21st Hall of Fame

I will get to Tree of Life quite soon here

I’ll be watching The Hunt this weekend

Quills (2000)


A historical character as controversial and notorious as Marquis de Sade is a difficult subject for a modern mainstream movie. Kaufman approaches this dilemma from a safe angle by creating a mostly fictional tale of his latter days. The picture he paints is nobler and more restraint than the actual person because Kaufman needs to sell his modern audience a hero. To emphasize this, he presents us an adult woman for de Sade's (almost platonic) love interest and a villain resembling the scoundrels created by de Sade.

So, historical accuracy (or lack of such) aside, Quills is an entertaining movie about freedom of speech and hypocrisy. Especially during the first half, Rush's Marquis has a proper Sadean feel to him. It's a shame that the film gives its audience so tame images of both the man himself and his writings. Based on Quills alone, it would be easy to think he's famous for rather typical erotic literature. The film would most likely be better if you'd switch de Sade to a completely fictional character.

I like the three leading actors, and they have decent chemistry as well. Cain's evil doctor feels unnecessary and is there only to canonize Marquis as a perverted martyr and a saint of freedom of speech. The result is very much like The Libertine, which I slightly prefer due to its more interesting visual style and better comedic parts. While I mostly enjoyed Quills, I believe de Sade deserves a better and especially more accurate biography.

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Quills isn't a biography, despite how it's labelled on IMDb.

The use of de Sade is more symbolic than anything and helps to show just how hypocritical it is that the people out to silence the Marquis are more sadistic in their methods than de Sade himself.

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Agreed. It’s best to approach it as a character study, or an morality tale. Quite often, the other characters are far worse then De Sade was ever accused of in this film.
Especially the way Caine corrupts Phoenix to his will and the acts he commits as a result.

Just checking up to see how the remaining people are doing, you all still have almost 3 weeks so no worries.
Here are the people left:

@Wyldesyde19 - 6/10
@pahaK- 8/10
@rauldc14 - 7/10
@Siddon - 9/10
@TheUsualSuspect - 7/10
@edarsenal- 3/10


Also I’ve been known to miss reviews/posts before so just let me know if I didn’t catch a review of yours!

Here's my Dark City review and I've been enjoying watching the Best Pictures HoF a little too much lol
I will be knocking other the watches as we get closer to the deadline.

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Work has gotten in the way this past week, but rest assured, I shall finish by the deadline. The Hunt is on tap for tonight, and will get to the last 3 (Pretty Baby, Being There and The Breakfast Club) shortly afterward.

Just Wedding Crashers and The Hunt left for me. Both rewatches and will get to by deadline!

Can you link your Tree of Life review? Sorry, I miss so many of these.

Thank you, got it! Sorry about that.

The Hunt (2012) wow it feels like I watched this film yesterday but it's been 7/8 years. So on the rewatch my feelings toward the film remain the same. The premise and execution of the film is solid Annika Wedderkopp the little girl they get for the role of the accusor is fantastic I'm disappointed she hasn't done anything else. Mad's is very good in this.


My only issues with the film is I wish we would have been as the audience more torn on who to believe. We're told from the start that Klara is in love with Lucas and Lucas is exonerated about a hour into the film. The third act doesn't ring true to me, if the townspeople don't believe the police would they really believe Theo. I also would have preferred the fakeout ending over the real one. Still it's a very good film and a strong nomination.

Ah crap. I got that yet too. My bad.

The Hunt (Jagten)

It’s frightening how quickly a lie can grow and take a life of its own. Even more frightening when it’s told by a child. For who can ever believe a child could ever concoct such a thing?
And when it comes to pedophilia, a parent will always take the child’s side, and often won’t question if it’s possible their child could be lying.
Not over something like this. And when the lie is told, it spreads like a disease. It envelopes all involved, as they turn on the alleged perpetrator not bothering to learn whether or not he might actually be innocent. The fact that he may have been their best friend or a trusted member of the community, such as the accused in this film, doesn’t prevent them from playing judge, jury and, in extreme cases, executioner.
The Hunt examines the above instances, and even the resulting fallout from such an accusation.
Mads Mikkelsen plays the accused, Lucas. His life spirals shortly after the accusation, losing his girlfriend, his friends, his job, his reputation and even his dog.
Eventually the judge decides the children have no credibility, as he is soon released. However, the harassment doesn’t end there.
Mads is great here, balancing his character between anger, and hopelessness. He has a great scene in the church towards the end that shows what he is capable of.
But the message here, is how quick one is to condemn another before any trial has taken place. In the mind of the towns people he is guilty and that’s that. I’m reminded of Malena, a film about a women beset by rumors and innuendo based on jealousy.
This is a powerful film, that ends with a reminder that some people may not be ready to move on as much as others, as Lucas discovers. One wonders if he’ll have to spend the rest of life looking over his shoulder.

no worries, it's not easy to stay on top of them

Tree of Life



I have to wonder if this is the new generation of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sadly like watching Odyssey the first time I could not fully connect to the story. It's no doubt a really beautiful film and has some really great themes and things to think about, but there is something about it that leaves me feeling cold.

Like most of Malicks films, he isn't really focused on a dialogue or focused on the strength of the acting, but sometimes things like that don't work for me all that much. I would have like to have had a better Bond and feel for these characters to strengthen my emotions about how I feel about the film.

Of course that score is just great too. Pretty much everything on the technical level is fabulous. And I liked the characters but just needed more from them, which like I said it wasn't their fault rather Malicks. But of course this is more of an intention from him than anything.

I respect the film, but I can't say I like it at this time.

I’ll be hitting the last 3 in the next week. Work has gotten in the way of watching movies lately. Hopefully I can get back into some sort of rhythm again

Watched The Hunt today. As usual, full review in a few days but let's say that the film was very much as I expected; a depressingly accurate depiction of the stupidity of an average person. I'll save rest for the longer write-up.

I’ll finally be able to see the last 3 films this week. I’m putting them in a rotation along with the other 2 HOF I am in. I’m seriously starting to go in withdrawal here.