There will be no sandbox Detrius 2011 thread.

to be fair, Drive is not awful, just silly. If they'd had the sense to kill off Gosling as the genre tropes require, I might grudgingly point my thumb up at a 95-degree angle.

I was sposed to go to Dragon Tattoo screening last night, but was exhausted from drinking w/ m4tmos.

Have you seen Margaret, EH? If not can I FedEx my 'preemptive panner' rep to you?

Won't get here by Xmas, unfor.

And passing me that title on the basis of one single film is like that episode of Golden Girls when Dorothy hands Rose Blanche's slut crown on the basis of a single story.

Have you seen Margaret, EH? If not can I FedEx my 'preemptive panner' rep to you?

hi, Morbs!

I keep forgetting that Eric watches I'm Not There once a week now

so what do I have to do to get you to send me that screener

lol, I misread his post as an offer to send a screener too, A.

Which I was going to refuse with maximum prejudice.

You have to read more carefully or run Fox Searchlight! They didn't send any; I paid to see Margaret here in October.

xxp

Eric, are you still in the OMGSociety, and if so are we putting Pitt ToL performance in lead or supporting?

This might me my last year, so I'm debating whether or not to vote at all.

David Edelstein's half-and-half review of Tree probably approximates my own feelings.

I read Edelstein as basically saying that Tree of Life was great but would have been better if it was half an hour longer, which is kind of my view as well.

Emerson on the dinosaurs and ambiguity and Shame

It seems like lots of viewers try to attach some symbolic significance to the dinosaur encounter. I tend to see it as of-a-piece with the rest of the "birth of the cosmos" section - it's just another step in the formation of the planet - no more and no less significant than other steps in the process, such as the cooling of the earth's crust or the arrival of sea-based life. I certainly don't see it as the "birth of compassion" or something like that. We shouldn't try to get inside the dinosaur's head. If anything it dramatizes a point on the evolution of life on earth - showing a creature with relatively primitive forms of social organization.

Margaret reopens in NYC on Friday

http://www.cinemavillage.com/chc/cv/show_movie.asp?movieid=2348

Have to submit my top 10 today. This reminds me that I actually totally loathe listmaking.

Listmaking is easy; blurbing is hard.

tree of life isn't even beautiful, is the thing. no more so than yr average nature documentary, interspersed with cheesy cgi. how was the dinosaur scene any more meaningful than any given episode of walking with dinosaurs? so hokey.

i did wish margaret was longer! or, i could have seen how it could have been longer.

I've banished TOL from memory except for the Brad Pitt scenes.

there's not much to remember. it's not just hallmark card deep, it's hallmark card attractive too.

haha im surprised that you liked 'margaret' lex!

tree of life isn't even beautiful, is the thing. no more so than yr average nature documentary, interspersed with cheesy cgi. how was the dinosaur scene any more meaningful than any given episode of walking with dinosaurs? so hokey.

The "creation of the cosmos" section, coming right on the heels of the death of the son, the family's grief, and its questioning of its faith is pretty clearly based on the Book of Job and God's reply to Job in particular (a verse of which is shown onscreen at the beginning of the movie) so your reaction to this section may have something to do with how much the Book of Job resonates with you.

i posted something vaguely incoherent about why http://alexmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/14561553326/critically-divisive-films-that-last-about-15-hours-of

i tend to really like films which get human interaction right

xp

i think there are surely more resonant or meaningful ways to interrogate the nature of suffering than ugly visuals straight out of a windows screensaver

the entire film had the visual appeal of stock photography

your reaction to this section may have something to do with how much the Book of Job resonates with you.

what if like me you find the Book of Job beautiful and perplexing and this movie a stiff realization of it?

Well, that's a valid point of view - I don't agree with it, but I can understand it.

I guess some ppl found in ToL a rich explication of humanity's role in the cosmos. The closest I came to that was Contagion.

I bet you giggled softly as you set up your own zing.

That's an interesting parallel. I guess both movies dramatize the human condition: though in "Contagion" the universe's relation to humanity is unequivocally one of supreme indifference, whereas in ToL, it's more ambiguous.

xp

I had my problems with TOL but the childhood section was truly beautiful

stock photography > blogging

stock photography > coughing

stock photography < gwyneth's peeled back scalp

I think Andrew O'Hehir of Salon has hit a year-end wall. They put up his reviews of Tintin & Dragon Tattoo yesterday, both mixed but both literally asking "Was it worth doing?"

I can relate.

oh boy, Lex Pretend sharing his piercing insights into The Tree of Life once more. he sees through the bullshit maaaan.

I enjoyed The Tree of Life quite a bit without caring what the "point" of it was.

I had my problems with TOL but the childhood section was truly beautiful

― Number None, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:49 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

yeah otm i mean saying "the entire film had the visual appeal of stock photography" leaves out yknow the entire parts of the film that were beautiful thoughtful montage taking the vantage point of children & creating a tapestry that felt like memory.

why is it that the people who want to come after me are always the ones with completely anonymous, forgettable usernames that sound like caveman grunts? who the fuck is "berg non"? gtfo!

beautiful thoughtful montage taking the vantage point of children & creating a tapestry that felt like memory.

those were the bits i meant! it's like if you typed "nostalgia" into istockphoto as a keyword

Have you seen Drive lex?

stock photog x hallmark cards anyway. i thought those scenes were super corny and completely inert and i did not find them remotely emotional.

xp the gosling film? no.

I had the opposite reaction to those scenes.

Also the creation sequence was beautiful.

I want to come after you, lex. Not that way.

Shots of the two brothers crying after learning they're going to have to move are one of the year's emotional apexes fuiud.

i keep thinking its strange to really love 'tree of life' or 'margaret' but not the other cuz they feel so similarly satisfying and ambitious and big but i guess its actually not all that strange