clintthecrippler Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 watched Drinking Buddies last night. White People Problems: the Movie. Between this and Francis Ha, I have no idea what the hell is going on with indie movies these days. No shit. Haven't seen Frances Ha yet, but had to turn off Drinking Buddies after 15 minutes because my brain started screaming "I don't care about any of this!" And this is coming from someone that likes Prince Avalanche and Computer Chess, so it's not like I'm completely predisposed to not like the current indie aesthetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antacular Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 The "it's-not-the-historical-accuracy-that-matters-it's-the-message" is the go-to cop-out for nonbelievers who still want to attract those otherwise disinclined to their works.Seems to be a "cop-out" that works more than if doesn't. Wonder why that is?Because saying "it's a bullshit story that I thought would make for a good movie" would alienate a portion of the audience. And honestly, WTF is the "meaning" of the Noah story? God created the earth, realized he fucked up, and destroyed almost everything. The obvious implication is that God is fallable. But clearly THAT can't be it. So the director tiptoes around it because we all remember the protests surrounding Dogma. Not to sidetrack, but from a historical POV, the purpose of the Noah story is obvious: As director said, in pre-flood times in the bible you had all sorts of creatures roaming the earth. Yet at the time of the old testament's authorship, these creatures weren't around (because ***SPOILER*** they never existed). The flood story, as told in other creation myths, was a way to reconcile the earlier parts of Genesis with the way the earth appeared as when authored. Basically, Noah is the first retcon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Ha, that reminds me. Dogma was the first and only movie I had to walk by protesters to see. It was fucking weird. I was all ready to argue back but when the time came I just wanted to go into the movie because it felt so uncomfortable and stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 watched Drinking Buddies last night. White People Problems: the Movie. Between this and Francis Ha, I have no idea what the hell is going on with indie movies these days. You probably shouldn't try watching Lost in Translation then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 watched Drinking Buddies last night. White People Problems: the Movie. Between this and Francis Ha, I have no idea what the hell is going on with indie movies these days.That movie sucked. I think I gave it a 3 or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 watched Drinking Buddies last night. White People Problems: the Movie. Between this and Francis Ha, I have no idea what the hell is going on with indie movies these days. I was all prepared to hate 'Frances Ha' and was fairly bored the first twenty-thirty minutes into the film, then it gradually won me over and I actually really ended up enjoying it. I hate the "White People Problems" talking point/meme. I mean, does that make 'For Colored Girls' 'Black People Problems'? Nah, it's just a shitty movie, whether they're black or white. It's a dumb talking point. If it's a good movie, or a bad movie, it should be that on its own merits, the colour of the skin/nationality shouldn't be a thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antacular Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 "Uncomfortable and stupid" is about how I'd characterize every Smith film since Dogma. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 watched Drinking Buddies last night. White People Problems: the Movie. Between this and Francis Ha, I have no idea what the hell is going on with indie movies these days.That movie sucked. I think I gave it a 3 or something. I enjoyed it, but I really like Jake Johnson, and I got the vibe it was trying to present. The biggest issue with the movie is you never got a sense that it was going anywhere, and it was just so laid back that it meandered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 We saw Grand Budapest Hotel today. If you like Wes Anderson movies, you'll like this. It has his incredible eye for detail and signature touches and his very silly (in a good way) style of dialogue. I liked it better than Dajeering Limited (which I thought was okay) and Life Aquatic (I thought that sucked) but not as much as his best movies. I'll go Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Bottle Rocket, GBH, Darjeering and Life Aquatic in that order.If you don't like Wes Anderson, then you won't like this at all.I also just saw American Hustle. That was a really fun con movie. I didn't think it was classic or anything -- it relied too much on hair and outdated fashion gags -- but it was a fun time and the kind of thing I'll watch on TV if it's on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Sheldon Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 RED DRAGON is on BBC America right now, and, wow, it's almost impossible to watch now, in the wake of the superb HANNIBAL tv series. Hopkins was well beyond the point of giving the slightest fuck and basically parodies his own performance in SOTL in every scene. And Norton gives the most milquetoast performance of his career, not counting the movies he hated making and you can actually see his contempt for on the screen. Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy just kill these guys every week. All that said, when they finally get around to doing the Tooth Fairy on the show, I highly doubt whoever they cast will touch Ralph Fiennes, who is GOING FOR IT. "Ride with me! For my pleasure!" I can't say Mads is better than Anthony Hopkins than in Silence of the Lambs, but he is so much better than Hopkins in Red Dragon/Hannibal it's ridiculous. Hopkins was basically in full-on cartoon Bond villain at that point. My wife is a much bigger fan of the Thomas Harris universe, but I was a fan of Michael Mann back in the day, so I really like Manhunter. I haven't seen Red Dragon since it was in theatres, but I remember really hating Edward Norton's Will Graham. Hopkins is good, but it just seems from '91-that he's just playing Anthony Hopkins in every film. Tha Hannibal TV series is brilliant and has really gotten me more interested in rewatching Silence, Red Dragon, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swift Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 The Grey was much better than it had any right to be. What is essentially a survival/slasher type movie becomes an interesting little meditation on faith and the will to survive. While I mentioned that it has slasher qualities, none of the deaths here are as a result of character clumsiness or used as an excuse for scares or gore. In fact, most of the deaths are actually quite sad moments. Liam Neeson is amazing here, maybe the best I've ever seen him. I don't believe in God, but moments where angry characters rail against their God have been some of the most powerful moments I've seen on screen. Think of Jed Bartlett's moment in the cathedral. Neeson has a moment like that, and it becomes all the more powerful if you see this movie as a emotional release for Neeson after the death of his wife (his character is also mourning the loss of a loved one) as many people mentioned when it was first released. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Re-watched Death Wish 3. Yeah, so any woman romantically involved with Charles Bronson in these movies is as doomed as a Spinal Tap drummer, isn't she? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 From what I remember, they don't even have to be romantically involved, I think moderate feelings (no matter what they are) is probably enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Paul Kersey has to be cinema's most tragic hero. Like, no matter what ordeal he was put through, the guy would always bounce back and rebuild his life...only for more evil gang members to come along and kill everyone around him again. It was like they had a radar. "Wait, Kersey is happy? Time to fuck that up!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Watching The Master after knowing how Philip Seymour Hoffman ended up is FUCKED. I expect 10,000 essays about how it is representative of his life and death after doing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Paul Kersey has to be cinema's most tragic hero. Like, no matter what ordeal he was put through, the guy would always bounce back and rebuild his life...only for more evil gang members to come along and kill everyone around him again. It was like they had a radar. "Wait, Kersey is happy? Time to fuck that up!" I don't get why in #4 he's just going by Paul Kersey again. Isn't that just inviting trouble? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 So Sabotage only did 5.3 million over the weekend. Arnie's lowest opening box office in 3 decades. Not a good sign for any of his non-Terminator future projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hooks Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 From what I remember, they don't even have to be romantically involved, I think moderate feelings (no matter what they are) is probably enough. Everyone would be screwed then, because who wouldn't have, at the very least, some moderate feelings for Charles Bronson? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonidas Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I have more than moderate feelings just towards his moustache. Let alone his wardrobe or his gruff manly voice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antacular Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 So Sabotage only did 5.3 million over the weekend. Arnie's lowest opening box office in 3 decades. Not a good sign for any of his non-Terminator future projects. You mean people aren't paying money to see a near-70 year old live out a continuing midlife crisis? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 So I applied to teach a Cultural Studies course on Horror and Science Fiction films. While I'm pretty sure I won't get it (the application date + the starting date don't add up, which makes me think that the university already has an internal candidate in mind), it has made me think a lot about what films I would teach. If you were a student signed up for a Cultural Studies course on Horror and SF films, what would you want to study? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.K.o.S. Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 For horror, you could split it into a whole bunch of subgenres and spend, I don't know, a couple of weeks on each one. The origins of horror - Nosferatu Creature feature drive-in stuff like The Blob Zombie movies, focusing on Romero Giallo, focusing on Argento Slashers - Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street Modern Japanese horror Torture porn, if you want to even go into that - I guess Saw? Eli Roth stuff? Found footage, probably emphasizing Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRGoldman Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 A horror course was offered at my University a few years ago, taught by Robert Spadoni. He has written a few books on the subject, and I remember watching Nosferatu, Vampyr, Cat People, Bride of Frankenstien, The Mummy, The Howling, Jeepers Creepers, and the Ring. We also had to split off in to groups and present a horror movie of our choice to the class, although we were not required to watch all of the films for each group, it was basically conducted as an in class scene study. I'm probably missing a few things we watched. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I watched Zardoz last night. I, uh, I don't know what to say... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 You know, funny you mention that, Control. I'm currently trying to get a Special Topics class together for Psychology and Film. Ah, the benefits of having what a friend of mine refers to as "a fancy people's job." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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