5.19.2008

why-am-i-so-smart-and-everyone-else-so-dumb thread

9 comments:

Joaquin said...

Sorry Dex, but I've always felt Soderbergh is highly overrated. I got no love for his Solaris and just a little for The Limey.

A film I absolutely adore with every fiber of my being that most overlook, despise or simply don't understand is Punch-Drunk Love. Why can't anyone else see how incredible it really is? Why?

Hmmm... others off the top of my head include the original Stepford Wives (so smart, yet everyone thinks it's silly) and Infamous (I think Capote sucked a fat one). Hopefully other examples will come to me...

Joaquin said...

Oh! I almost forgot. Tarantino's Jackie Brown. I'm utterly convinced it's his masterpiece.

Dex said...

are you blogging as satan again, or do you just like to torment me?

i think teh 'punch drunk' is the true mark of an andersonista, like 'miller's crossing' is for true-blue coen fans.

i totally agree on 'jackie brown' - i've got the bridget fonda promo poster up in my apartment. and yes, i think it's his best work, most mature work - i see lots of 'big sleep' lots of fuller, of course - but i'd humbly place 'jackie brown' in the underrated cat.

Dex said...

for the life of me, i can't see why ppl would say 'stepford wives' is silly. that's some good shit.

'infamous' definitely qualifies; i know i haven't been interested at all in seeing it, despite exhortations by friends and loved ones...

nervenet said...

Hmmm... let's see - movies that I love that other people hate on incessantly:
Showgirls
- a terrific exploration of male exploitation of females and the reduction of females to objects; and also how females can buy into the trap - and also (ultimately) walk out on it.

Babe: Pig in the City
- it's less that people hate it than they just don't imagine that they (as adults) should possibly take it seriously. One of the best films of the last decade. See it.

all Brian DePalma films
- he's also somewhat drifted from the position of a director that people love to hate into the position of a director that nobody cares about any more. I think he's still provocative, still has interesting things to say in his films, and think that with a few exceptions that are admittedly duds (and even so, duds with interesting moments) he's never stopped making worthwhile films.

As for y'all suggestions, I'm on the fence about Soderbergh, pretty indifferent to PT Anderson, love George Romero, think Stepford Wives is pretty great, haven't seen Infamous and 100% agree that Jackie Brown is Tarantino's finest hour (OK, 143 minutes or whatever). But in all these cases I haven't seen the kind of vitriol that I think qualifies them for hater-dom the way shit's been thrown at Verhoeven and DePalma.

Oh yeah - there's also the recent DVD release of Mandingo a totally intense and realistic and brutal rendering of race relations on a Southern plantation during slavery. Every single person I know who's seen it says something along the lines of "yeah you mean that really trashy movie from the 70's?" It's amazing.

Dex said...

like the 'mandingo' ref. i'd like to know what the scholarship on that's like (paging andrew watson?).

all depalma - awesome.

'pig in the city' - now is that underrated, or are there haters on that?

ohh! i want to add 'batman returns.' brilliant analysis on the superhero phenom and psychosis, tim burton totally off the hook and i'm loving every minute (xmas? you got! tragic love story between orphan and lonely, wide-eyed secretary? check! misunderstood monsters? check and double check! 50s kitsch fused with 1940s architecture by way of late 80s music video and 20s german expressionism? yep!) and my favorite batman flick, now and forever, even if 'the dark knight' is going to be incredible.

Joaquin said...

Geez, now I must put Babe: Pig in the City at the top of my queue. Do I need to see the first one?

Absolutely agree with Batman Returns. There will never be another Batman movie quite like it.

Joaquin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nervenet said...

Joaquin -
It would help to have seen Babe but it's not crucial to enjoying the second film.

Chris - I say above that I don't think people hate it, but there's a lot of people who thought the first film was touching and heartwarming (and it is) but they couldn't get with the "darkness" of Pig in the City. Similarly, most people who talk about Mandingo think it's just trash, sorta like the thing about Showgirls. Whatever.