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New 'Old' trailer (M. Night Shyamalan)

Started by Dusty Substance, May 27, 2021, 08:30:38 PM

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Dusty Substance

Love him, hate him or give or take him, M. Night Shyamalan remains a fascinating film maker who is still kind of dining out on 'The Sixth Sense' from 22 years ago.

Here's the trailer to his new film 'Old', due for release in July and is his first film since 'Glass'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJVICdBjUOU

Personally, I'm sold and can't wait to see it.

Based on a graphic novel, 'Old' looks like it borrows elements from 'Lost' and that indie movie 'Time Trap' from a few years ago. It's got a pretty decent line up of actors - Thomasin McKenzie, Vicky Krieps, Gael García Bernal  and Alex Wolf - and, given the premise of the film shown in the trailer, they've cast the younger actors pretty accordingly.


phantom_power

I don't think he is dining out of Sixth Sense any more. I think he is very much having to prove himself with each new film as he is so variable. I really liked The Visit, and Split was surprisingly decent but Glass was pish. I think he is a good director with decent ideas but not really the writing chops to make consistently good films. I think he gets a bit high on the smell of his own farts and needs a collaborator to tell him to stop being a twat and stick to the good stuff

mothman

Where does After Earth fall within that equation, though? He directed, yes, but with a co-writer, and presumably Will Smith's team keeping a close eye on things (it was during his long nadir, prior to his cachet resurgent after Split). And yet it's a shit-show. If I had to guess it'd be that the oversight wasn't as robust as you might expect from a proper producer or studio, but instead was all yes-men, because the whole thing was an ego-driven vanity project, designed to promote the career of Jaden Smith...

phantom_power

Sorry I should have been clear that I meant a competent collaborator

notjosh

Quote from: Dusty Substance on May 27, 2021, 08:30:38 PM
Based on a graphic novel, 'Old' looks like it borrows elements from 'Lost' and that indie movie 'Time Trap' from a few years ago.

Hard to tell from the trailer whether or not it's a Time Trap situation - looks more like the Star Trek episode The Deadly Years to me.

I'm looking forward to it. I've actually enjoyed all his last 3 films. The Visit was dumb, creepy fun. Split was well-paced and nicely unsettling in a way that could have been tacky and gratuitous but felt reasonably authentic. Glass was a basically enjoyable thriller which just about managed to coast along on the back of the goodwill from Unbreakable.

He still feels like a filmmaker who is into big ideas and wants to find interesting ways to play with genre. And his first 2.9 films (everything up to the ending of Signs) really are top-notch.

Noodle Lizard

I'm something of a Shyamalan defender. The 6th Sense and Unbreakable are great, as are the first halves of Signs and The Village. I won't defend any of his blatant shiters, but it's interesting to see him seemingly having free reign and trying out some more horror. Split and The Visit were both okay ... the former moreso than the latter. Glass was absolutely honking though, what a pity.

I'll still watch more or less anything he puts out. If he even has half another 6th Sense in him, that'll be worth seeing.

olliebean

The 6th Sense suffered from the fact that given the information revealed in the trailer, the twist was really easy to guess. But we should probably blame whoever put the trailer together for that, rather than Shyamalan.

Unbreakable suffered from the fact that it was only the first act of a film. (Shyamalan has said as much - not that it suffered from it, but that he deliberately structured it as just a first act.) As a first act, it's fine, but you're just gearing yourself up for whatever's going to happen in act 2 when it suddenly ends.

Signs I enjoyed, although I don't remember much about it.

The Village was way too obvious.

I don't think anything else of his that I've seen has made much of an impression. What was that film where the trees were out to get everyone, was that one of his? That was one of the worst films I've ever seen.

purlieu

The Happening. Yes, utterly abysmal, and then a few years later everybody came out saying "actually it was meant to be a b-movie!" as if that somehow made up for the fact that it was still abysmal. Hilariously so in places, but still abysmal.

DocDaneeka

I've read the comic this is based on. A straightforward surreal horror really, some great imagery and art from Frederik Peeters but other than that forgettable. Can't remember any exciting twists or explanations so Shyamalan will have to add them.

Anyway hopefully Peeters will get some sweet sweet M Night cash as he is one of my favourite artists.

peanutbutter

Quote from: mothman on May 28, 2021, 11:15:24 AM
Where does After Earth fall within that equation, though? He directed, yes, but with a co-writer, and presumably Will Smith's team keeping a close eye on things (it was during his long nadir, prior to his cachet resurgent after Split). And yet it's a shit-show. If I had to guess it'd be that the oversight wasn't as robust as you might expect from a proper producer or studio, but instead was all yes-men, because the whole thing was an ego-driven vanity project, designed to promote the career of Jaden Smith...
The Last Airbender nearly killed his career, in fact I'd say the release of After Earth was set to be the marking point of his gradual descent into just directing episodes of TV shows and shit like that.  Last minute filling in for directors on films, that kind of thing.  The blame 100% went to Will Smith and marked the end of his time as a major star.


Quite possible Shyamalan's willingness to be such an anonymous presence on that film ingratiated him enough to get funding for his next film, even.

C_Larence

Quote from: DocDaneeka on May 29, 2021, 03:11:03 PM
I've read the comic this is based on. A straightforward surreal horror really, some great imagery and art from Frederik Peeters but other than that forgettable. Can't remember any exciting twists or explanations so Shyamalan will have to add them.

Anyway hopefully Peeters will get some sweet sweet M Night cash as he is one of my favourite artists.

I read it the other day after seeing the trailer for this. Didn't particularly enjoy it, and imagine a watered down hollywood version (there's A LOT of sex in the graphic novel for instance) will end up being even more forgettable.

SteveDave

Quote from: purlieu on May 29, 2021, 12:23:05 PM
The Happening. Yes, utterly abysmal, and then a few years later everybody came out saying "actually it was meant to be a b-movie!" as if that somehow made up for the fact that it was still abysmal. Hilariously so in places, but still abysmal.

Feat. him out of "Succession"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT-q5Gewv9k

"Cheese and crackers" indeed

mothman

I guessed the twist of The Sixth Sense about halfway through. The twist of The Village, I got as soon as I watched the trailer. I don't know what it was. Maybe that everything looked too... clean? The VVitch is probably a better representation of what the early colonial US looked like. Ooh, The Village done a bit more "realistically" maybe with added supernatural elements... The VVillage![nb]Cue a time-travelling Russian, who comes to wisit the willage.[/nb]

zomgmouse

Quote from: DocDaneeka on May 29, 2021, 03:11:03 PM
I've read the comic this is based on. A straightforward surreal horror really, some great imagery and art from Frederik Peeters but other than that forgettable. Can't remember any exciting twists or explanations so Shyamalan will have to add them.

Anyway hopefully Peeters will get some sweet sweet M Night cash as he is one of my favourite artists.

Quote from: C_Larence on June 01, 2021, 12:04:01 AM
I read it the other day after seeing the trailer for this. Didn't particularly enjoy it, and imagine a watered down hollywood version (there's A LOT of sex in the graphic novel for instance) will end up being even more forgettable.

I read the graphic novel in preparation for the film and I thought it was simple but quite touching. As DocDaneeka suggests, Shyamalan does add some (in my view) unnecessary extra plotting to it.

Went to the cinema last night to watch it and this is what I posted on Letterboxd (with relevant bits spoiler-censored):

Rufus Sewell after appearing in The Father: M. Night Shyamalan, can I watch Francis Ford Coppola's Jack?

M. Night Shyamalan [driving a minibus]: We have Francis Ford Coppola's Jack at the beach

Francis Ford Coppola's Jack at the beach: ...

Ok look all jokes aside this was not bad. It started with a pre-recorded video introduction from Shyamalan welcoming us back to cinemas. I think that was really nice. Which also paralleled to him appearing as the person who takes the main characters to the main location, it's like he's taking us all there too. I just wish he knew when to leave us alone with the piece and the emotions without throwing everything into a state of needless panic. Shyamalan really can't resist turning absolutely everything into a thriller, and that apparently includes the terror of time's unflinching progress. And that's okay, but maybe if every last character wasn't preoccupied with escaping by any means necessary and more with coming to terms with what was happening to them it might have been more effective. Part of me wants to think that was the point but it didn't quite seem deliberate enough.

For my money what worked so beautifully in the original graphic novella was the complete isolation of the beach from any external context: the characters all appeared out of nowhere and spent the rest of the time on it just living it their fates. So once Shyamalan adds these framing ties to a greater reality, it strips the story of its allegorical power, changing it from a beautiful symbolic setting to just something that pushes the story along. Which is not to say the film isn't symbolic at all - it clearly is - but all the weight and meaning begin to play second fiddle to the plot, and that's really not what's interesting about the conceit to me.

The more explanations Shyamalan conjures up about why they're there, what exactly is happening to them, the mineral constitution of the rocks, and so on, the less invested I become. It's the classic case of the less we know the more we imagine, the more we project and interpret. The more shrouded it becomes in poetic mystery. Give me that existential dread of your life flashing before your eyes. The horror of realising your children are all grown up and you won't ever get the time you want. The peace of marching in step with the clock. The acceptance of inevitable death. Don't give me
Spoiler alert
magical coral
[close]
and near-constant yelling. The answer to "why are we here" is "we don't know, that's scary, let's gradually come to terms with our existence", not
Spoiler alert
"a pharmaceutical company, let's arrest them"
[close]
.

At the (always approaching) end of the day, I just can't imagine making a film about the inescapable hurtling of time and
Spoiler alert
having two people escape
[close]
. The
Spoiler alert
massive tumour
[close]
and the
Spoiler alert
crunching bone lady
[close]
were pretty cool though.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I watched Split the other day. It's alright, but I can't help but think it benefited hugely from how low Shyamalan's reputation had fallen at that point.

Lord Mandrake

#15
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St_Eddie