It’s okay, mono. I’ve been running a support group for guys like us every other Wednesday in the basement of the Methodist Church down the street. Coffee and donuts are free.
Although, ha ha, you saw Need for Speed in the theater? Dude.
-Tom
I saw Need for Speed in the theater. :(
Tom is just baiting you guys to confess.
there’s a new need for speed? why?
So any guesses as to what his desert island band is?
SPOILER! Next you’re going to tell us whether the top falls over in Inception!
-Tom
Aaron Paul is a fairly high barrier to entry.
Never heard of 'em.
Am I the only one who is glad that Macon Blair survived? I liked him so much in Blue Ruin that I found myself rooting for his character in this, even though his character was pretty reprehensible.
I really liked this movie. I’m not normally into movies that walk the thin line between thriller and horror, but I liked so much about it. I particularly like how seemingly insignificant little slice of life moments early in the movie turn out to be relatively significant later on.
Regarding your spoiler point, seeing Blue Ruin definitely colors your experience with Green Room, doesn’t it? But I think there’s something fundamentally sympathetic, something inherently likable about that actor, that what you describe would still be the case for someone who hasn’t seen Blue Ruin. That said, it’s precisely the reason I encourage people to check out Blue Ruin before seeing this!
-Tom
Watched this movie last night. I was more involved with it than any movie in recent memory. The violence, when it came into play, was so sudden and shocking, I literally gasped multiple times. I cared about those kids. Everyone in play acted smartly, working to achieve opposed ends. That is my favorite kind of story. Smart and tight. I loved it.
Macon Blair’s character is by no means heroic, but it was implied that he’d been on the fringes of things up until this point and he was trying to keep the situation from escalating the way it did. He also clearly wasn’t okay with what happened and while he might have stuck around if the neo-Nazis had won the day, out of social pressures etc, I think his final decision to contact the cops even once he no longer had a gun trained on him does speak well of where he ended up, mentally speaking. I mean, Poots’ character wasn’t an angel either - she’d hung around with these people long enough to know the things she knew, after all. Again, not hardcore ideological, but who knows where she might have ended up if her friend hadn’t been killed in front of her?
Just stumbled upon this thread, knowing nothing about this film.
I am now curious to see it.
That said, carltonbauheimer, please fix your spoiler tag, dammit!
Ah, thanks for the heads-up on that, Giles. I fixed it. Still, what are you doing in this thread? Get out of here and go see the movie. Don’t even read the thread title!
-Tom
Finally saw this last night. DAMN! Absolutely harrowing. I’m eager to watch it again, especially the Act 1 stuff during their performance that sets the stage for everything that comes after. Whoever did the makeup and gore effects is at the top of their craft --totally convincing, gut-wrenching realism.
Great cast, and I loved having no idea who would make it out of there and who wouldn’t. Very skillful first half of the script keeping you guessing as to who the main character is.
The opening scene was extraordinary. Ask 1,000 screenwriters how they would start a script about a broke punk band on tour and none of them would come up with that cornfield. But it’s perfect.
This one didn’t seem quite as Coen-esque to me as Blue Ruin which felt so much like Blood Simple. But there’s no doubt he’s borrowed the Coen-style dismount where you end a brutally violent and harrowing experience on an odd, little note of unexpected comedy that punctuates things beautifully. It’s straight out of the final moments of Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, A Serious Man, the list goes on and on. This Jeremy Saulnier dude is the real deal.
Dang. I didn’t even make this connection. I love this post, @rrmorton.
Nicolas Cage has become a caricature of himself, but there was so much I loved about him, and you bringing up Raising Arizona at the end your post, while at first jarring to me because of that, really cements how great a point you’re making. I think I talked about this on the podcast at sometime or other, but there is this look he gives in that movie, during the grocery store part of the big chase. The manager of the store unloads a shotgun at him at the end of one of the aisles as H.I. is trying to avoid the police. He just gives this little look. I love that look. It’s like, “Really?” With all he’s got to contend with at this point–dogs, screaming people, police–the manager is shooting at him. It’s not a hero moment. It’s just, I don’t know, kind of weary. Like a sigh in the middle of heavy action.
You bringing that up makes me think of how much I love the way Macon Blair plays Dwight. The way he seems surprised to still be alive sometimes. Or how his mind clicks him into gear when his survival instinct clicks in (like with the loss of the keys). And yet he seems so tired and scared and understands what a disappointment he is. He gets how he is out of his element. Still, he is driven.
I really like the Blood Simple comparison. It’s been so long since I’ve seen that movie, though, that I’ll need to think on it longer.
-xtien
“Shouldn’t we be panicking?”
Great points about Raising Arizona & H.I. v Dwight. I LOVE that reaction shot you describe.
If you’re in the mood to revisit Blood Simple, it opens today! At the Nuart in Los Angeles. I found that out from this terrific piece over at Salon.
And don’t miss this fascinating little video of pre-natal Coen Brothers…
It’s amazing to me how many of the classic Blood Simple “money shots” they had before they even started filming.
That proof-of-concept trailer was weird. I don’t remember Blood Simple having so much Raimi in it.
-Tom
“Well I don’t know about ancient Greece, but here in Texas we got very definite laws about that sort of thing.”
Yeah! Fun nerd trivia: the Coens co-wrote Raimi’s 1985 feature Crimewave.
You can occasionally spot a shared visual language, most notably the “camera races along at ground level shot” which you can see at the 53 second mark in this Blood Simple clip (the film version of that stalking scene from the proof of concept vid.)
http://www.movieclips.com/videos/blood-simple-official-clip-kicked-in-the-balls-501183555527
They used that shot in Raising Arizona to race up the ladder when Mama Arizona discovers Nathan Jr. is missing. Barry Sonnenfeld DP’ed on both!
That’s a really cool clip, @rrmorton. Thing is, I’ve always attributed that bit of their vocabulary to Barry Sonnenfeld.
I really wish he would have stuck with cinematography. Although, maybe if he had they never would have gotten to Roger Deakins. So I guess it worked out.
Also, that dog is a jerk.
-xtien