Ilov80s
Footballguy
DOA- the story of a man investigating his own murder via poisoning. Interesting connection.
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FBG Movie Club: We're Getting the Band Back Together: Metallica vs Nina Simone Movie Docs (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter Ilov80s
- Start date
Eephus
Footballguy
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Man of Constant Sorrow
Footballguy
prosopis
Arizona Chupacabra
American Factory was just an all around sad movie. I grew up with and worked with assembly line/ factory workers. I did it myself for some time. The difference to me was that movie made it look like it was an entire town of people like that. While I knew those people I also knew doctors, teachers, police, grocery store guy etc.... This movie made me feel like there was no one in this town other than these assembly line workers and they were all sad and depressed. I found very little value in this movie. I did not learn much of anything new, I was not entertained, and I was made to feel sad. Not one shred of happiness or hope in this movie but not in a good way. I gave it a 1
LBMISF I gave a three. I did enjoy the directing, cinematography, and a lot of what they did with color. I do think this movie missed it's mark but not by much.
LBMISF I gave a three. I did enjoy the directing, cinematography, and a lot of what they did with color. I do think this movie missed it's mark but not by much.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Don Quixote
Footballguy
TCM has a Magnificent Seven marathon tomorrow, for fans of a prior club pick.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Eephus
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Man of Constant Sorrow
Footballguy
There's actually lots of angles to this.
Which is gonna be my angle.
Will do.
I plan to rewatch AF also.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
Will finish LBMiSF tonight.
Also saw that The Lighthouse and Parasite were a decent price on Amazon to rent so have those waiting for this week.
Also saw that The Lighthouse and Parasite were a decent price on Amazon to rent so have those waiting for this week.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I'll get the ball rolling, but first I will say I enjoyed this month's pairing. I was more 'comfortable' getting my thoughts together about American Factory than I was Last Black Man, but I definitely liked the latter more, and feel there is a lot more to it than I can express at the moment. Anyway, I'll break the ice:
American Factory
I made a comment earlier saying this movie is like a love child between Michael Moore and Michael Keaton; I should have added Ron Howard since he directed the film this one reminded me of: Gung Ho. To me, AF hit all the same notes that Gung Ho did but without Keaton as the lightning rod. Like Gung Ho, I felt AF did strike a mostly neutral, balanced view of the story; there were people on both sides who tried to adapt to the other, and just like with Gung Ho, the gulf between ownership and labor was contaminated by the middle, vis a vis union activists and arrogant middle managers. TBH, I didn't mind seeing this story again in 'documentary' fashion, until the last few minutes when they added the automation aspect. It felt tacked on and undercut everything that came before it. Any lingering questions the movie had set up were all made moot because of the ending.
Last Black Man in San Francisco
Loved the visuals (many scenes were so full of rich color that I thought they were going to drip off the screen, and others looked almost Kubrick-esque in that they were telling the story and the characters and dialogue were like captions), thought the acting was great, enjoyed the story, especially the play. I enjoyed the contrast between Jimmy/Mont and the 'chorus'/sterotypical street punks. Jimmy had my favorite line of the whole film: toward the end, about not being allowed to hate something unless you love it. It's also one of the few movies where I was able to appreciate the "hero's journey" as it unfolded and didn't try to jump to conclusions about where it was going to lead; watching the journey itself was very satisfying, and despite his original 'quest' ending in failure, Jimmy's journey ends triumphantly anyway, and in a natural way. I will probably watch it again sometime, I'm just not sure what frame of mind I would have to be in.
American Factory
I made a comment earlier saying this movie is like a love child between Michael Moore and Michael Keaton; I should have added Ron Howard since he directed the film this one reminded me of: Gung Ho. To me, AF hit all the same notes that Gung Ho did but without Keaton as the lightning rod. Like Gung Ho, I felt AF did strike a mostly neutral, balanced view of the story; there were people on both sides who tried to adapt to the other, and just like with Gung Ho, the gulf between ownership and labor was contaminated by the middle, vis a vis union activists and arrogant middle managers. TBH, I didn't mind seeing this story again in 'documentary' fashion, until the last few minutes when they added the automation aspect. It felt tacked on and undercut everything that came before it. Any lingering questions the movie had set up were all made moot because of the ending.
Last Black Man in San Francisco
Loved the visuals (many scenes were so full of rich color that I thought they were going to drip off the screen, and others looked almost Kubrick-esque in that they were telling the story and the characters and dialogue were like captions), thought the acting was great, enjoyed the story, especially the play. I enjoyed the contrast between Jimmy/Mont and the 'chorus'/sterotypical street punks. Jimmy had my favorite line of the whole film: toward the end, about not being allowed to hate something unless you love it. It's also one of the few movies where I was able to appreciate the "hero's journey" as it unfolded and didn't try to jump to conclusions about where it was going to lead; watching the journey itself was very satisfying, and despite his original 'quest' ending in failure, Jimmy's journey ends triumphantly anyway, and in a natural way. I will probably watch it again sometime, I'm just not sure what frame of mind I would have to be in.
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wikkidpissah
Footballguy
"They just talk ####"
"You talked #### when i met you"
"Why'd you hang out with me then?"
"You cared about things. I liked you."
I don't know why i bother any more. But I do.
For the first fifty years of my life, i was certain humankind was on a direct path to perfectability which had been the dictate of life since it began. That's why i was always into something, made sure i never caught myself standing still. It was all so momentous. Tomorrow was assured if i did thisthat&this today. After i studied some history, collated some modern behaviors in order to write about them, i started to realize that i had actually been born into a small window of exuberant enthusiasm which had skewed my view of human experience to a mistaken belief that venality didn't eventually derail everything we do.
Liberty is what threw me off. My teen years were the greatest era of liberation since France & America had thrown off their chains almost 200 years before. Women were getting to be themselves for the first time and i got to watch, black people were beginning to claim the self-determination which they'd been largely denied the first 100 yrs of their "freedom" and my hippie brothers & sisters were going thru every social rule in the book and tossing most of em out like fish skeletons in cartoons.
But we forgot one thing in our celebrations of freedom - to figure out that with which we were going to replace what we'd thrown out in our institutions. So we continued celebrating, elevating self to a status it was never meant to occupy. And now it's taken over - America is 320,000,000 separate constituencies and the only organizing forces are the idiot boxes which entertain us into some semblance of compliance and complacence. And they're doing that for money. There are now millions of people who are completely unaware that life was ever about anything but "me". Woe is us.
The producers of American Factory have offered a pretty fair & true portrait of the state of "us" in this great nation. Committed, considerate, compliant................Chinese people looking at the fat, obstreperous, entitled hordes who want, nay need, to work for them. I'd like to be able to say "give them folks 50 years away from the totalitarian yoke and let's see how they act", but i dunno - there's a culture of working together (and without a ruling God overseeing all endeavour) there which America is going to have to look at once we stop celebrating the individual. I've oversimplified it (and didn't update my views by rewatching AF this month, because what it left me on first viewing i need to have gurgling in my guts) but we'll either choose to work together or end up having that choice taken from us again.
To work together, we have to care. Not about ComicCons, craft beers, sociverses, but about each other. And we can't care about each other until we have an engine of reform inside of us. I would prefer we each believe that, no matter how much we have to prove, it doesn't matter if we don't use it to provide. That would be a good basis. Our individual masteries are painting us into corners (even if of lovely design), while humility can set us free NOW. I can have it all and still be miserable, even moreso if i consider those hurt, ignored, neglected along the way. Or i can want for nothing and be rich NOW, ready to give. All i have to do is care.
The last two Black Men in San Francisco care. They care mostly because their circumstances will reduce them to the Walking Dead all around them if they don't. Don't really matter what got it that way, in the end. What they both care about, except each other, are follies, but they would rather break their hearts to express what's good and tend the life which gives them truth & beauty than glory in easy decadence. Blessed are the careworn, for they are our salvation.
This was far & away the best pairing in the short history of the Club. Both strong movies which kept their tone, no matter what happened within the story, long enough for the viewer to reflect upon how it related to who we are. Thank you for that.
"You talked #### when i met you"
"Why'd you hang out with me then?"
"You cared about things. I liked you."
I don't know why i bother any more. But I do.
For the first fifty years of my life, i was certain humankind was on a direct path to perfectability which had been the dictate of life since it began. That's why i was always into something, made sure i never caught myself standing still. It was all so momentous. Tomorrow was assured if i did thisthat&this today. After i studied some history, collated some modern behaviors in order to write about them, i started to realize that i had actually been born into a small window of exuberant enthusiasm which had skewed my view of human experience to a mistaken belief that venality didn't eventually derail everything we do.
Liberty is what threw me off. My teen years were the greatest era of liberation since France & America had thrown off their chains almost 200 years before. Women were getting to be themselves for the first time and i got to watch, black people were beginning to claim the self-determination which they'd been largely denied the first 100 yrs of their "freedom" and my hippie brothers & sisters were going thru every social rule in the book and tossing most of em out like fish skeletons in cartoons.
But we forgot one thing in our celebrations of freedom - to figure out that with which we were going to replace what we'd thrown out in our institutions. So we continued celebrating, elevating self to a status it was never meant to occupy. And now it's taken over - America is 320,000,000 separate constituencies and the only organizing forces are the idiot boxes which entertain us into some semblance of compliance and complacence. And they're doing that for money. There are now millions of people who are completely unaware that life was ever about anything but "me". Woe is us.
The producers of American Factory have offered a pretty fair & true portrait of the state of "us" in this great nation. Committed, considerate, compliant................Chinese people looking at the fat, obstreperous, entitled hordes who want, nay need, to work for them. I'd like to be able to say "give them folks 50 years away from the totalitarian yoke and let's see how they act", but i dunno - there's a culture of working together (and without a ruling God overseeing all endeavour) there which America is going to have to look at once we stop celebrating the individual. I've oversimplified it (and didn't update my views by rewatching AF this month, because what it left me on first viewing i need to have gurgling in my guts) but we'll either choose to work together or end up having that choice taken from us again.
To work together, we have to care. Not about ComicCons, craft beers, sociverses, but about each other. And we can't care about each other until we have an engine of reform inside of us. I would prefer we each believe that, no matter how much we have to prove, it doesn't matter if we don't use it to provide. That would be a good basis. Our individual masteries are painting us into corners (even if of lovely design), while humility can set us free NOW. I can have it all and still be miserable, even moreso if i consider those hurt, ignored, neglected along the way. Or i can want for nothing and be rich NOW, ready to give. All i have to do is care.
The last two Black Men in San Francisco care. They care mostly because their circumstances will reduce them to the Walking Dead all around them if they don't. Don't really matter what got it that way, in the end. What they both care about, except each other, are follies, but they would rather break their hearts to express what's good and tend the life which gives them truth & beauty than glory in easy decadence. Blessed are the careworn, for they are our salvation.
This was far & away the best pairing in the short history of the Club. Both strong movies which kept their tone, no matter what happened within the story, long enough for the viewer to reflect upon how it related to who we are. Thank you for that.
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Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Begging your pardon, GB, but the Chinese do have a ruling god: China itself. Their 'greater good.' Their fellow countrymen, that is their 'god.'
We serve many gods in this country, and while they're only 'things' for the most part and don't actively fight each other like the old gods of past civilizations, pursuits of what they each represent bump up against each other nonetheless, and in the end they are merely minions of an overarching 'god' named Subjectivity, which comes with the territory of living in the land of the free. Everyone here wants unity as long as it's their unity. As a believer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I'm supposed to want the unity of everyone accepting that gospel and becoming Christians; SJWs believe in a god called social justice according to their definition of it, either as currently written or soon to be re-written to fit their tastes. As for caring about each other, with no one unifying 'god' to rally behind, we will always be how we are as a country, and I think AF did a good job of laying that out and letting the audience place their own value on it. Yes, we are too 'diverse' as a culture to ever get to that point, at least as long as parts of it can profit/advance off of pointing their fingers at other parts and blame them for their problems, instead of reaching out in a spirit of reconciliation over vengeance. I don't see that happening any time soon, as the god Subjectivity will always reset us to our basic instinct of self-protection.
Maybe we need less 'land of the free, home of the brave' and more 'E pluribus unum'...?
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
I heartily agree with your last line and not much else.
Rather than argue the points, i am going to suggest that i can cure what is wrong with this society with one question:
This is my life. Do i have it to have, or do i have it to give?
We can, of course, do either. More than 90% (probably closer to 99.8%) of present-day Americans have chosen "have" - about 3-4 times the % in the America i was born into, 10-12x of America when it was itself born. The reasons the "give" was so high in eras past were the punishments of God, rewards of Heaven and/or conditions of servitude. My modest proposal is that, if we can find a way to make "give" abide once more, be the motive intent of human life - without the carrrots & sticks - we would be happier, more prosperous and on the path of our hereditary mandate once again.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Interesting question and reminds me of one of the questions at the heart of another 2019 movie, The Farewell. If a person is dying, should it be that person deciding if they should tell their family or should the family be the ones to choose whether to tell the dying member? Who does the life belong to?
Don Quixote
Footballguy
I don't know if I have much to add to the conversation, but I'll say that these were excellent choices. I had not even heard of either movie before this exercise, but happy that I watched both.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Great to hear. There’s almost too much to be said for me to quite be able to verbalize it all. I still need to work it all out.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Maybe I’ll pose a couple questions?
1. How do you think these 2 movies did at expressing the issues of global economies, economic anxiety and gentrification?
2. What kind of picture do you think they paint for the current state of the country and future of the country?
3. Can we fight change? Even embrace the change? Does it matter either way or is change blind to the individual?
1. How do you think these 2 movies did at expressing the issues of global economies, economic anxiety and gentrification?
2. What kind of picture do you think they paint for the current state of the country and future of the country?
3. Can we fight change? Even embrace the change? Does it matter either way or is change blind to the individual?
jwb
Footballguy
I'm late again and haven't yet watched AF, but I will comment on TLBMISF in this regard.
I watched this a few nights before the SB, and really liked it (nice film work and use of the city), but then after the SB and seeing in my FB feed the negative reaction to the halftime show by (essentially) white men, it made me think of change and how we react to it. Is the reaction to the haltime show just a larger version of gentrification, as it's fundamentally that same feeling of "this isn't the place I grew up in"? - it's just projected on a larger scale (which then takes a somewhat ugly turn into racism.) That's a question I can't answer, but I do think the parallel is interesting.
The movie also made me feel a little insightful, in that my mom just moved out of our childhood home. She was there 48 years. So now, I have no reason to ever really visit the old neighborhood again. I walked it last year, and looked at the places I played 45 years ago. The one empty lot that we made all kinds of jumps for our bikes was still empty, but long overgrown. I braved the ticks and such and found the "big jump" my friends and I spent a week making - it's still there. There are maybe 15 guys on this planet who know about that thing. It made me a little wistful, but also happy that I had the experience. I didn't feel loss, or want to reclaim it - just grateful that, so far, life has been pretty good to me.
Change is inevitable, whether it's the old neighborhood not being what it was, friends moving on, etc. It's how we view it that's different. Some of us see it as loss, and want to go back/preserve it, and some of us accept it and move forward. Not sure either is fully right.
Really good movies make us think. This one did just that for me.
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Man of Constant Sorrow
Footballguy
Same here.
I've been tied up majorly since halftime of the SB. If I tried to make my comments now, it would be an angry howl at the world.
That is not my true opinion.
Once things settle down, and my head clears, I'll elaborate.
I voted tho. And, I really like the conversation so far.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Verbose, are we? Verbose?!?! Maybe a little fatuous around the middle, but hardly that...thanks, ya beautifully verbose bastids!
otb_lifer
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
1. I didn't see much in the way of gentrification in AF, and in Last Black Man, I think it was a refreshing albeit unrealistic way of dealing with it. Jimmy had a practical approach to the issue; he chose to act on his desire to honor his heritage by working on restoring the house when its owners were away. TBH, I was a little annoyed by this part of the plot, as I would like to think that if I were in the homeowner's shoes, I wouldn't have discouraged him from working on the house, and would even have tried to learn why he was so interested in it. Then again, I'm not the kind of person who can afford a town house in San Francisco, so what do I know. AF definitely touched on the first two components of this question, and to me in a fairly objective way. And as I said in my initial review, any dialogue that could have come from this film, about culture shock, work ethics, etc. was completely undercut by the mention of the factory becoming more automated.
2. To me, AF doesn't really paint a picture as much as it puts a clinical, objective spotlight on a long-existing issue, and Last Black Man shows us not only what beauty actually does exist in case we missed it, but also what beauty is still out there waiting to be revealed if we move forward in love. I like that it doesn't negate or condemn our current state but rather points the way to what's possible. As for the future, I think both step back from commenting on that. AF basically says 'this is how things are and why', but doesn't drop hints or suggest a way out, and Last Black Man says 'it is what it is, and will be what we choose to make of it.'
3. Regarding change, I'm definitely more able to deal with changes now than I was when I was younger. My first response to most changes is still to resist, but I'm also at the point where I have learned to say 'same as day one.' Some changes I embrace better than others, but at this point I've learned to just keep moving regardless, because most changes don't care what I think of them. Not how I thought I'd deal with things when I was younger, but it gets me through the days, months, years.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Did you know that the TLBMISF story is kinda true? The lead, Jimmy Fails, plays himself. When i saw that the actor had the same name as the lead and then that he had a co-write credit, i figured there must be more, so i looked it up. The past, the eviction of he & his father from a Victorian house is real, told here. The director was a pal Jimmy made short films with in high school. He's been discussing maeing a film of his & his father's story since he was 15, apparently. They made a preview for Kickstarter and the rest is history. Was this previously discussed? Probably not much more psychotic to finance a house purchase than a film, eh?
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Ilov80s
Footballguy
Gentrification is more the issue of San Fran. The erasing and rewriting of culture, place and history. In that sense, AF does seem to show a company trying to change culture as well. In the end, they the company decided that it was better off without most of the people their and would rather replace them with machines. That may not be gentrification of renovating to meet middle class standards but is perhaps renovating to meet new corporate standards.
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Ilov80s
Footballguy
Interesting angle. I saw that as the stories we are told, what we believe, how that shapes. Jimmie clearly never had much but the one thing he of value he feels a connection to is the house he thinks his grandfather built. Getting that back is like getting back a part of himself and his history. He seems to know he won’t actually get to keep it but he’s trying what he can to briefly possess it and restore it.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Also, because my review was on a larger scope, i failed to make mention of three words that the great movie critic & racontuer Joe Bob Briggs, who i read in the SFChronicle pink section for years, would have done in covering TLBMISF: "Jelly Biafra Fu". nufced
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
dont see him that way at all. if black folk had a Galahad - a knight of valor, emblem of strength & virtue, embued with the spirit of his mission and asking a white man to believe him up to a foolish quest because his heart is true - that memory has likely been robbed from them. i don't see an out-of-it guy here, but a tiredass whackmole trying to keep meaning in his life whilst dodging the giant mallet of his plight
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Ilov80s
Footballguy
I don't think the movie is attempting to be "real". He is a hero attempting the impossible with no chance of success. He's not hurting anyone to do it and if anything, is doing good in his efforts for himself, friends and community.I never had the impression he understood how the "real world" works. He seemed completely incapable of understanding social rules and boundaries. While not "crazy", there's definitely tinges of narcissistic personality disorder in that.
And, also, he acknowledges he is living in his own delusion. He knows the backstory of the house is false, and he chooses not to believe reality.
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Ilov80s
Footballguy
Interesting tidbits about LBISF
- You notice Thora Birch in that one brief bus scene near the end? Random cameo for such a small movie made by total unknowns
- Kofi (the guy from the corner who is killed) was a real life SF street kid with no acting experience. He was in jail 8 years for murder before being acquitted in a retrial.
- Joe Talbot sent a cold email to Barry Jenkins about how to film a movie in SF and Jenkins took the time to respond and help him.
- Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company helped get the film picked up and off the ground. They all met during the filming of Ad Astra.
- Danny Glover is from SF and actually contacted Joe Talbot requesting a role in the film.
- Joe Talbot’s grandfather was a relatively well known movie actor in the 30s and tv actor in the 50s-60s. Joe’s dad founded the web magazine Salon.
- You notice Thora Birch in that one brief bus scene near the end? Random cameo for such a small movie made by total unknowns
- Kofi (the guy from the corner who is killed) was a real life SF street kid with no acting experience. He was in jail 8 years for murder before being acquitted in a retrial.
- Joe Talbot sent a cold email to Barry Jenkins about how to film a movie in SF and Jenkins took the time to respond and help him.
- Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company helped get the film picked up and off the ground. They all met during the filming of Ad Astra.
- Danny Glover is from SF and actually contacted Joe Talbot requesting a role in the film.
- Joe Talbot’s grandfather was a relatively well known movie actor in the 30s and tv actor in the 50s-60s. Joe’s dad founded the web magazine Salon.
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jwb
Footballguy
ok, let's talk American Factory. This is little rambling.
Really sad and fascinating documentary that lays bare many problems that almost seem unfixable. On one hand, we have American workers who had a taste of the "glory days" good life when an average, semi-skilled worker could earn enough to live an above-average life. This has proven unsustainable in the long term, at least in Capitalism - we learned that paying above-average wages for average skills is not sustainable. That's a big reason a lot of these plants closed, and GM's pension obligation (essentially, paying workers who are no longer working) led to the need of a bailout. But to put a human face on it is sad.
On the other side, we have the Chinese, who are unquestioning to the company, will work long hours in unsafe conditions for garbage wages because... wait, why do they do that? These people are clearly not happy. When you have to sing songs about how happy and joyous you are, guess what? You aren't either one. I felt as sad for the Chinese as I did the Americans, because these people are clearly so subdued and beaten down that they dare not question anything.
So we mix these two into American Factory.
The biggest takeaway I got was the unwillingness of either side to acknowledge their mistakes or grow. The Americans want to go back to modern union policies that long-term, end up by destroying companies because the numbers simply do not work, given our system of government and lifestyle. We don't want to change - we just want a $30 an hour job so we can take vacations and have weekend bbq's. And the Chinese executives want obedient slaves, like they have back home. And that doesn't work, either.
I was a little creeped out on the visit to China. The military style "count off" (which was laughable when they tried to recreate it in America), and the "company song and dance" at the reception were bizarre. It was like an Amway meeting taken to astronomical extremes. Don't these people get tired of being told how happy they are? Or is fear of being taken away in the middle of the night still a thing (I guess it is?)
And in all of this, automation looms. Eventually, we won't need any of these people. What then?
No good answers - only more questions. And problems that seem unfixable.
Great movie.
(and yes, do NOT wear a "Jaws" shirt to a big meeting. Wow, did that stand out, as did the "fat" Americans.)
Really sad and fascinating documentary that lays bare many problems that almost seem unfixable. On one hand, we have American workers who had a taste of the "glory days" good life when an average, semi-skilled worker could earn enough to live an above-average life. This has proven unsustainable in the long term, at least in Capitalism - we learned that paying above-average wages for average skills is not sustainable. That's a big reason a lot of these plants closed, and GM's pension obligation (essentially, paying workers who are no longer working) led to the need of a bailout. But to put a human face on it is sad.
On the other side, we have the Chinese, who are unquestioning to the company, will work long hours in unsafe conditions for garbage wages because... wait, why do they do that? These people are clearly not happy. When you have to sing songs about how happy and joyous you are, guess what? You aren't either one. I felt as sad for the Chinese as I did the Americans, because these people are clearly so subdued and beaten down that they dare not question anything.
So we mix these two into American Factory.
The biggest takeaway I got was the unwillingness of either side to acknowledge their mistakes or grow. The Americans want to go back to modern union policies that long-term, end up by destroying companies because the numbers simply do not work, given our system of government and lifestyle. We don't want to change - we just want a $30 an hour job so we can take vacations and have weekend bbq's. And the Chinese executives want obedient slaves, like they have back home. And that doesn't work, either.
I was a little creeped out on the visit to China. The military style "count off" (which was laughable when they tried to recreate it in America), and the "company song and dance" at the reception were bizarre. It was like an Amway meeting taken to astronomical extremes. Don't these people get tired of being told how happy they are? Or is fear of being taken away in the middle of the night still a thing (I guess it is?)
And in all of this, automation looms. Eventually, we won't need any of these people. What then?
No good answers - only more questions. And problems that seem unfixable.
Great movie.
(and yes, do NOT wear a "Jaws" shirt to a big meeting. Wow, did that stand out, as did the "fat" Americans.)
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wikkidpissah
Footballguy
here's your scrapbook review, @Ilov80s & @KarmaPolice. one of the best posts i've read in a while. the hi-lighted lines are dead bang on. how far afield we all go when we fail to recognize the truth of things
Eephus
Footballguy
Sorry I'm late to the party again this month but here goes. Both films were fascinating to watch but more difficult to write up than usual. Although very different films on the surface, they shared a vision of the American Dream in its death throes.
With American Factory, let's with some basic tenets of filmmaking. The makers of American Factory did an excellent job of showing rather than telling. They presented multiple viewpoints without overt editorializing, allowing the people to present their own realities. The movie had a relatively polished look in spite of its cinema verite shooting. The filmmakers did a particularly good job of setting the scene with shots that emphasized the powerlessness of the characters.
I thought American Factory succeeded brilliantly in showing the contrast in cultures that are greater than the similarities in class between the American and Chinese workers. The filmmakers showed empathy to both cultures; there were no real heroes or villains. Even the chairman was given space to proselytize about his ambitions for the factory in addition to his more negative comments about the workers and especially the union.
Last Black Man is a deeply personal film for me so it's impossible to view it objectively. I've lived my adult life in the city including a decade around the corner from the Victorian at 959 South Van Ness used for filming the exteriors. The Japanese-Americans displaced from the Fillmore and Western Addition are my birth family and the African-Americans struggling to stay afloat against the tide of gentrification are my family through marriage. We currently live in a 19th century Victorian house that was purchased by Mrs. Eephus' great-aunt in the early 50s. Aunt Liza didn't build it but her forethought and toughness allowed a single woman working as a cleaning lady to create generational wealth for her family. I remember I had just started dating Mrs. Eephus when Aunt Liza paid it off. I had no idea at the time just how important that would be to my life.
As others have noted, the film is beautifully shot; it captures this city's unique look better than movies that cost hundreds of times more. But I think it did even a better job of showing the city's soul. SF has been a city for big dreams since the Gold Rush days; even the current wave of tech bros fit this description to a degree. Like many self images, this ideal may be more fantasy than reality but that doesn't matter to Jimmy (and to a lesser extent Montgomery ). Last Black Man' is a work of magical realism but even in its own universe, the boundaries of race and class still exists. The dreamlike tone also softens the film's politics a bit. It works more like an allegory than as social criticism. There's room for another film that approaches the effect of gentrification on people of color with a more realistic edge but it would probably share more with American Factory than Last Black Man.
With American Factory, let's with some basic tenets of filmmaking. The makers of American Factory did an excellent job of showing rather than telling. They presented multiple viewpoints without overt editorializing, allowing the people to present their own realities. The movie had a relatively polished look in spite of its cinema verite shooting. The filmmakers did a particularly good job of setting the scene with shots that emphasized the powerlessness of the characters.
I thought American Factory succeeded brilliantly in showing the contrast in cultures that are greater than the similarities in class between the American and Chinese workers. The filmmakers showed empathy to both cultures; there were no real heroes or villains. Even the chairman was given space to proselytize about his ambitions for the factory in addition to his more negative comments about the workers and especially the union.
Last Black Man is a deeply personal film for me so it's impossible to view it objectively. I've lived my adult life in the city including a decade around the corner from the Victorian at 959 South Van Ness used for filming the exteriors. The Japanese-Americans displaced from the Fillmore and Western Addition are my birth family and the African-Americans struggling to stay afloat against the tide of gentrification are my family through marriage. We currently live in a 19th century Victorian house that was purchased by Mrs. Eephus' great-aunt in the early 50s. Aunt Liza didn't build it but her forethought and toughness allowed a single woman working as a cleaning lady to create generational wealth for her family. I remember I had just started dating Mrs. Eephus when Aunt Liza paid it off. I had no idea at the time just how important that would be to my life.
As others have noted, the film is beautifully shot; it captures this city's unique look better than movies that cost hundreds of times more. But I think it did even a better job of showing the city's soul. SF has been a city for big dreams since the Gold Rush days; even the current wave of tech bros fit this description to a degree. Like many self images, this ideal may be more fantasy than reality but that doesn't matter to Jimmy (and to a lesser extent Montgomery ). Last Black Man' is a work of magical realism but even in its own universe, the boundaries of race and class still exists. The dreamlike tone also softens the film's politics a bit. It works more like an allegory than as social criticism. There's room for another film that approaches the effect of gentrification on people of color with a more realistic edge but it would probably share more with American Factory than Last Black Man.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
I hope you live in legal states so you can watch the next pairing.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Eephus
Footballguy
One thing I measure a film by is how often I think about in the days and weeks after. That's one of the reasons Parasite is my pick for the Oscar is how it stayed in my head afterwards.
Last Black Man was always going to be that way for me because of obvious geographic and personal reasons. But I have found myself returning to the people and their situation in American Factory. The film added a deeper and more complex element to stories we normally experience via 90 second news segments.
Last Black Man was always going to be that way for me because of obvious geographic and personal reasons. But I have found myself returning to the people and their situation in American Factory. The film added a deeper and more complex element to stories we normally experience via 90 second news segments.
