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Most pretentious film-school crap I've ever seen

posted 9 years ago by dhinged
9 replies | jump to latest

I couldn't stand more than half an hour of it. It starts out interesting and mysterious and turns into 30's noir that may have well been a Family Guy bit making fun of it, gatling-gun speech and pants pulled up to your eyeballs and all.

People say the pretentious stilted slang is all about being like Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) in a Shakespearean way in an absurdist setting (high-school) just to mess with your senses, but after reading Hammett dialogue, I can say his is actually good and this Rian Johnson just takes a huge crap all over it.

Even if I imagine it all being spoken by adults in a hard-boiled street setting, it still sounds ridiculous. If I could shove the Netflix envelope with the DVD in it through the paper shredder, I would, because ten of these couldn't equal the quality of a single line of Hammett dialogue.

[–] frontiersmantanis 9 years ago

>Most pretentious film-school crap I've ever seen

Then you've obviously never watched Upstream Color.

But I couldn't agree more about this movie being overrated trash that just tried too hard to be slick and stylish.

[–] kmags84 9 years ago

Ahh, the old "Pretentious" criticism... It's this generations way of saying something is bad without explaining WHY.

Upstream Color isn't even remotely close to this film. Acting, Narrative, Cinematography etc... Can't even compare the 2. Neither are pretentious but good for you

[–] dmcdknf 9 years ago

I liked Upstream Color.

[–] frontiersmantanis 9 years ago

I loved every second of Primer but Upstream Color was just tryhardness squared.

Like most wannabes, he starts fuckin' up fast and pickin' up speed.

[–] dmcdknf 9 years ago

I respect your opinion, but disagree. I understand why people compare Primer and Upstream Color, but IMO they really shouldn't be compared. Everything about them is different. I really enjoyed both films for wildly different reasons.

Primer challenges the idea that you know who you are and what you would do. Even if I didn't foresee something happening in Primer I always understood what was going on.

Upstream Color is about discovering who you are and coming to terms with external influences over which you may have no, or very limited, control. Upstream Color is more surreal and you have to just go with it until things start to make sense.

[–] veil182 9 years ago

PRETENTIOUS: attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

This is just a modern noir film. Is Anchorman pretentious? Is The Hunger Games pretentious? No, they are genre films that adhere to the genre.

[–] kya1 9 years ago

It wasn't that bad. And I've seen some crappy films in my time.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAIJ3Rh5Qxs

[–] MoviemanCin 9 years ago

I liked it. It was film noir at its best. "I've got all five senses and I slept last night which puts me six up on all of you!" Classic.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.

[–] Supersale 9 years ago

lol, this movie sucks major dick, it's just more artsy boring crap like turdman.