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CatstropheWaitress
Nov 26, 2017

PIG: a film by a guy and a bunch of other people that's pretty good. Surprised there isn't a thread here for it.

Was blown away by it, in all regards.

Nic Cage stealing a bike got a laugh, but really loved his performance otherwise. Also while he stole most scenes everyone was keeping up pace with him for sure. Guessed he would 'cook his meal' for the end points, but was surprised at the pig dying.

Hope his character actually lived on, following the vents.

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LemonLimeSoda
Jan 23, 2020
Walked in not knowing what to expect and really loved it
Very endearing and heartfelt film, my GIRLFRIEND was not looking forward to film at all and actively tried to sleep for first 5 minutes or so but the movie reeled her in very quickly
Hearty recommend to anyone with an interest in cooking or working in the restaurant industry

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
It's a really wonderful movie. Here are my posts from genchat on the film:

Hand Knit posted:

Pig is wonderful but I have to disagree with everyone who said it's nothing like Taken. It's exactly like Taken, but in the context of climate change (and the emotional outlooks that entails) rather than 9/11.

Hand Knit posted:

I did not find Pig to be very sad, but I liked it very much. It’s very melancholy, but I didn’t find it as sharply sad as I did with The Grey (which I think is the closest partner movie to Pig). In a way, Pig is a lot like The Grey but in the context of global warming rather than 9/11. They’re movies about loss and catastrophe, about the paterfamilias figure dealing with his family falling apart, finding the mature response in the face of that loss, and confronting the question of how you create (or maintain) value in the face of death.

I love the exchange between Rob and Amir about the inability to escape truly massive calamity. It starts with Rob talking about the massive earthquake every 200 years which destroys everything. You run to the beach to try and escape it, only to run into a massive tidal way. Maybe you can try to escape to the mountain? The mountain is an active volcano. What about Seattle? gently caress Seattle.

Chris James 2
Aug 9, 2012


My film of the year currently. Did a fantastic job of exceeding my expectations. Nicolas Cage still has it obviously

LemonLimeSoda
Jan 23, 2020
I saw a lot of parallels between this movie and The Searchers when I was watching it

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

LemonLimeSoda posted:

I saw a lot of parallels between this movie and The Searchers when I was watching it

I think that makes sense, especially as Taken (and thus all the Taken-likes that have followed) was very heavily inspired by The Searchers. The theme of the paterfamilias setting out to restore the integrity of the home/nuclear family.

LemonLimeSoda
Jan 23, 2020

Hand Knit posted:

I think that makes sense, especially as Taken (and thus all the Taken-likes that have followed) was very heavily inspired by The Searchers. The theme of the paterfamilias setting out to restore the integrity of the home/nuclear family.

Definitely, it's an archetype
Robin standing in the doorway made me think of The Searchers as well

LividLiquid
Apr 13, 2002

So simple, but layred. Like fine quisine.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

LemonLimeSoda posted:

Robin standing in the doorway made me think of The Searchers as well

There’s just no place for Robin Feld in this modern world.

muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


This drops on digital for rent and purchase tomorrow.

Perestroika
Apr 8, 2010

This was really an incredibly positive surprise. I went in largely blind, mostly intrigued by the combination of Nic Cage and the somewhat weird concept, and hadn't expected something quite so genuine and heartfelt. From what little I'd seen of it beforehand I was lead to believe it'd be something more combative like John Wick or The Protector, but it's pretty much the opposite. I really liked its commitment to nonviolence and reconciliation over revenge.

Perestroika fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Aug 3, 2021

Hughmoris
Apr 21, 2007
Let's go to the abyss!
Watched this tonight after hearing good things. Definitely wasn't what I was expecting, and I enjoyed it. Favorite scene has to be at the restaurant and the Chef coming to realize he is not living the life he wanted to live.

1000 Sweaty Rikers
Oct 13, 2005

so far one of the best films I've seen this year

it was also kind of a... spiritual film? almost religious in some ways

Uncle Boogeyman
Jul 22, 2007

I wanted to love this movie and I was very much with it until they detoured through the underground fight club for restaurant workers, that felt like some wannabe Anthony Bourdain poo poo. After that it kinda fell apart for me.

Hughmoris
Apr 21, 2007
Let's go to the abyss!

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

I wanted to love this movie and I was very much with it until they detoured through the underground fight club for restaurant workers, that felt like some wannabe Anthony Bourdain poo poo. After that it kinda fell apart for me.

Yeah, for me that felt out of tone and unnecessary. There could have been a much simpler plot point for him to get that name he needed.

Alan Smithee
Jan 4, 2005


A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...
Lol the guys behind me were expecting pig wick

Gatts
Jan 2, 2001

Goodnight Moon

Nap Ghost

Alan Smithee posted:

Lol the guys behind me were expecting pig wick

It kind of is Pig Wick. He had a different set of skills that were legendary and has a reputation, there was an underground society of cooks getting out their aggression at customers sadly on the homeless evoking the class issues in Wick, his name is currency that gives access and items, and his ability to talk the truth and destroy souls and cook are unmatched.

Lots of similarities.

Gatts fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Aug 14, 2021

muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


Yeah when I walked out of the theater I said to my companion that it was both really similar and really dissimilar to John Wick.

Heavy Metal
Sep 1, 2014

America's $1 Funnyman

Saw Pig with the boys last night, hell of a film. Masterpiece. This is a movie that just really delights and surprises me, so good. Speaking of expectations and Wick etc, I was expecting something like a contemplative quirky drama, maybe a little like say Nebraska (2013) or something.

Based on the first trailer, the description of it as a drama, and people saying not to expect Wick etc. Like mentioned earlier in the thread, it's not John Wick, but it's not entirely in the other direction. But the Wick thing is just a fun side topic there. And I do love John Wick.

Long story short, it was different than I was expecting, and delightfully so. We do have heartfelt drama, but we also have a more I'd say genre film/entertainment value style vibe to it as well. Like a pulpy neo-noir-esque yarn, with a guy going around asking "Where is my pig?!". Which of course, is just awesome. And the quirky buddy stuff, the character study stuff, a bit like the DNA of fun indie movies like The Station Agent, Sideways, etc. The movie has a bit of everything, is different, while also hitting cool notes we know. And just a great vehicle for the ever great Nic Cage.

This is good stuff. In a totally out there comparison, I'll say for me this is the Dom Hemingway of the year. That being for me one of those surprisingly delightful movies with a mix of some of these kind of elements of comedy, drama, slick pulpy entertainment, and raw indie charm.

Also, what's the deal with the 7.0 on imdb, that's a tad low for a gem like this. But, Repo Man has a 6.9, maybe this is the sweet spot for cool unique films like this. Plus the aforementioned Dom is way too low too. Okay, making sense of numbers is above my pay grade.

Here's to more from this writer/director!

Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Aug 21, 2021

Martman
Nov 20, 2006

Well I may have to sit with my thoughts on this one for a while, but I was left feeling pretty cold honestly. My disappointment over the pig having died is kinda visceral, but it's also a movie about a pig where you get like a minute of pig footage. And honestly by the end of the story, I understand that he used to be friendly with Darius but I literally could not accept that he just trusted the dude straight up in that moment without demanding some proof or something.

As far as Edgar's place being silly, I felt like they were getting pretty in your face about this being more of an Orpheus's journey into the underworld situation rather than going for any kind of gritty realism, so I accepted it at the time. Then it turned out the fancy restaurant was called Eurydice and I laughed. Given that they seem to be really drawing attention to that, his immediate unquestioning acceptance of the pig's death almost seems like an intentional twist on the Orpheus story. Whereas Orpheus can't help but distrust Hades, looking back for Eurydice and dooming her, Robin just goes "oh I can't get her back? welp ok" and leaves.

It's kind of hilarious that Adam Arkin has a big role in this considering that in Northern Exposure his character is a famous chef who had a breakdown and decided to go live in the woods.

Right now just kind of stuck on little details, but I definitely had trouble putting together what the movie was trying to say beyond just general big feels about "moving on from the past" or "accepting the present" or whatever.

Martman fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Aug 24, 2021

LividLiquid
Apr 13, 2002

Agreed. I love the flick, but it being about grief doesn't exactly mean it says anything about it.

TheOmegaWalrus
Feb 3, 2007

by Hand Knit
Just another entry solidifying Cage as one of the best actors of this generation.

There's been a lot of talk about this wonderful movie, I wanted to focus on one scene in particular that seemed to rub people the wrong way but really spoke to me. The restaurant fight club.

Edgar sits shrouded by darkness surrounded by take-out containers that no one will throw away out of fear. Men fighting in the same place will smell like bitter ammonia and piss after awhile, but compounded with the rotten food these chefs are in a retched smelly hell. A pristine chandelier hangs over the whole spectacle as a contrasting joke. This is a very Greek hell.

When Robin takes his beating watch Edgar. We've seen him eat delicious foods (stuffed French toast?) without a hint of acknowledgement, but watch his body language at the beating.

After years of feeding people, this is how he feeds. As Robin is brutalized he sits on the edge of his desk with expressed interest. He wipes his mouth in a disgusting fashion, he ignores the time. Robin's suffering is a gourmet meal for Edgar.

This man is a vampire. He's Bob from Twin Peaks. He is an entity that subsists on suffering, a real demon lives under Portland.

This is miles better than the Pig Wick I was low-key expecting.

AlternateAccount
Apr 25, 2005
FYGM
Well, that was pretty amazing.

1000 Sweaty Rikers
Oct 13, 2005

rewatched the film with friends at the cinema last weekend, and they thought it was great too

checkplease
Aug 17, 2006



Smellrose
To finish off my recent Nic Cage binge I finally watched Pig.

This is a top movie of the year for me and maybe his best performance. Or at least a top 5. There is wild, grief in his eyes at all times that he mostly keeps controlled. I kept expecting him to unleash the crazy like he does in some many of his films, but instead we get some nice, insightful conversations.

In video game terms, it’s like a paragon play through of Jon wick. But there is an acceptance of loss and moving towards simply cherishing those memories.

There’s parallels to Orpheus and Eurydice, with the restaurant using the name and Rob, like Orpheus traveling to hell to get his loved one. And similarly, using is great skill to remind the king of hell of their own feelings. Both return without their love, but this time through no fault of Rob/orpheus. So I guess the film proposes that Orpheus was destined to return empty handed. Or maybe just a different take on it, like portrait of a lady on fire, where the memory is the great treasure.

It was interesting how the various characters dealt with grief. Rob ran from everything. Amir just tried to live pretending his mother was dead. And Amir’s father refused to let his wife die, clinging to the belief that she could return. But life goes on and the persimmon tree is gone. The restaurant becomes a bakery. You can still cherish your good times: memories of a great dinner, a loving song, or dreams of a pig exploring a forest.

checkplease
Aug 17, 2006



Smellrose
From the cage ama today regarding pig, he stated:

“Thank you. I was interested in returning to a more quiet, naturalistic style of film performance, having done a series of more operatic performance styles. The movie feels rather like a folk song to me or a poem, and the character of Rob was contending with tremendous grief and self imposed isolation and I think we as a group of people experiencing a pandemic in 2020-21 we’re probably also having similar feelings of loss and isolation and it communicated to a nerve we were all experiencing. It’s one of my favorite movies, and it’s probably my best work.”

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LividLiquid
Apr 13, 2002

It's nice that he knows how good what he just made is. You really want that as an artist.

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