Topic: The Movie Thread

I finally got around to showing my girlfriend a movie from 1998 called (depending on your region) Dead Man's Curve or the Curve. It's about two college students who decide to manufacture their roommates suicide (I know people don't like that word) when they hear on MTV that if your roommate does that you get a 4.0 (passing grade) for the semester. They intend to pull it off and use the passing grade to enter Harvard Law. It stars Matthew Lillard (Scream) in his best performance (possibly ever) And has all of the trappings of a late 90's Teen/Black Comedy including Aimee Mann on the soundtrack (her music features on many 90's movies) I hadn't seen it in years and I remembered it being a little slicker, it's most likely because my tastes matured and became more refined, it was still quite good and she really liked it. I'd say it's quite rare, I knew I had a copy and couldn't find it nor do I see it mentioned all that often if ever.

@GirlVersusGame I remember that one! Didn't they plant The Cure and/or The Smiths records so that there would be no doubt that their victim was depressed or something like that?

@FuriousMachine They sure did! The Smiths was 'girlfriend in a coma', that's how I found the song. The Cure. Joy Division and Suzanne Vega were mentioned by the college therapist, that scene was Spotify recommendations long before there was one. I think I first saw it one night late on TV then sourced it on DVD then lost it among the stacks. I'd been telling her about that movie for months, it was the same producer as The Last Supper. Another great black comedy of the 90's. When I saw The Curve it was under 'Dead Man's Curve', probably British TV.

@GirlVersusGame I had forgotten about "The Last Supper"; saw that one when it came out, as well. Cameron Diaz was the draw and I remember thinking, "hey, it also stars that guy from Drop Dead Fred!"
Can't remember a thing about it, though, other than that I liked it and that it had a stacked cast.

@FuriousMachine I forgot about Drop Dead Fred, The Last Supper was a really clever movie for the time. I think now in hindsight (after what I was told) it can definitely apply to current times. Black Comedies didn't get enough exposure, they weren't the safer bet for studios but there was still an audience, people weren't afraid on unrestrained humor.

Someone told me yesterday that Ben Affleck was saying how the kind of movies he'd come up on simply couldn't be made anymore, he said that streaming and distribution has gated real talent. He went on to say that the box office along with retail sales VHS/DVD were both integral in funding projects and that streaming is absolutely destroying that system. I remember years ago when I was learning to lace that projector and that man said 'you know one day an always online system will kill this industry' he was sure of it, so much so that he'd sold his theaters and had gone into retirement early. That's why he had a projector in his home, he'd gotten out of the game before it was rigged in someone else's favor. It's years later and theaters keep closing down all across the UK. You and some other Folks are in the minority of people who still attend a theater on a regular basis. Ben also talked about something I mentioned before, the skeletonization of Hollywood. It's too expensive to live there now, they can't get the technical talent so crews are smaller and something that should be done practical is done cheaper in CGI. We won't see black comedies anymore, studios want to avoid taboo topics and follow the social order, that shift to sensitivity will bury the genre, if it hasn't already. You'd know better, have you seen any known or obscure black comedies of recent? I struggle to name one.

@GirlVersusGame Not really obscure, but I saw what I would definitely call a black comedy just last week! Sam Raimi's latest, Send Help, definitely fits the bill, in my opinion. It won't be for everyone, but I loved it. Also contains quite a bit of Raimi's trademark "splatstick" humour and the two leads are fantastically unpredictable. Shout out to Rachel McAdams, who was in top form (and playing quite against type).

But, yeah, back in the good old days you would get all kinds of excellent movies that dared to be different. Going by the video store every day on my way home from school and checking out all the new releases were an absolute joy.

@GirlVersusGame @FuriousMachine

Martin McDonagh’s been consistently pumping out black comedies since ‘In Bruges’. ‘The Nice Guys’, ‘JoJo Rabbit’, or the more recent ‘The Monkey’ also spring to mind. I’m dying to see ‘Send Help’. Glad to hear it’s worth watching !

@Metonymy Really? I've never heard In Bruge being referred to as a black comedy? Maybe it's a regional thing. When I saw it the movie was defined as a Thriller/Drama. It might be down to European humor versus perhaps America/Canada? We all have a different sense of humor and parts of Europe for example are a lot more open to certain content that might be seen as taboo elsewhere. France is a good example, sex is not seen as taboo but healthy and that would impact the genre a movie was given (depending on the content) I noticed the same thing back home with genre, the name would change which was normal enough but genre would too, making it even harder to get on the same page. I think we called the last Predator movie Dead Planet. Also the movie I mentioned above 'The Curve' being 'Dead Man's Curve', I saw that when it was classed as a Thriller. Then there's calling Sinners a musical, and what they did with Joker 2. They sold it as anything but a musical and people weren't happy at all.

@FuriousMachine Your old days sound a lot more lively and less sterile than what's on offer now, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't envious. Even just seeing a movie you didn't already know of sounds great, as does being able to take the box and read about it/see the imagery. I get brief hints of that when I source those obscure VHS tapes, there's a sense of 'I wonder who watched this and what their daily life was at the time'. I love ex-rental for that very reason, that one tape provided who knows how many moments of entertainment to who knows how many people. Now everyone just uses some kind of streaming service and generally sees the same material, but how many people have seen C.H.U.D. or Basket Case?

Those movies were niche even back then, that straight to video market wasn't perfect but I've seen some absolutely brilliant movies and I'm certain they never saw a theatrical release. I know Netflix have a code of ethics and they seem to be rather progressive, many video distributors had none. Basket Case's distributor mainly moved adult material, that one movie paid for his home. I think my biggest fear with streaming is that variety and originality will eventually get swallowed up or be aged out. The same for offensive cinema, The Life of Brian was highly offensive to some people, the same for A Clockwork Orange. Borat was another one, he managed to offend a whole country. I never saw it as laughing at the expense of others, nor would I ever, but I will keep seeking out older cinema to see it for myself.

@Metonymy All great films (I have a soft spot for "JoJo Rabbit" in particular) and while they're all darkly funny, I'm not sure I would classify them as "dark comedy", though, at least not in the same vein as "The Last Supper", "Dead Man's Curve" or, one I just remembered, "Very Bad Things".
Still, as @GirlVersusGame mentioned, genre classification is a fluid thing and is very much in the eye of the beholder, in my opinion, and when it all comes down to it, it doesn't matter all that much.

@GirlVersusGame There were a lot of good in the "good old days", but there's been enough progress in enough areas that I don't think I wouldn't want to go back (well, if we could go back to around 2010 or so and try to avoid the s**tstorm that started around 2015-16 and only got worse from there, that would be fine by me)
But, yeah, hanging at the video store and discovering obscure movies is something I definitely miss. Reading the synopsis on the back cover could be a frustrating experience, though. I remember one movie in particular, it was called "The Grave" and the synopsis revealed pretty much everything that happened throughout the movie. When the movie reached the point where the synopsis ended, there was something around 10 minutes left.
Another thing I miss was getting movie news from magazines like "Empire". That joy of going to the newsstand and getting the latest issue, leafing through it in the free periods at school and then settling down to read the various news, articles and reviews in bed before going to sleep.
There is a convenience to the internet's ability to give us everything, everywhere, all at once (see what I did there? ), but it comes with a loss that is hard to describe to those who haven't lived without, as well.

@GirlVersusGame I would definitely say that In Bruges is a dark comedy. I thought certain scenes, like the 'Back off Shorty' one was hilarious.

Now Empire I know, I bought a collection of them a while back, boxed all of the regular issues and pulled some editions like this with the 'best of' issues and that Horror one is so well put together. I boxed away another one called Total Film but I prefer the writing in Empire. There was a French one that I used to read but I don't remember the name, England had another one called Neon. I have all of the books/CDs/Roms/posters that came with all off those mentioned magazines too.

Someone will remember one of those editions.

@GirlVersusGame Good memories there. "Total Film" couldn't hold a candle to "Empire" in my opinion

@FuriousMachine They seem to have focused more on DVD reviews and light internet content than actual interviews/news, I don't think they had the same access as Empire. It looks like they merged with SFX Magazine (I have some of those somewhere too, for Aliens/Independence Day) Edge and Gamesradar. They mention having a dedicated tumblr too, that really says it all. They were more of a social media experience for cinema while Empire (still going strong) takes a more focused and curated approach. When they interacted with their reader-base it was more about polls and feedback than tumblr. I found one of my boxes of Playstation demos yesterday, I need to sort through them and post an image or two. The Empire/TotalFilm CDs contain either music tracks (some great) or extremely low resolution trailers. I'm not sure where they are, I have stuff with trials for AmericaOnline, one was from Judge Dredd, 90s for sure.

This isn't all of them but I think their books (included with some issues) do a good job of comparing the two. Empire have their 'top videos/top dvds/almanacs' and TotalFilm have quotes and trivia. I had to source a lot of those books separately, most sellers didn't have them anymore. The top videos one does mean VHS so that's fairly old, I found no date of publication. The 100 DVDs is in association with Blockbuster, it lists the bonus features and the prices. It looks like the old Warner Releases were £13 and most others were £20. It's a great way of seeing the earliest DVD roster. It looks like it was published in 2003. There's a feature on why you should rent from Blockbuster too. One day I'll break out some VHS boxes and really hit some nostalgia, but interesting ones not super mass market.

@GirlVersusGame Totally agree, humour is certainly cultural, and definitions differ from person to person (along with the words used within those definitions - semantics!) Horror and comedy in particular have so many different flavours as well. A bit like metal. Death metal, black metal, thrash metal, nu metal…It’s why welders get paid the big bucks. I suppose my definition of dark comedy is anything with a particularly facetious spirit and a penchant for cutting to uncomfortable truths. This scene from the aforementioned, “The Monkey” encapsulates what I’m trying to say pretty well.

I’m interested, what is a dark comedy to you? @FuriousMachine and @JohnnyShoulder too!

@Metonymy I suppose my definition of dark comedy is anything with a particularly facetious spirit and a penchant for cutting to uncomfortable truths. This scene from the aforementioned, “The Monkey” encapsulates what I’m trying to say pretty well.

• That's a great explanation, using that example I'd say that Shallow Grave is more of a black comedy than a drama or thriller. Another interesting thing I've noticed is how some DVD/Bluray collections will mix and match genre to fit their region/audience. I don't think it's exactly deceptive marketing more-so it's up to the viewer to know what they are wanting to drop some money on. Now retail essentially means 'collector', they had a lot more freedom to mix and match with rental. Saying that though, Netflix are backwards sometimes with genre too. I saw Alien called a sci-fi comedy before, it might be automated or it was a glitch. Prime has done it before too, I tend to avoid Prime due to the lack of subtitles and I often use subtitles to learn or brush up on languages. It makes me wonder how those who are hard of hearing deal with Prime's library. Netflix almost always has subtitles. I'll sometimes read a book while listening to music and then have a movie with subtitles on another screen, it's hyper multitasking but it's possible, mix in an exercise machine and it's a four in one.

@Metonymy I'd consider "The Monkey" more of a horror comedy (with deliciously dark humour, absolutely), but to me it's more or less semantics. I would say "In Bruges" fits the bill, though even that I would instinctively place more in the "dramedy" camp (again, with dark humour).
Either way, I wouldn't think to argue vehemently with anyone who says different, but they absolutely feel like very different types of films from the ones we were discussing (which I would say are primarily comedies with dark humour, thus fitting the bill better than others, in my mind). "Shallow Grave" would fall in that category too, for me.

@GirlVersusGame For the right type of brain (like that of my wife’s), that level of multitasking might just be therapeutic 😊. The region thing is fascinating, and a testament to the value of a good marketing team. I like the idea of marketing coming from a place of earnestness, in which the goal is to effectively communicate a film’s strengths to each unique audience rather than well trodden forms of manipulation.

@FuriousMachine Interesting. Horror comedy is yet another variation, think I’d put something like ‘Drag Me To Hell’ in that genre. Well, ‘Shallow Grave, and ‘The Curve’ are on the list!

@Metonymy "Drag Me To Hell" fits very snugly there, I agree "Evil Dead 2" as well, though "Army of Darkness" is a different beast altogether (doesn't feel like horror, if you know what I mean). I went in expecting a horror comedy with "Send Help" (while we're on the subject of Raimi), but while it contains a bit of blood & gore, it's too light on the horror for it to qualify, so I feel it fits better in the "dark comedy" range.

@Metonymy Dark comedy to me is films like The Burbs, American Psycho, Fargo, Heathers and The Hunt.

When googling dark comedies to refresh my memory, most of the films that came up I would not class as a dark comedy. Trainspotting for instance I would not, but have no idea what I would class it as. But i try to get bogged down by it too much. Still a fun exercise though!