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Old 08-03-2016, 12:05 PM   #151
yo soy el mejor
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dizzyingly badass.

 
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Old 08-05-2016, 06:13 AM   #152
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Dead Man

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

this post sponsored by buzzard, who was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the film. thanks, buzz.

so i've been wanting to get into jim jarmusch for a while. the only reference point i have from him is Ghost Dog, which i love. while watching Dead Man, i noticed a lot of conjoined themes and motives, so even though they may be disparate, it's hard to avoid comparing them.

both are oddly surreal. both tell the story of an improbable friendship between two people who don't seem to understand each other very well. both are highly spiritual, and show a great respect for the majesty of nature (while criticizing humans who mercilessly destroy it). both feature a strangely eclectic group of "villains" (for lack of better word). both feature a main character who denies the traditional concept of identity.

anyway. jarmusch films (at least the ones i had watched so far) beautifully walk a thin line between deploying traditional narrative filmmaking, and being completely surreal. they constantly push the envelope in terms of what's considered 'straightforward' storytelling, but on the other hand, it never gets TOO bizarre, as to become completely disattached.

i think this movie is kind of rare in that, its reach extends beyond that of just a film. the way it deals with spirituality, zen mentality, peacefully persevering in the face of kafkaesque adversities - the experience you get from it is pretty meta. it's like a meditation. a process. it leaves a lot of space for the viewer to experience their own journey from it. it certainly made me relate, and think a lot about my life. how it's ok to let go of control, and just accept reality, and do your best to stay true to yourself. not being afraid, cause we're all already dead. bend like reeds in whatever direction the wind is blowing.

much of that can be attributed to the unusual way the film is paced. it's very, very slow. very scarce. bare bones. most of the time it's people out in the woods, in broad daylight, with neil young playing trippy, unaccompanied guitar over it. even when something DOES happen, it's not treated with the usual cinematic sense of bombast or grandiosity. it feels very incidental. very lifelike.

johnny depp's performance is pretty cool here. his demeanor is so tame and stoic, almost, especially in the face of all the strange and trying things that happen to him. as the film progresses, the arc his character goes through is not quite clear: is it a slow process of deconstruction, a downward spiral, or is it a story of enlightenment and redemption? that's part of the 'meditative' quality i was talking about. you have a lot of time to process things, and think about where you want to take them.

i felt he had a slight 'knee' to his acting, though - like, at some point halfway through, the transformation in his acting was too steep. from boring, oppressed accountant, to unaffected badass. not really a big complaint though, just an observation.

it's a very thought provoking piece of work, very atmospheric. it's amazing how the confidence of people has such a huge impact on the art they make. you can tell jarmusch is not too concerned whether he might be boring you or not. he's taking all the time he needs to make his statement. i find that admirable, but it was arguably a liiittle too slow and low key. though undoubtedly skillfully made. it's a very interesting sidestep, conceptually, to what cinema is usually about, but perhaps it could have been more engaging. still gonna check out more jarmusch.

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Old 08-11-2016, 07:54 AM   #153
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True Romance

http://www.impawards.com/1993/poster...mance_ver1.jpg

reading about movies the other day, i was surprised to find out Tarantino had written scripts for two movies (this one, and Natural Born Killers) that he didn't direct. i was previously under the impression that he only wrote stuff he had the eventually directed himself - not that he started out selling scripts to hollywood studios. anyway, it is my understanding that he did want to direct it, but eventually it ended up in the hands of Tony Scott.

well, it is most certainly unmistakable that this is an early 90's Tony Scott film. shiiiieett. it's a pretty bizarre cinematic experience to watch all these characters spout out tarantino's (circa 1991 - still raw and underdeveloped) dialogue, but have it SO drastically stylistically different.

and when i say different, i definitely mean WORRRRSEEEEE. 90's cinematic traits definitely don't stand up very well against the test of time. for better or worse (probably a bit of both at this point), things today are much more meta, more sophisticated, more aware. sometimes that's to a fault, but in this movie (as with countless other 80's-90's movies) everything is horifically simplified, cliched, bloated and synthesized in such a trademark 90's way.

any line of dialogue becomes campy in Scott's hands, with every character constantly validating the shit the other character said just a moment before that in some way ("u so funny bro!". "i love this kid, he so crazy!". "this guy iz a pro guyz". etc). every single shot is pumped with that distinct 90's summer hit adrenaline, nothing feels real or credible in even the most remote way.

the only moments that it picks up, are some of the 'action sequences'. Tony Scott is obviously an early version of Michael Bay (barring Thelma and Louise, which suffers from some of the same ailments, but ends up working), so the action parts he does step up to. some of the standoffs in this film that are genuinely exhilarating (patricia arquette vs. tony soprano, christian slater vs. gary oldman). but they're much too few and far between to make this movie worthwhile.

actually, this is a particularly interesting watch, in a way - not every day you get to see what a movie would look like, if you frankensteind a trademark feature of one prominent director's filmmaking, and put it in the hands of a very different director. makes you realize how much subtlety goes into a good director's work (and tarantino, in his prime, had it in spades).

anyway the whole movie is hindered even further by christian slater's insufferable punchable face. seriously one of the fucking worst 90's faces. he's got that punchable face thing down to perfection. i just wanna fucking pound that face with a grand piano. or at least print out his face, post it on the kind of punching bags that bounce back, and go rampant on it until i pass out. just look at that shit

https://nickshell1983.files.wordpres...transplant.jpg

i only intended to type a few sentences.

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Old 08-11-2016, 08:16 AM   #154
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Christian Slater may be the ultimate weasel.

Also, how did I just read a True Romance review that did not mention Dennis Hopper's speech to Christopher Walken?

 
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Old 08-11-2016, 08:22 AM   #155
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yeaaaaah it was definitely one of the more notable scene, but in a sea of tarantino scenes that basically do the exact same thing, i found it to be pretty standard protocol tbh. not one of his better ones. it was still compelling, mind you, especially considering the rest of the movie. i just felt it was done much better in his other films. dennis hopper got character.

also, how did you not comment on Dead Man? plz talk to me i'm lonely

 
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Old 08-11-2016, 09:06 AM   #156
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1 View Post
plz talk to me i'm lonely
... like lovers do?

 
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Old 08-14-2016, 05:34 AM   #157
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Irrational Man -

i'm all drained and empty inside so this will be short.

while i was bottoming out last night on here, this movie came on tv. it's a woody allen movie i had not even heard of, starring juaquin phoenix! holy shit. sounds promising right?

well, there's a reason i hadn't heard of it.

this was perhaps the first time i saw juaquin phoenix really shitting the bed. he didn't look like any character, he didn't breathe any life into it. he just looked like a fat juaquin phoenix on autopillot. it's a shame, because he's without a doubt one of my favorite actors ever, but this is pretty far from the standard he's set for himself.

as for his character - he's constantly blurting this nihilistic 101 bullshit and all the other characters are always blown away by how tormented and intelligent he is. it almost reminded me of that 90's thing i was recently talking about while reviewing True Romance. there are literally lines like "he's so tormented and brilliant, i need him to HAVE ME right now!".

it feels very synthetic, and unsubtle. characters behave in very fake ways. the whole plot is lifted off of Dostoevsky but it feels redundant, senseless and shallow.

on a different note, this film made me understand why people criticize woody allen as being an old geezer with an affinity for teenage girls (even regardless of the whole mia farrow thing). i never really fully got it until now. this is like the fourth or fifth Allen film i watch, and in all of them, the leading female(s) is this trophy token super-babe. and what's worse is that they're constantly changing, too, so they're never more than say, 23-24 or something.

also, there's a theme running in many of his movies of older, or established, men, pursuing hot young babes (who Allen literally almost fondles with his camera).

it's a much more subtle objectification of women than what is currently considered acceptable, but in some ways, it's just as bad imo. a woman cannot enter woody allen's realm if she is not a young, tight, brand new Scarlett Johanssen or an Emma Stone. not to say woody is the only director who does this, of course, but with him it's awfully noticeable, and the older he gets, the more it sticks out like a sore thumb.

fuck me.

 
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Old 08-14-2016, 08:30 PM   #158
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i read that

 
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Old 08-25-2016, 02:50 PM   #159
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i watched a movie
it was all right

 
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Old 08-25-2016, 06:00 PM   #160
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I read that

 
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Old 08-25-2016, 08:55 PM   #161
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Leaf Phoenix.

 
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Old 08-26-2016, 04:27 AM   #162
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incorrect.

 
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Old 08-27-2016, 05:00 AM   #163
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A Most Violent Year

http://steponmagazine.com/wp-content...ent-Year-1.jpg

after watching Oscar Isaac's performances in Inside Llewyn Davis and Ex Machina, i made a mental note to check out some of his other work. this one is from 2014. Isaac portrays a successful immigrant oil supplier in 1980's New York struggling with fierce competition, while trying to maintain his moral standers.

firstly, perhaps the most outstanding part of this movie is the cinematography. really beautiful work. the image is very crisp, rich and detailed. beautiful colour palette. almost reminiscent of a fincher movie in that way.

plot wise, the film itself is very nicely grounded, and almost never allows itself to enter bloated cinematic territory. the setting, the difficulties Isaac's character has to face, the measures he takes to try and save his business - it all feels very authentic, true to life, and plausible. that is something i can't truly say about any other film i'd watched off the top of my head, so in that regard it's innovative and interesting.

it may come at a price, of being slightly slow or less cathartic than standard cinema or whatever, but all in all i found it refreshing. the film also does a pretty good job of clearly conveying the somewhat complex plot to the viewer without making the storytelling obvious or expository.

Isaac's acting is good, as always tbh. he operates on a fairly subdued emotional scale as an actor, and it is my personal experience that he's fairly menacing in almost anything i'd ever seen him in (barring Llewyn Davis, where he was beautifully vulnerable). in this movie he is basically playing a (good?) man who refuses to compromise his morals, and most written material on this film i'd read (reviews, trivia etc) plays along in praising the character for it, but me personally, i saw somewhat of a dark side to that character that nobody seems to talk about.

while Isaac's character stays true to his moral compass, he does make some chillingly ruthless decisions, and in spite of his personal decency, there is more than a hint of him being cold as ice, almost incapable of feeling empathy for other people's pain (or disregarding it in favor of his personal gain).

anyway. another thing i liked about this movie, was its setting. barely any periodical movies these days are made about the 1980's. it's always the same old 40's-50's-60's. which is cool too, i guess, but it does get stale when every other movie does it. this was refreshing - seeing a depiction of the 80's the way i remember it as a kid, and not exaggerated or parodied.as far as pop culture is concerned the 80's were just a neon haze of people with outrageous haircuts, ludicrous music and shoulder padding. but i mean there was more than that.

bottom line: it's a bit too low-key to honestly fully recommend, but it was pretty good.

 
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Old 08-27-2016, 02:22 PM   #164
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I watched Llewyn Davis recently. I give it a solid A.

a really enjoyable movie with great characterization and lots of classic Coen brothers antics and weirdness. Oscar Isaac is great and handsome as a motherfucker. Someone gave me the soundtrack years ago so it was a little strange finally seeing the songs paired with the movie the way they were intended. Po Dameron and Kylo Ren singing that fucking song was priceless.

 
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Old 09-07-2016, 02:35 PM   #165
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Down By Law

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

ok, been meaning to watch this for a while. i'm beginning to really dig jim jarmusch. the guy makes such cool, off the wall films. nobody does it quite like him.

tarantino once said that Jackie Brown is a "hangout movie". that he purposely paced it so, that for the first hour of the film, give or take, he made a conscious decision to just let the viewers hang out with his characters and get to know them and what they're about. now, while Jackie Brown had it's fun moments, i couldn't help but think about how this film deploys the same mentality, but ever so much more successfully. this is mainly a hangout movie, in that you get to know the characters, and through the majority of it, you just see how they play off each other and interact. this is even strengthened further by being a film about three guys who escape prison, without ever showing the actual escape (again, much like in tarantino's Reservoir Dogs - which was only made some 10 years later ofc). i love that kind of zooming out, and deciding to highlight different aspects of a story, in a way that puts it into a new and refreshing context.

the casting on this is immaculate - tom waits' swagger, and that demeanor that just oozes cool, fit his character perfectly. john lurie as jack the pimp was almost surprisingly endearing. he took that simple part, and breathed a whole sense of life and depth into it. but with all that said - the real star of this movie for me is roberto benigni. his character here might just be one of my fav characters ever. and his portrayal of it is just perfect. absolutely spot on. so funny and deeply profound at the same time. you throw-a the ball against me.. i throw-a the ball-a against-a you! i ham a good egg-a.

the interaction between all three is funny, moving, upsetting, thought provoking. just great stuff.

now, this might sound bizarre, but one of the things i like most about this film (and, in retrospect, in Dead Man too) is the way it sounds. jarmusch almost has a lynchian quality with the way he handles sound in his films - it's so crisp. clear. slightly detached. the subtlety in which he does it is masterful imo. it colours everything in this slightly surreal shade, almost without you realizing why. but it's there. the way steps scratch, fabrics chafe, objects clink together. jarmusch does it much more subtly than lynch, who usually goes for an all-out nightmarish vibe - but it gives his films, and particularly this one, a really beautiful, unique quality.

plus there are a couple of tom waits songs, which is nice.
this is definitely one i'll watch again in the future.

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Old 09-08-2016, 02:16 PM   #166
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man this movie is still playing in my head
amazing stuff

i scream you scream we all scream for ice cream!

 
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Old 09-10-2016, 03:29 PM   #167
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Goodfellas

http://www.impawards.com/1990/posters/goodfellas.jpg

this is one of my fav movies of all time so this won't be a review - but rather, just an outlet for me to rave and ramble about it (as opposed to my entries about other films, over which i ... raved and rambled...).

prime scorsese is just untouchable. that dude is so fucking smart. a once-in-a-lifetime storyteller. complete master of his craft. his entire de niro run starting in the 70's was awesome, but whereas his previous films were more about character study and exploration, i think this movie is his peak as a director doing a fluid, stylish complex storytelling film. you can see his stamp on so many things happening simultaneously - the attention to detail, the music, the laid back and liberated acting, the pacing, the dialogue, the editing.

this movie rarely ever hits a bum note. perhaps only a scene or two are less-than-perfect, but the overall quality maintained throughout the long running time here is astounding. the entire main cast is perfect, each in their respective roles. joe pesci deserved his oscar on this, man. de niro had more remarkable performances throughout his crazy career, but he's perfect and irreplaceable in this. even ray liotta somehow leads the whole thing very well.

in a way, scorsese is everything tarantino ever wanted to be: a true visionary, a human film encyclopedia that references and nods other works, a director with a staggering array of stylistic flourishes that elevate him well above his contemporaries. but unlike tarantino, scorsese does all those things with complete artistic merit, and not out of self indulgence. the choices he makes complement his movies perfectly. it doesn't feel like it's there just to gratify scorsese. it's there because it's gratifying, period.

one last point: the incredible camera work on this film. the cinematography is pretty darn good too - but what really knocked me on my ass here, after not seeing it for a good couple of years, is how perfect and fluid the camera work is. many steadicam sequences that truly justify themselves being there - the famous scene with karen and henry going in the club from the back door, the long string of people jimmy kills to disconnect himself from the heist, the introduction of the mobsters around the beginning of the film. just beautiful, meaningful, lyrical, fluid camera work. great shit.

ok bye.

Last edited by teh b0lly!!1 : 09-10-2016 at 04:34 PM.

 
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Old 09-10-2016, 04:26 PM   #168
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good review
now go home and get your fucking shinebox

 
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Old 09-10-2016, 04:38 PM   #169
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it is a little known fact that in the dinner scene with joe pesci's mother, she baked fish.

fun trivia: in reality, she is marty scorsese's mom. his dad also appears in the film, as the guy in the joint putting too many onions in the sauce.

 
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Old 09-10-2016, 08:52 PM   #170
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I felt a little betrayed by how mediocre Under the Skin turned out to be.

Fuck you, teh b0lly!!1.

 
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Old 09-11-2016, 03:10 AM   #171
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it is you who is mediocre.

but seriously - to quote the great me, i always say that a load of expectations are a movie's worst enemy. but i will fight for how great that movie is any day of the week. why didn't you like it? don't say 'its slow and nothing happens'.

 
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Old 09-11-2016, 10:54 AM   #172
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I did genuinely enjoy certain aspects of the visual work and wouldn't deny that his pseudo-experimental diversions were incredibly effective at points, the best example of which probably being that disturbing encounter between the two men locked in a bluish metaphysical stasis. Other attempts were thoroughly hit-and-miss, but what stood out was how overuse of the dark void environment became tired and left its accompanying theme music to transition with it from neatly moody to borderline grating. Ultimately, these sequences were significantly less compelling than they ought to have been to justify turning them into a sort of motif and they rarely amounted to anything more than implied doom treated with the standard product photography you'd get in a perfume advertisement.

Outside of the stylistic touches that ultimately set the film apart from your more standard fare, there wasn't a whole lot to it. Performances ranged from fine to good and the dialogue was inoffensively forgettable, but what passed for a narrative was really quite bad. The story, for all its subtle delivery, amounted to little more than a long-winded reiteration of the science fiction trope that has humanity itself presented as somehow infectious and/or imitable. It clearly wasn't trying to be a plot-driven piece, but the omnipotent alien handlers with a penchant for sportsbikes and leather jumpsuits still struck me as a cringeworthy source of conflict and impossible to take seriously. I also could have done without such heavy reliance upon a deus ex machina style of development whereby surfing Czech heroes, random dudes on buses that seem weirdly cool with fucking semi-catatonic invalids and the bravest truck-driving forest rapist in history proved essential to anything happening at all outside of Scarlett Johansson flirting with Scottish men in a Toyota HiAce before taking them back to Million Privé by Paco Rabanne.

There were some perfectly nice establishing shots and landscape work that'd stand tall amongst the holiday snaps of an experienced amateur photographer, though, to be fair.

 
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Old 09-11-2016, 12:42 PM   #173
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fuggedaboudit, this movie is a dizzying success - it made you write two paragraphs.

 
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Old 09-11-2016, 01:14 PM   #174
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i'm not the kind of guy to point to movie reviews to assert my point about a film, but to be fair, it did appear on quite a few 'best movies' lists at the time. not saying that that, in and of itself, is a reason to like it, of course - but it's not like it's some shitty film i talked up. it does, however, seem very polarizing indeed, so.

but disregarding that, i guess your main complaint was that although it's visually on par, the plot was not compelling enough to carry it. i guess that's a valid point, but i don't agree. not every movie is about having a beautifully written, sharply outlined, driving plot. this film, to me, is about communicating an experience. i thought it was visually hysterical - just a crazy creative, stylish picture, that took the boring 'alien from space kills ppl' angle and made something compelling out of it. a lot of the more abstract shots still stick with me (like that raging, pulpy red flood racing across a trough, for example).

but even separately from that, what i liked about this movie is that i felt like it talked about what it feels like to be a stranger. what's it like to be an outsider. if you look at it just as a knee deep alien movie, yeah, it's pretty bland. but the way i perceived it, the narrative is all about a person who is cast into a certain mold that they grow out of, and once they do, they find themselves unsuitable for the environment they want to be a part of. they're unequipped for it. they don't understand it (the comic talking about spoons on tv at the bus guy's house comes to mind). they try to eat that chocolate cake and enjoy it and be like everybody else but - hurl, it doesn't compute.

and then that rape scene in the end, when scarlett is finally showing signs of vulnerability, of emotional\physical fatigue - comes this brutal monster of a person, viciously violates her, and sets her on fire. watching that scene made me feel insult. that's brilliant cinema to me.

lastly, i liked finding out post-watching that the dialogue was almost entirely 100% improvised, and that the gentlemen depicted in the film were shot using hidden cameras. that as a movie talking about someone who is alien to this world, it took this route of curiously seeing what actual people were going to act like, from a directorial standpoint of inferiority (not having control of the situation). that's pretty meta filmmaking. it feels right.

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Old 09-11-2016, 11:51 PM   #175
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Honestly, I don't think it'd be accurate to suggest that my overall disappointment with the film truly stemmed from the poor writing. It was abundantly clear that the film sought to be a visual piece and it was mostly its inconsistency in this regard that kept it from rising above those other shortcomings.

As I said, there were certain points at which the stylized aesthetic was effective and others at which it fell entirely flat. Some examples, such as the red liquid in a trough that you mentioned, were pleasant insofar as they might have looked cool on a projector screen in an art gallery or as atmospheric eye candy in a music video. Others were basic and uninteresting, such as the simple plays with lighting that anybody with a studio could achieve or the collection of entirely mundane urban shots overlaid in editing to create a sort of cheesy multi-exposure with Johansson's face emerging through the centre. Then there were the recurring void scenes over the course of which the majority demonstrated no greater directorial creativity than one would expect as a minimum on the set of any commercial, but I've already gone over that. The juxtaposition of the black alien and Johansson in her human form within the last of these scenes is worth singling out as particularly hackneyed, though, as if the viewer really needed such heavy-handed imagery rammed down their throats like some rehash of the Jon Snow origins revelation.

Basically put, it became clear throughout my viewing that I was seeing the work of an artist better suited to music videos and advertising and that he simply didn't have the material there to warrant an entire feature.

 
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Old 09-11-2016, 11:57 PM   #176
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I specifically did not find there to be anything brilliant about the final scenes with the hi-vis rapist, but rather considered the entire sequence to be the ultimate cop-out via which the visual mood piece seeks to cheat out a false sense of closure. It was a contrived encounter that ultimately depended upon the antagonist behaving in a manner that did not conform to any pattern of believable motivations or actions and, in doing so, delivered an abrupt conclusion that was significantly more insulting to the viewer than any fictional portrayal of abuse could ever be. Transferring the role of predator from the newly humanized alien to a member of her former victim demographic ought to have been believable and it failed miserably in that regard.

Portrayal of the fish out of water effect was awash with cliché and could easily form a guide to the common tropes of science fiction. Tell me that it was delivered in any more sophisticated a manner than as a simple hodgepodge mix of the following:
- Alien Among Us
- Humanity is Infectious
- Pinocchio Syndrome
- Defector From Decadence
- No Social Skills
- No Sense of Humor

It was Brendan Fraser from Encino Man.

 
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Old 09-12-2016, 10:07 AM   #177
teh b0lly!!1
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Honestly, I don't think it'd be accurate to suggest that my overall disappointment with the film truly stemmed from the poor writing. It was abundantly clear that the film sought to be a visual piece and it was mostly its inconsistency in this regard that kept it from rising above those other shortcomings.

As I said, there were certain points at which the stylized aesthetic was effective and others at which it fell entirely flat. Some examples, such as the red liquid in a trough that you mentioned, were pleasant insofar as they might have looked cool on a projector screen in an art gallery or as atmospheric eye candy in a music video. Others were basic and uninteresting, such as the simple plays with lighting that anybody with a studio could achieve or the collection of entirely mundane urban shots overlaid in editing to create a sort of cheesy multi-exposure with Johansson's face emerging through the centre. Then there were the recurring void scenes over the course of which the majority demonstrated no greater directorial creativity than one would expect as a minimum on the set of any commercial, but I've already gone over that. The juxtaposition of the black alien and Johansson in her human form within the last of these scenes is worth singling out as particularly hackneyed, though, as if the viewer really needed such heavy-handed imagery rammed down their throats like some rehash of the Jon Snow origins revelation.

Basically put, it became clear throughout my viewing that I was seeing the work of an artist better suited to music videos and advertising and that he simply didn't have the material there to warrant an entire feature.
not sure if that was your intention, but this post makes it seem like your complaints are focused at the technical aspects of the film: 'any amateur director\cameraman could have done that stuff', or 'it doesn't showcase an innovative and creative style any more than a perfume commercial'. isn't that a bit like saying that a song sucks because it's only G, D, and C? to me it doesn't really matter if it's reliant on a commercial sense of visual presentation, or if it was simple to execute, because it conveys a certain surreal atmosphere that i liked.

i think the most substantial difference between you and i on this particular movie, is that i went into it not having the slightest idea what i was going to see, expecting nothing. and you went into it expecting it to be mindblowing, after me mentioning it multiple times on here as a great movie.

now, i know it sounds like a banal observation to make, but i find that it really does make all the difference. it's very rare for me to be truly able to enjoy a film, or a piece of music, when i enter that 'judgmental mode', that critic mindset, after hearing a lot about it. you don't get to experience it anymore, because you're too busy examining it (not specifically you ofc, anybody). one starts to look for the stitches, the backstage.

i know that for me there are many types of music, or bands, or songs, or movies, that i like because i just happened to happen upon them when i was in the right mindset for them. not invalidating your criticisms btw, which are fair to be honet; but still, i might argue that had you happened upon this movie not expecting anything at all, perhaps you would have been more impressed by its aesthetics and style.

with that said, this is something that in hindsight, i can agree with:

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Originally Posted by buzzard View Post
I specifically did not find there to be anything brilliant about the final scenes with the hi-vis rapist, but rather considered the entire sequence to be the ultimate cop-out via which the visual mood piece seeks to cheat out a false sense of closure. It was a contrived encounter that ultimately depended upon the antagonist behaving in a manner that did not conform to any pattern of believable motivations or actions and, in doing so, delivered an abrupt conclusion that was significantly more insulting to the viewer than any fictional portrayal of abuse could ever be. Transferring the role of predator from the newly humanized alien to a member of her former victim demographic ought to have been believable and it failed miserably in that regard.
i guess i didn't look at it that way, because as i said, i just got swept by the film and didn't think of it in hardened critical terms like that (which is strange, because i usually do, even if i don't want to). but deconstructing it, you're probably factually right that it was wrenched into the script to neatly conclude the generally blurry tale.

i might rewatch it now. it's been a couple of years.

Last edited by teh b0lly!!1 : 09-12-2016 at 10:16 AM.

 
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Old 09-12-2016, 12:04 PM   #178
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Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1 View Post
now, i know it sounds like a banal observation to make, but i find that it really does make all the difference. it's very rare for me to be truly able to enjoy a film, or a piece of music, when i enter that 'judgmental mode', that critic mindset, after hearing a lot about it. you don't get to experience it anymore, because you're too busy examining it (not specifically you ofc, anybody). one starts to look for the stitches, the backstage.
YOU'LL NEVER GUESS THE TWIST ENDING TO THE USUAL SUSPECTS

 
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Old 09-12-2016, 12:11 PM   #179
teh b0lly!!1
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BRUCE WILLIS WAS DED ALL ALONG

LIK IF YOU CRI EEYRTIME

 
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Old 09-12-2016, 12:22 PM   #180
buzzard
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I didn't intend to suggest that the mere lack of technical ingenuity was responsible for any and all disappointment, but only meant to highlight a few of the ways in which I felt let down by what appeared to be the defining characteristic of the film. Aside from the one or two visually pleasing effects sequences that didn't actually contribute anything specific to anything and could have just as easily served as menus on the Blu-ray release, all we really got was some 2001: A Space Odyssey homage, lights in frame, and the near copying/pasting of some ominous seduction in a product photography vacuum. Excepting the one or two examples I had already singled out for praise, where is it that Glazer is actually meant to have impressed us?

It's also incorrect to suggest that I must have gone into seeing it with particular expectations or any sort of predisposition towards criticism. I've read plenty of your posts about movies and have some awareness of where our differences of opinion might tend to crop up.

 
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