Discussion:
big lebowski laborious
(too old to reply)
brigit bardot brigade
2004-07-27 02:25:01 UTC
Permalink
what is this? marijuanoir?

i love the coen's o brother where art thou. i respect barton fink and
fargo though don't much like them. i grudginly like man who wasn't
there; it was derivative but it really had a core.

anyway, what's most irritating about coens is the first sense i get
from their movies is they've seen ALOT of movies. coens are more
postmodernist interior decorators than real artists. sometimes they
do it astonishingly well or with genuine brilliance but more often
than not, they strike me as tim burton for the arthouse crowd.

o brother was an exception because its primary sources of inspiration
were music, discarded junkpile of forgotten americana, and whatnot.
it fed on the past but it wasn't cinema cannibalizing cinema.

like tarantino, coens are always mixing everything, like filmmaking is
like shaking up a cocktail drink. hardly surprising that jeff bridges
keeps mixing drinks in the movie. though set in contemporary times,
you have a mix-n-match of 30s style screwball comedy, 40s style noir,
70s style counterculture, and 90s style slickness. sometimes it's the
styles, sometimes the characterizations or the plots, or genre
convetions that are being jumbled together; the only constant is the
inconstant. so a polish-catholic is a jew. and he confuses vietnam
with everything. a rich guy is really not so rich. the kidnapped
woman wasn't kidnapped. criminals are really disgrunted rock
musicians. etc, etc. but not surprisingly, juliann moore showed her
skanky buff again. someone stop this woman.

well, this sort of thing would be funny for a 10 min skit. as a 2 hr
movie, it's tiresome. try stretching any SNL parody skit into a movie
and you get the point. i don't mind a 2 hr comedy, but a movie where
nothing holds together and everything exists only to be sent up?
flush it. and it's not like Airplane which was consistently zany.
coens give us a character who's reasonably realistic and genuinely
likable so when the world around him is just a cheap carnival act that
grows dumber, more ludicrous, and staler by the minute, what's the
point?

it had some laughs. and the musical numbers were clever but, again,
too derivative. okay, so coens have seen all the noirs. they've seen
all the musicals and etc etc etc. I DON'T CARE. show me something i
haven't seen before. is that too much to ask?

no, as after lebowski, they made their greatest movie, a real
masterpiece with o brother where art thou?
we need REAL originality. no more postmodernischtick please.
ymenard
2004-07-27 06:10:58 UTC
Permalink
Post by brigit bardot brigade
what is this? marijuanoir?
<snip>
Post by brigit bardot brigade
we need REAL originality. no more postmodernischtick please
Yeah well, that's just, ya know, like, your opinion, man.
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Mike Girouard
2004-07-27 08:58:31 UTC
Permalink
Post by brigit bardot brigade
what is this? marijuanoir?
i love the coen's o brother where art thou. i respect barton fink and
fargo though don't much like them. i grudginly like man who wasn't
there; it was derivative but it really had a core.
<BIG SNIP>
Post by brigit bardot brigade
no, as after lebowski, they made their greatest movie, a real
masterpiece with o brother where art thou?
we need REAL originality. no more postmodernischtick please.
What did someone in here say that you thought sounded like, "Tell us
what you think."?

FoggyTown
Martin Anderson
2004-07-27 13:17:16 UTC
Permalink
On 7/27/04 4:25 AM, in article
Post by brigit bardot brigade
we need REAL originality. no more postmodernischtick please.
This aggression will not stand.
Justin
2004-08-03 16:58:41 UTC
Permalink
I like the scene where Dude is in the police station and they ask for ID.
He pulls out a Ralph's card (or Vaughn's, can't recall which) -- those are
both grocery stores in So Cal. That's cool. I liked the Big Lebowski.
Maybe watch it again. There's a lot to digest.


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DH
2004-08-12 22:04:42 UTC
Permalink
Post by brigit bardot brigade
what is this? marijuanoir?
I actually enjoyed reading what you say, even if I don't agree with
all of it.
Post by brigit bardot brigade
i love the coen's o brother where art thou.
It undermines everything you say because this is the most shallow,
half-baked, disjointed and unfunny Coen movie I have ever seen
(although the music is truly great). It is very telling that it worked
even less well on a second viewing.

I have to say that I haven't even seen Intolerable Cruelty or
Ladykillers. A couple of years ago, the idea of not automatically
seeing a new Coen movie would have been inconcievable. OBWAT changed
all that.

I love Barton FInk. A true masterpiece.
Post by brigit bardot brigade
i respect barton fink and
fargo though don't much like them. i grudginly like man who wasn't
there; it was derivative but it really had a core.
anyway, what's most irritating about coens is the first sense i get
from their movies is they've seen ALOT of movies. coens are more
postmodernist interior decorators than real artists. sometimes they
do it astonishingly well or with genuine brilliance but more often
than not, they strike me as tim burton for the arthouse crowd.
o brother was an exception because its primary sources of inspiration
were music, discarded junkpile of forgotten americana, and whatnot.
it fed on the past but it wasn't cinema cannibalizing cinema.
like tarantino, coens are always mixing everything, like filmmaking is
like shaking up a cocktail drink. hardly surprising that jeff bridges
keeps mixing drinks in the movie. though set in contemporary times,
you have a mix-n-match of 30s style screwball comedy, 40s style noir,
70s style counterculture, and 90s style slickness. sometimes it's the
styles, sometimes the characterizations or the plots, or genre
convetions that are being jumbled together; the only constant is the
inconstant. so a polish-catholic is a jew. and he confuses vietnam
with everything. a rich guy is really not so rich. the kidnapped
woman wasn't kidnapped. criminals are really disgrunted rock
musicians. etc, etc. but not surprisingly, juliann moore showed her
skanky buff again. someone stop this woman.
well, this sort of thing would be funny for a 10 min skit. as a 2 hr
movie, it's tiresome. try stretching any SNL parody skit into a movie
and you get the point. i don't mind a 2 hr comedy, but a movie where
nothing holds together and everything exists only to be sent up?
flush it. and it's not like Airplane which was consistently zany.
coens give us a character who's reasonably realistic and genuinely
likable so when the world around him is just a cheap carnival act that
grows dumber, more ludicrous, and staler by the minute, what's the
point?
it had some laughs. and the musical numbers were clever but, again,
too derivative. okay, so coens have seen all the noirs. they've seen
all the musicals and etc etc etc. I DON'T CARE. show me something i
haven't seen before. is that too much to ask?
no, as after lebowski, they made their greatest movie, a real
masterpiece with o brother where art thou?
we need REAL originality. no more postmodernischtick please.
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