I know someone who will still get drunk and start telling randoms at a party about the Matrix and Baudrillard.
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z)
i mean, that's cool, i'm glad they can see it in a baudrillardian sense... i can't really do that, first off not having read baudrillard, second off as much as i respect the wachowskis as trans pioneers it just seems like so much neoplatonism to me, shallow and kind of wrong. even if i actively try to read it as relating to trans depersonalization/derealization i can't get anything out of it, because fucking dualism! i haven't even seen the sequels because nobody has ever said anything to indicate that i would benefit from seeing them.
― sock fingering, baby (rushomancy), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 13:27 (four years ago) link
the sequels are great and linger on the meaning of personal choice in a world where all of your options are laid out for you in advance. imo you would benefit from seeing them
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 13:44 (four years ago) link
prepared for the flurry of posts informing me that the matrix sequels are not great
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 13:45 (four years ago) link
Just gonna say that Speed Racer is great and leave it at that
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 13:58 (four years ago) link
speed racer is easily their best imo
love to derail an american beauty thread toward the wachowskis
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 14:03 (four years ago) link
Definitely relate to the experience of initially taking the bait w/american beauty. I remember rewatching it when it came out on video and couldnt believe I'd previously fallen for its bullshit.
Fight club & the matrix I smelled a rat from the get-go. At the ending of the matrix when keanu slips on a pair of sick oakley shades and flys away(?) or whatever, I remember yelling out "DO THE DEW!" which 17y/o me thought was a p funny heckle but everyone else in the theater did not
― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 14:31 (four years ago) link
(they were right, heckling any movie is a monstrous activity for savages)
― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 14:32 (four years ago) link
no, it's in The Departed you should smell a rat
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 14:55 (four years ago) link
"The Matrix is surely the kind of film about the matrix that the matrix would have been able to produce" - Baudrillard
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 10 September 2019 15:09 (four years ago) link
Could never get past trying to figure out how Morpheus's shades stayed in place.
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 15:11 (four years ago) link
Will echo some of the posts itt, I saw AB as a 15-16 old and it genuinely seemed ~profound~ at the time. Definitely get how it could strike a chord with an angsty, clueless suburban adolescent suspicious of the adult rat race maannn.Like only two years later in college I excitedly put in on for some friends who had never seen it before and I was incredibly embarrassed.
― circa1916, Tuesday, 10 September 2019 20:20 (four years ago) link
― don’t bore us, get to the aeon of horus (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 20:23 (four years ago) link
― american bradass (BradNelson)
that's ok brad if you think i should watch them i'll put them on the list
i too thought "speed racer" was their best film but i only watched the first 20 minutes, should i watch the rest?
― sock fingering, baby (rushomancy), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 23:38 (four years ago) link
matrix sequels are terrible tbh
― theRZA the JZA and the NDB (darraghmac), Tuesday, 10 September 2019 23:47 (four years ago) link
Matrix Reloaded has its considerably good moments but that ending...
Revolutions is dreadful imo.
― omar little, Wednesday, 11 September 2019 00:24 (four years ago) link
Speed Racer is one of the greatest films of the 2000s
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 11 September 2019 00:37 (four years ago) link
When American Beauty came out my closest moviegoing friends and I were eighteen-year-old boys--literally the stupidest creatures that God ever put on this planet--and even we all immediately recognized that American Beauty was a reeking heap of rancid offal.— ℑ 𝔇𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔪𝔢 𝔜𝔬𝔲 (@NickPinkerton) September 12, 2019
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 September 2019 11:47 (four years ago) link
I'm going to put this here, but I just learned via Red Letter Media that not only are there two cinematographers named Conrad Hall (Conrad L. Hall and Conrad W. Hall), but they *both* worked on American Beauty!
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 17:43 (four years ago) link
Father and son. L’s father was James Norman Hall, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty.
― by the light of the burning Citroën, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 17:53 (four years ago) link
Ah. Maybe I knew that.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 18:06 (four years ago) link
I didn’t dislike AMERICAN BEAUTY—I hated it. It’s not that it’s badly made—it isn’t. It has snappy rhythms and Kevin Spacey’s line readings are very smart, and Annette Bening is skillful in the scene where she beats up on herself. But the picture is a con. (1999)— pauline kael bot (@paulinekaelbot) January 14, 2023
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:02 (one year ago) link
Kael OTM
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:07 (one year ago) link
It is very skillful at passing off some bullshit as deep truths.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:08 (one year ago) link
most poorly-written Oscar winner EVER. And that's saying something.
One of those categories that had 4 good-to-great nominees and somehow the other, utter piece of shit ended up winning.
American Beauty, Alan BallBeing John Malkovich, Charlie KaufmanMagnolia, Paul Thomas AndersonThe Sixth Sense, M. Night ShyamalanTopsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:15 (one year ago) link
i have never seen this film
― mark s, Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:16 (one year ago) link
One of the replies to that tweet links to a late interview with Kael. Can’t wait to dive into this.
She rips on it more here. https://t.co/feAFtXujD6— Charles Bennet (@ChuckBenetRamse) January 14, 2023
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:18 (one year ago) link
Being John Malkovich >> Topsy-Turvy >> The Sixth Sense >> American Beauty >> Magnolia
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:31 (one year ago) link
Poppycock
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:31 (one year ago) link
xps I live for new Kael audio clips
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:32 (one year ago) link
C’mon man Magnolia’s great
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:33 (one year ago) link
I'll grant Magnolia's likely in fourth place in that lineup
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:35 (one year ago) link
American Beauty is bad, Magnolia is actively painful to watch, which I count as worse than bad.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:37 (one year ago) link
Annette Bening's AB character would've likened up Magnolia.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:39 (one year ago) link
more films shd end with a rain of toads
― mark s, Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:41 (one year ago) link
Interviewer: So you haven't broken down at all and thought, "Well, I'm going to watch Nashville today"?Kael: No, I haven't watched Nashville again. I was thinking about it because of this new... what do you call it, CVD? Or what are the initials?Interviewer: Uh, CD-ROM, or...?Kael: Uh, no.Interviewer: Oh DVD.Kael: Yeah, DDD... issue is supposed to be coming out.
Kael: No, I haven't watched Nashville again. I was thinking about it because of this new... what do you call it, CVD? Or what are the initials?
Interviewer: Uh, CD-ROM, or...?
Kael: Uh, no.
Interviewer: Oh DVD.
Kael: Yeah, DDD... issue is supposed to be coming out.
― jmm, Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:41 (one year ago) link
kael still otm tbh smh
― mark s, Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:42 (one year ago) link
Digital Dideo Disk
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:49 (one year ago) link
I think the biography shed light on the lie that was her claim to never have seen a movie more than once
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:52 (one year ago) link
Her reviews said so. She offhandedly remarked more than once about catching '30s comedies on TV.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 January 2023 17:54 (one year ago) link
Right, I think her preference was turned into a character flaw by external sources
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 January 2023 18:10 (one year ago) link
She also said two somewhat different things on different occasions.
a. I don't like watching a movie more than once, ever.b. I don't like watching a movie more than once before writing the review.
― jmm, Saturday, 14 January 2023 18:15 (one year ago) link
That YouTube interview is good--never heard that before. There's some funny stuff around the 12:00 mark about staying to watch a film twice in a theatre; around 34:00, she says she was unfairly ambushed about her Nashville review, by Altman too, even though she checked with his office beforehand and was encouraged to review the film preemptively; and around 42:00, there's some talk about tasteless movie jokes that makes me wonder again if she could last today.
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 January 2023 18:32 (one year ago) link
Who is the interviewer?
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 January 2023 18:38 (one year ago) link
I mean the NYers lead movie critic now is Anthony Lane, who fills the back page with his wet dreams about Elastigirl (Mrs Incredible) so if he’s not fired I don’t know why Kael would be
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Saturday, 14 January 2023 18:55 (one year ago) link
Never took to Anthony Lane, so I rarely look at him; didn't know anything about his big dust-up with The Incredibles until now. I think Kael had the capacity to offend more than that, but maybe you're right, maybe she'd be fine.
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 January 2023 19:22 (one year ago) link
He’s a terrible writer I can never get past the first paragraph
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Saturday, 14 January 2023 19:29 (one year ago) link
Haven't read him in a while. He seems incapable of any kind of passionate or committed argument. The reviews feel like a string of pointless quips, and you're left with nothing.
― jmm, Saturday, 14 January 2023 19:30 (one year ago) link
yes he's amazingly and incredibly fucking awful i hate him
also he's married to noted english fascist allison pearson
― mark s, Saturday, 14 January 2023 19:40 (one year ago) link
Seems like a bit of a detail there!
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 14 January 2023 19:42 (one year ago) link
I was unaware of that Incredibles 2 review too. Haha, wow. Great Deadspin headline:“New Yorker Film Critic Has Reservations About Children's Movie Because His Boner Kept Blocking The Screen”
― circa1916, Saturday, 14 January 2023 19:59 (one year ago) link