Not all movies/tv needs someone good to root for to be great.

Look at Breaking Bad.

The women who'd edited all of Taratino's previous movies died about 5 years ago. She was a mother figure to him and likely had much more pull than the guy who's edited H8 & Django.

One example from Pulp Fiction is when Uma Thurman is dancing to "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon". I just love the way that scene was shot... the tracking shot with the closeup of just her head/face while she dances. Another director may have switched to a wide shot and it would not have been as effective. And of course the entire dance contest scene with Travolta was great as well.

Director is to blame/credit if the actor puts in a bad/good performance.

don't wanna muddy up the dedicated 2015 thread so I'll just post this in here.

my goal was to watch 365 movies this year and I'm currently at 108 (including re-watches), so that's slightly disappointing, but also kind of expected given that I watched a lot of TV as well, including re-watching all of Mad Men. glad I hit 100 at least.

from those this is my top 10:

1. The Thin Red Line (Malick, 1998)
2. Persona (Bergman, 1966)
3. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
4. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (Greaves, 1968)
5. Mad Max: Fury Road (Miller, 2015)
6. Sans Soleil (Marker, 1983)
7. Magic Mike XXL (Jacobs, 2015)
8. The Killing (Kubrick, 1956)
9. Listen to Me Marlon (Riley, 2015)
10. Broadcast News (Brooks, 1987)

worst movie by a country mile was An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (Nance, 2013).
worst movie from 2015 was probably Joy.

most gratifying re-watches: Mulholland Dr., Naked, Do the Right Thing, Lost in Translation

all in all, a very satisfying year watching movies for me!

Did you like the breaking the 4th wall asides? I really didn't care for those.

I thought we were supposed to be rooting for the Miami mortgage broker douches. I saw this movie last week and I think about them every day.

I likes the explainer ones with the cameos. They were like little episodes of Planet Money. The regular character ones were less successful.

Very iconic. Inspiring artist to this day.

Except for the Chinese quant one!

I hate the mindset that all people in the markets are evil. These guys had balls, very big balls to risk everything on their analysis. It showed them doing their due diligence to uncover a once in a lifetime opportunity. The market was gonna crash with them or without them, they just saw it before anyone else. I have worked as a trader for 30 years. It takes a lot of work and dedication to be successful and most aren't super rich hedge fund managers. While it is clear that the Bear Sterns, Lehmans, Goldmans and AIGs of the world played very fast and loose which screwed the public that type of behavior is beyond the scope of fund managers or traders just trying to ply their craft and I see no reason they get any hate at all.

That was one of the funniest moments on the film.

Agree. I general, the market is critical to society. It's not fair to paint the entire industry with the sins of a few.

On the other hand, the single biggest problem with the markets today is the the bonus structure which incentivizes short term profits and thus general instability. If the regulators could do one thing it would be banning bonuses unless both based on wins AND loses and only based on multi year records.

Part of the reason the short play in this case seems evil is hind sight. As it turned out the tax payers paid the bill. However at the time they had no way of knowing it would be and expected the banks to be paying the bill.

Had the government allowed the banks to fail rather than breeding increased moral hazard the short players would have looked like Robin Hood.

to this day, The ultra racist Captain Koons dramatic pause is one of the greatest in modern cinema...

Don't blame the player blame the game! The big banks definitely have some bad payout structures that incentivize bad behavior. Like creating all of these crap swaps and cdo's in the first place. But once again that kind of thing is beyond the scope of typical market participants.

Even industry sacrifices the long term for short term quarterly earnings to boost executive stock options which is mostly bad for everyone involved in the big picture. The politicians were gonna politic and the taxpayers were gonna eat it no matter what so you can't pin that on this stories "hero's".

‘Hateful Eight’ Gets Early Digital Expansion: 1900+ Screens Starting Tonight

On the heels of its successful 70mm roadshow presentation that kicked off Christmas Day, The Weinstein Company has opted to expand Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight into digital wide release earlier than planned in order to meet heavy demand. The film will show in 1,958 screens beginning December 30, with preshows beginning tonight. Further digital expansion is planned to start December 31.

“While we are beyond thrilled with the limited release numbers, the demand from moviegoers to see this film has exceeded our capabilities in 70mm,” said TWC President of Distribution Erik Lomis in a statement. “We’re greatly looking forward to bringing it to more theaters and cities and give Tarantino fans across the country the chance to experience this brilliant, intensely fun piece of filmmaking.”

The Hateful Eight‘s 70mm roadshow release, screened in 100 theaters in 44 cities, earned $5.6 million over Christmas weekend, with a per-theater average of $46,107. That achievement is made more impressive because the film played exclusively in theaters retrofitted with 70mm projectors by TWC, largely on only one screen per theater. No surprise then that the roadshow will continue as planned even as the film expands to digital.

wasn't too impressed with H8.

was OK but never really hooked me and don't see how we were ever supposed to care one iota about any of the characters (not because they were "bad" but because we just never get to know anything about them).

madsen was just awful, and while SLJ n Kurt turned in outstanding performances, didn't think the acting as a whole was that great, and the film was just a giant let down for me.

one thing I don't understand is how ppl are bothered by the use of the "N" word.

how do u think ppl talked in the post civil war period?
would have been laughable to sugar coat it and portray the characters as morally advanced to what try and feel better about our history wrt african americans?

but overall not a film I would purchase to watch repeatedly.

sadly I was unable to make the 70mm showing we had tix for but a buddy in the academy loaned us his screener and we watched it on my 65" but obv nowhere near the same (also didn't get the extra 10mins and I'm dying to know what happened in that extra 10min).

The Overture? I think I felt pretty much the same way you did about it though.

i don't think you really have any conception of how much of what you see on the screen is a result of the director.

if you think its cuz of the actors, or the writers etc you are sorely mistaken.
there is no one on set that has anything remotely resembling the effect on the final product as the director.

if you think you could take any old avg director and get the same kindv film as you see in a coen, fincher, kubrick, dominik, gilliam, scorsese, coppola etc film u are just wildly misinformed.

obv once a great while an actor will have a performance like DDL did in there will be blood and steal much of the focus from the director, but flat out the director is the one who determines what the film ends up being.

im not doing a very good job of conveying the import of the director, and hopefully one of the resident poets in the lounge can do a proper write up on this, but i had to say something as the idea that the director simply tells the DP where to aim the lense and then its all up to the actors to bring the writers creation to life is just as wrong as one can be.

wat

~half of the script was the characters' backstories

saying "oh he was a general"
"he was part of a rebel band of marauders"
"he (allegedly) burnt 47 ppl"

doesn't really count as getting to know the characters or giving us a reason to root for them.

Yeti: Definitely know what you are saying despite not agreeing 100%. Some of the distinctive Tarantino trademarks like the excessive blood spraying, black and white, and shaky zoom ins are very hit or miss for me. What consistently makes his movies great is QT's dialogue and pacing.


On a slightly related note, I've heard a few people say that the Coen brothers didn't do anything amazing with NCFOM because it just followed the book word for word... mkay.

I agree we don't have a reason to root for them, but I think we know them pretty well. At least, I felt like I knew each of them well enough that I have specific reasons for disliking every one of them. Somehow out of the main 8 I ended up thinking Goggins' racist sheriff was the most sympathetic, which really says something about the rest. I think it's Tarantino's most nihilistic movie for sure.

Yeah they weren't evil to be sure but you can't really say they were heroes either. They didn't do anything to help anyone but themselves and their clients. What they did was admirable to be sure but they certainly weren't the heroes. There were no heroes.

Besides the Miami mortgage broker douchebros.