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savvifilm

Listed below are comments made by savvifilm between Monday, 10th August 2009 and Thursday, 3rd December 2009.

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Reasons to be cheerful 11:12am on 03 Dec 2009 Dr. K

Totally agree with you about Let the Right one in being the best film of the year. However I would like to mention what I believe a contender for the best documentary of the year.

The Cove.

It is what all documentarys should be. I have never seen a documentary more powerful and incredibly emotional than that one. Please give that film something. It deserves it.
The ten-second vampire movie 12:18pm on 28 Oct 2009 Dr K.

I think that vampires will always continue to fascinate us no matter what period of time we live in. There will always be an excuse.

And I don't necessarily think that it has everything to do with sex per se. While true that a lot of vampire stories are to do with sex, a deeper reading could be that what we find so fascinating about vampires particularly in today's society is to do with this idea of immortality and being forever young. Maybe that's what fascinates us. Vampires tap into our fear of getting old and the prices we have to pay for that eternal youth and that sense of immortality.

I would say that one of my other favorite vampire films as well as Let the Right One In (Best film of 2009) would be Kathryn Bigalow's Near Dark. A truly fantastic vampire movie, which shows vampirism not as something glamourous or sexy but something dirty, feral and full of pain and hate and anger. One of the best vampire films ever in my opinion. Brilliant.
The second second time around 6:02pm on 26 Oct 2009 I'm a HE Dr. K.

Just for future reference
The Revisitations of Doctor Kermode 5:34pm on 17 Oct 2009 Dear Dr K.

There are plenty of films that I've seen over my life that I've needed to watch more than once to fully appreciate and understand them.

First The Big Lebowski. First time around I really didn't get the film at all, didn't understand anything, thought it was a stupid pointless exercise of a movie. Then on the second time around I was a little older and wiser and loved it and saw what the Coens were trying to do with that movie. Now I think of it as pure genius.

Another film was one I recently discussed on this blog. Helen. The first time I watched it as you may remember I absolutely hated the film, didn't get it, thought it to be a pretentious piece of arthouse crap.

Then recently I saw it again and something in me stirred. I wouldn't say it is one of the best films of the year but there is something certainly about it that has stayed with me.
Screening Process 3:52pm on 15 Sep 2009 Dr K.

First to let you know I would like to take back my arguments on Helen. I recently watched it again on your suggestion and I have to say that I think I judged it too harshly last time.

I still believe it to be very pretentious and the filmmakers being too self congratulatory and would definitely not be in my best films of the year but it does have something fairly interesting about it.

Anyway I digress. Here are some choices for films worse than Bride Wars:

Transformers 2 you already have

Crank 2: High Voltage (Simply what in the name of salvation was that!!???)

Friday the 13th (Really?? Pointless!!)

Fired Up!

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

There might be more but I've seemed to have banished them from my mind.
To Helen back 11:08am on 08 Sep 2009 Don't get me wrong. I hated wolverine.
To Helen back 11:06am on 08 Sep 2009 Dr K.

I usually respect your opinion and I completely agree with you on the subject that Let The Right One in is probably the best film of this year if not of the decade thus far.

I think when I wrote on your blog it was because I had recently seen the film and had such an averse reaction to it at first. I think what put me off was that I found the filmmakers to be really pretentious about their work during the Q and A afterwards and it put me off the film slightly as believing it to had this air of authority and pretentiousness about it that put me off slightly.

But then in the months following I went home and started thinking about the film and for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about it.

While I wouldn't say that it is one of the best films of the year I will definitely watch the film again. I think it is one of those films that needs to be watched more than once in order to be fully appreciated because even though I disagreed with you on this point, i pretty much tend to agree with you on most other things. Except for your review of The Ruins. That film was terrible. And I cannot ever forgive you for your review of The Boat That Rocked.

But a word of warning Dr K. Don't ever say that my opinion is wrong ever again, it is always right unless I say otherwise.

Glad we cleared that up.
Northern exposure 3:38pm on 04 Sep 2009 Dr. K

Whilst on a night out me and my friends somehow ended up in a warehouse (Don't ask). After getting ridiculously intoxicated and eventually passing out, I awoke in the middle of the night to find that my friends had thus abandoned me in the warehouse, alone and locked in. After failing to find a way out I managed to stumble upon an lounge of sorts with a comfortable leather sofa and 32 inch T.V. So I treated myself to a double bill of The Dirty Dozen and Sweet Smell of Success.
The Pirate of Cropredy 11:41pm on 18 Aug 2009 Dr K.

I think that you may have been a little harsh with Johnny Depp saying that he is just doing Pirates 4 simply for the paycheck. He has stated that Jack Sparrow is his favourite character of all time and that he absolutely adores playing him. So what if he does that instead of working with Gilliam? If he wants to do Pirates let him do pirates. I think with his filmography he already has under his belt with his Tim Burton collaborations most notably Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, to his work with Gilliam on Fear and Loathing, that he has proven that he is had worked for the art rather than the commerce side. Look at his recent film Public Enemies. Granted, being a huge Michael Mann film it was disappointing but he decided to work with Mann a great director of those sort of stories.

Maybe it's just that Depp is getting older and wishes to have more fun in his life. Play roles that he enjoys playing and that are easy and makes films that he can take his children to see with him.

Granted it is a huge shame that he won't be working with Gilliam but maybe this is just a phase. I do not doubt for one second that Depp will return to that sort or filmmaking and working with directors that you shouldn't ever turn down like Gilliam.

But I do agree that he should maybe take the high road and take a reduced paycheck to work with Gilliam, like Bruce Willis did to work on Twelve Monkeys and like that film make the masterpiece that Don Quioxte should be.
The Tarantino Situation 9:37pm on 10 Aug 2009 Dear Dr K.

I completely agree with you that Jackie Brown is the best thing Tarantino has done. It is truly an underrated masterpiece. However I do believe that it is a little harsh to say that lately Tarantino has been bad. The Kill Bill were technically fantastic, the fight between Uma Thurman and the crazy 88s has to go down as one of the most entertaining bloodbaths ever. He is a true film lover and you can clearly see that throughout his work. I think the problem that he has lately is that he has no filter. Everything that he loves about film, everything that enters his mind erupts from his mind onto the page with no filtering process, no producer or other director saying "do we really need this". Which is why I believe that one of the best Tarantino films is one that he never directed. True Romance. The reason that film works is because Tarantino had another director to filter his thought processes and turn it into a truly great film. Maybe this is what he needs now, a director (who isn't Robert Rodriguez) to act as a filter and trim the fat from his work to turn what he writes into the filmmaker that we all know he is.

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