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JCC The 2013 Roguie Movie Awards! Disc. Best Directors: Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo

Discussion in 'Community' started by Rogue1-and-a-half, Dec 30, 2013.

  1. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 2, 2000
    Okay, here we go! Time for the first annual Roguie Awards for excellence in film! I saw a crap ton of movies in 2013 and it was frankly an absolutely awesome year. It was really hard to winnow all these categories down to just fifteen winners, but I did it. I have a top ten and five runners up in the following categories: Best Director, Best Ensemble, Best Female Performance, Best Male Performance and Best Film. I should point out that this isn’t for movies that came out in 2013. I several movies from late 2012 in theaters after January 1st, 2013, and once I included those, it seemed easy to include even older movies that I saw during the year. Some of them I saw in theaters via Classics Series that screened older movies on the big screen again. Others I caught at home. But regardless, these awards are for all movies that I personally saw in 2013. So, that should clarify that.

    Without any further ado, let me give you the five runners up in the Best Director category; all of these directors stayed in my top ten until late in the year and it really hurt to finally cut them, but they just didn’t quite make the cut. But, in a year packed with great movies, even the runners up were absolutely superlative. Anyway, here we go!

    BEST DIRECTOR, RUNNERS UP

    Fede Alvarez – Evil Dead

    [​IMG]

    A lot of people seemed to dislike this horror remake; I gave it a solid *** ½ out of ****. It wasn’t subtle, but it was pretty high-octane, mostly thanks to Alvarez’ vivid direction. He ramped up all the scares perfectly, amped the gore up to extreme levels and, in the amazing climax, gave me one of the enduring images of gore cinema for all time: Jane Levy and the Abomination in silhouette against the burning cabin, blood literally raining from the sky as Levy, legs braced, head up in a perfect “hero pose,” plunges a running chainsaw into the Abomination’s face. Hats off, sir; THAT is why we go to these movies.

    Danny Boyle – Trance

    [​IMG]

    Trance was a deeply disappointing movie; despite a lot of good elements, the film failed to cohere into anything even remotely approaching interesting. But Boyle’s always an invigorating director and for all the film’s failures, the direction is absolutely dizzyingly great. A sequence near the middle when a hypnotized James McAvoy flashes back to a violent confrontation in a car just after the art heist is one of the most breathtakingly directed scenes of the year.

    Terence Malick – To the Wonder

    [​IMG]

    I enjoyed this film more than most, though I couldn’t call it great by a stretch. But even a mediocre film by Malick has to get notice for its direction. This film captures the intense, stark beauty of Oklahoma to perfection and the oblique direction serves the film particularly well in the love scenes (though Olga Kurylenko kind of helps with that too).

    Christopher Nolan – The Prestige

    [​IMG]

    Revisiting this classic, I was taken in again by the wonder of Nolan’s direction. From that dizzying opening scene all the way to the flashback ridden climax, Nolan captures images of stark beauty and tells the story in a wonderful way. This film is, really, even less linear than Memento; the time jumps are sometimes shocking and surprising and Nolan leaves it up to you to figure where you are in the lives of these two rival magicians. Watch carefully; sometimes you’re not even sure whose flashback you’re in. There’s a moment when we’re flashing back to Bale’s story as we’re flashing back to Jackman reading Bale’s story as we’re flashing back to Bale reading Jackman’s story. If that’s not a puzzle box, I don’t know what is.

    Sarah Polley – Stories We Tell

    [​IMG]

    Polley’s wonderful, dizzying documentary is about her personal quest to discover if she is actually the product of an extra-marital affair her mother had. She toggles between past and present effortlessly, develops wonderfully charming and awkward interviews and generally entertains. But I can’t explain the best directed moment in the film because it’s a massive spoiler; suffice it to say that when it comes, about all you can do is sit in awe of the absolute mastery of this manipulative genius and the way she’s been slowly, methodically setting you up for this surprise the whole damn time. The only thing more striking than how surprising it is, is just how obvious it should have been.

    Okeedokee, to avoid boredom setting in as we go through these categories, I’m going to change it up from category to category. So, next time it’s my five runners up for the Best Ensemble Cast award.

    Comment, y'all! Also, place bets on who the actual winners are going to be, as in the actual top ten lists in each category. :p

    2013 Roguie Awards!

    The_Four_Dot_Elipsis Ender Sai I Are The Internets solojones Everybody else who likes movies?
     
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  2. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

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    May 4, 2003
    I haven't even heard of most of these movies and haven't watched the ones I have. I guess this is how it feels to be an unsophisticated rube.
     
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  3. Only-One Cannoli

    Only-One Cannoli Ex-Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    What is this? A thread where you do the same thing you do in that other thread?
     
  4. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    That's what the end of year lists are for. Making people feel like unsoph . . . no, I mean alerting people to great movies they've missed. But have you really not seen The Prestige? The others all came out recently, but I have no idea what absurd excuse you're going to make for having not seen The Prestige yet.

    Yes, but at greater length. And I say that not even knowing what other thread you're talking about. But I do basically the same thing in every thread, just at greater length than previously.
     
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  5. Boba_Fett_2001

    Boba_Fett_2001 Chosen One star 8

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    Dec 11, 2000
    Well, The Prestige is the only one of these five that I've seen. It's one of my favourite movies and I'm admittedly somewhat of a Nolan fanboy sooooo yay Nolan.
     
  6. Only-One Cannoli

    Only-One Cannoli Ex-Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    The other 2013 favorite movie thread. I don't see any great lengths here, but maybe they're off hanging out with the emperor's clothes.
     
  7. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Yeah, I'm keeping my reviews in that thread to just ten words a pop. And I'm doing the runners up in five to a post with only brief snippets. I'll probably go longer when I get to the actual top ten lists and not do so many to a post.
     
  8. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

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    May 4, 2003
    Wait is Prestige that movie where Wolverine fights Batman with clones?
     
  9. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Yeah, and Alfred helps both of them, while Gollum assists David Bowie in writing songs about the clones. God knows what Black Widow was up to.
     
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  10. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

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    May 4, 2003
    In that case I have officially seen one of these films. Two, if you want to count a perfume or DeBeers diamond commercial as having seen To The Wonder.
     
  11. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

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    I've only seen two of the above, To the Wonder and The Prestige. The Prestige is my favorite Nolan film I think. I vastly prefer The Tree of Life to To the Wonder. What a disjointed movie that was. The female lead WOULD NOT STOP SPINNING. I was terrified that she would throw up all over Ben Affleck's sweater.
     
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  12. tom

    tom Chosen One star 8

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    Mar 14, 2004
    i'm going to start my own thread where we discuss my opinions of your opinions of these movies.
     
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  13. CloneUncleOwen

    CloneUncleOwen Jedi Master star 4

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    Jul 30, 2009
    I'll guess Christopher Nolan for The Prestige.
     
  14. The_Four_Dot_Elipsis

    The_Four_Dot_Elipsis Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Mar 3, 2005

    And friggin JEREC is in there too.

    I dunno Rogue, are we commenting on what you've seen, or should we cite the 5 best directorial works that we've seen or...? I'm a tad confused.

    I've only seen The Prestige and Trance of what you cite - personally I find The Prestige, though fascinating, to be the coldest and most mechanical of Nolan's films, and is probably my least favourite at the end of the day. I concur that Trance is a disappointment, but I wouldn't attribute what does pop about it to Boyle necessarily, and instead would highlight the work of Anthony Dod Mantle, who also played a big part in making Dredd and Rush so purdy.
     
  15. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feel free to do either. My concepts for threads are never quite as easily communicable as I think they will be. I have a top ten list for the category of Best Director; I guess I consider those the "winners" while these five are the ones that came really close to getting onto the top ten. Maybe it would make more sense to go through each category in turn as opposed to leaping around. Probably would. I'll post one of the top ten directors later today and that'll probably help with clarity.
     
  16. Violent Violet Menace

    Violent Violet Menace Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Maybe this isn't the right question to ask here, but how do you tell what is good directing, as opposed to what is good writing? Like, for instance, if a character is very well portrayed, how do you know it's the director who brought that out from the actor? How do you know if the actor is just good on his/her own and the director was actually terrible at directing? How do you know if it wasn't the script that fleshed out the character really well, and the director hardly needed to give any input?

    I suppose most of my confusion stems from not being exactly sure what is the director's responsibility. Like, if the film looks bad, is it the director's fault or the cinematographer's? Does the cinematographer answer to the director? Does the director run the whole show on a production or is that the producer's job? Is it the director who storyboards the scenes?

    My preconceived notion of the director's job is just instructing the actors, which - if that's accurate - how can you after the fact tell that he/she did a bad job, as opposed to the actors phoning it in? I'm not much of a movie buff, and just about my only metric for if a movie is good or not is how it affected me personally; how entertained I was et c. So I just get confused when people say that a movie is well directed. I don't even understand by what metric you would gauge that. Since you seem to be fascinated by the production process itself and be knowledgeable about it, I figured you're the right guy to ask.
     
  17. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

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    A lot of discussion and speculation has been made about what makes a movie a good movie. Is it the director, performers, or screenwriter? Personally, the movie needs to have a good script for me to care about the plot/characters.
     
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  18. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    I really disliked The Prestige the first time I saw it, but it grew on me a lot the second time around. Memento is an interesting movie, but The Prestige is Nolan's only good movie.
     
  19. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Oh, wow, not even The Dark Knight?

    That's a question that comes in for a lot of debate. I try to take the overall feeling of the film; while there are many collaborators, I think a director is responsible for the overall feel of the movie. From acting to music to cinematography to writing, the director sort of has oversight of it all and while a lot of the genius doesn't necessarily come from the director, he is the one who can pull all those elements in a unified direction. That said, my metric is also a very subjective one: did the film really move me emotionally in some way? But just like I can recognize a great acting job, I can recognize when there's a great director. It seems I specifically think of the visual style, but I also think of just whether or not the film feels genuinely unified in tone and style and if the film has a distinct vision. All of those things are very subjective so this may not clarify things at all, but that's my thoughts.

    For example, here's the first director who got on my top ten list. Maybe as I go down the directors list, you can kind of see my philosophy take shape. Or perhaps not. [face_plain] :p

    TOP TEN BEST DIRECTORS

    (in alphabetical order by last name)

    Nimrod Antal – Metallica: Through the Never

    [​IMG]

    I’m not into 3D, but this movie played in theaters only in 3D, at least around my stomping grounds. So, I went to check out the IMAX 3D version and I was very glad I did. The film mingles a Metallica concert with a weird horror story in which a Metallica roadie, played by the wonderful Dane DeHaan (a young actor to watch, by the way; he impressed in The Place Beyond the Pines, Kill Your Darlings and this film and, in a perfect cast, is Harry Osbourne in the upcoming Spider-Man flick) trekking across the city to recover a missing bag the band needs. The story isn’t particularly great or necessary to the film’s greatness, but it’s fun anyway. Just when you think the story has no more freaky imagery up its sleeve, a frigging doll comes to life or something. But it’s the breathtaking concert footage that got Antal on this list. The cameras aren’t just on stage – they’re right in the faces of the band members as they stalk around the stage. The press was that this movie would be like having a front row seat at a concert; it wasn't - it was better. Yes, I was headbanging like mad; no one else in the theater was. Morons. What do you go to this movie for if not to totally lose yourself in the amazing music? The editing is absolutely perfect; It’s not particularly easy to explain the direction on this one, which is probably how great directing should be. I can’t put into words the stunning immediacy and energy of the footage; it’s simply one of the two or three best music docs I’ve ever seen and easily the most ferociously energetic. And the 3D? Well, this is the first 3D film I’ve ever seen where the 3D didn’t seem offensively obtrusive. All in all, everyone’s on top of their game. Antal’s filmography isn’t that impressive; the horror film Vacancy, the actioner Armored and franchise choice Predators. I never saw those, but I doubt they were fantastic or anything. This one, though, is most assuredly vibrant. For Antal, it’s no less than a tour de force.

    2013 Roguie Awards!
     
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  20. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Rodney Ascher – Room 237

    [​IMG]

    Ascher’s documentary is like no film I’ve seen before or am apt to see again. To put it as simply as I can, Ascher allows seven obsessive fans of The Shining to spin out their theories about the hidden meanings Kubrick imbedded in the film, as he plays appropriate footage from The Shining and tons of other movies under their narration. The striking visual idea here is enough to make me sit up and take notice. It’s a documentary made up entirely of pre-existing footage from other movies; the new material is all in voice over – we never even see the people that we spend the entire running time of the movie listening to. And that is what we do; there are no interviewers or omniscient narrators. It’s just these seven people and their insane theories; is The Shining really about Kubrick revealing that he faked the moon landing footage? Or is it about the genocide of the Native Americans? Is that a minotaur on that poster and not a skier as we’ve always thought? What happens when you play The Shining backwards & forwards at the same time, superimposed over each other? This is one of the most relentlessly entertaining films I’ve seen this year and Ascher’s strange vision is arresting and wonderful. Is he validating their opinions? Even if only by letting them be heard? Is he mocking them? Is he mocking the audience? Is he warning the audience about the extremes of film love? Is he paying homage to one of Kubrick’s best late films? What in the hell is actually going on here? I don’t know, but when the backwards/forwards section of the film syncs up two blood spatters in one scene with a close up of Jacks’ face in another so perfectly that he appears to be weeping blood or when Shelley Duvall shouts to Danny that the last one to the maze has to “keep America clean,” and the film smashcuts to the weeping Indian commercial against littering, well, you know that Ascher has a lot on the ball. Can’t wait to see what he does next.

    Next time, the director helmed a foreign film that’s been out for over ten years; I’d missed it up to now, but thank God I finally caught up to it.

    2013 Roguie Awards!
     
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  21. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

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    Aug 18, 2002
    came to this thread with teh tommy lee jones/the fugitive "I DONT CARE" gif primed and ready to post but i have to admit after reading about "Stories We Tell" im probably going to watch the **** out of that tonight or tomorrow. i almost care about the shining doc as well but probably not
     
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  22. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Room 237 and Grizzly Man are two of my favorite documentaries. The Shining eaten by its starving fans, and a grizzly fan eaten by a starving grizzly. They are companion pieces.
     
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  23. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    I kind of don't think this movie would happen with any other movie. Do you think? I mean, there is something about The Shining and I think it's because Kubrick is a genius. But it really does stick in your mind in a really powerful way and it is a movie that is strangely aloof for a horror film. I mean, I get what would drive people to really obsess over the movie the way they do. I told a friend when I first heard about this movie that there is something about The Shining that makes you feel like you're missing something. You know what I mean at all?
     
  24. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    There's something analogous to the way some Star Wars fans strain to find greatness in The Phantom Menace. I don't think it goes much deeper than sort of an elitist question: "why is a genius like Kubrick slumming in a Stephen King story? He must be up to something."

    I don't want to sell the movie short though. What these people are really doing is trying to stitch multiple obsession scraps into a bigger obsession quilt. If the moon landing was faked, then Kubrick with his 2001 effects was the only man who could have filmed it. And if Kubrick was the one, then what better place to conceal his taped confession than inside one of his movies. And what better movie for hiding a confession for someone to find than the Shining, which seems as you say expressly made to imply that we're missing the point.
     
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  25. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

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    Aug 18, 2002
    okay so the one about whether or not that chick from dawn of the dead's mom liked to bone down or not isnt on netflix at the moment so imma watch the one about kubdawg faking the moon landing with jack nicholson and clea duvall. but maybe not cuz i kinda wanna watch the film first since i havent seen it since i was like 8