I love movies

[James Stevenson]

Choose a TV show partner or group. Put it on the big screen in maximum quality. Turn off the lights. Enjoy the show and pay attention while watching.

This is exactly how I feel, but about movies. I love movies. This Christmas I went home with a harddrive full of films and started cracking through them with my mom. We averaged 1 a day for like 3 months.








Good stills are hard to get. Some really beauitful shots only work in motion.

pay attention while watching.

One of the films we watched was Rushmore, which I think is my favourite Wes Anderson film. I really wanted to watch it with my flatmate in Cambridge, but I was in London, so we both loaded it up at the same time and spent the film chatting on whatsapp. Normally I don't look at my phone at all during a film, but I do like to watch with people and it's fun to react together, crack some jokes, etc. But I found that being on whatsapp sort of ruined the film for me. Good movies have a rhythm that sucks me in, puts me in a kind of trance. Rushmore really has this. It's a very funny film, but not really through any jokes. It's simply the shots, and the rhythm that connects them, that makes it work. When I watch films with people they are often flicking around on their phones, and I really don't get how that can work! Maybe other people aren't getting what I'm getting from movies.

Anyway. I thought it would be fun to write some movie reviews here.

 

[James Stevenson]

A Serious Man

The Coen Brothers have made many great films, and diverse too. We're talking Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men. I recently rewatched O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which can feel like a frivolous, wacky, inconsequential film. But really, it marches completely to its own tune, and works perfectly. I love it.

A Serious Man is a tough one. The first time I saw it, I was not in a great place in life, and this film just left me feeling... bad. It is unquestionably depressing. But there is one central theme that it drives at, and through that theme, the film becomes funny. The laughter helps, but still cannot alleviate the bleakness. Rather, the two combine to create something special. Though I still find it hard to watch, it's extremely memorable, and I know I will return to it.

If you've already seen it, or don't care, read on. The theme I'm talking about is...

Spoiler

Knowledge is Useless

We are surrounded by knowledge all throughout the film. There's the university blackboard covered in mathematical equations, the lawyer's office filled from floor to ceiling with books, and of course, the incredible office of the Final Rabi, with myriad scientific instruments, books, and paintings. And yet none of this can help our poor hero, Larry Gopnik, from the trials and misery of real life. Larry tries continually to seek advice and follow the morals he's been given. None of it is remotely helpful.

The Rabis are amazing - progressively older and wiser, and, in each case, completely useless. When meet the final Rabbi, he begins to say something profound, but we soon realise it's just some song lyrics. All the advice he can give is "be a good boy". The school teacher too, who spends the entire film boring his students to total apathy: In the final moments of the film, with a tornado about to erase the school and all its denizens, the teacher may finally prove his worth by unlocking a door and shepherding his flock to safety. But as the film ends he is still fumbling pointlessly with the keys.

Even film itself cannot help anyone. At the crux of the plot, when Larry, broke and morally broken, decides to accept a bribe from a student, we're at the point where both the protagonist and the audience are surely about to learn something. But we don't! Instead, Larry is almostly instantly diagnosed with cancer. There's also a scene at the beginning of the film that apparently has nothing to do with anything else. Must have some meaning, eh? None that I can find!

One of my favourite moments is when Larry climbs up on top of his house to fix the TV antenna. He surfaces, for once, above the world which is so determined to drag him to his doom, and he can see for miles around. Finally, perhaps, he will find perspective. But instead he sees his neighbour sunbathing naked, and there goes that.

All in all... pretty nihilistic.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one of my favorite movies! Great acting, great soundtrack. I love all the little references to Homer's Odyssey buried in the movie

James, what did you think of Burn After Reading. I loved that one as well. The Coen brothers definitely made some great movies

 

[James Stevenson]

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one of my favorite movies! Great acting, great soundtrack. I love all the little references to Homer's Odyssey buried in the movie

James, what did you think of Burn After Reading. I loved that one as well. The Coen brothers definitely made some great movies

Cool! I've never really known enough about Homer's Odyssey to pick up on much of that, despite knowing about it beforehand. Oh well, I'm reading some random internet essay on it right now, then I can be really intellectual next time I watch it.
And massively agree on the soundtrack. It's so great.

I love Burn After Reading! Great characters (it's gotta be my favourite Brad Pitt role). I think it's a great farce: the plot is twisted, people do dumb things, and it's unpredictable. I'll definitely watch it again.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I love Burn After Reading! Great characters (it's gotta be my favourite Brad Pitt role). I think it's a great farce: the plot is twisted, people do dumb things, and it's unpredictable. I'll definitely watch it again.

I watched it in a New York theater with some friends while on holiday. Half of us (including me) were in absolute stitches, the other half were looking at us dumbfounded, wondering what was so funny about the movie :') And yeah, Brad Pitt is great in this, as is Clooney

 

[James Stevenson]

I had a lovely day today. I went to the cinema and saw...

Nashville​

(1975)​

What a film! It's long, and it feels like very little of consequence is ever happening. So already I'm into it. There are 15 or 20 characters having their own little story arcs, intertwined with eachother, and surrounded by bystanders and extras who also seem to be full, real people with real lives. The main experience of Nashville is just being dropped into different places and watching. Characters meet eachother, ditch eachother, wander off to appear later. I can't say it better than:

Spoiler: joke

Slowly though, a plot does congeal from the noise, but the magic is really just watching these lives play out together. I'm really looking forward to seeing it again.


I left the cinema for two minutes of fresh air, then went back in and watched:

Kiki's Delivery Service​

(1989)​

Probably the most adorable film I've ever seen. A really pleasant watch. Charming and childish, with low stakes and some beautiful animation.
My local cinema has been running some Studio Ghibli films recently. I caught Howl's Moving Castle the other day and greatly enjoyed it, then went back the next day and watched Battle Royale. There's a sentance somewhere here about wildly different Japanese films, but I don't know what it is. Who cares, great stuff.

 

[James Stevenson]

I watched it in a New York theater with some friends while on holiday. Half of us (including me) were in absolute stitches, the other half were looking at us dumbfounded, wondering what was so funny about the movie :') And yeah, Brad Pitt is great in this, as is Clooney

I didn't reply because I didn't want to just monologue about movies, but hey, that's the whole point of this thread, right?
I love George Clooney in Coen Brothers movies, they get this side of him that I don't see anywhere else. He's great!
And I wanted to say, the other day I watched Miller's Crossing, a Coen Brothers film I've basically never heard of. It was really really good! Might have to post a review here at some point.

 

[shamizy]

Kiki's Delivery Service​

(1989)​

View attachment 4604

Probably the most adorable film I've ever seen. A really pleasant watch. Charming and childish, with low stakes and some beautiful animation.
My local cinema has been running some Studio Ghibli films recently. I caught Howl's Moving Castle the other day and greatly enjoyed it, then went back the next day and watched Battle Royale. There's a sentance somewhere here about wildly different Japanese films, but I don't know what it is. Who cares, great stuff.

Yes! This is my favorite animated movie of all time. I've probably seen this like 30+ times since I was a child. They used to show it all the time on Disney channel here and I have vivid memories of turning on the TV during vacation and this already playing in the middle of day in that weird mid-afternoon time slot before the TV shows would start running.

There's just something really really beautiful about Ghibli films that have made me a fan for going on 20 years now. Studio Ghibli isn't afraid to let their features really breathe.They let the audience take in the story and setting, really immerse themselves within that world, rather than jump from X to Y to Z to get through a story. Like the part where Kiki is just staring outside of the window, or in Spirited Away when they take the train, or in Princess Mononoke when they're trudging through the forest and the tiny spirits begin to pop up. It's just a very different experience.

This year my sister and I have been collecting a bunch of Studio Ghibli stuff and have amassed a nice steelbook collection as well as art books. Just absolutely beautiful all around. Highly recommend taking advantage of the showings at your local theater as just about every Ghibli movie is way more compelling and immersive on the big screen.

 

[ZeroCubes]

This is exactly how I feel, but about movies. I love movies. This Christmas I went home with a harddrive full of films and started cracking through them with my mom. We averaged 1 a day for like 3 months.

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Good stills are hard to get. Some really beauitful shots only work in motion.


One of the films we watched was Rushmore, which I think is my favourite Wes Anderson film. I really wanted to watch it with my flatmate in Cambridge, but I was in London, so we both loaded it up at the same time and spent the film chatting on whatsapp. Normally I don't look at my phone at all during a film, but I do like to watch with people and it's fun to react together, crack some jokes, etc. But I found that being on whatsapp sort of ruined the film for me. Good movies have a rhythm that sucks me in, puts me in a kind of trance. Rushmore really has this. It's a very funny film, but not really through any jokes. It's simply the shots, and the rhythm that connects them, that makes it work. When I watch films with people they are often flicking around on their phones, and I really don't get how that can work! Maybe other people aren't getting what I'm getting from movies.

Anyway. I thought it would be fun to write some movie reviews here.

such diversity!