Brows Held High

Oancitizen and his title-card artist, Ven, do a commentary on The Man Who Fell To Earth.

edited 12th Aug '11 6:25:09 AM by snaver

Huh, I just found out that Oancitizen lives in the Washington D.C. area, which is where I live.

If I ever just happen to run into him by accident (quite unlikely, given the amount of people here,) I'll probably thank him personally for helping me feel more "cultured" then I really am.

I also live the same area as he does, when I heard he was in Maryland I was like "Okay, two of my favorite reviewers live in relatively close proximity to me, what're the odds of that?"

The site practically has a mid-Atlantic music-loving conglomerate at this point, doesn't it?

First it was just Paw, Roses and Todd. Then Todd helped extend their range north to Chick territory, and recent musicals and the most recent Roses LP foreshadows the same happening to Oan. (Lupa was a worthy attempt, but she lives too far to the west.)

I have no idea where the Rap Critic lives.

Jew Wario counts as mid-west too.

I actually live in the same state as that man. Never seen him though.

I saw Jew Wario at MAGFest once.

He was going on the down escalator and I was going on the up escalator.

Wait, where do Roses and Paw live? I wasn't aware they were around here someplace myself.

Roses lives in Chicago and Paw lives somewhere in or at least close to New York, I think.

Me and Justin are in Colorado.

He's in Boulder I believe. I'm not.

Tideland is up.

I shouldn't be suprised that Terry Gilliam made a strange movie, should I?

edited 20th Aug '11 9:45:19 AM by snaver

Heh, one of the first times I've had to see an internet reviewer review one of my actual favourite movies. Seen people review stuff I merely like negatively before, but those illicited a somewhat different feeling, as in I didn't give a fuck, this time I actually kind of did. But I seem to have managed to restrain my knee-jerk "he panned it, now he sucks" reaction, probably also due to it being more of a, "eh, this movie is not quite up to par" sort of review, rather than an actual hatefest. Very much thanks to the concessions at the end. But that illustrates why I like BHH's format quite a lot, because it allows more easily for making fun of something, while still recognizing that it isn't a bad movie. In fact it also has the secondary function of introducing, the viewer, IE me to interesting and weird movies I might not have seen.

Anyway, I found some of the criticisms a little weird, such as the opening scenes of Jeliza-Rose helping her father with the heroin, which is pretty clearly meant to evoke a certain amount of uncomfortableness in the audience, by how casually she does it, as though it's a normal thing - which it is, for her. Overall though I didn't hate it and chuckled here and there, which I guess is pretty good, all things considered, what with me really liking the movie and him bringing quite a bit of negativity to the table. So I disagree with this being one of Gilliam's weaker movies, in fact I think it is one of his strongest movies, only rivalled by Brazil. It's a perfect look into the madness and imaginary world of a girl trying to deal with and escape from a harsh reality. A much better movie for that than the much lauded Pan's Labyrinth too, in my opinion, but I guess that's neither here nor there.

But despite differing viewpoints, Oancitizen continues to grow on me, I really like his show and I think it is one of the most unique out of the TGWTG bunch.

edited 20th Aug '11 10:22:40 AM by Mathias

Subjectivity's a bitch. I also didn't like his review of Perfume much. Didn't see the movie, did read the novel. Didn't like it much, but I still thought that some of his analysis was strange. Though of course, now I don't remember anymore what my objections were. ._.;

Also, he didn't get that bit in The Fall where the director was acknowledging how a child wouldn't understand the difference between an Indian from India and a Native American "Indian".

I need to watch this, as it’s another movie I’ve seen. I liked Tideland. Not loved, but liked. It was one of those movies like Apocalypse Now where my reaction was, “Wow, what a powerful and unique cinematic experience! I’m glad I never have to go through it again!”

A Serbian Film

Well that was weird. Watched the whole thing and I still don't know what his opinion really was. The points he made for it having an actual point seemed pretty compelling. *shrugs*

It's amazing how thin the line between exploitation and art is sometimes.

Having watched this now, does it feel like an extended version of one of his "Between The Lines" segments to anyone else?

edited 25th Aug '11 9:04:54 AM by snaver

It does. Especially because he's not so much recapping the movie as explaining why it was made, and what the filmmakers were trying to do.

I'm parsing out his opinion as "Yes, believe it or not, it is more than just an exploitation film, and it takes a careful understanding of Serbia's history and cultural background to realize this. That being said: OH GOD, MY EYES! WHY DID I WATCH THIS?"

edited 26th Aug '11 6:47:18 AM by Sparkysharps

The video was more an extended end analysis than poiint-by-point breakdown as most reviews, but I guess there wasn't much in the film to give a breakdown on, or even show. He also had seriious guts to pull this off as a proper review, I don't know whether Phelan was acting or did he really struggle to go through the movie more than twice to get all the clips.

Also loved the NATO bit in the end.

The point of the review was "yes, this is a legitimate social commentary and work of art, but it's still one of the most horrible things ever put on film"

I was pretty impressed myself. I mean, Brad and Phelan were so squicked by A Serbian Film that they didn't even really try to review it, they just warned people to stay away. In fact, I have to wonder if the NATO thing is another subtle dig at Oan's colleagues, specifically Phelan's Freak Out.

I loved the blood dripping out of his nose at the end of it.

I considered this one of Oancitizen's best actually, I loved how this worked out. Since the analysis and attempts to read metaphors are what I like most about his reviews.

@Lee: Could be a Take That Me, remember Vissalia, California?