AlmostAGhost

The latest post is always correct. I said they had shuffled it, thought it was clear - sorry for any confusion. I have removed the incorrect post.

They powers-that-be have shuffled some of the episodes: Ep 12 - King Kong Ep 13 - All About eve Ep 14 - Double Indemnity Ep 15 - Singin’ In The Rain (still a bunch of old stuff comin’ up)

(Removing this post—the order was changed)

Well they missed the 10-year update last year so maybe the AFI has given up on these lists? EDIT: I googled it real quick and there's a handful of articles in 2017 assuming a new update was coming. One even quoted the AFI President saying they'll 'announce something soon'... https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-citizen-kane-stay-no-1-afis-list-100-best-movies-1045408

Yea, the rule isn't necessarily 'Oscar winner' just 'Major award winner', From wikipedia: AFI asked jurors to consider the following criteria in their selection process: Feature length: Narrative format typically over 60 minutes long. American film: English language, with significant creative and/or financial production from the United States. (A number of films on the list were British-made but financed by American studios; these include Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and A Clockwork Orange.) Critical recognition: Formal commendation in print, television, and digital media. Major award winner: Recognition from competitive events including awards from peer groups, critics, guilds, and major film festivals. Popularity over time: Includes success at the box office, television and cable airings, and DVD/VHS sales and rentals. Historical significance: A film's mark on the history of the moving image through visionary narrative devices, technical innovation or other groundbreaking achievements. Cultural impact: A film's mark on American society in matters of style and substance.

These new eps were killer!! I kind of enjoy getting a handful of eps every 3 months, and hope it continues on and on and on and on forever. Really enjoyed hearing Bob Odenkirk improvise a character, that was fun. Any way we can get an mp3 download of the Whistlin' Pete song?

Right yea... cost is the only acceptable reason!

well... my feelings towards Bud Light, as a beer fan, is that it is watered-down pseudo-beer, and that nobody SHOULD drink it. and as someone who likes Shawshank pretty well, this whole Bud Light metaphor hurts.

I mean, why not? We're taking the AFI list seriously. Why is it better?

Or does it? If a wide swath of people find the movie to be extremely enjoyable/memorable/moving, is that not a great movie? I'd argue that IMDB rating is a better measure for greatness than, say, how many Oscars a film gets. Can only movie critics or people in the biz make such lists? Anyway, what is 'great'? We bumped up on this before, I think in our thread about starting our own shuffling of the top-100... someone asked how we'd do this, and we all had our own ideas. Is 'greatness' a objective or subjective thing in art? (Just playing a little devil's advocate: I personally don't think it is the greatest movie of all time, but I'm not about to argue such a huge cumulative poll as IMDB users. I mean, maybe if it were nonsense Amazon 'second opinions' than we could dismiss the rating results right off haha.)

That's interesting. I guess these now semi-cliched storytelling tricks ('he's only enlisting for the love of a girl') are based in some truths... haha

It's interesting we went this way in this thread. And why our Unspooled discussions are better than what pop up on twitter or facebook haha. Thanks for the forum shout-out, Amy!

I mean, weren't the creators of Game Of Thrones making some sort of show about 'what if the Confederacy won'?

Yea, still bugged me though. Maybe it was more how she was written. But was it really a thing? Or is it just a movie screenwriter thing?

Earlier this year, I went through a thing where I watched a whole bunch of short silent films and I did focus on a whole bunch of Keaton's. Some of them are just so fun... there was one, The Scarecrow, I think, where I was just like, "that was the most entertaining 15 minutes I've ever watched." Nothing is funnier than watching Buster run through the streets with a mob chasing him. The way he runs just kills me. The stunts aren't just impressive, but they're often hilarious too. Paul, yes, you need to go to Wikipedia and watch as many as possible. (Pro-tip: they're all on wikipedia directly so easy to find.) That said, The General, was the first 'feature' length film I've seen of Keaton's. It can be tough to sit through long silent films to be honest, but I didn't run into that trouble with The General. But basically, once I realized it wasn't a comedy, I was into it. You expect that because it stars Buster Keaton, human cartoon, but get past that, and I think it's quite notable. (I made this joke on Letterboxd and twitter, but I think this is the best Mission: Impossible film by far.) A few things didn't work - the bear trap scene looked fake and ridiculous, the girl's story was weird (join the army or else! ok). So while it may not be the 'best' Keaton movie, or maybe it is but it isn't the best representative of his films, it's still shot beautifully, with good storytelling and amazing stunts.

Ep 10 - The General Ep 11 - The Shawshank Redemption Ep 12 - King Kong Ep 13 - Double Indemnity

I can see that, actually. For me, there's a couple of Accelerate songs which save the whole thing, but I get that. Didn't mean my question to be accusatory, if it came out that way. No shame here, this is a safe zone of REM opinions! I just kind of was hoping someone could explain an affinity for Around The Sun to give me another perspective on it.

Right yea... I definitely liked the film. If you go back to my Bonnie & Clyde mini 'review' on Letterboxd, I mentioned a possible metaphor/depth I was reading into the film... but honestly I didn't feel hooked enough to figure it out or think about it anymore. With Platoon, I'm still thinking about it. And that says a lot about the quality of a film to me.

I was thinking about why I missed some of the message, as it’s not as if I didn’t notice that Berenger and Dafoe were contrasting figures to the story. (I will admit I missed the Jesus allusions with Dafoe; does that mean there are devil refs for Berenger?) But what it comes down to I think is just my own biases. My inclination is to not read anyone in the jungle of war to be ‘good’ exactly, they’re all being corrupted and becoming brutes. That sounds way harsher than I mean it, I’m certainly not impractical about war nor an absolute pacifist, but seeing war as humanitarian is difficult for me. So this reading missed me on first viewing, as obvious as it may be. Either that or the metaphor being simply ‘good vs bad’ is such a simple one that my original view still stands of it feeling surface-level, lacking depth. War is certainly more complicated than that, right? Still not sure which way I fall here. (I do like the movie!)

So... what'd you all think? After listening to Amy & Paul, I felt like I missed a lot. I didn't take much in the way of a message out of the film beyond "war is brutal" -- its superficial level is its point, I thought. There was little depth of backstory or politics or metaphor. But it seemed like Paul and Amy pulled some more meaning out of it than I did. Curious what you all thought about the film and story. But to that end, I did feel like that superficial style works for a movie about war so in the end, I was ok with it. But maybe if I watch it with more depth in mind than I will like it even more.

Fun ep, excited to have Todd Barry there for it! Around The Sun... yea, ugh. Hearing the songs one by one on the ep -- I kept thinking each one sounded ok by itself. But hearing them all together when I listened to the record as a whole for the first time in YEARS just doesn't work. There's no spark to these tracks. They're plain. There's no need or desire to listen to any of them again. Is there anyone who doesn't consider this their worst record? My current album rankings: 1. Automatic For The People 2. Fables Of The Reconstruction 3. New Adventures In Hi-Fi 4. Murmur 5. Reckoning 6. Out Of Time 7. Document 8. Monster 9. Up 10. Lifes Rich Pageant 11. Reveal 12. Green 13. Around The Sun

Ep 9 - Platoon 7/12 Ep 10 - The General 7/19 Ep 11 - The Shawshank Redemption 7/26 Ep 12 - King Kong 8/2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJAEpILeLi8

I also don't have all that much to say on this one. I liked it fine, but I realized in the end, I just didn't care that much. I generally do like antiheroes (ask me who I'm rooting for to win the Game Of Thrones*), but this one didn't develop in a way I felt pulled me in or made enough of a statement to make it worth it. It was almost there for me, but just not quite. There's plenty of good here though. *Cersei

In case anyone wants to read the Pauline Kael review that Amy quoted, it's here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1967/10/21/bonnie-and-clyde