28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Mysterious Dude]

I've been watching some unquestioned classics this year. I watched The Maltese Falcon, and when I finished it, I decided to watch the 1931 film of the same story. It has a much lighter tone than the 1941 film. It's pretty much a comedy. A lot of the dialogue is identical, but it's delivered in such a different way. The 1941 film is a much better film (the acting, in particular), but there was one very interesting difference: in the 1931 film, when Brigid is accused by the gangster of stealing $1,000, Spade goes into the kitchen and commands her to take off her clothes. After the strip-search reveals she doesn't have it, Spade goes back to the gangster and accuses him of stealing the money himself. In the 1941 film, the strip-search is left out, so when Brigid says she didn't take the money, Spade just takes her word for it. Definitely, this censorship is a result of the Hays code, in which even implied nudity was unacceptable. On the other hand, this bit of dialogue somehow managed to slip through:

- "What have you ever given me beside money? Have you ever given me any of your confidence, any of the truth? Haven't you tried to buy my loyalty with money and nothing else?"
- "What else is there I can buy you with?"

And then he kisses her, somewhat roughly I might add. I wonder if they went any further in the novel.

I also watched North by Northwest, which is interesting in contrast to The Maltese Falcon, because it's clear that the Hays code was losing its influence by 1959. It's not exactly Midnight Cowboy, but there's a lot of sexual innuendo which I never really noticed before. My favorite exchange, after Thornhill has called to have his crop-dusted suit dry-cleaned:

- "Now, what can a man do with his clothes off for twenty minutes? Couldn't he have taken an hour?"
- "You could always take a cold shower."

On an unrelated note, I can hardly think of a more inefficient way to kill someone than with a crop duster. And I'm pretty sure you can't build a house on top of Mount Rushmore. It's a mountain, not a plateau.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Don't normally post while watching something.

But I'm an hour and twenty minutes into Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and this is a fantastic, fantastic action movie. Rogue Nation was fun, but this is next-level. Some of the action scenes deserve comparison to Spielberg for how they play with progress/setback suspense. The Burj Khalifa thing is amazing, obviously, but for the film to immediately then leap into the caper with the twin rooms, and then to go straight to the sandstorm chase (which they sharply teased before the initial Khalifa action even started). Wow. Very surprised. And the bit with the hallway scrim thing, hilarious.

[Henry Gale]

Don't normally post while watching something.

But I'm an hour and twenty minutes into Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and this is a fantastic, fantastic action movie. Rogue Nation was fun, but this is next-level. Some of the action scenes deserve comparison to Spielberg for how they play with progress/setback suspense. The Burj Khalifa thing is amazing, obviously, but for the film to immediately then leap into the caper with the twin rooms, and then to go straight to the sandstorm chase (which they sharply teased before the initial Khalifa action even started). Wow. Very surprised. And the bit with the hallway scrim thing, hilarious.

Hopefully you've finished by now, but I feel like the movie peaks exactly where you stopped. I still love it, but nothing in the final third really matches up either in spectacle or suspense after that Burj / sandstorm one-two punch.

This franchise really has become awesomely reliable since Abrams' installment and his company's continued involvement.

[Peng]

I really liked how you can kinda see it's from a guy with animation background , what with how creative, fluid and flexible the action scenes are. I loved it all the way through, and found the parking garage set-piece almost fitting neatly into the Pixar oeuvre, reminding me of their endings to Toy Story 2 or Monsters Inc.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Hopefully you've finished by now, but I feel like the movie peaks exactly where you stopped. I still love it, but nothing in the final third really matches up either in spectacle or suspense after that Burj / sandstorm one-two punch.

This franchise really has become awesomely reliable since Abrams' installment and his company's continued involvement.

Yep. Still, very fun. Your comment could also apply to Rogue Nation, which is never better than its opera scene.

[Peng]

Have been watching Preston Sturges-written films for the past month. He sadly is never gonna be one of my favorites (my highest score for him are 8.5/10 for four films), but it's too bad he doesn't make more films because his mix of wit, satire, comedy, and commentary is delectable. Here's how I would rank his works:

1. Sullivan’s Travels
2. Hail the Conquering Hero
3. The Palm Beach Story
4. The Lady Eve
5. Unfaithfully Yours
6. Remember the Night
7. Christmas in July
8. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
9. Easy Living
10. The Great McGinty
11. The Power and the Glory
12. The Good Fairy

[dreamdead]

I've got a Sturges seven film box set that I've been meaning to dig into for years; I know I've seen four or five of his, and like you he's always been more respected by me more than truly appreciated. But his talent is evident, as is his craft. Between never finishing the Decalogue and that box set, I have many misgivings.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to note that John Sayles's Lone Star is solid stuff. It's a lengthy study of multiple social classes in rural Texas, analyzing how racial and ethnic identity reconfigure expectations of happiness, and for the first hour it's brilliant. The film becomes a bit more polemical as it goes on and as it starts tying up narrative threads, which is a bit sad, but it's nonetheless compelling. Sayles stages multiple jumps in chronology that are magnificently deployed here--I just wish the final resolutions were a bit stronger in several of the vignettes.

[Briare]

I've been watching some unquestioned classics this year. I watched The Maltese Falcon, and when I finished it, I decided to watch the 1931 film of the same story. It has a much lighter tone than the 1941 film. It's pretty much a comedy. A lot of the dialogue is identical, but it's delivered in such a different way. The 1941 film is a much better film (the acting, in particular), but there was one very interesting difference: in the 1931 film, when Brigid is accused by the gangster of stealing $1,000, Spade goes into the kitchen and commands her to take off her clothes. After the strip-search reveals she doesn't have it, Spade goes back to the gangster and accuses him of stealing the money himself. In the 1941 film, the strip-search is left out, so when Brigid says she didn't take the money, Spade just takes her word for it. Definitely, this censorship is a result of the Hays code, in which even implied nudity was unacceptable. On the other hand, this bit of dialogue somehow managed to slip through:

- "What have you ever given me beside money? Have you ever given me any of your confidence, any of the truth? Haven't you tried to buy my loyalty with money and nothing else?"
- "What else is there I can buy you with?"

And then he kisses her, somewhat roughly I might add. I wonder if they went any further in the novel.

I also watched North by Northwest, which is interesting in contrast to The Maltese Falcon, because it's clear that the Hays code was losing its influence by 1959. It's not exactly Midnight Cowboy, but there's a lot of sexual innuendo which I never really noticed before. My favorite exchange, after Thornhill has called to have his crop-dusted suit dry-cleaned:

- "Now, what can a man do with his clothes off for twenty minutes? Couldn't he have taken an hour?"
- "You could always take a cold shower."

On an unrelated note, I can hardly think of a more inefficient way to kill someone than with a crop duster. And I'm pretty sure you can't build a house on top of Mount Rushmore. It's a mountain, not a plateau.

Ya know, I rewatched a ton of classic Hollywood movies last year, and read a book on censorship in old Hollywood, "Censored Hollywood", but the whole notion is just fascinating to me. Some of the stuff they managed to sneak in is great, the book pointed out the conclusion of Casablanca where Rick smokes a cigarette outside the phallic shaped airport, alluding to what he and Ilsa had *really* just done. The marital rape in Gone With the Wind is another one that still shocks me for the time. The story of Selznick cooking up the whole "frankly my dear..." bit just to throw Joe Breen off the scent of some of the racier stuff, the stories of Howard Hughes and Selznick antagonizing Breen with The Outlaw and Duel in the Sun, overloading them with sex knowing they wouldn't cut it all, makes you think the code was a farce all in all, though it was nothing but worries over profits than it was any sense of righteousness. That said, some of the things they demanded cut are just ridiculous. The kid taking a leak in The Bicycle Thief is a good example.

[Watashi]

Guy Maddin on Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol


Guy: Well, luckily that is one of my favorite movies of the twenty-first century. I had a great viewing experience of it. I had an empty seat beside me, and I just imagined Luis Buñuel sitting in it—and he and I loved it. We were high-fiving each other, we were smoothing down each other’s goose bumps on our arms and necks and chests. It was a great viewing experience, from start to finish. Brad Bird directed it, and I met him at Telluride. He was sitting right next to me at a brunch, and he said his name was Brad Bird, and I thought Brad Bird was just a long version of Brad. I didn’t make the connection that he was the director of this film that had given me a piloerection. It gave me the biggest square footage of piloerection I’d ever experienced, and here we were just killing each other making small talk about the altitude and how you can get drunk faster. But I wouldn’t know what to say to someone who’s really made a movie that I loved.

Have you seen the other films in the franchise?

Guy: Last night we were at a party and an argument broke out between me, Evan, our production designer, Jia Zhangke, and Miguel Gomes about how to rank them in order of greatness. It ended up being four, three, five, one, two. There was a really bitter argument over whether it was two or one.

[Ivan Drago]

His new movie is coming out really soon to my area. It looks right up my alley (and like a nightmare from the 1920s), but it'd be my first Maddin film and his work looks like the challenging type. I'm always up for a challenge, but considering my taste in film, would I enjoy it?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwKvz-wA3I0

[Dead & Messed Up]

Air Force One has not aged gracefully. It was already half of a goof anyway, but now it's full-bore, especially with that dopey bonus climax at the end where the secret bad guy is just hanging in the open door of the plane while it dips into the ocean.

[baby doll]

His new movie is coming out really soon to my area. It looks right up my alley (and like a nightmare from the 1920s), but it'd be my first Maddin film and his work looks like the challenging type. I'm always up for a challenge, but considering my taste in film, would I enjoy it?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwKvz-wA3I0I've seen it and it's swell.

[D_Davis]

Mind Game is still a masterpiece. I wish there were more animated films at least half as good. Such a monumental artistic achievement.

So awesome that it's on Netflix now. I hope a lot more people will experience it now.

[Russ]

Mind Game is still a masterpiece. I wish there were more animated films at least half as good.
Netflix also added both of Studio 4°C's Genius Party films, and they are both highly recommended.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/28723a20-f0ae-4c6d-bb1c-1e1f47377c05_zpsse55gwfk.jpg

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/5777846f-854d-4e31-84ba-9c00534e97da_zpsrsx8iwzj.png

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/51c7de41-12ba-4a03-91e1-746395b3c3ad_zpspyi0mhbe.jpg

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/ac256e6e-a3d4-484a-9b3c-72c0ebea7aa8_zpswjlsnnaj.jpg

[D_Davis]

Yep - and their series Tweeny Witches.

Amazing that all this stuff is now available on Netflix.

[MadMan]

Btw Rogue Nation was good old fashioned fun. I'm glad I saw it in theaters.

[Lazlo]

(Cross-posted from the Creative Collective thread)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDQ9FCgwvoc

Here's the short documentary I've just finished producing and directing. It premiered last night on Fox Sports 1. It's an exciting and emotional story and I'd be very interested in hearing MatchCut's take.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Looking forward to seeing what Dick Trickle is all about, and if you think I'm mentally giggling at that name, you sir are correct.

[megladon8]

Complete Lady Snowblood collection being released by Criterion in January.

My body is ready.

[Irish]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV5Wf5VGVy8

9 minutes on the flood of Hollywood movies in post-war Europe and subsequent birth of the French New Wave.

[Wryan]

There's no individual thread for Spectre, so I'll give my thoughts here:

What the fuck is this? Jesus Christ what...is...this? Is this a Bond movie for people who have literally never seen a Bond movie? This is inept, lazy, unforgivably dumb. It barely sneaks past the level of parody presented by Austin Powers. The plotting leaves the mouth agape--"Ah! You may think everything is clear, but it's far more complicated and beautiful than you could imagine"...and then does nothing with it, adds nothing significant. This is supposed to be the culmination of all the Craig Bond villains. Did entire scenes get removed? The action scenes are anemic. Bautista adds just about the only flair. The rest is garbage. I'm baffled. Gives an entirely different (and depressing) meaning to "a return to form."

EDIT: And stop pausing so goddamn much! Tighten this shit up and you could have lost like 20 minutes.

[MadMan]

Wryan lives!

Also the buzz surrounding Spectre doesn't make me excited for it. Maybe I'll temper expectations a bit.

[Wryan]

I know, I've been absent from this thread (and, on occasion, this site) for a long time. I take these long breaks. :P

[Milky Joe]

I thought it was pretty good but I haven't seen any Daniel Craig Bond films since Casino Royale.

[Lazlo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H_yn3D5tqA

My answer weirdly enough is Jack with Robin Williams. Can't remember hardly anything about the movie other than it made me cry. And it was the first movie I saw in a stadium seating theater.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I honestly can't remember, but I'm sure it has to be a Disney. The mom comforting her child in Dumbo or the gunshot in Bambi. And my first tears of terror had to be either Doom in Roger Rabbit ("Remember me, Eddie?") or the boy turning into a mule in Pinocchio. Even more than Monstro the Whale, the thought of transforming into a jackass and being captured and taken away cued into some sort of primal terror. Maybe my growing-up-Catholic anxiety that one bad sin is all it would take.

[Mysterious Dude]

The first movie to make me cry was Fluke. I was really taken aback by the twist.

[Wryan]

http://mondotees.com/blogs/news/65613379-batman-the-animated-series-vinyl-box-set

Fuuuuck this looks so cool. Love the art. Wish there was more music, but still. Why is this coming out now, near Christmas, and I just bought a house. I can't do it. :(

EDIT: Well fuck me it's already sold out anyway. Major sads either way.

[Dukefrukem]

Mine has to be My Girl

[Yxklyx]

Cry? Paper Moon probably back in '73.

[Yxklyx]

So Byrkit's Coherence is streaming on Amazon Prime and it's every bit the smart puzzle it was made out to be. The whole exploration of parallel universes is credibly made through snarky inferences about Sliding Doors and other films, but it's last twenty minutes takes the premise much deeper than it initially seems.

If there's a flaw to this film, and I think it is a slight error, it's that Emily, our lead, lacks just a bit of dimensionality to make her rash decisions more tragic. There's a sense through the first hour that the film could choose to zero in on any one of the ensemble cast, but that openness (while logical given the film's thematic focus) also undercuts the climax just a little too much for it to resonate more fully.

Loved this - but I couldn't tell a couple of the white male actors apart which made things even more confusing :)

[TGM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR-Dry8Qb4A

[Dukefrukem]

Max Landis sucks

[MadMan]

I know, I've been absent from this thread (and, on occasion, this site) for a long time. I take these long breaks. :P

That's okay. I've been largely absent from message boards in general this year. Also I really liked Spectre.

[Ezee E]

I may need to make a specific thread for it, because I doubt anyone wanders into it, but Bone Tomahawk may be the kickass genre movie of the year.

Scar, this is your kinda thing.

Kurt Russell, Cannibal Troglodytes, Western, and a bloody as hell final forty minutes. Hell yes, this was awesome.

[D_Davis]

I may need to make a specific thread for it, because I doubt anyone wanders into it, but Bone Tomahawk may be the kickass genre movie of the year.

Scar, this is your kinda thing.

Kurt Russell, Cannibal Troglodytes, Western, and a bloody as hell final forty minutes. Hell yes, this was awesome.

Still need to see it.

I've heard the finale is pretty sick and intense.

[Scar]

I may need to make a specific thread for it, because I doubt anyone wanders into it, but Bone Tomahawk may be the kickass genre movie of the year.

Scar, this is your kinda thing.

Kurt Russell, Cannibal Troglodytes, Western, and a bloody as hell final forty minutes. Hell yes, this was awesome.

Who in the what now? Color me intrigued.

[Ezee E]

Who in the what now? Color me intrigued.

Was hoping to get your attention.

[The Bad Guy]

There's no individual thread for Spectre, so I'll give my thoughts here:

What the fuck is this? Jesus Christ what...is...this? Is this a Bond movie for people who have literally never seen a Bond movie? This is inept, lazy, unforgivably dumb. It barely sneaks past the level of parody presented by Austin Powers. The plotting leaves the mouth agape--"Ah! You may think everything is clear, but it's far more complicated and beautiful than you could imagine"...and then does nothing with it, adds nothing significant. This is supposed to be the culmination of all the Craig Bond villains. Did entire scenes get removed? The action scenes are anemic. Bautista adds just about the only flair. The rest is garbage. I'm baffled. Gives an entirely different (and depressing) meaning to "a return to form."

EDIT: And stop pausing so goddamn much! Tighten this shit up and you could have lost like 20 minutes.

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed with Spectre. Apart from a few good action sequences it has very little going for it. Seems like they just strung together a lot of bad Bond cliches and called it a day.

[Dukefrukem]

How the fuck do we not have a Spectre thread? MC is so lazy.

[Irish]

You've got a time capsule and can put one moment from a film in it. What would it be?

BOYLE Oh, it's the bone, isn't it? In 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's that cut from the bone to the spaceship. That says something about us, our history encapsulated.

INARRITU I remember scenes or moments of film that even now I don't understand, but I felt some revelation. Like Stalker from [Andrei] Tarkovsky. Every time I saw that film, I was just saying, "What does this mean?" I am just feeling a revelation of human experience that connects me with something, an intuition. It's about the point of view and a singular vision, right? So every shot is not a resource to tell the story. That shot reveals who you are.

SCOTT You can make a feature film about a pen, depending on what your vision is. It's just that simple. The biggest single word is vision.

HOOPER The match being blown out in Lawrence of Arabia. That cut from the match-blow to the landscape. As a young child, I experienced that on the big screen in the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, which is the only cinema in London that played those great movies. And there was something so extraordi*nary about it, but you couldn't explain it or put it into words. That moment still seems mysterious.

SCOTT [The whole of] Muriel's Wedding. I've seen it six times. It's fantastic.

TARANTINO I kind of reject the question. Because I don't know if it would mean anything for future generations or alien creatures. [But] I would probably take a really magnificent cinematic action scene. I'm not going to go through that, 'cause I'm sure I won't like what I chose — OK, I will: The climax of Jackie Chan's Police Story 3, directed by Stanley Tong. That's a sequence that aliens would watch and be amazed by. That could actually give you an understanding of cinema, in all of its bells and whistles and movement.

This from THR's director's roundtable, featuring Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, David O. Russell, Danny Boyle, Tom Hooper and Alejandro G. Inarritu.

Good read.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/quentin-tarantino-ridley-scott-four-846682

Curious what people here would pick in response.

[Stay Puft]

How the fuck do we not have a Spectre thread? MC is so lazy.

Wryan may have been too lazy, but we did make one. (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?6133-Spectre-(Sam-Mendes))

[transmogrifier]

How the fuck do we not have a Spectre thread? MC is so lazy.

Lesser people would have checked first.

[Mara]

So it's been at least 15 years since I saw it, but I remember loving The Ref as a Christmas comedy. Can anyone confirm if it is actually good?

I know for a fact that I still quote "You know what this family needs? A mute." regularly

[Scar]

Was hoping to get your attention.

I shall rectify this hopefully over the weekend.

[Dukefrukem]

There were 8 movies in 2015 that grossed more than $200 mil domestically. 9 if you include MI5 (195 Mil) and 10 if you include Star Wars.

[Irish]

I'm watching The Intern with Hathaway and DeNiro. Although it's fine as passive entertainment, part of me wouldn't be upset if I were struck blind in the next, oh, five minutes or so.

[Ezee E]

There were 8 movies in 2015 that grossed more than $200 mil domestically. 9 if you include MI5 (195 Mil) and 10 if you include Star Wars.

Is that a record? I'm assuming.

[Dukefrukem]

Is that a record? I'm assuming.

No actually. Bad year for Hollywood.

2014 we had 13 movies gross over $200 domestically
2013 we had 13
2012 we had 11
2011 we had 7
2010 we had 10
2009 we had 10

[Spinal]

Overhearing my co-workers misidentify "What we've got here is failure to communicate" as a line from Apocalypse Now is bothering me more than it probably should.

[Russ]

Coming in March, 2016:

This is such an incredible film. I am so excited to finally see this on blu-ray. I cannot wait!


http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/brighter%20summer%20day_zps4lh m9zdw.jpg

[Spinal]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens made more on a Thursday than the last Fantastic Four movie made in its entire run.

[D_Davis]

It probably made more money in Oranges and eyeliner than the FF made in its entire run.

[Spinal]

It probably made more money in Oranges and eyeliner than the FF made in its entire run.

Its impact on the orange industry cannot be overstated.

[D_Davis]

Anything spherical in shape will be BB-8 branded.

[Spinal]

Anything spherical in shape will be BB-8 branded.

We are living in a post-sphere world.

[D_Davis]

Don't perpetuate NASA's sphere-world lies.

[Russ]

Roar (Noel Marshall, 1981) - Ratings hardly seem applicable (or appropriate) when it comes to as astonishing of a train-wreck of a film as this one. I give it a WTF + for now.

"With fangs bared and claws extended, the must-be-seen-to-be-believed 1981 film Roar plays like a trippy episode of Wild Kingdom gone wrong, a nerve-racking experience fraught with the possibility of a casual mauling or deadly pounce from start to finish. It may be one of the most fucked-up movies you’ll ever see.

The film is a Screen Actors Guild nightmare. The performers don’t so much act in the film as they survive it. Most of the time, the cast is avoiding a lion, hiding from a lion, running from a lion, getting knocked down by a lion, or praying not to be eaten alive by a lion. In one scene, a prostrate and helpless Melanie Griffith lies amidst the shambles of the house with a huge lioness atop her, the creature’s jaws nearly framing her face. To the actress’ credit, she appears calm, which is either a testament to her acting craft or her resignation to fate. The incident required 50 stitches and some cosmetic plastic surgery. Other actors in the film suffered much, much worse injuries. The blood on Noel Marshall’s hands in Roar is both literal and figurative.

Roar is a freaky taste of danger that no one in his right mind would ever attempt to undertake again. Something this bad can’t help but be good."

It's to Tippi Hedren's credit that she continues to run and maintain Shambala, the wildlife preserve north of Los Angeles that is home to her menagerie of big cats and other various and sundry African wildlife. Now I'm itching to read her book, The Cats of Shambala, which detailed the entire ill-fated and catastrophe-plagued 11 year production of Roar, which endured flooding, a major fire, and injuries suffered at the claws and teeth of the film's "stars" to 70 cast and crew members.

It's absolutely amazing that no one was killed while shooting the film.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/4d2ad6f1-87bc-4a94-b023-a9e62f8fc7a2_zpslei7cugu.jpg

[Spinal]

Two of the films in the Box Office Top 10 over the weekend were Bollywood films that you probably haven't heard of. (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2015&wknd=51&p=.htm)

[Irish]

That makes me wonder how big the market is for Bollywood outside India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

[baby doll]

That makes me wonder how big the market is for Bollywood outside India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.It's huge. Brown people just like to see other brown people speaking their language on film for some reason.

Incidentally, while The Crow's Egg seems to be doing good business in Hong Kong, it's not really a typical Tamil film, and most of the people in the audience I saw it with were Chinese rather than South Asians (despite the proximity of Broadway Cinematheque to Chungking Mansions).

[Irish]

It's huge. Brown people just like to see other brown people speaking their language on film for some reason.

That makes me wonder how big the market is for Bollywood outside India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

(I know it's huge; Bollywood has been the second largest film industry in the world for several decades, at least).

[Ezee E]

That makes me wonder how big the market is for Bollywood outside India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

(I know it's huge; Bollywood has been the second largest film industry in the world for several decades, at least).

I remember when I was in California that there were a few theaters that seemed to ALWAYS have a Bollywood movie playing, and they'd be pretty full on weekends or its opening weekend.

[Lazlo]

Here in Charlotte one of the AMCs always has at least one, usually two programmed. Usually packed from what I can tell. They play them louder than any non-IMAX screen, too. Can always hear it through the walls in adjoining theaters.

[Stay Puft]

There's always two or three Bollywood films at any given time showing at the one of the downtown theatres in Toronto. The audience seems to be there, even if it's not comparably huge here or anything. edit - didn't read the whole discussion and missed Spinal's post. I guess it's only getting bigger?

[baby doll]

That makes me wonder how big the market is for Bollywood outside India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

(I know it's huge; Bollywood has been the second largest film industry in the world for several decades, at least).I was referring to the diaspora. Brown people aren't confined to South Asia.

[Dukefrukem]

Well with 6 days left in the year, my quest to watch at least 1 movie from the 1001 movies to see before you die has driven me to watch Lawrence of Arabia for the first time. Wish me luck.

[Ezee E]

Well with 6 days left in the year, my quest to watch at least 1 movie from the 1001 movies to see before you die has driven me to watch Lawrence of Arabia for the first time. Wish me luck.

Hopefully it's on a big screen?

[Dukefrukem]

Hopefully it's on a big screen?

No on my TV.

[Ezee E]

No on my TV.

Hopefully a big tv

[MadMan]

Boogie Nights is one of the most captivating movies I've ever seen. More later.

[Milky Joe]

Gotta be one of the top 3 movies of the 90s.

[Ezee E]

Boogie Nights is one of the most captivating movies I've ever seen. More later.

In my top ten of all time.

[Yxklyx]

So I bought this copy of Ken Russell's The Devils:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XWD8RRK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

I expected it to be pan-and-scan but it's actually a non-anamorphic widescreen and very good quality! Awesome film!

[Lazlo]

After twenty minutes, I've determined that Hard to Be a God is officially Not For Me. Could have guessed as much from everything I'd seen and read on it, but it's now been confirmed.

Hate not finishing stuff but I can't foresee a time where I won't be too tired to stay awake through three hours of Russians wallowing in mud.

[Ivan Drago]

After twenty minutes, I've determined that Hard to Be a God is officially Not For Me. Could have guessed as much from everything I'd seen and read on it, but it's now been confirmed.

Hate not finishing stuff but I can't foresee a time where I won't be too tired to stay awake through three hours of Russians wallowing in mud.

That's how I felt after I finished The Forbidden Room. I was loving it after the first fifteen minutes, but I started looking at my watch either after the fifth phallic symbol, or a segment where the mustache of Udo Kier's character longed to return to his blind wife. I loved the overall look of the film, and there were moments where I was thinking, "Why couldn't THIS segment be silent, like the one before it?", so there is a pining for a return to the silent era there, but overall, I thought it was absurd for the sake of being absurd. Maybe I'm too stupid to get it. Maybe I was just too excited after its excellent trailers. Or maybe Guy Maddin just isn't my cup of tea.

[Lazlo]

That's how I felt after I finished The Forbidden Room. I was loving it after the first fifteen minutes, but I started looking at my watch either after the fifth phallic symbol, or a segment where the mustache of Udo Kier's character longed to return to his blind wife. I loved the overall look of the film, and there were moments where I was thinking, "Why couldn't THIS segment be silent, like the one before it?", so there is a pining for a return to the silent era there, but overall, I thought it was absurd for the sake of being absurd. Maybe I'm too stupid to get it. Maybe I was just too excited after its excellent trailers. Or maybe Guy Maddin just isn't my cup of tea.

I definitely know the feeling. Like you're not getting the bigger point or understanding what's allegedly great about something and feeling less-than because of it. But the fact is that not everything's going to be your bag. And when a movie is three hours long and there's nothing in the first twenty minutes that remotely appeals to you, dude, life is short. It's okay to bail, even in the face of Art and Cinema. That's what I have to tell myself, at least.

PS - I threw in Jackie Brown instead, which is only twenty minutes shorter than Hard to Be a God, and had a great time and no trouble staying awake.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Listed my favorite horrors of the year on my blog (http://horrorfilms101.blogspot.com/2016/01/list-best-horror-films-of-2015-and-few.html), reposting the list here:

17. Archivo 253
16. Stung
15. Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
14. The Final Girls
13. Insidious: Chapter Three
12. Cooties
11. Last Shift
10. Unfriended
9. Knock Knock
8. Krampus
7. The Visit
6. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
5. [Circle]
4. [Bone Tomahawk]
3. Crimson Peak
2. What We Do in the Shadows
1. It Follows

[D_Davis]

I thought Krampus was pretty cool. Love the look. That director really knows how to do dark fairy-tale looking stuff without crossing over into Tim Burton/Neil Gaiman, hot-topic-goth-girl looking stuff.

I only wish that the script was better written. The first half felt like Christmas Vacation rejects, and the second half added in a bunch of really bad one-liners.

[Morris Schæffer]

https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/686056811619827712/photo/1

lol

[baby doll]

It does kind of make sense that a Mexican drug lord would be a fan of Hurlyburly.

[MadMan]

Listed my favorite horrors of the year on my blog (http://horrorfilms101.blogspot.com/2016/01/list-best-horror-films-of-2015-and-few.html), reposting the list here:

17. Archivo 253
16. Stung
15. Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
14. The Final Girls
13. Insidious: Chapter Three
12. Cooties
11. Last Shift
10. Unfriended
9. Knock Knock
8. Krampus
7. The Visit
6. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
5. [Circle]
4. [Bone Tomahawk]
3. Crimson Peak
2. What We Do in the Shadows
1. It Follows
I've seen some of those. Many of them never made it to my area. I was lucky to be able to see It Follows in theaters.

[Spinal]

Throwback Thursday: Here are the original results (http://matchcutyc.blogspot.com/) of the Match Cut Yearly Consensus threads.

I'll have to fix the pictures at some point.

[Grouchy]

And add the 2010's results, right?

[transmogrifier]

Last year, I decided not to rewatch any movies, so all 160 I saw were first time. This year, I've decided: no TV shows. New or repeated.

[Sven]

I don't know who else saw this movie, but McG's 2012's This Means War is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Top three bad. Sooooo bad. An offense on every level. I can't believe I watched the whole thing. Goddamn...

[Melville]

I just watched They Live in its entirety for the first time since I was a kid. We need more brazen, street brawlin', face-punchingly unsubtle calls to revolution like this.

[Watashi]

I had never seen Labyrinth until today.

Man, if I saw this is a hormonal young boy, Jennifer Connelly would have been my ultimate dream crush.

[Russ]

Slnko v sieti / The Sun in a Net (Stefan Uher, 1962)

A stunning slice of cinema from the unheralded Stefan Uher, this early Slovak film is said to be the first of the Eastern European New Wave films (flying just under the radar of the communist-controlled state at the time), and it's everything you'd hope for: a social and political critique as seen through many eyes but most prominently a young teen couple dealing with their own set of angst-ridden issues. The cinematography is groundbreaking and is nothing short of amazing.

Second Run issued this on DVD a while back and any self-respecting fan of Czech New Wave cinema (with a region free DVD player) needs to jump all over this.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/sun%20in%20a%20net_zpsf7xxoleo .jpg

[Melville]

I had never saw Labyrinth until today.

Man, if I saw this is a hormonal young boy, Jennifer Connelly would have been my ultimate dream crush.
This was another one I recently saw for the first time since I was a kid. It holds up surprisingly well. Except the bog of farting anuses. Not sure what they were thinking there.

[Grouchy]

Man, if I saw this is a hormonal young boy, Jennifer Connelly would have been my ultimate dream crush.
Welcome to our generation's 90%!

[MadMan]

I just watched They Live in its entirety for the first time since I was a kid. We need more brazen, street brawlin', face-punchingly unsubtle calls to revolution like this.

Amen. That movie is ahead of its time.

[Dukefrukem]

Over the weekend, I watched Pitch Black, Dark Fury, Chronicles of Riddick and Riddick with the GF.

The Director's Cut of CoR is soooooooooo much better than the theatrical cut (and 20 min longer). Crazy that they removed the Furyan references towards the end. That would have been some great insight into Riddick's origin.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I had never seen Labyrinth until today.

Man, if I saw this is a hormonal young boy, Jennifer Connelly would have been my ultimate dream crush.

When I was, she was.

[Henry Gale]

I distinctly remember seeing Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth at maybe age 6 and thinking, "Well, now that it's settled who I'm going to marry.."

It's such an awesome and nonchalantly insane little movie though, and one that holds up both despite and because of its specifically '80s eccentricities. (The score and 8-bit-looking 3D owl especially.) Pieces like the M.C. Esher-inspired staircase chase and the invisible passageways through the maze are things I think about all the time.

I'd already been thinking it was due for a re-watch before he passed, but now it'll just be beautifully complimented by just about every other Bowie-related movie, album or anything I'm currently in a beautiful flurry of.

[Yxklyx]

I just rewatched Remains of the Day (1993) I can't believe Peter Vaughan is still alive and acting.

[D_Davis]

The Visit was actually pretty good. Really enjoyed it. Great acting from the two kids.

[Dead & Messed Up]

The Visit was actually pretty good. Really enjoyed it. Great acting from the two kids.

Oh, you know this gets a rep.

The boy is impressive; he possesses all the traits that should make him hateable, but he's kinda endearing.

[D_Davis]

Oh, you know this gets a rep.

The boy is impressive; he possesses all the traits that should make him hateable, but he's kinda endearing.

He was awesome. A ton of confidence in his performance. I was incredibly impressed by him.

[Watashi]

Just driving by reminding you all that Speed Racer is a perfect film and is still awesome.

Goodbye.

[transmogrifier]

The Visit is bad. So, so bad. The end rap is cringe-inducing.

[D_Davis]

The end rap is cringe-inducing.

I thought it was kind of the point, and totally in character. I mean, he's not supposed to be some amazing rapper like Vanilla Ice.

He's a little nerdy white kid who ends all of his rhymes with "HOE!" and who flexes his scrawny muscles on camera for the ladies. His character is a kid who likes to flaunt his confidence, even though it's more of an act than anything. And the actor totally sold it, with one of the best performances I've seen in years. The scene where he's "totally going to open the door!" shows this. He keeps saying that he's going to, totally hoping that his sister will give him an out and tell him not to.

The whole rap thing is just his way of trying to act tough, and it's just a silly thing that a kid his age would do.

[TGM]

Finally watched the Insidious movies, and yeah, good campy horror fun to be had, and I maintain that I'd love to see James Wan tackle a full blown comedy at some point. Now that would be interesting to see! However, while I personally felt the first 2 were pretty great (even better than The Conjuring, IMO), I probably coulda done without the 3rd one. It's decent, but feels mostly pointless, and I woulda far preferred had the series continued forward following after the 2nd movie's cliffhanger, rather than going back and giving us a pointless prequel like this. But, eh, ah well, maybe the 4th one will move the story forward?

Also finally watched the first three Paranormal Activity movies. I actually thought the simplicity of the first one really helped make it quite a novel and effective little film, and the 2nd was a nice followup as well. The 3rd one is when they really started making the series more Hollywood, and includes the first instance of us asking "why are they still filming this?", yet that said, it's probably the best one in the series, and definitely has the best genuine scares. Setting it in the past was also a nice touch, and it was interesting to learn the truth of what happened to those two girls as kids (and also answered some of the questions I had about the 6th movie as a result). I also really kinda loved seeing how the full story all connects together, and it leaves me sorta wanting to revisit movies 4-6 again. We'll see on that, though. :P

[Dead & Messed Up]

I thought it was kind of the point, and totally in character. I mean, he's not supposed to be some amazing rapper like Vanilla Ice.

He's a little nerdy white kid who ends all of his rhymes with "HOE!" and who flexes his scrawny muscles on camera for the ladies. His character is a kid who likes to flaunt his confidence, even though it's more of an act than anything. And the actor totally sold it, with one of the best performances I've seen in years. The scene where he's "totally going to open the door!" shows this. He keeps saying that he's going to, totally hoping that his sister will give him an out and tell him not to.

The whole rap thing is just his way of trying to act tough, and it's just a silly thing that a kid his age would do.

Agreed that the whole thing is a silly pose, and it also helps that the kid seems to really enjoy the hobby. It's juvenile but not cynical. That was what tipped the scales for me.

[D_Davis]

Like you said earlier, we should have hated that kid, and in most other movies we would have. However, the actor totally sold it. Not to mention the film's quirky style. The lighting and staging during the family board game night was expertly done. Reminded me of old Peter Jackson.

[Spinal]

I went to see the Oscar nominated short animation films last night. It was really fun to see World of Tomorrow on a big screen. It made me appreciate the visuals even more. While I think it is the class of the field, I am predicting that the win will go to Bear Story, which is more of a tug on the heartstrings. It also has some nifty style shifts that will likely be attractive to voters. The other nominees were fairly weak, in my opinion.

[transmogrifier]

Some guy I follow on Letterboxd has watched Mad Max: Fury Road 28 times (or is it 26? I counted but have forgotten) since it came out.

How much is too much? I would say the movie I have watched the most in my life is probably Star Wars, and I would guess it would only be in low double figures.

[MadMan]

Smoke is a really good, maybe even great 90's indie movie with a wonderful cast and some nice snappy dialogue. William Hurt and Harvey Keitel should had made more films together.

[Dukefrukem]

Some guy I follow on Letterboxd has watched Mad Max: Fury Road 28 times (or is it 26? I counted but have forgotten) since it came out.

How much is too much? I would say the movie I have watched the most in my life is probably Star Wars, and I would guess it would only be in low double figures.

4 times is too much.

[Dukefrukem]

Very entertainingly hilarious.

https://twitter.com/femscriptintros

[dreamdead]

Didn't think I'd ever have rage-inflicted bitterness, but Antonioni's Zabriskie Point was a chore. The characters are so shallow and so dependent on era-specific empathy that they never turn out to be anything but ciphers for a mediocre plot. Antonioni has two great sequences, the absurd sex romp in the desert and the finale with the house's explosion, but everything surrounding that is just so childish and one-note. The characters never amounted to anything, plane stalking somehow becomes affection, and the wildness of the lead's real life travails with the law never find a fictional resonance.

Interesting in Antonioni's documenting of the various advertisements around LA, but utterly insipid beyond the two sequences mentioned above.

[Grouchy]

Yeah, that's a dated film if I ever saw one.

[baby doll]

I don't know how appropriate it is to call Zabriskie Point dated when it was widely rejected at the time of its release. And while I'd agreed that the characters are flat and uninteresting, and the dialogue embarrassing, I wouldn't dismiss it completely, if only for Antonioni's 'Scope compositions.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Some guy I follow on Letterboxd has watched Mad Max: Fury Road 28 times (or is it 26? I counted but have forgotten) since it came out.

How much is too much? I would say the movie I have watched the most in my life is probably Star Wars, and I would guess it would only be in low double figures.

I have an addictive personality when it comes to art/media. Probably watched Fury Road between 7 and 10 times since it came out. Let's not talk about how many times I've listened to NIN's The Fragile or watched MST3K's "Space Mutiny" episode.

[Yxklyx]

I have an addictive personality when it comes to art/media. Probably watched Fury Road between 7 and 10 times since it came out. Let's not talk about how many times I've listened to NIN's The Fragile or watched MST3K's "Space Mutiny" episode.


Well music is a bit different no? I've listened to The Fragile about 12 times. After getting bad vibes regarding Zabriskie Point from reviews/comments I was expecting a crappy film but I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it some time ago. I loved it for being unique - I don't recall any other film like it. I greatly appreciate films that try to do something different.

[Grouchy]

I don't know how appropriate it is to call Zabriskie Point dated when it was widely rejected at the time of its release. And while I'd agreed that the characters are flat and uninteresting, and the dialogue embarrassing, I wouldn't dismiss it completely, if only for Antonioni's 'Scope compositions.
I honestly dislike Antonioni's films, and believe me I've tried. I sort of enjoyed some moments of Blow Up but that's it.

[[ETM]]

Every time I hear "Fury Road", I want to see it again.

[D_Davis]

I've seen Armageddon over 100 times.

When it first appeared on pay per view, we had a standing rule at the house I was living at: if someone was home, and awake, Armageddon had to be playing on at least one television.

I've seen seasons 1-7 of The Office and seasons 1-5 of Parks and Rec over 50 times each. It's my white noise I fall asleep to every night.

[Yxklyx]

Ah, finally a banner I can recognize!

Spinal, made a minor edit to my german film list.

[Spinal]

Finished the Best Picture nominee gauntlet last night. Here's how I'd rank them:

1. Bridge of Spies
2. The Revenant
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Brooklyn
5. Spotlight
6. The Martian
7. The Big Short
8. Room

2-4 could probably be shuffled around in any order.

[Dukefrukem]

Finished the Best Picture nominee gauntlet last night. Here's how I'd rank them:

1. Bridge of Spies
2. The Revenant
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Brooklyn
5. Spotlight
6. The Martian
7. The Big Short
8. Room

2-4 could probably be shuffled around in any order.

I couldn't disagree more.

1. Spotlight
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Reverent
4. The Big Short
5. Room
6. Brooklyn
7. The Martian
8. Bridge of Spies

[Lazlo]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Big Short
3. Brooklyn
4. Spotlight
5. Room
6. The Martian
7. The Revenant
8. Bridge of Spies

[dreamdead]

1. Brooklyn
2. Mad Max: FR
3. Spotlight
4. The Big Short
5. Room
6. The Martian

H/S: Revenent or Bridge of Spies

[Winston*]

Ones I've seen

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Bridge of Spies
3. The Big Short
4. The Revenant

Ones I haven't seen

1. Room
2. Spotlight
3. Brooklyn
4. The Martian

[Watashi]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Brooklyn
3. The Martian
4. The Big Short
5. Bridge of Spies
6. Spotlight

[TGM]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Revenant
3. Room
4. Brooklyn
5. Spotlight
6. The Martian
7. Bridge of Spies
8. The Big Short

[Dukefrukem]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Brooklyn
3. The Martian
4. The Big Short
5. Bridge of Spies
6. Spotlight

Weird ranking considering


Here's your Best Picture winner. Calling it now.

It's very good. McCarthy's techniques doesn't match the aesthetic scope of an All the President's Men or Zodiac when it comes to capturing the restlessness of investigating journalism, but it hits its beats well. The subject matter keeps it afloat. The only performance that really stuck with me afterwards is Liev Schrieber.

[Lazlo]

Weird ranking considering

Seems like he liked it just okay and was only commenting on its chances to win Best Picture, rather than its worthiness of the award.

[Ivan Drago]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Brooklyn
3. The Revenant
4. The Martian
5. Spotlight
6. Room
7. The Big Short
8. Bridge of Spies

[baby doll]

I've just seen The Revenant, which wasn't terrible.

Also, I've seen The Room (or more precisely, the first hour or so), if that counts.

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Spotlight

3. The Big Short
4. The Revenant
5. The Martian
6. Room

[Dead & Messed Up]

Also, had to caption The Family Man for work, and while it is not a good film - not at all, really, with its cloying sub-Capra messaging and absence of style and unironic Magical Negro - Tea Leoni gives one of the all-time great thankless performances as Cage's lost love and magical temporary wife. She plausibly busies herself with chores and children, plays energetic at the rare opportunity for sexy time with her husband. She fashions a pitch-perfect blend of the sexy, the earthy, the maternal. Yeah, she essentially plays to the fantasy of the film, but Leoni actually makes her two-dimensional ideal plausible.

[Spinal]

I guess I understand why a lot of you are placing Bridge of Spies low on your list. But, for me, it felt so old-fashioned that it was actually refreshing. I liked that the protagonist wasn't a superhero or an antihero or a hero with a dark side. He was just a hero. It feels like what these times need. A protagonist in the Atticus Finch mold with moral integrity.

[transmogrifier]

I just found it quite dull, hokey in places (the paired wall scaling scenes, for example), and thought that the balance between Hanks and the two men he was trying to save was off; the young student is introduced out of nowhere when it became necessary for the plot and then it occasionally flicked back to him when we needed a perfunctory visual reminder of what Hanks was in it for.

[Ezee E]

Seen:
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Mad Max
The Martian

Haven't seen:
Brooklyn
Bridge of Spies
Big Short

[Peng]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Martian
3. Spotlight

4. Bridge of Spies
5. The Revenant
6. Room

7. Brooklyn
8. The Big Short

[The Bad Guy]

I guess I understand why a lot of you are placing Bridge of Spies low on your list. But, for me, it felt so old-fashioned that it was actually refreshing. I liked that the protagonist wasn't a superhero or an antihero or a hero with a dark side. He was just a hero. It feels like what these times need. A protagonist in the Atticus Finch mold with moral integrity.

I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked it. I actually think it may be one of Spielberg's best films.

[Winston*]

I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked it. I actually think it may be one of Spielberg's best films.
As a complete film, I think it might be the best thing he's done since Raiders.

Though Tintin was pretty boss also. Let's have another one of those next.

[Watashi]

I've grown on Lincoln more and more. It's one of his best.

[Spinal]

I went to see the Oscar nominated short animation films last night. It was really fun to see World of Tomorrow on a big screen. It made me appreciate the visuals even more. While I think it is the class of the field, I am predicting that the win will go to Bear Story, which is more of a tug on the heartstrings. It also has some nifty style shifts that will likely be attractive to voters. The other nominees were fairly weak, in my opinion.

OK, just have to bump this. Oh, Oscar voters. Your sentimentality is so predictable.

[Spinal]

Every Oscar party I have ever been to, whenever the ballots get passed around, someone will ask, "Are we supposed to mark who we want to win or who we think will win?" I am amazed at how consistently this happens.

[MadMan]

Took the bastards long enough to properly award Mr. Morricone.

[The Bad Guy]

OK, just have to bump this. Oh, Oscar voters. Your sentimentality is so predictable.

I was pretty disappointed that 'World of Tomorrow' lost.

[Ivan Drago]

I was pretty disappointed that 'World of Tomorrow' lost.

After Hertzfeldt and Miller lost, it was hard to be happy for the rest of the night.

[Lazlo]

Posted my Top 25 of 2015 (http://gzv.tumblr.com/post/140291188725/pick-up-what-you-can-and-run-the-best-movies-of) on Tumblr today. Forgive the repetitive writing. Enjoy the gifs!

[Ezee E]

Every Oscar party I have ever been to, whenever the ballots get passed around, someone will ask, "Are we supposed to mark who we want to win or who we think will win?" I am amazed at how consistently this happens.

Ha. I had the same thing happen with a newcomer to my house this year.

[Spinal]

Ha. I had the same thing happen with a newcomer to my house this year.

It makes me wonder if there are parties where people hear Spotlight announced as Best Picture and then say, nah, we voted. It's actually Brooklyn.

[Grouchy]

Hey, it's a legitimate question, specially since it's more fun to state your opinion than to predict what will win. It's usually fairly easy to guess what will win Best Picture.

[Spinal]

Hey, it's a legitimate question, specially since it's more fun to state your opinion than to predict what will win.

But what would that look like? And why would there be prizes? It makes no sense.

[Spinal]

Also, nobody at my Oscar party (out of 9 ballots) predicted Best Picture correctly.

I did. But I was out-of-the-running since I bought the prizes and was tallying the votes.

[Ezee E]

Also, nobody at my Oscar party (out of 9 ballots) predicted Best Picture correctly.

I did. But I was out-of-the-running since I bought the prizes and was tallying the votes.

My dad or I have won every year since '97 except the year Crash won. Nobody puts any money in anymore.

[MadMan]

I saw Spotlight taking Best Picture a mile away. It's that type of movie.

[Morris Schæffer]

blu-ray.com has posted some of their first reviews for UHD titles. The results are a bit surprising. I'll just post the one from Mad Max Fury Road.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Mad-Max-Fury-Road-4K-Blu-ray/147183/#Review

Here is the bit on the video, which got 4/5.


My approach to evaluating Max Max: Fury Road on UHD was simply to watch the film from start to finish, followed immediately by viewing selected portions of the standard Blu-ray on the same system. The UHD was played through the Samsung UBD-K8500 player (http://www.blu-ray.com/Samsung-UBD-K8500/553841/), while the Blu-ray image was delivered by an Oppo BDP-103. The display, a Sony XBR-75X940C, has been professionally calibrated for Blu-ray; professional UHD calibration is not yet available.

As a long-time fan of the franchise, who stood in line to see The Road Warrior (http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Road-Warrior-Blu-ray/66814//#Review) on its initial release in 1982, I have already seen Max Max: Fury Road theatrically. It's also the rare movie that I made time to watch again on Blu-ray, even though I wasn't reviewing it. The UHD image, up-sourced from the 2K digital intermediate, was undeniably impressive. Perhaps because of the increased resolution, but I suspect more likely due to the HDR processing, the images had an undeniably improved definition and depth that was all the more noticeable when as the frame became more crowded. In the opening and closing sequences at The Citadel, the elaborate patterns cut into the rock formations, the massive machinery controlled by Immortan Joe and his minions, and the crowds of young War-Boys above and huddled masses below all acquired a distinctive sharpness that rendered the image almost three-dimensional. The enhanced contrast and color intensity gave a new sense of immediacy to the monochromatic night scenes after the fugitives reach The Vuvalini; the blu-ish night is just as dark as on the Blu-ray, but somehow the figures of the younger and elder women stand out more noticeably from the frame. In the extensive chase-and-race scenes that dominate the film, I could more easily discern multiple activities occurring simultaneously, with various attackers leaping on and off the War Rig and its occupants cowering, leaping and crawling backward and forward along the hurtling vehicle. By comparison, the Blu-ray image was still impressive, but it did not convey the same sense of an alternate world that one could almost reach out and touch.

But the combination of HDR and enhanced resolution is not an unalloyed benefit. Anyone accustomed to watching classic films on Blu-ray should be familiar with the phenomenon in which such staples as matte paintings, rear projection and painted backdrops became obvious, sometimes distractingly so, with the increased sharpness and resolution of 1080p. Something similar happens with certain visual elements in Fury Road. The most common culprit is flame, which frequently accompanies the action, whether as weapon, decoration (notably the Doof-mobile) or the outcome of some spectacular crash. If you watch the extras on the Fury Road Blu-ray, it's obvious that the film's flame effects are a combination of practical and CG, but on the UHD almost every flame looks like a painted cartoon. Just as the enhanced depth and detail are pulling you into the film's ravaged wasteland, the artificiality of these effects pushes you back out. The same is true for the fierce dust storm in which Furiosa first loses her pursuers; in its theatrical and Blu-ray presentation, the storm was convincingly fierce, but on UHD one is struck by the obviousness of the computer imagery.

Now, it's entirely possible that all Fury Road needs to overcome these issues is an HDR re-grading. This is, after all, an infant format. But these (to me) very obvious blemishes on an otherwise impressive presentation raise anew the whole question of what it means to revise a film with up-rezzing and HDR. Blu-ray afficionados have spent ten years urging studios to respect a film's original appearance and not to revise it for greater "pop". UHD and HDR present the same possibilities for post-release tinkering, and both the good and the bad points are obvious in Warner's treatment of Fury Road.

As an aside, I should note that, even before viewing the UHD release, I had already watched an extremely tactile and three-dimensional version of Fury Road, without the problematic elements of unrealistic flame and obvious CGI. The film was released in 3D both to theaters and on Blu-ray, and that version provides many of the UHD disc's benefits (though in a different form) without the accompanying negatives. (Of course, 3D has its own negatives.)

My video score for the Fury Road UHD has to be provisional, because there's so little with which to compare it at this early date in the format. As has been suggested by many, UHD should be held to a higher standard than Blu-ray, and for that reason I am giving the disc a lesser video score than the Blu-ray's 5.0, because of the issues described above. Still, it gets enough right to warrant high marks, as we continue to learn about UHD's potential.

[dreamdead]

About halfway through Chimes at Midnight, which we grabbed from TCM last summer. For a film that is so magisterial in its framing and set locations, it's bewildering that the audio sequencing is so, so uniformly bad. I suspect that this gets fixed in the restoration that's currently making the rounds in film centers. Our version is sub-optimal, but still quite breathtaking, especially in dialogue-less scenes (the battle between ruling parties becomes doubly powerful because it's all visual and not hindered by wonky sound).

[Dukefrukem]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW9UJ0zh7cA

[Grouchy]

About halfway through Chimes at Midnight, which we grabbed from TCM last summer. For a film that is so magisterial in its framing and set locations, it's bewildering that the audio sequencing is so, so uniformly bad. I suspect that this gets fixed in the restoration that's currently making the rounds in film centers. Our version is sub-optimal, but still quite breathtaking, especially in dialogue-less scenes (the battle between ruling parties becomes doubly powerful because it's all visual and not hindered by wonky sound).
That's true and I think it might have a lot to do with the years long chaos that was making the film.

By the way, what do you guys think of the mini scandal involving some directors and producers not clapping the winner for Best Costumes for Mad Max? I found some article which says it had to do with how she was wearing street clothes instead of a dress and make-up.

[Mysterious Dude]

Alejandro Iñárritu was one of the non-applauders. He has responded to the accusation and shown a clip which shows him applauding a few seconds later. (http://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/03/alejandro-inarritu-jenny-beavan-vine) I think they probably just didn't see her until she had already walked past them, not that they were protesting her outfit. People get outraged over such stupid things.

[Ezee E]

Alejandro Iñárritu was one of the non-applauders. He has responded to the accusation and shown a clip which shows him applauding a few seconds later. (http://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/03/alejandro-inarritu-jenny-beavan-vine) I think they probably just didn't see her until she had already walked past them, not that they were protesting her outfit. People get outraged over such stupid things.

Agreed. All of the Mad Max people took quite a while to get to the stage since they were so far away. Majority of people at home were probably refilling booze or grabbing a handful of nachos at the same time. This is bloggers trying their hardest to get a few clicks.

[Winston*]

The WTF with William Friedkin is really great.

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_684_-_william_friedkin

[dreamdead]

Forsyth's 1987 Housekeeping was quietly stupendous. Interesting approach to adapting Marilynne Robinson's novel, it cleaves some narrative off of the coda, but otherwise finds interesting angles into the poetics and alienation of these women abandoned by other women. The three women all offer good dimension to how they conceive of difference, and the Idaho setting is both austere and magnificent in spots. Whether it's exploring the absurdity of houses overrun with water or cats, or the simple desire to be a recluse rather than conform to social expectations, this film digs at those layers so that Sylvia's approach to parenting isn't simply written off as psychosis.

Charming throughout, and definitely one that I could swear I'd watched when I was younger in the early 1990s.

[Dukefrukem]

So now Andy Wachowski comes out as transgender. Good for him.

[Lazlo]

So now Andy Wachowski comes out as transgender. Good for him.

I don't know a ton about the topic but I do know it's considered impolite to use the old name and pronoun. I get that it's necessary to identify how we've always known the person, but to not mention that she is now named Lilly and to call her a "him" erases her experiences and ignores her wishes.

Not trying to shame you or call you out at all. It's awesome that you're supportive. But for trans people, getting their names and pronouns correct is an important means, and often the first line of, support.

[MadMan]

The old copy I found of Chimes At Midnight made it hard to watch but I got the gist. Marvelous film and I'm glad that Criterion has added it to their collection.

[Irish]

I don't know a ton about the topic but I do know it's considered impolite to use the old name and pronoun.

I find this very confusing.

If we take Duke on good faith, and assume he wrote to be understood, then I think Andy Wachowski comes out as transgender is much clearer than the alternative.

I say this because yesterday, a whole bunch of sites ran a headline like "Second Wachowski sibling transitions," etc, accompanied by a picture of the, uh, "new" Lilly. I spent more than half the day thinking the big bald due now had another sister who happened to be trans -- somebody we'd never heard of before who wasn't in the movie industry -- and about how odd it was that the whatever that is "skipped" him, and about how strange it must be for him to have had two brothers and now have two sisters, etc etc. It wasn't until I finally clicked through and fully read the story that I learned they were talking about Andy.

Because every editor insisted writing their headlines in the most politically correct, strictest way, it created a complete failure of context. What Duke wrote doesn't. On day one, Lilly Wachowski transitions is almost meaningless because who the hell is Lilly and why should I care?

Also, I can't obviously speak for you but I am finding it increasingly curious that people (myself included) who have no particular dog in a race are still invested in it. Whose battles are we fighting here, and why, exactly?

Here's another question, because I feel like playing around.

For the longest time, I used "bohunk" as a slangy, nonsense word to describe frat boys and dude bros. I've never heard anyone but me use this word in any context. I don't remember ever reading it in a book or hearing it in a film. About a year ago, I googled it to see if it actually meant anything. Turns out it's an ethnic slur, but an antiquated one. It's a century old slam on people from central Europe.

So, should I stop using "bohunk" completely? If not, why not? And why does it matter either way?

[Lazlo]

I find this very confusing.

If we take Duke on good faith, and assume he wrote to be understood, then I think Andy Wachowski comes out as transgender is much clearer than the alternative.

I say this because yesterday, a whole bunch of sites ran a headline like "Second Wachowski sibling transitions," etc, accompanied by a picture of the, uh, "new" Lilly. I spent more than half the day thinking the big bald due now had another sister who happened to be trans -- somebody we'd never heard of before who wasn't in the movie industry -- and about how odd it was that the whatever that is "skipped" him, and about how strange it must be for him to have had two brothers and now have two sisters, etc etc. It wasn't until I finally clicked through and fully read the story that I learned they were talking about Andy.

Because every editor insisted writing their headlines in the most politically correct, strictest way, it created a complete failure of context. What Duke wrote doesn't. On day one, Lilly Wachowski transitions is almost meaningless because who the hell is Lilly and why should I care?

Also, I can't obviously speak for you but I am finding it increasingly curious that people (myself included) who have no particular dog in a race are still invested in it. Whose battles are we fighting here, and why, exactly?

Here's another question, because I feel like playing around.

For the longest time, I used "bohunk" as a slangy, nonsense word to describe frat boys and dude bros. I've never heard anyone but me use this word in any context. I don't remember ever reading it in a book or hearing it in a film. About a year ago, I googled it to see if it actually meant anything. Turns out it's an ethnic slur, but an antiquated one. It's a century old slam on people from central Europe.

So, should I stop using "bohunk" completely? If not, why not? And why does it matter either way?

Well, first, one doesn't have to have a "dog in the race" to care that a marginalized community is represented in the way they prefer to be represented. That's just empathy.

I get what you're saying with the headlines, etc. because I was also somewhat confused. Before I read a real article about it all I saw a quote on Tumblr attributed to Lilly and I just had a brain fart and thought it was something Lana said just because I forgot her name for a second. And yeah it's unusual for two famous people from the same family to be trans and so you're right about context. I wasn't trying to rip Duke or call him disingenuous in some way. I should have been more clear. I guess what could be written (this is without any input from people knowledgable of trans issues) is something along the lines of, "Andy Wachowski transitions, would like to be known as Lilly." But I'm sure that's incorrect in some way. Birth names are even referred to as "dead names" by some trans people, which makes things tricky.

I don't know that I've ever heard the term "bohunk" before. Hah.

[Grouchy]

Here's another question. Do all transgender people wish to be perceived as women? Wouldn't some of them want to be recognized as cross-overs? I mean it the same way a common transvestite is not a woman and most people around them know that. Or maybe I'm just assuming the word "transgender" implies a greater deal of transformation.

[Lazlo]

Here's another question. Do all transgender people wish to be perceived as women? Wouldn't some of them want to be recognized as cross-overs? I mean it the same way a common transvestite is not a woman and most people around them know that. Or maybe I'm just assuming the word "transgender" implies a greater deal of transformation.

You're pretty far off, actually. Transgender people have pretty much zero to do with transvestites.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmoAX9f6MOc

[Yxklyx]

You're pretty far off, actually. Transgender people have pretty much zero to do with transvestites....

That's not what he meant. He asked if transvestites want to be seen as women or transvestites and whether that same logic could be applied to transgenders. Maybe some do and some don't? I don't know but it's probably a personal thing.

[Lazlo]

That's not what he meant. He asked if transvestites want to be seen as women or transvestites and whether that same logic could be applied to transgenders. Maybe some do and some don't? I don't know but it's probably a personal thing.

He asked "do all transgender people want to be perceived as women". The answer to that is no, some wish to be perceived as men. I get what the rest of it is asking as well, as far as someone desiring to have their appearance indicate that they are trans just for the sake of people knowing it, but that's also not something that seems to be prevalent. And it's not about perception. These people are women or men, not men pretending to be or trying to appear to be women, etc. Passing is a big issue in the transgender community because the better you can pass as your gender in the eyes of others affects how well you're treated. But surgery and hormones and wardrobe are all expensive and the economics of it greatly disadvantages poor trans people because of how much acceptance is tied to appearance.

[Dukefrukem]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Irish again.

His response was a lot more level headed than mine.

[Lazlo]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Irish again.

His response was a lot more level headed than mine.

I apologize for being rude about it. It's a difficult topic to navigate, for sure.

[baby doll]

I haven't seen Bound in years, but at the time I saw it as a straight male fantasy about badass lesbians. I guess now I'd have to describe it as a trans lady fantasy about badass lesbians. It's still my favourite movie of theirs, but then I haven't seen anything they've done since the third Matrix film.

[Dukefrukem]

Amazing. (and equally amazing is his AOL e-mail)


https://vimeo.com/84546365

[transmogrifier]

Everyone wants to be trans. It's natural.

[Ezee E]

I'd like more of those Minus Durden scenes.

[Sven]

I finally saw Inherent Vice. It is a film of many textural pleasures, but I'm afraid the few histrionics were pretty embarrassing, and honestly, the whole thing felt sub-Lebowski. Brolin was again amazing. After this and Hail Caesar, I'm seeing his appeal. A movie of many good scenes and an impressive emulation of blitzedness, but all the movies it compares to are better.

[bac0n]

Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of the release of one of most groundbreaking, important works in cinematic history (not to mention it's just an altogether awesome movie), Forbidden Planet. You all should watch it.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f6/4f/fa/f64ffa9ce24995aa56422a8806fbd3 80.jpg

[Sven]

I remember Rashomon being longer...

[Winston*]

I remember Rashomon being longer...

I don't.

[Spinal]

Boy, Peter Greenaway has deteriorated from one of the most exciting filmmakers in the world to a complete and utter bore. I walked out on Eisenstein in Guanajuato tonight after about an hour. All the characters talk like they are recounting history books they read the previous night. The film has absolutely no stakes and nothing so coarse and unrefined as a plot. I have no idea who this film is for or why it exists. I used to see his films and be blown away by how he revealed the possibilities of film. His 21st century work has been largely intolerable, I am forced to admit.

[transmogrifier]

Drowning By Numbers ftw

[D_Davis]

I remember Rashomon being longer...

I remember it differently.

[baby doll]

I didn't like Eisenstein in Guanajuato either, but then I had just heard Greenaway himself say exactly the same things that his characters say verbatim, twice--first at a talk he gave at the British Council, where my wife used to work, and then again when he introduced the film at a public screening--so by the time I actually saw the movie, I'd already heard all the best lines.

Incidentally, I suppose I'll have to give Nightwatching another look one of these days, because it can't possibly be as bad as I'm remembering it.

[Spinal]

I didn't like Eisenstein in Guanajuato either, but then I had just heard Greenaway himself say exactly the same things that his characters say verbatim, twice--first at a talk he gave at the British Council, where my wife used to work, and then again when he introduced the film at a public screening--so by the time I actually saw the movie, I'd already heard all the best lines.

Incidentally, I suppose I'll have to give Nightwatching another look one of these days, because it can't possibly be as bad as I'm remembering it.

Yes, this is exactly the issue. It's material more suited to a lecture than a film. It's painful to watch the actors try to breathe life into material that is simply not actable. In his best films, the characters are battling for something. Here, the dialogue is like a high-brow version of Colonial Williamsburg. "Hi, my name is Sergei Eisenstein. In 1928, I directed October. In America, it was called 10 Days That Shook the World. I was a film pioneer know for my use of montage."

And, Nightwatching is pretty bad. I can't imagine trying to watch it again. Which is saying something for a movie with Martin Freeman.

[Dukefrukem]

http://io9.gizmodo.com/19-times-someone-gets-thrown-into-space-from-worst-to-1753938085


19 Times Someone Gets Thrown Into the Vacuum of Space, From Worst to Best

[Mysterious Dude]

I can't believe they left out the best one:

https://49.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2x97jmqTs1qgxqujo1_500 .gif

[Yxklyx]

Yes, this is exactly the issue. It's material more suited to a lecture than a film..... Like how The Falls is more suited to an encyclopedia?

[baby doll]

Like how The Falls is more suited to an encyclopedia?No, not really. That movie's encyclopedic form is a device for organizing different narratives which are much wittier than anything in Eisenstein in Guanajuato, where the narrative is merely a device for putting Greenaway's ideas into the actors' mouths.

[Mysterious Dude]

I watched the 1959 Ben-Hur in anticipation of the upcoming remake, and for Easter! The last time I saw it was on VHS on a small TV, and I could tell it was not meant for the format. There are shots where the actors look so small.

http://cfile230.uf.daum.net/image/27069D3F531BA94F11CB13
Jesus: the only man in ancient Judea with long hair.

So I watched it on Blu-ray on a big TV, and it still doesn't look quite right. I suspect even in most movie theaters it would look too small.

I noticed that when the characters have a conversation, the camera tends to pick a spot and never move away from it, so we're often looking at the actors' profiles. Unusual technique.

http://www.benswithen.co.uk/images/1959h.jpg

[baby doll]

I watched the 1959 Ben-Hur in anticipation of the upcoming remake, and for Easter! The last time I saw it was on VHS on a small TV, and I could tell it was not meant for the format. There are shots where the actors look so small.

http://cfile230.uf.daum.net/image/27069D3F531BA94F11CB13
Jesus: the only man in ancient Judea with long hair.

So I watched it on Blu-ray on a big TV, and it still doesn't look quite right. I suspect even in most movie theaters it would look too small.

I noticed that when the characters have a conversation, the camera tends to pick a spot and never move away from it, so we're often looking at the actors' profiles. Unusual technique.

http://www.benswithen.co.uk/images/1959h.jpgThis is common in early 'Scope films. In those days, it wasn't capable of the same depth of field as black and white, and given the necessity to fill the frame with something, directors often arranged the actors horizontally in a frieze-like composition.

[Russ]

The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, 1990)

The new Canadian blu-ray is a revelation. Imagine David Lynch channeling Malick's Days of Heaven.

I know Raiders is a fan -- anyone else here seen this gem?

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/The-Reflecting-Skin-Viggo-Mortensen-1024x549_zpsygkos4j3.jpg

[Yxklyx]

Watched a couple of early Dafoe films. The campy but entertaining Streets of Fire (Walter Hill) and the moody atmospheric The Loveless (Kathryn Bigelow & Monty Montgomery) which I really liked a lot. Read up on Monty (The Cowboy from Mulholland Dr.) who produced Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks and that started me thinking about how Producers are neglected when discussing films. Some of them can make very significant contributions to a film's style or story. They can be just as creative as directors but would rather have someone else put their ideas onto film - maybe due to lack of technical skills in the media.

[Yxklyx]

The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, 1990)

The new Canadian blu-ray is a revelation. Imagine David Lynch channeling Malick's Days of Heaven.

I know Raiders is a fan -- anyone else here seen this gem?

...

This looks good - Netflix doesn't carry it but has another film from the same director which I'll check out.

[transmogrifier]

For no reason, what are the best three films of the 21st century so far?

For me they are obviously:
Mulholland Dr.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Before Sunset

With Before Sunset being my pick for the best final scene of all time. All time, I tell ya!

[Dukefrukem]

1. Inception
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Devil’s Backbone

With Inception being my pick for the best final scene of all time. All time, I tell ya!

[Spinal]

1. Mulholland Dr.
2. Dogville
3. Y tu mamá también

[D_Davis]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Mind Game
3. Inland Empire

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Children of Men
2. Requiem for a Dream
3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

[Dukefrukem]

2. Requiem for a Dream

Wrong century ;)

[Peng]

From my all-time list it would be...

1. Be With You (2004)
2. Toy Story 3
3. Before Sunset

[Melville]

1. The Son
2. Mulholland Dr
3. Punch-Drunk Love


That list hasn't changed in about 10 years. So here's a more fluid one: my top three movies of the current decade:

1. The Grey
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Margaret

[Watashi]

1. It's Such a Beautiful Day
2. Speed Racer
3. Happy-Go-Lucky

[Milky Joe]

1. The Master
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. Moonrise Kingdom

hard one

[Ivan Drago]

1. The Tree of Life
2. Mulholland Dr.
3. Black Swan

[Mr. McGibblets]

Hot Fuzz
Ocean's Twelve
The Darjeeling Limited

[MadMan]

Off the top of my head:

1. Drive
2. Children of Men
3. Mullholland Dr.

[baby doll]

Platform (Jia Zhangke, 2000)
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, 2009)

[dreamdead]

Since 2000:
Before Sunset
Mulholland Dr.
Tree of Life

Since the turn of this decade:
Tree of Life
A Separation
Timbuktu

HM: Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Uncle Boonmee

[Stay Puft]

Tropical Malady
Mulholland Dr.
Millennium Actress

Just this decade:
The Assassin
Oslo, August 31st
Goodbye First Love

[Russ]

3. Inland Empire

Rep! Prefer (slightly) over Mulholland Dr.


EDIT: So stupid that I have to "spread my rep around". I just find posters with the lowest rep, who haven't posted in this forum in years, and "rep" them with an obligatory "I am forced to spread the rep around" to get around this inane restriction.


LLLLLLLL!

[PURPLE]

Lists ya'll. I don't care if they're technically from the wrong century.

1. Songs From the Second Floor
2. Marseille
3. Goodbye, First Love

Most singular:
1. Le quattro volte
2. Enter the Void
3. Kung Fu Hustle

[Grouchy]

In no particular order:

Mad Max: Fury Road
Oldboy
There Will Be Blood

[Yxklyx]

1. Amelie
2. Mulholland Dr.
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

all from 2001

[Lazlo]

1. The Lord of the Rings (I realize I've argued in the past to take them separately, but I'm getting greedy here and there's nothing you can do to stop me)
2. No Country For Old Men
3. The Royal Tenenbaums

[Irish]

1. Memories of Murder
2. Memories of Murder
3. Memories of Murder

Runner-up: You Can Count on Me

[Izzy Black]

New banner is stunning

[dreamdead]

Well, this is a portion of film history that I missed in graduate school. The role of spanking in 1930s to 1960s cinema (http://pictorial.jezebel.com/i-dont-know-whether-to-kiss-you-or-spank-you-a-half-ce-1769140132), and how it was purely natural.

[Morris Schæffer]

Just a heads-up, Criterion movies now available also in the UK region B. Not the whole catalogue obviously, but new ones will be added.

https://www.avforums.com/news/criterion-finally-arrives-on-uk-blu-ray.12544

[Lazlo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnTZbZw1JPQ

Uhhh, ya burnt, CinemaSins.

[Spinal]

Uhhh, ya burnt, CinemaSins.

I'm glad someone took the time to do this. CinemaSins drives me bonkers with its flippant dull-headedness.

[Melville]

Well, this is a portion of film history that I missed in graduate school. The role of spanking in 1930s to 1960s cinema (http://pictorial.jezebel.com/i-dont-know-whether-to-kiss-you-or-spank-you-a-half-ce-1769140132), and how it was purely natural.
Interesting article, especially all the quotes from actual people in that era. Did you check out the article on Christian Domestic Discipline that it links to?

[Skitch]

I'm glad someone took the time to do this. CinemaSins drives me bonkers with its flippant dull-headedness.

I remember my last CinemaSins. The video began, it said "A Paramount Picture" (or whatever big company I can't recall which), ding, sin counter 1. Vowed I would never click another.

[Yxklyx]

So I searched this whole site for mention of Michael Ritchie's Diggstown and all I could find was a rating of 2/10 from soitgoes (still around?). This film was awesome! A perfectly tight script with entertaining characterizations all around. James Woods was never better. I can't remember any other film with Louis Gossett Jr. but I will always remember him in this and of course Bruce Dern in maybe his best role. Oliver Platt? Who the hell is he? He was hilarious in this! Some beautiful eye candy with Heather Graham.. and what an ending! Listed on The Onion's The New Cult Canon. One of the most enjoyable movies I've seen in a long time.

[dreamdead]

Interesting article, especially all the quotes from actual people in that era. Did you check out the article on Christian Domestic Discipline that it links to?

Yeah, what interests me is how film stars filed for divorce and used the spanking act as an entry point for later physical abuse. It's a fascinating subculture, and odd to see 18 minutes compiled that make that sort of filmic transgression appear utterly mundane and shoehorned in to fit then-contemporary trends. So much of the distaste in the Jezebel compilation is the degree to which others witness these spankings merrily, as though there's no need to worry about the pain. I looked at the other Domestic Discipline article, and it further highlights the horror of how these relationship trends move perfidious (when not performed by two agreeing adults) to acceptable because of expectations.

Also related to this story, my, John Wayne appears in a lot of this BS.

[dreamdead]

Is it common to regard the second of Ray's Apu Trilogy, Aparajito, as the stronger than the first film, Pather Panchali? There's something more fundamentally decent about the second film's treatment of the mother, where she becomes less bitter and judged, and begins to embrace her life wih Apu, especially as the other family members fall away. Also, Ray's direction feels more assured, finding more compelling imagery across the board amidst the modernization of India and even more interestingly documenting the rural/urban divide in the country.

[Irish]

Fellow cinephiles, you can soon cancel the only reason you had a Hulu account. While they’ve had The Criterion Collection’s streaming library for some time, starting this fall, that will no longer be the case. Turner announced today that they are launching FilmStruck, a collaborative streaming service between Turner Classic Movies and Criterion Collection, as well as films from Janus Films, Flicker Alley, Icarus, Kino, Milestone, Zeitgeist, Warners Bros. and more.

https://thefilmstage.com/news/the-criterion-collections-streaming-library-finds-new-home-with-tcms-filmstruck/


The service, which will be available starting this fall for a monthly fee to be determined, will be the exclusive streaming home for the Criterion Collection library, which includes such classic titles as "Seven Samurai," "A Hard Day's Night," "A Room With a View," "My Life as a Dog," "Mad Max" and "The Player."

FilmStruck will be curated by the programmers at Turner Classic Movies, the film cable network that has developed a highly devoted audience thanks to its commercial-free presentations of often restored legendary Hollywood movies. Criterion will collaborate with TCM to create its own dedicated channel on FilmStruck.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-turner-movie-service-20160426-story.html

Holy shit.

[Dukefrukem]

Bye Hulu!

[Spinal]

That's not the reason I have a Hulu account. But still, that's pretty nifty.

[Mysterious Dude]

I've been trying to remember what I get from Hulu for other than the Criterion collection. I'll probably miss Adventure Time the most, but I think I can live without Brooklyn Nine-Nine and everything else.

According to Criterion's blog (https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4032-introducing-filmstruck), the Criterion channel will be a premium service, whereas FilmStruck will have a "rotating selection of Criterion films." Hopefully the premium channel won't be too much more expensive.

I like the pairing of Criterion and Turner Classic Movies. TCM is probably what I miss the most about cable. I hope they'll have a similar selection.

[Dukefrukem]

Comcast in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation for more than $3 billion.

[Irish]

TCM is probably what I miss the most about cable. I hope they'll have a similar selection.

This is the part that confuses me. The service will be curated by TCM, but what does that mean? It half sounds like they'll stream movies off TCM, but TCM already has deals with services like SlingTV.

Since this is coming from Warners, what happens to Warners Archive? Will those movies be available too?

Neither the press release nor the related articles were all that specific.

[dreamdead]

The most tempting part of the Criterion part of Filmstruck would be access to the special features available on Criterion discs. Given that access, it'd be tricky to be confident that I'd continue buying the occasional DVD, but it'd be a form of access that I'd welcome. At that point, it'd merely be a question of whether Criterion titles are released simultaneously onto that service and physical platforms.

[Irish]

Academic piece on the nature of superheroes, with specific criticisms about The Dark Knight Rises. Well worth a read.

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/super-position/

[Grouchy]

Anyone know a torrent site I can download The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey from? Does anyone have it? Can't find it anywhere.

You can send the answer to me by PM if you want. Please don't bash me for asking - it's a 1988 New Zealand film that's barely available on DVD. It's not like I'm making the Weinsteins lose money or anything.

[Mysterious Dude]

Grouchy, you have exceeded your stored private messages quota.

[transmogrifier]

Grouchy, you have exceeded your stored private messages quota.

Vincent Ward spammed his PM system to prevent piracy of his baby. It's the only thing that makes sense.

[Grouchy]

Grouchy, you have exceeded your stored private messages quota.
Heheh try now!

[Mysterious Dude]

Still not working. Oh well. Get it while it's hot.


http://www.ulozto.net/xR4VstK1/the-navigator-a-medieval-odyssey-1988-avi

[Grouchy]

Thanks!

[Thirdmango]

anyone know about this 100 years movie bullshit.

[Ezee E]

anyone know about this 100 years movie bullshit.

The John Malkovich thing? It's a commercial for cognac that takes just as long to make correctly.

[Morris Schæffer]

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/arnie-killed-schwarzenegger-victims-speak/

Arnold's victims speak! :cool:

[Russ]

Li'l Quinquin (Bruno Dumont, 2014) ****/**** Had never seen a Dumont film before, but had read enough about his work to feel like I knew what was in store for me. I was wrong -- I wasn't expecting this.

Dumont's Li'i Quinquin was originally made for French television, as a 4 episode miniseries, about a series of gruesome murders that have taken place in a sleepy, coastal farming community in northwest France. It establishes its own non-pc take on a town full of quirky characters -- it riffs on Twin Peaks, Fargo, and compares favorably to the same year's True Detective, all while weaving a layer of social consciousness that seems to tie directly into the nefarious goings-on. I wasn't expecting the comedic touches, of which there are many, and none so grand as the extended funeral for the first victim that closes episode one, featuring an overly-enthusiastic church organist and a youthful giggling priest. Quinquin (Alane Delhaye) and his pals like to throw firecrackers at unsuspecting passers-by, and are seemingly normal kids coming of age. They can also be racist, homophobic troublemakers and spend much of the runtime vacillating between tough and tender. Institutionalized racism, endemic throughout Europe, may also be a factor in the murders, so it's not difficult to see that the youths haven't fallen far from that tree. Trying to tie all this together, but not making much headway, are Commandant Van der Weyden (Bernard Pruvost) and his gap-toothed assistant, Lieutenant Carpentier (Phillipe Jore), who likes to drive the police car like it was a stunt car. Pruvost is the real revelation here -- his Van der Weyden is plagued by a vast collection of facial tics and overall weird mannerisms. He's like Inspector Clouseau and his adversary, Dreyfus, combined in one neat package -- but with an iconic presence, like a Tati or Chaplin. Pruvost's work here is tremendous, and certainly award-worthy.

Just the fact that it's a comedy, tho a distinctly Dumont "comedy", should be enough to throw anyone off.

I like this quote from a review I found:


...starts off like it might be France’s answer to Twin Peaks, then begins to feel like Robert Bresson was asked to make True Detective with the cast of Freaks.

Kino-Lorber has put out a blu-ray that combines the episodes into a 206 minute runtime -- a shame they didn't offer the episodic narrative as an alternative option (I believe this is on Netflix streaming also, but I don't know if it's shown as one long movie or not). Still, I highly recommend this to any fan of quirky police procedurals, with the added bonus of having a European art-film sensibility.

Here's the NSFW trailer:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY6RU13X7E8

[dreamdead]

Eric Byler's 2002 film Charlotte Sometimes. Early film using digital, so some of the framing is less than stellar, but the script, the thought process behind characters, and the performances are all fascinating. Awesome study of Asian America while refusing to explicitly make itself solely about race--Byler instead uses subtlety and insular lines to denote transformation, and the film uses sexuality to explore fissures inherent to identity.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in character studies, it continues to rise in my esteem weeks after viewing it.

[Yxklyx]

Could the MOD create a forum for releases in 2115 please (Yearly Film Database)? Thanks!

[Dead & Messed Up]

Bought Thunderdome today. The saga is complete.

Also, this flick is better and worse than I remember. The tone is more twee, especially with that sometimes-smothering score, but the flick also seems to be drawing a direct comparison between the two small societies Max finds (both more or less headed by a woman!) and suggesting the two need to fuse in some fundamental way. Bartertown is full of "knowing" but a shitty society built on foundations of lies and mutual hatred, while Neverland sustains through love but psychologically arrests its brood.

[Mysterious Dude]

I rewatched The Great Dictator. Was I asleep when Schultz and the barber escaped from the concentration camp, or did the movie gloss over that part? Also, would a Jewish barber be likely to quote from the seventeenth chapter of Luke?

[Dukefrukem]

I wonder how real this is:

Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall on How to Win in Hollywood Today
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/steven-spielberg-kathleen-kennedy-frank-902545

INTERVIEWER: So when you look at young directors, how do you know you're not hiring another Josh Trank [who directed the Fox bomb Fantastic Four]?

SPIELBERG Who is that?

[TGM]

Not that surprising a response. Josh Trank is hardly a name director.

[transmogrifier]

Ouch.