Couldn't find a thread...I think I've seen most of the core films from this unofficial genre: Tokyo Story, Wild Strawberries, Umberto D, The Straight Story, Make Way for Tomorrow, Harry & Tonto. Haven't seen Ikiru. Many films belong to varying degrees: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Histoire(s) du cinema, etc. Even something like the Joan Rivers documentary from a few years ago was primarily about getting old.
I wanted to post about Going in Style, from 1979 (would have been 17 or 18 at the time). I saw it when it came out, it always stayed in my mind, but for years I couldn't get it--resurfaced on Amazon last year, a bootlegged copy, but I found a real used copy the other day. I don't know how many people have seen it, or whether it's on TCM or Netflix.
It's really good. Putters along at a pace you just couldn't pull off today in a fairly mainstream film. (The director, Martin Brest, had some box-office successes in the '80s.) There are scenes where George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg just sit on a park bench or around the kitchen table and don't say much of anything. The two best scenes are Carney dancing to some street musicians, and Burns flipping through a photo album after Strasberg dies. Really liked Charles Hallahan as Carney's nephew, too. Actually, one other great scene: Karen Montgomery as a hooker who flirts with Carney in a casino.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_y1USaJemzSs/TFc9R23BjUI/AAAAAAAAD2Q/yXL0R34NB40/s640/going2.png
― clemenza, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 13:04 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oMZkW0RjE4
― forgive me fader for I have sinned (wins), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 13:07 (seven years ago) link
Most Peckinpah movies
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 15:29 (seven years ago) link
Straight Story
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 15:55 (seven years ago) link
is in the OP
― forgive me fader for I have sinned (wins), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 15:57 (seven years ago) link
About SchmidtStand Up Guys
Sturgeon's law in full effect of course
― a Warren Beatty film about Earth (El Tomboto), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 16:03 (seven years ago) link
Both About Schmidt and Broken Flowers struck me as well-intentioned but not especially successful road-movie variations on The Straight Story (my #1 favourite). Nebraska belongs too--I liked that better than the first two.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 16:11 (seven years ago) link
AmourThe Whales of AugustThe Shootist45 YearsTough Guys
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 16:15 (seven years ago) link
the last 10 minutes of 2001?
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 16:23 (seven years ago) link
Umberto DWild StrawberriesMichael (1924, Dreyer)Nobody's FoolNever Say Never Again
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 16:28 (seven years ago) link
seems like a bunch of Clint Eastwood movies would fit - Unforgiven, Blood Work, etc. (Sturgeon's Law def in full effect there)
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 17:41 (seven years ago) link
The Late Show (Art Carney again)
― Brad C., Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:07 (seven years ago) link
The Whales of AugustOn Golden Pond
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:11 (seven years ago) link
Cocoon
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:12 (seven years ago) link
clem, you need to see Ikiru (and I need to see The Straight Story).
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:18 (seven years ago) link
Synecdoche, New York comes to mind.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:21 (seven years ago) link
Oh, and one we both should have thought of right off the bat: Jackie Brown (though I realize I'm defining as "old")
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:21 (seven years ago) link
defining *middle age* as "old"
another middle age one is Save the Tiger, at least in part
― Josefa, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:25 (seven years ago) link
Also Pixar's Up >>> Alexander Payne's entries in this genre, as far as contemporary examples go.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:27 (seven years ago) link
and The Wrestler
― Josefa, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:44 (seven years ago) link
The LeopardThe Last Hurrah (Ford, Spencer Tracy)
in both of which the protagonist stands in for the passing of an era
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:46 (seven years ago) link
Magnificent Ambersons fits that bill too I suppose
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:49 (seven years ago) link
Just went to my library's website and put Going In Style on hold.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 19:58 (seven years ago) link
Was going to mention Nebraska - it's pretty fresh in my mind as a friend showed it to me recently, and while we were incredibly drunk I did find it genuinely affecting. Was surprised to look up the director and see he'd been responsible for a bunch of stuff I either don't like or have no interest in ever seeing.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 20:07 (seven years ago) link
Hard Eight
― Number None, Wednesday, 21 December 2016 21:49 (seven years ago) link
Thank u for this thread, clem.
Saw Make Way for Tomorrow last night and it completely wrecked me. And every time I think of the third act it starts wrecking me all over again.
― Rep. Cobra Commander (R-TX) (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 8 December 2021 15:30 (two years ago) link
thx. I just put a hold on the Criterion copy at my public library.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 8 December 2021 19:20 (two years ago) link
"Pa"'s obliviousness to the situation should be infuriating, but the film probably wouldn't be watchable if he were as aware as "Ma" is of the situation that they're in.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 9 December 2021 03:24 (two years ago) link
Last night I was thinking of an inversion of the story: a couple concerned more with each other than their kids, who grow up resentful. Years later, the kids take advantage of the parents' vulnerability to separate them. I'm visualizing something like the ending of Barry Lyndon. It's possible that this is the subtext of Make Way for Tomorrow as it exists, though! I mean, we never see the parents and children in younger days - why and how did they raise a family of ingrates?
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 9 December 2021 15:40 (two years ago) link
There've been a few the past five years: Michael Haneke's Amour (2012, not sure why I didn't mention it), two or three about Alzheimer's, and The Irishman fits to a degree.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 December 2021 03:13 (two years ago) link
And, in so many of Tommy Lee Jones' ruminations, No Country for Old Men.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 December 2021 04:06 (two years ago) link
Would I be an insufferable film pedant (what, like I'm not already?) if I suggested that the indignities of aging are the "real" theme of Bubba Ho-Tep?
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:37 (two years ago) link
That’s a good oneThe horror film relic fits altho its more about the experience of living with an ageing parent On the tv side twin peaks the return explores this theme in myriad fascinating ways obv
― coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:51 (two years ago) link