pretty darn likely. That kind of comparison isn't necessarily fair to the Jenkins film but that's all I could think of throughout the entire thing. It still isn't a bad movie but man, its reserved British style really works against it.

26. Key Largo - What might be my favorite John Huston film so far from his filmography, though as usual he's one of the weaker links here. Still, its hard to have a bad movie when you a cast of Bogart, Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, and the wonderful Claire Trevor. Still, it feels a little too...neat, I think, for a semi-noir semi-gangster film like this. As much as I enjoyed it I feel like it would be the same film on a second watch. I'm a sucker for movies in closed locations though, and the hotel here is a top notch example if not a bit stagey in presentation.

It reminded me a lot of another Bogart movie called The Petrified Forest, which had Bogart playing a gangster holding hostages within a gas station. That's a good watch too, for anyone that hasn't seen it.

27. X-Men: Apocalypse - Don't have much to say about this one. It's basically a continuation of the "past" portion of Days of Future Past and functions more like a typical prequel film than that one did. Still I liked it well enough and I think Fox's take on Quicksilver is more interesting than Disney's in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I thought Sophie Turner as Jean Grey was an odd choice, though that might be because I couldn't help but think of her Game of Thrones character the whole time she was onscreen.

[Eva Yojimbo]

The Exterminating Angel in space.

That sounds awesome.

Key Largo - What might be my favorite John Huston film so far from his filmography, though as usual he's one of the weaker links here. Still, its hard to have a bad movie when you a cast of Bogart, Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, and the wonderful Claire Trevor. Still, it feels a little too...neat, I think, for a semi-noir semi-gangster film like this. As much as I enjoyed it I feel like it would be the same film on a second watch. I'm a sucker for movies in closed locations though, and the hotel here is a top notch example if not a bit stagey in presentation.

I basically agree here, though I think Treasure of the Sierra Madre is far-and-away Huston's best film, and probably Bogart's as well. I get what you mean by it being too neat, but I really did enjoy the atmosphere, setting, and charisma/chemistry of all the leads.

[Raxivace]

28. Jerry Maguire - So recently I picked up a book about Hollywood (From about 1960-2005ish. The Way Hollywood Tells It by David Bordwell), and the first chapter talks a bit about Jerry Maguire so I figured it would be worth giving a watch. The book mentions director Cameron Crowe being influenced by Wilder's The Apartment and I can see that all over the movie. It's a fairly conventional film but its fun to watch with the charisma of everyone involved (Particularly Cuba Gooding Jr. and Regina King), though for all of the Wilder influence its interesting that it has virtually none of the cynicism that palpitates much of Wilder- even The Apartment deals with some pretty rough themes of suicide, and there's nothing like that here. It's a fun feel good romance movie at the end of the day.

In a way it also reminds me of the schmaltzier tendencies of Frank Capra, though even he balanced that out with some rough stuff in his movies. Nothing wrong with schmaltz though.

The Exterminating Angel in space.

That sounds awesome.

It was!

Key Largo - What might be my favorite John Huston film so far from his filmography, though as usual he's one of the weaker links here. Still, its hard to have a bad movie when you a cast of Bogart, Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, and the wonderful Claire Trevor. Still, it feels a little too...neat, I think, for a semi-noir semi-gangster film like this. As much as I enjoyed it I feel like it would be the same film on a second watch. I'm a sucker for movies in closed locations though, and the hotel here is a top notch example if not a bit stagey in presentation.

I basically agree here, though I think Treasure of the Sierra Madre is far-and-away Huston's best film, and probably Bogart's as well. I get what you mean by it being too neat, but I really did enjoy the atmosphere, setting, and charisma/chemistry of all the leads.

I think we've talked about this before but Treasure of the Sierra Madre has never really connected with me. My own favorite Bogart performance is probably In a Lonely Place.

But yeah I enjoy all that stuff in Key Largo.

[Gendo]

Love Jerry Maguire; one of my favorite romance movies.

[Eva Yojimbo]

28. Jerry Maguire - So recently I picked up a book about Hollywood (From about 1960-2005ish. The Way Hollywood Tells It by David Bordwell)

Thanks for reminding me of all the other Bordwells I need to get around to reading. :/

Jerry Maguire never really did much for me. Not sure how it became so iconic. I guess it has that typical Crowe/Cruise charm with a damn fine performance from Cuba, but the "schmaltzier than Frank Capra" also kinda nails it.

Key Largo - What might be my favorite John Huston film so far from his filmography, though as usual he's one of the weaker links here. Still, its hard to have a bad movie when you a cast of Bogart, Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, and the wonderful Claire Trevor. Still, it feels a little too...neat, I think, for a semi-noir semi-gangster film like this. As much as I enjoyed it I feel like it would be the same film on a second watch. I'm a sucker for movies in closed locations though, and the hotel here is a top notch example if not a bit stagey in presentation.

I basically agree here, though I think Treasure of the Sierra Madre is far-and-away Huston's best film, and probably Bogart's as well. I get what you mean by it being too neat, but I really did enjoy the atmosphere, setting, and charisma/chemistry of all the leads.

I think we've talked about this before but Treasure of the Sierra Madre has never really connected with me. My own favorite Bogart performance is probably In a Lonely Place.

But yeah I enjoy all that stuff in Key Largo.[/quote]The reason I said Madre is "probably Bogart's best" is because In a Lonely Place was my other thought. I'd probably have to give both a rewatch to pick between them, but I dearly love them both.

[Raxivace]

28. Jerry Maguire - So recently I picked up a book about Hollywood (From about 1960-2005ish. The Way Hollywood Tells It by David Bordwell)

Thanks for reminding me of all the other Bordwells I need to get around to reading. :/

They're worth finding the time for. Whenever I feel like I'm slipping a bit on my film literacy I like to go back to his writing since Film Art: An Introduction basically represents the fundamentals to me. His book from last year, The Rhapsodes, was quite good too and was some interesting history on Ferguson/Agee/Farber/Tyler. I'm really enjoying The Way Hollywood Tells It.

I tried going through Post-Theory since it has a lot of subjects I'm interested in but its a little too dense for me on my own. Gonna have to revisit that one in the future when I'm a little better equipped.

Jerry Maguire never really did much for me. Not sure how it became so iconic. I guess it has that typical Crowe/Cruise charm with a damn fine performance from Cuba, but the "schmaltzier than Frank Capra" also kinda nails it.

It's got pretty solid dialogue, some memorable lines, naked Kelly Preston, that feel good nature, crossover with fans of sports films etc. I'd imagine that plus being released at the incalculable "right time" really helped it skyrocket into popculture for several years- like it got a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, and while it lost to The English Patient this thread proved that nobody actually saw The English Patient and some even tried to cover this truth up with fibs like "Well I saw it but it was a long time ago back in the VHS era so I don't remember it". I see through these claims for the fake news that they are.

What's funny is that I don't think you could do a film about a businessman asshole learning not to be a shithead now and have people believe it in the current political climate, though of all people my man Zack Snyder tried in Batman v Superman. Me and like four others appreciated that from him.

[Eva Yojimbo]

28. Jerry Maguire - So recently I picked up a book about Hollywood (From about 1960-2005ish. The Way Hollywood Tells It by David Bordwell)

Thanks for reminding me of all the other Bordwells I need to get around to reading. :/

They're worth finding the time for. Whenever I feel like I'm slipping a bit on my film literacy I like to go back to his writing since Film Art: An Introduction basically represents the fundamentals to me. His book from last year, The Rhapsodes, was quite good too and was some interesting history on Ferguson/Agee/Farber/Tyler. I'm really enjoying The Way Hollywood Tells It.

I tried going through Post-Theory since it has a lot of subjects I'm interested in but its a little too dense for me on my own. Gonna have to revisit that one in the future when I'm a little better equipped.

I tend to come back to them whenever my passion for film takes an uptick. I've read Film Art, Poetics, Narration, and Figures cover-to-cover and regularly use History (and Film Art) for references. I've also read his books on Ozu and Dreyer. Post-Theory would probably be better read after History of Film Style; the latter traces the evolution of film criticism and theory and would probably make a good primer for Post-Theory, which I think is mostly about the possible directions film studies can/should take after the domination of Theory approaches for the last 40+ years.

Jerry Maguire never really did much for me. Not sure how it became so iconic. I guess it has that typical Crowe/Cruise charm with a damn fine performance from Cuba, but the "schmaltzier than Frank Capra" also kinda nails it.

It's got pretty solid dialogue, some memorable lines, naked Kelly Preston, that feel good nature, crossover with fans of sports films etc. I'd imagine that plus being released at the incalculable "right time" really helped it skyrocket into popculture for several years- like it got a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, and while it lost to The English Patient this thread proved that nobody actually saw The English Patient and some even tried to cover this truth up with fibs like "Well I saw it but it was a long time ago back in the VHS era so I don't remember it". I see through these claims for the fake news that they are.

What's funny is that I don't think you could do a film about a businessman asshole learning not to be a shithead now and have people believe it in the current political climate, though of all people my man Zack Snyder tried in Batman v Superman. Me and like four others appreciated that from him.

To me, Jerry Maguire is just a solid 7/10-or-so film. I could understand someone giving it an 8 if they found themselves more charmed than I was, but I find it hard to justify anything beyond that. Funnily enough, Maguire would probably have been about as "memorable" to me as The English Patient if its lines/scenes hadn't been repeated/replayed so much in pop culture. That's literally the only thing that's made most of it stick in my mind.

Probably right on the businessman asshole thing. I think a big reason Wolf of Wall Street got such flak is that many people just had no interest in such asshole characters, even though I thought it was a pretty solid film and more than anything a satirical take on the entire culture and character types.

[Raxivace]

I tend to come back to them whenever my passion for film takes an uptick. I've read Film Art, Poetics, Narration, and Figures cover-to-cover and regularly use History (and Film Art) for references. I've also read his books on Ozu and Dreyer. Post-Theory would probably be better read after History of Film Style; the latter traces the evolution of film criticism and theory and would probably make a good primer for Post-Theory, which I think is mostly about the possible directions film studies can/should take after the domination of Theory approaches for the last 40+ years.

I forgot that Bordwell did that Ozu book- I'll have to check it out once I've finished going through that list* of Ozu movies you gave me from some years back.

I got that much out of Post-Theory at least (That's actually why I decided to check it out), though perhaps reading History of Film Style would help.

*Did I ever tell you that I've gotten some strange reactions from that? A certain libertarian girl was baffled that I saw The Only Son and There Was a Father before I had seen Tokyo Story.

Clearly the face of a deer caught within the headlights of truth upon the car that is justice driving on the road of destiny. You cannot escape having been found out, Eva_Yojimbo. Now everyone will know the truth about The English Patient and whether you did or did not view it.

Probably right on the businessman asshole thing. I think a big reason Wolf of Wall Street got such flak is that many people just had no interest in such asshole characters, even though I thought it was a pretty solid film and more than anything a satirical take on the entire culture and character types.

It amazes me that I still see otherwise smart people get tripped up on the satire in WOWS, even a few years after the movie has been out.

Like I often see people say movies shouldn't tell you how to feel and then those same people complain that WOWS glamorizes Jordan Belfort.

------------------------------------------------

29. Kong: Skull Island - Peter Jackson's King Kong was a movie I really loved as a kid, and the original King King from the 30's was one of the first black and white films I had ever seen when I was even younger than that, and the (dubbed) King Kong vs. Godzilla was one of the earliest foreign films I had ever seen. The Kong character has always been an important part of my cinematic DNA as a result. The trailer for Kong: Skull Island looked very stylish visually to me, so that combined with nostalgia for the character and a star studded cast had me excited.

It was a good time. Probably one of the more fun adventure movies I've seen in a while. While I enjoyed the movie visually I do think parts of it, mainly in the beginning, suffer from feeling like the film is trying to rush straight onto Skull Island. One thing I liked about the Jackson movie, for example, was how it took its sweet time before you actually got to the island and started seeing weird monsters.

The monsters in Kong: Skull Island are weird and imaginative by the way. Weird lizard creatures, weird bug things that pierce human heads with their legs, and Kong himself often looks like something out of Shadow of the Colossus without the stony bits. A fun movie overall.

30. Land of the Dead - George Romero's second "...of the Dead" trilogy starts out better than I expected, but not quite as strong as I would have liked. The set up is great, as it depicts a rich society in the post-apocalypse that benefits off of the exploitation of the poor and workers who fight off zombies in a city fortified by two rivers and walls. One zombie killer, Cholo, gets fed up that despite years of watching his friends getting killed and risking his life that the rich have not let him move on up in life, so he plans an armed rebellion. The rich head of the city, Kaufman (Played by Dennis Hopper), hires Cholo's friend/rival Riley to track down and potentially kill him. Meanwhile zombies are moving upon the settlement... Will Riley betray Cholo? Or will he sell his soul for money?

I think the movie is overall solid and kind of works retroactively as a dark reflection of Trump's America (There's a tower location central to the film that couldn't help but remind me of Trump Tower) despite being released in 2005, and I like how even 20 years since his last outing in zombie media Romero keeps the focus on human relationships. Parts of the movie feel like a retread of Day of the Dead though- mainly the subplot of the zombies getting smarter, retaining human memories, and one zombie in particular even remembering how to use and fire guns.

Still, I enjoyed it overall. I hear the last two films in the second trilogy are weaker, but I'll still check them out at some point.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I tend to come back to them whenever my passion for film takes an uptick. I've read Film Art, Poetics, Narration, and Figures cover-to-cover and regularly use History (and Film Art) for references. I've also read his books on Ozu and Dreyer. Post-Theory would probably be better read after History of Film Style; the latter traces the evolution of film criticism and theory and would probably make a good primer for Post-Theory, which I think is mostly about the possible directions film studies can/should take after the domination of Theory approaches for the last 40+ years.

I forgot that Bordwell did that Ozu book- I'll have to check it out once I've finished going through that list* of Ozu movies you gave me from some years back.

His Ozu book is only available in PDF form that you can download from his website. The book is long OOP and typically going for stupid used prices.

Did I ever tell you that I've gotten some strange reactions from that? A certain libertarian girl was baffled that I saw The Only Son and There Was a Father before I had seen Tokyo Story.

Ha! Well, not many people go through a director's work in any kind of chronological order. I've done that for years now, though I saw many of the "classics" before I started developing my chronological lists.

Clearly the face of a deer caught within the headlights of truth upon the car that is justice driving on the road of destiny. You cannot escape having been found out, Eva_Yojimbo. Now everyone will know the truth about The English Patient and whether you did or did not view it.

I often wonder just how many films I saw in those days before the dawn of Netflix and my ability to keep track of them on my Word docs. I didn't have a computer until I was '99, didn't start Netflix until '04, and I think I started keeping track about then. So between about '97 and '04 everything I saw was rented from stores (of course everything before that too; but about '97 is when I remember first really getting into films and browsing the foreign/classics sections). But, yes, I do know English Patient was one of them as I had bought a used book that listed all of the Oscar Winners up until '97 (when I bought it) and I went on a kind of quest to see all the BP winners. I don't remember what year I got to before I stopped, but I was working backwards.

[Raxivace]

I ended up finding that PDF. It's nearly half a gig, though it looks like a good read. I gotta get back to Ozu eventually- Tokyo Story has been the next on my list for months now but I've been putting it off for whatever reason.

I've been loosely working backwards on the Best Picture winners myself. It's a fun long term goal, and helps break things up from my more auteur based watching. Whenever I finish that I think I'll move on to the Palme d'Or winners.

Speaking of Oscars I remember you were watching through the 2015 nominees before your mother got sick. You ever gonna go back and watch the rest?

[maz89]

I guess people haven't seen The English Patient. :(

21. Moonlight - A quiet movie about emotional vulnerability in people that Hollywood is usually all too quick to reduce to stereotypes, particularly in movies like The Blind Side.

It has a really interesting narrative structure too, which kind of reminds me of something like Boyhood in that while we're following a boy into his young adult years, we elide over what are typical movie plotlines (Though its clear what's being elided over is important to the characters and had an effect on their lives) to focus on smaller intimacies. Also its a good love story. Hard for me to talk too much about this one but it was one of my favorite movies I've seen from 2016 so far. I highly recommend it.

Recently saw this, I liked it too. As a piece about self-discovery, identity and isolation, it hit the right emotional beats without devolving into unearned sentimentality. The use of the color blue was an interesting feature of the luminous cinematography (an association built early on with the innate power/identity of black men by Chiron's mentor), and I also liked the sound of crashing waves becoming an indelible part of the film's score (amidst the pop offerings) as a reminder of the time(s) when all pretenses were dropped and Chiron could be himself.

The similarity to Boyhood didn't even occur to me until you pointed it out but you're of course right in that Moonlight, too, is concerned with the smaller intimacies. I wasn't so sure about the last segment until the laid-back, calmly paced reunion in the diner occurred, with all of the minute details playing out in real-time. The emotional revelations do come though, later in Kevin's kitchen, but it does feel somewhat organic. At the same time, I do think the third part lacked the potency of the first two and that may be due to the actor playing Black himself, who wears Little's tight-lipped scowl and possesses Chiron's mutedness but seems unable to be fully vulnerable (perhaps that was the intention all along, and like Kevin, we can see right through his "hardened" shell) or isn't so convincing when he is; minor nitpick. And while I liked Naomi Harris' performance, I didn't care so much for her redemption in the conclusion to her arc. In its ambition, Boyhood is still a better film for me, wider in scope, with beautifully realized themes not just about a boy's journey into adulthood but about an entire family as it passes from one real life obstacle to another, captured with almost novelistic detail and insight (Patricia Arquette's outburst in the end is still etched into my brain, and how potent is it after we've seen her rapidly age over the course of the three hours).

[Eva Yojimbo]

I ended up finding that PDF. It's nearly half a gig, though it looks like a good read. I gotta get back to Ozu eventually- Tokyo Story has been the next on my list for months now but I've been putting it off for whatever reason.

I've been loosely working backwards on the Best Picture winners myself. It's a fun long term goal, and helps break things up from my more auteur based watching. Whenever I finish that I think I'll move on to the Palme d'Or winners.

Speaking of Oscars I remember you were watching through the 2015 nominees before your mother got sick. You ever gonna go back and watch the rest?

I'll be interested to hear what you think of Tokyo Story. It's an atypical Ozu film in several ways, and Ozu even said he thought it was his most popular because it was his most sentimental. There is some truth to that, but I think the fact that it's still subdued by Hollywood standards combined with the impeccable craft still makes it a masterpiece and one of Ozu's best 4-5 films.

I basically stopped my BP quest because many weren't available from the rental shops, so I was missing too many. Palm d'Or would probably have more hits and perhaps some forgotten gems.

I think I have watched most of the rest of the 2015 noms. I just stopped posting reviews because I haven't been online very much. If there's any in particular you'd like to hear about, ask and I'll post it (if I've seen it).

[Raxivace]

31. The Informer - John Ford is mostly known for his wonderful westerns, but that's not all he could do. Back in the mid-30's he did this proto-noir, and boy is it fucking stylish in a way that I did not expect from ol' Pappy.





The film is set in Ford's beloved Ireland, and follows a recently ex-IRA agent, Gypo, who sells out his friend and former comrade to the government for some much needed cash...and as hard as this was to do, Gypo's friend is killed shortly thereafter when he violently resists the police's attempt at apprehension. That's like the first 10 minutes though, and the rest of the film follows Gypo on the same, single night as his guilt and paranoia over this action consume him as much as his alcohol and dreams of a better life in America do. The IRA are tailing him though...

It's like a mix of 30's Lang and even kind of reminds me of Hitchcock. Very unusual for Ford, though a really damn good film. I'm not sure if there's a blu-ray available- the print on the TCM broadcast was a bit rough, and the copy I found online for these screens seemed about the same. Hopefully Criterion or someone gets it one day and works their magic.

I think I have watched most of the rest of the 2015 noms. I just stopped posting reviews because I haven't been online very much. If there's any in particular you'd like to hear about, ask and I'll post it (if I've seen it).

Did you see Room and/or The Big Short?

The similarity to Boyhood didn't even occur to me until you pointed it out but you're of course right in that Moonlight, too, is concerned with the smaller intimacies. I wasn't so sure about the last segment until the laid-back, calmly paced reunion in the diner occurred, with all of the minute details playing out in real-time. The emotional revelations do come though, later in Kevin's kitchen, but it does feel somewhat organic. At the same time, I do think the third part lacked the potency of the first two and that may be due to the actor playing Black himself, who wears Little's tight-lipped scowl and possesses Chiron's mutedness but seems unable to be fully vulnerable (perhaps that was the intention all along, and like Kevin, we can see right through his "hardened" shell) or isn't so convincing when he is; minor nitpick. And while I liked Naomi Harris' performance, I didn't care so much for her redemption in the conclusion to her arc.

I think Black's "shell" worked more convincingly for me than it did for you, though I somewhat agree that Naomi Harris' character is perhaps a weaker part of the film. I'm not sure how many other places you could take that character if you wanted to redeem her, but I think it works well enough but isn't quite as good as the rest of the film.

[Eva Yojimbo]

31. The Informer - John Ford is mostly known for his wonderful westerns, but that's not all he could do. Back in the mid-30's he did this proto-noir, and boy is it fucking stylish in a way that I did not expect from ol' Pappy.

Actually one of my favorite Ford's. It's a solid 9.5 for me and probably my 3rd favorite behind only Grapes and Clementine (keeping in mind I'm waiting to rewatch most of the later "masterpieces" before I rate them).

I think I have watched most of the rest of the 2015 noms. I just stopped posting reviews because I haven't been online very much. If there's any in particular you'd like to hear about, ask and I'll post it (if I've seen it).

Did you see Room and/or The Big Short?

Yep. Here are my reviews:

The Big Short (Adam McKay) - 7/10

The Big Short follows the lives of the handful of investors that foresaw the collapse of the housing market and bet against it, chronicling the investigative work that lead to their conclusions, their uncovering of the massive fraud underlying it during the years leading up to the collapse, and the immediate aftermath.

The screenplay somehow makes the dull-as-dirt subject of sub-prime mortgages and credit rating fraud interesting, primarily by acknowledging its didactic exposition and having fun with it by, e.g., having celebrities explain the concepts by analogy. It frequently breaks the fourth-wall to bring attention to the “fraud" of the film itself, even with corrections about how certain elements have been changed to “fictionalize" it.

The book was written by Michael Lewis, also responsible for Moneyball, which makes for an interesting comparison given how both are about outsiders with insight into age-old institutions filled with myopic idiots.

The casting is excellent and mostly against type. Christian Bale and Steve Carell take the leads here, the former as the eccentric investor who first discovers the problem, and the latter as a perpetually angry, righteous investor out to uncover the truth. Gosling serves as the sporadic narrator and also a key play who brings Bale's discovery to Carell. Pitt and many others lend rock solid support.

Adam McKay directs in a style I'd coin uneasy-cam, somewhere in between the shaky-cam style of faux documentary footage and the steady-cam style of polished cinema; a perfect cinematic metaphor for a market subtly, tenuously teetering on the brink of collapse that very few are able (or willing) to recognize.

Given it's been eight years since the collapse, the film is something of a Johnny-come-lately and it blunts some of the film's political impact, but as a work of fiction it's a well-made and shockingly (given the subject matter) entertaining film.

Room (Lenny Abrahamson) - 7/10

We tend to think of art as inspiration and creativity, but films like Room subtly illustrate the engineering ingenuity required, especially in a medium like film, for either inspiration or creativity to become reality.

The premise is simple: a kidnapped woman named Joy (Brie Larsen) has spent 7 years locked in a shed; her son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay), has spent his entire life there. When he turns 5, Joy tells him the truth and plans their escape.

A simple premise, yes, but it yields interesting problems: how to create a whole world out of an 11x11 space? How to light/shoot within that confined space? Narrative focus: mother or son? How to maintain tension/drama after the escape? How to convey the son's sense of “newness" of the world outside?

These are not easy problems for any filmmaker to solve, and to his not-inconsiderable credit, Lenny Abrahamson succeeds more than he fails. He's certainly aided by a tremendous performance by Brie Larson, who, despite the emotional subject matter, never crosses into mawkishness, and is, in fact, quietly understated—much could be said for the rest of the film. Tremblay, if not her equal, is certainly impressive for an 8-year old.

Kudos aside, there are some failures: the underplaying tends to keep things at a too-consistent dynamic level, weakening the drama. The restricted narration on Jack's POV works inside Room, but outside Joy is the far more interesting character and the film leaves her at key moments, making the film's second half far weaker than the first. The film is also just too linear and traditionally-minded to convey Jack's sense of experiencing a new world: this is the kind of thing few filmmakers can do (Terrence Malick being the most notable exception).

Ultimately, the film is an interesting mix of successes—mostly the acting, the detailed production design, understated score, thoughtful direction—and failures, which I listed above, which I think leaves it as a good film with some unfulfilled potential.

*****************************************

Also, you didn't ask, but one of the best films I saw from that year that nobody seemed to talk about was Mustang:

Mustang (Deniz Gamze Erguven) - 8.5/10

A plot synopsis will make Mustang sound dourer than it is: Upon returning from school a group of five young Turkish sisters are chastised by their grandmother when they're spotted playing with boys on the beach, leading to their Uncle imprisoning them in their home until they can each be married.

If anything, Mustang plays like a comedy for the majority of its runtime. There's an ease and naturalness with which the sisters act and interact. When the eldest sneaks out to see her boyfriend and her sisters cover for her, it's hard not to think of the dozen of Western sit-coms that have used the same plot. Similarly, another sub-plot finds the youngest sister befriending a young deliveryman and learning from him how to drive a car. Another episode has all the sisters sneaking to a soccer match that all men have been banned from attending.

These impressionistic episodes bolster the intimate feeling of being among ordinary and very real girls who just happen to be living in an oppressively conservative society. We come to know them almost as personal friends, laughing at their clowning playfulness and biting our nails at their attempts at mischievous rebellion. By the time the film reaches its climax, when the youngest tries to save her closest (in age) sister from the same marriage-fate as the two eldest, the film morphs into a kind of prison-break thriller and it comes as a shock how emotionally invested we've become in their lives.

Much credit has to be given to the extraordinarily natural young cast and director Erguven's thoughtful, subtle direction that undoubtedly cultivated the intimate atmosphere necessary for the performances. Her judicious editing has the film running a perfect 97-minutes, just long enough to generate the necessary emotional investment, but short enough to maintain the sense of wit and energy.

Nominated for Best Foreign Language film at both the Oscars and Golden Globes but losing in both to Son of Saul, Mustang probably would've gotten my vote. While Saul was technically more impressive, even innovative, it was dramatically suffocating and exhausting in its singular focus. By comparison, Mustang is a breath of fresh air, so full of vivacious life and humor that the heaviness of the drama sneaks up on you and is all the more devastating when it hits.

[maz89]

^I thought slightly less of The Big Short, primarily because I didn't find those didactic breaking-the-fourth-wall interludes to be as much fun as you did. Great performances though, including a mighty fine turn by Bale.

I also didn't think Room suffered as much in the second half. In fact, I remember being impressed about how the movie smoothly switches gears in the second half to focus on the duo's all-too-real struggles of adapting to the outside world. That whole understated tone worked well for me, and while I understand where you're coming from when you say the second half might have benefited from focusing on more Joy, I wonder if that might have diluted the poignancy of what little we saw of her from Jack's perspective. I put it somewhere between an 8.0 and 8.5.

Thanks for this Mustang recommendation; shall be sure to check it out. BTW, out of the 34 movies from 2015 that I've seen, I've given about four 8.5s (Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, Room, The Assassin*) and five 8.0s (Inside Out, The Revenant, Bridge of Spies, Ex Machina, and 45 Years).

*Given you're a huge Hou fan, I'm sure you loved his latest too.

[Eva Yojimbo]

^I thought slightly less of The Big Short, primarily because I didn't find those didactic breaking-the-fourth-wall interludes to be as much fun as you did. Great performances though, including a mighty fine turn by Bale.

I also didn't think Room suffered as much in the second half. In fact, I remember being impressed about how the movie smoothly switches gears in the second half to focus on the duo's all-too-real struggles of adapting to the outside world. That whole understated tone worked well for me, and while I understand where you're coming from when you say the second half might have benefited from focusing on more Joy, I wonder if that might have diluted the poignancy of what little we saw of her from Jack's perspective. I put it somewhere between an 8.0 and 8.5.

I think given any possible alternatives I could imagine, the way they handled the didactic elements were about as interesting and creative as they could possibly be. I think part of my "good" rating for that film was based as much on my own surprise for how enjoyable I found it.

I think we can just agree to disagree on Room. There are some good things in the second half, to be sure, but I think it's far more "standard drama" fare than the first. I honestly can't recall much in the second half that I found "poignant" because it was told through Jack's perspective. If anything, I thought that was precisely what diluted the dramatic impact.

Thanks for this Mustang recommendation; shall be sure to check it out. BTW, out of the 34 movies from 2015 that I've seen, I've given about four 8.5s (Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, Room, The Assassin*) and five 8.0s (Inside Out, The Revenant, Bridge of Spies, Ex Machina, and 45 Years).

*Given you're a huge Hou fan, I'm sure you loved his latest too.

You went much easier on last year's films than I did. :) My ratings for these:

The Assassin: 9/10
Inside Out: 9/10
The Revenant: 8.5/10
MM:FR: 8/10 (Originally 7.5, but I think I was too harsh on it; it's gotten better in memory)
Bridge of Spies: 7.5/10
Brooklyn - 7/10
Ex Machina: 6.5/10
45 Years: 6/10

I've got reviews for all of them. If you want to read any just let me know.

[maz89]

Share 'em for the bottom 3 (so we can agree to disagree all over again. Heh.)

I could have sworn you rated Brooklyn above an 8 back on the IMDB forums - I remember because I made a post about it. Has it not aged well?

Ex Machina - I can probably understand what you found lacking; in retrospect, I'd revise my own score down to a 7.0-7.5 myself since I'm not really drawn to repeat viewings. The narrative is fairly standard, even if it's well-acted and well-directed (despite the 'empty' feeling it leaves one with).

45 Years - woah, what happened there?

[Derived Absurdity]

The only thing I can say about Spotlight is that I tried to watch it, I really honesty did, and I had to give up at twenty minutes. It was already boring me to death. Nothing even slightly interesting was happening. That's my opinion on Spotlight.

The Room was okay. The Revenant was goddamn awful.

[Raxivace]

So I watched the first season of Damon Lindelof's The Leftovers. I was one of those people who got burned out by his work on Lost and thought that the scripts to the movies he worked on were at best flawed (Cowboys & Aliens, Prometheus, World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness, Tomorrowland).

It might be because its on HBO, it might be because it has a relatively short running time compared to Lost, and its probably because Lindelof has the author of the original novel the show is based on as a writing partner to hold his worst excesses back, but The Leftovers was really fuckin' good. The premise of the show is that 2% of the world's population just vanishes one day. The show is less about that though than the other 98% that got left behind and how they cope with it. Cults and other insanities start popping up all over the world, and the way people deal with these things on top of the loss they've experienced is what drives the show.

Like with the early seasons of Lost, the shows' world borders between mundane and magical realism and maybe even...something else (Like its never clear whether it was God or aliens or what that zapped everyone away, and I don't think we're meant to know. That's not the point), never quite leaning too strongly into the fantastic (Outside of the basic premise of the vanishings away) but just enough that some characters believe in it. I think why it works here compared to something like Lost is that understanding whether the supernatural exists or not doesn't actually matter too much. Its just a device for the drama of the story- it kind of reminds me of the game Silent Hill 2 in a way, which only used the world of the original game as a setting and for some thematic reasons.

The worst thing I can say about The Leftovers is that it kind of has that generic "prestige television" look, and the one time it breaks out of that is for montage sequence that's basically a giant reference to a montage that opened an episode of Breaking Bad- I know Michelle Maclaren directed episodes for both shows (I can't remember which ones she did), so that may have something to do with it. Also Liv Tyler isn't the best actress in the world I guess.

It's a good show. I'm gonna binge season 2 over the next few days, and the third and final season starts airing in about a month for those interested. If Lost was an interesting failure, The Leftovers might be Lindelof's interesting success.

31. The Informer - John Ford is mostly known for his wonderful westerns, but that's not all he could do. Back in the mid-30's he did this proto-noir, and boy is it fucking stylish in a way that I did not expect from ol' Pappy.

Actually one of my favorite Ford's. It's a solid 9.5 for me and probably my 3rd favorite behind only Grapes and Clementine (keeping in mind I'm waiting to rewatch most of the later "masterpieces" before I rate them).

Glad to see you liked The Informer too. The few I know that have seen it all seem to love it- I hope it moves up in the canon as time goes by.

Thanks for the thoughts on Room and The Big Short- I generally echo maz's thoughts on those two. Latter half of Room worked better for me than it seemed to for you, though The Big Short lost me at times and I ended up not retaining as much information from it as I would have liked. I'll be on the lookout for that Mustang film.

The Revenant was goddamn awful.

I thought it was one of the best mainstream films that year. :/

[maz89]

So I watched the first season of Damon Lindelof's The Leftovers. I was one of those people who got burned out by his work on Lost and thought that the scripts to the movies he worked on were at best flawed (Cowboys & Aliens, Prometheus, World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness, Tomorrowland)... It's a good show. I'm gonna binge season 2 over the next few days, and the third and final season starts airing in about a month for those interested. If Lost was an interesting failure, The Leftovers might be Lindelof's interesting success.

As a fan (and long-time apologist) for Lost, a show that with all of its flaws (and occasional lapses into trite melodrama) is still one I hold dear for its well-developed characters (thanks to those admittedly overused, hit-and-miss flashbacks/flash-forwards) and dense mythology, I'm convinced I have to check out The Leftovers. Can I wait for your review of Seasons 2 and 3 before taking the plunge, though? In my experience, these kind of shows usually go downhill from there - although knowing that the third season is the final one certainly makes me believe that Lindelof may actually know the specifics of the endgame in advance this time...

Say, what did you think of Westworld?

The only thing I can say about Spotlight is that I tried to watch it, I really honesty did, and I had to give up at twenty minutes. It was already boring me to death. Nothing even slightly interesting was happening. That's my opinion on Spotlight.

You should try this movie called Colossal Youth... now that's a movie I couldn't sit through, no matter how many times I tried. The only movie ever that I simply left unrated. One day, perhaps, I'll summon the strength...

[Raxivace]

As a fan (and long-time apologist) for Lost, a show that with all of its flaws (and occasional lapses into trite melodrama) is still one I hold dear for its well-developed characters (thanks to those admittedly overused, hit-and-miss flashbacks/flash-forwards) and dense mythology, I'm convinced I have to check out The Leftovers. Can I wait for your review of Seasons 2 and 3 before taking the plunge, though? In my experience, these kind of shows usually go downhill from there - although knowing that the third season is the final one certainly makes me believe that Lindelof may actually know the specifics of the endgame in advance this time...

I understand the hesitation. My biggest issues with Lost didn't even really start until the final season, and I'm still a little concerned that it may happen again here too.

I don't think terms like "endgame" are appropriate for The Leftovers though- it doesn't quite strike me as a show that will end with everyone going to fight some big monster or anything like that, but we'll see. I think its probably closer to something like the Coen's A Serious Man (Thought the show doesn't quite have their sense of humor), and not really the actiony stuff that Lost drew upon.

I'll let you know how season 2 goes.

Say, what did you think of Westworld?

I quite liked it. I don't think I quite agree with the thematic argument the show makes that playing violent video games and watching violent movies means one is actually evil, but it dramatizes that argument in a super compelling way.

It maybe feels little a mechanical (Excuse the pun) with how neatly it seems plotted, but its hard to tell where it will go in the long run.

[Derived Absurdity]

I thought it was one of the best mainstream films that year. :/

It had zero humanity or soul. There was no meaning to it, no point, no nothing. It was awful.

[maz89]

I understand the hesitation. My biggest issues with Lost didn't even really start until the final season, and I'm still a little concerned that it may happen again here too.

I completely concur with this. You and I have a similar reading of the show, which is good to know - for future reference.

I quite liked it. I don't think I quite agree with the thematic argument the show makes that playing violent video games and watching violent movies means one is actually evil, but it dramatizes that argument in a super compelling way. It maybe feels little a mechanical (Excuse the pun) with how neatly it seems plotted, but its hard to tell where it will go in the long run.

Yep, neatly plotted with an unpleasant tendency to pull the rug from underneath the audience's feet (a bit similar to Lost but without its penchant for immediately establishing well-developed characters... by the end of Westworld''s season though, when the dust had cleared, the characters certainly became more 'real'). I think there's a reason why I loved Maeve's story the most; it was told with a straight face, no-frills, without any embellishments or shocks or twists about her motivation... (and the sequences in which Radiohead's Motion Picture Soundtrack plays while she's taken around the robot factory by Felix has to be one of my favorite scenes from the show... or rather any scene scored to Radiohead). I have to be one of the slowpokes who didn't figure out the MiB = William revelation mid-way through the season, which is stupid since I've seen all of Jonathan Nolan's work. My excuse is that I binged and missed the subtle hints. But yeah, looking forward to see how things pan out.

[Raxivace]

I thought it was one of the best mainstream films that year. :/

It had zero humanity or soul. There was no meaning to it, no point, no nothing. It was awful.

I think "It has no point!" is a bit of a silly thing to say when even on a surface level its a fairly straightforward "Man is consumed by his quest for revenge" story. That alone isn't especially unique, though I think the way it tells its story with a strong focus on aesthetics makes it stand out.

I completely concur with this. You and I have a similar reading of the show, which is good to know - for future reference.

I know Jimbo has mentioned that's he's been considered watching through Lost before, and I kind of wish he would so there would be a decent excuse to hash through that show again, particularly now that we're several years removed from all of the advertising and interviews and so on that didn't quite work in the show's favor.

But yeah, looking forward to see how things pan out.

Heh, I didn't figure out the William thing until two or three episodes before the whole season was over myself.

That plotline is kind of a good example of where some of the issues I have begin to pop up. I love the actual scene where its revealed and spelled out, and on paper they do all of the "right things" to build up to the reveal.

I'm not sure it actually tells us that much more about MiB than we already knew though. Like, even just from his scenes we knew that he was some kind of philanthropist, a "good person" until he's in the park to act out his worst impulses. And with the William reveal we now know that MiB...was a good person that comes to the park to act out his worst impulses, but he was romantically involved with one of the hosts in particular which most of us probably suspected from the episode 1 rape scene anyways.

But I'll be damned if Ed Harris didn't sell that fucking character. And hell I liked Jimmi Simpson a lot too, and was glad to see him get such a big role.

The similarity to Lost might be because Abrams was involved with both shows btw.