The Film Thread: Page 304 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

The Film Thread

QuincyAbeyie

I've seen the TV show, really good. In lack of a better word, I think at times it was a bit smug, but the acting was excellent.

Also the ending was fantastic.

I've wondered why it was mostly absent at award ceremonies, especially Emmys. Is it too extreme?

RocktheCasbah

I fucking love Manhunter.

The Inna Gadda Da Vida climax rocks.

Asterix

Coen Bros - best - Intolerable Cruelty, Fargo, Millers Crossing - Big Lebowski just misses out. I must get around to seeing Raising Arizona. Worst - Hail Caesar.

Coombs

Asterix wrote:
Watched The Lady in the Van on the weekend. Very enjoyable little film. Alex Jennings was great as Alan Bennett and Maggie Smith of course is wonderful. A twitch of a cheek can tell a thousand words. Or at least a dozen.

Yea I saw it as well. Decent. Old people make me sad.

Have to say the ending was a shambles, though. Should've kept it simple.

Klaus

I just watched The Mermaid. Typical Chow film, with all that belongs to that package. I found it highly entertaining personally. It's hard to find good, intentional slapstick nowadays.

Savz

Watched The Hateful 8. Awesome Score. Great scenes and some good dialogues.

But it's a difficult movie to love.

Jens

Savz wrote:
Watched The Hateful 8. Awesome Score. Great scenes and some good dialogues.

But it's a difficult movie to love.

I disagree, I found the dialogue embarrassingly impotent coming from the man who wrote Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, hell even Inglorious Basterds for some of it's flaws had a much, much better script. The scene with Sam Jackson's character confronting the old man I found particularly bad, I knew right away where they were going and it just seemed to never end. Also hated the 'lets slow down and explain this thing that just happened to the viewer' thing they had going. Lazy film making.

The scenes in the carriage at the beginning I were fine with but as soon as they got to their destination it all went off the rails for me.

Savz

In comparison to those movies it isn't as good, but there are multiple dialogues which were class.

Oswaldo's speech to Daisy about justice.

When Marquis Warren tells the old man what he did to his son.

When the Hangman speaks to all of the group, explaining who he is and what he's doing.

Burnwinter

Thought it was an awful, self-limiting creative disaster myself. Tarantino is at his worst when he forgets he's supposed to trade on the coolness of the genres he harvests from.

QuincyAbeyie

Ah, the coolness again.

Burnwinter

No need to explain my pet theory all over again, I just thought the film sucked.

I've been sick at home for a couple of days (typical virus type thing). Watched Road House (hilarious and amazingly pure), The Wicker Man (1973—pretty great), and The Assassin (2015—amazing looking but a bit slow) yesterday.

QuincyAbeyie

Just messing around. Been meaning to see The Assassin, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Burnwinter

The Assassin is really, really beautifully filmed and has these wonderfully sparse, minimal action sequences. Usually I'm fine with slow-paced films, but in this case I found it hard to connect. Would've enjoyed it more in a cinema free of distractions.

Klaus

The Assassin is a bit emotionally hollow, and while I appreciate that might be the feeling they were aiming for it also makes the film less engaging. The cinematography is perfect though. It's almost a shame that they wasted it on such generic storytelling. A lot of people have tried to imitate Melville throughout the years; few have pulled it off.

On another note I watched Hail Caesar yesterday. I thought it was great. Best Coen film since No Country. It vaguely reminded me of Bullets over Broadway for some reason. I'm not entirely sure why, because they aren't very similar - maybe it's just the time period and the aesthetic approach - but Bullets is one of my favourite Allen films so I really appreciated that feeling. Josh Brolin is probably the best thing that has happened to the Coens.

Burnwinter

I wasn't too impressed with Hail Caesar.

There are two things to watch out for in more or less every single Coens film—firstly, the wholesale cannibalisation and loving reproduction of a particular slice of American culture, and secondly, a clever formalist or metafictional schtick that imbues the screenplay with avant-garde panache.

In Hail Caesar you've got "true life" Eddie Mannix in a Passion-like series of ordeals, testing his faith, as he struggles to get a film made about the testing of another man's faith.

I liked the film, lots of funny jokes, the communist writers were hilarious as was Channing Tatum's Gene Kelly-ish character, but I think the Coens really need to move outside their comfort zone.

Klaus

I dunno, it's not like that particular comfort zone is being overcrowded by other directors. They're a bit like Wes Anderson to me (or Allen for that matter) - you know the aesthetic well, but that's because he defined it to begin with. I'd rather get quality Anderson and Coen films now and then than watch them branch out to more conventional stuff. A lot of artists have a small field of intest that they then study deeply. The main problem with the Coens for me is that they're very hit and miss. This was essentially their first good film since No Country. That's way too long considering their talents.

Asterix

I love Bullets Over Broadway, such a good film. Dianne Wiest (don't speak!)and Jennifer Tilley are fantastic, and John Cusack is better in the Woody Allen type character than Woody would have been. But I really love Chaz Palmantieri agonising over "his" play. Classic film. I wouldn't rate Hail Caesar in the same class, but then I felt let down by Hail Caesar, as I explained earlier. Still had some funny moments but I was hoping for more. Not sure more what - perhaps witty dialogue rather than set pieces.

Klaus

Asterix wrote:
I love Bullets Over Broadway, such a good film. Dianne Wiest (don't speak!)and Jennifer Tilley are fantastic, and John Cusack is better in the Woody Allen type character than Woody would have been. But I really love Chaz Palmantieri agonising over "his" play.

The way he ends up whacking her for the sake of the art, haha. "I thought you should know this - you're a terrible actress!" blam blam

It's a Woody top 3 for me, along with The Purple Rose of Cairo and... I dunno, Deconstructing Harry or Zelig probably.

Burnwinter

Klaus wrote:
I dunno, it's not like that particular comfort zone is being overcrowded by other directors. They're a bit like Wes Anderson to me (or Allen for that matter) - you know the aesthetic well, but that's because he defined it to begin with. I'd rather get quality Anderson and Coen films now and then than watch them branch out to more conventional stuff. A lot of artists have a small field of intest that they then study deeply. The main problem with the Coens for me is that they're very hit and miss. This was essentially their first good film since No Country. That's way too long considering their talents.

I think that's a legitimate point of view. I really love the Coens films that I find touch greatness because their screenplays do rupture their own apparent templates—I'd include O, Brother and No Country in that.

The trouble with Hail Caesar for me is that it sets itself up and then it plays itself out. I didn't feel like it ever elevated the material the way that the Sheriff's brief appearance as the Devil in O, Brother does. For me they need to work on their screenplays a bit harder because that's the fix I want from them.

I rate Inside Llewyn Davis by the way.

Burnwinter

My favourite Allen films are Annie Hall and Love and Death, but I've still not seen a few of the "big ones" …

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