Superfuture Movie Club

[philosophiliac]

yeah I came to it pretty late in the game but it didn't do anything for me. I was psyched on the trailer too

 

late edit:  oh wait, I get syrup now. the marketing for it was pretty dope, but the actual content is just overblown, pompous average movie fare. It's an analogy for the themes with which it's dealing.

 

genius (10)

Edited July 16, 2013 by philosophiliac

[jackg]

Ok going to try and get the ball rolling again, watched syrup and wasn't particularly impressed! (hope i never become some slick souless new york marketing type)....next up

Edited July 16, 2013 by jackg

[dimmak]

Downloaded The Hunt a while back but never got around to watching it. I'll check it out sometime this week.

[freecat]

Good idea, I wanted to watch it and loved Mikkelsen in Hannibal.

[ravennavaro]

If I deleted the sufu movie club folder done while ago, should I be able to re-access it using the same old link from jack?

[jackg]

If I deleted the sufu movie club folder done while ago, should I be able to re-access it using the same old link from jack?

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qckkypv4rxvcp8a/Suif6XieaQ

 

 

Movie has been uploaded, have a watch and let me know what you think!

[jackg]

anyone had a chance yet?

[joeyod007]

yup! just watched it this evening. wow... emotionally draining at times and slightly hard to watch, but really great.  

 

mikkelsen featured so heavily that the movie really rested upon him and his performance, but he was just fantastic. 

 

its funny i was going to say i hadn't seen him in anything before, but casino royale was on tv the other day and i watched a bit of it while in the kitchen, and yeah. he was definitely that guy.. 

 

edit - my only complaint was that i wished it was a longer, the way it cut to a year later I found frustrating. we saw mikkelsen's character go through so much, I would have liked to see how he was welcomed back, and how he reacted to everything after the fact. 

Edited July 22, 2013 by joeyod007

[Paladizzo]

Subject matter like this can definitely make a movie hard to watch but The Hunt is a movie that was so good in many ways. First off Mikkelsen's performance was gripping. This film raises issues about our culture and how we are quick to judge and bully people regardless of the facts. Even when you think everything is alright you realize that somethings never stay buried in the past...

 

Great film, great acting, great script. Good choice jackg.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Paladizzo

[jackg]

anyone else had a chance yet?

 

Lets give "The Hunt" a bit longer. 

 

but some great choices for the next film: 

The Act of Killing

A Hijacking

War Witch 

Edited July 28, 2013 by jackg

[joeyod007]

What did you think Jack? I hear "The Celebration" is similar, has anyone seen it? 

 

I am happy with any of those three! 

[jackg]

I really enjoyed "The Hunt", probably one of the best films I have seen this year. Perfectly created mood, a really palpable sense of brooding and aggression under the surface/bubbling up over and in that regard it kinda reminded me of a lynchian vibe but more explicit. Fantastic acting from Mads, something he seems to be able to do consistently in non-english speaking roles! 

 

Not sure how I felt about the epilogue, I think I might have been marginally more satisfied without it at all.

 

I haven't seen the Celebration but I will have to look into it! 

[Paladizzo]

A Hijacking sounds very intriguing

[joeyod007]

1 more day? Looking forward to whats next..

[jackg]

next up.....

[philosophiliac]

I'm fairly keen to watch all three of those movies - any chance we could throw up war witch and/or/then a hijacking after this one?

 

still haven't had a chance to watch the hunt but I copied it out of the dropbox so I'll get to it this weekend hopefully

[jackg]

I'm fairly keen to watch all three of those movies - any chance we could throw up war witch and/or/then a hijacking after this one?

 

still haven't had a chance to watch the hunt but I copied it out of the dropbox so I'll get to it this weekend hopefully

 

this can easily be arranged! 

[joeyod007]

I'm fairly keen to watch all three of those movies - any chance we could throw up war witch and/or/then a hijacking after this one?

 

I am also down to do all three! 

 

Really interesting movie and on a  topic I knew nothing about. Going through some reviews I have pretty much the same critique, I wish the film had delved more into the history of these killings. But saying that, the film is much more about the characters within it, and as Errol Morris says (good read) the nature of memory and history, then any specific details. I guess it shows how uninformed we are on this subject, at least here in NA. To read about how supportive the Americans were, and to hear how they spoke of these killings as just "Communism contained" is stunning, really. 

 

Amwar Congo is so interesting, to go from openly boasting of the thousands of crimes hes committed - the murder, the rape, whatever - to at times trying to enact sympathy from the viewer is strange .. But why would he be openly acting out his crimes forty years later.

 

I'll leave it there for now, what did you guys think? 

[jackg]

anyone else had a chance? I have a draft of my thesis due tomorrow, after which I am going to hit it up! 

[jackg]

Finally got around to watching it and thought it was superb. Totally agree with you Joey, I had never heard of the killings and its pretty confronting at times. To be honest I liked that is wasn't your average factual examination kinda doco, and it prompted me to go and do a bit of independent research rather than getting suckered in and believing everything I am feed (i feel this happens to me while watching "documentaries" from time to time).

 

Anwar was a very strange character, and the fact that his story took on such an archetypal trajectory was unexpected. But I guess maybe he just hadn't properly processed all of things he was involved in, and making this film within a film was a sort of therapy for him. 

 

Anyone else watched it yet? 

[digitalmountain]

The recreation-as-therapy approach was what made the film so interesting for me.

 

It starts out intended as a boastful celebration of the massacres, which is pretty much in tune with the official view of the events (as evidenced by the tied-in interviews of government officials) - complete with John Wayne-references and all. For most of the protagonists, the performative, movie-star-wannabe aspects are what draws them to participate in both the documentary and the film-in-film project. Compared to many other documentaries, the film openly addresses his protagonists' eagerness to perform for the camera, to create an on-screen persona according to their self-image. 

 

Through rehearsing and shooting the scenarios, Anwar Congo seems to slowly empathize with the victims 40 years after the fact. Even to him as the perpetrator, the events represent a repressed trauma that has to be confronted indirectly, through the mediated role-playing of shooting a movie. In this sense, the film is about the consequences of the act the title refers to on the those who commit it.   

In stark contrast to this is the guy with the  mustache, who seems completely at ease behind his rationalizations and sociopath's lack of empathy. For me, the shots in which you hear him describe all their ways of killing while you see him shopping with his family are some of the most haunting in the whole film.  

 

So while the film hints at the possibility of individual redemption (I guess this is what Jack means by archetypical trajectory), it mainly portrays the psychological mechanisms behind a collective repression that enables people to proudly brag about taking more than a thousand lives. That this repression seems to be firmly in place today is what makes the film's outlook so dark.

Edited August 13, 2013 by digitalmountain

[yachtrock89]

Just finished it.

 

It's certainly pretty affecting, and the dude obviously knew what he had was gold in terms of raw human emotion, but I feel like a good chunk of the documentary was kept in there simply because he knew it would be shocking to Western sensibilities (i.e. every second of screen time Herman had). The gratuitous weirdnesss combined with the lack of narrative voice became grating for me after awhile and made it feel a lot longer than it is (just looked and apparently we watched the Director's cut?????? Cool to view the definitive work but I think I may have enjoyed the theatrical version more just because I'm sure it doesn't have as much stuff that I found annoying.)

 

I think I had such a hard time with it in general because it's all just so difficult to relate to, from the shit they were wearing to stuff that was coming out of their mouths (that joke about the six guys in the van. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT.) I can't believe that there are still parts of the world where genocide is talked about with such a nonchalant attitude (and not just by the fascist paramilitary guys, it seemed like everyone in the film was pretty cool with it and just brutal human behaviour in general). Honestly could feel myself getting more and more xenophobic as the film wore on. Overall, I'm glad I saw it but would never want to have to watch again.

Edited August 16, 2013 by yachtrock89

[freecat]

Of course life doesn't have the same value everywhere in the world. People dying in poorer regions of the world is more common for a lot of reasons. 

 

I can't believe that there are still parts of the world where genocide is talked about with such a nonchalant attitude (and not just by the fascist paramilitary guys, it seemed like everyone in the film was pretty cool with it and just brutal human behaviour in general). Honestly could feel myself getting more and more xenophobic as the film wore on.

Man that's hard to read, do you really want to show off to people how undereducated you are ?

[yachtrock89]

Yeah I'm generally fine with saying whatever the fuck I want on an internet message board.

 

If you could reel back the condescension and actually put together a cohesive statement, it would be a lot easier to know what you found hard to read.

Of course life doesn't have the same value everywhere in the world. People dying in poorer regions of the world is more common for a lot of reasons.

If you want to put yourself in the position of defending the attitudes displayed in this film, go ahead. Is your argument that poverty turns people into political executioners? Because it's not like the film is concerned with "people dying" from disease or starvation. I think you're all too aware that genocide has happened in just about every region of the world. I'm not claiming to be morally superior to these people, I'm just saying that for me personally it was difficult to watch, which I'm sure was the point.

 

My main criticism of the film is that a lot of the more shocking scenes feel exploitative and kind of insensitive. I think you've read my honest gut reaction to a movie and mistaken it for my deeply held convictions about race or something.

[poopie boy]

Are there any movies in the folder? I just looked and it appears to be empty? Maybe there's a part of this thread that I didn't read haha sorry if that's the case.

[jackg]

Are there any movies in the folder? I just looked and it appears to be empty? Maybe there's a part of this thread that I didn't read haha sorry if that's the case.

Its outlined on the first page pal. Once I have added you to the group, your dropbox will spend some time downloading the movie and then you'll be able to watch it. Make sure you have your dropbox set to auto-sync so it actually downloads! PM me if you have any other issues. 

 

 

Last couple of days on this, and then on to War Witch

 

I am happy to keep curating this for the time being, but if people have suggests don't be afraid to speak up! 

[philosophiliac]

^^ no I'm the same man, a couple days ago I got a notification saying that "The Act of Killing has been deleted". folder's empty for me right now.

 

I have the Act of Killing on my comp though so I can reload it to the folder if people want - inevitably I don't get around to watching until the next one has been put up (only watched Jagten a week and a bit ago) so I've made a habit of copying each movie so I don't miss out

[jackg]

^ right thank you. I have rectified the situation. Just for future reference "Zak" (or anyone else) if you remove the film from the dropbox folder like cut it, or delete it, it will be deleted from everyone else's as well. 

[jackg]

Side note, we just reached 50 members!!!! Go team. 

 

[freecat]

Because it's not like the film is concerned with "people dying" from disease or starvation. I think you're all too aware that genocide has happened in just about every region of the world. I'm not claiming to be morally superior to these people, I'm just saying that for me personally it was difficult to watch, which I'm sure was the point.

 

My main criticism of the film is that a lot of the more shocking scenes feel exploitative and kind of insensitive. I think you've read my honest gut reaction to a movie and mistaken it for my deeply held convictions about race or something.

I agree with you on this. I understood that it wasn't the point of the movie to denunciate war crimes but I have the feeling that it fired back a bit during the movie while at times the lack of involvment could be interpretated as acceptation. Concerning my comment, I mistaken your formulation for ignorance. Sorry.