Pretentious Movies

redmgar

What is the most pretentious commercial movie that you have seen?
I would go with the Kurt Cobain mimicking "Last days"

Harry Palmr

2001 obvs! :pac:

DaeryssaOne

Tree of Life

El Duda

Pretty much anything that Little White Lies gives 5 stars to.

ixoy

A Ghost Story.
Casey Affleck in a white sheet and a really long scene involving a pie being eaten.

Autecher

I ♥ Huckabees - I liked this when it came out but I think I would hate it now.
Eyes Wide Shut - I thought this was crap but did like seeing Nicole Kidman in the nip.
In fact most Kubrick movies I have seen.
Also cheating a bit here as it's a tv show but The OA is very pretentious and I like it a lot.

TerrorFirmer

The Fountain (that I've seen). Good and cohesive in spots but wacky and abstract in the extreme in others to a point well beyond absurdity.

Dades

Punch Drunk Love.

My God I hated that movie.

Lorelli!

Autecher wrote: »

In fact most Kubrick movies I have seen.

A good few of them yea.

A Clockwork Orange :rolleyes: huh.

Lorelli!

Moulin Rouge wasnt very good either. I do like a remix of one of the songs though.

gmisk

DaeryssaOne wrote: »

Tree of Life

Agreed but a lot of his recent films are even worse IMO
-Knight of cups
-Song to song
Are even worse.

I would add
-Southland tales
-Babel

The Enbalmer

The Usual Suspects. It managed to fool people that the 'twist' ending was something other than a bad plot device that rendered the rest of the film meaningless

Captain Red Beard

The Enbalmer wrote: »

The Usual Suspects. It managed to fool people that the 'twist' ending was something other than a bad plot device that rendered the rest of the film meaningless

Ah no.

Frank O. Pinion

You know a film has a very good chance of being a fantastic, challenging, intellectual film if someone uses the word "pretentious" to critique it. More so, if they also happen to be Star Wars, Marvel, or Fast & Furious fans. Some of my favourite films have been dubbed pretentious. I love the term "pretentious art films". I also enjoy when people use the term extremely incorrectly.

Punch Drunk Love? Absolutely brilliant film.

Sorry about that

Lost in Translation.

DrumSteve

I really wanted to like Tree of Life... But it wasn't for me.

Actually, really any Terence Mallick film.

y0ssar1an22

those bull**** oscar grab movies. i'm looking at you eddie redmayne

Drumpot

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

Punch Drunk Love? Absolutely brilliant film.

Loved that movie..

And Magnolia .

But I also like Star Wars !!!

Church on Tuesday

The Matrix.

Some of the films mentioned I love! Opinions of them can be so subjective, leaving aside technical critique anyways.

Ipso

Mulholland Drive.

tony1kenobi

Revolver.

Guy Ritchie isn’t as clever as he thinks.

Or I’m not as clever as Guy Ritchie thinks.

Either way it was a bag of ****

Hobosan

Midnight in Paris

Mary Queen of Scots took pretentiousness to new levels inserting the modern social ideas into a time where they didn't exist.

lawred2

Are some people listing pretentious movies or crap movies?

Sad Professor

lawred2 wrote: »

Are some people listing pretentious movies or crap movies?

Neither, just movies they find overrated, which is what happens in all these kinds of threads.

The Enbalmer

Captain Red Beard wrote:

Ah no.

I guess you were one that fell for it.

Ah well.

The White Wolf

Only Lovers Left Alive feels like a pretentious film but I loved it all the same.

The late noughties/early this decade had quite a few of them and they seemed to involve the likes of Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg. Juno and Adventureland are such examples. Films if they were released now would be absolutely murdered for their lack of self awareness.

Zubeneschamali

2001 is my all time favourite. Lost in Translation is terrific.

And I really like The Empire Strikes Back.

Lorelli!

There Will Be Blood. Did not like it, think it's overrated and pretentious. Though Daniel Day Lewis is one of my favorite actors.

micks_address

Do people ever think they agree some pretentious movies are great just so they can say they are great? Its like oh i understand whats going on here and its amazing just so they can seem to be on a higher intellectual level.. some movies are just not great.. i would put the lobster in this category.. i thought it was daft

redmgar

ixoy wrote: »

A Ghost Story.
Casey Affleck in a white sheet and a really long scene involving a pie being eaten.

I liked that movie (other than that scene):eek:

redmgar

"attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed"

johnny_ultimate

Pretentious is one of those words that is often frustratingly over and mis-used when talking about film. Along with ‘boring’ and ‘overrated’ I try to avoid it wherever possible as it tends to be an easy way out of really getting to the bottom of why a film didn’t work for any given viewer.

If I were to apply it in IMO a justified context, I’d call Zack Snyder film’s pretentious to some degree. There’s a faux-seriousness to them that feels unearned, and has the consequence of just highlighting how absurd the whole enterprise is. It boils down to the very filmmaking - excessive slow motion and melodramatic posing attempting to add weight to what is typically naff material. Not that superhero material can’t be serious - Nolan proved it can. But Snyder’s films cry out to be taken seriously, and in the end just emphasise how silly they are.

Dades

Some bizzare movies being mentioned here. The Empire Strikes Back? Why? Because it has no Ewoks?

Pretentious for me is deliberately arty or serious to impress, and often to mask a lack of plot. Style over substance.

I'd concur with johnny_ultimate on something like BvS. So serious and dramatic with so much rain. Lads... it's two fellas in capes. I hate to say but I've found the last two Avengers movies gone down the same route. I'd hesitate to call them pretentious - but I do feel they have notions above their station. Too much slo-mo, anguished looks, staring and expressions of grief and anger. Because a cartoon Josh Brolin snapped his fingers wearing a magic glove. Again... lads in capes.

Thor Ragnarok hit the sweet spot for comic book movies.

NIMAN

Roma.;)

Autecher

Just my 2 cents. There is nothing wrong with pretentiousness imo. If you are allowed to indulge as a filmmaker and not be forced by executives to edit in any way then have at it! All art is pretentious in some way anyway I think. I cited the OA (A series not a movie) as an example in my post yesterday as something pretentious and very good too.

Ciaran_B

ixoy wrote: »

A Ghost Story.
Casey Affleck in a white sheet and a really long scene involving a pie being eaten.

The only film I've walked out of in recent memory. The square ratio annoyed me right from the start and it just got worse as the film went on - the pie eating was the final straw.

Drumpot

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Pretentious is one of those words that is often frustratingly over and mis-used when talking about film. Along with ‘boring’ and ‘overrated’ I try to avoid it wherever possible as it tends to be an easy way out of really getting to the bottom of why a film didn’t work for any given viewer.

If I were to apply it in IMO a justified context, I’d call Zack Snyder film’s pretentious to some degree. There’s a faux-seriousness to them that feels unearned, and has the consequence of just highlighting how absurd the whole enterprise is. It boils down to the very filmmaking - excessive slow motion and melodramatic posing attempting to add weight to what is typically naff material. Not that superhero material can’t be serious - Nolan proved it can. But Snyder’s films cry out to be taken seriously, and in the end just emphasise how silly they are.

I think that’s moreso a pretentious opinion on Snyder movies as opposed to the movies actually being pretentious. Never get the impression Snyder movies are pretentious, just very different or distinct method of making movies in comparison to mainstream comicbook movie makers. He seems to divide opinion a lot but I’m not convinced it’s for the reason you suggest. I am always curious if I find a movie pretentious does that say more about me or the film makers intentions!

People say they want different and get quite aggressively angry when they get change but not what they want. Whatever you think of Snyder’s comicbook movies they aren’t comparable with marvel of Nolan’s interpretations. That doesn’t make them necessarily good but Aquaman , WW and DC in general have now reverted to marvels generic formula so we won’t get a chance now to see anything different.

I suppose I either like or don’t like a movie more on how I feel about it then anything else. I generally enjoy Paul Thomas Anderson movies but can enjoy a piece of crap slasher movie like Doom for different reasons. I remember watching cloud atlas with friends and couldn’t fully understand/follow itbut I really enjoyed it. They hated it but knew immediately afterwards that I would of enjoyed it. Movies don’t have to be binary good or bad and can appeal differently to different audiences.

Ash.J.Williams

All Oscar winners

Amélie is insufferably smug.

p to the e

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

You know a film has a very good chance of being a fantastic, challenging, intellectual film if someone uses the word "pretentious" to critique it. More so, if they also happen to be Star Wars, Marvel, or Fast & Furious fans. Some of my favourite films have been dubbed pretentious. I love the term "pretentious art films". I also enjoy when people use the term extremely incorrectly.

Punch Drunk Love? Absolutely brilliant film.

That's a very frank opinion. Wait......

briany

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Amélie is insufferably smug.

Had to turn it off halfway through. Flowery. Lacked any substance or bite.

El Duda

Song to Song - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2062700/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_4


Anomalisa - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2401878/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_3


The Counsellor - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2193215/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_12


^ All pretentious as they come




But the ultimate pretentious film is this 1964 production from Andy Warhol which is just a static shot of the empire state building. The films is over 8 hours long. Someone watch it and review it.



https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196530/

Lads, some of the movies mentioned are some of my favorites down through the years...am I to take from this that I'm pretentious?.. Like, to be fair I've probably gotten a lot more cynical the last while.. Although, really, it might explain quite a bit..

BigPoppaDump

A Serbian Film.

A terrible load of **** masquerading as a serious social commentary that gained infamy and as a result extra viewers due to a couple of scenes that were included purely and simply to shock.

Captain Red Beard

Captain Red Beard wrote: »

Ah no.

Its not that good. Roger Ebert was right all along.

I think Birdman must fall under pretentious. Filmed as if it was one shot for the sake of it. Soundtrack is only percussion for the sake of it.

redmgar

To be fair birdman was a decent movie.

Dades

Deleted User wrote: »

I think Birdman must fall under pretentious. Filmed as if it was one shot for the sake of it. Soundtrack is only percussion for the sake of it.

redmgar wrote: »

To be fair birdman was a decent movie.

I think if you try something different and don't pull it off you're going to run the risk of being labelled pretentious. But I think the tone has to be serious first. Something like Birdman was never in danger of taking itself too seriously. (I thought it was great).

Walter Bishop

Ciaran_B wrote: »

The only film I've walked out of in recent memory. The square ratio annoyed me right from the start and it just got worse as the film went on - the pie eating was the final straw.

I thought the pie eating scene was great, I was uncomfortable after a minute and then there was 3 more minutes of it. It was different anyway