Universally agreed terrible film(s)

[HannahB]

Yes I do and that radically diverges from mine

But Drive is a bad film. It’s meta. It draws on all tropes like 1950s 80s James Dean ingredients and ends up with a vacuous digital low res crappy drive around trope Los Angeles: rebel without a case

 

[HannahB]

It's depressing that a white dude pushing 60 still looks better than the majority of us will ever look.

But the way he acts it self consciously and laughing aware - not love hearting him but the whole thing, the cinematography also (as described already, sorry I am a thread 🧵 killa)

 

[HannahB]

I still need to see Le Samourai. Apparently that feels like a precursor to Drive too, plus Alain Delon's cool and I liked Le Cercle Rouge.

Haven’t seen either

 

[woops]

But Drive is a bad film. It’s meta. It draws on all tropes like 1950s 80s James Dean ingredients and ends up with a vacuous digital low res crappy drive around trope Los Angeles: rebel without a case

You make it sound like a classic and it is. I've never seen anything else with Ryan gosling in but his performance is ice cold and laconic as anything. I love the soundtrack. I love the way it's all about the car, the small act of heroism in the small time crimeworld run out of a pizza place

 

[woops]

Sticking it on nao

 

[sus]

The best bit in Badlands is the montage of the house burning.

This is true—it reminded me more, visually, of Tarkovsky than Malick's later films do.

 

[woops]

wow that was brilliant and beautiful ,i'm definitely reckon, watching drive is one of the high points of my life,

 

[IdleRich]

I can’t stand Citizen Kane and all how a captain of industry made it big —— sooooo boring. Also Lady of Shanghai, beautiful mirrors scene but the rest of it!

I wouldn't claim to be one of those people who is great at understanding films. Some people can open them up and spill out their secrets for you, hold each up to the light and explain it individually before fitting them into an overall meaning like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. They can decode the symbols and explain the metaphors, point out what the filmmaker intended and also what he inadvertently revealed. They can talk about what was left out and the director's other films and how this particular one is related to them... and so on and so forth.

Whereas I'm the guy reading the criticism, slapping my forehead and shouting "how did I not realise that the train going into the tunnel was supposed to tell me what was happening and couldn't be shown?".

And yet, even I thought there was a little more in Citizen Kane than the business successes of Charles Foster Kane.

Though I'll agree with you that the only bit in Lady of Shanghai I can remember is the mirror scene. Although, actually is that the one where Welles does an Irish accent that is in itself quite unforgettable?

 

[line b]

You make it sound like a classic and it is. I've never seen anything else with Ryan gosling in but his performance is ice cold and laconic as anything. I love the soundtrack. I love the way it's all about the car, the small act of heroism in the small time crimeworld run out of a pizza place

I love drive too. I'm with l
Woops.

 

[HannahB]

I wouldn't claim to be one of those people who is great at understanding films. Some people can open them up and spill out their secrets for you, hold each up to the light and explain it individually before fitting them into an overall meaning like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. They can decode the symbols and explain the metaphors, point out what the filmmaker intended and also what he inadvertently revealed. They can talk about what was left out and the director's other films and how this particular one is related to them... and so on and so forth.

Whereas I'm the guy reading the criticism, slapping my forehead and shouting "how did I not realise that the train going into the tunnel was supposed to tell me what was happening and couldn't be shown?".

And yet, even I thought there was a little more in Citizen Kane than the business successes of Charles Foster Kane.

Though I'll agree with you that the only bit in Lady of Shanghai I can remember is the mirror scene. Although, actually is that the one where Welles does an Irish accent that is in itself quite unforgettable?

Yes obviously. But film criticism here - oh boy how much is written on this film - endless endless. If you wanted yet another lengthy critique, would have to re watch. The premise of the film is what is now unacceptable and downright tedious. (Along with so many films which tell this same story - a recent one is There Will Be Blood). Not talking about depth of field/ oh that crane shot bla bal bla which is the always spin. Not speaking about the acting - is anyone remembering any astounding acting from that film? No.
Yes the accent. And the script.

 

[HannahB]

You make it sound like a classic and it is. I've never seen anything else with Ryan gosling in but his performance is ice cold and laconic as anything. I love the soundtrack. I love the way it's all about the car, the small act of heroism in the small time crimeworld run out of a pizza place

The difference is that James Dean etc bring the film with them; their embodiment. Gosling is an extra in an atmosphere. It draws on so many films and not in a cute way. It draws on them like genre, like superheroes,like Netflix deliverables cinematography. Gosling has no character, he might as well be an insert here (cue tedious La landscape proliferated as a myth)

 

[IdleRich]

I liked Gosling as the blank psycho in Drive, it seems almost by random that his acts of violence happened to align with what we think of as good. I didn't think he was a heroic figure at all, more of a maniacal social misfit who found so excuse to act out his murderous fantasies.

 

[IdleRich]

Yes obviously. But film criticism here - oh boy how much is written on this film - endless endless. If you wanted yet another lengthy critique, would have to re watch. The premise of the film is what is now unacceptable and downright tedious. (Along with so many films which tell this same story - a recent one is There Will Be Blood). Not talking about depth of field/ oh that crane shot bla bal bla which is the always spin. Not speaking about the acting - is anyone remembering any astounding acting from that film? No.
Yes the accent. And the script.

But regardless of the film, it does its job as a descriptor doesn't it? If I said "that film I saw yesterday was no Citizen Kane" you will know exactly what I'm trying to say, you won't think to yourself "Kane is bad and this film must be the opposite so I'll check it out".

 

[HannahB]

I liked Gosling as the blank psycho in Drive, it seems almost by random that his acts of violence happened to align with what we think of as good. I didn't think he was a heroic figure at all, more of a maniacal social misfit who found so excuse to act out his murderous fantasies.

Like a video game - it’s fake. He is fake. There is no feeling for/ from him, including no non-feeling like stoneface. He might as well be CGI like pretty much every film I have seen him in. This film is an LA fantasy that people drive around there imagining themselves to be in, enacting the mythic which no longer has mythic dimensions- a 2D unmythical package ready myth

 

[HannahB]

But regardless of the film, it does its job as a descriptor doesn't it? If I said "that film I saw yesterday was no Citizen Kane" you will know exactly what I'm trying to say, you won't think to yourself "Kane is bad and this film must be the opposite so I'll check it out".

Have not watched in at least 2 decades, tried but got too irritated/ bored. Yes it’s touted right up there. We know. If you said “that film was no Citizen Kane” I would say thank god what’s it about then?
Drive does it’s descriptor also. Is that a thing to determine something’s experience?
Isn’t Kane just all about ‘first times’ in Hollywood? Like a film school stuck record?

 

[HannahB]

Rust

- don’t think I’ll be seeing that now

 

[line b]

The difference is that James Dean etc bring the film with them; their embodiment. Gosling is an extra in an atmosphere. It draws on so many films and not in a cute way. It draws on them like genre, like superheroes,like Netflix deliverables cinematography. Gosling has no character, he might as well be an insert here (cue tedious La landscape proliferated as a myth)

Like a video game - it’s fake. He is fake. There is no feeling for/ from him, including no non-feeling like stoneface. He might as well be CGI like pretty much every film I have seen him in. This film is an LA fantasy that people drive around there imagining themselves to be in, enacting the mythic which no longer has mythic dimensions- a 2D unmythical package ready myth

These are very nice comments that capture exactly why the film is good

 

[line b]

The romanticism of a fake world; play acting experiences no longer possible. Heartless pastiche. Isolation in one of the worlds largest cities. Its very zeitgeisty

 

[IdleRich]

Have not watched in at least 2 decades, tried but got too irritated/ bored. Yes it’s touted right up there. We know. If you said “that film was no Citizen Kane” I would say thank god what’s it about then?
Drive does it’s descriptor also. Is that a thing to determine something’s experience?
Isn’t Kane just all about ‘first times’ in Hollywood? Like a film school stuck record?

Ah, so you are claiming that if someone compared or contrasted a film with CK you wouldn't understand what they meant.

 

[HannahB]

Ah, so you are claiming that if someone compared or contrasted a film with CK you wouldn't understand what they meant.

nowhere have I claimed this or implied it