2020 Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft - BONUS ROUNDS
- Thread starter Jack Jack
- Start date
I love this one. I attached the longer one to my post, too. I really like this movie!!!
LoungeLizard
Starter
P - Point Break (1991)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0102685/
This adrenaline filled ride from 1991 stars Keanu Reeves as special agent Johnny Utah who has the tall task of going undercover to bring down a group of surfers who are also bank robbers. The following review from IMDB is on point:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0102685/
This adrenaline filled ride from 1991 stars Keanu Reeves as special agent Johnny Utah who has the tall task of going undercover to bring down a group of surfers who are also bank robbers. The following review from IMDB is on point:
KainLear
Starter
Sorry guys, I was having internet issues the past few days. But I'm back and I'm ready to catch back up.
Here's my selection for "E"...
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Director:
Doug Liman
Writers:
Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay)
Stars:
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
A sci-fi version of [REDACTED], this Japanese graphic novel adaptation is an exhilarating ride. It was one of the better movies Cruise has been in for the past few years. Although his chemistry with Emily Blunt, who plays Rita, a giant Final Fantasy-esque sword wielding tough cookie, isn't always there, once Cruise's character Cage starting to experience the same battles over and over again and training alongside Rita mercilessly for what we can only assume is a countless amount of days. The film quickly starts jumping forward, making the safe call that the audience gets what's going on, resulting in an unrelenting ride unlike any sci-fi thinky nonsense that is best enjoyed without picking at it too much.
Edge of Tomorrow is the perfect mix of blustering action with sci-fi mechanics. Like so many a CGI-powered affair, it loses some steam at the end as it tries to top its epic beginnings, but it comes in at under two hours and doesn't really have time to wear out its welcome. Best of all, this is a monstrously expensive sci-fi epic that has no real consideration towards becoming a franchise or setting something else up through Easter eggs and post-credit stingers. It's worth seeing just for the performances, the set-pieces, and the strong exploitation of its high-concept premise. It's what summer movies are supposed to be for.
Here's my selection for "E"...
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Director:
Doug Liman
Writers:
Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay)
Stars:
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
A sci-fi version of [REDACTED], this Japanese graphic novel adaptation is an exhilarating ride. It was one of the better movies Cruise has been in for the past few years. Although his chemistry with Emily Blunt, who plays Rita, a giant Final Fantasy-esque sword wielding tough cookie, isn't always there, once Cruise's character Cage starting to experience the same battles over and over again and training alongside Rita mercilessly for what we can only assume is a countless amount of days. The film quickly starts jumping forward, making the safe call that the audience gets what's going on, resulting in an unrelenting ride unlike any sci-fi thinky nonsense that is best enjoyed without picking at it too much.
Edge of Tomorrow is the perfect mix of blustering action with sci-fi mechanics. Like so many a CGI-powered affair, it loses some steam at the end as it tries to top its epic beginnings, but it comes in at under two hours and doesn't really have time to wear out its welcome. Best of all, this is a monstrously expensive sci-fi epic that has no real consideration towards becoming a franchise or setting something else up through Easter eggs and post-credit stingers. It's worth seeing just for the performances, the set-pieces, and the strong exploitation of its high-concept premise. It's what summer movies are supposed to be for.
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Jespher
Starter
X = X-Men: First Class (2011) - PG-13
Some letters are much harder to fill than others...
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender steal the show together as Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr, the young versions of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto, respectively. These co-founders share the spotlight with a rising Jennifer Lawerence as Raven/Mystique. The action is quick and bludgeoning, the humor resonates throughout, and the character building at the beginning made me care about the outcome of each individual and their various ideals by the climax.
Link #1
Link #2
Quotes:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270798/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Some letters are much harder to fill than others...
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender steal the show together as Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr, the young versions of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto, respectively. These co-founders share the spotlight with a rising Jennifer Lawerence as Raven/Mystique. The action is quick and bludgeoning, the humor resonates throughout, and the character building at the beginning made me care about the outcome of each individual and their various ideals by the climax.
Link #1
Link #2
Quotes:
Professor Charles Xavier: Shaw's declared war on mankind on all of us, he has to be stopped.
Erik Lehnsherr: I am not gonna stop Shaw, I am gonna kill him. Do you have it in you to allow that?
[Erik pauses while Charles shifts in his chair uneasy]
Erik Lehnsherr: You known all along why I was here Charles, but things have changed. What started as a covert of mission, tomorrow mankind will know mutants exist. Shaw, us, they won't differentiate. They'll fear us. And that fear will turn to hatred.
Professor Charles Xavier: Not if we stop a war, not if we can prevent Shaw, not if we risk our lives doing so.
Erik Lehnsherr: Would they do the same for us?
Professor Charles Xavier: We have it in us to be the better man.
Erik Lehnsherr: We already are! We are the next stage of human evolution, you said it yourself...
Professor Charles Xavier: [cuts in] No, no...
Erik Lehnsherr: Are you really so naive as to think that they won't battle their own extinction? Or is it arrogance?
Professor Charles Xavier: [looks at Erik in disagreement] I am sorry.
Erik Lehnsherr: After tomorrow, they are gonna turn on us. But you are blinded because you believe they are all like Moira.
Professor Charles Xavier: And you believe they are all like Shaw.
[leans forward]
Professor Charles Xavier: Listen to me very carefully, my friend: killing Shaw will not bring you peace.
Erik Lehnsherr: Peace was never an option.
Charles Xavier: Mother. What are you... I thought you were a burglar.
Mrs. Xavier: I didn't mean to scare you, darling. I was just getting a snack. Go back to bed. What's the matter? Go on, back to bed.I, I'll make you a hot chocolate.
Charles Xavier: Who are you? And what have you done with my mother?
Charles Xavier: [telepathically in her mind] My mother has never set foot in this kitchen in her life. And she certainly never made me a hot chocolate, unless you count ordering the maid to do it.
[Mrs Xavier nervously changes into a scared blue-skinned girl]
Young Raven: You're not... scared of me?
Charles Xavier: I always knew I couldn't be the only one in the world. The only one who was different. And here you are. Charles Xavier.
[takes her hand]
Young Raven: [hesitant] Raven.
Charles Xavier: You're hungry and alone. Take whatever you want. We've got lots of food. You don't have to steal. In fact, you never have to steal again.
Dr. Moira MacTaggert: You know, one day the government is going to realize that how lucky they were to have Professor X on their side.
Professor Charles Xavier: I suppose I am a real professor, aren't I? Next thing you know, I'll be going bald. We're still on the government side, Moira. We're still G-Men. Just without the "G".
Dr. Moira MacTaggert: No. You're your own team now. It's better. You're X-Men.
Professor Charles Xavier: Yes, I like the sound of that.
Erik Lehnsherr: [before Charles uses Cerebro for the first time] What an adorable lab rat you make, Charles.
Professor Charles Xavier: Don't spoil this for me, Erik.
Erik Lehnsherr: I've been a lab rat. I know when I see one.
Erik Lehnsherr: I am not gonna stop Shaw, I am gonna kill him. Do you have it in you to allow that?
[Erik pauses while Charles shifts in his chair uneasy]
Erik Lehnsherr: You known all along why I was here Charles, but things have changed. What started as a covert of mission, tomorrow mankind will know mutants exist. Shaw, us, they won't differentiate. They'll fear us. And that fear will turn to hatred.
Professor Charles Xavier: Not if we stop a war, not if we can prevent Shaw, not if we risk our lives doing so.
Erik Lehnsherr: Would they do the same for us?
Professor Charles Xavier: We have it in us to be the better man.
Erik Lehnsherr: We already are! We are the next stage of human evolution, you said it yourself...
Professor Charles Xavier: [cuts in] No, no...
Erik Lehnsherr: Are you really so naive as to think that they won't battle their own extinction? Or is it arrogance?
Professor Charles Xavier: [looks at Erik in disagreement] I am sorry.
Erik Lehnsherr: After tomorrow, they are gonna turn on us. But you are blinded because you believe they are all like Moira.
Professor Charles Xavier: And you believe they are all like Shaw.
[leans forward]
Professor Charles Xavier: Listen to me very carefully, my friend: killing Shaw will not bring you peace.
Erik Lehnsherr: Peace was never an option.
Charles Xavier: Mother. What are you... I thought you were a burglar.
Mrs. Xavier: I didn't mean to scare you, darling. I was just getting a snack. Go back to bed. What's the matter? Go on, back to bed.I, I'll make you a hot chocolate.
Charles Xavier: Who are you? And what have you done with my mother?
Charles Xavier: [telepathically in her mind] My mother has never set foot in this kitchen in her life. And she certainly never made me a hot chocolate, unless you count ordering the maid to do it.
[Mrs Xavier nervously changes into a scared blue-skinned girl]
Young Raven: You're not... scared of me?
Charles Xavier: I always knew I couldn't be the only one in the world. The only one who was different. And here you are. Charles Xavier.
[takes her hand]
Young Raven: [hesitant] Raven.
Charles Xavier: You're hungry and alone. Take whatever you want. We've got lots of food. You don't have to steal. In fact, you never have to steal again.
Dr. Moira MacTaggert: You know, one day the government is going to realize that how lucky they were to have Professor X on their side.
Professor Charles Xavier: I suppose I am a real professor, aren't I? Next thing you know, I'll be going bald. We're still on the government side, Moira. We're still G-Men. Just without the "G".
Dr. Moira MacTaggert: No. You're your own team now. It's better. You're X-Men.
Professor Charles Xavier: Yes, I like the sound of that.
Erik Lehnsherr: [before Charles uses Cerebro for the first time] What an adorable lab rat you make, Charles.
Professor Charles Xavier: Don't spoil this for me, Erik.
Erik Lehnsherr: I've been a lab rat. I know when I see one.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270798/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
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Löwenherz
Starter
Sorry guys, I was having internet issues the past few days. But I'm back and I'm ready to catch back up.
Here's my selection for "E"...
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Director:
Doug Liman
Writers:
Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay)
Stars:
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
A sci-fi version of [REDACTED], this Japanese graphic novel adaptation is an exhilarating ride. It was one of the better movies Cruise has been in for the past few years. Although his chemistry with Emily Blunt, who plays Rita, a giant Final Fantasy-esque sword wielding tough cookie, isn't always there, once Cruise's character Cage starting to experience the same battles over and over again and training alongside Rita mercilessly for what we can only assume is a countless amount of days. The film quickly starts jumping forward, making the safe call that the audience gets what's going on, resulting in an unrelenting ride unlike any sci-fi thinky nonsense that is best enjoyed without picking at it too much.
Edge of Tomorrow is the perfect mix of blustering action with sci-fi mechanics. Like so many a CGI-powered affair, it loses some steam at the end as it tries to top its epic beginnings, but it comes in at under two hours and doesn't really have time to wear out its welcome. Best of all, this is a monstrously expensive sci-fi epic that has no real consideration towards becoming a franchise or setting something else up through Easter eggs and post-credit stingers. It's worth seeing just for the performances, the set-pieces, and the strong exploitation of its high-concept premise. It's what summer movies are supposed to be for.
That was in my options pool for E and L, if I missed Eternal Sunshine or Lost in Translation.
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Löwenherz
Starter
Utah! Get me two!
With my eighth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter V to select:
Vertigo (1958):
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Dir. of Photography: Robert Burks
Writer(s): Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor
Score: Bernard Herrmann
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Genre(s): Mystery, thriller, romance
Runtime: 2 hours, 8 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Vertigo is a film with a rather absurd plot about a detective who develops a desperate fear of heights after witnessing a colleague fall to his death. After recovering from the shock and trauma of the experience, the detective is approached one day by an old friend who confides that his wife has been possessed by the spirit of a suicidal 18th-century aristocrat. The detective is hired to follow her, becomes transfixed by her beauty, and falls in love. He then intervenes in her attempted suicide, but an attack of vertigo renders him incapable of saving the woman from death.
A year later, the depressed and guilt-ridden detective happens upon a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to the woman whose suicide he was unable to prevent. The two spark up a romance, but the detective's mania soon becomes apparent, and despite the young woman's protestations, he demands that she transform her physical appearance to match that of the woman he had failed to save. His obsessions eventually spiral out of his control.
This is bizarre stuff by most measures. Yet a script that seems preposterous on its face is elevated by a master director who chooses to zero in on the rich intersections of lust, guilt, and obsession. Hitchcock was himself a controlling presence on every film he directed, particularly towards the female actors he employed. In Kim Novak's portrayal of Madeleine/Judy, the audience encounters the quintessential "Hitchcock woman," whom were characterized by Roger Ebert as "blond... icy and remote... imprisoned in costumes that subtly combined fashion with fetishism." Novak's is a nuanced and deeply sympathetic performance as a woman doomed by the possessiveness of a man driven mad by his feverish delusions.
And in James Stewart's portrayal of Scottie, the audience is awarded a cipher for Hitchcock himself. Vertigo is a fascinating instance of a director contending not just with film as a medium, but also his own place within the context of that medium. The film reads a bit like a Rorschach test designed to examine and deconstruct the male gaze, as well as Hitchcock's own specific attempts at bridling his female performers. It's a shocking self-examination of sorts, no less for the fact that Scottie cuts a pathetic figure as a man in love with an unattainable fantasy, projecting all of his desire onto the alluring mystery of an unknowable woman.
Truth is evasive in Vertigo. It is a perpetually moving target. And as Scottie's obsession deepens, he attempts to pin it down and locate its center, choosing to exert as much control as possible over the very woman he claims to love, down to the color of her hair and the manner in which she speaks. But for all of his effort, Scottie is confronted with a puzzle that has no discernible solution. Much like how vertigo is an irreconcilable fight with gravity, Scottie is forced to reckon with the irreconcilable differences between fantasy and reality. His medical condition functions as a larger metaphor for loss of control and the dislocation and disorientation one experiences when falling in love with an idea and not a human being.
Ultimately, Vertigo is a spellbinding film, hypnotic and delirious in equal measure. It concerns itself with the hollowness of so many of our desires, the desperation in our grasp for authenticity, the hazardous contours of our own fantasies. It was a commercial and critical failure upon its release, but like so many misunderstood films in their time, its value to the artform has appreciated dramatically. Most would consider it among Hitchcock's best. I count myself among them.
A lot of movies could be capably argued for as Hitchcock's best but this one is undoubtedly my favorite. The photography has this gauzy dreamlike glow to it which I never fully appreciated until the first time I saw it on a big screen. That experience totally transformed the movie for me from a weird little meditation on obsession into a transcendent waking nightmare that deconstructs the whole director/actor/audience relationship. Just blowing those images up to larger than life size was the difference between watching a movie about a detective with vertigo and experiencing those thoughts and emotions as if they were my own.
This is why I hope the theatrical presentation of movies on the big screen continues. I don't think you get more Vertigos if you eliminate that part of the film experience. I suppose there is a lot of potential for VR to eventually surpass projected film as the ideal medium for this kind of experiential simulation but you'd be losing the communal nature of sharing the same darkened theater and collectively dreaming the same dream with other people.
You didn't mention the character of Midge but she also fits perfectly into the themes you talked about so eloquently in your summary. Not only is Scottie obsessed with this fictional woman that he mostly invented in his head, he's already got a real woman in his life who adores him and he can't even see her. This is quintessential film noir -- a deeply flawed protagonist is given chances to change his life for the better but refuses them at every turn and ultimately that better life remains eternally just out of reach while he chases at shadows.
It's not surprising that the movie wasn't successful at the time it was released given that so much of it is buried in subtext. Its genius doesn't truly come into focus until you realize that Scottie's obsession with the fictional woman of his dreams and his rejection of both Midge and Judy as inadequate facsimiles is Hitchock pointing the finger at us, the audience. Hitchcock knows better than anyone what we go to movies for. So with the entire first half of the film he gives us this beautiful mysterious woman and we lean into the screen trying to figure her just as Scottie does. It's only in the lead up to the climax as the layers are pulled back and we watch Midge watch Scottie watch Judy who we now know was pretending to be Madeleine all along that it becomes clear that Hitchcock has pulled a trick on us and made us the focus of his gaze. Oh that's right, she wasn't real -- that was acting! None of these characters are real, they're just somebody else's ideas. And yet they seem so real....
Of course we always know this but we allow ourselves to forget so we can get lost in the story. But Hitchcock deliberately makes us self-aware precisely to amplify his point that the illusion itself is the problem. What a marvelous magic trick that was!
Sluggah
All-Star
Keep the change, ya filthy animal.
H is for Home Alone
Just in case this pandemic is still in full effect come December, threatening to ruin my favorite holiday, I’ll have to fake Christmas cheer by playing this on loop.
Internet blurb: The charisma of Macaulay Culkin matched with the intelligent script by John Hughes makes this the definitive holiday story that it is, appealing to all ages.
H is for Home Alone
Just in case this pandemic is still in full effect come December, threatening to ruin my favorite holiday, I’ll have to fake Christmas cheer by playing this on loop.
Internet blurb: The charisma of Macaulay Culkin matched with the intelligent script by John Hughes makes this the definitive holiday story that it is, appealing to all ages.
bajaden
Hall of Famer
Sorry guys, I was having internet issues the past few days. But I'm back and I'm ready to catch back up.
Here's my selection for "E"...
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Director:
Doug Liman
Writers:
Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay)
Stars:
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
A sci-fi version of [REDACTED], this Japanese graphic novel adaptation is an exhilarating ride. It was one of the better movies Cruise has been in for the past few years. Although his chemistry with Emily Blunt, who plays Rita, a giant Final Fantasy-esque sword wielding tough cookie, isn't always there, once Cruise's character Cage starting to experience the same battles over and over again and training alongside Rita mercilessly for what we can only assume is a countless amount of days. The film quickly starts jumping forward, making the safe call that the audience gets what's going on, resulting in an unrelenting ride unlike any sci-fi thinky nonsense that is best enjoyed without picking at it too much.
Edge of Tomorrow is the perfect mix of blustering action with sci-fi mechanics. Like so many a CGI-powered affair, it loses some steam at the end as it tries to top its epic beginnings, but it comes in at under two hours and doesn't really have time to wear out its welcome. Best of all, this is a monstrously expensive sci-fi epic that has no real consideration towards becoming a franchise or setting something else up through Easter eggs and post-credit stingers. It's worth seeing just for the performances, the set-pieces, and the strong exploitation of its high-concept premise. It's what summer movies are supposed to be for.
This movie is like futuristic version of [Redacted]. It throws in just the right amount of humor at the right time. Great choice!
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bajaden
Hall of Famer
And now to H. Another letter I struggled over since I had so many choices, but decided to go with a more recent movie that had me from start to finish, and was a pleasant surprise. It's a throw back western called Hostiles. It's the story of a burn't out U.S. Calvary officer (Christian Bale), who has been fighting the Indian wars for the last 12 years, and is about to retire, being given his last assignment, to take a Cheyenne war chief (Wes Studi) and his family back to their home in Montana.
Along the way they find and rescue a woman played by Rosamund Pike, of Gone Girl fame and agree to take her to the next fort along the way to their destination. The movie was directed by Scott Cooper and has excellent performances by all including Stephen Lang of Avator fame, and a short cameo by Scott Wilson of Walking Dead fame. They don't make a lot of westerns anymore which is a shame, but this one is a keeper that almost leaves you exhausted at the end.
Along the way they find and rescue a woman played by Rosamund Pike, of Gone Girl fame and agree to take her to the next fort along the way to their destination. The movie was directed by Scott Cooper and has excellent performances by all including Stephen Lang of Avator fame, and a short cameo by Scott Wilson of Walking Dead fame. They don't make a lot of westerns anymore which is a shame, but this one is a keeper that almost leaves you exhausted at the end.
Padrino
All-Star
Sorry guys, I was having internet issues the past few days. But I'm back and I'm ready to catch back up.
Here's my selection for "E"...
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Director:
Doug Liman
Writers:
Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay)
Stars:
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
A sci-fi version of [REDACTED], this Japanese graphic novel adaptation is an exhilarating ride. It was one of the better movies Cruise has been in for the past few years. Although his chemistry with Emily Blunt, who plays Rita, a giant Final Fantasy-esque sword wielding tough cookie, isn't always there, once Cruise's character Cage starting to experience the same battles over and over again and training alongside Rita mercilessly for what we can only assume is a countless amount of days. The film quickly starts jumping forward, making the safe call that the audience gets what's going on, resulting in an unrelenting ride unlike any sci-fi thinky nonsense that is best enjoyed without picking at it too much.
Edge of Tomorrow is the perfect mix of blustering action with sci-fi mechanics. Like so many a CGI-powered affair, it loses some steam at the end as it tries to top its epic beginnings, but it comes in at under two hours and doesn't really have time to wear out its welcome. Best of all, this is a monstrously expensive sci-fi epic that has no real consideration towards becoming a franchise or setting something else up through Easter eggs and post-credit stingers. It's worth seeing just for the performances, the set-pieces, and the strong exploitation of its high-concept premise. It's what summer movies are supposed to be for.
I rather like this film. Tom Cruise has appeared in a few really strong science fiction films this side of the millennium, and I wish he'd venture into that territory more often.
KainLear
Starter
Yeah much much better than the other one with Olga Kurylenko... (I ain't spoiling movie names again
)
KainLear
Starter
Here's my 'G' entry...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Director:
Sergio Leone
Writers:
Luciano Vincenzoni (story), Sergio Leone (story)
Stars:
Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
The height of spaghetti western, Sergio Leone's crafted a grisly-brilliant story of three amoral gunslingers in the parched American west on the trail of hidden Confederate gold. It's his first real attempt at mythologizing his vision of the American West. Clint Eastwood's character is the "Good" but he's the worst of them all; Eli Wallach is his duplicitous partner, "the Ugly", and Lee Van Cleef plays part-time mercenary Angel-Eyes, "the Bad"; all tangled up in a nightmare of panic as the south flees before the Union's advance. Shot on empty streets of clapboard towns and stark landscapes of endless, sun-blasted deserts and captured on the wide CinemaScope frame, it’s a cynical, ruthlessly violent western of opportunists out for no one but themselves. And last but certainly not least, it will be amiss if I didn't mention the surreal original score by Ennio Morricone, which is immortal nowadays and practically synonymous with cowboy western movies.
If you've never gotten into spaghetti Westerns, there's no time like the present to give it a go with one of the best.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Director:
Sergio Leone
Writers:
Luciano Vincenzoni (story), Sergio Leone (story)
Stars:
Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
The height of spaghetti western, Sergio Leone's crafted a grisly-brilliant story of three amoral gunslingers in the parched American west on the trail of hidden Confederate gold. It's his first real attempt at mythologizing his vision of the American West. Clint Eastwood's character is the "Good" but he's the worst of them all; Eli Wallach is his duplicitous partner, "the Ugly", and Lee Van Cleef plays part-time mercenary Angel-Eyes, "the Bad"; all tangled up in a nightmare of panic as the south flees before the Union's advance. Shot on empty streets of clapboard towns and stark landscapes of endless, sun-blasted deserts and captured on the wide CinemaScope frame, it’s a cynical, ruthlessly violent western of opportunists out for no one but themselves. And last but certainly not least, it will be amiss if I didn't mention the surreal original score by Ennio Morricone, which is immortal nowadays and practically synonymous with cowboy western movies.
If you've never gotten into spaghetti Westerns, there's no time like the present to give it a go with one of the best.
To fill my “I” column in the alphabetical movie draft, I select:
Ikiru (Japan, 1952)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Starring Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
The great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is best known for his samurai films, but for me Ikiru ("To Live") is his finest film (for what it's worth, Roger Ebert agreed with me). It is a story about Kanji Watanabe, a career do-nothing bureaucrat who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. After initially feeling sorry for himself, he decides to spend his remaining days fighting the bureaucracy he has been a part of in pursuit of one final sliver of meaning in his life. If I ever need to clear out my lachrymal ducts, I can pull this DVD out and it does the job.
Trailer
The worst among us know nothing of life until they die.
Ikiru (Japan, 1952)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Starring Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
The great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is best known for his samurai films, but for me Ikiru ("To Live") is his finest film (for what it's worth, Roger Ebert agreed with me). It is a story about Kanji Watanabe, a career do-nothing bureaucrat who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. After initially feeling sorry for himself, he decides to spend his remaining days fighting the bureaucracy he has been a part of in pursuit of one final sliver of meaning in his life. If I ever need to clear out my lachrymal ducts, I can pull this DVD out and it does the job.
Trailer
The worst among us know nothing of life until they die.
Jack Jack
G-League
H = Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
This is my favorite Harry Potter film! This is the last movie which stayed true to the book, as the books get longer and longer, and more difficult to fit into a single film (i.e. #7). I like the character progressions of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and the climax at the end remains one of the most thrilling battles with Voldemort for the whole series!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295297/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_8
This is my favorite Harry Potter film! This is the last movie which stayed true to the book, as the books get longer and longer, and more difficult to fit into a single film (i.e. #7). I like the character progressions of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and the climax at the end remains one of the most thrilling battles with Voldemort for the whole series!
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295297/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_8
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Löwenherz
Starter
Ikiru is an astonishingly gorgeous and intimate portrait of a salary-man reflecting on the inconsequence of his life only when faced with impending death, and striving for one last simple gesture of remote significance to accept for himself that he had accomplished any amount of meaningful good in the world. Wonderfully powerful piece.
Also, a shot across my bow. I've picked a Kurosawa film in every one of these drafts. Even though, thus far, that has amounted to only two of the man's notable thirty project filmography, I celebrate most of his entire catalogue.
I figured this time around, I might as well finally start with his 11th film, which introduced me, as well as most of the West, to the meticulous genius of the pluviophile emperor.
R is for ...
Rashomon (1950)
In its most simple terms, Rashomon is a crime story with the same murder told from the perspective of four different people. You can strip away everything else: the spectacular precision of the cinematography, the fiercely raw and potent performance by Toshiro Mifune, the swords and samurai, the backstabbing and betrayal. It's all ornamental for the single question at its premise: what is truth?
The examination of that lone question has made this film immeasurably influential, even outside the scope of cinema: in criminology the phenomena of an eyewitness being notoriously unreliable even without intending to be is called The Rashomon effect. Within film, especially film noir but I've seen examples in every genre, anytime there are contradictory accounts of the same event as told from different perspective, its typically been inspired by Rashomon, and hardly ever done nearly as well.
I was a punk, know-it-all college kid when my film studies professor introduced me to Rashomon, and by extension, Kurosawa. I'd intentionally attacked all her previous film presentations like a particularly petulant plebeian critic trying to knock modern artist down a peg. But Rashomon cut right through my feigned cynicism, and made me a Kurosawa fan for life.
Also, a shot across my bow. I've picked a Kurosawa film in every one of these drafts. Even though, thus far, that has amounted to only two of the man's notable thirty project filmography, I celebrate most of his entire catalogue.
I figured this time around, I might as well finally start with his 11th film, which introduced me, as well as most of the West, to the meticulous genius of the pluviophile emperor.
R is for ...
Rashomon (1950)
In its most simple terms, Rashomon is a crime story with the same murder told from the perspective of four different people. You can strip away everything else: the spectacular precision of the cinematography, the fiercely raw and potent performance by Toshiro Mifune, the swords and samurai, the backstabbing and betrayal. It's all ornamental for the single question at its premise: what is truth?
The examination of that lone question has made this film immeasurably influential, even outside the scope of cinema: in criminology the phenomena of an eyewitness being notoriously unreliable even without intending to be is called The Rashomon effect. Within film, especially film noir but I've seen examples in every genre, anytime there are contradictory accounts of the same event as told from different perspective, its typically been inspired by Rashomon, and hardly ever done nearly as well.
I was a punk, know-it-all college kid when my film studies professor introduced me to Rashomon, and by extension, Kurosawa. I'd intentionally attacked all her previous film presentations like a particularly petulant plebeian critic trying to knock modern artist down a peg. But Rashomon cut right through my feigned cynicism, and made me a Kurosawa fan for life.
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Padrino
All-Star
With my ninth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter N to select:
No Country for Old Men (2007):
Director(s): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Dir. of Photography: Roger Deakins
Writer(s): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Cormac McCarthy (based on the novel by)
Score: Carter Burwell
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt
Genre(s): Drama, crime, thriller
Runtime: 2 hours, 2 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Given their reputation as craftsmen of satire and black comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen were not necessarily the obvious choices for an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's brutal neo-western No Country for Old Men. Yet that did not stop them from crafting a modern cinematic masterpiece. It turns out that the Coen brothers' gift for nihilistic farce translated seamlessly to a dramatic crime thriller. Their films tend to foment the suspicion that powerful, often invisible forces operate from outside the bounds of reason, rendering moral judgment on the characters that the Coen brothers have decided to test. O Brother, Where Art Thou has already been selected in this draft, and it is surely one of the best examples of these unseen forces at work in the Coen brother's films. Ulysses Everett McGill denies the existence of such phenomena, yet time and again the characters in that film wander into a tableau of the inexplicable as their moral and ethical fiber is put at hazard.
And with No Country for Old Men, we find the Coen's engaging with the notion that nobody can actually confirm if these forces genuinely exist, or if we simply insist that they do as a way of ordering our universe. In this way, the Coen's share much in common with the author whose novel their screenplay is based on. Cormac McCarthy's greatest works examine the tapestry of human achievement and degeneration in the face of a cold and chaotic universe. In the Coen's adaptation of No Country for Old Men, there is tremendous tension between the notions of fate and free will. A conversation between sheriff Bell and a fellow lawman suggests something about God's plan. An examination of Anton Chigurh's customary coin toss suggests something about fate or inevitability. And then there is Carla Jean Moss' refusal to call Chigurh's coin toss, which suggests something about choice or free will, and represents an ultimate forcing of Chigurh's hand. He must accept responsibility for murder, and is no longer able to pass it off as the product of chance.
In this way, No Country for Old Men is surprisingly faithful to its source material. I was an undergrad when it was released, majoring in English, and a devoted fan of Cormac McCarthy. That said, I was skeptical that McCarthy's dense, intensely-descriptive prose would manage to translate to the big screen, especially since the Coen's are stylistic visualists above all else. I have great admiration for their work because of it, but films and novels are such disparate mediums. They honestly share little in common. But somehow, some way, the Coen's managed to capture the essence of McCarthy's prose and imbue his characters with the weathered interiority they evince in the novel.
It certainly helped that they hired the great Roger Deakins to be their cinematographer. He has served as DoP on a number of the Coen brothers' films (famously pioneering the use of digital color correction with his sepia-toned work on O Brother, Where Art Thou?), and his lensing here is stark and dramatic, giving widescreen heft to the barren landscapes of No Country for Old Men. It is a beautiful film, visually arresting despite the dusty and empty Texas backroads that it depicts.
No Country for Old Men (2007):
Director(s): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Dir. of Photography: Roger Deakins
Writer(s): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Cormac McCarthy (based on the novel by)
Score: Carter Burwell
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt
Genre(s): Drama, crime, thriller
Runtime: 2 hours, 2 minutes
IMDb Entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Given their reputation as craftsmen of satire and black comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen were not necessarily the obvious choices for an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's brutal neo-western No Country for Old Men. Yet that did not stop them from crafting a modern cinematic masterpiece. It turns out that the Coen brothers' gift for nihilistic farce translated seamlessly to a dramatic crime thriller. Their films tend to foment the suspicion that powerful, often invisible forces operate from outside the bounds of reason, rendering moral judgment on the characters that the Coen brothers have decided to test. O Brother, Where Art Thou has already been selected in this draft, and it is surely one of the best examples of these unseen forces at work in the Coen brother's films. Ulysses Everett McGill denies the existence of such phenomena, yet time and again the characters in that film wander into a tableau of the inexplicable as their moral and ethical fiber is put at hazard.
And with No Country for Old Men, we find the Coen's engaging with the notion that nobody can actually confirm if these forces genuinely exist, or if we simply insist that they do as a way of ordering our universe. In this way, the Coen's share much in common with the author whose novel their screenplay is based on. Cormac McCarthy's greatest works examine the tapestry of human achievement and degeneration in the face of a cold and chaotic universe. In the Coen's adaptation of No Country for Old Men, there is tremendous tension between the notions of fate and free will. A conversation between sheriff Bell and a fellow lawman suggests something about God's plan. An examination of Anton Chigurh's customary coin toss suggests something about fate or inevitability. And then there is Carla Jean Moss' refusal to call Chigurh's coin toss, which suggests something about choice or free will, and represents an ultimate forcing of Chigurh's hand. He must accept responsibility for murder, and is no longer able to pass it off as the product of chance.
In this way, No Country for Old Men is surprisingly faithful to its source material. I was an undergrad when it was released, majoring in English, and a devoted fan of Cormac McCarthy. That said, I was skeptical that McCarthy's dense, intensely-descriptive prose would manage to translate to the big screen, especially since the Coen's are stylistic visualists above all else. I have great admiration for their work because of it, but films and novels are such disparate mediums. They honestly share little in common. But somehow, some way, the Coen's managed to capture the essence of McCarthy's prose and imbue his characters with the weathered interiority they evince in the novel.
It certainly helped that they hired the great Roger Deakins to be their cinematographer. He has served as DoP on a number of the Coen brothers' films (famously pioneering the use of digital color correction with his sepia-toned work on O Brother, Where Art Thou?), and his lensing here is stark and dramatic, giving widescreen heft to the barren landscapes of No Country for Old Men. It is a beautiful film, visually arresting despite the dusty and empty Texas backroads that it depicts.
Calo: In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.
"G" is for:
The Godfather (1972)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/
Not sure why this has slipped so far but it is another mid-round high value pick! One of the best movies ever made, and likely the best gangster movie. The cast is perfect, with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece gangster epic sucks you in and doesn't let go.
From wikipedia:
Don Corleone: You look terrible. I want you to eat, I want you to rest well. And a month from now this Hollywood big shot's gonna give you what you want.
Johnny Fontane: Too late. They start shooting in a week.
Don Corleone: I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. Okay? I want you to leave it all to me. Go on, go back to the party.
Michael: [speaking to Carlo] Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.
Peter Clemenza: Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Don Corleone: Bonasera, Bonasera, what have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, this scum who ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by some chance an honest man like yourself made enemies they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you.
Bonasera: Be my friend... Godfather.
[the Don at first shrugs, but upon hearing the title he lifts his hand, and a humbled Bonasera kisses the ring on it]
Don Corleone: Good.
[He places his hand around Bonasera in a paternal gesture]
Don Corleone: Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, consider this justice a gift on my daughter's wedding day.
Tom Hagen: Mr. Corleone is Johnny Fontane's godfather. Now Italians regard that as a very close, a very sacred religious relationship.
Jack Woltz: Tell your boss he can ask for anything else, but this is one favour I can't grant him.
Tom Hagen: Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he's refused the first, understood?
"G" is for:
The Godfather (1972)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/
Not sure why this has slipped so far but it is another mid-round high value pick!
One of the best movies ever made, and likely the best gangster movie. The cast is perfect, with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece gangster epic sucks you in and doesn't let go. From wikipedia:
Don Corleone: You look terrible. I want you to eat, I want you to rest well. And a month from now this Hollywood big shot's gonna give you what you want.
Johnny Fontane: Too late. They start shooting in a week.
Don Corleone: I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. Okay? I want you to leave it all to me. Go on, go back to the party.
Michael: [speaking to Carlo] Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.
Peter Clemenza: Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Don Corleone: Bonasera, Bonasera, what have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, this scum who ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by some chance an honest man like yourself made enemies they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you.
Bonasera: Be my friend... Godfather.
[the Don at first shrugs, but upon hearing the title he lifts his hand, and a humbled Bonasera kisses the ring on it]
Don Corleone: Good.
[He places his hand around Bonasera in a paternal gesture]
Don Corleone: Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, consider this justice a gift on my daughter's wedding day.
Tom Hagen: Mr. Corleone is Johnny Fontane's godfather. Now Italians regard that as a very close, a very sacred religious relationship.
Jack Woltz: Tell your boss he can ask for anything else, but this is one favour I can't grant him.
Tom Hagen: Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he's refused the first, understood?
First off, I am not usually a fan of Quentin Tarantino. To be honest, I just don't get him or his point of view on virtually any film he has made. Having said that, this next pick comes as much of a shock to me as it will to some of you.
KILL BILL VOL. 2
I love Uma Thurmond. I really thought I would hate this flick (and its companion piece) but I didn't. The Bride was so convincing, with so many layers to her character, that I was hooked immediately. I didn't see these films until they were brought to my attention by the renowned G3 - and I'm glad I listened to her. (BTW? I sure wish we'd have a Gadget sighting...but I digress.)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/
I'm really at a disadvantage here because to adhere to rule about not discussing films not yet picked means I cannot discuss a lot of the plot points that were started in another film and brought to fruition here.
One thing I do admire about Tarantino is how well he melds the soundtrack into his films. In fact, the music is almost a character in its own right.
Padrino
All-Star
Interesting that Kill Bill Vol. 2 resonates with you where other Tarantino features do not. I'd categorize his point of view as "cinephilia on steroids." The guy is an encyclopedia of film history, and there may be no director who better grasps the fine contours of genre (particularly those that register as low-brow or maligned, such as exploitation films and martial arts movies). Kill Bill Vol. 2 and its predecessor are perhaps the most "Tarantino" films in Tarantino's filmography! His obsessions and homages and writerly tics are as pronounced here as they have been at any other point throughout his career. Excellent pick.
Sluggah
All-Star
This one stings...even though it’ll be awhile till I get to N, I was foolishly holding out hope. Appreciate your Deakins shout out though. Just listened to a podcast on the Ringer network where they argued over Deakins’ top ten works. Dude is epic.
foxfire
G-League
# = 127 Hours (2010)
An amazing story of struggle, survival, and a testament to both the fragility and perseverance of life. Aaron Ralston is a real man, mountaineer, and adventurer who was rock climbing just outside Canyonlands, Utah, without a friend, contact, or a way to call for help. Unfortunately, a boulder moved and crushed his hands, leaving him wedged inside a box canyon, below the surface, and out of ear shot to passers by.
Danny Boyle adds his brilliant fast paced film making acumen to turn a one man show into a whirlwind adventure film, that comes home to a very human moral. What a ride!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1542344/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
An amazing story of struggle, survival, and a testament to both the fragility and perseverance of life. Aaron Ralston is a real man, mountaineer, and adventurer who was rock climbing just outside Canyonlands, Utah, without a friend, contact, or a way to call for help. Unfortunately, a boulder moved and crushed his hands, leaving him wedged inside a box canyon, below the surface, and out of ear shot to passers by.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston said:
Danny Boyle adds his brilliant fast paced film making acumen to turn a one man show into a whirlwind adventure film, that comes home to a very human moral. What a ride!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1542344/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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Löwenherz
Starter
First ballot Hall-of-Famer easily. Top ten ever arguably.
LoungeLizard
Starter
B - Big (1988)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0094737/
I was 10 years old when this film was released and it hit the sweet spot. What kid doesn’t at some point wish they could be “big”? I still catch myself watching this whenever it airs on TV. Tom Hanks is great as usual.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0094737/
I was 10 years old when this film was released and it hit the sweet spot. What kid doesn’t at some point wish they could be “big”? I still catch myself watching this whenever it airs on TV. Tom Hanks is great as usual.
Jespher
Starter
Time to add a bit more comedy to my COVID-Cave. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
A = Airplane! - 1980 - PG
This film has enough one liners to fill up 3 white zones!
Quotes:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
A = Airplane! - 1980 - PG
This film has enough one liners to fill up 3 white zones!
Quotes:
Hanging Lady: Nervous?
Ted Striker: Yes.
Hanging Lady: First time?
Ted Striker: No, I've been nervous lots of times.
Steve McCroskey: Johnny, what can you make out of this?
[Hands him the weather briefing]
Johnny: This? Why, I can make a hat or a brooch or a pterodactyl...
Joey: Wait a minute. I know you. You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Roger Murdock: I'm sorry, son, but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Roger Murdock. I'm the co-pilot.
Joey: You are Kareem! I've seen you play. My dad's got season tickets.
Roger Murdock: I think you should go back to your seat now, Joey. Right, Clarence?
Captain Oveur: Nahhhhhh, he's not bothering anyone. Let him stay here.
Roger Murdock: But just remember, my name is...
[showing his nametag] ROGER MURDOCK. I'm an airline pilot.
Joey: I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense.
[Kareem gets angry]
Joey: And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try... except during the playoffs.
Roger Murdock: [breaking character] The hell I don't! LISTEN, KID! I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!
Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Captain Oveur: I can't tell.
Rumack: You can tell me. I'm a doctor.
Captain Oveur: No. I mean I'm just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can't you take a guess?
Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?
Elaine Dickinson: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your stewardess speaking... We regret any inconvenience the sudden cabin movement might have caused, this is due to periodic air pockets we encountered, there's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you enjoy the rest of your flight... By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
Reporter: What kind of plane is it?
Johnny: Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol.
Ted Striker: Yes.
Hanging Lady: First time?
Ted Striker: No, I've been nervous lots of times.
Steve McCroskey: Johnny, what can you make out of this?
[Hands him the weather briefing]
Johnny: This? Why, I can make a hat or a brooch or a pterodactyl...
Joey: Wait a minute. I know you. You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Roger Murdock: I'm sorry, son, but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Roger Murdock. I'm the co-pilot.
Joey: You are Kareem! I've seen you play. My dad's got season tickets.
Roger Murdock: I think you should go back to your seat now, Joey. Right, Clarence?
Captain Oveur: Nahhhhhh, he's not bothering anyone. Let him stay here.
Roger Murdock: But just remember, my name is...
[showing his nametag] ROGER MURDOCK. I'm an airline pilot.
Joey: I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense.
[Kareem gets angry]
Joey: And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try... except during the playoffs.
Roger Murdock: [breaking character] The hell I don't! LISTEN, KID! I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!
Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Captain Oveur: I can't tell.
Rumack: You can tell me. I'm a doctor.
Captain Oveur: No. I mean I'm just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can't you take a guess?
Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?
Elaine Dickinson: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your stewardess speaking... We regret any inconvenience the sudden cabin movement might have caused, this is due to periodic air pockets we encountered, there's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you enjoy the rest of your flight... By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
Reporter: What kind of plane is it?
Johnny: Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Sluggah
All-Star
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I is for Interstellar
I wouldn’t argue that this is Nolan’s best work, and yet I find myself watching it repeatedly. If I were better with words, maybe I could explain why it resonates with me so much. But alas...
Internet blurb: “It's as grand as it is introspective and as grounded as it is existential. By the end of the nearly three-hour running time - it goes by in a flash - you feel as if you've experienced something that is so rarely captured on film.”
I is for Interstellar
I wouldn’t argue that this is Nolan’s best work, and yet I find myself watching it repeatedly. If I were better with words, maybe I could explain why it resonates with me so much. But alas...
Internet blurb: “It's as grand as it is introspective and as grounded as it is existential. By the end of the nearly three-hour running time - it goes by in a flash - you feel as if you've experienced something that is so rarely captured on film.”
Sluggah
All-Star
Surely, you can’t be serious.
I am Shirley. And stop calling me serious.
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