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| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Quote: but it does it almost to well, |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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whiskeypriest wrote: Quote: but it does it almost to well, As opposed to doing it almost to medium rare? Too, billy. Too.
If you think that was a mistake and not just a typo, you clearly don't know Bill (as opposed to Jack). |
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| Melody |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2242
Location: TX
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| Too shay. |
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My heart told my head: This time, no. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:32 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Von Trier's Anti-Christ.
I think it would be best to see this in a theater, where you could get immersed in this not very attractive world. It's a psychological horror story, which also plays out religious themes in a broad unsubtle von Trier way, while also adding in elements of a fairy tale and history. All while being a very clear homage to Tarkovsky.
To start, I should make it clear that there are so many elements of the film that I don't like:
- it's a claustrophobic two-person psycho-sexual drama
- there are a number of fairly graphic and occasionally violent love scenes, including an early one that sure looked like real penetration to me (could have been CGi'd)
- I'm not much into horror films
- there's a lot of uglyish handheld camera work with tight jittery close-ups
- there's gratuitous violence and torture
- I prefer more subtlety and more coherence than LVT is into
For all that, I didn't hate the film. Nor did I like it much at all. I thought the story veered into the silly a few too many times. I laughed at at least two inappropriate times. I thought von Trier mixes and matches too many things, and unconvincingly tries to add in large and important themes.
He stays consistent with his usual theme of making his lead female characters suffer endlessly. To start the film, I was reminded of Kieslowski's Blue. Oddly enough Gainsbourg's lead also reminded me of Shelley Duvall in The Shining, although she kind of takes on the Jack Nicholson role as well.
Basically, the film seemed both pretentious and
appealing to the lowest common denominator at times (torture porn).
There are a few unpleasant, intense scenes.
The film felt kind of long and ugly to me, filled as it was with so many themes and styles I dislike. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:35 pm |
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Not exactly a rave review. Do you give it points for being a nice melody and you can dance to it?  |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:18 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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The more I think about Anti-Christ, the less I like it. Too many influences/ideas slapped into a blender. I didn't believe in the characters, the dialogue, or the situations. Which is perhaps okay since it's very much an Allegory with only a make and female character who go to their ranch named Eden. But I don't think any of its Big Ideas are at all coherent or developed.
Some Spoilage:
Quote: But if you ever wished to see a Tarkovsky film with steamy violent sex scenes, a bit of mythology/fairytale thrown in, and a Saw torture porn climax, this is the film for you.
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Edit: Just ran across this review entitled:
Antichrist Is the Most Beautiful Piece of Muddled Art You Might Never See
I wasn't as taken with the art film aspects as this reviewer. But I did find myself mid-film noting that the characters tended to wearshirts but were nude from the waist down. A bottomless film? Kind of captures it well, as there is no grounding. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:25 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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| I am dying to see Anti-Christ. I dig Von Trier and I adore Charlotte Gainsbourg. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:42 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Antichrist was the screening after ours on Saturday. I *was* a little bummed about that. But it will definitely be in theaters soon (like 99% of the films at the NYFF).
I've got my fingers crossed for Bong Jo-hoon's (director of The Host) Mother, though, and the Egyptian film playing Friday when I'm supposed to be on a train to DC. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 5:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Off to see Zombieland. Will report. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:14 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Zombieland is pleasant while it passes, occasionally funny, occasionally very slightly scary, and thoroughly mediocre. The cast is fine but no one gets to be exceptional. It's forgettable, but might make a nice rental. Meh. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 8:18 am |
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Yesterday I was planning to see Dedication while Marta was at the beauty parlour (do they still call it that or is there some fancy name nowadays) but the logistics didn't work out, time and distance/wize, so I went to see Surrogates instead. The few things I read about it weren't all that encouraging, but it was the only movie that I hadn't already seen or was something that I had any interesting in seeing.
It was good. Actually modest, by sci fi action movie standards. The story is somewhat like I Robot in it's situation but more serious in a down to earth sense. In a way, it has a District 9 feel to it. I had seen a preview of it and that's why I thought I might enjoy it, but the preview actually leads you down a different path as far as the arc of the story goes, which is a good thing because it is a mystery. Bruce Willis is very good in a slightly atypical role. All the performances are good. The lead actress, Radha Mitchell, who was unknown to me, very good as Willis' detective partner.
I just looked it up and Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 40% rating. Don't go by that, it's should be closer to double that percentage. I actually like the movie more, the more I think about it.
Has anyone on here seen it? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:18 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| The critics really piled the thumbs-downs on "Surrogates" and the posters made it look like some kind of kinky sex flick. I don't know anyone who's seen it--except you, now. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:43 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:06 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| The movie was first shown on the film festival circuit almost a year ago. Ah, the ever-tenous fate of the independant movie! I plan to see it, too. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 12:29 pm |
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carrobin wrote: The critics really piled the thumbs-downs on "Surrogates" and the posters made it look like some kind of kinky sex flick. I don't know anyone who's seen it--except you, now.
It is certainly not some kind of kinky sex flick. That's funny. I'm going to check some reviews to see how they mistakenly judged it. |
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