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Thread: Mr. Carnelian's Entirely Subjective Guide to 21st Century Cinema

  1. #76
    draper hates the caley Cell's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Carnelian View Post
    2018: Annihilation

    Turns out, I really like psychological thrillers with Natalie Portman as the lead (see also, Black Swan). After her husband inexplicably appears at their house months after being declared Missing in Action and then promptly drops into a coma, Portman's Lena is drawn into the project he was working for. This project is an attempt to understand/destroy "the Shimmer" a mysterious and ever-growing area centred around an asteroid crash site, in which the laws of nature no longer seem to apply.

    Film buffs might be tempted to write off Annihilation as a gender-swapped version of Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker, but whilst there are a lot of surface similarities, at the core of each film is something quite different. Both feature a group of troubled individuals journeying through a strange, altered landscape in a quest to reach the mystery at its centre. However, whilst Stalker plays around with the nature of desire and how desire shapes us, Annihilation deals much more directly with questions at the heart of our notions of identity. What does it mean to be "you"? Is a copy or an echo of you also you? If so, might that echo be able to become more than you? How far can you be transformed before you cease to be you?

    Both the world around Lena and her group and the interior world of their minds become haunted by doubling and mirroring the further they venture, culminating in a bone-chilling encounter at the heart of the Shimmer. I absolutely love sci-fi, so I admit that I'm biased, but for my money Annihilation is not only one of the best sci-fi films of this century so far, but one of the best films of the century so far, full stop.

    Attachment 76277Attachment 76276
    Nobody I know has seen this and it's utterly criminal. Seriously underrated film.
    YE RAGIN', AYE?

  2. #77
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Some good choices so far, still need to watch Annihilation. I'm the only sci-fi/horror fan among my group that go see movies together, so I often have to catch some of these films after the fact.

    2016 - I think I may have to give this to the seriously underrated Kubo of the Two Strings, a gorgeously animated film by equally underrated Laika Animation studio. For a kids film, there is some serious drama and a very moving story about growing up and the bond stories give between parents and children.

    2017 - Going to concur with Blade Runner 2049, the rare sci-fi non-comic book films I got to see that year in the actual cinema. The visual and music was great, had some nice cyberpunk moments as well. My only beef with the film is that the plot is too similar to Armitage III and I felt that series handled the matter a bit better. still a stellar flick. My secondary choice would be Thor: Ragnarok which was a fun and visually killer film.

    2018 - Call me a fanboy, but my fave film of 2018 is another Wes Anderson film, Isle of Dogs was a fun film similar to Fantastic Mr. Fox in animation style with Anderson's usual quirky aesthetics and mood, combined with his usual dry wit. Bonus points that all the Japanese characters speak only Japanese for most of the film, and the story was really amusing and charming.

  3. #78
    draper hates the caley Cell's Avatar
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    I just watched Embrace of the Serpent and it's a potential shout for my film of 2015 now.
    YE RAGIN', AYE?

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    Trial by Wombat Bubba's Avatar
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    2016 - Arrival
    2017 - Get Out
    2018 - Coco

    I've never seen a sci-fi film quite like Arrival. I'm a big fan of Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner too (the latter in strictly non-Avenger roles). This film stayed in my head quite a long time after watching.

    I first saw Daniel Kaluuya in the Black Mirror episode Fifteen Million Merits. He shone in that but was in even more impressive in Get Out. Jordan Peele did a great job as a first-time director too.

    Coco literally has me bawling my eyes out every time I watch it. So much so that whenever my son is watching it I have to leave the room at certain points.

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    2016: Moonlight. The visuals and the deeper messages of this movie are still stunning a few years removed and they announced Barry Jenkins as a filmmaker to be reckoned with. Also shoutout to Paterson, which featured a never better Adam Driver.

    2017: The Rider. Another gut punch of a movie, with a quiet dignity and grace that fits in with the beautiful relationships and animals it represented. Based on a true story and featuring mostly non actors to boot. If you get the chance, really check out this film. Get Out, Logan and Lady Bird made for a really strong year.

    2018: Mission Impossible: Fallout. Everything I could possibly ever want in an action movie. Tom Cruise literally inventing new stunts to prove yet again that his goal might be to die onscreen. If Beale Street Could Talk and Sorry To Bother You are also worth highlighting.

    2019: So far, with half a year in the books, I'd say the best films I've seen are The Last Black Man In San Francisco, John Wick 3 and When They See Us. A lot coming up that I'm excited to see.

    Take care all.

  6. #81

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
    Going to concur with Blade Runner 2049, the rare sci-fi non-comic book films I got to see that year in the actual cinema. The visual and music was great, had some nice cyberpunk moments as well. My only beef with the film is that the plot is too similar to Armitage III and I felt that series handled the matter a bit better. still a stellar flick. My secondary choice would be Thor: Ragnarok which was a fun and visually killer film.
    That movie was amazing! I just got to see it a few days ago. I don't know if it's because the movie is just that good, or whether it's because I'm one of those few people who didn't really like the original, but I feel like this movie is overall better than the original and that it had a better and more interesting story and characters. I guess it would be unfair to say it had better visuals, too, because the technology back then just didn't allow for more and because it created that visual style while the sequel just built on it, but I feel like even if you break the visuals down to their concepts, the sequel had a lot of visuals that were more memorable, like that Elvis scene. That's something they could have probably done back in the day, too. They had those holograms in Star Wars which looked kinda like that.

    Quote Originally Posted by Cell View Post
    Nobody I know has seen this and it's utterly criminal. Seriously underrated film.
    I don't know why I feel so ehh about that movie. I saw it and was really into it for a while (particularly during that one scene... you know the one) But looking back on it, it feels kinda inconsequential. I don't know why.

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