Trump Films (the Best Films)

Metropolitan is set in the early '70s? Honestly, that went right past me--I just thought it was set when it was made.

Looking around trying to confirm that, and all I can come up with is "It's set, according to a title card, in 'Manhattan, Christmas Vacation, not so long ago.'" How did you place it in the early '70s?...I just don't remember anything specific.

To me it was set in the 80s.

It's based on being in NY after/during Stillman's freshman year so I guess 70s is right, but it really did seem like the 8Os.

"I was specifically portraying the 1969 deb season, as during that season there was very much the feeling that the debutante era was over. "

https://www.theawl.com/2012/08/a-conversation-with-whit-stillman-about-the-script-of-metropolitan/

I'm going to have to watch it again because I would not have guessed that year.

But:

"People can come to their own conclusions about what period it is. And the reaction was great: there were some people who thought it was the 50s, others, the 60s, others who thought it was the 80s, when it was filmed. What helped the ambiguity on film is that most cars parked on Park Avenue, or on any street, are old cars."

The Stillman universe has it's own unique sense of time and logic, but another tell re: Metropolitan's time frame is Audrey (Carolyn Farina's character) briefly reappearing as a grown-up in The Last Days of Disco, which was somewhat clearly set in '79-'81.

That's a good point--hadn't though about the two films in relation to each other. (Doesn't Audrey turn up in the one he made a couple of years ago, too?)

"thought"

Carolyn Farina had a small role as a waitress in Damsels In Distress.

The Incredibles 2 flirts with being a Trump movie with some "Make Superheroes Legal Again" sloganeering, but then makes the billionaire into a loveable boy scout and the real villain a--well, I don't wanna spoil, but its curious, to say the least.

I still liked the film (Brad Bird is probably the best director of action, live or otherwise, currently working) but either Bird seems ideologically confused or the film bears some of the marks of probably having gone into development before November 2016 and then finding ways to gesture towards Trump without really knowing what to do with this context.

how has no one said DEADPOOL yet? sure, first one came out in early 2016, but that's the Trump movie.

search: the doc Bisbee '17

as the filmmaker noted, they started shooting a month before "Dipshit was elected."

They've got Whit Stillman's Metropolitan coming up, which the series host described as a snapshot of "Trump's New York." Intriguing, but I've seen Metropolitan two or three times, and I would have said that's as far away from Trump as you can get.

Yeah, Metropolitan could be set in Christmas 2017 and it still wouldn't be in Trump's anything -- it is interested in entirely different stuff. I find that description of the movie almost inconceivable.

Bird seems ideologically confused

his response to "Brad Bird's films seems v v Randian" was "nuh-uh, I have learnt over time that a little bit of compromise, but not much, can be practical"

he made the iron giant so he gets a pass from me even if he decides to make nothing but documentaries about puppies being kicked into woodchippers from now on

Nocturnal Animals feels like a parable about the gap between urban coastal America and red-state Texas in a Trump-era way.

ehhh

Fury Road definitely feels like it belongs in this category, despite having come out in 2015.

Nah, Fury Road is well Brexit

god fine. FINE. do not test me on this. pic.twitter.com/pIbC45xUN2

— Georgina Voss (@gsvoss) February 20, 2018

(thread well worth a look (Brexit not so much))

is immortan joe the eu, and max and furiosa the plucky brexiters? or is joe the crusty brexiter, trying to keep his grip on the imaginary 'good old days', as represented by the brides? truly the mark of great art is that one can read volumes into it

Because we're free to say anything's about anything, I'm counting Stranger Things--set in 1984--as a Trump film.

http://i.pinimg.com/originals/42/3f/7e/423f7eaac00d27d2572f602a25d1c783.jpg

Hmm - more explanation needed.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-baron-trump-adventures#/

I can't even pretend to have anything that goes deeper than the picture above.

Since I recently signed up for Netflix, I guess I can finally watch this show, huh?

Didn't prioritize it, as interest in it seemed to have peaked a few years ago--I don't know when the second season landed, but I don't remember it generating nearly as much discussion as the first--but currency is rarely ever a worry of mine.

Don't inflate your expectations too much, and it's worth your time. To use a cliche, its heart is in the right place.

I watched Putney Swope the other day - it's all about a guy who is unexpectedly voted in to the top job and then goes around telling people they're fired.

Back To The Future Part II surely still the definitive Trump movie

I'll go with the obvious--A Face in the Crowd--with Heath Ledger's Joker close behind. (Putney Swope, definitely.)

Which, again, was not Hoberman's method--he was interested only in films released during someone's term of office.

Sorry, clemenza, forgot the opening paragraph of the thread by the time I got to the bottom.

Not directed at you at all--that was Hoberman's way of looking at it, and it's what made the book so fascinating (that every president creates a body of films that mirrors him)--but as you can see from my own post, I'm really interested in films that might anticipate somebody too.

From the Us thread:

The ending is illogical.

Agree--in the context of the film's universe, it makes no sense. Worse, the last 15-20 minutes seem eight times as long.

this movie will disappoint those who want A Message About Our Times from Peele

Maybe. But if you believe Robin Wood's contention that most every good horror film is about the return of the repressed, shadow-mom's "We're Americans" points to a very obvious reading. I'm not saying it's the correct reading, but it is there, plain as day.

I can't really bring myself to recommend it--if you know anything about the subject, that doesn't need any explanation--but The El Duce Tapes, reassembled footage chronicling the Mentors' sad saga, did inspire (?) 45 minutes of stand-up conversation after the film, and twice it very explicitly casts itself as a Trump film. I've known about the Mentors for 30+ years, but the film was the first time I ever actually heard them. So don't shoot the messenger. (Just about the smallest audience I've ever experienced for a Hot Docs screening--less than half full.)

it came out before the election, but i'd like to submit rob zombie's 31 as a trump film

most trump films came out before the election imo

The El Duce Tapes is technically new, but it's all assembled from interviews done 25-30 years ago. So you get El Duce ranting about Mexican immigration and building a wall in 1991. (Pretty sure this was one of the incentives for the filmmakers to get the film made and out there.)

I'll say more on the Nixon-films thread, but it doesn't take much to earmark Charles Ferguson's Watergate documentary for this one: it ends with the Santayana quote about history, and the subtitle is Or, How We Learned to Stop an Out-of-Control President.

For those who are thinking of skipping The Dead Don't Die (I won't judge you): The name Trump is never uttered, but his Secretary of Energy is effectively responsible for this movie's zombie apocalypse.

Ladybird had a subtext of nostalgia for the Bush era, if not Bush, which I think worked better now that that time seems in some sense a “simpler time,” which it might not have in 2013

― Trϵϵship, Tuesday, August 14, 2018 10:11 AM (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what?

I'll take this over the Bush years any day

the idea that Trump has even approached Bush yet is insane

As you can pretty much guess going in, Mike Wallace Is Here--for obvious reasons, and there's also a Trump interview clip. Okay, not great--a few clips stand out, but kind of meandering.

Where's My Roy Cohn?, six ways to Sunday.

Is Joker one of these? Did the Incels exist as a thing as such pre-Trump?

This stuff about Metropolitan being set in the 60s has blown my mind.

Elliott Rogers killings were in 2014, so yeah

Joker is not an incel movie

does Tiger King count?

I mentioned Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America on the political thread. Almost finished--really, it's great.

I've never seen Caddyshack--depending upon why you watch movies, that's probably like saying you've never seen Citizen Kane for some people--but James Poniewozik spends a couple of pages on the Rodney Dangerfield character as being a definitive Trump antecedent.

A related interview:

http://www.vox.com/recode/2019/9/16/20868497/caddyshack-rodney-dangerfield-trump-james-poniewozki-recode-media-peter-kafka