bkguy182
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Post by bkguy182 on Feb 3, 2017 19:56:56 GMT
finally got around to seeing this this other day.
borderline hated it. the screenplay could have potentially been fantastic, but it was overshadowed by direction and tone that completely missed the mark. which i feel weird saying because the writer directed it. but if he went with a more sentimental, soft, human, approach, i think it could have been great. instead we got 2 hours of monotonous, bland, colorless, film that was a chore to get through. the whole thing reminded me of the episode of the simpsons where they lose their personality because of school uniforms. "youre it." "now you are the one that is it." "understood."
like, just stop. i get youre trying to be edgy and cool by being off beat, but its not working.
such a shame.
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Post by harlequinade on Feb 3, 2017 20:07:49 GMT
I admired the script but I just couldn't get into it. I understand why people liked it but for me it was just...too weird.
Farrell and the rest of the cast was fantastic.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2017 22:35:45 GMT
Yeah, I wasn't a fan. I was interested in the idea that it came up with but just found it kinda...lame and dull.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Feb 3, 2017 22:45:46 GMT
Wasn't big on it either, save some of the acting. It was just so... odd.
What's stranger is the Academy taking a liking since it really doesn't look like their cup of tea.
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Post by pessimusreincarnated on Feb 3, 2017 23:04:57 GMT
The more I reflect on it, the less I like it. The first half had some really interesting ideas and set up for a potentially fantastic finish, but the latter half dragged like hell. Weisz was also borderline awful (still can't believe she was ICC nominated!), luckily Farrell nailed the deadpan humor far better and was definitely the best part of the film overall.
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Film Socialism
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99.9999% of rock is crap
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Post by Film Socialism on Feb 3, 2017 23:12:06 GMT
ctfu it's goat
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2017 23:37:48 GMT
I thought it was very entertaining. I loved the surrealism and I found it consistently funny.
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oneflyr
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Post by oneflyr on Feb 4, 2017 0:13:34 GMT
It's better than Dogtooth, but that's not saying much since I pretty much hated that film. Some really funny bits in the first half and great use of narration.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2017 0:41:15 GMT
I really liked the first half, the second not so much. Decent film overall but I wish it went in a different direction.
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Post by Billy_Costigan on Feb 4, 2017 2:59:14 GMT
Same here. It started off interesting enough but I ended up hating it. It had some interesting ideas but I hated the execution.
Btw - put a shirt on
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Post by ChairfaceC on Feb 4, 2017 3:45:34 GMT
Uh, I think it's incredible and it's the only movie that's ever made me cry ever in my life so that's not nothing. I think it's one of the best screenplays of the decade.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Feb 4, 2017 3:59:49 GMT
I'm legally obligated to disagree with Chairface's taste, so I hated it.
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Feesy
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Post by Feesy on Feb 4, 2017 4:32:24 GMT
I can get why it was off-putting, but it's one of my favorite theatre experiences in a while and I enjoyed it way more than I anticipated. But then again, I like the quirky dead-pan humor that it offered, I tend to like that sort of thing.
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spiralstatic
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Maybe you're like Dangermouse: small, but mighty... ? ??!?!?!
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Post by spiralstatic on Feb 4, 2017 20:55:55 GMT
I hated it. It was all the worse as I was very excited to see it - I thought it looked great from trailer & concept and I love Ben Whishaw.
I didn't find the film remotely funny whatsoever and, worse, I found it pointless. Considering no character displays emotion like an ordinary human, for me, it detracts any horror or amusement from the overall theme.
I found it affected and irritating. And, as I say, also: pointless!
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Feb 7, 2017 14:56:00 GMT
I have to respectfully disagree with you bk.
I don't throw around the word masterpiece a lot, if ever and I'm not going to change that here, but I'm tempted. I think the dialogue is perfect, and as this films dialogue is its primary weapon, it has automatically succeeded at its base level. The stilted dialogue that almost every character speaks in, may be off putting to some, but it fits perfectly within the tone of the film
The next requirement for me, as this was a comedy, was that it be funny. I cannot recall a film in the last few years that has made me laugh more than this one. It was just so wonderfully amusing, and that is a (or the) fundamental requirement of comedy, one which it seems to me, is surprisingly easy for some filmmakers and writers to forget when they make one.
Top that all off with a cast, firing on all cylinders and I've got one of my all time favourite films.
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Post by mrmoviegeek on Feb 7, 2017 15:01:30 GMT
I personally loved it and can understand why it doesn't appeal to all, but I am genuinely curious how you think a "sentimental, soft" approach to this would have made it better? It's such an absurd premise that I feel like making it sentimental would have made it even more off-kilter.
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bkguy182
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Post by bkguy182 on Feb 7, 2017 16:16:35 GMT
I personally loved it and can understand why it doesn't appeal to all, but I am genuinely curious how you think a "sentimental, soft" approach to this would have made it better? It's such an absurd premise that I feel like making it sentimental would have made it even more off-kilter. maybe im just a romantic at heart, but i find the base of the movie to be about love. and love has feeling, its raw, its unapologetic. and when you strip that all away, youre left with what we had- an emotionless, monotone, journey, where the stakes never felt high. if i was about to turn into an animal i want to see passion and a sense of urgency. the dialogue was all there. if i had read the script before seeing the movie, it would have been brill balls. but they, unfortunately for me, didnt go in that direction.
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Post by FatherJames on Feb 7, 2017 20:04:06 GMT
Colin is still my best actor win at the moment.
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wendy
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Post by wendy on Feb 12, 2017 3:48:16 GMT
More soft and sentimental???????? Booooooo. I think the blank, muted tone was perfectly in line with the story. They have been so conditioned and stilted by the fact that they have to find someone that they're all communicating in this robotic, propriety-dictated way, desperate not to put off others. Laying all their cards on the table, without any time to waste. This is part of the reason why Ashley Jensen's outbursts are so funny to me. And you say the 'stakes never felt high' but they were literally a matter of life and death, especially in the second half of the film. The trip to the city is rife with tension and despair for me. Anyway, I think it's a brilliant movie. So much to say about the way society treats people who are single, and a very smart satire of people banding together in relationships just for the status, without any thought to compatibility or connection. The cast is top-to-bottom phenomenal, the writing is incredible (not a single line of dialogue is a wasted one), and it has some of the most memorable staging and direction of any 2016 film i've seen... the slow-motion 'hunt on loners' sequence actually took my breath away, and Lanthimos has created a perfectly controlled and unique tone that balances icy black comedy, bleak tragedy, and cripplingly emotional loneliness. I think it's really one of the most 'beautiful' films of the decade. But I guess I can understand why people didn't cotton on to it, to each their own.
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Post by cheesecake on Feb 12, 2017 22:37:10 GMT
I really liked the idea of it on paper and I'm a big fan of offbeat and outside-the-box films, but I don't think it was executed well at all.
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The-Havok
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Doing pretty good so far
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Post by The-Havok on Jan 12, 2019 17:01:53 GMT
It's pretty meh. But it's much more relevant than it was 2 years ago now.
Lea Seydoux was perfectly cast as the bitch leader. She does have a punchable face
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 12, 2019 17:37:48 GMT
Well I'm a pretty big fan of this films deranged humor and this was the Efthimis Filippou influence on Lanthimos. Don't get me wrong I liked The Favourite but people said daft stuff like "he's better when he's not writing" when really he's just a bit less mischievous. The sense of mischief is still there but the abandon and punk rock wildness is not (which is fine there's a new artistic rigor in The Favourite which is good too).
The Lobster takes that crazed madness of Dogtooth - sort of things you can't process at first and lays it on so heavily that you are laughing at the emotional parts and sad at the humorous ones. Yes, the 2nd half isn't as good, but the 2nd half is an equal part of the vision. Very few filmmakers now are playing with their audience in the films I've seen of his and in The Lobster and Dogtooth especially it's almost an act of willful defiance.
It might not conform to what I'm looking for exactly, but I can't fault the artistic impulse in any of his work......one of his and Filippou's brilliant strokes is to hold his characters to the same ludicrous position as he holds society at large (or in Dogtooth both children and parents) - here they are willing fools and well we are all fools for love.
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