Jump to content
🔒 The Earwolf Forums are closed Read more... ×

JimmyMecks

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    45

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by JimmyMecks

  3. Posted

    I voted no, two reasons:

    1. There are better musicals that belong in The Canon instead of this. Musicals where people actually sing. Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but there are no classic musicals in The Canon yet. How this gets in before West Side Story, Singin in the Rain, Fiddler on the Roof, or many others is beyond me.
    2. If we're going to vote on indulgence picks, then I think it should be a vs.episode with the other host picking the vs. movie.

     

     

    This was exactly how I felt when Re-Animator made it in. After that, I mentioned that I was afraid of the Canon becoming too single minded in it's focus. In the Re-Animator thread here and on BMD, I saw a lot of people saying genre-films shouldn't be dismissed cause of other genre films but I wonder how many of those people would make the same argument for movies with more feminine sensibilities.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

     

    do you listen to his podcast Harmontown? It's really good! And it's gotten me through some rough patches, but in the early string of episodes there's a lot of talk about different movies and he's got a vendetta against that one. It's pretty good!

     

    As someone who really loves Community and Rick & Morty but gets rubbed the wrong way by the man Dan Harmon, I've consciously tried to keep the art and the man separate for myself.

  7. Posted

    Voted yes, although I'd put Young Frankenstein and The Producers above it

     

    Also, in my 20s and I think the only joke that gets a modern day groan from me are the gay dancers at the end of the film. The other jokes that could be perceived as offensive at least have something to comment on but the dancer scene just seems really mean spirited and revels in harmful stereotypes.

     

    And to Devin, saw Sausage Party yesterday, really liked it.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    I was thinking earlier today that this is probably the movie I watch the most and if that's enough for me to call it my favorite movie, a term I always feel too pressured to use. I think it's a sure shot for the Canon but would still love an episode discussing it.

     

    Launched two legitimate stars in Damon and Affleck, mainstream success for a director who always skirted left of center, the best performance of Robin Williams's career, and the basis for one of my favorite B-plots of a Community episode ever:

     

  12. Posted

    This one's a pretty easy yes. The musical montage is still commonly utilized today, it's a cornerstone for music videos, and it's a perfect time capsule for one of the most influential popular groups of all time.

     

    Also, beyond just being a snapshot of a band, it also captures the feeling of youth in the face of years and years of establishment. It's fun to see the band who wrote about wanting to hold your hand accidentally lay down early foundations of an attitude that would eventually be considered punk.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    I'm curious for everyone who is voting There Will Be Blood are you also saying that if someone said that for tonight or any night you can watch Blood or Boogie Nights you would choose Blood. I would always through Boogie nights on over Blood.

     

    Then again I thought this should have been Magnolia vs. There Will Be Blood.

     

    Well I could rewatch Step Brothers over a whole bunch of movies but that doesn't mean it's my favorite movie or the movie I think is the best. That said, I will contend that it should be in The Canon.

     

    When I voted for TWBB I wasn't voting against Boogie Nights.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    Very much enjoy There Will Be Blood and respect it for what it is, but had no hesitation voting for Boogie Nights. If Daniel Day Lewis wasn't playing Plainview, this movie would barely be remembered as significant. There is far more going on with characters and direction in Boogie Nights and I think it has had a far greater effect on movie culture. "I drink your milkshake" is a t-shirt idiots wore in college. People think Dirk Diggler is a real person.

     

    This is a completely unfair criticism. Of course if you take away a huge element of a movie, it'll be worse. Movies are a collaborative project and every piece and every job is essential to the whole.

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

     

    I was actually thinking of the end scenes as a whole (everyone together again at the house) more than the specific Dirk at the mirror scene, I didn't see Dirk as empty there though, more like an alcoholic who knows he's hit bottom and has to start again, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. He appreciates what (and who) he has now, not what he felt he was owed. They discuss that scene on the episode though, with some better points than I had, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts again after you listen to it.

     

    Perhaps 'bittersweet' is the more accurate term, I think we feel happiness that these broken people found each other but as individuals they're still lost. Amber still can't see her son, Rollergirl is stuck in arrested development, and the industry is still leaving them behind. The movie's theme

    which plays during the sequence makes me think of a circus that exists for the sakes of the performers lives than for any other real value.

     

    Finished listening to the episode and the thing I want to touch on most is the debate over the drug use. I don't think drugs were the reason for everyone's downfall (and Rollergirl was most definitely on drugs throughout the movie, since we do see her snorting coke with Amber) but rather just a symptom, as Devin said. Going back to the idea how the "family" exists as a broken circus, Dirk's ego as the star and top dog got him deeper down the rabbit hole. Actually, as I'm typing this it's making me feel a little more sad about Dirk's final "I'm a star, I'm a star." Amber started the movie off in a bad place and the drugs didn't change that for better or worse, so a scene where everyone's rehabbing would have felt empty, in my opinion.

     

    --

     

    I ended up voting for There Will Be Blood and ironically it was Amy and Devin that gave me the push even though they both voted Boogie. Boogie Nights is so expertly made and so rewatchable but There Will Be Blood just feels more important and weightier. Maybe it's the generation gap (TWBB came out during my film formative years so it fills the role that Boogie Nights had on Devin) but I also think that TWBB's style is more representative of PT Anderson. I think of Punch Drunk Love and The Master's less flashy camera moves moreso than I think of ensemble.

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    I appreciate the hard earned optimism that Boogie Nights leaves you with more and more. That feels like the harder trick to pull off these days, to make that work without insulting your audience.

     

    Y'know, I don't get the impression of optimism at the end. I think Dirk mirroring Jake LaMotta mirroring Marlon Brando is intentionally empty (add in the fact that he's speaking as his misogynistic fantasy character). It's like you took an idea of what it is to be a human with feelings to the nth degree and all we're left with is a broken shell of a person. Dirk wants to go back to the way things were before the bad times but that's impossible because he's always gonna be the guy who experience those bad times.

     

    Anyway, about to start the episode. Both are all-time favorites and similar to what you were getting at I've flip flopped on which is better over the years and as I've grown so I'm going to be really curious just to see where I end up falling after listening.

    • Like 2

  18. Posted

    The fact that one of these movies won't get in is cruel

     

    Right now I'm siding with There Will Be Blood but if I had to recommend one to a newbie, it'd be Boogie Nights. They both have so much to talk about that I'm a little disappointed neither will be getting a full episode.

  19. Posted

    I thought it was pretty clear that he killed the cat when he was after being confronted he was ready to blackmail Dan with his relationship. He had it all thought out and the fact that he's been experimenting on dogs, cats, birds and other animals before make me think he's not so attached to animal life.

     

    And there's NO justification for him beheading Dr. Hill where you can say "West isn't a murderer."

  20. Posted

    Was a no before listening and then Amy's argument really pushed it over the edge for me. It's a "fun" schlocky movie, yes, but it just feels so bare boned to me. Perhaps because I first saw it as an adult and not during my formative years as a film fan does nothing from it resonate with me.

     

    Personally, if we're talking 80s campy horror, I'd much rather be into a discussion and the Canon entry of An American Werewolf in London. Seeing both those movies for the first time later on in my life without nostalgia and around the same time as each other it was really like night and day. I appreciate what Re-Animator means to it's fans, but I just can't reason this one out.

    • Like 1
×