What's the last movie you've seen?

[memphis]

I just rented The Onion Movie from Blockbuster. Best part, by far, was the Britney Spears parody.

That movie was quite weak and hardly Onion-esque at all. The only really Onion-esque thing was the "Government's plan to reduce obesity"

It wasn't that great, but it's pretty tough to turn a newspaper into a movie. I was mostly disappointed by how many of the gags were recycled from the paper. Still, the Melissa Cherry stuff was hilarious. That girl was awesome.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

North by Northwest
To Catch a Thief

[Gustaf]

There Will Be Blood

No problems with the acting (both Day-Lewis and Dano are very capable) or the cinematography or the direction or whatnot. But...I don't 'get it'. What was the point of the story?

It's a character study. It's not supposed to have only one simplistic plot coming to an easy conclusion.

I don't recall ever asking for simplistic plots and easy conclusions.

I just don't see why this story merited telling. Why is Plainview's story worthy of a big screen adaptation? I didn't feel the story was particularly entertaining or that there was a great deal to learn from it.

(This isn't to say that I'm trying to convince you of my point of view, art's meaning after all can only be really interpreted by each individual. I'm just saying, I didn't see the point of this particular film.)

*SPOILER ALERT*




Plainview is a fascinating character. He is not an evil person. There are clearly good feelings, like love and compassion within him. He takes care of the infant son of one of his workers, probably in part due to the responsibility he may have felt for the death of that man. In his own way, he clearly loves the boy. He is obviously disturbed by the religious bigotry and hypocrisy of Eli Sunday. He moves to protect the daughter in the Sunday family from her dad's beatings. And it is clear that he craves for love and understanding from someone.

At the same time there is an inner drive for wealth and success, a hardness and a ruthless determination that overcomes him. This is why he leaves his injured son to see to the oil field. This is why he has to kill the man who pretended to be his brother. Perhaps it is one of the reasons why we never see him with a woman. No wife, no mistress, not even a prostitute. There is thus a strangeness about the man, a contradiction and something within him which drives him towards despair and madness and makes us admire, pity, fear, love and despise him at the same time.

If you want to look beyond the personal story it can be seen as a metaphor too. It is the American dream turned upside down, converted into a nightmare. Plainview is the self-made man, starting with nothing but his own two hands, who builds himself a great fortune. He's a rugged individualist, a pioneer of the wild. But his life is a disaster. His final words, "I'm finished," sums it up: he's finished with his meal, his murder, his life. He got nothing left, not even his hatred. His wealth brought him nothing. On the other side of things, religion is, if possible, depicted in even worse terms. That other side of the American ideal is represented by Sunday, who is an evil little worm not even garnering respect and who dies pathetically, having renounced his God and pleading for his life.

Now, if you want to stretch it even further interpretation-wise you can ask yourself if Anderson is trying to say something about what happens to America when religion, greed and oil get mixed together and corrupts the spirit of the nation.

Not interesting?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Meh. Repeating the Hollywood view of Bush's America does not an interesting film make.

(just going off what thou wrote. Not seen the film myself).

[Gustaf]

Meh. Repeating the Hollywood view of Bush's America does not an interesting film make.

(just going off what thou wrote. Not seen the film myself).

It's not a Hollywood's view of Bush's America. Far from it, I'd say. Keep in mind that it takes place during the first 3 decades of the 20th century.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Also, as said before, it's a loose adaption of an Upton Sinclair novel and it's not really a "Hollywood" film either.

I disagree with Gustaf's interpretation of Plainview though, I see him as evil, just unlike your typical movie villain in that he possesses some redeeming characteristics, just a mirror image of the flawed but generally noble hero character really. I never found him likable, or even preferable to Eli. Maybe my view of Eli was tainted by the trailer where he's seen as somewhat noble though. But really nothing Eli did amounted to all the murder and deceit of Daniel. He even admits at the end he only adopted the boy to help him on business deals. Really he was halfway to being a sociopath, just only halfway.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

There's barely anything worth seeing until then anyway. The only movie in the next couple months I want to see is The International. The rest is all Bride Wars and crap.

I want to see Gran Torino.  And I may go see The Spirit with my friend.

Why would you go see The Spirit? By all accounts it's horrible.

[Eraserhead]

There's barely anything worth seeing until then anyway. The only movie in the next couple months I want to see is The International. The rest is all Bride Wars and crap.

I want to see Gran Torino.  And I may go see The Spirit with my friend.

Why would you go see The Spirit? By all accounts it's horrible.

Eva Mendez shows her ass in it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

There's barely anything worth seeing until then anyway. The only movie in the next couple months I want to see is The International. The rest is all Bride Wars and crap.

I want to see Gran Torino.  And I may go see The Spirit with my friend.

Eva Mendez shows her ass in it.

Why would you go see The Spirit? By all accounts it's horrible.

Body double. Not worth $10.

[Eraserhead]

There's barely anything worth seeing until then anyway. The only movie in the next couple months I want to see is The International. The rest is all Bride Wars and crap.

I want to see Gran Torino.  And I may go see The Spirit with my friend.

Eva Mendez shows her ass in it.

Why would you go see The Spirit? By all accounts it's horrible.

Body double. Not worth $10.

Maybe not but it's cool for free. Also, I don't think it was a body double. She's showed it in movies before.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Was there more than just you in the theater this time?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Was there more than just you in the theater this time?

Yes.  I went at 7:15, and I was with 2 friends.  There were a few dozen people in the theater - some noisy immature high schoolers who talked about boners and their "dicks" every time a sex scene came on though, so it got annoying - then one of them got on his phone and put it on speaker phone.  I almost said something but some other guy told them to shut up.

[Beet]

Eraserhead.

Any thoughts?

I kind of had high expectations due to some reviews mentioning that it had been influenced by early 20th century film expresionism (such as the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, and Un Chien Andalou, which I guess is a way of saying it had dark, urban, and supernatural mis-en-scene), that it's a David Lynch film, plus the fact that it's your screen name.

I liked it, but I would not want to see it again. It centers around a kind of child/infant - centered horror that is rare in film. Unusually it is a type of horror that works better with a male, since males are not usually placed in nurturing/caretaking roles. The horror is that you at once fear the infant in your care but the fear arises primarily from inadvertently hurting him/her, and thus doing something wrong. Thus there is an interplay of sympathy and dread. Physical deformity only dramatises the underlying tension of unintended pregnancy. All that is the genius of the cutting scene- the imagery of which certainly will not be forgotten. But this interpretation is coming from someone who has never been entirely comfortable babysitting young children, let alone infants.

There is also a very constricted feel to the entire film, arising from the fact that you never really know where he is, he is supposed to be in this industrial city yet there are other a few other real characters and you never see crowds. You can definitely see some of Lynch's signature here with his later films (dystopian themes, the stage performance as a dream, stepping back and forth across the line of cohesive plot/no cohesive plot and sudden violence).

[Gustaf]

Also, as said before, it's a loose adaption of an Upton Sinclair novel and it's not really a "Hollywood" film either.

I disagree with Gustaf's interpretation of Plainview though, I see him as evil, just unlike your typical movie villain in that he possesses some redeeming characteristics, just a mirror image of the flawed but generally noble hero character really. I never found him likable, or even preferable to Eli. Maybe my view of Eli was tainted by the trailer where he's seen as somewhat noble though. But really nothing Eli did amounted to all the murder and deceit of Daniel. He even admits at the end he only adopted the boy to help him on business deals. Really he was halfway to being a sociopath, just only halfway.

He only says that to hurt him and to defend himself from the hurt of being left. Because of the kind of man he is he cannot bring himself to tell his son he loves him and wants him back. If he really didn't care for his son, why would he be so upset? Why would he do a crazy thing like killing Eli? Think of the scene when his son returns and kicks him and he says "that's enough." There is so much hurt in him once he realizes his son has begun to hate him. Or when he's in the restaurant and he's trying to look successful for his son.

I don't deny that he is a bad person in many ways and crazy in some ways, but I don't view him as evil.

As for Eli, he's just as bad morally as Plainview. He just lacks Plainview's coolness. Remeber the scene where he jumps his dad and almost strangels him? His own dad? Just because his dad didn't secure enough money for them. They both hate each other just as much, but the difference is that at the end Eli cries and Plainview kills. Eli has pathetic evil. He's a Uriah Heep.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Wackness.

OK this had a lot of potential, but eh. It had no real plot and had a tough job holding interest. I found the psychologist character annoying and overused. Also the ending seemed like a complete ripoff of Juno, I really wonder if that was a just a coincidence (It even starred the girl who played Juno's friend.)

[Хahar 🤔]

Valkyrie.

I had no idea that they advanced so far.  I mean, I knew they blew up a table, but the rest of the plot...

As I recall, they didn't.

[Platypus]

Frost/Nixon.

Well...

The 'point' of the movie seemed to be to show the true characters of Frost and Nixon. Basically, it was a fictional story using a real event and presented as a docu-drama, and so I walked out shoveling the salt on. It's a great story, showing the intertwining ambitions of the protagonists and it has depth in the way they interact with the world around them. But, it would be an equally compelling film if it wasn't pretending to be about a real historical event, in fact it might even be better if the story was lifter, Nixon was replaced by some other powerful figure who had suffered a downfall.

It was a good movie. I'm just concerned that it was a bad use of history.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Gran Torino.  One heck of a movie.

[Sbane]

Saw parts of Slumdog millionaire and it hands down has to be the best representation of India by a foreigner. I will reserve judgment till I see the whole movie tomorrow but I can already tell this is extremely realistic. I really felt like I was back in India.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I watched The Squid and the Whale again. Fuck that movie is brilliant.

I really hated the dad this time for some reason. What a dick.

[Gustaf]

I watched The Squid and the Whale again. Fuck that movie is brilliant.

I really hated the dad this time for some reason. What a dick.

He's a self-absorbed egoistic asshole who use everyone around him to project his own self-image, for sex, etc. He has this intellectual charm which gets people to be with him. Eventually they divorce him though, once the charm wears off. I guess it can work the same for the viewer.

But, yeah, great movie, though I thought it was a bit short (only 80 minutes, IIRC). I'd have liked to see a little more character development. Have you seen Margot at the Wedding? Very good as well. And pretty similar. Noah Baumbach must have had a hell of a twisted childhood.

[Jake]

Gran Torino was legit.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Gran Torino was absolutely hilarious. Clint reminds me of myself, and probably what I'll turnout like when I get old.

[Lief 🗽]

Gran Torino.

Film of the year, unless Wrestler is really, really, really good.