28 Film Discussion Threads Later [Archive] - Page 27

megladon8

02-04-2008, 05:02 PM

Well, yeah. That's the idea. It's saying that the news is useless regurgitation.

It could have been executed much better, I think.

I got the point from the first 2 or 3 newscasts...their constant recurrence throughout the movie was, as I said, pretty damn annoying.

The Mexican gardener dude? He was a counter-point to the Brad character. He had the same goal (rescuing his wife), but he dared to go against the news and went outside, thinking for himself, while Brad was too afraid.

Ah, I hadn't thought of it that way.

I was just thinking in terms of the dialogue and the time he spends with Brad in the house - it all seemed kind of pointless.

I like that, about him representing the opposite of Brad.

Lasse

02-04-2008, 09:50 PM

I don't where else to post this, but I just watched Ratatouille for the first time, and I freakin' loved it.

I may even buy it. :|

trotchky

02-04-2008, 09:53 PM

Damon Packard is an American Hero.

ledfloyd

02-04-2008, 10:23 PM

I don't where else to post this, but I just watched Ratatouille for the first time, and I freakin' loved it.

I may even buy it. :|
i bought it. money well spent.

It's one of the reasons I gave up my 2007 list thread. I was putting a lot of time in my write-ups, yet no one was responding. It's really frustrating.
i don't think i ever saw this thread.

and for some reason, at first glance, i always think your avatar is from annie hall.

Grouchy

02-04-2008, 11:40 PM

I don't where else to post this, but I just watched Ratatouille for the first time, and I freakin' loved it.

I may even buy it. :|
I was thinking about rewatching it today. Glad to see more people bask in its awesomeness. By the moment Anton Ego eats the ratatouille, everyone's instantly won over by the movie.

transmogrifier

02-05-2008, 01:48 AM

I was thinking about rewatching it today. Glad to see more people bask in its awesomeness. By the moment Anton Ego eats the ratatouille, everyone's instantly won over by the movie.

You have a very strange definition of the word "everyone".

Sven

02-05-2008, 01:49 AM

You have a very strange definition of the word "everyone".

Word.

Watashi

02-05-2008, 01:51 AM

Get a room you two.

And don't come out.

Wryan

02-05-2008, 01:53 AM

Bought The Iron Giant on dvd today and got misty all over again. The vocal performances are really underrated in the film, insofar as most people don't talk about them much. Eli Marienthal is waaay better than most kid voiceovers, with the exception of Nemo. Anniston and Connick Jr. are perfect too.

transmogrifier

02-05-2008, 01:54 AM

Word.

Loosely translated, I think his "everyone" is roughly equivalent to "all those that agree with me".

I'll try it in a sentence:

Everyone knows that I'm a full-blown genius.

transmogrifier

02-05-2008, 01:56 AM

Get a room you too.

And don't come out.

As long as I get to choose the TV channel.

Grouchy

02-05-2008, 01:56 AM

Loosely translated, I think his "everyone" is roughly equivalent to "all those that agree with me".
Is there any other kind of people?

How confused they must be.

transmogrifier

02-05-2008, 01:57 AM

Is there any other kind of people?

How confused they must be.

Like you wouldn't believe.

Qrazy

02-05-2008, 02:13 AM

You have a very strange definition of the word "everyone".

Yeah, it was just middle tier pixar for me.

Sven

02-05-2008, 02:15 AM

I'm not entirely convinced, either, that the part where Ego eats the Ratatouille isn't my least favorite part in the film, actually. It's kind of the culmination of Bird's hubris.

origami_mustache

02-05-2008, 02:29 AM

I haven't watched a film in over a week...that's kind of depressing. Although, I've made it through the first ten episodes of Cowboy Bebop.

MacGuffin

02-05-2008, 02:34 AM

Emanuelle in America had an interesting structure among other things and some fascinating ideas brought to the screen (the progression from soft sex to hard sex to torture footage). I'd recommend it to fans of "sleazy" cinema, which I am.

Philosophe_rouge

02-05-2008, 02:52 AM

I'm so lazy, so this will be brief. Ace in the Hole was good.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 02:55 AM

I'm so lazy, so this will be brief. Ace in the Hole was good.Hmm. Good as in good? Or good as in just... good?

Philosophe_rouge

02-05-2008, 03:06 AM

Hmm. Good as in good? Or good as in just... good?
Hard to say, I'm a huge Wilder fan... this probably runs a behind Sunset Blvd., Some Like it Hot and the Apartment for me.. but it's not as if that's really all that bad :p I unfortunately was interrupted a few times, and if anything it was almost TOO cynical for me. I'm probably going to give it another good. It's a good as in italicized good, but has the potential to be great.

origami_mustache

02-05-2008, 03:16 AM

Dead & Messed Up

02-05-2008, 03:20 AM

1408 is pretty respectable, as far as B movie pulp is concerned. Cusack gives a nuanced, ingratiating, and frequently very funny performance; the production values are superb, if (somewhat charmingly) overdone; and Håfström directs with confident verve, demonstrating a surprisingly skillful sense for suggestive blocking, so it all comes together for a fine example of Stephen King-style genre entertainment. It's just a shame that the screenplay is so riddled with bad ideas, squandering much of the potential inherent to the premise and reducing it to predictable Freudian hokum as it progresses past the sterling opening 45 minutes.

I found that the Director's Cut had a woefully inferior ending compared to the original version. Curious as to what you thought about the final moments of the version you saw.

Philosophe_rouge

02-05-2008, 03:21 AM

I enjoyed it a lot, but I'm also a cynic. I much prefer this to The Apartment, and found it on par with The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd and Double Indemnity. I'll be watching Stalag 17 sometime this week.
I can be cynical too :P noir is my favourite genre afterall... this one though, so damn dark. I surprisingly have never seen the Lost Weekend, and don't like Double Indemnity. I'm not very confident with saying that however as I saw it a few years ago. Stalag is good, although doesn't stand out as being particularly impressive. The performances are excellent, and I quite like the story but it's missing something I can't quite put my finger on.

origami_mustache

02-05-2008, 03:27 AM

I can be cynical too :P noir is my favourite genre afterall... this one though, so damn dark. I surprisingly have never seen the Lost Weekend, and don't like Double Indemnity. I'm not very confident with saying that however as I saw it a few years ago. Stalag is good, although doesn't stand out as being particularly impressive. The performances are excellent, and I quite like the story but it's missing something I can't quite put my finger on.

The Lost Weekend is one of his darker films too, which is why it and Ace in the Hole are probably my two favorites from him. Wilder usually manages to throw in darker elements in most of his films. Of course Sunset Blvd. is dark and even The Apartment contains an attempted suicide amongst the frivolous infidelity.

Philosophe_rouge

02-05-2008, 03:29 AM

The Lost Weekend is one of his darker films too, which is why it and Ace in the Hole are probably my two favorites from him. Wilder usually manages to throw in darker elements in most of his films. Of course Sunset Blvd. is dark and even The Apartment has an attempted suicide amongst the frivolous infidelity.
I think all his films are pretty dark frankly, even Some Like it Hot which I've seen a bazillion times is so close to being a noir at times... plus Tony Curtis' character is one of the biggest assholes to grace the screen. He really had a rare talent, because he played essentially the same role but not for laughs in Sweet Smell of Success. I need to get around to finishing off Wilder's filmography, especially stuff like the Major and the Minor which I had started watching but somehow dropped it off before ever finishing.

origami_mustache

02-05-2008, 03:39 AM

I think all his films are pretty dark frankly, even Some Like it Hot which I've seen a bazillion times is so close to being a noir at times... plus Tony Curtis' character is one of the biggest assholes to grace the screen. He really had a rare talent, because he played essentially the same role but not for laughs in Sweet Smell of Success. I need to get around to finishing off Wilder's filmography, especially stuff like the Major and the Minor which I had started watching but somehow dropped it off before ever finishing.

I haven't even seen Some Like It Hot, but plan of seeing it soon along with The Seven Year Itch. After that there are a handful of films I'm not as interested in seeing right away, but will probably find pleasantly surprising once I get around to it. For instance One, Two, Three turned out to be much more enjoyable than I anticipated. I even liked it more than The Apartment.

Eleven

02-05-2008, 03:42 AM

For instance One, Two, Three turned out to be much more enjoyable than I anticipated.

Having just seen this, I wonder if it isn't the fastest Hollywood movie since the heydays of Hawks and Sturges.

Philosophe_rouge

02-05-2008, 03:45 AM

I haven't even seen Some Like It Hot, but plan of seeing it soon along with The Seven Year Itch. After that there are a handful of films I'm not as interested in seeing right away, but will probably find pleasantly surprising once I get around to it. For instance One, Two, Three turned out to be much more enjoyable than I anticipated. I even liked it more than The Apartment.
I like the Seven Year Itch quite abit, but Some Like it Hot is top 10 material for me. I hope you like it! I'm not a huge fan of One, Two, Three. I blind bought it a few years ago and watched it with semi-positive results. My audience hated it though, and I had a headache by the time it was over. Lots of screaming. I need to give it another go.

origami_mustache

02-05-2008, 03:49 AM

Having just seen this, I wonder if it isn't the fastest Hollywood movie since the heydays of Hawks and Sturges.

haha quite possibly. I usually favor realism as opposed to this over the top farcical approach, but the satire and archetypes just work so well here to comment on the cold war and bureaucracy...not to mention the snappy one liners are often pretty hilarious.

ledfloyd

02-05-2008, 03:54 AM

Hard to say, I'm a huge Wilder fan... this probably runs a behind Sunset Blvd., Some Like it Hot and the Apartment for me.. but it's not as if that's really all that bad :p I unfortunately was interrupted a few times, and if anything it was almost TOO cynical for me. I'm probably going to give it another good. It's a good as in italicized good, but has the potential to be great.
i'm a fellow huge wilder fan. i didn't really dig ace in the hole. it was kind of a let down, i went in with huge expectations after trying to track it down for years. i should probably give it a second look.

the lost weekend i gave ** initially, i suppose i could bump it up to **1/2. it's just material that's been redone so many times it's hard to appreciate the original.

i don't think either are on par with love in the afternoon, some like it hot, the apartment, sunset blvd, double indemnity or witness for the prosecution. stalag 17, sabrina and seven year itch are a tier below those ones for me. then lost weekend and ace. i need to round out the rest of his filmography.

Sven

02-05-2008, 03:58 AM

I really liked Avanti!

Sycophant

02-05-2008, 05:07 AM

Huh. I actually liked Mutual Appreciation.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 05:13 AM

I found that the Director's Cut had a woefully inferior ending compared to the original version. Curious as to what you thought about the final moments of the version you saw.How did the original version end?

The final moments in the DC weren't exactly inspiring, but I can't say I was too disappointed by them either. By that stage, the film had settled into a groove of mediocrity.

Derek

02-05-2008, 05:19 AM

Huh. I actually liked Mutual Appreciation.

That's not surprising since you're usually right.

Boner M

02-05-2008, 05:21 AM

Derek

02-05-2008, 05:30 AM

What a strange film Voyage in Italy is. I was pretty bored for roughly the first hour, but in the last 20 minutes things suddenly clicked and Rossellini's depiction of human connection as a miracle of timing - something almost entirely determined by even the most mundane events and aspects of the surrounding environment - became moving and haunting rather than awkward and lethargic. Will rewatch with Adrian Martin's commentary tonight; I can't remember the last time a film put me through such extremes of boredom and fascination.

Yeah, this is definitely a film that was defined more by particular scenes and moments which punctuate its themes. The scene where they dig of the corpses of the ancient couple is absolutely haunting and so perfectly placed in the film.. I liked it quite a bit and it sits even better in my memory. I actually prefer Rossellini in his post-neo-realism phase, specifically Stromboli and The Age of Medici. Voyage... and Europe '51 are also really good, but I need rewatch both.

Boner M

02-05-2008, 05:39 AM

Yeah, this is definitely a film that was defined more by particular scenes and moments which punctuate its themes. The scene where they dig of the corpses of the ancient couple is absolutely haunting and so perfectly placed in the film.. I liked it quite a bit and it sits even better in my memory. I actually prefer Rossellini in his post-neo-realism phase, specifically Stromboli and The Age of Medici. Voyage... and Europe '51 are also really good, but I need rewatch both.
I was lucky enough to catch his very obscure 1972 TV production Blaise Pascal on my NYC trip a year ago; it's full-on Dreyer/Bresson-style spiritualised minimalism, telling the story of the last days of the famous mathematician-monk... I missed the first 15 minutes or so and can't remember much of what actually happened in the film, but it's dirge-y funereal atmosphere has really stayed with me.

I'd really love to see The Rise of Louis XIV.

Sycophant

02-05-2008, 05:39 AM

That's not surprising since you're usually right.Hey, thaaaaanks.

So I take this to mean you too appreciate the film. Where next should mumblecore take me?

Derek

02-05-2008, 06:04 AM

I was lucky enough to catch his very obscure 1972 TV production Blaise Pascal on my NYC trip a year ago; it's full-on Dreyer/Bresson-style spiritualised minimalism, telling the story of the last days of the famous mathematician-monk... I missed the first 15 minutes or so and can't remember much of what actually happened in the film, but it's dirge-y funereal atmosphere has really stayed with me.

I'd really love to see The Rise of Louis XIV.

Hot damn, I've gotta get my hands on that one!

Rise... is also pretty good, but my least favorite of the late period films I've seen.

Hey, thaaaaanks.

So I take this to mean you too appreciate the film. Where next should mumblecore take me?

I honestly haven't seen too many mumblecore films, but I liked Bujalski's Funny Ha Ha a bit more than MA, so I'd give that a try next.

Watashi

02-05-2008, 06:17 AM

Hmmm... I don't understand the negative criticisms towards The Savages about being nothing but "middle-age whining". In fact, it's a very smart film that really examines the role of fatherhood on a son or daughter's development into establishing a committed relationship. It's a film that asks to appreciate the small moments before passing and that death is death, no matter how fancy and clean the death bed may lie. For an Academy who went gaga over Alan Arkin's inferior and similar performance in Little Miss Sunshine, they sure glossed over Philip Bosco's incredible performance.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 06:36 AM

In fact, it's a very smart film that really examines the role of fatherhood on a son or daughter's development into establishing a committed relationship.Does it actually examine that? Sure, the film suggests that their fucked up parental relations played a large part in shaping the arrested developments they became, but does it go any further than that?

Personally, I thought it was alright, but there was lots of humor that didn't work for me, the direction was visually graceless and really just rather ugly to look at for the most part, the self-reflexive stuff with Hoffman's character and his studies struck me as pretentious in an unrevealing way, and the use of the black characters in the nursing home for cheap racial humor and (in the case of the one dude) to boost the Linney character's confidence was just lazy writing. I also could have done without that opening scene with the dancing old people, that was just awkward.

Away From Her was better.

Watashi

02-05-2008, 06:53 AM

Does it actually examine that? Sure, the film suggests that their fucked up parental relations played a large part in shaping the arrested developments they became, but does it go any further than that?

Of course it goes further. These are lonely people who handle their issues in different ways. Wendy is edgy and worries openly about what they are doing. Jon seems to be more under control, but it’s only because he stuffs his feelings. Neither is really experienced in dealing with the realities of life; they have merely survived the tempests they have faced. Hell, even Wendy's affair is just an escape route to see her lover's aging dog. I agree some of the humor doesn't work all that well, but I loved the scene of Jon crying over the eggs. It funny, but it's also one of the more poignant moments as that a simple act of a woman making breakfast can bring a man to tears.

Away From Her [/I]was better.

Okay, I think so too, but the comparisons between the two are actually thinner than people make them out to be.

Dead & Messed Up

02-05-2008, 06:55 AM

How did the original version end?

The final moments in the DC weren't exactly inspiring, but I can't say I was too disappointed by them either. By that stage, the film had settled into a groove of mediocrity.

In the original ending, he survives, and he's unpacking boxes with his wife when he finds the burnt tape recorder he'd been using in the room. Curious, he presses play, and then the two stop and freeze as their daughter's voice plays in the room.

I thought it was more appropriate. The director's ending feels kinda wonky and forced, like it's struggling to figure out when to stop.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 06:59 AM

Derek

02-05-2008, 07:05 AM

Of course it goes further. These are lonely people who handle their issues in different ways. Wendy is edgy and worries openly about what they are doing. Jon seems to be more under control, but it’s only because he stuffs his feelings. Neither is really experienced in dealing with the realities of life; they have merely survived the tempests they have faced. Hell, even Wendy's affair is just an escape route to see her lover's aging dog. I agree some of the humor doesn't work all that well, but I loved the scene of Jon crying over the eggs. It funny, but it's also one of the more poignant moments as that a simple act of a woman making breakfast can bring a man to tears.

That's not going farther though. All of that is very much on the surface of the film and made glaringly apparent to us. My problem with the film is that there's literally no subtext and the characters dialogue and behavior seems to be solely defined (and limited) to their upbringing. Even their competitiveness is spelled out for us in big bold font with Wendy getting the grant. In short, it's shallow and seems content to wallow in its own miserableness.

Okay, I think so too, but the comparisons between the two are actually thinner than people make them out to be.

This I agree with completely. The Savages is much more about the children coping with the situation.

Watashi

02-05-2008, 07:20 AM

That's not going farther though. All of that is very much on the surface of the film and made glaringly apparent to us. My problem with the film is that there's literally no subtext and the characters dialogue and behavior seems to be solely defined (and limited) to their upbringing. Even their competitiveness is spelled out for us in big bold font with Wendy getting the grant. In short, it's shallow and seems content to wallow in its own miserableness.

Where does it wallow in its own miserableness? Is it the scene between the male nurse and Wendy? I thought that scene was rather definitive in showing Wendy's quest into the thinking that showing appreciation to a small hobby is a door opening to immediate attraction. The film rebounds this scene with the final moment with the dog.

I do share some of your qualms about the film blaring the character's emotions a bit into spotlight, but it never took me out of the film.

I do think when you used the word "children", you really hit the spot, because these are not adults, but still struggling independents who really have yet to break free of their mid-life shell. When away, children often don't think what their parents are doing in their spare time or how really tough losing the ability to clean yourself until it physically happens to you.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 07:23 AM

And seriously, what was the deal with the Epic Theater vs. Dramatic Theater stuff? If it was supposed to be positioning the movie as Jenkins' stab at Brechtian social formalism, then she failed in following that ambition through. Or was it a metaphor for the conflicting contrasts between Jon and Wendy Darling... I mean, Savage? Talk about overwriting.

And I really disliked the scene with the old mistress dying in the nail parlor. It struck me as callow and mean-spirited.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 07:32 AM

Where does it wallow in its own miserableness? Is it the scene between the male nurse and Wendy? I thought that scene was rather definitive in showing Wendy's quest into the thinking that showing appreciation to a small hobby is a door opening to immediate attraction. The film rebounds this scene with the final moment with the dog.What do you mean that it rebounds that scene? And how does showing appreciation for a "small hobby" (though clearly more than that for her) as the door opening to immediate attraction relate to the rest of the movie? I have to agree with the Slant guys about that scene reeking of self-aware apology, while simultaneously allowing an easy transition point for her character.

Qrazy

02-05-2008, 08:55 AM

Big Deal on Madonna Street was fantastic. In the Company of Men was very good too.

Sven

02-05-2008, 11:11 AM

Big Deal on Madonna Street was fantastic.

I love Mastroianni in this one.

Qrazy

02-05-2008, 11:34 AM

I love Mastroianni in this one.

Yeah he's priceless. I also love his turn in Divorce Italian Style, also hilarious.

dreamdead

02-05-2008, 02:21 PM

Huh. I actually liked Mutual Appreciation.

Yeah, it's pretty good. I feel this is where I pimp Aaron Katz's Quiet City, as it's a marvel of this subgenre. While it's indebted to archetypes of the guy-meets-girl-and-they-hang-out (a la Before Sunrise), Katz adds a visual grace and luminicence to the m-movement. It's quietly understated and typically inarticulate aurally, yet Katz captures some really fascinating ideas of how contemporary twentysomethings confess and articulate themselves privately; also, it has an interesting sub-discussion of gender within the film. The two women in the film are especially quietly full characters. Just marvelous filmmaking.

Katz's first film, Dance Party USA, is a bit more problematic because it feels too hermetic (a typical criticism of the m-movement) until the end, which utilizes a small-town carnival as a way to simultaneously strive for something more "universal" about communication while also opening up the world of the characters. It's interesting as an effort, and reveals glimpses of what Katz accomplishes in QC, but it's not really vital.

Meantime, Cassavetes's Opening Night. Holy sweet mother. What a wonder of filmmaking. Extended thoughts will follow in the coming day.

Raiders

02-05-2008, 02:24 PM

Meantime, Cassavetes's Opening Night. Holy sweet mother. What a wonder of filmmaking. Extended thoughts will follow in the coming day.

:pritch:

I think it's his best.

:: hasn't seen Love Streams ::

MacGuffin

02-05-2008, 02:28 PM

Yeah, it's pretty good. I feel this is where I pimp Aaron Katz's Quiet City, as it's a marvel of this subgenre. While it's indebted to archetypes of the guy-meets-girl-and-they-hang-out (a la Before Sunrise), Katz adds a visual grace and luminicence to the m-movement. It's quietly understated and typically inarticulate aurally, yet Katz captures some really fascinating ideas of how contemporary twentysomethings confess and articulate themselves privately; also, it has an interesting sub-discussion of gender within the film. The two women in the film are especially quietly full characters. Just marvelous filmmaking.

I'm looking forward to it hesitantly.

dreamdead

02-05-2008, 02:41 PM

I'm looking forward to it hesitantly.

Looking at your general tastes, this is probably the right approach. Since you don't have especially high interest in Ozu, a more visually based m-film might not be enough to satisfy the requirements that you seek in film. The male lead is almost the biggest problem in the film, as that emasculated male character seems to be a m-requirement. That said, you'll either enjoy it hesitatingly or abandon it as a film fraught without meaning.

Watashi

02-05-2008, 05:34 PM

What do you mean that it rebounds that scene? And how does showing appreciation for a "small hobby" (though clearly more than that for her) as the door opening to immediate attraction relate to the rest of the movie?

After yearning so much for a relationship before it's too late, she realizes she eventually has to set aside her girlhood fantasies and uses the grant for a good cause for something she cares deeply about (while her playwriting she enjoys, there are more important things that matter).

I have to agree with the Slant guys about that scene reeking of self-aware apology, while simultaneously allowing an easy transition point for her character.

Of course you do. I have to wonder, Row. Do you ever let yourself form your own opinions or let online bloggers do it for you?

Spinal

02-05-2008, 05:37 PM

I have to wonder, Row. Do you ever let yourself form your own opinions or let online bloggers do it for you?

There will be blood.

Watashi

02-05-2008, 05:40 PM

I will drink Rowland's milkshake.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 05:48 PM

Of course you do. I have to wonder, Row. Do you ever let yourself form your own opinions or let online bloggers do it for you?I read lots of film criticism, and I'm open to referencing them when they make a point I agree with. Hell, one of my favorite aspects of cinema is digging into all of the thoughtful responses by so many intelligent people after watching a movie. That's as much my hobby as watching the movies themselves. How I perceive what I watch doesn't exist in a self-contained bubble. I don't harbor any illusions of having "solved" every film I watch. Nevertheless, back to The Savages, I gave the movie **½, whereas Slant gave it one star, so your attempted inflammatory implication then that I lifted my response from them is specious. Schager simply hit the nail on the head with a few of his criticisms, as far as I'm concerned anyway.

Derek

02-05-2008, 06:00 PM

:pritch:

I think it's his best.

:: hasn't seen Love Streams ::

I agree with each line, even the depressing final one.

Rowland

02-05-2008, 07:26 PM

Hey those of you who saw We Own the Night, remember the car ambush in the rain setpiece (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADzFysTk_Hw&eurl=http://enchantedmitten.blogspot.com/) (don't watch if you haven't seen the movie, unless you don't mind spoilers)? Yeah, all of that rain was CGI. Now that's fucking impressive.

Stay Puft

02-05-2008, 08:20 PM

Rowland

02-05-2008, 08:28 PM

I thought it looked bad. Particularly some of the long shots.

Can I shrug? I feel I should shrug here.I never had an inkling that it was fake, so I'm impressed.

megladon8

02-05-2008, 08:28 PM

Was We Own the Night actually any good?

Eva Mendes' presence deterred me from seeing it.

Spinal

02-05-2008, 08:39 PM

Red Road (Arnold, 2006) - Compelling drama that smartly withholds details, placing viewer in the city eye center. Those foxes creeped me out.

Woo hoo!

Rowland

02-05-2008, 08:39 PM

Was We Own the Night actually any good?
I wasn't too impressed, but a lot of people who I respect liked it a great deal, and I'd concede that it has its share of admirable qualities, so I wouldn't dismiss it.

megladon8

02-05-2008, 08:44 PM

I wasn't too impressed, but a lot of people who I respect liked it a lot, and it has its share of admirable qualities, so I wouldn't dismiss it.

Hmm...I shall check it out at some point. And, surprise surprise, it comes to DVD next week.

I never saw James Gray's other film, The Yards, either (also stars Phoenix and Wahlberg).

Duncan

02-05-2008, 09:40 PM

Watched I Am Cuba. I'm a little bit shocked that I didn't like it. It seems exactly like my kind of film. Some of the most expressive cinematography I've ever seen. The politics are a bit comical (let's not make a symbol of anymore dead doves, deal?). I also don't like being told to look at an image I'm already looking at. I thought the vignette focusing on the prostitute worked best because you could at least somewhat separate it from explicitly political analysis and look at it from the perspective of gender oppression. Anyway, really disappointing. I thought this one had the potential to be up there with my favorite films.

Bosco B Thug

02-05-2008, 11:33 PM

So Robert Altman's The Company. Once it ended, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what the hell I just watched. I get the "documentary-like" exactitude and premeditated lack of any dramatic inflection... that the film is a steady look at the will, strength, discipline, and power in this certain "athletic art" in which the skill of the body and the art of expression are combined... but is it just me or is there something sinister or insiduous about the film? The Neve Campbell and James Franco characters totally creeped me out in their stoic convictions and single-minded preoccupations. They're non-characters. It was fascinating the non-developments the film chose to do with these two characters. The ending totally threw me for a loop because

I completely expected Campbell and/or Franco to do something completely abnormal or fucked up, but then it ends on a positive note with them.
Strange movie. But man, Altman is truly incomparable as a director. No one could have directed this movie and made it as good as it is. The dances go on forever, but that's more my problem than the film's, and most of the time though they're mesmerizing.

megladon8

02-06-2008, 12:04 AM

My mom finally gave into my dad's wanting her to watch the Bourne films, and I'm really glad that she's loving them.

She's been a confessed Bond hater for quite some time now - not that she hates the character or the typical formula, but is just sick of them, since they've been a staple of our household for so long. So she was weary to watch the Matt Damon films because she thought they were basically nu-Bond (plus, she was always under the impression that Matt Damon was a pretty-boy with no real talent).

But she loved the first one, then said the second one was even better than the first. She and my dad are watching the third right now, and it's awesome hearing her cheer for Bourne :)

trotchky

02-06-2008, 12:06 AM

So The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is pretty awesome! Like No Country for Old Men the last half-hour is by far the most interesting, as it toys with the audience's expectations and (in the case of Assassination) challenges them to reevaluate their perception of what came before. I like how the narrator eventually becomes just as exploitative as the rest of the people profiting from Jesse's death. Pretty nifty! Robert's reenactments, the banjo song, the film's last words, etc. etc. all pretty much drive home the point that we're just being complicit in the cycle of misunderstanding and dehumanization caused by celebrity. Consider Robert/Affleck's words, "I expected applause...", whose meaning extends beyond the context of the film into our own consumption and perceptions of entertainment (coming from an actor, obviously, makes it particularly potent). Overall a pretty sweet study on celebrity, media, and truth!

megladon8

02-06-2008, 12:08 AM

Really encouraging thoughts, TMGS.

It's one I would have liked to have seen in the theatre.

I know I've asked this to many posters many times, but have you seen Gone Baby Gone? Casey Affleck was just...wow...he was fantastic in that movie. But I hear he's even better in Jesse James.

trotchky

02-06-2008, 12:12 AM

I have not seen Gone Baby Gone yet but I am looking forward to it immensely! Affleck was, indeed, excellent in Assassination.

number8

02-06-2008, 01:41 AM

Rowland

02-06-2008, 01:49 AM

That's the only good part in the flick too.The drug lair setpiece was pretty cool too, both tense and shot with expressionistic flair. But yeah, most of the rest of the movie was turgid and somber in a manner that wasn't terribly appealing or interesting.

monolith94

02-06-2008, 02:09 AM

Duncan

02-06-2008, 02:38 AM

The only sequence of this film that didn't really work for me was the ending, with the family in the shack and the bombings and such. I'd love to see this on the big screen.

Yeah, it seems like the kind of film that would benefit from that. I could have seen it a couple years ago in New York, but passed. Kind of regret that.

Justin

02-06-2008, 03:31 AM

So I think I have decided that Hard Candy is going to be my choice for the "Gender and the Monstrous Female" topic in the american horror film class I am in. It just seemed like it may touch upon a couple of the points the professor wanted us to make and it would maybe interest some of the other students as well with the success of Juno.

number8

02-06-2008, 05:14 AM

The drug lair setpiece was pretty cool too, both tense and shot with expressionistic flair. But yeah, most of the rest of the movie was turgid and somber in a manner that wasn't terribly appealing or interesting.

I had to ask myself if they really had such hi-tech recording device in the 80s. They probably did, but it took me out of the film.

Grouchy

02-06-2008, 05:39 AM

Just finished The Brood about 20 minutes ago. Man, I'm floored. What a movie. What a movie. Sure, the make-up effects have aged a bit (or Cronenberg standards have improved) and the lead actor (Art Hingle) was as expressive as a toothpick, but it's just a scary fucking flick and the way it builds up the momentum until the excruciating final minutes is masterful. I love how Cronenberg never explains the set-up to the audience - he knows the score and we don't, and he doesn't care, so he makes sure we pay enough attention to finally figure out what's going on, but he never makes it explicit. For example, we only guess what psychoplasmics is all about by watching the therapy sessions and the results, while a lesser writer would've had Oliver Reed's character explain it in an exposition scene.

Justin, since I've just finished this incredible Horror that fits your "Gender and the Monstrous Female" requirements perfectly (except it's a Canadian film), I have to PLEASE ask you to choose something else instead of Hard Candy. That movie is a pile of bullshit with the most obvious, easy kind of shock value on display. It was made thinking of the controversy and the instant popularity. The Brood it is not.

Stay Puft

02-06-2008, 07:45 AM

Woo hoo!

Is there a Red Road Defense Force?

There's so much to say about it I don't know where to begin. A friend of mine plays this game wherein he picks out random people in public and begins weaving a narrative of their life story. That was the first thing I thought about while watching it. Jackie observes random people through her job as a CCTV operator, and we get to observe them through the camera (through multiple cameras at once, actually). We (or maybe I should stick to first person, I can't speak for other people's experiences) collect small details and begin making fiction, like with the overweight woman and the man through the window, and the slim woman outside. And then of course Jackie goes out into public, and details about her story emerge, which again invites fiction making - the relationship between camera and CCTV here blurs, taking Jackie out of her role as CCTV operator to force the viewer into an approximation (and this occurs explicitly in the final shot).

There are specific relationships and potentiality. Movies about specific people, places, and events. Jackie and Clyde and Red Road and an accident. By the end of the movie we have a degree of understanding. Jackie reveals the name of her husband and daughter, makes them specific for Clyde, for the audience, makes them real. It is a moment that 90 minutes of fiction making cannot prepare. Clyde backs away and says something like, "this happens every day to people." Potentiality, more fiction making. Red Road is also a movie about a fat woman, a thin woman, that specific building on that specific street, that one man who talks to both of them. That short relationship Jackie observes, those people she does not connect with, those people who are not real. Those two figures standing in the bus stop, which the camera lingers on. Both specific but unreal. Jackie and her daughter, Clyde and his daughter, and finally both characters disappearing into the distance of the frame, and some random guy and his daughter walking out of a shop.

There is a great scene in Nobody Knows (a loaded title, right there) when the kids are walking down a street, but they're off in the distance and at the bottom of the frame and barely noticeable. The frame is dominated by an apartment complex, and we can see lights on in various places, and people moving about. They are oblivious to the kids on the street. The kids are oblivious to the people in the apartments. The viewer is forced into an awareness of this absence of specific relationships. The viewer, however, has a privileged relationship with the specificity of the kids and their story (and it's based on a true story!). It becomes real, or maybe it starts to, but of course, finally, it simply isn't.

It's almost four in the morning and I have no idea where I'm going with any of this. Goodnight!

soitgoes...

02-06-2008, 08:11 AM

After having watched Salt for Svanetia by Mikhail Kalatozov, I have come to realize that he should be included in any discusion about the greatest Soviet directors. Sure I've seen only two of his works, but both are grand. In Salt for Svanetia Kalatozov takes basically the same documentary-style approach that Buñuel would take a few years later with Las Hurdes. He takes us to a remote, cut-off region of Geogia where people are still (in 1930) struggling to survive. They basically live as they have always have, oblivious to the outside world, scratching what little living that could be made from such a unforgiving environment. Enter a tragedy and then a full-on shift in the film. Hello Soviet-propaganda! Sure the film is basically a Soviet tool to toot the horn of the Great Communist Machine. Sure the documentary feels staged, as most documentaries of that time indeed were. But Kalatozov is able to give 15 great, and by great I mean :eek:-great, final minutes to a film that for all intents and purposes shouldn't.

How about that, two separate Kalatozov references on the same page.

Duncan

02-06-2008, 08:29 AM

How about that, two separate Kalatozov references on the same page.
I'm definitely interested in seeing more of his films. In fact, I'm coming to realize just how rich a cinematic history Russia has. Recently I've watched films by Eisenstein, Shepitko, Tarkovsky, Kalatozov, Dovzhenko, and Pudovkin. All had their merits. And that's still just scratching the surface. Lot's of stuff to explore.

Qrazy

02-06-2008, 08:40 AM

I'm definitely interested in seeing more of his films. In fact, I'm coming to realize just how rich a cinematic history Russia has. Recently I've watched films by Eisenstein, Shepitko, Tarkovsky, Kalatozov, Dovzhenko, and Pudovkin. All had their merits. And that's still just scratching the surface. Lot's of stuff to explore.

Check out Sokurov's The Second Circle. That's the best one I've seen from him.

Oh and you absolutely must see some Norstein if you haven't yet. Perhaps the greatest animator who ever lived.

Boner M

02-06-2008, 10:53 AM

Justin, since I've just finished this incredible Horror that fits your "Gender and the Monstrous Female" requirements perfectly (except it's a Canadian film), I have to PLEASE ask you to choose something else instead of Hard Candy. That movie is a pile of bullshit with the most obvious, easy kind of shock value on display. It was made thinking of the controversy and the instant popularity. The Brood it is not.
Yeah, I can't believe I didn't think of the Cronenberg when Justin asked for help. It's especially interesting when you consider that Cronenberg made the film in response to his divorce and custody battle. What a weirdo!

transmogrifier

02-06-2008, 01:34 PM

Tideland

A collection of fantastically grotesque, mesmerizing images strung together into a tuneless whirr of unambiguous lunacy. If only Gilliam had decided to use a plot that contained any gradient at all - normal to insane, insane to normal, claustrophobic to wide open, wide open to claustrophobic, light to dark, dark to light, pick your poison - the film may have been a psychofairytale worth telling. Instead, it stamps its feet on the same patch of ground for two hours, and you can't get the ringing out of your ears.

The New World

Uncomfortably straddles purely elliptical, impressionistic montage and a more traditional historical biopic, with nasty things like acts and set-pieces and things like that, and it's not surprise that it falls ride into a gloupy mess. You want the film to relax, let us breath in beauty of narrative momentum, it suddenly slices through four years in three edits. You want it to move on from a rather redundant scene of googly-eyes, it stretches it out and then cuts it together with five more minutes of the same googly eyed nonsense that doesn't even have the benefit of being poetic. I thought I was watching something special when the English boats first arrive, with the score coating everything with a mournful elegance (even though the editing is rather choppy), but the rest of the film struggles to catch hold of that feeling again. I actually think the score works against the film in the end, becoming somewhat repetitive and crutch-like, trying to glue the unusual treatment of screentime together. I think the film would have been much better served to have used no score whatsoever until the very final scene.

monolith94

02-06-2008, 01:53 PM

Salt for Svanetia sounds good. Kalatazov's The Red Tent is also very great.

Qrazy

02-06-2008, 02:45 PM

Smiles of a Summer Night - My god what a script. It puts 99.9 percent of all Hollywood farce to shame.

megladon8

02-06-2008, 04:10 PM

Smiles of a Summer Night - My god what a script. It puts 99.9 percent of all Hollywood farce to shame.

Yes, it's one of my favorites by Bergman.

Are you a fan of the man's work - have you seen much else?

I still think my favorite of his is Fanny & Alexander. Also adore The Seventh Seal.

lovejuice

02-06-2008, 04:24 PM

So Robert Altman's The Company.

i encourage you to check out ebert's review which, i think, hits home some of the finer and more subtle points. speaking as someone who has never been in a dance show professionally but has engaged in countless number of such productions, i think the company depicts very well the interplay between rehearsal and performance. kinda like gosford park which shows how a big dinner in a country house comes about. altman here does the same thing with ballet.

in contrast to other "performance" films in which a whole movies evolves around a single production, and we see the sweat and tear of people -- mostly amateur -- behind that production. the company shows the cold professionalism of real dancers and choreographers. they don't throw their life upon a single event. dancing, for them, is a job, is life. i find this depiction very refreshing and somehow more accurate.

Justin

02-06-2008, 04:46 PM

Justin, since I've just finished this incredible Horror that fits your "Gender and the Monstrous Female" requirements perfectly (except it's a Canadian film), I have to PLEASE ask you to choose something else instead of Hard Candy. That movie is a pile of bullshit with the most obvious, easy kind of shock value on display. It was made thinking of the controversy and the instant popularity. The Brood it is not.

I understand what you are talking about, but unfortunately I do have other group members I have to work with, none of which have ever heard of The Brood, so it is a lot harder to sell, plus we don't know if the professor would even allow it.

ledfloyd

02-06-2008, 05:37 PM

I absolutely loved The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I went in with modest expectations, expecting to find the film trying but enjoy Casey Affleck's performance. Not the case. So often I find long films in need of a better editor. There Will Be Blood is a recent case of this. With Jesse James I was absolutely enthralled from the beginning to the end. Never checking the time left in the film as I'm wont to do. I'm not quite sure I agree with TMGS about the ending being the best, that was the one part of the film I thought was flawed, though it does cause you to reexamine the film and the idea of celebrity. Deakins and Affleck are both extremely deserving of the Oscars they've been nominated for. Since it wasn't in many theaters hopefully alot of people discover this gem on DVD.

Rowland

02-06-2008, 06:50 PM

Michael Clayton; or, Why Do We Even Bother Trying to Communicate about Movies? (http://www.panix.com/~sallitt/blog/2008/02/michael-clayton-or-why-do-we-even.html)

Qrazy

02-06-2008, 07:28 PM

Yes, it's one of my favorites by Bergman.

Are you a fan of the man's work - have you seen much else?

I still think my favorite of his is Fanny & Alexander. Also adore The Seventh Seal.

I've seen a fair deal, but not as many as I would like.

I've seen:

# Viskningar och rop (1972)
... aka Cries and Whispers (USA)
# Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)
... aka The Seventh Seal (USA)
# Höstsonaten (1978)
... aka Autumn Sonata (USA)
# Fanny och Alexander (1982)
... aka Fanny and Alexander (USA)
# Persona (1966)
... aka Persona (USA)
# The Serpent's Egg (1977)
# Vargtimmen (1968)
... aka Hour of the Wolf (USA)
# Såsom i en spegel (1961)
... aka Through a Glass Darkly (USA)
# Sommarnattens leende (1955)
... aka Smiles of a Summer Night (USA)

I loathe Autumn Sonata and I don't hold Persona and Cries and Whispers nearly as highly as many people... the Serpent's Egg is pretty mediocre, but I love everything else I've seen.

Going to watch these next:

# Trollflöjten (1975) (TV) (uncredited)
... aka The Magic Flute (Europe: English title) (USA)
# Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973)
... aka Scenes from a Marriage (USA)
# Passion, En (1969)
... aka The Passion of Anna (USA)
# Skammen (1968)
... aka Shame (USA)
# Tystnaden (1963)
... aka The Silence (USA)
# Nattvardsgästerna (1962)
... aka Winter Light (USA)
# Jungfrukällan (1960)
... aka The Virgin Spring
# Smultronstället (1957)
... aka Wild Strawberries (UK) (USA)

Any others I should look out for in particular?

Grouchy

02-06-2008, 10:12 PM

I understand what you are talking about, but unfortunately I do have other group members I have to work with, none of which have ever heard of The Brood, so it is a lot harder to sell, plus we don't know if the professor would even allow it.
Jaysis.

What about The Hunger? I just hate Hard Candy. It's your work, but I can't allow this.

ledfloyd

02-06-2008, 10:45 PM

There was a great piece about Lubitsch's Musicals and the box set released by Eclipse on Fresh Air today.

link (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18743227)

Rowland

02-06-2008, 11:05 PM

Sven

02-06-2008, 11:28 PM

First impressions are nothing: After a mandated rewatch of Chaplin's The Circus, a film I found rather flat initially, I can say in good conscience that it is pleasant and remarkable and pretty damn funny. I love the bit with the mule that keeps chasing him.

And The Third Man, still awesome.

After just a few classes, I'm starting to side with Kael regarding film-oriented education. Maybe it's just that none of my teachers are particularly compelling, and one in particular is completely bonkers and awful, but I can feel them trying to recalibrate us, the student body, and our capacity as an audience into a mode of less abstracted spectatorship. In other words, they're turning the poetic, ethereal, and unspoken into coarse, broad applicability. I've tried on multiple occasions to introduce abstract ideas in discussion (during theory classes, no less), but have on all but a couple of times been brushed off or had my ideas transformed into something I didn't mean.

... Maybe they're just not ready for me.

megladon8

02-07-2008, 12:57 AM

The Western genre had a hell of a year in '07, with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (****), No Country For Old Men (***½), There Will Be Blood, Seraphim Falls, and 3:10 to Yuma (all ***). Sure, some of those aren't strictly oaters in the classical sense, but they still exude that western vibe to some degree. It's just too bad that the Musical genre didn't fare so well...

Awesome, man!

I'm so glad to read some positive thoughts towards Seraphim Falls. If I were on the 4 star scale, I'd probably give it *** as well.

It wasn't The Proposition by any means, but it was a solid entry into the genre, and the two lead performances were fantastic.

Plus, the horse scene alone is worthy of a positive rating :P

MadMan

02-07-2008, 02:13 AM

The Western genre had a hell of a year in '07, with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (****), No Country For Old Men (***½), There Will Be Blood, Seraphim Falls, and 3:10 to Yuma (all ***). Sure, some of those aren't strictly oaters in the classical sense, but they still exude that western vibe to some degree. It's just too bad that the Musical genre didn't fare so well...I will eventually see all of those films you listed. The western is my favorite genre of all time. The musical....eh, not so much ;)

And The Third Man, still awesome.Yes, yes it is. Thanks to TCM I got to rewatch it last year and the brilliance still echoed throughout. I'm still not sure which Orson Welles performance is better: Harry Lime or Hank Quinlan. I'd say that the latter performance is more complex though.

... Maybe they're just not ready for me.Dude, this is site is still not ready for you :P Never change iosos....never change.

Yxklyx

02-07-2008, 02:23 AM

Zsa Zsa Gabor is 91 today.

dreamdead

02-07-2008, 02:38 AM

The New World

[...] I actually think the score works against the film in the end, becoming somewhat repetitive and crutch-like, trying to glue the unusual treatment of screentime together. I think the film would have been much better served to have used no score whatsoever until the very final scene.

I can't really articulate my admiration for the film except in visceral tones that stress how calming of an experience Malick's film is (and rely on the rhetoric of appreciating the collapsing of the ethereal reimagining into an ostensible bio-pic), so I'll note instead that this last point is indeed interesting. Of course, where you say crutch-like I say elliptical, but even I'll note that the last sequence, with Smith revisiting her in England, is the masterstroke and I'd be interested in how much more affecting that section would be if the Wagner score hadn't already appeared several times.

So... my thoughts on Cassavetes' Opening Night are largely framed around the film's expert study of dependency in its myriad forms as a mechanism to sublimate Myrtle Gordon's existential fears about mortality and meaning. The dead girl's first reappearance is shocking, and in each repetition Cassavetes reveals more and more about Gordon's psychoses. Yet most fascinating are the meta-layers behind the film, wherein half of the lines between Cassavetes and Rowlands exist and reference both their personal as well as actorly lives. It's a particularly memorable conflation, collapsing the two together, and it yields wonders. Even the scenes on the stage, because of the involvement with the audience's reactions , somehow gain a special aura. That ending, wherein she shines through despite a near-total collapse from her alcoholism, is breathtaking. Even as that scene is played for laughs (and does this suggest Gordon and Cassavetes' Maurice improving off the play's "script" or is this read as how the play actually ends) have a certain magic to them.

Wryan

02-07-2008, 03:08 AM

http://img5.allocine.fr/acmedia/medias/nmedia/18/64/18/51/18758369.jpg

Mononoke-hime is a terrific film that, for the Miyazaki initiate, serves to echo later visual flourishes found in Spirited Away among his other works. The environmental messages are a bit thuddingly obvious but thankfully they are not too emphatic or facile. I understand the desire and appreciate the execution in giving the cast of characters well-rounded traits (good guys who aren't wholly good and bad guys who aren't wholly bad), but honestly: Lady Eboshi ain't a Mother Theresa for God's sake. She's willingly destroying nature for dominance and for profit. I don't care how many whores she's employing. The film's insistence that she's a near-beatific, queenly Matron grated me given my predilections for siding with most things nature over most things technological. Loved the animal gods (wish the apes had a bigger part). The Hollywood voice acting is pretty darn handy for the most part, though Billy Bob sticks out badly. Stunning action and visual felicity complement each other throughout. Definitely a triumph all things considered.

Eleven

02-07-2008, 03:09 AM

Next in the prep for the Hill consensus was The Driver, another chance to watch one of the most gorgeous women in cinema history, Isabelle Adjani.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8610/adjanihq9.jpg

Oh, and the car action sequences were cool, I guess, but they tended to distract from the overall Adjaniness.

Sven

02-07-2008, 03:13 AM

I like that more people are seeing The Driver.

On the topic of Adjani, have you seen her in The Story of Adele H?

Raiders

02-07-2008, 03:19 AM

I understand the desire and appreciate the execution in giving the cast of characters well-rounded traits (good guys who aren't wholly good and bad guys who aren't wholly bad), but honestly: Lady Eboshi ain't a Mother Theresa for God's sake. She's willingly destroying nature for dominance and for profit. I don't care how many whores she's employing. The film's insistence that she's a near-beatific, queenly Matron grated me given my predilections for siding with most things nature over most things technological.

You seem to answer your own complaint. She's not a saint. Her work is directly throwing off the balance of nature. That doesn't mean she has to be mean and uncaring towards humans as well. Miyazaki's point isn't against the person but the act itself. His film is against ignorance, as our hero proves, he starts out ignorant of the spirits and fragility of nature and along the way he learns what it means to appreciate the vicarious balance we have and how one push either way can bring down the peace of our existence.

Eleven

02-07-2008, 03:21 AM

On the topic of Adjani, have you seen her in The Story of Adele H?

It's been a few years, and I remember not being a huge fan of the film, but she's pretty terrific. I think it admirably captures the character's intense and emotional subjectivity without making her seem only childish or delusional, but also nobly romantic and sadly passionate, and just everything. Adjani really had a tough job in fleshing out the character on screen, and for a performer of any age, let alone a 20-year-old, she does marvelously.

Sven

02-07-2008, 03:22 AM

It's been a few years, and I remember not being a huge fan of the film, but she's pretty terrific. I think it admirably captures the character's intense and emotional subjectivity without making her seem only childish or delusional, but also nobly romantic and sadly passionate, and just everything. Adjani really had a tough job in fleshing out the character on screen, and for a performer of any age, let alone a 20-year-old, she does marvelously.

Pretty much what I was going to say.

Wryan

02-07-2008, 03:22 AM

You seem to answer your own complaint. She's not a saint. Her work is directly throwing off the balance of nature. That doesn't mean she has to be mean and uncaring towards humans as well. Miyazaki's point isn't against the person but the act itself. His film is against ignorance, as our hero proves, he starts out ignorant of the spirits and fragility of nature and along the way he learns what it means to appreciate the vicarious balance we have and how one push either way can bring down the peace of our existence.

I don't require her to be a mustache-twirler. But I did feel that he went a bit too far in the other direction in giving us so many reasons to dub her "Reverend Mother." Her short speech at the end about rebuilding Iron Town "better" felt very suspect to me and I didn't feel she earned it as a character.

Raiders

02-07-2008, 03:28 AM

Her short speech at the end about rebuilding Iron Town "better" felt very suspect to me and I didn't feel she earned it as a character.

I dunno. She's essentially going "green," right? When faced with the fragility of nature, or the threat of a sudden change (like global warming), big business will always change, even if only for PR reasons. People like global, Earth-based interests. "Giving back" to Mother Nature, so to speak.

Wryan

02-07-2008, 03:33 AM

I dunno. She's essentially going "green," right? When faced with the fragility of nature, or the threat of a sudden change (like global warming), big business will always change, even if only for PR reasons. People like global, Earth-based interests. "Giving back" to Mother Nature, so to speak.

Are you suggesting she was disingenuous in her speech? I heard a very genuine patter, told many times before: "I see the destruction my wanton ways have caused. Tomorrow will be a new day. We will rebuild [BLANK] better and stronger than before! This time, though, it won't have the strident pro-technology platform at its heart." Et cetera. That's what I felt was suspect. I think the film wanted us to believe she had a genuine change of heart and I just couldn't buy it.

Eleven

02-07-2008, 03:33 AM

And I'm being more than a little tongue-in-cheek about the Adjaniness of The Driver. Her performance doesn't even register as much as Blakely's, let alone Dern's and O'Neal's, but my crush is hard to ignore.

Speaking of, those two guys need reevaluations ASAP as some of the most interesting actors of the era. Yeah, O'Neal had Love Story, but he's effective in the wide range from What's Up Doc? and Paper Moon to (especially) Barry Lyndon and The Driver. He had more than pretty boy looks going on, or at least used them more effectively than others of that ilk. And Dern, I think, has a solid cult following, but he's so damn watchable in everything. Not to mention that he has my eternal gratitude for begetting the gaping, actorly maw of Laura D.

Bosco B Thug

02-07-2008, 04:06 AM

i encourage you to check out ebert's review which, i think, hits home some of the finer and more subtle points. It's a good review, especially when pinpointing the efficiency of the characters' lives, but I don't find much resonance in the "Altman = Mr. A" theme.

It's a speaking as someone who has never been in a dance show professionally but has engaged in countless number of such productions, i think the company depicts very well the interplay between rehearsal and performance. kinda like gosford park which shows how a big dinner in a country house comes about. altman here does the same thing with ballet.

in contrast to other "performance" films in which a whole movies evolves around a single production, and we see the sweat and tear of people -- mostly amateur -- behind that production. the company shows the cold professionalism of real dancers and choreographers. they don't throw their life upon a single event. dancing, for them, is a job, is life. i find this depiction very refreshing and somehow more accurate. Yeah, "cold professionalism" seems the right vibe. Campbell's character is so self-contained and self-adjusted it's... I dunno. I'm still trying to grapple with that unsettled feeling the film gave me by the end. There's so much this film can be saying about this array of dancers and then inversely so much it can say about the viewer from how he/she reacts to it. Uh-oh. :P Going further would get messy. But the James Franco character... might just be the most insidiously enigmatic, frightening characters I've ever confronted. When Campbell is preparing to cook breakfast for him and he's like, "Ehhhh, let me do it," and he starts cutting and sauteeing vegetables while the camera lingers, all I could think is "HOLY *(&^$@ WTF is this guy up to!?!?!

EDIT: Across the Universe is sadly inert, both dramatically and in its musical numbers, until it finally gets interesting when Lucy and Jude's relationship gets rocky. The musical numbers were very disappointing... the "bowling alley" dance number should've been great, but it's curt and off-handed instead of organic - if it was extended and led to some emotional conclusion, it wouldn't just be redundant visual gimmickry. Unfortunately, the trend continues and the film never quite grows out of its zeitgeist-capturing conceit.

MacGuffin

02-07-2008, 04:40 AM

100 point scale it is then.

Philosophe_rouge

02-07-2008, 04:49 AM

Man the Set-Up (1949) was much better than I ever could have imagined. It's a risky film, as it's not only more or less in real time but nearly half of the entire narrative is a boxing match. Still tensions run very high, and the ambiance is incredible. Robert Ryan is as good as he always is, and it adds to the poignancy that he did his own fighting. It's really an incredible little film. I adore film noir <3

Spinal

02-07-2008, 04:58 AM

Adjani has no equal in terms of beauty. And she's also one of the most skilled. Queen Margot is probably my favorite.

Qrazy

02-07-2008, 06:28 AM

Grouchy

02-07-2008, 08:49 AM

Just finished Species, which is like the Hollywood version of Alien. Seriously, it's an example of great studio filmmaking, ain't it - eat up the work of a visionary artist (Giger), take a great cast and a lot of dollars, write a serviceable but cool script which often makes fun of itself, and you got a solid action/sci-fi film. Plus you got a naked supermodel woman on screen. And I don't mean it as a criticism, I liked it a lot. Madsen rocked the world. I just wish the special effects at the end were a little better, since they remained cool beans through the whole thing. And Justin, here's another candidate for your paper.

By the way, I just sent Madsen an e-mail because on his website (http://www.michaelmadsen.com/) there's a feature where he does one-line reviews of all his films and classifies them in Good, Bad and the Unwatchable. Great, but there's no link for Kill Bill or Sin City to be seen. Let's see how that turns out.

Boner M

02-07-2008, 10:32 AM

Adjani ca. the mid/late-70's is my dream woman. Possession also opened my eyes to what an astonishing actress she can be. Should check out Queen Margot sometime; I've also been meaning to see some Chereau.

WEAKENED VIEWINGS:

A Nos Amours
The Seventh Continent
Hard Times (Walter Hill)
There Will Be Blood
Peter Ibbetson

Yxklyx

02-07-2008, 10:40 AM

...
WEAKENED VIEWINGS:

...
Peter Ibbetson

Would be interested to read your thought on this.

Weekend:

Monsieur Hire
The Little Mermaid

Boner M

02-07-2008, 11:18 AM

I want there to be a Final Destination film every year for the rest of my life.

Grouchy

02-07-2008, 12:10 PM

You guys wanna do some serious Adjani drooling, try The Tenant. That's where it's at.

Kurosawa Fan

02-07-2008, 12:44 PM

I want there to be a Final Destination film every year for the rest of my life.

That's two of us. The third one was great. Can't wait for the next installment. I can't for the life of me figure out how it takes 3 years to make each one, but the end result is worth it, so I won't complain.

Ezee E

02-07-2008, 12:48 PM

Weekend:
Across the Universe
Tresspass
Legend

Eleven

02-07-2008, 12:51 PM

Adjani has no equal in terms of beauty. And she's also one of the most skilled.

Yes.

You guys wanna do some serious Adjani drooling, try The Tenant. That's where it's at.

Yes.

Queen Margot is probably my favorite.

Will be looking out for it.

dreamdead

02-07-2008, 12:56 PM

Weekend:

Charulata
Faces

Maybe:

Little Miss Sunshine (we'll see; some friends have wanted to see it and I'll watch it gamely if it happens this weekend)

Sycophant

02-07-2008, 03:47 PM

Weekend:

Wild Strawberries
The Savages
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
48 Hrs.
Cloverfield

Rowland

02-07-2008, 03:52 PM

Just finished Species, which is like the Hollywood version of Alien. Seriously, it's an example of great studio filmmaking, ain't it - eat up the work of a visionary artist (Giger), take a great cast and a lot of dollars, write a serviceable but cool script which often makes fun of itself, and you got a solid action/sci-fi film. Plus you got a naked supermodel woman on screen. And I don't mean it as a criticism, I liked it a lot. Madsen rocked the world. I just wish the special effects at the end were a little better, since they remained cool beans through the whole thing. And Justin, here's another candidate for your paper.I was disappointed with this, given its reputation as something of a modern b-movie cult classic, but it's really just pretty mediocre. I could write a thesis on all of the implausibilities and inconsistencies in the script, which only serve to waste the concept's potential. And yeah, the special effects are so poor that they render the climax wholly ineffective. Giger's design for the alien sucks too.

Rowland

02-07-2008, 03:56 PM

I want there to be a Final Destination film every year for the rest of my life.I felt the concept was tired by this stage in the series. By the time the third act rolled around, I was growing bored. The second movie is pretty fun though, despite all of the obnoxious "we have to unravel this mystery!" exposition.

Gonzalez's review (http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=2045) for FD3 is an amusingly scathing take on the movie. He was seriously offended by it.

Rowland

02-07-2008, 04:10 PM

Another weekend viewings? I swear, these are beginning to depress me. It feels like we have one every other day, which serves to remind me of how fucking fast time moves. Jeez, I'm only 22 and I'm talking like I'm in my mid-forties.

Anyway:

The Duelists
Descent
The Lives of Others
Probably something I don't know about yet.

Raiders

02-07-2008, 04:38 PM

This weekend I should finally actually watch another film (it's been like two weeks):

The Driver
Undisputed
Popeye

Spinal

02-07-2008, 04:40 PM

I am on about a two week drought as well. Don't want to jinx anything, but the Portland Film Festival starts this weekend, so hopefully, I'll see at least something.

Benny Profane

02-07-2008, 04:49 PM

Weekend:

Seeing a film at TalkCinema, don't know what.

And one of either:

King of Kong
Wag the Dog

ledfloyd

02-07-2008, 04:57 PM

my weekend:
Brief Encounter
Sunrise
Life of Brian

Sleuth and The Nightmare Before Christmas are possibilities.

soitgoes...

02-07-2008, 06:23 PM

Weekend:
People on Sunday
Three Songs About Lenin
Life of Brian

Perhaps Alexandra in Portland on Friday, but more likely I won't get to the festival until the middle of next week.

Also, when did the renaming of the site after me happen?

Boner M

02-07-2008, 06:43 PM

I felt the concept was tired by this stage in the series. By the time the third act rolled around, I was growing bored. The second movie is pretty fun though, despite all of the obnoxious "we have to unravel this mystery!" exposition.

Gonzalez's review (http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=2045) for FD3 is an amusingly scathing take on the movie. He was seriously offended by it.
Gonzalez's review is pretty much his usual hodgepodge of half-baked charges of homophobia and vague, Armond-aping appraisals of 'pop excitement'. I fail to see how stuff like the matchcut of tanning beds and coffins is less tactful than seeing a kid explode at the family BBQ and having his head fly into his mother's dinner plate, or how Gonzalez can find FD2's glass-plate-falling-on-precocious-child set piece the 'funniest he's seen in years', but be so offended by everything in 3 (granted, my DVD started skipping during the 9/11 bit...). I wish he'd stop being so self-righteous about his arbitrary aesthetics.

I just like the series in the same way that I liked playing Mousetrap by myself as a kid. Admittedly, there's nothing in this installment that's as ingenius as FD2's young hero having premonition that features a biker chick flashing her boobs, but the slapstick death is still as giddily absurd.

D_Davis

02-07-2008, 07:04 PM

I am on about a two week drought as well. Don't want to jinx anything, but the Portland Film Festival starts this weekend, so hopefully, I'll see at least something.

I'll be in Portland this weekend, doing some massive book shopping at Powells.

Winston*

02-07-2008, 07:16 PM

Ooo, I haven't seen a movie in two weeks either. We should call ourselves The Awesome Club.

Might see No Country for Old Men this weekend.

Rowland

02-07-2008, 07:37 PM

Gonzalez's review is pretty much his usual hodgepodge of half-baked charges of homophobia and vague, Armond-aping appraisals of 'pop excitement'. I fail to see how stuff like the matchcut of tanning beds and coffins is less tactful than seeing a kid explode at the family BBQ and having his head fly into his mother's dinner plate, or how Gonzalez can find FD2's glass-plate-falling-on-precocious-child set piece the 'funniest he's seen in years', but be so offended by everything in 3 (granted, my DVD started skipping during the 9/11 bit...). I wish he'd stop being so self-righteous about his arbitrary aesthetics.Yeah, he does overdo his charges in the review, but I have to admit that even I thought the tanning bed scene went too far, more so for how unpleasantly brutal and protracted their deaths were, which made it just come across as leering sadism. Otherwise, the mousetraps here weren't as elaborate and funny as the previous movie, the sense of "anything could be a threat" not as omnipresent, and the ending just cheated in a really lame way. There is an attempted mix of brutality, humor, and pathos here that I don't feel Wong really pulls off, so even if I wouldn't go neeaarly as far as Gonzalez in contrasting the tone in the movies, I did find the second movie more purely enjoyable.

The drive-thru sequence was pretty cool though.

MadMan

02-07-2008, 07:46 PM

Weekend Viewings (aka me watching as much of TCm's 31 Days of Oscar as possible):

Lolita(1962)
Easy Rider(1969)
War Games(1983)

And work + school + need for sleep will prevent me from seeing more, sadly.

Stay Puft

02-07-2008, 08:08 PM

Weekend:

Getting serious about catching up on 2007 releases, before the Match Cut awards deadline. And what's with the movie droughts lately? Last month I went on a three week drought myself. Which means my backlog got bigger and now I cannot possibly catch up on all the 2007 releases I had planned.

From last weekend I still have:
Once
Taste of Tea
Tears of the Black Tiger
Time

New for this weekend I have:
12:08 East of Bucharest
After the Wedding
Offside
Paprika
Wind That Shakes the Barley

And I know I still won't watch all of those. I might also see Exiled tomorrow. I don't know. I watched 3:10 to Yuma and Red Road last weekend, but didn't get past there because I got a chance to see both There Will Be Blood and Lust, Caution. Stuff comes up and plans change. And I still have movies like The Lives of Others and Black Book lying around. Oh well, I'll watch what I can.

Ivan Drago

02-07-2008, 08:11 PM

Weekend:

Either Cloverfield or There Will Be Blood (2nd)

Bosco B Thug

02-07-2008, 08:15 PM

You guys wanna do some serious Adjani drooling, try The Tenant. That's where it's at. Ah, so I have seen an Adjani movie! It was like, 4+ years ago, but I still remember the movie theater scene and thinking, "Polanski you naughty, lucky lucky dog you!" I also remember the "twist," but other than that, nothing else. Should revisit.

Weekend certainties (hopefully): Enchanted, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Watashi

02-07-2008, 10:26 PM

Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz to shoot steamy lesbian scene for Woody Allen (http://www.cinematical.com/2008/02/07/scarlett-johansson-and-penelope-cruz-shoot-steamy-lesbian-scene/1#c10330256)

It is also extremely erotic. People will be blown away and even shocked. Penelope and Scarlett go at it in a red-tinted photography dark room, and it will leave the audience gasping.

This film will be beat Titanic's BO record.

Rowland

02-07-2008, 10:27 PM

So... do Aaron Katz's movies reflect the common tone of this so-called "mumblecore" movement? If so, I'm surprised that nobody labels In Between Days mumblecore, because Katz's work reminds me of that movie a great deal.

Rowland

02-07-2008, 10:29 PM

Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz to shoot steamy lesbian scene for Woody Allen (http://www.cinematical.com/2008/02/07/scarlett-johansson-and-penelope-cruz-shoot-steamy-lesbian-scene/1#c10330256)I'm more interested in Woody's next movie after this one, which is set to mark his return to NYC and is rumored to star Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood.

Watashi

02-07-2008, 10:32 PM

I'm more interested in Woody's next movie after this one, which is set to mark his return to NYC and is rumored to star Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood.
You're more interested in a Larry David sex scene with Evan Rachel Wood?

What the hell is wrong with you?

Rowland

02-07-2008, 10:34 PM

You're more interested in a Larry David sex scene with Evan Rachel Wood?

What the hell is wrong with you?I'm kinky.

BirdsAteMyFace

02-07-2008, 10:38 PM

Yeah, I've been on quite a drought, too.

Weekend hopefuls, take two:
The Taste of Tea
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
There Will Be Blood
I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay

Russ

02-07-2008, 11:05 PM

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
If this isn't the best thing Miike's ever done, it's pretty damn close.

Rowland

02-07-2008, 11:19 PM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol:

Barty

02-07-2008, 11:26 PM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol:

Watts looks almost exactly like Tippi Hedren. Pretty good stuff.

koji

02-07-2008, 11:30 PM

Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz to shoot steamy lesbian scene for Woody Allen (http://www.cinematical.com/2008/02/07/scarlett-johansson-and-penelope-cruz-shoot-steamy-lesbian-scene/1#c10330256)

This film will be beat Titanic's BO record.Well, we shouldn't let our hopes get too high: the basis for this tidbit is what a "source" told the NY Post Page Six. A Page Six "source" could be anyone, like the guy who sells coffee in their building. But, even a broken clock is right twice a day so maybe...

Grouchy

02-07-2008, 11:39 PM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol:
The sad part is that they're all awesome except Vertigo. I love the Rear Window one with Bardem, they recreated Jeff's apartment perfectly.

Boner M

02-08-2008, 12:24 AM

Sven

02-08-2008, 12:37 AM

Hmm... does this mean he's dying?

It does sound an awful lot like heaven, doesn't it?

[/easy]

Spinal

02-08-2008, 01:17 AM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol:

Oh man, I totally want to see that version of Rebecca.

number8

02-08-2008, 01:46 AM

As I scrolled down the page, I half-expected to see Lifeboat with the cast of LOST. Alas...

MadMan

02-08-2008, 02:24 AM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol:Those are really awesome. I love that idea. And if they ever remake Lifeboat they should use that cast (I must admit I haven't seen the film but still). My favorite one was the Rear Window one. That would be a great pairing for a remake, even though its pretty much already been remade loosely-Disturbia-which I actually sort of want to see.

Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz to shoot steamy lesbian scene for Woody Allen (http://www.cinematical.com/2008/02/07/scarlett-johansson-and-penelope-cruz-shoot-steamy-lesbian-scene/1#c10330256)

This film will be beat Titanic's BO record.Will I see it? Yes. I know I'm not the only one.

As I scrolled down the page, I half-expected to see Lifeboat with the cast of LOST. Alas...As cool as that would be I think the folks they used instead are better. *Shrug*

origami_mustache

02-08-2008, 05:55 AM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol:

haha yes, North By Northwest is pretty funny.

Sycophant

02-08-2008, 07:20 AM

Um... I don't know what this says about me, but the idea of Woody Allen directing Larry David in a possibly starring role probably has me more thrilled than the whole Johansson/Cruz thing.

MadMan

02-08-2008, 07:41 AM

So yeah Lolita(1962) was pretty damn good and Easy Rider was great, plain and simple. Hopefully I'll have more thoughts than that, but for now I'm digesting both films-especially the latter. I think each deserve more than just a small blurb, which is what I usually give to most films.

Boner M

02-08-2008, 01:12 PM

A nos amours was just... wow. Might write some more on it in my DVD log/review thread, but for now I can't add much more to Nick Pinkerton's outstanding dissection (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/a_nos_amours). This paragraph rings especially true, and I thought I'd quote it cos it's so good:

Re-watching it gives the frustrating awareness of how comparatively petty many of the experiences I have—and have had—with movies are, how a diet of mediocrity accustoms me to betraying a natural expectation that art can expand its frame into the world I'm living in; the sad truth is that most films evaporate the moment we emerge from the theater, vanquished by the more engaging muddle of life. We step outside, look at each other, ask each other if we liked it, and file it away with a trite tag of opinion attached. “So-and-so? Yeah, I saw it, not bad; nicely shot.” À nos amours is something you have to live with; I fear this film because I am incapable of passively watching it: it penetrates me, impresses itself upon my existence, sends me into paroxysms, flays me raw, makes me want to walk 20 miles, firebomb whatever relationship I’m in at the moment, scream at a stranger—and this isn’t a case of trite critical overstatement (“Firewall will leave you afraid to use a computer ever again!”). Pialat’s film has endurance-test passages of tooth-gnashing shrillness, performances that are hate-stiffened almost into mortis (notably Evelyn Ker’s matriarch), but I wouldn’t begin to know how you could suggest that it might be any better, or any worse.

Now there's a set of criteria for measuring a film's value that I can get down with.

Raiders

02-08-2008, 01:20 PM

I really need to see a film by Pialat. But, for the French, I think I want to tackle Denis first.

Ezee E

02-08-2008, 02:06 PM

Those Vanity Fair homages are always awesome. Last year's "Film Noir" was even better then the "Hitchcock" one they did this year. I liked the Rear Window one the most.

Cruz + Johannson = 3000 theaters for a Woody Allen movie.

Unless it gets cut. Then, 30. Maybe.

Rowland

02-08-2008, 04:10 PM

DavidSeven

02-08-2008, 04:45 PM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol:

Zellweger as Kim Novak... make it stop. The rest are great.

Sven

02-08-2008, 05:00 PM

I purchased the Film Freak Central 2007 Annual, which I received today and have been reading for the last hour and change. There are assorted reviews in the book that weren't published on the site, including:

The Abandoned (***½) !! I thought I was alone in appreciating this.
The Omen remake (**½) ??
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (***½) ??!!
Night at the Museum (Zero)
Curious George (***)
Silent Hill (***½)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (****) !! Of course, his only minor criticism is that the movie isn't nihilistic enough. That's Walter the cynic for you.

And others...

Neil LaBute's foreward is pretty funny too, indirectly taking them down a peg.

I would like to read their review on Night at the Museum. I quite liked it, much to my complete surprise, and while I can comprehend a negative response to it, a zero star rating seems a bit much. But I don't much care for FFC's agenda anyway, so it comes as no surprise.

Sycophant

02-08-2008, 05:02 PM

Rowland

02-08-2008, 05:05 PM

I would like to read their review on Night at the Museum. I quite liked it, much to my complete surprise, and while I can comprehend a negative response to it, a zero star rating seems a bit much. But I don't much care for FFC's agenda anyway, so it comes as no surprise.I haven't read the review, since I haven't seen the movie, but the first line tells me that Chaw thinks you're stupider than a chimp for liking it. :)

MadMan

02-08-2008, 05:07 PM

I purchased the Film Freak Central 2007 Annual, which I received today and have been reading for the last hour and change. There are assorted reviews in the book that weren't published on the site, including:

The Abandoned (***½) !! I thought I was alone in appreciating this.
The Omen remake (**½) ??
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (***½) ??!!
Night at the Museum (Zero)
Curious George (***)
Silent Hill (***½)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (****) !! Of course, his only minor criticism is that the movie isn't nihilistic enough. That's Walter the cynic for you.

And others...

Neil LaBute's foreward is pretty funny too, indirectly taking them down a peg.Are they referring to the 2006 film Night At the Museum? Because if they are then yeah that film sucks, but not enough to warrant a zero out of **** rating though. ***.5 for TCM the Beginning is just utter freakin' madness though. I actually still want to see The Omen remake and Curious George, and I might still give Silent Hill a chance. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is a film I want to check out simply because of the responses its gotten around here.

Sven

02-08-2008, 07:00 PM

Thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and finally watch I am Cuba (next week, my school's student film society is watching Siberian Mammoth, so I thought I'd get in the loop).

Real good. Duncan, I, too, am quite shocked at your negative impression. Beyond the finale's excessive didacticism (where the characters are marching and singing and waving the Cuban flag all perestroika like), I agree with dreamdead when he suggests that the film remains more humanistic than overly political. Each vignette is shaded with complex hues of humanist impulse (the guy that plays the old sugarcane farmer is tremendous), like familial love, guilt, sexual coercion, romance, and rage. The shot where Enrique is trying to tell his revolution mates about the headline is a perfect example of galvanizing an ideology through a fundamental human impulse.

And talk about the camera-work! Oh, boy! It's always great to find surprises like this (the last time I felt so thrilled was with Welles's Othello). I do have to say, though, that the shot that goes from the top of the roof into the pool is totally overrated, particularly when compared to 80% of the rest of the film. It's too transparent and communicates so very little next to, say, the shot where the American is leaving Betty's slum and the children are heckling him as he loses his way--the camera pivots on a certain beam, tilts, and is then elevated into the sky, moving past the high-rising wires as they stream across the frame. Or the shot where the old man sets his shack on fire, leads his horse away, raises his machete to kill it, then is stopped by the sun.

My favorite setpiece is probably the instance where the young would-be assassin is haunted by the street musician's song. I love it when art connects cultural expression with moral inclination. In this case, the song, after being suppressed into the killer's subconscious, reemerges when the killer gives pause after seeing that his target is breakfasting with his family. The morality's origin is the human body, which then is reminded about what has been spurned or forgotten. In that way, it's a good illustration of the film's approach to communist ideology as a whole--that it begins with the human, which then responds to community. I much prefer this film to The Battle of Algiers, which I was reminded of several times throughout, for just this reason: that film feels divorced from the individual. Rather, it's interest is in collective response, whereas I am Cuba begins with the individual and ends with the crowd. In I am Cuba, the ideology's foundation is me, not us. I dig it.

NickGlass

02-08-2008, 07:38 PM

Zellweger as Kim Novak... make it stop. The rest are great.

Yeah, that one does not work. Zellweger looks more like Brigitte Nielsen than anyone.

NickGlass

02-08-2008, 07:39 PM

IQuiet City (Aaron Katz, 2007) ***½
Dance Party, USA (Aaron Katz, 2006) ***

Yeah, I really need to see these.

Rowland

02-08-2008, 08:22 PM

Kim Morgan, Dennis Cozzalio, Nick Davis, and other bloggers veer an Oscar discussion panel into all-out war over the merits of Juno. (http://www.thefilmexperience.net/Awards/2007/oscar_symposium4.html) A great read.

Raiders

02-08-2008, 08:31 PM

Did we do a "Rowland linking a blog/critic" in the drinking game? If so, everyone here should have a BAC of about 5.

Rowland

02-08-2008, 08:37 PM

Did we do a "Rowland linking a blog/critic" in the drinking game? If so, everyone here should have a BAC of about 5.That last link was comprised of seven bloggers, so that should be seven shots. ;)

Philosophe_rouge

02-08-2008, 08:37 PM

Watched a pretty shoddy copy of Ride the Pink Horse, despite the rather muddy visual quality the film is good. It's very dark, and follows one of my favourite noir storylines (at least partially) of a desperate/dying man's action and reaction to the world around him. I especially liked Wanda Hendrix who was all kinds of adorable.

Derek

02-08-2008, 08:47 PM

That last link was comprised of seven bloggers, so that should be seven shots. ;)

I honestly think you should start a thread for links to good blog articles/reviews. Not because they don't belong in the FDT, but they get lost too quickly in this thread. It'd be nice to have one thread dedicated to providing us with good reading material...and obviously anyone could post links.

Boner M

02-08-2008, 09:23 PM

MadMan

02-08-2008, 09:41 PM

I honestly think you should start a thread for links to good blog articles/reviews. Not because they don't belong in the FDT, but they get lost too quickly in this thread. It'd be nice to have one thread dedicated to providing us with good reading material...and obviously anyone could post links.That would be a really sweet idea.

Did we do a "Rowland linking a blog/critic" in the drinking game? If so, everyone here should have a BAC of about 5.:lol: Pretty much. Although I have yet to play that game. I'm stuck in a sober streak at the moment, mainly due to lack of funds.

Bosco B Thug

02-08-2008, 09:59 PM

Modern celebs posing in recreations of classic Hitchcock movies. (http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/22491/celeb-honour-hitchcock/#more-22491)

Rogen... :lol: Wow, those are fantastic. Almost makes me wish we had more wasteful and frivolous movies like Van Sant's Psycho... but yeah, I know, there's acute pay-off here unlike with Psycho because, wow, these are achingly glamorous (and wasteful and frivolous).

I looked at the Film Noir glamour photos of last year. Nah, not as cool. It's all about role-playing and recreation of iconic images. I love stuff like this.

I purchased the Film Freak Central 2007 Annual, which I received today and have been reading for the last hour and change. There are assorted reviews in the book that weren't published on the site, including:

The Omen remake (**½)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (***½) ??!! Yeah, these two were pretty worthless. 'Beginning's nihilistic, yes, but moronically so.

Spinal

02-08-2008, 10:06 PM

The Fly: The Genetic Opera (http://blogging.la/archives/2008/02/la_opera_to_produce_the_fly.ph tml)

Ezee E

02-08-2008, 10:53 PM

MadMan

02-08-2008, 10:55 PM

Tresspass = Assault on Precinct 13 + New Jack City.

Ice-T, Ice Cube, and Bill Paxton?

I'll let you decide the answer there.

Obviously low budget, but thrilling to the very end despite the dated material of it all. It's pretty hilarious watching thugs rolling to Sir Mix-A-Lot now. And Ice-T is just funny all the time.Plus the main villian from Die Hard 2 is also among the cast. I really must try and see that film sometime.

Sven

02-08-2008, 11:18 PM

Tresspass = Assault on Precinct 13 + New Jack City.

Ice-T, Ice Cube, and Bill Paxton?

I'll let you decide the answer there.

Obviously low budget, but thrilling to the very end despite the dated material of it all. It's pretty hilarious watching thugs rolling to Sir Mix-A-Lot now. And Ice-T is just funny all the time.

Boo! Booooo! Booooooooooo!

This movie is so fantastic that your trite summation is actually kind of hurting. I'm glad you thought it was thrilling, but what's with the low score, man?

Watashi

02-08-2008, 11:24 PM

Trespass is no Beyond Therapy.

Sven

02-08-2008, 11:25 PM

Trespass is no Beyond Therapy.

I do not know how to interpret this post.

Watashi

02-08-2008, 11:26 PM

I do not know how to interpret this post.
What does your heart tell you?

Sven

02-08-2008, 11:29 PM

What does your heart tell you?

To slap you.

Ezee E

02-08-2008, 11:31 PM

Boo! Booooo! Booooooooooo!

This movie is so fantastic that your trite summation is actually kind of hurting. I'm glad you thought it was thrilling, but what's with the low score, man?
I'm wavering between ** and **1/2.

You convinced me.

** 1/2.

Ezee E

02-08-2008, 11:33 PM

What does your heart tell you?
Ah The Fisher King. It's a one-star movie trapped in Gilliam's world, which singlehandedly makes it at least one-star better. In this case, two stars. I remember liking it a lot.

Sven

02-08-2008, 11:39 PM

I'm wavering between ** and **1/2.

You convinced me.

** 1/2.

I suppose that'll do. I tried scrounging up my old thoughts, but couldn't find them, and I also looked a bit for some good reviews to link to, but found none. I know that both Chuck Taylor and our man Armond both adore it, though. I have a hard time deciding whether or not it's his best film.

Ezee E

02-08-2008, 11:41 PM

I suppose that'll do. I tried scrounging up my old thoughts, but couldn't find them, and I also looked a bit for some good reviews to link to, but found none. I know that both Chuck Taylor and our man Armond both adore it, though. I have a hard time deciding whether or not it's his best film.
It's far from his best.

He makes interesting choices for movies. I'm fairly sure it's a hired gig in many cases, this being one of them, where he directed a Robert Zemeckis script (wha?).

MadMan

02-08-2008, 11:43 PM

Ah The Fisher King. It's a one-star movie trapped in Gilliam's world, which singlehandedly makes it at least one-star better. In this case, two stars. I remember liking it a lot.What? Its a near great movie in my book. Williams and Bridges both give expert performances, and I loved how the film is a modern day fairy tale of sorts.

Spinal

02-08-2008, 11:45 PM

My favorite part of The Fisher King is Amanda Plummer. She's so delightfully odd in that film.

Watashi

02-08-2008, 11:47 PM

My favorite part of The Fisher King is Amanda Plummer. She's so delightfully odd in that film.
Yet the Academy decides to reward the other female performance in the film, which was severly inferior and downright annoying.

MadMan

02-08-2008, 11:53 PM

I can't believe I overlooked the female performances. I liked Amanda Plummer alot in TFK as well. I have to say that Williams should try doing more serious roles and less crappy comedies.

Sven

02-08-2008, 11:55 PM

He makes interesting choices for movies. I'm fairly sure it's a hired gig in many cases, this being one of them, where he directed a Robert Zemeckis script (wha?).

No way. I do know that it is stipulated in his contract that Hill always gets the final say on a screenplay. Plus, this movie practically defines his entire body of work when looking at its theme and structure. Pretty much every single picture he's ever done is about territorial dominance (obviously referenced in the scenario), alpha-male war-waging (Sadler v. T), and social marginalization (the upper hand that the homeless man possesses--and the hilarious resolution of plot involving the handful of loot that he's able to claim as a result of the natural result of enterprising middle-class race warfare). Plus, the film is just filled with deft, crafty panache, which is what I find best of all. My favorite shot is when one of T's thugs falls from a great height and as his body falls in slow motion, it snaps through some electrical wires, which rain a shower of sparks down with him.

Damn, son, this is a good movie!

Ezee E

02-09-2008, 12:13 AM

What? Its a near great movie in my book. Williams and Bridges both give expert performances, and I loved how the film is a modern day fairy tale of sorts.
I said the same thing. However, if Gilliam wasn't behind it, I have a feeling it would've been a horrible mess.

Ezee E

02-09-2008, 12:14 AM

No way. I do know that it is stipulated in his contract that Hill always gets the final say on a screenplay. Plus, this movie practically defines his entire body of work when looking at its theme and structure. Pretty much every single picture he's ever done is about territorial dominance (obviously referenced in the scenario), alpha-male war-waging (Sadler v. T), and social marginalization (the upper hand that the homeless man possesses--and the hilarious resolution of plot involving the handful of loot that he's able to claim as a result of the natural result of enterprising middle-class race warfare). Plus, the film is just filled with deft, crafty panache, which is what I find best of all. My favorite shot is when one of T's thugs falls from a great height and as his body falls in slow motion, it snaps through some electrical wires, which rain a shower of sparks down with him.

Damn, son, this is a good movie!
Nice observations man. It doesn't really make me appreciate the movie more, but you nail some Walter Hill trademarks that I haven't noticed.

Sven

02-09-2008, 12:15 AM

Nice observations man. It doesn't really make me appreciate the movie more, but you nail some Walter Hill trademarks that I haven't noticed.

Thanks. :)

Rowland

02-09-2008, 12:31 AM

Yeah, these two were pretty worthless. 'Beginning's nihilistic, yes, but moronically so.I didn't like the Omen remake either, and after reading his review for it twice, I'm not sure I understand why he likes either. However, he has convinced me to rent TCM: The Beginning.

MadMan

02-09-2008, 12:43 AM

I said the same thing. However, if Gilliam wasn't behind it, I have a feeling it would've been a horrible mess.Ah. Touche my good man. Touche.

TCM: The Beginning is not a bad film. Its instead painfully medocre, and lacks the disturbing power of the original. I actually saw it before I saw the original TCM, and even then I thought that TCMTB was severly lacking. There's some freaky scenes yes and there's more gore, but that's about it. R. Lee Ermey does give a hilarious, evil SOB inspired performance in the film though so I guess its worth a rental just to see him in action.

dreamdead

02-09-2008, 01:10 AM

Quiet City (Aaron Katz, 2007) ***½

Hey, can you give some thoughts in the Quiet City thread? I'm hypnotized by the trailer, which is just wondrous to me, and I'd like to hear from others who are catching up with this film...

Wryan

02-09-2008, 01:48 AM

Holy SHIT those Vanity Fair pics are amazing!

The lighting for the Rear Window shot, the Lifeboat shot (which I saw last night, though it confuses me: Marie Saint is Tellulah stand-in but what about Christie? Crazy woman who loses baby at beginning? Anyway, amazing shot), and the motherfucking AMAZING shot from Strangers on a Train. McAvoy a little too obviously sinister for Bruno stand-in, but the pair together are amazing and Hirsch is a knockout Guy stand-in. Imagine the heart-palpitations from squeeing girls if those two did a remake with all the homoerotic undertones. Funny as shit...

baby doll

02-09-2008, 02:25 AM

Weekend:

Coeurs (Alain Resnais) (check)
Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
Find Me Guilty (Sidney Lumet)
The Funeral (Juzo Itami)
Nightjohn (Charles Burnett) (check)
Nuit noire (Olivier Smolders)

MacGuffin

02-09-2008, 02:33 AM

Weekend:

Quiet City (Katz, 2007)
Yi Yi (Yang, 2001)

Maybe some rewatches.

lovejuice

02-09-2008, 02:35 AM

The Fly: The Genetic Opera (http://blogging.la/archives/2008/02/la_opera_to_produce_the_fly.ph tml)

speaking of which, anyone heard of Burroughs's black rider: the musical? if not, then you're lucky.

ledfloyd

02-09-2008, 02:39 AM

i watched Brief Encounter today expecting to love it, but it's 85 minute runtime felt like 3 hours. and really, aside from the humorous conductor at the cafe at the trainstop, i can find very little to like about it.

after that i flipped on tcm and watched Mildred Pierce expecting it to be mediocre. it's quite good. i think better than postman always rings twice but not quite as good as double indemnity when it comes to cain adaptations. curtiz and steiner both deliver with their usual talent. joan crawford is great as well.

Sycophant

02-09-2008, 05:05 AM

The Savages was a bit frustratingly "meh." Though it was a good reminder as to exactly how much I love Laura Linney.

48 Hrs. on the other hand was awesome.

MacGuffin

02-09-2008, 05:06 AM

The Savages was a bit frustratingly "meh." Though it was a good reminder as to exactly how much I love Laura Linney.

48 Hrs. on the other hand was awesome.

Isn't ** more like 43?

Sven

02-09-2008, 05:06 AM

48 Hrs. on the other hand was awesome.

Awesome! I totally didn't think you'd like this. Even more whacked out and crafty is the sequel.

Sycophant

02-09-2008, 05:07 AM

Isn't ** more like 43?...No?

Is there a standardized version of the /100 scoring system? I tend to be a pretty generous grader, and you can probably expect to see more 80s-90s out of me than pretty much anyone.

MacGuffin

02-09-2008, 05:09 AM

...No?

Is there a standardized version of the /100 scoring system? I tend to be a pretty generous grader, and you can probably expect to see more 80s-90s out of me than pretty much anyone.

Sorry, I'm just trying this sucker out, and I've just been used to reading Theo Panayides and Jeremy Heilman, so I haven't really adapted to it yet. I imagine it will help considerably with my year end compilations though, as overwhelming as it seems to be.

Sycophant

02-09-2008, 05:15 AM

Awesome! I totally didn't think you'd like this. Even more whacked out and crafty is the sequel.
Really? I was just about to ask if the sequel was worth my time.

On the surface, it's really not the sort of piece that I'm drawn to, but I remember you saying good things about it when you were on your major Hill kick, so I thought I'd give it a go in time for the consensus (gonna try to get in another one or two, as well--can't remember what's on the queue). Everything is just so expertly done (or, particularly in Nolte's case, overdone) that it's irresistible. It's also extraordinarily valuable and interesting in terms of its perspective on California and America in terms of political and social values in 1982. There were some really thrilling sequences, too (the redneck bar, the bus) and the only thing really thin about it was the plot that everything else was hanging around.

Dead & Messed Up

02-09-2008, 08:36 AM

Sven

02-09-2008, 03:39 PM

I've been absorbing "alien-crashing-on-Earth-and-blending-in" films lately, and out of the ones I've seen, I must say that The Brother From Another Planet is really something else. John Sayles did a terrific job with the picture. It's not really sci-fi as much as it is a cross-section of Harlem, and the people you'll see there (or would have in the late eighties).

Damned interesting flick. Superior to Starman and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

I wouldn't call it superior to either of those other films, but I do like it quite a bit. It mixes up the bag pretty good. My favorite element are the bounty hunters played by Sayles and Strathairn. They keep the film from being crushed under its didactic finale.

Qrazy

02-09-2008, 05:25 PM

Well The Man Who Fell to Earth is one of the worst cinematic abortions I've ever witnessed, so I should hope it's better than that.

Sven

02-09-2008, 05:26 PM

Well The Man Who Fell to Earth is one of the worst cinematic abortions I've ever witnessed, so I should hope it's better than that.

You, sir, are :crazy:

Qrazy

02-09-2008, 05:28 PM

You, sir, are :crazy:

On that note, just watched Shame. I liked it a lot, but there's something about Liv Ullmann that makes me want to smash her face in.

Sven

02-09-2008, 05:31 PM

On that note, just watched Shame. I liked it a lot, but there's something about Liv Ullmann that makes me want to smash her face in.

Wow.

Russ

02-09-2008, 05:39 PM

Just watched The Kid Brother (Ted Wilde, J.A. Howe, 1927) It's a beautifully constructed tale of a weaker sibling who far outperforms the efforts of his "superior" brothers in order to save the day and get the girl of his dreams. Every element of the story clicks, especially the romantic subplot which paints Lloyd with an extremely sympathetic brush. There are some wonderful gags too: check out the scene where he fends away the villian with a stick. I think this is by far Lloyd's most humanistic role and it elevates this work to the strata of top-tier Chaplin and Keaton efforts. Cinematography shines, especially in the scene where the camera follows Lloyd as he climbs up a tall tree to communicate with a young lady (IMDb Trivia: For the scene where Harold Lloyd climbs a tree to spy on his beloved, an elevator was specially constructed to allow for the camera's rising move. This was the first time a production unit had gone to such elaborate lengths just to procure one shot). The Monkey With Shoes may be the single funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. Lloyd is better known for Safety Last!, but this may well be his masterpiece. ****

megladon8

02-09-2008, 06:01 PM

I was really surprised with Stranger Than Fiction - it got good reviews, and my parents really enjoyed it. But I expected it would be a typical Will Ferrell movie but with a ham-handed message.

But it was surprisingly poignant, and I enjoyed the performances all around. At first I was unsure of how to take Will Ferrell in the lead - I felt at times like he was trying to channel his "crazy funny SNL guy" persona, but at others - such as trying the cookie - he was very honest and real.

Marc Forster proves once again he can deal with human emotions and the finality of death without being cheesy or melodramatic. I'm really looking forward to what he has in store for us with Quantum of Solace.

Bosco B Thug

02-09-2008, 06:31 PM

Enchanted's often very funny and amusing, but it falls way short of its glimmers of astuteness and the resolution of the film's story is horrid. In the end the film's clever ideas and provocations are processed and canned by the Disney machine and as a result, all you can seem to remember is the awful chipmunk scenes (crucifixion, WTF?) or the out-of-nowhere dragon nonsense. I suppose this is the best we could have expected to get from this movie, paid and sponsored by Disney execs. When the material fails me, though, there's always the film's tonal or subjective construction to look at. I was looking for the director to contextualize this problematic world where girls are supposed to live vicariously through princesses and hope for true loves and happy endings, or even better some formal commentary on the modern state or bolts and cogs of adult romance (I sorta almost willed it to be there in the ballroom dance part, one of the film's most effective scenes, what finally with the acknowledgement of jealous glances and unrequited adult desire), but no such luck. There's some weird stuff in there, like the "Great Women in History" book and Spall's attachment to the soap opera line about a hero not liking himself, but I suppose those just were there for the throwaway jokes they are associated with. The film otherwise plays out aesthetically/structurally rather generically.

Also, I was expecting a lot from the film's one big, live-action, big-crowd-choreographed musical number, too, but it was disappointing. It's set up well in a very funny way, but I'm discovering I can't get into musical numbers that don't have some sense of continuity between its shots. There's lots of qualifications to that, probably.

I was really surprised with Stranger Than Fiction - it got good reviews, and my parents really enjoyed it. But I expected it would be a typical Will Ferrell movie but with a ham-handed message.

But it was surprisingly poignant, and I enjoyed the performances all around. At first I was unsure of how to take Will Ferrell in the lead - I felt at times like he was trying to channel his "crazy funny SNL guy" persona, but at others - such as trying the cookie - he was very honest and real.

Marc Forster proves once again he can deal with human emotions and the finality of death without being cheesy or melodramatic. I'm really looking forward to what he has in store for us with Quantum of Solace. I was very disappointed with Stranger Than Fiction, but I'm very willing to check out Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball (and The Kite Runner). It seems like such a wide array of material he's taking on (the hard R-rated adult drama, the whimsical PG-rated period drama, the PG-13 romantic comedy, the contemporary and politically salient social drama) that I can't help but root for him that he pulls off the James Bond action film.

megladon8

02-09-2008, 06:47 PM

I was very disappointed with Stranger Than Fiction, but I'm very willing to check out Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball (and The Kite Runner). It seems like such a wide array of material he's taking on (the hard R-rated adult drama, the whimsical PG-rated period drama, the PG-13 romantic comedy, the contemporary and politically salient social drama) that I can't help but root for him that he pulls off the James Bond action film.

Yes, it's nice to see a director tackle many different topics and genres, even if they aren't the most successful with what they're doing.

One thing, though, is that despite the fact that I have enjoyed everything I've seen by him, he doesn't have much of a signature style. A look, a tone, a rhythm to the dialogue - it's not that it's generic, it just doesn't scream "this is mine - MARC FORSTER'S!". I hope that he develops some trademarks.

megladon8

02-09-2008, 06:49 PM

Well The Man Who Fell to Earth is one of the worst cinematic abortions I've ever witnessed, so I should hope it's better than that.

I love that movie.

Aside from Rip Torn's genitals, it was great.

Duncan

02-09-2008, 07:07 PM

Thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and finally watch I am Cuba (next week, my school's student film society is watching Siberian Mammoth, so I thought I'd get in the loop).

Real good. Duncan, I, too, am quite shocked at your negative impression. ... In I am Cuba, the ideology's foundation is me, not us. I dig it.

I refute none of these points, but maintain that I didn't like it. I found my attention wandering, and paused it between vignettes. ::Rowland shrug::

Duncan

02-09-2008, 07:30 PM

Saw a great film directed by Istvan Szabo the other day called Father. It's set in post-WWII Hungary and is about this young boy who idealizes his dead father. He makes up stories to his friends about his dad being a partisan and we get these funny Indiana Jones-esque sequences where his dad punches out a bunch of Nazis. Lots of flights of fantasy and imaginative escapades. There's a serious French New Wave influence (it was made in 1966). It might get a touch repetitive in its playfulness, but it's never less that funny or poignant. About halfway through it jumps twenty years ahead. It's still playful, but the discussions and questioning of Marxism, individuality, and national identity are more foregrounded. Highly recommended.

Dead & Messed Up

02-09-2008, 08:40 PM

I wouldn't call it superior to either of those other films, but I do like it quite a bit. It mixes up the bag pretty good. My favorite element are the bounty hunters played by Sayles and Strathairn. They keep the film from being crushed under its didactic finale.

Yeah, dude. They were something else. An extra on the disc explained that their scenes were frequently filmed in reverse, with them doing their movements backward, which gives their movement an eerie edge.

Melville

02-09-2008, 10:07 PM

Recent viewings:

Crash (Conenberg): rather than providing insight into its characters' fetishes, it mires them in overblown portentousness. And the whole thing seems to take place in a world completely divorced from our own. It makes sense that the characters would exist in such a world, since their obsessions obviously pull them away from social norms; but there is no glimpse of normalcy or otherness to contrast with the characters' world, to give that world meaning. Considering that traffic, which the characters' obsessions require, is inescapably connected to an objective social world, the film's refusal to examine the characters in terms of that objective world seems like a major flaw.

Gone Baby Gone: Affleck's direction seemed somewhat haphazard, with quick edits and crowded compositions that seemed at odds with the film's meditative mood, the dialogue was painfully on the nose, not enough was done with the ideas about neighborhood that the story opens with, and there were way too many plot twists for my liking. However, Casey Affleck was great, the story was compelling, and I loved the film's focus on weighty, ambiguous ethical issues. I'd say it was just a few tweaks away from greatness.

Two-Lane Blacktop: what starts out seeming like one of Tarantino's wet dreams ends up as a surprisingly poignant, almost suffocating portrayal of existential angst and aimlessness. Warren Oates was awesome.

Evil Dead II: the "who's laughing now" line was great, but the comedy generally didn't work for me; I preferred the humor in Army of Darkness. However, I'm somewhat impressed by Raimi's complete abandonment of traditional narrative and his attempt to make an entire movie out of exaggerated lighting, Bruce Campbell's flailing, and bizarre camera movements.

Le Trou: I picked this up based on KF's prodding in one of the consensus threads. It was terrific, so I owe him some rep for the recommendation. I loved the focus on group dynamics, the near dissolution of the individual into a larger collective effort, and the focus on how that group creates meaning through physical rituals (e.g. in the repeated depictions of eating and close-ups of physical activities). And the near-escape scene toward the end, with the glimpse of the street, was one of the best scenes of its kind, giving a remarkable sense of the world suddenly looming up out of the carefully isolated, self-contained mood of the prison. Great stuff.

trotchky

02-09-2008, 10:18 PM

Calvaire is worthless.

MacGuffin

02-09-2008, 10:59 PM

Calvaire is worthless.
:sad:

megladon8

02-09-2008, 11:15 PM

I was just bumbling around on IMDb and noticed that Anthony Perkins died of pneumonia, brought on by AIDS.

Was he gay? Or was it a vaccine/blood sample which was infected?

BirdsAteMyFace

02-09-2008, 11:26 PM

I was just bumbling around on IMDb and noticed that Anthony Perkins died of pneumonia, brought on by AIDS.

Was he gay? Or was it a vaccine/blood sample which was infected?There was suspicion concering his sexuality prior to the 1960s (and especially in 1990, after an illegal test was done showing Perkins was positive), by his own admission on a few occasions, but he ended up being married to Berinthia Berenson for almost 20 years. As far as I'm aware of, he remained fairly private about his battle with AIDS, and never mentioned how he contracted the virus.

number8

02-09-2008, 11:30 PM

I feel like a tool for never knowing this before, but I just found out today that Martin Scorsese directed the video for Michael Jackson's "Bad".

I feel cultured now.

MadMan

02-09-2008, 11:34 PM

I've been absorbing "alien-crashing-on-Earth-and-blending-in" films lately, and out of the ones I've seen, I must say that The Brother From Another Planet is really something else. John Sayles did a terrific job with the picture. It's not really sci-fi as much as it is a cross-section of Harlem, and the people you'll see there (or would have in the late eighties).

Damned interesting flick. Superior to Starman and The Man Who Fell to Earth.I want to see the other two films you mentioned. Brother From Another Planet is really damn good, even if as iosos mentioned the finale is the film's weakest aspect. The sci-fi angle wasn't even really needed for the film to work though. The bounty hunters were both funny and kinda of cool.

origami_mustache

02-10-2008, 12:18 AM

i watched Brief Encounter today expecting to love it, but it's 85 minute runtime felt like 3 hours. and really, aside from the humorous conductor at the cafe at the trainstop, i can find very little to like about it.

Completely agree with you. The voiceover narration was absolutely agonizing and the characters weren't even very likable. The romance between the two seemed forced and kind of ridiculous to me.

ledfloyd

02-10-2008, 12:49 AM

Completely agree with you. The voiceover narration was absolutely agonizing and the characters weren't even very likable. The romance between the two seemed a forced and kind of ridiculous to me.
thanks, i was worried. the voiceover was the worst.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is underrated. one of the best films of 2006.

baby doll

02-10-2008, 12:59 AM

I just finished Nightjohn, which only confirms what we already knew: Charles Burnett rules.

Mysterious Dude

02-10-2008, 01:10 AM

Horbgorbler

02-10-2008, 01:27 AM

Just caught five minutes of Burton's Willy Wonka on TV. Now that I've kicked a chair and screamed a few times I'm feeling better.

megladon8

02-10-2008, 01:29 AM

There was suspicion concering his sexuality prior to the 1960s (and especially in 1990, after an illegal test was done showing Perkins was positive), by his own admission on a few occasions, but he ended up being married to Berinthia Berenson for almost 20 years. As far as I'm aware of, he remained fairly private about his battle with AIDS, and never mentioned how he contracted the virus.

Well, either way, it's sad he died so relatively young.

I've known of people who have contracted nasty diseases from unsanitary medical practices. It's terrible that it's still something we have to worry about.

trotchky

02-10-2008, 01:43 AM

:sad:

I know dude, I'm pretty sad about it too. I don't know man, it just didn't do anything for me. Hackneyed premise with which the film does nothing original; no pathos, nothing worth caring about...I don't know bro, what did you see in it?

MacGuffin

02-10-2008, 01:53 AM

I know dude, I'm pretty sad about it too. I don't know man, it just didn't do anything for me. Hackneyed premise with which the film does nothing original; no pathos, nothing worth caring about...I don't know bro, what did you see in it?

I just thought it was generally sad and well realized. It's not so much a horror movie based on it's plot, but rather a movie filled with humanity that's horrifying based on a single character who can't let go of the past. The foreboding atmosphere and the intense mood are just brilliant. It's not for everyone (I think the overall tone of the film is a bit much considering the sensitive, yet disturbingly constructed premise), and I really didn't care about the characters, but I'm pretty sure this movie set out to do what it wanted. The nod to Werckmeister Harmonies was sweet.

trotchky

02-10-2008, 02:25 AM

I just thought it was generally sad and well realized. It's not so much a horror movie based on it's plot, but rather a movie filled with humanity that's horrifying based on a single character who can't let go of the past. The foreboding atmosphere and the intense mood are just brilliant. It's not for everyone (I think the overall tone of the film is a bit much considering the sensitive, yet disturbingly constructed premise), and I really didn't care about the characters, but I'm pretty sure this movie set out to do what it wanted. The nod to Werckmeister Harmonies was sweet.

The man who couldn't let go of the past, to me, was a cartoon, characterized by genre tropes and not much else. I didn't find it humane at all because the film seemed to want me to either laugh at or recoil in horror from everything on screen (he wears a dress!! lol!!!!) and I don't think Du Welz has the talent to make either of those work. That's just me though!!!

MacGuffin

02-10-2008, 02:37 AM

The man who couldn't let go of the past, to me, was a cartoon, characterized by genre tropes and not much else. I didn't find it humane at all because the film seemed to want me to either laugh at or recoil in horror from everything on screen (he wears a dress!! lol!!!!) and I don't think Du Welz has the talent to make either of those work. That's just me though!!!

I think after everything horrifying the protagonist went through onscreen, he became transmuted. The scene where the townspeople are chasing him towards the end is something of a revelation for him -- he's at once deeply repulsed, disturbed, and terrified, but it's during these last deeply poetic shots that he becomes, in a way, sensitive towards the antagonist's loss. Personally, I see it as more of a character study more than a horror movie. I'd advise you if you were willing to check out that last scene once more, and maybe see if you can get what I got out of it. Aside from that, I can't really say much more because it's been about a year since I've seen it, and even these details may be a bit cloudy.

krazed

02-10-2008, 02:38 AM

Been a while since I popped in here; how are you guys? Haha.

Michael Clayton was a really impressive viewing. It took a narrative that could've been very haphazard and cliche and developed it into one of the best of the year. The progressive narrative in this film is simply outstanding, plus the performances were wonderful all around. At first, Swinton disappointed me, but she really overcame the limitations set forth by the script; the final scene with her is pretty fantastic. The first 20 minutes were kind of awkward, but other than that, I was really surprised with it. Plus, I'm pretty much guaranteed to at least slightly enjoy anything George Clooney is in, for some reason.

This is the first year in a while that I've been genuinely happy with the Oscar picks.