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Franchescanado posted:Burn After Reading is pretty meta for a Coen Bros. movie. It's everything that makes a Coen Bros. movie a Coen Bros. movie, but exaggerated into absurdity. Its definitely more absurd and exaggerated, but I would call the "typical" Cohen Bros. style meta to begin with. Stuff like Blood Simple and Fargo, where they use standard noir situations but then subvert the expectations that those situations would typically set up. Like in Fargo, where the father goes to pay the ransom and instead of ending up in a dramatic stand-off or an exciting chase, he's unceremoniously and brutally killed. The ending of Blood Simple is similar, with the big bad hitman getting taken down by blind luck.
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Nov 29, 2016 16:16
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Basebf555 posted:Its definitely more absurd and exaggerated, but I would call the "typical" Cohen Bros. style meta to begin with. Stuff like Blood Simple and Fargo, where they use standard noir situations but then subvert the expectations that those situations would typically set up. I agree, they are pretty meta, but this time they're meta with their own material instead of an outside source/genre. Consider how Burn After Reading handles those same subversions: Anyone who has an altercation does it without knowing why they're having an altercation. When Brad Pitt meets George Clooney, his head is blown off immediately--typical Coen hyper-violence, but completely out of nowhere, without reason (it was a surprise/accident). Or when John Malkovich hacks away at Richard Jenkins with a hatchet, he is drunk, paranoid, and pretty much confused with anger. It's also important that this is the "final moment of violence" that punctuates the denouement of most Coen movies, but instead of a wood chipper, a battle outside of a bowling alley, a flood, a fire, a car accident, a tornado, anything sensational or Act-of-God, it is a distant shot of a man attacking another man. It's still very violent, the sound effects are still there, but it's muted and we are removed from it. They take the concept of a running joke and literally turn it into a running joke about George Clooney running. Frances McDormand is usually considered the heroine or a romantic interest. In BAR, she's neither. Ultimately she's the crux of villainy, and she's used in an affair, and she is "aged" and vain. And after this movie, she's hasn't been used in that type of role again. There's no real overall conspiracy, everyone is just selfish and too ignorant to see the answers are in front of them the whole time The movie ends with a punchline that not only emphasizes the movie's playful theme of absurdity, but can be used to summarize most of their movies (especially post-BAR movies that heavily deal with knowledge/understanding/absurdity): CIA Superior: What did we learn, Palmer? CIA Officer: I don't know, sir. CIA Superior: I don't fuckin' know either. I guess we learned not to do it again. CIA Officer: Yes, sir. CIA Superior: I'm hosed if I know what we did. CIA Officer: Yes, sir, it's, uh, hard to say CIA Superior: Jesus loving Christ. I'm sure there's a lot more to make a stronger argument, but it's been a few years. I'll rewatch it soon and reconsider.
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Nov 29, 2016 16:45
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Franchescanado posted:I agree, they are pretty meta, but this time they're meta with their own material instead of an outside source/genre. Consider how Burn After Reading handles those same subversions: Burn After Reading cracks me the gently caress up, and your post just reminded me of that. Thanks.
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Nov 29, 2016 16:51
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BAR is great because it's all a setup for that punchline
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Nov 29, 2016 17:06
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I see what you mean, Burn After Reading is them turning the meta onto their own work, which they've never done before. They basically invented their own subgenre, so BAR is the Coen Bros. doing a Coen Bros. version of a Coen Bros. movie. Very interesting, I never looked at it that way.
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Nov 29, 2016 17:18
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MeatwadIsGod posted:The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has the best Pitt performance. And the best performance of basically every other principal actor in it. It's like Amadeus or Network that way. I love Sam Rockwell in just about everything he does, and he has some great moments in this one, no doubt. But I don't understand why the narrator makes a point to mention James' constant blinking, yet Pitt almost never blinks in the entire movie. It seems a strange decision by either Pitt or the director.
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Nov 29, 2016 18:28
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Basebf555 posted:The ending of Blood Simple is similar, with the big bad hitman getting taken down by blind luck. Do you mean No Country for Old Men? Or maybe Blood Simple ends that way too and I just forgot.
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Nov 29, 2016 18:45
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TychoCelchuuu posted:Just watched this movie and it's amazing, but no, Brad Pitt's character isn't illiterate, is he? He literally reads something from a computer screen at one point. One of the main features of illiterate people is that they can't read. Just barely. He only says single words, and covers it up with a lot of "and poo poo, and spy poo poo"-type talk. Maybe "barely literate" is better? When he's holding the note in the "good Samaritan" scene to Malkovich, he has to sound out the words. I dunno. Either way, even after O Brother, I still enjoyed BAR in last night's double feature.
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Nov 29, 2016 18:47
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Did anyone catch season 3 of the Fall? How was it?
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Nov 29, 2016 18:48
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deoju posted:Do you mean No Country for Old Men? Or maybe Blood Simple ends that way too and I just forgot. Well, maybe not quite the same level of blind luck, but in Blood Simple Visser gets killed via panicked shots through a doorway fired by a complete amateur.
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Nov 29, 2016 19:01
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:Because it's an amazing movie? That's a common misconception, it's actually Brad Pitt himself who is illiterate. The scenes where his character is struggling were re-writes that he didn't have time to get coached through.
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Nov 29, 2016 19:59
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Edminster posted:That's a common misconception, it's actually Brad Pitt himself who is illiterate. The scenes where his character is struggling were re-writes that he didn't have time to get coached through. True story from the Coen Bros. themselves: When approached for the role, Brad Pitt said "I really want to work with you guys, but I don't know. I don't know how I could play a character so stupid. How do I play someone this stupid?" Joel looks at Ethan, Ethan looks at Joel, and in unison, they say to Brad, "You'll be fine." Brad Pitt accepted the role without any further questions.
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Nov 29, 2016 20:15
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Sand Monster posted:I love Sam Rockwell in just about everything he does, and he has some great moments in this one, no doubt. But I don't understand why the narrator makes a point to mention James' constant blinking, yet Pitt almost never blinks in the entire movie. It seems a strange decision by either Pitt or the director. It is odd that he actually doesn't blink at all even during that narration, whereas later in the film the narrator is basically describing what Casey Affleck is doing.
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Nov 29, 2016 20:41
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Boosh! posted:Did anyone catch season 3 of the Fall? How was it? It's slow, not a whole lot happens, and the central Spector has amnesia plot is pretty contrived, but I actually enjoyed it overall. Thought it was an understated, intelligent look at the psychology of the characters and the effects of trauma.
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Nov 29, 2016 20:55
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Boosh! posted:Did anyone catch season 3 of the Fall? How was it? I think there's been mixed reaction here on SA, but in general I enjoyed it and felt things were wrapped up in a satisfying way. I don't want to say too much about the season, but the scope is much different than the first two seasons. It's more about the characters grappling with the aftershocks of the preceding events and trying to achieve their own desired ends to the story.
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Nov 29, 2016 21:00
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:Just barely. He only says single words, and covers it up with a lot of "and poo poo, and spy poo poo"-type talk. Maybe "barely literate" is better? When he's holding the note in the "good Samaritan" scene to Malkovich, he has to sound out the words. I dunno.
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Nov 29, 2016 21:06
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 Fuller House Season 2 is out next week!
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Nov 29, 2016 21:36
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Boosh! posted:Did anyone catch season 3 of the Fall? How was it? I really enjoyed it. Still very slow, but it's so well cast and written for what it is.
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Nov 29, 2016 22:34
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wa27 posted:
Speaking of disappointments, I watched I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House last night. It looks amazing, but it turns out a horror movie needs more than really great interior shots of a 19th century Pennsylvania house to keep things moving along.
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Nov 29, 2016 23:23
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Sarchasm posted:Speaking of disappointments, I watched I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House last night. It looks amazing, but it turns out a horror movie needs more than really great interior shots of a 19th century Pennsylvania house to keep things moving along. I only got a few minutes in before shutting this off. The voiceover beginning was really grating for some reason.
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Nov 29, 2016 23:43
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Sarchasm posted:Speaking of disappointments, I watched I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House last night. It looks amazing, but it turns out a horror movie needs more than really great interior shots of a 19th century Pennsylvania house to keep things moving along. Oddly your post actually made me more interested. Great interior shots are my favorite part of Lords of Salem, for instance.
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Nov 29, 2016 23:43
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Re: Burn After Reading - The way I interpreted it was the Coens basically going 'what if we take everybody's expectations and flip it on its head?'. The main characters are generally unlikable and behave like people who watch too much bad tv. The CIA and the Russians generally have no idea what's going on and are playing catch up to the whirlwind of drama these terrible people are creating. Even the ending is a non-ending of the cia director going 'welp, let clooney go to venezuela and pay for Linda's plastic surgery'. Which is funny when you think that the two dumb but innocent characters (Brad Pitt/Ted) end up getting murdered thanks to her. Everybody's fate is the inverse of how they behaved. Linda got the only thing that mattered to her (plastic surgery), Katie got the money/house, Clooney got to escape to Venezuela, Malkovich ended up in a coma, Brad Pitt got shot in the head and Ted got beaten to death with a hammer. But I really need to give it another watch now that it's on Netflix.
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Nov 30, 2016 01:36
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tetrapyloctomy posted:I only got a few minutes in before shutting this off. The voiceover beginning was really grating for some reason. I did the exact same thing. Everything about it was so hammy and melodramatic I couldn't even make it ten minutes.
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Nov 30, 2016 01:45
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I just started The Night Manager on prime and god drat it's really good. It's a John Le Carre adaptation spread out into a miniseries to give you an idea what you're in for. Tom Huddleston & Hugh Laurie star.
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Nov 30, 2016 02:18
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I really like Clooneys acting in it. And Brad. Every Coen movie has technically good acting, it's just everything else about them that are terrible pieces of garbage.
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Nov 30, 2016 02:38
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Basebf555 posted:Oddly your post actually made me more interested. Great interior shots are my favorite part of Lords of Salem, for instance. I'll be curious to see if that's enough for you. There's definitely a contingent of people who seem to enjoy the movie, maybe this one's right up your alley.
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Nov 30, 2016 02:45
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In a lot of ways, one of the reasons I liked A Serious Man so much was that it felt like an extension of the lesson learned at the end of Burn After Reading (namely, that sometimes nothing makes sense).
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Nov 30, 2016 02:55
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precision posted:In a lot of ways, one of the reasons I liked A Serious Man so much was that it felt like an extension of the lesson learned at the end of Burn After Reading (namely, that sometimes nothing makes sense). Somebody (possibly one of you guys) summed up the theme of A Serious Man beautifully: "You think god is loving with you? No, you'll know when god is loving with you." Cut to huge tornado ripping its way toward you.
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Nov 30, 2016 04:03
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Sarchasm posted:Speaking of disappointments, I watched I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House last night. It looks amazing, but it turns out a horror movie needs more than really great interior shots of a 19th century Pennsylvania house to keep things moving along. It seemed like they couldn't settle on one particular tone. At first they went with that slow-burn mysterious build-up, but then they went ahead and spoiled it by pretty much spelling out the entire backstory in detail. And the central threat really wasn't scary just on its own for a more in-your-face style of horror. Hell, I almost burst out laughing when they finally showed it, it seemed so out of place. They really lean on those narrated sections to create a spooky atmosphere, but frankly the writing used for those is really not that good nor scary. And last but not least, for the big climactic scene they used the the old "character looks towards the camera, is startled by something behind them and turns around, when they turn back the scary thing is actually in front of them" thing. You could see that one coming from a mile away and it pretty much drained all impact from the scene. tetrapyloctomy posted:I only got a few minutes in before shutting this off. The voiceover beginning was really grating for some reason. Yeah, whatever reverb-y effect they used for that one was oddly unpleasant to the ears. Perestroika fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Nov 30, 2016 |
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Nov 30, 2016 12:33
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Halt And Catch Fire is on Prime here in the UK and is an amazing watch. Binged it in a week. It helps that Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis are beautiful people. Black Mirror on Netflix is good too.
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Nov 30, 2016 13:45
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Why do people complain about Netflix's selection, it has everything you need
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Dec 1, 2016 14:41
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It seems like they added Boyhood kind of quietly on Netflix. I feel like it was both better and worse than I was expecting simultaneously. The passage of time effect is obviously unique (excluding the Up documentaries) and just an extraordinary accomplishment. It really works in some ways, but the lack of a finished script I think hurt the cause. The loose, philosophical dialogue isn't inconsistent with some of Linklater's other work that I loved, so maybe I just need to watch it a few more times.
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Dec 1, 2016 15:13
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Pervert Place on Netflix is a documentary about a trailer park for post-prison sex offenders in Florida. It makes you feel bad and empathize with some of their stories and then there's this one goony looking guy who "got frustrated" at his girlfriend so he "made a mistake" and drove hours to Mexico and swiped a 5 year old girl off the street because he "couldn't find the red light district for a prostitute" and raped her 
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Dec 1, 2016 15:29
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drunken officeparty posted:Pervert Place on Netflix is a documentary about a trailer park for post-prison sex offenders in Florida. It makes you feel bad and empathize with some of their stories and then there's this one goony looking guy who "got frustrated" at his girlfriend so he "made a mistake" and drove hours to Mexico and swiped a 5 year old girl off the street because he "couldn't find the red light district for a prostitute" and raped her Yeah I watched that last year, I think... as a double bill with The Great Happiness Space (which is still on Netflix I believe). fishtobaskets posted:It seems like they added Boyhood kind of quietly on Netflix. I feel like it was both better and worse than I was expecting simultaneously. Same. I love Richard Linklater and it was definitely an interesting way to make a film but the actual subject matter was a bit TOO banal.
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Dec 1, 2016 17:51
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Erebus posted:Why do people complain about Netflix's selection, it has everything you need
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Dec 1, 2016 18:15
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Do not watch Mistress America on HBO Now. It makes Tiny Furniture look good. There are many line readings where I am pretty sure the actresses involved were thinking "I can't believe I have to say this poo poo with a straight face" and it shows on their faces. Holy wow what a turd of everything wrong and precious about indie films. It's basically a feature length iPhone commercial, which also has regular length iPhone commercials in it, like the scene where the Free Spirit gets called onstage (in a CLUB in MANHATTAN whoah!) to hang out with Kings of Leon or some horse poo poo band. I even briefly had my hopes up when I saw Dean Wareham did some of the music but then I remembered what the last few Luna albums sounded like.
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Dec 1, 2016 20:51
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precision posted:
Pervert Place: The Great Happiness Space would be the most amazing film in the world. Or perhaps it's already a manga.
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Dec 1, 2016 22:05
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fishtobaskets posted:It seems like they added Boyhood kind of quietly on Netflix. I feel like it was both better and worse than I was expecting simultaneously. The passage of time effect is obviously unique (excluding the Up documentaries) and just an extraordinary accomplishment. It really works in some ways, but the lack of a finished script I think hurt the cause. The loose, philosophical dialogue isn't inconsistent with some of Linklater's other work that I loved, so maybe I just need to watch it a few more times. The movie itself isn't really anything special but there is definitely something there when you're reaching the end and you realize holy poo poo this character was literally eight only 3 hours ago.
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Dec 1, 2016 22:11
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Boyhood was great but I can see how someone would think it was banal. I thought it did a great job of capturing quite a few life moments that I haven't seen other movies take on. It has a clear understanding for the character at all those different phases of life. The scene when he's 13ish and his friends are trying to impress the older brother in particular. It's funny without making fun of pre/early teens.
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Dec 1, 2016 22:20
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magnificent7 posted:Pervert Place: The Great Happiness Space would be the most amazing film in the world. Pervert Place: The Great Happiness Space is actually the Japanese title for My Little Lover.
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Dec 1, 2016 23:56
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