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Vanilla Sky voted 'Most Confusing Movie Eva!1"

Started by Artemis, July 21, 2010, 10:57:54 PM

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vrailaine


JPA

Quote from: Artemis on July 21, 2010, 10:57:54 PM
But apparently readers of the Mirror were ok with that one, compared to Tom Cruise's baffling adventure.

Small point, but it's actually LoveFilm users who voted in the poll.

Little Hoover

Quote from: Doomy Dwyer on July 22, 2010, 11:15:53 AM
'Inland Empire' is a mind fucker isn't it? What the fuck is all that about? When I went to see it a woman in the audience had a total breakdown and ran out screaming "What's going on? What's going on?" between wracking sobs. The rest of the audience stared at her sympathetically. It would have been nice if we had all risen in Spartacus like solidarity and made a weepy dash for it, but we were all to busy stroking our chins and muttering something about Bunuel to pledge allegience. I keep meaning to watch it again, but I'm scared.

I'm sure if you were a clever person Inland Empire might all make sense, I've managed to sit through it twice and I think I kind of understood the main thread
Spoiler alert
the woman is trapped, unable to distinguish this melding of reality, the hollywood remake of the film, and the original Polish film,  And something she does somehow free's a woman that went missing during the making of the original polish film but there's so many other variables in there that I'm just not quite sure what to make of it. I can only guess that the film they're making is as complex and impenetrable as Inland Empire itself. But I've probably completely the point
[close]

Doomy Dwyer

Quote from: Little Hoover on July 22, 2010, 12:21:10 PM
I'm sure if you were a clever person Inland Empire might all make sense

I ain't got time to be clever.

biggytitbo

Quote from: copylight on July 22, 2010, 12:01:50 AM
Zardoz
The most confusing thing about that film is why Sean Connery thought it would be ok to wear that big nappy thing.

All the presidents men isnt confusing either, just bollocks.

Back to the future 2 seemed slightly confusing when I first watched it, but actually the plot is incredibly simple. Baron Munchausen has some confusing meta framing around the main story that doesnt entirely makes sense, but seems to work in the context of the films themes. The first Mission Impossible film is confusing too, but in a good way. More convoluted than confusing I suppose.

mcbpete

Quote from: Little Hoover on July 22, 2010, 10:58:46 AM
I never understand why people don't like not being able to understand a film, being utterly confused by a film is a fun emotion for me, knowing exactly what's going on is boring.
Exactly, I love being completely bamboozled by films if I can at least appreciate the atmosphere it's trying to invoke. INLAND EMPIRE being a prime example, I mean I can't claim to know exactly what it's about now having watched it about a half dozen times but even the first time when I was completely confused I still really enjoyed it. Piecing films together, reading interpretations etc. is part of the fun of some films ....

SavageHedgehog

I like not knowing what is going on in a film, but Inland Empire simply didn't engage me on any level.

Ja'moke

Quote from: alan nagsworth on July 22, 2010, 09:10:17 AM
It is pretty bloody baffling, aye. Isn't it just more of a dreamlike assault on the senses, though? A true portrayal of anxiety, worry, doubt, stress and misery? The plot doesn't really need to make any sense, it's just a seriously deep piece of macabre art. I kind of found myself feeling the same way with 'Mulholland Drive' to be honest, but there is definitely more of a soherent plot to that one. In the DVD case there's even the inclusion of ten clues to help you solve the mystery. Not that they actually helped me at all, mind.

I think that's the case for most Lynch films, except for The Straight Story, and maybe Blue Velvet. Lynch operates within dream logic, and he uses the diverse images and sounds of dreams to express various emotions. His films tend to be about themes rather than actual plot. I watched INLAND EMPIRE again recently, the most purely Lynchian film since Eraserhead, and my feeling is that the film is about the mental deterioration of Laura Dern's character,
Spoiler alert
and this is brought about because of the guilt she feels for cheating on her husband, combined with her fear about the 'cursed' film she is making. Whether we are in her dreams or her thoughts, the situations she finds herself in are a result of her real life actions and feelings. I can go in to it in much more depth if people are interested.
[close]

small_world

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on July 21, 2010, 11:03:46 PM
Primer. I've only seen it the once, so maybe it would become clearer upon subsequent viewings, but that first one was a real headscratcher.
OMG. Just watched this now. Was possibly the best movie I've seen in ages. Absolutely brilliant.
Confusing as hell, but amazing.

Santa's Boyfriend

Quote from: SetToStun on July 22, 2010, 09:56:10 AM
Possibly a cliché but I really couldn't get to grips with Donnie Darko - I watched the first hour with my brother one night and it had us both so poxy lost that we abandoned it in favour of something that was at least supposed to make sense.

I still have no idea what it was all about and I can't summon up the willpower to give it another go.

It's a great film, but I'm now convinced its greatness is almost entirely accidental.  There is a lot of important information missing from the film that you don't find out unless you go on the website or read up on the film.  I think there was supposed to be a booklet given to people in the theatre that explained what different things meant (like the fact that donnie is some kind of cypher and that a tangent universe was created which only he has the power to close - or something).  If you watch the director's cut, which explains a lot more of what's supposed to be going on, you realise how much bollocks it all is.  As a result the director's cut is a really bad film.

Ja'moke

Quote from: small_world on July 22, 2010, 10:42:30 PM
OMG. Just watched this now. Was possibly the best movie I've seen in ages. Absolutely brilliant.
Confusing as hell, but amazing.

Primer has been on my Amazon wishlist for a while, I've now ordered it because of this thread. Looking forward to watching it.

mcbpete

Quote from: Santa's Boyfriend on July 22, 2010, 10:53:37 PM
As a result the director's cut is a really bad film.
Aye, I really loved the original release so when I saw that the directors cut was free in a newspaper I picked it up straight away. Watching it made me very angry indeed, absolute bollocks - from the naff CGI pages of explanation throughout to the ridiculous 'Purge' section at the end - everything added in the directors cut completely ruined the film. I binned the directors cut DVD shortly after.

HAYRDRYAH

Surprised to find two consecutive people who like Donnie Darko, in any form. I thought we're supposed to sneer at it for being pretentious and adolescent? Not that I've seen the director's cut. Anything that thinks INXS a worthy replacement for Echo and the Bunnymen is not worth my time.

....three......

chocky909

Four, but fuck that director's cut. And that's the version I bought of course.

AsparagusTrevor

Only thing the Director's Cut has going for it is the new DVD extras, the original release was quite poor in that respect.

RE: the topic title, how the fuck did they come to that conclusion. I bet most of the votes were from people who couldn't really remember the movies but kinda remembered them being a bit confusing. Vanilla Sky was probably just the first that came into their heads.

small_world

5alive.
And directors cut was rubbish because it gave too much away, the best part was figuring it out and thinking about it and stuff.
The bit where
Spoiler alert
Donny's girlfriend gets ran over (very literally)
[close]
was the saddest thing ever.

I've spent most of my night working on Primer in myhead, mulling it over and thinking about it and being confused. And loving it.
It's been a good while since a film has hit me like that.

Paaaaul

Quote from: AsparagusTrevor on July 23, 2010, 10:35:46 AM
Only thing the Director's Cut has going for it is the new DVD extras, the original release was quite poor in that respect.


There's very little in the way of extras on the Director's Cut DVD that wasn't on the original DVD release.

- A new commentary with Kevin Smith (much less interesting than the one on the original release with Gyllenhaal)
- A poor Killing Moon video
- A fairly boring production diary

...so apart from a wank version of the film, you're also getting some wank extra extras too.

In fact the Director's Cut DVD doesn't contain the two commentaries on the original release, nor the 'Philosophy of Time Travel' book bit, so I would say you're actually getting a worse selection of extras on that DVD.

copylight

Quote from: Doomy Dwyer on July 22, 2010, 11:15:53 AM
'Inland Empire'

Phft! It's Lynch after all. All of Lynch's films have that kind of bewilderment built into them as Santa has already said - apart from elephant Man, The straight story and Dune, it's all Ronseal with the rest though.

Quote
El fucking Topo. That's a bastard too.

Yep. El Topo irritated me after watching Jodo's Holy Mountain - a film that should by rights demand bewilderment built into it for it is a visual treat - pure suspension of disbelief stuff that works on a deeper idea of confusion. With EL Topo though I had very high hopes, alas the music is the only thing that is truly memorable about that whole affair. Still, Yoko and John found it a masterpiece enough to fund HM up the arse so the story goes.

Puffin Chunks

I remember Barton Fink as being a somewhat confusing film.... but then I've only seen it once, many years ago. I certainly remember loving it and thinking 'I really need to watch this again', as the layers of metaphor spun around my head, with a lot of it not quite gelling together for me.

I may have to give it another whirl this weekend.


lipsink

The plot of the Coen's 'Miller's Crossing' is also quite confusing. It's hard to tell what the fuck Gabriel Byrne's character is up to.

Rolf Harris

Quote from: Artemis on July 21, 2010, 10:57:54 PMMulholland Drive on the other hand is a right headfuck, especially the first time you watch it. But apparently readers of the Mirror were ok with that one, compared to Tom Cruise's baffling adventure.

I don't think it would be unfair for me to assume that perhaps the number of Mirror readers who have seen (or even heard of Mulholland Drive) are considerably fewer than those who saw the Tom Cruise film, therefore leaving Mulholland with far less votes in this poll.

As for the fact that so many films near the top of this poll would generally be considered fairly easy to decipher, again I don't think it's at all offensive for me to suggest that the average Mirror reader probably has trouble understanding any film above the level of Sex and the City 2.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Santa's Boyfriend on July 22, 2010, 10:53:37 PM
It's a great film, but I'm now convinced its greatness is almost entirely accidental.

Absolutely. It seems that imposed time constraints actually had a beneficial effect for once.

Quote from: HAYRDRYAH on July 23, 2010, 12:09:27 AM
Surprised to find two consecutive people who like Donnie Darko, in any form. I thought we're supposed to sneer at it for being pretentious and adolescent? Not that I've seen the director's cut. Anything that thinks INXS a worthy replacement for Echo and the Bunnymen is not worth my time.

Again, problems with getting clearance for using the director's first choices of music worked out beautifully. I don't care that the bicycle manoeuvres were timed to Never Tear Us Apart. The Killing Moon has just got so much more atmosphere and, at the time, I thought it was a stroke of genius. And I like Just Like Heaven but how he could have thought that this was a better choice for the party scene than Love Will Tear Us Apart is baffling.

Artemis

Quote from: Rolf Harris on July 23, 2010, 04:21:30 PM
I don't think it would be unfair for me to assume that perhaps the number of Mirror readers who have seen (or even heard of Mulholland Drive) are considerably fewer than those who saw the Tom Cruise film, therefore leaving Mulholland with far less votes in this poll.

Possibly. Or may be they just read this and weren't as confused by it.

kidsick5000

Vanilla SKy is a great little film. It's sort of sacriligous to say it but I think it works better than the originial. The set-up of a publishing playboy fits with what comes later better than a guy that inherited a restaurant, and the cash influx a Tom Cruise pic brings helps convey the dream world better.
But I don't get how its confusing. There's even a guy who pops up later on in the film to explain what's happening.
MAybe the question should be "What film do you actually have to shut your idiot gob and pay attention to, you ignorant MIrror reading shits"

Mulholland Drive is hard to get your head round for the first time.

Cerys

Put another one down for loving Donnie Darko.  In fact I seem to recall posting here, just after I watched it for the first time, that it was the best time-travel film I'd ever seen.  Of course, I was wrong - Five Monkeys is more time-travel than Donnie Darko is.

HAYRDRYAH

This is a great thread, I definitely need to see Primer now.

Quote from: Rolf Harris on July 23, 2010, 04:21:30 PMI don't think it would be unfair for me to assume that perhaps the number of Mirror readers who have seen (or even heard of Mulholland Drive) are considerably fewer than those who saw the Tom Cruise film, therefore leaving Mulholland with far less votes in this poll.

As for the fact that so many films near the top of this poll would generally be considered fairly easy to decipher, again I don't think it's at all offensive for me to suggest that the average Mirror reader probably has trouble understanding any film above the level of Sex and the City 2.

Lovefilm users, the Mirror just reported it.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Cerys on July 23, 2010, 05:52:06 PM
Five Monkeys is more time-travel than Donnie Darko is.
You seem to have misplaced seven simians.

Cerys

Gah, my brain got all Willised into confusing the titles of Twelve Monkeys and The Fifth Element.  It's the Alzheimer's making an early appearance.  Either that or I just wasn't paying attention to what I was posting.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Well if ever there was a thread in which to confuse movies, this would be it. I sometimes hear the name Donnie Darko and think of Johnny Depp infiltrating the mob.

In other matters, I didn't find Mulholland Drive all the perplexing, because it's more or less the same plot as Lost Highway.

biggytitbo

I'm the same, I always confuse Donnie Brasco with the brass polishing product Brasso.