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Consensus Results: 1997
Topic Started: Aug 25 2015, 06:30 AM (1,388 Views)
Russ
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Bark! Go away
Shay Casey,Aug 27 2015
11:04 PM
As for Boogie Nights -- flashy and manipulative are its GOOD traits!

The flash is the bait on the hook. The manipulation is the feeling you get as you're being reeled in.

But that doesn't really explain what bothered me...I guess I just felt the scope of the movie exceeded its grasp -- something I've found problematic in other Anderson films.
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
You're probably right about Hanson, Shay, and I'd have to revisit to contribute anything further of value.

Shay Casey
 
(But seriously, my reading of it is that it's a statement about the courage of your convictions only getting you so far in a corrupt world.)

I'd buy that. It's just that the strength of my moral reaction, I suppose, isn't matched in the depiction, which is decidedly ho-hum in the denouement. I don't need righteous indignation or moral outrage ("childishness", essentially), but the "adult" response can't just be casual indifference, can it? Or, worse, implicit approval for the protagonists, just because, well, at least they're better than the other guys, right?
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Shay Casey
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Blingin' for Our Savior
Dr. Raskolnikov,Aug 27 2015
05:31 PM
Or, worse, implicit approval for the protagonists, just because, well, at least they're better than the other guys, right?

That does seem to be in there, but I wonder if here your issue may be more with James Ellroy than with Hanson.

(I haven't read the book, but it does seem like this mostly stems from plot, which as far as I know follows the novel pretty closely.)
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Karim Amir
blank
YancySkancy,Aug 27 2015
11:12 AM
I've only seen a few Egoyan films, and this one is by far the one I liked best.  Exotica was okay, and Felicia's Journey was much better than I'd heard.  None of his others have even tempted me.  I know his early films have a following, and his late ones seem to be universally dismissed.  Weird career.

"Weird career" indeed. Exotica and The Adjuster are two of my all-time favorite movies. The rest of his directography ranges from very good (The Sweet Hereafter) to god-awful garbage (Where the Truth Lies, which I often put in my "worst movies I've ever seen" list.)

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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Shay Casey
 
...but it does seem like this mostly stems from plot....

More the attitude towards the events than the events themselves. But anyway, it's a good movie and it would have been on my list ... if I'd wanted to contribute to its landslide victory. :)

Karim Amir
 
The rest of [Egoyan's] directography ranges from very good (The Sweet Hereafter) to god-awful garbage (Where the Truth Lies, which I often put in my "worst movies I've ever seen" list.)

Yeah, WtTL is just fucking awful, organically speaking. As if every impulse and decision was made to intentionally alienate a feeling, humane audience. Intellectually, though, it's kind of fascinating, and if you push past some of what Film Crit Hulk would call the (in this case ludicrous) "tangible details", there's definitely something there. But yeah, the tangible details really do sink this sucker.

Ararat is another one that gets me. On the one hand, a thoughtful consideration of the effects of oppression/suppression/denial on the individual/society, as well as the moral and aesthetic difficulties of depicting genocide on film. On the other hand, some of the most absurd and aesthetically ill-considered footage of genocide I have ever seen. It makes one wonder whether it's supposed to be self-parody, which I really don't think was the intention.
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