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AlmostAGhost

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Posts posted by AlmostAGhost

  1. Posted

    4 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

    Some folks on the Facebook group were annoyed about all the times Neff says "Baby,"

    They also started a thread about how unattractive Stanwyck is, for what its worth. 😵

    But yea... the 'baby's are awesome. One key to understanding the best noir... is it's funny as hell.  That's how I take the 'baby's.  It is a simple character trait and has its purpose for sure, but it's also REALLY funny.  Besides that, it's a cheap connection between two basically strangers to fake intimacy.  I think it should be clear here, in this movie especially, that every word and line is intentional. It's there for a reason.

    Anyway, I had not seen Double Indemnity before and I LOVED it.  Everything.  As a Coen Brothers diehard, I felt like I was watching their favorite movie.  The dry humor, the incredible dialogue, the cool plot, the femme fatale, all of it.  I probably could trace something in every Coen movie back to this film. As a viewer, I felt like I'd been perfectly trained for a noir like this because of them.  

    Paul at the end mentioned that next week's Singin' In The Rain is a good companion for Double Indemnity, but I actually think All About Eve was a great pair for it. (Maybe all three are a good menage a trois?)  The dialogue, deep allusions, rewatchability, questionable motives, just the vaguely pulpy fun.  And while I was slower to get my head around Eve than this one, seeing these two really made me glad I'm doing this endeavor in catching up on film history.

     

    • Like 4

  2. Posted

    27 minutes ago, CameronH said:

    I think my favorite part was when Neff needed to cool off so he bowled a couple frames...and grabbed a beer a Drive-In restaurant.

    Oh, 1944, you so crazy.

    the-big-lebowski-walter-sobchak1.jpg?w=4

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    If a boat immediately sinks, is it still a boat?

    I liked what Adam said about Collapse being an "alternate universe greatest hits" - that's what I've always felt REM was doing.  At first I didn't like it, but once it became clear it was their last album ever, then it made sense.  They were just doing the stuff they liked.  They rewrote "Country Feedback" with Patti Smith, because if I'm not mistaken both Stipe and Buck have said that's one of their favorite REM songs. They had friends come in and join them a bit more.  They had quick rockers and pretty mandolin songs.  It was sort of a summation of their whole career.

    Because of that, I respect it and even listening yesterday, I was quite into it... but also because of that, I don't have much connection to the record as an individual whole.  Who really likes Greatest Hits records?

    My final 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. Collapse Into Now

    12. Reveal

    13. Accelerate

    14. Green

    15. Around The Sun

    Now to begin the impossible task of making a top-10 list of my favorite REM songs :)

  4. Posted

    I agree it is a sort of sudden, unexpected turn from crazy improv into reality, but that doesn't mean they're incompatible.  I like both sides, and for me it helps ground the absurdity to have them answer listener questions.  It is why I prefer their tales of high school over, say, The Teacher's Lounge.

    Also I used their real names because recently there was an episode where they gave advice/answered questions as Jessica and Lennon.  And as you say, the advice mostly comes from their own selves - Marisa wouldn't have this wisdom. 

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    14 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

    Well yeah, her whole persona was an "act" 🤨

    So just lying makes you a great stage actress?  Didn't she get raves for her performance?  Certainly it takes more than that?

    But yea, I think this goes to what Taylor pointed out... we don't ever see any of them act, so that makes this all sort of a (very interesting) unknown. Heck, is Margo even any good?  Or just popular?

    (Also as an aside, you all are cool and I enjoy digging in on these films/stories with you.)

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    Just now, Cam Bert said:

    If I recall correctly in her origin story she tells in the beginning she does mention doing community theater, but then again we later find out that large elements of that story such as her husband and San Francisco were lies. So it's a bit of a tough call whether or not the acting bit is true or just another made up detail to help sell her story. 

    Yea it could be a lie, but she does in fact turn out to be a very good actress right?  She must have some experience at it.

    • Like 3

  10. Posted

    5 minutes ago, Cam Bert said:

    I'm curious, as someone who is more on the Eve side of things, not that there is anything wrong with that, at what point do you think Eve came up with her plan to be the new Margo? Was it before they met? After she started working for her and got to know her more?

    Hmm I think it is sort of in between. I can't remember if this was true, or ever expressed, but I assumed she was an actress at the very least before they met. 

    So I took it as, in the beginning, Eve wanting to be a famous actress, be around actors, etc., in general; but then as she ended up in this place right next to Margo, taking over for her was the way she saw to become one/famous/rewrite her life.

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    Oh I was reading some reviews from 'big' critics, like Ebert and Kael and whoever.  Thought people might enjoy them; they have some similar ideas - mainly that Anne Baxter isn't nearly good enough to be a threat to Bette Davis, which personally I was surprised by, but found interesting.  (Amy mentioned something similar.) 

    Kael:

    Ersatz art of a very high grade, and one of the most enjoyable movies ever made. A young aspiring actress, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), intrigues to take the place of an aging star, Margo Channing (Bette Davis), on stage and in bed, and the battle is fought with tooth, claw, and a battery of epigrams. The synthetic has qualities of its own-glib, overexplicit, self-important, the "You're sneaky and corrupt but so am I-We belong to each other darling" style of writing. The scriptwriter-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's bad taste, exhibited with verve, is more fun than careful, mousy, dehydrated good taste. His nonsense about "theatre" is saved by one performance that is the real thing: Bette Davis is at her most instinctive and assured. Her actress-vain, scared, a woman who goes too far in her reactions and emotions-makes the whole thing come alive (though it's hard to believe Anne Baxter could ever be a threat to Bette Davis).

    excerpt of Ebert: (here)

    The movie's strength and weakness is Anne Baxter, whose Eve lacks the presence to be a plausible rival to Margo, but is convincing as the scheming fan. When Eve understudies for Margo and gets great reviews, Mankiewicz wisely never shows us her performance; better to imagine it, and focus on the girl whose look is a little too intense, whose eyes a little too focused, whose modesty is somehow suspect.

     

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    On 8/10/2018 at 12:08 PM, sycasey 2.0 said:

     

    If you're feeling particularly ambitious, there's also one from They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

    http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm

    This link is amazing!  I'm definitely going to dig in on this thing.  I'll have to watch more How Did This Get Made movies than I do, just so I'm not only watching the best movies ever. :)

    Also, I think everyone is giving Margo so much benefit of any doubt as to explaining her motives in a 'good' or 'normal' way, when they're not giving Eve any at all.  🤨

     

     

  15. Posted

    This episode took me way back to some songs I really liked, and haven't heard in ages.  I remember being super into that One Giant Leap song in the '90s, and the Kristin Hersh 'Your Ghost" song that Adam loves and Scott thought boring.  Going to dig them back up again, make sure I have them. 

    Also love Hindu Love Gods, so fun... but do wish REM had backed Zevon on something a little more 'official', not just drunken blues jams.  That would've been remarkable, I'm sure.

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

    Yea... this was my first time watching, and maybe the summation of all those subtle jabs would be more evident now I know the ending.  Like Paul, for instance, I didn't take the birthday call thing as some Machiavellian move at all, but now, I'm rethinking that.  There were a few lines where I was like "hmm" but I'm sure in a rewatch, I'd pick up more on those shades.

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    Last night I posted on Letterboxd my quick reaction/review to the movie, and my main thought was wondering just how 'evil' Eve is.  Viewing from a more modern lens, I didn't think she was all that bad really, and frankly I kind of rooted for her.  The Camerons thought she was a clear villain, but I wasn't so sure... so I was quite curious and happy to hear that our discussion mirrored Paul & Amy's (Paul, I have your back on this!).  Eve is certainly manipulative and ambitious, but I dunno.  Is that not the acting world?  Curious how other people view the character of Eve. 

    But yea, this was a really enjoyable film -- the writing is immediately striking, and the acting across the board was killer.  

     

    • Like 2

  18. Posted

    I sort of agree with Scott on this one. I dig Accelerate, mostly in part because there are 4-5 tracks I love. “Hollow Man” in particular was one I immediately and still listen to. Quick rock songs was a good decision for them to focus on though, even if I think their best skill is being more creative and slightly odd. Listening to Accelerate today was a lot of fun though! And for that, it’s still a worthwhile addition to the catalog.

  19. Posted

    Even if Paul and Amy end the pod at 100 eps, we can use the forum still on a weekly basis and go through the 1998 bonus films and then a world cinema list, or any list we want. I say let’s worry about it in 80 weeks tho haha

    • Like 3

  21. Posted

    I should add, those scaffolding/effects* type movies.... that’s almost certainly my own bias. I don’t like them. I can watch on a technical level and even be wowed, but that’s just not my favorite type of movie at all—and even turned me off of watching films for awhile, all these empty blockbuster sort of things.

    I know my vote is an outlier and I’m a bit of a detractor here, but I did rate it 3.5/5, I did enjoy this!

    *i really like this metaphor of scaffolding

     

    • Like 3

  22. Posted

    3 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

    Sorry, but I just don't see an argument for leaving it off. It's way too iconic and influential.

    Personally, I find it very entertaining. Some of the racist/sexist stuff I largely chalk up to being a product of its time, and on the other hand the movie also has hints of progressivism in how it gets you to sympathize with the creature.

    As a thrill ride I think it holds up marvelously. The characterization/dialogue only needs to be good enough to serve as scaffolding for the adventure spectacle, and IMO it does.

    Agreed, it is a thrill ride! A fun one. My feelings are super extreme on this—the stuff i like I LOVE and what I don’t, I detest.

    That said, for a ‘top 100’ I need good writing, even a little depth. pulpy sensational effects, or amazing ballroom dancing, just isn’t enough. I need story! You say it only needs to be good enough for ‘scaffolding’ and frankly I don’t think it hits that level.

    • Like 2

  23. Posted

    3 hours ago, Solarmoon Baby said:

    Oh thank god someone else feels this way. Over on the Facebook group people have been fawning over this movie all week and I just don't get it. The dialog is awful, it is really sexist, and the romance is so dumb. I understand that the movie is hugely influential  but I just don't think it has aged very well compared to something like Wizard of Oz which was released just 6 years later. 

    We’re better than the FB group by far ;) 

    • Like 4

  24. Posted

    I’m listening right now but I really exactly agree with Paul & Amy. As I expressed on my Letterboxd comments, I’m quite conflicted. It’s definitely thrilling to watch and I love so much of the action! But I just can’t get over the pulpy side of it all- the dumb romance, the meta filmmaking stuff, racial and sexist stereotype, etc. (Even if it was their point to be intentionally dumb, it’s still dumb.)

    so I dunno, I voted no for this to remain on the list. To me it’s like putting a comic strip on a list of best literature. 

    • Like 2
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