What is the last movie you saw? and rate it.

[Grit]

Sorry, I already watched it again. Liked it that time too.

I'm always confused by the use of the phrase 'self-indulgent' to describe art. How is taking time and energy to make something self-indulgent, particularly something that obviously took years of intense labor?

I'm also baffled by your use of the word 'artistic' in a pejorative sense. What?

Self-indulgent as in it's not made for any audience other than the creator. Every whim, idea and obscure symbol is thrown into the movie with total disregard of the audience.

Abstract artistic displays in a film are definitely 'pejorative' when it's at the expense of character development and story. Most people don't watch movies to immerse themselves into someone's subjective abstract mindscape. Most people watch movies to see a great story in a audio-visual medium that collaborates with many other different types of art. That's what Tree of Life did not have. A story.

When you choose being 'artistic' and 'self-indulgent' with your film over any kind of story, it doesn't make for a very interesting experience.

As a writer I have very particular tastes in movies. I love a movie with an original, well-paced story that's full of rich and fresh characters. I want goosebumps on my arms from a surge of emotion when I watch a movie. I care more about the story than any other aspect (director, subject matter, actors, special effects, what year it was made) so obviously for me Tree of Life was a complete disappointment. There is really no story.

Is Tree of Life original? Of course. Is it well-paced? The farthest thing from it. Is it full of rich and fresh characters? Not at all. Did I feel emotion? Only boredom and frustration.

Like I said this is just my opinion but I couldn't have disliked this movie any more than I did. Saw it in theatres and it was hard not to fall asleep. Of course that doesn't mean it's in any universal or objective way a 'bad' movie, or that you shouldn't or can't like it. Just one man's thoughts.

[Varenne Rodin]

I liked Tree of Life. I'm a totally cynical atheist, and I still liked it a lot. It was beautiful.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. 8.5/10.

I knocked a point off for Jordana Brewster's "acting," and half a point off for this being an abusive experience. Haha. I think the movie was really well made. I fully expected everything that happened, yet that expectation in no way hindered the suspense. The gore was top-notch. Everything was thoroughly saturated in blood and filth. When characters were wounded, blood didn't spatter out in cute little cherry red droplets. Big wounds gush horror. That's real. Blood gets everywhere. Movie makers take note.

I love R. Lee Ermey. He seems to be the exact same age in everything, he reminds me of my favorite grandpa, and he didn't disappoint. He played an earnestly despicable character with zeal. The rest of the cast does a fair job. Some of them look like models. Some of them look like genuine blobs who are not long for this earth.

I am new to this whole franchise. I was so frightened to even try watching these movies until just this year. Visceral. If you can't stomach horror, don't attempt Texas chainsaw anything. I can't say I loved it, because I really think it's intended to psychologically abuse the viewer, and it did just that. Great film making, insofar as it was not a snuff film, but it damned sure seemed like a snuff film. I can laugh about it, since it was fake. I don't know if it's grosser than House of a Thousand Corpses or Devil's Rejects, but it's a close thing.

[Desolation]

Self-indulgent as in it's not made for any audience other than the creator. Every whim, idea and obscure symbol is thrown into the movie with total disregard of the audience.

Abstract artistic displays in a film are definitely 'pejorative' when it's at the expense of character development and story. Most people don't watch movies to immerse themselves into someone's subjective abstract mindscape. Most people watch movies to see a great story in a audio-visual medium that collaborates with many other different types of art. That's what Tree of Life did not have. A story.

When you choose being 'artistic' and 'self-indulgent' with your film over any kind of story, it doesn't make for a very interesting experience.

It's funny, I disagree with literally everything you said here (as it relates to my personal viewing habits, and what makes a movie enjoyable for me; I'm not disagreeing with your subjective criteria for good film, of course)...I like abstract artistic expressions of someone's subjective mindscape, I don't care about story all that much, and I even tend to like sprawling self-indulgent works...And yet, I still hated The Tree of Life.

[qimissung]

Here's a review of The Tree of Life that might help you understand what he was going for.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/05/27...anted=all&_r=0

There's another one in The New Yorker that's not as admiring. This is not to say that after you read it you will be expected to like it.

[YesNo]

I didn't particularly like The Tree of Life and almost completely forgot about it until I read the comments, but I'm no film critic. It was too artsy for my taste although I tend to like that sort of topic.

I did see Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) which disappointed me especially after recently reading Anita Loos (1925) book. (Score 4/10)

The main song, Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, was very nice, but the movie missed most of the brilliant humor in the original work. I can't believe I never heard of Loos before running into a selection of her writing in a collection of American humor.

[phoenixtears]

The last one I watched was Schindler's List, one of the classics. Absolutely loved it. It was beautifully portrayed and excruciatingly painful. Ben Kingsley's acting and the red coat were, for me, the best features but overall the movie was superb, no doubt it is regarded as one of the best ever.

[Adolescent09]

Baraka

Simply one of the greatest 'picture movies' ever made. 'Nuff said.

Check it out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103767/

10/10

[liza]

Argo .. with Ben Affleck .. my boy ..

[Desolation]

I just watched -
8 1/2
Breathless
The Seventh Seal

All amazing, perhaps even perfect, movies. Damn.

[Lykren]

I just watched -
8 1/2
Breathless
The Seventh Seal

All amazing, perhaps even perfect, movies. Damn.

I love those, except Breathless, which I haven't seen yet, but will soon. 8 1/2 especially, it's one of my favorites.

[Snowqueen]

I watched Reindeer Games, it was OK. 5/10

[YesNo]

It was two for $1 at the library again.

I picked the Defendor (6/10) and Seven Psychopaths (7/10).

They had a similar, overworked theme of a nut trying to help someone else get a writing career started, but if one removed that they would be both entertaining in their nutty way.

[islandclimber]

I just watched -
8 1/2
Breathless
The Seventh Seal

All amazing, perhaps even perfect, movies. Damn.

I've never liked the last all that much. The first two however, brilliance.

The Saragossa Manuscript ~ Wojciech Jerzy Has

A film that will leave you feeling drugged, deranged, disturbed. A dense labyrinthine structure that threatens to drop you off the abyss over and over, but always brings you back from the edge. Krzystof Penderecki's beautiful score and the stunning cinematography just add to the sensory overload. Zbigniew Cybulski is absolutely brilliant as the protagonist Alphonse and I shall have to seek out other films he appears in. The film as a whole is a story within a story, yet at times this seems to drop into deeper layers, as though story within story repeats until the viewer has forgotten the original story entirely, when conveniently it reappears as a reminder. Layer upon layer of complex enchantments, sadomasochisms, fetishistic devices, ironic apotheosis, black magic, phantasmagoria... 9.5/10

[cafolini]

I just watched the documentary Nightmare in Jamestown. Excellent source of history about the English landing in North America and how the first colony was established. Don't miss it. It might bury a lot of the legends that are floating around.

[Lokasenna]

Watched Kind Hearts and Coronets with my housemates last night - one of the greatest Ealing comedies. Very, very funny - and so clever.