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It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s got violence, swearing, smoking, suggestive dialogue, referenced nudity, and a lot of other things you just don’t see in movies today without them getting hated on. Somehow it still gets tons of airtime dedicated to it every Christmas season and is always rated TV-G. It’s a greatly entertaining story despite being full of cliches and one note characters. It cracks me up every time I watch it. Favorite part I may be misquoting- “Wait, that’s it! Ok, you’ve never been born!” [thunderclap] “Well, you don’t have to be that way about it!”
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# ? Jul 11, 2018 19:20 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 23:25 |
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My favorite movie of all-time, if you're forcing me to choose just one, is Lawrence of Arabia. It's the movie that opened my eyes to classic film once and for all, it was a revelation to see a movie made in 1962 with that kind of scope to it. I immediately tracked down every David Lean film I could find and found a few others that became some of my all-time favorites. Lawrence of Arabia is truly a film that transports you somewhere, I don't feel like I'm in my living room when I watch it. I won't argue that it's a perfect film either, the second half is not nearly as compelling as the first half. There are other films that are more "perfect" in terms of what they individually are trying to do, but I don't think there has ever been a bigger cinematic accomplishment than Lawrence of Arabia.
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# ? Jul 11, 2018 19:31 |
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Magnolia. To put it simply, I've never been more completely swept away by a film, and I find that its effect grows on me as I get older. It's very strange and takes huge risks, but remains deeply human and emotional, and I think every single person involved is working at the height of their abilities. It's obviously not the greatest film of all time, but I've watched it 2 or 3 times a year for the past decade and a half, and I've yet to see anything else that has moved & captivated me so deeply.
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# ? Jul 11, 2018 20:24 |
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Bringing Out The Dead has peak Nicolas Cage and peak Martin Scorsese. It's beautiful, funny and haunting; a fantastic and superior sequel to Taxi Driver. I wish Scorsese teamed up with Cage instead of DiCaprio. e; It's sort of told in the style of A Christmas Carol, depressed paramedic Cage is followed over three consecutive nights working an ambulance (in New York city of course). The film deals with addiction, capitalism, corruption, morality, Christianity, death and a host of other things. It's full of the most beautiful and absurd imagery; there's a miraculous virgin birth, a junkie raised from the dead, talking fish and the American dream. If you slot in After Hours between the aforementioned films, you have a wonderful trilogy on the perils of city living. Sinding Johansson fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jul 11, 2018 |
# ? Jul 11, 2018 20:44 |
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F for Fake Orson Welles spends an hour and a half musing about art. It's not a documentary, not entirely fictional, but rather sort of an essay film. This just clicked with me because a lot of it is just Welles telling good stories as only he'd be able to, the stories themselves being fascinating about Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving, then... we get a good old fashioned prank for the last act. This was also hugely influential on my own filmmaking. I even did a presentation in college where I broke down the opening scene and pre-credits section shot-by-shot because it's just drat good filmmaking.
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# ? Jul 11, 2018 21:11 |
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Trust Hal Hartley's second full length film is far from his best in many ways, but I don't really care. The story told and the way it's told are immaculate. It's a modern day Tennessee Williams play with a Yo La Tengo soundtrack and it has lines like "Family's like a loaded gun. Point it in the wrong direction, you're gonna kill somebody."
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# ? Jul 11, 2018 23:39 |
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Fargo It’s the rare film that continues to reward in on repeat viewings, earning its highly regarded reputation multiple times over by revealing its levels in gradient. It’s a summation of the Coens’ creative evolution, able to jump wildly from broad comedy to bleak existentialism, sometimes in the same scene. The cast is stellar, the cinematography gripping, the score incredible. It’s a movie without explosions or falling buildings or rising seas, but it feels apocalyptic all the same, albeit in smaller and more personal ways. There’s no grand scheme, no great twist. Just operatic tragedy writ small on a suburban stage. And for what? A little bit of money.
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# ? Jul 12, 2018 02:38 |
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Star Wars I just really like the structure. You don't meet the hero until a sixth of the way through the movie and the main co-hero doesn't show up until a third of the way through. The opening third gives you no idea of how it's going to end or even what's next. When the movie came out you could expect to see Aliens that looked like puppets (or ill-fitting suits), blue lines around spaceships, cheesy clothing and set dressing in Sci-Fi movies. Star Wars just looked lived in. Chewbacca doesn't look like a guy in a suit. R2-D2 and the Millennium Falcon look like they are second and third (and fourth) generation designs. It's a very pure and complete fantasy film.
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# ? Jul 12, 2018 05:10 |
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Alien The set design in this movie is otherworldly. The acting is incredible. The characters are memorable. The soundtrack is amazing when it's there, and the movie is more amazing when there's no score in a scene. In my opinion, it's one of the most well-shot movies of all time, and the tension still holds up to an insane degree to this day. It's imaginative, well executed, everything about it. I have nothing bad to say about Alien. It's my favorite movie in my favorite genre and it's a timeless film that can be enjoyed and studied at the same time. It gets my nod over 2001. There are so many films that have tried the same formula but it just can't be replicated.
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# ? Jul 12, 2018 13:52 |
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The Blues Brothers It literally has everything I can hope to love in a movie. Comedy, music, dancing, action, explosions. It's got it all!
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# ? Jul 13, 2018 20:31 |
The Shawshank Redemption It just has no weaknesses. No scene is wasted. Everyone's acting is spot on. The ending is perfectly built up to and it makes me feel so good every time. I can't count how many times I've watched this movie all the way through. Just never gets old for me.
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# ? Jul 13, 2018 21:10 |
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The Long Good Friday Bob Hoskins gives a career-best performance as East End gangster Harry Shand. A story full of underworld intrigue, going through violent twists and turns as Shand tries to figure out who the mysterious forces targeting his operations are. One of the best final scenes in any movie ever, entirely on the strength of Hoskins acting entirely through his facial expressions. He puts on a better even than the one he gave in Mona Lisa - this is the one Hoskins deserved the Oscar nomination for. Most of all, I'm really into that whole idea of a bad guy who tangles with people - essentially a group of shadowy fanatics involved in a conflict that's taking place far over Harry Shand's head - who he doesn't completely understand. This is a Troubles movie but it isn't about the Troubles. It uses the Troubles as a backdrop for its story, which is something I think is unusual and interesting (Neil Jordan would do the same thing in The Crying Game, which is another good movie, but not as good as this one).
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# ? Jul 14, 2018 00:05 |
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Heat, cuz she's got a GREAT rear end, and you got your head all the way up it!
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# ? Jul 14, 2018 00:11 |
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Tetsuo: The Iron Man It's a portrait of someone who's justifiably angry with the whole world, but also an awful person themselves. It's gloriously perverted and grotesque. It's one of the only films that can still make me physically cringe at the body horror. It crosses some extremely uncomfortable lines, but it isn't just transgression for the sake of transgression; it's a story about someone who does evil, receives karmic retribution the more evil he does, but ultimately finds common ground with one of the people he wronged and through them becomes something new. The film's production was such a disaster that it's a miracle it even exists -- both because the crew were constantly just walking off the set because they couldn't stand it any more, and because the director himself had such a horrible experience making the movie that he considered burning the negatives. Overall it's just one of the most striking experiences I've ever had with a movie. Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Jul 14, 2018 |
# ? Jul 14, 2018 02:35 |
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Speed Racer Ok, hear me out. It’s a pretty straightforward racing / family story with some trippy visuals and A+ casting, and probably the most sincere movie I’ve ever seen. It takes place in a world where car racing seems to be the main industry / entertainment. The races seem to be a mixture of roller coaster, skateboarding and Kung fu. At one point there is a montage of goofy racing teams being bribed that includes Vikings with big ol’ legs of meat opening treasure chests full of fur and a team of WW2 soldiers (???) with literal dollar signs in their eyes. All of this is played 100% straight without comment or ironic winks, unlike pretty much every other remake/ big screen treatment of an old or cartoon property. It’s a high definition cartoon. I’m well aware the car scenes are all animated and don’t hold a candle to the great car chases of movie history, but the final lap of the Grand Prix is my favourite of them. Completely ridiculous car-fu, the bad guy losing, Speed flying through the lap like a blur, ending in a breathtaking 3 car explosion that he barrel rolls through in a rainbows worth of light beams that turn red and white as he crosses the checkered line. Watching this in the theatre 10 years ago was an emotional experience that seemed to take me back to childhood for just a flash, and kid me was cheering. Fake edit: OP, It’s a Wonderful Life is fantastic. “You don’t like coconut? Listen brainless, do you even know where coconuts come from??”
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# ? Jul 15, 2018 10:39 |
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There is no shame whatsoever in naming Speed Racer as your favorite movie.
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# ? Jul 16, 2018 02:33 |
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I hate Speed Racer so much. Just agonizing sitting through that.
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# ? Jul 16, 2018 02:37 |
Dazed and Confused For a myriad of reasons. Linklater was my gateway director into ~film. I saw Waking Life as a teen and it blew my fundamentalist mind. I distinctly remember realizing that there are actually other people in the world who think about life with wonder and awe but who aren't christian?! Like, they investigate questions of philosophy and... there is this thing called sociology!? And sometimes the answer can be i don't know. Wow. I think Linklater resonated with me because his films are seeped in sentiment and introspection. I was a pretty introspective kid who had many thoughts on it all but was locked into a very conservative christian culty situation so kept even very 101 questions like 'what is the point of art' and 'can what is right be subjective' very deep inside. Linklater was a profound influence on me having the courage to step away from my upbringing and go to university and not feel guilty for having an inquiring mind set. But Dazed and Confused drat. This movie broke me open. It had kids smoking weed but they weren't jumping out of windows. It had teen drinking but it wasn't demonized. It had different types of friendships that weren't Orwellian. It had people having autonomy to pursue their goals and kicks. You were allowed to go to the moon tower party. Hell, you better have been at the moon tower party. You were allowed to have crushes and talk to girls. You could drive around town talking neurotically with your friends and it was ok. And you were definitely going to get aerosmith tickets. I don't know. And it was a good time and you were allowed to have a good time and that was the point. I think Dazed and Confused was so diametrically opposite to my growing up experience that it blew a hole in me. Especially since I wasn't really allowed to consume any non christian media. Very few mainstream movies, harry potter and pokemon were literal demons etc. When I was 20 and finally went flatting and to uni, I made sure to actually go to parties and drink and have a good time. It was really important to me to delineate. Linklater will always hold a special place for me. He taught me the world isn't a sanatic sinscape where nobody is compassionate or actually happy. He taught me you can be a compassionate chill dude without believing most people will burn forever. He taught me its OK to question things, that asking questions of love, the universe and all that isn't evil or malicious. It was ok to want to dance. Dazed and Confused, to me, will always be a celebration. They were celebrating the tail end of high school in America in the 1970s. To me, its a celebration of my shifting my outer world to match my inner world.
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# ? Jul 16, 2018 03:18 |
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Slap Shot It is a very funny hockey movie that also has a lot to say (and says it well) about the intersection of gender, class, violence, and spectacle.
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# ? Jul 16, 2018 12:32 |
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Scream Not by any definition the best movie or even the best horror movie. But it's a film that really hits these perfect notes for me. It's a well-made horror film, but more importantly, it's a more humane horror movie. The thing that Craven never gets enough credit for is how he seeks to create horror films that represent very real life traumas and insecurities, and create a good sense of catharsis for his characters. The whole new age shifting of power seems silly in Nightmare on Elm Street, but is brilliant when Sydney turns the tools of her assailants against them. Nevermind it's boldness to present a woman who is conniving and ambitious as someone who you are absolutely rooting for by the film's end. It contains a surprising amount of depth in its dialogue that makes rewatching incredibly fun. I can rewatch Scream almost endlessly.
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# ? Jul 16, 2018 13:16 |
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The Matrix I took a hit of acid before seeing it. At the title credits when the green words split apart to become tall green circuitry I thought, "This is my favorite movie of all time" and it was only like 20 seconds in. Unironically this is still my favorite. Just a great, self-contained story with a bang-up ending and at the time completely ground-breaking special effects. I feel like the reputation of the original suffers because of the buildup of 2 and then the completely horrible wet fart of 3, but it's my favorite. "I wanna be someone famous. Like an actor. And I don't wanna remember NOTHIN'." "Very well, Mr. Reagan."
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# ? Jul 16, 2018 13:32 |
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Adaptation. This became my favorite movie almost 10 years ago. Before this it was Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and I really rank them together, but thinking about it, I think the change is significant to me and my attitude towards life. Just a fair warning, there will be spoilers in here, and it's a movie best-seen blind. First, this movie hits every personal emotional beat for me in Charlie Kaufman. He is a creative person, a writer. People constantly tell him he's smart or he's a genius, but he himself feels he is an idiot, unsuccessful, a fluke, a fake, a liar... His neurotic internal monologues that introduce the film embarrass me because they are very real thoughts I've had; it is painful being so self-aware to impede actual momentum towards a functioning life. He is loved by his brother, by his friends, but he doesn't feel loved, he doesn't feel any connection to anyone, and yet is aware of how precious those connections are to life--so much so that he wants to write about these big ideas but doesn't understand them, and so can't write. He finds truth in Susan Orlean and her book and its story of John Laroche, but he doesn't know fully what it is or how to articulate it. Then we get into the fun stuff. We are watching a film written by Charlie Kaufman about Charlie Kaufman attempting to write an adaptation of a non-fiction book as a screenplay about Charlie Kaufman writing the screenplay of a non-fiction book. It's enough to break the brain of a movie-goer not ready for meta shenanigans. (Charlie Kaufman visits the set of Being John Malkovich throughout the film, for instance.) And yet it works, it all works. It's one of the tightest, funniest, harrowing, mind-bending scripts. One of my favorite scenes in film is Charlie Kaufman, near the end of the second act, attending a screen-writing seminar, where he tells screen-writer Robert McKee that he would like to write about real life, where nothing happens, the heavy task that Charlie wrestles with throughout the film. quote:Charlie Kaufman: Sir, what if the writer is attempting to create a story where nothing much happens? Where people don't change, they don't have any epiphanies, they struggle and are frustrated and nothing is resolved. More a reflection of the real world. This acts as the main turning point for Charlie's character, but it also is where the film itself starts becoming unhinged, becoming more introspective, more meta, more experimental, more fantastic. There is a beautiful poignant optimism in Adaptation. that isn't as present in Kaufman's other work. Being John Malkovich ends with melancholy obsession and misanthropy. Synecdoche, New York's ending involves the end of the internal and external world and the horror of never experiencing full closure (or a full life) in the face of death. Anomalisa ends with a character re-inserted into his dull life once the joy of infinite possibilities sinks back into a banal grounded existence. Not in Adaptation. Charlie comes to accept himself (the stream-of-conscious rambling continues, but it is hopeful instead of fearful) and understands that we must be vulnerable and be ready for pain and mistakes and sacrifice to live and to have human connections, that there are guidelines to follow and break, that experimentation with our life story is dangerous and rewarding, that creativity may not provide answers but will make the questions more palatable. He understands that Life is fragile and as beautiful as an orchid, but it is not the orchid itself that provides the beauty, it is the people passionate enough to search for it. It's ultimately this optimism in the face of Life's cruelly absurd chaos, this strive to move forward, to learn and grow as a person, that maintains it as my favorite movie, ahead of Brazil's sad ending (which I absolutely love as well). And then there's the cast! I will never allow someone in my presence to tell me Nicolas Cage can't act. He acts his loving balls off as Charlie Kaufman and his twin brother Donald Kaufman. There is never a question about who is who, despite them being identical. Sharing the screen is Meryl Streep as author Susan Orlean, one of the most melancholy characters I've seen in a film. The telephone scene gives me goosebumps. Acting alongside Meryl Streep, and honestly stealing the show from her, is Chris Cooper in the best performance of his career as John Laroche. Filling out the rest of the cast is Tilda Swinton, Judy Greer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brian Cox, Cara Semour, and a few fun cameos as well. Not to mention Spike Jonze directing what was only his 2nd feature film, Carter Burwell doing the score, and Lance Acord's cinematography. It is a perfect movie, one that still rewards re-watches, one that still gives me goosebumps and spins my mind, one that still makes me laugh and feel exuberant joy at the possibilities of film and the power of creativity, and one that is certainly a deal-breaker for a relationship if the person hates it. (Thanks for reading my overly-sappy write-up, but it's a little hard to avoid sentimentality when talking of absolute favorites.) Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 12:32 on Jul 17, 2018 |
# ? Jul 16, 2018 22:25 |
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A Clockwork Orange might not be my favorite every day, but it's always up there. I'd long seen the eye scene parodied but it still held power when I got a dvd rip way back in college off our dc++ network. It so clearly exemplifies the debate of prison reform vs punishment, and if you read about the writer of the book it's an extra meta level. And I prefer the ending of the movie where alex ends up the same, so you debate whether some people can ever be reformed ethically and if not, what we should do as a society? Also it's satiric as hell and I love love love the music.
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# ? Jul 16, 2018 23:27 |
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:Tetsuo: The Iron Man This would have been my answer for a solid 5 years around the early 00s.
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# ? Jul 17, 2018 00:47 |
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precision posted:This would have been my answer for a solid 5 years around the early 00s. I guess I better watch Trust.
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# ? Jul 17, 2018 01:06 |
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Trust is really incredible, you owe it to yourself!
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# ? Jul 17, 2018 03:30 |
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As a sucker for aviation films I have to say it's Battle Of Britain. A great cast including Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, and Ian McShane. The aerial sequences are probably the best ever put to film as (90% of the time) it's all real aircraft, usually flown by WW2 veterans. In fact a few of the aircraft and pilots served in the ACTUAL Battle of Britain. Director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger!) had several shots in mind which required specific maneuvers by the pilots. Most of the time though he basically told the pilots, "You know what you're doing, so get up there and just go at it." And the result is spectacular. Some of the quick runs on bombers by the Spitfire show that they clearly knew what they were doing. Also, United Artists studios bought most of the aircraft surplus and actually had the 10th largest air force in the world at that time. Most all of these were sold to private owners which helped to kickstart the warbird restoration movement. Great flick.
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# ? Jul 17, 2018 04:14 |
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Zardoz The second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 - the Allegretto was written between 1811 and 1812 but was not fully realized until being featured in Zardoz over 162 years later. 105 minutes that pose supreme allegorical dilemmas to many existential topics including theology, class, mortality, politics, sex, weapons and more. It presents a veritable fount of conundrums that no scientist, philosopher, theologian or politician could ever hope to solve. Nearly 25 years after first viewing the intractability remains. Beyond 1984, Beyond 2001, Beyond Love, Beyond Death. I have seen the Future, and it does not work. Zardoz (like Demolition Man) points to the future. YouTube evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he613E96E3E Zogo fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Jul 17, 2018 |
# ? Jul 17, 2018 05:42 |
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I don't know if it's my favorite but I think No Country for Old Men is basically a perfect movie.
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# ? Jul 17, 2018 08:42 |
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Heat It's the perfect heist movie. Even with the weird subplot with the serial killer it's a great movie, and the whole Michael Mann type of characters who are driven to a point of being obsessive, with one trying to balance a normal life while still being an LAPD SIS type while the other being a guy totally immersed in high-stakes robbery trying to build a normal life. It's the right balance between film world hyper-real and realistic, it's tense, and the lighting and everything about is just loving great.
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# ? Jul 17, 2018 10:47 |
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Tom Gorman posted:Alien I think you pretty much nailed it for me here. I will add how much I love the design of the futuristic world and setting that the Alien universe is in. That industrial look is just so eerie and intriguing to me. Also, the film accurately predicted how corporations would consolidate their power by becoming monopolies. The Weyland-Yutani corporation will essentially be Amazon or some other giant tech company soon. Back in 1979, when Alien was made, it was the year before the Reagan revolution where Corporate America went completely gangbusters; I appreciate how much the film was ahead of its time on this issue.
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# ? Jul 17, 2018 22:37 |
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Tom Gorman posted:Alien And it looks so loving good even now.
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# ? Jul 18, 2018 14:20 |
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I hate picking just one because I feel like it privileges one kind of narrative over the beautiful, diverse wealth of styles and stories that the medium offers up. So I have to qualify terms a bit for the sake of my sanity. On the grounds of American-style fiction storytelling, Amadeus is my favorite movie. It has everything. It's a comedy and a drama, and succeeds masterfully at both. It's thematically intellectual on the front of the artist's role in society at the very same time that it has fart jokes. F. Murray Abraham as Salieri is my favorite performance and character ever. The film looks beautiful, both in terms of camera composition and production design. Everything works, down to the sound mix. When Salieri says, "I tell you, you are the greatest composer known to me," that's the genius of the whole film wrapped up in perfect delivery. Salieri hates this boor who lies before him, and wants him dead, but he can never let that stop him from honoring the craft, the spiritual essence of music, his whole reason for living. The art that I love most always deals in human contradictions, and Salieri is the perfect exhibit.
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# ? Jul 18, 2018 15:56 |
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Back to the Future has to be the most satisfying trilogy of all time. Everything that is set up has a payoff, and every time I watch the series, I notice something I hadn't seen/heard before that adds to how much love went into them. There are so many little things in them that add up. It's amazing in its purity, as well - unlike any other 80's franchise, there haven't been any attempts to market it to a new generation with anything new (barring the Telltale video game, which no one remembers anyway). They're not the best movies I've ever seen, but they're my favorite.
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# ? Jul 18, 2018 23:58 |
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SpaceSDoorGunner posted:Heat This. So. Much. Plus the entire bank robbery sequence...movie magic.
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# ? Jul 21, 2018 00:40 |
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Dead Alive Who would've thought a low budget zombie movie made in New Zealand would be the greatest movie ever made but here we are and it is. What do you want? Drama? Romance? Horror? Comedy? A guy killing zombies with a lawnmower? This movie has loving EVERYTHING you could possibly want in a movie. The acting is across the board great, it's got some of the most quotable lines in a movie ever and it's set in the loving '50s and nails it. I wish every movie made me feel as happy as Dead Alive does.
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# ? Jul 21, 2018 01:14 |
Hobo With a Shotgun It's just kind of... perfectly made for me? It's essentially a comedy, because it takes the exploitation elements to such a degree that it's kind of comical and it has actual jokes in it as well, but it's all played straight. Rutger Hauer is amazing in it as well and delivers every insane line like he believes it. The look of the entire movie evokes the grimy aesthetic of action movies from the late 70s and early 80s, the violence is completely over the top and radical.... There's actual social commentary in this ludicrous mess of a film, too, which is kind of surprising. And last but not least, the score is phenomenal, with amazing synth tracks, musical score taken from other works used perfectly, Tarantino-style, and every track conveys the mood of the scene it's used in perfectly. On a more personal level, the film-maker's influences with this film are obvious, and many of them are things I grew up loving. The characters of The Plague, Slick and Ivan are all named after River City Ransom characters, the look of several locations and some characters are directly inspired by the 1990 TMNT film, and the end credits theme is from a Canadian cartoon I watched religiously as a child. The film was basically made to please me and there's very little in it I don't love.
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# ? Jul 22, 2018 00:09 |
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Surprising no one, my favorite movie of all time is Ghostbusters. I have no real affinity for New York City--honestly, I think it's kind of miserable--but I adore the way the movie is a love letter to the city. It's also ridiculously well-paced, with a barely wasted scene. Elmer Bernstein's score is fantastic, John DeCuir's production design is absolutely amazing, and the timing of all the actors is spot-on. "You're more like a game show host" is such a scorching burn on Venkman. I'll never say that Ivan Reitman is a great director by any sense of the word, but everything came together for that movie.
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# ? Jul 22, 2018 00:16 |
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Brazil Everything about this film is brilliant. The film doesn't outright try to unnerve you, it's despair lies beneath its depiction of bureaucracy, and the horrors involved with curtailing the paperwork. This film haunts me, and I consider it the finest movie ever made.
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# ? Jul 22, 2018 02:56 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 23:25 |
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Casablanca. It's a perfect movie, even though it was essentially rolled out on an assembly line, meant to be one of so many disposable, forgettable studio films back in 1943. It has everything: drama, romance, action, intrigue, social commentary, patriotism, hope, friendship, loyalty, redemption, and much-needed comic relief peppered throughout. All the performances are incredible -- everyone showed up and did their best, from the stars (Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains) to the bit players (Dooley Wilson, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre in a small but classic role). There isn't a wasted line or scene. The stakes feel real, the tension is always earned, the heroes don't seem to have much of a chance but try (and succeed) regardless, and an amoral cynic who has given up on the struggle and withdrawn from the world is inspired to make a difference and do the right thing again. I know it's a hard sell for most people under 50 today, who mostly didn't grow up watching black and white movies or assume that every old movie is very slowly-paced. That is sometimes true, but Casablanca feels very modern -- theatrical, but not overwrought, and it definitely moves things along. But your attention never wavers because the dialogue is so electric. If I had to round out the rest of my top five, I'd probably have to choose L.A. Confidential, Ghostbusters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Die Hard, which I consider perfectly-crafted movies as well, that succeed in everything they set out to do.
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# ? Jul 22, 2018 04:26 |