Another Crab's Treasure | Fully Ramblomatic
Added 2024-05-22 16:09:56 +0000 UTCThis week's episode of Fully Ramblomatic is now available!
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Remarkably similar to my, albeit more specific to a degree that makes it (at least currently) literally useless if interesting (hopefully not only to me), realisation about why my favourite Martin McDonagh movie is Seven Psychopaths by a country mile (pending me remembering to watch his most recent one). Previously, it struck me as weird that because I rate it as at most as good as the others in terms of writing, acting, cinematography, etc. - with Three Billboards somehow blowing it out of the water when broken down like that - and, more importantly, their actual narratives all being pretty much AS grim and their dark comedy pretty much AS funny (with Three Billboards standing above the other two because I've never seen another black comedy that could do both at the same time to even close to the degree it was able to... and I thought the cinematography was nothing short of masterful). ...and yet, I've never rewatched Three Billboards because it was was a film I more admired than enjoyed, I outright didn't like In Bruges that much and Seven Psychopaths is in my Top 10 favourite movies of all time. Was tricky to figure how films that all narratively, thematically comedically catered to my personal tastes either to a similarly degree or markedly better and were all, in my opinion, at least as good on a technical level got such drastically different reactions to me. Now, when I say it's going to sound so obvious that I'll look like a moron but i've got to stress the magnitude of the difference it made It was bright and sunny with a vivid colour pallets in Seven Psychopaths and it was dark/overcast and extremely washed out in the other to... that's literally it - it's staggering how much difference using the aesthetic of the movie to lessen the intensity of the heavy tone, themes and narrative beats makes compared to using it to reinforce them. I remember someone saying that in a video essay that when the framing clashes with the text, the framing wins every time. Didn't really believe it until I had that little epiphany. A lot of people probably thought I was flat-out wrong to say that the narratives were equally grim but, when you consider the sheer number of utterly senseless deaths in the film along with Hans' character's nightmarish backstory - Seven Psychopaths' might be the grimmest of all. ...the kicker? The last line from Marty about the film he's writing almost literally says that was exactly what the aesthetic change from In Bruges was for in his film (and, by extension, in the real film). If anyone was bored enough to actually read this far, I only say it's interesting because I've heard it asked, "can a movie be so good its bad,?" and.... kind of, yeah? I mean, obviously I don't think In Bruges and Three Billboards, nor Fight Club, my enjoyment (or near-utter lack thereof) of which is probably the strongest example of the aesthetic cranking the tone and themes up to 11 by so perfectly matching them, are actually "bad," just that that artistic decisions that are traditionally considered good and well-executed when they enhance other aspects of the movie but that my personal enjoyment was diminished BECAUSE they were extremely successful at enhancing the themes and that meant they ended up... bumming me out more than anything. ...but, that said, people are pretty much saying the reverse (or a more general statement about disastrous artistic decisions and/or execution when they, "so bad, it's good." So, yeah, I think it holds up pretty well.
Kav
2024-05-22 23:48:19 +0000 UTCMy favourite sub-genre is cartoonish/saccharine visuals with a grim dystopia narrative (see LBA: Twinsen's Adventure). So glad to see another decent one because it is extremely rare to see this combination done with the nuance that I find hard to describe.
Daniel Craddock
2024-05-22 21:15:18 +0000 UTCPotentially a top contender for his top 5
I'm not your Guy, Buddy
2024-05-22 17:55:15 +0000 UTCMmmm...bisque.
Cynthia McGarvie
2024-05-22 17:45:15 +0000 UTC
