changeling is underrated imho - weird cross between mildred pierce and texas chainsaw massacre - quite unlike anything else in clint's filmog, quite unlike most american movies made these days
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 18:57 (eleven years ago) link
wow this is gonna be awful
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 18:59 (eleven years ago) link
i mean, when was the last time spielberg actually made a film that was surprising or off-the-wall in any way - eastwood takes more chances, still, for gd or bad (fwiw gran torino was an abomination, but in a weird way it was much more engaged w/ the 21st century than anything spielberg has given us since...)
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:01 (eleven years ago) link
xxpost
Agreed. Changeling is an oddly enjoyable hysterical-woman melodrama.
― the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:02 (eleven years ago) link
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:01 PM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark
munichwar of the worlds
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:03 (eleven years ago) link
when was the last time clint eastwood made a film that wasn't total shit
1976?
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:04 (eleven years ago) link
will reluctantly concede wotw (as a kind of wonky post 9/11 panic attack w/ only minorly troubling survivalist/dianetical undercurrents), but munich seemed to me to be as much a part of his self-consciously 'majestic-mythic' representation of the past - second world war/holocaust/slavery etc - as anything more forward-looking. but you know what it's like when you're not a fan, you're not looking for the gd in their work...
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:11 (eleven years ago) link
but gran torino IS a forward-looking movie? a story about the good ol' days of racism and classic cars??
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
munich seemed to me to be as much a part of his self-consciously 'majestic-mythic' representation of the past
Did you SEE the movie?
― Domo Arigato, Demi Lovato (Phil D.), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:17 (eleven years ago) link
gran torino does try - in the worst most hamfisted way possible - to grapple w/issues of race and white rage and old age etc etc - when was the last time spielberg made a film recognisably set in 'the present'?
i did indeed see munich, thanks.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:23 (eleven years ago) link
And you still think it was a "'majestic-mythic' representation of the past?" I'm not about to tell anyone how to interpret movies, but if I had to produce a list of 100 things that Munich was, that'd be #101.
when was the last time spielberg made a film recognisably set in 'the present'
WOTW
― Domo Arigato, Demi Lovato (Phil D.), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
^^^
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
i meant w/out the flying saucers or aliens or whatever! you know american families (his best 'area of interest') really looked at in the here-and-now of today w/out the crutch of fantasy, or a recourse to the past (which i really do think tends towards the mythic, precisely because his mise-en-scene is so accomplished) - what's he got to lose??
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:33 (eleven years ago) link
i always seem to get battered the most when i venture criticisms of spielberg on ilx!!
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think a genre-film setting is a crutch.
― cops on horse (WilliamC), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
socki otm
much more engaged w/ the 21st century
9/11 trilogy of Munich, WOTW, The Terminal
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:41 (eleven years ago) link
spielberg without his "crutches" is often when he gets the most bathetic/unbearable, i think. his crutches sorta allow for some genuine weirdness and imagination that i dont think he'd allow himself otherwise.
― ryan, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:42 (eleven years ago) link
xpost
think genre is a bit of crutch for spielberg - it's where he runs for cover every time
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:43 (eleven years ago) link
dunno if Lincoln counts as majestic-mythic recreation of the corrupt House and devious Abe.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:44 (eleven years ago) link
i have to confess i haven't seen the terminal - it looked easily as ill-judged as gran torino
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:46 (eleven years ago) link
did it now?
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
w/out the crutch of fantasy
Hahahaha omg
Does "a giant shark" count as fantasy? Exactly what non-genre Spielberg works are you referring to when you talk about " american families (his best 'area of interest') really looked at in the here-and-now of today?"
The implication that genre is a "crutch" and not a useful way of looking at contemporary issues is going to come as something of a surprise to, say, all writers and filmmakers ever.
― Domo Arigato, Demi Lovato (Phil D.), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:51 (eleven years ago) link
I would hardly rate The Terminal as among Spielberg's best, but the outcomes for both the Stanley Tucci and Catherine Zeta-Jones characters defied all expectations that one would typically have for a movie of its type.
― Domo Arigato, Demi Lovato (Phil D.), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
i want him to make a film like jaws or et w/out the shark or the alien - just give it a try, see how it goes
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago) link
ya which non-genre family movies are you talking about here??
all his best films about "family" (ET, close encounters, poltergeist) are firmly planted in genre
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago) link
he should be more like woody allen!
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:57 (eleven years ago) link
:|
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:58 (eleven years ago) link
http://swaleff.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/trollolo.jpg
― Domo Arigato, Demi Lovato (Phil D.), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:57 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:58 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark
lol
― i wanna be a gabbneb baby (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:04 (eleven years ago) link
I hate Spielbergo but yeah can't really imagine how he would do a non-genre film
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:07 (eleven years ago) link
i wanna see his "interiors"
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
not sure this idea of genre as being (covertly) expressive of deep contemporary truths is esp helpful now that it is the mainstream - if we're going to hop back to the 70s in hommage to spielberg, let's revisit some old school seventies brit film theory (eg steve neale) and treat genre as nothing more than a facilitating cog in the smooth ordering of late capitalist product
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
Take the hint.
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, August 21, 2013 8:09 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i do, i really do! more than another film as totally fucking vacuous as minority report, anyway
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:13 (eleven years ago) link
yep, you're right eric, i will leave you to it
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 4:11 PM (56 seconds ago) Bookmark
i dont think anyone is actually propounding that idea here
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:13 (eleven years ago) link
spielberg mostly reminds me of someone like kubrick in how good he is at genre-hopping, and also kubes mostly made genre pictures too. even lolita and EWS aren't exactly kitchen-sink dramas.
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:16 (eleven years ago) link
this thread will always gets worse.
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:18 (eleven years ago) link
these posts feel like lagoon-style trolls - never thought of Ward as the guy who would go 'give me the tasteful family drama' over killer sharks, killer trucks, killer houses, etc. - maybe i just had him pegged wrong
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:55 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:57 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark
― i wanna be a gabbneb baby (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 20:53 (eleven years ago) link
lol you know you are a true ilxor when you promise not to post any more and then you post some more
hungry4ass i am trly sorry that i have let you down! i like killer sharks and killer trucks and killer houses, but i honestly haven't been gripped by a spielberg 'genre' movie since the first jurassic park, and think that it would just be an INTERESTING movie on his part, to try and make 'scenes from a marriage', no trollin'
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:06 (eleven years ago) link
guys, Interiors is a comedy.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:08 (eleven years ago) link
1941 is def one of spielberg's best
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:10 (eleven years ago) link
"maybe i just had him pegged wrong" is the most devastating ade insult
― max, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
to try and make 'scenes from a marriage', no trollin'
well, E.T. boasts one of the most realistic depictions of growing up with a divorced mom so...
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:18 (eleven years ago) link
and the countryside scenes of Michael Lonsdale and his family in Munich are unlike anything in Spielberg's, er, oeuvre.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:19 (eleven years ago) link
One can do family drama in a killer shark movie, ya know. It's not a binary.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:20 (eleven years ago) link
if you try to do family drama and nothing but, you get The Color Purple.
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:32 (eleven years ago) link
in 2013 that's doing a Disney drama and an Oprah film.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:34 (eleven years ago) link
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, August 21, 2013 5:20 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:41 (eleven years ago) link