AlmostAGhost

Sorry bro The Wallflowers are Bob Dylan's band (Jakob's son)

Well... were the non-straw cups available in the year 2001? I think Kubrick was accurate in his predictions there

I was thinking about Cam Bert's teacher referencing Ulysses, and how that relates to 2001, and while there's a lot of differences in creation -- Joyce purposely fills his novel with puzzling obscurities, Kubrick just ambiguous, unexplained, subconscious moments -- but the mundane would be the best correlation. That's what Joyce brought to literature, just writing about everyday moments. Kubrick brought it to sci-fi in a similar way. (Further, the movie is called a 'Space Odyssey' and Ulysses is also based on The Odyssey.) My brother is a bit of a Joyce scholar, and his advice for Ulysses was always to "don't worry about it, just read it." Don't fret over not understanding every moment or word, just enjoy reading through it. And I think that's similar to 2001: puzzling over it all is fun! but it's not necessary, and as many of you have noted, if you just EXPERIENCE it, you can be wowed.

My history with 2001 (like a lot of the epics on this list) is that I saw it when I was younger, but probably not in 25 years. (Basically I watched a lot of these famous movies in the '90s, as a university student with time and a nearby video rental store. Then I went like 10 years not caring about movies.) The Dawn Of Man sequence was pretty embedded in my memory but a lot of the rest I didn't remember, so watching this week felt pretty fresh. Anyway, I don't have much to add besides that I think it's awesome and I love how it looks and feels and makes you think and is ambiguous and defies convention and defines convention and is fun too. I don't know exactly where it will fall on my ratings, but it will almost certainly be in my top-5. My only nitpicky criticism really is the title. The story seems to be so much more than just one year in time, I don't get why Kubrick & Clarke went with "2001" - esp. since that was only 30 years in the near future. Why date it like that? That feels like an odd choice to me, though granted this is the first time I've watched it since 2001 actually happened haha. Are we supposed to take that this story happened 17 years ago?

Ep 7 - 2001: A Space Odyssey Ep 8 - Bonnie & Clyde Ep 9 - Platoon Ep 10 - The General

One of the AFI criteria for the list is "major award winner" so cult favorites have a tougher hurdle for inclusion. The stuff that made the list without winning a ton of awards tend to be HUGE things like Toy Story. (Though, Clueless didn't even make it on AFI's Top 100 Comedies list, which doesn't include that criteria.)

Rose is omniscient, you must have missed that part

I found Scott talking about Reveal to be really interesting. He seems to think of it as a sunny, summer sort of record, but I take the opposite view: there's a few summery songs but overall the feel is super moody, and that's my favorite thing about it. I remember listening to it a lot during my first year in a cold climate. The 'summer' view of the record though is common perception but I think it's because there's a song called "Beachball" and another that mentions summer. The music itself is often slower, darker, subtle, and those are my favorites here. "Chorus and the Ring" is one of my favorites. "Imitation Of Life" is stunning, so is "The Lifting." I never liked "Reno" much, a few others are just pointless. But as a full record, it is fine, and think that records that lack cohesiveness can often overcome it by being moody. That said, by REM's very high standards, it's not amazing. I am sure the Around The Sun episode will be utterly fascinating... 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. Life's Rich Pageant 11. Reveal 12. Green

I saw Titanic in the theaters once. I thought that was it, but watching again yesterday -- some of the scenes were so engrained that I think I watched it once on TV at some point. Then, yesterday. So, 3 times now. Anyway, yea, I don't love Titanic. Besides the laughable dialogue, though, I was having trouble figuring out why. Because as others said above, it is well made, well calculated, hits all the notes. I like Kate and Leo. And Amy & Paul definitely made me think more highly of the film (and even bump my rating up half a star). But I think what it comes down to in the end is that Titanic has many aspects to it, but none of them feel like they are enough. For example, yes, it is romantic, but it's just not romantic enough for me to feel it. Rose learning to spit and escape Cal isn't enough for me to feel any romance. Same with the thrills/disaster-side of it, which, maybe because I know the ending, but basically it's just running from water -- which isn't really that thrilling. I'll cry at movies too, but Titanic has never even come close for me in this way. Again, it just doesn't quite get there. I guess I wish a GREAT screenwriter jumped in and enhanced the story and all its parts, because obviously the ideas and execution are amazing. I noticed this buried deep in the Titanic wiki page and found it intriguing, but it claims that some of the film's popularity is due to it hitting similar notes of Bollywood movies. I'm hardly an expert in those films, but I am half-Indian and have seen a few and that nails it! Those movies throw everything at the audience (love, death, dancing, evil parents, class issues, on and on) all purely for emotional manipulation more than story.

I guess, mostly how much I enjoyed it. But I'm not immune to significance and the occasional technical achievement bonus points. I do focus on writing and broader scope of things when I rate -- I try not to get to focused on overly-specific moviemaking details or things like that. Also something I rate on a gut level is sort of 'how well it sucks me in' - if I forget I'm watching a movie, or it makes me want to be in its world, that to me is an indicator of a movie that I love. It's why I have Citizen Kane lower than most of you so far: I never forget that I'm watching a movie with that one.

Also, if you want... tag your list with "unspooled" and you can join the pool https://letterboxd.c...nspooled/lists/

I won't spoil it, but something big does happen in the second half

Here's mine! https://boxd.it/1Q374

I thought I'd be able to edit the top post with new info, but seems I'm not able to. Anyway: Current upcoming episodes: Ep 6 - Titanic Ep 7 - 2001: A Space Odyssey Ep 8 - Bonnie & Clyde Ep 9 - Platoon A bunch of epics on our way

I was slightly mixed on this movie. A lot of it was amazing but I also felt like it was somewhat superficial, if that makes sense. Like I was constantly just watching exposition. I dunno. I feel like I might need to watch it again! I did love the music (and the often lack of it). Also it did have impressive focus - there was no side plots or character background or anything deep at all. I can’t quite decide if this is good or bad. Also I took the ending as pretty ambiguous; was I the only one? What was that final gunshot?

I don't know anything about that either, would love to know more? Got any links/stories? I did some quick Googling and thought this was an interesting overview of her career though: http://chiseler.org/...e-working-class

I listened to the pod this morning, I guess I don't have that much else to add. The stuff I liked about the film was basically the dancing, the music, and Ginger Rogers. Everything else - the writing (as Paul noted all the "writerly conceit"), the direction, Fred's acting/character, etc. - made no impression on me. I'm not much a musical fan, but I noticed in these last two weeks (Wizard Of Oz and this) that I don't mind the musicality part. I think of typical musical songs, I think of songs that are overly-theatrical, too explanatory, etc. I don't particularly like theatricality in my music, with rare exceptions (say, like, Kate Bush). But the songs here were just terrific, and did not feel like that at all. I was impressed by that. That said, I felt the songs were used as crutches. Instead of having the characters/story make you feel one way, they use a song to tell you how to feel it instead. It made the movie feel superficial to me. Also, Ginger Rogers was just straight up impressive. I liked how modern she felt, from the cool "take your damned hat off when you talk to me" to just not being a stereotypical early movie romantic interest (swooning or coy or whatnot). Penny was way too good for Lucky. I probably would have given the movie an extra star if it ended with them NOT getting married tbh.

I will definitely keep a closer eye on those forums too now!

Along those lines... I always listen to HDTGM and love it, but I'm not compelled to post/discuss -- b/c I'm really not usually compelled to watch the movie beforehand. (I'm just not SO into movies that I like watching bad ones. If a movie done on HDTGM is easily streamable for me, I may watch it but mostly I just don't bother.) On the other hand, now Paul is talking "good" movies, I want to keep up and educate myself on these films as well... so I'm glad to have this forum to come and discuss them with you all.

Def agree there about Scott's attachment to song structure -- esp. for REM, who totally flaunted such things throughout their career. It's one of their best attributes! That said, I do think Scott was pretty dead-on with his comments about Up. I do love the songs on Up, always have, it's a rich work with a lot of intriguing songs. But I find if I listen to any one song on Up, I'm into it... but listening to it as a whole somehow feels like a bit of a slog. Either it's too long or just needs a couple more fun pieces in there to lighten it up? I don't know. I've never been a rearranger of albums, but the Scott and Adam are making me think about this more and more haha. Favorite Up songs: "Hope" for sure, "Suspicion" is awesome. Have good memories with "Daysleeper" too. I've always had a nice place for "Airportman" too, weird as it is. Love Scott's idea of it closing the album. "At My Most Beautiful" is gorgeous and even today when I hear it, I flash back to when they played it on Party Of Five (Adam never got around to telling this story!) (despite this, I have no recollection of Adam on the show). 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. Green

I haven't listened to the episode yet, it wasn't ready for download when I left this morning, but I watched the movie and left with one question: why is it in the top 100 films? If can't just be because of the crazy good dancing, right? (I seriously thought Fred & Ginger were animated a few times because of their moves, I must admit.) But anyway, there's got to be something else to this movie besides the dancing to put it in so high regard, and I just didn't see it. That's not really a criticism either, I thought the movie was ok. But hoping the pod (and this thread ) can shine more light on its esteem. Also, I am now a Ginger Rogers fan. She knocked me out. I have more thoughts but I'll wait until I listen to Paul & Amy later.

Midshow comment: Self is great! Matt Mahaffey's project from the mid-90s was a favorite. For a time, in 2005-2006, Mahaffey was in Beck's touring band (and did a couple of b-side recordings with him), but beyond that I haven't heard anything of him in awhile. Thanks for the reminder, Scott! Also that new song with McDonald and Loggins is "Show Me The Way" on Thundercat's album, Drunk.

Listened this weekend, and really enjoyed it. Thanks, Matt! Don't know how possible but stuff like this makes me really want to hear Ed or Ruth or anyone from pre-UCB times on I4H sometime! Also in Googling, I came across a movie being made about The Committee - I guess they're raising funds for it? In case anyone is interested http://www.thecommitteemovie.com/

My history with The Wizard Of Oz is probably entirely before the age of 12, when I read all the books (it's a full-on series with like 13 books), saw this movie a bunch, and some of the other "sequel" films (Return To Oz in the theaters! etc.). I have not seen this film in probably 30 years, I'd guess. I'm not particularly a fan of musicals. I don't have kids. My thought going into this was basically, would the film hold up? And I found it did. I REALLY dug watching this again. What a blast! I've been diving into "children's" movies, both from my past and the ones I've missed since I was no longer a kid (mainly Disney things). So maybe this was my mood lately, but I definitely loved everything going on here - the painted backgrounds, the parts I'd forgotten, the special effects, the simple weirdness. The "tactile" feeling that Paul mentioned may not work for every story, but for this one, definitely. The colors still, today, in 2018, are incredible. I definitely agree with the strangeness of "there's no place like home" being the message/tag/theme, when there clearly is somewhere much better than home but whatever. That's what makes Oz special, it's a private feeling. Kids know. Dorothy knows. If your home is sepia-colored, don't worry, one day you'll find Oz. It's like Harry Potter and Hogwarts. He still had to go home every summer. I was thinking of keeping track of my "ratings" for these 100 movies, put them in my order like Amy mentioned doing... and I've started, but we'll see if that lasts 96 more weeks.

Even better!