MFG Netflix Club - The One I Love - 07/09/15 - 14/09/15

[HandsomeDead]

I'd say I mostly enjoyed Safety Not Guaranteed during the running time. I was never that convinced by the relationship so the last third wasn't that great to me, but it still had some kind of hook. Maybe I just wanted to see how K-Pax-y the end was going to be. Though when I go back to think about it it does fall apart a bit.

But I'd say it holds up thematically pretty well, about escaping your mistakes and stuff.

I dunno. I guess its just a feel good film for blokes who like to think a cute dorky girl will be fascinated with your weirdness*.

*To be fair there may be a little more to it than that... but still.

[Sly Reflex]

A few things stuck in my craw.

• How the hell did she write her phone number on the soup tin without him noticing? Is she David Copperfield? What is this sorcery?
• Old boys story goes nowhere. He goes to see his young crush, see's that's she's amazing and throws it away like a complete dick. Why would anyone do that? Pretty stupid if you ask me, like why would you do that? Nobody in their right mind would do that.
• Why has time travel boy got a false ear? What does that bring to the story? How did he come to have a false ear?
• Why is his reason for going back alive? Did he go back and save her? Is he deluded and just a headcase?
• Why does Plaza lie about her mother? She's clearly not there at the start of the film. It's possible all that happened.
• Why when the robbery went down did he take the laser out of the box? On top of that, why did nobody attempt to stop him from just walking out?
• The scene with the note box in it. What does that mean? If he's only time travelled once, then he knows that there's going to be no note in there as he's been there and back and done everything he set out to do presumably.
• The Indian lad. I've no idea why he's in the film at all, he starts out as a dork, does dork things and then gets a life coaching by someone who just failed at life to do the same mistakes old boy did.
• The secret agent guys. This man has a time machine, what should we do? Ah, we'll just watch him. I seriously have no idea why they are in the film either. Who sent them? Why would such high level government workers stake out some crazy dude that stole lasers without any prior knowledge? Wouldn't that just be a normal cops job?
• Why does the time traveller send his workmate a box full of cash?

I know the film wasn't to be taken too seriously, but it least has to have some semblance of cohesiveness. I enjoyed it, but as soon as I started thinking about it I realised it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I'm laughing at it because it's so bloody daft.

[DisturbedSwan]

Watched it earlier today, I'd rate it at about 6/10.

It's the kind of film that doesn't really go anywhere really, I quite enjoyed it at times, but once the key plot devices and characters were introduced it didn't really take you anywhere else, just stayed as-is and didn't really go anywhere.

[RoboticMonk3y]

A few things stuck in my craw.

• How the hell did she write her phone number on the soup tin without him noticing? Is she David Copperfield? What is this sorcery?

This also made no sense to me, she would have had to have been looking at the can to write that neatly on the label.

• Old boys story goes nowhere. He goes to see his young crush, see's that's she's amazing and throws it away like a complete dick. Why would anyone do that? Pretty stupid if you ask me, like why would you do that? Nobody in their right mind would do that.

This also confused me a little, he seemed to be somewhat remorseful about having chased his ideal of being the flashy successful guy, he even had it pointed out to him "you weren't that fit and you weren't that muscley", when he got rejected, he went back to his regular life, perhaps with an extra spoonful of humble pie to choke down on. Who knows what happened after the end of the film though, he certainly seemed happy when he was fist pumping the air at the boat.

• Why has time travel boy got a false ear? What does that bring to the story? How did he come to have a false ear?

I think this was another plot McGuffin to further expose this guy as an outcast and try to pad out why he ended up being the weird loner kid.

• Why is his reason for going back alive? Did he go back and save her? Is he deluded and just a headcase?

I think he went back and saved her, and I don't think you need to read too much into that one, she said that he crashed into her house then just kinda vanished after that.

There was the scene where he was at the campfire and he was explaining why he wanted to go back, he even said he wanted to feel that same way he did when he was in love with someone, he didn't actually say directly that he loved her and wanted her, jsut that he wanted that feeling.

​My take was that he came to get that feeling with the young journalist girl, so he saved his ex, and that timeline petered out

• Why does Plaza lie about her mother? She's clearly not there at the start of the film. It's possible all that happened.

She changed her story though didn't she? She told the indian guy something completely different, I think when she was asked why she wanted to go back, after saying 'it's classified', she said 'it was personal', it easier to tell the truth than to make up a lie on the spot, and it was also her opening up to this weird nerdy guy who she was developing a crush on.

• Why when the robbery went down did he take the laser out of the box? On top of that, why did nobody attempt to stop him from just walking out?

Ha this was an odd part of the film, but it made me chuckle, much like when he did the absurd combat roll under the camera.

• The scene with the note box in it. What does that mean? If he's only time travelled once, then he knows that there's going to be no note in there as he's been there and back and done everything he set out to do presumably.

Again, I saw this as rather transparent, they both time jumped and lived happily ever after, no note.

• The Indian lad. I've no idea why he's in the film at all, he starts out as a dork, does dork things and then gets a life coaching by someone who just failed at life to do the same mistakes old boy did.

Kind of a third wheel really huh? I guess he was there so the old guy could vocalise his plot point of "don't fuck you life up then realise when you're too old to fix shit".

• The secret agent guys. This man has a time machine, what should we do? Ah, we'll just watch him. I seriously have no idea why they are in the film either. Who sent them? Why would such high level government workers stake out some crazy dude that stole lasers without any prior knowledge? Wouldn't that just be a normal cops job?

umm... he had... a combat skills? and a laser? and.. err..

science...

• Why does the time traveller send his workmate a box full of cash?

This one bothered me a little too, I can only assume that he was the only other guy who really talked with him, and so he probably knew that the box of cash was something he badly needed to sort his life out..

I know the film wasn't to be taken too seriously, but it least has to have some semblance of cohesiveness. I enjoyed it, but as soon as I started thinking about it I realised it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I'm laughing at it because it's so bloody daft.

I enjoyed it,

I also don't really think that the time travel is as complex as in primer.

I'm going to try and add points to what sly wrote in his spoiler section

Much like people have said, it's not a 10 out of 10, but I felt it was paced well and didn't outstay it's welcome.

[Sly Reflex]

I enjoyed it as well, it just had a few things that didn't make much sense, it seems like they cut the running time and missed a few important things out. I remember watching Lord of the Rings back when it was a big thing on dvd anot not making head nor tail of Sean Bean's character. Turns out they butchered that and it didn't make any sense until they did a director's cut.

When is the deadline for the next film being watched?

[RoboticMonk3y]

Well, the current one is not until monday, so let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

No doubt each film will be a week long thing, but it would be good to try not to divide the posts too much.

[Duck]

Was planing on watching it last night but something came up.

Just checked to see if today was maybe the last day, but it's been taken off. I'll catch the next one.

[Sambob]

EDIT:

Its on the Canadian netflix actually dude, you can get the Chrome 'Hola' extension to just choose where you want to view from.

[RoboticMonk3y]

give that man a gold star!

[Cyberpunk]

Sorry, I'm late to the party again. Whats this weeks film?

[Duck]

Cheers Samboaby!! Forgot that Canada's one was slightly different. Noticed that they had Xmen: Days of Future Past and Nightcrawler on there too which is cool.

This weeks movie is Safety Not Guaranteed Cyber.

[Sambob]

I just watched SNG.

I liked the general feel of the movie, it wasnt really about time travel or government agents so I dont hold up and examine those elements too closely, its central theme was really wanting to atone for your mistakes and to get a taste of something you once had, and how you go about doing so.

Kenneth is making a time machine to literally attempt to go back in time and recapture what he had with a girl, whilst the journalist guy, Jeff, picks up this story about Kenneth's advert to do the same thing. Jeff has to deal with the fact that time moves on, and he actually initially says 'time has not been kind to her', he tries to recapture the EXACT thing he had as a kid, thats haunted him since he had it, but it eludes him. By contrast, Kenneth just wants to save his ex girlfriend, as much for her as for himself, and in the meantime he finds that he is able to move on with Darius.

Really whether he goes back in time at the end or not is irrelevant but I guess they didnt want to do one of those 'ooh its up to your imagination' kind of endings, and credit to them for making that choice.

I thought the performances were pretty good, Aubrey Plaza as a standout but very much playing strongly to type, it felt like a bit of a vehicle for her on the back of her Parks and Rec ongoing fame at the time.

I really dont mind this kind of film at all, its plot is a bit whacky but its incredibly efficient at putting over a sense of something, a feeling. Ive seen tons of film with much more solid plot to speak of but with nothing at their core and id say thats probably why this has garnered some pretty favourable critical reviews.

[RoboticMonk3y]

On some deeper reading about the film...

The film is based on an actual advert found in a magazine, which is reproduced word for word in the film. This led to a bit of a kink in the plot, where the advert mentions that he's time travelled once before.. this is explained in the film rather dismissively, "oh I did it, but it didn't work, and I need another person to help..."

I'm thinking more about the film, and I still stick with it being really enjoyable, even if there were bit I didn't understand.

[Cyberpunk]

This weeks movie is Safety Not Guaranteed Cyber.

Thanks Duck. I'll join in and give it a watch.

[Hendo]

Making an early start on Primer due to how slow moving and impenetrable the dialogue can be. I'm pretty much watching in chunks, going back the next day and re-watching a little earlier than I left off.

Reading about it, they filmed it on an unspeakably small budget of $7000 and a tiny crew of 5 people. The director is also the writer, soundtrack composer and lead actor and the rest of the actors are his friends.

However, as much as this gives them a free pass for a lot of things, I think (at this point, not having finished watching the film) their decision to not simplify the scientific parts of the dialogue was a bit of a mistake. If I hadn't had it recommended so highly or been part of this thread, I would've given up by now.

[Pikman]

It is probably the most complex film I've seen. Even when you think you got it, you look up a diagram that explains it all online and you realise that it's sooooo much more complex than you thought.

I agree that it's slow, watching in chunks will make it so difficult to understand I think. It's like 70 mins long?!

[Hendo]

Well for example at one point.....

they were talking about their doubles

....and I went back to the bit before that to see if they explained how that happened and what I missed.

[Craymen Edge]

I'm going to watch Primer again, I liked it quite a lot when I first saw it. It'll be interesting to see how it stands up when you already kind of know what's happening.

The film club is a fun idea, I might join in from time to time. Does anyone have ideas in mind for how it's going to go ahead with picking/suggesting future films?

[Hendo]

The film club is a fun idea, I might join in from time to time. Does anyone have ideas in mind for how it's going to go ahead with picking/suggesting future films?

See how the suggestions go I guess? Take it in turns?

I'll have a rummage through my backlog list and try to find something I've been meaning to put on for a while, hopefully not one that everyone else has probably seen but also not too obscure, at least that's how I'll pick mine.

[DisturbedSwan]

Just checked Netflix and I've got a film in mind that we could all watch for this week, but don't know if Monkey wants to suggest something later today or something, see what happens I guess.