"Not the art of scholars but of illiterates." (new movie thread)

[Bernard]

Man, I still haven't had a chance to see Moon, and I'm worrying now that it'll be gone before I do.

[mixed cats]

Also!

a screening of Mishima that I missed

I know this movie came out 25 years ago but whoah!  Maybe loving an author does not necessarily mean that I'll love a movie about him but I am going to try to sneak this into the roommate's Netflix queue.

I enjoyed the film very much with only having a small familiarity with his writing

[Thermofusion]

Going to see Whatever Works tonight, am more stoked than the reviews would have me be

The other day, while I was sleep-deprived and rather depressed, I decided to go see this to have some distraction, but about 30 minutes after it started, I had to get up to pee. Only too late did I realize that I had walked through the wrong door, and I was locked out of the movie theatre (that door only led to an exit in a backstreet, so I could theoretically have come back through the front door at the expense of missing three or four minutes of the movie, but I was too pissed off at my own stupidity to even consider it). I was actually really disappointed by the first half-hour I did manage to see, but since I hate starting movies and not finishing them, I'll have to pay another ticket to finish the damn thing one of these days. Let us know what you thought!

Man, that would have pissed me off.

I'm pretty excited, although my theory is that Larry David as the token Woody analogue will prove either inspired or insipid with little chance of an in-between

[mountmccabe]

I liked Moon but after the fact flaws in the story have killed my revelry. 

What flaws? PM if you like.

I will answer here but with whited out text.

NOTICE: The following discussion of Moon includes a lot of plot points and such that you likely don't want to read before seeing the film.

Minor complaints:
- Clones.  Most of the rest of it is rather naturalistic sci-fi but then they go with the toy idea of clones coming out of a copier or something.  Ugh.  They didn't even try to come up with anything that made sense here.
- 15 years.  Is that supposed to be a long time?  That room appeared to be full of clones... and this whole thing has only lasted ~5 cycles?  I know the carved town isn't that elaborate yet and if it was going to be hundreds or thousands of years one'd expect there might could be plenty of other people on the Moon.  Hell, that, actually, probably would've been a better way to finish the movie.

Serious issues:
- The towers jamming the signal.  If Gerty can get through what could the towers have to do with anything?  I understand that sending the harvester to destroy the tower was clever and that showed that Sam #2 wasn't entirely cynical and did something to help future Sams but it doesn't make any sense how that re-established communications.  Which leads to...
- Gerty is undeveloped.  How he worked and what his role there was one of the great mysteries of the movie... but it never became any more clear.  He evades Sam's questions and outright lies to him but then he also helps Sam #1 with the password and tells Sam #1 about being a clone - which was lame exposition by talking - and even helps Sam #2 escape and everything.  It seems like they didn't want to go all 2001 and have Gerty try to lock Sam #2 out so he'd die - I am glad that they avoided that - but isn't that what Gerty should've done for the good of the base/company?  Letting a Sam escape to Earth is probably the worst thing that could happen.

In conclusion, I liked the questions of identity and human rights and remote communication - the emoticons that Gerty used directly tying things into internet communication was pretty great - but there was also a lot of mystery and wonder that I don't think they followed through on.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I'm pretty excited, although my theory is that Larry David as the token Woody analogue will prove either inspired or insipid with little chance of an in-between

The part was written for Zero Mostel, so I figure Larry will slot into it OK.

[elpollodiablo]

I liked Moon but after the fact flaws in the story have killed my revelry. 

What flaws? PM if you like.

I will answer here but with whited out text.

NOTICE: The following discussion of Moon includes a lot of plot points and such that you likely don't want to read before seeing the film.

Minor complaints:
- Clones.  Most of the rest of it is rather naturalistic sci-fi but then they go with the toy idea of clones coming out of a copier or something.  Ugh.  They didn't even try to come up with anything that made sense here.
- 15 years.  Is that supposed to be a long time?  That room appeared to be full of clones... and this whole thing has only lasted ~5 cycles?  I know the carved town isn't that elaborate yet and if it was going to be hundreds or thousands of years one'd expect there might could be plenty of other people on the Moon.  Hell, that, actually, probably would've been a better way to finish the movie.

Serious issues:
- The towers jamming the signal.  If Gerty can get through what could the towers have to do with anything?  I understand that sending the harvester to destroy the tower was clever and that showed that Sam #2 wasn't entirely cynical and did something to help future Sams but it doesn't make any sense how that re-established communications.  Which leads to...
- Gerty is undeveloped.  How he worked and what his role there was one of the great mysteries of the movie... but it never became any more clear.  He evades Sam's questions and outright lies to him but then he also helps Sam #1 with the password and tells Sam #1 about being a clone - which was lame exposition by talking - and even helps Sam #2 escape and everything.  It seems like they didn't want to go all 2001 and have Gerty try to lock Sam #2 out so he'd die - I am glad that they avoided that - but isn't that what Gerty should've done for the good of the base/company?  Letting a Sam escape to Earth is probably the worst thing that could happen.

In conclusion, I liked the questions of identity and human rights and remote communication - the emoticons that Gerty used directly tying things into internet communication was pretty great - but there was also a lot of mystery and wonder that I don't think they followed through on.

I had a lot of similar complaints about the plot--there were some gaping holes, after all--but I enjoyed the overall film so much I didn't really care by the time I left the theater.

[girl]

I fell asleep for a little over an hour about an hour into Watchmen. Did I miss anything important?

[G.C.R]

Any of you guys seen this Danish film called Flame & Citron? I saw the trailer before Moon and was really intrigued and lo and behold it was available on Time Warner On Demand. Pretty good period action/drama in the American mold; I probably thought more highly of it since they weren't speaking English. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see this remade with Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrel, Clive Owen, Rachel Weisz, &c. A couple of great performances, especially the dude who played Citron. If those two guys did even half the shit that's detailed in the move IRL, they were hard as nails and cold as ice.

I haven't, it's apparently the most expensive Danish film ever made. We tend not to agree on films I think, but with you on Mads Mikkelson (Citron) being pretty fucking awesome. I loved him in Adam's Apples.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I fell asleep for a little over an hour about an hour into Watchmen. Did I miss anything important?

Have you read the book? If so, no. If not, just read the book and don't worry about it.

[elpollodiablo]

Any of you guys seen this Danish film called Flame & Citron? I saw the trailer before Moon and was really intrigued and lo and behold it was available on Time Warner On Demand. Pretty good period action/drama in the American mold; I probably thought more highly of it since they weren't speaking English. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see this remade with Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrel, Clive Owen, Rachel Weisz, &c. A couple of great performances, especially the dude who played Citron. If those two guys did even half the shit that's detailed in the move IRL, they were hard as nails and cold as ice.

I haven't, it's apparently the most expensive Danish film ever made. We tend not to agree on films I think, but with you on Mads Mikkelson (Citron) being pretty fucking awesome. I loved him in Adam's Apples.

I would certainly watch something else with him in it! I'll have to track that down.

[G.C.R]

Very very black comedy where he plays a priest who takes in an excon rascist skinhead!

[jebreject]

I liked Moon but after the fact flaws in the story have killed my revelry. 

What flaws? PM if you like.

I will answer here but with whited out text.

NOTICE: The following discussion of Moon includes a lot of plot points and such that you likely don't want to read before seeing the film.

Minor complaints:
- Clones.  Most of the rest of it is rather naturalistic sci-fi but then they go with the toy idea of clones coming out of a copier or something.  Ugh.  They didn't even try to come up with anything that made sense here.
- 15 years.  Is that supposed to be a long time?  That room appeared to be full of clones... and this whole thing has only lasted ~5 cycles?  I know the carved town isn't that elaborate yet and if it was going to be hundreds or thousands of years one'd expect there might could be plenty of other people on the Moon.  Hell, that, actually, probably would've been a better way to finish the movie.

Serious issues:
- The towers jamming the signal.  If Gerty can get through what could the towers have to do with anything?  I understand that sending the harvester to destroy the tower was clever and that showed that Sam #2 wasn't entirely cynical and did something to help future Sams but it doesn't make any sense how that re-established communications.  Which leads to...
- Gerty is undeveloped.  How he worked and what his role there was one of the great mysteries of the movie... but it never became any more clear.  He evades Sam's questions and outright lies to him but then he also helps Sam #1 with the password and tells Sam #1 about being a clone - which was lame exposition by talking - and even helps Sam #2 escape and everything.  It seems like they didn't want to go all 2001 and have Gerty try to lock Sam #2 out so he'd die - I am glad that they avoided that - but isn't that what Gerty should've done for the good of the base/company?  Letting a Sam escape to Earth is probably the worst thing that could happen.

In conclusion, I liked the questions of identity and human rights and remote communication - the emoticons that Gerty used directly tying things into internet communication was pretty great - but there was also a lot of mystery and wonder that I don't think they followed through on.

I had a lot of similar complaints about the plot--there were some gaping holes, after all--but I enjoyed the overall film so much I didn't really care by the time I left the theater.

Agreed for the most part.

[Babar]

I fell asleep for a little over an hour about an hour into Watchmen. Did I miss anything important?

i think it's an amazing film.

[elpollodiablo]

It's definitely amazing that someone would cast Malin Akerman in anything

[Maaik]

I saw Public Enemies and the new Harry Potter movie this weekend.  Public Enemies was pretty good--though the banter between Dillinger and his woman was cheesy as all fuck.  I also wanted to to have more noir than shaky handheld elements.  But it was entertaining.  I thought it was kind of odd that they chose to shoot such a period piece in digital.

Harry Potter was ok.  I really have no attachment to the source material and have only seen the first film and Prisoner of Azkaban, so I went in pretty out of the loop.  I was still able to follow it well enough--I mean, you know who Harry is, you know what Hogwarts is, you know a few of the main characters and you're fine.  The teenage melodrama stuff went from kind of funny to mildly irritating and the reveal of who the Half Blood Prince is was really half assed, but I hear that it's like that in the book as well.  Also: I like Luna.  More of her please.

[jebreject]

Also: I like Luna.  More of her please.

WORD!

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

Saw Kicking and Screaming, the Noah Baumbach one, which hit somewhat close to home. Nice to see Digger playing someone not vile.

Well, okay, he's still sort of vile.

[alistarr*]

Harry Potter was ok.  I really have no attachment to the source material and have only seen the first film and Prisoner of Azkaban, so I went in pretty out of the loop.  I was still able to follow it well enough--I mean, you know who Harry is, you know what Hogwarts is, you know a few of the main characters and you're fine.  The teenage melodrama stuff went from kind of funny to mildly irritating and the reveal of who the Half Blood Prince is was really half assed, but I hear that it's like that in the book as well.  Also: I like Luna.  More of her please.

i really liked some of the teen dramadramaDRAMA stuff quite a lot. i particularly enjoyed the sad part with the birds and that, and found very reminiscent of a tv show i like called skins (which is also all about teens thinking they're all grown up and very good at portraying that kind of feeling without it being either too Important or too mocking). i'd say that bit, alongside the fact that the naughty boy was the same colour as the castle in almost every shot (almost becoming part of the school, davy jones/black pearl style?), was probably my favourite thing about the movie. mind you, i can see how it might be seen in a less positive light.

as for the prince reveal thing, i guess it didn't help that it basically didn't matter at all who the prince was anyway, to the plot or to any of the characters. or that the movie itself had become boring and pointless by that stage in proceedings.

[Andrew_TSKS]

In the book it matters, but not as much as you might think based on it being the title of the book.

[donblood]

edit: moving this to the book thread where it belongs

[donblood]

Oops this is the movie thread.  I'm illiterate.

[donblood]

Okay so I posted in the movie thread and mentioned DeLillo.  Now this, which means I am a wizard with mystical powers:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/cronenberg-to-adapt-don-delillos-cosmopolis,30926/

This is really exciting news as far as I'm concerned.  A lot of people think Cosmopolis is shite and man are they ever wrong.

[what whale]

Okay so I posted in the movie thread and mentioned DeLillo.  Now this, which means I am a wizard with mystical powers:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/cronenberg-to-adapt-don-delillos-cosmopolis,30926/

This is really exciting news as far as I'm concerned.  A lot of people think Cosmopolis is shite and man are they ever wrong.

That is fucking awesome.

[elpollodiablo]

Put Ed Harris in it

[donblood]

Shush you.

Good question, though.  Who should play the role of Our Hero?  Videodrome-era James Woods would be pretty hilarious.