Category: movies

Portland, Oregon 2025

Leaving the Portland airport, seeing the architecture of the homes and evergreen trees made me feel like I was back in Seattle. But as we drove into downtown Portland, two things stood out, distinguishing Portland from Seattle–namely, the Willamette River and the bridges, one after the other, a few rising high above it. Water features prominently in Seattle, but the water there is like an amoeba surrounding it, whereas in Portland, the Willamette is a strong line, cleaving the city in two, creating western and eastern sections. The Western side is more of the urban core, including the downtown area. The Eastern side is more suburban, with several portions of the longer streets and avenues filled with shops, restaurants and even movie theaters, creating a kind of charming main street vibe. I really like Seattle, but I might like Portland even more. The food scene seems just as good as Seattle, if not better, and they have probably the best bookstore I’ve been to. I want to talk about that store and also a used vinyl/cd/video store which I really liked as well.

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The New York Times 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

I was debating whether to start a separate thread or include this in the thread about Film Comment’s best films of the 2010s, but a separate thread seems appropriate, even though there is a lot of overlap. In this thread, I’m going to discuss the list ten films per post, starting with the 100th film. Here’s the link to the article: The New York Times 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century (Note: I had trouble making this a gifted article, but if you want that, let me know, and I’ll try again.)

Some random thoughts before I begin:

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The Films of Azazel Jacobs

I’ve heard about Azazel Jacobs, an independent filmmaker, a while ago, but I never got around to watching his films (They were not readily available as far I know.)–which are in the vein of Cassavetes, Mike Leigh and more recently mumblecore filmmakers like Andrew Bujalski.

I recently watched four of his films, and I really liked them (with the possible exception of one of the films). Interestingly, three out of the four films were so slow and boring, I struggled to stick with them. Yet, all three of these films, about a third of the way, came alive for me, in a way that surprised me. How could a film that seemed so boring all of sudden become interesting? The funny thing is that the film that didn’t start slow (Terri) ended up being the least interesting and in my view least successful of the four films. (I wondered I was the problem, more than the films. Maybe I watched too much YouTube videos recently, making me impatient. But I got into Terri fairly quickly so I don’t think I was the problem.)

I’m going to use this thread to discuss Jacobs’s films.

Thoughts on Taste

Reading Criterion.com’s Trash and Treasure at the Razies, I came across the following quote, which I liked:

People “distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make,” writes sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in Distinction: “between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar”—between art and trash. “Art and cultural consumption are predisposed, consciously and deliberately or not, to fulfill a social function of legitimating social differences.” We reveal ourselves through our preferences; like a space telescope photographing faraway light from the beginning of the universe, our esteem for a particular film is a lens that sees backward in time, to the economic class, educational history, and subcultural sensibility in which such preferences are forged. You are what you like—and, crucially, you aren’t what you don’t. To prefer this to that is to align yourself with these people instead of those, an assertion of in-group belonging through a common agreement about what tastes are unpalatable. Per Bourdieu, “all determination is negation; and tastes are perhaps first and foremost distastes, disgust provoked by horror or visceral intolerance.”

As a reaction to the quote, I want to explore some of the following questions in this thread:

  • What is taste (art, etc.)?
  • What is good taste?
  • Is having good taste important?

The Hal Hartley Thread

For those who grew up watching and enjoying John Hughes films, Hal Hartley would be the filmmaker they “graduated” to when going to college. These viewers would embrace Hartley has commenting on suburban American characters, but in a more sophisticated and serious way, while being humorous and accessible at the time. If Richard Linklater is the filmmaker for Generation X, Hartley is more of the independent filmmaker version of this.

Right now, the Criterion Channel is streaming most of Hartley’s films. This is a thread will be a repository for reviews, comments, and discussion about Hartley and these films.

References

Indiewire (8/16/23) interview

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

In the past, I believed this was among the greatest movies ever made, even though I had nothing more than a vague understanding of the film. The cinematic quality of the movie–i.e., the combination of images and sound–by itself–was exceptional, and I didn’t feel an urgent need to discover a coherent interpretation of the film.

Well, I recently re-watched the film, and I do think I have a better understanding of the film, one that is significantly different. In this thread, I’ll present my current understanding of the film, but before I do, I wanted to mention a film random comments that don’t pertain to the interpretation.

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Movies You’ve Always Wondered About

Back in the day, when video rental stores existed, one memory I have is relatively long time to choose a movie–especially, when this involved a group of friends. (The same dynamic has moved over to streaming sites.) During this process, I recall certain films that would look intriguing–either because of the cover design and blurb or because of the cast and director–but for whatever reason, I (we) would never choose the film.

In this thread, I want to discuss some of those films. Please share some of these films, and give some comments if you eventually got around to watching them; or, if you didn’t, why you think you never did. I actually have three that are streaming now, and I just saw one of them. I’ll talk about the film (and hopefully the other two, when I see them) in this thread.