General Movie Thread

[JonFromMaplewood]

Forget the Zookeeper has anybody seen this?

How can this NOT be Tom Cruise as Danzig?

[Paul DeLouisiana]

"Whooda thunk" I would like a movie with a cover like this:

[dave from knoxville]

You probably have to be a certain type of sucker to fall for it, and I am an overly-emotional guy who it's not that hard to manipulate, but with that stipulation in place, I was pleasantly overwhelmed by The Tree of Life. From my perspective, when the first 2 hours of a movie are this close to perfect, you can accept the inevitable let-down that any attempt to "wrap it up" for an ending necessitates. The first time I cried in a movie since young Ricky Schroeder kept screaming "CHAMP!!! CHAMP!!!"

[crumbum]

I thought Midnight In Paris stunk, but I am finding it hard to separate my reaction to the people in the theater with me from my reaction to the movie itself. Whenever I enter a cinema to find it crammed full of people who I suspect don't go to the movies more than once or twice a year, but are somehow all out at once, I know I'm in trouble.

I found it lightly amusing, but actually laughed perhaps twice. The thing that got under my skin was the way it played to the middlebrow pretensions of the audience so hard -- i.e. having some basic knowledge of the artists portrayed, and 'getting' the lame jokes such as Hemingway speaking like a poor parody of one of his novels.

And I'm aware that saying all this probably makes me seem pretentious myself.

[cavorting with nudists]

The thing that got under my skin was the way it played to the middlebrow pretensions of the audience so hard

Don't wanna get too tedious on this topic, but: that's what Woody Allen does, it's his signature. To expect anything else is like expecting a Kevin Smith movie not to use the word "dick."

[Paul DeLouisiana]

Watching Woody Allen movies always make me think "Psssh they haven't read a quarter of those books." whenever they walk through their living room.

Dave there are so many scenes in Tree of Life that made me tear up. Specifically when Jack tells Pitt, "You'd like to kill me."

[buffcoat]

I thought Midnight In Paris stunk, but I am finding it hard to separate my reaction to the people in the theater with me from my reaction to the movie itself. Whenever I enter a cinema to find it crammed full of people who I suspect don't go to the movies more than once or twice a year, but are somehow all out at once, I know I'm in trouble.

I found it lightly amusing, but actually laughed perhaps twice. The thing that got under my skin was the way it played to the middlebrow pretensions of the audience so hard -- i.e. having some basic knowledge of the artists portrayed, and 'getting' the lame jokes such as Hemingway speaking like a poor parody of one of his novels.

And I'm aware that saying all this probably makes me seem pretentious myself.

I have an internal war about middlebrow culture.  When I was younger, I disdained it all.  Now I guess I pick and choose.  I tell myself, "at least some people in this town aren't watching Transformers 3."

I liked Midnight in Paris fine.  I thought Corey Law and Order: LA was funny as Hemingway.  I got more 20s references than the average audience member but I still missed several of them.

Other middlebrow stuff that I hate: Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Garrison Keillor.  Bluegrass.

[Joe Rogaine]

I thought Midnight In Paris stunk, but I am finding it hard to separate my reaction to the people in the theater with me from my reaction to the movie itself. Whenever I enter a cinema to find it crammed full of people who I suspect don't go to the movies more than once or twice a year, but are somehow all out at once, I know I'm in trouble.

I found it lightly amusing, but actually laughed perhaps twice. The thing that got under my skin was the way it played to the middlebrow pretensions of the audience so hard -- i.e. having some basic knowledge of the artists portrayed, and 'getting' the lame jokes such as Hemingway speaking like a poor parody of one of his novels.

And I'm aware that saying all this probably makes me seem pretentious myself.

I have an internal war about middlebrow culture.  When I was younger, I disdained it all.  Now I guess I pick and choose.  I tell myself, "at least some people in this town aren't watching Transformers 3."

I liked Midnight in Paris fine.  I thought Corey Law and Order: LA was funny as Hemingway.  I got more 20s references than the average audience member but I still missed several of them.

Other middlebrow stuff that I hate: Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Garrison Keillor.  Bluegrass.

Bluegrass? If you live in the south that's not middlebrow.

[buffcoat]

I thought Midnight In Paris stunk, but I am finding it hard to separate my reaction to the people in the theater with me from my reaction to the movie itself. Whenever I enter a cinema to find it crammed full of people who I suspect don't go to the movies more than once or twice a year, but are somehow all out at once, I know I'm in trouble.

I found it lightly amusing, but actually laughed perhaps twice. The thing that got under my skin was the way it played to the middlebrow pretensions of the audience so hard -- i.e. having some basic knowledge of the artists portrayed, and 'getting' the lame jokes such as Hemingway speaking like a poor parody of one of his novels.

And I'm aware that saying all this probably makes me seem pretentious myself.

I have an internal war about middlebrow culture.  When I was younger, I disdained it all.  Now I guess I pick and choose.  I tell myself, "at least some people in this town aren't watching Transformers 3."

I liked Midnight in Paris fine.  I thought Corey Law and Order: LA was funny as Hemingway.  I got more 20s references than the average audience member but I still missed several of them.

Other middlebrow stuff that I hate: Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Garrison Keillor.  Bluegrass.

Bluegrass? If you live in the south that's not middlebrow.

But if you don't, it is.  Or if you live in the northern-transplant suburbs of the South.

[JonFromMaplewood]

No. Nooooooo!

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/juno-writer-diablo-cody-to-script-evil-dead-rem/224337

[Joe Rogaine]

Anybody seen the trailer for Vera Farmigas new film Higher Ground? Looks like it might be pretty good.

[cavorting with nudists]

THE FILMS OF WOODY ALLEN AND ANDREI TARKOVSKY: A SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON BY DAVE FROM KNOXVILLE

Take it away, dfk!

[dave from knoxville]

Andrei Tartovsky vs Woody Allen.

Here's how this works; I normally pull what I take to be the 10 best films for a movie person (actor, director, screenwriter, etc), and compare them to someone else's best 10. To the extent that I am familiar with the works, I use my own opinion; when I don't know about specific films, I use collected critical commentary (I read a LOT.)

In this case I have to drop down to 9 films rather than the customary 10, because while Tartovsky directed 11 films, I only have solid commentary on 9 of them. So I am throwing out one of Woody's middling efforts (ie, what I consider the 5th best of his top ten), Husbands and Wives, and using the remaining nine for comparison.

Now, the goal is to try to match up individual films, or for balancing's sake, 2 films each for the subjects that in my opinion are of comparable artistic value. At the end, I am usually left with a small set of films for each artist, and it is generally clear that one's "leftovers" are of higher quality than the other's.

Yes, it's crazy, but it just might work!

So Andrei Rublev and Annie Hall are of comparable value, and get removed.

Then Manhattan, and Solaris

Hannah and her Sisters, and The Mirror

Ivanovo Detstvo, and Love and Death

Sleeper, and Stalker

The Sacrifice, and Zelig

And that's it. For my money, Woody's still got two good movies left, Deconstructing Harry and Manhattan Murder Mystery, and one great one, Crimes and Misdemeanors

Rublev's only got his three weakest films remaining, Nostalghia, Steamroller and the Violin, and Tempo Di Viaggio. From what I can glean, none of these films are bad, but there's nothing especially exceptional about any of them.

So Rublev gets a sentimental nod for having "Steamroller" in one of his titles, but this system prefers Woody.

[cavorting with nudists]

This is either the most brilliant system of ranking directors that I have ever seen, or the craziest!

No, wait.  It's just the craziest.

[cavorting with nudists]

I mean, why not just rate the individual movies on a Rock/Rot/Rule scale?