What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[coprolite]

18 minutes ago, Detournement said:

@accies1874

The answer to that would be how many of those films do you think will be remembered in a decade or two?

No one in the world thinks a film as good as La Dolce Vita or Stalker or Blue Velvet or The Shining is coming out anytime soon. It's easy to understand that symphony music or oil painting or poetry are dead forms but people get really worked up when you say the same about pop music or films or novels are past their peak. 

Symphonies and poetry might not be the main event any more bit are still very much alive and kicking. Not easy to understand why you think they're dead at all. 

On the others, i can't see much evidence of anything having peaked. Especially if your evidence is that no one is going to replicate the self indulgent whimsy of Wes Anderson. 

[BFTD]

8 minutes ago, coprolite said:

Symphonies and poetry might not be the main event any more bit are still very much alive and kicking. Not easy to understand why you think they're dead at all. 

On the others, i can't see much evidence of anything having peaked. Especially if your evidence is that no one is going to replicate the self indulgent whimsy of Wes Anderson. 

We've had this conversation before. He just thinks all the best stuff has been written and anything new is objectively pish by comparison. Full stop.

Just so very, very happy that I still see/hear new great art. It must be awful to be disappointed by everything.

[accies1874]

@accies1874
The answer to that would be how many of those films do you think will be remembered in a decade or two?

That's a different question and my answer would probably fall on the same side as yours. I'll remember plenty from that list, others won't - that doesn't make them any better or worse. There aren't many non-franchise/sequel/remake releases that capture general audiences, either because they don't want to see them or because they're not getting to, but there are still plenty of greats out there.

Fwiw I reckon Parasite will be thought of as an all-timer in the future. There are some others from the past few years that I'd like to think of as getting the same treatment, at least within their genre, but that might be wishful thinking.

[Detournement]

1 hour ago, coprolite said:

Symphonies and poetry might not be the main event any more bit are still very much alive and kicking. Not easy to understand why you think they're dead at all. 

On the others, i can't see much evidence of anything having peaked. Especially if your evidence is that no one is going to replicate the self indulgent whimsy of Wes Anderson. 

Really? Which symphony music of the past 30 years is comparable to the most revered music by Beethoven or Rossini or Wagner? Also it's difficult to think of anyone considered as great a poet TS Elliot or Pound were in their lives. 

If you don't believe that cinema has peaked then watch L'Aventurra and La Notte by Antonioni released in consecutive years and compare them to anything that has come out recently.

I don't think Wes Anderson is an all time great filmmaker and he makes it's clear in his movies that he doesn't either. I do like them a lot though because they are mainly about experiencing older and arguably better forms of culture.

Edited November 22, 2021 by Detournement

[Detournement]

16 minutes ago, BFTD said:

We've had this conversation before. He just thinks all the best stuff has been written and anything new is objectively pish by comparison. Full stop.

Just so very, very happy that I still see/hear new great art. It must be awful to be disappointed by everything.

That's not really what I think. It's difficult to explain but I think that our experience in the digital/internet age is means that films and novels aren't as well suited to conveying contemporary experience as they once were.

I'm not going to run out of good books to read or films to watch so no need to feel too sorry for me.

[BFTD]

42 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Really? Which symphony music of the past 30 years is comparable to the most revered music by Beethoven or Rossini or Wagner? Also it's difficult to think of anyone considered as great a poet TS Elliot or Pound were in their lives. 

If you don't believe that cinema has peaked then watch L'Aventurra and La Notte by Antonioni released in consecutive years and compare them to anything that has come out recently.

I don't think Wes Anderson is an all time great filmmaker and he makes it's clear in his movies that he doesn't either. I do like them a lot though because they are mainly about experiencing older and arguably better forms of culture.

He could absolutely tell you that he greatly prefers modern examples of these forms and not be wrong, even if you think they're shit. You do understand that, right?

[Detournement]

24 minutes ago, BFTD said:

He could absolutely tell you that he greatly prefers modern examples of these forms and not be wrong, even if you think they're shit. You do understand that, right?

Aye but you have to be prepared to say that some things are better than others. If someone tells you they prefer Red Notice to the The Thin Red Line it's their opinion but it means they have shite taste.

 

 

[Thorongil]

Ghostbusters Afterlife. Really quite enjoyed it!

[Thorongil]

1 hour ago, Detournement said:

That's not really what I think. It's difficult to explain but I think that our experience in the digital/internet age is means that films and novels aren't as well suited to conveying contemporary experience as they once were.

I'm not going to run out of good books to read or films to watch so no need to feel too sorry for me.

I think there is a good point here. I find the film media to be largely unsatisfying now, especially in terms of adaptation. I still enjoy a good film from time to time but I far prefer to seek out high quality television.

The Sopranos - 86 episodes
Mad Men -92 episodes
The Americans - 75 episodes

No films of equivalent genre can come close to the depth and quality of storytelling that is offered by top level television.

 

[coprolite]

1 hour ago, Detournement said:

Really? Which symphony music of the past 30 years is comparable to the most revered music by Beethoven or Rossini or Wagner? Also it's difficult to think of anyone considered as great a poet TS Elliot or Pound were in their lives. 

If you don't believe that cinema has peaked then watch L'Aventurra and La Notte by Antonioni released in consecutive years and compare them to anything that has come out recently.

I don't think Wes Anderson is an all time great filmmaker and he makes it's clear in his movies that he doesn't either. I do like them a lot though because they are mainly about experiencing older and arguably better forms of culture.

I don't need to know great composers or poets to know that people still participate in communication through those media. 

Just because they are not the biggest thing doesn't mean they can't be good or relevant to the minorities who still engage. 

It should be possible to just say "i like old stuff" without disparaging anything that's recent, just for being recent. 

[Thorongil]

18 hours ago, MSU said:

Just out of Ghostbusters Afterlife and it wasn't for me. It wasn't helped by being in an audience that didn't seem to get out of the house much and when they did, they'd never been to a movie before. There were folks literally slapping the arms of their seats with laughter. There was a wee woman in front of me who seemed to be mumbling a conversation with the characters all through the movie. I was really disappointed at how much was just lifted from the first movie and it didn't make me laugh, which even the Lady Ghostbusters was able to do a couple of times. The kids seemed to enjoy it at least a bit more than me but my step-daughter was curiously very offended at the ghostly cameo towards the end.

In my showing it was quite appropriately muted in terms of audience reaction apart from one woman. She shrieked and bawled with laughter at the wee marshmallow men. I couldn’t believe that anyone could find that so funny that they would scream with laughter. Must have been doing it for some narcissistic fake reason IMO. It angered me.

[Thorongil]

5 hours ago, accies1874 said:

From these:
 

 

The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, 38, 1 previous film)

Why Don't You Just Die (Kirill Sokolov, 32, no previous)

The Assistant (Kitty Green, 37, a few previous)

Waves (Trey Edward Shults, 33, 2 previous)

Saint Maud (Rose Glass, 31, no previous)

Relic (Natalie Erika James, 32, no previous)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 42, 2 previous)

Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu, 36, 1 previous)

The Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson, 39, no previous)

The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell, 44, 2 previous)

Horse Girl (Jeff Baena, 44, a few previous)

Make Up (Claire Oakley, 36, no previous)

Blow the Man Down (couple of c***s with no Wikipedia page)

Some/a lot/all of these won't be for everyone and at least half of the directors won't amount to anything, but it's a diverse group of films made by a load of folk under 50. And that's just last year.

 

Never heard of a single one of these.

[MrWorldwideJr]

I'm pretty confident in saying that the majority of my favourite films have been released in the last 10-15 years and that's not for want of watching older cinema. None of them are Red Notice btw although I'm sure you're aware that's a ludicrous strawman.

 

Fair enough if you disagree with that, we all have different taste after all, but I tend to think that taking such an absolutist 'nothing good gets made anymore' attitude on any art form is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy and says more about you than it does about the quality of new stuff being released.

[Detournement]

9 minutes ago, MrWorldwideJr said:

Fair enough if you disagree with that, we all have different taste after all, but I tend to think that taking such an absolutist 'nothing good gets made anymore' attitude on any art form is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy and says more about you than it does about the quality of new stuff being released.

I've never said that there an no good movies any more. From this shortened year's releases i really enjoyed Card Counter, Riders of Justice and French Dispatch. I like Dune. I'm looking forward to Liquorice Pizza and Matrix 4. I'll watch Power Of The Dog despite Cumberbatch doing my tits in. Spielberg's West Side Story and Denzel Washington as Macbeth should be entertaining as well.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Watched Mad Max for the first time last night. I can see why it's so popular. I never got used to seeing Mel Gibson look so young.

[NotThePars]

It's the conditions in which movies are created which is the issue. Good movies are still made but the landscape feels more narrow and homogenised than it did at any other point in recent history. Whether that's the MCU's corrosive effect on cinema, Disney's general hoovering up of everything they can, the budgets for movies getting ludicrous or the viewing habits who knows. There's probably dozens more reasons you could point to. 

Personally I blame Cinemasins.

[Biscuits]

Rocky vs Drago.

I enjoyed it but I’m not sure it’s any better than the original. Seemed to get more of Drago being used by the government and a few glimpses of him as an actual person.

No more annoying robot scenes and the music is quality although doesn’t belong in Rocky IV.

[Detournement]

 

When the extended universe is good. 

[Detournement]

On 22/11/2021 at 19:25, Thorongil said:

I think there is a good point here. I find the film media to be largely unsatisfying now, especially in terms of adaptation. I still enjoy a good film from time to time but I far prefer to seek out high quality television.

The Sopranos - 86 episodes
Mad Men -92 episodes
The Americans - 75 episodes

No films of equivalent genre can come close to the depth and quality of storytelling that is offered by top level television.

 

Films are still better than TV. There have only ever been a handful of great TV shows whereas you still get good films every year that are far more ambitious and interesting than the best TV. 

[Detournement]

10 hours ago, NotThePars said:

It's the conditions in which movies are created which is the issue. Good movies are still made but the landscape feels more narrow and homogenised than it did at any other point in recent history. Whether that's the MCU's corrosive effect on cinema, Disney's general hoovering up of everything they can, the budgets for movies getting ludicrous or the viewing habits who knows. There's probably dozens more reasons you could point to. 

Personally I blame Cinemasins.

Frederic Jameson's idea from the 80s was that everyone in the West's lives had become so dominated by mass media, capitalism and consumerism that it became increasingly difficult to create art that transcended those factors. 30 odd years on we are much deeper in that hole.