For this round of the movie club our theme is going to be "Satire".
- Okay how about this for a theme "Satire"
It doesn't have to be funny, but I think it'd be great to find films which satirize life or people or other films or books and give us a different perspective on the hum drum.
An example of this would be "They Came Together" which is a recent satire on the Romantic Comedy genre, or "I'm Not There" which is a (sort of) satire on the biopic genre (actually anything by Todd Haynes since he's broken the movie mold a lot of times).
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How would you feel about In the Loop. From the wiki "satirical black comedy directed by Armando Iannucci as a spin-off from the BBC Television series The Thick of It. The film satirizes Anglo-American politics in the 21st century and the Invasion of Iraq." It's honestly a great movie with a great cast, I watched it last week and couldn't stop laughing. Here's the trailer and the introduction to one of the character played by Peter Capaldi
Peter Capaldi is outstanding in that movie, I'd recommend it purely for the creative cussing throughout the film.
No argument there. Definitely the standard. Best In Show is a close second.
I'm not sure if it quite counts as satire, but The King of Comedy is an perplexing movie about a man's obsession with a talk-show host. I watched it a couple years ago and sat through the credits unsure whether or not I loved or outright hated it for toying with my emotions so much. (Oh, and it's a Scorsese movie starring De Niro, for what that's worth)
I remember seeing a Scorsese quote saying he felt it was the movie of his in which De Niro performs best. It's also a great movie that stands out from Scorsese's typical style. When I was a "film buff" in high school (haha) it was my favorite movie by him next to the aviator or Alice doesn't live here anymore.
I put it in the same box as Match Point: a great watch, but also incredibly frustrating. I had to actively subdue my urge to yell at the screen in order to enjoy the movie. I think by kleinbl00's standards, it doesn't fit the genre of satire, but I would wholely recommend it to people to watch outside of #movieclub
Great movie. Bought that one on VHS sight unseen from a local video store that was going under during their liquidation sale. I was a freshman in high school and didn't know much about Altman other than he was the guy who did the movie M.A.S.H. and Short Cuts. I liked those two so I figured the $1.99 was worth it. Holy shit. I watched it 30 times over the next couple of years. It's so rich with content and such an inversion of the typical narrative structure where the main character is the slimiest snake out of a film filled with slimy snakes. Brion James with a great little performance (always nice). I had a huge crush on Cynthia Stevenson which made what happens to her more impactful. Fred ward killing it. D'Onofrio as a Hollywood writer stereotype who can only get a meeting when one of the exec's feels threatened. I'm sure there is A LOT of inside baseball type of commentary going on in this film that I just don't understand, but damn... so much happening in this one. I love it. As you are a guy who has been in the Hollywood trenches for a good while now, I am curious about your thoughts on this film.
It's screamingly inside baseball. A lot of the shit they talk about is still entirely spot on. I also recommend Swimming with Sharks. George Huang, having met Robert Rodriguez on his way up, quit his job as an assistant and put it together. There's a great scene in which Frank Whaley is talking to a bunch of other assistants about meeting with Shelley Winters and asking her to screentest at which point she whips out an Oscar. Then he continues and she whips out another Oscar. One of the assistants says "Who's Shelly Winter?" I know a young producer who was sitting down at a meeting with a bunch of other young producers and one of them was bitching about old, has-been screenwriters that have no place taking meetings, and that he had to meet with this "milly guy" that day. "Milly guy?" "Yeah, jim... joe... milly something." "John Milius?" "Yeah, him."
I love Swimming With Sharks. I like that it goes so far beyond the complaints of a person stuck in an abusive working relationship with their employer. It really gets to the heart of the problem, which is the abuse cycle that is so central to human psychology. And it does it in a fairly even-handed way, considering how much venom Huang seems to have for Joel Silver. It's a much more nuanced take on that kind of thing than most people would be able to produce. Also Huang's commnets about what Benico Del Toro was trying to do with his character and what he eventually did do with his role in The Usual Suspects -- funny shit. "John Milius?" "Yeah, him." Goddamn. That would be hilarious if those people weren't in charge of so much money (it still kind of is in a horrible way). That story reminds me a bit of the young well connected guy in The Player who decided that he wanted to be a producer. So he went to a meeting and spent the whole time flipping through headshots of all the starlets, sorting out the ones he wanted to fuck. Have you read Zeroville?I know a young producer who was sitting down at a meeting with a bunch of other young producers and one of them was bitching about old, has-been screenwriters that have no place taking meetings, and that he had to meet with this "milly guy" that day. "Milly guy?" "Yeah, jim... joe... milly something."
Truman show is probably the one that jumps out at me the most given the reality TV world we live in now. Ed TV could probably fit in there too. How about American Beauty? While not a satire movie really I did find that the "Chef" movie had elements of satire particularly the scenes where he rails at the critic. You get the feeling that there is a parallel between food creator and film creator.
Wikipedia never lies :)American Beauty I'm not sure I'd call a satire.
The film has been described by academics as a satire of American middle class notions of beauty and personal satisfaction; analysis has focused on the film's explorations of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, beauty, materialism, self-liberation and redemption.
Hmm maybe you could explain it to me more? I can understand that when the movie was released in 1985 it may have not been very satirical (or as applicable as today) but for today I think it satirizes a lot of what goes on perfectly; the bureaucracy, endless paperwork, applications for licenses, plastic surgery, and the ever-looming threat of terrorism.
Things about satire: 1) Intended to be humorous. 2) Intended to affect change. 3) Generally satirizes something specific. "Not Another Teen Movie" parodies teen movies - it seeks only to create mirth around the shortcomings of teen movies and does not attempt to affect change. "Wag The Dog" satirizes political operatives - it attempts to raise consciousness about media manipulation and the 24-hour news cycle. Brazil isn't particularly funny, is not aimed at any particular movement or event, and makes no attempt at fomenting change. It's a dystopian black comedy. I recognize that the Wikipedia entry uses the word "satire" like eight times but it ain't. Here's office satire: Here's office satire: Both of these films are culturally resonant because they're intended to be. They're intended to make you think about your shitty job and what it's worth to you. Brazil throws this whole bizarre Orwellian mindfuck thing in there that ends up dominating the narrative. It starts off as a "satire" but then spends the majority of its energies riffing off 1984. That's why it's a "cult classic" - a limited number of people love the fuck out of it but most people didn't attach to it because Robert DeNiro has never busted into their apartments with explosives before.
Its a fantastic movie and if we don't watch it for the club I'd highly recommend finding some time to watch it yourself. Brazil was the first movie directed by Terry Gilliam that I watched and I fell in love with his work thereafter.
Wait, I take my Old suggestion back. We need to watch The Last Remake of Beau Geste.
Mystery Men is a pretty good superhero satire/comedy.
I don't think it would qualify as satire, or really even as parody, but waiting for Guffman is comedic gold:
One movie I'd suggest is The Double which is a Richard Ayoade retelling of Dostoyevsky's short novel. It's a dark comedy in some ways, but it's really a satire at heart where the feeling of control over ones life is left up to a nameless faceless corporation, and then to ones own doppleganger.