My Favorite Movies of 2016 (so far)

[oscar jubis]

I feel deprived that I haven't had a chance to attend Oscar Jubis's class.

Personally, I'd replace Ex Machina (Alex Garland/2015) with The Machine (Caradog James/2013).

You are very kind and I thank you. I wish we could meet and talk movies in person. I am enjoying my teaching, even though it's very hard to make ends meet with the paltry remuneration I get. It's fun though. For example, I'm preparing a course for next semester titled "Visual Communication" that would allow me to incorporate material about the historical development of technique in the art of painting. This is quite a challenge for me because I've focused exclusively on cinema up to now.
I had not heard about The Machine and I am interested in watching it. Thanks for mentioning it.

[Chris Knipp]

I would put Manchester by the Sea above the indeed enjoyable Hell or High Water. Just watched Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. Best thing he's done in a while. Speaking of painting, you ought to see Loving Vincent, animated using rotoscoping or motion capture and paintings by Van Gogh. French version I saw was all in French (better - since it takes place in France) and it was called La Passion Van Gogh.

[oscar jubis]

I would put Manchester by the Sea above the indeed enjoyable Hell or High Water. Just watched Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. Best thing he's done in a while. Speaking of painting, you ought to see Loving Vincent, animated using rotoscoping or motion capture and paintings by Van Gogh. French version I saw was all in French (better - since it takes place in France) and it was called La Passion Van Gogh.

Loving Vincent aligns perfectly with my current intellectual explorations. So I am buying the BlueRay as soon as it's released in January. I am currently watching a series of 24 lectures about the greatest paintings in Western Art released on dvd in 2010 by a company named The Great Courses. I recently finished the course on Greatest Ideas of Philosophy. so much to learn.

[Chris Knipp]

Glad you're making good use of the film, Loving Vincent. Those courses must be most edifying. I've enjoyed art and philosophy courses.
Amherst is a good school.

[oscar jubis]

The Effect of Cheap, High-tech CGI on the Current cinema: the case of Captain Fantastic

Rapid technological innovation of systems to generate images in the computer has a substantial effect on televisual as well as cinematic production. The relative low-cost of sophisticated technology is a major reason for stylistic blending or perhaps amalgamation of the aesthetics of TV and Cinema. There used to be a clear difference between them because of budget and screen size. Now it's easier to do TV that requires special effects because they are cheaper and easier to carry out. And the most popular shot in movies is the TV-friendly "tight single" (a close view of a single character) that lasts only a few seconds and is captured with a roving camera. David Bordwell coined the term "intensified continuity" to refer to this "contemporary conventional" style so well suited for legibility on small screens by spectators with short attention spans.

One of the lesser but still consequential effects of cheap, high-tech CGI is the use of special effects for purposes of generating spectacle, often at a cost I may qualify as "artistic", if you think of art as having relation to the imitation and examination of nature or reality or truth. These thoughts come to mind following a screening of Captain Fantastic, a well regarded 2016 theatrical release that had all the makings of a film I would like, and it remains a film of merit and hence worth mentioning but certainly a "mixed bag" for me. I find myself reacting incredulously to a few scenes that challenge the verisimilitude of the narrative and characterize the protagonist as a madman. The weight of his ideas take a beating because they are made to seem so extreme and irresponsible. I noticed that these ill-advised scenes exist because CGI make it possible to show realistic-looking scenes involving such phenomena as the removal and consumption of a beating deer heart and kids scaling a vertical cliff like pros. There is an element of flamboyant hysteria at play, like in the scene when a dramatic confrontation between the survivalist, “hippie” captain and his bourgeois father-in-law resolves with the latter shooting an arrow close to the head of the protagonist as he scurries away. Captain Fantastic is terribly uneven and it feels like a wasted opportunity because a substantial number of scenes are effective, engaging and thoughtful.

[Chris Knipp]

I loved Captain Fantastic. It's a meaningful, emotionally satisfying film and one of my favorites of the year, bar none. Didn't see those flaws. Don't think CGI mars the movie, and think Ben's (Viggo's) excesses are intentional and based on Matt Ross' actual experience of utopian communities. Much of the fun has to do with the ensemble work of wonderful band of child and youth actors, not any physical effects. The cast underwent rugged training, and the interesting thing is that they actually do a lot of the challenging feats depicted in the film, not that they are falsified with computers.

[oscar jubis]

They are falsified by computers though. The director may have witnessed rock climbing, but the film shows little kids on a computer-generated vertical cliff that would give pause to the most experienced adult climber. Other scenes also show a lack of restraint that seems to parody the whole idea of alternative lifestyles and resistance to the status quo. Still I also enjoyed the ensemble work in several scenes.

Then I watched Love & Friendship, the adaptation of Jane Austen's "Lady Susan" by Whit Stillman. Because the novel is epistolary, the adaptation involved a thorough transformation. The most peculiar and challenging aspect of the film is that it introduces by name about 15 characters in the first 5 or 6 minutes. However, the film is the shortest of all Austen adaptation to film that I know. It moves too fast at first, but then it settles into a peppy but more reasonable pace. Love & Friendship exhibits a respect for words and idiomatic phrases and for the performative aspects of language, as it should. It is also rather cynical in its worldview compared to other better-known, beloved selections from Austen's oeuvre. There's nothing warm and fuzzy about Lady Susan's machinations and strategies to procure herself and her daughter with suitable husbands. Not a great film, but certainly a good one.

I still have only 7 films in my 2016 Top 10, with the addition of Toni Erdmann to the 6 above mentioned.