EWB Film Club

[MDK]

50 minutes ago, C-MIL said:

If anybody still needs to cross off a documentary (or has about ten minutes to burn), there's this:

Matt Gourley lives out his lifelong dream of being murdered movie-style. Nothing revolutionary, but I'm a sucker for any story where somebody gets to live out a childhood fantasy.

If your childhood dream is being murdered then you might need therapy 

[GA!]

I totally intentionally did this week's challenge by watching The Beatles: Eight Days A Week. Not a coincidence at all.

[King Ellis]

The documentary I watched for last week's assignment was Searching for Sugarman. I remember Skummy (I think) pimping it many moons ago and thought it sounded interesting but never watched it until now. It really is a fascinating story, at first I thought it was just simply a case of this relatively minor singer in one part of the world having a great success in another but I never realised how politically charged the story was. Like, how much of an inspiration he served as to the whole country and it's rebellion. It's crazy to think he lived through such a big part of his life never knowing about all this and they never really knew about him, leading to all these urban legends. You'd never hear of such a thing these days with such a connected world we live in. THINGS WERE BETTER IN MY DAY WITHOUT ALL THIS TECHNOLOGY, ONLY 90'S KIDS WILL GET THIS!

I love as well how the information about Rodriguez is strung out, you get to know a little more as the movie plays out, pictures of him you can't really make out, the story at the start where they talk about him playing in the smoky bar with his back to the audience. Gives you a sense of the how his fans were kept in this state of suspense for 25-30 years knowing very little about him.

[GoGo Yubari]

Searching for Sugar Man would have been my rec if I had remembered that it was meant to be docs post-2000. I got to see Rodriguez live last year (he was the opening act on Brian Wilson's tour, which I imagine was a real honor in and of itself) and it was super-fun, even if it was just him on acoustic guitar which strips out a lot of what I love about the production on his two albums.

I'm not going to have a ton of time this week due to flying out to Chicago on Thursday but hopefully I'm going to find time for my coming-of-age movie pick, Dazed and Confused. I'm real excited to finally watch that one.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Yeah, I have never seen Dazed and Confused. Watched the trailer yesterday. No idea why I thought it was different that what it is (more rom-com). Excited to watch it. 

Thought about whatching The Outsiders as I haven't seen it in forever. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Woah hold on there are people in this world who haven't seen Dazed? Is this real life? It's maybe my favorite Linklater movie ever. I had the soundtrack for it before I ever saw it, and my perception of it may be colored by nostalgia - the first time I watched it I was 15 or 16 - and I fucking loved it. It's still one of those movies, for me, that if it's on the premium channels I'm like "Wait. Gotta watch this now."

[Benjamin]

Dazed and Confused is phenomenal. I still can't believe fucking Jason London stars in it, it's so odd to see now.

[DFF]

I'm a bit behind, but did manage to nail the documentary and presidential topics with a single film - Before The Flood. This is the DiCaprio fronted climate change doc from earlier this year. It's pretty good, and DiCaprio is an easy guy to listen to. What makes it qualify for the presidential aspect? He interviews Obama for part of it.

Will try and get a coming of age flick in (probably Dazed and Confused as a mate has lent that to me) but I'm short of time this week with holidays and whatnot - might have to double up next week.

Also, if anyone is short of ideas for a coming of age film, Stand By Me is a cracker. If someone wants one that also falls squarely in an unexpected other genre (horror) then Let The Right One In is worth a go.

[Benjamin]

Moana is basically a coming of age film, too  and it is so boss. 

[Monkey D. Lars]

There are so many great coming of age films like: The Way, Way Back (2013), Sing Street (2016), Boyhood (2014), Spectacular Now (2013), Blue is the Warmest Color (2014), Kings of Summer (2013), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Superbad (2007) is one right?, Hunt for the Wilder People (2016), that's the one I'll be watching, There are so damn many. So hard to make a decision! 

[DFF]

2 minutes ago, Gigan Lars said:

There are so many great coming of age films like: The Way, Way Back (2013), Sing Street (2016), Boyhood (2014), Spectacular Now (2013), Blue is the Warmest Color (2014), Kings of Summer (2013), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Superbad (2007) is one right?, Hunt for the Wilder People (2016), that's the one I'll be watching, There are so damn many. So hard to make a decision! 

Blue is the Warmest Colour, Boyhood and Moonrise Kingdom are all belters. MK probably the easiest for the casual viewer to watch.

[Monkey D. Lars]

3 minutes ago, DFF said:

Blue is the Warmest Colour, Boyhood and Moonrise Kingdom are all belters. MK probably the easiest for the casual viewer to watch.

Everyone should basicly watch every Wes Anderson film! 

[DFF]

2 minutes ago, Gigan Lars said:

Everyone should basicly watch every Wes Anderson film! 

Except The Life Aquatic, which is a bit naff.

[Monkey D. Lars]

I thought it was alright! 

[GA!]

I highly recommend Kings of Summer to anyone. Cracking film. Don't think it was ever properly screened in the UK so it's a bit of a hidden gem.

One of my favourite films of all time is a coming of age film, The 400 Blows, if you want to watch something distinctly French. In fact the whole Antoine Doinel series is a highly entertaining arc of boy-into-manhood.

Blue Velvet is arguably coming-of-age as well. But in, like, the darkest way imaginable. Another dark one is Heavenly Creatures, which has one of the more grisly murders ever put to film.

I wonder if my propensity for darkness explains why I'm a bit... ya know...

[GoGo Yubari]

On 11/29/2016 at 07:24, DFF said:

Except The Life Aquatic, which is a bit naff.

HERESY, I say as if I've ever seen it a second time after seeing it in theaters twelve years ago. I did, though, see Seu Jorge do all the Bowie covers he recorded for the movie last week and that's really all the enduring legacy I need.

Watched Dazed and Confused (1993) last night. For the first half hour or so I was pretty much like "oh jeez is this all there is" but it grew on me significantly over the course of time. It has a lot of what I loved about Boyhood too, particularly the fact that Linklater is so good at depicting what's going on when nothing's going on. I loved a lot of the stuff where you got two different perspectives on the same thing from the older kids and the incoming freshmen ("ugh high school girls suck" vs. "ugh middle school girls suck, I can't wait until we're in high school" one scene later), and I enjoyed some of the use of repetition, like how every set of characters ends up at the drive-in burger place at some point because it's a small town, where else are you going to go? Also the only actor I knew was in this was McConaughey, so going "wait that's Adam Goldberg, right? It is? WAIT IS THAT BEN AFF -- IT IS" was great. I did learn that it's very easy for me to get Joey Lauren Adams and Julie Benz confused, though, so I was convinced that Julie Benz had somehow changed a lot in the three or four years between this and the Buffy pilot.

Also gonna keep track of what I watched for each week now, just because:

Spoiler

Week 2, Films Pre-1970: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Week 3, Films About or Featuring Presidents: Elvis and Nixon (2016)

Week 4, Documentaries Post-2000: Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

Week 5, Coming of Age Films: Dazed and Confused (1993)

 

[DFF]

7 minutes ago, GoGo Yubari said:

HERESY, I say as if I've ever seen it a second time after seeing it in theaters twelve years ago. I did, though, see Seu Jorge do all the Bowie covers he recorded for the movie last week and that's really all the enduring legacy I need.

Watched Dazed and Confused (1993) last night. For the first half hour or so I was pretty much like "oh jeez is this all there is" but it grew on me significantly over the course of time. It has a lot of what I loved about Boyhood too, particularly the fact that Linklater is so good at depicting what's going on when nothing's going on. I loved a lot of the stuff where you got two different perspectives on the same thing from the older kids and the incoming freshmen ("ugh high school girls suck" vs. "ugh middle school girls suck, I can't wait until we're in high school" one scene later), and I enjoyed some of the use of repetition, like how every set of characters ends up at the drive-in burger place at some point because it's a small town, where else are you going to go? Also the only actor I knew was in this was McConaughey, so going "wait that's Adam Goldberg, right? It is? WAIT IS THAT BEN AFF -- IT IS" was great. I did learn that it's very easy for me to get Joey Lauren Adams and Julie Benz confused, though, so I was convinced that Julie Benz had somehow changed a lot in the three or four years between this and the Buffy pilot.

I just found LA exceptionally dull for the most part. Happy to give it another go at some point, but yeah. 

[GoGo Yubari]

You're definitely not alone. I'll rewatch it at some point and see how I feel, but as it stands I'd say Darjeeling Limited is far and away the black sheep of the Wes Anderson filmography.

[King Ellis]

Is there a Christmas movie that would fall under this criteria? Just so I can tick all my boxes...Home Alone is totally a coming of age story, right?! Look at that personal growth Kevin McAllister goes through! That kid has his shit together by the end of that movie.

[Jimmy]

I've probably watched two that count, but I'll go with Divines, a debut french film from first time director Uda Benyamina, about two young girls who follow in the footsteps of Rebecca, a well respected drug dealer to escape their poor lives in the French ghetto. It obviously follows in the footsteps of La Haine and Girlhood (two extraordinary coming-of-age films) and can't quite escape the great shadow cast by both films.

It feels like a debut - it's a bit shaky - and some of the drama feels forced or rushed. However, it adds a really entertaining feminist spin on the genre, has some incredibly inventive moments (the imaginary Ferrari sequence is magic) and boasts some fantastic young performances from inexperienced actors. It was a film I was desperate to catch at the London Film Festival, and I'm potentially being slightly harsher on it because I've my love for the other films I've mentioned in this genre, but it's a really solid debut which suggests a lot of promise for those in front and behind the camera. 

It's on Netflix for anyone who is interested. It's definitely worth a watch, I'd be very interested to see what other people think and I want to support these kind of films as it's cool that Netflix is releasing films like this.