Cinema and Movie Thread: I like to remember things my own way.

[Bartimaeus]

Fargo (1996) by the Coen Brothers.

Kind of a cute, feel-good story - minus all of the neurotic scheming and psychotic killing. But that stuff was pretty good, too.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[LadyCrimson]

^ I'm not a particular fan of the Coen brother's films, but Fargo is one of my favorite films. I bought the screenplay back then ... all those "yahs" and "real good thens"  etc that the chrs's use were fully scripted.  Those scenes where the girls in the bar and the man outside describe Steve Buscemi's chr. as "kinda funny looking" I crack up every time. It's also where I first really took notice of William H. Macy - loved him ever since.

...wait, 1996, it's 27 years old or something? Dangit...

[Bartimaeus]

8 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

^ I'm not a particular fan of the Coen brother's films, but Fargo is one of my favorite films. I bought the screenplay back then ... all those "yahs" and "real good thens"  etc that the chrs's use were fully scripted.  Those scenes where the girls in the bar and the man outside describe Steve Buscemi's chr. as "kinda funny looking" I crack up every time. It's also where I first really took notice of William H. Macy - loved him ever since.

...wait, 1996, it's 27 years old or something? Dangit...

I've seen this now, O Brother Where Art Thou, and No Country for Old Men. I like Brother, but I really had trouble paying attention to No Country for Old Men and definitely enjoyed Fargo a lot more. Bonus points that I'm actually from Minnesota (...ish, as I grew up half there and half in California) and, well, yeah, it's both painful as well as hilarious.

[LadyCrimson]

I liked No Country for Old Men fairly well, but mostly in terms of the performances (T.L. Jones, Bardem and Harrelson in his small role) and certain stylistic directions, rather than the movie/story itself, if that makes any sense.

I don't think I've seen very many Cohen films - five or six maybe? - tbh, at least not in full. They are typically creators where I might like specific short scenes a lot but their overall style doesn't fully engage or resonate with me. Or the subject matter just doesn't interest me film-wise to begin with (Miller's Crossing).

[Keyrock]

All this Coen Brothers talk and no one has brought up Raising Arizona.

[uuuhhii]

rewatching king of monsters and pacific rim

pretty obvious why this two movie work while others didn't

movement of giant monster feel slow and heavy

good use of rain and other weather to show their scale

things are played very seriously while being absolutely ridiculous

Edited January 15, 2023 by uuuhhii

[Chairchucker]

My brother went on a huge Coen Brothers kick back in the day, so I've seen:

Miller's Crossing (loved it)

The Hudsucker Proxy (loved it also)

Fargo (excellent)

The Big Lebowski (excellent)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (fantastic and I love the soundtrack)

The Man Who Wasn't There (I get that it's probs good but it didn't really grab me)

Intolerable Cruelty (not particularly amazing, but kinda fun)

The Ladykillers (kinda dumb)

No Country for Old Men (didn't really enjoy it very much)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (so depressing)

[LadyCrimson]

^ Yeah I liked Hudsucker Proxy too. Not on a mega level but it's fairly entertaining oddball comedy.

Buster Scruggs I liked the title segment and the one with Liam Neeson in it (but yes it was a downer), but the rest were nothing special.

Barton Fink was ... weird.

True Grit was all right for a straight Western (one of the least "Coen" of their films perhaps), if a little ponderous.

A friend of mine really loved Blood Simple but I never got around to it, because I was already tired of neo-noir paranoia or however one would describe it.

[Gromnir]

5 hours ago, Keyrock said:

All this Coen Brothers talk and no one has brought up Raising Arizona.

 

same thought.

miller's crossing, raising arizona, and no country for old men is likely our three favorite from the coens. am thinking hudsuscker is underrated.

lewbowski is a sh!te film.

disagreeing with cassidy insofar as ladykillers, but he is spot on with his lewbowski take. also we thought hail caeser! were the kinda self-indulgent hollywood-movie-'bout-hollywood which fails for us 90% o' the time.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 15, 2023 by Gromnir

[Chairchucker]

Well that's just, like, your opinion man

[Amentep]

 

[Amentep]

 

[Sarex]

That looks...fun.

[Hurlshort]

Huh, I thought Stephen Dorff hated superhero flicks.

[Gromnir]

58 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

Huh, I thought Stephen Dorff hated superhero flicks.

am recalling he criticized black widow and then made a general observation about "those films," which each person reasonably read a bit different. 

personal we couldn't care less 'bout stephen dorff's opinion. is indeed a whole lotta bad superhero films just as there has been bad gangster films, bad westerns and bad religious epics when those films were dominating big budget hollywood releases. 

the oldest and most enduring stories we got is hero stories. is always gonna be a new take on gilgamesh and a beowulf. get rid o' the current comic book inspired characters with their garish costumes won't stop the endless cycle likely started contemporaneous with early humans gathering around a fire in caves and telling stories o' larger-than-life beings doing the impossible.

the auteur crowd is tending towards undeserved and comical self importance.

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

To be fair, Black Widow was comically bad and easily one of the worst MCU films. In my opinion, anyway. Besides, Dorff was in one of the best Marvel movies of all time.

I should probably note that I haven't seen all the MCU or DC movies

Edited January 21, 2023 by ShadySands

[Bartimaeus]

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). Have ye' been rowing? Both hilarious and quite touching.

[Sarex]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). Have ye' been rowing? Both hilarious and quite touching.

Ok, so now I;m definitely watching it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). Have ye' been rowing? Both hilarious and quite touching.

I can honestly say I'm surprised.

I thought the movie was very sad. Colm's pretty meanness ends up turning Padraig into an **** and that leads (or at least contributes to) Dominic committing suicide. In some ways it's like the anti-EEAAO in that Colm is the anti-thesis of Waymond.

But it was hilarious.

[majestic]

Well, looking at the track record of what you all agreed on being great and my reaction to it, I think I'll pass for now.

[Bartimaeus]

15 hours ago, Sarex said:

Ok, so now I;m definitely watching it.

If I had to guess, I would say you specifically won't love it. But that's just a guess based on my poor understanding of your tastes - it's a difficult movie for me to project how other people will take it, so I certainly wouldn't stake my name on it.

Spoiler

It's slow, completely character-driven while being dependent on whether you can empathize with at least one or both of the two main characters, has a weird and understated style of humor that you'll either get or you won't, and is very ambiguous.

 

9 hours ago, Space KP, Baby said:

I can honestly say I'm surprised.

It is sad, but I didn't really come away with that message at all. Big spoilers:

Spoiler

As an aside, I was personally quite pleased with the film that it had Dominic kill himself, as I felt that was a much better and kinder resolution to his "repeatedly punch me until my brains violently explode out of my skull"-faced character than could be expected. It was just a shame that the father didn't suffer the same or preferably even worse.

I sympathized with Colm here more than I did Padraig. I mean, not that Padraig's point of view wasn't sympathetic as well (it's certainly easy to feel how hurt he is by this sudden rejection of old friendship, especially when he hasn't even done anything wrong), but Colm's feelings regarding our impermanence and being forgotten even before the living memory of you has run its time was, I felt, hugely empathizable - especially with a guy like Padraig dragging you down, making it so you never grow as a person, never gaining any sense of fulfillment or real contentedness...or just experiencing anything new at all. I wouldn't be happy drinking my life away listening to that utterly inane chatter all the while either. Padraig is nice, yes, but...no, if I somehow ever got into Colm's situation, I would do the same thing. Okay, maybe not quite the same thing, but you know what I mean. The fact that the movie also works as an allegory for Ireland's conflict with itself and never really ever being able to get past their irreconcilable differences was also neat.

Additionally, I didn't really think Padraig transformed into a monster. He was just hurting so bad, and lashed out as a result - in the final moments of the film, when Colm thanked him for not hurting and taking care of his dog, you saw him seemingly go back to his normal self immediately. Not a monster, just someone who desperately needs friendship from what was his closest friend after having lost most everything dear to him. As for Dominic...

 

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Gromnir]

36 minutes ago, majestic said:

Well, looking at the track record of what you all agreed on being great and my reaction to it, I think I'll pass for now.

is fair and we would ordinarily agree. 

writer/director (fixed)

banshees got many o' same actors as in bruges, a movie we found entertaining. three billboards was excellent though the film had a different main cast from bruges or banshees.  in any event, while am not having seen the banshees of inisherin and a positive review from o' few recent posters in this thread might discourage us from taking a chance on a rando film we knew nothing 'bout, is enough positives based on the track record o' those involved in the film itself to convince us to give banshees a viewing in the not too distant future.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 22, 2023 by Gromnir

[Bartimaeus]

9 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

is fair and we would ordinarily agree. 

writer/director

banshees got many o' same actors as in bruges, a movie we found entertaining. three billboards was excellent though the film had a different main cast from bruges or banshees.  in any event, while am not having seen the banshees of inisherin and a positive review from o' few recent posters in this thread might discourage us from taking a chance on a rando film we knew nothing 'bout, is enough positives based on the track record o' those involved in the film itself to convince us to give banshees a viewing in the not too distant future.

HA! Good Fun!

Your link goes to your/the Gmail inbox.

Comments I read seemed to suggest that if you didn't like In Bruges, you won't like Banshees, and vice versa.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Gromnir]

20 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Your link goes to your/the Gmail inbox.

Comments I read seemed to suggest that if you didn't like In Bruges, you won't like Banshees, and vice versa.

*chuckle*

fixed the link and thanks.

and am unsurprised by comments re: in bruges = banshees as is same director, same writer and main cast is familiar. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 23, 2023 by Gromnir

[Bartimaeus]

45 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

*chuckle*

fixed the link and thanks.

and am unsurprised by comments re: in bruges = banshees as is same director, same writer and main cast is familiar. 

HA! Good Fun!

There was an amusing comment I saw talking about the trailers of each film - they watched the trailer for In Bruges and thought it seemed hilarious, so they watched the movie and felt like they were tricked because apparently In Bruges (which I have not seen) was not funny at all. So then later, they saw the trailer for The Banshees of Inisherin and had the same exact thing happen again where they thought the trailer was funny so they watched the film and didn't find it funny at all, and then they saw that it was the same director/writer. Hopefully, they have now realized their mistake and will stay away, . I didn't watch the trailer for either films because trailers always make me think movies look bad, so I can't comment upon the veracity of whether they "seemed" funny or not.

On a side-note, I don't think most anybody should take my tastes at face value too seriously. A single character inexplicably annoying me a little too much for some really minor reason early on into something can be enough to irreversibly poison the well and set me on the warpath against whatever it is I'm watching. Similarly, I will stop watching something within a minute flat if I get off on the wrong foot with either the style or framing - if I'm watching Singin' in the Rain and I feel the film is unintentionally minimizing of or derogatory towards the lead women characters in a way that I feel is gross, I'm going to be mad as hell regardless of whatever else the film has to offer. So that's just not really any basis from which normal people can determine the value of one's tastes, not unless you just happen to share in the exact sensitivities and eccentricities that I have. Now if I give a full explanation of why something did or didn't work for me instead of the quick face value judgement and it sounds like something that applies or matters to you, that could be a little more meaningful.

Edited January 23, 2023 by Bartimaeus