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AlmostAGhost

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Posts posted by AlmostAGhost


  1. There's no explanation of how or why Firefly was the choice.  He's just chosen.  I think that's what Conan meant, and the type of thing a studio note would probably fix nowadays.

    Also this opening scene where Teasdale demands him is one minute long, before it gets straight to his welcoming reception. It's not much of a plot device. I just rewatched and there's no mention of her loving him or anything.  She only calls him a "progressive fearless leader" and then bam, swirling newspapers declaring him the leader.

    • Like 2

  2. 4 hours ago, grudlian. said:

    The director of Killer Of Sheep is from Vicksburg, Mississippi? Birthplace of bottled Coke and my grandfather? I'm definitely checking it out now.

    He's not from LA?!  I'm surprised, the movie is a poetic portrait of life in South Central.  I need to watch this again now too  


  3. I'll have to think about that much more.

    But one example: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a pretty great movie about a single woman raising a kid and figuring out her dreams. It's directed by Martin Scorsese.  It nowhere near has the reputation of Taxi Driver, or GoodFellas, or whatnot.  It's pretty melodramatic, don't know if it should, but maybe it should?  Why doesn't it?  

    Another film I've always loved though I haven't seen in ages is Killer Of Sheep.  That's a great one.  Powerful.

    • Like 1

  4. 7 hours ago, grudlian. said:

    s for the list being all white guys, it's because women directors and directors of color basically do not exist in American cinema before the 1980s. I don't want to say the AFI is blameless but it's more 10% AFI/90% Hollywood. It's impossible to include what decades of racism and misogyny in American cinema prevented from existing.

    Yea, that's true.  I'm not willing to cut a list like this that much slack though, tbh.  And, even if there isn't diverse directors --- it's also not diverse writers, lead characters, or points-of-view.  I know opportunity was and is difficult but there are good movies about women at least.  We're still not getting a very high number of those, even, though I'll have to look through for the numbers.  How many of these 100 movies pass the Bechdel test?

    • Like 1

  5. 9 hours ago, ol' eddy wrecks said:

    I think I just don't expect them to answer that question definitively

    Oh yea, I don't either.  But it is the overriding question above everything, I think.  Or at least, that's what I'm thinking about here in this form of cultural education.


  6. 3 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

    Well . . . mostly (Spike Lee and M. Night Shyamalan are on there).

    Yea sorry, 2% is not worth mentioning or significant. But yea. It’s not exactly all american either, I don’t think.

    but I have a sneaking suspicion this is why the AFI didn’t do another 10-year list yet. You can’t put out a list like that nowadays... imagine!


  7. 1 hour ago, ol' eddy wrecks said:

    On the related topic, why are great movies considered great, how much of it is because other people talk about them being great?

    Well I think this, above anything, is the main thesis question of Unspooled.  Maybe we should come back to it in 75 weeks. 

    But I mean, on a micro level, Unspooled is about that week's movie and the discussion around it.  But on a macro level, it becomes 'what is great?  are these great just because people/the AFI say so, or because they truly are?"  Is this an objective question, or purely subjective?  Or both somehow?

    I think a lot of the angry comments ended up directed at Amy seem to be people offended that, maybe, some of these aren't so great, and they're upset at her willingness to question this.  I mean, we all know this list is flawed at best -- it's only 100, it's only American, it's only white male directors.  Regardless, that's how I approach these films.  Slightly skeptical perhaps, but eager because I know they're popular or famous for some reason -- and what is that reason?  

    • Like 3

  8. I mean, extreme direction is just as valid a reason as using "Oscar winner" as some sort of judge of what's worthwhile...  

    But yea, I agree - I don't know these backdrop stories, nor do I care at all.  But I imagine there's some mythologizing here by the movie industry -- like "look what we go to to get you your entertainment, aren't we awesome!"  And movie industry people -- AFI voters, critics, actor/comedian/podcast hosts included -- probably are way too quick to use it as 'proof'.

    • Like 2

  9. one thing i like doing, and i'll try to remember to share... but if you type the movie title into the twitter GIF search, you can get a sense of what moments stand out from the film in our cultural memory.  (or at least... are entertainingly GIFable moments anyway.)  

    here's what I found for The African Queen - there were way more than I expected. but it seems like people just really love the relationship between Hepburn and Bogart, the characters, as very little else in the film is represented this way - i didn't see anything about the adventure side of the movie really.

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685 (Cameron H's favorite moment)

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685 (of course)

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685 (haha)

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685 (?)

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    200w_d.gif?cid=e826c9fc5bd36cbf4a7679685

    • Like 2

  10. 1 minute ago, Cameron H. said:

    don't think just getting her brother to a hospital would have worked since it wouldn't have had the same Good vs Evil perspective. I also think it would be kind of boring. I feel like the movie benefits from its underdog "good will always triumph over evil" angle.

    Sure sure, I'm not a screenwriter.  I think the 'Good v. Evil' thing isn't always necessary though


  11. Sure, I'm not against the impossible mission, just this one in particular threw me.  There's lot of impossible trips they could have made, like what if they had to get her brother to a distant hospital or something.  But maybe this was the only one that could end with them escaping a noose lol.   

    Yea, I was thinking along those allegorical lines too. Obviously, she was a missionary. But it seemed like to me, their journey was undertaken with less faith that it would work out, but more because it was the right thing to do. In that way, the journey felt more existentialist (set your own purpose) or even agnostic (who knows what will happen?) to me.  But then, in the end, it did work out and they were married and floating in a vast blue lake.  So maybe it is much more religious in the end...

    • Like 3

  12. 2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

    I’ve seen it before. I raised it from, I think, 4 Stars to 5. I don’t know, something about it really resonated with me. I liked the character development between the two characters. How they both start at complete opposite ends of the spectrum, and by the end, have met somewhere in the middle.

    Yea and I liked Paul & Amy's point that it wasn't an unrealistically wide spectrum either, like you often get in a 'romantic' story.  It was definitely my favorite aspect of the film, their growing connection and the realness Hepburn and Bogart brought to the characters and the journey.

    I could do without the war angle, though, that's the part that threw me out of whack a bit.  I don't know, you're right about leeches and rapids and stuff, but zooming out, sinking a German boat in the middle of an African river seems entirely out of scale to me though, for these two people.  I feel like there could have been a better reason for them to need to get down that river together.

    • Like 2

  13. I gotta say, I did like The African Queen, but I was somewhat confounded by it.  I think Paul expressed that pretty well, and sort of was where my head is on it.    

    But as I've watched your all's ratings on Letterboxd roll in for this movie, I was surprised at just how high they've been.  Had you guys seen it before?  Or was everyone just super charmed by it?

    • Like 3

  14. 5 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

    I have a random ass question for all the parents out there.

    When your birthday rolls around and it just falls at an inconvenient time and you can't do anything with your friends because of schedules and you can't get a sitter for your kids and yadda yadda. Do you just accept it and move on because lmao we're all adults and that's what happens, or do you guilt trip your friends into finding a specific day months later to celebrate that birthday because we "don't want him to think we forgot"?

    Yes I'm using a specific thing that just happened to me and yes I'm kinda really not happy that I'm being guilted into clearing my schedule for my friends because they are the ones with a baby and can't seem to just accept that their own birthdays get pushed to the side now.

    Taylor, I think you need to call and leave a voicemail for Paul for this

    • Like 3
    • Haha 1

  15. 11/1 Ep 25 - Duck Soup

    11/6 VOTE (America)

    11/8 Ep 26 - SPECIAL EPISODE ("where we answer fan questions and unveil our official ranking of the first 25 movies!")

    11/15 Ep 27 - Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

    • Like 3
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