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

heavenstoetsy

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    22

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by heavenstoetsy

  1. Posted

    Also, I want to say that Kiki and Miyazaki in general have a wonderful and distinctly Japanese sensibility, as seen in the works of Ozu, or movies like The Makioka Sisters or Ran. That pastoral nature is a large part of it, to be sure, but also in how measured the films are, how closely they align with traditional Japanese aesthetics of form, order, and simplicity. This is something a Pixar cartoon, with all of its narrative economy, will never do.

    I'm glad someone mentioned Ozu. Kiki's lacks the themes of generational conflict that I associate with him, but tonally, there's a lot to be gained from reading the film as really well done animated version of that sensibility.
    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    Scorsese's The Age of Innocence's ultimate message is "class structure and traditional social mores prevent us from accidentally destroying the Good because we really wanted to pursue the Beautiful, and the Beautiful would lose its power if we obtained it anyway," and that's a fairly socially conservative worldview. It's also a near-perfect adaptation.

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    Yes all the way. One of my favorite movies, and definitely my favorite of the movies this podcast has covered so far.

     

    I see a lot of comments considering this a lesser Miyazaki, but I actually think Kiki's is one of the most subtly and effectively managed expressions of the director's favorite themes. He loves putting female characters (usually girls) in the middle of a conflict between the human world and the world of nature/spirit. Kiki, as a witch who lives among non-witches, is very much in that line. But whereas most of Miyazaki's movies emphasize the spiritual/magical side of that divide, I think what makes this a more powerful story is that Kiki's connection to the supernatural is slight and ultimately very fragile. There's a real risk of losing it, and even when Kiki's powers are regained at the end, it's not a complete recovery, which hits me hard.

     

    I think a lot of Miyazaki (Nausicaa, Laputa, and Ponyo as a few examples) go out of their way to impress us with the majesty and strangeness of the spirit world, so we grieve its loss as human society encroach upon it (which is great!), but Kiki's does a marvelous job of finding beauty in the mundane human world as well. It's a more humane environmentalism than you usually see in his films. The flying motif is my favorite instance of this: presented as an experience of beauty (and risk of danger!) achievable by both magic and human technology, it's a really creative and surprising way to bridge the gap between the two realms.

     

    It's also just really charming and makes me cry and laugh every time I see it.

  4. Posted

    Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for the win!

     

    I think it's pure joy. It's bright, consistently hilarious, and navigates the sincere/cynical balance better than Some Like It Hot. It's my chicken soup movie.

     

    I liked that Amy brought up the movie's connections to the novel the stage musical was adapted from. The book is written in first-person (as Lorelei's diary entries), and it's a lot more cynical about her than the movie. Amy and Devin both noted how open and generous Lorelei is in the movie, and how she really seems to like her marks and not just for their money, but that's not at all how she comes off in the book. Which makes me wonder—is Lorelei written very differently between the two works, or is it all in Marilyn Monroe's performance? I think it's the latter, which is a testament to Monroe's incredible charisma and smart line readings. The viewer gets as conned as Lorlei's beaus do, and we really want to believe she isn't all greed.

     

    The scene with the child aristocrat is funnier if you know the novel too. His name, Henry Spoffard, is taken from Lorelei's main love interest in the novel. If an audience member in 1953 was even passingly familiar with the book, they would have expected that character the moment his name is read from the registry, so the reveal that it's actually just a little kid hits even harder.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    Just wanted to chime in as a practicing Catholic, and more generally, as a person of faith. I definitely have to go with The Last Temptation (gasp, blasphemy!). The dual nature of Christ is one of the most important aspects of Christianity, and for me, it is one of the most difficult aspects, and one that I have struggled to fully grasp as I've gotten older. I've never seen it dealt with like Temptation does, and I like to think that any religious person would be better for seeing this movie and coming away with deep questions about their faith. Much deeper questions (I think) than are raised by Passion.

    I completely agree with my co-religionist here. I actually teach religious studies at a very traditional Catholic university, and I recently had the pleasure of introducing undergrads to this film in a course we're doing on the life of Christ. (Not a single student had heard of it beforehand. The movie intrigued them—though like with Amy, the music kind of ruined bits of it for them.)

     

    The film/book's attempt to portray the fully human nature of Jesus is a fascinating one. I think it ultimately fails, and I find its ideas less enlightening than Amy and Devin do. Like most works of art about Jesus, it tells us waaaaay more about the spiritual lives of the artists behind it than it does provide a convincing portrayal of Jesus. (Jesus is pretty opaque figure in the Gospels, after all). That said, the movie puts so much intelligence and creativity into the investigation, I really admire it.

     

    ETA: Devin, maybe this was addressed somewhere else, but there's no canonical teaching on the eternal damnation of any individual person, Judas included. There are canonized saints in Catholicism, obvs, which involves the Church's official recognition that all signs indicate a person is among the blessed. But no canonized sinners, happily.

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    This movie is truly baffling, and I love that HDTGM took it on. But guys, the choir is clearly not Catholic. I think at least twice people called them Catholic (and someone--maybe June?--called a church service a "mass"). In movies, there are only two kinds of Christian church services: super-traditional Catholic (with priests in black cassocks and dark confessional booths) and black, probably Baptist, churches with gospel choirs. I'm pretty sure this movie was going for the latter, with a bit more racial diversity thrown in.

  9. Posted

    I LOVE this movie. Spice World is so nostalgic for me. I was ten when this movie came out, a big Spice Girls fan, and I was in a theater on opening night. I loved the energy, positivity, and wackiness! I still remember my dad taking my sister and me out of the theater when the backup dancers turn around with the backsides of their costumes cut out.

     

    It has been a long time since I have seen Spice World, but isn't it a goofy comedy with lots of absurd humor? I feel like that got lost in the show's critique of it. You guys seemed to want to take it a little more seriously than it was meant.

    • Like 3

  12. Posted

     

    It shows you didn't watch the movie. The point of that plotline is to show that the plant is somehow going to convert from wood-based pencils to leaf-based pencils. It's crazy, but it's not as bad as you make it out to be.

    And also, Timothy isn't a tree. This was one of things that bugged me when they discussed the end on the podcast; someone (I forget who) kept saying they expected Timothy to turn into a tree at the end. But Timothy sprouted from the "box of dreams" the parents planted in Cindy's garden. He's more akin to the fruits and vegetables his mother grows there--which, I think, is actually a pretty sweet symbol for motherhood.

  13. Posted

    This may be the first HDTGM movie I've actually seen. ...And I loved it. It's a beautifully shot movie, the actors are all great, and the emotional scenes pack a wallop. Genuinely could not believe that they chose it for the podcast.

     

    But the episode was a lot of fun, if a lot milder than most episodes. But then my favorite episodes are when the movies are so terrible the hosts are genuinely baffled.

  22. Posted

    Hi there! I'm a longtime listener, first-time commenter. I love what you folks do, and WC is one of my favorite podcasts. Seriously: terrific stuff!

     

    But please don't let this happen again. No one was meant to experience what was experienced in this episode.

    • Like 1
×