Alternative/Indy/Foreign flicks - Where to go? (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

With the death of dedicated indie/foreign flick thread pionered by Edwin Pereyra, discussions of such movies has all but evaporated from HTF (barring the odd inconspicuous DVD review).

Apparently the Pereyras, Reubens, Paxtons, Weinbergs, Whites, Seavers, Crippens etc... of this world have decided to abandon the Movies forum, and now we're stuck with Tim Glover and JediFonger/Yi Feng. WTF? Lew decided to move away from good movies, to Mexico. Michael seems more interested in closing threads than posting reviews. Brook and a few others have now bury their 2006 writeups in the middle of countless 20' silent flick reviews or interminable arugments about D.W. Griffith. Most have just... dissapeared. Are there greener pastures the rest of us are unaware of?

Sure there are critics, but the truth is that over the years, I have come to rely more on the combined opinions of these and other fellow movie enthusiasts than anything else really.

In any case, 8 months into the year, I've yet to see a single flick in this category 'cause ain't nobody sayin' nuttin' no mo'!

Any noteworthy recommendations for me netflix queue?

Mostly, come back, we miss you!

--
H - Tim, Yi, I was obviously kidding... no hard feelings

 

[Jason Seaver]

I'm still around, I just feel kind of conflict-of-interest-y; I've been writing up what I see on my blog as I see it and expanding them for another site later. I'm not getting paid, but I've gotten media passes at festivals (I should finish up reviews of the 40 movies I saw at Fantasia this week), and I don't feel right just posting a link or copying and pasting. And I'm way too lazy to write about the same movie a second or third time.

Here's a tip for this week: The Hidden Blade just came out on DVD (after playing theaters here in Boston no more than a month ago), and it's fantastic. I think I liked it even more than The Twilight Samurai, which was a darn fine movie itself.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Brick. Out today. There's a thread on it.

M.

 

[Brook K]

Tristram Shandy A Cock and Bull Story
Fateless
Why We Fight
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
Tsotsi
The Girl in the Cafe

There's also the problem that outside of the biggest cities or ones with really well developed specialty outlets, theatrical distribution of foreign films has taken a giant step backwards. The studio Indys, particularly Sony Pictures Classics, have drastically cut the number of non-English language films they handle. Wellspring's theatrical distribution was shut down by the Genius/Weinstein acquisition. There's so little to see here, I've only gone to the theater 4 times from May-August. The "art" theaters here in Atlanta are showing pretty much the same movies as the multi-plexes.

I've also gotten back into an old hobby recently and my "one night a week to go out without the wife & kids" has been spent on that rather than going to the theater. And I've gotten a little more sedentary, perferring to watch my DVD's at home rather than make the 30-40m drive both ways into the city. Thank You For Smoking played here for several months and I never made it out.

 

[SteveGon]

I'm still around and watching my fair share of foreign flicks. However, any mention of them is limited to brief write-ups in the current Track the Films You Watch thread - I just haven't had the time or inclination lately to write full reviews (though I'm hoping to change that soon). I've found that threads on any particular foreign film don't last long as their viewership is limited - hell, nobody ever replied to my Aki Kaurismaki Appreciation thread!

And of course, if you like foreign cinema, it's a get idea to get a multi-region player. Otherwise you'll miss great movies like Innocence and The Cremator.

 

[JohnRice]

I still need to watch both of those.

What is happening here seems to be common in general online. As the membership grows, the variety of films discussed actually diminishes. It seems to make no sense, but I have observed it over and over.

 

[Holadem]

Thanks for the suggestions. But I guess in the near future I will need to step up my own research in this regard rather relying on good ole HTF like I used to, which isn't a bad thing I guess. I tend to avoid professional reviews till after screenings, but that may have to change...

Even the film list thread has sunk into the depths of page 2 and beyond (I've not updated mine in ages). This may be due to the absence of Edwin, who regularly bumped the thread with updates and thus reminded others of it's existence I guess? Dunno.

John is correct, the forum is busier than ever (the movie forum used to go on for almost a full day without a single post), but diversity has taken a bit of a dive.

I am a foreigner, I need foreign cinema . Seriously, a month or two without a foreign flick and I start going nuts. Both DVD players are region free, but it's true that I mostly watch R1 foreign stuff since I mostly rent (netflix).

--
H

 

[Nathan V]

EXACTLY. I moan the loss of intelligent discussion here. "Nobody" talks about good movies anymore, unless they're popular as hell, and the quality of disussion has gone down quite a bit (as well as the freakin' usernames! ). I also think the addition of 'under the name' pics and big sigs detract from the forum's 'official,' intelligent flavor that seperates HTF from all other web forums. Then again, what do I know. Of course, HTF remains the unquestioned best movie disussion site on the web, by a long stretch, but it appears to have lost a lot of its best people/discussion. Of course, the BO thread is still the great, beautiful, shining thing it has always been.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Holadem]

Until TerryRL gets abducted by aliens as well.

--
H

 

[teapot2001]

Who are the Whites?

I think there has been a general lost of interest in new movies for the past year or two, and it has nothing to do with their quality. I've read how many of the forum regulars just haven't had much time, how they have other interests, or how they just watch most movies on DVD now. I've gone through the same things.

Also, when the theme threads started to appear, I feared that it would cause a drop in the discussion in this forum. Instead of posting a new thread for a single movie, somone would just post their opinion in one of the threads and that post wouldn't be seen by as many.

I don't like the usernames, either. Really, what's up with this JediFonger guy?

~T

 

[Michael Reuben]

Ever considered reviewing some of it?

M.

 

[Holadem]

I am not one for writing reviews (yes, I realize the irony). BTW, I meant the foreign stuff I watch is mostly R1, not the other way around. The last was probably the excellent Tae Guk Gi (I actually did write about it, then axed it), the next will be any of the nexflix discs currently here: Paradise Now, L'avventura and The Battle of Algiers, none of which are '06 releases, though Paradise Now is close enough.

--
H

 

[teapot2001]

Whytes!

Holadem, why don't you just start the thread that Edwin was doing?

Something else I've noticed in addition to the decline of participation among the members, is the decline of the mods' participation. Not as many review and discussion threads as there used to be.

~T

 

[Michael Reuben]

My thought exactly. But then he'd have to write reviews, as Edwin did.

M.

 

[Holadem]

No I wouldn't, I could just stick to keeping the upcoming releases and posted reviews index .

I declined the offer from Edwin earlier in the year, but am now reconsidering... I shot him a PM asking for some pointers. We shall see. Meanwhile, I have no problems with shamelessly passing the buck to whoever is willing to take it up .

Gimme a coupla days......

--
H

 

[Holadem]

Well gee that was fast, Edwin replied, says hi to everyone.

I will start the new thread by the end of hte week, I just need to figure out the format and stuff. Stay tuned...

--
H

 

[Nathan V]

I agree. I should have said I mildly moan the loss of great discussion, or that I moan occasionally. We still have great discussions (New World, Miami Vice, Shyamalan), but I remember the days when I'd have to check the forum every day, sometimes twice a day, because there were so many great threads going on. Now, checking in that often is usually redundant. Hopefully with Oscar season starting early this year, there'll be some more good discussion soon.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Lew Crippen]

I occasionally do see movies of interest down here—and will certainty comment. Sadly many of the films available to me, will be ones that may not hit the North American market at all. Also almost all foreign (read non-English language, non-Spanish language) films are either dubbed in Spanish or (usually) have Spanish subtitles, so my observations may be at variance with your experience.

 

[JohnRice]

I suspect the people who complain are upset because they are too lazy to see if a thread has already been started on a movie, or want to start their own thread for no valid reason. The "Official" thread policy has been a good one, IMO.

 

[teapot2001]

Holadem, all you need to do is post the new releases, no need to write any reviews.

~T