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| Ghulam |
 Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2016 3:04 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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I put Room as my number 2 film. The Revenant is number 1 for me because of its narrative power. It is pure cinema driven by visual images with very little dialogue. I felt as if I was watching an Eisenstein or a Griffith film.
Carol, which btw was not nominated, deals beautifully with a particular subset of lesbian life in the 1950's. An interesting trivia is the fact that while the main character is a representation of the author of the book, the supporting character is a representation of the screenplay writer, who in the movie gets hired by the New York Times during the height of "the affair" whereas in real life, she, as a young NYT reporter, was sent to interview the famed novelist, when their relationship commenced. While the novel was published under a pseudonym, Patricia Highsmith was openly gay and a very showy figure in Manhattan gay bars. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2016 3:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Gromit,
Mustang is more anti-tradition than anti-Islam. By the way, I have long been an admirer of Gulen, who is still hiding in the Poconos. The young Turkish lady who directed is almost wholly European trained. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2016 8:55 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Ghulam wrote: .
I put Room as my number 2 film. The Revenant is number 1 for me because of its narrative power. It is pure cinema driven by visual images with very little dialogue. I felt as if I was watching an Eisenstein or a Griffith film...
Well, you can certainly love the Revenant as pure visual narrative...even I will admit, my previous page crits notwithstanding, the grizzly mauling was quite amazing. Just know that it's fiction with a high horse manure to history ratio - if that satisfies,
then enjoy. The real Hugh Glass was a great man in part because of his essential capacity for forgiveness. Maybe someone will make a great film about him.
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2016 9:13 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| Back from The Big Short and Spotlight. I was the only person in the theater for the latter one, which is about the unveiling of the Catholic Church pedophile scandal in Boston and has fine performances from Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams, but is really a fairly straightforward investigative reporter story. "The Big Short" is about the collapse of the housing mortgage market in 2008 and the people who foresaw it and found a way to make billions off it. It's amazing how much more interesting subprime loans are when explained by Margot Robbie in a bubble bath. It's one of those movies where I thought I knew what was going on and my jaw kept dropping. And it's a lot of fun. Particularly good performances by Christian Bale, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:39 am |
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I too loved Big Short. It is funny and poignant. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:52 am |
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bartist wrote: Ghulam wrote: .
I put Room as my number 2 film. The Revenant is number 1 for me because of its narrative power. It is pure cinema driven by visual images with very little dialogue. I felt as if I was watching an Eisenstein or a Griffith film...
Well, you can certainly love the Revenant as pure visual narrative...even I will admit, my previous page crits notwithstanding, the grizzly mauling was quite amazing. Just know that it's fiction with a high horse manure to history ratio - if that satisfies,
then enjoy. The real Hugh Glass was a great man in part because of his essential capacity for forgiveness. Maybe someone will make a great film about him.
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It claims only to be "Inspired by true events".
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 5:04 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Memories on Stone is an Iraqi Kurdish film, financed by German interests. Since it was Iraq's submission to this year's Oscar's I decided to toss this review into Current.
Well, I'm not too much of a fan of films about making a film. Always seems a bit lazy and self-serving. The filmmakers here have to deal with unique problems, such as the difficulty of finding a young Iraqi woman to be the lead actress in a war-torn country. One solution is to hire an Iranian actress, but none seem willing to work without a hijab (this would put their career in Iran in jeopardy). Plus going over the border from Iraqi Kurdistan to Iran is not terribly safe or easy. When they finally find a suitable Iraqi young woman, her family won't give permission. This is all well enough, but also almost the whole film. One advantage of making a film in wartime/chaos is that so many people are unemployed, and its easy to get a lot of extras by going to the nearby Syrian refugee camp (which unfortunately, we never see).
I did like the opening scene where some locals are gathered in a theater to watch Yol, a Kurdish film by Yilmaz Guney, and the police break in and arrest everybody. And on screen we see the military rounding up Kurds from a village. And a young boy, the son of the projectionist is at first entranced by the film then horrified to see the police smack around and arrest his father.
The film they try to make is about the Anfal Massacre, a Saddam project at the tail end of the war with Iran, in which Kurds and Yazidis and other minorities were rounded up, males killed, villages razed. This lasted for about 3 years. One incident was a poison gas attack on a village that left between 3- 5000 dead. Good old Saddam. A few countries have even recognized the Anfal campaign as a genocide. The film is about trying to make a film about one torture/killing site used during the Kurdish genocide.
Anyway, interesting to see a Kurdish film form Iraq. But the subject matter -- making a film about a wartime atrocity/grievance didn't especially captivate me. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 6:51 pm |
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I picked up The Babadook, even though I generally don't like/watch horror films.
They had The Revenant, Room, Brooklyn but i couldn't get interested enough in any of them.
There are about a dozen 2015 films I'm still trying to find.
But I seem to be pickier than usual this year. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 6:44 pm |
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The Babadook.
I thought the children's book Mister Babadook was fantastic, and the idea of a sinister children's book is a good idea in itself (especially given the unsettling nature of many early fairly tales and such). I liked the set-up, especially the mother at work, and the kid a bit hyperactive and inventive. But I was less interested in the 2nd half with the mother and son in the house alone -- and it started seeming derivative of The Shining, plus stealing little bits from other such films. Things I didn't care for much: the basement, the father who looked like a model (or actor), the kid's weapons, the ending. Also, some of the special effects looked kinda cheap. Not a bad film |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:39 am |
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I posted this right after seeing it....
bartist wrote: The Babadook is outstanding, the best horror movie I've seen in a decade. Probes deep emotional truths about the premature loss of a parent and the burdens and anxieties of single parenthood. And it may scare the shit out of you, not through cheap fright-flick gimmicks, but with meticulously crafted and slow-building suspense and masterful cinematography that gazes into the shadows and
dark recesses of a house that is being breached by....
Not sure is struck me a derivative, beyond that all genre films are somewhat derivative of other films in that genre.
Interesting that you chose it over "Room," or "Brooklyn." I respect quirky and/or picky viewing choices....we're not pro reviewers, so we don't have to see what doesn't interest us. It's like the writer Borges once wrote - his father had a huge library and told Jorge that if he opened up a book and didn't like what he was reading, he should close it and go get another one. Borges made a good point - we don't have to select films as if we are on assignment to tap into the American psyche or the Zeitgeist or whatever (unless we're taking a film studies class and want the grade). |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 6:53 pm |
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| The Babadook, which I admired greatly without adoring, is strangely similar to Room, which I did adore. Both are about mother and son locked together in a confined space. Weird. Both movies are terrific in their own and wildly different ways. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:00 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Part of my problem with The Babadook was the repetition which didn't seem purposeful. Three times we see some weird, spooky stuff which was only the mother's dream. Two or three times the mother acts aggressively towards her son, then apologizes. Just seemed to be these empty cycles. I guess to make it clear mom is losing her marbles, but it was pretty rote and repetitive.
Also, I have no idea why the son starts poltergeisting round the room, flying into walls. If there is a Babadook, then what exactly are his powers? If it's all in mom's head, then why does she see her kid fly into walls? It just seemed to be a cool visual, but kind of pointless and not motivated by anything we knew. I can certainly see the idea that Mr. Babadook represents the absence of dad, which causes the son to act out and mom to be unable to cope. Reinforced by the basement (and the mister), but really I thought the father was poorly handled.
I liked the first half and was lukewarm on the second half.
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As for choices, I keep hearing Brooklyn is well done, but it seems pretty standard and formulaic and I kind of remember the middling In America getting a fair amount of praise too, back when that Irish immigrant story was released. I might get to it, but it sounds like the kind of quality production that is fine enough and then you forget.
Room I haven't really heard enough to form too much of an opinion, but also not enough to get me too see it. I think the constant refrain of "ultimately uplifting" has been a bit of a turnoff. |
Last edited by gromit on Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:37 am; edited 1 time in total
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:09 am |
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What I've seen from '15 so far:
Good:
1. Steve Jobs
2. Hard to Be a God -- sci-fi medieval times. Great camerawork, lots of blood and muck
3. Love & Mercy
4. Theeb (Jordan) -- WWI desert trek, moral dilemmas and growing up fast
5. Stanford Prison Experiment
6. The Big Short
Middling:
7. Joy
8. The Lobster -- mediocre sci-fi dystopia about a couples world
9. Trumbo
10. The Babadook
11. Down Low -- formulaic jazz musician/junkie with daughter
12. Lil Quin Quin -- quirky rural constables try to solve some murders
Bad:
13. Phoenix -- WWII dysfunctional romance. Didn't work for me at all
14. Eisenstein in Guanajuato -- Eisenstein's sex life in Mexico (shrug)
Want to See:
Jauja
Timbuktu
Inside Out
The Martian
Anomalisa
I Smile Back
99 Homes (Bahrani)
Fish & Cat
Forbidden Room (Maddin)
Ex Machina
Mr Turner
The End of the Tour
Amy
Welcome to Me
Boy Meets Girl |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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gromit--Good want-to-see list. Glad you've got I Smile Back and Boy Meets Girl on there. You really should add Truth and Infinitely Polar Bear, however.
I liked Joy more than you did, and The Big Short a whole lot less. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 12:22 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Infinitely Polar Bear just looked awful form the back&front of the Dvd.
I can't handle the Truth. Actually the truth is I have no idea what that film is.
I'm probably skipping The Revenant, Spotlight, Carol, Brooklyn and some other high profile films.[/b][/quote] |
Last edited by gromit on Sat Jan 30, 2016 1:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
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