28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Scar]

Because it's awesome. At least, that's what the latest research indicates.

Current research indicates that this post is correct.

And awesome.

[Pop Trash]

lol at using the imdb top list as some indicator of value. it's an average movie.

I knew someone would say this, but I kind of understand why most of the films in the imdb top 50 are popular even if I think some of them are overrated. I'm just at a loss as to why Leon is considered much better by imdb voters than say, Bound or Go or other films of its ilk.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Does anyone want to make a passionate defense of Leon/The Professional? It's an ok movie and certainly Gary Oldman hams it up well, but why the hell is this in the top 50 on imdb? Am I missing something?

yeah its a bland film, but Oldman's intense overacting is the best thing about it.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

I watched a double feature of Samsara and Drawing Restraint 9 last night.

Samsara - Righteous and wonderous filmmaking. So much better than the only other Fricke I have seen (Chronos).

Drawing Restraint 9 - Pretentious crap.

Also, I just watched Ken Jacobs' short THE DOCTOR'S DREAM. My opinion of Jacobs is going up a bit with this one, very similar to Cornell's ROSE HOBART in its lucid reworking of found footage - consisting of various doctor visits from old hollywood films. Cut together they make little sense narratively but the cohesiveness of tone amongst the footage is astounding, as if their was a playbook amongst filmmakers on how to make a sincere doctor visit scene.

[Spinal]

I watched Samsara last night too. Ebert called it uplifting, but I found much of it unsettling. Particularly the scenes of religious fervor.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

I watched Samsara last night too. Ebert called it uplifting, but I found much of it unsettling. Particularly the scenes of religious fervor.

Uplifting is a bit of a stretch seeing that besides a lot of natural beauty and artistic expression it also focuses on human destruction of the planet and those very unsettling religious fervor you alluded to, especially the time-lapse scene in Mecca which really was beautiful but almost claustrophobic because of the swarms of people.

I though it was one of the better time-lapse films, although I still have yet to see any of the qatsi trilogy.

[MadMan]

Just found out Nick is writing for Slant now? That's amazing. Congrats.

So that's why he hardly posts here anymore. Lucky guy.

I just saw baby doll's **1/2 rating for Dolls, and I thought, "My God, I can finally talk to him about something and maybe even agree!"

Then I realized the rating was for Takeshi Kitano's interlocking-vignette feature, and not that Stuart Gordon movie where the dollmakers attack unwanted visitors with an army of killer dolls.

I don't belong...here...

I forgot about the Gordon Dolls. That movie sounds shittastic.

The Professional is an entertaining action movie with heart and great performances from its main trio of actors. I loved it.

Demme's Stop Making Sense really makes me want to have been able to see the Talking Heads in the mid-80s. A phenomenal piece of tour footage and conceptual storytelling... love the closing song with its immense guitar solo, and "Once in a Lifetime" retains its power so well.

One of the best concert movies I've ever seen. I realize that as I go through their discography my main problem with The Talking Heads is that they are truly best live. Still one of the best bands of the 80s, regardless.

Bullitt is one of my favorite cop movies. They don't make them 'em like they used to, that's for sure, and its one of McQueen's best performances. That car chase is excellent, but I prefer the movie's quieter, more suspenseful moments.

[Winston*]

I watched Samsara last night too. Ebert called it uplifting, but I found much of it unsettling. Particularly the scenes of religious fervor.

The chicken sucking machine is horrifying.

[Spinal]

By the way, Samsara and Drawing Restraint 9 back to back? That's an attention span I do not have.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

By the way, Samsara and Drawing Restraint 9 back to back? That's an attention span I do not have.

I'll admit to being on the computer during parts of Drawing Restraint 9. Now that I have seen DR9 and a couple Cremasters I can say Barney's style is way too unemotional and clinical for me. I started watching Doug Aitken's video works from the 90's and I dig those quite a bit more than Barney's work.

The chicken sucking machine is horrifying.

yeah that was wretched, as well as the trash/landfill scenes.


A few new viewings today:

New York, New York (Scorsese): Always had heard this was Scorsese's weakest but I think it has more of his touch than his bland DiCaprio vehicles from the 2000's. Liza and Deniro are very good and there are several very poetic scenes. The ending is a bit tacky. All in all, a pretty average film, Scorsese getting his Vincent Minnelli on.

Pollock (Ed Harris): Pollock was a crabby alcoholic who hated on his artistic peers and influences and cared too much about what critics and friends thought of him. Thats all. It's possible to portray a tortured artist less one dimensionally than this boring film - I think John Maybury's Francis Bacon film Love is the Devil does a tremendous feat of humanizing a misanthrope.

Doug Aitken Compilation: A compilation of his 90's video art I downloaded on KG. "The Fear" and "Eraser" were probably the two best videos as well as the auctioneer one that I can't remember the name of. I also watched a stand-alone Aitken short called Into the Sun which experiments with footage taken from sets and stages in Bollywood, and also images of productions and faces of Bollywood stars from magazines.

[Rowland]

There certainly is a lot that is gorgeous about Samsara, which I enjoyed best at its most eccentric (the office drone sculpting himself a new face, the double-barrel shotgun casket), but too much of the ethnographic portraiture and macrocosmic time-lapse imagery struck me as warmed-over Baraka (some of the locations from that film and Chronos are even revisited), while Fricke's social commentary is even blunter than in those films, but also more ambitious, for better and for worse. I've also grown really weary of those shots in which people stare back into the camera with an expressionless glare that has obviously been coached, it worked sparingly in Koyaanisqatsi but now comes across as kinda smug, and is that factory from Manufactured Landscapes the only one in China that allows access for filmmakers or what?

[Stay Puft]

My thoughts on Samsara are similar to Rowland's.... and now you can all go join the (until now non-existent) discussion!:
http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showth...a-(Ron-Fricke)

[Rowland]

My thoughts on Samsara are similar to Rowland's.... and now you can all go join the (until now non-existent) discussion!:
http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showth...a-(Ron-Fricke)

Huh, I could have sworn I'd already voted in your thread. First nay!

[MadMan]

New York, New York (Scorsese): Always had heard this was Scorsese's weakest but I think it has more of his touch than his bland DiCaprio vehicles from the 2000's. Liza and Deniro are very good and there are several very poetic scenes. The ending is a bit tacky. All in all, a pretty average film, Scorsese getting his Vincent Minnelli on.

I haven't seen New York, New York but I don't think his collaborations with Leo have been bland. I'll admit though to liking both The Departed and Shutter Island way more than I probably should have, which makes me as guilty as Ebert is-he gave Shutter Island a higher rating than I did.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Paradise: Hope is definitely an experience. Second best of the Trilogy. Paradise: Faith lags way behind the other two.

[dreamdead]

I spent the first hour of William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident waiting for the inevitable rescue to the scandalized individuals about to be strung up by the indifferent crowd. When it became apparent that the first had other plans, I sat up and took notice. The film had mutated to something far more interesting and contestatory: it became an indictment of the sort of vigilante justice that 1930s-40s film valorized. As this film undercut the sentiments of those other films, the film closed with the ultimate Henry Fonda monologue, which transcended The Grapes of Wrath's monologue through its even more universal mentality.

Excellent stuff, and the type of anti-Western that succeeds in part because it uses Hollywood conventions against itself.

[Ezee E]

Does anyone want to make a passionate defense of Leon/The Professional? It's an ok movie and certainly Gary Oldman hams it up well, but why the hell is this in the top 50 on imdb? Am I missing something?

I love it. The way they present New York almost makes it seem like a European city to me. It's very romanticized there. The action sequences are different from each other, and incredibly well done. There's a story to the action sequences instead of mindless shooting. That's one of Luc Besson's biggest strengths.

The chemistry between Jean Reno and Natalie Portman also makes it work. Jean Reno's never quite matched that performance since. It's a very Sergio Leone type of role.

[dreamdead]

Barry Jenkins's Medicine for Melancholy is an interesting meet-cute film. Most centrally, it revitalizes the role of race in the "one night together" genre. The film has three or four explicit discussions about race relations, and the San Fran excursions into culture of racial significance resonate as some of the strongest moments, where characters are overwhelmed by the magnitude of what came before.

The late reveal of Wyatt Cynac's former girlfriend, however, similarly reveals a slightly essentialist attitude toward race. Had this couple not felt so schematically situated against former (or currently away) partners, it wouldn't have felt so overt. Nonetheless, I like the tinges of political commentary that the film records both about San Fran community and about how race is often glossed in these genres. As this film suggests, it's a powerful foundation and would benefit from a film willing to have a bit deeper discussion and understanding. This starts the conversation, but no one's erudite enough to get at deeper angles of the conversation.

[MadMan]

I love it. The way they present New York almost makes it seem like a European city to me. It's very romanticized there. The action sequences are different from each other, and incredibly well done. There's a story to the action sequences instead of mindless shooting. That's one of Luc Besson's biggest strengths.

The chemistry between Jean Reno and Natalie Portman also makes it work. Jean Reno's never quite matched that performance since. It's a very Sergio Leone type of role.

All of what Ezee said too, heh. And while I was a fan of Jean Reno before I saw this movie (thanks to Godzilla-wasn't his fault that movie sucked-and Ronin) after watching The Professional I fully understood his appeal. I think I also like Natalie Portman as an actress more than most folks do around here.

dreamdead you are viewing some truly quality movies lately. The Ox-Bow Incident barely misses the cut for my Top 20 Westerns, but it is certainly a noteworthy film and very different from the type of films that populated the genre in the 1940s. I'm a tad fascinated at how Henry Fonda's performance in that film is in stark contrast to the villainous role he played decades later in Leone's classic Once Upon A Time In The West.

Oh and going through a director's filmography is enjoyable. I'm working through Cronenberg's at the moment, although there is one 70s film he made that was non-horror that I haven't watched yet, plus M. Butterfly-which I still need to rent from Netflix. I just watched Crash (1996).

[Dead & Messed Up]

I was kinda disappointed with The 'burbs. It felt too broad, with only rare jokes attempted, let alone landing. The best moments involved the trio of "heroes" behaving like children and being admonished by Carrie Fisher. Given Dante's previous and later successes turning the suburbs inside out with unexpected threats, this seems like it's well within his wheelhouse, but it just came off as half-baked, and the double-twist at the end, complete with a tedious Theme Speech, didn't really pay off the satiric goals of the picture. I liked the bit where the two garbagemen (Dick Miller and Robert Picardo) bicker distantly about the right to search a neighbor's garbage. Maybe more sly efforts like that would've improved the story.

[ledfloyd]

The 'burbs was my favorite movie when I was ~13, and I'm not sure I've seen it since I was 17 or so. Now I don't want to revisit it for fear of tarnishing the memory.

[Milky Joe]

I saw John Carpenter's The Thing last night, a beautiful 35mm print. I had somehow never seen it before. Goddamn. What a consummate piece of filmmaking.

[MadMan]

I saw John Carpenter's The Thing last night, a beautiful 35mm print. I had somehow never seen it before. Goddamn. What a consummate piece of filmmaking.

I'm jealous.

And boo DaMU. Booo. I enjoyed The 'burbs when I saw it in my younger days, and then I revisited it a couple years back and still found it as funny and entertaining as ever. Plus I love its digs at suburbia, and the fact that once upon a time Tom Hanks did more comedy than drama. Plus Bruce Dern! Corey Feldman! Henry Gibson being creepy! In addition to the rest of the cast. Its my favorite Joe Dante movie, and doesn't get enough love even though Gremlins is the better film.

[transmogrifier]

In addition to the rest of the cast. Its my favorite Joe Dante movie, and doesn't get enough love even though Gremlins is the better film.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Joe Dante's suburbia-upended interests are significantly better achieved in Gremlins, and especially in Small Soldiers and Matinee. Those films have more confidence in what they want to depict, and that allows them to play the satire with more subtlety and edge. The 'burbs is just too broad and obvious, and I honestly think that the

[

Show Spoiler

reveal that the "villains" were real villains results in the movie collapsing. It's just too easy an out, an unearned, trivial way for the film to have its cake and eat it too. Ninety minutes of self-destructive suburban paranoia capped with the idea that they were right all along. If I were a cynical man, I'd say that was imposed by upper-ups fearful of Tom Hanks "losing" at the end.

]