The 7th MoFo Hall of Fame

Take Shelter may be a contender, if Swan gets watching some films

it was high on my list as well

I mostly liked the way this movie started out and how it ended, and I thought there were some nice moments in between. Nice is a good word for this movie to me; I thought everything was nice, the characters, the story, etc. I didn't think there was anything special, and I won't particularly remember it, but I don't have any complaints either. If I'm nitpicking, I say the animation didn't impress me and it's a little long, but it was all fine. It was cute and I enjoyed it.

I'm really looking forward to Festen and Take Shelter.

Meh, everybody is giving Kaguyahime Monogatari 3/5, at this rate it will finish among the last places like PMMM did (also which everybody gave 3/5 to it). I guess sensibility to live action movies might indeed do not translate to sensibility to animation.

Not everybody gave it 3/5. I gave it a 3.5 which is quite a positive rating from me.

For me the problem is not animation, it's fantasy. There are exceptions, but if a movie involves a mythical princess or something of that nature, I'm usually not going to care for it. I liked Kaguya quite a bit for what it's about, more than most live action fantasies, like Lord of the Rings.

A really great movie with some really deep character study. The cinematography distracted me after some time. I know it's Dogma 95 and it's supposed to be like that, but I think it made me tired.
I read all the opinions on this thread about this movie and I have to say I agree with MV.
I believe Michael didn't know about it, I believed he always felt the less important of the 4 children, because he was the youngest. In fact, Christian tells him: "you know nothing, you were in the boarding school" at some point, which I think it proves he was out.
As to Helen, the more I think about it, the more I'm sure she knew. However, I'm not sure if she was a victim or not.
The last scene makes me hate the mother even more. Seeing how hypocritical she was by knowing everything, ignoring and in the end just leaving the father alone like she despised him or something.
The fact that so many people have so many different opinions tells a lot about how good the script is!

Great write-up, neiba! Glad you liked it.

The script is indeed great, now since I'm danish I get to hear and interpret it all in the intended language and I personally would say it has one of the best scripts ever in danish cinema. Not only story or character-wise, but the way that it is written.

The Dogme style understandably throws some people off, but once you accept it or begin to understand why it is there, it really lifts the movie and only makes it better and that more terrifying to witness. I remember disliking the style a lot the first time I saw it, but now I can't see how the movie would be without it.

Thumbs up for the review and rating, neiba!

(Spike Jonze, 1999)

Not sure what to rate this. I know a lot of people on here recently have been loving it but I don't think I was the biggest fan. The biggest surprise for me was John Cusack who I thought did pretty well in his role, as I don't normally think he is the most convincing actor. But from what I remember this wasn't too far from the bad parts of Adaptation, those being that the film was to self-serious, dull (the cinematography didn't help) and long. A lot of scenes felt like they weren't necessarily needed, and I thought there was something too self-aware about this film that prevented me from falling in love with it. It gave me a sort of uneasy feeling. The way it tried to present some parts, like the transgender bits, came across as unsure to me, and some of the scenes I hated, like the monkey flashback. All that aside, it didn't turn out that bad. There was enough in it to keep me interested, especially when Malkovich became aware around the half way mark. There were some good moments in it though, a few funny ones, but overall I just felt the film was far from being fun overall. I felt like it could have been so much better, a really powerful film, but instead it left a weird feeling with me.

(John Landis, 1980)

Didn't think I was going to like this one either when it started, as it took a while to get going. But after about the hour mark it started to get really good. As Captain Spaulding points out earlier on in the thread this is more of an amusing comedy than a laugh out loud one, at least I found. And I also agree that the country house was the best scene, I was laughing when they sang the "Rawhide" theme tune. Once the band gets together, the film becomes a lot more likable to me, I enjoyed the musical numbers and as time went on grew more relaxed with the films style of comedy, I stopped looking at the clock and enjoyed it. Very good.

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I'll for sure be getting to Malkovich tomorrow. Platform could happen as well.

You Can't Take It With You

This was my fourth Capra and I think it's safe to say that his brand of feel-good film making just isn't for me. To me, his characters lack dimension and believability and his stories are just plain corny. This movie was no exception. I really didn't care much for any of these people. Grandpa and the various members of Alice's family were certainly odd, but didn't strike me as being particularly likable, while Tony's parents were certainly uptight but didn't strike me as being particularly unlikable or even that misguided in wanting what they thought was best for their son.

One person I did find quite unlikable however was Alice herself as she seemed to be the least genuine and most superficial character of them all - trying to put on a facade and hide her family's quirks rather than be honest and present herself and them for who they are. Quite frankly, the Kirbys were right to think that Alice wasn't good enough for Tony, it was merely the reason for it that they got wrong.

That's too bad Miss Vicky, but I can certainly see why someone wouldn't like his films. But for me, I'm a big Capra guy, although this isn't one of my favorites of his. I'll still be researching it to see if my opinion has changed.

I've been busy, but still I have been watching nominations, of course.

I will try my best to get around posting my thoughts on Killer Joe, Blues Brothers and The Poker House some time later today!

Being John Malkovich

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. I had seen two movies before that Kaufman wrote, and I wasn't too keen on them (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synedoche, New York). As for Spike Jonze, I quite liked Her, so really it was a toss up. The first thing is that I thought everyone was perfectly cast for the movie and everyone did a great job acting in it. In particular, I thought Catherine Keener stole the show. John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, and John Cusack were also all great. I thought that the story was a really original idea. I liked that the movie was out there and I liked the fantasy element that it gave to the film. The story itself was rather engaging and I kept wondering what would happen next with the characters. It was interesting because we got to see each of the four main characters go through their own struggles which I thought was a really bold move that in the end paid off. I thought the ending was very fitting if not a little bit comedic as well. Overall, definitely a film that exceeded my expectations and I have a feeling will do pretty well in this HOF.

The movie is super quirky, so I can't blame someone for not liking it. However, your paragraph here is practically the entire point of the film. You really think Alice doesn't deserve Tony because she has insecurities? Especially when he sees them and wants nothing more than to work through them with her. Man, you have some super high standards for people.

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Letterboxd

“Except for markf, you’re all a disgrace to cinema.”

Killer Joe (2011)

I was looking forward to finally finding out what all the offensive amusements, which has been radiating from cricket's avatar, was all about. I didn't really know what to expect, but I did have an idea of a hillbilly side-centered community flick. And that was definitely what I got, but with a weirder and more concealed coverage of it. The film certainly tries its best to be a bona-fide view of the backside of cinema. And with such films you either connect with the crooked universe or don’t. I unfortunately didn’t become the welcomed inbred individual that I hoped to be, but it was rather fun to witness at times…

Most of the fun though, has to be because of the one and only, Matthew McConaughey. Without him I would have hated most of this film, simply because I wasn’t enjoying any of the other characters. Emile Hirsch annoyed the hell out of me, which was a shame since I have seen good acting from this guy. The role just seemed so out of place for him and he tried so hard throughout. Thomas Haden Church was pretty good though, especially later in the film, but the rest of the cast I didn’t care for at all. The story wasn’t that good either, but obviously it aimed more for the atmosphere, which it did a whole lot better. It had some fun moments and though I liked some of the dark humor, I wasn’t too fan of the overlong and overly cruel stuff, which was dragged out until it became boring. The last 30 minutes or so was what made the movie worth it, but I looking at the film overall, I wasn’t a fan, unfortunately…

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She doesn't deserve him not because of her insecurities but because of the actions those insecurities caused her to take: namely breaking up with him and essentially abandoning him and her own family.

When I first watched Killer Joe I was a little unsure about the dysfunctional family stuff and mixed tones, especially towards the end. but I watched it again and enjoyed it much more. I think it's a very good film.