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| gromit |
 Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 11:11 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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The Sight and Sound 2011 Top 11
1. The Tree of Life
2. A Separation
3. The Kid with a Bike
4. Melancholia
5. The Artist
6. The Turin Horse
-- Once Upon A Time In Anatolia
8. We Need To Talk About Kevin
9. Le Quattro Volte
10. This Is Not A Film
--- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Kid with a Bike
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Has anyone seen these?
I've been meaning to learn something about these two. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 12:05 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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The Sight and Sound list gives itself away by placing TToL at #1. Chances are I won't agree with most of the choices.
Case in point: saw We Need to Talk About Kevin today. It's meant to be incredibly powerful but is IMO pretty silly. Has little resemblance to reality, as a young man appears to be sociopathic from the cradle but no one except his mother seems to notice. (His father is particularly clueless, buying his violence-prone son a state-of-the-art bow and arrow.) The somewhat surreal nature of the storytelling may make them think they're on safe ground being unbelievable, but not in my book.
Tilda Swinton does a great job as the mother, and so does Ezra Miller as the son with the evil gene, but she's had better outings in the past (I'm thinking Julia and Michael Clayton) and he had a more complex role this year in Another Happy Day. Meanwhile, John C. Reilly can do nothing with the role of the denial-stricken dad. You will be hearing a lot of excellent things about this movie, which I was anticipating with probably a little too much enthusiasm, but keep your expectations in check. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:06 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Just putting it out there for discussion.
I liked that it had more arty, indie and foreign films on it. No idea if I'll like those, but it sounds more adventurous than J Edgar, Planet of the Apes and whatnot.
I want to see Melancholia. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:03 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Now I want to see Melancholia, too, and believe me, I had absolutely no intention of ever seeing another film by Lars von Trier in my lifetime. Breaking the Waves, Dancing in the Dark, and Dogville are three of the most excruciating experiences I've ever had at the movies. Only Synecdoche, New York, tops them in recent years for "two hours I wish I had back." But inla has changed my mind, darn him.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes remains one of the most entertaining popcorn movies of recent vintage. Great cinematography and special effects.
J. Edgar can be safely skipped unless you're a DiCaprio or Eastwood completist. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:15 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I have received (thus far) 41--count 'em, 41--screeners, including two for My Week with Marilyn. This in addition to invitations to screenings, and free tickets at actual theaters. Being a member of the SAG Nominating Committee amounts to a full-time job.
And yet I've gotten no screener for or invitation to Melancholia. What up? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:02 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I bought Melancholia tonight.
But I have no TV to watch it on.
I liked Dogville. And Europa was pretty good. Dancer in the Dark didn't do much for me, but was okay. The Element of Crime had some moments but is kind of messy and overly low budget.
Overall, I think von Trier is interesting. He's a provocateur -- "a film should be like a stone in your shoe" |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:22 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: Now I want to see Melancholia, too, and believe me, I had absolutely no intention of ever seeing another film by Lars von Trier in my lifetime. Breaking the Waves, Dancing in the Dark, and Dogville are three of the most excruciating experiences I've ever had at the movies. Only Synecdoche, New York, tops them in recent years for "two hours I wish I had back." But inla has changed my mind, darn him.
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I thought Synecdoche, New York was one of the most fascinating overreaching failures in recent memory. Don't want the two hours back, but I'll never watch it again. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 1:45 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Martha Marcy May Marlene helped me reach some conclusions:
1. Elizabeth Olsen, age 19 (at time of shoot), is an insanely precocious talent. If she doesn't become one of the doyennes of indie films, then this world sucks.
2. Once in a while, a movie knows when to stop, and does so, leaving you with something to reflect on and play out in your mind.
3. Once in a while, a movie depicts weird cults in a realistic way without having to take endless potshots at a specific religion and make everyone a caricature. Not often, and I wish it happened more.
4. John Hawkes can do anything on the spectrum of good and evil. In this case, on the evil end. Brrrrr.
MMMM is a movie I will be thinking about when it comes time for Blanches.
[/quote] |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:15 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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bartist: Well, all right then. Monica Mel Muriel Matilda up next in the screener queue. Have seen so few bona-fide indie films this year, it would be nice to up the ante there, and your assessment of The Younger Olsen and Mr. Hawkes jives with most colleagueses. Kewl.
carrobin: Am also dubious about Real Horse standing up to the original, which L.A. is getting next spring -- if only Center Theatre Group had bumped it up to replace the sadly cancelled Lauren Ambrose/Bobby Cannavale/Bartlett Sher Funny Girl revival, instead of Fela, but I digress -- although the theatrical trailer looked intriguing. In my experience, cinematic literalization of elements that landed on stage through evocation obliterates their power and point. Visions of Equus flash scarily before my eyes even as I type these words.
gromit: I also liked Dogville, likely because of the very staginess that turned many observers off, and, frankly, the starriness of that cast (it still seems to me Ms. Kidman's best performance until Rabbit Hole), even if the whole thing turned on the nastiest of twists. Cannot guarantee that Melancholia will have the same impact on small screen as it did at the Nuart on L.A.'s Westside -- where, both times I saw it, you could have heard a fish belch in Tasmania. It is, for all its groundbreaking scope and intent, still a von Trier film, with numerous perverse, inexplicable aspects, and many a painful turn of events as Apocalypse approaches. What can I say? It absolutely transfixed me, and Ms. Dunst absolutely deserves all the plaudits she's getting, from first, William Blake sketch-bleak shot to...well, I'm already saying more than I ought to.
willybeeds: It's only a guess, but am suspecting that Melancholia isn't available on American screeners yet because of wider-release marketing roll-out strategery, or sump'n. It's a monumental visual achievement, and the producers may wish to go the AMPAS special viewings route, so that awardsical voters have to see it in large-screen mode. If it doesn't send you, I'll totally understand, for it's about as subjectively self-contained a High Concept Auteurized Film as we are likely to see this annum. All I know is I literally couldn't take my eyes from the screen -- and there are some things toward the end I might have wished to do so -- that it left my prior Art Film Incarnate contender Tree of Life -- which I know you didn't cotton to, and which, in retrospect, for all my Malick affection, at some level really was more style than substance, as Marc noted at the time, though certain segments still pop up in my mind when I'm caught in traffic -- in its star-crashing dust. I left the cinema after Melancholia the first time in a completely heightened state of Very Deep Thinking; the second time, in a whirl of Newly Raised Optimism. Once more, can do no better at present than direct folks to Ms. Sharkey's previously linked LAT review, which from my perspective nailed its essence without giving too much away (not least about the ending being "wondrously indescribable," which it is.)
whiskeypriest: You're not alone there. When Breaking the Waves upended itself the way it did, I'm afraid I began a skeptical attitude toward Lars that continued through Dancer in the Dark, barely halted with Dogville, and reached new levels of jaw-droppage with Antichrist. That no doubt is why this one so surprised me by how deeply it grabbed me. The cast, which includes everyone from Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt to Udo Kier and both Alexander and Stellan Skarsgård, is one key factor, I think; von Trier operating in a humanistic mode that variously evokes Altman, Bergman, Godard, Kubrick and Ophuls, for starters, without remotely being derivative of any of them, is certainly another. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:27 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I had a feeling there was a von Trier I had seen and was forgetting. I really disliked AntiChrist. The opening prologue was impressively filmed but seemed heavy-handed and a bit silly to me. Then I hated the rest of the film. But combining horror (or psychological horror) with torture porn is a great way to kill my interest. It all seemed so silly and overdone and ugly.
I do like that von Trier is willing to try different approaches and take things to extremes. But that of course means that he will alienate many people, as he attracts fans. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Nov 28, 2011 4:39 am; edited 1 time in total
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:34 am |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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| gromit: Indeed, that does seem to be the result of his modus operandi. Melancholia is far more restrained and far less graphic than Antichrist, with a subliminal yet somehow tangible energy behind/within every frame, whether static composed shot or crowded painterly one. It surely won't be for all tastes, I am more than somewhat bewildered at how potent I found it, but there it is. |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:22 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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inlareviewer wrote: gromit: Indeed, that does seem to be the result of his modus operandi. Melancholia is far more restrained and far less graphic than Antichrist, with a subliminal yet somehow tangible energy behind/within every frame, whether static composed shot or crowded painterly one. It surely won't be for all tastes, I am more than somewhat bewildered at how potent I found it, but there it is.
For the record, the bulk of the reviews from the critical community have been in the "hosanna" area. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:13 am |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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billyweeds wrote:
For the record, the bulk of the reviews from the critical community have been in the "hosanna" area.
So I understand, although have only actually read the LAT, NYT, and Rolling Stone notices (and after seeing it, at that). Am told that Mr. Ebert admired it, and that Red Reex reviled it, which is automatically a plus for the film, tee-hee. |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:53 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Writing variant titles for M X 4 has become an American art form.
Will see Melancholia when it makes it to stixville in 2014 or whenever. Though, to be fair to my fair city, I was impressed that we got Take Shelter and Mona Myra Mitzi Maybelline before a certain someone in Connecticut did. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:02 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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gromit wrote: The Sight and Sound 2011 Top 11
1. The Tree of Life
2. A Separation
3. The Kid with a Bike
4. Melancholia
5. The Artist
6. The Turin Horse
-- Once Upon A Time In Anatolia
8. We Need To Talk About Kevin
9. Le Quattro Volte
10. This Is Not A Film
--- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Kid with a Bike
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Has anyone seen these?
I've been meaning to learn something about these two.
Considering the number of major films yet to come out, this list seems really premature. Especially since the list was probably made before "Hugo" came out. |
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