I'd be sort of sad if I had to start my annual year-end film detrius thread here.

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uhhuh ola

cozeny (cozeny), Sunday, 24 December 2006 01:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Vera Farmina is fine; she does battiness better than Cate Blanchett used to. Those last two scenes however with her and Damon are unplayable. As usual I found myself wishing the director had dispensed with the facile moral dilemmas of his hero and concentrated on the peripheries (which, to his credit, Scorsese mostly does in this movie).

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 December 2006 02:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I just noticed that the new Marker placed higher on indiewire's rundown of the year's best docs than the Al Gore movie. Him for presidetn!

Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 24 December 2006 18:46 (seventeen years ago) link

But the new Marker is really 5 shorts, ja?

I don't have a problem w/ Farmiga (still haven't seen Down to the Bone), but the whole damn part is unplayable. The shrink in IF wasn't sleeping with both of them, was she? And if Marty fought for the ending, that includes the crowd-pleaser (relatively speaking) of offing Damon?

Think of this film with Wahlberg and Ryan Gosling in the leads. Not all the problems solved, but most.

The atrophying of DiCaprio's talents is one of the tragedies of the last decade in American film (or maybe he just wasn't versatile to begin with). One of the great teenage actors ever, but since turning 21 he's seemed lost in the school play save for Catch Me If You Can. Think of what young Kirk Douglas could do with a line like "The only thing more fulla shit than a cop is a cop on TV." When Leo says it you can hear the keys clacking.

Message to Mark Wahlberg in winning polls/awards for this rather than I Heart Huckabees: BE MORE ONE-NOTE. (After the splendid verbal soul-rape of Leo, it was push Repeat.)

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Monday, 25 December 2006 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I would be happy if Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin were cast as tag team cops for the duration of their careers.

Leo was never versatile. Even as a young actor his talent was for acting feral (...Gilbert Grape excepted), and he's gotten better at it at the cost of several yards of charisma. What does Scorsese see in him -- how my generation copped all its cockiness from watching De Niro's mirror scene in Taxi Driver without living first?

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 December 2006 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

what Scorsese sees in him = $$$

(Alfred, is yr family sleeping late too?) Yes, Baldwin never better (not sure how much that's sayin).

Merry detrius Christmas

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Monday, 25 December 2006 14:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I'm waiting for them to have their coffee first before driving over. Since it's 83 degrees already you can understand my hesitation.

I'm debating whether to finish playing Miles' "He Loved Him Madly" or to watch Melinda Dillon doing her show-mommy-how-the-piggies-eat scene in A Christmas Story.

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 December 2006 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

or Advise & Consent, an unexpected present from a friend. (Don Murray as convincingly gay as Charles Laughton was convincingly straight; still, my favorite Preminger after Anatomy of a Murder).

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 December 2006 15:15 (seventeen years ago) link

'the departed' is so much better than 'infernal affairs'. IA is good but pretty horribly directed, i don't know what was going on with the camera in that first wong/leung rooftop scene (which was completely copped from a similar scene also featuring leung in 'hard-boiled').

bohren un der club of gear (bohren un der club of gear), Monday, 25 December 2006 18:56 (seventeen years ago) link

a lot of reviews comment on how monahan combined 2 characters to get the shrink, but he actually combined 3. leung ran into this old GF at an inexplicable moment and met her daughter, he said "it's been over six years, huh" and she introduced her daughter as five years old, and after he left the daughter said, "but mommy i'm 6!" because it was actually his kid, lol. which i think comes into play via 'the departed' when farmiga gets knocked up because it's probably leo's kid on account of damon's cock not actually working overtime.

bohren un der club of gear (bohren un der club of gear), Monday, 25 December 2006 19:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Message to Mark Wahlberg in winning polls/awards for this rather than I Heart Huckabees

He did win the VV poll for I Hart Huckabees, tho.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 25 December 2006 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, I'll be damned; you remember detrius from year to year? Like Ted Baxter with the Tedi Awards?

'the departed' is so much better than 'infernal affairs'.

I presume you don't think DiCaprio and Damon flat-out suck, then?

IA's form fits its content, while Scorsese pouring 150 minutes of his operatic naturalism on a blatantly dreamworld plot, hinged on the depth of two actors who can only get deep through lightness (as in Catch Me If You Can and Stuck on You), inevitably leads to ludicrousness. The jarring rat joke at the end suggests that the whole thing should've been done as a black comedy a la (the truly great) Prizzi's Honor.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 15:15 (seventeen years ago) link

they don't flat-out suck (damon as cocky boston sociopath frat bro type is perfect casting, dicaprio is really good especially when he's pistol-whipping damon) and i guess i'd rather have misplaced skillful naturalism and over appropriate shittiness/horrible sentiment/corny musical interludes (pre-emptive: i don't think sentiment is a dirty word). and it was at least half-black comedy, from my POV.

bohren un der club of gear (bohren un der club of gear), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, half-black-comedy, which is why when folx say Jack is "in a different movie," yeah: it's the one I'd rather be watching. (Still IA wisely killed the boss halfway rather than at 3/4.)

The Dropkick Murphys count as a corny musical interlude.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 16:32 (seventeen years ago) link

man, better the dropkick murphys than sappy cantopop. and i'm almost positive eric tsang lasted 'til the 3/4 mark.

bohren un der club of gear (bohren un der club of gear), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link

cocky boston sociopath frat bro type

they quote Freud to get laid?

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 14:38 (seventeen years ago) link

National Film Registry additions 2006

1) Applause (1929)
2) The Big Trail (1930)
3) Blazing Saddles (1974)
4) The Curse of Quon Gwon (1916-17)
5) Daughter of Shanghai (1937)
6) Drums of Winter (1988)
7) Early Abstractions #1-5,7,10 (1939-56)
8) Fargo (1996)
9) Flesh and the Devil (1927)
10) Groundhog Day (1993)
11) Halloween (1978)
12) In the Street (1948/52)
13) The Last Command (1928)
14) Notorious (1946)
15) Red Dust (1932)
16) Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971-72)
17) Rocky (1976)
18) Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)
19) Siege (1940)
20) St. Louis Blues (1929)
21) The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)
22) Tess of the Storm Country (1914)
23) Think of Me First as a Person (1960-75)
24) A Time Out of War (1954)
25) Traffic in Souls (1913)

Does anyone have a running list of movies they've outrageously neglected to induct yet?

Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Anaconda (1997)

latebloomer (clonefeed), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 19:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Next year. It has to be 10 years old first.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 20:00 (seventeen years ago) link

what's the purpose of it?

colin0Hara (colin_o_hara), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 20:09 (seventeen years ago) link

I really don't pay attention to the NFR. Has being named to it saved any films from extinction?

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 20:33 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.loc.gov/film/filmabou.html

I'm sure Fargo is relieved that it will no longer languish in obscurity and neglect.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 20:48 (seventeen years ago) link

otoh, The T.A.M.I. Show needs to be made available.

Owen Gleiberman's #1: 007.

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1572278_1_0_,00.html

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link

For what it's worth, some of the VVM dudes put out their top 10s last week:

Robert Wilonsky

http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-12-21/film/film.html

Jim Ridley

http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-12-21/film/film2.html

Outcast Lemon Mode (sandglocks), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 21:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Not even Ridley's recommendation can get me interested in Casino Royale.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 21:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Zancherek also put it in her top 10.

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

As little as I miss most of the old Voice critics, can't say that Wilonsky is a real improvement.

milo (milo), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 21:55 (seventeen years ago) link

SZ is really here and there in terms of aligning with my (lack of) taste. Ridley and I land on the same page as often as anyone I can think of offhand.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Can rockists get you interested in Neil Young: Heart of Gold? (I will watch Chappelle's Block Party in exchange.)

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 22:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Luckily, as it is a film, I'm far more likely to watch it than I am to listen to a Neil Young album.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link

The Neil Young doc was warmer and more compelling than its parent album; it'll likely make my top ten.

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 22:34 (seventeen years ago) link

oh yeah, I watched Neil's last 2 movies more than listened to the albums.

hehe, I don't remember The Reeler doing this last year -- The Top 10 of Top 10 Lists (Part 2 tomorrow):

with their scepter-swinging nominations of the same 20-25 titles to the year's hyperbole canon, Top 10 lists reward a backloaded release calendar that all but buries dozens of worthy films that preceded their selections earlier in the year (many of which, it should be added, the most influential list-fetishists have not even seen). That it all amounts to so much hogcalling makes it even worse: Choose an authentically singular classic like Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! and you're a contrarian; rub one out in the brimming gallon jug marked L'Enfant and maybe that first freelance gig will arrive before April next year.

http://www.thereeler.com/features/top_10_of_top_10_lists_2006_part_i.php


(I don't mind the Slant pair's rhapsodies over IE, cept for the distressing Bjork mention.)

Since Armond voted for Chris Evans for Best Actor for London, and Ed Gonzalez declared CE a hot piece of ass in his review (Cellular indicated so), I need to get my hands on him...it. Who were the most arousing men of the year? I'm currently sticking with terminally ill Melvil Poupaud in Time to Leave.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 December 2006 18:45 (seventeen years ago) link

london! jeez

bohren un der club of gear (bohren un der club of gear), Thursday, 28 December 2006 18:50 (seventeen years ago) link

seen, gear? (it's a girl's name, apparently)

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 December 2006 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm friends a dude who works at the company which had a hand in its production. i found myself at the wrap party for the shoot for some reason (first and possibly last such event in my life) and subsequently was given a dvd screener. unwatchable.

jessica biel is the title character. jason statham is also in it. there's lots of cocaine use in place of a plot.

bohren un der club of gear (bohren un der club of gear), Thursday, 28 December 2006 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link

I rented that - I figured drugs, Jessica Biel and Isla Fisher were an unbeatable combination. Oh, how wrong I was.

milo (milo), Thursday, 28 December 2006 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I saw the trailer for London on another DVD. I wanted to shoot my TV, Elvis-style.

Outcast Lemon Mode (sandglocks), Thursday, 28 December 2006 19:50 (seventeen years ago) link

But CHRIS EVANS.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 December 2006 20:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Who the fuck is Chris Evans?

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 December 2006 20:39 (seventeen years ago) link


http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2006/02/chris_evans_lon.html

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 December 2006 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link

He looks more like Kevin Federline than Ethan Hawke.

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 December 2006 21:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Who were the most arousing men of the year?

i sorta fancied walid afkir (majid's son in cache) (which otherwise didn't hold up very well at all the second time i saw it).

jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Friday, 29 December 2006 20:17 (seventeen years ago) link

why did i click on that link

shakey mo jopotatoes (bundgee), Friday, 29 December 2006 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link

...cuz you were hoping to see chris evans' cock?

jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Friday, 29 December 2006 20:46 (seventeen years ago) link

majid's son in cache

ew.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 30 December 2006 04:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, wait. For some reason I thought you were talking about the white, underage boy belonging to Auteil/Binoche.

Or I'm a racist.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 30 December 2006 04:05 (seventeen years ago) link

haha, i made a point of NOT saying "that guy's son" for precisely that reason

jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Saturday, 30 December 2006 04:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Peter Travers eclipsed by who?

http://www.thereeler.com/features/the_top_10_of_top_10_lists_2006_part_ii.php

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 30 December 2006 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Producers Guild nominees; sub United 93 for Little Ms Sunshine for the Oscar list?

http://www.producersguild.org/pg/awards_a/

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 4 January 2007 14:37 (seventeen years ago) link


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