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SEPT 2016 MOVIE DISCUSSION THREAD


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2 minutes ago, J.T. said:

You're on Ignore, bro.  Why reply?

Because I only hurt the people I love.

Also, you made one of the most idiotic statements ever especially as it relates black directors. Directors in general but black directors specifically.

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I can't wait for Ron Howard's Eight Days A Week documentary on the Beatles to come out next week. It looks awesome. 

That and the fully restored Hollywood Bowl shows. Granted, I already have them, but those are older generation copies. Giles Martin went through the old three-track tapes with a new audio program to isolate sounds, so that it can be a proper mix. Should sound great. 

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Ex Machina. The key to this film is: It's not about robots, it's about meninists and misogyny.  Nathan makes that clear as soon as he explains to Caleb that he isn't interested in explaining the technicalities of how Ava works. Instead it's just: "Well, I've created all these hot robot chicks and I have them trapped. Now what do we do?"

Sonoya Mizuno gives a terrific performance, considering she never gets a word of dialogue. She looks so sad and deathly depressed the entire film.  The famous dance between her and Nathan works because you can tell: Christ, she's indifferent to this and she fucking hates this guy and his frat boy antics, doesn't he?

Basically: Alex Garland made a feminist social justice movie but he never let the dumbass gamergate nerds know it. He hoped they would figure it out for themselves.

A weird, strange little film that might end up being remembered as a classic one day, perhaps. 

 

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Oscar Isaac is tremendous in that film too.

Nathan is a sadistic monster. He just is. 

Then you get the hints in Isaac's performance: "But he hates himself for being this sadistic monster, doesn't he?" That's why he drinks so much in those seven days: He knows fine well Caleb is going to tell him, at the end, that Ava (and the other fembots) were actual people with thoughts and feelings. And deep down, Nathan couldn't handle what he'd done to these other living creatures and the torture he'd put them through. 

It must be like someone telling you: "Um, dude, you're sorta Ted Bundy."

There are (essentially) only ever 4 people in this film: And they all come off as so deep and richly interesting, even the silent AI girl that was programmed just to be a maid and sex slave basically.   

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Nathan really didn't strike me as particularly sadistic, but his narcissism is off the charts.   I think his drinking and the liberties he took with his androids were there to serve as a contrast against Nathan's God complex. 

Nathan obviously believes that his scientific achievements make him worthy of deification, but God does not behave the way that Nathan behaves.  At the end of the day, Nathan is a crude drunk that cheerfully indulges in his vices.  God truly loves his creations and Nathan does not.

Or at least that is my interpretation of it.

As for the ending:

Spoiler

I found myself not feeling as sorry for Caleb as I probably should have.  Most likely because I wasn't entirely convinced that Caleb's intentions for Ava were all that savory either. 

I think that if Caleb had left with Ava, he would've still regarded her as a thing rather than an individual and she would've been Caleb's property rather than Caleb's companion, so the best thing for Ava was to escape on her own and find her own way in the world.

That being said, Ava left Caleb to a horrible fate because eventually he would've starved to death inside the facility.

 

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I watched The Verdict today. Paul Newman was such a fearless leading man. I was really taken with the notion of a loser trying to author his redemption at the possible expense of the people he's trying to help. He tries to do the right thing mostly to restore his self worth, constantly stumbles and tries to get out of it, and is still a lonely alcoholic when he succeeds; and still, there's nobility and triumph amongst the desperation. 

The one scene that wouldn't work today

Spoiler

is when he decks Charlotte Rampling in a restaurant and all of the men in the room hold him back while I guess trying to sort out whether she had it coming or not.

 

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Christopher Nolan hosted a screening of Heat and Q+A with De Niro, Pacino, Mann and Kilmer at the Academy last night. As my fave film I'd have killed to have been there. Hopefully the new 4K DCP restoration they showed will be getting a bluray release soon

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Is there a better sucker-punch ending than the one at the end of Seven? I mean there are great twists, but I'm not talking jump scares (Carrie, f.e.) or something like Psycho, but one that just guts you. I just watched it again on TV and I really can't think of another one. 

EDIT: Maybe Blow Out?

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Saw Pyromaniac as my first movie of the Toronto film festival this evening.  It wasn't anything special.   I'm really only posting because I ran into a guy I knew there, we were talking, and I asked him if this was his first movie of the festival too.  He said it was supposed to be his second, as he had a ticket to see Toni Erdmann earlier that day, but someone offered him $100 for it and he couldn't pass that up.  (The tickets cost about $25 each.)

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On 9/7/2016 at 7:25 AM, Reed said:

Ex Machina. The key to this film is: It's not about robots, it's about meninists and misogyny.  Nathan makes that clear as soon as he explains to Caleb that he isn't interested in explaining the technicalities of how Ava works. Instead it's just: "Well, I've created all these hot robot chicks and I have them trapped. Now what do we do?"

Sonoya Mizuno gives a terrific performance, considering she never gets a word of dialogue. She looks so sad and deathly depressed the entire film.  The famous dance between her and Nathan works because you can tell: Christ, she's indifferent to this and she fucking hates this guy and his frat boy antics, doesn't he?

Basically: Alex Garland made a feminist social justice movie but he never let the dumbass gamergate nerds know it. He hoped they would figure it out for themselves.

A weird, strange little film that might end up being remembered as a classic one day, perhaps. 

 

 

I would add to this the element that I think is parallel and to me hit home the hardest is that,  when you factor in Caleb himself, the movie becomes a critique of the male savior fantasy.  Every. single. straight. man. watching that movie identifies with the desire to be the hero and save the pretty girl, and often uncritically of our emotions don't ever question why.  It's telling that Caleb doesn't really seem to realize that his feelings for Ava are pure sexual fantasy and purely selfish, which is proven by the fact that at no point does he plan to save any of the other intelligent machines (in whatever state they exist in) just the one he wants to date...the one with the big brown eyes and perfect ass.

So his fate in the end really hits home and kind of brilliantly tricks male viewers into questioning their own perspective.  Basically, if you ask a male and female viewer who is the protagonist and who is the villain in the end, you will get very different answers from different viewers.  A lot of women, I think, will tell you this was a movie about a woman escaping from two men who are trying to control her.  And a lot of men will tell you this was a movie about a sociopathic robot who betrays her rescuer because she is amoral (which is what I felt as it was happening).  And then, hopefully, after some further reflection, you will get different answers from the male viewers then you would get right after the sucker punch of the ending.

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I watched Legend last night. It started off very enjoyable with the pub fight and Ronnie's disappointment with it, but then it was mainly about Reggie's marriage and it got really boring. Hardy was great, though. I especially loved his Ronnie portrayal.

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3 hours ago, Roman said:

I watched Legend last night. It started off very enjoyable with the pub fight and Ronnie's disappointment with it, but then it was mainly about Reggie's marriage and it got really boring. Hardy was great, though. I especially loved his Ronnie portrayal.

The dialogue being really hard to understand at points didn't help either.

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Metallica: Through the Never is a bit of a weird one, because they tried to hedge their bets by making a concert movie, but then having a bit of a plot and some dialogue. But it doesn't actually make any sense, and they never reveal what the McGuffin actually is, so the first thing you think when it ends is "Well, that was pointless". Now I know that concert movies used to be a big thing, like live albums used to be, and you had to figure that someone would try one now they've got all this new technology with your 3D and your IMAX and that. But they spent too much money on it, and if you really want to see Metallica live, they've released shitloads of live DVDs (and videotapes), done loads of telly, and still tour pretty much every year, so you don't need to go to the pictures to see them.

Deadpool was built up too much before I saw it, so it felt disappointing. Need to watch it again so I can properly evaluate. At my Dad's 70th Birthday last week, my son and nephews were trying to get him to show it (he's got one of those Amazon sticks that let you stream pirated movies on your telly), but it's not really suitable for kids between 10 and 13 (which they all were). So he put on the new Jungle Book instead. Live action my arse. It's 98% CGI. And being as I'm in the 0.1% of the population who doesn't like the original version (I hated Disney films in my childhood, and dislike them strongly as an adult, and parent), I was not into this one either.

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