Apologist Thread

[samir]

having just listened to the hour long clerks 2 review... i confess, i quite enjoy the clerks animated series. nothing else smith-ian, just those cartoons. none of the flicks.
may god have mercy on my soul.

[dvdv]

I have an intensely strong dislike of Magnolia.  I have an equally strong dislike of Fight Club which I guess saved me from the great "Fight Club Myspace Purge of 07".

[John Junk]

I had a drunken argument with my brother one time.  My brother liked Fight Club and American Beauty, hated Magnolia.  I loved Magnolia, LOATHED American Beauty, and ultimately disliked Fight Club.  If this drunken three-way debate had a winner, I think it was Fight Club:

American Beauty vs. Fight Club = Fight Club wins
Fight Club's woman-hating is at least out in the open, as is its general misanthropy.  American Beauty, on the other hand, is sly and covert, and manipulative in its woman-hating and misanthropy, thus making it ultimately more contemptible.  Plus they rip off George Kuchar in it. 

Fight Club vs. Magnolia = Fight Club wins!
My bro uses the emotionally manipulative plea to tear down Magnolia.  He sees it as melodramatic and insufferable in its heavy-handedness.  Those Aimee Mann songs are getting his goat.  I testify that the movie irritates him because its basic message is a sort of an assertion of the Judeo-Christian idea of working on problems, sticking by people through the darkness, helping one another out, acknowledging and working through adversity.  He counters that its whiney.  He basically uses the same argument I used against American Beauty against Magnolia.  I am ultimately hamstrung and destroyed by my girlfriend's ultimate agreement with him that the film is too manipulative and depressing.  Somehow making fun of a guy who has man-boobs at a cancer survivor meeting is more socially redemptive than P.T. Anderson's earnest attempt to create a rupture of sincerity in the contemporary existential malaise.  I'm left wondering if even I like Magnolia, or if I just liked the idea of liking Magnolia.

I still hate Fight Club.  I don't know if I like Magnolia or not.  American Beauty is still one of my least favorite movies ever.  I hate it so much I think it's the first movie to earn my enmity.

[ian]

Yeah, Fight Club wasn't heavy-handed and whiny or anything.

[dvdv]

My issue with Fight Club (besides everything about it) is that it posits that the WORST thing about Global Capitalism is that it makes middle class white dudes feel inadequate.  Well, I gotta go to bed as I'm handing out fliers on the quad early tomorrow morning. 

[Chris L]

I rewatched MAGNOLIA when it was on late a couple of months ago.  It's still the same sobbing, high-strung cokehead movie that I remembered.  Before, I used to hate on ideological grounds that such a thing existed.  Not so much anymore... maybe because I listen to Fleetwood Mac now. 

I still think of FIGHT CLUB as one of the most visually inventive movies of the last ten years, even though it's completely daft and repugnant.  ZODIAC was so good I've been tempted to revisit it lately.  Rich white guys mocking cancer patients, here I come(?)!

[senorcorazon]

I still think of FIGHT CLUB as one of the most visually inventive movies of the last ten years, even though it's completely daft and repugnant.

Yes, I secretly like Fight Club. But in the same way that a person could like eating whipped cream from the can; you know there's little to nothing redeemable about it, and you look both ways before opening the fridge and feel shamed after doing it. But in the awful years I spent as an office monkey on the road trying to pay off student loans I could identify with the whole montage of waking up confused in different cities and hoping your plane would smash into something.

[erika]

I watched food network for 5 hours yesterday.

[senorcorazon]

I watched food network for 5 hours yesterday.

That is nothing to apologize for, unless it included Rachel Ray. Food porn is awesome.

[buffcoat]

I like all three of them fine.  American Beauty doesn't age very well.  I like Edward Norton, and I like Helena Bonham Carter.  And, honestly, dvdv, I like Global Capitalism, too.

If you want a really emotionally manipulative movie, try fucking "Crash" (Haggis, not Cronenberg, although "yuck" to the latter.)  As Gene Simmons told 80s Bowie "I wish he would go back and do Ziggy Stardust again," I say to Paul Haggis - we loved you in that one "Mr. Merlin" episode, and the "Who's the Boss," one, too.  Go back to that.

And if you want a movie that is total garbage, try "Gladiator."  "Maximus."  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  "MAXIMUS?"  THAT'S THE BEST YOU COULD COME UP WITH, YOU MORONS?

I think no one on the planet hates "Gladiator" as much as me.  And I only saw it once, in the theater, so it may not even be that bad.  I had just read "The Twelve Caesars," so maybe I was just angry about the portrayal of Marcus Aurelius.   But I will never have respect for the Best Picture Oscar again after those two.

Ohhh, I hate that "Maximus."

[scotttsss]

I think no one on the planet hates "Gladiator" as much as me.
Ohhh, I hate that "Maximus."

No no you're not alone at all there, don't worry.  I finally watched it after years of hating it without seeing it.  At least now I'm justified in hating it...but it wasn't worth sitting through.  I watched it after seeing and enjoying Master and Commander.  I mean, say what you will, that was a fun adventure movie.  Gladiator though...  yeah, so horrible.  I wasn't shocked by the Oscar win though...  Remember when Dances With Wolves won instead of Goodfellas?

[buffcoat]

I think no one on the planet hates "Gladiator" as much as me.
Ohhh, I hate that "Maximus."

No no you're not alone at all there, don't worry.  I finally watched it after years of hating it without seeing it.  At least now I'm justified in hating it...but it wasn't worth sitting through.  I watched it after seeing and enjoying Master and Commander.  I mean, say what you will, that was a fun adventure movie.  Gladiator though...  yeah, so horrible.  I wasn't shocked by the Oscar win though...  Remember when Dances With Wolves won instead of Goodfellas?

Goodfellas.  Now there's a movie that has actually held up.  I watched it 6 months ago.

[Forrest]

If you want a really emotionally manipulative movie, try fucking "Crash"

I couldn't agree more. Aside from being the worst Best Picture-winner of all time, it now occupies a spot in my hate pit.

[dave from knoxville]

Cronenberg too edgy for you?

[Forrest]

Cronenberg too edgy for you?

Dave, I was referring to the film that won Best Picture at the Oscars, not the one that won America's hearts.