movies

[PujolJunkie]

Scott Pilgrim, after a 2nd viewing, is still so [expletive] good. It's seriously a crime against humanity that it didn't blow up the box office. Depressing.

[ghostrunner]

Just got around to watching "A Serious Man."

It's weird to say this given their awards and acclaim, but the Coens are completely underrated. By which I mean, anyone not considering them among the top 5 directors/moviemakers of all time is missing out on something. Maybe they just play to my personal preferences and sensibilities, but nobody except maybe Hitchcock has hit it out of the park so many times in my opinion. Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg have their highs, but the Coen's hit the mark over and over again and they do it in different genres, different subject matter, and on top of it they write their own screenplays. Who else does that?

[cpebbles]

Tyler Perry

[JL21]

Just got around to watching "A Serious Man."

It's weird to say this given their awards and acclaim, but the Coens are completely underrated. By which I mean, anyone not considering them among the top 5 directors/moviemakers of all time is missing out on something. Maybe they just play to my personal preferences and sensibilities, but nobody except maybe Hitchcock has hit it out of the park so many times in my opinion. Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg have their highs, but the Coen's hit the mark over and over again and they do it in different genres, different subject matter, and on top of it they write their own screenplays. Who else does that?

Louis Malle. Documentaries, drama, noir, etc.

[ghostrunner]

Just got around to watching "A Serious Man."

It's weird to say this given their awards and acclaim, but the Coens are completely underrated. By which I mean, anyone not considering them among the top 5 directors/moviemakers of all time is missing out on something. Maybe they just play to my personal preferences and sensibilities, but nobody except maybe Hitchcock has hit it out of the park so many times in my opinion. Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg have their highs, but the Coen's hit the mark over and over again and they do it in different genres, different subject matter, and on top of it they write their own screenplays. Who else does that?

Louis Malle. Documentaries, drama, noir, etc.

I didn't say it, but I was thinking of American filmmakers. I can think of several foreign directors I'd put on the same level.

I haven't seen a lot of Malle, but it's odd that individually his movies are highly acclaimed yet he never seems to get thrown in the same tier as other French directors like Truffaut, Godard, etc...

[The Third Man]

Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg have their highs, but the Coen's hit the mark over and over again and they do it in different genres, different subject matter, and on top of it they write their own screenplays. Who else does that?

Billy Wilder.

[ghostrunner]

Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg have their highs, but the Coen's hit the mark over and over again and they do it in different genres, different subject matter, and on top of it they write their own screenplays. Who else does that?

Billy Wilder.

Good one.

[The Third Man]

I don't know if the Coens are in my top five - they're definitely contenders, though. My top three, I'm pretty set on (Scorsese, Bergman, Welles in some order), and then after that you get a whole mess of guys that can stake a claim to the next spots: the Coens, Woody Allen, Wilder, Jean-Pierre Melville, Kubrick, Tarantino, PTA, Satyajit Ray, Kurosawa, etc.

I'm never sure how to treat Coppola in these (pointless) list exercises; he directed my favorite movie, and two others that are in my top five (plus The Conversation), and then the rest of his career ranges from middling to dreck. It's like if you slapped Barry Bonds' 2001-2004 seasons in the middle of David Eckstein's career.

Anyway, I'm way overdue to see A Serious Man. I'll make a point of pushing it to the top of my queue; I regret not catching it while it was showing in Olathe for, like, a week. Can't wait for True Grit.

[cards2468]

Watched a good documentary on Netflix instant yesterday: 180deg South

It's about a guy's journey to Patagonia sorta retracing the journey of the founders of North Face and Patagonia (they're good friends, oh, and the founder of Patagonia is a total badass)

[JL21]

I haven't seen a lot of Malle, but it's odd that individually his movies are highly acclaimed yet he never seems to get thrown in the same tier as other French directors like Truffaut, Godard, etc...

That always annoys me. When you see top 50 or top 100 director lists, Malle rarely makes the cut. Or if he does, he's way down at the bottom. I think it's because of his diversity. Unlike Truffaut or Godard or Bergman or just about any director ever, he didn't have a specific style that he stuck to. Sure, there are some recurring themes with Malle but he was all over the map thematically from film to film. Other than taboo subject matter and a light New Wave touch, his style was quite varied. And that probably makes it difficult for people to point to him as influential or whatever. In my mind, though, it makes him better. He wasn't just making films in a variety of genres. He was making GOOD films, very good films, in a variety of genres. That's far more impressive to me than Godard making one film after another than hammers you over the head with the same New Wave techniques.