I Just Wanted To Take Another Look At You - the 2018 ILX Film Poll Results Thread

also, isn't that 42nd?

my turkish friends want me to see wild pear; gonna look it up

joint 41st xp

Kinda annoying but fine, at 15th on mine.

https://i.imgur.com/CZUE9qG.jpg

41= Le Livre d'image [The Image Book]
w/d: Jean-Luc Godard
CH 2018 collage
91 points, 4 votes, 1 #1

The Image Book... Sadlol. Nobody told me there would be large swathes without sound, and I'm still not entirely sure it wasn't a mistake. Much slower than usual, most of it the same thing he's done in decades, but a lot of the stuff about the arab world was kinda touching.

― Frederik B, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

after seeing The Image Book twice I'm convinced it's a masterpiece. he talks about Faust at the end but the movie is about Sisyphus: "Even if nothing had turned out as we had hoped, it does not diminish our hopes, for they were a necessary utopia." at 88, Godard despairs that the love of his life, cinema, is incapable of properly addressing and much less combatting human suffering. But he keeps going, dancing himself to death. The first time I saw it with friends, who expected a more rigorous and clear political movie (like Ici et Ailleurs), criticized the Central Region section as "problematic" and "othering," and while I don't necessarily disagree (it's all very armchair), I don't think it's a political movie, it's a man looking back at his life and realizing he's failed. Yet he continues. I find that incredibly moving.

I caught maybe a dozen of the films referenced, but I never got the sense that Godard was holier than thou or pretentious. He's always been pretty humble in his presentation and totally open about the creative process. His attitude is inviting, like hey, I'm going to try some stuff, let's see if it works and have fun. This stretches from Breathless to The Image Book. Does anyone except Godard understand even 75% of The Image Book? Probably not, but It doesn't matter.

― flappy bird, Tuesday, February 26, 2019

a 2019 American release; near the top of next poll for me.

xpost
Voted for TWPT - it's a bit like the Jia (which I only saw this year), not exactly a bold departure from their previous, better movies, but still with enough of the good stuff - performances, visuals, story - to make it p satisfying. The image that sic has used is from the film's best scene, which has a kind of erotic undertow that's mostly missing from the rest of the movie. It's also probably slightly too long (there's an extended theological conversation towards the end which unbalances the whole). Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is the masterpiece, for me, but then I like murder mysteries.

voted for the image book. don't think i made it past the surface, thematically, but still an incredibly captivating experience; even as just a light and sound show

https://i.imgur.com/eKTNena.jpg

39= mid90s
w/d: Jonah Hill
US 2018 Super 16mm
92 points, 3 votes

You can see Mid90s' influences all over the place (Gus Van Sant seems like an obvious one), but for a first film, I found this impressive--much more so than Eighth Grade, I thought, and as actor-directed debuts go, I liked it at least as much as Lady Bird. Na-kel Smith's character isn't the most demanding role--the benevolent, wise symbolic older brother--but he carries it off so well, I hope (and assume he will) get some year-end recognition. Lucas Hedges's real older brother is Smith's diametric opposite, and he's really good too. My first reaction to the event that sets up the ending was "Was that really necessary?" (stylistically, it's convincingly jarring), but the ending itself, I loved. The music sounds mostly mid-'90s, not much of which I recognized, but Hill will stray; there's a great minute of the Mamas & the Papas' "Dedicated to the One I Love."

― clemenza, Sunday, November 11, 2018

i liked the acting and the comic timing, the nostalgia was a bit much, the main kid's tv show t-shirts in the beginning were one detail that rang false. dialogue was full of exposition. thought lady bird was more idiosyncratic and interesting, but it was an enjoyable watch.

soundtrack was kind of the hip-hop version of the big chill

― symsymsym, Sunday, November 11, 2018

All that was left from TWPT was the hectoring voice of the main character but yes the love interest and the father were both wonderful. There was more to it.

Need another watch of the Godard, but even on a distracted watch on Mubi it's really impressive what he is still doing.

m90s: no

half-watched mid90s on Kanopy while I was finding most of the images for the poll; it's like a made-for-tv remake of Kids

https://i.imgur.com/Uq3jtwd.jpg

39= Thoroughbreds
w/d: Cory Finley
US 2017 digital
92 points, 4 votes

Image Book my #1 and favorite film of the decade

https://i.imgur.com/SZFI2Zn.png

35= 死靈魂 [Dead Souls]
d: Wang Bing (doco)
CN 2018 digital
98 points, 3 votes

I only had time for a shorter Wang Bing film, which I did vote for

https://i.imgur.com/2tECsPD.jpg

35= Acht Stunden sind kein Tag [Eight Hours Are Not A Day]
w/d: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
DE 1972 16mm TV
98 points, 3 votes

90 minutes to go on Eight Hours... Is this the least neurotic character ever played by Hanna Schygulla?

What comes across in the less distanced/Brechtian performance style is how good and versatile all these actors are.

Also I find Gottfried John ridiculously sexy.

― Dr Morbius, Sunday, 25 March 2018

Halfway through Eight Hours. I don't know who I like better, Grandma or Gregor--they're like the funniest movie old-people since Aunt Lotte in Stranger Than Paradise. (I know--TV, and they came first.) I wonder if Fassbinder considered shooting it in Cinemascope, just to accommodate Gottfried John's eyebrows.

...

I was a little apprehensive about seeing this. There was the length, obviously, but more in relation to my own sleep deprivation and whether I'd hold up. But more than that, I saw a dozen-plus Fassbinder films before I was 25--he was the guy whose every new film you rushed off to see if you were studying film in the early '80s, his and Scorsese's--but, except for Berlin Alexanderplatz a couple of more times--I never went back to anything after that. I just didn't know how his idiosyncrasies would hold up; some of those films I remember positively, some I doubt I'd have much use for today.

Really glad I followed through--liked pretty much the whole eight hours. The wedding party, in particular, was masterful, and there was so much humour. Of all that I could single out, I'd put Gottfried John's unwavering affection for his grandmother at the top of the list. Great soundtrack, too--I'm off in search of the Spooky Tooth song he used.

― clemenza, Monday, 3 September 2018

dead souls my number two, understand the running time (and subject matter) make it a tough proposition. but it's vital, captivating and haunting; an incredible documentation of oral history that interplays with the pretty haunting footage shot at the location of the camps. think someone said it on another thread but it's key that wang never prods or pushes the survivors, lets them tell their stories and keeps editing to a minimum

been awhile since I’ve seen it but I also think there's a lot here to be explored in terms of the ideology of ‘authority' and ‘work’ - and how the organisational structure of the camp kinda lasts to the bitter end when it’s meaningless

haven't seen eight hours..., would love to!

had 8H at #2

on Criterion

https://i.imgur.com/cYdagp7.jpg

35= Phantom Thread
d: Paul Thomas Anderson w: PTA & DDL
US 2018 35mm
98 points, 4 votes

Placed at #1 last year, with 416 points, 19 votes and 6 #1s.

what a windbag movie

- darraghmac, Thursday, 26 July 2018

latecomers

I may have voted for Phantom Thread both years, can't remember.

latecomers people who don't live in NYC or LA, the only cities in which it was released in 2017

i know, just kiddin

(US voters could've recognized NY/LA as part of their country and still voted for it last year... as most did)

won without their votes, a true champion

https://i.imgur.com/nhlDVpq.jpg

35= Can You Ever Forgive Me?
d: Marielle Heller w: Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty b: Lee Israel
US 2018 digital 6K
98 points, 6 votes

Can You Ever Forgive Me? was good and its place in the bottom half of a top 10 is appropriate in a relatively mediocre year

― flappy bird, Friday, November 16, 2018

6/10 - might have rated this higher if the trailer hadn't given away the entire plot of the movie

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, March 2, 2019

the queerest mainstream film I saw last year

First thing I voted for to place! No masterpiece--I had it near the bottom of my list--but I'll take McCarthy in more roles like this, pls.

It understands a central truth about writing: you need money and you lie.

I wouldn't make any great claims for it but I loved it anyway.

precisely

Also, I highly doubt anyone else here watches Jann (singer/songwriter Jann Arden's CBC sitcom) but between it and this film, middle-age-lesbian cringe-comedy seems to be a thing lately.

regret missing this one, will rectify soon

I wouldn't raise your expectations, but it's slier and fleeter than its trailers suggest, and I'd watch a series of movies about the McCarthy-Grant duo.

https://i.imgur.com/RwMEjXq.jpg

34. The Death of Stalin
d: Armando Ianucci w: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin a: Peter Fellows b: Fabien Nury, Thierry Robin
UK 2017 digital 5K
100 points, 5 votes

Placed at 22 in 2017, with 104 points and 6 votes

I laughed so hard throughout Death of Stalin and also shivered and that's exactly what the film was about, in that regard it's a complete success, basically I don't agree with you guys but I love you all nonetheless.

- Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 25 July 2018

I thought it was very funny and surprisingly moving. I'd have preferred everyone to be British, i guess, it would have made more sense and been funnier. Isaacs was the bomb but Andrea Riseborough's performance was stunning as well.

- jed, Wednesday, 25 July 2018

Can you ever forgive me was my first pick to place as well! It caused me to experience emotions of sadness and didn't try to make the central duo suddenly prosocial at the end which is nice.

"Who the FUCK would want eternal life??" - Buscemi/Khrushchev

this movie was not good

ffs

just save yourself the bother and watch the "hilarious" trailer.

this was bad, panel show levels of unfunny

just watch the armando ianucci shows

go get yer Apatow