The (Now-Overrated) ILX Top 100 Films of the 2000s Poll Results

Although actually there was never a static, shitty-looking close-up of one of the puppets' faces that actually made me develop a fetish for cute CalArts sophomore girls and racist BUT FLUID old-timey animation so N.V.M.

From toy story I remember the cowboy, buzz lightyear, mr potato head and that psyco kid. And the Martians and the claw. From ratatouille remy, the kid chef, the French girlfriend, the fat rat brother, the critic...

mr. potato head is not from Toy Story FYI

god I fucking hate Disney

Pales a bit upon repeat viewing but awe-inspiring in its maniacal perfectionism. I like that he got Thomas Keller from the French Laundry to design the dishes.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action was a surprisingly solid film. Moving, even. It had the gritty, realistic feel and the leisurely pace common to some of my favorite films of the 1970s (it personally reminded me most of The Sugarland Express and Five Easy Pieces). I can't remember the last movie that felt so alive and also lived-in, in the best sense of the term. And Steve Martin's performance in it was easily one of the best and most intense of the past decade. Wasn't it nominated for best original screenplay the year it came out? I'm frankly surprised there hasn't been more discussion about it on this thread.

There is something kind of ghoulish about Mr. Fox. It is a Badalamenti soundtrack away from Inland Empire.

re: toy story v. ratatouille -- try drawing them. not to jinx it, but the few people i asked could readily draw toy story characters, but couldn't draw a single one from ratatouille despite having seen it more recently.

Pretty sure he is from toy story?

shit, how could I forget Mr Fox, that's the only anim I voted for here.

As a kid of the '70s, don't misunderstand, all the Pixars I've seen are better than the "Disney slump" of that era. But features are much harder to do than shorts.

Bugs Bunny & co did not need a gritty, realistic feel. I understand they needed to do something different but it didn't work for me.

Nothing says "French girlfriend" like Janeane Garofalo.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/farfromheaven3.jpg

The key to Far From Heaven I think is that the end is not as downbeat as a Sirkian melodrama merely because we know what happened to kids of broken marriages in the fifties and sixties and that was not particularly tragic. What might have seemed in the fifties to be a crushing defeat is actually the start of her liberation, which is what the driving up the hill at the end signifies for me.

― Pete

Not all of Sirk's endings were "downbeat." All That Heaven Allows has a redemptive ending, albeit one whose abruptness might raise questions about the narrative. Written on the Wind has a tragic ending, but still allows for some hope, with Rock and Lauren at least riding away from the house that held so much misery for them. Imitation of Life is certainly a tragedy in many respects, but different critics have interpreted Sarah Jane's returning to her "family" as either a gesture of reconciliation or resignation.

So I think the ending of Far from Heaven is in keeping with the ambivalent endings of several of Sirk's melodramas.

It's a great film. Todd Haynes at the Oscars is sort of incongruous. I'm actually relieved he didn't win.

― Amateurist

Todd Haynes

#69

Far From Heaven
Todd Haynes
2002
United States
(266 points, 13 votes)

fox and spirited away were my two loony toons. (fox also my only wes anderson.)

xpost: hey, something else i voted for finally showed up. i'm up to 2!

OK,

Con: It is a shallow, academic exercise that pales in comparison to either Sirk's or Fassbinder's version of this material

Pro: It makes me want to watch Sirk's or Fassbinder's version of this material.

Enjoying the maxperiment already.

Am I wrong in remembering that Curlz MT makes an appearance in Far From Heaven. Sometimes I think it was a fever dream.

oh you've included one of my top 10, and at such a nice number.

Fassbinder drives me insane (granted I haven't seen much outside Berlin Alexenderpants, which was excruciating), much prefer Haynes. Far From Heaven isn't his best of the decade and is certainly his most derivative BUT it is very purty and all the acting is top-notch. I liked it enough to buy a copy.

man i don't think far from heaven is academic at all and ... shallow, i mean, it's not subtle or anything, granted. but i think the moore/quaid/haysbert triangle is really well acted, the characters are more than just Types A, B and C. i do think this ranking is about right for it, it was toward the bottom of my ballot.

(and ok, this is one that might actually rank higher for me if i'd seen it in a theater. it's really gorgeous.)

Pretty sure he is from toy story?

Mr. Potato Head was created in 1952, roughly 50 years before Toy Story

Eric totally OTM.

god, i just had to look it up, but i cannot believe that 'Safe' was made in 95.

OK, shallow is a tad inaccurate.

1/31 !!!

You can def paint me in the "not fond of animation" corner but I actually enjoyed Ratatouille, it didn't help that it was very foodie centric: I actually sampled Thomas Keller's ratatouille this film was based on at a food symposium when the film was still in development. Kinda wtf that this it took 31 films (and this one in particular) to find common ground with the ILX film poll voters but oh well...

Normally if anyone gushes about the costumes and colour palette of a film it means there's nothing else of worth to talk about but this is extraordinarily gorgeous.

I'll just say it adds nothing new to the mix that Fassbinder didn't already add himself 30 years prior.

ack xxxps, that's probably my least favorite Todd Haynes film... ugh.

It is a shallow, academic exercise

Cried at this, I don't cry at Sirk. Beautiful Lachman lighting and a last great score from El;mer Bernstein.

Is Curlz MT a hair product?

The copy-of-a-copy quality to Far From Heaven produces a mummified air.

ratatouille

thing i liked about it: pretty hilarious! and in retrospect a little bit smarter about criticism than i first thought--its not quite a anti-critic polemic, though it veers toward that.

thing i didnt like about it: i agree with morbs about the criticisms, linguini basically sucks and the short chef is a hair away from full-on racist. also ratatouille is a bizarre food to be the focus.

i didnt see far from heaven so i cant say like/dislike

Julianne Moore is pretty much hit-or-miss for me (depends on the material for the most part), but she had the perfect, brittle/repressed, tragic quality required for Far From Heaven

Ratatouille was racist in its portrayal of French people.

draw from memory some characters from Toy Story

Where did it say in the question that it had to be an original character?

I just don't think the Haysbert character (much less his wooden performance) added anything that Quaid's segment didn't already.

Yeah but he sure sells a mean auto insurance policy.

wonder if I'm Not There will place - certainly more inventive/fun than Far From Heaven

None of your crocodialectic tears, morbs.

also, Haynes' best feature, at least since Superstar.

If Sirk's dialogue hadn't been written by wankers, he might've made something like this. Also, it's funny -- bartender's "ID??" to Dennis Quaid.

The meta-ness of FFH didn't bother me in the slightest, nor did it detract from the appeal of the movie as a proper melodrama imo.

"also ratatouille is a bizarre food to be the focus"

Uh.

One of the things I like best about Far From Heaven is that it's able to function as a perfectly engaging, emotionally rich narrative apart from its essentially gimmicky conceit.

Also: what do you think happened between Quaid and the boy who picked him up by the pool? Did he help him take off his bathrobe?

Thank god Sirk's dialogue was written by, um, wankers then.

Where did it say in the question that it had to be an original character?

my point is that Mr. Potato Head is a memorable character in and of itself, independent of Toy Story. So saying you can draw him from memory has zero reflection on the actual quality of the character design in Toy Story, because the image is pretty well burned into the retina of popular culture after 50 years of being one of the most popular toys ever. If yr evaluating the memorable qualities of character design in Toy Story, maybe stick to referring to characters that were actually designed for the movie.

re: fantastic mr fox, turn the crossfader all the way to the right so that the audio is coming from the lynch short to get the effect:

http://twoyoutubevideosandamotherfuckingcrossfader.com/#1v6-T52zLO0/_qWIlgemp9k

enjoyed far from heavens reserved warmth - irl sympathetic people in a shit spot - it was kinda too reserved tho, mannered even - didnt vote for it but you know i couldve

How many characters from Far From Heaven can you draw from memory?

btw, I like "academic" movies, what do you think Kubrick is? It is not equivalent to "unfeeling."

jaymc OTM

also ratatouille is a bizarre food to be the focus.

maybe for today's extreme nacho generation, but even if you grew up in middle america on pop-food stalwarts like julia child/jacques pepin/joy of cooking, this isn't exactly andrew zimmern territory.