― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dan (Very Odd Read On This Movie, IMO) Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:33 (seventeen years ago) link
Uhh, that *was* part of the point of it, wasn't it? I mean, they've wiped their memories of their relationship then spend time scrambling thru the mind trying desperately to recover it out of regret. At least thats what I brought from it.
Caveat: I was quite stoned when I watched it, so my attention span was all over the place; I need to watch it again. Or several times, even.
― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:42 (seventeen years ago) link
That was the ENTIRE point of the movie.
― Dan (Oh, Tuomaspaws) Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:50 (seventeen years ago) link
look im perfectly willing to admit that playing under the covers with a lover* can be a perfect memory you wouldnt want to lose, a real life affirming moment and all that, but on the other hand it is a major cliche and a bit cloying the way it is staged. and this is symptomatic of the ENTIRE movie for me in a sense. elevating the banal and quite boring (come on, their relationship is boring!) visscisitudes of a typical relationship and subsequent break up to the heights of sublimity is just sort of, well, pandering to people's already heightened self-regard in these matters.
in other words: i wanted some objectivity and critical distance but didn't really get any. (tho this appears in the winslet character being a bit of a bitch, but not in the Carey character if i remember)
*I may have this wrong
― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:57 (seventeen years ago) link
I guess that must mean I have boring cutsey relationships and I am a neurotic, paranoid writer trying to find validation who is a boring sod.
Or something.
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:01 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't think the point was so much that being in bed with Clementine was the greatest memory Joel ever had as much as it was each memory that was taken away made him that much more desperate to hold onto the ones he had left; the implication was that if he could hold onto at least one memory of her, he could get back all of the others.
Every long-term relationship I know of has extremely rough patches where the very things that attracted you to each other now drive you completely crazy; I thought the movie did a marvelous job of capturing this.
― Dan (Don't Hate!) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― milo z (mlp), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:15 (seventeen years ago) link
y'know, almost all movies are about imaginary people.
― Sym Sym (sym), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:18 (seventeen years ago) link
Totally spot on!
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:50 (seventeen years ago) link
And I'm going to watch this RIGHT NOW too!
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:59 (seventeen years ago) link
see one (1) Maysles Bros film
― jinx hijinks (sanskrit), Monday, 8 May 2006 01:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 8 May 2006 01:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Monday, 8 May 2006 02:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:13 (seventeen years ago) link
and it panders to people who think their romantic relationships are the ultimate existential experience that can be had. fuck that.hrm. i can understand where this is coming from. but again, different viewers, different responses. i don't think this re: relationships, but i like the movie. i just thought it was about, well, life, not nec in an existential way.)
i like adaptation too. esp the ending.
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:30 (seventeen years ago) link
hi john.
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:34 (seventeen years ago) link
there was a twilight zone episode that had a woman without a mouth on it, and that gave me nightmares as a kid.
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 8 May 2006 03:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Monday, 8 May 2006 07:28 (seventeen years ago) link
I think Eternal Sunshine is basically a good romantic comedy which, in a world where romantic comedies are absolute shite, is a bit of a revelation. It does have some visually stunning set pieces too.
BJM is great. I think it's lazy to criticise it for being Meta. I hate that knee-jerk reaction that people have to something being meta. It's almost as if, because the arm chair critic is clever enough to be able to know the correct technical term - metafiction - then it must be a shallow trick that only stupid people would buy into. BJM revolves around a really interesting idea. Its Metaness is secondary.
― JoseMaria (JoseMaria), Monday, 8 May 2006 08:52 (seventeen years ago) link
pandering to people's already heightened self-regard in these matters
Yes, because without this movie those people would see themselves as they are. Where by 'those people' I mean everyone ever.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 8 May 2006 09:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Monday, 8 May 2006 09:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― -+-+-+++- (ooo), Monday, 8 May 2006 12:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dan (Bah) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 8 May 2006 14:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 8 May 2006 14:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 8 May 2006 14:42 (seventeen years ago) link
See, for the last 20 mins I was all I GET IT AWREADY.
The first 20 mins of the Barris movie are astonishing -- big ups to Rockwell and Clooney -- then it just sorta flops around.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 May 2006 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 8 May 2006 14:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Monday, 8 May 2006 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― JoseMaria (JoseMaria), Monday, 8 May 2006 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 8 May 2006 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 8 May 2006 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― -+-+-+++- (ooo), Monday, 8 May 2006 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link
Adaptation really merits repeated viewing, too. crazy brilliant.
― horseshoe (horseshoe), Monday, 8 May 2006 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link
especially since the Kael review has sharper writing than Kaufman offers.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 20 September 2020 02:14 (three years ago) link
I wondered aloud if the movie was overlong on purpose as a supremely meta reference to the revie. I think that was when I really turned against it, lol
― Simon H., Sunday, 20 September 2020 02:17 (three years ago) link
The horror-movie setup & lighting & camera-work made the first half of this weirdly tense. I watched this with my wife and she was sure a jump scare was coming any minute ("Don't go in the basement!" etc.)
― dinnerboat, Monday, 21 September 2020 15:30 (three years ago) link
I can see the ending of Synecdoche as dragging, but that last scene with the old woman? The slow fade to white? the in ear command to "DIE"?
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/498/077/88e.png
― flappy bird, Monday, 21 September 2020 18:58 (three years ago) link
Too on the nose
― plax (ico), Monday, 21 September 2020 19:06 (three years ago) link
Maybe for you but it hit me in the gut! I was 16 when it came out but damn, still does!
― flappy bird, Monday, 21 September 2020 19:10 (three years ago) link
Synecdoche is also his funniest movie
― Simon H., Monday, 21 September 2020 23:38 (three years ago) link
OTM
I love the overeager actor that doesn't age yet continues working with Caden thru Death of a Salesman up into Caden's 70s in the warehouse(s).
"I shall walk more... ambivalently.""Yeah that's good, use that."
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 22 September 2020 05:14 (three years ago) link
Jon Brion's score is perfect and I can't imagine the movie without it
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 22 September 2020 05:15 (three years ago) link
i started antkind & im enjoying
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 22 September 2020 13:04 (three years ago) link
found this almost exactly equal parts riveting and annoying, which is a neat trick I guess
ā Simon H., Friday, September 18, 2020 11:57 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink
at least it was an admirably impenetrable way to toss a few of Netflix's millions into a snowy trashcan
ā Simon H., Saturday, September 19, 2020 12:07 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink
― A White, White Gay (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 18:46 (three years ago) link
More people should post about this movie because I'm not sure what I made of it but everyone so far otm. The Tulsey Town bit was my favourite, nearly leaned over into 'actually menacing' rather than flirting with it in an uncomfortable way. I liked Jessie Buckley's sort of drunk persona in the high school and the dumpster full of drink cartons was super-creepy to me.All the lengthy quotations and reiterations of online opinions just remind me of that Little Britain (sorry) sketch where the romantic novelist is trying to fill pages: ""Do you know the Bible?" said Lord Harper. "No," said Geraldine. "I've never even heard of it." "Oh, it's really good. Let me read it to you," said Lord Harper. "Oh, OK then," said Geraldine. "Chapter One. Genesis. In the beginning God created heaven and earth..."'"
― kinder, Sunday, 11 October 2020 19:19 (three years ago) link
I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since watching it nearly two weeks ago, which I take as a good sign.
― A White, White Gay (cryptosicko), Sunday, 11 October 2020 20:25 (three years ago) link
My problem with this is what it did with the weird/surreal. Commonly in art that deals with the weird either it's part of all the characters' world and they don't notice it as the proverbial fish don't notice the water they're swimming in (as in Synecdoche) or it's used to discomfit and disorientate the protagonist - and the viewer. This film doesn't take either of those paths. When a character in one scene is an ancient and bed-ridden old lady and immediately afterwards is a dancing housewife, and the protagonist obviously notices it but doesn't lose her shit, you know that for all the grand themes of death, aging, relationships etc, that the world we're in isn't real and nothing is at stake. My favourite bits were probably the two car trips, which realistically and painfully depicted her relationship crisis with just enough of a weird edge to keep you on your toes.
Question: who did she turn into in the second car trip, after the Kael monologue, discussing some book (I forget which)?
― neith moon (ledge), Monday, 12 October 2020 08:26 (three years ago) link
I haven't thought about it much since September which is a bummer
― flappy bird, Monday, 23 November 2020 02:28 (three years ago) link
I go back to September all the time
― cerebral halsey (rip van wanko), Monday, 23 November 2020 02:45 (three years ago) link
do you remember
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 23 November 2020 02:51 (three years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/NYyGITK.jpgi was your Butch
― cerebral halsey (rip van wanko), Monday, 23 November 2020 02:58 (three years ago) link
ack hueg!
Lol
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 November 2020 03:20 (three years ago) link
She was very good, much better movie on the whole even if it was unsuccessful or uneven than Wild Rose, the only other thing I've seen her in
― flappy bird, Monday, 23 November 2020 05:29 (three years ago) link
I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since watching it nearly two weeks ago, which I take as a good sign.ā A White, White Gay (cryptosicko), Sunday, October 11, 2020 4:25 PM (two months ago)
I started I'm Thinking of Ending Things a couple of months ago, stopped 20 minutes in--just wasn't in the mood--finally watched it this week. (Not in one sitting, though I of course restarted.) Cryptosicko's comment is pretty much where I am right now: I'm fairly sure I won't forget it, and there are strange films I forget immediately. I don't think I'd started the third season of Fargo yet when I made the first attempt, so I didn't know Jessie Buckley--she had some kind of year there. This is a lazy way to approach the film, I know, but I think my two favourite parts were when it felt like it was about to turn into a horror film: the scratched-up door to the basement, and the whispered warning from the Tulsey Town server.
― clemenza, Monday, 28 December 2020 14:43 (three years ago) link
I haven't read the novel the film is based on, but I have seen it classified as horror. I suspected that Kaufman heavily, er, Kaufmanized the source material, but this makes me curious to read how this material might play with a more genre-specific orientation (though, again, haven't read, so I have no idea if that's what the novel actually is).
― Langdon Alger Stole the Highlights (cryptosicko), Monday, 28 December 2020 17:15 (three years ago) link
the novel is definitely horror
― na (NA), Monday, 28 December 2020 17:16 (three years ago) link
"psychological horror" i guess
yeah, Horrorible
― flappy bird, Monday, 28 December 2020 19:03 (three years ago) link
oh I thought you meant Antkind. hold fire on the author of I'm thinking of ending things
― flappy bird, Monday, 28 December 2020 19:04 (three years ago) link
didn't love Iām Thinking of Ending Things while watching it the first time but it has stayed in my mind and I now want to see it again
― Dan S, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 00:30 (three years ago) link
My partner audibly hating every second of it made it hard for me to form a considered opinion.
― chap, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 09:18 (three years ago) link
i watched what the theater claimed was the official big screen debut of Ending Things with Kaufman there to talk, preceded by his new sad-poetry-slam-meets-john-wilson short Jackals and Fireflies.
i got to ask Kaufman a question that's been on my mind with most of his movies which is if his intent is to leave the audience playing with the puzzlebox and trying to keep up with his story or if he means for us just to try to hang on and enjoy the immediate ride. He said his goal was for people to appreciate the moment to moment experience of the film and not get caught up in the details, which gives it a framework for response on his terms: Jackals and Fireflies was not much to write home about but I found Ending Things equal parts disturbing, frustrating and very very good. Gonna have to see it again. It's very much an existential horror film with a knockout cast.
― POLIZISTEN VERSINKEN IM SCHLAMM (forksclovetofu), Friday, 10 February 2023 06:46 (one year ago) link