Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Darren Aronofsky Poll


With its win at Venice and purchase to Fox Searchlight, Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated films of the New York Film Festival and the winter film season. In honor of this, we might as well get the hype going by having a new poll! You just have to pick your favorite of the Aronofsky's three previous films (unless you don't like any of them or love them all, in which case I won't make you pick.) We can use the comments section of this post to discuss your selection. In case you haven't seen it, Jim Emerson has a review of sorts up on his site. Well worth checking out, as well as the rest of his coverage of the Toronto Film Festival. Now let's get the hype and some discussion going!

9 comments:

Nostalgia Kinky said...

Great idea for a poll...I think REQUIEM is his best film but THE FOUNTAIN has a more personal meaning for me. As you know, I am greatly looking forward to his new film.

Anonymous said...

I think Requiem is almost incontestable in this poll, and I say that with complete confidence having NEVER seen The Fountain.

:)

James Hansen said...

I actually voted for PI...it gets better with each viewing, something which is very untrue for REQUIEM, which is shocking the first time around but has almost no repeat watching value (unless you want to shock friends who don't know what they are getting into.) I'm not saying it isn't a solid film, but PI does more for me, and is more complex in a lot of ways. I only saw THE FOUNTAIN once, and really thought it was disastrous. (Sorry Jeremy!) I probably dismissed it a little too quickly, as people often do these days with ultra-ambitious films, but...eek... Maybe I'll watch it again before doing a bigger write up on THE WRESTLER...

Anonymous said...

I should re-watch Pi, but Requiem is one of (if not THE) film that got me interested in the medium as an art form. I haven't watched it in a few years, but I'm pretty sure nostalgia carries it through for me. Plus, I've heard nothing but disastrous reviews for The Fountain, so I've been putting that one off.

Brandon Colvin said...

I love Requiem. I think The Fountain is way better than most people give it credit for - like WAY better. I don't like Pi very much. It's always felt very immature and masturbatory to me - like Fight Club.

Anonymous said...

I voted for The Fountain. I loved Pi, but haven't seen Requiem, after repeated discussions have convinced me that it will hurt me. But the Fountain is such an amazing piece of Visionary art, with meanings of transcendence which are just incredible. It has such meaning as related to visionary, meaning psychedelic and deep soul-probing, art...it's really an extremely beautiful and meaningful film. When you can pull such richness out of three intertwined and amazing stories....I think it's brilliant on many levels....and that's besides it's outright visual beauty.

Anonymous said...

I said meaning 4 times in that post. Sorry. I clearly love that film, despite the puffy eyes it gives me the next day.

Anonymous said...

I am sure you have heard but the ending song was written by Springsteen and would make the first new song he has written for a movie since John Sayles's 'Limbo' and before that 'Jerry Maguire.' I am pretty much excited.

Joel Bocko said...

Early in this decade, I considered Aronofsky my favorite of the young filmmakers. Now he impresses me somewhat less. Even Requiem which I would have included as one of my "top 100" several years ago now feels extremely cold and overblown (though I'm willing to reconsider that opinion again). He's got a great style but I can't concur with the positive reviews of The Fountain. The ending was fantastic but the romance didn't convince me for one second. I haven't heard anything about the new film but I'll probably check it out. Then again I haven't seen Burn After Reading yet.