Birdman/Nightcrawler/Interstellar

Bamyasi · November 10, 2014 05:57 AM

These two alone make this a far better year for mainstream cinema than 2013. Go see them if you haven't.

Edit: This was supposed to be a thread for good movies but I went ahead and added Interstellar to the subject line for you.

rtil · November 10, 2014 06:48 AM

also don't see Interstellar

SrsSam77 · November 10, 2014 06:56 AM

Quote from: rtil on November 10, 2014 06:48 AM
also don't see Interstellar

Guards, this man has lost his composure.
real talk though if you have 3 hours to burn and your soul is missing something human and you hunger for an epic, go see interstellar.

rtil · November 10, 2014 07:06 AM

Interstellar wanted so badly to be an epic, but it is not

BluPhoenix · November 10, 2014 07:22 AM

Quote from: rtil on November 10, 2014 06:48 AM
also don't see Interstellar

Flash · November 10, 2014 01:56 PM

heard shitty things about birdman but intend to watch it anyway

maybe this isn't super-mainstream but it's not underground anyway - have you guys seen the tale of princess kaguya? i loved it (:

rtil · November 10, 2014 02:04 PM

i wasn't able to catch kaguya in theaters. i'll have to watch it on bluray or something

Stu4U · November 10, 2014 06:24 PM

did anyone notice that birdman has no cuts and that the whole thing is one continuous shot

i thought that was neat

rtil · November 10, 2014 11:21 PM

Quote from: Stu4U on November 10, 2014 06:24 PM
did anyone notice that birdman has no cuts and that the whole thing is one continuous shot

i thought that was neat

i looked this up because i would have been really shocked at a film this long being one continuous shot, and the wikipedia article says

QuoteAccording to the film's cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the camerawork and editing of Birdman were manipulated to give the appearance that most of the film is one continuous long take.

still, the longest continuous shot ever made for a film is pretty long at 96 minutes, held by Russian Ark. and it's actually a pretty good movie.

Trailer: "Russian Ark"

BluPhoenix · November 11, 2014 12:10 AM

Quote from: SrsSam77 on November 10, 2014 06:56 AM
if you have 3 hours to burn and your soul is missing something human and you hunger for an epic, go see interstellar.

it's human because everyone cries in it and makes the scenes go on for 20 minutes longer than they should have been

soup · November 11, 2014 03:17 AM

interstellar was pretty lame anyone could see the plot twists coming from like a galaxy away disappointed considering how hyped up some people were for it. also annoying how the film treats the viewer like a tiny useless child and tries to explain ABSOLUTELY EVERY concept it presents.

[spoiler]thEY dIDNT CREAt E THIS, We CREATED THis!!! IN THE FUTURE!!![/spoiler]

[spoiler]also wtshit the matt damon fight scene drAAGGED ON AND ON AND everything was violently signposted and we all couldnt stop laughing when we were there watching it[/spoiler]

rtil · November 11, 2014 04:24 AM

Quote from: soup on November 11, 2014 03:17 AM
interstellar was pretty lame anyone could see the plot twists coming from like a galaxy away disappointed considering how hyped up some people were for it. also annoying how the film treats the viewer like a tiny useless child and tries to explain ABSOLUTELY EVERY concept it presents.

[spoiler]thEY dIDNT CREAt E THIS, We CREATED THis!!! IN THE FUTURE!!![/spoiler]

[spoiler]also wtshit the matt damon fight scene drAAGGED ON AND ON AND everything was violently signposted and we all couldnt stop laughing when we were there watching it[/spoiler]

the only thing that would have been worse is if matthew mcCONahuehuehue was narrating every time the director felt he needed to explain even the most basic shit to his audience, which james cameron did in avatar, one of the most insulting films ever created

Bamyasi · November 11, 2014 06:04 AM

Were people actually expecting Interstellar to be good? That would be unfortunate. I'm still going to see it because I need to get my annual fix of anger at how much deep space "epics" have regressed in film since 2001, Solaris (1972 version) and Alien.

Quote from: Stu4U on November 10, 2014 06:24 PM
did anyone notice that birdman has no cuts and that the whole thing is one continuous shot

i thought that was neat

Yeah it's called a long take. Pretty sure it was pioneered by Hitchcock in Rope but I could be wrong. Like rtil said it only appears to be one shot (I'm guessing to align with the thespian themes, but it could just be for style) and everyone should watch Russian Ark.

Quote from: Flash on November 10, 2014 01:56 PM
heard shitty things about birdman but intend to watch it anyway

maybe this isn't super-mainstream but it's not underground anyway - have you guys seen the tale of princess kaguya? i loved it (:

What did you hear? I was going to see Kaguya but but then I realized it was dubbed. I'm just going to wait until our little festival happens toward the end of the month because they usually get stuff subbed. I've been looking forward to this movie for years though. Isao Takahata I think is better than late Miyazaki at capturing the understated magical realism that made their early stuff so special.

Anyway yeah Nightcrawler is probably live action MOTY for me. It would be tied with Snowpiercer and Level 5 but those weren't technically released this year. Literally my only complaint is that the music wasn't as good as the script and visuals deserved.

Flash · November 11, 2014 07:01 PM

Quote from: Bamyasi on November 11, 2014 06:04 AM
What did you hear? I was going to see Kaguya but but then I realized it was dubbed. I'm just going to wait until our little festival happens toward the end of the month because they usually get stuff subbed. I've been looking forward to this movie for years though. Isao Takahata I think is better than late Miyazaki at capturing the understated magical realism that made their early stuff so special.

I read a review that basically said Iñárritu is a huge jerkoff and his only really good movie is Amores Perros and that the rest is just annoyingly pretentious / grandiose.
Here it is: http://thedissolve.com/reviews/1152-birdman/

I usually don't consider "pretentious" to be a bad quality for a director but I have to say 21 Grams and Babel really disappointed me. This means that, while I can't say if I agree with the reviewer on all points, the parallels he drew between Birdman and films that I really dislike made me uneasy about going to see the former.

About Kaguya: I couldn't wait for the subbed version because I had only 'til Sunday in the U.S. before heading back home. It honestly didn't bother me too much, save for what seemed to my ears as an awful compression / autotune thing going on in Kaguya's voice as she sung a recurring song that contains extremely high, but soft, notes.
Anyway, here's me hyping you up, the film looks beautiful, Takahata is awesome, etc.

Now that I'm home I wish I could watch Nightcrawler right away but I don't know when it's gonna premiere. We've been taking our sweet time distributing this year's releases. I only got to watch Boyhood a week ago. (liked it more than most people I know, it was really touching imo)