The Criterion Collection

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Hmmm.. All your Malick comments don't make it easier for me to bring myself and watch these last 2 films..
I'll see what I'll do.
Hope Voyage of Time is released eventually (been waiting for many years for this), because it's the only Malick I'm really looking forward to watching.

I loved To The Wonder. Is it the masterpiece The Thin Red Line or Tree of Life was? No. But it doesn't have to be, because ALL filmmakers make lesser films.

[atfree]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Some parents are clueless. Back in the mid-to-late-70s, I went to a local cattleplex to see a re-release of A Boy and His Dog. There were only a few people in the audience with me, but among them, a couple of rows behind me, was a youngish woman, her pre-teen daughter, and an older woman I assumed was her mother. They obviously didn't notice that the filmed was rated "R", or that the tagline was something on the order of "A kinky tale of survival in the year 2070" (quite frankly, I was more horrified that the box office drone didn't make it clear this movie wasn't for children).

I was going to speak up, and suggest that this wasn't a film they were going to want their little girl to see, but I said to myself, "Screw them, if they didn't pay attention," and thought it might be fun to see how long they lasted. Unfortunately, I got absorbed in the movie, and by the time I remembered to check, they were already gone.

A similar incident happened in the 90s, when Boston's Museum of Fine Arts Film Program was doing a program of a variety of Hong Kong films. I'm sure that this man I saw there with his two children -- I'd guess around 12 or 13 -- thought that he'd be expanding his kids' horizons by exposing them to another culture's films. But did the movie he chose to do that with have to be Naked Killer?

(Actually, that might not be quite fair, as he might well have brought them to some previous films in the program, and they were enthusiastic about them.)

Originally Posted by belcherman

He was probably just too cheap to get a sitter. It sucks when those screenings conflict with Dad's weekend

I remember when I was about 13 (give or take), I conned my mother into taking me to see a couple of R-rated films. Nothing graphic, just some very brief nudity, but I'm sure she got some strange looks. Me, I was just thrilled to see the movies. Flash forward a few years. I found out that my ex had let my then pre-teen daughter watch A Clockwork Orange. I was pretty pissed, but in the long run, I don't think she was damaged by it. Kids are pretty resilient.

I really have a different take. My parents were (are, they are in their 80's now) very liberal. They encouraged me to read anything I could get my hands on and I could read at age 4. I was reading well above my age level when I entered school.

Movies were the same. I was a voracious watcher of movies on TV growing up in the late 60's and early 70's (when movies were actually shown on TV), and saw my first movie in a theater at age 7....Patton. We lived in a small town and my parents knew the owner of the local theater very well. We saw 1 or 2 movies a week, and whenever I wanted to see something rated R and my parents didn't want to go, they would drop me off and tell the cashier (and the owner or his wife was usually there too) that it was ok for me to see the movie.

Among many others, I saw The Godfather when I was 9, The Exorcist when I was 10, Chinatown, The Godfather Part II when I was 11, Shampoo when I was 12, etc, etc. The only decision they probably would have regretted would have been allowing me to see Big Bad Mama when I was 11. . But they always talked with me after I saw a movie, discussed themes, etc.

And I'm about as normal as anyone I know (college-educated, married 19 years with 2 kids till my wife passed away unexpectedly, married to 2nd wife for 7 years now, putting 4 kids (mine plus my wife's 2 sons from her first marriage) through college, gainfully employed in banking).

[kuro_sawa]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

I loved To The Wonder. Is it the masterpiece The Thin Red Line or Tree of Life was? No. But it doesn't have to be, because ALL filmmakers make lesser films.

My biggest gripe with To The Wonder had to do with the religious aspect. I think all Malick's films have spirituality in them in a big way but never so heavy handed to scream out "I am Christian" or this or that. All of his other films are also so full of ideas and things that make up a bigger, even if abstract, story. In comparison TTW felt empty. I haven't even started complaining about Ben Affleck yet so I'll stop here Like I said I am a fan and he is undoubtedly one of the most talented and visionary filmmakers alive today, I just really didn't care for this one.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by jayembee

One of the earliest movie-going experiences I can remember was my father taking my brother and me into Boston to see The Mysterians. A foreign film, to be sure, though dubbed rather than subtitled. What's frustrating is that I can remember bits and pieces of the film that played with it. It was a long time after that I started wondering about that film. I had been thinking it was the Stewart Granger version of King Solomon's Mines, but in catching up with that at some point, none of the scenes I remembered were in it. My best guess since then was a late-50s MGM film with George Montgomery called Watusi, a kinda sorta somewhat remake of KSM, but I've never been able to find a copy to see. I keep checking Warner Archive's site now and then to see if they've released it on DVD-R, but no luck so far.

I can't say that my folks and I had much in common regarding the kinds of movies we wanted to see, but my folks didn't shy away from taking us to the local drive-in to see all sorts of strange films that they probably had no interest in seeing themselves, but knew us kids would like them. Such as one of the Steve Reeves Hercules movies.

I remember one of the trips to the drive-in was to see a war movie involving a train. To this day, I can't remember if it was The Train or Von Ryan's Express -- both are from the right time frame -- but my hunch is the latter.

I also remember going with my mother to see The Odd Couple, and while we both enjoyed that, we both howled with laughter at the film that played with it: a James Coburn western titled Waterhole #3. Years later, it popped up on TV, and she and I made an evening of it, having all sorts of snacks ready as we watched this movie. It wasn't long before, quite puzzled, we wondered why on earth we thought it was so funny the first time. Maybe 15 years ago or so, it was released on DVD, and I bought it out of morbid curiosity to see whether our initial opinion was right or not. I never did watch it...I think I was afraid to find out.

I also remember seeing The Mysterians in the theater when I was a kid. What I always remembered was the giant robot that appeared early in the film.
Morgan the Pirate was the Steve Reeves I saw as a kid. What I always remembered from that film was the cleavage of the ladies in the film.
Obviously, a couple of years in between made a difference in what my childhood memories changed to!

[Gusto-Guus]

Originally Posted by SlickDamian

How about The Revenant? I haven't seen it, but it looks freaking sick. Hopefully Leo finally gets an Oscar.

Oh, yeah will definitely catch that, but it's a 2016 title, no?

[Polaroid]

I think the issue with Malick's recent film is his lack of a script.

Yes they are poetic and celebrating a moment rather than some scripted nonsense - but his scripted film have been his best and the unscripted seem to get a bit lost.

I can see Voyage of Time being on par with his older work to be honest because like his older films, he has spent a lot of time working on it where as his newer stuff has sort of been rushed.

The imagery and music is beautiful, but they are too personal I feel so it is harder to connect with them. I dunno, I'm half asleep and grumpy.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

That’s really cool that you share this passion with your father. Shortly after Pulp Fiction came out in the mid-90’s, I wanted my Dad to see it with me. (I had already seen it once.) He was making snarky disapproving comments throughout the first half of the film. By the time the gimp showed up, he was downright appalled by it. That’s when I knew with no uncertainty that our appreciation for the arts are on entirely different wavelengths.

I’m glad I’ve got you guys (and gals,) though. You are living, breathing human beings, right?

VERY ironic on the Father-Tarantino angle.

I took my Dad to see Kill Bill: Volume 2 to the movie theater and I think that's one of the last films I've seen with him in a theater. I went too far with that one! I knew immediately that was a dumb move, because my dad really is sensitive to super violent movies (even though he's 72 years old now). Being that my Dad is a Psychiatrist, he's seen enough crazy people in his life I'm sure.

Also, regarding watching Criterions with our Dads, I tried doing this last year with Il Sorpasso, which is such a free-spirited Italian neo-realist film, that I knew my Dad would enjoy it. Well, he did! But at the same time, there were a lot of scenes regarding men pursuing women, which I'm sure my dad did also back in the day, so it didn't embarrass me. Plus he grew up in the late 50s/early 60s. I'd recommend that as a father-son flick to anyone here in this forum!

And yes, bwdowiak, I'm glad we have people like you also, because not all our family members understand how we view movies.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Oh, yeah will definitely catch that, but it's a 2016 title, no?

The Revenant is a 2015 title, since it received a limited release at Christmas, but it's not a widespread U.S. release until this Thursday.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by SlickDamian

How about The Revenant? I haven't seen it, but it looks freaking sick. Hopefully Leo finally gets an Oscar.

Phenomenal film, I felt Tom Hardy was better than Leonardo DiCaprio tbh - maybe cause I'm getting annoyed at all the 'Leonardo NEEDS an oscar hype' so I'm pushing him aside? But yeah he was great but I have seen better performances from other actors :P

The film is majestic though!

[octagon]

Tom Hardy is really freaking good. Forget the whole 'I'd watch him read the phone book' cliché.

I have watched him sit in a car and talk on the phone for an hour and a half and I was riveted.

[The Great Owl]

I really liked Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, although it did not affect me quite as much as the director's earlier films.

I thought of To the Wonder a couple of weeks ago, in fact, during a conversation with a friend. This friend had divorced her husband of 15 years after she had discovered that he was having an affair. She lamented to me that she had "wasted 15 years of her life."

I responded with my opinion that, if she had enjoyed the past 15 years of the relationship, then that was not wasted time. In a sense, all that we are doing is passing time, and, if we enjoy those years, then that's the best that we can hope to achieve. None of us will receive a prize at the end, except for, perhaps, a nice outfit and a shiny box.
(I have a rather odd way of looking at things, but my friend was reassured by my take on the situation.)

Malick's To the Wonder seems to accentuate my above opinion, in that, although the relationships in the movie are not permanent, they were never "wasted time." I love an early scene in the movie when Olga Kurylenko's character is telling Ben Affleck's character that she does not expect anything other than for them to share a part of their lives together. It's really quite a beautiful film about the nature of relationships.

To the Wonder also has an undeniable flow to it. The characters are actually "dancing" throughout the movie, almost as if to a ballet, and it really does play out like a silent film in that sense.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

I have lots of e-friends. You people only count for like 1/2 a living, breathing human being.

My wife is so sick of me watching Criterions that I'm afraid my goal of watching 200 titles in 2016 is in serious jeopardy. I hope the latter part of the year is full of John Hughes films or I'm never going to make it.

Wow. 200 is a lot! I saw between 90 and 100 in 2015. I’d love to have seen more, but that number is ok. I saw your home theater pics. Looks great! I think that right there would make everyone want to watch more.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by octagon

Tom Hardy is really freaking good. Forget the whole 'I'd watch him read the phone book' cliché.

I have watched him sit in a car and talk on the phone for an hour and a half and I was riveted.

I was luke-warm on Locke, but I generally agree w/ your assessment. Liked him in Bronson, Warrior, and The Drop... off the top of my head.

[octagon]

I loved The Drop. Hardy was really good, Noomi Rapace was really good and James Gandolfini got to go out on a high note.

The only downside (and it's nobody's fault) is that I just could not disassociate John Ortiz from the character he played in Togetherness.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by atfree

I really have a different take. My parents were (are, they are in their 80's now) very liberal. They encouraged me to read anything I could get my hands on and I could read at age 4. I was reading well above my age level when I entered school.

My parents were also very liberal. As a kid, I regularly checked out books from the adult section of the public library, after demonstrating to the librarian that I really did understand what I was reading, even though it was technically well above my age level. And my father didn't object when he found me perusing his Harold Robbins novels.

But I turned 18 in 1971. It had only been a few years before that that movies had ratings -- I remember the "M" (for "Mature") rating that was the precursor to "PG" (with "GP" being in-between), and "X-rated" did not mean "porn". Obviously, not all movies were what they today refer to as "family friendly", but it never seemed liked there was any big deal made about who could see which at what age.

My parents pretty much let me go to see movies on my own that I might've been just a tad too young for (like the James Bond films), but the only time I can remember anything to the contrary was one night when they went out with another couple to see The Graduate during its first run. When they got home, I asked them how it was, and my mother said, "It was really good, but definitely for grown-ups." I suspect that they wouldn't have let me go see that on my own then.

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Wow. 200 is a lot! I saw between 90 and 100 in 2015. I’d love to have seen more, but that number is ok. I saw your home theater pics. Looks great! I think that right there would make everyone want to watch more.

That is less than 4 Criterions per week. If I can watch 2-3 each weekend, then I can try to catch 1-2 through the week.

I don't know if you guys do Letterboxd, but I'm logging all the films I watch and doing a short review. 200 Criterion titles is ambitious, but I think I can do it. Who needs to spend time with their kids anyway? Especially when you have four.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by octagon

Tom Hardy is really freaking good. Forget the whole 'I'd watch him read the phone book' cliché.

I have watched him sit in a car and talk on the phone for an hour and a half and I was riveted.

Hardy's an awesome actor. He and Michael Fassbender are probably the two most consistently great actors working today. He and Fassbender are kind of dueling in the way Pacino and De Niro were in the 70s. I don't think they're even close to the level of iconic performances Pacino and De Niro gave in the 70s, but they're probably the two best we have today.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by kuro_sawa

My biggest gripe with To The Wonder had to do with the religious aspect. I think all Malick's films have spirituality in them in a big way but never so heavy handed to scream out "I am Christian" or this or that. All of his other films are also so full of ideas and things that make up a bigger, even if abstract, story. In comparison TTW felt empty. I haven't even started complaining about Ben Affleck yet so I'll stop here Like I said I am a fan and he is undoubtedly one of the most talented and visionary filmmakers alive today, I just really didn't care for this one.

Affleck's really awful. He's probably one of my least favorite actors of all-time. He's one of those actors who just really annoys the shit out of me. I'm sure we all have actors that do that to us. There's not one role I really like him in outside of "Dazed and Confused". I find Great Owl's analysis of "To the Wonder" fascinating. I wish I had gotten that out of it. I'll give it a rewatch to reevaluate.

[malakaheso]

Originally Posted by kuro_sawa

My biggest gripe with To The Wonder had to do with the religious aspect. I think all Malick's films have spirituality in them in a big way but never so heavy handed to scream out "I am Christian" or this or that. All of his other films are also so full of ideas and things that make up a bigger, even if abstract, story. In comparison TTW felt empty. I haven't even started complaining about Ben Affleck yet so I'll stop here Like I said I am a fan and he is undoubtedly one of the most talented and visionary filmmakers alive today, I just really didn't care for this one.

I disagree. In fact, his 'religious' side has become so extreme on his last few films that I'm beginning to reassess all of his films.

As for To The Wonder, it's easily the worst film of his i've seen, and I believe that as a general rule 'stars' should not be cast in 'art' films because they rarely do anything except inflate the budget. Most of the time they are simply distracting. Asking trained actors, especially character actors, to wander, stare and brood is simply a waste of time and resources. The only reason they are there is to secure financing and distribution.

[malakaheso]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Criterion has the rights to all of Lloyd's talkies and silent films, so expect plenty more releases.

Haven't box sets been planned for the future?

I definitely won't be picking up a boxset of his talkies if it's ever released. His talkies are invariably weak.