28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[megladon8]

About to watch Hitchcock's Frenzy for the first time.

Random Hitchcock thought - I always forget how extensive his filmography is. Everyone knows him for 10 or so classic titles, but he made a LOT of movies.

[Spun Lepton]

I watched most of My Blue Heaven last night with Steve Martin and Rick Moranis. What a misfire that was. Steve Martin as an Italian mobster just doesn't work, he was sorely miscast in that role. It needed a DeNiro or Pacino type. It also felt like nobody was really giving it much effort. Everything was so flat and safe. All the scenes that I think were supposed to be the "big laughs" just did not deliver. Honestly, I think if they had gotten DeNiro and Charles Grodin together again, filmed it with more dramatic lighting, and aimed for a more grounded tone they might have had something here. This should have been big hearted, not big humored. 4/10

[Idioteque Stalker]

About to watch Hitchcock's Frenzy for the first time.

Thoughts? I've been meaning to see Frenzy but never have for whatever reason.

[Peng]

I liked that one a lot, feel like him adapting to the era with some seedier variation of his usual suspense mode, but with a lot of dark humor throughout. I still remember potato truck scene.

[Mal]

Yeah Spun, My Blue Heaven is a miss. Never comes together and feels off- definitely agree it needed a true Mobster type in Martin’s role.

[Ezee E]

Got my 2020 Letterboxd results yesterday.

Found it funny that Mathieu Amalric was my most watched actor last year. There can't be many that have the same.

[Dukefrukem]

I watched too much MCU in 2020 for my Letterboxd data to matter.

[baby doll]

Got my 2020 Letterboxd results yesterday.

Found it funny that Mathieu Amalric was my most watched actor last year. There can't be many that have the same.

Mine was Mihashi Tatsuya (8 films), who's probably best know for playing Phil Moscowitz in What's Up, Tiger Lily?.

[megladon8]

Thoughts? I've been meaning to see Frenzy but never have for whatever reason.

Lots...

It's a very icky movie. Where most all (that I have seen) of Hitchcock's films felt fairly classy by comparison, this feels a short step away from a grind house or exploitation film. The major rape/murder scene is gross and uncomfortable even by modern standards, and on top of that Hitchcock seems to go out of his way to show nearly every key female character topless at some point. A far cry from the "less is more" sensibilities that I associate with Hitchcock's work.

I'm not saying any of this as a negative, though. It was just shocking and unexpected, to see such a crass and unfiltered film from him.

Performances were great all around, particularly Barry Foster.

I have to admit I was a little put off by some of the humor, especially when it was adjacent to the more brutal scenes of violence and assault. And what was with the inspector's wife and her cooking? It was a weird bit, that kind of worked the first time but when it became a recurring gag, I didn't know what Hitchcock was trying to do with it aside from provide levity amidst some very gross subject matter.

It also just kind of...ends? With all the drama drama that is caused with its "they've got the wrong man!" storyline, when we finally reach what seems like the beginning of the climax it is actually just...the end of the movie. Roll credits. It's done.

For a movie that spent quite a bit of time on strange sight gags (the potato truck) and the aforementioned "wife can't cook" joke, I was a bit disappointed by how it felt like it ended 15 minutes too soon.

As with anything Hitchcock it is beautifully filmed, and on location to boot. Some beautiful looks at London, and I enjoyed the dichotomy of the beautiful aerial shots compared to the seedy, grimy street level images.

Not Hitchcock's best, but still miles above most. Look forward to revisiting it in time.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Icky Hitch, you say? I'm here for it.

[megladon8]

Icky Hitch, you say? I'm here for it.

Yeah, it's very different Hitchcock for sure. Even if you don't end up liking it, it's worth seeing for the novelty if a Hitchcock film with very frank talk of sex, and a large amount of nudity.

[Idioteque Stalker]

a Hitchcock film with very frank talk of sex, and a large amount of nudity.

Okay, now you're making it sound like my new favorite movie.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Two more animes:

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's sci-fi premise is explained just enough so that we understand the rules but don't get bogged down in the details. Similar to his most recent film Mirai (which is a bit more clumsy in presenting its fantastical elements), Mamoru Hosoda's greatest strength lies in the lucid detailing of profound individual growth -- in Mirai's case, a four-year-old's journey from resenting a newborn baby sister to proudly embracing his role as a big brother; and in this case, a young woman's gradual realization that fixing (or worse, avoiding) life's uncomfortable perplexities is far less preferable to working through them openly with her loved ones. It moves at a brisk pace, prioritizing wonderful character moments instead of sci-fi gobbledygook, resulting in what one letterboxd user called "The optimism of Miyazaki with the energy of Shinkai," and I totally agree: add the kindness of Kiki's Delivery Service to the exhilarating rush of Your Name and you get The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which by my account is superior to both.

Belladonna of Sadness is not for the faint of heart. If you can stomach it, however, prepare for something special. Rarely have I seen such a concentrated mass of boldly drawn, indelible imagery. Eiichi Yamamoto must've prepared by subjecting himself to numerous bad trips. Power, sex, and spirituality co-mingle in a manner fitting only the most hidden parts of our subconscious, where the line between normalcy and taboo becomes blurred. The prog-psych music fits perfectly, with exceptional bass work and even a couple of honest-to-goddess songs. If there is a coherent feminist message (and I'm not sure there is), it's undermined by a hilariously brazen final thirty seconds that attempts to connect real-life women revolutionaries to this parable about a young girl who sold her soul and body to satan. I'm eager to seek out the other two entries in this erotic Animerama series -- Cleopatra and A Thousand and One Nights -- but they seem a bit more hard to find.

[Dukefrukem]

Two more animes:

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's sci-fi premise is explained just enough so that we understand the rules but don't get bogged down in the details. Similar to his most recent film Mirai (which is a bit more clumsy in presenting its fantastical elements), Mamoru Hosoda's greatest strength lies in the lucid detailing of profound individual growth -- in Mirai's case, a four-year-old's journey from resenting a newborn baby sister to proudly embracing his role as a big brother; here, a young woman's gradual realization that fixing (or worse, avoiding) life's uncomfortable perplexities is far less preferable to working through them openly with her loved ones. It moves at a brisk pace, prioritizing wonderful character moments instead of sci-fi gobbledygook, resulting in what one letterboxd user called "The optimism of Miyazaki with the energy of Shinkai," and I totally agree: add the kindness of Kiki's Delivery Service to the exhilarating rush of Your Name and you get The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which by my account is superior to both.

I watched that years ago because everyone said it was one of the best anime's ever made. And I can't recall a single second of it now.

[Idioteque Stalker]

I watched that years ago because everyone said it was one of the best anime's ever made. And I can't recall a single second of it now.

Yeah, it's a downside the film doesn't have many big memorable moments. Despite that, I pretty much loved it. Doubt I'll ever proclaim it one of the best animes ever made, but I won't argue against the notion.

[StuSmallz]

Don't get attached to anything you aren't willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.


[

Show Spoiler

"A Los Angeles crime saga"; its tagline certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to setting the hype high for the film to come, but Michael Mann's Heat ultimately ends up justifying most of those lofty expectations, as Mann draws inspiration from both true events as well as from his previous films (including his 1989 TV movie LA Takedown, which served as the basis for this film), in order to create a sort of grand culmination of his career up to this point, pairing an excellent screenplay, a cast of Hollywood legends, and a sleek, stylish aesthetic in order to bring a unexpectedly expansive scope to a familar genre, creating one of his best films, and what can only be described as a true crime epic in the end.


Heat primarily tells the story of two men; Neil McCauley (portrayed by Robert De Niro), a high class armed thief looking to take down the biggest score of his "career" with his crew (while also avoiding a return trip to prison at all costs), and Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino), the LAPD detective chasing him, who is willing to sacrifice everything in order to catch McCauley, even as his personal life collapses all around him as his obsessive pursuit winds ever on. The two men's stories create a strong central dynamic through the sheer force of the screen icons portraying them, finally acting face-to-face with each other after a tantalizing close brush in the second Godfather (including a now infamous face-to-face conversation in the kind of all-night diner that Mann obsesses over), as they serve as mirror images of the other on their respective sides of the law, right down to the way that McCauley's newly-formed romance passes Hanna's crumbling marriage on a parallel track, and, even though they inevitably end up being enemies by nature, the two still can't help but share a respect for the other for their mutual professionalism, just like we can't choose one of them to truly "root" for here, so evenly spread are the film's sympathies for both of them.


However, while they would be enough to center an entire film around on their own, Heat's story isn't content to merely focus on just them, as Mann's screenplay widens its scope to also develop their personal lives, and their (often troubled) relationships with their associates, families, and lovers, weaving a multi-webbed tapestry of a crime drama that's just as much about the drama as it is the crime, with its well-written, emotionally insightful dialogue letting us know exactly what makes the characters tick. And, while the film is held back slightly by the occasional sense of bloat, with a few too many characters and sub-plots feeling crammed in, Heat's broader vision still ends up working in its for the most part, fully immersing us in its vivid LA underworld for nearly 3 hours straight, portraying each and every side of the city of angels, from shabby shacktowns to literal glass houses on the rolling hills above, to the point that the city itself is basically its own character here.


Finally, Heat impresses through its sheer overall style, as Mann paints the concrete jungle that is Los Angeles as a veritable sea of urban lights, with its immaculate, steely blue pallete and moody Elliot Goldenthal score creating an almost dream-like vibe to its imagery, which contrasts nicely with the film's insistence on a tactile sense of realism otherwise, as Mann engages in another familiar element of his films, that of the elite, professional criminal who's so good that you can't help but admire him, as the film takes joy in meticulously laying out the step-by-step intricacies of each heist, culminating in a spectacular centerpiece shootout that turns LA into a literal warzone, as the deafening sound of automatic weapons boom throughout the streets, with the thrills not coming from any truly unrealistic stuntwork, but from the sheer intensity that such an incident brings with it (which would see a terrifying echo in real life just a couple of years later with the North Hollywood shootout). All in all, this is one of the strongest efforts from one of the best directors working today, and ultimately well worth its lengthy runtime, so all I have to ask you now is, can you feel the Heat, coming roaring your way? Because I know I can.

]


Final Score: 8.5

[Skitch]

"You know what they're looking at? US."

[Dukefrukem]

[Scar]

I looooove Heat. Saw it a few times in the theater.

[Spun Lepton]

I looooove Heat. Saw it a few times in the theater.

Never seen it.

[megladon8]

You need to get on that.

[Scar]

I’ll prioritize his viewing when quarantines are done.

The sound system in the basement is choice.

[megladon8]

I’ll prioritize his viewing when quarantines are done.

The sound system in the basement is choice.

If the actual windows of your home don't vibrate and crack during the street level shootout, you don't have the proper sound system for viewing Heat.

[Scar]

When I watched Mad Max, the former roommate said she heard it in the driveway.

This is the sub paired with Wharfedale towers, center, and rears.
https://www.musicdirect.com/speakers...-s12-subwoofer

[Skitch]

My 7.1 sound system with massive Wharfdale sub is in storage