The Film Thread

Ickles

Waiting Room
Apr 12, 2022
494
867
I would suggest simply watching what interests you the most and not caring about having film-related conversations with others. And being a bit snobbish also helps, i.e. not caring about what other people watch or recommend. I constantly hear people talking about popular new series, especially at work, like The Witcher, House of the Dragon, The Rings of Power, and I just get annoyed and say no, I won't watch them.

But it seems like you actually watch a lot of films if you go to theaters 3+ times a week. I hardly ever go to theaters - almost everything I watch I watch at home. And it almost always makes it a much more comfortable and immersive experience, and less of a chore.
Oh, I definitely have given up on the keeping up with the film nerd crowd, which is basically what I was saying as to the reason I don't really have much of a top films I've seen this year list. The days of going to 3+ movies a week are long gone, that was back when I was a projectionist (getting free tickets certainly didn't hurt). Nowadays I'm lucky if I see 1-2 movies a month.

I mostly watch TV series for pleasure. Severance & The Bear being my most recent favorites. And like I said before, usually will try to catch the latest Marvel thing when it comes out.
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
(House of the Dragon is excellent...Rings of Power appears to be universally loathed and The Witcher is very mediocre.)
That's basically the impression I got from what other people said, yes.

I gave up on Marvel last year. Loki, Black Widow, and Doctor Strange 2 ruined it for me. I loved Star Wars since my earliest childhood, so I'm still ready to give it a chance. However, the only franchise left that I'm truly ready to invest my time into is Star Trek, and I watch it with my girlfriend. We just finished Voyager, and I can say that all three of the 80s/90s series are great (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager).

I was always more of a film buff, and I mostly enjoy classics and arthouse cinema, so by trying to keep up with everything, I deprived myself of a lot of stuff I actually wanted to see much more.

Since I just finished one very long TV series, the next thing for me will be a Robert Bresson marathon. I will watch all of his films chronologically, from first to last, and it will be even more interesting because I've never seen any of his films before. Hopefully, that turns out to be a rewarding experience.
 

CPL593H

RR Diner
Apr 12, 2022
37
34
Sorry in advance for a bit of word vomit but I'm not quite in the mood to do actual work at the moment:

I feel compelled to confess something in this thread: I don't consider myself much of a cinephile/movie buff anymore. I got into cinema when I was very young, watching stuff like Citizen Kane and Marx Brothers movies while my school friends were watching Disney cartoons. I vividly remember seeing Blue Velvet on a VHS tape I rented from the video store by my house when I was 13 and it blowing my tiny mind. I later went to film school, got day jobs at movie theaters as a projectionist and later a video store. But I think over 20+ years of it I got burnt out on dissecting every single film and trying to desperately keep up with the latest buzzy international cult classic. It started to feel more like a chore to go out and see 3+ movies a week so I could hold conversations with co-workers and friends and more often than not I found myself not even really enjoying or connecting with the majority of the films I was watching.

I still have a lot of cinephile friends and follow them on Letterboxd where they seem to post reviews daily and I just can't keep up. It doesn't help that the movies I do find myself making time to watch very rarely do a whole lot for me. It's funny because I just went and pulled up all the 2022 releases I've seen so far on Letterboxd and pretty much every single one is rated in the 2.5-3 star range. Even critically acclaimed/awards season darlings like Everything Everywhere All At Once and the Banshees of Inisherin didn't really do a whole lot for me. They were perfectly fine, for the most part (although I had a few more problems with Banshees specifically) but haven't really stood out from the other middle of the road fare I've seen this year like Prey, Glass Onion and Ticket to Paradise (all 3 stars).

The last film I saw that truly affected me and stuck with me longer than 5 minutes after the credits ended was Drive My Car and I'm generally finding the legitimately impactful films that resonate with me are fewer and farther between. Not sure if it's a case of me getting a little more cynical and harder to impress as I get older or just the state of cinema not being what it once was but now the idea of trying to rank the films I watched this year sounds like a downright tedious chore, whereas once I would keep a film journal and excitedly start my top 10 list in like November.
I’m dusting off an old cliche, but the movies that are supposed to be “good” now are like junk food. They’re really good in the moment, but once it’s over, you realize you shouldn’t have consumed such an unhealthy product. Then the next day rolls around and you completely forgot about how you felt and heck,
you don’t remember anything about the thing. Then the next week or month, you get that junk food craving again. It’s hard to ween yourself off of this. Especially, if you love living in the moment.

I’m aware of how pretentious & grumpy I sound, but I’m not chastising anyone for choosing to live their life that way (I would be fighting a losing battle in that regard), but it’s just not for me.

Btw: I loved Drive My Car, but I’m wondering if that’s based on my love of Haruki Murakami.
 

Jordan Cole

White Lodge
Sep 22, 2022
725
1,132
I gave up on Marvel last year. Loki, Black Widow, and Doctor Strange 2 ruined it for me. I loved Star Wars since my earliest childhood, so I'm still ready to give it a chance. However, the only franchise left that I'm truly ready to invest my time into is Star Trek, and I watch it with my girlfriend. We just finished Voyager, and I can say that all three of the 80s/90s series are great (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager).
I enjoyed Black Widow and really liked Doctor Strange 2. Loki I found baffling as it was just a bizarre waste of potential and that character. Like...he's the trickster and there's just no point where he tricks anybody or does anything crafty or clever. Yet everyone in the show constantly berates him for being crafty and clever. It reminds me of anytime the DC character John Constantine is in a new DC cartoon or TV show. The writers know the character is a jerk, so they have a bunch of people yelling at him about how he's a jerk, but he doesn't *do* anything bad and is in fact basically heroic from beginning to end?

I want to check out Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I have Treky friends who are obsessed with those shows (they told me not to watch Voyager.) It's A LOT of episodes though and it won't happen for a while as we just started The Shield (7 seasons) and a few other things we're in the middle of.
 

AXX°N N.

Waiting Room
Apr 14, 2022
270
619
I was big into the MCU because franchising has always had a certain appeal to me--Star Wars being the prime example with its shared universe of games, comics, etc. There's just something neat about different media filling in pockets of a narrative.

But there's got to be some kind of variance and distinction to those little pockets. MCU doesn't really have anything quite like Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars, or Knights of the Old Republic--things that stand on their own and are genuinely creative.

I don't know when or why, but during some finale of one of the MCU entries I zoned out and that was the end of it, like suddenly involuntarily realizing a relationship isn't--or more like, never was--working out. No matter what illusion of difference one of the movies teases (and inevitably undermines, wastes, contradicts or forgets about) each plotline is the same pattern and most of the runtime is spent on special effects sequences, loud noises, and forced "clever" barbs.

I think it was only worthwhile as an experiment and experience in feeling out the pathway to its crossover gimmick, and then accomplishing it--the Avengers is probably as exciting as I remember. But I think it lost the plot along the way in all the deliberations that must have occurred re: how to keep it going like a steam engine.

Comic books themselves, the only real analog to the conveyor belt of superhero plots the MCU is nowadays, were worthwhile because no matter how many generic entries there were the industry would frequently give license to an Alan Moore or Grant Morrison. But the MCU, given its huge budgets, can't afford to let anyone get deep with the material.

At this point, given how big the MCU has grown, I would genuinely rather watch all of the SAW movies, because at least there's only 8 of them.
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
I want to check out Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I have Treky friends who are obsessed with those shows (they told me not to watch Voyager.)
Hmm, that's odd :unsure: Why would they say that? I get it if someone doesn't like Star Trek at all, or if someone who likes old Star Trek hates the new, Alex Kurtzman-era series, but to like TNG and DS9 and then dismiss Voyager is strange.

DS9 is my favorite. And TNG has many iconic characters and is an important sci-fi series in general. But Voyager, despite its flaws, has much more complex characters, relationships that develop between them, and character arcs than TNG. And more cases of delving into the grey zone when it comes to morality and ethical choices.

P.S. Of the three captains, Kathryn Janeway is the coolest, and Kate Mulgrew is the best actress (at least when it comes to Star Trek).
 

Soolsma

Glastonbury Grove
Apr 13, 2022
136
273
I so loved Triangle of Sadness. Boy, oh boy, that was audaciously funny, and managed to keep me on the edge of my seat nearly the entire time. Palme d'or well deserved
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
I've been hearing great things about Ruben Östlund for a while now. He's made only six fiction feature films so far (since he's still young), so I'm preparing to watch all of them in order sometime later this year.

I did this with a few directors and it's always been very rewarding. It helps me understand each individual film much better if I've seen everything that came before it. And later when I think back at the time when I did that, that period seems colorful and intensive in my memory as if I read a long and powerful novel.

That's why Triangle of Sadness will, unfortunately, have to wait a bit.
 

Mr. Reindeer

White Lodge
Apr 13, 2022
737
1,667
I so loved Triangle of Sadness. Boy, oh boy, that was audaciously funny, and managed to keep me on the edge of my seat nearly the entire time. Palme d'or well deserved
It was really a great example of
how crude/toilet humor can be absolutely hilarious and even artistic if executed well. That type of humor is so often abused—along with other “easy” types of comedy such as satire, parody and farce—as just something that can be done easily and artlessly for the lowest common denominator, taking for granted that people will laugh at shit (both metaphorically and literally). I often associate this type of humor with bad Adam Sandler movies and look down on it, but Triangle of Sadness was a great reminder that bathroom humor can be absolutely brilliant with the correct timing, performance and direction. I think that middle sequence is the most I’ve laughed at any film this year.
 

Soolsma

Glastonbury Grove
Apr 13, 2022
136
273
It was really a great example of
how crude/toilet humor can be absolutely hilarious and even artistic if executed well. That type of humor is so often abused—along with other “easy” types of comedy such as satire, parody and farce—as just something that can be done easily and artlessly for the lowest common denominator, taking for granted that people will laugh at shit (both metaphorically and literally). I often associate this type of humor with bad Adam Sandler movies and look down on it, but Triangle of Sadness was a great reminder that bathroom humor can be absolutely brilliant with the correct timing, performance and direction. I think that middle sequence is the most I’ve laughed at any film this year.
That execution was indeed just perfect, I could not have said it better. The sea food, the drunken Russian on the intercom, the panic, the chief steward trying to keep things together; it all culminated into such downright beautiful insanity. The stark contrast between the extravagant excess and the utter mayhem was glorious to behold.
Another scene that particularly struck me was when (after the first was already fired) the rich lady asked the deck hand to take a swim/get in the jacuzzi for a bit. As a viewer I could feel the conflict and nerves rushing through her body under that forced smile.
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
Yesterday evening I watched Fallen Angels (1995); it was my sixth Wong Kar-wai film. I cannot say that I didn't appreciate it - the cinematography and overall style/mood were intoxicating, as I came to expect from the director - but it was certainly my least favorite film of his thus far, and for one simple reason: I found the characters overwhelmingly annoying.

Besides the main character, who seemed relatively normal (ironic, since he's a hitman), others felt like ridiculous caricatures, especially the mute ex-convict, whom I couldn't stand. I keep reading that the film was supposed to be dark (both literally and metaphorically), but I found it way too silly to take it seriously.

It has its moments, though, and I will give it another chance, but I find it interesting that with each Wong Kar-wai film that I see, I seem to like them less and less, as if his style is gradually turning from being interesting to getting irritating.
 

Tulpa

Bureau HQ
TULPA MOD
ADMIN
Apr 11, 2022
583
791
Yesterday evening I watched Fallen Angels (1995); it was my sixth Wong Kar-wai film. I cannot say that I didn't appreciate it - the cinematography and overall style/mood were intoxicating, as I came to expect from the director - but it was certainly my least favorite film of his thus far, and for one simple reason: I found the characters overwhelmingly annoying.

Besides the main character, who seemed relatively normal (ironic, since he's a hitman), others felt like ridiculous caricatures, especially the mute ex-convict, whom I couldn't stand. I keep reading that the film was supposed to be dark (both literally and metaphorically), but I found it way too silly to take it seriously.

It has its moments, though, and I will give it another chance, but I find it interesting that with each Wong Kar-wai film that I see, I seem to like them less and less, as if his style is gradually turning from being interesting to getting irritating.

I find myself enjoying all of them to some degree but I keep having to go back and check which one is being discussed specifically because they all seem to blend into each other in the memory.
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
I find myself enjoying all of them to some degree but I keep having to go back and check which one is being discussed specifically because they all seem to blend into each other in the memory.
To be fair, some of them are connected and share certain characters: Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, and 2046 form a trilogy, while Chungking Express and Fallen Angels are loosely connected as well.

But I do get what you mean, even though the same thing could be said for many directors, like Woody Allen, Godard, Carax... Having a unique style and then repeatedly employing the same actors certainly helps.

In the case of Wong Kar-wai, however, it might even be intentional since his films are usually so fragmented and dreamlike.
 

MasterMastermnd

Waiting Room
Apr 12, 2022
369
531
Saw Skinamarink last night. I wasn't sure if I'd like it at first since I'm wary of millennial cinematic nostalgia after all the interminable Boomer nostalgia, but ultimately I really enjoyed it. Anybody like me whose spent the last decade watching YouTube weirdos like meatsleep or Kris Straub might not find it entirely revelatory but it's kind of a big deal in terms of legitimizing that sort of video art under the aegis of experimental film.

It's central experiment being "Oops, all B-roll!" is a little overextended at 100 minutes, but the more I think about it the more I find the way it explores absentee parenting, the uncanny nature of childhood fear, and the concept of the genius loci interesting.
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
Has anyone seen La Maman et La Putain by Jean Eustache? I've seen it the other day and enjoyed it very much, as I expected it would happen. Now I'm looking forward to Mes petites amoureuses.

The film is quite long, but never boring, even though it mostly consists of dialogue. It didn't really feel like a three-and-a-half-an-hour film to me.
 

Tulpa

Bureau HQ
TULPA MOD
ADMIN
Apr 11, 2022
583
791
Has anyone seen La Maman et La Putain by Jean Eustache? I've seen it the other day and enjoyed it very much, as I expected it would happen. Now I'm looking forward to Mes petites amoureuses.

The film is quite long, but never boring, even though it mostly consists of dialogue. It didn't really feel like a three-and-a-half-an-hour film to me.

I haven’t seen those films but there’s an outstanding little movie that can be named from those two titles:

Petite Maman

Just over an hour long and a damn near perfect film by Céline Sciamma.
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
I haven’t seen those films but there’s an outstanding little movie that can be named from those two titles:

Petite Maman

Just over an hour long and a damn near perfect film by Céline Sciamma.
I haven't seen any of her work yet, so thanks for the recommendation!
 

Stavrogyn

White Lodge
Apr 12, 2022
675
547
has anyone watched all of david lynch's films? i just finished all of them last week and i wanna see y'alls ranking of them😅
We're talking about feature films? My guess is that most users have probably seen all of them multiple times 😁

It's been a long time since I've last seen The Elephant Man, Dune, and The Straight Story (I also don't consider them "real" Lynch films in the way I do the others), so I won't include them in my list (and note that I rank the films according to my own preference; I'm not trying to make an objective evaluation).

1. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Blue Velvet
4. Eraserhead
5. INLAND EMPIRE
6. Lost Highway
7. Wild at Heart
 
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