Mar 9, 2017

negged

 

Mar 9, 2017

2000s

Apichatpong Weerasethakul



Runner up:

David Lynch



Honorable Mentions:

Paul Thomas Anderson, Hou Hsiao-hsien & Michael Mann.

 

Mar 10, 2017

or less interesting long goodbye

 

Mar 10, 2017

Surface level comparisons to The Long Goodbye and The Big Lebowski? How original!

 

Mar 10, 2017

They're very obvious comparisons for a reason.

 

Mar 10, 2017

They are very superficial comparisons

 

Mar 10, 2017

IV is the most beautiful simp love story.

 

Mar 10, 2017

Altman fathered PTA. Let's not pretend most PTA movies don't have very, very obvious influences. Boogie Nights might remind me of Goodfellas or Nashville, but it blazes its own path. Inherent Vice is one that I don't think transcends the sources that it borrows from.

 

Mar 10, 2017

I agree about his earlier films but starting with PND, he very much has his own DNA and IV is one of his most peculiar films and it doesn't really resemble those films mentioned outside of surface things like the main character being a PI and a stoner. The essence of the film is much much different and it's a perfect blend of PTA's and Pynchon's style and voice. I'm sorry but from the release of the film, I've rolled my eyes at those weak comparisons to those films.

 

Mar 10, 2017

Let's not marginalize one of the most unique and heartfelt films of the decade pls. IV is his most underrated, it's every bit as much of a masterpiece as The Master, Punch-Drunk Love & There Will Be Blood.

 

Mar 10, 2017

You're not going to sway me by pretending the comparisons aren't as legitimate as they are obvious. They're easy for a reason. Simple as. Also, I suspect people who have read the book are relying on supplementary material giving insight that simply doesn't come across in the picture or just isn't interesting in how PTA interprets it cinematically.

 

Mar 10, 2017

Or you're just not engaging with the film on the level you're supposed to and are running with comparisons that don't really stick at all.

The heart of a film is a story of lost love and Doc's longing for Shasta. Look at the last scene or the Journey Through the Past sequence to see what the essence of the film is, all the PI stuff is simply surface material to show the lengths at which he will go to find and help the person he loves, who will never love him in return. It's a beautiful and emotional story that has elements not found anywhere in those films mentioned so yes, those comparisons don't hold up at all when you truly look at the film and engage with it on its wavelength. But sure, let's pretend like PTA has digressed instead of further pushing into his prime filmmaking form. It's interesting that you're writing this off in much of the same way that people have written off something like To the Wonder, again I think this is another instance of a film not being appreciated enough upon release that will eventually be looked back on as something major. All I know is that as a fan of both PTA and Pynchon, this more than accomplishes what it sets out to do, it's a masterwork.

 

Mar 10, 2017

@Vahn what? it's not surface at all. you can't pretend they're wildly different stories. IV was clearly inspired by both films lol. not inherently a bad thing. we're perhaps being overly dismissive, but the comparisons are valid..........

::fast forwards circular argument where vahn claims we simply aren't "engaging" with the film the right way::
you can justify ANY interpretation that way lls. and i like Inherent Vice. it's just not as inherently good as its fore-bearers, or previous PTA films

 

Mar 10, 2017

It was inspired by the book lol.

In this case, i said he's not engaging with the film on its wavelength because he tried to tell me that I was using supplementary information from the book which isn't the case, because everything I'm saying is in the film.

This is easily one of his best films to me, much more mature and formally intriguing than his early work.

p.s. I also prefer it to The Long Goodbye and The Big Lebowski, which are both great in their own respects; IV just strikes me as something much more personal and emotive which is what draws me to cinema in the first place.

 

Mar 10, 2017

well, it's an adaptation of the book, but lets not play semantics. tonally it's clearly influenced by long goodbye and lebowski... no?

idk, "personal and emotive" feels like another catch all vahn!!!!!

 

Mar 10, 2017

its more Big Sleep

 

Mar 10, 2017

I don't think it is frankly, the similarities end with oh look he's a hippy stoner private investigator.

It seems like you're ignoring my post where I specifically mentioned how it's personal and emotive!!

All I'm trying to say is that there's more to the film than you guys are leading on and it's unfair to neglect it and say that it's merely a shadow of its influences. Maybe there's more that's worth looking into with it, that's all.

 

Mar 10, 2017

It would be cool if mainstream film criticism wasn't limited to listing off possible influences and actually worked towards finding what the film is actually trying to do. But majority of the reviews when this film came out were "it's like the long goodbye and the big lebowski but it's just people talkin and it's long and boring lol"

 

Mar 10, 2017

VERY reductive.

is it ok PT himself claims Long Goodbye as an influence?
https://thedissolve.com/reviews/1271-the-long-goodbye/
like, dude, i'm not trying to totally annillate your argument. but.....

 

Mar 10, 2017

I'm not eliminating your argument either m8, I was just trying to say that a lot of the time things are very easily dismissed using that sort of logic and it's unfair to a film like this that is clearly doing a lot more. And my example wasn't reductive because a LOT of film criticism is like that these days, i was referring back to majority of the reviews about IV from its release. Of course PTA is influenced by Altman, he always has been, but IV is so drenched in the DNA of PTA and Pynchon that citing it as a lesser Long Goodbye is what is reductive, the film uses the PI aspect simply as a narrative device to delve into themes that are nonexistent in those other films.

Ana Lily Amirpour actually clapped back at critics when everyone was comparing her work to that of Jim Jarmusch, etc. she was like "he's great, but that wasn't an influence on my film. Please talk about my film not things you think influenced it" or something along those lines. It's a fair point, critics often use comparisons and citing possible influences as crutches when they don't have anything to say about the film itself.

IV moves so much differently than those films, the use of music is fresh and unique, the imagery is beautiful and it's everything that a Pynchon adaptation should be. Pynchon is one of the most unique minds oat imo, so I think it's a disservice to him to pretend like this has been done before.