28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[StanleyK]

In all seriousness I think Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is a great title. I've never seen the movie but the title alone tells me that it's a sequel to Breakin' in which people breakdance in the electric boogaloo style, so it's perfectly descriptive, obviously very memorable, and best of all it's a numbered sequel. I hate how sequels nowadays don't have numbers in them.

[Yxklyx]

Nights of Cabiria is my fave Fellini and one of my fave movies of all time.

Yes, definitely my favorite Fellini. I just signed up with the Criterion channel, lots of great movies to watch and rewatch! Tonight was a rewatch of Chungking Express probably my favorite Kar-Wai Wong film.

[Grouchy]

I have a really tough time settling on a favorite Fellini because there are so many stages to his career. La Strada or Nights of Cabiria might be the best neorealist ones, but I have a hard time comparing those to 8 & 1/2 or Juliet of the Spirits, or even those to Roma or Satyricon.

[megladon8]

Martin Campbell's The Foreigner is a surprisingly decent little political thriller.

Just found it strange that all of the marketing is it being a Jackie Chan movie, when he was really more of a supporting role.

[Skitch]

Really enjoyed that blind buy.

[quido8_5]

I have a really tough time settling on a favorite Fellini because there are so many stages to his career. La Strada or Nights of Cabiria might be the best neorealist ones, but I have a hard time comparing those to 8 & 1/2 or Juliet of the Spirits, or even those to Roma or Satyricon.

Agree. Goes to show how broad his mastery of the form. Having said that, definitely 8 1/2 .

[dreamdead]

Was surprised by the impact that Quo Vadis, Aida? left on me. I'm familiar enough with the Bosnian War between Serbs and Muslims that some events with the United Nations weren't really a surprise, but the care with which Jasmila Žbanić directs this film is just devastating. Reminiscent of the Paul Greengrass and Dardenne brothers strategy of filmmaking, all cinema verite, but it builds and builds with that final crescendo--showing the captives a real film--before the coda cuts to a perfectly infuriating state of barely repressed anger at having to live beside--and teach the children of--those who perpetrated harm on one's own family.

Likely the best film I've seen that was up for any Oscar last year, though there's still several International Film nominees to see (this was better than Another Round, though).

[transmogrifier]

Public service announcement: Do not watch The Woman in the Window. It is terrible. I refuse to make a page for it in the 2021 section. Just avoid.

[Ezee E]

Public service announcement: Do not watch The Woman in the Window. It is terrible. I refuse to make a page for it in the 2021 section. Just avoid.

I'm surprised so many are watching it. Is it because it's on Netflix?

[transmogrifier]

I'm surprised so many are watching it. Is it because it's on Netflix?

In my case, it's because my wife (and I, it must be said) enjoys mystery-thrillers, so what was the harm? Joe Wright is a decent director, after all. Well.... not this time.

[DFA1979]

That movie looked pretty awful. I made a joke about Gary Oldman looking like a creepy congressman on Twitter in response to seeing the trailer for the flick online.

[DFA1979]

On that note I saw last night that Mad Dog Time was on Tubi. I remembered Ebert's hilarious take down of the film and after watching the trailer I thought to myself "Wow he might be right." So I viewed Sabata instead and enjoyed a good old school spaghetti western that is a blast even if the ending is kind of dumb. Sometimes taking people's word for it that a movie is a turkey might be the wise decision.

[Grouchy]

The Sabata theme is one of the finest in all spaghetti western not by Morricone. In what seems like milennia ago I showed it to some friends and they played it with their band for years.

[StuSmallz]

[

Show Spoiler

To say that expectations for The Last Jedi were space-high would be putting it mildly; as the 2nd episode of the new Star Wars trilogy, everyone seemed to wonder if Rion Johnson would continue with the fun, but still fundamentally play-it-safe nature of Force Awakens that was oh-so JJ, tracing over the general outline of its corresponding middle chapter in the original trilogy (that being The Empire Strikes Back) in the process, and doom this entry to never truly step out of its predecessor's iconic shadow... or would Johnson try for something more challenging, more daring, like Empire itself did back in its day? Well, while Last Jedi will inevitably draw comparisons to that classic at times (granted, sometimes to its detriment), I'm still happy to say that, like its new generation of heroes and villains, it finds a way to honor and respect what its legendary predecessors created, while also forging more of its own path forward, something that apparently The Rise Of Skywalker failed to capitalize on (although I still actually haven't seen it yet, so I can't comment on it personally).


Anyway, The Last Jedi follows parallel story threads, with the forces of The First Order launching an devastating assault on the vulnerable New Republic, before pursuing the surviving forces through space for the rest of the film, a plot that's intercut with a young Jedi apprentice training with a wizened, reluctant teacher in the mysterious, sometimes-frightening ways of The Force, just like in, well, Empire. However, I feel Jedi distinguishes itself both from the often derivative elements of Force Awakens by telling a more subversive, surprising story, one that's less reliant on pure nostalgia, and distinguishes itself from the overall Star Wars saga through its greater sense of moral ambiguity, especially through its demythologization of the titular "last Jedi" himself, Luke Skywalker.


When Rey (and we) first see him, Luke is a weary, grey-bearded, grizzled old man, living as a hermit in the ruins of an ancient Jedi temple (which just so happens to be in the middle of space-nowhere), his only company being the local wildlife, and the giant toad-nuns aliens that maintain what's left of the structures there. He is a far cry from the beaming, triumphant hero of the original trilogy, and when Rey approaches him in the hopes of being trained as the first of a new generation of Jedi, Luke just tells her to leave the planet immediately. And, while such reluctance is somewhat to be expected, as it would be narratively dull if Luke just immediately acquiesced to every one of Rey's wishes, I still didn't expect him to be as defeated and downtrodden as he turned out here, since, even after he agrees to teach Rey, he only does it to try to show her why the Jedi must die as a way of life, which, combined with a rather unexpected revelation that arises from his past here, really surprised (and pleased) me, with just how dark Rion was willing to go with his arc.


It's a daring spin on a classic, iconic hero, one that somewhat split the Star Wars fanbase, but one that I appreciate for its unwillingness to coddle us as viewers, and besides that, Rion Johnson continues the trend of Force Awakens in making The Force itself a more mysterious and ethereal, well, force, than the disappointingly literal treatment Lucas gave it in the Prequels, through a series of intriguing psychic conversations that occur between two certain characters here, as well as actually making The Force seem more accessible to the random "nobodies" of the galaxy, as you'll see, and that's all the detail I'll go into on those points, lest I spoil the film even further for you.


Outside of the Force-related shenanigans here, the film's other main plot thread of the scant remnants of The New Republic in constant pursuit by The New Order, their numbers steadily dwindling as the film goes on, is, for the most part, tense, desperate, and above all exciting, with some of the better scenes of combat seen in any Star Wars to date, with a certain subplot involving a new, seemingly cowardly Rebel Admiral taking an unexpected turn, further reenforcing the film's overall ambiguity when it comes to its various characterizations. I mean, don't get me wrong or anything, as The Last Jedi is hardly a perfect film; it's overlong by at least 15 minutes, with one too many climactic battles, some of its comedic relief moments feel a bit forced and unnecessary, and its story doesn't always unfold as smoothly, as it should've, with a particular side-story during the middle act that could've easily been altered, or better yet, erased from the film entirely. However, all that being said, this still a very rousing, borderline mythic piece of pop-storytelling, a vital new continuation of what is surely the defining film series of all time, and a work that left me more hopeful than I had been in a long time for the future of the franchise, if Disney can ever get it back on track again as much as it did with this one; may The Force be with it, indeed.

]


Final Score: 8.25

[DFA1979]

The Sabata theme is one of the finest in all spaghetti western not by Morricone. In what seems like milennia ago I showed it to some friends and they played it with their band for years.

Yes that score was pretty sweet. I forgot to look up who did it, yet props to them all the same.

[StanleyK]

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is so good. I'm surprised it doesn't enjoy a greater reputation as one of the best crime movies of the 70s.

[baby doll]

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is so good. I'm surprised it doesn't enjoy a greater reputation as one of the best crime movies of the 70s.

I've been sort of passively avoiding this ever since I read the novel--which is brilliant--because, even though it's obvious how it could be turned into a play or a movie (the book is virtually all dialogue), I doubt the novel's special qualities would survive the translation (in the book, the reader often has to infer from context who's speaking).

[DFA1979]

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is so good. I'm surprised it doesn't enjoy a greater reputation as one of the best crime movies of the 70s.

I liked that one a lot. Robert Mitchum is fantastic as usual.

[Yxklyx]

Has anyone else watched La Flor - Criterion has it for the rest of the month. Even if you don't want to commit to umpteen hours, I highly recommend Part I just on its own.

[DFA1979]

Into The Night-Good cast, subpar movie. This should have been funnier or more entertaining. Some parts work, others fall really flat. Goldblum and Pfeiffer have good chemistry, at least.

Remo Williams coasts on Fred Ward being very charming and likable. Goofy movie, why they had Joel Grey play an Asian man is both confusing and awful. This could have been a fun series but the movie bombed. Both viewed on Tubi.

I'm also watching Stormy Monday which is mostly all style, no substance yet the cast rocks and the style is glorious. I mean you have Tommy Lee Jones standing in front of an American flag. How much more wonderfully obvious can a movie get? Ah the 1980s. Thanks to Arrow Video, which I love dearly.

[megladon8]

Watched Boss Level last night.

What a weird movie.

Will post more later.

[Grouchy]

Has anyone else watched La Flor - Criterion has it for the rest of the month. Even if you don't want to commit to umpteen hours, I highly recommend Part I just on its own.

I still have it pending. I loved Historias Extraordinarias but, well, you know... this one is 14 hours long.

Regardless, Llinás is a really unique talent. Best teacher I had at film school. He's a huge genre fan.

[Peng]

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

[first time Extended Edition]

I'd always wanted to watch the Extended Editions of these films for a long time, but feel like I should tackle the book boxset gifted to me over a decade ago first. Now that I reread The Hobbit and watched the Maple Edit of its three films last month, I finally figured it's time.

Still the best of three for me (though Return of the King now comes closer), and if anything this time I loved it even more with this Extended Edition, because it expands on what makes this film an instant favorite even on first watch: that sense of a whole new world vividly blooming before your eyes, fully formed. Like the book (of which this is surprisingly a faithful adaptation, right down to even some iconic imagery and lines), the film is, paradoxically and powerfully, an epic of both straight-through focus and expansive, majestic awe.

Watching it, I cannot tell from memory where the additional material begins and ends. It's just that seamless and helps add to the introduction of Middle-earth, which is crucial for this part; spending more time in the Shire establishes an even firmer feeling of fleeting idyll, in which the haunting specter of the Hobbits potentially losing the place packs enormous punch throughout, almost without the film referencing back to it.

And this might be the most cathartic, full-hearted, and gorgeously emotional cliffhanger ending ever in filmdom. The canny adaptation choice of moving incidents around (especially the first chapter of the next book) to have several threads concluding together makes for a most satisfying story pause, as weird as that may sound. Howard Shore and Sean Bean/Astin delivering emotional knock-outs in succession help tremendously, of course. By the time Frodo and Sam embraces after the latter almost drowns, and the camera cuts to a wide shot of them on a small boat in a vast river as "The Breaking of the Fellowship" swells, all the seemingly counterintuitive combining of big-scale and intimate directorial choices is just stirring in the extreme, and the scene exemplifies what Peter Jackson has accomplished in this film as a whole as well: he has created an epic of scope that you feel deeply, intuitively in your gut. 10/10

[Yxklyx]

I still have it pending. I loved Historias Extraordinarias but, well, you know... this one is 14 hours long.

Regardless, Llinás is a really unique talent. Best teacher I had at film school. He's a huge genre fan.

Finished it - including the 40m credits sequence - ha ha! As a complete thing I'd rate it a 6/10 but Part 1 (eps 1 & 2) would be a 9/10, episode 3 (the original Part 2) would be a 7/10, the original Part 3 probably just be a 4 or 5 out of 10.

[Irish]

Meanwhile...

The Tribeca Film Festival sold itself to ... the Murdoch family? in 2019?! WTF?

https://www.showbiz411.com/2019/08/0...-fox-lupa-fund

^ Informative, sorta, with a weird side of editorial, because I can't image being such a rube that anyone would post this:

So yes, we all lose our naivete on this one. The good guys have sold out to the bad guys. James Murdoch is trying to legitimize his family’s horrible history, and their ongoing mayhem at Fox News. Now they’ve taken control of Tribeca. DeNiro et al went for the money. The ideology didn’t matter.

Ya mean a bunch multi-millionaires went for the money, personal values be damned? I'm shocked. Shocked.