FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Queequeg » Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:47 am

I really love this movie, it's odd, disjointed and includes Jerry Lewis, but it's great.

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Canadian_watcher » Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:48 am

I didn't see anyone mention "Visioneers"
The pace of this movie fairly creeps along, but it couldn't have been any other way and still make its point. There's more in it than the trailer suggests. Not really suitable for watching on a day when you're already agitated enough that one more push and you'll carry through on your fantasy of packing your stuff up for an ill-planned move off the grid in a fit of rage against the machine but if you are disgusted by the 'american dream' and want a film that'll validate you, you should enjoy it.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.-- Jonathan Swift

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. -- Jonathan Swift
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby blonderengel » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:03 am

Nice/strange/odd/frightening/not surprising etc that so many participants here list movies that appeal to many others here--me too -- generally, when I talk about movies or music I like, I get an oddly disapproving/questioning (baroo?) look...followed by "anybody in it I know?" The convo concludes when I rattle off the main actors, generally not matinee idols.

So, when I saw The Spook who sat by the Door, I nearly squealed with delight.

I also like The Third Man

True North


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Reinhard Hauff, 1980, Endstation Freiheit and 1983, Der Mann auf der Mauer
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Jeff » Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:39 am

I'm still kicking the can for Enter the Void.

Oscar Nominations Snub: ‘Enter the Void’
By DJ Pangburn Tuesday, January 25, 2011

As detailed in our 2010 review, Gaspar Noe’s surreal death odyssey was one of the best films of 2010—and a prime Oscar nominations snub.

This was to be expected. Gaspar Noe is far too into transgression for the Academy. The closest they’ve come to acknowledging a transgressive filmmaker this year is in the nominations of David Fincher and Darren Aronofsky.

But, by my estimation, Noe’s “Enter the Void” surpasses both Fincher and Aronosky’s efforts in ambition, look, concept and sound design. ”The Social Network” may capture the zeitgeist and “Black Swan” may capture… well, I’m not sure what it captures exactly, but “Enter the Void” takes on the subjects of death and reincarnation and does so through the related mechanisms of psychedelics and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Both lead to ego death. This is heady material, especially as rendered by Noe’s floating camera, day-glo colors, CGI fractals, special effects and various ambient soundscapes.

And while I respect Fincher and Aronofsky and would probably elevate them both above Noe as more complete filmmakers at this point, the fact of the matter is Fincher made a movie about Facebook and Aronofsky made a movie about a ballet dancer. Yes, “Social Network” is more than a film about Facebook’s creation, and “Black Swan” treats the ballet with a vibe not dissimilar from Dostoyevsky’s “The Double” with a bit of Polanski thrown in; but neither film cuts to the core existentially. Not in the way “Enter the Void” does for 137 minutes.

Both Fincher and Aronosfky have been compared to Kubrick in their style, approach and demands when it comes to the craft. Only Noe approached the heights of Kubrick in 2010. More than that, he echoed some of the cinematic elements that made Andrei Tarkvosky so great.

...


http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/47542/o ... -the-void/

FWIW, there's a huge spoiler at the link, for those who don't mind such things, and want to scope out the ambition of Noe's vision.
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby justdrew » Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:42 am

I thought Enter the Void was amazing, thanks for cluing me into that Jeff. Excellent movie.

oh and Canadian_watcher, thanks for Visioneers, well worth seeing, lot's of good content in that, though I found the ending a little forced, I'm not sure what else they could have done. :wink
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby Mallard » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:34 pm

[youtube]<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/t2yoOlicmww" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>[/youtube]

bah, not very good at the embed thing, but thats a trailer for Darius Goes West
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby IanEye » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:54 pm

Mallard wrote:[youtube]<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/t2yoOlicmww" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>[/youtube]



bah, not very good at the embed thing, but thats a trailer for Darius Goes West


Code: Select all

Mallard, you just take the address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2yoOlicmww

and put just the part after the v= inside of a youtube wrapper, like this:

[youtube]t2yoOlicmww[/youtube]
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby hanshan » Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:24 pm

...


back when I used to watch films
& happened to see these:

Ice Bath

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399172/

It's a short (11min) from Australia (Micheal Smith).
Don't read any spoilers for the above
Creeped me right out. Can't find a trailer for it

21 Grams



Penn should have won an Academy for his performance.
Although the subject has been dealt w/ in other mediums
& other films - see this. Riveting.


....
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:02 pm

Nordic wrote:Actually I believe Affleck directed a movie before "The Town". Maybe they wanted people to forget about that, although I heard it wasn't bad.

Yeah, "Mystic River" is pretty damn good, and is one reason why I was so disgruntled with "Shutter Island" because I believe it was the same writer, a guy who I've always admired quite a bit. He wrote a short story once that I read in Harper's (I think it was Harper's) that blew me away, and was the first time I'd ever heard of him. He writes DARK stuff, just almost unbearably dark stuff.


That would be Gone Baby Gone. Affleck's directorial debut was based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River. I loved both movies. Mystic River got the Oscar noms but I would definitely put Gone Baby Gone in my top 5 list for 2007. Not sure how to insert video IDs from youtube, but here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99Ep0koG84
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby IanEye » Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:32 pm

stillrobertpaulsen wrote:
That would be Gone Baby Gone. Affleck's directorial debut was based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River. I loved both movies. Mystic River got the Oscar noms but I would definitely put Gone Baby Gone in my top 5 list for 2007. Not sure how to insert video IDs from youtube, but here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99Ep0koG84





Code: Select all
stillrobertpaulsen, you just take the address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99Ep0koG84

and put just the part after the v= inside of a youtube wrapper, like this:

[youtube]f99Ep0koG84[/youtube]
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:18 pm

Thanks IanEye! I'll remember that.
"Huey Long once said, “Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism.” I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
-Jim Garrison 1967
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby charlie meadows » Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:47 pm

As you might imagine I have an affinity for Barton Fink. And heartily recommend it to anyone. In fact, I find it gets better with every viewing.

I think that I think that I'm beginning to understand it. It is so profound that I have begun to doubt that the brothers Coen wrote it without help.

[Karl] Mundt is a descendant of Mundo; Mundo is Spanish for the world. Duke [Mastrionatti] and [Hotel] Earle are names--names tied to places. As is Deutsche, and Meadows is a place name. Even Barton is an archaic English word which means 'lands of the manor or meadow'. Chet is a diminutive for Chester, which means a camp or a city. So, all of the denizens of the Hotel Earle, who are seen only at the Hotel (except Barton) refer to places as well, of different size and authority, Barton and Charlie the smallest, then Chet, then the detectives and so on....

"I'm here to check in Barton Fink."

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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby justdrew » Sun Mar 20, 2011 5:41 pm

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
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Stunning film of the staged kidnapping of a child by a demented medium and her cuckolded, guilt-ridden husband. Beautifully photographed in b&W, the film has a grey, somber feel to it that illustrates the emptiness of the childless couple's lives. The plan is to kidnap the child then stage a seance to help "find" the child to further enhance the medium's reputation and career. The husband trembles with fright and guilt while the medium is convinced that this is the "answer". She is "guided" by Arthur---her "spirit" guide---that is actually the child they lost at birth as stillborn. ASTOUNDING performances by stage actress Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough as the couple carry this film brilliantly to it's gripping conclusion. The subject matter is sensitive (especially today) but the film is a powerful masterwork of mood and psychological character study. I strongly recommend this for true cinema explorers. The DVD transfer is nice and crisp and the sound is clear. It's not for everyone---especially sensitive types---but it's still a must see for those who like engrossing and fascinating films that just don't come along that often. Filmed in 1964, it's as fresh and riveting now as it MUST have been back then. A true classic.
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Re: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

Postby stefano » Tue May 31, 2011 10:01 am

It's not as good as some of the other films mentioned in this thread, but Armando Iannucci's In the loop is a slick, clever, well-paced political comedy showing the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. It's interesting in its focus not on the big players making the decisions (the Prime Minister and President aren't even shown) but rather on the second-tier characters 'just doing their jobs'. Only two of the characters, the Rumsfeld stand-in played by David Rasche and the dissenting Congresswoman played by Mimi Kennedy, are prime agents; all the others are doing what they're told, doing what they think is expected of them, or doing what's required to hang on to their jobs. Peter Capaldi is superb as the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker (an Alistair Campbell caricature) and the rest of the cast does a great job portraying the kind of educated but clueless jobsworths one can only too well imagine walking the corridors in the State Department and Whitehall. There's also a lot of clever metaphor that uses infidelity and dishonesty as small-scale equivalents of letting a war happen, and a brilliant conclusion that illustrates the insanity that reigns in those circles.

Not, as I say, a classic, but well worth watching and recommending to friends.

IMDB summary: The British Prime Minister and the US President infer that they want to embark on a war in the Middle East. Simon Foster, the British Minister for International Development, states off the cuff in a radio interview that "war is unforeseeable". He later tries to recant this statement to a hoard of news reporters with another statement: "to walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict". Both these remarks start a series of manoeuvrings on both sides of the Atlantic by both the pro- and anti-war factions in both governments. On the British side, Malcolm Tucker, the foul-mouthed communications manager, sends Foster back to deal with the mundane details of constituent complaints, a process at which he is equally inept. On the US side, US Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy Karen Clarke and US Lieutenant General George Miller lead the anti-war faction, against chief warmonger Linton Barwick, the US Assistant Secretary for Policy. Each, with his/her entourage of staff, some of whom do not agree with their political master, will do whatever he or she needs to to achieve the desired end goal. This includes having fake meetings, having fake committees, spinning information, leaking information and documents, and doctoring documents. These manoeuvrings are most important in the lead up to the UN vote on the issue.

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edit- it's a comedy, some really funny bits
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