best films of the 21st century

And IV!

ctrl + f + Crash = zero votes = A+

I think TWBB is v entertaining, it's the claims of depth that are silly. Kinda like yr Godfathers maybe?

I think Bradshaw described it as a "new type of movie-making" or some bs like that. I think his nonsense review poisoned me against it.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
I haven't seen this one yet and have no memory of it being a Palm d'Or winner. I think his follow up movie Tales From The Golden Age was a classic, it is an anthology movie of urban myths from the Ceaucescu era. In fact, looking at his biog - I definitely need to see all the other Cristian Mungiu movies.

there will be blood is no boom town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz_WhBN96jY

I think talking about "depth" is often a waste of time but TWBB's problem almost seems to be that it's so stylish and formally dramatic but the story/characters come across a little flat for me, as if they are illustrations of a type and not people. (granted I can probably now think of movies that do this that I like but whatever)

I gather it's part of the point of the movie--these characters could be transported to a von stroheim silent movie--but it feels academic in a bad way.

that director is all hat.

It is the feeling that it is straining to be some stilted idea of what a "great Movie" is that totally does my head in.

^^ Yep.

It also has the oddest structure: foreshortened. Just when it's developing we get the stupid milkshake scene.

but 70 mm duuuuuuude.....

i did like punch-drunk love. the only one of his i really liked. i didn't see the pynchon one though. it looked like a headache.

PDL was just as stultifying as i imagined all the other Sandler movies i never saw to be.

anyway that poll needed more Jia Zhangke

Hard Eigiht and Inherent Vice are his only satisfying films.

inherent vice is incredible but yes a headache prob

crossover alert!

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/08/frank-ocean-100-favorite-films-blue-velvet-solaris-annie-hall-1201719610/

PTA def erratic - for me Inherent Vice and Boogie Nights are the keepers. the others range from interesting/intermittently fascinating (The Master, Hard Eight, TWBB) to absolutely fucking horrible (PDL, Magnolia)

Morbs a million times otm re: Jia Zhangke, would maybe have Platform and Touch of Sin in my top 10

i thought ILX hated the whole DO YOU SEE? approach across the board.

― scott seward, Thursday, 25 August 2016 19:54

I thought Kurosawa's Pulse was like this, although it has some great moments.

Never liked Finding Nemo much. I generally don't like the animation style of Pixar, Dreamworks and similar teams, but I loved Ratatouille and the Toy Story series is good.

I found There Will Be Blood surprisingly fun, one of my favourite crazy bastards in film. The Master is great.

xpost would def have Jia's Still Life in my top ten

A Touch of Sin is brilliant.

mountains may depart >>>>>

If ILX did a poll it might be worse. Then again it would have Amour Fou on it, probably.

Chuffed to see Yi Yi in the top 10. Its one of the few post-Ozu films that builds something (its been a few years so I couldn't specify rn) on his legacy, adds a layer (or several) on top. xp

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, August 23, 2016 3:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

sorry but taiwanese new wave comparisons to ozu are over and kinda questionable

― 龜, Wednesday, August 24, 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Definitely not over for me. Yi Yi especially is very much in dialogue with Ozu - its not the only thing but why deny that?

cause it's an extremely lazy comparison?

I haven't seen Mountains yet :(

Its a correct comparison - just depends on how you expand on it.

I haven't seen Mountains yet :(

― blafe and sand (Noodle Vague),

it's wonderful, please do

what the comparison says to me is you group your directors by geography and phenotype and nothing more xp

xp waiting for our slim-resourced local arthouse club to get on with it

La Commune
Eureka
Platform
Spirited Away
Legally Blonde
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
Big Man Japan
Archipelago
The Raid
The Assassin

list subject to change in any given 10 minutes; NFG

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
I haven't seen this one yet and have no memory of it being a Palm d'Or winner.

It's so great. The trailers make it look trudging and worthy but it's an extremely tight and tense thriller. And I guess it really is worthy. Probably my favourite Palme winner along with Entre Le Murs/The Class.

it's a fine film but if i took a Romanian entry it might be Death of Mr Lazarescu

(The Class didn't get a single vote)

If I could only choose one Romanian film it would probably be something by Porumboiu. But I don't know if I'd vote for 12:08 or Police, Adjective. And The Treasure is a dangerous dark horse as well, at least for best ending.

Too hard to narrow it down, but here's my list. Only four made it onto the BBC's.

The Turin Horse
Inland Empire
Synecdoche NY
2046
Stray Dogs
Syndromes and a Century
The Intruder
Love Exposure
You, the Living
A Serious Man

fwiw here are some films from the past 16–17 years that mean a lot to me:

Goodbye to Language
Exiled
Platform
A History of Violence
Spirited Away
Our Beloved Month of August
35 Shots of Rum
Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl
In the City of Sylvia
AI: Artificial Intelligence
Holy Motors
The Holy Girl
Moonrise Kingdom
Inland Empire
Gravity
Melancholia
Ratatouille
Inglourious Basterds
No Country for Old Men
Hukkle
The Iron Ministry

― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 25 August 2016 16:28 (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wtf

― poor fiddy-less albion (darraghmac), Thursday, August 25, 2016 1:29 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry, i know it's a boring list, though i'm not sure what prompted the 'wtf'. i was using teh BBC list to refresh my memory, and the more i think about it, the more i remember other films that didn'tmake the list.

No Kung fu hus you know what never mind

Hey man I did my best

But seriously I "f/w" am's list tbh all these lists are making me feel pretty good about films of the last whenever, even the bbc one. My eyes just skip over the terrible Nolan &c stuff

what the comparison says to me is you group your directors by geography and phenotype and nothing more xp

― 龜, Thursday, 25 August 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It can look like that - as I haven't watched it alongside Ozu for a long-time I wouldn't feel like expanding but this particular film (unlike all other films by Yang I've seen) is very clearly a take on some of those Ozu dramas, and a build-upon them. There is plenty of other Asian cinema you wouldn't discuss alongside Ozu (that isn't just horror or animation) but this is a unique case to me.

I look at Taiwanese cinema sometimes as part of a 'slow-cinema' ecosystem that is very international but I can see why it might be annoying to you to talk of Yi Yi in terms of Ozu.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days maybe the most tense and visceral experience I've had in the cinema, partially because it was unexpected - we'd gone to see something else that was sold out and picked it instead as I vaguely recalled someone here saying something positive about it, but had no idea what it was about.

I have a terrible idea of intercutting it with a Dardenne bros film to make the social realist epic 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and 1 night.

if i took a Romanian entry it might be Death of Mr Lazarescu

Yes, was just thinking that this was another notable absence - it made the BFI/Sight and Sound Top 250 a few years ago. I had to spend a couple of days in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary hospital last year, and many parts of the film rang very true, sadly - that mixture of expertise and incompetence, care and indifference.

Dardenne Bros also seem to be falling out of favour - L'Enfant at least deserves a spot, imho - has some of the same tension and surprise as 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.

4 Days... is easily one of the best experiences I've ever had with a new release on the big screen. This and Hidden.

Only watched Lazarescu on TV.

There's enough in Yi Yi to make the Ozu comparison valid. The ending is similar to Tokyo Story, and there are a few other moments which I think are explicitly inviting the comparison. It might actually be more prominent during the sequence in Japan, where there are some shots that use the classic Ozu framing (static, low camera height), and even a location in common with Tokyo Story, the seaside in Atami. But on a deeper level I'm not sure I could say what the connection is. I don't think it's the key to understanding that movie or anything.

The most overt Ozu homage in the last decade or so is Hou's Café Lumière; it was practically a summoning of his ghost.

Looks cool. I haven't seen that yet. I only started getting into Hou Hsiao-Hsien films this year after being mystified by The Assassin (in a good way - I want to watch it again soon).

I think the biggest Ozu homage I've seen recently is Liu Shumin's The Family. It's basically Tokyo Story, except 4 hours long, and in China. Kinda a masterpiece.

Just saw this today: http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-week-happy-hour/

Ozu and Yi Yi, its like the plague!

Happy Hour is less like Ozu than The Family :) I watched them a couple days apart.

I think Yi Yi is also far enough away from Ozu. Thought it used it as a template but veered significantly from it, which is why I was excited about it at the time beyond the execution being all-round amazing too!