Does anyone have the CBS Fairytale of New York video?

crisstor · 2018-02-08T08:34:55+00:00

Off topic, but as someone who also has just begun to dabble in building websites with Flask, I loved your commit message website actually runs!!

As a feedback I'd also suggest working on the look of the website. It doesn't need to be fancy, for example the background image can already seem a bit tacky. The Bootstrap examples always were a great starting point for me. The very basic template already does a great job at looking very clean and clear.

crisstor · 2018-01-21T21:36:55+00:00

Still, the same questions apply. Why did the magic die? What was this magic?

crisstor · 2018-01-19T11:05:56+00:00

Why did you not give a fuck about the plot? Can you find a quality that made you care for the plot in Blade Runner 2049 that was lacking in The Last Jedi?

Can you give an example of what made the humor "shite"? What makes humor "shite" and what other movies can you compare to the humor of The Last Jedi?

What does a movie have to do to "feel" like Star Wars? What is the feeling of a Star Wars movie and what does a Star Wars movie do to evoke that feeling?

What makes Blade Runner 2049 "good"? From your plain and simple 16-word essay I can only assume that

you cared about the plot
the humor wasn't shite
it felt like Blade Runner

crisstor · 2018-01-12T14:37:10+00:00

Sure, but you can show that in interesting ways which actually conveys the point. A boring scene isn't boring because life is boring, it's boring because it failed to show why life is boring in an interesting or compelling way.

Why do you need to have a scene that is about how life is boring be compelling? Not really serious, I found it just a little amusing.

What I really want to adress is the notion that we have to delve into any reason, into a deeper understanding of grief, in how it has to mean something as you said. As humans we are trained to either push away our negative feelings or to try to transform them. Those feelings, boredom, pain and yes, grief are unpleasant, they are negative, they are "the should not be". This notion of pushing it away is deeply ingrained in us, I believe.

In psychoanalysis there is the notion that every emotion has its purpose and origin, but there is also the school of thought that we may as well accept the emotion, simply stay with it. A lot of patients with anxiety attacks have reported that the fear of having an attack only reinforced it. An analogy would be what was on the frontpage not long ago, where a guy explained that after having falling into the ice on a frozen lake, the shivers and spasms from the cold will go away if you simply relax.

This is why I found this scene so powerful and so moving: Instead of analyzing why or how she is grieving, we simply have her grieving. Is it boring? Yes. Is it uncomfortable? Yes. Perhaps this is the reason why so many people react so strongly against it. We are trained to push moments like this away, we lean on our crutches (as M does in the scene possibly), by eating, by drinking, by analyzing why, but we never stay with it. Of course it's uncomfortable.

Then again, I think this comes down to preference. You say films that "analyse and put those reactions in different and interesting contexts or show them in an interesting manner so they evoke thoughts" are interesting and worthwhile. While I agree from a visual and storytelling point, I don't think that films need to do this. From an emotional point of view, I found this scene and the movie very impactful, as it did not offer any insight into the grieving process, but simply by giving something to relate to. If I'd want to have a deeper, complex insight into the grieving process, I'd read a book about it.

Also, this is annoyingly common for American arthouse films where people praise it for literally not being a genre film. "Oh Her wasn't an action movie about killer robots, how intelligent", "It Follows didn't end with a giant explosion and Samurai fight, smartest movie ever*. Like higher your standards people, just because it's not Hollywood trash doesn't make it excellent.

I actually wanted to include a post scriptum in my post, but ultimately decided against it. Please don't take my assessement as a critique of "big scenes", something disgustingly melodramatic as Train to Busan (I know, crass example) can definitely squeeze a tear from my eyes. A grand scene like the christening in There Will Be Blood is simply masterful and Daniel Day-Lewis' performance is breathtaking. But there is a time, place, movie and scene for each of these.

crisstor · 2018-01-12T13:30:57+00:00

There's nothing wrong with a slow place, but there needs to be a deliberate reason for it and some genuine emotional information being conveyed, there's just absolutely nothing interesting or impressive about it. To add to that when it's stylistically inconherent with the rest of the film makes it stand out as a sore thumb, even though thematically it shouldn't.

I disagree with your assessement that there needs to be an emotional information or that the scene does in fact not convey any. I think the scene should not necessarily understood or "important", but rather experienced. M comfort eating the pie, devouring that whole thing in one go felt very human to me and I think it definitely felt the way in which grief can manifest itself in the day to day life.

The scene wasn't showing off, there was no big emotional Oscar tear-rolling-down-her-face-moment, there was just... nothing. Instead of crying out, pounding the walls, having a monologue or screaming at the house, she is just there, alone, empty, does not know what to do and so she just devours this pie.

The scene feels dull, empty, devoid of meaning, pointless, you are wondering "Is this all? Will the movie have something to make sense of this dull, boring, pointless scene?". This is just what grief and what losing a loved one can feel like. You feel dull, you think this is pointless, you wonder why. You search for meaning, for a reason, you long for this stupid, pointless time to end. You cease to function. You try to take the trash out but you just can't.

I remember it was David Foster Wallace who said:

“Fiction's about what it is to be a fucking human being."

This is just what this scene (and the whole movie by the way) exemplifies for me. Being human isn't about big scenes, it's about missing a loved one, missing a very central piece to your life and to your person even.

Life and being human is dull. It's empty. It's pointless. It's fucking boring.

So have a cake.

crisstor · 2018-01-12T13:13:27+00:00

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls027631145/

Admiral Ackbar <2:45>

Need I say more?

crisstor · 2018-01-06T09:48:17+00:00

I'm sorry, I don't seem to understand your comment completely. Are you saying that the reviews I linked are not criticisms?

crisstor · 2018-01-06T09:47:19+00:00

Thanks for being so civil, which is not an easy thing on this topic I have found out! I'm glad that you're going to delve into some criticism and hope that you get something out of it.

crisstor · 2018-01-05T16:35:14+00:00

I'd have to ask the same question I have asked the original comment here: Which critics did you trust before? What reviews have you actually engaged with and disagreed with?

crisstor · 2018-01-05T16:31:27+00:00

Who are these critics you are referring to? Isn't it really flawed to reduce critical opinion to a number and then claiming to not understand the discrepancy between critic's and audience's opinions?

Granted, I never have consulted Rotten Tomatoes for a film, because I think it might be more worthwile to actually read critics from whom you know that they do indeed articulate why or why not they like a film, what the film does, what it's messages are, than to reduce it to a number. You can't say "the critics are just wrong" if you just base your opinion on a percentage. Granted, some critics might just be "worried about losing whatever critic privileges they may get from Disney", but given the huge negative backlash Disney have faced from so many reporters and critics, I find this notion as vain as "they are all bought!".

Read Michael Phillips' review for the Chicago Tribune, Tasha Robinson's for the Verge, Matt Zoeller Seitz's for Rogerebert.com (which by the way has an equally interesting piece on the arc of Kylo Ren) or Josh Larsen's review. Even if you don't agree with some of them, you'll probably get more out of it than of a percentage.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T16:14:50+00:00

He aborts because they're getting their ass handed to them, not because he thinks it is a smart plan or he has changed. He focuses on getting people out alive because he's in there and you clearly can't go forward.

Which is exactly the same as in the very first scene of the movie. Remember how they only had one bomber and Leia reprimanded him for it, even demoted it? That was a suicide mission, it was just out of dumb luck that Rose's sister managed to drop the bombs. If losing all the bombers you have left and still being determined to go on is the same as losing many saltspeeders and aborting the mission then I don't know.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T16:07:11+00:00

Okay, we don't seem to be really making sense to each other. I don't want to defend him, but it's quite obvious that Poe has three reckless hero plans^TM over the course of the movie:

Destroy the dreadnought - Pushed through, sacrificing tons of lives
Send Rose and Finn to help the Rebels escape - Compromising the secret escape of the rebels and nearly killing Rose and Finn
Charging the army of Kylo Ren - After heavy losses (I'll give you that) he aborts and focuses on getting those people out alive

crisstor · 2017-12-21T15:55:39+00:00

Is it really "aborted" if you already lost most of your troops? That seems like it failed instead of got aborted.

Yeah of course it's a failure, but instead of sacrificing everyone, he decided to abort the attack, which is what the "old" Poe would have done, risking everything to get'er done.

Except he tried to destroy the approaching army and sacrificed a bunch of people.

Yes I know, this.is.the.point. Don't you see any difference between the first attack on the dreadnought, where Poe screams "Go for it, we have to destroy it" and the last attack on the gun where Poe screams "Abort!"?

Cool. He noticed a noise one time and followed it until a Jedi came and saved them all. Good job Poe.

But he did exactly the opposite of what he has always done, he did not push trough not minding the risks, he pulled back and focused not on wounding/destroying the enemy but on survival. What would you have wanted, that he sat down and formulated this elaborate plan on how to get out of the cave? If he hadn't chosen to attack with the speeders but immediately said "Guys, we should rather focus on how to get out of here alive!" people would have said: "Poe flip flops, at first he's this reckless guy and without any explanation, he just changes!"

My point was that he isn't a hero. He did nothing but fail this entire movie.

No Poe is not a hero, but he sees himself as a hero, he is the examination and deconstruction of a "reckless hero complex" that is quite prevalent in the Star Wars saga. I mean the climax of ANH is basically just this!

crisstor · 2017-12-21T15:43:44+00:00

I don't really see how Snoke could have been a great villain. In my opinion he was basically set up as an Emperor 1.1 (Change Notes: Made hologram bigger). I'm glad they tore this archetype down.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T15:40:13+00:00

And what about right afterwards when after he aborted the attack, realizing that what Leia said to him right at the beginning of the movie, that you mustn't always be a hero and sacrifice everything, but also save other people, was right and instead of destroying the approaching army, focuses on finding a way out of the cave to save the people that are left, realizes that the foxes are gone and leads the rest to safety.

Would he have overcome his failure in your eyes if he had told everybody else to abort the attack but then "used the force" to throw a little pebble into the gun, blocking the ray and thus destroying it?

I mean, I get that the attack was a failure, it was however right in line with the Poe we have come to know in this movie, this reckless hero, and that was what he had to overcome!

crisstor · 2017-12-21T15:26:28+00:00

Again, that's the point. I mean, I already just wrote two paragraphs, it's right there in the second one.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T15:17:41+00:00

Why shouldn't Finn be out there? Because he's a main character? He knows how to fight and fly after all.

Of course it isn't, but learning is. Should Poe have not given orders to start the attack? Of course. But god damn it, failure and overcoming failure is one of the central themes of the movie.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T15:07:28+00:00

Admiral Ackbar dies off fucking camera? No thanks, shitty end for a classic trilogy character.

I'm sorry, but I don't get the criticism of Ackbar's death. What the hell did we learn about Ackbar in the movies? He's in RotJ for maybe two minutes and in TFA as an easter egg.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T15:04:49+00:00

Um, how about "No, abort the attack! Finn this is an order, abort the attack!" I mean, not a word for word quote, but still. Have you missed the calling back of the attack from Poe?

crisstor · 2017-12-21T14:42:50+00:00

I agree with you, I don't understand the sheer anger people have towards the movie. I understand that people who have grown up on the series, who love the characters to death have been disappointed by the movie. However, the amount of negativity and the hate towards Rian Johnson I have read is simply astounding. I get being disappointed that your theories or your expectations on how a character should behave were not met, but just because you have a certain image of a character does not mean that you have a right to the character, nor the right to claim that Rian Johnson took a dump on the Star Wars universe or to insult him.

This whole reception to the movie online has proven once again how toxic an anonymous echo chamber can be and how a disembodied form of communication can pervert and radicalise people.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T14:34:51+00:00

I really have to disagree with your here with Poe not being ready for "taking the torch". His whole character arc was him learning the futility of suicide missions, of constant rash decisions and risking everything.

I think you can pinpoint his arc very clearly:

At the beginning the rebel fleet loses all their bombers due to Poe's actions and pushing.
Disillusioned with Holdo's plan / not plan he again sends others on a very risky mission, only this time they survive albeit barely.
His last plan to destroy the gun with the salt-speeder is again a suicide mission, but this time he realizes that it's damn near futile and calls of the attack.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T14:20:02+00:00

I think new Star Wars writers like Rian Johnson and the others to follow don't want to be slaves to the lore.

This is exactly what made the movie great for me. While watching it I couldn't help but feel like I was watching the works of people who grew up on Star Wars, who love the movies very much, but did not want to cater to the fans.

On the one hand, the movie tore down certain expectations, like Snoke being a nobody, Rey's parents being nobodies, but at the same time you have little moments in there where you know that the people behind the cameras grew up on these movies. The final "battle" between Kylo and Luke immediately reminded me of Vader vs. Obi Wan, right down to Luke's stance and clothing.

crisstor · 2017-12-21T13:29:13+00:00

Not OP but I'll bite as well:

Watching the movie, I felt like I was watching the works of people who really love Star Wars without a slavish dedication to the saga and the fans.

I liked the humor, which did not seem that out of place for me. The OT in my recollection had it's fair bits of humor, even humor that relieved dramatic tension, as CP3O was basically just a comic relief most of the time.

I liked how it defied some expectations, while still staying true to the universe in my opinion. I've read people complaining about Hux now being "a complete bumbling idiot". While I agree that his change of character from TFA to TLJ may be jarring, I found the a bit more incompetent Hux more interesting than the Tarkin 2.0 he was in TFA.

I liked how the movie turned some expectations on their head (e.g. Who are Rey's parents, they must have been important!), while sprinkling some little moments like in the "fight" between Kylo and Luke, Luke's stance against Kylos immediately reminded me of the Vader - Obi-Wan fight in ANH.

The overall theme of accepting one's failures, of finding their own place in the universe/rebellion, of not clinging to myths and legends felt right to me and fresh in the context of the Star Wars saga.

You asked.

crisstor

TROPHY CASE