Movie of the Month: September/October: MIRRORMASK

[PTAhole]

MIRRORMASK

Directed by Dave McKean
Written by Neil Gaiman

IMDB Description:
MirrorMask centers on Helena, a 15 year old girl in a family of circus entertainers, who often wishes she could run off and join real life. After a fight with her parents about her future plans, her mother falls quite ill and Helena is convinced that it is all her fault. On the eve of her mother's major surgery, she dreams that she is in a strange world with two opposing queens, bizarre creatures, and masked inhabitants. All is not well in this new world - the white queen has fallen ill and can only be restored by the MirrorMask, and it's up to Helena to find it. But as her adventures continue, she begins to wonder whether she's in a dream, or something far more sinister.
IMDB Page

NOTES:

Since September is over half way over, this will be the October film or the month. The next film will start on November 1st.

Some more pages of interest:
Official Website
Trailer
The Art of Dave McKean (Official Website)
Dave McKean's Wikepedia Entry
Neil Gaiman's Official Website
Neil Gaiman's Wikepedia Entry

[nonfiction]

Oh darn, I've aready seen it. =(

[agentknight]

I'll rent it soon. Anticipating your comments Andruini. I find that I generally admire your taste in film so I'll probably agree with you.

[misterbalco]

Wait, is it the duty of all of the members to rent this film this month?

I wanna pick November!

[PTAhole]

No. Everything is Illuminated is already called for November. Sorry. You don't have to watch it, but it would make the thread a little more intersting.

[criterionmaster]

misterbalco said:

Wait, is it the duty of all of the members to rent this film this month?

I wanna pick November!

You can pick December, I am interesting in your choice, but remember you have to pick a movie that you can find on DVD. And yes it would be nice if people tried to see the film.

[nonfiction]

ptahole said:

No. Everything is Illuminated is already called for November. Sorry. You don't have to watch it, but it would make the thread a little more intersting.

WTF?! I've already seen that as well. I'll never be able to participate in this thing.

I know I can comment on it already, but that loses the fun of the whole thing.

[misterbalco]

Well how about this, we select three different forum members each month to pick three different movies of the month, and we all have a selection to choose from, whether to pick one or all three movies to discuss. Besides, one movie per month...thats a tad slow. Try movie of every two weeks, or, three movies per month. I dont think we can just talk about one movie for 4 weeks.

Having said that, Mirrormask will me moved to the top of my netflix queue. I like this idea, but we can improve it, imo.

[PTAhole]

Yeah, I think one every two weeks is probably a good bet. I think I'll let this one go on till around the middle of October, then the next film will be discussed.

Andrew...

I can see your point, but as you know, I enjoy fantasy and the like, so I quite liked the film. I thought the visuals were quite enthralling (especially for something done for two million bucks) The music definately is awesome, and the sequence with 'Close to You' was pretty wierd and entertaining. I have problems with the film. The lead actress occasionally overracts like a fiend, and I thought it could have been a little shorter. I love the ending though. Gaiman is a very good writer, but I thought the screenplay was pretty average for him. (then again, he came from writing novels and comics) I was looking forward to this film for a long time before I acctually saw it, and I was somewhat disappointed. I really liked the style of the film, mostly because I am a fan of Dave McKean's artwork, and the film is filled with that kind of stuff. (Some of his best stuff is featured in Gaiman's graphic novel, Mr. Punch) Overall, I think it's a very entertaining and pretty cool little movie, but I can't say that it was all I expected.

[misterbalco]

If I may select for whatever month I get (so you guys dont drool over what my decision may be), I pick either Steven Soderbergh's Bubble, or John Wilcoat's The Proposition. Two films I really wanna see, and in my opinion, more interesting picks than the previous selected picks (sorry!)

[PTAhole]

I'm very interested in both of those actually. I think both will be added to the roster.

[criterionmaster]

Tomorrow starts a new one. What will it be? I want this to go better than last time, it seemed even though people had seen the film they didn't comment and there was little discussion. Tell me whats going on with this month ptahole, you need to get this going.

EDIT: Maybe pick a movie even if some people have seen it?

[ie]

I didn't get on the discussion because I haven't seen Mirrormask, and I just never got around to checking it out.


As for future movies of the months, I think the idea of choosing a movie so that way people will watch it is interesting.

[PTAhole]

Yeah. Well, I'll talk to you tonight on MSN or on the phone about it, Dan. I'm trying to figure out a way to make this go better.

[kiddo]

I like this idea, but some films just doesn't interest me enough, and I haven't too much money, really. But as said, the idea that we all se the same film and talk about it a while after, is very good, and I hope it can work out somehow. I haven't got hold to Mirrirmask because it really doesn't interest me to much - and I prefer bying things like Martin and Apocalypse now. I don't buy films that often anymore, and so when I do, I buy the ones I've been looking forward to see or to rewatch. And here in Norway it's too expensive to rent dvds all the time. I barely rent any at all. It costs something like 7 euro for one dvd (50 kr).

[criterionmaster]

Okay, I was thinking that me and/or andruini could work on some artwork for whatever film is picked this month, post it as a banner on the homepage of the forum, with a link to its discussion thread. It would make it so the film wouldn't be forgotten to be picked up or anything.

I also like the idea of one day setting a time, where most of the members can join in, with the movie of the month and using the forum's chat room we could have a live discussion as it plays. This would be excellent because then we could pick and older film, that everyone can get/has already and discuss it. I have actually tried this before with individual members of the forum and it has worked quite well, and was fun. Both of which we can try to do. I would love feedback on anything that happens, as I want everyone to be happy.

[criterionmaster]

I am thinking of letting Misterbalco pick a film this month, he mentioned some pretty good films he had in mind. But I still want to know what everyone thinks. How could we make this movie of the month thing better?

[ie]

Do I get to pick as well?


Screw it, you know what it's going to be, and I know what it's going to be.

[criterionmaster]

Well here is what I was thinking:

Switching back and forth we could do both ways, one month a newer film, where people go and find the film during the month and then come back and chat about it in a thread. That is easy enough, especially if its a film people are looking forward to seeing.

The other thing, my favorite thing, would be to have a chat while watching a film. This would be a classic film, that most people would already own and have seen multiple times. I was even thinking, since some of the members live by me they could come over and we could watch the movie together here (I have wireless internet). That would make it even more fun. And the time zones problem, well this would be on the weekend of course, and since most of the members stay up rather late I am sure there is a time when we could get a group of people to come and join in, hell it would even be fun if there was only 3 people. Even if you don't have the film to watch, but have seen it, you could come and join in at any time. You don't have to sit there the whole time or anything.

What do you guys think?

[agentknight]

I too think it is awesome.

[ie]

I think it works decently since I usually talk with Andruini and the Agent of Knight at nights, so I think we could coordinate something.

Even if it's the guys near C-Man's place one day in the afternoon, and then another day at night for those who can't make it during the day.

[kiddo]

Great idea, yes. The only problem is that I have, for the moment, no possibility to watch a film while sitting on my computer.

[ie]

Well, there could be someone in the chatroom posting about what's going on, so that those familiar with the movie can just follow along.

[criterionmaster]

Yeah, thats what I was thinking. Not everyone has to have a copy of the film and be watching it in order to comment on the film. These would be films most people are familiar with, like Pulp Fiction. I actually think Pulp would be a good choice, since some people on here love it, some are indifferent towards it. At least for one of the future months.

[ie]

If we were to do a Pulp Fiction chatroom go-about, it'd give me a good reason to watch the movie with the commentary subtitles. I sat in during the scene where Vincent and Jules visit the apartment in the beginning, and it really showed a lot of the depth that most people might miss in Pulp Fiction.

[misterbalco]

I personally felt this idea would have been great at first. But then you threw out Pulp Fiction. Count me out! I'm sure everyone in the forum has seen this movie too many times, and there really isnt anything new to learn about this film. Sure, we can talk about what could be in that damned briefcase when that scene appears on the screen. But shit, people have talked about that scene too much. I actually like the idea of getting everyone a copy of a movie that nobody has seen, and we all watch it for the first time together.

[ie]

Well, basically we used Pulp Fiction as a filler movie; the record states that I've only seen it once.

Feel free to take out Pulp Fiction and add in a movie of your choice. Jeez...

[criterionmaster]

Yeah, that was just an example of a film we have all seen. Please, tell me your ideas!

[criterionmaster]

Well now that we have decided to do this, we need to decide on which we should try out first: chatting while watching a movie or making a thread and discuss a movie in a thread throughout the month? And when that is decided we need to throw out some suggestions depending on which (chat = classic film, thread = newer film) and what time will we do it if the chat is choosen? Also, if that is choosen, which date?

[ie]

We've done a bunch of threads before.

We should do a chat on a classic movie and then copy that log over to a thread. My original thought was the Seven Samurai, but that's too long of a movie for this, especially on a first try. We should try for a short movie - I suggest La Jetée because it's easy to watch on YouTube or Google Video or something - just to try out the process and see how it works.


As for a time, I suggest the weekend. We should try for Thanksgiving weekend, since even though some may be visiting relatives, there's no work so that may free up some people, and if it's on Sunday, then it'll also free up the people who have lots of homework (nonfiction).