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Just watched this two nights ago and I loved it. It's one of the best movies i've seen in a while and I'll definitely be rewatching it within the next week. The only thought I have to contribute that hasn't been mentioned really in this thread: I definitely felt like Kate's character represented the complicity of the American audience to the events of the movie but how they play out in real life, ie Cartel violence & black ops. It's not a big secret that the US has played a huge role in the violence in Mexico that is going on today, as well as South and Central America. It's kinda hidden in plain sight and it's there if any citizen wants to take the time to actually look at it, but it's terrifying to do so. Much like Kate's character as she's brought thru this march down into Hell, what she witnesses conflicts so much with her core ideas about her position in the world, and what her country's motives and goals are. Her worldview is completely shattered and she desperately is trying to hold on to any semblance of Order all the way until the end when she puts her gun down and lets Alejandro walk away. I couldn't help feeling that there was a definite parallel with the scene of Jefe Grande sitting in his peaceful glorious mansion with his family for dinner, and the scene that immediately follows which is Kate in her colorless but still peaceful condo (both abodes are infiltrated by Alejandro too). The parallel is made explicit by Alejandro's damning indictment of The Boss and his family in the former, and him forcing Kate to comply and sign her own damnation of involvement in the latter. The Boss being the more active role of participation in the violence, and Kate (the American public) the passive one. We enjoy superficial amenities at the price of mass murder perpetrated far from our lives of luxury. There really was no need for that scene with Kate and Alejandro and The Contract at the end except for driving home this point. We've let the beast loose for too long and it is creeping closer and closer back to us. The chickens are coming home to roost.
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Dec 26, 2015 14:47
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:04 |
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it takes balls for a hollywood thriller to commit so fully to being completely unsatisfying. i mean that in a good way.
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Dec 26, 2015 14:57
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:it takes balls for a hollywood thriller to commit so fully to being completely unsatisfying. i mean that in a good way. Uncle Boogeyman posted:it takes balls for a hollywood thriller to commit so fully to being completely unsatisfying. i mean that in a good way. Uncle Boogeyman posted:it takes balls for a hollywood thriller to commit so fully to being completely unsatisfying. i mean that in a good way. Feel-bad movie of the year!
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Dec 27, 2015 01:45
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:Feel-bad movie of the year! Unironically this and I love it.
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Dec 27, 2015 02:51
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Best movie of 2015 for me
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Dec 28, 2015 01:16
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willie_dee posted:Best movie of 2015 for me This is what I would be saying if Fury Road didn't exist, but I'm surprised and thrilled that both movies met and surpassed my expectations. I talked with a stranger for 3 hours yesterday about movies, much of which we agreed on, and he went away vowing to watch the entire Villanueve catalog. I felt a little jealous, actually.
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Dec 28, 2015 01:54
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:This is what I would be saying if Fury Road didn't exist Between Sicario, Fury Road, Ex Machina, and The Hateful Eight, this is one of the best years for American film since 2007.
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Dec 28, 2015 02:25
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Martman posted:If this were a thread about weather and a lot of people disagreed about why rain exists, it would be nice of you to clarify it for them. "Clarify it for them". As if anyone married to a film will suddenly realize it is not great based on things that have already been stated.
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Dec 28, 2015 03:22
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centaurtainment posted:Between Sicario, Fury Road, Ex Machina, and The Hateful Eight, this is one of the best years for American film since 2007. Mad Max: Fury Road, Sicario, and most likely The Revenant for me.
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Dec 28, 2015 03:55
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Immortan posted:Mad Max: Fury Road, Sicario, and most likely The Revenant for me. Have you seen The Revenant? I did and thought it was good, not great.
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Dec 28, 2015 04:24
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centaurtainment posted:Have you seen The Revenant? I did and thought it was good, not great. I'm still anxious to see it, but a lot of people I trust have basically said the same thing and it only makes me more curious. Is it a Gravity-type situation where people find it simplistic and gimmicky?
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Dec 28, 2015 04:32
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I'm still anxious to see it, but a lot of people I trust have basically said the same thing and it only makes me more curious. Is it a Gravity-type situation where people find it simplistic and gimmicky? The opposite problems, actually. I found it to be bloated. The script took what should have been a simple story and added in at least one too many subplots, which dilutes the impact it should have. If it were only its best scenes, it would be a great movie, but there's a lot of fat there.
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Dec 28, 2015 04:39
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centaurtainment posted:The opposite problems, actually. I found it to be bloated. The script took what should have been a simple story and added in at least one too many subplots, which dilutes the impact it should have. If it were only its best scenes, it would be a great movie, but there's a lot of fat there. This is pretty common with Inarittu, I think. I'm still looking forward to it though.
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Dec 28, 2015 04:41
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:This is pretty common with Inarittu, I think. I'm still looking forward to it though. I guess I was hoping that he would be able to build on the relative subtlety of Birdman when compared to his previous films, but the The Revenant is more like his older stuff, a very simplistic, on-the-nose type movie with almost nothing left to the imagination that treats the audience members like idiots who need every last thing spelled out for them five times. There are places where that works to its advantage, specifically Leo's character's parts, but overall I think it could have used a good editor to streamline it. It's definitely worth seeing; like Sicario (we're still in that thread, right?) it has some incredible individual scenes and at least one great performance.
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Dec 28, 2015 04:49
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centaurtainment posted:I guess I was hoping that he would be able to build on the relative subtlety of Birdman when compared to his previous films, but the The Revenant is more like his older stuff, a very simplistic, on-the-nose type movie with almost nothing left to the imagination that treats the audience members like idiots who need every last thing spelled out for them five times. There are places where that works to its advantage, specifically Leo's character's parts, but overall I think it could have used a good editor to streamline it. I definitely think Inarritu condescends a lot, but he's obviously gifted. And hell, I'll see it for Chivo's camerawork alone.
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Dec 28, 2015 05:12
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the revenant has kind of a pervasive "is this boring? are people confused?" anxiety running all through it, centaurtainment is absolutely right, it feels like a filmmaker talking down to his audience I mean it's well shot, has good performances, all that nice stuff, but it's lacking any kind of substance or subtlety, it's the year's biggest waste of potential sicario is way better
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Dec 28, 2015 05:32
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centaurtainment posted:Have you seen The Revenant? I did and thought it was good, not great. Not yet. The trailers look amazing though. I love the time period it's set in. I heard it's a hard R and I'm so down for a long chase across rugged, snowy terrain. The scenery is one of the main reasons I liked Sicario as well.
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Dec 28, 2015 05:33
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The most entertaining thing about The Revenant is the utter contempt that the film has for its main character. Watch it and note how many times Fitzgerald's thinking is shown to be sound.
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Dec 28, 2015 09:01
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centaurtainment posted:The opposite problems, actually. I found it to be bloated. The script took what should have been a simple story and added in at least one too many subplots, which dilutes the impact it should have. If it were only its best scenes, it would be a great movie, but there's a lot of fat there. That's how I felt watching it as well. It is not a bad movie but it felt too long and boring at times. The bear scene was insane though.
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Dec 28, 2015 19:53
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Someone needs to make a thread for The Revenant. I'm seeing discussion about it everywhere.
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Dec 28, 2015 20:00
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Especially since I'm trying to go into it blind. I did not expect to find a dozen posts about it in the Sicario thread...
Snak fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Dec 28, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 20:42
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CD currently has a pretty big problem with only blockbusters getting threads most of the time.
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Dec 28, 2015 21:04
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Holy poo poo, I don't know if this has been raised already but on the topic of how much the US outpunches the cartel, immediately after the bank scene when Kate makes a big deal over the 17 mil they've seized, we cut to a news scroll about how congress has approved 600 mil to train new agents it is not the focus of the shot but it is just another layer to that theme.
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Dec 28, 2015 22:52
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Terrorist Fistbump posted:Someone needs to make a thread for The Revenant. I'm seeing discussion about it everywhere. Done
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Dec 28, 2015 23:27
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Indrid_Cold posted:Holy poo poo, I don't know if this has been raised already but on the topic of how much the US outpunches the cartel, immediately after the bank scene when Kate makes a big deal over the 17 mil they've seized, we cut to a news scroll about how congress has approved 600 mil to train new agents it is not the focus of the shot but it is just another layer to that theme. I noticed this on my first watch but what it meant didn't really hit me until my rewatch this morning. There are a lot of tiny details that make the movie really cool and I found it really hard to not talk about how great the movie is while my buddy (his 1st time) and I (my 2nd) were watching it.
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Dec 29, 2015 01:17
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Man, when Birdman is your subtle film...
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Dec 29, 2015 02:39
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I watched this immediately after having finished The Cartel by Don Winslow, and it was a perfect "companion" piece in that so much of the stuff talked about in the book is apparent on screen. Even if I hadn't though, it was by far the best movie I've seen this year. I loved Prisoners and this reminded me so much of that, I think I'm going to have to go back and re-watch it soon.
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Dec 29, 2015 15:02
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I liked this movie, it looked gorgeous, the acting was loving sublime and I thought it was very layered but after reading some of this thread I see I didn't catch even half the subtext the first time round. You do realise this is a comic book story though right? What irks me the most is the way this movie bait-n-switched from being one kind of movie (and presenting itself as such in all promos) into another. I suppose the tell that it was going to change was when Brolin's character asked Blunt if she wanted a 'tasty beverage' - it struck me as an odd reference but it set the scene for the last act. Initially the film has the hallmarks of gritty drugwar movies of old: feds rubbing up against the cia, rustling cartel hoods to move up a player at a time etc, but then one of the leads goes all metal gear solid on the the crime boss and his family in their guarded mansion. This just does not happen in real life or even decent literature, only in comic books and computer games. The superhero/comic sensibility has taken over cinema something awful over the past few years, seems that since the superhero shtick started pulling in guaranteed returns people are trying to recreate the formula in stories that don't involve spandex tights.
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Dec 31, 2015 04:40
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cupachabra posted:Initially the film has the hallmarks of gritty drugwar movies of old: feds rubbing up against the cia, rustling cartel hoods to move up a player at a time etc, but then one of the leads goes all metal gear solid on the the crime boss and his family in their guarded mansion. This just does not happen in real life or even decent literature, only in comic books and computer games. what do you consider "decent litersture?"
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Dec 31, 2015 04:46
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:what do you consider "decent litersture?" I duonno
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Dec 31, 2015 04:48
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What in the gently caress makes this a "comic book" story? That sort of thing might not happen often in real life, but it certainly happens in movies. Non-comic book movies, even. Your point that the movie isn't realist is valid, but would hardly consider it to be something related to comic book fever. This type of story telling is very old. Look at any mythology and you will find the character archetype of the brave warrior poisoned by tragedy. The knight who slew a hundred men and stormed the castle by himself. Alejandro kills what, 5 armed guards with the element of surprise? Is Fist Full of Dollars also a comic book story?
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Dec 31, 2015 05:07
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Spaghetti westerns aren't comic books, you're right, but the format is the same and you know what you're getting when you go and see one.
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Dec 31, 2015 05:24
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I'd hardly count the presence of some unexpected, yet well-integrated, pulp elements as a strike against the film.
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Dec 31, 2015 07:18
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Neither do I. Perhaps you are taking my comic comment to heart, it seems that you are. The pulp aspect of this film was maybe foreshadowed by the 'tasty beverage' reference I mentioned earlier.
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Dec 31, 2015 07:27
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My beef is entirely with your use of the term "comic book" in a way that is not only inaccurate, but divisive.
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Dec 31, 2015 07:32
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your avatar edit: Snak posted:My beef is entirely with your use of the term "comic book" in a way that is not only inaccurate, but divisive.  macdonal hamborkles fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Dec 31, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2015 07:35
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cupachabra posted:Neither do I. Perhaps you are taking my comic comment to heart, it seems that you are. The pulp aspect of this film was maybe foreshadowed by the 'tasty beverage' reference I mentioned earlier. The interesting thing is how the video game aspects are used. The film has a realistic style up until the "money shot" of the special ops team descending into the tunnel. Suddenly, we're no longer in our mundane reality, we're in Call of Duty. The logic has changed. Double-tapping Kate in her chest plate is a reasonable and effective means for Alejandro to subdue her. Silencers have the painfully unrealistic wet pew-pew sound straight out of an 80's action movie. It is entirely possible for Alejandro score several killing headshots on targets he's not looking at. When the operation is over and everyone returns to the US side of the tunnel, the style switches back to realism. Two worlds with two different logics. The transitions between the two are subtle but important thematically.
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Dec 31, 2015 07:51
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I'm out
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Dec 31, 2015 07:54
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Where can I read/watch more cartel stuff? There was a pretty good thread about it ages ago but I have no idea where it's gone.
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Dec 31, 2015 08:28
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cupachabra posted:I'm out Just let it happen, man.
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Dec 31, 2015 12:26
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