Wasn't sure which thread to drop this in, but man. Tom Cruise's performance in Magnolia has proven itself to be one of the greats. Whatever you may think of Magnolia as a whole (and i have found it to be pretty bloated as ive revisited it through the years), Cruise's whole arc is trememndous.
MOVIES
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ArcadeWeapon
- Posts:31
- Joined:Fri May 03, 2019 8:57 pm
Re: MOVIES
Raging Pheonix is a wild-ass Muay Thai/Breakdancing/Alcoholic martial arts flick from Thailand. It strongly reminded me of Samurai Champloo. I rewatched it recently and was surprised by how much crazy shit goes on in this movie. Highly recommend it.
Re: MOVIES
I’m sure we could start a Paul Thomas Anderson jerckoff thread. He is the only director that consistently creates great films. There Will Be Blood is a masterpiece that I can watch at anytime.ArcadeWeapon wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 1:03 amWasn't sure which thread to drop this in, but man. Tom Cruise's performance in Magnolia has proven itself to be one of the greats. Whatever you may think of Magnolia as a whole (and i have found it to be pretty bloated as ive revisited it through the years), Cruise's whole arc is trememndous.
Re: MOVIES
Ok I’m watching this when I get home from work
Re: MOVIES
watched dragged across concrete and brawl in cell block 99 this weekend, both directed by S. Craig Zahler (he has also directed Bone Tomahawk which i highly recommend) and have a lot of overlapping cast so it's a bit weird to watch them back to back
zahler has a good mastery of building drama and violent action scenes, so they're both fun watches.
dragged's biggest weakness is it has too many characters when really the strongest part of the cast is mel gibson and vince vaughn. they seem like their actual characters who suffer from real relatable problems. by contrast the other players seem like paint by numbers cardboard cutouts. any time the movie breaks its focus on mel and vince it weakens the whole.
for mel fans his major conflict in the movie initiates by being caught on a phone camera doing something not nice and being harshly judged for it, and his response is to assert that it's society that has changed while he has been constant and stable. combined with the feeling that he's kind of an aged Riggs (lethal weapon) in the movie, its easy to come away with feeling that he's not acting in these scenes and the entire role was scripted to allow him to give an overt "fuck you" to hollywood.
brawl by comparison has a much slower burn to get to the titular brawl in cell block 99. over half the movie is to just ground vince vaughns character as being both living a just and unjust individual. someone who does illegal things to get ahead but lives by a clear moral code that even when his actions catch up to him he does not bend on those morals. it's a real treat of the movie to see how his internalized ideas of what is right and must be done brushes up against what society.
brawl also has a lot of bloody ridiculous violence and once it starts to escalate leaves it's grounded, dramatic ground into the realm of pulp action
both recommend
zahler has a good mastery of building drama and violent action scenes, so they're both fun watches.
dragged's biggest weakness is it has too many characters when really the strongest part of the cast is mel gibson and vince vaughn. they seem like their actual characters who suffer from real relatable problems. by contrast the other players seem like paint by numbers cardboard cutouts. any time the movie breaks its focus on mel and vince it weakens the whole.
for mel fans his major conflict in the movie initiates by being caught on a phone camera doing something not nice and being harshly judged for it, and his response is to assert that it's society that has changed while he has been constant and stable. combined with the feeling that he's kind of an aged Riggs (lethal weapon) in the movie, its easy to come away with feeling that he's not acting in these scenes and the entire role was scripted to allow him to give an overt "fuck you" to hollywood.
brawl by comparison has a much slower burn to get to the titular brawl in cell block 99. over half the movie is to just ground vince vaughns character as being both living a just and unjust individual. someone who does illegal things to get ahead but lives by a clear moral code that even when his actions catch up to him he does not bend on those morals. it's a real treat of the movie to see how his internalized ideas of what is right and must be done brushes up against what society.
brawl also has a lot of bloody ridiculous violence and once it starts to escalate leaves it's grounded, dramatic ground into the realm of pulp action
both recommend
Re: MOVIES
I love PTA and the Master is one of my favorite films. I also really liked Phantom Thread because of Daniel Day Lewis' protagonist but it seems to have gotten a more muted reactionyoku wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 10:36 amI’m sure we could start a Paul Thomas Anderson jerckoff thread. He is the only director that consistently creates great films. There Will Be Blood is a masterpiece that I can watch at anytime.ArcadeWeapon wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 1:03 amWasn't sure which thread to drop this in, but man. Tom Cruise's performance in Magnolia has proven itself to be one of the greats. Whatever you may think of Magnolia as a whole (and i have found it to be pretty bloated as ive revisited it through the years), Cruise's whole arc is trememndous.
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ArcadeWeapon
- Posts:31
- Joined:Fri May 03, 2019 8:57 pm
Re: MOVIES
The Master is so damn good. Its done that thing all great films do and become richer with each viewing (i guess i should say great art in general). That final shot, too...I tend to think to myself, "The beast at peace." It yields a lot of interpretations. PTA chilled out a bit with the Altman-inspired ensemble mosaic stuff, and it seems to have freed him up to go deeeep on individual characters. Punch Drunk love in retrospect was a big turning point. It seems to be considered 'minor' in some circles (maybe just because of its running time?), but it is a mesmerizing and really funny film. Played around with colour and tone a lot.
Phantom Thread was one of my favs from last year.
Phantom Thread was one of my favs from last year.
Re: MOVIES
I watched PTA's entire filmo including the earliest one, Hard eight. His films have middle of between European and American centural themes. The Master and Inherent Vice are my favorite.
Re: MOVIES
I don't know if I saw a director's cut or something, but the version of Dragged Across Concrete that a buddy and I watched was fucking 2 hours and 40+ minutes long. It was painfully boring through a lot of it, and I loved Cell Block 99. We ended up fast forwarding through a lot of Concrete towards the end.peng wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 6:46 pmwatched dragged across concrete and brawl in cell block 99 this weekend, both directed by S. Craig Zahler (he has also directed Bone Tomahawk which i highly recommend) and have a lot of overlapping cast so it's a bit weird to watch them back to back
zahler has a good mastery of building drama and violent action scenes, so they're both fun watches.
dragged's biggest weakness is it has too many characters when really the strongest part of the cast is mel gibson and vince vaughn. they seem like their actual characters who suffer from real relatable problems. by contrast the other players seem like paint by numbers cardboard cutouts. any time the movie breaks its focus on mel and vince it weakens the whole.
for mel fans his major conflict in the movie initiates by being caught on a phone camera doing something not nice and being harshly judged for it, and his response is to assert that it's society that has changed while he has been constant and stable. combined with the feeling that he's kind of an aged Riggs (lethal weapon) in the movie, its easy to come away with feeling that he's not acting in these scenes and the entire role was scripted to allow him to give an overt "fuck you" to hollywood.
brawl by comparison has a much slower burn to get to the titular brawl in cell block 99. over half the movie is to just ground vince vaughns character as being both living a just and unjust individual. someone who does illegal things to get ahead but lives by a clear moral code that even when his actions catch up to him he does not bend on those morals. it's a real treat of the movie to see how his internalized ideas of what is right and must be done brushes up against what society.
brawl also has a lot of bloody ridiculous violence and once it starts to escalate leaves it's grounded, dramatic ground into the realm of pulp action
both recommend
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ArcadeWeapon
- Posts:31
- Joined:Fri May 03, 2019 8:57 pm
Re: MOVIES
It was the director's Cut in the sense that the director got the cut he wanted--he specifically refused to cut it own to what lionsgate felt would be a more "audience friendly" run time. He refused. He had final cut--and therefore had the film relegated to a mainly digital release.
Personally I absolutely love the film and wouldn't have minded it being 3 hours. The stuff he's doing with shitting on PC culture, enmity towards hollywood (i might be stretching here, but casting Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn--two guys who have openly expressed disdain for the Hollywood system--doesnt seem like an accident), and introducing that concurrent subplot of the mother being forced to work, resulting in chaos, all to serve a sub-narrative involving the devolution of masculinity in our culture (recall the shot of the father through the crack in the door; the chain lock is draped over his neck the way it's framed), and then of course theres the subversion of typical race-conscious dynamics, both adhering to and yet respecting cultural gulfs..unifying the rivalry of the two central 'heroes' by displays of honor, respect and pride..im rambling like a tool here, but its all very in line with what he did with Bone Tomohawk and Brawl.It's the apotheosis of many themes at play in those previous works. I consider this guy like the new Tarantino--to put it in clumsy term--in the way he subverts yet embraces hardboiled genre tropes, and being a guy who obviously loves filmcraft, to package these badass singular visions. Unapologetic, has fun with violence.
Oh man, and the fact that the guy's kid is in a wheelchair and likes game design and is never condescended to but openly encouraged by the father...its just such a good movie, and the strentgh of the women characters, Gibson's daughter especially-anyway, I got a lot out of that movie. It;s so far Zahn's masterpiece. Cant wait to see what he does next. He has a distinct viewpoint, and the fact that he refused to cut the movie makes me respect him all the more.
Personally I absolutely love the film and wouldn't have minded it being 3 hours. The stuff he's doing with shitting on PC culture, enmity towards hollywood (i might be stretching here, but casting Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn--two guys who have openly expressed disdain for the Hollywood system--doesnt seem like an accident), and introducing that concurrent subplot of the mother being forced to work, resulting in chaos, all to serve a sub-narrative involving the devolution of masculinity in our culture (recall the shot of the father through the crack in the door; the chain lock is draped over his neck the way it's framed), and then of course theres the subversion of typical race-conscious dynamics, both adhering to and yet respecting cultural gulfs..unifying the rivalry of the two central 'heroes' by displays of honor, respect and pride..im rambling like a tool here, but its all very in line with what he did with Bone Tomohawk and Brawl.It's the apotheosis of many themes at play in those previous works. I consider this guy like the new Tarantino--to put it in clumsy term--in the way he subverts yet embraces hardboiled genre tropes, and being a guy who obviously loves filmcraft, to package these badass singular visions. Unapologetic, has fun with violence.
Oh man, and the fact that the guy's kid is in a wheelchair and likes game design and is never condescended to but openly encouraged by the father...its just such a good movie, and the strentgh of the women characters, Gibson's daughter especially-anyway, I got a lot out of that movie. It;s so far Zahn's masterpiece. Cant wait to see what he does next. He has a distinct viewpoint, and the fact that he refused to cut the movie makes me respect him all the more.