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Leper Residue posted:The elephant in the room bit had me in tears, not every joke hits, but when they do I get a pretty good laugh out of it. I honestly can't think of many other movies recent that I found as funny as 22 jump street. That's what I came away from it thinking too, it may not have had the impact of 21 jump street for some people, but it's still way funnier than most comedies these days. I mean, just compare it to an Adam Sandler film. God, what an unflattering comparison. Anyway, just watched The Imposter (2012), and it's got me thinking about the art of a documentary more than I typically do. I've seen a lot of documentaries and this has easily got to be one of the best I've seen. I tend to think of documentaries as more about information than as films but this one has showed me there's a way to craft an engaging narrative around stuff that actually happened without necessarily misrepresenting the story. I highly recommend it.
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Apr 25, 2015 15:42
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cat doter posted:Anyway, just watched The Imposter (2012), and it's got me thinking about the art of a documentary more than I typically do. I've seen a lot of documentaries and this has easily got to be one of the best I've seen. I tend to think of documentaries as more about information than as films but this one has showed me there's a way to craft an engaging narrative around stuff that actually happened without necessarily misrepresenting the story. I highly recommend it. Have you seen The Act of Killing? I haven't watched the Imposter, but from your description of why you liked it, The Act of Killing would be right up your alley. In fact, if anyone hasn't seen The Act of Killing yet, you really should. It takes one of the most wild ideas for a movie I've ever heard, and just runs with it. It's bizarre, disgusting, heartbreaking, and more. One of my absolute favorites from the past couple years.
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Apr 25, 2015 16:11
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F for Fake is a cool documentary-art-film hybrid kind of a thing. Hulu Plus should have it.
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Apr 25, 2015 16:22
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DeimosRising posted:Something weird is up with it, it's not as simple it being fixed or not. I remember at one point someone in this thread posted that they had literally just tried to watch Barton Fink the aspect ratio was hosed up, but then when I loaded it a few seconds later it was fine. I don't know if it's a region thing or what. I think part of the issue is that the film has an aspect ratio that's not seen very often. So it's wider than 4:3 but it's narrower than 16:9, so if you haven't watched a lot of movies made before around 1965 or so, you might be confused about how it looked.
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Apr 25, 2015 16:46
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X-Ray Pecs posted:Have you seen The Act of Killing? I haven't watched the Imposter, but from your description of why you liked it, The Act of Killing would be right up your alley. It's an incredible film, featuring some really hosed up people. Im not even sure I can say I enjoyed watching it, because it's hosed up, but it is a really really well made documentary that leaves a lasting impression.
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Apr 25, 2015 16:58
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The Time Dissolver posted:F for Fake is a cool documentary-art-film hybrid kind of a thing. Hulu Plus should have it. I just rewatched this recently and it holds up very well. Just fantastic.
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Apr 25, 2015 17:40
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F Stop Fitzgerald posted:They Came Together is peak David Wain. The poster is misleading, but if anyone liked Wet Hot American Summer or Stella, I can't imagine they wouldn't like this. When Paul Rudd visits his grandma I legit could not stop laughing.
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Apr 25, 2015 21:22
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Finished it last night and I thought it was really funny. Not quite on par with WHAS but if you can handle really stupid humor, it's stupid humor done well.
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Apr 25, 2015 21:26
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Just so you know the final season of Sons of Anarchy is up on Netflix. It's an awful show but I suggest you watch the last 5 minutes of the finale to watch Vic Mackey cream Jax with a semi truck . It's so poorly done. The money shot of the entire series so so loving awful. It's the worst.
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Apr 25, 2015 22:19
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I guess it says something about the show that I saw 3 or 4 seasons at least, and still don't know who Vic Mackey is without looking it up. In my mind's eye, I was seeing Unger behind the wheel of that semi though, which almost totally makes up for the scar that is me still remembering the show's writer jerking off on camera. Edit: goddamnit I even knew it was the dude from The Shield. Would still rather have Unger behind the wheel. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Apr 26, 2015 |
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Apr 26, 2015 00:03
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Gen chat cross-post: Starry Eyes is pretty loving stupid.
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Apr 26, 2015 02:05
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Counter-point: Is it, though?
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Apr 26, 2015 02:53
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Viginti posted:Counter-point: Is it, though? Yeah, it is. It's a casting couch horror story that predicates all its tension on the one-dimensional desperations of its protagonist, and where the villains do literally nothing to disguise their sadistic, parasitic motives. It's just a rarified version of a cliche that's been punted around by exploitation filmmakers for decades, using threadbare moralizing to excuse exactly the sort of salacious sadism and exploitation it pretends it's satirizing.
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Apr 26, 2015 03:24
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K. Waste posted:Yeah, it is. It's a casting couch horror story that predicates all its tension on the one-dimensional desperations of its protagonist, and where the villains do literally nothing to disguise their sadistic, parasitic motives. It's just a rarified version of a cliche that's been punted around by exploitation filmmakers for decades, using threadbare moralizing to excuse exactly the sort of salacious sadism and exploitation it pretends it's satirizing. when you call it "casting couch", that means what, exactly?
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Apr 26, 2015 03:39
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Chichevache posted:when you call it "casting couch", that means what, exactly? Literal casting couch, as in the old cliche (actually true I'm sure at certain points in history) that you had to gently caress studio execs to get a role as a leading lady in Hollywood. It wasn't a life changing film or anything but I felt it was a pretty decent use of my time. The very end was pretty lame though.
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Apr 26, 2015 03:43
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Chichevache posted:when you call it "casting couch", that means what, exactly? The old canard about aspiring actresses sleeping their way to the top. It's Betty's audition from Mulholland Drive but ten times longer and worse.
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Apr 26, 2015 03:44
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X-Ray Pecs posted:Have you seen The Act of Killing? I haven't watched the Imposter, but from your description of why you liked it, The Act of Killing would be right up your alley. Yeah, I have seen it actually, but what I meant about The Imposter is it does an amazing job of taking a story that already exists and crafting an almost perfectly paced screenplay, and they didn't have gently caress up the story and tell a bunch of half truths and lies. I think there's a reason people have called it stuff like "white knuckle" and "exciting as a hollywood thriller" because it very intentionally finds the most satisfying way to craft the narrative around the real events. It's great. Don't get me wrong, The Act of Killing is loving remarkable I just think The Imposter is a little more deft, if that makes sense.
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Apr 26, 2015 03:44
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:The old canard about aspiring actresses sleeping their way to the top. It's Betty's audition from Mulholland Drive but ten times longer and worse. This. All of the abstraction in Starry Eyes is just a hack's version of the surrealism in Mulholland Drive. The thing is that with Mulholland Drive, Lynch cares a loving lot about the viewer understanding why Betty/Diane fall in love with the Hollywood dream, that you sympathize with her perspective by seeing that while the casualties of the industry are terrifying, the sheer visual and musical might that this produces is equally compelling. Kölsch and Widmyer have zero sense of this. They don't care about their protagonist beyond her being a self-destructive waif who allows the passive-aggressive bullying of one woman (another one-dimensional exploitation film caricature, this time of the jealous oval office) to push her into 'selling her soul' to a trio of filmmakers who are framed as unambiguously sleazy from the get-go. Combine this with the film's cheap production value (there's no difference between watching the scene in which she dreams of her audition, and watching it as if it's just another cheaply staged scene), and you actually have something that strains the credulity of the viewer even more than a god drat David Lynch movie. It's a dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb movie.
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Apr 26, 2015 04:11
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Holy cow, I just found two new movies on Netflix that look fantastic. The Canal. I'm only 20 minutes into it, but if it's any indication, I have high hopes. Moody, dark, spooky ghosty, no stupid jump scares, just scary spooky poo poo. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Very beautifully shot black and white foreign vampire movie. This isn't Blade, it's not even Dracula. It's even slower than Let The RIght One In. But there's something about it. I also haven't finished this one either - it was going too slowly for me right now, but I plan to return to it, even if the movie is super light on chit chat and long on perfect shots. High hopes for both of these!
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Apr 26, 2015 04:22
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I don't think I could cope having two half-watched movies just sitting there, you're a braver all-star team than me Magnificent7. As for Starry Eyes, I have seen it -though it was a while ago, so I don't remember too many details - and despite having some issues with it I thought that there was more to it than you suggest. In fact I probably thought that there was too much to it in the end; the initial idea of a horror movie about Hollywood ambition - where we see how far she is willing to go for a role, not just if she is willing to sleep with a creepy guy, but if she is willing to literally destroy her old self and old life for the opportunity - is hokey but novel enough, then the body horror starts and sort of sends things off course into gore over dread and I lost interest until the Kill-List cribbed finale. So it's not a great horror movie, but you don't have to scroll far on Netflix to find hordes of far stupider fare that doesn't even try to have a unique theme or metaphor at its core.
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Apr 26, 2015 04:36
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K. Waste posted:This. All of the abstraction in Starry Eyes is just a hack's version of the surrealism in Mulholland Drive. The thing is that with Mulholland Drive, Lynch cares a loving lot about the viewer understanding why Betty/Diane fall in love with the Hollywood dream, that you sympathize with her perspective by seeing that while the casualties of the industry are terrifying, the sheer visual and musical might that this produces is equally compelling. The thing that makes Betty's audition work is that Lynch is playing a joke on his own style: he's telling you that whatever you're watching is a deliberate choice. When she does it "for real", she doesn't blow the producers away, she seduces them. So even in that little scene, you have a complex story being told. She isn't going to get the part, but may be solicited for sexual favors with possible promises that she'll get the part. Starry Eyes not only takes like 40 minutes just to set that up, but stumbles into the second act in the most guileless way possible.
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Apr 26, 2015 04:40
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I also didn't care at all for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, so maybe I'm just in a pissy mood today. Or maybe it's because I've been watching Kenneth Anger and everything else looks poo poo by contrast. Yves Saint Laurent, on the other hand, is an understated romantic biopic that I found thoroughly pleasant.
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Apr 26, 2015 05:23
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Dear Netflix, please take Noah away and bring back Pi thank you.
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Apr 26, 2015 06:36
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Nah, Noah is better than Pi. edit: Neither is as good as The Fountain, though.
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Apr 26, 2015 06:44
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or Black Swan
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Apr 26, 2015 06:51
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Pi shits all over The Fountain 
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Apr 26, 2015 06:56
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Pi can't poo poo all over anything. It's caught somewhere between Clerks and Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I also don't think Requiem for a Dream is such hot poo poo. Come at me.
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Apr 26, 2015 07:15
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Well Black Swan is way better than The Fountain but I feel like even Black Swan wouldn't be what it was if Pi/Requiem hadn't come before it.
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Apr 26, 2015 07:18
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Luckily, Aronofsky became a better filmmaker over time, so I don't have to worry about what came first but wasn't as good as what came after.
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Apr 26, 2015 07:27
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K. Waste posted:Luckily, Aronofsky became a better filmmaker over time, so I don't have to worry about what came first but wasn't as good as what came after. This is almost the exact opposite of true. The Wrestler>The Fountain& Pi>Requiem>Noah & Black Swan
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Apr 26, 2015 08:10
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drunken officeparty posted:This is almost the exact opposite of true. pfft black swan is his best after the wrestler, you cray
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Apr 26, 2015 08:39
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Black Swan and The Wrestler were both pretty underwhelming
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Apr 26, 2015 13:03
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:Black Swan and The Wrestler were noth pretty underwhelming Don't go back on that previous statement.
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Apr 26, 2015 13:04
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Don't go back on that previous statement. i decided it wasn't fair as i haven't seen Noah and i barely remember Pi. and i'm probably being a little hard on The Fountain. (for the record, my previous statement was "Requiem for a Dream is his only film that's particularly good")
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Apr 26, 2015 13:11
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More to the point it is insane.
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Apr 26, 2015 13:18
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:More to the point it is insane. well i did go back on it
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Apr 26, 2015 13:36
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Pi gets better every time I watch it. It's so different to his recent films that I don't feel like comparing them, but I do think The Wrestler is his best film. Mostly due to Mickey Rourke's acting, though.
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Apr 26, 2015 18:13
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K. Waste posted:Pi can't poo poo all over anything. It's caught somewhere between Clerks and Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
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Apr 26, 2015 18:23
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precision posted:Pi gets better every time I watch it. It's so different to his recent films that I don't feel like comparing them, but I do think The Wrestler is his best film. Mostly due to Mickey Rourke's acting, though. People always forget Marisa Tomei, who was phenomenal in that.
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Apr 26, 2015 18:39
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I'm watching natural born killers for the first time. What an odd movie.
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Apr 26, 2015 18:55
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