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OGB Film Club, take 2! - George Washington

snap take: highly affecting, uneven, compelling

I didn't recognize Winston at all
 
Tough film to get through. In part because it is, as Juice says, affecting and compelling, but also because the low budget and bad acting pull it down. Not a bad film by any stretch, but not one I'd watch again. In spite of the story it told, I really felt like this was more of an art film, particularly in the last half as everybody became more detached.

As for W-S, there was like one scene where I saw the phallus building and downtown in the background. It didn't really take me back.
 
EatLeadCommie said:
Tough film to get through. In part because it is, as Juice says, affecting and compelling, but also because the low budget and bad acting pull it down. Not a bad film by any stretch, but not one I'd watch again. In spite of the story it told, I really felt like this was more of an art film, particularly in the last half as everybody became more detached.

As for W-S, there was like one scene where I saw the phallus building and downtown in the background. It didn't really take me back.
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if i remember correctly, only paul schrader and eddie rouse were professional actors (and schrader had just graduated from NCSA)
 
Schrader went to NCSA? It’s not in his bio, at least that i can find.

Oh i guess you meant Schneider.
 
MHBDemon said:
Schrader went to NCSA? It’s not in his bio, at least that i can find.

Oh i guess you meant Schneider.
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yea sorry covid brain

but that cohort was just nuts: schneider, david gordon green, jody hill, danny mcbride, and some really talented behind the camera guys (e.g., Tim Orr)

I feel like UNCSA really punches above its weight class. Jeff Nichols, Aaron Katz, and Chad Hartigan are also recent grads.
 
While we're on a Winston-Salem kick, would folks be into watching some Winston flicks?

I've been meaning to rewatch Junebug and Goodbye Solo (made by FCDS alumni Ramin Bahrani).
 
Strickland33 said:
While we're on a Winston-Salem kick, would folks be into watching some Winston flicks?

I've been meaning to rewatch Junebug and Goodbye Solo (made by FCDS alumni Ramin Bahrani).
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Have seen Goodbye Solo and it was very good.
 
more notes:

- I picked this movie because I've had it on my list forever and I don't remember how I came know about it -- I knew it was set in NC and I'm a sucker for that -- I probably read about how it involved several of those NCSA guys on their way to getting big

- as ELC said, the acting was obviously done by amateurs, almost to the point of distraction at times -- it's an interesting feature and makes for some pretty real-feeling scenes, but makes some of the line delivery painful; I did really like Paul Schneider's character

- there were a few stretches where they used the overlapping narrative device to cut between two stories -- it was one a few things that definitely felt like a young filmmaker trying some things to find their voice

- while the movie lacks a strong plot, it does have strong enough narrative threads and in the end it does comes together better than I was worried it might

- I thought the sense of place was very strong, even though I didn't really recognize Winston -- I looked it up and a lot of the railyard scenes were shot in Spencer, NC (never heard of it) at some train museum I'd never heard of -- the 4th of July scene was in Kernersville, but the rest seems to be in abandoned areas of Winston -- not a Winston I knew much of during my time at Wake
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
more notes:

- I picked this movie because I've had it on my list forever and I don't remember how I came know about it -- I knew it was set in NC and I'm a sucker for that -- I probably read about how it involved several of those NCSA guys on their way to getting big

- as ELC said, the acting was obviously done by amateurs, almost to the point of distraction at times -- it's an interesting feature and makes for some pretty real-feeling scenes, but makes some of the line delivery painful; I did really like Paul Schneider's character

- there were a few stretches where they used the overlapping narrative device to cut between two stories -- it was one a few things that definitely felt like a young filmmaker trying some things to find their voice

- while the movie lacks a strong plot, it does have strong enough narrative threads and in the end it does comes together better than I was worried it might

- I thought the sense of place was very strong, even though I didn't really recognize Winston -- I looked it up and a lot of the railyard scenes were shot in Spencer, NC (never heard of it) at some train museum I'd never heard of -- the 4th of July scene was in Kernersville, but the rest seems to be in abandoned areas of Winston -- not a Winston I knew much of during my time at Wake
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What struck me was there were what seemed to be a lot of shots of characters walking alongside railroad tracks, but never crossing them. That felt symbolic (especially with the narrator referring to her parent's careers at the end) and possibly a specific reference to Winston's history that others on here have alluded to, but I don't remember the specifics.

Fayetteville street showed up a few times. Didn't remember much of that one when I was ther so I looked it up, it is north of I-40 but south of 421 (formerly business 40), so an area those of us coming from the north/east might not have seen much of. (Not sure if any of those were Kernersville scenes).

Narration was a bit of a hit and miss for me-particularly when one narration was over some adults who were talking about something completely different. Also, the July 1 title card-not sure of the purpose, as I don't think the date was mentioned earlier so I had no idea how much time had elapsed.
 
Two big influences on the film:

The narration and train tracks, I think, are homages to Days of Heaven. Malick is a big influence on David Gordon Green and went on to produce Undertow. You can even find bits and pieces of Malick's influence in DGG's comedies and episodes of Eastbound and Down, Vice Principals, and Righteous Gemstones.

beginning:

ending:

Another big influence is Killer of Sheep, which I learned about from listening to DGG's commentary on the DVD when I was a kid.







Killer of Sheep is probably my favorite film of all time, but was basically lost to history until Milestone resurrected it in 2007. It was lost to history because Burnett couldn't afford to secure the rights to the songs in the film. Like George Washington, Killer of Sheep was an extremely low budget labor of love from a filmmaker fresh out of film school. The first time I saw it was when I was doing a high school summer program at (now) UNCSA in the early-00s. (My counselor was a guy named Chad Hartigan who has since gone on to make films like Morris from America and This is Martin Bonner. He also acted in my extremely crappy and undoubtedly pretentious black-and-white short film, g-d bless him.)
 
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Has anybody watched Master Gardener and would like to discuss?



Definitely the most challenging (and probably least good) of the Schader "complicated men in complicated times" trilogy, but lots of ideas and questionable execution.
 
I have not seen that, but Esai Morales sighting!

This thread seems to have croaked.
 
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) was gonna be my pick when my turn came. Jackie Brown and Friends of Eddie Coyle may make for a good double feature. Also can be rented for $4.29 on Amazon.

If folks don't want to rent, I'd throw out having some fun with Midnight Run on Netflix. Maybe the GOAT character actor movie (Joey Pants, Dennis Farina, Philip Baker Hall, etc).
 
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is available to stream free on Hoopla via my library, so check Kanopy or Hoopla or whatever service your library uses
 
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