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

there definitely were a lot of subgenres in darko, "sci-fi thriller, adolescent coming-of-age story, social satire," but they were all pretty superficial, banal takes on them. casting noah wyle and drew barrymore as the beacons of intelligence in a suburban hell is a warnign sign. also a wry conversation about smurfette. also multiple musical slow-down-speed-up setpieces set to entire songs.

Buffy not remotely similar to donnie darko whatsoever?

If you read the director's book you can learn all about the magical elements of the world and how the floating water chest blobs relate to time travel and bunny heads.

best use of furries since the shining, only to be topped by avatar in 2010

I liked Donnie Darko and voted for it, though not very high. I don't like the fact that it thinks it's clever when it's clearly not, but aside from that it's a really well-made film - basically, the director clearly thinks he made a philosophical masterpiece, when what he did was make a great high school movie.

Also, I don't feel like I have to justify anything on this thread. Some of your votes SICKEN me, people.

If you read the director's book you can learn all about the magical elements of the world and how the floating water chest blobs relate to time travel and bunny heads.

yeah I don't think this is gonna convince me that this is a good movie

the director clearly thinks he made a philosophical masterpiece, when what he did was make a great high school movie.

you know if this were true it would kinda be the absolute high school movie!

if yr film's premise is here be monsters, too, in the land of strip malls, i think i hate you a priori

the film's premise is that getting high and riding your bike and time travel are really cool and also sometimes shit gets ~heavy~ like an airplane engine but its peace cuz youll get it in another lyfe

oh, that wasn't my intention in posting that. i think it's the worst thing ever. xp

really loving how pretty much everyone thinks the poll is an absolute disgrace but no one agrees on what're actually the bad films.

According to Kelly and his fictional Philosophy of Time Travel, at midnight on October 2 - a Tangent Universe branches off the Primary Universe around the time when Donnie is called out of his bedroom by Frank, immediately before the appearance of the Artifact, the faulty jet engine. The inherently unstable Tangent Universe will collapse in just over 28 days and take the Primary Universe with it if not corrected. Closing the Tangent Universe is the duty of the Living Receiver, Donnie, who wields certain supernatural powers to help him in the task.

i haven't seen the box so i don't know to what extent this continues there, but with darko and southland tales at least i think kelly's basically taking kind of a collage approach to history (specifically american history, as refracted through pop culture). darko is about the 1980s in the same way southland tales is about the '00s. they're like joseph cornell boxes, and i think they're disquieting and funny and original. darko is more coherent than southland (and i'm not talking about narrative, since that's pretty secondary to both of them -- its mood and themes are less of a jumble), so i voted it higher on my ballot, even tho my favorite parts of southland i probably like more than my favorite parts of darko.

we now return you to your regularly scheduled hating.

oh okay good xp

really loving how pretty much everyone thinks the poll is an absolute disgrace but no one agrees on what're actually the bad films.

― toastmodernist, 10 February 2010 16:55 (15 seconds ago) Bookmark

totally, totally, indisputably the best part of it!

CHUT UP! CHUT UP!

I say this all the time I gotta admit. also the "feces are baby mice" line

ok so here is one more film before i head off to work

i think that may actually be a good take. The Box is very 70s. (xposts)

basically, the director clearly thinks he made a philosophical masterpiece, when what he did was make a great high school movie.

not rly sure this is true... why "clearly"? this kind of response is funny 2 me ne way, there will always be people out there who enjoying condescending to filmmakers. the latter usually aren't booksmart, which is why you end up with loopy but great movies like darko (or zardoz).

the box owns

the box doesn't really do the "collage approach to history," just tacks on kelly's obsession with belabored sci-fi explanations and watery time travel portals to a richard matheson story that SO didn't need them

btw: nice guesswork last night folks, but none of you came up with this one....

also lol Dan you liked Crash
So fucking what? That doesn't change the fact that "Donnie Darko" as I saw it, is a fucking waste of time and pretty much on par in the "so busy thinking it's clever that it isn't noticing that it is actually entirely fucking stupid and awful and an outright abortion of a film that is a crime against art" stakes as bullshit like "Magnolia" and "The Hours".

For whatever other faults "Crash" has, it was very explicit and upfront about its setup and characters; the decision to buy into the story being told is left up to the viewer but the work put into presenting what's going on has been done. Bullshit like "Donnie Darko" basically just says "if we just make everything monochrome and mopey, people who are looking to appear smart in order to cover up for feeling like everyone hates them will fill in enough blanks and finish off our story for us".

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/4Months3Weeksand2Days.jpg

I knew it would be harrowing, but I wasn't expecting it to be so very tense. Kept me in its grip throughout and was brilliant at portraying a world in which just everyday living was made a pain in the arse at every turn, even without a friend's unwanted pregnancy to deal with.

― Alba

the voice review is right that it builds up this horrible sense of foreboding -- i could barely watch it sometimes -- but it isn't exactly 'graphic', bar one shot. in itself the long, static take thing i can take or leave, but for the kind of horrible negotiations this film is about, it's completely right.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it

that's what I liked about it, it's constantly setting up these red herrings that you think are going to come back into the plot, but they don't. You end up feeling jumpy and nervous, same as the characters have to permanently feel living in 1989 Romania - it's a nice little trick by the director I think, he puts you into the same mindspace as the people you're watching by making it seem like you're watching a thriller.

― Matt #2

i totally expected to dislike this, i thought it would be a slice of dardennes style miserablism but it is astonishing. such a different experience to the one i expected when i entered the cinema. the tension is built up incredibly subtly. the scene with the knife had me wriggling in my chair with anxiety.

― jed

pretty much the whole film had me wriggling in my chair with anxiety! like you i wasn't expecting much from this.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it

Rolling Romanian New Wave Thread

#22

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Cristian Mungiu
2007
Romania
(519 points, 22 votes, 1 first place)

*rolls eyes*

*shakes head*

*sighs loudly*

morbs do u ever say anything like it's your opinion rather than objective fact?

― zvookster, Wednesday, February 10, 2010 10:49 AM (6 minutes ago)

careful, don't blow on the house of cards

Ach, yeah, I guess the 'clearly' isn't within the film itself, but the box-set commentary/extras, and the critical/public reaction. Which is one of the reasons that the film gets away with it.

xposts to hm

haw i'm just about to watch this one on netflix!

I voted for Donnie Darko because it's a great mood piece but the more Kelly tries to explain it the worse it gets. David Lynch doesn't go around handing out Cliffnotes.

Wow okay I am totally floored that placed this high.

great double feature with Knocked Up

also multiple musical slow-down-speed-up setpieces set to entire songs.

^this stood out 2 me as p. obnoxious when i saw DD a second time

great double feature with Knocked Up

― ryan, Wednesday, February 10, 2010 4:59 PM (27 seconds ago) Bookmark

lol "i wish there'd been a scene where they go to vegas"

This is the movie Knocked Up could have been if Judd Apatow weren't such a pernicious pro-life propagandist

two sorta-surprise placings in a row (not much room left for more tho)

wow never even heard of this

guys here's something to think about what if jake's characters mom had gotten an abortion before the airplane engine in donnie darko??

That doesn't change the fact that "Donnie Darko" as I saw it, is a fucking waste of time and pretty much on par in the "so busy thinking it's clever that it isn't noticing that it is actually entirely fucking stupid and awful and an outright abortion of a film that is a crime against art" stakes as bullshit like "Magnolia" and "The Hours".

OTM alert

y'all probably like requiem for a dream, too

"if we just make everything monochrome and mopey, people who are looking to appear smart in order to cover up for feeling like everyone hates them will fill in enough blanks and finish off our story for us".

casting entirely hypothetical aspersions onto people who enjoy a particular cultural artifact is um really lazy criticism sorry

What if Richard Kelly's mom got an abortion before he directed Southland Tales?

i found 'three months, two weeks' or whatever it's called very gripping, but it hasn't stayed with me too much.

y'all probably like requiem for a dream, too

marlon wayans' finest dramatic effort, maybe jared leto's too if i dare say

Yay 4 Months! I was thinking earlier this morning that it was probably out of the running.

requiem for a dream wasn't very gripping, but marlon wayans weeping over his mama has really stuck with me

tv is evil
inspirational speakers can be kiddie diddlers
being a young person is a time of great sadness

morbs do u ever say anything like it's your opinion rather than objective fact?

These are all our opinions, Einstein.

Armond White correct: Romania overrated.

I hated Magnolia, Crash, Requiem for a Dream, and the Hours and don't see what any of those films have in common with Donnie Darko (which tbf doesn't have much in common with ANY other films at all, its such a weird mishmash)

Sort of like that the tensest scene of 4/3/2 is an otherwise jovial family dinner.

highly recommend 4 months 3 wks 2 days, it's pretty incredible and kinda doesn't end up where you think it will. the armond white review linked in the romanian new wave thread is one of those reviews which reveals him as the subhuman he is fwiw.

David Lynch doesn't go around handing out Cliffnotes.

true. tbh there are not very many directors who i really want to hear explain their movies to me.

(that's for us to do.)