http://i.imgur.com/RMD15on.png

 

 

Welcome to the first instalment of the renewed Buzzjack Film Club.

 

Over the course of the club we will be exploring a range of themes, times, genres, directors and styles to really pick apart the world of cinema. Each instalment will take a broad THEME with two films that fit nicely into it to help comparisons/discussions flow. For the first theme, what better way to kick start the club than through CINEMA itself. Yes, we're going meta *.*

 

A.) The Truman Show // Peter Weir // 1998 (http://vidto.me/ - - - - uhkzse371ol6.html)

 

B.) Red Road // Andrea Arnold // 2006 (http://videolinkz.us/pl.php?url= - - - - 97B36B2034B061A9)

 

 

In this first set, are two films essentially about cinema (& television) itself. They each deal with themes of privacy, cameras, CCTV, the 'Big Brother' society and much more while being consciously aware about the process of watching the screen. One is an on-the-surface friendly american satire, the other a brooding, low-budget British film set in the dark streets of Glasgow.

 

You have three options. You can watch either film a, film b, or both. We have decided to arrange it like this to allow for more casual/busy-bodies to choose one to focus on, and have given two for people wanting to expand discussion and enter into comparisons. There is nothing to stop you comparing to other films you may have seen, and we will be building a database of films that also fit this theme (and every other theme we look at) as we go along. Ideally we'd all watch both films, but obviously this may prove difficult for some. a) is more accessible and b) is more hard-hitting (with some very inappropriate scenes - you have been warned!) so if you are only watching one, choose carefully.

 

Super secret links have been included above but if they have to be removed, i will PM them to everyone that showed an interest in the sign-up thread. Watch whenever you can and report back for some healthy discussion on whatever takes your fancy.

 

Enjoy.

 

http://i.imgur.com/NE6ooTu.jpg

(reserved)

Oh, I've not seen any of them. I should hopefully get one film watched tonight!

Really looking forward to 'Red Road'. Can tell it's gonna be fab :wub:

 

Seen 'The Truman Show' at school before, although that was when we watched half of the film when we had a cover teacher, so should be better this time around and actually getting my head around the theme / characters. ^_^

The Truman Show is amazing from what I remember of it!

I've seen The Truman Show a LONG time ago so it'll be good to refresh my memory.

 

Never heard of Red Road, excited about that one!

Ah, I watched The Truman Show a few weeks back actually! Twas a great film, I've not heard of the other one so it will be interesting to see. Wonderful choice of theme, it partly contributes to what I'm writing about in my dissertation and is a topic I'm really quite passionate about.

omg B set in glasgow???? reassuring~

 

i L O V E the truman show so hoping the love extends to film deux!

We've just had the issue of SPOILERS raised. To answer this, if in doubt when posting plot points put it in spoilers, but gradually they will be removed so be aware of that when viewing the thread before seeing the films.

 

Obviously include "OMG WHEN HE DIED...!!" in spoiler tags, but for most other things we should be fine without them.

 

Ah, I watched The Truman Show a few weeks back actually! Twas a great film, I've not heard of the other one so it will be interesting to see. Wonderful choice of theme, it partly contributes to what I'm writing about in my dissertation and is a topic I'm really quite passionate about.

Ooh brilliant! Glad i'm not clutching at straws with the theme then and it actually has relevance away from this :lol:

I haven't seen either so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with them this weekend.

I haven't seen either so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with them this weekend.

I've not seen The Truman Show the whole way through (although I was very impressed with what I did see). I've never even heard of the other film.

I recently watched The Truman Show because it has Laura Linney in it, I've already downloaded Red Road and will watch it tomorrow!

OK so here is my review of 'Red Road'.

 

This was very much not my comfort zone in terms of genre but I tried to leave that aside whilst watching this. I wouldn't say that I straight up 'enjoyed' watching it but I did think about it for quite a bit afterwards. I think at the beginning I was interested in how the surveilance camera style was gonna make an interesting twist on the style you might expect of a film but this was kind of lost as the film moved into the second half (as a result I think I don't quite 'get' the way this would relate to what I remember of The Truman Show in terms of a narrative). It got really graphic at some points, particularly the

Sex Scenes

. Sometimes the accents in this were such that I couldn't understand the odd line of dialogue but that didn't detract from the film in so big a way. my biggest gripe with this and a lot of the films of this kind is that I really feel like there's something in this film that I've not understood correctly, which is something that has put me off talking about some films in the past.

 

Overall though, I thought 'Red Road' had an interesting concept that wasn't quite executed to the full extent that I think it could have been and although it was intriguing, I don't think it was really for me.

 

I give 'Red Road' a score of:

4 out of 8 stars

 

 

(8 stars is the traditional Cusack ranking scale, you'll get used to it!)

So stoked for this, but going to have to be Sunday before I get any time to watch both. Seen The Truman Show lots of times and love it, hoping Red Road is good as well. ^_^

OK so here is my review of 'Red Road'.

 

This was very much not my comfort zone in terms of genre but I tried to leave that aside whilst watching this. I wouldn't say that I straight up 'enjoyed' watching it but I did think about it for quite a bit afterwards. I think at the beginning I was interested in how the surveilance camera style was gonna make an interesting twist on the style you might expect of a film but this was kind of lost as the film moved into the second half (as a result I think I don't quite 'get' the way this would relate to what I remember of The Truman Show in terms of a narrative). It got really graphic at some points, particularly the

Sex Scenes

. Sometimes the accents in this were such that I couldn't understand the odd line of dialogue but that didn't detract from the film in so big a way. my biggest gripe with this and a lot of the films of this kind is that I really feel like there's something in this film that I've not understood correctly, which is something that has put me off talking about some films in the past.

 

Overall though, I thought 'Red Road' had an interesting concept that wasn't quite executed to the full extent that I think it could have been and although it was intriguing, I don't think it was really for me.

 

I give 'Red Road' a score of:

4 out of 8 stars

(8 stars is the traditional Cusack ranking scale, you'll get used to it!)

YAY thanks for kicking it off (and so soon :o)

 

I'll give my thoughts in full on each eventually, but for now i do agree with this in part. The first section of the film where it is primarily shown through the surveillance cameras is brilliantly executed. While it does lose some of this as she moves into the "real world" of the camera screen, i think it manages to merge the slow discovery of exactly what's she's seeing in the camera to what she's seeing on the actual streets wonderfully. The way we watch her as she follows him on the streets and into the cafe is exactly how she was watching him follow the girl at the back of the park, and little tricks like that are enough of a "twist" for me. I do much prefer the first half of the film to the second because of the greater focus on the surveillance but i can see why it has to move away from that for the sake of the story

and her looking into the camera after the sex scene / and the very end shot of the film where she is being filmed bring it back round full circle quite cleverly

.

 

And it's definitely NOT going to be for everyone. The fallout of the scene you highlighted in particular makes me gasp everytime :/

Not seen either of these (I've been told to watch 'The Truman Show' by SO many people, so I can finally get round to watching it - although Jim Carrey generally annoys me). Looking forward to 'Red Road' though as it's a film I not only don't know, but I never knew existed. :lol:

I'll watch Red Road on Saturday and report back, but it does sound interesting.

 

The Truman Show is a really really fantastic movie and I think I'll watch that again on Saturday too. Good choices.

Ooh Red Road! I saw the demolition of one of the blocks on a random morning last year~

 

 

I'll probably watch the film sometime next week!

Edited January 16, 201411 yr by Harve

Gonna watch one of these tonight, And then the other on my next day off Wednesday.

 

I think I've seen the Truman Show at school but can't remember what the hell it's about. So a rewatch is a necessity.

Okay, I've watched both of these now, having seen neither before, so thoughts:

 

Red Road: I actually found the first-half a little slow; while I did like the use of the endless amounts of cameras and thought it was interesting the way she was able to track Clyde, I found myself zoning out at times with just silence and cameras, plus not knowing what was going on or why she was tracking this man (at the time) I wasn't quite able to connect. That's not to say it went over my head as I did appreciate it for doing something different. The second half, in the real world did very well I thought at capturing the poverty in the flats and the life of the characters, once she was out there it felt like there was more of a purpose. Some of the accents were incomprehensible at first too while I wasn't used to them, so I definitely preferred the second half. My main problem with the second half

is that the revelation about her family dying came out of nowhere and didn't hit me as hard as I think it was supposed to.

 

 

With regards to the theme it wasn't quite what I expected but yeah, loads of cameras working together to track anyone that those controlling it wanted is good thinking for how that works in society even if the film didn't address it directly and unless I missed underlying subtext which I am quite good at doing, was just used as a device.

 

I think it did leave the viewer in the dark a bit too much, but while the payoff wasn't the best I do appreciate how it fitted together, it had some good unique ideas and the moments in the characters lives, as I mentioned, were satisfying. Probably 3 stars out of 5 overall (I'll stick to that scale throughout so it doesn't feel like I'm rating songs but I'm still being consistent)

 

The Truman Show: Again, the first third or so dragged a lot, but this time it was because I knew what was happening and it started like a standard movie about Truman's life with only a couple of hints of the greater purpose and as such I got a bit bored before it finally began to pick up with his college flashbacks. Possibly this could improve on repeat viewings but it felt in the opening minutes like I was actually watching the program that had enraptured seemingly everyone in this awful dystopia.

Side note: A world where actors in a show spend their entire lives playing support cast to a guy who's doing this without his knowledge, as well as many many people spending seemingly their entire lives watching this show all day? Probably reading too much into the satire but a world where reality TV has been taken to its logical extreme? That's depressing.

 

 

As the masquerade began to fall and he became more aware it got a lot more entertaining and I really got into the middle part of the movie,

particularly his first attempt to escape and Christoff's attempts to right that with the interview about the show, bringing his dad back etc. The ending was a little simple and possibly finished too quickly for me, I'd have appreciated a reunion with Sylvia even though that was still implied as something that'd happen, would have been nice to see a tiny bit of him adjusting to the real world.

 

 

Despite some pacing issues, I quite enjoyed that and I definitely appreciate the message it was putting across with the whole 'will TV go too far' thing. Having never seen Jim Carrey in anything other than a comic role that took some getting used to and while he did manage to pull it off the image of Bruce Nolan was still there for me which did not help. I'd give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

 

I am awful at missing very subtle hints in films and things like appreciating camera shots (although both films did have plenty of interesting ones) so I've probably missed loads of things but this was a pretty enjoyable first run of films.