General Movie Thread

[Christina]

Oh, that's like when I lived in Madison WI and everywhere you went you heard Grateful Dead or Bob Marley. I still can't listen to either.

[masterofsparks]

I fully understand your opinion, but I think there's just something in the water of my hometown that turned us all into AC/DC fans for life.  May God have mercy on us.

AC/DC music in the city of Buffalo is like romantic accordion music in bad movies set in Paris... even though you never see anyone playing it, it seems to drift from every window and waft through the air, omnipresent.   It's like white noise here. It's possible that I could even be hearing AC/DC right now without realizing it, as I'm typing this.

I'm still not seeing the problem. I understand Auntie Christina's situation, as both Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead are horrible.

[Pat K]

I'm still not seeing the problem. I understand Auntie Christina's situation, as both Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead are horrible.

I will say this about Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead: neither one of them wrote "Big Balls".

[masterofsparks]

I'm still not seeing the problem. I understand Auntie Christina's situation, as both Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead are horrible.

I will say this about Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead: neither one of them wrote "Big Balls".

I'm fairly sure at least one of them covered it.

[JonFromMaplewood]

Saw Trash Humpers last night.  As you can imagine, the New York City audience was totally shocked.  The movie broke our small-town minds.  It was too intense for us.

Let me ask this:  Is the eschewing of story something to be praised?

[Bryan]

Let me ask this:  Is the eschewing of story something to be praised?

Not in and of itself. But I think there ought to be room for non-narrative film in our cinemas. Though, admittedly, I have less patience for much of that stuff than I did when I was a little younger. Is it a common thing to move away from more challenging movies/books/art as you get older?

So you didn't like Trash Humpers, I guess? Is it funny, at least?

[JonFromMaplewood]

Let me ask this:  Is the eschewing of story something to be praised?

Not in and of itself. But I think there ought to be room for non-narrative film in our cinemas. Though, admittedly, I have less patience for much of that stuff than I did when I was a little younger. Is it a common thing to move away from more challenging movies/books/art as you get older?

So you didn't like Trash Humpers, I guess? Is it funny, at least?

Yes, you're right. There certainly needs to be room for non-narrative film, but I think it needs to be at the service of something. I am not sure what the "something" was in Trash Humpers, and that's why I walked away annoyed.  If the goal was to shock, it failed in my case.  If the goal was to thumb a nose at the movie industry, then it was too insider for me to care.  If it was a message to the audience to break from boring suburban routine, then it was preaching to the choir and it backfired and had me wanting to run toward convention because the people in the film were so miserable.

As for being funny, I really didn't find any of it funny. I saw times where there were attempts at humor, but I didn't laugh.

To its credit, there were moments when it was visually interesting.  But those moments were too rare and fleeting to keep me on the movie's side.

[Bryan]

Thanks for that, Jon. I've been curious about this movie, and reviews for this kind of thing are often tough to get a bead on. I am a half-hearted fan of Korine's audacity and self-mythologizing, but I think it might be time for him to try a little harder.

[Christina]

Thanks for that, Jon. I've been curious about this movie, and reviews for this kind of thing are often tough to get a bead on. I am a half-hearted fan of Korine's audacity and self-mythologizing, but I think it might be time for him to try a little harder.

Nicely crystallized - I agree totally ...

[Christina]

Jeepers - I was looking up Korine's filmography on the IMDB, cause I haven't been super aware of his stuff the last few years, and I found this in the trivia section:

Named his top ten favorite films of all time in a December 1999 issue of Dazed & Confused: Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1981), Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), Fat City (1972), Stroszek (1977), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Out of the Blue (1980) and 'Je vous salue, Marie' (1985).

This explains a lot.

[Chris L]

Jeepers - I was looking up Korine's filmography on the IMDB, cause I haven't been super aware of his stuff the last few years, and I found this in the trivia section:

Named his top ten favorite films of all time in a December 1999 issue of Dazed & Confused: Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1981), Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), Fat City (1972), Stroszek (1977), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Out of the Blue (1980) and 'Je vous salue, Marie' (1985).

This explains a lot.

Korine does have excellent taste.  I remember reading years ago he's a huge Flannery O'Connor fan too. 

("an issue of Dazed & Confused?" I assume whatever that is, it's not around anymore)

[Martin]

It sure is:

http://www.dazeddigital.com/Default.aspx

[Pidgeon]

My favorite Cassavetes movie is the made-for-TV one where he kidnaps a small black child and Billy Dee Williams tries to get him back.

[Sarah]

Is it a common thing to move away from more challenging movies/books/art as you get older?

Sure is true for me.  I've given up on trying to improve myself or impress others; now I just want to be entertained.

[Christina]

Korine does have excellent taste.  I remember reading years ago he's a huge Flannery O'Connor fan too. 
 

Yabbut it's a weird taste, I think is what I meant, you know? Those are all good movies, but collected together as his top ten (& his O'Connor worship), well, that's quite a statement. I love O'Connor too, though, so there you have it.

BTW I actually have Fat City in my netflix queue - haven't seen it. Do youse like it?