| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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1. It's called "Spider" -- I mean, come on. 2. It's got Ralph Fiennes in it. 3. It's about mental illness. 4. It sounds depressing. I'm so there! Here is the Onion's review. |
I saw it again last night and was again impressed by how completely, satisfyingly depressing it was. Everyone ends up miserable or dead, but it just feels so right, you know? It couldn't have ended any other way. |
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Kate grew up poor but was recently taken under the wing of her rich aunt. Kate loves Merton, a fine young man who is also poor, and Kate's aunt forbids her to see him any longer. Kate meets Millie, a very rich, orphaned American girl. Millie meets Merton and likes him, but Merton is in love with Kate and Kate only. Kate finds out Millie is dying, and decides that Merton should pretend to be in love with Millie so that she will leave him all her money, and then Kate and Merton can marry. Merton, being a good, honest young man, doesn't like the idea, but Kate pushes him into it. Kate, oddly, gets jealous of the fact that Millie is in love with Merton. Millie dies. Merton gets her money. He feels terrible. He tells Kate he will marry her, but without accepting Millie's money. Kate says fine, but only if you can promise me that you aren't in love with Millie's memory. Merton is silent. FIN. Classic tragedy! I was on a tear-jerker kick this week..."Regeneration," "Gallipoli," and "The Wings of the Dove." All excellent, all very sad. |
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I could get a ride, I suppose, but it seems like lately the only times I want to watch rented movies is when I am alone. |
12 Monkeys I'm sure I will think of more. |
Hey, me, too. I like being able to cry freely. :) I also have this weird quirk that makes me extremely irritated when I have to listen to other people reacting to what's going on onscreen. To me, even at home, you need to shut up and keep your reactions silent until the end of the movie. (Tears and laughter don't count.) I hate it when I'm yanked out of the movie onto the couch by, "What is he doing?? EWW!" or whatever. Because, you know, I *like* being emotionally drained and stunned into silence. Okay? When Oskar Schindler is weeping and saying he could have done more, I want to suffer along with him...I don't want to hear a running commentary from the person next to me! AAARGH! *sigh* My mom, brother, and I have made a date to watch "The Thin Red Line" tonight, and I'm preparing myself for the frustration I'm going to feel....my mom is notorious for killing my buzz during the great parts of movies. |
and she hogs the couch. |
nico is always getting up in the middle asking me to pause it, rewind it "what did he say? rewind rewind rewind"...totally ruining any flow what so ever. and she too, hogs the couch and blankie (even before preggers) just drink 12-er of bud and fart up a shitstorm, you might find you'll have the couch all to yourself. |
God, I hate that...crying, laughing...whatever is fine, as soon as the sound becomes a word, I become ubelievably irritated. I have a hard time concentrating, particularly when watching rented movies. One of my friends here does this constantly. I had to tell her that I wasn't going to watch movies with her if she didn't shut up. I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it. |
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the only possible way to enjoy most romantic comedies is when you have sarcastic commentary to accompany it and even then it's difficult. "i have a lot of friends who like those" friends don't let friends watch bad romantic comedies without sarcastic commentary. I hate romantic comedies. There are a few that rightfully belong in that category that I will admit to enjoying, but otherwise...no. Someone tell Meg Ryan that she's not cute anymore. |
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My brother really liked the movie, so much so that he couldn't even talk about it afterwards. I was reminded why this movie changed my life when I first saw it 3-4 years ago. I love the idea of the alligator -- nature's cruelty -- being captured by the soldiers. I love all the instances in which you see a little animal just sitting in a tree during all of the fighting, or that scene in which one of the soldiers touches a mimosa leaf during the assault on the hill. I love how life-conscious the movie is....this is what separates it from all other war movies, IMHO. Other war movies focus so single-mindedly on the action that you nearly forget that anything else exists. This movie lets you see how insignificant this battle / this war / these people are in the scheme of creation. At the same time, though, you see in the character of Witt something bigger, maybe precisely because he seems to have connected with creation and is conscious of it even while he's fighting. |
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Well, you know, I do want to look for a new job soon....and I don't want to stay in this area.... |
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i am a total sucker for romantic comedies. the cheesier the better. i'm serious. you've got mail? adored it. watched it twice in a row. two weeks notice? same plot as you've got mail... loved it. the bachelor green card high fidelity america's sweethearts serendipity (okay... all john cusack films) forces of nature notting hill moonstruck my best friend's wedding sleepless in seattle four weddings and a funeral sweet home alabama splash forget paris life or something like it (okay, that one was kinda lame) the tall guy when harry met sally and i'm really looking forward to seeing How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days. love that shit! love it! |
It would be interesting to see if there is any correlation between how people those two movies against each other and what their views on the coming war in Iraq are. |
I hang around another message board with 1000s of active posters. I'll post a thread over there tomorrow morning (I actually have work to do this afternoon!) and see what the results are like. |
I've become a sucker for romantic anime, but I don't like the cheesy Love Hina crap. I swore I'd stay away from it, I feel a little foolish, I don't want anyone to know, but Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances), the first 5 eps I sobbed my eyes out. And then promptly ran out to get the manga. Gainax is always win, they're brilliant! But they've got a hardon for ruining the ending, ala evangelion, or abenobashi mahou shotengai. |
The biggest difference to me are the scenes of tranquility depicted as well as war. if you havent, see Badlands with Sissy Spacek. Same film maker, 20 years earlier. |
I second that recommendation |
This film maker Malick, didnt write/direct anything from 78 to 98, Days of Heaven with Rochard gere. havent seen it but its supposed to be the shit too. He just didnt want to do anything that was crap its assumed. So when it was announced he was to do a remake of the the 1964 version of Thin Red Line so many actors jumped at the opportunity. |
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my eyes are bleeding! |
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i know i know. it's ill, isn't it? can't get enough of 'em though. i'm also a total sucker for adam sandler movies. i went and saw Mr. Deeds on the big screen on its opening day. i was with kevin back then, begged him to go with me. he always indulged my romantic comedy / adam sandler habit - he said he had as much fun watching me enjoy them as he did watching the movie. we payed $7.75 each to see Mr. Deeds. yes ma'am we did. laughed my ass off the whole way through. |
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i know i know. it's ill, isn't it? can't get enough of 'em though. i'm also a total sucker for adam sandler movies. i went and saw Mr. Deeds on the big screen on its opening day. i was with kevin back then, begged him to go with me. he always indulged my romantic comedy / adam sandler habit - he said he had as much fun watching me enjoy them as he did watching the movie. we payed $7.75 each to see Mr. Deeds. yes ma'am we did. laughed my ass off the whole way through. |
It was like a Jane Austen story, but better -- the characters were much less stilted and did things like yell at their parents and such, and the story was more interesting. The main character was a very good but plain-spoken young woman who falls for -- no, not the handsome sensitive poet or the sinister rakish fellow, but the quiet humble biologist who's interested in insects. This alone made me like the story. |
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like Harvey Klinger? |
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Am i reading this right? Bwwhahahahahahahahahahahahahha pay back for laughing at my drunken tumble ya big dork. |
See, he (Roger) was in love with her (Molly's) stepsister, Cynthia. But he went away on an expedition to Africa for two years, and during that time, he realized Cynthia didn't really love him (she hardly wrote him during his absence) and he was only in love with an idea of her. He had thought of Molly as a sister, but when he returns home, he realizes he really does love her when he sees her at a dance. Molly had always loved Roger (and studied insects in his absence -- what is that but a sign of true love?), but when he returns home, she's really skittish around him. This is the weird part... I completely understand the skittishness around someone you secretly love, being that way myself, but Molly didn't seem to be that kind of person at all. She was always very forthright. Anyway, there was no explanation for it in the story....she just ran away from him and cried for no apparent reason. Finally, though, just as Roger is leaving for Africa again, Molly runs after his carriage in the rain. He hadn't taken the carriage after all, so they meet in the square. As Roger has just been in a house with a scarlet fever patient, he can't get near Molly, so he confesses his love for her at a distance and asks her to marry him. She says yes, but still seems rather confused. Anyway, at the very end, you see that they have gotten married and Molly has gone with Roger to Africa, so they can study the wildlife together. Now that I think about it, it was something like a less scandalous version of A.S. Byatt's "Morpho Eugenia" (made into the movie "Angels and Insects"), though "Wives and Daughters" is based on a novel written in the 1860s, so it came first. |
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just like Marcia! |
but wasn't Punch Drunk Love amazing? |
For the first time. I understand there's something of a cult surrounding this movie. It was not bad. I must say I did adore Gary Oldman, though. (Of course I did...I'm a sucker for sweet, dumb characters.) I couldn't get over how benign he seemed. And what was the story with the running gag of having him discover all these scientific principles? |
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Anyway, I saw it on friday. HOLY SHIT. It's fucking fantastic. Really. it;s one of those movies that gets better DAYS after you see it, because you can't stop thinking about it, and it affects you. it really gets inside you and crawls around your head. It's definitely the most disquieting movie I have ever seen, and I strongly urge everyone to see this one. It's Cronenberg's best that I have ever seen, and Ralph Fiennes does a killer job. It does move very slow though, but use that pace to take in the details - the stuff happening in the background, the nuances of Fiennes' character. Plus, Miranda Richardson - totally screws your head. I can't say more or I'll spoil the movie. All around, one of the top movies of the year for me - should be an oscar contender for Best Actor for Fiennes and Best Director for Cronenberb if there is any justice. |
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I also rented "Willard," which I'll watch tonight. Bring on the freaks! |
Dearest Spider will you do me a favor? |
I rented Identity this weekend. I liked that too. |
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I need to watch the thin red line again. And of course, if anyone else has any recommendations.... |
Off the top of my head: Exotica -- despite what the cover looks like, it's not cheesy soft porn. It's a really neat (and depressing) story of four characters and how they're connected, told sort of out of chronological sequence. Directed by Atom Egoyan. Secretary -- Sarah and I posted about this a few months ago. I still think it's one of the most perfect movies I've ever seen. Not depressing. Shoot, I'm brain-dead right now. I'll post more when I think of them. |
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Any and all suggestions are welcome, but I am particularly interested in movies that are beautifly depressing. The night I watched Exotica was, by far, one of the most depressing nights of my life. And I don't even remember what the movie was about. This was about six years ago. This is not just about recommending movies, I'm inviting you (and you and you and you) into a larger "project" I am working on. No pressure, there is no format or deadline. It's not that kind of "project." |
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Jesus' Son Ordinary People Dead Man Walking Bloody Sunday Bastard Out of Carolina Nil By Mouth La Strada (an Italian movie, by Fellini...it's not surreal or grotesque, though) Unforgiven (I, um, I cried this weekend watching the episode of *deep breath* Angel in which Doyle dies, because the actor who played him died himself about a year ago. Why do people have to die senselessly?) I'll think of some others... |
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after that Angel episode when Doyle died, I stopped watching Angel AND Buffy, entirely. I didnt want to live in a non-Doyle Buffy universe. I know Whedon wanted to shock the audience by killing off a major character early with Buffy but couldnt do it, so he did it with Angel, and look what it cost him. Me. |
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It's a neat little film. Nothing to get excited about, but definitely was made for viewing on a boring saturday night on the couch with some beer and popcorn. |
It's all about the non-Angel characters, for me. I don't think he's attractive (and think it's weird/hilarious that other characters will often mention how good-looking he is), and he's a wooden actor. Here you go, Kazu. |
My one complaint about the filming: the stock footage. You can always tell the stock footage of the river in Boston because there are always the same ducks taking off from the river. The same footage in fact was used twice in the movie, although they digitally changed the second time to make it seem like twilight. Other depressing movies: ANYTHING Solodz does. |
Anything that involves the theme of repentence/redemption is my kind of thing. |
I don't think I would have much to say about setting since I am not familiar with the Flats as I think it is in east boston. As far as accents go...you know, Boston accents are not charming to hear and somehow movies tend toward making them even more annoying than they already are. Boondock Saints is my favorite Boston movies which is hilarious and not at all depressing and the accents are terrific, the boston ones, the irish ones, the russian ones, the italian ones. It's worth it, if only to see Willem Dafoe as a gay FBI agent. |
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Unforgiven did this very well. I LOVE the "I used to be bad, but I've changed....oh no, the evil is still there inside me!" theme. |
i still think secretary would annoy me, based solely on the reviews here. |
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whatever. |
Dude. Why don't you get the movie and see if it's as unpleasant as you think it is, to test your instinct? If you still think it's lame, that's fine, but judge it for yourself. |
nahhh. movies exploring romantic relationships don't appeal to me. if that's the focus of the movie, i'm not interested. |
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Dave: It's not just a love story. Watch it, it's good. |
imho, both are even better than the celebration (and them's some big shoes to fill) |
I'm going to cry just thinking about it. I love Breaking the Waves. I haven't seen Dancer in the Dark yet; it's on the "List" but I always forget about it. |
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Add Regeneration to the list. But if you watch it, make sure you get the British version, not the re-edited American version called Behind the Lines. |
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Brutal. |
A Handmaiden's Tale based on the Margaret Atwood novel was also depressing. Ironweed was another one. |
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. Be afraid. . I'm not saying it's a bad movie, their. It's a good movie. Just really really sad. |
I think "unfair" is the more accurate word |
the bad part though was at times Eastwood's direction seemed... condescending. The cut-aways to young Robbins running through the woods, and the above shot of Penn yelling "Why???!!!!!!" - when I see stuff like that I normally chock it up to bad filmmaking, but in this case when I know Eastwood knows better I see it as him maybe not respecting the audience enough to expect better, to be able to piece together what a character is thinking based on where he is and how he's reacting. |
In the first part of the saga, you meet Soames Forsyte, who isn't a bad man, just extraordinarily uptight and controlled and duty-bound. He falls in love with Irene Heron, who is aloof and bewitching and artistic, and he is determined to marry her (even though he can't express his love in a normal way, and she can't stand him). But she's poor and her family needs Soames' money, so she marries him. He is passionately in love with her, but she despises him and won't let him talk to her, let alone touch her, and he bottles up all his feeling inside his stick-up-the-ass exterior. All kinds of shit goes down, and one night, Soames creeps into Irene's bedroom and rapes her. (Or as he sees it, exerts the marital rights that she owes him.) And then even more shit goes down, Irene leaves him for a dumbass, causes a huge scandal, he chases her around Europe demanding she give him an heir, she divorces him and marries his cousin, and then years later he marries a young French girl and has a daughter, Fleur. So ends Part 1. Part 2 takes up when Fleur is a young woman, and Soames and Irene are in their 60s (but with the same actors, aged). But I didn't give a shit about Fleur -- I'm all about Soames, who is too much like my father for comfort, and for whom I feel so badly. He has such love and misery inside, and none of the other characters can see it -- they only see how hideously rigid he appears. Gah, there were so many moments in this series that just wrecked me. But the worst was the very last scene. Soames and Irene have been forced to interact because their children (not related) have fallen in love and the kids keep trying to get the two of them to reconcile, to disastrous effect. Irene shudders at the sight of Soames, and Soames loves Irene still and is inwardly horrified that Irene hates him so. But at the end, the children have married other people (and Soames has basically lost his daughter, and his French wife has left him), Irene is moving away, and Soames will never see her again. So he goes to her house on an errand, and Irene is actually civil to him, and she offers to shake his hand. And in an embarrassing display of desperation, he hurriedly removes his glove so that he he can touch her hand with his bare skin. They shake hands, he holds on a little longer than he should, and then they part. And the last shot is of him walking away from her house with a spring in his step, as though touching Irene's hand was the most joyful moment in his long and miserable life. GAH! Just tear my heart to shreds already. And it doesn't help that afterwards, I thought about how hard it was growing up with a father who ignored me and who never expressed his feelings. And how it is for me now, how I continue the cycle, because it hurts too much to put yourself out there and keep getting ignored, and how I'm called cold and hard-hearted, when really I'm not, not at all. And now I'm depressed, and it's not even PMS time. Fuck. |
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