The stupidest thing you've heard someone say about a movie..

[Gamblour.]

Look, if someone goes on and on about how Fight Club is the best movie in the world because it's cool and stylized and they understood the symoblism and existential view behind it, I'm going to learn something about them, say, on an instinctual level.

Like what?

As with my anecdote about the 2001 guy (posted long ago, now buried under heaps of misunderstandings), if Fight Club, or any movie, such as Donnie Darko (both of which I own and that means that I do like them, in order to prevent further explanation), is all that someone always talks about (those two examples just happen to be popular), I'll understand that they are just desperate to impress someone in a sciolistic manner (yes I like using that word, it holds a great meaning to my whole point). I'll understand that they're not the cinema going nut they want everyone to think they are. Yeah, it's probably a harsh generalization, but I think it's true, and it applies only where obvious, e.g. not with family or the average Joe (like the Joe Schmo Show, which is brilliant), but with assholes I see everywhere here on campus.

If they think Kevin Smith is the funniest movie-maker ever, I'll understand they haven't seen much.

Humor is subjective.  But name someone funnier.  Wes Anderson, Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson.  But all of these guys' humor is highly subjective, and has hardly entered the mainstream.  Worse is, I'm betting not many people can think of any "mainstream" directors who are consistently funny besides Kevin Smith.

Of course humor is subjective. But I'm referring to a matter of taste. Kevin Smith, to me, isn't that funny. That's why I (probably not anyone else), I use him as a measuring stick of taste. If you think he's the funniest guy who's ever written anything, then great. I won't really ask you what comedy I should rent on Netflix, but I'm not going to lynch you. This isn't saying I absolutely hate Kevin Smith either. I think his movies are pretty bad, but the animated series is always great to watch. I prefer the Coen Bros. or anything that's funny really. But to me, Kevin Smith isn't funny. I apologize for having an opinion  . I'm not going to get into the concept of "mainstream" because the populous has the worst taste imaginable. Just listen to the radio for about ten minutes. I don't really trust a people that thinks Dickie Roberts might be hilarious and puts it at the top of the box office.

I could've used Donnie Darko or Guy Ritchie instead. See ya.

Don't even go there.  Donnie Darko, like Fight Club, is one of the best movies ever.  There.  I said it.  Am I an idiot?  (Don't answer that.  )  Guy Ritchie can't hold a candle to Richard Kelly, let alone any of the other guys we've mentioned.

No one here, as far as I can tell, is an idiot. Maybe misled, hehe, just kidding for the love of god. Guy Ritchie, again, was just a random example of someone people may tend to overglorify (how many times do I have to say it, I own Snatch for god's sakes). And again, I like Donnie Darko. My point is, to go back to the mechanic metaphor, if all I talk about is fan belts, odds are I don't know shit about cars. A real mechanic is going to sense this and make me shut the fuck up, or at least want me to stop acting like I know more than I actually do. I hope this post has made things, at least, clearer. This is so fucking exhausting.

[NEON MERCURY]

..Guy Ritchie can't hold a candle to Richard Kelly...

..Man I am going to have to dissagree w/ that statemment..lock, stocked..and Snatch were way better films than donnie darko( )....BUT I AM NOT SAYING THAT DONNIE D.IS A BAD FILM AT ALL..IT'S QUITE GOOD ACTUALLY....i just think that  those to ritchie film's are better in dialouge for one thing (esp.) lockee stock..watch that sucker again  its REAl good...the acting is adequate in both directors film(S)..i don;'t know ..I'm rambling now..its' hard to judge the two right now .I gues its allopinionated really but thats what this place is for..TO VOICE THEM......i just think that donnie darko is way over-rated .people make it out to be some sort of phenomenon or something. basically i think that  kelly can't hold a candle to ritchie (YET)..which is the KEY word....for now............

well i gues sits time for the Donnie Dorko's to fill me w/ hate mail...

[cine]

I'm talking about the guy in the movie line in Annie Hall, talking about Fellini. I'm talking about Fakes and sciolists. I'm talking about a guy who is bragging he's heard of 2001, written by Carl Sagan.

Holy shit, perfect analogy. Hilarious scene that leaves me crying. And yeah, I hate people like that.

It's not really a "perfect analogy",

Sorry, I meant for me it was, in that I knew precisely what he was talking about and completely sympathized with him.

[Cecil]

sometimes, my dvd player will ask me "please select which version you would like to watch: widescreen or standard" or "r-rated or uncut"

silly dvd player

[cine]

Maybe one day they'll release DVD players that aren't so narrow-minded.

[Alethia]

knock on wood.

[Gold Trumpet]

I'm glad this is my first post for this thread and I'm also glad this is all I'm going to say.

~rougerum

[Lucinda Bryte]

Someone at another board said that The Matrix: Reloaded was "one of the most beautifully shot films of all time"...

And I've heard the subtitles/black & white complaints too. No use listing them here.

[molly]

I've read that some feminist journalists don't like Magnolia because the author deals too much with father-son relatioship, and is conservative... I'm not a feminist, I am all for EQUALITY, but there are moments that I'm kind of embarassed of the fact that i'm a woman. It's like they prescribe what people should think and feel. I'd just like to say that people shouldn't make their judgements about feminism based on idiots like these.

[Ravi]

I've read that some feminist journalists don't like Magnolia because the author deals too much with father-son relatioship, and is conservative... I'm not a feminist, I am all for EQUALITY, but there are moments that I'm kind of embarassed of the fact that i'm a woman. It's like they prescribe what people should think and feel. I'd just like to say that people shouldn't make their judgements about feminism based on idiots like these.

Usually any reviewers with a political or religous chip on their shoulder will give weird reviews of films.  Capalert is a prime example.

[AK]

I've read that some feminist journalists don't like Magnolia because the author deals too much with father-son relatioship, and is conservative... I'm not a feminist, I am all for EQUALITY, but there are moments that I'm kind of embarassed of the fact that i'm a woman. It's like they prescribe what people should think and feel. I'd just like to say that people shouldn't make their judgements about feminism based on idiots like these.

embarassed to be a woman ? Because of the father -son realtion in there? Why is that? I mean, I fell too connected with them, even because their relation/problems are so universal in my point of view (a estranged parent,no matter which one , you know)....

those feminists could be pissed with Frank TJ "tips"- and even this way they would be wrong to take him seriously.

[godardian]

I've read that some feminist journalists don't like Magnolia because the author deals too much with father-son relatioship, and is conservative... I'm not a feminist, I am all for EQUALITY, but there are moments that I'm kind of embarassed of the fact that i'm a woman. It's like they prescribe what people should think and feel. I'd just like to say that people shouldn't make their judgements about feminism based on idiots like these.

embarassed to be a woman ? Because of the father -son realtion in there? Why is that? I mean, I fell too connected with them, even because their relation/problems are so universal in my point of view (a estranged parent,no matter which one , you know)....

those feminists could be pissed with Frank TJ "tips"- and even this way they would be wrong to take him seriously.

It's called third-wave feminism, people. Look it up. Only old, tired second-wave feminists bother with this sort of petty crap anymore. I, myself, consider Magnolia a film that can easily be described as feminist, as can Boogie Nights. Which one does more for women: A film that exposes a mechanism of misogynistic thinking as childish and destructive, or one that "celebrates" "Sisterhood," which is what most of these two-bit feminist film critics seem to be after? Best feminist film critic: Laura Mulvey. Lucid, insightful, intelligent, and authentic. Celebrates (and introduces the reader to) Godard, Douglas Sirk, Fassbinder, Peeping Tom (she did the audio commentary for the Criterion Peeping Tom DVD).  

I will generalize and say that the stupidest things I ever hear about films are when they're described as "weird" or "boring." To me, those are words used by people who really don't have anything to say and who were lazy to pay any actual attention to whatever actual qualities (pro or con) the film might have had.

I also find Pauline Kael's thoughts on Being There to be, if not stupid, extremely misguided; she almost disingenuously misses the point.

[SoNowThen]

Please don't call works "feminist". It degrades them. Paul doesn't have an agenda. He tells stories about humans being humans. Let's leave it at that. Just call them Good Stories.

[AK]

It's called third-wave feminism, people. Look it up. Only old, tired second-wave feminists bother with this sort of petty crap anymore.

As a woman , i always have the unique felling about feminism: it sucks and it is misplaced most of the time...Equality is good but turn odd points in to even is waste of time.

I, myself, consider Magnolia a film that can easily be described as feminist, as can Boogie Nights.

I never felt that ...I always saw PTA movies as universally speaking.

Laura Mulvey & Pauline Kael

I try to find more about the first cuz the second is a shame as critic and sometimes as a person as well

[godardian]

Please don't call works "feminist". It degrades them.

Humanist, then, though I see the term "feminism" itself as what has been degraded by those who actively seek to oppress (Rush Limbaugh with his "FemiNazi" shit- who's the Nazi, Rush, you sexist, racist homophobe?). I'm not going to say this personally towards any one person, because I don't think it applies to anyone here, but I find those who have made feminism into a dirty word are those offended by any sort of modern attitude towards women, people that would prefer women to just be quiet. Certainly, old-guard feminists have done their share to degrade the term, as well, by allowing paranoia and hysteria and stupid arguments over the way "woman" is spelled to distract them from the work at hand.

However: Anderson's film clearly possesses a humanism that is pointedly extended towards women. Linda Partridge's confrontation with the pharmacist could've been derived from any feminist theory class discussing the medical establishment's treatment of women.

I think that the belief that any worldview- and no artist can help expressing a worldview by what they choose to include/omit in their work- can be entirely apolitical is naive and insupportable.