>Happy 2014, everyone! Trey, Trevan and Eric return to go over their choices for the best films of 2013. Trey discusses the most underrated films of the year and Eric and Trevan go over movies 10 through 6 on the list. Will a surprise film sneak into the top 5? Will Trevan attempt to nominate Snow Dogs again for the fifth straight year? Hang around and find out.
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Fuck life . Let this be the last the world hears of The Bling Ring.
Warren, I’m making The Bling Ring part of my holiday tradition. Hopefully it will catch on and soon we’ll have 24hrs of The Bling Ring every Thanksgiving on TBS.
Gotta side with Warren on the Bling Ring, I think the subtlety that you mention is there but it makes the movie feel toothless. It feels as if Coppola is washing her hands of any responsibility, instead of starting an idea and allowing discussion to flow from that, she just places the events before the viewer without making any narrative choices and leaves everything else on the table.
I’m very much with you on Only God Forgives, I found it a fascinating exercise. I cannot believe there is no awards discussion around the cinematography in both it and Stoker.
Finally, I find it interesting that you mention several films like Ain’t them Bodies Saints and American Hustle being compared as derivatives of Malick and Scorcese films respectively (I agree that in each case they are more than just riffs on their influences). I too have noticed this and I find it interesting because one critically lauded film that I found to be entirely derivative without going beyond homage was the Italian film The Great Beauty. I found it to be entirely derivative of Fellini, while not furthering that style of film and in almost every case its satire or commentary was far less subtle or biting than its original incarnation. Yet it seems to be the same people who champion the Great Beauty for the same reasons they want to pull down American Hustle and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.
Xavier,
I just rewatched The Bling Ring last night, and I still find it fascinating. I think that there is clear narrative choice without Sofia Coppola ever even hinting at a moral or solution. Even down to the small physical gestures that the characters make, which undermine or at least complicate the vacuous drivel that is coming out of their mouths, this film is an exquisitely controlled piece. I think I like it even more now that it’s had time to season and marinate.
Oh, good God! Can you imagine a 24 marathon of The Bling Ring? There would be Jonestown-style mass-suicides all over the goddamned place. The horror! (And Trey, I can’t wait to get to KC in a month to podcast about this again = )
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