Streaming Movies and Power Rankings: A Reverie on Max's A24 and Netflix's Rebel Ridge

[TiQuinn]

For various sorts of deep-diving geeks, Tubi is the essential companion to one or more of the major services. It has weirdly deep libraries in a bunch of genres/categories, and seems to handle its ads better than anyone else.

This. I like Pluto TV too and they've gotten better with their breaks, but they're absolutely plagued with political ads.

 

[Autumnal]

Yeah. And, at least on the channels I’ve looked at, going directly from one episode to the next without any break at all is kind of weird.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

A year later and I just got around to watching this one, with a couple of friends. I imagine you either And I think I know the question and have a suggestion on the answer.

Wanted to reply to this! Love good movie talk.

First, I wanted to make sure that I reiterate that I absolutely loved Love Lies Bleeding. If you look at the five movies above it, I hope you can understand that I'm not slighting it at all. I'm going to discuss my rankings again below, but I just wanted to stress that. As I wrote, there was one all-time masterpiece, five great movies, and then Civil War.

You were correct with your spoiler, although the whole bit started before that. Here's the thing- thematically (in terms of the themes of the movie) everything worked really well- I said that I enjoyed it, especially as it started to go off the rails. But ... there was an issue. Without spoiling anything, the problem was that the last parts didn't work with the rest of the movie (IMO) in terms of the film's grammar. It has to do with the POV of the camera (what are we seeing, what does it mean). Either it's 'reality' (magical realism) or it's a filtered character POV (this is the view of how a character feels emotionally or thematically or due to.... altered senses ... or all of those factors). IMO, as much as I understood the ending and loved it thematically, I felt that the film's grammar didn't do the work to establish it and accomplish it correctly. That's not a mortal sin, but it is the difference between that movie and (for example) The Lighthouse, where the film's grammar is always supporting the POV/subjective - so you know it's madness, and not magical realism.


Now, I wanted to thank the necromancer who brought this thread back! I did the ranking right after the "film festival," and I think it's always interesting to see how films age. Looking back at the list ... I'm pretty pretty pretty happy with it! My only notes-

1. Zone of Interest. I literally have not stopped thinking about this movie. I rewatched it again this year. It is stunningly relevant. I can't recommend it enough. I know ... it's not a subject you want to think about, but you've never seen, or heard, a movie that will stick with you like this one will. Promise.

2. I'm on the fence about ranking The Iron Claw at 3. It's a really good movie! It's incredibly powerful with great acting. But ... I haven't thought about it much since I watched it. Still highly recommend, just not sure about putting it at 3.

3. On the other hand ... I Saw the TV Glow is a movie I've been thinking about. If you have no idea what the movie is about, watch it without looking it up. Quick backstory- I went in knowing nothing other than it was an A24 horror movie. At a certain point, I was like ... wait, am I missing something? Because it was present early, but it was subtle (to me). And then it all snapped into focus. So ... yeah, it is a horror movie, but not ... that kind of horror movie.

4. Not budging on Civil War. I know people love some of the clips, and the scene with Jesse Plemons remains amazing (in a chilling way), but overall? Perfectly cromulent.

 

[TiQuinn]

Since this thread kicked off last year, A24’s Warfare came out on HBO last month. Warfare is something of a companion movie to Civil War, directed right after the release of that movie with Garland and Mendoza basically doing back to back shoots. However, while Civil War likes to tiptoe around its plot and inspiration, Warfare is set during the Iraq War and is based on a real story. Brutal realism is the name of the game in this one. Short, intense, well acted - just a tight little war movie that really drives home the physical and mental toll combat has in the very moment it’s happening.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Since this thread kicked off last year, A24’s Warfare came out on HBO last month. Warfare is something of a companion movie to Civil War, directed right after the release of that movie with Garland and Mendoza basically doing back to back shoots. However, while Civil War likes to tiptoe around its plot and inspiration, Warfare is set during the Iraq War and is based on a real story. Brutal realism is the name of the game in this one. Short, intense, well acted - just a tight little war movie that really drives home the physical and mental toll combat has in the very moment it’s happening.

Really really good, if you want realism. I loved it, but I know some people who were ... expecting a more "Hollywood" action movie and were disappointed.

 

[Mannahnin]

You were correct with your spoiler, although the whole bit started before that. Here's the thing- thematically (in terms of the themes of the movie) everything worked really well- I said that I enjoyed it, especially as it started to go off the rails. But ... there was an issue. Without spoiling anything, the problem was that the last parts didn't work with the rest of the movie (IMO) in terms of the film's grammar. It has to do with the POV of the camera (what are we seeing, what does it mean). Either it's 'reality' (magical realism) or it's a filtered character POV (this is the view of how a character feels emotionally or thematically or due to.... altered senses ... or all of those factors). IMO, as much as I understood the ending and loved it thematically, I felt that the film's grammar didn't do the work to establish it and accomplish it correctly. That's not a mortal sin, but it is the difference between that movie and (for example) The Lighthouse, where the film's grammar is always supporting the POV/subjective - so you know it's madness, and not magical realism.

I getcha. I think I agree. We felt it worked once we thought about it, but they hadn't quite established/laid the groundwork for it to feel natural.

1. Zone of Interest. I literally have not stopped thinking about this movie. I rewatched it again this year. It is stunningly relevant. I can't recommend it enough. I know ... it's not a subject you want to think about, but you've never seen, or heard, a movie that will stick with you like this one will. Promise.

2. I'm on the fence about ranking The Iron Claw at 3. It's a really good movie! It's incredibly powerful with great acting. But ... I haven't thought about it much since I watched it. Still highly recommend, just not sure about putting it at 3.

3. On the other hand ... I Saw the TV Glow is a movie I've been thinking about. If you have no idea what the movie is about, watch it without looking it up. Quick backstory- I went in knowing nothing other than it was an A24 horror movie. At a certain point, I was like ... wait, am I missing something? Because it was present early, but it was subtle (to me). And then it all snapped into focus. So ... yeah, it is a horror movie, but not ... that kind of horror movie.

4. Not budging on Civil War. I know people love some of the clips, and the scene with Jesse Plemons remains amazing (in a chilling way), but overall? Perfectly cromulent.

Watched Iron Claw recently with the same friends, and I Saw the TV Glow back in the Spring with a younger friend. Iron Claw was excellent, and poignant, but I suspect I'll agree that it doesn't have quite the lasting resonance. TV was pretty amazing. Slow burn but it's beautiful and moving and heartbreaking.

Thanks for waving the flag about Zone of Interest. I should be able to motivate the guys for it.

 

[TiQuinn]

Really really good, if you want realism. I loved it, but I know some people who were ... expecting a more "Hollywood" action movie and were disappointed.

I can see where for some people it’s a hard movie to watch. It’s an ensemble film and the people you expect to be the “stars” are not the stars of the movie. It definitely subverts any expectations if you think they may be cheating and trying to make an action movie even while saying it’s based on a true story.