State your unpopular film related opinion - - - Part 12

[CConn]

Originally Posted by Gotham's Knight

Not sure if this is unpopular but I say Stanley Kubrick is a better director than Alfred Hitchcock.

I'm a big fan of a lot of Hitchcock films, but I'd agree. Kubrick had a lot more versatility than Hitchcock and really seemed to imbibe each of his films with something all its own.

Hitchcock just seemed to churn out the same type of film over and over artistically speaking. Most of them were great, of course, but he really didn't seem to have much to say outside of his usual construct.

[CConn]

Here's an unpopular opinion...

I think Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the absolute best directors out there today.

Better than Spielberg, Nolan, Tarantino, Affleck, etc. By a country mile.

[Gotham's Knight]

Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained are my favourite Tarantino films.

[Figs]

Originally Posted by CConn

Here's an unpopular opinion...

I think Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the absolute best directors out there today.

Better than Spielberg, Nolan, Tarantino, Affleck, etc. By a country mile.

Hard to say if I like him more than some of the ones you listed, but I do agree that he is indeed one of the best out there.

[Gotham's Knight]

Originally Posted by Figs

Hard to say if I like him more than some of the ones you listed, but I do agree that he is indeed one of the best out there.

This. He's my third favourite director working at the moment (behind Nolan and Spielberg).

[A Necessary Evil]

I think For Your Eyes Only is one of the better 007 movies.

[Piper Maru]

Originally Posted by CConn

Here's an unpopular opinion...

I think Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the absolute best directors out there today.

Better than Spielberg, Nolan, Tarantino, Affleck, etc. By a country mile.

For a second I thought you were talking about the other Paul Anderson. LOL.

[Spider-Aziz]

Originally Posted by Piper Maru

For a second I thought you were talking about the other Paul Anderson. LOL.

Same thought

[CConn]

Then you two are watching too many bad movies.

[CConn]

Originally Posted by Gotham's Knight

Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained are my favourite Tarantino films.

Hm. For me...

1. Kill Bill Vol. 1
2. Django Unchained
3. Inglorious Bastards
4. Reservoir Dogs
5. Jackie Brown
6. Pulp Fiction
7. Kill Bill Vol. 2

[Bobber]

Originally Posted by CConn

Here's an unpopular opinion...

I think Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the absolute best directors out there today.

Better than Spielberg, Nolan, Tarantino, Affleck, etc. By a country mile.

Shouldn't be an unpopular opinion at all. Spielberg and Affleck aren't even close, they do well-made cookie cutter Hollywood films. I love Nolan, but Rises was a huge disappointment and Inception wasn't that great.
Tarantino is of course brilliant, but he's a bit self indulgent.

PTA is without a doubt my favourite director working today (and one of my all time favourites)

[Spider-Aziz]

Originally Posted by CConn

Then you two are watching too many bad movies.

Perhaps

[Piper Maru]

Originally Posted by CConn

Then you two are watching too many bad movies.

That is a possibility that I have considered.

[gwynplaine]

Pulp Fiction
Inglourious Basterds
Django Unchained
Reservoir Dogs

[CConn]

Originally Posted by Bobber

Shouldn't be an unpopular opinion at all. Spielberg and Affleck aren't even close, they do well-made cookie cutter Hollywood films. I love Nolan, but Rises was a huge disappointment and Inception wasn't that great.
Tarantino is of course brilliant, but he's a bit self indulgent.

PTA is without a doubt my favourite director working today (and one of my all time favourites)

I agree with everything you said...except for the Nolan bit.

I love both TDKR and Inception, but Nolan's a bit too over-indulgent; or rather, he very often seems like a very smart person, who just does some stupid things. He's really great with subtext and having a strong message and moral and complexity about his films, and he does a phenomenal job of blending American and European styles of filmmaking...but then, he goes off and writes (or allows it) dialogue and scenes and situations that are just way too obvious or nonsensical.

How BB has to mention fear fifty million times, or how Ellen Paige had to describe every ****ing thing that happened in Inception to the audience, or just the flat out impossibilities of microwave emitters and nuclear bombs without fallouts, etc.

Maybe he's intentionally playing to a (very often) dim witted and dense general audience (which is actually a good idea, as no one in the GA appreciates PTA enough), but his movies would be soooo much better if, like PTA does, instead of having everything be so obvious, he'd actually write ambiguous and sometimes wholly confounding scripts.


As for PTA, I also greatly admire HOW he writes. The real point and focus of his last few movies is never really the main plot or series of events, rather he utilizes random, ultimately meaningless plots to create multiple exposés of his characters.

There Will Be Blood isn't about oil. The Master isn't about Scientology. It's about these really ****ed up characters, who he explores in an extremely realistic and organic way.

Plus I think his ability to direct his performers is absolutely brilliant; you can outright tell Joaquin Phoenix didn't just walk on the set and be Joaquin Phoenix - everything about him was transformed, and altered to fit his character. Amy Adams did the same superbly. Even Adam Sandler achieved it to an extent in PDL.

Then he has a great visual style and real knack for scoring and properly utilizing music in his films to great effect, and he also really seems to understand how important it is to make singular scenes compelling and incredibly entertaining.

There's countless scenes and sequences in TWBB and The Master that you could few as entirely self-sustaining pieces of fiction and still be thoroughly enthralled by them. It's like he never ever let's himself get too distracted by his plotting or story to ever loose sight of all of the little elements that make a story great.

And I think that's something a lot of directors very often struggle with. They're so concerned about progressing their plot and dazzling the audience with special effects or dramatic story beats that they really don't tell their story as well as they could. PTA, however, does.

[gwynplaine]

I loved TWBB and I liked TM, but I preferred Boogie Nights, still PTA's best imo.
Also, maybe you don't agree CConn, but story is very important, (at least to me)

[Gotham's Knight]

I personally like The Master the best out of PTA's films.

[CConn]

Originally Posted by gwynplaine

I loved TWBB and I liked TM, but I preferred Boogie Nights, still PTA's best imo.
Also, maybe you don't agree CConn, but story is very important, (at least to me)

Not what I was saying at all, but okay.

[CConn]

Originally Posted by Gotham's Knight

I personally like The Master the best out of PTA's films.

TWBB is my favorite, but The Master was pretty damn good.

[gwynplaine]

Originally Posted by CConn

Not what I was saying at all, but okay.

Oh, Okay . And sorry for misinterpreting what you said, but I thought you meant that story and screenplay were not that important to you. (They really matter to me, but being a screenwriter I might be a little biased too lol.)

[CConn]

Well, I did sayy that. But like three weeks ago. In any case, there's a lot of dimensions to that belief.

Firstly, I write quite a bit myself. Scripts, short stories, prose, comics, all sorts of things. And having an interest in that, I'm constantly seeking out new and innovatie approaches to writing (and, subsequently, steal them, of course ).

My constant assertion is that most american filmmakers' rigid devotion to the same standard plotting, character archetypes and character arcs has become incredibly stale and pedantic. If anything, my basis as a writer makes me biad against that vapid lack of creativity.

Now, look at the stuff people like Grant Morrison, or PTA, or, hell, Hunter S. Thompson are/were doing for writing; its genius. Writers like that are all entirely predicated on breaking free of the tired structure of storytelling - and, yes, a lot of the time that involves breaking free of a lot of plotting and standard screenwriting mantras. That's the point. And that's what I admire so much from those guys.

Additionally, my other contention is that a lot of director's devote way too much of their focus on story and plotting, and not enough in other avenues of their job/craft. Movies are wholly and resolutely artistic creations; everything that you see and here in a movie is a different artform in display. Cinematography, art design, costuming, music, sound, editing, etc., etc. I truthfully believe that many, if not all of these art forms are just as important as a film's screenplay. And I don't think a lot of directors really get that. In so many countless movies I see so many creative aspects of the film ignored by creators and audience alike, and I strongly disagree with it.

Thirdly, I'll also admit I do think it's possible to abandon plot and story at times and focus on the other varioud art forms and still create something valid and worthy of admiration. And, moreover, considering, as I said, everyone is so comitted to conventional storytelling that, when someone breaks from that, it can be incredibly refreshing and invigoraging when done well.

But, obviously, there's always SOME form of writing there. There's some form of fictional creation. I guess, to be more exact, what I'm not really into is the conventional way of scripting and delivering of that script by the director.

[Jordacar]

Apart from 127 Hours, I don't really like any performance James Franco has given.

[CConn]

It's hard for me to watch John C. Reilly in dramatic roles because I just imagine him as the tubby counterpart to Will Ferrell.

[Matt Mortem]

Originally Posted by Jordacar

Apart from 127 Hours, I don't really like any performance James Franco has given.

I agree with this. I never found him to be that amazing an actor. 127 Hours was certainly good, but other than that he's never wowed me.

[CConn]

I've liked him in everything I've seen him in. He was the best character in Raimi's Spider-Man, and his performance in ROTPA really solidified for me his ability to be successful in a leading role.