Just wacthed the Dark Knight and it's good. I hope there is a sequel but poor heath ledger

also can' believe this was back in 2008, it feels just like last year or something.

EDIT: ok i just found out there's a sequel

Perfect follow-up to The Dark Knight, LA Confidential. I'm really liking the trio justice fighter but different attitudes formula, the movie was beautiful. Also there is Danny DeVito which I became a fan of as I loved watching Always Suny in Philadelphia. Will shamefully pirate Lorax when a good copy comes out.

what i meant to say is the horror comedy without it being an outright gag film.

also, just watched Futurama: Bender's Big Score Highly recommended but I suggesst watching all the previous seasons and episodes before the movie because the continuity is perfect, it explains so many things to the overall plot of futurama.

dude why do you guys either keep posting titles to cheesy obscure movies that are terrible and telling us they suck or widely known films that everyone and their mother has already seen three or four years ago.

thats not really the point of this topic.

Then what's the point of this topic?

Then what's the point of this topic?

To provoke thought and discussion conscerning the artistic medium that is moving pictures
 
look back through here at a good jamie post and you'll get what I'm talking about. Its not like it isn't good to talk about what you watched. But if you don't do it with the intent of provoking thought or discussion its kind of pointless.
 
Really anything with more depth than, I watched _______________ movie. Good/bad.

i watched tinker tailor soldier spy. stupid.

Then why not post here about movies you've watched and share with us your in depth opinions.

Also, Fargo.

hmmm, idk if anybody NEEDS to do massive/detailed posts or not. i guess bottom line is that the more you explain your feelings about the movie the better for any reader always everywhere (more interesting reading the post is/more you know about the movie) but i don't really see a point forcing this either. just think of the people reading your movie posts and just scramble something a little more than usual u no?

jamie's got great posts about movies but suprise, it's actually above the norm/what most of people are capable or willing of.
all hundley's posts own though... hundley i hope you checked the song i linked in tumblr, i'm at the edge of my seat...

The last movie I watched that was had anything remotely deep like that was The Devil's Arithmetic.

It involved some modern Jewish girl too distracted and self-absorbed by modern contrivances getting displaced into one of the harshest instances in her people's history, which did put a very awkward spin on the 'Freaky Friday' aesthetic they were clearly going for.

She spent a lot of the time regretting not paying more attention to the relatives and teachers constantly trying to inform her of her heritage, but I can't really tell you what I thought of the movie beyond that. I wasn't really paying attention since I spent the entire time also playing Angry Birds on my phone. (At first, it was because I decided to watch the movie but wasn't very invested in it and wanted something else to do at the same time, but later I kept playing just for the sheer ironic value behind the act itself.)

Yeah I'm probably just irritated because it seems recently this topics turned from engaged discussions here and there to one line glance over static posts. It'll prolly change eventually though.
 
That actually sounds like a really good plot. Yeah WW2 played out to hell but that seems like an original perspective on it.

I just watched the latest Jia Zhangke film (that I know of), a documentary he released in 2010 called I Wish I Knew. This guy is maybe my favourite, although a lot of it is the subject matter he chooses to focus on rather than any specific qualities in his films - although I do like what he does with what he chooses to focus on a lot though, obviously.

This film is primarily composed from a series of interviews with Chinese artists with connections to Shanghai and Taiwan. I recognised a few of the interviewees, like Hou Hsien Hsiao and another old actress lady I don't know the name of. From what I could tell, the rest of the interviewees were from similar backgrounds based on what they talked about, although some seemed more focused on industry and business. The interviews are all interesting, they range from stories going back to the war with the Japanese in the 1930's, various personal recollections, the cultural revolution, and then more recent stories, too.

There is a framing device featuring Zhao Tao wandering around modern Shanghai, which I guess just serves to give a bit more visual context to the stories and provide more atmosphere - well, that's all I took from these sections anyway. The only events that happen during them are that it rains, and then she meets who I think is Lim Giong and stands next to him for a minute without saying anything. Zhao Tao has been in a whole bunch of his movies now. She's cool. She doesn't really do much in this, but it's cool she is in it. There is some ambient music playing during alot of these sequences, which is really nice. The music in Jia Zhangke's movies is always really nice. I wish I could find more of it. A lot of it has been done by Lim Giong who I think is pretty successful over in China but it's hard for me to track down his stuff.

Like I said, I'm pretty into this guy in particular. I think it has a lot to do with his aesthetic sensibilities, because I always find his movies beautiful. The way he puts things together, and the pace at which things unfold, really encourages me to go to a place in my head I really enjoy being. There's also the subject matter, which I have mentioned when talking about his films before, and it is much the same here. It's all about China's modern history and where that has taken things to today. There's weight given the personal while still always being aware of the institutional and there isn't any tearjerking or anything like that.

Check this friggin guy out! I think he's pretty well known by now but I don't think any of you guys watch his movies. It's not just him, either.


edit: i just looked zhao tao up and apparently she's only been in jia zhangke movies. i was sure she was more prolific and famous than she is, i guess i am just making up roles for her in my head from seeing her in all his movies.

is it a documentary about chinese art or just china in general? prolly gonna check it out if I get a chance.

it isn't about art at all really, there is some talk of film making processes and clips of films shown throughout but it's supplementary to the actual subject which is mostly personal stories of some of the bigger political and social events in modern chinese history. like one woman, who is also an actress, tells some stories about mao, whom she knew, and another is some kind of former cultural guide/DA talking about how officials reacted to a film michelangelo antonioni in china in the 70's

so i guess it's partly about how these things have been represented on film, and what went on during the making of them and to the people who were making the films.

there's other stuff, too. i could probably be more concise, but i'm just trying to say it doesn't necessarily stay on any one particular topic but there are many elements to it.

I don't know enough about mao

I saw a little bit on him on the history channel or something that thinly covered what kind of leader he was and how his body was pretty much desecrated in an attempt to mummify it after death but other than that I don't really have much of a bearing on who he is.

Like I've read bad/good things here I think and dietcoke kind of mentioned him in a positive manner once but I also think that was the same person that said he was a tyrant? dunno
 
I'm probably gonna look at this then because I wanna learn more about thaiwan and china. I've never been to actual china yet but I end up in that area working sometimes and it would be good to learn a lil more.