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NewYorker Movie Facebook Club discussion on Richard Brody's Most Dangerous Films of 2018

As we approach the terminus of 2018, here's a list of films from this year that Richard Brody estimates as prompting us to be vain, ignorant, prejudiced, lazy, paranoid.... as doing the opposite of challenging us to become better, more woke, and so which cooperate in making us de facto agents of evil. uan Francisco Vinueza

A Quiet Place: The movie’s survivalist horror-fantasy offers the argument for turning a rustic farmhouse into a virtual fortress, for the video surveillance and the emergency lighting and, above all, the stash of firearms that (along with a bit of high-tech trickery that is too good to spoil) is the ultimate game changer, the ultimate and decisive defense against home intruders.

First Man: In its explicit content, and by artful omission, “First Man” subscribes to the misbegotten political premise that America used to be greater—and that the liberating and equalizing activism of the sixties ignored, dismissed, and even undermined that greatness.

Incredibles 2: Yet what’s chilling about “Incredibles 2” isn’t its smug self-promotion; it’s the superhero essentialism—the vision of born leaders with an unimpeachable moral compass to whom all right-thinking people should swear allegiance and invest confidence—that Bird proclaims through his ever more impressive C.G.I. craft.

Star is Born: Jack’s substance-abuse issues are aptly described and presented as a disease, but his willingness and ability to cope with them is viewed as inseparable from his artistic identity and fortunes; so, for that matter, is the impaired hearing and tinnitus from which he suffers. (His unwillingness to take steps to protect his hearing is depicted as a creative decision.)

But it’s hard to shake the sense of a shift in Cooper’s version of this classic Hollywood story of a man’s star falling while a woman’s ascends, one that emphasizes the self-punishing, self-sacrificing aspects of the male side of the equation. In its depiction of the musician’s self-scourging for the public’s good, it edges into turf occupied lately by “Whiplash.”

Annihilation: Besides Lena, the women are given no inner life whatsoever, with the exception of one point of suffering each: one used to cut herself; another is a recovering drug addict; one lost a child. And these troubles render each, as one of them says, “damaged goods”—as if these troubles sufficed to spur them into a virtual suicide mission. The notion is both trivializing (of their troubles and of their mission) and also essentially offensive.

Ready Player One: The movie’s fondly remembered eighties and nineties replicates its exclusions and its rejections; it’s the version that left Kathleen Collins’s “Losing Ground” unreleased, that left Wendell B. Harris, Jr., and Julie Dash and Rachel Amodeo without a second feature, that smothered Elaine May under snarky reviews. The movie’s icons of nostalgia provide a grotesque carnival of the undead, a uniform spew of icons emptied of substance, history, connections. 

Eighth Grade: “Eighth Grade” isn’t so much an amiable film as it is a film that yearns to be likable and strives to be liked.

Suspiria: “Suspiria” is full of disconnected, static, but attention-getting, details of vast historical import, and these adornments’ function is far more insidious than mere virtue-signalling or pride. They are bait for critical vanity, handing critics toys to play with, toys that can be defended as educational while offering little substance and less thought.

Infinity War: Thanos’s plot is explicitly, enthusiastically genocidal (of his own murderous efforts to make “trillions cease to exist,” he offers the Nazi-like assertion that “The hardest choices require the strongest wills”), and the movie resounds and rumbles throughout with a megalomaniacal energy that plays like arena-Wagner. It comes complete with hardcore light shows; absurd heroic gestures amplified by visual and sonic clamor; the neo-medievalism of weaponry forged by a dwarf master smith (Peter Dinklage), and enough varieties of Liebestods to fill the Met’s whole season.

Mission Impossible: Fallout: In his 1846 essay “The Present Age,” Søren Kierkegaard decried the widespread tendency of the time—which he summed up as an age “without passion”—to “transform daring and enthusiasm into a feat of skill.” I’m not sure that these observations apply to the modern public at large, but they certainly account in significant measure for the peculiar critical acclaim that “Mission: Impossible—Fallout,” written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, has been garnering.

"Life of the Party": For that matter, Maddie’s equanimity in the face of her parents’ split—rather, in the face of her father’s affair, departure, and financial malice—is almost robotically detached; it’s as if, when Deanna reassures Maddie that the divorce has nothing to do with her, the young woman takes that idea absurdly, placidly literally. In both films, the depiction of utterly benign adolescents and young adults seems less a matter of artistic conception than of marketing: it reassures parental viewers rather than scaring them, and it flatters younger ones rather than satirizing or scrutinizing them. (“Blockers,” with its idiosyncrasies and clever physical comedy, is the far better film.) 

"Tully": Reitman casts and directs the film with a peculiar blinkering that, perhaps unintentionally, defines cinematic normalcy as white. There are three prominent characters of color in the movie, and all of them play formal and orderly obstacles for Marlo to endure, confront, or bear. 

"I Feel Pretty": Renee’s newfound sense of self-love is kept, by Kohn and Silverstein, within bland and narrow limits, because the character is written not with any sense of interest or inquiry but to please and to flatter the virtual character, in the audience, who is meant to find Renee’s quest, success, and missteps edifying. 

"The Rider": Nonetheless, those scenes thrust into the foreground both an emotional extreme and a dramatic point (a cautionary vision for Brady, who sees the kind of danger that might await him should he incautiously return to the rodeo ring) that rest on a character, an identity, and a life story that remain flimsy and undeveloped, because Zhao preferred to shape a familiar dramatic structure in which simple conflicts and simple resolutions take the place of mental complexities.

"Deadpool 2": It’s hard to imagine a more persuasive dramatic argument to tease the self-proclaimed arbiters of their own just cause into admiration for violent solutions—and to lift the burden of guilt and the sense of responsibility—than the notion that heroes never really die.

"Upgrade": The element of nostalgia that “Upgrade” markets is for more than its high-tech advocacy of a low-tech life; it’s even for more than its realm of male action heroes and villains. It is, above all, for a mode of movie-making that’s conspicuously modest in budget but also modest in ambition; that, rather than relying on the freedom of low-cost filmmaking to create an individualistic (and challenging) movie, creates a conspicuous entertainment that has essentially no ambition whatsoever, no personality whatsoever, and that isn’t merely intellectually undemanding but emotionally effortless. [...] Rather, it’s nostalgia for a time when the interests of mass audiences and of critics frequently converged, when critics could find many movies in the mainstream that they could take seriously—and thereby find, in the movies, confirmation of their own cultural centrality. 

"Life itself": “Life Itself” is, for the most part, a work of heir-conditioning that sets up a domino-string of maudlin, sentimental ancestor-worship based on gratitude for the wealth that those ancestors piled up in a past golden age of possibilities, and which now exists only for newcomers to live long enough to tell the tale. 

"Peppermint": A final fillip of cavalier connection between police and vigilante practices suggests that American heroism is defined by unlawful actions undertaken by the agents of the law, acting in their own name in unleashing violence against those whom, in their determination, deserve it. “Peppermint” is a movie of unmitigated ugliness, a reflection and intensification of the current of hate that is currently coursing through the American mainstream.

Note: "perhaps unintentionally" surfaces a number of times in his reviews this year... he clearly sees worrying signs in directors he is still hoping aren't at heart what they're depicting in film.


Juan Francisco Vinueza lol
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hris Phillips
Chris Phillips Also hates original star wars trilogy, loves prequels, fun at parties.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer How long did u wait for that to post, Patrick?
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Not long. A day or two.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Been waiting for my modest review of Melissa's film for a week.. Emailed the mod about it. Crickets. Not impressed.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Mark Schaffer If it doesn't get posted, please post it under one of the discussions for the film. I've done that before. I'll read it.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Mediocre year in my book. Last year way better.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Mediocre... in EVILNESS?
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer In filmic interest to me..IMHO. But I'm spoiled. Mostly watch 30s thru 60s films.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Mark Schaffer I know; I was joking.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer NP. But this year is like 8 for them.And 2 for us. Sad.
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onnie Barrow
Jonnie Barrow On IMDb my average rating for films from this year is a whole point lower than 2017 (5.38 vs 6.42, respectively), but then there are some pretty buzzy film festival darlings and awards contenders that haven't hit UK cinemas yet...
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Buzzy is as buzzy does.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Lots of buzz is bought and paid for
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onnie Barrow
Jonnie Barrow Undeniably, but I try to generate my own buzz by following my favourite filmmakers - beyond excited to see Widows later this week
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Widows will follow the Hollywood heist playbook...Pretty familiar
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aniela Åžtefan
Daniela Åžtefan Jonnie Barrow Some examples?
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onnie Barrow
Jonnie Barrow Daniela Åžtefan Recent examples would probably include First Man (i absolutely adored it) and Bad Times At The El Royale (flawed, but I liked it a whole lot) - very much looking forward to Suspiria and Beale Street, avoiding marketing materials for both like the plague
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aniela Åžtefan
Daniela Åžtefan I really liked First Man, too. I`ve found it to be very emotional.
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onnie Barrow
Jonnie Barrow i wrote about it in a little more detail on my last blog post - definitely cracks my top 5 of the year though https://justanotherfilmcriticblog.wordpress.com/.../the.../


JUSTANOTHERFILMCRITICBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM
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aniela Åžtefan
Daniela Åžtefan Jonnie Barrow Well, I`m looking forward to seeing "Bohemian Rhapsody" just because every single person I know and have seen the movie was blown away. Otherwise, critics reviews were not good at all (a fact that rises a question mark for me). Otherwise, "Bad Time at the El Royale" sounds interesting. Maybe I`ll watch "A star is born", although I really don`t like Bradley Cooper. Thanks for the recommendations.
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onnie Barrow
Jonnie Barrow No problem! The only other version of ASIB I’ve seen is 1954, will hopefully watch the others as soon as I can. BR is fine as long as you switch your brain off and enjoy the music, but under almost any kind of critical lens it crumbles like a deck of cards
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Guys, you're not speaking to the post... which is not about best movies, but movies that work at us in dangerous ways. There will be many posts later on that discuss simple best/worst movies of the year.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston I think Richard Brody's analysis's are a huge help. Though I went at it provocatively, with a bit of built-in fun, that's fundamentally why I collected them together here. Anyone... share the same sense of them?
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ill Gish
Will Gish A lot of these are product/assembly line films, in which the producers and screenwriters typically have more say in the content, themes, etc than directors. To apply the auteur theory to them ("worrying signs in directors..." etc) is a mistake.
Regarding Suspiria, there's enough talent involved there that it's phenomenally arrogant of a non artist like Brody to assume he knows more about what the art says than the artist, given he's an intellectual providing post hoc analysis of cinema-as-text and not an artist himself (as anyone who has ever worked as an artist can attest, the process is so radically removed from that of intellectualism there exists an essentially unbrigable gulf between them, even with intellectual artists such as Godard. And this remains largely true of craftspeople who work on product media).
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Well, that's a way of keeping one's craft safely out of the reach of criticism... let's hope all you artists together, doesn't amount to a cult, because no one will be empowered, on the outside, to point out illnesses. He actually did make films, so at the very least would know if what you are saying is true... and so, being a person of integrity -- do you dispute this? -- would surely desist from making his criticisms, or put them forth less stridently, more "modestly," if he agreed with you concerning your interesting thesis of "unbridgable divides," but, still, regardless -- sometimes it takes an outsider? Brody is an artist of astute observation and consideration; of seeing how movies harm us/help us; how they could have been made superior. Plus, he's more emotionally healthy that most people... and so would be like Paul Krugman in his situation vis-a-vis other economists, even if he was a film maker, with Paul Krugman being hated and dismissed by much of his economist "brotherhood," who find some way to make an outsider of him, someone who is not somehow "in the know," despite his nobel. His "problem" isn't that he isn't a quote-unquote artist, but that he points out things people are aggravated to hear, is my sense. He also does create films, even now. Every film he reviews he envisions how it could have been altered, how it could have been improved... within his mind, and our minds, a new movie plays... even if at this point it's only vaguely outlined. It's convenient culture supplies us with the handy categorizations like the one you refer to -- unbridgeable divides... the doer vs. non-doer, the artist vs. non-artist -- to bring up to immediately cast stigma on a person, one a voice, so what troubles us about them... THAT STRIKES US AS MAYBE POSSIBLY VALID, HOWEVER DISTURBING, can be washed away from mind immediately, rather than be dwelt on. I'm noticing that no one, yet, has argued here that he is onto something concerning these films... and are less likely to, now that that the standard web that neuters and disenfranchises, that makes whatever he says, optional at best, for being untrustworthy by definition, is being applied by the commenters here. 
Thanks for the caution concerning directors.
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att Channing
Matt Channing Since when has a screenwriter had any say in what happens to his script once it goes into production?
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer We all know THAT joke.:0
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Agree. Critics are pretty removed from the nuts and bolts of moviemaking..
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udy Mam
Judy Mam They have no clue about how a movie is written and made. Every critic should attempt to make a short film. I did. I learned a lot and ate massive amounts of humble pie. Having said this, Richard Brody is a pretentious killjjoy.
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aureen Daniels
Maureen Daniels Thanks for taking the time to put that together. I haven't managed to get to the end of one of Brody's articles yet, my eyes start to glaze over around paragraph 2.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer You get to paragraph 2?
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aureen Daniels
Maureen Daniels Mark Schaffer I'm very stoical.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Okaaay
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston You're welcome, Maureen. About your eyes glazing... this doesn't necessarily speak well for you. I personally find his work riveting. I couldn't possibly be more focused in.
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ean Caviston
Sean Caviston Exactly Maureen Daniels insufferable to say the least lol
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aureen Daniels
Maureen Daniels Patrick McEvoy-Halston different strokes, eh. It doesn't reflect badly on me at all.
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aureen Daniels
Maureen Daniels By the way Patrick, since I was polite and appreciative of your post, I don't think much of your snide remark.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Maureen Daniels not being snide. I value you. I just don’t adulterate my criticism.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Maureen Daniels It does a bit; reflect badly on you, that is. There's a community of people who like to act trollishly towards Brody, and you are responsible for your "couldn't make it past the 2nd paragraph," obviously appearing to participate in and encourage that terrible trend, even if it was simple honesty, with no malign intent.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Maureen Daniels Problem I have is with the rhythm of the sentences. There isn't any. I like critical discourse I can follow like a well paved road even around the hairpin turns..Alas, most critics aren't very good writers. Just a few really stand out. Most of the others seem to be journalists on assignment, spiffing up the copy. But that's just me.
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aureen Daniels
Maureen Daniels Mark Schaffer not just you. I feel the same. It also lacks any lightness and humour. But apparently, according to some people if you criticise the critic, you're a troll. ðŸ™„
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orrin Daddario
Torrin Daddario And once again I make the argument that Mr. Brody cannot grasp the concept that some movies are simply fun escapism and not every film needs to be poetic, genre shattering, philosophic masterpieces that will inspire generations to come
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Escape... into survivalism and bigotry. “Escapism”... as shield?
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer They don't? But he does work for the New Yorker, so some snobbery is required for that aud.
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ip Sears
Kip Sears I'm no expert, but as someone who has spent 35 years in Hollywood working on movies, I think Richard is way overthinkinking these movies in his reviews
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Inspired by (forgive me this, Maureen) Maureen Daniels, I almost didn't make it past statement one. Inspired by Will Gish, not being "an expert".... in criticism, makes what you say about his analysis inevitably naive -- it's an unbridgeable gulf. Speaking for me ... and of course as someone who read your full post, with for example #MeToo being person of the year in Time Magazine, we're in a time where "25 yrs of expertise" begins to seem more and more like simple pretext for silencing people who very much have something to say. I would never lead with it now.
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ip Sears
Kip Sears Let me get this straight. I offer the opinion that we may be reading too much into these movies, and your reply somehow attempts to link me to the #MeToo movement? Dude, do you not see the irony here? Aren't you the same guy who went on at length trying to link Tiger Wood's improved golf play with his distancing himself from Donald Trump? As Sgt. Hulka stated so eloquently in the seminal treatise of modern warfare, "Stripes"; "Lighten up, Francis".
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston You've commented on my posts before. You're always onto how people are over-reacting, over-thinking, over-writing, over-posting... what you do, it seems to be, is casual machismo, where whomever is doing all the too muchness, or saying the esoteric and strange, can be made to be something to avoid being seen being like, like the plague -- for its associations of having earned being bullied -- which has the effect, if granted rhetorical legitimacy, of silencing people, people I most especially want to hear from... ON MY posts. 
It's also whom the NewYorker wants to hear from, for over-thinking, or, that this, thinking so deeply on a matter is can be seem to some as overdone for it not being THE OBVIOUS, which apparently is readily accessible to anyone who thinks plain but often unavailable to those who "overthink" things, is what that magazine stands for -- its like almost literally on its masthead, and which this group, started by Richard Brody, recognized the deepest of film critics by Jonathan Rosenbaum, is most especially known for. It may prove not the case, but people like you SHOULD RIGHTLY here be the ones who begin to be viewed with suspicion when they summon in their posts the language traditionally used to quell anyone outside the accrued might of themselves from having a legitimate say. In some quarters, referring to your 25 years of experience might have some back down... and then not notice that none of these years of yours involved the experience that is relevant -- diagnosing how a film communicates; not how it was made, fashioned, worked upon, but how it is received. 
In reference to Tiger Woods, I argued that the reason he is playing better is that he subsumed himself within Trump, a psychic act which makes him feel less the GREAT INDIVIDUAL, more powerfully modest and self-denying, and so therefore much less guilty of absolutely earned sin. But no more on politics in this post.
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ip Sears
Kip Sears Patrick, respectfully, I'm not ALWAYS on to anything. Yes, I am of the opinion that Richard over thinks certain movies, and yes, I do realize he's doing his job as a critic. And yes, you do kill me with your over-the-top, critiques of things that read as if they were published by the Onion. But, yes, criticizing you on a thread you started is bad form, and I shouldn't engage in that.I promise to refrain if you promise to stop with the goofy psycho-analyzing of someone you've never met.
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oger Fritz
Roger Fritz These movies are sexist and awful and I will prescribe meaning to them that isn’t there. If you dare to disagree with me then YOU are sexist and racist. First Man only describes a great and hard thing done by one American. It says nothing about the idea about America Is great now. For instance.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Roger Fritz to me, many of his observations here are spot on; no prescribing of meaning that isn’t there. I too have seen these movies. We need to sustain an atmosphere where valid but agitating conclusions, can still be heard from. From your tone, I don’t have much sense you’d be aggravated if voices like these, ostensibly corrupt voices like these, were disabled from being heard from.
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atrick McEvoy-Halston
Patrick McEvoy-Halston Kip Sears leave out the goofy psychoanalyzing next time—as I’ve said, this is exactly the kind of thing I don’t let pass, for my believing it shortchanges expression of voices I very much want to hear from. In regards to you, I will reset. Thank for your otherwise reflective and welcome reply.
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ip Sears
Kip Sears Thanks Patrick. My initial comment was perhaps unnecessary cavalier and flippant. It really is my opinion that we sometimes prescribe meanings and motives in films that may or may not be there; but I will strive to keep the dialog above the line going forward.
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oger Fritz
Roger Fritz I don’t agree...I have seen most of the movies listed and he’s prescribing meaning to them that you really have to stretch to find.
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Kip Sears Its only a movie, Ingrid..
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer Kip Sears Facinating exchange here..
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ark Schaffer
Mark Schaffer The real irony is that when Hollywood was truly great, there were few academics around who would even think of seriously overthinking movie fare. Just didn't exist. Few academic essays on Preminger in the 40s or 50s. Now thanks to pop culture owning everything, every aspect of culture, especially midcult movies, must be pored over as if the are Bergman, or at least, Wilder. In 1979, I delivered a talk at the Popular Culture Association Convention on Cornell Woolrich and film noir. Scandalous! My grad teacher talked about All in the Family. Such things just weren't done. Guess we are to blame for all this. The old Hollywood guys would kvell at what has happened to the picha business and the critic industry. Its all very entertaining tho, to an old pop culture maven. Guess we won.
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ampbell C. Kaiser
Campbell C. Kaiser Finally got around to reading this -- thanks for putting together this list. Very interesting -- haven't seen all. Food for thought
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oni Marlene Glikes
Toni Marlene Glikes Happy to say I have not seen a single one of the movies on this list.
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att Channing
Matt Channing You missed out on a few really good films.
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cott Sentinella
Scott Sentinella And some still thought First man anti American
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