I've said it before and I'll say it again: A Bittersweet Life is damn near a perfect film.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: A Bittersweet Life is damn near a perfect film.
Saw Cronenberg's The Fly for the first time last night. Will shoot right up into my top 10 first viewings of the year.
The real life chemistry between Goldblum and Davis not only sells the film's emotional gut punch, but also makes the body horror all the more terrifying and saddening.
Probably Cronenberg's most "human" film after Dead Ringers.
Brilliant stuff, and much more identifiably Cronenberg than I had expected. Plenty of venereal body horror.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
W H A T ? ? ?Quoting megladon8 (view post)
I have failed you, my friend.
FANTASTIC movie.
Yeah The Fly is great. I still need to see the original flick.
Blog!
And it's happened once again
I'll turn to a friend
Someone that understands
And sees through the master plan
But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well, I guess this is growing up
It's interesting you say that, since, while I thought Jaws was a very good movie in general, it's never quite been a favorite of mine, because I actually found the scenes not having to do with "Bruce" and the hunt for him to be less engaging than the ones that did. I mean, they were still good, just not as good as the shark-related material, you know?Quoting Skitch (view post)
Rewatched Raising Arizona for the umpteenth time, one of the funniest movies ever in my opinion, and I guess it's true that comedy is about expectations because I think I didn't laugh once. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorites and I had a huge smile on my face the whole way through, but I knew every single funny bit in advance and didn't have the sudden release of laughter. Conversely, my eyes were welling up during the ending dream, which wasn't the case before.
"Son, you've got a panty on your head."
Blog!
And it's happened once again
I'll turn to a friend
Someone that understands
And sees through the master plan
But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well, I guess this is growing up
Gave up trying to find a proper release of Otomo/Rintaro/Kawajiri anthology Neo Tokyo (used dvds on ebay are $200+, no streaming options) and found a random way to watch it online. Awesome animation -- imagine that! Rintaro's short was crazy abstract, Kawajiri's felt the most "complete" and therefore satisfying, and Otomo's was the most entertaining but ended very suddenly. The whole thing was over far too soon (three shorts in 49 mins). Much respect to the project, but far from my favorite anime anthology. In that regard, I think Memories may be unsurpassable.
Memories > The Animatrix > Neo Tokyo > Robot Carnival
Looks like Genius Party is probably my next stop, but that won't be for a while probably. Short Peace is supposed to be solid, and there's something called Twilight Q that looks Twilight Zone-inspired and has involvement from Mamoru Oshii. So that might be worth something. OVAs confuse me.
Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 10-15-2021 at 07:13 PM.
Memories tears me up inside.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Last edited by StuSmallz; 10-21-2021 at 07:04 AM.
I made a list of my favorite modern (1970-) b&w movies. The one on LB is a little longer, but here is the top 20:
[]
Pi should be top ten!
and of course you know I wish that other flick was on there, but to each there own lol
FWIW I didn't forget about Pi. It's #23. I remember being thoroughly entranced and disturbed, but I haven't seen it since probably '05.Quoting Skitch (view post)
Others on the list that could use a rewatch are Computer Chess, Stardust Memories, and The Last Picture Show. And if I'm being honest, Schindler's List.
Movies I look forward to seeing in the near future because I feel they have a decent chance of kicking something off: Paper Moon, Tetsuo the Iron Man, Satantango, The Turin Horse, Ida, Blue Jay.
*whispers*
[]
Not a bad suggestion by any means. Not gonna make the list though, at least not without a rewatch. Pretty sure the only time I saw it was in a morning film class.
Uh...that's like, really cool. Good on your teacher.
How about that other B&W Depp movie from the mid-90's, though?Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
Jarmusch owns this list, but Dead Man has never been a favorite. That being said, I did put it at #30.Quoting StuSmallz (view post)
I have seen so few of those. Thanks for all the suggestions.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
I finally watched the new Dune a couple of days ago (not on HBOMax, but in a theater as God intended), and as far as its (moderate) flaws go, I'd say the biggest one is with the movie's slightly unwieldy overall structure, where the first half spent a ton of time on character introductions, table-setting the central conflicts, and general world-building and exposition with the various cultures and technologies of the "Duniverse", while the second half was essentially an overlong extended climax, with the number of false endings used proving to be even more egregious than those of Return Of The King.
That being said though, I still liked the movie a good deal on the whole, and speaking of Lord Of The Rings, like that series, I think part two of this will be even better, now that part one's done a lot of the hard work of introducing us to this particular universe. For now though, I'll just say that, even as someone who's never read the book (or even watched the reportedly abbreviated Lynch adaptation), this Dune still did a good job of acclimatizing me to the iconic world that Frank Herbert created, as, despite the overall complexity of the story, I was rarely at any serious loss as to what was going on, and besides that, it feels like a movie tailor-made for Villeneuve's strengths as a director, as both an overwhelming sensory experience (an attack by a massive sandworm on a Spice harvester stands out in particular), as well as a bold work of Science-Fiction, full of big, ambitious ideas, the kind that's made the genre a favorite of mine; bring on part two, baby!
Final Score: 8.5
You guys have to watch the Lynch version. It's a checklist film, and worth a watch to see how cramming the whole book in one film would look. Hell it's worth watching for the practical effects and set designs.
I've used the Criterion Channel to dig into some 1970s films that I always glossed over in the past. Night Moves and The Taking of Pelham 123 were just delightfully gritty, willing to underscore larger communities beyond the main character, and really focus on mood via their scores and codas. Especially Taking..., which wrapped up Shaw's main villain--and refused to fully explain him--in a satisfying way led still had to pay off the sneezing baddie. Just a great final moment that was inevitable yet suggested a constantly thinking lead in Matthau.
Also watched Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth, which was both a departure for him and a continuation of how daily horror can become more terrifying than genre templates. The scenes where the lead is running through Uzbekistan trying to flee state police is as scary in its immediacy as things in Kairo or Cure, and that ending song. I was not prepared for it or for Kurosawa would frame it. It was a bravura sequence that risked credibility, yet it took the film to higher heights and left me with such a delightful high. Strong stuff, though I understand the difficulty in promoting it stateside.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
I finally watched my first Douglas Sirk movie, All that Heaven Allows, and it lived up to the hype. Thrilled I got it on blu ray because the colors... I mean, what the what!? Incredible. Sirk is giving me a whole new appreciation for Technicolor. The doctor giving relationship advice was one mansplain over the line for this otherwise-quite-subversive story, but it's a small gripe considering just how satisfying at least two other moments were: TV for Christmas (a perfectly set up OOF), and the ending. I knew there was only 90 seconds left and was wondering, "how are they gonna wrap this up?" Then it hit like a ton of bricks and I literally started cheering and applauding, much to the horror of my cats.
My second Sirk will be expedited.
I would definitely watch Written on the Wind next and I loved Magnificent Obsession.
Putney Swope - everyone here should watch this and it's on the Criterion channel.