28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[MadMan]

Overrated.

Never change haha. I still gotta know.

[Yxklyx]

I liked Gerry. I even watched it twice.

[kuehnepips]

Oedipus' family was pretty messed up.

Best post ever.

[Peng]

Les Misérables (2012)

The two sequences of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" push this overlong yet still-rushed mess just barely into 3/5 stars for me; the rousing nature of the song is such that even Hooper's extremely nauseous close-up style comes off well, sweeping through the chaos and scale, granting intimacy to the big scope of it. As for the singing, I actually prefer Crowe a bit over Jackman. The latter is a better singer, but I get a whiplash watching him waver all the time whether to sing the lyrics properly or add speaking flourishes (and mixing it badly), and whether to act with theatrical bigness or cinematic intimacy. Crowe can't sing a high note to save his life, so much it's painful at times, but his performance and presence compensate for a lot.

Hathaway is great as advertised (expertly mixing the two modes that Jackman fumbles; even in her brief moments in the last scene she manages to add quite a bit to the rousing finish), while Barks and Tveit, though not given as much an opportunity as Hathaway, can be spotted as theater vets easily by the ease and power in which they can act and sing. Alas, Redmayne doesn't do it for me; apart from the Fantastic Beasts films, I generally like him, but the close-ups here are so unflattering and intrusive for him, and magnify his acting tics so much, that I feel about him here the way some people instinctively react to Paul Dano. 6/10

[StuSmallz]

Les Misérables (2012)

The two sequences of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" push this overlong yet still-rushed mess just barely into 3/5 stars for me; the rousing nature of the song is such that even Hooper's extremely nauseous close-up style comes off well, sweeping through the chaos and scale, granting intimacy to the big scope of it. As for the singing, I actually prefer Crowe a bit over Jackman. The latter is a better singer, but I get a whiplash watching him waver all the time whether to sing the lyrics properly or add speaking flourishes (and mixing it badly), and whether to act with theatrical bigness or cinematic intimacy. Crowe can't sing a high note to save his life, so much it's painful at times, but his performance and presence compensate for a lot.

Hathaway is great as advertised (expertly mixing the two modes that Jackman fumbles; even in her brief moments in the last scene she manages to add quite a bit to the rousing finish), while Barks and Tveit, though not given as much an opportunity as Hathaway, can be spotted as theater vets easily by the ease and power in which they can act and sing. Alas, Redmayne doesn't do it for me; apart from the Fantastic Beasts films, I generally like him, but the close-ups here are so unflattering and intrusive for him, and magnify his acting tics so much, that I feel about him here the way some people instinctively react to Paul Dano. 6/10

"WHY ARE WE ALL FACING THE

SAAAME WAAAY"

[Irish]

God help me I'm watching the @!#$%~! Indiana Jones movies again (in reverse order, for some reason)

[MadMan]

I still like all of em. I also have seen all of the Indy movies on the big screen. Temple benefitted the most from a theater viewing.

[Mysterious Dude]

I rewatched Temple of Doom, which I've never liked, but I know it has its defenders and since it was on Netflix, I figured I'd give it another chance. It's fucking awful.

[StanleyK]

John Carpenter:

Dark Star - 7
Assault on Precinct 13 - 5.5
Halloween - 5.5
The Fog - 4
Escape from New York - 7
The Thing - 8.5
Christine - 5.5
Starman - 5.5
Big Trouble in Little China - 5.5
Prince of Darkness - 4
They Live - 4
Memoirs of an Invisible Man - 7
In the Mouth of Madness - 5.5
Village of the Damned - 4
Escape from L.A. - 2.5
Vampires - 7
Ghosts of Mars - 4
The Ward - 4



Not a big fan. Shout out to Vampires which I thought would absolutely suck but is actually pretty good.

[MadMan]

These last two posts make MadMan sad. Oh well.

[Morris Schæffer]

I rewatched Temple of Doom, which I've never liked, but I know it has its defenders and since it was on Netflix, I figured I'd give it another chance. It's fucking awful.

That seems unreasonable. Is it the child labour?

[Mysterious Dude]

That seems unreasonable. Is it the child labour?

No, I support child labor. It's mostly Kate Capshaw.

[MadMan]

Haha. I thought Capshaw was ok.

[Wryan]

Finally watched The 400 Blows this weekend. It was....good. Maybe if it was the first French New Wave I'd ever seen I'd think of it more highly of it, but it was still good. Really felt like someone had opened a portal into this shitty kid's shitty life and made me watch it for two hours. So...bravo I guess? Well done at that. Wasn't transcendent or transformative or anything, but it excelled at what it set out to do. I swear he turned the volume up on those slaps, tho, just for extra effect.

[Wryan]

Also watched the Suspiria remake. Hoo-boy. This was some wild shit. I liked it a lot though. Great cast. The cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (also of Call Me...) is just superlative. He captures something ineffable and wrong even in the drab tones of a permanently wet Berlin winter. The real squirmy sequences are pretty gnarly, and the climax is certainly bonkers, but I liked it a helluva lot. The whole is so watchable in its casual barbarity.

[StanleyK]

That bit in Samsara where the guy smears stuff on his face is scarier than any horror film I've watched recently. Is it just me or is it completely out of place with the rest of the movie?

Also, it was pretty surreal recognizing a subway station I used to frequent daily in a movie. First time that's ever happened for me.

Also also, it felt quite a bit longer than its 95 minutes. This and Baraka are pretty interesting, but for this type of movie nothing can touch Koyaanisqatsi.

[Lazlo]

My Tom Cruise podcast has been running a March Madness bracket for the best Tom Cruise movie. Today's the championship between Minority Report and Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Would love to have some of y'all vote. Can't figure out how to embed a tweet, so here's a link to the poll:

https://twitter.com/TheCruiseCruise/...46410977476610

[Ezee E]

My Tom Cruise podcast has been running a March Madness bracket for the best Tom Cruise movie. Today's the championship between Minority Report and Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Would love to have some of y'all vote. Can't figure out how to embed a tweet, so here's a link to the poll:

https://twitter.com/TheCruiseCruise/...46410977476610

Been following this hrough Instagram. Surprised all the Mission Impossibles were so successful.

[Lazlo]

Been following this hrough Instagram. Surprised all the Mission Impossibles were so successful.

Yep, I see your votes; thanks for participating! It's been an odd tournament for sure, especially with all six Missions making the Sweet Sixteen. I wonder how it would have played out if the seeding was done by Letterboxd "popularity" rather than average user rating. Some of the more classic Cruise movies might have gone farther and not have been in play-in matches, particularly Top Gun or Rain Man. Hard to say.

[Skitch]

There were a couple that were Sophies Choicing me.

[MadMan]

Joe Bob Briggs' touching tribute to Larry Cohen makes me wish Raiders was still posting here. My first Cohen film I ever saw was It's Alive, a super gory killer baby movie that is one of those B movies that made me want to see more. God Told Me To is a cult classic, a powerful flick all the more relevant now in the era of shootings, and was a rec from Raiders, which is why I saw it in the first place. He wrote Phone Booth, which was in a similar vein and is a solid thriller. I also dig Q and The Stuff, low budget fun movies that are pure 1980s in a cheesy and interesting way.

Also Black Caesar and Hell Up In Harlem is a fine blaxplotation double bill that inspired other films. Larry Cohen may not have been a great filmmaker, but he was a good one and his movies have made an impact on myself and others, for better or for worse.

[Wryan]

Watched Pather Panchali. What a sublime movie. Hard to believe it was both the director's first movie and the cinematographer's first. It's just uncommonly, exquisitely observed. So lovely and unadorned throughout. The scene where brother and sister run off to see the train amid the feathery flowing white wheat (?) field is just gorgeous, and the big storm has incredible tension with barely a few words of dialogue throughout. This is just a magnificent work.

[Morris Schæffer]

Joe Bob Briggs' touching tribute to Larry Cohen makes me wish Raiders was still posting here. My first Cohen film I ever saw was It's Alive, a super gory killer baby movie that is one of those B movies that made me want to see more. God Told Me To is a cult classic, a powerful flick all the more relevant now in the era of shootings, and was a rec from Raiders, which is why I saw it in the first place. He wrote Phone Booth, which was in a similar vein and is a solid thriller. I also dig Q and The Stuff, low budget fun movies that are pure 1980s in a cheesy and interesting way.

Also Black Caesar and Hell Up In Harlem is a fine blaxplotation double bill that inspired other films. Larry Cohen may not have been a great filmmaker, but he was a good one and his movies have made an impact on myself and others, for better or for worse.

Cellular too with pre-fame Chris Evans.

[MadMan]

Cellular too with pre-fame Chris Evans.

Yep. I still need to see that one.

[Dukefrukem]

Did anyone see that Joe & Anthony Russo were given free reign to take any MGM property and adapt it? Movies being thrown around: Thomas Crown Affair. Poltergeist among others.

https://deadline.com/2019/04/avenger...ir-1202591932/