Recommend a movie

10 posts

Ash

MELANCHOLIA (2011)
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If you're looking for a Lars von Trier film about major depressive disorder and the annihilation of everything that exists, this is the one for you.

supplanter
Big Fan

Patton Oswalt plays a die hard Giants fan, works as a parking lot attendant and lives with his mother. He likes his dead-end job because he can listen to sports talk radio and spend time rehearsing his calls to the radio program. He is beaten by his favorite player in a strip club, he won't prosecute or sue because it will hurt his favorite team. Billed as a comedy, it is rather dark and depressing, profiling a NFL super fan.
Thomas777
Apocales
Ash

A Dangerous Method (2011)
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Cronenberg's latest is a period piece with more than a hint of Merchant Ivory about it (a quality I shamelessly endorse), centred on Carl Jung's relationship with his Jewish idol Sigmund Freud and his sadomasochistic affair with his Jewish mental-patient-turned-psych-student Sabina Spielrein. Michel Fassbender's performance is outstanding, and matched my sense of Jung's personality perfectly, Viggo Mortensen gives a good showing as Freud but is ultimately miscast (as my viewing companion said, "Mr. Aryan himself!"), and Keira Knightley gives the most passable and least annoying of her performances I've seen. In spite of visual excellence, some entertaining dialogue, and the historical interest, I found the whole thing unsatisfyingly empty at its centre. Were the psychodynamics of the relationships supposed to tell us something about the human condition? Were we supposed to learn something unsettling about the genesis of the 'talking cure'? I don't know; it was just a historical vignette as far as I could tell. I realised while watching that I desperately wanted it to be a Jung biopic starring Fassbender; to the considerable extent that I did enjoy it, it was as a trailer for the imaginary film I really wanted to see.

As an addendum, there is a clear Jew/Aryan aspect to the split between Freud's psychology (materialistic and exclusively sexual, and in Spengler's terms, a Magian psychology of substance ) and Jung's (idealistic and transcendental; a Faustian psychology of function ), but I certainly didn't expect the film to explore it. In fact, the ethnic dimension was quite explicit throughout. Apart from Jung's obvious idealism and impatience with Freud's sexual obsession, there are two scenes I will recount from memory.

1. Freud hints that one of the reasons he has high hopes for Jung is that Jung will be able to overcome the prejudices faced by the Vienna circle.
Freud: You see, all the psychoanalysts in Vienna are Jews.
Jung: I don't see what difference that makes.
Freud: That, if I may say so, is an exquisitely Protestant remark.

2. Freud tells Spielrein to get over her 'blond Siegfried' (meaning Jung), and goes on to say (I kid you not): "Put not your trust in an Aryan! We are Jews, and we will always be Jews!"

Further, Jung seems to float around blithely above material concerns, only vaguely aware of his good fortune in being supported by wife's substantial inheritance, while Freud smolders enviously in a small Vienna flat. And as an indication of their respective views of their trade, there is a scene near the end where Jung speaks rapturously of his desire to heal his patients and help them be reborn in their full potential etc., whereas Freud says to him, on their passage to America, "Do they know we're bringing them the plague?"

Niccolo and Donkey
Thomas777 Cornelius popfop O'Zebedee Ash Mike Angocachi Dionysian Don Johnson Ferdinand

Das weiße Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (The White Ribbon)

Directed By: Michael Hanecke, 2009

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I really wanted to like this movie as I am a sucker for period pieces, especially those in black and white. Upon seeing the first few scenes, I was instantly harkened back to the excellent Heimat which began in 1919, five years after this story ends and was also set in a German village. However, my excitement quickly grew to disappointment as the plot showed itself to be a purely political/moralist one upholding the modern orthodoxy in which all traditional forms of authority are bad with the Doctor representing the Father, the Pastor as Faith, and Baron as Government. All three are shown to be mercilessly cruel whether physically, emotionally, or psychologically, without any redeeming qualities whatsoever. The intent here is obvious: these archetypes are the cause of the coming rise of National-Socialism in Germany which would manifest itself in the children of this generation who would growing up around such violent authoritarianism would turn into vicious, obedient Nazis. The protaganist of the story is a sort of Proto-SWPL who is meek yet has a sense of right and wrong and does confront village authority, but to no effect. His time will come.

I'm not one to dismiss movies simply because of their political slant with the Soviet film Idi i Smotri (Come and See) being one of my all-time favourites even though it was a thorough denunciation of the WW2 Germans and their allies in the East. However The White Ribbon didn't apply that sledgehammer anywhere as neatly rendering it little more than boilerplate liberal propaganda which is the main course on the menu today. The cinematography does give the film extra credit, with the juxtaposition of the manor home with that of the peasant Felder living space being of special note.


Here is Cornelio's take from several months ago:

Cornelio

From today's perspective I realize that I was wrong. The White Ribbon smears the european character and traditional communities, falsifying reality. Nic's review is level-headed and objective.

Dr. Heywood R. Floyd
O'Zebedee

I wouldn't wholeheartedly argue that Knightriders is a film that Solutreans would like - many on here would quickly identify elements that would disgust them - but I've always had a soft spot for it. Mostly due to Ed Harris's performance, but also because it's such an obvious allegory for director George A. Romero's relationship with Hollywood. As such, for all its flaws, its deeply felt and in my opinion worth the watch.

Trajan
The Big Lebowski : most overrated comedy not directed by Jared Hess. Like Napoleon Dynamite, it's 'quirky', which means the protagonists are unrelateable gimmicks, who spout inanities destined to be endlessly recreated in meme form on a hundred nerdy internet forums. The popularity of this film honestly mystifies me. I can't count the number of times I cringed as gag after gag misfired culminating in what is perhaps one of the unfunniest scenes I've ever witnessed, the showdown with the 'nihilists'. The plot, if you can call it that, is almost entirely driven by wacky deus ex machinas , and the dialogue seems to take place on another planet (Julianne Moore as a pretentious feminist is a serial offender here).

Like Led Zeppelin, The Big Lebowski is another instance of critical revisionism. The initial reception was (rightly) unfavorable, but after the film's runaway popularity with the masses the critics did an about-face and declared it a masterpiece. Honestly, there's nothing to like about this movie. I hated all the characters, I hated the annoyingly self-conscious tone (a Coen bros. trademark), I hated the unfunny jokes and the bad dialogue, and I hated the cinematography which strived after suburban noir ala Blue Velvet but in the end just came across as dreary and monotonous. Seriously bad, folks.