The New Film Thread: Page 23 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One more in the Tolly

The New Film Thread

goon

Every time I think about caving and watching Avatar I see someone else who says ‘it’s a good film. No story but stunning visually’ and come to my senses.

Daz

Burnwinter Finally got around to watching Avatar on the weekend and really enjoyed it. The effects were awesome of course but I was a bit surprised at just how good many of the action sequences were.

QuincyAbeyie

The action sequences really are something else. It's not often that you get those kinds of setpieces. In the MCU they're reserved for the ensemble movies, if even that.

@goon do you really never watch an action movie if people say that the story isn't anything special, or is this Avatar-specific?

The Raid: Redemption remains one of the best action movies of all time, and it's just about a cop fighting himself up a tower.

goon

QuincyAbeyie @goon do you really never watch an action movie if people say that the story isn't anything special, or is this Avatar-specific?

Pretty much. The story doesn't need to be amazing but I don't like action movies where the action sequences and visuals dominate. Action sequences in general are usually when I zone out of movies, even in ones I like.

Burnwinter

QuincyAbeyie The action sequences really are something else. It's not often that you get those kinds of setpieces. In the MCU they're reserved for the ensemble movies, if even that.

The final act of WAY OF WATER was such a mixed bag. On the one hand it was this nonstop technical marvel where you were trying to figure out what was and wasn't animated, bringing in every Cameron cliché but at such a high level of competence you enjoyed it … but on the other … fuck it was long … when [unnamed character] just sort of came back to life … I was disgusted.

QuincyAbeyie

Fair.

Asterix

Also saw it on the weekend. So long I needed a wee break. The action and CGI are incredible. The water and light through water are real life. Some of the themes are very old, but then most drama is a variation on a few core themes.

The stuff I didn't like, and without giving too much away, revolved around kids getting involved. I felt there were a couple of plot lines that you definitely wouldn't do if it wasn't CGI.

Claudius

We are getting old. I also realised I’d need a wee break. Fortunately there were enough sections of Cameron just showing off his technical brilliance that one could go take a pee. If I was an editor, I’d have take a saw to the movie and get rid of 30 minutes.

Daz

Claudius mate, I needed two!

QuincyAbeyie

Definitely, that'd be the perfect length.

Cameron probably would never accept it though, and with his track record you'll just let him do his thing. He's made three of the top five grossing films of all time.

Claudius

I saw that 3 of top 5 figure the other day. In a time of Marvel and Star Wars it’s incredible that he was able to make original content and get so many people to buy it. Just a reminder of how lazy Hollywood is in the big budget space

KingslandBarge

Burnwinter finally got around to watching BoP last weekend. Though EotS left a more lasting impression on me, I enjoyed this!
From the get go it was a visually lush and pretty film; the traditional dresses, the humid and arid Colombian scenery, the almost surrealist gemeinschaft locale in the middle of nowhere. It felt like the drug business was the plot vessel with which to explore the shift from tradition to modernity, the simultaneous erosion of the family unit and its key traits seeping away like sand between fingers. May have to go by arawakan dictionary next time I'm at the bookstore!

Burnwinter You stumped me initially with this one, and I had to cast my mind back to the movie and actually contemplate the metaphorical significance a bit more critically. Wherever I got to, it made me appreciate the move more.
In talking Korean cinema with a mate a couple months back, he recommended The Wailing - totally different genre and style, it was engrossing and pretty enjoyable so worth a watch. Though it seems to be highly revered with a big cult following.

Big Willie Champ

KingslandBarge inally got around to watching BoP last weekend. Though EotS left a more lasting impression on me, I enjoyed this!

What is BoP and EotS?

Burnwinter

KingslandBarge I had to cast my mind back to the movie and actually contemplate the metaphorical significance a bit more

Do you remember the film starts with that adage about people who are wise being like the ocean, and those who are benevolent and simple being like the mountains?

Burnwinter

KingslandBarge

It felt like the drug business was the plot vessel with which to explore the shift from tradition to modernity

Yeah totally. It's a film about how colonial capital works, out of the Fanon playbook. It's important that it chooses not to villainise the whites so much as showing how the drive to accumulate overturns everything honourable within a generation. It's a realist fable dripping with sympathetic self-criticism.

KingslandBarge

Big Willie Champ Two films, Birds of Passage and Embrace of the Serpent, directed by Ciro Guerra, the former with Cristina Collego too.

Burnwinter I did not! thats a fine introductory touch with which to expound on through all facets of the film thereafter.

Burnwinter

Just caught up with Kore-eda's BROKER which screened at Cannes last year. So it's the SHOPLIFTERS guy with Song Kang-ho from PARASITE in the lead role. Felt like it lifted a lot of elements from both. It's quite sentimental but very good.

Burnwinter

Man, how good is TÁR? Finally got around to seeing it with a friend last night while I'm on this consulting stay.

Incredible film, instantly shot to probably the top of my list from last year. Films with this degree of refinement are rare, it's at the level of something like ZAMA. Don't believe any criticism you read, everything I've seen along those lines has been misguided—mostly falsely interpolating strange readings into the "intentions" of screenplay or character. It's about as long as the AVATAR sequel, but it's half as boring.

KingslandBarge

Burnwinter Just got around to seeing Tár. Fascinating film and will watch again. I know I'm probably incapable of understanding and appreciating it in full.
I had quite a few negative feelings for Lydia through out the first 2/3rds of the movie. In tertiary education and professional hubs within high income/'high culture' cities, I'm sure most of us come across someone like this at least once, struck by their moral superiority/nepotism juxtaposed with their highly venerable talent and achievement. I need to watch it again because I am not sure this is just a classic god-complex case of reaching high echelons of status and developing hubris. From such position, dabbing in fetish and compulsion (whether previously inherent or emergent). I thought the environment she was around reflected a diverse range of behaviours. I liked that scene with the Julliard student who to me reflected a level of hypocrisy with a different kind of moral superiority. Im I wrong to think there and in other parts of the movie Lydia shows she's actually more rounded and demonstrates a self and socially-aware capacity to step outside herself? Also still don't have a settled perspective on disassociating an artist with their art.

Saw The Banshees of Insherin last week as well. Another fascinating, weird film, leaving me at times very uncomfortable. I enjoyed Kerry Condon's performance. For me this one also deals with the folly of man / fleetingness of time vs the aspiration to transcend it through craft, but in a different perpsective.

RocktheCasbah

Watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent earlier. A very fun way to spend a Monday morning, although how much you enjoy it will obviously depend on your tolerance for Nic Cage. Personally, I thought it was really funny and Pedro Pascal was a hoot in a slightly - shall we say - goofier role than I'm used to seeing him in. Strong recommend.

Burnwinter

Liked it, didn't love it. It did occur to me that really only Nic Cage could make that film, would make that film, and would get quite a few people wanting to see it. It actually is a fine testament to his achievement.

Don't get the Pedro Pascal thing so far. Television actor, charming, handsome and gifted, but he's never been that great in anything that was great that I've seen. Does this really mean I've gotta watch THE LAST OF US?

RocktheCasbah

Burnwinter well, no, you don't. I was a Pascal fan before The Last Of Us, it was his performance that really got me through Narcos - as good as Wagner Moura was as Escobar, you're really watching the show through the eyes of the DEA and I found the other guy, the American agent insufferable.

QuincyAbeyie

Burnwinter Don't get the Pedro Pascal thing so far.

Maybe this will help

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