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

[maz89]

I know I've seen Les Carabiniers but can't remember it at all. Reading your thoughts indicate why, though.

And that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of The Leftovers lol...

[Raxivace]

I know I've seen Les Carabiniers but can't remember it at all. Reading your thoughts indicate why, though.

The last thing I'll say about Les Carabiniers is that it seems like Godard is going for the same kind of reaction that Haneke was going for with Funny Games, but he doesn't quite get it. Now I personally despise Funny Games but Haneke at least got what he wanted (Even if that was stupid as hell IMO).

And that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of The Leftovers lol...

I dunno if this pans out in further analysis, but without spoiling it Leftovers Season 3 kind of feels like its meant to be address criticisms of Lost's finale...though in doing so it takes a direction that I don't think necessarily makes sense for Leftovers, and I don't like how it handles ambiguity compared to the first season and even how the rape subplot is introduced in season 2 (Before the season finale really takes all of the bite out of that).

I'll still stand by the quality of Season 1 as a self-contained show. Seasons 2 and 3 though still have some issues.

EDIT: Did you ever see the movie Life of Pi? The last episode of The Leftovers is basically that movie. Like straight up, with the same batshit pro-"alternative facts" moral and it felt pretty out of place in this show.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Yojimbo gave this a glowing review when he used to visit these forums

He's never coming back, is he?

I'm fine guys. Just been in a weird place (mentally) the last few months and have been taking a break from... pretty much everything except the NBA Playoffs and porn. <- Not even a joke as I have strangely gotten into hardcore features recently. I find the history fascinating, especially the brief period ca. '72 when it almost-sorta-kinda went mainstream, and the various (and quite sporadic) attempts made after to do something genuinely artistic with it. If I could recommend one film, it wouldn't be any of the well-known titles (though some are pretty good), but the oddly neglected Take Off from 1978: a hardcore riff on The Portrait of Dorian Gray that contains (according to IMDb) over 50 movie references. Quite clever, actually. Rax mentioned Dressed to Kill recently, and De Palma originally wanted Annette Haven--who plays a kind of Lauren Bacall/Ingrid Bergman character in the 1940s/Casablanca section of Take Off--to be the shower body double! To recommend one more film, it would be the relatively recent (2012) Wasteland, which is basically a pretty darn good indie film that just happens to have hardcore sex in it; but it manages the rare trick of having genuinely well-written, interesting characters with some equally genuine emotional substance.

I've considered writing a (probably lengthy) essay about erotic cinema and posting it on the-fanboy-perspective.com. I've always had a real interest in that sub-genre in general, perhaps because I think the blending of sex and cinema poses a unique and especially difficult challenge that has rarely been solved, or even semi-adequately broached. I've developed numerous related theories as to precisely why it is so challenging, and uniquely so to cinema (as opposed to comics, literature, painting, etc.).

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back to movies and posting here sooner than later. NBA playoffs are about over and I'll need something to do with, errr, the rest of my free time. :)

[Raxivace]

What the fuck. I was worried you had suddenly died or something. Instead you were having the little death over and over again. :(

(Welcome back).

[Eva Yojimbo]

What the fuck. I was worried you had suddenly died or something. Instead you were having the little death over and over again. :(

Though, counter-intuitively, I've actually been masturbating less in order to pay attention to the actual films.

[Raxivace]

Speaking of porn I compared a Douglas Sirk classic to hentai while you were gone and not a single person batted an eye! :(

[maz89]

He lives!

And good to know he had his hands full with something worthwhile. (heh heh)

[Raxivace]

On a serious note one of my dogs passed away this morning so I apologize in advance if I act in an inappropriate way over the next few days.

[BruceSmith78]

Sorry to hear that, Rax.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Speaking of porn I compared a Douglas Sirk classic to hentai while you were gone and not a single person batted an eye! :(

As they shouldn't. Douglas Sirk and Hentai go together like green eggs and ham.

On a serious note one of my dogs passed away this morning so I apologize in advance if I act in an inappropriate way over the next few days.

Sorry to hear about that. I've lost several pets in my time. Always heartbreaking.

[Eva Yojimbo]

He lives!

And good to know he had his hands full with something worthwhile. (heh heh)

Oh, you. :|

[maz89]

On a serious note one of my dogs passed away this morning so I apologize in advance if I act in an inappropriate way over the next few days.

I'm sorry for your loss, Rax.

[Raxivace]

Thank you for the kind words everyone.

[Raxivace]

BTW Jimbo, a while back I had recommended The Big O to you since you hadn't seen the second season which does some cool things IMO.

Dunno if you're still interested but a blu-ray release has since been announced for the U.S., and you can get a pretty steep discount if you pre-order it. I'm looking forward to giving it another watch myself.

[Eva Yojimbo]

BTW Jimbo, a while back I had recommended The Big O to you since you hadn't seen the second season which does some cool things IMO.

Dunno if you're still interested but a blu-ray release has since been announced for the U.S., and you can get a pretty steep discount if you pre-order it. I'm looking forward to giving it another watch myself.

I might just pick that up.

[Raxivace]

58. Wakefield (2017) -



Bryan Cranston plays a lawyer, the Wakefield of the title, who is fed up with his wife and two children. After a series of mishaps that ends with him chasing a raccoon into the attic above their garage while coming home from work one night, he decides to just live up there, spying on his family to pass the time. While comparisons to Rear Window are obvious, unlike that movie he doesn't catch a crime with his spying or anything like that. He's just slowly watching his family over an extended period of time through the windows- from the first night where they realize he doesn't come home, to them trying to find them, to them moving on (How exactly his family doesn't know he's there or find them is a bit implausible for the amount of time the film covers but whatever).

Wakefield narrates nearly the entire film, and it has an almost stream of consciousness quality to it. We're restricted almost entirely to what he's experience or imagining- he imagines what his wife and so on are saying, talks about himself a lot, retreats into some memories in a flashback sequence, imagines how his wife might react at different points if they were suddenly to meet again, and he even tries directly addressing the audience once or twice. It's kind of interestingly loose, and while the dude is a pretty huge asshole with his sole positive quality with him being like the only guy in his suburban neighborhood not to hate some neighbor kids that have down syndrome (And this does become a kind of significant plot point- as much as this film has a plot), its a nice attempt for a recent movie to put being a character study over anything else, especially as the movie goes on and Wakefield comes to some realizations about himself.

[maz89]

46. Imitation of Life (1959) -



My favorite films tend to be ones that combine genre with either some kind of attempt at social commentary or deeper thematic substance. Sirk takes the conventions of romance and melodrama of his era and does exactly, much as he had done with All That Heaven Allows (1955). He's a little more explicit this time, addressing issues of race in America right as the Civil Rights Movement is beginning to heat up.

The plot of the film follows aspiring (white) actress Lora, her daughter Susie and the black family they take into their home after a chance encounter- Annie and her daughter Sarah. Lora wants someone to look after Susie as she pursues her acting and Annie agrees to help. Drama ensues from two fronts- in the figure of (white) Steve, who is interested in Lora but also has the eye of Susie, and from Sarah's skin color. Sarah has "inherited her father's skin" and is able to pass for white. Throughout most of the film she prefers to be thought of as white, and this naturally causes conflict with her mother who sees her as black.

This Sarah premise easily could have failed completely and frankly it shouldn't work as well as it does. However, Annie and Sarah are given tons of focus throughout the film, to the point where their relationship eclipses the Lora/Susie/Steve triangle. It's a neat trick, as Lora is so distant not only from her daughter's concerns, not even realizing she loves Steve, but despite her good intentions she's so privileged that after living with Annie for ten years she does not once think to ask if she has any friends of her own. There are several moments like that throughout the movie, and they really stand out.

The movie's self awareness doesn't end there- Sarah later compares the living situation to that of a slave and master, in a rage against Lora and Annie. While Lora means well despite her flaws and Annie has been trying her best, Sarah has a point about how uneven the relationship is. Her even wanting to pass as white is understandable, particularly in a horrifying scene where a white boy she's had a crush on calls her the n-word and beats her in the street. It's pretty horrifying, a kind of ruthless but necessary break from Sirk's 50's facade. That facade that had to be torn down.

Sarah later completely rejects her mother, fleeing to seedy (white) burleseque shows and seedy (white) dancing halls where she sings songs with suggestive lyrics about how she "hates being empty" and "wants to be filled up"- lines that wouldn't be out of place in a bad (good) hentai, and certainly would have been risque in 1959 Hollywood. Annie tries to come backstage during these events to talk and make peace with Sarah, and it goes about as well as you might expect, and things take a downturn from here on out.

The film ends with a tragic funeral sequence for Annie out in the city streets, where tons and tons of black people have come out to honor Annie...people Lora just doesn't know at all, because she never bothered to, because she could never see the woman she lived with for a decade as anything other than a maid or servant, lending an even more tragic tone to an already sad scene. I've seen some people suggest that the film would have been better had it been even more from Annie's perspective, and while I'm not sure how far Hollywood would have let that go in the 50's Sirk at least has enough sense to hint that perhaps that is the way things should have gone, while keeping her reasonably well characterized too, even if the film has to start from a whiter perspective.

This is another piece worth looking at in the complicated history of Hollywood's depiction of race.

I had decided to check this one out being a huge fan of the only other Douglas Sirk film I've seen (All That Heaven Allows, of course). I saw it a few days ago and I really, really liked it. It turned out to be another masterfully shot family melodrama laden with irony. I love how Sirk's lush visual style is so antithetical and incongruous with his complicated, insightful depictions of race and gender. Here, he portrays how two mothers and their respective daughters cope with the hand they are dealt... and just how spectacularly uneven those hands are on account of something as banal as their skin color. This elementary fact seems lost on everyone except for Sarah Jane, whose mixed color causes an identity crisis and makes her tread down a dangerous, isolating path in search of external validation in all of the wrong places, ending with her disowning her black mother in some truly painful, tear-jerking scenes. Sarah Jane yearns to have what Lora has (and can potentially have it if she lies about her heritage), even if she doesn't see Lora's problems. To be fair, even Lora doesn't see Lora's problems, driven as she is in her quest for self-actualization as an artist, completely oblivious to the needs of her own daughter as well as the isolation that her success has brought her. I was a bit worried that the movie would make a heavy-handed point about how a woman cannot be simultaneously successful at work and at home but fortunately, Sirk seems more interested in 'white' privilege here than anything else - that Lora can do these things, make these mistakes, live with them and try to fix them, an opportunity not afforded to the darker skinned family. At the same time, he doesn't demonise Lora, who is presented as nothing less than a virtuous, refined woman who refuses to sleep her way up the ladder and generously takes in Annie and Sarah despite not knowing them - the catch being that Lora turns out to be so self-centered and oblivious she never bothers to know them - or anyone else - at all, not until she's about to lose them (although the credit for how well-written and layered the characters are should rightfully go to the Fannie Hurst, the author of the novel on which the movie is based). I loved the scene in which Lora confronts Sarah Jane about her mocking use of a stereotypical black accent in front of Lora's guests. Lora almost seems to be asking Sarah Jane to channel her despair on being black at someone else since she (Lora) never treated her any differently in her house. And yet, Sarah Jane's black mother is destined to live - and die - as a maid in this very house (echoing that master-slave relation that Rax mentioned), which isn't as disconnected from the horrible external world as Lora believes. Lora never seems to understand or reflect on how it isn't possible for Sarah Jane to simply leave her emotional baggage - and doomed sociopolitical status - at Lora's front door. In the film's climax, when Lora as the 'white' saviour declares she will give up her lover for the sake of making amends with her daughter (as if causing herself to suffer would undo years of parental neglect), Susie's reaction is priceless: "Please, don't play the martyr". It was fantastic because the film thankfully didn't turn into a tragedy about how Lora had to give up the love of her life, and remained focused on the film's real martyr. Oh, Annie.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Imitation of Life is definitely great. Written on the Wind is probably even better. Douglas Sirk is pretty awesome in general. I also really love his utterly neglected There's Always Tomorrow, which is one of the few melodramas I can think of about a male midlife crisis.

[Raxivace]

What did you guys make of the title "Imitation of Life"? Like obviously there's a connection to the plays, the commercial photograph, etc. in the film, but how did you all read that as relating to the relation between Annie, Sarah, Susie and Lora?

[maz89]

Hm, I suppose one could argue that Sarah is inspired by Lora and her success (even if there are traces of resentment), whose life she tries to 'imitate'. On a broader level, it can be read as a bleak commentary on how the black people of the time were compelled to live a pale 'imitation' of the life afforded to the white and the wealthy.

[maz89]

Imitation of Life is definitely great. Written on the Wind is probably even better. Douglas Sirk is pretty awesome in general. I also really love his utterly neglected There's Always Tomorrow, which is one of the few melodramas I can think of about a male midlife crisis.

I think this post does it. I need to do a Douglas Sirk marathon soon so I can know what the hell you're talking about.

[Eva Yojimbo]

What did you guys make of the title "Imitation of Life"? Like obviously there's a connection to the plays, the commercial photograph, etc. in the film, but how did you all read that as relating to the relation between Annie, Sarah, Susie and Lora?

I'd probably have to give it a rewatch to offer anything substantial (Imitation was actually the first Sirk I saw about 10 years ago on TMC). Maz's interpretation seems pretty solid.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Imitation of Life is definitely great. Written on the Wind is probably even better. Douglas Sirk is pretty awesome in general. I also really love his utterly neglected There's Always Tomorrow, which is one of the few melodramas I can think of about a male midlife crisis.

I think this post does it. I need to do a Douglas Sirk marathon soon so I can know what the hell you're talking about.

The only thing I'd caution about marathoning Sirk is that most of his non-melodramas (and non-domestic-melodramas even) aren't nearly as good, so you can skip them unless you're a completist. I'd say he only made a handful of must-watch films: All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, All that Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow, Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, and Imitation of Life.

Any thoughts on any of the films/directors inspired by Sirk? The most obvious are Fassbinder's melodramas (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in particular) and most of Todd Haynes's stuff (especially Far from Heaven). Personally, I'm not a big fan of Fassbinder, but I do think Haynes has a pretty good grasp on what made Sirk work (lolrhyme). My only knock against Haynes is that he can't seem to imitate while using a contemporary setting, so his stuff can come off as a bit archaic; as if these themes are no longer relevant.

[Raxivace]

Hm, I suppose one could argue that Sarah is inspired by Lora and her success (even if there are traces of resentment), whose life she tries to 'imitate'. On a broader level, it can be read as a bleak commentary on how the black people of the time were compelled to live a pale 'imitation' of the life afforded to the white and the wealthy.

Interesting thoughts. It sounds like close to how I was feeling about the film even if I couldn't quite find the words to say it.

Any thoughts on any of the films/directors inspired by Sirk? The most obvious are Fassbinder's melodramas (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in particular) and most of Todd Haynes's stuff (especially Far from Heaven). Personally, I'm not a big fan of Fassbinder, but I do think Haynes has a pretty good grasp on what made Sirk work (lolrhyme). My only knock against Haynes is that he can't seem to imitate while using a contemporary setting, so his stuff can come off as a bit archaic; as if these themes are no longer relevant.

I have a copy of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul on blu-ray though I haven't given it a watch yet (Maybe I'll do that today).

I think you're underselling Hayne's choice to set his films in the past a bit (At least based on the two I've seen). I think part of what interests Haynes is talking about what the old media he grew up loving couldn't show or directly depict, particularly in regards to sexuality, and what it says about that era. In Far From Heaven its stuff like the gay men kissing that Sirk would have to code heavily to even talk about, and in Dottie Gets Spanked its how even in these supposedly clean and upstanding times even innocuous sources like the I Love Lucy TV show were getting fetishized and becoming a part of how children begin to sexually mature. Like yeah he could have set the films in a contemporary setting just to talk about those subjects (Dottie Gets Spanked could probably be remade today about the "brony" phenomenon from a few years back, though even then the subject is still pretty different), but you lose his attempt at confronting the artifice of the past with how it "really" was- kind of reminds me of the relationship between Chinatown and classic noir in some ways.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I think you're underselling Hayne's choice to set his films in the past a bit (At least based on the two I've seen). I think part of what interests Haynes is talking about what the old media he grew up loving couldn't show or directly depict, particularly in regards to sexuality, and what it says about that era. In Far From Heaven its stuff like the gay men kissing that Sirk would have to code heavily to even talk about, and in Dottie Gets Spanked its how even in these supposedly clean and upstanding times even innocuous sources like the I Love Lucy TV show were getting fetishized and becoming a part of how children begin to sexually mature. Like yeah he could have set the films in a contemporary setting just to talk about those subjects (Dottie Gets Spanked could probably be remade today about the "brony" phenomenon from a few years back, though even then the subject is still pretty different), but you lose his attempt at confronting the artifice of the past with how it "really" was- kind of reminds me of the relationship between Chinatown and classic noir in some ways.

I absolutely agree with what you say about the virtues of Haynes's choice to keep the settings in the past (and touched on this in my review of Carol), but I do think that choice inevitably weakens their ability to speak to those themes in a contemporary setting. I mean, there are still very real issues facing homosexuals and women in the contemporary world, but they're rather different than what they were in the 40s and 50s; so I can never quite shake the feeling that Haynes is doing it mostly as an exercise in style and nostaligia (and more nostalgia in an aesthetic sense, as in what appealed to him about those old Sirk/Ophuls films). One exception to this is Safe, which may be his best film, though not really in the Sirkian/Ophulsian melodrama mold.

FWIW, here's what I wrote about his Carol (no spoilers, so you can read it even without having seen it):

Carol (Todd Haynes) - 8/10

When desires are repressed, the body still finds its outlets, even when they are among the subtlest, and even among its oppressors. Todd Haynes knows this better than any living director. He's made a superb career out of documenting the ways in which these outlets occur, and what he did for racism and male homophobia in Far from Heaven, and sexism in Mildred Pierce, he does for lesbianism in Carol.

Learning from the great melodramatist, Douglas Sirk, Haynes has skillfully appropriated his combination of a meticulous mise-en-scene, the precise orchestration of actor's movements and gestures, and the domestic sociological context in which the political becomes the deeply personal. Watch how the muted colors and geometric designs seem to trap its characters in drab, prison-like confines; how a hand might tellingly linger for a second too longer than propriety would dictate on a shoulder; or how the camera creeps around corners and peers through windows, as if it's subverting the sociological taboos by the mere act of observing those struggling against it.

He's certainly aided by two outstanding performances here in Roony Mara and Cate Blanchett, both subtle communicators themselves. Understanding that less is more in this context they never give into the temptation of overacting anything, allowing the drama and emotional involvement to steadily build as their desire for each other threatens to burst the seams of their domestically ordered worlds.

Perhaps the only misstep here is the sex scene. Though tenderly shot, it seems to release too much of the film's tension in its passionate throws. One thing that made Douglas Sirk so effective was precisely that Classic Hollywood's censorship confines served as an oppressive analog to his characters' worlds, so that instead of sexual releases you got emotional ones. Haynes attempts to do both, but it's ultimately the emotional element that's the more rewarding here, weakened ever so slightly by the mere existence of the sex scene.

Still, this is certainly one film that can't be accused of any biased or prurient male gaze. With two female characters as richly individualized as it gets and a cinematic style that gorgeously, sometimes achingly, conveys its themes, it's as fine a film made on the subject as any I can think of.

[maz89]

The only thing I'd caution about marathoning Sirk is that most of his non-melodramas (and non-domestic-melodramas even) aren't nearly as good, so you can skip them unless you're a completist. I'd say he only made a handful of must-watch films: All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, All that Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow, Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, and Imitation of Life.

Thanks for the heads up. But I figure I'm a completist and I'll get around to the rest eventually. I even subjected myself to Kurosawa's The Most Beautiful and Sanshiro Sugata Part II just to be able to claim 100% coverage.

Any thoughts on any of the films/directors inspired by Sirk? The most obvious are Fassbinder's melodramas (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in particular) and most of Todd Haynes's stuff (especially Far from Heaven). Personally, I'm not a big fan of Fassbinder, but I do think Haynes has a pretty good grasp on what made Sirk work (lolrhyme). My only knock against Haynes is that he can't seem to imitate while using a contemporary setting, so his stuff can come off as a bit archaic; as if these themes are no longer relevant.

I absolutely agree with what you say about the virtues of Haynes's choice to keep the settings in the past (and touched on this in my review of Carol), but I do think that choice inevitably weakens their ability to speak to those themes in a contemporary setting. I mean, there are still very real issues facing homosexuals and women in the contemporary world, but they're rather different than what they were in the 40s and 50s; so I can never quite shake the feeling that Haynes is doing it mostly as an exercise in style and nostaligia (and more nostalgia in an aesthetic sense, as in what appealed to him about those old Sirk/Ophuls films).

I haven't seen any Fassbinder at all unfortunately (I forgot he even existed until you mentioned him just now). Of the only two I've seen from Haynes, I didn't feel that the setting made his films' themes feel 'archaic' at all - any more than Sirk's melodrama's feel dated for being set in the 1950s as the issues he tackles are still present today (in less apparent forms). I understand you fault Haynes for banking on nostalgia and not updating those themes to reflect how those very real issues continue to exist, albeit less obviously, in the world today. But that certainly wasn't an issue for me in Far From Heaven since Haynes does manage to make that time period feel fresh and new again with his depiction of homosexuality (and its deliberate suppression in a heterosexual marriage to maintain the facade of marital bliss and normalcy, tying pleasantly with the nostalgic aesthetic choice), a theme which frankly is still not entirely out of place and feels quite relevant even today. Did Sirk ever so blatantly cover homosexuality btw?

I was less thrilled about Carol, and I wonder if it was because I let all of the hype about how terrific it was get to my head. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, but I did feel underwhelmed and walked away wishing it had been more than the sum of its parts. The infectious Christmas setting, Cate Blanchett's powerful performance, and the languid pacing help raise the film above its cardboard cut-out of a narrative but it didn't quite come together for me. I rated it a tentative 6.5. (And woah, there are definitely spoilers in that review. )

BTW, I've heard some of Sirk's noirs are also actually quite memorable. What are your thoughts on them?

[maz89]

I saw Paul Verhoeven's Elle a few days ago, and while I'm still puzzled about the critical acclaim, it has grown on me. One reviewer likened it to a "rape comedy", although I do think that's an unfair, surface-level assessment. Spoilers below.

The movie develops as a story about Elle's obsession with her sadistic rapist and then segues into a disturbing tale of how she learns her rapist's identity, sympathizes with his plight (perhaps a kind of Stockholme's syndrome) and deliberately subjects herself to his violent sexual whims. Elle's interest in figuring out the complexity of her rapist (and her almost indifferent stance to her rapes) are implied to stem from a disturbing childhood episode with her mentally deranged, imprisoned serial killer of a father with whom she refuses to make amends against the wishes of her mother. Through Elle's point of view (and a strong performance from Isabelle Huppert), the movie examines the irreversible monstrosities that plague certain individuals without any conceivable reason, ultimately evoking a tone of pity and sadness in its climax which finds Elle achieving some kind of enlightenment about her troubled father.

The film also seems to be concerned about the twisted nature of desire, given not only the rapist's urges but also Elle's own questionable tendencies. However, Verhoeven ultimately decides to put an end to the unconventional madness defined by Elle's relationship with her rapist, undermining and sawing off the uncomfortable, ugly edges of the film's dark theme, choosing to end with a relatively wholesome message and implying Elle never really derived any kind of satisfaction from her unorthodox "affair". (Or perhaps, Verhoeven is simply acknowledging that this kind of desire cannot exist and sustain itself forever in a 'rational' world, causing Elle to 'lapse' back into 'normalcy'...)

The thread about Elle cheating on her best friend (and ultimately finding 'redemption' by coming clean) felt a bit contrived, as was the contrast drawn between Elle's son in the father role versus Elle's own imprisoned father. The build-up to the reveal of the rapist including the numerous obvious red herrings was felt a bit formulaic. And while Verhoeven's Haneke-reminiscent disturbing visual calmness lent itself to some truly alarming sequences, I can't help but feel that it also made the film a little emotionally hollow. 7.5/10

[Eva Yojimbo]

Of the only two I've seen from Haynes, I didn't feel that the setting made his films' themes feel 'archaic' at all - any more than Sirk's melodrama's feel dated for being set in the 1950s as the issues he tackles are still present today (in less apparent forms). I understand you fault Haynes for banking on nostalgia and not updating those themes to reflect how those very real issues continue to exist, albeit less obviously, in the world today. But that certainly wasn't an issue for me in Far From Heaven since Haynes does manage to make that time period feel fresh and new again with his depiction of homosexuality (and its deliberate suppression in a heterosexual marriage to maintain the facade of marital bliss and normalcy, tying pleasantly with the nostalgic aesthetic choice), a theme which frankly is still not entirely out of place and feels quite relevant even today. Did Sirk ever so blatantly cover homosexuality btw?

By "archaic" I simply mean that he's so clearly imitating Sirk right down to the time period. Sirk was reflecting on his own times so it's not the same thing. I do agree that Haynes mitigates this in Far from Heaven by focusing on homosexuality, which Sirk never explicitly addressed (one could argue he implicitly did so by casting Rock Hudson; and there's more than a few hints about it in Written on the Wind), but the fact that all of his others have revisited the same period and many of the same themes as Sirk's leaves me feeling like he hasn't really added much to the genre and whole milieu that Sirk already mastered.

I was less thrilled about Carol, and I wonder if it was because I let all of the hype about how terrific it was get to my head. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, but I did feel underwhelmed and walked away wishing it had been more than the sum of its parts. The infectious Christmas setting, Cate Blanchett's powerful performance, and the languid pacing help raise the film above its cardboard cut-out of a narrative but it didn't quite come together for me. I rated it a tentative 6.5. (And woah, there are definitely spoilers in that review. )

BTW, I've heard some of Sirk's noirs are also actually quite memorable. What are your thoughts on them?

We can't seem to agree on any new films anymore. :/ What spoiler is there in the review? If you mean the sex scene, it was so hyped I doubt that anyone doesn't know about it already...

I've only seen Lured among his noirs and I thought it was thoroughly mediocre. Not terrible, per say, but really lacking in the atmosphere that makes the noir "genre" so interesting.

EDIT: I just realized that more than "archaic" the word I'm looking for to describe what I see Haynes doing is "pastiche."

[maz89]

By "archaic" I simply mean that he's so clearly imitating Sirk right down to the time period. Sirk was reflecting on his own times so it's not the same thing. I do agree that Haynes mitigates this in Far from Heaven by focusing on homosexuality, which Sirk never explicitly addressed (one could argue he implicitly did so by casting Rock Hudson; and there's more than a few hints about it in Written on the Wind), but the fact that all of his others have revisited the same period and many of the same themes as Sirk's leaves me feeling like he hasn't really added much to the genre and whole milieu that Sirk already mastered. EDIT: I just realized that more than "archaic" the word I'm looking for to describe what I see Haynes doing is "pastiche."

Ah, that makes more sense. I'm curious to see more from Haynes to see if I end up feeling the same way as you do. My sample size is way too small right now and I have a feeling I might have already seen his best work.

We can't seem to agree on any new films anymore. :/

I'll try again: as Terrence Malick fans, can we please agree that Knight of Cups is a fantastic evolution of the impressionistic, elliptical visual style that Malick had been trying to perfect since ToL?

What spoiler is there in the review?

You're probably right. Probably just my over-the-top aversion to spoilers rearing its head there.

I've only seen Lured among his noirs and I thought it was thoroughly mediocre. Not terrible, per say, but really lacking in the atmosphere that makes the noir "genre" so interesting.

Funnily, that's the one noir that fetched the most positive recommendation from the cinephile who told me they were worth checking out. Hah.

[Raxivace]

I even subjected myself to Kurosawa's The Most Beautiful and Sanshiro Sugata Part II just to be able to claim 100% coverage.

You're in good company, since I believe all three of us have seen both of those films. Personally I'd rank One Wonderful Sunday below those two, and I could probably convinced The Idiot in its current form deserves to be a part of the conversation.

I'm only at 28/30 for Kurosawa. Still gotta see Rhapsody in August and Madadayo... My dog that just passed away was named Maddie (Short for Madeline), so sometimes I'd call her Maddie-dayo. I don't think she understood the reference.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Ah, that makes more sense. I'm curious to see more from Haynes to see if I end up feeling the same way as you do. My sample size is way too small right now and I have a feeling I might have already seen his best work.

Despite that one "reservation" I still really like Haynes as a director. Right now, Safe might be my favorite from him, though it's extremely different from his Sirkian melodramas... pretty hard film to describe, actually.

I'll try again: as Terrence Malick fans, can we please agree that Knight of Cups is a fantastic evolution of the impressionistic, elliptical visual style that Malick had been trying to perfect since ToL?

Sadly, no (sorry for the formatting; copied from PDF doc):

Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick) - 6/10

There's a fine line between the sublime and the silly, and no filmmaker has walked a tightrope between them
in the past 20 years like Malick. I've been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt in large part because of
his stylistic originality and the philosophical ambitions they serve in an age of shallow, ironic, self-conscious
stylists; but Knight of Cups came close to tipping me over the edge.

Malick's distinctive style—the perpetual, elliptical montage; free-form plot-structure; meditative voice-over—is
like a sustained reverie. Like a reverie it has the positives of a poetically heightened sensitivity, and the
potential negatives of becoming untethered to reality, rationality, and any sense of character or thematic
establishment and development.

In past films, I think Malick provided enough visual and aural motifs that allowed his fragmentary narrative
and themes to cohere just enough: e.g. the water/desert 'crisis of faith' motif in To the Wonder. While there
are intimations of such things in Knight of Cups—the Hymn of the Pearl story (similar to Odysseus and the
Lotus Eaters), Pilgrim's Progress, and the tarot card structuring device—they obfuscate more than illuminate,
and Christian Bale's Rick seems to free-float in a world of Hollywood execs, several lovers, ex-wife, brother
and father, with only a vague, Antonioni-esque sense of modern malaise.

Malick's strength was always more his aesthetic than dramatic potency or coherency, but even here Knight of
Cups seems to lag behind his better efforts. Though there are stunning scenes and moments like the Vegas
trip, which Malick renders like a hallucinogenic dream on ecstasy, or the skinny dip in the illuminated pool at
night, it's nowhere near as consistently visually striking as his best.

Ultimately, Knight of Cups is another oneiric and hermetic work from one of cinema's most undeniably
distinctive auteurs, but it's also the first of his where I was left far more ambivalent than positive, thinking
that Malick has nearly drained dry the well of what his unique style can accomplish.

[Raxivace]

59. Noah (2014) -



So this is one I seem to remember people having opinions on back in the early days of General Chat. I know that a lot of other people hated the movie, and having watched the film myself...I don't really get where that sentiment is coming from. I thought it was a pretty good take on the Noah's Ark story, with the first half of the film being a kind of more traditional take with elements of modern fantasy films like Lord of the Rings thrown in, and the second half focusing more on the Noah as a character, and what exactly his faith in his mission will drive him to do in these isolated circumstances and how his family will react to that. In a way it kind of reminds me of 10 Cloverfield Lane.

The general design of the Watchers (Being angels trapped with rock) was cool and kind of Del Toro-ish, and I like the slightly off design of all of the animals too. There's some cool use of still photography + quick montage editing throughout too, particularly in the creation sequence that comes about halfway through the movie (And might be my personal favorite scene).



I like how this sequence also relates the events of the movie to modern times. There's also a nice fakeout with a knife suddenly seeming to fly away during an action scene toward the end of the film- for a second I thought Noah became one with the Force, though it ended up being a brief but kind of neat fakeout for the Ark crashing.

I'm not sure what was in the air in 2014 but Noah joins The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and Monsters: Dark Continent as films from that year I thought were pretty solid that everyone else seemed to hate for reasons beyond me.

[maz89]

I'll try again: as Terrence Malick fans, can we please agree that Knight of Cups is a fantastic evolution of the impressionistic, elliptical visual style that Malick had been trying to perfect since ToL?

Sadly, no (sorry for the formatting; copied from PDF doc):

Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick) - 6/10

Thus continues our hot streak of disagreeing over the newer numbers.

I think you capture very well what Malick's style is all about ("elliptical montage", "freeform plot structure", "the sustained reverie"), but of course, when you say that the motifs in Knight of Cups 'obfuscate' rather than 'illuminate', you kind of lose me there. To start with, I found the framing of Rick's existential crisis against the allegories drawn from the Hymn of the Pearl and the Pilgrim's Progress to be a fairly effective Malickean choice. Similarly, the use of tarot card titles to introduce passages (and the people in them) yielded some interesting, ironic meanings ("The Hermit" introducing Banderas' character, a rich playboy who throws elaborate parties for people he doesn't know and yet is ironically a 'hermit' as he appears to be incapable of slowing down to find divine connection, and representing, in the context of Rick's journey, a possible endpoint or climax). But, more than anything else, it is really Malick's idiosyncratic aesthetic that reeled me in here, in a way it certainly did not in To The Wonder. That might be because, here, the fragmentary, free-floating visuals are tied to a narrative that isn't confined to a few select characters caught up in their (dull) romantic entanglements. Instead, they are tied to a narrative that feels equally untethered (mirroring Malick's visual style) given how it drifts seamlessly between the fleeting thoughts and experiences of the numerous visitors in Rick's life. It's this diversity of life, this kaleidoscopic reminiscence of a vast array of faintly developed yet palpably authentic impressions of people at different points in their own journeys (brought to the screen with Lubezki's magical cinematography), that brings this movie home for me. It helps that Malick's structuring of the sections makes Rick's life feel somehow even more disjointed than ever - the visitors who seek to tap into a higher state of being vs those content with worldly desires and immediate gratification appear without order, denying any kind of direction and progress to Rick's own standstill, frozen development. And contrary to the clearer optimism with which Malick ended ToL (the seemingly metaphysical reunion on a beach, which makes a more plain, down-to-earth reappearance here as well), here Malick is less forgiving. While the final title called "Freedom" offers hope, the film ends with Rick saying "Begin", the tunnel from the prologue making a reappearance and suggesting a never-ending cycle to Rick's suffering.

I haven't seen Song to Song (geez, that title) but I sure hope it's more Knight of Cups than To The Wonder.

[maz89]

59. Noah (2014) -

I'm not sure what was in the air in 2014 but Noah joins The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and Monsters: Dark Continent as films from that year I thought were pretty solid that everyone else seemed to hate for reasons beyond me.

I really liked Noah too and pretty much agree with your sentiments (although the Rock Angels felt a bit like Transformers Lite to me and the CGI a bit grating). Aronofsky's visual flourishes and powerfully rendered drama worked for me.

Haven't seen the rest, but I'm surprised that you liked The Amazing Spiderman 2. I didn't care too much for it myself but I did find some of the scenes to be surprisingly effective in terms of an absorbing aural-visual experience (I remember mostly a heavily scored sequence featuring a whole lot of fluctuating electricity at some grid station engulfed in darkness).

[maz89]

I even subjected myself to Kurosawa's The Most Beautiful and Sanshiro Sugata Part II just to be able to claim 100% coverage.

You're in good company, since I believe all three of us have seen both of those films. Personally I'd rank One Wonderful Sunday below those two, and I could probably convinced The Idiot in its current form deserves to be a part of the conversation.

I'm only at 28/30 for Kurosawa. Still gotta see Rhapsody in August and Madadayo... My dog that just passed away was named Maddie (Short for Madeline), so sometimes I'd call her Maddie-dayo. I don't think she understood the reference.

The Idiot, fine. But come on, One Wonderful Sunday wasn't that bad. It had its moments, IIRC...

Madadyo means "Not Yet", which is what the elder protagonist in that film says every year when asked if he is ready to die. Maybe she understood it after all.

[Raxivace]

I really liked Noah too and pretty much agree with your sentiments (although the Rock Angels felt a bit like Transformers Lite to me and the CGI a bit grating). Aronofsky's visual flourishes and powerfully rendered drama worked for me.

The Watchers CGI wasn't the best in the world though arguably the wonky CGI making them look like they aren't a part of the same world as Noah and his family reinforces the themes of the movie.

Haven't seen the rest, but I'm surprised that you liked The Amazing Spiderman 2. I didn't care too much for it myself but I did find some of the scenes to be surprisingly effective in terms of an absorbing aural-visual experience (I remember mostly a heavily scored sequence featuring a whole lot of fluctuating electricity at some grid station engulfed in darkness).

FWIW it's probably my least favorite of that list. I do think it's a decent film though that didn't quite deserve the hate it got- the Gwen Stacy segment in particular stood out to me as good.

The Idiot, fine. But come on, One Wonderful Sunday wasn't that bad. It had its moments, IIRC...

The sequence where Kurosawa breaks the fourth wall at the end is maybe the worst moment in his entire filmography.

An entire film's worth of footage being cut from The Idiot does make it hard to know what to do with. Like Sanshiro Part II and The Most Beautiful are at least theoretically interesting to look at since Kurosawa is trying to focus less on the propaganda aspects and instead on his own interests though his heart clearly isn't in either. The Idiot feels so reverent to the source, but with so much missing footage (Particularly from the film's first half that is supposed to establish all of these characters and their drama) its hard for me to get very invested in anything in the movie on any kind of level.

Madadyo means "Not Yet", which is what the elder protagonist in that film says every year when asked if he is ready to die. Maybe she understood it after all.

That's a nice thought.

[maz89]

I saw a bunch of animated films from last year.

Kubo and the Two Strings - 7.5/10

A beautiful animated film about the magical ability of memories to help us sustain loss and tragedy. Not enough can said about the wonderful stop-motion animation, which is imaginative and resplendent.

Zootopia - 7/10

As an ode to multiculturalism and as a reminder of how we need to be careful about subconscious racism (lest we reinforce evil stereotypes and alienate the ones we love), I liked it. There were many fitting parallels to real life, such as when the bunny tells the tiger police clerk that it isn't acceptable for other species to call bunnies cute even if they can use the term amongst themselves (lol). The Godfather reference was comic gold too.

My Life as a Zuchinni - 8/10

At a lean sixty minutes, I'm surprised at how it effectively it managed to imbue an emotional realism into its ensemble cast and recreate the adolescence experience in a dark setting. Poignant and sad with many memorable visual touches. (Edited to add that I also loved that haunting French song in the credits.)

[maz89]

The Idiot, fine. But come on, One Wonderful Sunday wasn't that bad. It had its moments, IIRC...

The sequence where Kurosawa breaks the fourth wall at the end is maybe the worst moment in his entire filmography.

You're making me feel a bit crazy for thinking that part was kinda bold and that it somehow worked, even though it shouldn't have.

An entire film's worth of footage being cut from The Idiot does make it hard to know what to do with. Like Sanshiro Part II and The Most Beautiful are at least theoretically interesting to look at since Kurosawa is trying to focus less on the propaganda aspects and instead on his own interests though his heart clearly isn't in either. The Idiot feels so reverent to the source, but with so much missing footage (Particularly from the film's first half that is supposed to establish all of these characters and their drama) its hard for me to get very invested in anything in the movie on any kind of level.

The Idiot felt heavy-handed to me. One wonders what was in that lost footage, but honestly, it couldn't have saved this movie from being such a dull mess.

BTW, The Most Beautiful is definitely the worst Akira film for me, if I have to pick. That one was a proper chore.

Madadyo means "Not Yet", which is what the elder protagonist in that film says every year when asked if he is ready to die. Maybe she understood it after all.

That's a nice thought.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I think you capture very well what Malick's style is all about ("elliptical montage", "freeform plot structure", "the sustained reverie"), but of course, when you say that the motifs in Knight of Cups 'obfuscate' rather than 'illuminate', you kind of lose me there. To start with, I found the framing of Rick's existential crisis against the allegories drawn from the Hymn of the Pearl and the Pilgrim's Progress to be a fairly effective Malickean choice. Similarly, the use of tarot card titles to introduce passages (and the people in them) yielded some interesting, ironic meanings ("The Hermit" introducing Banderas' character, a rich playboy who throws elaborate parties for people he doesn't know and yet is ironically a 'hermit' as he appears to be incapable of slowing down to find divine connection, and representing, in the context of Rick's journey, a possible endpoint or climax). But, more than anything else, it is really Malick's idiosyncratic aesthetic that reeled me in here, in a way it certainly did not in To The Wonder. That might be because, here, the fragmentary, free-floating visuals are tied to a narrative that isn't confined to a few select characters caught up in their (dull) romantic entanglements. Instead, they are tied to a narrative that feels equally untethered (mirroring Malick's visual style) given how it drifts seamlessly between the fleeting thoughts and experiences of the numerous visitors in Rick's life. It's this diversity of life, this kaleidoscopic reminiscence of a vast array of faintly developed yet palpably authentic impressions of people at different points in their own journeys (brought to the screen with Lubezki's magical cinematography), that brings this movie home for me. It helps that Malick's structuring of the sections makes Rick's life feel somehow even more disjointed than ever - the visitors who seek to tap into a higher state of being vs those content with worldly desires and immediate gratification appear without order, denying any kind of direction and progress to Rick's own standstill, frozen development. And contrary to the clearer optimism with which Malick ended ToL (the seemingly metaphysical reunion on a beach, which makes a more plain, down-to-earth reappearance here as well), here Malick is less forgiving. While the final title called "Freedom" offers hope, the film ends with Rick saying "Begin", the tunnel from the prologue making a reappearance and suggesting a never-ending cycle to Rick's suffering.

Hymn of the Pearl and Pilgrim's Progress were OK but I wish they had been better developed; the latter is pretty well-trod ground (maybe not as much in cinema), but the former was something I wasn't aware of beforehand. The tarot thing I think has been overdone (again, maybe not in film, but elsewhere); my biggest problem with it is that it's an innately archetypal source from which to invoke meanings when juxtaposed with any content, and that feels a bit too easy for an artist as original as Malick.

Ironically, what you liked about KOC and disliked about TTW--the fact that the latter is "confined to a few select characters caught up in their romantic entanglements"--is precisely the opposite for me. I really think that Malick's ethereal style demands some kind of "grounding" unless it just becomes too abstract and too untethered--the family dynamic in TOL and romance in TTW were, IMO, quite effective at providing that ground. Similarly, I think the romantic element worked in TTW precisely because it offered a more concrete contrast to the kind of "divine love" that Malick was also exploring. So, yes, you get the romantic entanglement, but the romance is also entangled with the priest's search for a divine, eternal love in a transient, temporal world. In KOC I just don't think it ever offered any kind of "grounding;" Rick just endlessly wanders and ruminates without any hint of any real earthly connections--and that shouldn't be the case when one of the points of Malick's films is how people become too much "of the world" (or "the world is too much with us," to quote Wordsworth).

I saw a bunch of animated films from last year.

Kubo and the Two Strings - 7.5/10

A beautiful animated film about the magical ability of memories to help us sustain loss and tragedy. Not enough can said about the wonderful stop-motion animation, which is imaginative and resplendent.

Zootopia - 7/10

As an ode to multiculturalism and as a reminder of how we need to be careful about subconscious racism (lest we reinforce evil stereotypes and alienate the ones we love), I liked it. There were many fitting parallels to real life, such as when the bunny tells the tiger police clerk that it isn't acceptable for other species to call bunnies cute even if they can use the term amongst themselves (lol). The Godfather reference was comic gold too.

My Life as a Zuchinni - 8/10

At a lean sixty minutes, I'm surprised at how it effectively it managed to imbue an emotional realism into its ensemble cast and recreate the adolescence experience in a dark setting. Poignant and sad with many memorable visual touches. (Edited to add that I also loved that haunting French song in the credits.)

I've only seen Kubo from these, which I loved:

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight) - 8.5/10

Here's a wonderful surprise: an American animated from a studio besides Pixar that has aspirations to something beyond family entertainment—namely art. Laika was not a name I was familiar with, though I realize that I've seen their previous films—Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls. None of them were adequate preparation for a phenomenal success such as this.

It's essentially a classic fable rooted in Japanese lore and culture: Kubo is a young boy who takes care of his ill mother on an isolated mountain while traveling to town and delighting audiences with his magical ability to bring origami to life while playing his shamisen. After being attacked by his evil, magical ninja aunts, his mother sends him on a quest to retrieve his father's magical samurai items to guard against his grandfather's evil. On his journey he's joined by a talking monkey statue and an amnesiac Beetle/samurai warrior.

It sound silly, and while Kubo isn't without its whimsical humor it's most remarkable for its darker elements—broaching the subject of mental illness and death—and the complexity of its themes, which are essentially told in an allegorical fashion: the association of the night/moon with coldness, forgetfulness, death, and anti-social behavior as a defense mechanism.

But animated films sink or swim on the strength of their visual imagination and this is where Kubo joins the ranks of the great. If not quite as gorgeous as the best Ghibli or, say, the films of Tomm Moore, it's perhaps a step above Pixar and Dreamworks, with the most memorable sequence being an underwater adventure with the “Garden of Eyes," ie, huge monster plants/flowers whose gaze causes hypnosis and hallucinations.

Really, from the so-smooth-I-can't-believe-it's-stop-motion animation, to the superb voice vast—Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, Roony Mara, Matthew McConaughey—who bring the perfect balance of levity and gravity, there's only top-shelf quality here wherever you look; and perhaps most exciting is the thought there's another serious contender in the animated age of Ghibli and Pixar.

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

Another great animated film from recent years I saw but I haven't seen much talked about is The Book of LIfe (2014). It doesn't have the narrative panache of Pixar or even Kubo, but visually it may be the most ravishing animated film since Princess Kaguya (though in a completely different style).

The Idiot, fine. But come on, One Wonderful Sunday wasn't that bad. It had its moments, IIRC...

The sequence where Kurosawa breaks the fourth wall at the end is maybe the worst moment in his entire filmography.

You're making me feel a bit crazy for thinking that part was kinda bold and that it somehow worked, even though it shouldn't have. BTW, The Most Beautiful is definitely the worst Akira film for me, if I have to pick. That one was a proper chore.

I'm with Rax about the awfulness of One Wonderful Sunday, but The Most Beautiful is close behind for me: 3/10 and 4/10 respectively.

[Eva Yojimbo]

59. Noah (2014) -

I'm not sure what was in the air in 2014 but Noah joins The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and Monsters: Dark Continent as films from that year I thought were pretty solid that everyone else seemed to hate for reasons beyond me.

I loved Noah: solid 8.5/10 for me. Sadly, I think my review was a victim of GC7. The others I'm with you on to varying degrees. I liked SC:ADTKF even though it definitely had its problems and didn't feel as fresh as the first (I think I gave it a 7.5/10). TASM2 was pretty good from an audio-visual perspective but a pretty bad mess from a narrative one. A classic case of trying to cram too much into one movie. Think I gave it a 6/10.

Found my SC:ADTKF review:

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller - 7.5/10

Call me a sucker for noir, or even a sucker for films that wear those genre
influences on their sleeve, but, unlike the majority of critics, I was almost every
bit as enthralled with this prequel as I was the first film. For all its stylistic
strengths, perhaps the most laudable aspect is that it manages to tell four
distinct, yet interlocking, stories in the span of a 100 minute film, while making
each one feel completely fleshed out. I think this, more than anything, prevents
the overwrought style from becoming too suffocating. Eva Green's femme fatale
was a stroke of genius, and while her and her story is undoubtedly the highlight of
the film, the others are strong enough to support it. In fact, the film has a
fascinatingly original chiastic structure (ABBA)--The "A" sections being Marv's, the
"B" sections being Johnny's--in which Green's storyline serves as a long, central,
uninterrupted "C" section between the two Bs. Sadly, given the poor box office
performance, this will probably be the last of Rodriguez's endeavors with a
franchise that's far more interesting than those that churn out dozens of sequels.
Maybe an HBO series would be an even more ideal place for such a stylistically
daring universe in which there are nearly an unlimited amount of stories that could
be told.

[maz89]

The tarot thing I think has been overdone (again, maybe not in film, but elsewhere); my biggest problem with it is that it's an innately archetypal source from which to invoke meanings when juxtaposed with any content, and that feels a bit too easy for an artist as original as Malick.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from but I feel like it worked here. The tarot titles were, in a sense, all of the ambiguous 'locations' that Rick visits during his journey. It was an interesting way for Malick to name the 'locations' that were infinitely more obvious and digestible in Pilgrim's Progress (judging from what little I know of it), except here the 'locations' were, of course, the personalities he encounters rather than actual places. While inherently meaning-ridden and perhaps 'easy', the tarots do take their own meaning from what Malick shows through his powerful aesthetic.

Ironically, what you liked about KOC and disliked about TTW--the fact that the latter is "confined to a few select characters caught up in their romantic entanglements"--is precisely the opposite for me. I really think that Malick's ethereal style demands some kind of "grounding" unless it just becomes too abstract and too untethered--the family dynamic in TOL and romance in TTW were, IMO, quite effective at providing that ground. Similarly, I think the romantic element worked in TTW precisely because it offered a more concrete contrast to the kind of "divine love" that Malick was also exploring. So, yes, you get the romantic entanglement, but the romance is also entangled with the priest's search for a divine, eternal love in a transient, temporal world. In KOC I just don't think it ever offered any kind of "grounding;" Rick just endlessly wanders and ruminates without any hint of any real earthly connections--and that shouldn't be the case when one of the points of Malick's films is how people become too much "of the world" (or "the world is too much with us," to quote Wordsworth).

Yeah, we do seem to have opposite views about this. I do disagree about the "without any hint of any real earthly connection" remark. There is definitely connection. Varying degrees of it. It's just fleeting, and often unsustainable and then painful, and that's perhaps the point.

I've only seen Kubo from these, which I loved:

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight) - 8.5/10

Well, at least we can agree about something... And you're right, I'd never heard of Book of Life until you mentioned it. I'll be checking it out soon (esp with that comparison you've drawn to Princess Kaguya, admittedly with the disclaimer of a "different style", which I'm fine with.)

The Idiot, fine. But come on, One Wonderful Sunday wasn't that bad. It had its moments, IIRC...

The sequence where Kurosawa breaks the fourth wall at the end is maybe the worst moment in his entire filmography.

You're making me feel a bit crazy for thinking that part was kinda bold and that it somehow worked, even though it shouldn't have. BTW, The Most Beautiful is definitely the worst Akira film for me, if I have to pick. That one was a proper chore.

I'm with Rax about the awfulness of One Wonderful Sunday, but The Most Beautiful is close behind for me: 3/10 and 4/10 respectively.

You guys are just being nitpicky. It wasn't great, but it had an engaging enough plot despite a few contrived scenes here and there (and the female lead being a kind of old age Manic Pixie Dream Girl), with a bold climax that didn't feel too out of place for the universe Kurosawa created. I liked the overall arc of the story - the couple hits rock bottom and then rises up from the ashes, being reborn with a fundamental change in perspective. Heavy-handed but not atrocious. I gave it a 6.

I should make it a point to see the sequel to Sin City. I liked the original.

Jimbo, aren't you watching Twin Peaks Season 3?!?!

[Raxivace]

Twin Peaks Season 3 owns because its literally all James all the time and everybody loves him. You should watch it Jimbo.

[Raxivace]

60. The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) -



This is your typical Makoto Shinkai nostalgic love story, though what's weird about it is the Code Geass-y complicated backstory it has considering its otherwise in the director's usual style. In this movie like half of Japan has been taken over by the Soviet Union, who has helped build some giant ass tower that may be able to pull in matter from alternate universes. The main story follows three friends who dream of repairing an old airplane they found and flying toward the tower, but one of them falls into a mysterious anime coma, which leads to the three separating for several years of their life...until one of them realize the tower from their youthful adventures may have somehow caused the coma, which leads them to plan a terrorist attack to destroy the thing.

I don't really feel like I've done the movie justice because I think that description makes it sound like some kind of action movie, but it really isn't. It's quiet and sad and nostalgic. The landscapes are as strong as ever for Shinkai here, and I particularly like how the tower looms visually throughout the movie as a reminded of what the characters can't escape.



If I had one complaint, it's how sometime the actual character animation wasn't as smooth as it could have been.

61. Mrs. Miniver (1942) -



For as famous as this was during the war effort at the time, I feel like this film is kind of forgotten as far as Best Picture Winners go. Doesn't help that its sandwiched between some better and more famous movies- Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, How Green Was My Calley, and then Casablanca the year after.

The movie itself is alright, and it's hard not to get swept up in its sense of patriotism as the Miniver family is continually tested an sacrifices for the war effort. The most effective sequences as probably the ones where they simply are trying to wait out blitz attacks- they're quiet, with nothing but the sound of falling death in the air.

Still, I can't help but feel that as propagandistic as it is for a good cause, it feels perhaps a bit dated in a bad way. It wasn't the first movie to urge America into the war (The Great Dictator has that beat by a few years, and is a more ambitious film overall), and I'm not sure it has that much to offer a contemporary audience. If you're just into the downfall of a wealthy family I can't help but feel that The Magnificent Ambersons from the same year, even its compromised state, is the better picture to look at.

49/90 Best Picture Winners Seen

[Raxivace]

62. Cruel Story of Youth (1960)



Yeah this one didn't land especially hard for me. In theory a Japanese take on Rebel Without a Cause should be something I'm into, and I like its attempt at hitting on social issues such as abortion, youth problems etc., but I was really feeling the runtime here even at like 95 minutes. Colors are gorgeous looking, but I dunno- Breathless was the same year and hits on enough similar beats that it really makes this just feel like an inferior version to me. Wish I was able to say more about it, but I'm really struggling to come up with much.

Maybe I'm just lacking in knowledge on the Japanese New Wave, or Oshima or something. I dunno. Would appreciate some thoughts on this from more knowledgeable people.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Yeah, we do seem to have opposite views about this. I do disagree about the "without any hint of any real earthly connection" remark. There is definitely connection. Varying degrees of it. It's just fleeting, and often unsustainable and then painful, and that's perhaps the point.

I think we can just agree to disagree over this point. To me it just seemed like those characters vaguely hovered around each other without ever really connecting over anything.

Well, at least we can agree about something... And you're right, I'd never heard of Book of Life until you mentioned it. I'll be checking it out soon (esp with that comparison you've drawn to Princess Kaguya, admittedly with the disclaimer of a "different style", which I'm fine with.)

You may have seen something of Book of Life without knowing it given that its creators were in a commercial for some tablet/device thing where they were demonstrating how they drew some of their animation on it.

The Idiot, fine. But come on, One Wonderful Sunday wasn't that bad. It had its moments, IIRC...

The sequence where Kurosawa breaks the fourth wall at the end is maybe the worst moment in his entire filmography.

You're making me feel a bit crazy for thinking that part was kinda bold and that it somehow worked, even though it shouldn't have. BTW, The Most Beautiful is definitely the worst Akira film for me, if I have to pick. That one was a proper chore.

I'm with Rax about the awfulness of One Wonderful Sunday, but The Most Beautiful is close behind for me: 3/10 and 4/10 respectively.

You guys are just being nitpicky. It wasn't great, but it had an engaging enough plot despite a few contrived scenes here and there (and the female lead being a kind of old age Manic Pixie Dream Girl), with a bold climax that didn't feel too out of place for the universe Kurosawa created. I liked the overall arc of the story - the couple hits rock bottom and then rises up from the ashes, being reborn with a fundamental change in perspective. Heavy-handed but not atrocious. I gave it a 6.

I guess if the 4th wall break doesn't strike you as completely absurd (and it did to me mainly because it brought back childhood memories of watching stage productions of Peter Pan where the same thing happened), then I can imagine not completely hating it. Still, I don't remember much appealing about it beforehand.

Jimbo, aren't you watching Twin Peaks Season 3?!?!

Not yet. I generally hate watching TV shows while they're airing. Prefer to wait until the season's over and then watch it (really I'd prefer to wait until the series is over, but I'll make an exception with TP).

[Eva Yojimbo]

60. The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) -

61. Mrs. Miniver (1942) -

I don't remember a lot about Place other than thinking it was gorgeous (like all Shinkai). The film of his that still really sticks in my mind as the best of what he does is 5 Centimeters per Second.

I was trying really hard to remember if I saw Mrs. Miniver or not. If I did it was back in the VHS rental days, but I don't know if I actually saw it or if I just remember the title from reading about it. :/

62. Cruel Story of Youth (1960)

Maybe I'm just lacking in knowledge on the Japanese New Wave, or Oshima or something. I dunno. Would appreciate some thoughts on this from more knowledgeable people.

I've generally enjoyed to Oshima's I've seen, but the only one I've really loved is In the Realm of the Senses (though Death By Hanging was certainly memorable). I much prefer Imamura overall, especially his Profound Desire of the Gods. I actually reviewed Cruel Story not too terribly long ago: http://www.the-fanboy-perspective.com/e ... youth-1960

[Raxivace]

Jimbo, aren't you watching Twin Peaks Season 3?!?!

Not yet. I generally hate watching TV shows while they're airing. Prefer to wait until the season's over and then watch it (really I'd prefer to wait until the series is over, but I'll make an exception with TP).

I recently read a book that talked about how people reacted to the original two seasons as they were airing, and it's been interesting to see a lot of those same reactions again in season 3 despite how different it is (Particularly people complaining that it "takes too long to get anywhere" and so on). Season 3 is kind of the Rebuild of Evangelion of Twin Peaks in that sense and it fucking owns. You're in for a treat if this first bunch of episodes is any indication.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Jimbo, aren't you watching Twin Peaks Season 3?!?!

Not yet. I generally hate watching TV shows while they're airing. Prefer to wait until the season's over and then watch it (really I'd prefer to wait until the series is over, but I'll make an exception with TP).

I recently read a book that talked about how people reacted to the original two seasons as they were airing, and it's been interesting to see a lot of those same reactions again in season 3 despite how different it is (Particularly people complaining that it "takes too long to get anywhere" and so on). Season 3 is kind of the Rebuild of Evangelion of Twin Peaks in that sense and it fucking owns. You're in for a treat if this first bunch of episodes is any indication.

I'm definitely looking forward to it. Sadly, my mom isn't enjoying it so far. She loved the original series, despite typically hating stuff that "doesn't make sense" (she hated Eraserhead, eg; she only kinda liked Mulholland Drive once I explained to her the basics of what happened). I told her before it started airing that with it being on Showtime she should probably expect more Eraserhead-Lynch than "accessible" Lynch.

[Raxivace]

I don't remember a lot about Place other than thinking it was gorgeous (like all Shinkai). The film of his that still really sticks in my mind as the best of what he does is 5 Centimeters per Second.

I was trying really hard to remember if I saw Mrs. Miniver or not. If I did it was back in the VHS rental days, but I don't know if I actually saw it or if I just remember the title from reading about it. :/

5 CM is probably my favorite so far too (Interesting that he was gradually reducing the scale of his stories until that one. Mecha space travel with time dilation in Voices, Terrorist action in Place, and than finally all that is stripped away for 5 CM). That might make my own "21st Century" list.

Miniver is just kind of whatever like that. I'm not sure I would have watched it had it not won the Oscar.

I've generally enjoyed to Oshima's I've seen, but the only one I've really loved is In the Realm of the Senses (though Death By Hanging was certainly memorable). I much prefer Imamura overall, especially his Profound Desire of the Gods. I actually reviewed Cruel Story not too terribly long ago: http://www.the-fanboy-perspective.com/e ... youth-1960

Huh, seems like you weren't too terribly into it either with that score. I like the only other Oshima I've seen (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), but if I had to give Cruel Story a number somewhere in the 6-7 range sounds about right.

This reminds me, Jared came around asking about you and that website a few months ago. Here's a link to the thread in case you missed it. Haven't seen him here since then though.

[Raxivace]

I told her before it started airing that with it being on Showtime she should probably expect more Eraserhead-Lynch than "accessible" Lynch.

Season 3 is closer to stuff like Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., and even INLAND EMPIRE. Like it's very much post-OG Twin Peaks Lynch doing uh, Twin Peaks.

My own mother only lasted about half an hour into the new season but she didn't like the original either.