Movie Club

[Hegemon]

We talked it over and decided to turn this back into the old-style club format that we had before. The threads that were already here have since been moved to Milagre.

2.0 had a club, but it was pretty quiet. Unless locke wants to start it up again, we're asking anyone who would like to take the reigns for it to give us an idea of what you want to do with the club. If no one offers in the next few weeks, we'll just remove the forum until a time comes when someone comes up with a good movie club proposal.

[canvasch]

..... why not just set a movie for people to watch one every week...... then members watch it and discuss it...

like... i don't know... Titan AE?

[Hegemon]

That seems like a good way of doing it, but I think we need to have a moderator to help keep the discussion properly focused.

I think we also got to stick with more mainstream movies (like Titan AE), at least until the regular posters in the club decide that they really want something else.

[Craig]

Hopefully locke would want to start it up again, I think his knowledge on movies and filmmaking in general is a tier above anyone else here. I started with the club late, but I'd like to pick up where everyone left off...

Salaam

[locke]

see but I watch all the old movies to. Just suggest one movie a week and people watch it if they can? I could do that.

The problem is very few people watched the movies last time.

and I owe Fris and some others copies of A Matter of Life and Death (I found the copies finally!) but now I've lost pms and have no idea to whom or where to send them.

I'm not sure what approach to take. suggest recent group faves most of the pwebbers own and know or offer up gems most people haven't seen. or new movies not yet released?

Should I say, "The Incredibles" because I've been wanting to rewatch that for a while.


Anyway, your first movie is one I first saw about a month ago.

Stalag 17

Covers a lot of the same thematic ground as Ender's Game. A great companion piece to the book. From one of the greatest directors ever with a terrific lead performance by William Holden.

if, on the other hand, you want to see a new movie:

The Departed

Brutally funny, fans of Snatch and similar movies will be very pleased.
top tier scorsese, the best performance of Dicaprio's career. Nicholson is awesome to watch, Damon is superb in a thankless role. this Years Best. Fvcking. Soundtrack. And it's also a terrific action cop thriller. Tremendously entertaining, very funny, violent. A great movie all around.
Did I mention the soundtrack? the Berlin Live version of Comfortably Numb is perfect. And Scorsese has Gimme Shelter to kick start the movie. I saw it for free on Sunday and I want to see it again this weekend.

[Craig]

I like the idea of having options. I've talked about opening a Netflix account, but haven't gotten around to it. But I will do that today so I can rent many of the old movies. The reason I like the idea of yours locke is because I see nothing but a ton of new movies. Unless it's a classic like To Kill a Mockingbird or anything Hitchcock I don't really see any old films. I'm even completely ignorant of anything early Copolla or Scorsese, not to mention the REAL old like Demille.

I'm going to try and see The Departed this weekend, I've been wanting to see it for a while. As far as Stalag 17 goes, if I can find it, I'll watch it. I'm going to open that Netflix account today.

Salaam

[pooka]

Netflix makes it chancy, since you don't necessarily get what you want in the order you ask for it.

I have never seen Titan AE, and would be interested. Perhaps each week we can have nominations and seconds, and then a poll to pick the movie.

[anonshadow]

I'd be interested in this... I have a terrific video store near my house, and I could probably find most old movies there as well. Old as in 20s and 30s.

As a sidenote, Titan AE is definitely worth watching.

[Young Val]

i can't watch Titan AE anymore, even though i enjoyed it, because my first serious boyfriend Joey (kid who got me into Ender's Game...against my will, i might add...and whom people might remember from ooooooooooooooooooooooooooold posts assuming arrogantly that i was ever important enough for people to bother to read them) came home from Boot Camp after going into the Marines and we watched that movie. and there's a scene where someone kills a bad guy by twisting his neck and breaking it. and Joey says, very calmly, very nonchalantly, without even taking his eyes off the screen, "That's not the right way to do that." to which i replied, "...What?!"


and then he showed me seven ways that he know how to kill a person with his bare hands.


that relationship clearly did not last.

[Craig]

THE DEPARTED SPOILERS!

The Departed

I haven't seen a lot of Scorsese's earlier works, in all honesty I haven't seen very many of them. Period. The only experience I have had with Scorsese is Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, and now, The Departed. I don't know how this stacks up against say Goodfelllas or Taxi Cab, but I can say, without a doubt, this is the best Scorsese picture I have seen. To take it a notch further, this is the best genre film of "cops and robbers" I have seen.

Just some things that just bounce out at the moment... It really hasn't had time to sink in.

One thing that jumped out at me right off the bat was the lighting. At the beginning of the picture Nicholson is in the dark, hidden behind objects, or otherwise hidden from any clear view. He's a man that will be seen by who he wants but only when he's ready to be seen. In other words, it's his turf and he's in control. Very rarely throughout the picture is Nicholson ever fully lit. The bars are dark, the restaurants are dark, he meets in a theatre, in alleys, or unoccupied buildings. It works well, espessially when it connects Nicholson to Damon when his idea to have his boss tailed backfires and results in his death. Damon hides in his office, in the dark. His actions result in death and he's becoming more and more like Nicholson.

Dicaprio was great, he plays really well off the high intensity of Nicholson. I think the scene that made the movie for me was when Nicholson was trying to sniff out the rat, and he was questioning Dicaprio in the bar. That scene is going to be a classic.

I also liked the idea that Dicaprio's character was well as Damon's were very much the same person on different paths. They were from the same graduating class, they knew the same people from class, they were both connected with Nicholson, they were sleeping with the same woman, and they even looked alike to a certain extent. And then at the end, since Dicaprio dies Damon has to as well. Even in death they are the same. It's much like Michael Mann did with Heat between Al Pacino and Robert Deniro.

Something that was interesting to me as well was the lack of father figures. Both Damon and Dicaprio's characters had weak father figures. Dicaprio's was dead, Damon's was nonexistant. Nicholson's character couldn't have a child. And then the one woman who becomes pregnant is pregnant with a boy and we don't even know who the father is, but since they both are dead it doesn't make much of a difference.

I heard a lot about how funny it was, but I was still suprised. The dialog is witty and fast paced. I espessially liked Wahlberg's character for this.

But yeah, all in all I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm still trying to soak it all up and it might take another viewing as I got caught up in everything and couldn't pay any attention to the smaller details.

And locke, your right, the soundtrack was great.

AND, the thing that I really liked was the lack of soundtrack in key moments, espessially the end when each shot was followed only by silence.

Salaam

[Craig]

And Titan A.E. is fine with me... I haven't seen that in years. I do like the idea of voting on a movie too. That is what the book club does, right?

Salaam

[locke]

voting is fine with me too

[locke]

Great review Craig, I'm going to repost my full review from HTF:

The Departed - ***½

Every bit as powerful and good a film as Gangs of New York and the Aviator.

I've not seen any of the Infernal Affairs films.

A note on spoilers. I will discuss who is good cop and bad cop, I won't reveal major plot points or resolutions, the film makes it very clear within the first few minutes who is who, but I was unsure as to who was good or bad based on the trailers. I will discuss how I see the characters and their development throughout the film, some of the description might be considered spoilers as it indicates general directions of the plot.

Overall, Brutally funny, more on the script later.

I nominate this film for the best f******' soundtrack of the year. From Patsy Cline to the Stones, John Lennon, Pink Floyd and opera; sonically this film is outstanding. Never quite as good a musical moment as the famous fight in Mean Streets but "Comfortably Numb" is ALMOST there... just interrupted a teensy bit by dialogue and awkward blocking.

The Departed spins a story centered around Boston crime lord/mafia chieftain Frank Costello. Costello has been a father figure to Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) since he was a boy being raised by his grandmother. At the start of the film we find Damon breezily being placed as a mole for Costello into the special unit of the Boston State Police who are continually hunting the elusive Costello. Nicholson tears up the screen as Costello, his role is full of energy and life, and could very well be in competition for a supporting actor nomination--simply because it's Nicholson.

Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a boy from a split home who was raised on both sides of the Boston tracks. his family is all dead, but most of his extended family are criminals. He applies to the same special division of the Boston State Police that Colin Sullivan did, but with his spotty record and disposition only one route is left open to him if he wants to be a cop--deep cover as a mole with Costello.

The rest of the film unfolds brilliantly. The story development had me on the edge of my seat from moment to moment. Often I was thinking, "what next," or "how will they get out of this (or be busted)". But that tension may be the film's one downfall; The Departed feels a little long; some of the plot seems repetitive or tat least looping upon itself. But this is Scorsese and I can already feel--as I think back on the film--how that repetition is one of the film's shining, brilliant aspects. The repetition layers and deepens the character of Costigan and Sullivan in contrast to each other.

The film is very catholic in its approach to all three characters, but it is Costigin who draws us in with the trials and tribulations he undergoes. Is he trying to achieve redemption or atonement by serving the police and undergoing these trials? He seems ignorant of his family's past in some key scenes. Scorsese delivers us a kind of tortured hero's journey for Costigan. We're not told enough to really discern his quest, his purposes, instead Scorsese keys in on two other aspects of the journey--isolation and pain (trials). And the audience attaches itself firmly to Costigan because of this. This is where Scorsese really powerfully exploits the repetition in the narrative. Costigan is forced through a lot, physical, mental and spiritual (metaphorically, what he believes in is tested the most), we're left wondering just how far a man can be pushed and still remember what is right.

I think this is Leonardo DiCaprio's finest performance, it's a brutal, demanding role. And yes, it is a showy role, he has a lot of juicy scenes to display his chops, but it is not as showy as Nicholas made the Costello role. Damon is superb as Colin Sullivan. It'd be easy to dismiss his performance, but this is a character that learned to wall off emotion and vulnerability long ago. One of the film's nicest contrast shows Costigan's walls breaking down as Sullivan's strengthen while both worm their way deeper into positions of trust. Sullivan is so stoic; Damon is guaranteed to be overlooked for any awards consideration. It is a nuanced performance and one of the film's greatest strengths. And it enhances DiCaprio's awards portential, his performance will contrast both with Nicholson's scene chewing and Damon's scene-deferment. He'll generate buzz and talk.

But what was my favorite performance? Mark Wahlberg. He lights the screen up with dialogue and f***-you-ness the way Joe Pesci did for Goodfellas, it's a shame his character is so small.

The script by William Monahan is brilliant. This is one of the funniest films I've seen since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. there's brutal, snappy humor in every other scene--and it really works for the film. The humor is stronger than After Hours.

This is a film that makes me realize Italians are all moody, volatile bitches and the real fun is to be had by hanging with the Irish.

The humor is what makes the film click and connect--it's what verbally ties the two separate stories together, and that makes the themes and connections between the men really ascend to the next level.

Michael Ballhaus' cinematography is outstanding. Gorgeous throughout with many visual nods to John Ford (made me think of the Informer and The Long Voyage Home).

Thelma Shoonmaker's editing ties together the two separate threads so seamlessly it blows my mind how smooth the whole experience was. There's one hitch, in the editing, and that's where Comfortably Numb stops working for a spell, during a sex scene. I think it's how the scene was shot and blocked, it's the only part of the movie that doesn't work.


Howard Shore's score is good. Kristi Zea's Production design is outstanding and the Makeup team did a stellar job, and may well be in the oscar hunt as well if WB plays their cards correctly.

So why rate this three and a half? Because it's terrific to write about the film afterwards but the film never yanked me up to the highest level Scorsese can achieve, at least, not on a first viewing. And that's in many ways because I was so anxious to find out how it all resolves that I was constantly thinking of it as a story and not caught up 100% in the story. In many ways the storytelling was so good that I was too tense to fully enjoy it. A second viewing and I'll be more relaxed and I think I'll enjoy the film even more, Unlike many action films, this film will really reward repeat viewings. It's not Goodfellas, it's a whole different animal . It's not a crime epic it's an action/police film. And it's a brutal comedy and a damned effective piece of storytelling. It is a crowd pleaser. The audience had a blast with the film and gave it a spat of thunderous applause at the end credits.

And the end credits are on cards rather than scrolling. Nice.

[Oliver Dale]

Re: The Departed

But

*spoilers*

What the hell was in the envelope?!

[ValentineNicole]

Is it possible to start a seperate thread in Movie Club solely for discussing movies that are not the ones being viewed at this time? Or would it be more practical to restart the periodic movie review thread?

[puppets]

Anyone hear of the 10th Kingdom, actually is a mini series, but it's done exactly like a movie is. In fact if you didn't know it appeared in 6 episdoes, you would think it is a movie. Maybe it was, but they decided to cut it up cause its almost 9 hours long. Either way you should all definitlycheck it out.

[Jebus]

Re: The Departed

But

*spoilers*

What the hell was in the envelope?!

*Big Spoilers*






I think it was something to do with Damon's death at the end, like contact details for Wahlberg's character or something.

[Sparrowhawk]

that's what I thought. he must have had some idea that he had a good chance of ending up dead and getting there fast. and at that point, he really had no one else he could trust - Sheen's character (who brought him into this mess) was dead, and the only person who knew he wasn't a criminal was Wahlberg's.

[keats]

and then he showed me seven ways that he know how to kill a person with his bare hands.

that relationship clearly did not last.

Nothing wrong with having the knowledge. It's if, when and how he uses it that makes the relationship tricky. Kind of like...was he more the Ender kinda guy or more like Achilles?

[Petrie]

Alright, Adam and/or mods, what's going on with this space and the book club space? Can we maybe think about combining the two or having Milagre absorb them? Re-imagine them by turning it into a catch-all pop culture place (though, do we really want to separate all pop culture from Milagre)?

I think it's pretty fair to say both have failed, on 2.0 and here, to really pick up after their very early, initial success.