This is such an obscure pick it makes me wonder if we saw it at the same showing:
Did you see it at TIFF?
If I remember correctly both Cronenbergs talked at the showing.
@Alyx Just between friends, what were the almosts that made other people’s lists?
@Alyx I gotta ask: what were the other 5? Cool list, btw. I’ve only seen Turin Horse and Celine et Julie here.
@baftaboo I think I felt most bad about certain directors missing the cut. I love Werner Herzog, but it’s more for his entire body of work than any one film. If I had to pick one for this list, probably Stroszek. I skimped on Tarantino because I figured he’s popular enough that he’d get some love, but that turned out to be mostly wrong. I forgot this is Insert Credit we’re talking about here! I’ll nominate Deathproof and Jackie Brown as two of his movies that are more of a vibe with this site/community. And I just love them both.
I could be here all day- thinking of runners-up is basically as hard as making my official list- so I’ll just say Bresson, (Diary of a Country Priest), Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke), Takahata (My Neighbors The Yamadas), and Lynch (Mulholland Drive) all very nearly made the cut. Okay, one more more obscure pick: Lodge Kerrigan is a master of uncomfortable yet brilliantly human and humane films; his movies Claire Dolan and Clean, Shaven are both worthy of your time.
Indeed, which is why when the time came for me to type out my list I approached it in exactly the same way as I did my “video & game” list: Whatever came to mind first is what won the race, I typed them out, job’s done.
It’s not my ten most favourites (but some of them are), it’s not what I think are the “ten best” (but maybe a few are?), it’s not “ten most interesting” (but again maybe a few). All I can say for sure is that it is a list of ten, and I like them. I think, for me, that fit the spirit of what is going on here - at least as far as I felt I could/should/wanted-to include a list.
Embrace the chaos, and maybe next year if/when we run back this feature you’ll want to pick some different ones. That in itself will be interesting to think about!
@Alyx No, I wish!! I just watched it on demand earlier this year on a whim and thought it was really cool and memorably disturbing. (Caleb Landry Jones is amazingly creepy!!) Not perfect, but made me immediately interested to check out more of Brandon’s work because I think he definitely brings his own ingredients to the Cronenberg table and has been unfairly dismissed in comparison to his father. Looking forward to that JG Ballard adaptation he’s got in the works and will totally try and get an interview if I can.
@theo Trying to decide whether Youtube bootleg is the Obviously Correct way to watch HtBaG
@captain Red Shoes is one of my 10 favorite movies I watched for the first time this year, and handily! I think it still outshines most of the films that were influenced by it, partly due to its bizarre structure and partly due to the secret that it’s actually about the dance instructor’s obsession with greatness and not the dancer herself.
my other five were
Robocop
Mad Max Fury Road
Apocalypse Now
Dredd
The Human Condition
of those I don’t remember seeing anyone nominating Dredd (but I’ve been doing all my IC posting from a phone so apologies if I missed it.) The others were all on other lists along with other great films.
@Alyx I think Dredd would definitely make a “best of the 2010s” list but maybe falls just short of “best of all time” (although - controversial opinion? - I’d sooner casually rewatch Dredd than RoboCop)
More importantly though, you must specify which cut of Apocalypse Now…
@2501 I didn’t think the structure was that bizarre; if I remember right Black Swan and Whiplash both have a big performance in the middle, followed by a third act where the main character’s relationships/psyche start to fall apart, and eventually a final performance. You’re right though about the emphasis on the director—you don’t get that kind of interiority with Vincent Cassel or JK Simmons. It’s not the same movie by any means but I guess I found it similar enough that the obsession with artistic greatness to the point of physical/mental deterioration didn’t feel novel, regardless of Red Shoes’s formal excellence (though again it was well worth watching anyway!)
(that link you put in there just leads to the letterboxd page for The Red Shoes but I found what you were referring to :)
intending to see the searchers, memories of murder, & last temptation sometime soon myself)
Hear, hear!!
I haven’t seen final, but final sounds good.
Maybe it cuts too much?
Redux minus the added Playboy bunny related stuff would be my custom cut.
Sounds like final is similar to that.
Between theatrical, redux, and assembly
I’d maybe pick redux if I had to choose.
I like that the journey down the river is broken up by the lengthy scene with the French colonists. It’s such a weird yet appropriate interlude.
There are still a few days left so someone could mess it all up but I have to say I’m proud that this and Episode III are the only SW movies on here
@captain wow, just clicked on this and that synth version of Holst’s Mars is a real jam
edit: just finished watching this (on my dang telephone…sorry David!) and it was incredible. The alternate music tracks were perfect, especially what they did with the Cantina scene. The R2 subtitles and psycho Vader were priceless!
@rearnakedwindow I already wrote about how and why @sabertoothalex -approved Before Sunset almost made my list. I will add that the two anime that I cut, Redline and GitS 2 (aka the Matrix Reloaded anime adaptation) happily appear on other lists. I don’t have contrarian taste in anime!
Just incase anyone else finds this thread first while looking for the results, they are here: 2021 Insert & Credit Film Poll RESULTS THREAD