what does acting have to do with anything
altho the acting was terrific
What the hell are you on about?
This is a thread about the best American films of the last 5 years. A Prairie Home Companion is Altman’s only film from the past 5 years.
And in film, acting has a great deal to do with it. Just like in literature, words have a lot to do with it.
acting does not make a movie and in my opinon PTA has a weakness with actors
sure he was able to make adam sandler suit is agressive man-child thing to drama
but Wahlberg was not up for the challenge of boogie nights
only a handful of magnolia actors came out well (Macy and Hoffman) but some marred the film (Tom Cruise)
and I am sorry but DDL is a ham, the biggest overractor since Al Pacino in scent of a woman or 88mins
???
I never said acting made a movie. I was just questioning why you thought rolandogilead needed to mention Altman when all he was saying is that PTA has made some of the best recent American films.
Comprehension skills……
you said acting has a great deal to do with it
i mentioned altman because PTA was heavily influenced by him and helped work on Prarie
which is a film that is better than PTA’s work in my opinion
it seems like on this site there is a lot of love for a handful of directors without any love or in a few cases knowledge of the often superior directors that they had learned from
yeah…i was trying to say what Tom B said a while ago.
In particullar i don’t like Altman a lot but i don’t think A Prairie Home Companion is thaaaat good.
The thread consisted in mention great american films of the past 5 years…and i say PTA. That’s all i said. I think TWBB is a terrific movie…and great music too.
Ah but did you not read he whole thread title Roland? (on the first page)
ahhh….so sorry =), so…emm…i think i’d say Zodiac or The Wrestler, even if this last one shows another side of the “americans”….yeah, i’m chilean.
When People from USA refer themselves as " Americans " the rest of the Americas get offended but the Canadians…. Why?…….hey they have feelings too……haha.
PTA bores me times infinite. There Will Be Blood was the only film that captivated me, and for obvious reasons. He created a hell of an atmosphere, but I felt like the second half needed to do more than be pessimistic about life. I don’t think PTA is great. At all.
I’ll echo Alva and say “Old Joy”. Certainly one of the greatest films to come from the USA in some time.
I think the purpose of this forum, or this thread, is not to discuss subjective opinions or personal tastes, but to come in using an objective stance to try to find or identify what the Great American films of the past 5 years are, if in fact there are any Great American films of the past 5 years, and what the constituents are, or, what makes up a Great American film.
If we could assume that when one says “Great American film” images and memories of The Godfather, Citizen Kane, and Gone With the Wind pop into our minds, and to a farther extent images and memories of Unforgiven, Slacker, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, and The Shawshank Redemption, then, we have something to work with, we have a certain model we can use to compare with what we think a Great American film should look like. I think we have to ask ourselves: “what do these films have that make them so great and american?”
- Well, they capture the Spirit of a Time (Slacker, The Shawshank Redemption, Unforgiven)
- They provide a portrait of a group or society or tribe of Americans that we don’t normally get to associate with (Slacker, Goodfellas, The Godfather)
- They provides us with special insight and subtext about our culture on a grand scale that we normally wouldn’t notice (Citizen Kane, Pulp fiction, Goodfellas, Unforgiven, Slacker, Gone With the Wind)
- They are well made, innovative, fresh, well written, well acted,
If this is what qualifies a great American Film, then, i think that Great American films of the past 5 years are
Synecdoche, New York,
The Dark Knight,
Up in the Air,
Zodiac,
Juno,
Inglourious Basterds,
There Will Be Blood,
Hump Day,
Brokeback Mountain,
“If we could assume that when one says “Great American film” images and memories of…”
ah, but right there you’ve gone into the subjective. This will always be subjective. I wouldn’t even put The Dark knight on a list. Any list. In fact, 90% of your movies I would barely call watchable! it’s all very very subjective (at least at first), which is the point of the discussion, I would guess, so of course we will start with opinions.
Synecdoche, New York
The Prestige
its been dropped a bunch in this thread. but Shotgun Stories my pick
assasination of jesse james
shotgun stories
before the devil knows your dead
mysterious skin (though it was painful to watch)
the dark knight
The Wrestler
I recently watched A Serious Man and I was impressed.
Capote was a superb film in every way.
Tom B
Den: In a thread about the best American films of the last 5 years?
Ok, A Prairie Home Companion contains better acting than There Will Be Blood.
[Ducks and runs for the hills]