no country for old wainds
Active Member
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,664
- 9,648
- 113
The Official Movie Thread
- Thread starter Manic Ferocity
- Start date
challenge_everything
Active Member
That would help. I remember laughing a fair bit during The Lobster but not Sacred Deer. The random masturbation and menstruation 'jokes' came off more awkward and (perhaps deliberately) creepy.
Given you're a fan of both, is it fair to describe Lanthimos as a dark version of Wes Anderson? I see a lot of similarities.
no country for old wainds
Active Member
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,664
- 9,648
- 113
there's definitely some overlap there, i made that connection myself when i saw the cat death in moonrise kingdom lol. wes can get pretty dark himself, i didn't like isle of dogs too much but it sure is depressing and morbid in places. bunuel and greenaway (based on the minimal amounts of greenaway i've seen) come to mind for lanthimos as well. haneke is surely a major influence but not really on the deadpan humour specifically. just scouting some interviews now and he's cited bresson and cassavetes as inspirations, which i'll have to think about. the favourite is supposedly very barry lyndon-inspired.
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
Sacred Deer is a movie I hate in theory, an utterly horseshit "WHAT DOES IT MEAN??"-kinda film that's clearly allegorical of something but if there's any critical essay out there that's been able to extricate any concrete meaning from it, I haven't read it. But I loved the execution too much to really mind, I thought was visually gorgeous, funny as fuck, tense as fuck, well-acted (Keoghan especially but everyone else too; I wasn't bothered by the stilted dialogue, I would say movie dialogue is pretty unrealistic as a baseline) loved the soundtrack etc etc. All in all I got invested in the story even if it played out in some bullshit twilight realm between real drama and allegorical circlejerk.
challenge_everything
Active Member
I'd liken it to the horror genre device of a family or person being afflicted by a curse; the rational explanation is largely unimportant compared to the reactions of those afflicted. Not Lynch or Bunuel- level surrealism at any rate.
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Nelson's Scruggs made my skin crawl more and more with every second. This is probably the vignette I most would've liked to see a feature-length version of if only to find out how uneasy I'd feel after 90+ minutes in the central character's company. Loved the gratuitous violence, can't remember laughing this hard at a kill since Riki-Oh. Didn't like the music much.
Near Algodones
This vignette has a lot of dreamlike qualities overall, the gaps in consciousness, the surreal situations and locales, the constant chance encounters like all the west is compressed into a single prairie. It's also pretty damn funny and Stephen Root's character is a riot. But the ending is what puts it over the top for me. There's an episode of Six Feet Under that opens with an infant in a crib watching a mobile overhead and then dying of SIDS. I reflect a lot on that scene and what it must be like to live a life like that. Now I imagine you wouldn't experience much of anything, but let's say hypothetically, that you had a developed consciousness at that age. All you saw were some pretty colors overhead, didn't make any sense of it because you hadn't even figured out basic fucking geometric shapes yet, and you experienced this but it didn't register anywhere, like a camera taking photographs without film. This was life in its entirety and then oblivion followed. The ending of this vignette reminded me of that scene, with Franco's character, being such a cipher he may as well be an infant in a grown man's body, living an incomprehensible life, seeing something pretty and then vanishing into oblivion.
Meal Ticket
A reflection on the relationship between art, artist, manager and audience, timeless and universally applicable. This story didn't need to be set in the west at all, not that the setting hurts it. This is my favorite vignette but I don't have much to say about it because it's mostly just a triumph of acting and atmosphere building.
All Gold Canyon
This is the slightest story in my opinion, and its main ideas feel stretched thin over its runtime. Still, Waits is great and it's a necessary change of palette after the previous vignette.
The Gal Who Got Rattled
A gripping slow-burner with an ending that surprised me with its abruptness; one of the nice things about the anthology format is that you don't know when a story is going to end and this vignette takes full advantage of that. I did find the shootout very unbelievable and it's ill fitting for what is otherwise the most grounded tale in this anthology.
The Mortal Remains
This one I altogether don't understand; it's possible I need to see it again. I just don't see how the gradual reveal that this stagecoach is headed for the underworld follows from, relates to or adds new meaning to the passengers' banter. The ending had me reacting: "So?" It at least works tonally; I liked the way the stagecoach became increasingly dismal over the course of the vignette.
Final ranking:
1. Meal Ticket
2. Near Algodones
3. The Gal Who Got Rattled
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5. All Gold Canyon
6. The Mortal Remains
Nelson's Scruggs made my skin crawl more and more with every second. This is probably the vignette I most would've liked to see a feature-length version of if only to find out how uneasy I'd feel after 90+ minutes in the central character's company. Loved the gratuitous violence, can't remember laughing this hard at a kill since Riki-Oh. Didn't like the music much.
Near Algodones
This vignette has a lot of dreamlike qualities overall, the gaps in consciousness, the surreal situations and locales, the constant chance encounters like all the west is compressed into a single prairie. It's also pretty damn funny and Stephen Root's character is a riot. But the ending is what puts it over the top for me. There's an episode of Six Feet Under that opens with an infant in a crib watching a mobile overhead and then dying of SIDS. I reflect a lot on that scene and what it must be like to live a life like that. Now I imagine you wouldn't experience much of anything, but let's say hypothetically, that you had a developed consciousness at that age. All you saw were some pretty colors overhead, didn't make any sense of it because you hadn't even figured out basic fucking geometric shapes yet, and you experienced this but it didn't register anywhere, like a camera taking photographs without film. This was life in its entirety and then oblivion followed. The ending of this vignette reminded me of that scene, with Franco's character, being such a cipher he may as well be an infant in a grown man's body, living an incomprehensible life, seeing something pretty and then vanishing into oblivion.
Meal Ticket
A reflection on the relationship between art, artist, manager and audience, timeless and universally applicable. This story didn't need to be set in the west at all, not that the setting hurts it. This is my favorite vignette but I don't have much to say about it because it's mostly just a triumph of acting and atmosphere building.
All Gold Canyon
This is the slightest story in my opinion, and its main ideas feel stretched thin over its runtime. Still, Waits is great and it's a necessary change of palette after the previous vignette.
The Gal Who Got Rattled
A gripping slow-burner with an ending that surprised me with its abruptness; one of the nice things about the anthology format is that you don't know when a story is going to end and this vignette takes full advantage of that. I did find the shootout very unbelievable and it's ill fitting for what is otherwise the most grounded tale in this anthology.
The Mortal Remains
This one I altogether don't understand; it's possible I need to see it again. I just don't see how the gradual reveal that this stagecoach is headed for the underworld follows from, relates to or adds new meaning to the passengers' banter. The ending had me reacting: "So?" It at least works tonally; I liked the way the stagecoach became increasingly dismal over the course of the vignette.
Final ranking:
1. Meal Ticket
2. Near Algodones
3. The Gal Who Got Rattled
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5. All Gold Canyon
6. The Mortal Remains
Last edited:
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
Onder
Active Member
- Apr 10, 2006
- 11,386
- 2,033
- 113
Oh yeah seen that. It was pretty lame. None of the stories really had time to develop properly and were disappointing in the end, six is just too many. I liked the one with the girl on the trail with the Indian attack, that one at least had a proper storyline. The rest was underwhelming. It's a shame they wasted having such actors doing a western and all, meh.
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
Last edited:
Oblivious Maximus
I am the worm
Brilliant announcement from Arrow video earlier.
https://www.facebook.com/ArrowVideo/photos/a.157131957654140/2260136437353671/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/ArrowVideo/photos/a.157131957654140/2260136437353671/?type=3&theater
Blurry_Dreams
Active Member
- Apr 2, 2018
- 5,144
- 465
- 83
- 46
Slammed
Active Member
- Jun 15, 2017
- 31,330
- 45,035
- 113
Watched this last night. One of the reviews suggested it was a b-grade horror movie. I think that's an insult to b-grade movies. There was nothing scary, the scenes of horror were so badly done they should have been corny but they weren't and the story was as weak as Tara Reid'c character.
TechnicalBarbarity
Poser Disposer
Oblivious Maximus
I am the worm
RadicalThrasher
Active Member
Krigloch the Furious
Pants full of poo
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
