FRED HALE SR.

I viewed PI when it originally came out and found it to be an excellent, very cerebral movie. I've always been a fan of how he could pull me in with his visual art alone. Nolan is in the same boat, i've loved everything hes done less The Following. I found it to be boring and lacking in direction. It also had a confused sense about it with regard to the entire screenplay.

I gotta roll my vote Pi's way, and this is the first time i've actually disliked one of the movies involved in the war.

PI - 2
The Following - 0

Engine

Yeah, I apologize for the snobby content of my previous post.
It's just that, given my age, Aronofsky has seemed to me to be riding on his Pi cred throughout his career. Following will have to be uberexcellent to get my vote.

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LoathsomePete

I didn't take your post in a snobbish tone so no fear there. If anything my post clearly shows my age and my recent introduction to the movie as I only saw it this year when it showed up on Netflix (I have since bought it on DVD). I guess Aronofsky didn't really show up on my radar until 2008's The Wrestler as a name that I would go see in theaters. I mean I saw Requiem For a Dream sometime in 2004 or 2005 and that was before I really started looking at the movie from the eyes of the director and thus didn't really bother to learn names or styles.

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Engine

Glad to hear it. Also, I see that Following (no anterior "The" btw, Fred) is on Netflix and I vaguely recall watching it once when I was very drunk. It didn't leave much of an impression but I don't know if that's because it's dull or because my brain was soaked with alcohol. I'll give it another chance while only mildly drunk.

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FRED HALE SR.

I do that all the time with THE. I found it honestly to be a boring stalker movie lacking in any real content. I generally enjoy most black and white movies visually also and it seemed almost bleached out and lacking in focus also. I went into the movie really expecting something great after watching Memento. If every director could just have one **** the bed like Nolan the movie world would be pretty damn great. As it stand these are two of the top ten in my eyes at least, directors on the planet.

Engine

Following is a pretty great film. I'm surprised if anybody who likes Memento is bored by Following. Classic noir but told all backwards and time-shifty. Also, didja notice the Batman logo stuck on main character's apartment door?

Two great directors. Both moved on to big Hollywood. Personally, I feel that Aronofsky has stayed truer to his craft than Nolan. Of course, its hard to judge superhero films critically because, by nature, they're awful. Those Batmans are pretty good. Black Swan, The Wrestler, and The Fighter kick them all into the gutter though.

I only mention this stuff because its a way to describe why I like Pi more than Following. The latter is good but the former drills itself into my brain, hitting pleasure and pain sensors that Nolan's films are and have been incapable of doing to this day.

Pi: 3
Following: 0

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Violent & Funky

Aronofsky didn't make The Fighter...

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Alfred

Technically he helped make it, he has a production credit.

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Engine

Oh whoops. I thought he did. I still like it more than Batman.

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Frownland

I'm going to give my vote to Pi. I love the way that it grabs you by the collar and throttles you for an hour and a half like an extremely agitated math professor. The shots stand out brilliantly and the overall graininess of the film reminds me quite a bit of Begotten, which is one of my all time favourites. Also, the soundtrack and the sounds involved are fantastic, abrasive, and unique in terms of what you'll see in Hollywood. I also like the ambiguous ending, because it borders on a double ending that follows through with an almost conclusive ending.

Following is fantastic as well. It was the first Christopher Nolan film that I saw, and it left a great impression on me. As has been said before, it's essentially a reverse noir film in structure, which is really the best thing about it. The twist at the ending is a tad bit of a stretch, but still is very well done. The cinematography is not as good as Pi's, but it still serves its purpose to some extent. I prefer Aronofsky's work to Nolan's as a whole, and these two debuts are of no exception.

Following - 0
Pi - 4

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