Which it did. This is no county for old men and I learned that lesson long ago.

Has your life ever unraveled before your eyes?




Pick 2, round 2:

No Country for Old Men (2007) was written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of the same name. Set in the beautiful state of Texas, a place I dearly love, it follows a series of cascading criminal events and multiple man hunts and escapades that start and also culminate in blood splattering fun. A suitcase of drug money acts as the inanimate object of humans vs. humans, from the supposed law abiding, to the bystanders dragged into the mess, to the dregs of the underworld and beyond. The real protagonist of the film is chance*; personified by Mr. Wonderful and his cool nonchalance for plugging anyone or everyone. Your turn is next, or not. Flip a coin to find out.

And that is that.


*Or probability, if want you to sound more sophisticated and mathematical.



My nitpick:



Picks so far:

The Dark Knight
No Country for Old Men

Sorry, I've been at work and inconveniently living in a different time zone to you guys.

Round 2

The Royal Tenenbaums



I like a lot of Wes Anderson but this is the peak of his film making career if you ask me. It's got all the cooky characters, just the right amount of twee and detailed narration. Not all scenes and lines drive the plot, they are all just there to be admired and enjoyed.

Great ensemble cast. I wouldn't like to pick a "star" of the movie, it's just a very well balanced ensemble.

If you try to sell it to someone else who's never heard of Wes Anderson it's a tough sell, but it's such a great movie. It doesn't put in huge explosions and have nail biting tension. I'm sure it didn't draw in huge box office bucks, but it's not all about that. You can almost admire Anderson more for doing what he wants rather than pandering to the audience.

To finish I'll leave you with IMDb's attempt at summing up the plot

Round two pick: Kiarostami's Certified Copy. Writeup to follow.

Picks:

In The Mood For Love
Certified Copy

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH

dammit John

My pick is incoming

Dom's round 2 pick:

Before Sunset, Richard Linklater, 2004



About as perfect a movie that exists. We have discussed this film ad nauseum in The Lounge, and you all know about Celine and Jesse and their walk around Paris nine years after they first met and spent a night in Vienna together. The ending is legendary, so here it is:



********

Dom's List:

Mulholland Drive
Before Sunset

Kioshk on the clock!

this draft is great at making me want to immediately watch every movie picked despite the fact I've seen em all a million times (except for john's picks obv)

I don't even know how to begin writing about Certified Copy, except to say that the first time I saw it I watched it again immediately. In some ways it complements In The Mood For Love. Two strangers meet in Tuscany. She, played by Juliette Binoche, attends a book reading by an art historian who claims that a copy is just as good as an original. She brings along her son who does not seem to care a whit about the author or the reading. She invites him to her antique shop, but they soon leave to drive to a nearby town, a place where couples come to marry. (Kiarostami's films often feature people driving.)

This couple gets aquainted during the drive and then stroll through the picturesque village. They stop in a cafe where the proprietress mistakes them for a married couple. Are they? For the rest of the film, about its second half, the couple argue, attempt some sort of reconciliation, and eventually return to the hotel where they spent their wedding night.

So we have a film in two parts. Are they married? Are they strangers? Are they merely acting the part of strangers or acting the part of a married couple? The first half plays out like a romantic comedy; the second half plays out like the dissolution of a marriage. They argue about a man and wife portrayed on a statue, and it's really an argument about who they are.

At the end of the film, she examines herself in a mirror. She, at least to my eyes, is still beautiful and seductive (after all, it's Juliette Binoche). He's grown tired of her. He examines himself in the mirror. He seems to age before our eyes, looking tired and worn. At the end, the camera leaves them to gaze out of a window.

What do we make of this perplexing, absorbing film? Hell, I wish I could claim to know. I think it has something to do with the ways film tells stories, love stories in particular. I think it has something to do with the ways we talk to each other and to ourselves. What do we talk about when we talk about love? I can only offer this: intimacy can be communicated through language, through talking to each other, acknowledging the other, both in ourselves and in those we love. Or perhaps it can be communicated through a small gesture, the gentle and supportive touch on the shoulder, as the happily married older man suggests. Without these, we remain strangers, gazing at our own reflections, wondering what the hell happened.

I don't know, but I do know I shall keep returning to this film over and over.

PS. It helps to have seen Rosselini's Voyage to Italy.

Certified Copy is brilliant

Kioshk is skipped!

Phatmac is on the clock

Division 7: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to film John Wick 3 on a $65 budget. Oh, and add some sort of story line.

Wakaliwood: Who Killed Captain Alex?

Unknown to theatergoers outside of Uganda and Texas (apparently for political reasons, nobody wants to show movies with thousands of Africans being slaughtered. People’s Republic of Texas: "We’re good with it."), the miracle of the internet has made this feature available to everybody.



Very educational. I never knew that Uganda had a Shaolin Temple. Plenty of Kung Fu, Ghetto Fu and PooPoo Fu.

Those of you reading Shuffle’s Ozu thread have heard of the benshi, the narrator of silent movies in pre-war Japanese movie houses. This Ugandan movie has a benshi, or as they call it, a VJ or Video Joker. Sure, plenty of modern movies have narration, but it's scripted. VJ Emmie, as he is known, is outside the studio's chain of command. (He's also working on his English and rumored to be available for wedding videos, etc.)

Another rumor: The production company was invited to New York for the the opening of their latest film at MoMA, but were denied visas. I only mention this in passing because I'm tickled by the thought of all these guys showing up at the Trumpian US embassy in Kampala.

Anyway, clearly the greatest film of the Millennium, and clearly within the rules which clearly mention youTube.

H.T. PM'd.

lol wtf


ok, we will suspend the draft for the knight, but Howard Treesong is on the clock....he can pick whenever.

Make sure you pm him, Phat Mac!

I'm aware that Before Sunrise is ineligible to get drafted but Before Sunset is the best of the trilogy imo

I PM'd him. Do you want to be cc'd on all these pms?

Probably could've grabbed Captain Alex in round 3 or 4 imo.

sure, why not

Kill Bill. Will add writeup in the morning.

ok well i didn't get a PM but im following along so i'll go ahead and make my 2 picks.

first up is a film by my fav directors and one of the funniest films of the 21st century.

and not only is this a fantastic film but the music and soundtrack might be the best of any film ever made.

the dialogue is absolutely elite with so many LOL lines and the casting impeccable as the delivery of the dialogue is pitch perfect.




a;sldkfjsad;lkfasd;lkfjasl;dfjlk;sadfj GOD DAMNIT I was gonna take o brother where art thou jesus how many times am i gonna get sniped????

ok well i guess since thats off the board i will go with a severely under-appreciated film and probably the most beautiful film since barry lyndon.

after seeing this film i went from thinking only the coen bros could make blood meridian to thinking only this director could.

the pacing and cinematography of this film are just breathtaking but don't sleep on the amazing cast.
chock full of every amazing character and supporting actor whom you love but can't quite remember their name.

quite possibly the best cast in any film in the 21st century and it almost feels like a poem rather then a movie.




children of men
o brother where art thou
the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford


will PM howard.
also howard i filled in your selection on the spreadsheet so you don't have to worry about that.

Things are pretty rough when you're even sniping yourself!

I'm taking The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson's strange movie that seems loosely based on the guy who started Scientology but is a lot more than that. You won't find better acting or more memorable movie characters than Joaquin Phoenix's lost drunk thug and Philip Seymour Hoffman's quirky cult leader.

Memento. Writeup in a bit.

I have never seen Children of Men. Probably should. Some really good picks so far.

Although it's happened, I seldom get sniped in these drafts. No one understands why.

oh man pls watch it asap and report back.

I get so happy when someone watches an amazing movie for the first time because of me.

satisfaction is guaranteed.