The Great Movie Tournament: Overall Event Overview

[Still Servant]

Added a few more to my collection this weekend

Upgrade
The Handmaiden

How was The Handmaiden?

I myself caught American Honey this weekend. I really enjoyed it. The film is directed by Andrea Arnold who directed Fish Tank, one of my favorites of that year. American Honey has a very authentic feel to it. It almost has a documentary style to it. The runtime is shocking for a film of that nature (almost 3 hours) but it didn't feel that long.

I also started A Most Wanted Man way too late and fell asleep so I have to finish that.

[mae]

Unfortunately, American Honey wasn't seconded.

[fernandito]

Added a few more to my collection this weekend

Upgrade
The Handmaiden

How was The Handmaiden?

It's directed by Park Chan-Wook, which is to say, it's nearly perfect. Watch it!

[Still Servant]

Unfortunately, American Honey wasn't seconded.

I don't know why I thought it was seconded. I would have seconded it if I had seen it.

Added a few more to my collection this weekend

Upgrade
The Handmaiden

How was The Handmaiden?

It's directed by Park Chan-Wook, which is to say, it's nearly perfect. Watch it!

Is it better than Parasite? People are telling me it's better than Parasite. This is automatically setting the film up to be a let down in my eyes.

[Still Servant]

A few odds and ends that I have been thinking about. There are quite a few films that didn't make it into the tournament for some of the actors that were well represented.

Christian Bale
Vice
Hostiles

Scarlett Johanssson
Don Jon

Jake Gyllenhaal
Source Code (How did this not get nominated?)
Wildlife
Stronger
Okja
The Sisters Brothers

Carey Mulligan was also in Wildlife. I feel she had a very good but quiet decade. I also found it shocking that An Education wasn't nominated in the 2000s. I must have been asleep at the wheel.

Joaquin Phoenix
The Sisters Brothers
Inherent Vice

Shia LeBeouf
Honey Boy
The Peanut Butter Falcon
American Honey

Adam Driver
Logan Lucky
Paterson
Silence
The Report

Mark Ruffalo
Foxcatcher
Margaret
Dark Waters

Domhanall Gleeson
Frank
About Time

Ryan Gosling

Crazy, Stupid, Love (One of the better comedies of the decade that I forgot about)
The Place Beyond the Pines
First Man

Tom Hardy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[DoctorZaius]

I can't believe that I forgot Okja - super film! And yes, Crazy, Stupid, Love deserved to be here as well.

[divemaster]

Unfortunately, American Honey wasn't seconded.

I don't know why I thought it was seconded. I would have seconded it if I had seen it.

Added a few more to my collection this weekend

Upgrade
The Handmaiden

How was The Handmaiden?

It's directed by Park Chan-Wook, which is to say, it's nearly perfect. Watch it!

Is it better than Parasite? People are telling me it's better than Parasite. This is automatically setting the film up to be a let down in my eyes.

I rated The Handmaiden higher than Parasite. Don't get me wrong, I really liked both. But The Handmaiden's ...genre...was of more interest to me.

[Ricky]

Watched Upgrade last night. I didn't know much going in aside from the main character getting into an accident, so the rest of it was a surprise to me. I liked the humor, the action + fight sequences, and the pacing was great. The directing was pretty great, too. I'd never have guessed it was a Leigh Whannell movie if I hadn't known beforehand.

[fernandito]

Is it better than Parasite? People are telling me it's better than Parasite. This is automatically setting the film up to be a let down in my eyes.

I rated The Handmaiden higher than Parasite. Don't get me wrong, I really liked both. But The Handmaiden's ...genre...was of more interest to me.

Yes, I enjoyed it more than Parasite. PCW has the indelible ability to create twisty tales that reward attention to detail, even seemingly trivial throw-away lines in this film are cleverly disguised clues. Watch it.

Watched Upgrade last night. I didn't know much going in aside from the main character getting into an accident, so the rest of it was a surprise to me. I liked the humor, the action + fight sequences, and the pacing was great. The directing was pretty great, too. I'd never have guessed it was a Leigh Whannell movie if I hadn't known beforehand.

I loved Upgrade. It's lean and visceral, with just the right amount of lore hinting at a deeper world. That one really took me by surprise too. And that ending!

[Heather19]

I really need to watch The Handmaiden.

Also do you guys think I will like Upgrade? I don't think it's streaming anywhere so I'll have to rent it.

[webstar1000]

I really need to watch The Handmaiden.

Also do you guys think I will like Upgrade? I don't think it's streaming anywhere so I'll have to rent it.

I have not met a soul that wasn't facinatated by it...

[fernandito]

My projected Heather TomatoMeter for both those films is Handmaiden 90%, Upgrade 80%

[webstar1000]

My projected Heather TomatoMeter for both those films is Handmaiden 90%, Upgrade 80%

Is Handmaiden anywhere right now to stream?

[mae]

My projected Heather TomatoMeter for both those films is Handmaiden 90%, Upgrade 80%

Is Handmaiden anywhere right now to stream?

It is up on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0751JGSCT/

[Heather19]

My projected Heather TomatoMeter for both those films is Handmaiden 90%, Upgrade 80%

I'll let you know how accurate you are once I watch them.

[Ricky]

It's lean and visceral, with just the right amount of lore hinting at a deeper world. That one really took me by surprise too. And that ending!

Yes to all of those things. And I'm still deciding on whether or not I liked the ending. I applaud them having the guts to essentially

Spoiler:

"kill" the main character and have the AI take over, but I was thinking Grey would ultimately succeed. STEM taking over kicks the door wide open for sequels and the TV series they're planning, though.

Also do you guys think I will like Upgrade? I don't think it's streaming anywhere so I'll have to rent it.

Hmm...if I had to guess, I'd say that you'd enjoy it but wouldn't be blown away by it. It's not one that I'd watch and right away think of recommending to you. Plus, it doesn't have James Franco.

[Heather19]

I won't lie, that is disappointing. He makes everything better.

[Jean]

Please watch Strangers on a Train. It's one of my top Hitchcock films. There's some amazing camera work in that one.

YES!!!!

Melancholia has maybe the most intense ending to a film I have ever seen.

I finally got around to finishing it. Being a very responsible bear, I re-watched the whole thing from the beginning. Still can't understand why many people whose opinion matters to bears seem to appreciate it so high. Did nothing to me whatsoever. I wonder what I am missing.

[Still Servant]

I had a nice find today at Goodwill, I found Never Let Me Go for a couple bucks. That's one of the films on my watchlist for the tournament. Hopefully I can watch it tomorrow. I had no idea it was written by Alex Garland. That makes me want to watch it even more.

I finished A Most Wanted Man, which I enjoyed, but not as much as I expected to. I have been looking forward to seeing that one since I missed it in theaters. I love Hoffman and he was fantastic as usual, there was just something missing. The cast is top notch, although McAdams and her accent annoyed me. It's one I might have to revisit to see if I can get anything more out of it than I did my first watch.

[Heather19]

Melancholia has maybe the most intense ending to a film I have ever seen.

I finally got around to finishing it. Being a very responsible bear, I re-watched the whole thing from the beginning. Still can't understand why many people whose opinion matters to bears seem to appreciate it so high. Did nothing to me whatsoever. I wonder what I am missing.

So I have only seen Melancholia once. I did find the movie overall to be a bit slow and it is very far from being a favorite of mine. However that ending has stayed with me since I saw it. And I think it's worth at least one watch just for that. I'm not sure why, but it definitely impacted me. We've talked about favorite endings to books, but when it comes to films this is one that I would probably put near the top as one of the best endings to a film. I'm curious what you felt about the ending versus the film as a whole Jean?

[mae]

Tomorrow we start, is everyone's voting fingers warmed up?

[mae]

And the first polls of our new tournament are live Please don't forget to MAKE SURE you're not selecting more than six per poll!

[amd013]

And the first polls of our new tournament are live Please don't forget to MAKE SURE you're not selecting more than six per poll!

LOL, that wont be a problem for me. I voted for 2,2,3,0 movies. I think there were only about 2 movies I have seen that I didn't vote for.

[mae]

Sounds like someone needs to get to watching more movies!

[Still Servant]

I watched Never Let Me Go last night just in time for the tournament and thought it was a beautiful film. I really like Sci-fi films that feel grounded and understated like that. The film is really heart-breaking and people looking for something uplifting should look elsewhere. It always intrigues me when films like this pass under the radar for so long. It's one that I was really not familiar with until this tournament, which is really hard to do.