24th Hall of Fame

Attachments

 

I think I am going to rewatch this one next. Look quite forward to it!

I hope you have a good copy of it. There's the Criterion version which looks good but not perfect as the original negative was lost. Then there's various online dupes of the film that range from watchable to damn I need glasses!

Vampyr and La Dolce Vita are my most anticipated films on this. Can’t wait to get to them!

I ran into that problem when I trie Sri watch Dirty Little Billy. Was a muddled mess and the dialogue seemed off as well.

If you guys can find the Criterion copy of Vampyr you'll have a nice looking print. But yeah Dirty Little Billy was a cool movie but crummy print.

Vampyr is on criterion channel that's where I'm watching it.

Aniara (contains spoilers)

This is a pretty good sci-fi yarn that I'm glad I saw this year rather than in its release year because it sure captures life in the 2020's pretty accurately, doesn't it? I mean, who else feels like they're trapped on a ship to nowhere and that those at the helm are anything but trustworthy? It covers a number of interesting topics, most notably the comfort in and importance of belief systems, particularly in terms of the astronomer character. Through her, we see how beliefs provide comfort and an excuse to get out of bed in the morning, but we also see their limitations such as when they conflict with harsh reality as well as other, incompatible systems. The astronomer's realization about the cylindrical space object, the Captain's Ron DeSantis-like response and the aftermath were painfully if not accurately familiar. The movie is at its most interesting, however, when it shows our dependence on distractions. The ship going off course is the real crisis, but society does not truly break down until MIMA - which I dubbed the Solaris machine - goes offline. I liked seeing the ways this loss manifests from the passengers showing their true faces - Isagel goes from calm and cool to the exact opposite, for instance - to the rise in popularity of Pagan rituals and casual relationships. That the most valued distractions are technological ones also hits hard and says a lot not only about quarantine life, but also life in this era in general. It's no coincidence that the ship looks like a smart phone or a circuit board.

In short, the movie has plenty of food for thought, but unfortunately, the flavor is likely as plain as the ship's algae-based rations. I am disappointed that I have little to compliment about the presentation, which I would describe as functional. The filmmakers likely did not have the means that those of recent sci-fi movies like Interstellar or The Martian had at their disposal, but I don't think that's the problem because I would have more to compliment about the presentations of sci-fi movies with even smaller budgets. Regardless, the real problem may be that the movie never stays in one place long enough to let you look around and take it all in. Since it's as if every scene lasts and only lasts until its point is made, you could also say that the filmmaking is also functional, not to mention liminal, which is not the best quality for a single-location movie to have. What draws me to sci-fi are the possibilities of being transported to other worlds, seeing things I've never seen before and taking in the imaginations of the creative people who are also drawn to the genre. Again, the movie accurately and intelligently depicts the current human condition and 2020’s life so far, but since it didn't truly satisfy in those other areas I mentioned, it's one I can mildly but not fully recommend. To paraphrase Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, it "may make you think but [it] can't make you feel."

__________________
Last Great Movie Seen
The Man From Nowhere (Jeong-beom, 2010)

Kind of feel like a broken record, but I'm all caught up again!

83 reviews plus 2 Deer Hunter reviews. I haven't heard back from @AgrippinaX so I'll just assume he's out unless he tells us otherwise.

Getting to The Whisperers tonight.

Cricket is threatening Takoma's standing as the HOF Queen with 10 reviews vs. 11.



Meanwhile, Aniara remains the most seen/reviewed film of the bunch with 11, with The Man from Nowhere close behind (9).

__________________

Aniara (2018)

There are films with ideas and concepts you like but with way too many flaws to actually enjoy. Aniara is one of those. There isn't a single mistake that breaks it but a slowly growing pile of plotholes, unfitting cliches, and outdated ideas. None of this drags it into badness, but it could have been much better.


So, what flaws am I talking about? In the future where space travel and settlement of Mars should have made people more familiar with space, yet only a highly educated astronomer understands that there isn't any celestial body to sling the ship (hell, even I could have told that). Even modern people are alienated from nature, yet people aboard hang on to MIMA's visions like a lifeline. Scandinavia is pretty much the most secular place on Earth, yet cults and superstitions spawn fast, and almost no one (except the strangely vilified captain) has any concern of long-term survival. And so on. Things just don't fit.

Technically, Aniara is just fine. CGI is good, but the inside of the ship isn't (as others have said, it's like a combination of a mall and hotel). Acting is OK to great (except the captain again, though it may be a director's fault too). Even writing is decent on a small scale (like the relationship of MR and Isagel), but the big picture is a mess. The atmosphere is mostly to my liking, but it feels forced too often.

Despite the review being mostly about the negatives, I certainly didn't hate Aniara. It just takes more than nihilism to make a great movie, especially one that tries to be a hardcore SciFi.

__________________

I think one of my favorite parts of the movie is that the spaceship feels like a mall/hotel. It does a great job of setting the scenes of boredom, the passage of time, and the silliness of the cults going through the hallways.

I had the lead at one point but yeah there was no way I could compete with that. I'm on 6 watched now.

Aniara would've made a great mini series. There's so many touched upon avenues that the story could've sustained an entire season or two. But for all those want if glimpses, I never was satisfied as I wanted more...sort of like eating a thin crust pizza that left me hungry.

I'm on 8, I just haven't wrote the 8th review yet. I might watch another today, as it's my day off.

I understand, but for the sake of discussion, here are some thoughts addressing some of your concerns...

I don't think it's only the astronomer that knows. I think it is implied that the crew knows, but they just keep their mouth shut. The astronomer seems to be the only "civilian" passenger to know that, though.

Also, I might be wrong, but I think it is also implied that these trips are routine. That there are already some people in Mars and they're just slowly ferrying people. I might be wrong, but at least that's how I perceived it. But anyway, if that were the case, there wouldn't be any need to have a huge team of scientists on board. Just your "routine astronomer on shift", so to speak, while most everybody else are just regular people.

It's one thing to be alienated, while knowing that nature is *there*, but I think it's another beast to know that you might never see nature again. The attachment to MIMA doesn't occur until people realize that they might have to spend 2+ years in space, which is bound to trigger panic, nostalgia, anxiety, and hysteria in many people.

Obviously, most of the people we see seem to be Swedish/Nordic; obviously a result of the film being, well, Swedish. But I don't think we're meant to believe that everybody on board is from Scandinavia. The film is not meant to be a reflection of a country/region, but rather a reflection of humanity and their search for meaning.

I'll get to 7 by Saturday. That's almost halfway. Looks like 15 is the number. Deer Hunter basically is out.

Yes, I was speaking of the passengers. The captain (and hence presumably the crew) clearly knew. My issue was the inability of the passengers to realize the obvious.

Yes, which makes it even odder that people of such age don't know the very basics like the vast distances to other star systems. Such a thing must have come up regularly in public discussions about settling other planets.

My understanding was that nature, as we know, wasn't really "there" on Earth either. At least my impression was that the re-settlement was forced by some environmental catastroph(i)e(s).

It's very hard to imagine that majority of the people aren't from Sweden when all the public announcements and such are in Swedish. In any case, I found it a very outdated reflection of such.