SCFZ poll: M Night Shyamalan

[flip]

Polling the films of M Night Shyamalan.

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Shyamalan films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: greennui, bure, roscoe, kanafani, greg x, silga, oscarwerner, john ryan, mrcarmady, umbugbene, evelyn, m arkadin, jiri, brian d, nrh, rischka, aberration, searchlike, st gloede, ofrene, wba

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

just to be sure we get enough votes, i think we'll use extended rules:

- if you have seen an odd number of films, you can round up instead of down when deciding the length of your ballot (e.g. if you've seen 5, you can vote for 3 instead of the normal 2)

- if you have seen more than 10, you can vote for more than 5, subject to the restriction above (e.g. if you've seen 13, you can vote for up to 7)

[flip]

Unbreakable
The Last Airbender

seen four, would put the Wayward Pines pilot at #2 but it's not on letterboxd

[brian d]

seen 4

the happening
the sixth sense

[wba]

With the extended rules I can at least list all 4 masterpieces of his I've seen:

01. The Village
02. Unbreakable
03. Signs
04. Glass

Shyamalan seen: 7

[grabmymask]

Seen 7

1. Glass
2. Unbreakable
3. Signs
4. The Sixth Sense

[oscarwerner]

seen 12 :
1. The Sixth Sense (1999)
2. Unbreakable (2000)
3. Signs (2002)
4. The Village (2004)
5. Split (2016)-so-so.
He found his niche. But finished his creative ammo.

[Curtis, baby]

Seen 3

Unbreakable
The sixth sense

I should watch more. I really enjoy his movies, but they're popcorn. There's not a lot going on there besides heavy unspeakable angst. That's not nothing tho. I think they're fun, if rather surface level experiences

[greennui]

Seen 2 but that was way back.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Seen 7

Unbreakable
The Sixth Sense
The Happening

Kind of don't care for the others. I genuinely liked The Happening, and I felt like the pushback had a lot more to do with its marketing campaign than the qualities of the movie itself (which is incredibly silly, in a fun self-aware sort of way).

[Silga]

Seen 8:

Unbreakable
The Village


Mediocre director. I think Glass is one of the worst directed contemporary films, especially the sequence in the third act that takes place outside the mental institute.

[nrh]

unbreakable
glass
the village
the happening

one of the most talented working directors whose sensibility i have a hard time with. i think glass is one of the best directed american films of the past few years but totally understand what silga is saying when he says it is one of the worst!

[Monsieur Arkadin]

I didn't see Glass. But now I kind of want to.

[mesnalty]

Seen 6:

1. The Sixth Sense
2. Unbreakable
3. Split

[ofrene]

seen 5

Unbreakable
Glass

most of his movie are mixed bag and don't like him that much even though he had many interesting idea...

[Searchlike]

He certainly has interesting ideas...

A family on a tropical holiday discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8xXNxBdhj8

OLD

[Lencho of the Apes]

Signs
The Village
The Sixth Sense

[FLABREZU]

Seen 7 but I will ONLY advocate for Split

[cinesmith]

Seen 10

The Sixth Sense
Unbreakable
The Village
Lady in the Water

[john ryan]

Seen 8

1. Unbreakable
2. The Sixth Sense
3. Split
4. The Happening

[...]

Lady in the Water
Signs
Glass

Shyamalan and Nolan make me really wonder about the late nineties, early aughts. Nolan is all structure and concept behind a blunt force technique that's as often cringe worthy as effective, while Shymalan has a smooth and effective understanding of craft, but wields concept as a cudgel. Put those two together and you'd either end up with an abomination that needs to be immediately destroyed before it had a chance to infect the screens or maybe a really good filmmaker, but one still likely too caught up in the world as seen via filmschool rather than the thing as it actually is.

[flip]

Seen 7

grabmymask, you can pick our next director if you like!

[grabmymask]

grabmymask, you can pick our next director if you like!

Y’all haven’t done John Waters yet right? I’ve seen all 12 features.

[greennui]

I've got 12 Waters as well. 'bout time he got done.

[flip]

waters it is! just need to decide whether to use the extended rules, but i think we will. i'll start that poll tomorrow

[Searchlike]

Seen 7

1. Split
2. The Village
3. Glass
4. The Visit

[flip]

we have a runaway winner, in what to me is a bit of a surprise. the only shyamalan features that got no support were the two early comedies (that i didn't even know existed) that he made before the sixth sense, along with after earth from 2015:

results
1. Unbreakable (2000) — 34 pts
2. The Sixth Sense (1999) — 21 pts
3. The Village (2004 — 16 pts
4. Signs (2002) — 12 pts
4. Glass (2019) — 12 pts
6. Split (2016) — 9 pts
7. The Happening (2008) — 5 pts
8. Lady in the Water (2006) — 4 pts
9. The Visit (2015) — 1 pt
9. The Last Airbender (2010) — 1 pt

[flip]

now up at letterbox:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-272/