MovieChat Forums > Down to the Dirt (2008) Discussion > 101 Things I Learned from Down to the Di...

101 Things I Learned from Down to the Dirt

posted 15 years ago by lordredblue
4 replies | jump to latest

101. I'm a fool for sitting through the entire movie hoping something interesting will happen eventually.
100. There be rednecks in Canada.
99. In a town where cops let known major alcoholics, pedophiles and arsonists walk/drive freely with impunity, people are afraid to gather lawfully in a remote forest location.
98. Bad poetry can always get you in hot dates and get you out of jail free.
97. Bad poetry is no longer confined to Britain. It has spread to Canada. Along with bagpipes.
96. Bagpipes is a symbol of culture. Such symbols will eventually drive people to consume hallucinogenics.
95. Prostitutes will give you freebies if they learn you are not a local.
94. You should always accept an invitation to meet your prostitute's pimp/bf/husband. You never know what goodies you can mooch off them.
93. A cat does not have 9 lives. Maybe 3. No more than 4 certainly.
92. If you are rooting for a bad man to fire a flare gun in the main character's eye, you should probably walk out of the movie.
91. If your audience will care more about a minor cat character's life in the movie than that of the main character, you should probably not make that movie.
90. I'm a damned fool.

[–] nitznitch 15 years ago

The British sense for bad poetry blocks reception of the brand new Canadian (the other Canada than Quebec) style of cinema.
It bypasses slick American memory flashbacks, parallel action splitsecond cutaways, all held together by longshots and large chunks between plot twists to maintain continuity.
Instead movies such as one from Moncton, Black Eyed Dog, and from Winnipeg, You Kill Me,like Down To The Dirt, use montage -
Very close shots and emperimental still photography camera angles.
It is precisely that there is no full scene of the main actor having a flare gun fired into his eye - or any long continuous dramatic storytelling whatever that makes such films "style nouveau primitif eblouisant."

"The trouble with these young people is they don't have enough experience."

[–] ofumalow 15 years ago

Any movie--even Potemkin, Citizen Kane, or whatever--can be reduced to 101 "dumb lessons." This one is an easy target cuz its characters are such hapless losers. But they're MEANT to be so.

[–] nitznitch 15 years ago

I'm so sorry to take so long to get back to you and even sorryier that you thought I was putting down or "criticizing" that marvellous Newfoundland film.

I agree with your remark on it.

[–] sfrsez 11 years ago

great post op. are we supposed to care about a self centred alcy. otherwise good filmaki