Had a busy couple of days at the movies so I'll post thoughts on the new releases I saw-

Joker

This is not good. Was alright for the first half hour or so when it was just a prison movie (might have been a better angle to take with it) and I guess I can give them some credit for the ending being unexpected. But the musical sequences are so confined and badly directed and making it a jukebox musical was a mistake. The songs switch between being either way too literal and on the nose or just being a random 70's hit, it doesn't find the sweet spot of being connected to what's going on without the lyrics being literally what's happening. Phoenix also can't really dance which wasn't a problem in that little bit in the first one but is here with the constant song and dance numbers.

Arthur is a static character too, the movie concludes by kind of reinforcing that he was evil from the start but that's kind of what the ending of the first one implied so we're not really learning anything and you wonder what the point was.

Phoenix's acting is still technically good even with less to work with and Gaga is fine I suppose. Nice to see Brendan Gleeson too. This is also the best cast Harvey Dent I've ever seen, both the face and voice were perfect for him.

Also have no idea how this reportedly cost $200 million, the PD is way less atmospheric than the first one.

One funny thing here was everyone thinking the in universe movie about Arthur was either great or terrible, presumably in reference to the real life reception to the first Joker.

Saturday Night

As I speculated after the trailer this is leaning hard into that "Aaron Sorkin workplace thriller" sub genre of things like The West Wing, Social Network, Moneyball, or Steve Jobs. Only it doesn't have the magic touch of Sorkin at his best and certainly not the dialogue or wit. Nobody comes across as being funny (outside of the actor who did a great job as Andy Kaufman) when they quite obviously were in real life.

That's the big downside but there are some pluses, it's very well directed, the smooth camera movement and editing captures the energy of a situation like that and despite the above criticism a lot of the performances are good, namely LaBelle and Cooper Hoffman. It was fine to see once

The Outrun

A little disappointed with this, feels like an alcoholism PSA for a lot of the runtime. Saoirse is of course good and gives a nod worthy performance as always, a good score and some nice sound design, and pretty scenery (as well as graphic footage of a sheep giving birth to remind us we're in Scotland).

Here we are, FG, the 2000’s. Arguably my favorite decade for movies, and this tournament should be awesome. So let’s get to it!

Results of Round 1

• Ghost World (2001) (9) beat Solaris (2002) (5), and 102 Minutes that Changed America (2008) (3)

• Gladiator (2000) (10) beat Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (2003) (9), and 24 Hour Party People (2002) (3)

• 25th Hour (2002) (9) beat Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) (3), and Stranger Than Fiction (2006) (3)

• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) (7) beat Gosford Park (2001) (6), and Sugar & Spice (2001) (4)

• Gran Torino (2008) (9) beat 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007) (5), and Sunshine (2007) (5)

• Superbad (2007) (11) beat Grizzly Man (2005) (7), and 500 Days of Summer (2009) (4)

• A History of Violence (2005) (10) beat Syndromes and a Century (2006) (6), and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) (5)

• High Fidelity (2000) (7) beat Synecdoche, New York (2008) (6), and A Scanner Darkly (2006) (4)

• Hot Fuzz (2007) (9) beat A Serious Man (2009) (8), and Take Care of My Cat (2001) (3)

• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) (11) beat Idiocracy (2006) (7), and Talk to Her (2002) (7)

• Adaptation (2002) (11) beat Hot Rod (2007) (7), and Taxidermia (2006) (2)

• Adventureland (2009) (8) beat Thank You For Smoking (2005) (7), and I'm a Cyborg (2006) (2)

• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) (12) beat I'm Not There (2007) (4), and Alexander (Revisited) (2004) (3)

• In Bruges (2008) (11) beat The Army of Crime (2009) (3) and All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) (3)

• Almost Famous (2000) (10) beat In The Bedroom (2001) (4), and The Cove (2009) (0)

• The Aviator (2004) (9) beat Amelie (2001) (7), and In The Loop (2009) (4)

• In the Mood for Love (2000) (11) beat The Dark Knight (2008) (10), and Amen (2002) (1)

• *American Psycho (2000) (8) beat The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006) (6), and

Inception (2010) (6)*

• Inglorious Basterds (2009) (12) beat The Departed (2006) (10), and Anchorman (2004) (1)

• Apocalypto (2006) (10) beat Inland Empire (2006) (6), and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) (5)

• Atonement (2007) (5) beat Into the Wild (2007) (3), and The Fall (2006) (3)

• The Fountain (2006) (9) beat Iron Man (2008) (8), and Avatar (2009) (7)

• Bad Santa (2003) (10) beat The Host (2006) (9), and Juno (2007) (3)

• Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) (13) beat Before Sunset (2004) (5), and The Hours (2002) (2)

• Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) (13) beat King Kong (2005) (6), and The House of Sand and Fog (2003) (2)

• The Hurt Locker (2008) (12) beat Kingdom of Heaven (2005) (4), and Beowulf (2007) (3)

• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) (9) beat Best in Show (2000) (8), and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009) (3)

• The Incredibles (2004) (9) beat Big Fish (2003) (5) and La Ciénaga (2001) (5)

• The Lives of Others (2006) (10) beat Borat (2006) (5), and Last Days (2005) (3)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (8) beat Brokeback Mountain (2005) (6), and Let the Right One In (2008) (6)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (12) beat Caché (2005) (7), and Little Otik (2000) (2)

• Lost in Translation (2003) (12) beat The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (9), and Cast Away (2000) (4)

• Casino Royale (2006) (8) beat Love Exposure (2008) (6), and The Man Without a Past (2002) (2)

• The Pianist (2002) (10) beat Catch Me If You Can (2002) (8), and Man from Earth (2007) (1)

• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) (12) beat The Piano Teacher (2001) (7), and Chicago (2002) (3)

• Children of Men (2006) (14) beat The Prestige (2006) (10), and Me And You And Everyone We Know (2005) (1)

• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) (12) beat Mean Girls (2004) (5), and Chocolat (2000) (3)

• Memento (2000) (11) beat City of God (2002) (6), and The Son’s Room (2001) (1)

• Collateral (2004) (10) beat Memories of Murder (2003) (8), and The Twilight Samurai (2002) (3)

• Control (2007) (5) tied with Millennium Actress (2001) (5), and beat The Ugly Swans (2006) (3)

• Moon (2009) (10) beat Coraline (2009) (9), and The White Diamond (2004) (3)

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) (11) beat The Wrestler (2008) (6), and Moulin Rouge (2001) (3)

• Mulholland Drive (2001) (11) beat There Will Be Blood (2007) (9), and Departures (2008) (1)

• Munich (2005) (13) beat Touching the Void (2003) (5), and Dig! (2004) (1)

• District 9 (2009) (14) beat Training Day (2001) (5), and My Winnipeg (2007) (4)

• Dodgeball (2004) (8) beat Mysterious Skin (2004) (5), and Triangle (2009) (2)

• No Country For Old Men (2007) (18) beat Dogtooth (2009) (3), and United 93 (2006) (3)

• Unbreakable (2000) (6) beat Nobody Knows (2004) (5), and Dogville (2003) (3)

• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) (14) beat Donnie Darko (2001) (7), and Up in the Air (2009) (1)

• Doubt (2008) (8) beat Oceans Eleven (2001) (7), and Valhalla Rising (2009) (5)

• Eastern Promises (2007) (8) beat Once (2007) (5) and Waking Life (2001) (4)

• Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) (12) beat Elephant (2003) (7), and Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (2007) (5)

• Primer (2004) (11) beat Walk the Line (2005) (5), and End of the Century - The Story of The Ramones (2003) (3)

• Wall-E (2008) (10) beat Punch-Drunk Love (2002) (9), and Enter the Void (2009) (4)

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) (16) beat Requiem for a Dream (2000) (3), and Watchmen (2009) (1)

• Ratatouille (2007) (8) beat Wendy and Lucy (2008) (5), and Eureka (2000) (5)

• Road to Perdition (2002) (10) beat Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) (7), and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) (5)

• Whale Rider (2002) (6) beat Far From Heaven (2002) (5), and Russian Ark (2002) (5)

• Sexy Beast (2000) (11) beat Where the Wild Things Are (2009) (5), and The Fast and the Furious (2001) (2)

• Wonder Boys (2000) (9) beat Finding Nemo (2003) (6), and Shadow of the Vampire (2000) (5)

• Sideways (2004) (10) beat Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) (7), and Fish Story (2009) (1)

• Yi yi (2000) (9) beat Shaun of the Dead (2004) (7), and Fish Tank (2009) (2)

• Shattered Glass (2003) (7) beat You, the Living (2007) (2), and Freddy Got Fingered (2001) (2)

• Zodiac (2007) (13) beat Snatch (2000) (10), and Gerry (2002) (1)

Results of Round 2

• Gladiator (2000) (12) beat Ghost World (2001) (9)

• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) (10) beat 25th Hour (2002) (7)

• Superbad (2007) (11) beat Gran Torino (2008) (6)

• A History of Violence (2005) (10), beat High Fidelity (2000) (4)

• Hot Fuzz (2007) (13) beat A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) (8)

• Adaptation (2002) (16) beat Adventureland (2009) (7)

• In Bruges (2008) (15) beat The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) (8)

• Almost Famous (2000) (12) beat The Aviator (2004) (5)

• In the Mood for Love (2000) (12) beat American Psycho (2000) (11)

View Poll

Hi,

I used to go on the old IMDb message boards and there was a very long-running thread where users were trying to identify a film quote. Many users were watching many films to rule them out as being the source of the quote. The quest to find the quote went on over years, and there was speculation that it perhaps had never existed and was some kind of Mandela Effect.

i think the thread was in Film General but it may have been Sandbox or one of the other more general boards.

Can anyone please remember the quote, and let me know if it was ever identified?

I am not a regular Reddit poster, but I have done a cursory search here and don’t see this mentioned. I can’t stop thinking about this and if anyone could help I would be so grateful.

Thoughts on this? Definitely a slow burn but the gradual pace combined with the creepy sound design gives it Hitchcock's usual sense of suspense. Tippi Hendren was a star, nice supporting performance from Suzanne Pleshette, and like the brown autumnal color pallet on a shallow note. Also surprising how grussome and bloody it is for the time (someone's eyes getting pecked out and a man burning to death) which adds to the intensity.

Some people say the early scenes are deliberately boring and soapy so that the audience will identify with the birds and want to wipe out the complacency of humanity as an affront to nature or whatever. Hitchcock uses POV shots here a lot more than most films at the time, almost like you're supposed to be identifying with the birds with all the top-down shots when people are getting attacked. Kind of funny to think about it like that.

Anyway, not a very top tier Hitchcock but probably the lower end of his top ten for me.

Good evening my dear friends. I hope you are all enjoying the start of the autumn season and the beginning of the objectively best month!

Watching: Very much in the mood for some spooky rewatches of classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepaway Camp and Rocky Horror. Will also be going through my Shudder watchlist

Playing: Got Shadowman Remastered and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance both of which are proving to be very enjoyable. Also Moon the super quirky semi obscure RPG and the Blade Runner game from the 90s

Reading: Almost done my re-read of Caliban and the Witch by Federici, starting a book on historical exorcisms as well as a re-read of my man Goethe's Faust

Listening: My entire year was made with the release of a new song by The Cure and the announcement of a new long teased album after 16 years. And on the day after my birthday?? I knew Robert Smith loved me back

Otherwise, The Fragile just hit 25 years so been spinning that, going through some Kris Kristofferson, RIP to a legend. And I gotta go ham on Type O' Negative for that sweet sweet October Rust

What about you? Any seasonal themed media on your itinerary?

This obviously looks great (both cinematography and production design) and it's nice whenever a real director gets a budget like this. The loaded cast is an asset too, Driver is terrific in the lead and Plaza, Voight, Fishburne, and Hoffman make a nice supporting cast. We'll have to see if Sebastian Stan or Shia make a better Trump. Nice to see Jason Schwartzman in anything as well.

One of the biggest issues though is that the dialogue is at times awful, gives off the feeling that Coppola's been so isolated by his wealth and fame that he doesn't know how people talk anymore. Some of the themes didn't quite land either, not sure what the time stopping conceit had to do with anything and omitting "liberty" in the closing caption was odd. The story is supposed to be how a demagogue turns a republic into an autocracy, liberty is supposed to be what it's all about.

John Wayne/Ford? Clint Eastwood/Leone? Mifune?

The reason I'm asking is eventually they butt heads and can't keep that dignity and restraint in the name of art and/or popularity up forever.

It's one of those things where they're only a team for xyz, but I'd like to think of one duo out there that really went out on a great project and keep there dignity and restraint and didn't look back etc. Unlike one hit wonders Hollywood could hoodwink better based on past success.

I have to say, I'm rather disappointed. Garland has an amazing track record before this film and I figured there was no way he could fuck it up. Just watching the trailers, I imagined this would be a tough watch, especially for anyone that's anxious about the current political climate in the US. If the film had only succeeded living up to that hype, it would have been some kind of success. But I don't even think it managed to deliver on that.

A lot of the criticisms that I've seen leveled at the film are that it was unrealistic, that it wasn't a very good anti-war film, that the characters were idiots, etc. Most of these things are true, but I think some of that is missing the point. First of all, I don't think the film is necessarily trying to be an "anti-war" film. That may have been an expectation that was created by the marketing, but at no time does it really feel to me like that's what the film is attempting to be. Second, how unrealistic it is is of course up for interpretation, and I don't necessarily think a film like this has to be realistic to be effective.

The most significant problem with the film for me is that I don't even know what it's supposed to be about, and I don't feel like that's my fault. If we got more information about the actual conflict, we could more confidently say it was about the politics of the US or failing states in general. But we get hardly any of that. If it were more about the atrocities and senselessness of war, we could more confidently say it was about that. But the film is actually more or less tame in that regard (with only a couple of scenes that do stand out in that area). No, the film follows journalists, so that should ideally be our first clue about the film's real purpose.

Except even through that lens (no pun intended) the film feels pointless. Our three-ish main characters all seem to have different reasons for being in the game, but at the same time we get very little information about what that is for each of them. Joel is pretty much a blank slate - he is in it because it's a job and maybe a bit for the rush. He contributes very little to the story. Lee is the battle-hardened veteran who seems pretty jaded at this point, so what's her deal? We never really find out. Her behavior in the final act seems to come out of nowhere and serves only to segue into the one event that's foreshadowed heavy-handedly in the first act. We get no information at all about why Jessie wants to be a war photographer so badly.

The only substantial clue here is the line from earlier in the film about how, as a war journalist, the job is not to think about it but record so other people can think about it. If anything, I think that's as close as we're going to get to an explanation of what this film is about: that Garland himself doesn't actually have anything to say about this, that he simply wanted to put these things on screen and have us think about what they mean. Maybe the film intends to subvert expectations and even maybe the entire genre of war film by avoiding any particular interpretation or attempts to guide us into feeling one way or another about it.

If that's what it is, I will probably need some time to decide whether that's lazy (even maybe a little cowardly) or clever, maybe even inspired. At the moment it definitely feels more like the former. I think there's some value in being able to look at certain experiences with a clearer sight, not necessarily forming judgment about it one way or the other. I mostly fail to see how that benefits us with this subject matter. Again, if we had gotten some more information about the driving ideologies behind the atrocity, seeing them impartially might feel like it served some function. As it is, it seemed much less a film about war than it did about a handful of people who didn't really even know why they were doing what they were doing.

I love adding trivia and quotes on there.

Might be a bit too early for this post but I am curious.

Mine:

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Crossing
3. Kinds of Kindness
4. Touch
5. Exhuma
6. The Devil's Bath
7. Challengers
8. Rebel Ridge
9. I Saw the TV Glow
10. Kneecap

https://vimeo.com/26702518