The Godfather, Parts 1 and 2.
The Graduate
Chinatown
Silence of the Lambs
Schindler’s List
The Departed
and…
Donnie Darko. Can’t stand this movie. And I think based on Southland Tales, that I am correct for thinking that Dick Kelly is a fraud.
What sets Kubrick apart is the same thing that set David Foster Wallace apart from his peers: Kubrick was an actual genius working in a field where most only adopt the pose of a genius. That he applied his genius to the art of filmmaking, and not something else, was his gift to the lovers of cinema.
And to me, the filmmakers who come closest to apporaching Kubrick’s genius are Bruno Dumont, Michael Haneke, Claire Denis, Carlos Reygadas, Frederick Wiseman, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
PTA has a ways to go before he can be spoken of as being in league with Kubrick, although he is trying his hardest to jimmy himself in to the conversation. I think Altman, obviously, is more of an avatar for Anderson than anyone, and I think he will be remembered the same way, as a master iconoclast and maverick. PTA doesn’t have the ability to distance himself like Kubrick, and I don’t think he ever will. He is too in love with melodramatics to make that leap, viz. the end of TWBB.
Spielberg isn’t half the filmmaker that Scorsese is, let alone Kubrick.
Spielberg. Always Spielberg.
And Chris Nolan.
Ron Howard.
Mike Nichols. I like the Graduate okay, but I can’t think of a single movie he has made since that I would want to watch again.
Sydney Pollack.
James L. Brooks.
Matthias: I am including Snow Angels in my equation. After Geo Wash and All The Real Girls, I had hopes the he was going to be one of the next great American filmmakers, but the way his CV is coming along, I don’t see that happening.
Bodysong (What my wife said to me as I shielded my eyes during the first ten minutes: “Watch it.” The rest of the movie is equally disturbing and sublime. Should be shown in schools. Kids need to see what this movie has to offer. It is nothing but the human condition in all it’s splendor and repugnance.)
Twentynine Palms (The ending of that movie comes as close to approximating what it’s like to wake up from a nightmare.)
Richard Kelly should not be allowed to make another film after Southland Tales. I thought Donnie Darko was wildly overrrated. I know he’s made the Box since ST, but I think he’s an absolute hack.
Does PTA have one Criterion movie? No. But Wes Anderson has 4 out of 5. Okay.
1. There Will Be Blood and Punch Drunk Love
2. The Brown Bunny
3. Paranoid Park, Elephant, Last Days
4. Birth
5. Innocence
6. Cache
7. I’m Not There
8. Tokyo Sonata
9. The Wrestler
10. A History of Violence
11. Workingman’s Death
12. Import/Export
13. Songs from the Second Floor and You, The Living….PLEEEEAAAAASSSSSEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paranoid Park is the best movie I saw all year. Van Sant’s command of sound and image, in that film, is head and shoulders above almost every other American filmmaker currently working.
I agree with Andy. There are plenty of filmmakers who can be considered masters of their medium, and Kubrick is one of them. You can hate his movies, find them cold and inhumane, be bored senseless, and plenty of people are, but he knew his craft backwards and forwards, every single aspect of the process, as well as anyone ever has. I think what people most object to when they say they dislike Kubrick are the tone of his films, the pacing, the subjects. Fine. Kubrick is one of the God of Cinema and always will be. I just saw 2001 in 70mm and when it was done all I could think about was Kael’s dismissal, something along the lines of 2001 being the best amateur movie ever made, which is kind of funny, and typical of Kael’s knee-jerk populist contrarianism, because 2001 is the exact opposite, and Kael had to know this. 2001 stands at the apex of modern cinema, and is one of the great works of art of the 20th Century. The level of attention to detail is mind-boggling and the fact the Kubrick pulls off a particularly trick bit of business, i.e., placing the camera as the p.o.v. of God (or, in other words, Stanley Kubrick as God), should be enough to silence the doubters. But it won’t. Some people don’t like Kubrick and they never will for one simple reason: he was a genius and he wasn’t shy about letting you know that through his work.
I think Buffalo 66 and The Brown Bunny are wonderful examples of personal cinema. I would watch anything he makes. Some of you have absolutely no sense of humor or irony or a sense for anything that isn’t on the surface. Every aspiring filmmaker or artist should watch his movies and try and learn something, because he is clearly a singular talent. Filmmakers like Gallo should be encouraged, but they’re not, because doing what Gallo does takes balls, a quality that is in short supply in both American film and American film writing.
What great films do you violently hate for no other reason than because you're a total idiot? over 3 years ago
The Godfather, Parts 1 and 2.
The Graduate
Chinatown
Silence of the Lambs
Schindler’s List
The Departed
and…
Donnie Darko. Can’t stand this movie. And I think based on Southland Tales, that I am correct for thinking that Dick Kelly is a fraud.
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What sets Stanley apart from the others? over 3 years ago
What sets Kubrick apart is the same thing that set David Foster Wallace apart from his peers: Kubrick was an actual genius working in a field where most only adopt the pose of a genius. That he applied his genius to the art of filmmaking, and not something else, was his gift to the lovers of cinema.
And to me, the filmmakers who come closest to apporaching Kubrick’s genius are Bruno Dumont, Michael Haneke, Claire Denis, Carlos Reygadas, Frederick Wiseman, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
PTA has a ways to go before he can be spoken of as being in league with Kubrick, although he is trying his hardest to jimmy himself in to the conversation. I think Altman, obviously, is more of an avatar for Anderson than anyone, and I think he will be remembered the same way, as a master iconoclast and maverick. PTA doesn’t have the ability to distance himself like Kubrick, and I don’t think he ever will. He is too in love with melodramatics to make that leap, viz. the end of TWBB.
Spielberg isn’t half the filmmaker that Scorsese is, let alone Kubrick.
Colour Me Kubrick is execrable.
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WHO ARE THE UNDER-RATED DIRECTORS? over 3 years ago
Vincent Gallo.
Travis Wilkerson.
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Directors who should be ashamed of themselves over 3 years ago
David Gordon Greene is wasting his talent. And Finn Taylor, who made Dream with the Fishes, is another waste.
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Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
Spielberg. Always Spielberg.
And Chris Nolan.
Ron Howard.
Mike Nichols. I like the Graduate okay, but I can’t think of a single movie he has made since that I would want to watch again.
Sydney Pollack.
James L. Brooks.
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Directors who should be ashamed of themselves over 3 years ago
Matthias: I am including Snow Angels in my equation. After Geo Wash and All The Real Girls, I had hopes the he was going to be one of the next great American filmmakers, but the way his CV is coming along, I don’t see that happening.
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CHARACTERS IN A FILM WHO FATE MAKES YOU WEEP over 3 years ago
Guy Pearce in Ravenous.
Jeff Bridges in Fearless.
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movies that shake you to the core over 3 years ago
Bodysong (What my wife said to me as I shielded my eyes during the first ten minutes: “Watch it.” The rest of the movie is equally disturbing and sublime. Should be shown in schools. Kids need to see what this movie has to offer. It is nothing but the human condition in all it’s splendor and repugnance.)
Twentynine Palms (The ending of that movie comes as close to approximating what it’s like to wake up from a nightmare.)
Fearless (“Save me.” Gets me every time.)
Ivansxtc
Threads
The Chocolate War
To Live and Die in L.A.
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Directors that consistently make terrible films over 3 years ago
Joe Swanberg
Tom DiCillo
McG
Tony Scott
Garry Marshall
Mike Nichols
Jonathan Demme
Richard Kelly
Rob Reiner
Ken Kwapis
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Directors that consistently make terrible films over 3 years ago
Richard Kelly should not be allowed to make another film after Southland Tales. I thought Donnie Darko was wildly overrrated. I know he’s made the Box since ST, but I think he’s an absolute hack.
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Directors that consistently make terrible films over 3 years ago
Dark City is the best Sci-Fi film since Blad Runner. Better than the Matrix.
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Directors that consistently make terrible films over 3 years ago
Dark City is the best Sci-Fi film since Blade Runner. Better than the Matrix.
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WHICH MOVIES...PUT OUT IN LAST 5 YEARS...DO YOU THINK WILL ONE DAY JOIN THE CRITERION COLLECTION? over 3 years ago
Does PTA have one Criterion movie? No. But Wes Anderson has 4 out of 5. Okay.
1. There Will Be Blood and Punch Drunk Love
2. The Brown Bunny
3. Paranoid Park, Elephant, Last Days
4. Birth
5. Innocence
6. Cache
7. I’m Not There
8. Tokyo Sonata
9. The Wrestler
10. A History of Violence
11. Workingman’s Death
12. Import/Export
13. Songs from the Second Floor and You, The Living….PLEEEEAAAAASSSSSEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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WHICH MOVIES...PUT OUT IN LAST 5 YEARS...DO YOU THINK WILL ONE DAY JOIN THE CRITERION COLLECTION? over 3 years ago
wAIT. iS bOOGIE niGHTs a CriteRION?
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for cinematographers or lovers of images over 3 years ago
What I’m starting to dig lately is the way late 90s/early 00s DV movies look.
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Opinions of Van Sant? over 3 years ago
Paranoid Park is the best movie I saw all year. Van Sant’s command of sound and image, in that film, is head and shoulders above almost every other American filmmaker currently working.
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Great films about artists.. over 3 years ago
Watkins’ Edvard Munch.
Adaptation/Synecdoche, NY
One Plus One
By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggelston
Opening Night
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Great films about artists.. over 3 years ago
Forgot New York, New York and Life Lessons.
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Movies you love, but everyone else hates. over 3 years ago
Eric Red’s Body Parts, w/ Jeff Fahey.
Fast Break w/ Gabe Kaplan.
Landis’ Into the Night
Ravenous
Blake Edward’s Skin Deep
Vampire’s Kiss w/ Nic Cage
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Movies you love, but everyone else hates. over 3 years ago
Locked Up w/ Stallone
Breakdown w/ Kurt Russell
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Who's better than Stanley Kubrick? over 3 years ago
I agree with Andy. There are plenty of filmmakers who can be considered masters of their medium, and Kubrick is one of them. You can hate his movies, find them cold and inhumane, be bored senseless, and plenty of people are, but he knew his craft backwards and forwards, every single aspect of the process, as well as anyone ever has. I think what people most object to when they say they dislike Kubrick are the tone of his films, the pacing, the subjects. Fine. Kubrick is one of the God of Cinema and always will be. I just saw 2001 in 70mm and when it was done all I could think about was Kael’s dismissal, something along the lines of 2001 being the best amateur movie ever made, which is kind of funny, and typical of Kael’s knee-jerk populist contrarianism, because 2001 is the exact opposite, and Kael had to know this. 2001 stands at the apex of modern cinema, and is one of the great works of art of the 20th Century. The level of attention to detail is mind-boggling and the fact the Kubrick pulls off a particularly trick bit of business, i.e., placing the camera as the p.o.v. of God (or, in other words, Stanley Kubrick as God), should be enough to silence the doubters. But it won’t. Some people don’t like Kubrick and they never will for one simple reason: he was a genius and he wasn’t shy about letting you know that through his work.
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THE AUTEURS BEST OF THE DECADE: FILMS over 2 years ago
Reflections of Evil & SpaceDisco One (Damon Packard)
An Injury to One (Travis Wilkerson)
Bodysong (Simon Pummell)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen)
Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
A Serious Man (Coen Brothers)
Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Intruder (Claire Denis)
Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont)
Irreversible (Gaspar Noe)
The Piano Teacher & Cache (Michael Haneke)
Eureka (Shinji Aoyama)
Ivansxtc (Bernard Rose)
Fuckland (Jose Luis Marques)
Battle in Heaven (Carlos Reygadas)
Lilya-4-Ever (Lukas Moodyson)
Marie Antionette (Sofia Coppola)
George Washington (David Gordon Greene)
Team Picture (Kentucker Audley)
The American Astronaut (Cory McAbee)
Zodiac (David Fincher)
Birth (Jonathan Glazer)
The Doctor, The Tornardo, and The Kentucky Kid (Mark Neale)
Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette)
The Power of Nightmares & The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig)
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THE AUTEURS BEST OF THE DECADE: IMAGES over 2 years ago
I don’t know how to download images, so I will just say:
1. Man getting face bashed in with a fire extinguisher in IRREVERSIBLE.
2. The final shot of A SERIOUS MAN.
3. The final shot of INNOCENCE.
4. The entire women-giving birth sequence of BODYSONG.
5. Bathroom door opening and what comes out in TWENTYNINE PALMS.
6. Dog chasing after car in THE INTRUDER.
7. The final shot of INSIDE.
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Vincet Gallo on Promises Written In Water almost 2 years ago
I think Buffalo 66 and The Brown Bunny are wonderful examples of personal cinema. I would watch anything he makes. Some of you have absolutely no sense of humor or irony or a sense for anything that isn’t on the surface. Every aspiring filmmaker or artist should watch his movies and try and learn something, because he is clearly a singular talent. Filmmakers like Gallo should be encouraged, but they’re not, because doing what Gallo does takes balls, a quality that is in short supply in both American film and American film writing.
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