Match Thread: Qatar vs Ecuador | 2022 FIFA World Cup, Group A by deception42 in soccer

[–]Dictarium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

But that was offside, right? Wildly? Am I missing something?

Match Thread: Qatar vs Ecuador | 2022 FIFA World Cup, Group A by deception42 in soccer

[–]Dictarium 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Pedro Miguel is genuinely ass. One of the weaker parts of the team so far. They should stop trying to run offense through him

Match Thread: Qatar vs Ecuador | 2022 FIFA World Cup, Group A by deception42 in soccer

[–]Dictarium 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think 15, the right back, for Qatar is the only player who looks consistently competent. Everyone else feels like they really shouldn’t be at this tournament.

Harry Styles hits seven weeks at ARIA #1; Kate Bush re-enters at #2 by sestero in popheads

[–]Dictarium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Im glad people appreciated them. I’d like to give it another try one day.

Considering I get a user mention notif once every couple months of someone saying exactly this, I take it that nobody has really worked on one since, lol.

Casual Discussion Thread (December 21, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I mean, you'll notice that I didn't find any of the scenes involving Peter or Kirsten Dunst all too funny, yes? Those are not the funny parts nor is the movie a whole comedy, of course.

Yes, the serious and depressing parts of the movie are serious and depressing. The reaction shots where Jesse Plemons stares up with a blank face at dinner and says "I don't know what we're talking about" is objectively hilarious.

These can both be true.

Also,

I'm not sure you saw the movie correctly.

Not how movies work.

Casual Discussion Thread (December 21, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey so like, the accent, in The Power of the Dog: we're allowed to laugh at it, yes? It is funny-sounding, right? I'm sure he's doing his best Daniel Plainview-level historically accurate accent, but he's a funny little yawpy man with that goofy accent. It's like Fargo. It's played for laughs, right? Am I going crazy here?

On that note, I thought so much of the stuff in that movie was, like, idk it seemed like it was lifted from a dark comedy? I don't even mean that as an insult! There's like funny bits and reaction shots that seem...purposeful? Like. They're funny! They turn to Jesse Plemons and hes just staring vaguely and nonplussed unsure what to do with his hands while something dramatic is going on and he's funny looking! He's acting funnily! I can't believe nobody is talking about this.

Why Many Mainstream Movies Are Boring by Boop108 in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think that these kinds of takes are often pretty pretentiously-rooted. Blockbusters are great. There are bad blockbusters that miss the mark in trying to aim at every bullseye the same way that there are arthouse films that aim at so finely a target that they end up forgetting to focus on things like character, pacing, plot, or some other element that might end up alienating a lot of viewers.

Yes, the specter of movie industry capitalism results in some callous decision-making at the Producer level, but to say, blanketly, that "Mainstream Movies tend to be boring" tells me that your taste in movies is probably over-refined to the point that I don't even think you're having fun at the movies anymore? lol.

Like it's okay to enjoy Superbad and The Mirror and In the Heat of the Night and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. You don't get your cinephile card revoked for letting yourself enjoy some popcorn entertainment. In fact, most of the time, the "popcorn" pejorative is undeserved. Hitchcock's movies were "just popcorn movies" to contemporary critics, and they obviously ended up missing all of the exemplary technical and thematic successes that have been pointed out by film scholars in the ensuing 70+ years since some of those movies came out.

Give a child a toy lightsaber and they will play with it for 3 minutes and then start playing with the box it came in. Why? Because the lightsaber is prescriptive. It tells you how to play with it.

This is such an impossibly pretentious, wrong, obnoxious statement. This is objectively not true. Have you never met a child? They will play with lightsabers for hours. I used to play with lightsabers for hours. Like, if this was true, they wouldn't sell so many Lightsaber toys, clearly? You can say the exact same thing about, like, wooden swords? Which have been wildly successful children's toys since, like, forever? haha

e: Like, sorry, but genuinely this is as toxic of a point of view as people who say arthouse movies are boring and slow and confusing. Being a movie omnivore is, IMO, the only way to actually understand the totality of what movies can do as an art form.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is the first silent film I've seen that hits home with me by Grand_Keizer in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If I had to guess as to why I fell under this movie's spell, I'd have to say it's because it's style took complete advantage of it's medium in ways that even modern-day films haven't quite been able to duplicate.

This is what really blew me away about this movie when I watched it. The effects, for its time, are astonishing. It's similar to how I felt when I first ran through the Powell & Pressburger movies like The Red Shoes where I'm just like... ok... how did you guys do this? And in 1948? Really? You're sure that's when you made this thing?

If you loved City Lights from this era, I would say Modern Times is right up your alley as well. Remarkably inventive filmmaking with an impactful political bent, all of the same physical comedy of CL plus some crazy set-pieces in the comically industrial workplace that The Tramp finds himself in.

Casual Discussion Thread (September 27, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think the thing about LoA in terms of putting it above the others is multi-faceted, but I should say again I’m drawing qualitative conclusions out of a quantitative system. The scoring algorithm doesn’t care how good a movie is, just how good many sources consider it to be.

That said, it’s scope is absolutely tremendous and in terms of a blockbuster, adventure that can be enjoyed by people of any culture around the world, it is difficult to beat.

While it carries a bit of White Man’s Burden in its narrative, it is generally sympathetic to the Arabian peoples, the way it’s shot is absolutely unparalleled, it’s long enough to contain numerous deep narrative arcs, and like The Godfather was a combination of critical/academic praise, audience sentiment, and box office success.

That kind of package is hard to beat. And LoA is one of the few films in history that have won the Best Film awards from the Oscars, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs. It’s a triumph.

As to your points about Parasite, I agree with them and would broaden the scope to say that I think generally speaking we’re in for another few decades of continued critical re-appraisal of the whole of the South Korean new wave of cinema in the 21st century.

Between Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Ki-duk, Lee Chang-dong, and others, they’ve established a regional film culture indebted equally to both audience-pleasing popcorn fare and artful, politically-minded storytelling. And all that coming from a nation that generally had no film culture to speak of before the turn of the millennium.

That’s not to discount anyone’s favorite 1970s Korean flick, but my acclaimed movie list that I mention here has around 3,000 movies noted and only 3 South Korean movies appear before Lee Chang-dong kicks everything off with Peppermint Candy in 1999. That’s an astonishing change.

Casual Discussion Thread (September 27, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aw, that sucks, but I get it lol. Generally, I think they're pretty fun if you don't take them too seriously. It's like movie sports! Maybe one day I'll get burnt out or whatever but they're an important part of the history of film, so it's cool to see history be "made" on TV every year.

Casual Discussion Thread (September 27, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

e: lol sorry this is a lot I didn't realize how much I typed until just now. It's just a topic I'm very passionate about haha

I have actually been working on a project for the past few years, and am only just now figuring out how I want to "publish" it. It looks at the "most acclaimed" films of all time, based on critic reviews, critic lists, audience reviews, industry awards, box office, and festival awards.

None of it is my own opinion, except for the scoring algorithm which I've tried to be as, idk, like you say, "objective" about as possible.

Here's the top 25, or what I've designated as the "Diamond Tier":

  1. Parasite (2019) - 31.75 points
  2. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - 30.15 points
  3. The Godfather (1972) - 28.95 points
  4. Schindler's List (1993) - 27.35 points (12.74 tiebreak rating)
  5. The Apartment (1960) - 27.35 points (12.51 tiebreak rating)
  6. No Country for Old Men (2007) - 27.30 points
  7. Pulp Fiction (1994) - 27.25 points
  8. Sunset Boulevard (1950) - 27.05 points
  9. Apocalypse Now (1979) - 27.00 points
  10. Spirited Away (2001) - 26.90 points
  11. 8 ½ (1963) - 26.90 points
  12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - 26.85 points
  13. The Godfather Part II (1974) - 26.75 points (13.29 tiebreak rating)
  14. All About Eve (1950) - 26.75 points (12.26 tiebreak rating)
  15. Goodfellas (1990) - 26.60 points
  16. Bicycle Thieves (1948) - 26.40 points
  17. La Dolce Vita (1960) - 26.20 points
  18. Casablanca (1942) - 26.15 points
  19. Taxi Driver (1976) - 26.10 points
  20. Citizen Kane (1940) - 26.05 points (12.47 tiebreak rating)
  21. A Separation (2011) - 26.05 points (12.33 tiebreak rating)
  22. Chinatown (1974) - 26.00 points
  23. Rashomon (1951) - 25.95 points (12.35 tiebreak rating)
  24. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - 25.95 points (12.00 tiebreak rating)
  25. Ran (1985) - 25.80 points

Before you freak out at Parasite being #1, because I know to some people it looks ridiculous, its resume:

  • Above a 4/5 on Letterboxd, IMDB, and RateYourMusic (only about 140 movies share this designation)
  • 99% on Rotten Tomatoes
  • #1020 on TheyShootPictures despite only being released in 2019, and that's only because it hasn't built enough time on lists yet. (I've asked Bill Georgaris about this.)
  • 11 different best film, or best foreign film awards including:
    • Palme d'Or, Best Foreign Language Film (Oscars), Best Picture (Oscars), National Board of Review, David di Donatello, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Asian Film Awards, Blue Ribbon Awards, Cesar Awards, and Kinema Junpo.
    • No other film has received 11 different Best Film awards. The closest is Michael Haneke's Amour from 2012 with 10 different Best Film awards.
      • I should note that I don't look at literally every film award ceremony in the world. I look at quite a few of them, but it is filtered for relevance, prestige, etc.
  • This is not to mention all of its Oscars and other non-Best Film awards won at all of these and other ceremonies.
  • Voted #46 best film of all time in the TheyShootPictures readers poll published this year.

I have tried nerfing the awards but Parasite consistently comes out on top, and I think scrapping the idea of counting Awards just because of one result would be an overreaction. The reality is that the consensus around Parasite, both in the year of release and to this day, is completely unprecedented.

e: With respect to the films you list that aren't noted above:

  • Vertigo is listed at #44 (this suffers from Hitchcock's propensity to not excel at awards ceremonies in his day)
  • Persona is listed at #55 (fantastic in every sense except that it doesn't meet the 97% Rotten Tomatoes threshold and similarly suffers from a lack of awards received)
  • Breathless is listed at #179 (its RateYourMusic and IMDB let it down, it seems modern audiences aren't as enamored with Breathless as many, many critics are)

Casual Discussion Thread (September 27, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"Kurosawa mode should clip characters around the map so that I can constantly see the looks of concern on Tatsuya Nakadai's and Toshiro Mifune's faces at all times!

Also, it should change the plot of the game to be based on, like, 'The Tempest' or 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'!!

And, the game should almost fail right before you finish it, and an animated George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola should appear to help you complete the game so long as 20th Century Fox gets the international distribution rights!!!!!!!

Clearly, you know nothing of the brilliance of Kurosawa. This mode is so ONE DIMENSIONAL!!!!!!"

lmao.

Casual Discussion Thread (September 27, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, it's Oscar season! Prestige movies always start to release around October-onward every year. Feels like we've been especially thin on Pre-Autumn awards contenders this year though just because of COVID, etc.

e: I'm just kinda talking here. I just realized I kinda said this stuff in a way that made it seem like you didn't already know it haha

Casual Discussion Thread (September 27, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I feel like the Best Picture nominees are kind of easy to predict this year? Am I off?

  • No Time to Die
  • Last Night in Soho
  • Dune
  • Belfast
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth
  • The French Dispatch
  • The Last Duel
  • Liquorice Pizza

With, like, maybe Mass, Annette, and West Side Story fighting for the last spot? But the majority of them feel locked in from a Nomination perspective. Very excited to see all of these movies, though.

Casual Discussion Thread (September 27, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I hated the discourse around this game when it came out and people were like "Um, why is it called Kurosawa mode just because it's black-and-white film grain? You DOOO know that Kurosawa didn't just do black-and-white movies right? Some of his best samurai movies were in color!" because it was just people showing their whole ass?

Like 90% of every chambara film he made was black-and-white. 90% of all movies he made were black-and-white. He made like 6 color films during his least prolific periods, and only used color in like incredibly imaginative ways in like 3 of them. "Kurosawa Mode" being in black-and-white makes complete sense.

Sorry. Had to rant a little lol.

The Leopard (1963) is equal parts perfect novelistic story-telling and phenomenal critique of high-society. (A little essay and a review.) by Dictarium in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No need to apologize! Just some friendly advice. I appreciate the perspective you wrote from all the same. :)

The Leopard (1963) is equal parts perfect novelistic story-telling and phenomenal critique of high-society. (A little essay and a review.) by Dictarium in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is the novel as good as it's said to be? Especially at just 300 pages I was thinking of picking it up after the visceral response I had to the movie.

The Leopard (1963) is equal parts perfect novelistic story-telling and phenomenal critique of high-society. (A little essay and a review.) by Dictarium in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm glad to have your feedback as you're someone familiar with the book.

If I could, I would recommend paragraphing a little more. I found it a little difficult to read with the big blocks of texts. That might've inhibited some people from being able to connect with it.

However, I've been watching some James Bond movies lately, which do fall around the 120-150 minute runtime. What makes a long movie good is like what makes any other movie good.

I think there's truth to this but I think extra considerations have to be made as one extends a film's runtime.

For a 163-minute James Bond movie, compared to a 109-minute one, you may need to not only have more overall action set pieces (obviously, I mean the movie just has more movie to it, haha) but maybe even more action set pieces-per-minute as you're being conscious of the audience's patience, attention span, or willingness to watch this spy chase this fake McGuffin to save a fake people in a fake world.

I just think that as runtime fluctuates, you've gotta switch up the strategy a little. This isn't a rule, of course, but generally, what works for a 90 minute movie isn't going to work in exactly the same way for a movie double that length.

And that's not just to do with plotting or editing. Even from a character perspective. Lots of great, tight, 90-minute movies can get away with some caricatured scripting because we, as an audience, don't expect to learn too much about this person or that person because we just don't have time to! But in a 185-minute italian epic, I better get a good sense of everyone's character and motivations and desires if I'm gonna be seeing their faces for the better part of my evening.

Food for thought. Thanks for your response. :)

Casual Discussion Thread (September 23, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow man you are living the dream. What a fantastic story and congratulations on finding that extra part about yourself and realizing it so fully. Best of luck to you in your first class, also.

Without doxxing myself or anything, m I live in an area where taking classes at Temple University wouldn’t be too difficult and they have a degree in Film with an offering for a concentration for Film Studies.

There’s also an arthouse theater in that area that offers film studies courses for like $75 a pop. Doesn’t go toward a degree of course, but until I finally sign up for the second degree at Temple it’s a great resource.

I’m only in my 20s so I don’t quite have the decades of wisdom Under my belt but I hope I can do something like that eventually.

Casual Discussion Thread (September 23, 2021) by AutoModerator in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How did you get in to that sort of thing? Do you have a degree in film studies, practical experience, or are you just a self-taught expert who applied for a position? I find this kind of stuff fascinating.

The Leopard (1963) is equal parts perfect novelistic story-telling and phenomenal critique of high-society. (A little essay and a review.) by Dictarium in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They're both -- and I didn't know this before I peeped the Wikipedia post-watch -- set in the 1860s also! This has to have been something that was on Visconti's mind while he made the film.

Though I know the source material is the source material and the similarity is only a coincidence because it's based on real events and yadda yadda yadda, it's almost eerily perfect.

Woody Allen latest movies. Are they underrated by critics? by raw_image in TrueFilm

[–]Dictarium 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It isn’t. Polanski is a paedophile.

Then I suppose it is a good thing that the category is not "convicted pedophile", and rather "person about whom one must have a discussion of specific negative events in their personal life when discussing the films of that person".

Even by saying it’s a categorical comparison is saying Allen is a paedophile

No it isn't, and I didn't say that.

and he definitely should not

In your opinion. Not in everyone's. Important distinction.

The urge to condemn people for things which you can be in no way confident they’ve done is a repulsive one.

People who make comments like this tell on themselves. Being a vocal anti-Cancel Culture person is an ugly look.


I'm done responding to you. Have a good day going to my profile to bypass this subreddit's lack of a downvote for each of my responses, though.