“Perfect“ films

[IC3D]

La Haine. Beautiful cinamatograhy, characters and le hip hop.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

There still are American films which are dramas (as in the William Goldman tradition) or more artistically minded films (Wes Anderson, PT Anderson) Almost none of them are Hollywood films. Most of them are independent films, many of them paradoxically financed by European funding bodies which technically makes them European films. Lately streaming services have also started to make these type of films, that means that really they are TV movies.

Fair enough. My idea of what is an isn't Hollywood nowadays appears to be a bit off.

 

[Hearse Pileup]

Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Run Lola Run are all films I really love.

Also a +1 for The Thing and Shaun of the Dead

I also really like J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage and the spanish horror film REC.

I'm sure there are others, I have a hard time picking 'bests' and 'favourites.

Obligatory mention to Fight Club - the film that got me into films.

 

[The Octagon]

Back. To. The. Future.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Pan's Labyrinth is pretty perfectly made. Can't think of anything I'd want to change in it.

 

[Hearse Pileup]

Back. To. The. Future.

DAMMIT

I was literally thinking about it just before I started drafting my post lol

 

[Hearse Pileup]

Pan's Labyrinth is pretty perfectly made. Can't think of anything I'd want to change in it.

I feel a lot of Del Toro's work has this level of accomplishment, I really love his work!

 

[rutabowa]

La Haine. Beautiful cinamatograhy, characters and le hip hop.

I just rewatched this at the cinema recently, good pick, it is just relentlessly good every second.

I woudl also add Bring It On.

 

[rutabowa]

Menace II Society.
I Spit On Your Grave (remake)
High Society (musical version, oooff)

 

[rutabowa]

Calamity Jane I remembered as perfect but recently tried rewatching it and it's pretty dull. you just need whip crackaway and windy city really.

 

[rutabowa]

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

 

[not-bono-ever]

Two lane blacktop

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I feel a lot of Del Toro's work has this level of accomplishment, I really love his work!

I haven't seen enough of his films, tbh. Must rectify that.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Local hero

 

[SpookyFrank]

Local hero

Researched that recently to confirm my suspicion that it couldn't be as good as I remembered. It is, of course, better than I remembered.

 

[Hearse Pileup]

Pee Mak is also a surprisingly good Thai horror comedy film

 

[Santino]

I shouted it out

Welcome to Urban75 and please never use this phrase again.

 

[Hearse Pileup]

Welcome to Urban75 and please never use this phrase again.

My bad

 

[Detroit City]

Back. To. The. Future.

i've never seen it and never will.

 

[Part 2]

I'm not sure where perfect film meets comfort film......Carol is a film I remember watching and thinking of as being almost perfect.

 

[Orang Utan]

i've never seen it and never will.

You watched it next week

 

[spanglechick]

Menace II Society.
I Spit On Your Grave (remake)
High Society (musical version, oooff)

Calamity Jane I remembered as perfect but recently tried rewatching it and it's pretty dull. you just need whip crackaway and windy city really.

Don’t get me wrong, I love High Society so much I have a lyric tattooed on me, but it’s floundering to keep all the characters motivated. Inevitably it has to cut a boatload of content from the original to make room for the songs. And there’s content in all that rapid fire screwball dialogue in The Philadelphia Story.

The plot of TPS is more or less a traditional theatrical farce, but the enormous quantity of dialogue puts flesh on the insubstantial, improbable plot.

Musicals tell less story, hour for hour, than non musicals. When the plot is flimsy to start with, a musical will expose that. What High Society does have going for it is unmatched charm plus top performances and banging tunes... but it’s still got a hole in the middle where the plot is unsatisfying. Obviously all MHO.

And on the subject of Calamity Jane, while I agree Windy City and Whip Crack Away are barnstormers, the film is really quitesubversive in the way it represents womanhood. There are pretty mainstream reading of it as being a codified lesbian film, (“A Woman’s Touch” and “Secret Love” being the other two notable songs in the film) although that requires us to write off the Heteromantic ending.


Thing is, I was considering posting some more musicals yesterday. Singing in the Rain is glorious but the fifteen minute dance sequence has been shoehorned in and is just weird. Maybe The Wizard of Oz? and West Side Story. And Cabaret.

 

[krtek a houby]

i've never seen it and never will.

Edgy

 

[krtek a houby]

La Haine. Beautiful cinamatograhy, characters and le hip hop.

And never on telly/streaming services. Been hyping it to the better half for years and when she asked what's it about, the other day, could barely remember

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Find it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for either film, despite both directors output.

Alien3 was such a disappointment when it came out. It seems to have a following in recent years, but at not convinced.

Tbh, I was thinking more of Alien and Aliens than anything else. If I'm channel hopping and see that an Alien(s) film is on telly, I'll watch it, but now you mention it, that's more likely to be Alien or Aliens than the others.

 

[belboid]

Don’t get me wrong, I love High Society so much I have a lyric tattooed on me, but it’s floundering to keep all the characters motivated. Inevitably it has to cut a boatload of content from the original to make room for the songs. And there’s content in all that rapid fire screwball dialogue in The Philadelphia Story.

The plot of TPS is more or less a traditional theatrical farce, but the enormous quantity of dialogue puts flesh on the insubstantial, improbable plot.

Musicals tell less story, hour for hour, than non musicals. When the plot is flimsy to start with, a musical will expose that. What High Society does have going for it is unmatched charm plus top performances and banging tunes... but it’s still got a hole in the middle where the plot is unsatisfying. Obviously all MHO.

And on the subject of Calamity Jane, while I agree Windy City and Whip Crack Away are barnstormers, the film is really quitesubversive in the way it represents womanhood. There are pretty mainstream reading of it as being a codified lesbian film, (“A Woman’s Touch” and “Secret Love” being the other two notable songs in the film) although that requires us to write off the Heteromantic ending.


Thing is, I was considering posting some more musicals yesterday. Singing in the Rain is glorious but the fifteen minute dance sequence has been shoehorned in and is just weird. Maybe The Wizard of Oz? and West Side Story. And Cabaret.

Cabaret probably does come the closest, it would be very hard to find a flaw in it.

Of course there is one musical that is absolutely perfect, but it's not a film so doesn't count.

 

[Nine Bob Note]

I'll happily nominate Rear Window as a 'perfect film,' as it's not only my favourite Hitchcock film by far, but everytime I watch it I'm amazed I love a PG-rated thriller movie so much.

 

[belboid]

I'll happily nominate Rear Window as a 'perfect film,' as it's not only my favourite Hitchcock film by far, but everytime I watch it I'm amazed I love a PG-rated thriller movie so much.

aah, the tale of the 'shrewish' wife just waiting to be murdered and the socialite who needs to be tamed.

 

[Reno]

aah, the tale of the 'shrewish' wife just waiting to be murdered and the socialite who needs to be tamed.

The socialite never got tamed, otherwise the film wouldn't devote its last shot to the fact that she still does as she likes. Whether the wife is "shrewish" is up to interpretation. We find out that Thorwald is a horrible person and that he was probably having an affair, so she may have good reasons to hate him.

 

[Reno]

Don’t get me wrong, I love High Society so much I have a lyric tattooed on me, but it’s floundering to keep all the characters motivated. Inevitably it has to cut a boatload of content from the original to make room for the songs. And there’s content in all that rapid fire screwball dialogue in The Philadelphia Story.

The plot of TPS is more or less a traditional theatrical farce, but the enormous quantity of dialogue puts flesh on the insubstantial, improbable plot.

Musicals tell less story, hour for hour, than non musicals. When the plot is flimsy to start with, a musical will expose that. What High Society does have going for it is unmatched charm plus top performances and banging tunes... but it’s still got a hole in the middle where the plot is unsatisfying. Obviously all MHO.

And on the subject of Calamity Jane, while I agree Windy City and Whip Crack Away are barnstormers, the film is really quitesubversive in the way it represents womanhood. There are pretty mainstream reading of it as being a codified lesbian film, (“A Woman’s Touch” and “Secret Love” being the other two notable songs in the film) although that requires us to write off the Heteromantic ending.


Thing is, I was considering posting some more musicals yesterday. Singing in the Rain is glorious but the fifteen minute dance sequence has been shoehorned in and is just weird. Maybe The Wizard of Oz? and West Side Story. And Cabaret.

Love the dance sequence in Singin' in the Rain, it's not a flaw, it's a bonus.

West Side Story's flaw is its two bland leads and Natalie Wood's casting as a Puerto Rican.

For a feminist musical of the 50s (or at least as feminist as you get in the 50s), how about Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ? The main relationship in the film is the friendship between two women and it's a satire about how women navigate their way in a patriarchal society on their terms.

Meet Me in St. Louis is about as perfect a musical movie as I know.