The Official Movie Thread
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CiG
Harbinger of Metal
Watched that Shin Godzilla film, thought it was awesome. One of the best kaiju films I've seen in years. Very technically proficient and I enjoyed the way they essentially used the kaiju genre to make a procedural drama of epic proportions.
rms
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no country for old wainds
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not yet. very hyped for it, although i was also really hyped for good time and just liked rather than loved it.
shin godzilla is pretty cool. i haven't seen much NGE but by all accounts it's kinda what you'd expect from a godzilla movie by the evangelion guy. the monster design is fucking awesome and the whole process-driven approach is refreshing, you don't really see that kinda thing in western cinema very often. it's probably too idea-driven to really work dramatically but i admired the attempt.
shin godzilla is pretty cool. i haven't seen much NGE but by all accounts it's kinda what you'd expect from a godzilla movie by the evangelion guy. the monster design is fucking awesome and the whole process-driven approach is refreshing, you don't really see that kinda thing in western cinema very often. it's probably too idea-driven to really work dramatically but i admired the attempt.
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
I didn't necessarily draw many parallels between Shin Godzilla and NGE but it's been awhile since I've watched it to be fair. The whole film was basically a critique of bureaucracy, in many ways Godzilla is an afterthought.
no country for old wainds
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yeah, although for a critique it's actually pretty optimistic and idealistic from what i remember, and that's a big part of why i found it both novel and unconvincing lol
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
Considering what inspired the film I think it's pretty obvious why it's optimistic and idealistic. The critique isn't meant to dismantle power structures like many western films tackling similar subjects often seek to do, but rather criticize the inaction and red tape of the Japanese government. It's accusing the government of impotency, and it's a very nationalistic film too.
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
no country for old wainds
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Slant Magazine's 100 Best Films of the 2010s
only semi-mainstream critical decade list i was anticipating, and it's a really good list, much better than i'd dared hope for tbh. kept expecting mediocrities like moonlight, boyhood, lady bird etc and they never arrived, and even her is a lot lower than i feared it'd be.
only semi-mainstream critical decade list i was anticipating, and it's a really good list, much better than i'd dared hope for tbh. kept expecting mediocrities like moonlight, boyhood, lady bird etc and they never arrived, and even her is a lot lower than i feared it'd be.
rms
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getting the same vibes for this flick. damn hype machine got me again
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
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pffffft prove it
that movie’s aight, just isn’t really anything special. it was good enough that i’ll see little women before doing my 2019 list
that movie’s aight, just isn’t really anything special. it was good enough that i’ll see little women before doing my 2019 list
challenge_everything
Active Member
And yet they went with Tree of Life? That was offensively bad. So pretentious and ultimately shallow it seemed more like a parody of Malick.
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nearly everyone either loves or hates 2010s malick lol. i hated tree of life for at least an hour until it eventually won me over, but some of his subsequent films did not. the new one sounds like it’s a bit different from his other latter era stuff which has got me a bit more excited than usual. his first four are all so great that i’ll always give him a chance.
Oblivious Maximus
I am the worm
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Oblivious Maximus
I am the worm
I actually looked that up after you mentioned the film. Uncanny impression.
TechnicalBarbarity
Poser Disposer
watching...
dont care what anyone says, first two X-Men movies are way better than any of the new disney marvel stuff.
dont care what anyone says, first two X-Men movies are way better than any of the new disney marvel stuff.
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
Watched some things recently.
Annie Hall 1977, enjoyed it greatly. I think this might be Woody Allen's most popular film? It's the one I've known about for the longest time but just never watched until now. I get a strong feeling it's a transitional film for him, the comedy is lower brow than later on at times, but the subject matter is also serious. The balance just isn't quite there like it is on his better films like Manhattan and Broadway Danny Rose. One thing that stood out to me is how often Woody breaks the fourth wall in this one.
Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas) 1983, my second Almodóvar movie and I'm really loving this guy. Though I felt like this one slightly fell apart in the final act, it didn't detract much from the whole film. Especially liked the premise of an order of nuns who adopt humiliating nicknames for themselves (eg Sister Rat, Sister Manure etc) and take in female prostitutes, drug addicts and murderers for redemption. The Mother Superior of the order is a lesbian cokehead with a pop star mural in her office. Every little detail and touch works so well to create this very believable little world wherein all these imperfect nuns exist, it's so great. It was also nice to see some familiar faces from ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? the first film by Almodóvar that I watched.
The Cotton Club 1984, I was honestly surprised this was as good as it is because I'd always heard about how it was a total clusterfuck behind-the-scenes. What I tend to like about huge ensemble casts is that no single character totally hogs the focus and therefore it helps to paint a full picture of a place and time, and that's definitely the case with this one - especially the absurdity of 1930's Harlem where majority of the performance stars of the time seemed to be black, yet no blacks were allowed in majority of the clubs those stars played in. Little factoid Laurence Fishburne played Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson in this, and then 13 years later played the same character in Hoodlum. Still need to see Coppola's The Conversation and One From the Heart and then I think I've seen all his essential films...?
Also James Remar as Dutch was crazy good. He was such a lunatic in his younger days, and that scene where he
Annie Hall 1977, enjoyed it greatly. I think this might be Woody Allen's most popular film? It's the one I've known about for the longest time but just never watched until now. I get a strong feeling it's a transitional film for him, the comedy is lower brow than later on at times, but the subject matter is also serious. The balance just isn't quite there like it is on his better films like Manhattan and Broadway Danny Rose. One thing that stood out to me is how often Woody breaks the fourth wall in this one.
Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas) 1983, my second Almodóvar movie and I'm really loving this guy. Though I felt like this one slightly fell apart in the final act, it didn't detract much from the whole film. Especially liked the premise of an order of nuns who adopt humiliating nicknames for themselves (eg Sister Rat, Sister Manure etc) and take in female prostitutes, drug addicts and murderers for redemption. The Mother Superior of the order is a lesbian cokehead with a pop star mural in her office. Every little detail and touch works so well to create this very believable little world wherein all these imperfect nuns exist, it's so great. It was also nice to see some familiar faces from ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? the first film by Almodóvar that I watched.
The Cotton Club 1984, I was honestly surprised this was as good as it is because I'd always heard about how it was a total clusterfuck behind-the-scenes. What I tend to like about huge ensemble casts is that no single character totally hogs the focus and therefore it helps to paint a full picture of a place and time, and that's definitely the case with this one - especially the absurdity of 1930's Harlem where majority of the performance stars of the time seemed to be black, yet no blacks were allowed in majority of the clubs those stars played in. Little factoid Laurence Fishburne played Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson in this, and then 13 years later played the same character in Hoodlum. Still need to see Coppola's The Conversation and One From the Heart and then I think I've seen all his essential films...?
Also James Remar as Dutch was crazy good. He was such a lunatic in his younger days, and that scene where he
murders the fuck out of John P. Ryan was hilarious and pretty brutal.
