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Old 09-12-2016, 11:58 PM   #181
TuralyonW3
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You've been watching some good flicks the bolly

 
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Old 09-14-2016, 01:58 PM   #182
teh b0lly!!1
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He Got Game

http://www.impawards.com/1998/posters/he_got_game.jpg

ok so i'm in a 'watching movies i love' period, i think. this is my fav basketball movie of all time. what i dislike about genre movies like this (sports movies, music movies, etc.) is that they are often structured around the same moldy skeleton of the same old boring stock melodrama, only that they feature a sports 'skin', so to speak. and what's worse is the sports\music aspects are usually hackneyed, too. you can always tell nobody in the cast actually plays real ball, or is actually a good musician. 'walk the line' is a good example of this with music films - a movie that is juts totally unconvincing as a depiction of supposedly real musicians. on the other end: 'inside llewyn davis', which was great and real, diving down and getting with the nitty gritty. with basketball movies though, i guess there's 'the basketball diaries', which is a movie i loved watching when i was growing up as a kid, and i always had a bit of a soft spot for it, even though it's pretty much a (shitty) hallmark type of movie.

always had a special place in my heart for this movie though, for whatever reason. can't exactly say why. i do legitimately think it's fucking great though, unlike 'basketball diaries'. as a kid growing up playing basketball in the neighborhood with my friends, i perceive basketball to be sort of like a religion you're either in on, or not. there's a certain a tilt and rhythm to it that you either know by growing up around it, or you don't. and this film really does get it. but i mean, that's understandable - denzel washington can play some surprisingly great ball, and it obviously features ray allen, one of the greatest shooting guards of all time, and whose three against the Spurs on that game 6 still haunts me at night sometimes. hell, it was directed by spike lee, famous Knick sideliner and Reggie Miller taunter/tauntee.

but what's beautiful about it, is that it's all awfully organic. it weaves basketball, in its natural form, in and out of the plot, and it is as much about human beings, and relationships, as it is about basketball. but when it IS about basketball, it's absolutely credible and real. i feel like a fly on the wall, hanging out with these characters.

also, i really love the way the film deals with, and comments on, a considerable variety of topics. from greed (everybody shamelessly sliming their way around Jesus to try to get a piece of his upcoming success), to indecision (Jesus' inability to make up his mind about his future), to boundaries in family relations (Denzel's character pushing his child to greatness\abusing him and crossing the line, versus his now grown up son delivering similar type of abuse to his now disowned father), to simple sympathy and kindness (Denzel's relationship with Mila Jovovich's character), to dealing with temptations. i'm just going to stop here, but there's honestly so much to absorb in this film. and none of it is pushed in your face. it's just offered, suggested, and you can decide if you want to dive into it or not.

usually films have a way of 'picking sides', and presenting you with their biased angle or opinion on whatever the topic is. but i didn't feel that with this movie. it's as subtle and complex as life really is. denzel washington's acting here is one of the best, most beautifully understated performances of his career imo. ray allen obviously can't act to save his life, but he doesn't fuck it up bad enough to spoil the film. rick fox is actually in this too, playing a small role, but he actually delivers and does an awesome job, with legit good acting. i mean, i can see why they didn't take him to play the lead - he's too glamorous to play such a down to earth character - but he's a good actor. Jackson Vahue from Oz, neva 4get.

the soundtrack is really great, featuring a lot of dope hip hop shit that really communicates the vibe the film is going for, and helps immensely in creating it. i got game, you got game, he got game, fuck the game if it don't mean nuttin'.

lots of great scenes and sequences scattered around, probably too many for me to dissect here. gotta admit, i'm having a hard time finding the right words to talk about this movie without it becoming even more long winded than usual. but this scene with big time willy is one of my favs.



something about it reminds me of that "fuck everything" soliloquy by ed norton's character in 25th hour - also by spike lee. additional fav scenes: the opening sequence, just showcasing the beauty and poetry in motion in basketball, and the diversity of the people who are playing it. a rich kid shooting in his private sea-side court, and a poor kid practicing his shot on a "hoop" made out of a holed-up steel rectangle tied up to a pole in the middle of nowhere.

jesus and jake's one on one scene.

i think i'll find me some more spike lee movies. though i hear he's got plenty of bad ones, too.

 
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Old 10-04-2016, 09:43 PM   #183
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Quite enjoyed The Lobster.

It was kind of like feeding the subtly brutal satire of a Black Mirror episode through the bizarre sincerity of a Charlie Kaufman script.

 
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Old 10-04-2016, 09:56 PM   #184
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Okay, so I just went back to actually read its review in this thread and now see the redundancy of my contribution.

 
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Old 10-05-2016, 03:34 AM   #185
teh b0lly!!1
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not really - it's funny how you made the same comparisons, but went there from different angles.

 
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Old 10-28-2016, 10:44 AM   #186
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The Royal Tenenbaums

https://www.movieposter.com/posters/.../106/MPW-53193


so this came up as a rec in one of the other threads, and seeing as lately i've been oddly impatient about watching long, 'heavy' films, this seemed like a good, quality, light one to start with to get back on the horse.

i'd never watched a Wes Anderson film before, so his whole brand of visual style was new to me. among all the aspects that make this movie a fairly strong effort, i think the single most arresting one is the way it looks and feels. it must take such an incredible amount of work to make a film this clean, symmetrical, tidy, and shot-for-shot perfect. it is so ocd, in fact, that my brain almost found it a tiring task to handle, if that makes any sense. the way the characters are immaculately dressed and stylized (reminiscent of a Woody Allen movie in that regard, i thought), the juxtaposing of colors, the color palette in general, the particular angles from which scenes are shot, the sheer mathematical perfection of it all. really impressive, idiosyncratic, and unique. even a kubric film doesn't go for that effect on every single shot.

many favorites to name, but i especially loved the camera work on this scene:



the actual meat of the film, was more obscure for me. i found it to be incredibly dense, and while interesting, layered, and intricately composed- the amount of detail to pay attention to (along with the visual stuff i just talked about) made this feel like filling your mouth with more than you can chew. i say in many of my 'reviews' that i greatly appreciate efficient and skillful storytelling, that knows when to simplify rather than overbear (cause that is essentially the easiest way out of an artistic fork in the road), so i will repeat if here. maybe it's just my thing and i'm stupid, i dunno.

the plot\dialogue, i found, was split in a pretty jarring fashion between the first and second halves of the film. it was so wonderfully absurdist and peculiar during the first half - the dialogue was so off the wall, walking this incredibly thin line of barely making sense as a 'real' conversation (regarding the directions they sprawl into), and usually being incredibly offensive to one of the parties in a very passive-aggressive, subtle way. it was seemingly bright and cheerful, but it had a very dark undercurrent that i really loved, but then came the second half (or maybe one third, doesn't matter) and sweetened it up a considerable amount, coming down to very mundane resolutions that i found slightly disappointing.

i felt like, at the beginning, the storytelling had this certain 'veil' you needed to be able to crack your way through in order to decode what the characters were really about, but then nearing the end it got so simple and transparent, it felt artificial, in a world that was intentionally plasticized to begin with. it's still an interesting contour, no doubt (wow did i really just use 'contour'? lol check out this guy) but was less to my liking.

the casting, as a roster of names, was fairly offputting for me. gwyneth paltrow, ben stiller, owen wilson - not exactly my type of people. but i must say their roles were pretty well tailored for them, and they all delivered solid performances, ranging from decent to actually pretty good. especially gwyneth paltrow. she had a depth to her character and her gaze, that i'd never seen from her before, and almost certainly never will again. gene hackman was awesome and entirely believable as this completely loathsome, yet inexplicably likable character. owen wilson is forever going to be annoying for me, i can't be the only one, but he did co-write the script with Anderson so i guess there was fuck all to do about him participating in it.

on a final note, i really hated the multiple occasions in this film that indirectly legitimized animal abuse. Royal Tenenbaum is portrayed as a good sport who loves dog fights, and it's even insinuated that he takes he grandchildren there - seriously what the fuck? that's just not cool. also, a dog gets run over, and is promptly literally replaced in a couple of minutes by a (5000$ store bought pure breed) dog. then you have a hawk that is carried around from place to place with a cover on its head and eyes, etc. but mainly the dog fight thing portrayed as a juvenile joy, that just really rubbed me the wrong way.

ok. let's see - post not long enough; did i tell you that i met devin townsend?

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Old 11-08-2016, 09:50 PM   #187
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The Skin I Live In

https://secure.netflix.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70189304.jpg

i'd been meaning to get into Almodovar for a while, and while this isn't considered one of his top films, what i heard about it intrigued me, especially since real psychological horror is one of my fav genres, so i thought it might make a good starting point.

so well, for starters, it probably wasn't.

although it's a film of undeniable quality (in the sense that you can 'feel' it's from a prestigious director, like a thick, heavily printed page from an expensive magazine), and it definitely deals with a lot of heavily affecting shit, i found it to be ultimately somewhat unremarkable. it just came and went, and i can't say it left any serious impression on me. i usually write these barely coherent text walls within 1-2 days tops of when i'd seen a film, just to take some time to process what i'd watched, but with this one it's been like a week, and i still don't think i have anything more to say about it than i did initially.

it's visually very good (probably the strongest feature of this film), and has many compelling visual themes. the design conveys a certain menace - everything is very crisp, cold and clean. the medical procedures in particular are powerfully shot and designed.

i also thought Antonio Banderas was a curious choice for the lead role. i kind of enjoyed the thought of him playing a character that does horrendously fucked up thing in the name of his undying love for his wife - because i thought his presence could convey both a certain genuine warmness, and menace on the other hand. i thought he'd nail it, but was kinda disappointed tbh - his acting was very flat, and didn't convey much of anything at all. i later read that he showed up on set trying to act in a very 'psycho' way, and almodovar told him to turn it down considerably, saying he was looking for a much more composed villain (i'm paraphrasing). i guess the end result was a jarring character that does really terrible shit, but is just too bland in its behavior, and doesn't really appear motivated by anything except anger. which is just a terrible waste.

another big flaw\interesting point for me, was the storytelling. the story is fairly complex - it involves a lot of history involving various independent characters, and is told in a (purposely) very convoluted way.

so basically, for about the first half of the film, you're all mixed up about what you're seeing, not being exactly sure what's happening - until about midway through the film, comes a long dialogue (soliloquy) heavy scene where one character fills the other character up on all the details.

while i found this a kind of ballsy and refreshing approach to filmmaking, ultimately i thought it threw the entire film off. you can't have such a large portion of the plot just be passed off as a voiceover, putting everything you'd seen up until that point into context. it's jarring, and feels like lazy, or even wrongful storytelling (i.e perhaps almodovar's priorities should have been different with his time management, and make more room for actual exposition). i guess this is where you really see that this film is an adaptation of a book. it just doesn't work - films are there to tell the story themselves, not to have the plot read out to the viewers by a character.

that's about it. i struggle to find much else to say about this film. which is really an insult to a film if a ramble mcramblepants like myself can't find anything else to say about it besides two things. it's skillfully made, it's creepy and fucked up and terrible, it speaks about many different and interesting aspects of humanity - what defines identity, how love can drive you off the rails into insanity, control, sexuality - but it just ended up being forgettable to me.

in other news, i have download the best app ever, which allows me to control vlc player from my cell phone through wifi. i was going to buy a wireless keyboard\mouse set for that shit - this is awesome. no more getting up and pressing space to pause. hiyooo.

 
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Old 11-20-2016, 11:21 AM   #188
teh b0lly!!1
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Noi Albinoi

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fXejJTKYqW...s1600/noi1.jpg

this post sponsored by the awesome buzzard, who graciously went to great lengths to help me get my sweaty jew hands on a good copy of this film.

we never got fully into it, but i got the sense he highly rates it, and well, justifiably so. what an offbeat, peculiar film. i can't say i'd seen anything quite like it until now. as it played i found myself thinking a couple of times that it reminds me of Jarmusch's Dead Man. something about the half-living protagonist, looking for meaning and having strange exchanges, wandering in a wasteland of sorts, to an isolating soundtrack. both even got those overexposed shots that make you squint. there midday forest, here blinding snow.

two things i was particularly fond of, is 1) how the film has a distinctly surreal air to it, although it never quite gets 'out there' enough to really justify being called that. it's just strange, slightly left of center, but it never becomes fully unhinged, or parodying. such a fine balance to achieve. really skillful. i appreciated that.

second thing i liked is 2) the lack of stylishness. or more correctly, perhaps - its style is in being un-stylish. i'll admit i am usually a sucker for great - or at least prominent - stylings: symmetrical shots, lyrical composition, (inspired usage of) slow motion, etc etc.

but, this was a stark contrast to all that. no symmetry, no 'perfection', no slow motion. at all. not even once in the film. it always remains very grounded in unglamorous reality. even shots where it would be exceedingly easy to just perfectly center everything and line up the angels, it refrained from doing so - that's admirable. very raw and powerful.

a third thing i liked (yes i said two but who cares nobody reads this) is how the storytelling is almost like a negative of a traditional plot. the actual film itself focuses on small moments, on facial expressions, on slight interactions, 'between the lines' kind of deals, and on conveying an atmosphere or mood. we're being shown, as the audience, that stuff is clearly happening 'in between' the scenes we're actually seeing (namely between Noi and Iris). the plot moves along, even though we don't see much of it. i don't know if it's purposely designed to contribute to a feeling of displacement and detachment, or if it's supposed to serve the slight surrealness of the film, but whatever the reason - it serves the story well.

it takes a while to pick up but by the end i almost literally felt suffocated with Noi being trapped in his 'safe place', and was completely heartbroken by the end of it. this film would probably benefit from multiple viewings. which i'll do sometime, no doubt.

buzz i will never find other people to talk to about this movie. tell me what you think about it

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Old 11-22-2016, 09:45 PM   #189
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It feels weird to be so fond of a film that plays as expertly with themes of existential isolation and futility, the spiritual core of which could be said to be Kierkegaard's Either/Or.

Marry, and you will regret it. Do not marry, and you will also regret it. Marry or do not marry, you will regret it either way. Whether you marry or you do not marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the stupidities of the world, and you will regret it; weep over them, and you will also regret it. Laugh at the stupidities of the world or weep over them, you will regret it either way. Whether you laugh at the stupidities of the world or you weep over them, you will regret it either way. Trust a girl, and you will regret it. Do not trust her, and you will also regret it. Trust a girl or do not trust her, you will regret it either way. Whether you trust a girl or do not trust her, you will regret it either way. Hang yourself, and you will regret it. Do not hang yourself, and you will also regret it. Hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret it either way. Whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret it either way. This, gentlemen, is the quintessence of all the wisdom of life.

I had always particularly liked how it was shot, where it gives off an almost nostalgic disposable camera vibe that always makes me feel like taking pictures in much the same way that great concerts can make you feel like going home to play guitar. It is additionally impressive that the same guy wrote it, directed it and composed the score.

 
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Old 12-20-2016, 03:44 AM   #190
teh b0lly!!1
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hey, yo, eyy....... whazzap?

I SAID, WHAZZAP?!

long time no see! i'm tehbolly, thanks for joining. please, make yourself comfortable, cause we've got a special edition coming up. owing to my existential meandering and lack of ability to concentrate on anything at all lately, i've been mainly watching shows rather than movies.

can we talk about the latest (american) season of Black Mirror?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rTitleCard.jpg

verdict first: generally disappointing.

as i was pretty much expecting, americans kinda dumbed it down, and made it far more sensational than it was in its british incarnation. from what i understand, Charlie Brooker writes the general story, and then the showrunners adapt that into a full manuscript. you can tell some honestly brilliant ideas are still there - the man really is a genius - but most of the time, something about the adaptation just felt like it wasn't working.

even though the show continued to have fairly high, or at least decent production values, i thought the american run looked and sounded too glossy and slick. yes i know that sounds dumb, but it just didn't feel right. it doesn't serve the stories. it was never about impressive technical feats - it was about writing and performances. it's all subtle, but it's there -

the actors were usually too pretty for things to be remain credible, the cinematography was too inclined to impress, and even the sound work consistently bothered me, as it made everything sound 'futuristic' and bloopy every time a character interacted with anything technology related - a cell phone, a door, a 'like' button on social media, etc.

all those little choices really damaged the immersion i used to get from black mirror, and made it feel more synthetic, rather than as a lightly warped depiction of the world we live in.

but anyway, those are merely the superficialities. what really bothered me, (tldr people - read from here!) was how focused on 'horror' the american run was. it used to be a show that wrenched you, the viewer, to examine the world we live in and contemplate just how far removed from us those warped scenarios are. THAT'S what made it scary. it had a certain delicacy that made it plausible, even when it went to extremes.

the american version, on the other hand, nearly always felt sensationalist, flamboyant, overblown, overly dramatized, and worst of all - much like 'horror torture porn'. it's like showrunners got the idea that people watch black mirror to "get scared" and horrified, so they just pushed everything to the max, all the time, just delivering cruelty to characters in order to shock the audience and leave a long lasting impression. i don't care for that: it only reduces credibility, cheapens the story, and makes me feel like i'm being fed with a spoon.

Brooker's stories were as good as ever, btw. it's only the fully realized plot arcs built over them that always suffered the same faults, at least to my tastes. the first episode, about new social media made an all-consuming social hierarchy tool, is just a chilling idea, that might very well become very real in 10-20 years, or maybe even a lot sooner. the webcam episode - panic inducing idea, that could happen to everyone. the horror game episode. the military visual system episode (this was the best episode of the season for me). all fucking solid stories, all are fresh and original, all are horrifying ideas from top to bottom - but all were executed and fucked up in exactly the same way.

now, i don't claim to know where the Brooker storyline ends and the production faults begin; it's just that from previous seasons, i think i got a sense of what made his stories great, and the subtlety and restraint that were present in the British production only made the episodes much better.

well. it wouldn't be the first time americans destroyed something good because they failed to demonstrate some restraint.

http://akns-images.eonline.com/eol_i...t.jw.61115.jpg

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Old 12-22-2016, 01:50 AM   #191
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That's a shit-ton of short stubby weiners there that is.

 
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Old 12-23-2016, 08:13 PM   #192
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At the very least, one could reasonably hope that Brooker feels some level of shame for what he would later let them do to his show.

http://i.imgur.com/wMlapHb.png?2

 
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Old 12-23-2016, 10:42 PM   #193
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lol what an excellent find
this is exactly the type of shit i was talking about. histrionics is the perfect word for it

tbh sometimes i'm just glad to see "proof" that i'm not being incredibly nitpicky\petty or something

 
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Old 12-30-2016, 01:22 AM   #194
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Fight Club (1999)

http://6.darkroom.shortlist.com/710/...1a230e7/fc.jpg

hard to believe it's already been almost 20 years since this movie was released. i rewatch it now and then every once in a while, somehow. just get an itch to do it and boom goes the dynamite.

i think it's by far david fincher's magnum opus. his greatest, most meticulous and particular work. it still feels fresh. he just mastered so many aspects of this story, fucking up so little in the process, it really is quite incredible to behold imo. many guys calling themselves directors are just guys with a cameraman and an editor, filming actors reading a script. but this movie packs such a powerful punch - it really does feel like fincher had a vision, that he was overflowing with creative ideas, that he executed them well and that he knew how to pace them and tell the story. almost every scene packs some stylish flourish that doesn't feel redundant, but serves a purpose -

the famous ikea catalogue scene, the introduction of film changeover scene, the photocopier scene (inc tyler subliminal cut), the scene when norton fucks up angel face, and so many others. it all flows in a very eloquent way without being overbearing - kinda like Scorsese at his best, but in a very different way. less poppy, more nihilistic. cold and precise.

he also got so many aspects of the story right - the homoerotic tones between tyler and the narrator, the split personality thing that is airtight even when you know about it from the beginning of the film, and it still works beautifully. the way tyler durden's nihilistic worldview ends up being just another corporation, exactly like all the companies he set out to rail against. the way tyler durden becomes more and more idealized throughout the course of the film, while norton only becomes more thin, pale, and sickly. the way black humor is somehow expertly interspersed in all this. the whole thing was so made for quoting and tailored to be cult, but it speaks of such depravity. it's like the perfect pop anthem with lyrics telling you to kill yourself. i'm a chump so i haven't read the actual novel yet, but palahniuk is just an incredible mind. i can't even imagine how you can come up with a story so off the wall, so left of center.

i just love the way this story/film comments on things like cults and the genesis of religion, consumerist culture, existentialism, dealing with crisis. it's got some campy moments, but they really are few and far between, and are completely forgivable for the amount of stuff this film gets right.

to sum up: i love a cult phenomena from 20 years ago that everybody already knows. shocking. toodle-oo!

 
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Old 12-30-2016, 01:59 AM   #195
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You watched fight club in 2016

 
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Old 12-30-2016, 10:04 AM   #196
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We started a "paper street society" in my 1st off campus college apartment, but we were too chicken shit to beat each other up. So we just printed out myriad aphorisms and pseudo-intellectual quotes that we found catchy and taped them to the wall, then got high on weed for six years

This why'm so dumb today

 
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Old 01-19-2017, 10:35 AM   #197
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Victoria (2015)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...lm)_POSTER.jpg

i first heard about this one when my br0 smashingjj (i think it was) posted about it in the 'rate ur last movie', simply saying Victoria - 11/10, which piqued my interest. but i'm a living void and my life is a trainwreck so it took me a while to get to it.

there was definitely a lot about it that i liked. even though it's not the first one-take affair i'd watched, this one definitely felt like it might be the single most organic one of them all. it really does feel mostly improvised, very raw, very unpolished - but it does still retain fairly impressive production values, because to be able to execute all that stuff that's happening in one straight go, is still no small feat.

what i probably liked best about this movie, is how it captures the essence of a drunken night, strolling around the sleeping city in the dark, being 'those guys' making noise and talking loudly, and then - how, because the movie is set and was shot at around 4 am, you can very realistically feel how the alchohol steams runs out, the crack of dawn starts painting up the sky, and slowly the consequences of exactly what is happening really starts occurring to you. it made me really feel it.

but i mean, it's flawed. it's not a film like birdman, or even irreversible, where the one-take thing still feels glossy and produced (also bearing in mind that those films weren't, in fact, actually one-takes, but rather made to look like ones). this one really does feel gritty and real, perhaps because of those imperfections. the actors stutter and stagger with their dialogues sometimes (being half german, half broken english anyway), there are some 'less-than-prestigious' camerawork choices (cameraman cramming into a tiny elevator with the cast, or shooting from a really low angle during car drive scenes, so you can't really see much of anything, etc) , and just generally you can catch some minor fuckups here and there (piano playing scene anyone?). tbh i'm usually one to prefer works that are somewhat more slick (be it music, film or painting), and yet there was a lot to appreciate here.

the first hour, hour and a half of the film, is just a drunken night caught on film. it's kinda slow, almost too slow, then it starts picking up. it's juts so fucking cool that it never stops. even through driving scenes, going from place to place. it just keeps rolling, like real life. no trying to get around it or concoct some occurrence to fill that time. something about how the one-take thing was executed in this film was just really appealing to me. smart, brave choices i suppose.

there are some qualms to be made about the choices characters make during the course of the film - like, are you kiding me, who would actually act like that? what kinda girl would join a gang of four dangerous-looking, loudmouthed, potentially violent guys at 4 in the morning? what kind of a girl would agree to carry out a robbery some dudes she met in a drunken stupor less than an hour ago? sometimes that stuff hampers the plot a little bit, like 'oh are they really going with that? well ok then'. but for the most part it's entertaining and bubbling.

another thing i liked was how the movie starts and ends - like, the camera just kinda wanders around, stumbles onto the lead character, and sticks with her right until the movie ends, and then it just stops somewhere and watches her go. i always had a thing for that trick - like in that massive attack video for 'unfinished sympathy' or something. makes it feel real. just following around a person in this world, and then letting them go.

yeah, anyway. interesting film. i certainly got into it once it got rolling. it felt like a different take on movies in general. because at the end of the day, it's just another heist movie in a sea of heist movies. but it sets itself apart in the way it tells a story about people, in a way that makes you experience it more deeply. kind of like how the strong points of Boyhood (i'll ignore the bad ones rn) made it different from other movies. the novelty of how it was executed made it feel fresh, and mostly not like just a gimmick.

i probably don't even need to explain how much better that movie could have been had that camera followed MY life for those 2.5 hours. man, my life is exciting as fuck.
*refreshes netphoria*

 
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Old 01-19-2017, 11:12 AM   #198
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Hey guy how have you been? We've been worrisd

 
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Old 01-19-2017, 10:57 PM   #199
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thanks. thrown into a tailspin, working my way out i guess.
i genuinely appreciate the care

 
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Old 01-19-2017, 11:01 PM   #200
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yeah was wondering if things were ok

 
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Old 01-29-2017, 12:19 AM   #201
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Into The Wild (2007)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...o-the-wild.jpg

wow, upon checking now, i see this film is actually from 2007. i thought it was like '99 or something. when i was 23, i worked in a record store and my manager always played Eddie Vedder's OST for this movie at the store. the premise of the movie always interested and inspired me, because being #blessed with all my anxieties, self loathing and hypersensitivity, i have contemplated many a time to just fuck off, go live in a shed out in the woods, and grow my own lettuce or something. but for some reason, this film always felt to me (even when all i knew about it was what the movie poster looked like) like it's one of those cheap, second grade efforts of the hallmark variety.

upon watching it now (all i want to do is escape life and find peace lol__), i was right.

i mean this movie is just a colossal fuck up in my book. it's supposed to be such a bare bones type of film, it would have been so easy to make it even just a little bit less terrible - but it's like Sean Penn (who directed it) managed to fall into every single trap a clueless director who was given a shot based on irrelevant credentials could fall into.

first and foremost, the worst thing that plagues this movie is how goddamn synthetic it all feels. fucking cardboard thin realization of a story that actually happened. it felt like one of those hilariously terrible reenactments they make for crime documentaries, with the killer silhouette raising a big toy knife as a half terrified, half amused woman screams. the characters don't have an ounce of credibility; they speak written lines. they look like actors. you can see them 'working'. it's all plagued with this terrible sense of pathos, especially with that fucking voiceover by the dude's sister who keeps talking about the protagonist like he's mahatma ghandi. i guess i could understand why they chose to use a voiceover, seeing that the film is mostly about a man's silent journey in the elements, but the execution was terrible and in poor taste.

not that the two films are even remotely comparable, but notice how makers of The Revenant never felt that need to have a voice whisperingly mansplain what's occurring onscreen. part of being a great director is about being courageous enough to trust your audience. it's about being courageous enough to make choices that aren't based on accessability or reception. that's what sets directors like Jim Jarmusch apart from the pack, for example. like with music, more than half the work is just knowing what to leave out, and how to be tasteful. and this film's biggest fault is that it simply is not tasteful even for a second.

this whole film is about trying to impress, and providing "big moments", and it has hot actors onscreen portraying everyday people that aren't even supposed to look like fucking movie stars. Emile Hirsch plays the guy who snaps and goes out into the wild, whatsherface from Twilight or whatever vampire show plays the young, totally average girl he meets out in the middle of fucking nowhere. Christine Stewart. as i get older i find it more and more irritating that movies almost exclusively feature notably attractive people, but it was particularly bad and tasteless in this movie, and made the whole thing feel disingenuous.

but wait, that's not all. Sean (re: Shawn) Penn continued to fuck up plenty more in this film. come to think of it, this movie may be the single most vivid example of what bad direction can do to a movie.

his use of Eddie Vedder's (decent) soundtrack was also, you guessed it, irking and overblown. he kept going for those bigtime Scorsese moments where some kind of conversation ends, or a resolution is reached, and then you go for a wide open shot and some song starts playing loudly, drawing all the attention. Scorsese absolutely mastered this technique in his movies, and it can feel so right when you know how to do it, but like with everything else - Shawn Penn overused this to an incredible degree, almost to the point of hilarity.

"SO NOW I MUST STOP... AND GO OUT INTO THE WILD...!"

*music starts playing*

YAAAAAAAHOAAAAAAAA OHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHAHHHHHHHHH NAGANAGANAGANAGANAGANAGANAGANAGA yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AA

i mean come on dude. he even employed the arresting landscape and scenery he was filming in the exact same big-time sensationalist way, just shoveling together shots of beautiful scenery and landscape like it's a goddamn Nat Geo documentary about the majesty of nature, and not a narrative picture, that lends itself to have a thread going through it, tying things together.

he tried to impress by being sensitive, and came out insensitive. he tried to make a bare-bones picture, but overloaded it with unnecessary characters and histrionics. even the pacing is all wrong. it's just a serial succession of 'bottle episodes' of relationships the protagonist has with people he comes across throughout his journeys, that are all mostly seperate from each other. you could easily remove one or two and the movie would not suffer, at all (perhaps even benefit, as it got excruciating at some point).

second grade acting, writing, direction, cinematography, editing, pacing, second grade everything. just a mediocre film at best, from top to bottom, based on a genuinely interesting story, and an inspiring person. i don't understand why this film ever had a buzz going for it. i guess there's a huge difference between being a good actor and being a good director. fuck you, Shawn Penn.

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Old 01-29-2017, 01:57 AM   #202
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One of the books that we read as a class back in high school (I forgot what year, sry) was into the wild. At the end of the year the teacher put on movie adaptations of the books and I slept through that one because I would stay up too late on netphoria every night

 
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Old 01-29-2017, 01:59 AM   #203
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Mccandless died because of lathyrism.

 
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Old 01-29-2017, 02:08 AM   #204
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McDonald's should hit the market with pleasuring anal beef suppositories called McCandles.

golden opportunity, that's money in the bank fellas.

 
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Old 01-29-2017, 07:09 AM   #205
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I always read these reviews as if tehbolly is foaming at the mouth in anger.

It's very entertaining, aside from the fact I disagree with about 70% of it.

 
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Old 01-29-2017, 12:58 PM   #206
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1 View Post
In 11th grade we read the book in lit class and it blew my fucking mind. Truly moved me in a way I'm not sure any book had at that point. I have not reread it, but based on my memory I would highly recommend you just read the book and forget the movie. I remember when the teacher asked for our thoughts upon completing the text, my hand shot up and I gave an impassioned endorsement of both the book and McCandless, citing my admiration for his bravery and willingness to take total control of his own life and push himself to the edge, and speaking at length about how much I felt I related to him and how his life speaks on a lot of core moral issues with how individuals relate to and live in our society. I thought a lot of other people would be with me but the class was like

I was fucking stoked when the film came out a few years later, but it fell flat for me. The docu-narrative style of the book and the voice of the author were totally lost. The scenery is beautiful obviously (North America ftw) but yeah just not really a cohesive film.

I still love Eddie Vedder's soundtrack though. Society, you're a crazy breed.

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Old 01-29-2017, 01:06 PM   #207
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also the kristin stewart part was fabricated and so unnecessary and an obvious attempt to Hollywoodize the movie by sticking in a love interest they could put in the trailers and tv spots

 
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Old 02-03-2017, 01:26 AM   #208
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12 Years A Slave (2013)

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....0,1200_AL_.jpg


like everybody else, i heard about this movie when it generated enormous oscar buzz when it first came out. i wasn't really planning on watching it, but was in a "hey i'm feeling shitty and depressed, let's watch a movie that's really going to hammer me into the ground cause fuck it" kinda mood.

well. it was very good, but.

for starters, i thought the film was wildly inconsistent in quality. as in, there are some genuinely great parts that showcase solid filmmaking -but they're interspersed with some sub-par elements that peek through here and there. i don't remember seeing such a jarring inconsistency in a single film before. for example, the whole opening of the film is very weak, and does not do justice to everything that follows. the history dated details feel off, some of the costumes seem fake and exaggerated. even the manner in which some of the characters speak - which is in this very literary, linguistically ornamented style that borrows heavily on old novels and writings - sounds excruciatingly unnatural and dumb, and it all takes away from the end result. i can totally see what they were going for, but they undoubtedly missed the mark at some points. even storytelling/editing wise, there are elongated flashback scenes right at the beginning of the film that feel jarringly out of place and context, and they break up the pace in a way that felt incorrect to me.

but, after that things pick up considerably, and during the 'main course' of the film i was actually pleasantly surprised to see how much better it got. not to open the door to another one of those 94-page political 'discussions' that this board is unfortunately riddled with these days, but it is really quite incredible how when you examine American history, the USA has been one of the most barbaric, violent, murderous, and morally bankrupt nations ever. it wasn't even 60 years ago. and nobody ever talks about it.

the film is abundant with torture scenes that slice open your skin and rub some salt in for good measure, but unlike torture porn horror movies or whatever, here it feels justified. like looking at the ugly truth straight in the eye. tbh, they could have probably pushed it even a little further, because god knows in reality, it must have been much worse. it pains my soul to even think about the horrors human beings not any different than me had to go through, solely because of their skin color. i'm just so ashamed to be a part of mankind sometimes. we really are the worst, most abhorrent creatures this world could ever be cursed with. but hey, we're happy cause we're ON TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN. right?

anyway, got derailed here.

this is a little bit of an exploitation film, in a way. it's 2+ hours of physical and emotional torture, bookend by (literally) 5-6 minutes at the beginning and the end of the movie, describing Solomon's life as a free man. incredibly short, unsatisfying (on both ends) and rushed. while i'm not one to support artificially padding up a story, i do think a better effort could have been made to more thoughtfully get the viewer into the story, or to figure out how to end it less hastily. it shouldn't have even been hard - there could be so much to be told about a man regaining his freedom after 12 years of severe abuse. it just feels like wasted opportunity, and worse than that - almost like the filmmakers mostly cared about shocking the audience with the horrors of those wretched times, without bothering to round out the other (slightly less critical, but still v. important) parts of the story.

the cinematography, likewise, was also a bit inconsistent, and next to some beautiful moments of lyrical brilliance and artful choices, there were also a lot of spots in the film that i thought seemed a bit half assed, camerawork wise. there's something captivating about films that are masterfully shot from beginning to end, with no gaps, like 'No Country For Old Men' or countless others. it can take a film to the next level, and it's a shame that's not what happened here.

the acting, on the other hand, is fairly strong all throughout (save for some terrible dialogues which i mentioned already). Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Solomon Northup, puts forth a strong, solid, believable performance as an educated, unfortunate man who gets dealt a very bad hand and slowly crumbles through continued torture, dehumanization and abuse.

Michael BassFender, an actor who i'm usually not a fan of at all, honestly, delivered an absolutely terrifying performance as an evil, unspeakably cruel alchoholic white man who abuses the black people in his 'possession' in inconceivably brutal ways. again, it's gut wrenching for me to think people like that actually existed (probably still do) and got a free mandate to do as they pleased, without ever having to face repercussions. just unbelievably depressing. whoever says there is a God that watches over us is a dumb motherfucking cunt. sorry, derailed again.

a special kudos goes to Lupita Nyongo, who played Patsy. i think this was her first film and her acting is just absolutely beautiful. she stomped my heart. her whipping scene is probably the single most excruciating one to watch in this film - but it was the very next scene, when she lays on her stomach and her back is thick with open wide, bleeding lacerations, and she looks up helplessly to Solomon and cries miserably as other care for her wounds - that just fucking destroyed me. made me cry. i had to stop for a few minutes.

moving on, i thought the casting was a little bit too riddled with top names and stars. it's a pretty big ensemble cast, and though a lot of those actors are in supporting roles, i didn't think it was a very smart filmmaking choice, because it just degrades the credibility. Bass Fender was spot on, but do we really need to also have Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano and Sarah Paulson in the same goddamn movie? i can imagine it has to do with studio requirements and funding and shit (Brad Pitt said so himself) but i still think it was excessive.

yeah btw, also lol @ brad pitt for being a producer in this film, and casting himself as the heroic knight in shining armor who appears in the movie for 4 minutes and saves the day. seriously guy?

okay. so, in conclusion. this movie was heavily awarded with oscars and awards, and got countless raving reviews and accolades, but tbh - objectively, as a film, i don't think it really is quite that good. don't get me wrong - it is definitely effective and strong, it kicks you in the gut, and forces you to look at that incredibly dark time in American history without flinching. but it still has some considerable problems and faults that shouldn't be there for a movie at this class, and honestly, i think most of what made everybody lose their shit over it was their desire to jump on the bandwagon and publicly declare their non-racism. kind of like how how rock bands like putting up ridiculously big rock shows because children are dying or starvation in africa. that's probably also what got so many big names and stars to be so eager to participate in the movie for basically no pay (the budget for the whole thing was less than 20$ million). it's all for a good cause, so i can't speak ill of it, but it does feel 'artificially sweetened', affected, maybe even a bit fake. because everybody knows racism is still fucking going strong, even within the hollywood industry (black people being cast as token blacks or what have you). i think that is what made everybody claim this movie is better than what it really is - but for what it's worth, even with its faults, it was still very powerful and important, and for me, i'm glad i watched it.

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Old 02-03-2017, 01:28 AM   #209
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disco king, eat my dust.

 
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Old 04-13-2017, 11:26 AM   #210
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Moonlight

http://film-reviews-and-news.com/sit...nlight-ab-.jpg

one of my fav movie posters in recent years

how fortunate of me to be somebody who essentially lives under a rock and doesn't listen to new movie buzz (mostly) until i get to see it. i even managed to forget Moonlight was the movie who actually won the oscars, even though it was a scandalous affair that was all over teh internetz for at least a few weeks. so all that is to say, i went in knowing nothing about this film. not even what it's about. which is, as i always proclaim to everyone and anyone who begs me to leave them alone, always the absolute best way to go.

it really was hauntingly beautiful. out of all movie genres, coming of age films probably have the most powerful effect on me. it's always been like that. perhaps because i have my own fixation on that time period in my life and the awkwardness of growing up. but this film achieved so many beautiful things without ever coming off as cheap, or concocted, or fake. it didn't feel like one of those films that were made to generate oscar buzz (i.e Revenant, as great as that film was), but rather one of those films that the schmaltzy oscar folks happily latched onto because of its somewhat taboo subject matter.

tbh i didn't like finding out that this movie was 'teh big oscar winnar' for similar reasons that i mentioned in my embarrassingly long essay on '12 years a slave'. it's not quite the same, though - because this is a MUCH better film, and is deserving of all the praise it gets. it's just that it's such a 'small' movie, like a sparse song with only a guy singing and playing acoustic guitar, and to have it win every bigtime award kinda feels like P.C was forced unto it, and that's what i don't particularly care for. the hollywood machine is cynical.

BUT, to say again, none of this goes to say this movie is not top notch. there is something that differentiates a truly grade A movie from the rest of the pack, and you can tell immediately, like in the first 30 seconds of the film. always. first shot of this film where Juan simply pulls over in his car, i knew this was gonna be a good one. i don't know why. Buzzard probably knows the technical details that makes one swoon over a particular image.

as good as all other actors on this film were (and most of them really were great), i gotta talk about Juan first (Mahershala Ali). this dude was absolutely amazing. he fleshed out a character that's so warm and fatherly, so engaging, so deeply likable and yet so morally questionable, and he did it so fluidly and naturally as an actor - it really is quite remarkable. imho he's arguably the best character of the film (obvs other than Chiron) but he only does it in like 35 minutes of screen time.

like i said in lari's corporate movie thread - i can't recall the last time a film has made me care so deeply about its characters, so immediately. like, literally within the first 10 minutes of the film, i was totally invested in those characters. tbqh i don't know exactly what it is that makes this film have such a profound emotional core, but it just goes straight into the heart like an arrow. only movie that made me feel like that recently that i can recall is Blue Is The Warmest Color, and that's a massive three hour relationship arc film.

the cinematography is incredible here, and although not particularly 'fancy', it just works so beautifully well. in addition to the nice camerawork, they hired an (obviously very gifted) colorist, who gave each of the chapters a distinct 'look', emulating a certain type of analogue film: kodak, agfa, and fuji. what a brilliant, subtle addition. and the color palette is indeed striking (i swear i thought about this even before i read the trivia about this film). in general it's just a beautiful movie to look at. it's so inspiring to experience it when people marry the correct technical possibilities to the right narrative. and this is exactly it.

also, i just have to mention this sequence:



that's just fucking visual poetry. definitely my single fav moment of the film. the way it's shot with a highspeed camera, so that her entrance to the brightly pink lit room feels like she's getting sucked into it - a perfect representation of the allure of drug addiction. and then, Chiron turning the other way - which is the same direction on screen due to mirror imaging. just absolutely brilliant and heartbreaking.

the three actors portraying Chiron all did a really admirable job, and are all very convincing as the same person. they all share that essence. the delayed reaction time, the tame and borderline uncommunicative demeanor (even when Chirone is a transformed adult). the same history runs through all three of them. an impressive feat (even more so considering the three actors never met on set - an interesting directorial approach that obviously worked very well).

at first i was kinda bummed at the downbeat finish, but then i realized i wasn't disappointed with the way it ended at all - it was perfect. i was just sorry to part with these characters.

more to say but i'll sign off this one for now
yours truly,

 
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