Which I was going to refuse with maximum prejudice.
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 16:17 (twelve years ago) link
You have to read more carefully or run Fox Searchlight! They didn't send any; I paid to see Margaret here in October.
xxp
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 16:17 (twelve years ago) link
Eric, are you still in the OMGSociety, and if so are we putting Pitt ToL performance in lead or supporting?
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 16:20 (twelve years ago) link
This might me my last year, so I'm debating whether or not to vote at all.
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 16:22 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 16:34 (twelve years ago) link
Emerson on the dinosaurs and ambiguity and Shame
― gukbe, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 17:10 (twelve years ago) link
Margaret reopens in NYC on Friday
http://www.cinemavillage.com/chc/cv/show_movie.asp?movieid=2348
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:38 (twelve years ago) link
Have to submit my top 10 today. This reminds me that I actually totally loathe listmaking.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:05 (twelve years ago) link
Listmaking is easy; blurbing is hard.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:06 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:20 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
there's not much to remember. it's not just hallmark card deep, it's hallmark card attractive too.
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:23 (twelve years ago) link
haha im surprised that you liked 'margaret' lex!
― ice cræmde (є(٥_ ٥)э), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:25 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:26 (twelve years ago) link
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
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
xp
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:28 (twelve years ago) link
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
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:30 (twelve years ago) link
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?
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:32 (twelve years ago) link
Well, that's a valid point of view - I don't agree with it, but I can understand it.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:33 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
I bet you giggled softly as you set up your own zing.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
I had my problems with TOL but the childhood section was truly beautiful
― Number None, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:49 (twelve years ago) link
stock photography > blogging
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:56 (twelve years ago) link
stock photography > coughing
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:57 (twelve years ago) link
stock photography < gwyneth's peeled back scalp
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:58 (twelve years ago) link
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?"
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 20:59 (twelve years ago) link
I can relate.
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 21:00 (twelve years ago) link
oh boy, Lex Pretend sharing his piercing insights into The Tree of Life once more. he sees through the bullshit maaaan.
― berg non, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 21:18 (twelve years ago) link
I enjoyed The Tree of Life quite a bit without caring what the "point" of it was.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
― 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.
― Never translate German (schlump), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 22:44 (twelve years ago) link
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!
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 23:58 (twelve years ago) link
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
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 December 2011 23:59 (twelve years ago) link
Have you seen Drive lex?
― Number None, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 23:59 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:00 (twelve years ago) link
I had the opposite reaction to those scenes.
Also the creation sequence was beautiful.
― gukbe, Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:02 (twelve years ago) link
I want to come after you, lex. Not that way.
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:02 (twelve years ago) link
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
― lord of snow and shadows (є(٥_ ٥)э), Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:04 (twelve years ago) link
hiya eric.
margaret is so much more human than tree of life - i mean it's not as simple as me just preferring human interaction to abstraction b/c i feel ToL completely fails on an abstract, visual level too, but that's certainly one reason i'd respond to one and not the other.
margaret reminded me in a sideways fashion of synecdoche ny, it had that same sort of widescreen grandeur at the same time as putting the human condition under the microscope. (except i found synecdoche ny a little annoying, or maybe i just can't be bothered to care about the male mid-life crisis in any sort of art any more.)
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:10 (twelve years ago) link
you really can't beat a film-critic party where someone does an impression of Richard Brody w/ jazz hands
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 22 December 2011 04:58 (twelve years ago) link
The Artist is crap.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 23 December 2011 18:19 (twelve years ago) link
yes, it is to Singin' in the Rain & Guy Maddin what Drive is to Le Samourai & The Driver.
well, I voted for the OMGSociety nominees, my #1s being Cert Copy, Paquin, Shannon, Pitt (Tree), Berlin.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 23 December 2011 18:41 (twelve years ago) link
Oops.
― Detrius of Life (Eric H.), Friday, 23 December 2011 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Wednesday, December 21, 2011 2:23 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Permalink
http://bf-1.com/BF1-TV/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/taylorswift_taylorswift_v3.jpg
― VHS duct, Saturday, 24 December 2011 06:39 (twelve years ago) link
i think the "hallmark" or "kitsch" criticisms are fair for Tree of Life but i also think they miss how fucking disorienting and strange it is as well. not sure how "kitsch" or "hallmark" accounts for, say, that truly freaky image of a clown that pops up half way though. or any number of other things. i think maybe those kinds of responses are probably as much against the sort of middle class American/Christian sensibility that the film seems to be at least on some level to be about. ie, "this is hallmark" = this is not a movie meant for me.
especially since i think the movie seems to presume a pretty wide knowledge about religion/theology. what's particularly weird is how Job and the "tree of life" notion in the Kabbalah seem to intersect (not to mention how "tree of life" is a biological term too!), how both of those texts have a creation myth and how they relate to suffering.
― ryan, Saturday, 24 December 2011 21:38 (twelve years ago) link
also, in terms of kitsch, it's really interesting (especially in the way critics have responded) to compare TOL to something like Melancholia (which seems equally kitschy, if more knowing about it).
― ryan, Saturday, 24 December 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link