Ask The Gold Trumpet

[Gold Trumpet]

1. What's the best new movie you've seen in the past 60 days

2. What's the best movie you've revisited on video in the past 30 days.

Many apologies for not getting to this sooner. I always think I need more time to think about these questions than I really do, but I love responding nonetheless.

1.) I'd have to say Good Night, and Good Luck. While I respect Shaftr for calling it the best film of the year, I wouldn't go so far. The closeness the film has to its subject, a dated one, is a good and bad predicament. The good is that Clooney adjusts the filmmaking to suit that closeness. He makes this film like a performance film where he allows the gravity of the situation and scenes to play out. He hardly relies on usual set ups that would suggest usual storytelling methods, but allows the camera to record the nuances in the scenes. The editing is fabulous. A great attempt to convey experience for a situation many of us who have no identity to. A second viewing only confirmed that for me. The negative is that the closeness does not allow him to convey themes that transcend the period and situation. It's a historical document to those who are curious enough. With a film like Downfall, the aspect of historical document is there but the pronoucement of Hitler's demise is so great and challenging it begs difficult questions we see in our world today. It makes us to take into account the idea of humanity in criminals we rather deem evil because it makes us sleep better at night.

2.) The Wild Bunch. I've always really liked this film, but I rented it again and am having a hard time not believing it is one of the best American films ever made. There is also a context to why this film stands so high for me right now. Recently I wrote an essay on Quentin Tarantino in the realm of Post-Modernism. The definition of Post-Modernism is tricky. Every theorist has a different idea. The one I keep with is the loss of morality in cinema and the subsequent challenge many modern films put to the taboos and mores of our society. With the Wild Bunch, you have a film that defines Hollywood because it is a western. The change is that the killers are the heroes. Before Hollywood would romanticize bad guys but give into right and wrong by the end. This film, like Bonnie and Clyde, paints the killers as heroes to the bitter end. Unlike Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch appeals to the true sense of mythic in Hollywood. Bonnie and Clyde is identifiable to our times because killers still exist like them so the identification in the audience can be lost because we are taught to sympathize with the victims. The Wild Bunch is for another time. As films have made killers and violence easy entertainment since then, Peckinpah makes this The Wild Bunch as it was his passionate belief in philosophy. The filmmaking is poetic and the killer's drive to violence is so identifiable that it reminds us of our identification to excess and the pride we can take in their brotherhood. 

[JG]

Do you like any Wes Anderson movies?  If so, which one?  If none, why not?  Do you think Wes Anderson has had a negative effect on movies in the past few years?

Would you concur with me when I say City of God is the best movie of the decade? 

What are your thoughts Ang Lee's masterpiece:  The Ice Storm?

What's your favorite Fellini? 

[pete]

We should change the name of this thread to "Don't Ask Pubrick".

backfired!

[polkablues]

What's your favorite Fellini? 

I can't speak for GT, but I would have to go with Federico.

[Pubrick]

We should change the name of this thread to "Don't Ask Pubrick".

backfired!

why? because polkablues is poorer than u?

[Gamblour.]

haha

[Alethia]

Would you concur with me when I say City of God is the best movie of the decade? 

I can't speak for GT either, but FUCK NO.

[JG]

Do you just not like it or you just don't think it's worthy of that praise.   I could respect the latter. 

City of Gods is great and i love it. 

[Find Your Magali]

Thanks, GT. .... Living where I live, I'll have to wait for the DVD of Clooney's latest film. ... But, in the meantime, I can check out Wild Bunch, which believe it or not I've never seen.

[Alethia]

Do you just not like it or you just don't think it's worthy of that praise.   I could respect the latter. 

City of Gods is great and i love it. 

you couldn't respect both?  i really hated it, i have to say.  the praise just makes me hate it even more.  you should check out pixote.  ahh pixote.  pixote is one of my all time favorite pictures.  just too many great scenes.  a classic, without a doubt.

[JG]

to be fair i haven't seen nearly as many movies as you guys.  especially from this decade  and, i haven't seen city of god since it's release on DVD.  But I can't think of any other movies that top it.  Certainly nothing from this year.  I really liked Minority Report, PDL, Eternal Sunshine (a couple cliche responses I know)...but I really loved City of God.   

I'm interested (maybe we should head over to the city of god thread to continue this), what do u hate about it?   last i remember, it was pretty amazing and hard to hate.   i really should revisit it before i throw something like that around.   it's certainly a subjective question, so i unno. 

Anyways, I thought I remembered reading that GT loved it.  so i just wanted to know his thoughts on it. 

[ono]

I'm interested (maybe we should head over to the city of god thread to continue this), what do u hate about it?

Yes please.  Though I doubt you'll find too many people who want to argue anymore about why they dislike a movie, here are some of my thoughts:

http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=56.msg92596#msg92596
http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=7063.msg168725#msg168725

And SHAFTR's argument: http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=5583.msg167266#msg167266

[pete]

why? because polkablues is poorer than u?

no, mainly because you're fat.

[Gold Trumpet]

haha

[Pubrick]

why? because polkablues is poorer than u?

no, mainly because you're fat.

i'm not, tho.