Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

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Big Ben
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Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#1 Post by Big Ben » Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:40 pm

I can't believe y'all missed this:

Elisabeth Moss & Alex Ross Perry Reteam For His New Film ‘Her Smell’
In Her Smell, Moss will star as Becky Something, a maniacally destructive punk rock star who pushes her relationships with bandmates, family and followers to the limit as she wages a years-long war against sobriety while attempting to re-engage the creativity that had once led her band to massive crossover success.

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domino harvey
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#2 Post by domino harvey » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:55 am


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domino harvey
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#3 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:01 am

Excerpt/teaser

TIFF responses are wiiiiiiiildly divergent but mostly negative. At least one critic called it the worst film ever to play at the festival. It's made up of five sequences that play out in real time, with comparisons being made to Birdman and mother! The first 80 minutes in particular are apparently inhumanly abrasive due to the behavior of Moss' character, resulting in tons of walk outs

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dda1996a
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#4 Post by dda1996a » Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:06 am

I personally can't understand people who go to a film festival and then walk out. Its not as if you don't know what you're walking into in the first place...

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domino harvey
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#5 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:47 am

Many people have commented that the film is a big departure from other Perry films, so that's not necessarily accurate

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dda1996a
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#6 Post by dda1996a » Mon Sep 10, 2018 8:32 am

I meant more as you're going to a film festival, you should expect some outre stuff. I think there's a difference between walking out on an awful and boring film, and walking out because you find the film, too much for you? Like people walking out of Suspiria, Denis' High Life and every Von Trier and Noe.
Mass audience walking out of Mother! is in my opinion different than walking out of a film playing a festival.

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Kirkinson
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#7 Post by Kirkinson » Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:04 am

The only time I consistently walk out of movies each year is when I'm attending the Portland International Film Festival. Sometimes if something isn't working for you, you might still have time to catch something else you might end up liking more. I remember Roger Ebert relating a story like this about Sundance once, that he left after the first act of a movie that wasn't working for him, asked the first festival staff member he saw which of the other films playing at the moment he should see, and ended up watching a movie he loved that wasn't on his radar before. On top of that, seeing multiple movies a day is exhausting and it's very tempting to just take a break if you find yourself at a screening of something that you're just not engaging with.

It's also frequently the case that content I might be able to handle once in an individual film becomes harder to handle if it's repeated in multiple films seen in quick succession. There was one year at PIFF that I walked out of a couple films and crossed a couple more off my schedule because I saw six or seven movies within a few days of each other that were all about sexual violence or other ways women are brutally oppressed in various corners of the world, and while I would have been fine watching any one of them in isolation, seeing them all so close together really took a toll on me.

I will admit I've never walked out of a film because it was too "outre", but still, festivals seem to me like a pretty natural time to walk out of something.

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dda1996a
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#8 Post by dda1996a » Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:12 am

I get that, but whenever its reported a lot of people walked out of a film for being violent or hard hitting, at a film festival, and not because they were not engaged, I find it just prudent. What did they expect Suspiria or a Denis film about sex prisoners in space to be?
I mean even this, I've yet to see an Alex Ross Perry film where the characters weren't being sollipsistic, egotistical assholes to people around them.
I expect people who go to a film festival, and more so into a film by certain directors to know what they're in for.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#9 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:16 am

He couldn't have picked a creepier title, that's for sure.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#10 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Sep 10, 2018 12:10 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:01 am
Excerpt/teaser

TIFF responses are wiiiiiiiildly divergent but mostly negative. At least one critic called it the worst film ever to play at the festival. It's made up of five sequences that play out in real time, with comparisons being made to Birdman and mother! The first 80 minutes in particular are apparently inhumanly abrasive due to the behavior of Moss' character, resulting in tons of walk outs
Went from somewhat minimal interest to massive interest based on this. I know opinions here varied on Moss' performance in Queen of Earth but I thought it was great, and if this film is going to have her going for broke and, well, behaving like an addict may actually behave - it sounds like a very compelling concept. Alex Ross Perry continues to be a filmmaker whose commercial prospects are almost nil, though, and beyond taking jobs like writing Disney's Christopher Robin, I wonder how long he can continue to get funding for features of his own if they aren't catching on commercially, or now even critically

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#11 Post by The Narrator Returns » Mon Sep 10, 2018 1:09 pm

I just listened to Perry's new episode of Blank Check where he said this movie was inspired in part by Paul Verhoeven, so I'm not surprised it's much more oppressive than his norm.

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#12 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:11 pm


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Boosmahn
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#13 Post by Boosmahn » Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:15 pm

Well, Elizabeth Moss captured me as Peggy in Mad Men, so I'll give it a shot on that merit.

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domino harvey
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#14 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:49 pm

I truly do not think I can sit through eighty minutes of the Moss we see in the above teaser clip (plus another hour on top of that for the rest of the film), so I guess I'll never know

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#15 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:50 pm

I had a tiny crush on her when she was on The West Wing. Still haven't watched Mad Men but I enjoyed her on Top of the Lake, Queen of Earth and especially in The One I Love. Short of her performance reaching G.G. Allin levels of depravity, I'm highly interested in what she accomplishes here.

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#16 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:00 pm

If anyone reading this has not seen the One I Love, though, go watch it ASAP without reading a single thing about it. It's a hard movie to recommend to people because if they knew what it was about, they'd def want to see it, but the film does such a good job unfolding its high concept premise that only a monster would spoil that beforehand

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mfunk9786
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#17 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:14 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:00 pm
If anyone reading this has not seen the One I Love, though, go watch it ASAP without reading a single thing about it. It's a hard movie to recommend to people because if they knew what it was about, they'd def want to see it, but the film does such a good job unfolding its high concept premise that only a monster would spoil that beforehand
SpoilerShow
That one didn't leave much of an impression on me, but considering your love of films like Another Earth, I am pleasantly unsurprised that you find it to be a standout!

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swo17
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#18 Post by swo17 » Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:28 pm

That was a great year for that kind of movie
SpoilerShow
also Enemy and The Double

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Cronenfly
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#19 Post by Cronenfly » Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:16 am

Did not like this, it’s played at a painfully high pitch for a good chunk before veering off into a pretty pat redemption narrative. Did not feel it was a departure for Perry, but it felt like a step backward in terms of the characterizations being pretty thin (e.g. Dan Stevens is a doormat looking for alimony to support his and Moss’ child, and serves no other function within the narrative than that). I look forward to reading more about it, though, hopefully from those who liked it better.

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Persona
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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#20 Post by Persona » Tue Sep 11, 2018 10:44 am

domino harvey wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:49 pm
I truly do not think I can sit through eighty minutes of the Moss we see in the above teaser clip (plus another hour on top of that for the rest of the film), so I guess I'll never know
Yeah, between the performance and the filming style, it does seem a bit of an endurance test.

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#21 Post by Brianruns10 » Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:15 pm

I like how, after that disastrous Jezebel interview in which Perry lamely insisted he had a whole list of black actors he'd like to work with (right next to Romney's binder full of women), he goes on to make this film with his most lily-white cast ever. My god it has Cara Delevigne in it, and I'm not convinced she can even act.

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#22 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:16 am

She's probably more famous than anyone in the cast, though. Assuming she doesn't have a ton to do that could compromise the entire picture, I'm sure you cast her if you can without hesitation.

That said, Perry doesn't owe Jezebel anything, and a film in this milieu would feel mighty strange were backstage at a washed up punk band's concert generously populated by actors of color...

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#23 Post by domino harvey » Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:40 am

What? Dan Stevens was the lead in Beauty and the Beast, Eric Stoltz and Virginia Madsen have decades' worth of film work, Amber Heard is as known for her problems with Johnny Depp as her movies, and Elizabeth Moss is unquestionably more famous than everyone in the cast put together and multiplied by five due to the Handmaid's Tale and Mad Men

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#24 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:57 pm

Yes, but Cara Delevigne is a very 'famous person' in a tabloid sense outside of her film work, and I stand by my original statement from that perspective. More people who will never see an Alex Ross Perry film or Mad Men or whatever would know her by name than any of those people you mentioned, I'd be willing to bet on it

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Re: Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry, 2019)

#25 Post by Dead or Deader » Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:39 pm

More people have watched the television works of Elizabeth Moss then just about any film that Cara Delevigne has starred in. You can expect the layperson to have heard of, and watched Mad Men, The West Wing and The Handmaid's Tale. Not everyone is tabloid craze, as I can't tell you anything about the in and outs of Cara personal life. Does Cara have film or show that reaches the household status of the cited shows starring Moss?

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