22nd Hall of Fame

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My favorite part of the reveals is seeing each individuals particular nomination. I like matching people to their picks and looking at their past picks and look at a possible theme.
Weird, I know. 🤷
Mine (not counting The Personal Rec HOF)

5th: Quills
6th: A Perfect World
7th: Being John Malkovich
11th: Her WINNER
12th: Romper Stomper
13th: Dances With Wolves WINNER
14th: Black Snake Moan
15th: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
16th: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
17th: The Libertine
18th: Bubba Ho Tep
19th: Return to Paradise
20th: Blood Diamond
21st: Quills
22nd: Joker
Animated Musicals: Charlotte’s Web
Animation: Tokyo Godfathers
Best Picture: Gladiator
Pixar: Up
2nd Animation: Ernest and Celestine



The trick is not minding
Dronningen alternate title is Queen of Hearts, iirc, so if you search for it it may be under that.
Can Neiba make it 3 in a row?
Can Miss Vicky make Phoenix happen again?!
If it wins, will she reenact the famous staircase scene in triumph?



@Citizen Rules

What did you think I was going to nominate?
Something that you like and something I seen once and liked at the time, and have been very curious to rewatch. Well one of these HoFs you'll nominate it



Have not seen Dronningen or State of Siege, and frankly, they both look awesome. I can't remember if I've seen Shine, so I'm going to watch all 3. I'm a fan of all of the other 7 with my top 3 being Joker, Mildred Pierce, and Blue Ruin. The Last Picture Show would be a wildcard for me. A rewatch could put it anywhere from first to last if I were voting. I should probably see that again anyway. Have fun bitches.



Very interesting line-up this time! I've seen half of these.

As raul mentioned, it's pretty fascinating that so many members chose modern films. Most HoFs I've been in it always seems pretty well-mixed and sometimes very new films are a rarity... And like Siddon said, this indeed does look to be a "bleakness" theme going on. Well, we are all depressed during these coronatimes anyways, so let's go!


Mildred Pierce (1945, Directed by Michael Curtiz)
Nominated by Citizen Rules

Casablanca is one of my favorite movies of all time, yet I haven't seen anything else from director Michael Curtiz. Don't know what to think about the plot, but the cast looks great and it seems to be a well respected movie. I'm definitely interested.

The Last Picture Show (1971, Directed by Peter Bogdanovich)
Nominated by Rauldc14

This is already on my watchlist so that's nice. A young Jeff Bridges in what I think was his first ever Academy nomination? Anyways, this one sounds really interesting and I'm looking forward to it!

State of Siege (1972, Directed by Costa-Gavras)
Nominated by Siddon

Never heard of it. But I like crime-ish films, so should be good.

Shine (1996, Directed by Scott Hicks)
Nominated by Edarsenal

While I like the guy, I've never been in a rush to see more Rush, even if I always enjoy him on screen. I really should see more of his work. So yeah, I definitely look forward to see this and it sounds really uplifting and nice.

The Matrix (1999, Directed by the Wachowskis)
Nominated by Thursday Next

I've seen this a couple of times and most recently on November 17th. It's definitely fresh in mind, but I might still rewatch it, since the 4K/HDR disc with Dolby Atmos is an absolute joy!

Inglourious Basterds (2009, Directed by Quentin Tarantino)
Nominated by Ahwell

The film that made me fall in love with Tarantino, though my last rewatch made me lower my score a tad. It's still a fun film though. I rewatched it in January, so perhaps I won't rewatch this either. I know it front to back.

Blue Ruin (2014, Directed by Jeremy Saulnier)
Nominated by Cosmic Runaway

LOVED this when it came out. Haven't seen it since but I've been meaning to. So this is a perfect nom for me!

I, Daniel Blake (2016, Directed by Ken Loach)
Nominated by Neiba

Again, another one from my watchlist. The plot sounds like something I'd like but more importantly I've never seen a single film from Ken Loach. So it's about time eh? Perfect nom once again.

Dronningen [Queen of Hearts] (2019, Directed by May El-Toukhy)
Nominated by MovieMeditation

Well, my own nom... and as it was already mentioned by Wyldesyde19 it is also known as Queen of Hearts. So if you can't find it by its original title, then try that. Anyways, I only just watched this recently but I love to gamble a bit with these HoFs. I want to give people something different or something they wouldn't usually see or haven't seen before. Not that this is a story never seen before, it has quite a few familiar tropes, but the acting on display is fantastic in my opinion. Despite of the familiarity, the acting truly makes this feel hyper-realistic. It's a very raw film in many ways and I love smaller indie films like this that comes out the other side quite powerful. I have one member in mind who might really love this, perhaps two actually... we'll see.

Joker (2019, Directed by Todd Phillips)
Nominated by Miss Vicky

I gave this the full 5 on first watch. I saw it on 70mm film in a big ass theater with Dolby Atmos sound (the biggest of its kind, actually). And while nothing beats that first experience, I still really liked it on a rewatch. For me, it's all about the main performance and his character. This is a movie that tells its story from the inside out. It's all about Arthur Fleck and how the world reflects itself on him. And I like that. I liked it less on a rewatch but I will most likely watch it again to really cement my opinion.



Overall I'm definitely looking forward to this. It's been a while since I've joined a HoF and this looks like a good time. I also kind of like how many of the movies this time is actually quite short. It will be fairly easy to get through them and I'm looking forward to discussing all the movies and seeing everybody's various reactions.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Most of these will be new watches for me. Besides my own nomination, I've only seen two: Last Picture Show and Inglourious Basterds. I had pretty mixed feelings about both of those, so I'll see how I feel about them on a rewatch.

Joker, Shine and I, Daniel Blake are all films I've meant to get round to watching but haven't yet.



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
Ok, interesting set of nominations!

Mildred Piece - I've heard of it, but don't really know a lot about it. Being a CR nom, I'm expecting it to be great!

Last Picture Show - same with Mildred Piece

State of Siege - never heard of it

Shine - This has been in my watchlist for so many years, and I don't know why I've never got to it. I know enough about it to suspect I'll love it.

Matrix - First watched Matrix 2 months ago, really liked it, doesn't need a rewatch as it's quite fresh on my mind.

Inglourious Basterds - ahwell bringing the big guns! I know this film by heart, it's probably the film that I watched the most, and though it has been losing some magic, especially that middle part, it's still amazing. This will always be high on my voting list.

Blue Ruin - never heard of it

I, Daniel Blake - my nom. Watched this when it came out. It won Cannes so it's obviously a very moralistic film. I suspect europeans will relate to it more but I'm curious to see the reactions from everyone.

Dronningen - never heard of it, but I usually love MM's picks so I may start with this.

Joker - this must be the first time a movie so recent gets nominated. I watched it fairly recently. I thought it was ok but I really don't get the "masterpiece stamp" it gets from so many people. Phoenix is a monster in this, though, and that's half of the film.



Mildred Pierce (1945, Directed by Michael Curtiz)
I don't think I've heard of this one. A quick google search says that it's a film noir, so I'm 100% on board without looking into it any more. I just finished the Noir HoF but am always in the mood for the genre.

The Last Picture Show (1971, Directed by Peter Bogdanovich)
I've heard a lot about this film, but I haven't seen it. His film Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women was a bad recut of my nomination for the Russian Hall of Fame, where they altered the narrative and added footage of sexy women. I imagine this one will be much better than that haha.

State of Siege (1972, Directed by Costa-Gavras)
I don't think I've ever come across this film before. That's not surprising though since I haven't seen many French films anyway.

Shine (1996, Directed by Scott Hicks)
For some reason I know the film's poster, but it doesn't seem like something I would've watched on my own accord. Perhaps I kept seeing it on the shelf of a video rental place?

The Matrix (1999, Directed by the Wachowskis)
This used to be one of my favourite films. I still really like it. I don't remember the last time I watched it; I think it was a couple of years ago. I look forward to seeing it again!

Inglorious Basterds
(2009, Directed by Quentin Tarantino)
I am very mixed on this one. I really like parts of it (that intro, and just Christoph Waltz in general), but I'm not really a fan of the film overall. Maybe that'll change upon rewatching it?

Blue Ruin (2014, Directed by Jeremy Saulnier)
My nomination! When I first saw this I wasn't sure how I felt, because I was expecting a completely different film. Over time, I came to realize I appreciated that take a lot more. Rewatching it the other day solidified that. I actually started writing something last night, so I'll probably have my review up soon.

I, Daniel Blake (2016, Directed by Ken Loach)
I watched this at Camo's behest for the Film Awards that year. It was unexpectedly one of my favourites, and I thought it deserved more recognition than it got. It will be interesting to see if the emotional impact holds up on a second viewing.

Dronningen (2019, Directed by May El-Toukhy)
I've never heard of this. With it being a new and foreign film, hopefully it'll be easy to track down.

Joker (2019, Directed by Todd Phillips)
My initial interest in seeing this film was practically nonexistent, and then the trailers came out and looked absolutely terrible to me. The drama surrounding the film was ridiculous, and plummeted my interest into the negatives. It's one of two films I didn't bother watching all the way through for the Film Awards, the other being Uncut Gems which I just couldn't get into. Looks like I've got to watch the whole thing now. I'll try to save this film for when I'm feeling in the right kind of mood to give it a fair shot.





Blue Ruin (2013)
Directed By: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Macon Blair, Amy Hargreaves, Devin Ratray

On the surface, the plot of Blue Ruin sounds like a typical revenge story, but anyone expecting a glorified, righteous reckoning in the final act is going to be sorely disappointed. This is a slow, quiet, and methodical film with minimal dialogue, that doesn't attempt to make its protagonist's actions seem justified. He is not a hero, but rather a flawed and self-destructive man who makes a series of bad decisions, and is left to deal with horrific consequences.

Macon Blair is excellent as Dwight. He is alone on screen for a large chunk of the runtime, so his performance is the single most important aspect of the film. Even without many spoken lines, he's able to convey Dwight's emotions and state of mind with his incredibly expressive eyes. He's very believable as a man in over his head, whose every action only digs him deeper into the dirt. Nothing seems to go as planned for him, but he is ultimately the architect of his own downfall.

There are no genre-typical scenes where you cheer for Dwight as he mows down his enemies. Instead the violence in Blue Ruin is quite realistic and brutal. It's meant to be uncomfortable and shocking, even though you know it's coming. The effects looks great, especially considering the low, kickstarted budget. The cinematography is also fantastic, with well framed shots and only a minimal use of the dreaded shaky cam. There are a lot of blue hues throughout the film which help set the mood, but the camera itself builds the most suspense.

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I always default to imdb so I'd use 2013, but who cares. The director's follow up Green Room seemed to be more popular but I didn't like it nearly as much.



The director's follow up Green Room seemed to be more popular but I didn't like it nearly as much.
Same here. I vastly preferred Blue Ruin even before I rewatched it. I get why people like Green Room, but I personally wasn't a huge fan.



I always default to imdb so I'd use 2013, but who cares. The director's follow up Green Room seemed to be more popular but I didn't like it nearly as much.
Same for me.



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
I, Daniel Blake (2016)

I, Daniel Blake is one of the most honest and emotionally driven films I've watched. It tells the story of a man who is caught in a failure of the system, the same system who should take care of him. He gets to a point where he's stuck and being forced towards poverty without any fault of his own.
It made me feel infuriated and frustrated in a way a few films ever did, especially because it never seems fake or fiction. Its greatest strength is that it has a kind of documentary feel to it. To that contributes an extremely clever and grounded script, a very straight forward direction by Loach and a cinematography that feels both beautiful and real. There are also very convincing perfomances by everyone especially Dave Johns in the lead. He portrays the descent and incresead desperation of the character masterfully.

Only thing it made me feel a bit unsure was the ending, as it seemed a bit overkill, but apart from that, it's a hell of a fine film, my absolute favourite from 2016 and one I feel it's not talked about enough.

+



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
Inglorious Basterds (2009)

This might come out a bit chaotic but I have so much to say about this movie.

I watched Inglorious Basterds when it came out, and I kept going back to the cinema multiple times that couple of weeks. I was a die hard Tarantino fan back then and to me, this was the event of the year. I watched it many many times since then, the last of them a month ago, and I even used it to do a presentation on "sountrack use" to a subject I had in my bachelor. This was in 2015, and part of my work back then was to watch every film IB referenced in some way, especially through the soundtrack. It was also the year I joined MoFo so this film played an important part in me becoming a cinephile.

That being said, my main problem with the late Tarantino films is the balance between epic scenes and some more boring ones. He has been creating some films that are too uneven to be enjoyable as a whole. I have had huge problems concerning that, with Django and especially The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a time in Hollywood, which makes Inglorious Basterds the last film by the man I truly enjoyed.

Granted it still has some problems, especially in the middle sections, the balance between the great scenes and the not so good ones is mostly positive and that's because the film opens with a scene I believe is among the most memorable and well executed in film history (and that's not an exaggeration). Tarantino chooses to open with a long dialogue, as he often does, but this time there's no "what's Like a Virgin about?". He writes an intense conversation that jumps right to the point, and presents the villain at its most menacing moment, rewriting the rules of movie making once again. The acting is obviously top notch especially from this film's greatest revelation: Christoph Waltz, who jumps from french to english to german displaying remarkable accents in all of them while never losing the character and this dangerous aura around him. This dialogue culminates in a moment that still gives me the goosebumps after so many watches. The soundtrack looks like it was written for this movie and the camerawork is astonishing!

While opening a film like that sets the bar very high, Tarantino still finds a way to create an impressive second chapter, introducing the Basterds, lead by a very impressive Brad Pitt. These characters are rough, menacing, violent but they are killing guys worse than them so we find ourselves rooting for them. There are some really funny moments and again another well executed tension bit with the Bear Jew smashing the brains of a honorable nazi general.
Now, at this time the movie is already going to be a favourite of mine, no matter what happens.

In the next chapter we are introduced to Laurent's Emmanuelle Mimieux, the new identity of the girl who ran away in the first scene. This is where I think the film loses some steam. We see a young nazi soldier, that I really never cared about, trying to seduce her while she plans a way to get revenge. The peak of the chapter is Emmanuelle's meeting again with Hans Landa. There's not much happening in the scene but the tension is almost unbearable! I read what I think was the original script once, and if that was legit, Tarantino had the ideia of shooting a plan under the table and show that Emmanuelle peed on her pants with the fear of getting recognized. I'm glad he took it out and we are let as it is.

Then there's the Operation Kino and the tavern scene. The dialogues here are not as cool and the Basterds lose some of that mystiscim but the under the table stand off blows in a spectacular fashion, with a typical Tarantino burst of adrenaline and over the top blood spilling. About the acting, I usually like Fassbender a lot, but here he didn't convince me. I think you need to have a very particular personality to deliver a Tarantino line and he just doesn't have it. We lose Stiglitz though, waaaay to soon IMO as that's probably the only character I felt I wanted to see more from.

Finally, the big reveal, where all the plot lines must come to an end. We get all surviving major characters under the same roof and the film goes from the epic make up scene backgrounded by Bowie's amazing Cat People theme song, to an hilarious Brad Pitt speaking "italian" (and yet another language Waltz dominates), to the tense confrontation between Landa and von Hammersmark. There's also a BEAUTIFUL death scene when Emmanuelle is shot by Zoller, an hilarious shot of Hitler getting filled of bullets and a twist when Hans Landa tries to help the Basterds, who don't let him off the hook as easily as he expected. This final chapter has indeed many terrific bits but some of them are not tied up perfectly and it loses some speed.

Overall, it's a hell of a movie, hugely entertaining and that's what Tarantino ultimately aimed for.
But I always remember what I read about the making off of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. When Frederic Raphael started working on the script, Kubrick asked him to send immediately every scene as soon as it was written, which Raphael didn't like very much. After the first scene Kubrick got, he phoned Raphael and told him it was too good. He knew that both Raphael and himself wouldn't be able to keep that level so he prefered to sacrifice a terrific scene instead of the integrity of the film. Kubrick understood that a movie worked as a whole and that should be more than the sum of its parts. This is what I think stops Tarantino from being among the true great directors.
That and a lack of emotional and philosophical depth, which is ok if he kept making style over content masterpieces like he did. It's when he tries to be a grown up that shows he's way over his head.

+



Damn. People be getting them reviews going extremely quick!

As always, I’ll read reviews for each film after I’ve (re)watched the film. I’m still not sure which one I’ll go with first.




Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Interesting that based on first reactions people don't love this movie too much. Oh well :/ it's definitely not for everyone. @Citizen Rules someday I will nominate something you like

On to the review:

Well, I thought I would show my Dad a Tarantino he would like, as well as reminding myself that Tarantino really can be a great director. Although I didn't achieve the former (my Dad was not a fan), I can very much confirm the latter. Tarantino is at the top of his game with Inglourious Basterds - everything is notched up to the highest degree, especially the violence and the gore. We as the audience don't care about the excessiveness since, well, you know, its the Nazis getting their faces shot off and having swastikas carved into their foreheads for once - this is Tarantino giving a giant **** you to evil.

And it's a blast like usual. This and Django Unchained cover the most "serious" of any topics Tarantino has done, and for that reason they are arguably the most controversial works he's put out. Inglourious Basterds actually rewrites history however - the ending is a fine fine turn of events, and while yes it is Tarantino's rage fantasy I think he speaks for a lot of us.

To say that Inglourious Basterds, well, glorifies violence is obviously true. It's not Tarantino making a discreet comment about violence from both sides - he, and we, genuinely believe the Nazis got what they deserved. In fact, this shares clear traits with something like the Indiana Jones series. Tarantino simply notches it up so that there is blood shown, but both franchises/movies ensure the Nazis' asses are kicked in the end.

The dialogue is some of Tarantino's best; from the very first scene we are gripped in the intense plot. And THAT FIRST SCENE. Can we take a moment to appreciate how well Tarantino sets up characters and events? When Landa switches to English, cunningly aware that the Jews under the floorboard don't speak it. When he asks for a glass of milk, only for it to appear later in the meeting between Landa and Shosanna. Tarantino meticulously crafts these plot developments and motives, and we already hate Landa from the very first fifteen minutes.

I love how clear and focused the plot is, as compared to the twisting and turning of Pulp Fiction or the mystery of the Hateful Eight. The goal is simple and clear, and the buildup is even better than the climax. The bar scene gets better and better every time - it's practically Tarantino flexing and showing us just how well he can write characters.

Brad Pitt gives his second best performance (Tree of Life, man) as Aldo the Apache - an ignorant, frankly idiot, violence lusting American who I absolutely love. Christoph Waltz steals the show, however, and won an Oscar for a reason. Every scene with him is Gold, and it helps that Tarantino writes in delicious lines. I love to hate him.

So, yes, I could go on and on. Usually I try to talk about a theme or a message with a film, but with Inglourious Basterds or Django Unchained we're along for the ride, and it's a good ride. Thank God for movies like this!

In the end, Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino at his flashiest, best looking, most fun. Pulp Fiction will always remain my favorite at heart, but Inglourious Basterds might just be his masterpiece.


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I liked Basterds much more the 2nd time around, but I'd still put it behind Reservoir Dogs, Pulp, Jackie Brown, Death Proof, OUATIH, and Django. I'd have it close to The Hateful Eight and ahead of the Kill Bill movies.