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totoro
Member since 5/11/2007, last signed in awhile ago.
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Movies (48)
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Movies
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Knocked Up
Phenomena
Performance
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Talk
Walkabout
Gets Better The Older I Get
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totoro
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totoro Blog
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"I first saw this story of culture clash at an early age. Back then I understood it as a tale of desert survival. As I get older, I realize more and more that it is a film about what gets lost in the drive towards modernization. While a lot of the "symbollism" is quite obvious and overblown, and the use of zoom is almost laughably dated, the film is on the whole so quiet and contemplative that it has survived its datedness to be one of my all time favorite films. It is one of the rare films that gets more interesting each time I rewatch it. "
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In the Company of Men
Wooden Dialogue Offends the Most
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totoro
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"There were so many things that were supposed to offend me about this movie. What I did not expect was to be most offended by the poorly written dialogue. Apparently, I am in the minority, because it seems to be accepted wisdom that this film features some of the world's greatest writing.Yes, the premise is quite interesting and I appreciate the investigation into the darker realms of humanity. But I cannot be the only person who feels that the dialogue was EXTREMELY unnatural and wooden.The discussions were so overloaded with exposition that they no longer sounded like two people talking to each other, but rather sounded like the screenwriter giving us a lecture about his ideas. Maybe this would have made a good book, but as a movie it fell flat for me. I never accepted the two main characters as anything but a mouthpiece for Labute to express some ideas. They never became living and breathing characters to me, and for that reason the film failed me.I realize that other pe ... "
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Spirited Away
Re: What anime have you seen?
By
totoro
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Anime Lovers
"Despite being a major lover of Japanese things, I actually don't like most Anime I've seen. These are the anime I like:Genshiken - I love this reality based anime, although, it does kind of drift into too much fanservice in later episodes. His and Her Circumstances - at least the first 10 episodes are genius. It falls apart in a big way midway through its run, but the poor quality of the latter episodes does not detract from how good the first episodes are! Seriously, that is it. I have tried many others and always wind up disappointed. I don't like mechs, violence, monsters of the week, androids or fanservice. I just like the reality based Anime, of which unfortunately very few seem to have been made. I think of Ghibli as a different category from Anime. Of their films I most like:Kiki's Delivery ServiceMy Neighbor TotoroSpirited AwayNausicaa of the Valley of the Wind Grave of the Fireflies "
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The Science of Sleep
Unflinching Portrait of Neuroses
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totoro Blog
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"This film totally captivated me. I was expecting it to be very self indulgent and quirky for the sake of being quirky. What I did not expect to see was a portrait of a man, Stephane, trying to make it in the world despite having a nearly debilitating inability to distinguish reality from fantasy. He also has a very difficult time relating to other people and I liked how the movie gave us a fully rounded portrait of both his good and bad points as he struggles with his feelings for his next door neighbor Stephanie. Charlotte Gainsbourg does a great job showing us how hard it is for Stephanie to decide what to do about a guy who is so interesting, but also clearly a neurotic handful. "
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Babel
Re: The MOST OVERATED MOVIES... ...
By
totoro
in
Totally Over-rated
"I thought Crash was a fun suspense film. However, I think it's status as a commentary about american racism is overrated. The film is so unrealistic in its manipulations that I feel it veers too far into fantasy to be able to have anything interesting to say about real-life race relations. I have the same complaint about Babel.I think Lost in Translation is the most overrated movie of the last few years. That film was too devoid of anything insightful to say to get the praise it did. Everyone I know who has been to Tokyo (including myself) finds the film pretty annoying in it's superficial portrait of that city. For the lead character to be in one of the premiere hotels in the world (Park Hyatt) in Tokyo and to just mope around being bored all the time is just pathetic and completely uninteresting to watch.I think with E.T., you had to be there. I think it is very hard to overstate how big that movie was for people who were between 5-11 years old in 1982. All I hav ... "
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Little Children
Thought Provoking
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totoro Blog
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"The greatest thing about this film is that every character in this film has good and bad qualities. Even the convicted sex offender managed to evoke a little bit of sypathy from me. More interesting to me, however, were the two lead characters played by Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson. Although they were the romantic leads in the film, we were by no means meant to view them as guiltless lovers escaping bad marriages. In a somewhat surprising twist, both their spouses actually seemed to be halfway decent people. At least, they didn't ultimately seem any worse than the lead characters. The bad marriages weren't the result of a terrible spouse, but just the result of an unfortunately pairing of incompatible people. This type of moral ambiguity made the film really interesting to watch and think about later on. Without any easy answers, or easy judgements, Little Children is a far more interesting film than other films which cover the same subject matter. "
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Re: Top 5 Sea/Water Movies
By
totoro
in
Filmspotting
"Master & Commander is a piece of great filmmaking. It isn't necessarily a subject matter that everyone can get on board with, but whether you like the subject or not, I don't see how any film lover could deny that it may be the most perfect movie about 19th century naval combat ever made.You just have to appreciate how rare it is to get a film with such a big budget about that era in history that is also so historically accurate. At least for me, that is why I love the film so much. It is similar to Quiz Show in the sense that I don't understand how anyone who cares about the craft of filmmaking can actually find fault with the film. "
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Cast Away
Re: Top 5 Sea/Water Movies
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totoro
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Filmspotting
"Thanks for getting on the soap box about Master and Commander. I agree that the film is tragically underappreciated. Also, Sam, Dead Calm is actually decent as far as 80's films go. It is worth renting again. Did you know it was partly based on Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water? It is a film I keep meaning to watch.The only film I would add to your list is Cast Away, which I felt had some of the most powerful shots of water I have ever seen. "
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Big
Re: Top 5 Movies Directed By Women
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totoro
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Filmspotting
"Its nice to see another Near Dark fan! I totally agree about the 80's having been a better time for women directors.Big, directed by Penny Marshall, is a great example of a movie directed by a woman that did extremely well and wasn't a typical "chick flick". As for "Triumph of the Will", I think it was off limits for the list because of the restriction on documentaries. "
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Re: Favorite Foreign Scary Movie
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totoro
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HORROR MOVIES 101
"I have to wholeheartedly agree with the recommendation for Riki-Oh. The resolution of the final fight is one of the most gruesome scenes I can ever remember seeing. I cannot share the recommendation for the US version of the Vanishing. It should be stressed that the US remake makes some rather crucial changes to the plot. For me, the changes turned a masterpiece into just another mediocre Hollywood film. It is either the original Dutch/French version of the film or nothing. "
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The Vanishing
Re: Favorite Foreign Scary Movie
By
totoro
in
HORROR MOVIES 101
"The Vanishing (the original foreign language one) is possibly my all time favorite scary movie. I just love how the film is structured to show us so much of the villain of the film. Watching him practice his techniques was just unbelieveably creepy and disturbing in a very real way. The overtly shocking stuff like The Grudge doesn't really scare me very much. It is the super realistic stuff like The Vanishing that does it to me. "
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Near Dark
Re: Top 5 Movies Directed By Women
By
totoro
in
Filmspotting
"Near Dark directed by Kathryn Bigelow would be on my top 5. While the film does have its flaws, it is always the first film that springs to mind when I hear "woman director". I love how she depicts vampires as a rag-tag group of punks and lowlifes. And I also loved the way she depicted the brutality and violence that they take part in. "
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