Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Jul 30, 2019 16:14:41 GMT -5
It also felt very Canadian, but not in a bad way.
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Aug 6, 2019 9:19:14 GMT -5
One, Two, Three (1961) I’ve never really sought out most of Billy Wilder’s post-1960 films. I’m not sure why, but I think I just heard somewhere that he peaked with The Apartment and that it was all downhill from there, which may be true but there should still be plenty to appreciate in them. His immediate follow-up is more of a straight-up farce set in West Berlin and focusing in on a Coca-Cola executive who has to essentially babysit his bosses daughter while she visits the country and watches as this goes haywire when she falls in love with an East German communist activist. Wilder had clearly achieved a level of success at this point in his career that they were allowing him to indulge in some pretty wacky ideas and the fact that he was actually able to use the Coca-Cola brand in this comedy is certainly the kind of thing that people only get to do after they’re pretty confident and successful. I also suspect that Wilder’s German origins play some role in the decision to set a film in this milieu and that there are a number of Teutonic in-jokes as a result. Where the film starts to go a bit wrong for me is in the casting of James Cagney, who was toward the end of his main career when the film was made and I think someone who was a more purely comedic actor might have worked better in the film. Wilder has certainly done better, but it’s a pretty good comedy.
***1/2 out of Five / **** out of Five if I'm being generous
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Sept 5, 2019 14:31:41 GMT -5
I'm quite late (as are most of us it seems) but I'll do Birds of Passage which I'm watching in the next few days.
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Nilade
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Post by Nilade on Sept 6, 2019 1:30:06 GMT -5
Ah yeah, this.
I'll get on mine too this weekend.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Sept 10, 2019 13:30:44 GMT -5
Birds of Passage
This is the second film from Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego that I've watched for this film club, the first being Embrace of the Serpent. Looking back on that film that I watched over a year ago I'm forced to admit that it's not a movie that really stuck with me or had a tremendous impact however I did appreciate it from a technical level and from a simplistic point of view it felt like something new and refreshing, the kind of movie that people complain that we don't see enough. The same pair of filmmakers later released Birds of Passage, a film with a more direct and linear narrative but equally striking visually. Again set in South America, it's another journey into the depths of human corruption.
Birds of Passage tells the years-long rise and fall saga of Rapayet, a man who marries Zaida, a member of the Wayuu tribe in Columbia. Zaida's mother Ursula is the village elder/medicine woman in a sense in that she interprets dreams and she, like many in the tribe, are beholden to tradition and superstition. In an attempt to earn enough money to pay her dowry, Rapayet goes into business with his cousin to deal marijuana to Americans. Over time their business and wealth grows but like all sagas such as this it's all destined to crumble.
On its face the film sounds like a pretty simple and run of the mill idea that we've seen before and if you judge by a short summary you would be correct. What makes Birds of Passage stand out is the environment that surrounds the characters. Starting in late-60s Columbia we're introduced to the Wayuu people who live in vast desert plains and practice customs that seem ancient and sometimes border on the macabre. The film doesn't use themes like violence and greed as a crutch, it uses them sparingly and in doing so becomes very effective. Ursula, maybe the most interesting character in the film, begins as a harbinger of doom for the other characters but is also swept up in the greed that Rapayet brings, a greed that transforms her over the course of the movie. Very few of these characters are depicted as legitimately 'evil' or 'corrupt,' they all have personal motives and believe they are acting on behalf of their family or people. Not to say that the film takes any middle ground, it just depicts the characters as they are in the bleak setting that surrounds them. In that way it's a visually and emotionally captivating experience.
A- so says Doomsday
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 4, 2019 17:15:37 GMT -5
This thread has laid dormant for a little while. Still waiting on a couple stragglers from the last round. Any idea when/if you'll get to them? I was going to get another round going before too long.
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Nilade
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Post by Nilade on Oct 10, 2019 12:37:50 GMT -5
Yeah, guilty here for being a resident straggler. Luckily, my film also doubles as a 31 Days of Halloween film, so should be up shortly soon.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Dec 30, 2019 20:13:59 GMT -5
I'll give this one more crack before calling it on account of rain, anyone who straggled on the last round your sins are hereby forgiven. If anyone's in for one more round just say yay. Drac I'll include you regardless. If we have 4 or 5 in the next couple days I'll post a round, otherwise I'll leave this thread to live on in the archives.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 30, 2019 20:15:59 GMT -5
I'll give this one more crack before calling it on account of rain, anyone who straggled on the last round your sins are hereby forgiven. If anyone's in for one more round just say yay. Drac I'll include you regardless. If we have 4 or 5 in the next couple days I'll post a round, otherwise I'll leave this thread to live on in the archives. In
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PG Cooper
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And those who tasted the bite of his sword named him...The DOOM Slayer
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Post by PG Cooper on Dec 30, 2019 23:27:45 GMT -5
In, and will try not to fuck up this time.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 31, 2019 9:38:17 GMT -5
In, and will try not to fuck up this time.
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Dec 31, 2019 22:51:57 GMT -5
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Deexan
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Post by Deexan on Dec 31, 2019 22:59:25 GMT -5
Getting a Mel Gibson vibe from this that I do not appreciate.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 31, 2019 23:01:08 GMT -5
Getting a Mel Gibson vibe from this that I do not appreciate. Reminder to make you watch Mel Gibson movies.
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Deexan
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Post by Deexan on Dec 31, 2019 23:02:46 GMT -5
Getting a Mel Gibson vibe from this that I do not appreciate. Reminder to make you watch Mel Gibson movies. What women want was enough for me
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1godzillafan
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I like pie!
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Post by 1godzillafan on Dec 31, 2019 23:03:23 GMT -5
Can't. I'm moving this month.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 31, 2019 23:06:42 GMT -5
Can't. I'm moving this month. This shit only 70-minutes long, motherfucker.
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Deexan
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Post by Deexan on Dec 31, 2019 23:09:38 GMT -5
Can't. I'm moving this month. This shit only 70-minutes long, motherfucker. You and I both know that length means NOTHING.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 31, 2019 23:17:09 GMT -5
This shit only 70-minutes long, motherfucker. You and I both know that length means NOTHING. Firecracker is tighter than your butthole.
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Nilade
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Post by Nilade on Jan 1, 2020 1:41:37 GMT -5
I feel like I failed this thread with the last round. Ok, I'll give another go at it, although I'll be out of town next week.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Jan 1, 2020 2:01:20 GMT -5
I'll be out of town next week.
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Jan 1, 2020 10:32:29 GMT -5
ok
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Jan 2, 2020 10:45:44 GMT -5
Oh, alright. I'll do it.
The problem I started to run into, though, was finding movies people on here hadn't already seen.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Jan 2, 2020 18:09:25 GMT -5
ROUND 185 Dracula - PhantomKnight PG Cooper - Neverending IanTheCool - Nilade Can we get these done by the 20th? 3 solid weekends, I think we can do that yes? Let's rock. And thanks everyone for jumping in, like Drac said it would be a shame for this to flame out. Hopefully we can keep it going.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Jan 2, 2020 18:45:44 GMT -5
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