big fan of Primer but I wasn't that into this. started out very interesting with the worm harvesting and abduction bit but when it narrowed down to just the one couple it kind of lost me. I wanted to know more about the wider conspiracy. like, what was the pig farmer's relationship if any to the abductor / thief?
having the pig farmer also be some kind of ambient musician / sound artist made no sense to me.
― dmr, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 16:52 (eleven years ago) link
the opening sequence seems to imply that there are applications for the worm powers other than fucking people over (like when the kids are drinking the juice and using it to mirror each other / do kung fu) but then that side of the story is just completely dropped. as a relationship movie I didn't think it was all that good.
― dmr, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 16:55 (eleven years ago) link
caruth is actually playing a peripheral character; the relationship is between seimetz's character and the pigs.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 17:13 (eleven years ago) link
or rather man's problematic relationship with food supply.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 17:16 (eleven years ago) link
fell asleep watching this tbh
― there are more than 3.5 HOOS per steen (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
free your spirit pig
― mh, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 17:27 (eleven years ago) link
IMO, this is one of those almost Lynchian kinds of movies where the plot is *kind of* important but still takes a backseat to the overall experience of the visuals and sound. I think it really succeeds at just being a visceral movie. Almost the polar opposite of Primer, which is so much more cold, cerebral, and plot-driven (but not without its share of atmosphere and feel). So much of this movie just seems to be about touch and emotions, and about the breakdown of identity. I don't know if the crazy sci-fi worm-pig-orchid lifecycle conceit was the only path to that (Carruth seems to think it was), and it does create all kinds of weird, annoyingly unanswerable plot questions.
Anyway, Carruth is 2 for 2 now in my book, and I'm excited to see what he does next.
― zchyrs, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
maybe the reason it feels more heavily concerned with plot and making sense to me is having watched pacific rim beforehand.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 18:28 (eleven years ago) link
if i think about dmr's complaints (i had the same ones basically) they bother me but, if i dont, i find i actually quite liked this movie and it left a good impression on me. i guess some things are bit more feel-y?
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 18:58 (eleven years ago) link
i find it interesting that no one really likes/connects 2 the love story aspect. i was really into that, & the stuff kindof abt the impossibility of really connecting w/ someone, blending memories, how can u communicate your real self etc etc idk.....i think in some youtube q&a all of that is what mike silverblatt lached onto in a statement after a screening & it made me feel validated that he being such a perceptive reader dug that aspect too but maybe that just means im like him & really attuned 2 that stuff as a true bookish aspie shut-in type
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
I definitely liked some aspects of the movie ... I was impressed by how much story was told with no dialogue in the last 25 or so minutes and certain scenes like them digging up the yard looking for a high-pitched noise were pretty tense and effective. I think it was one of those movies were I really liked the setup but then felt let down by where they went with it (I'd put Looper in the same category).
― dmr, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 19:18 (eleven years ago) link
they did go back to the conspiracy thing at the end, though. the sound recordings were meant to draw them back i thought.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
A month or so after seeing this, I have to say that I don't have very clear memories of it. It hasn't stuck with me the way Primer did. I enjoyed it as an experience, but its overall effect was less enigmatic than just sort of hazy.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:09 (eleven years ago) link
I enjoyed this but it lost me when it cut to the neighbours(?) - couple with ginger girl and beardy guy - and the pig guy being apparently omnipresent.Primer was tauter than taut plot-wise, not an unnecessary shot afaict, but I'm not sure I could say the same about this and it couldn't really sustain that kind of mood for the whole time.I don't really get how Jeff came into the movie, I thought he was watching her in a sinister way on the train but I guess not?
I saw it in the same cinema I saw Berberian Sound Studio and the focus on the sound recordings and their contexts reminded me of that a little.
what was the pig farmer's relationship if any to the abductor / thief?
― kinder, Sunday, 1 September 2013 17:08 (eleven years ago) link
pig farmer is jacob from LOST, abductor/thief/kids are his minions/acolytes.
― Philip Nunez, Sunday, 1 September 2013 20:00 (eleven years ago) link
I was psyched for this movie and left cold by it. It just seemed like a touchy feely Scanner Darkly. While I started out just zoning on the photography & editing, by the time they found a very dubiously placed orchid in a cold spring and started thinking about how unlikely that was, I knew I had disconnected with this movie altogether
― "Turkey In The Straw" coming from someplace in the clouds (Sparkle Motion), Sunday, 1 September 2013 21:25 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think there was any evidence of a connection between the pig farmer and the abductor/thief. If anything, the pig guy was kind of "rescuing" people by pulling out their worms.
― Dan I., Sunday, 1 September 2013 22:14 (eleven years ago) link
"rescuing" people by pulling out their wormslol
― no fomo (La Lechera), Sunday, 1 September 2013 22:20 (eleven years ago) link
I lost track of how the girl got to the pig farm though
― kinder, Sunday, 1 September 2013 22:30 (eleven years ago) link
she followed her heart to her spirit pig
― space is deep (mh), Sunday, 1 September 2013 22:31 (eleven years ago) link
I feel mildly embarrassed now because it appears that I am the only one on this thread who couldn't make out what the hell was going on. I think I made the mistake of watching it when I was hungover and thus not giving it enough attention. It looked beautiful though. I will need to watch it again before I come to a conclusive verdict.
― mirostones, Sunday, 1 September 2013 23:12 (eleven years ago) link
The Thief, the Sampler, and the Orchid Mother and Daughter are all unknown to one another. They are connected by the worm but don't really know that or understand it.
― i too went to college (silby), Monday, 2 September 2013 00:21 (eleven years ago) link
When you capitalize it like that it looks like a Greenaway film title
― space is deep (mh), Monday, 2 September 2013 00:26 (eleven years ago) link
This was terrible but cool that it was shot with a GH2
― Chantal Anchorman (admrl), Monday, 2 September 2013 00:32 (eleven years ago) link
Basically any explanation about the worm or the pigs or the soundcatcher appeals to some part of me, and I'm assuming it's because I've got a secret worm inside my body.
― no fomo (La Lechera), Monday, 2 September 2013 00:41 (eleven years ago) link
The pig gandalf sampler guy ensured gathering of the fellowship by encoding Whitman into the wormsequivalent to hurleys numbers station in LOST
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 2 September 2013 01:34 (eleven years ago) link
Are there any extras on the DVD, like Carruth's commentary or anything?
― many machines on ilx (MaresNest), Monday, 2 September 2013 10:40 (eleven years ago) link
What a bad movie full of good stuff.
― Fetchboy, Wednesday, 25 September 2013 08:32 (eleven years ago) link
Just watched this introduced by my friend (an academic) at our local cinema; really enjoyed it. Not sure how to parse it. Seems to be about repercussions and loss of self...
― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 7 October 2013 20:54 (ten years ago) link
it's also about removing your inner parasite in order to free your spirit pig
― Untt (La Lechera), Monday, 7 October 2013 20:55 (ten years ago) link
It felt more like a record than a movie. Like a FILM. A proper film. Not like a play that's been filmed, or a story made into a movie. Like it used every facet of film as medium.
― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 7 October 2013 20:59 (ten years ago) link
LL otm
― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Monday, 7 October 2013 21:01 (ten years ago) link
What a bad movie full of good stuff.― Fetchboy, Wednesday, September 25, 2013 9:32 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Fetchboy, Wednesday, September 25, 2013 9:32 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
^
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:27 (ten years ago) link
Nope. As someone who has no desire to hear filmmakers "explain" movies like this I say huzzah. (Then again I have no desire to figure out this one in a literal way.)
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:41 (ten years ago) link
That + I also have no desire to see this one again.
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:43 (ten years ago) link
Not in a bad way. It's just one of those movies I think I'd rather remember than experience again.
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:44 (ten years ago) link
i really want to see it again to just experience it, rather than try to figure it out at the same time.
― festival culture (Jordan), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:46 (ten years ago) link
I don't think this worked for me on a Lynchian level or otherwise. There were some groovy audiovisual things going on but not enough to keep me interested. With Lynch I'm always glued to my seat, scared to tear my face away. This is another in a seemingly endless line of recent indie movies channeling identity crisis via a washed-out couple in their mid-30s babbling vacant words at each other in the middle of a kitchen. It really lagged about a third of the way through, a deliberately confusing montage of temporal and spatial displacement that nevertheless felt a bit like a trope we've seen before. I didn't hate the movie, but it wasn't Primer.
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:59 (ten years ago) link
a washed-out couple in their mid-30s babbling vacant words at each other in the middle of a kitchen
my life
― festival culture (Jordan), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:02 (ten years ago) link
channeling identity crisis via a washed-out couple in their mid-30s babbling vacant words at each other in the middle of a kitchen.
I've been trying to find time to watch that last Miranda July movie for two months.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:05 (ten years ago) link
Haha, that's the other one I was talking about. I never want to see a film that does that again.
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:10 (ten years ago) link
Whatever kept July from impersonating her g-d dying cat.
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:13 (ten years ago) link
Two movies are not "an endless line" ... but did you mean the couples are washed-out or washed-up?
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:14 (ten years ago) link
(I guess I prefer vacant babble to Primer, tho.)
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:18 (ten years ago) link
xpost both. i dunno, i feel like i've seen a lot of this detached soft-focus 'what is it all about? what are you talking about? wait-whuh.... who am I?' kind of stuff a bunch of times before. maybe directors be having a personality crisis or something but i find it a pretty boring way to convey arty dissociation.
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:20 (ten years ago) link
maybe just absorb the film instead of analyzing constantly, it's not something you necessarily have to think deeply about
― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:27 (ten years ago) link
it's just music goddamn it!
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:32 (ten years ago) link
hehe, but what i'm saying here is it didn't really pull off that 'just sit back and enjoy the ride' feeling for me (as i get with Lynch and some other directors of that kind) because bits of it were either tedious or done-before or just overly confusing.
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:34 (ten years ago) link
your connection with your spirit pig is strained
― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 15:38 (ten years ago) link
The worm has control.
― Untt (La Lechera), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 16:09 (ten years ago) link