Schoolio's Movie Corner

Gummo had me cringing in disgust (the kid in the bathtub eating the spaghetti and chocolate bar - AT THE SAME TIME!) and laughing out loud (those shirtless guys destroying the chair in the kitchen).

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Originally Posted by zircona1

Gummo had me cringing in disgust (the kid in the bathtub eating the spaghetti and chocolate bar - AT THE SAME TIME!) and laughing out loud (those shirtless guys destroying the chair in the kitchen).

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Did you see the bacon taped on the bathroom wall in the tub scene?

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Originally Posted by ThatGirl

Did you see the bacon taped on the bathroom wall in the tub scene?

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If I did, I completely forgot about it.

2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell:

“Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is a brilliant flick that more accurately depicts the African American experience than any of the 15 movies about black culture Lee’s directed in his lifetime. Lee needs to get over himself. He’s upset because Tarantino makes better movies. The man who put Malcolm X on the big screen is Hollywood’s resident house negro; a bougie activist who wants to tell his fellow white auteurs how they can and can’t depict African Americans. Spike is upset because Samuel L. Jackson’s character in the movie is just like him: a conniving and scheming Uncle Tom,”

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Originally Posted by xanman86

Thanks! I should do a Tarkovsky marathon soon.

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You're really selling yourself short if you do this. Take some time to process each one rather than trying to watch three in a row or something.

Excellent point.


I caught Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone last night. I was on the verge of blowing this off entirely due to what I'd heard about its heavy quotient of melodrama, and also the prominence of a Katy Perry song. It certainly has both of those things, and yet the film is remarkably substantial, inserting a complex view of gender identity and class disparity in a story that could have easily confined itself to the jerking of tears. I'm a little thrown by the film's final moments, which take on a metaphysical quality that didn't seem entirely justified by everything that had come before.... but it still sort of works as I think it was intended, and in no way diminishes the film's many strengths. Marion Cotillard is, predicatably, even better in French than she is in English (and it's not as though she's less than magnetic, ever), and Matthias Schoenarts brings an uncommon depth to this sort of brute id-man; comparisons to Tom Hardy are well-founded. I guess I should finally make a point of seeing A Prophet and The Beat That My Heart Skipped. One of the better 2012 films I've seen.

I fucking hated gummo. :2c

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Originally Posted by getbetter

I fucking hated gummo. :2c

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Count me amongst the Gummo haters, although in fairness to Korine I'll admit it's unlike any film I've ever seen.

Korine has never made anything worthwhile at all. Not even one minute of celluloid.

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Originally Posted by RotationSlimWang

Korine has never made anything worthwhile at all. Not even one minute of celluloid.

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His script for Kids was great but nothing he's directed has appealed to me.

The script for Kids? Are you serious?

Yes, Randy. But it's been well established that I'm more easily impressed than you.

I definitely can't say that I've connected with any of his films either, but I do find them worth watching. He has a style of filmmaking that I find to be dubious more often than not, yet it's mostly refreshing.

In an era where so many filmmakers stick their fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, if nothing else I respect the fact that he sticks to his convictions. Beats the hell out of watching yet another cutesy indie flick.

I normally try to watch, you know, good and/or great movies, but something about this article made me really want to watch Chopping Mall:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/chopp...no-chop,83987/

I think this would make for a nice midnight movie.

Sorry to interrupt this serious discussion of Harmony Korine.

Korine's alright. I watched Kids way too young, but I guess that's the point.

I watched Dreyer's Vampyr tonight. Good fucking god. My first silent(ish) film...seriously incredible. The swirling, hazy, half-destroyed footage just added to the haunting cinematography and the strong performances throughout. A beautiful nightmare...

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Originally Posted by bobert

Count me amongst the Gummo haters, although in fairness to Korine I'll admit it's unlike any film I've ever seen.

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Despise Gummo, but probably mainly because it's set in my childhood home town and depicts kids considerably more hopeless than even those who grew up there. To be fair, I hated "Crash" because it depicted everyone in L.A. as racists, too.

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Originally Posted by bobert

Count me amongst the Gummo haters, although in fairness to Korine I'll admit it's unlike any film I've ever seen.

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I'm fascinated by his work and find it interesting, but I agree his movies aren't enjoyable in a traditional way - I just like movies that make me uncomfortable.

You all should try Mister Lonely - it reveals much about his worldview (notably, his sense of empathy) that isn't immediately apparent in Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy (both of which I think are masterful) or Trash Humpers (which even I'm not terribly in love with, fascinating though it is). It also does so in the context of a relatively traditional narrative, as opposed to an abrasive pastiche.

Jen and I watched Dear Zachary on Friday night. I was under the impression that this was a landmark documentary of some sort; in reality, it's the most poorly made movie in the history of people making fucking movies. God DAMMIT is this thing a miscalculation....I don't know this filmmaker felt the need to cut this entire film at the speed of the most frantic scene in Tony Scott's filmography, but let's just say that it does it's true story (admittedly fraught with the sort of real-life devastation that can't help but shake a person) no fucking favors. Part of me is inclined to credit the film - which is essentially a document of the life and death of a young doctor who was murdered, made by his best friend - for withholding its ultimate reason d'etre until the final moments, but given how awful the filmmaking is for the entire duration (it's literally the sort of film that spends its final 10 minutes saluting the heroism of the dead guy's parents in completely unambiguous fashion, and then follows that up with a Ron Howard-esque title card dedicating the film to them), it's more likely that happened because the filmmaker edited chronologically as the events played out and happened to luck into an evolving narrative. I'm sure some will think I'm an asshole for criticizing the sincere efforts of people who have gone through this sort of trauma, but let's all acknowledge that the courage shown by these people in the face of tragedy doesn't mean the movie has a fucking iota of value beyond making people cry.

Hahaha. I didn't have as intense of a reaction to it as you did (my review is in here somewhere), but it's definitely a deeply flawed film that does a major disservice to its story.

And I don't know what all of you fools are talking about, Gummo is one of the most re-watchable and entertaining films I've ever seen.

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Originally Posted by SoulDischarge

Hahaha. I didn't have as intense of a reaction to it as you did (my review is in here somewhere), but it's definitely a deeply flawed film that does a major disservice to its story.

And I don't know what all of you fools are talking about, Gummo is one of the most re-watchable and entertaining films I've ever seen.

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I was pretty jacked when I watched it; but the scene when they're tearing apart the kitchen: priceless.

Anyone seen the documentary on the Whites of West Virginia?




My ex factory foreman, born and raised in Boone County, West Virginia, used to tell us stories 'bout these folks all the time.

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Originally Posted by SoulDischarge

Next up was the documentary Dear Zachary. Supposedly, this started off as a home movie project by an aspiring amateur filmmaker but ended up building into something more. It's set up as a video letter to the unborn son of the director's best friend, who was murdered by the child's mother after he broke up with her, as a way for the kid to get to know his father. As time goes on and the legal system begins to fail the grieving loved ones of the victim by not incarcerating his murderer, it turns into a document of the custody battle for the baby between the mother and his grandparents on his father's side. It's a really harrowing, fascinating story with some truly devastating "plot twists" (they're almost presented as such, despite being non-fiction). The director was lucky enough to have enough footage to edit together to keep things varied and moving swiftly, which, combined with the fascinating story, keeps things fairly compelling. Unfortunately, he decided to make some really distracting and unnecessary stylistic choices with the editing and effects that come off as tacky and manipulative. The story is strong enough to stand on its own, but these choices sometimes drag the film down into second rate CourtTv territory. Another problem with the film, which is to be expected with such a personal involvement with the subject matter, is a lack of objectivity. All the interviews are done with friends, family, and co-workers of the victim who heap hyperbolic praise upon him, leaving us with a rather incomplete picture of him as a real human being, despite the surplus of footage ranging from his childhood up until the time of his murder. The inverse is true of his murderer, who is set up as basically "the devil," as the guys parents call her, and while her actions are inexcusably horrific, the film loses a great deal of complexity by not allowing her to be a three dimensional person. I suppose a lot of this is a result of being too close to the subject matter and the director being an amateur, and there is enough good stuff here to make it worth watching through at least once, but it's definitely not on the same level as something like The Thin Blue Line or Capturing The Friedmans, documentaries that Dear Zachary some times echoes but never matches.

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So you did. And yes, I imagine this would be the compassionate way to do it.

The Master is back at the Arclight Hollywood in 70mm, starting this Friday:
https://www.arclightcinemas.com/movi...omo=spotlightD

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Originally Posted by schoolofruckus

Jen and I watched Dear Zachary on Friday night. I was under the impression that this was a landmark documentary of some sort; in reality, it's the most poorly made movie in the history of people making fucking movies. God DAMMIT is this thing a miscalculation....I don't know this filmmaker felt the need to cut this entire film at the speed of the most frantic scene in Tony Scott's filmography, but let's just say that it does it's true story (admittedly fraught with the sort of real-life devastation that can't help but shake a person) no fucking favors. Part of me is inclined to credit the film - which is essentially a document of the life and death of a young doctor who was murdered, made by his best friend - for withholding its ultimate reason d'etre until the final moments, but given how awful the filmmaking is for the entire duration (it's literally the sort of film that spends its final 10 minutes saluting the heroism of the dead guy's parents in completely unambiguous fashion, and then follows that up with a Ron Howard-esque title card dedicating the film to them), it's more likely that happened because the filmmaker edited chronologically as the events played out and happened to luck into an evolving narrative. I'm sure some will think I'm an asshole for criticizing the sincere efforts of people who have gone through this sort of trauma, but let's all acknowledge that the courage shown by these people in the face of tragedy doesn't mean the movie has a fucking iota of value beyond making people cry.

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I must not have been in a stylistically critiquing mood when I saw it. I remember watching it when it first came out and bawling through half of it. Yes, I would agree Blair Witch Project was filmed better than this, but I suppose it got to me, making it a successful Documentary in my eyes.

Trailer for new Coens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=r5ngyALMRR4

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Originally Posted by KungFuJoe

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Fucking sick. I was just wondering what Chow had been up to.

...although apparently the answer is not, "Directing this movie they just called a Stephen Chow film."