Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
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This movie is just beautiful.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
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Does it live up to that trailer?? Seems way too good to be true.Quoting Ivan Drago (view post)
I'm curious if it lives up to the hype or turns out to be another one of those experiences you needed to see opening night at Fantastic Fest with a big audience.Quoting Skitch (view post)
It's incredible. Just next-level GOD MODE from Cage.
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
Once TIFF is done this is will immediately be the first movie I see.
For years I'd been waiting to leap at whatever Cosmatos did next, so the fact that is also looks like this? Fantastic.
I purposely watched the trailer (which was stunning) only once back when it was released to keep it all as fresh as possible.
So yeah, can't wait!
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
I have to give it a mild yay because there is some stuff in the first half of the movie that is simply extraordinary and utterly unique. Ultimately though, the film's emptiness catches up with it and the second half becomes a tedious, predictable bore. I liked it more when it was a hallucinatory impenetrable nightmare before it devolves into a campy Nic Cage splatter-fest.
Linus Roache is great though, channeling Alice Cooper and Charles Manson, and Andrea Riseborough is captivating in every scene she's in.
Last edited by Spinal; 09-21-2018 at 04:12 PM.
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
Here's the problem:
[]
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
Gorgeous indeed. []
I have a rough interpretation of the story as []Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
I intend to iron these out more after I've seen it again this weekend, but there's loads more to unpack than I expected, tonal shift be damned.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
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I enjoyed bits and pieces of this and it certainly was an experience. I woulda enjoyed it more if Cosmatos' ego wasn't so fucking big. (2 hours? Really, dude?)
Agree with Spinal that the first part is better than the second .
Last edited by Irish; 09-22-2018 at 10:46 PM.
An initial three stars that I have a feeling will wear down as I think and talk about the movie.
Yes, the visual spectacle and visualization of a heavy metal ballad is certainly on display here. To the point that it's almost a music video more than a narrative movie. Only thing is, there is a straightforward story here that's pretty dang simple here (and already addressed by MCers). The romance is also anything but interesting here. There's not really any real chemistry between Mandy and Cage in my opinion.
BTW, watched this in Arizona, and for the first time ever, saw the Alamo have to boot out someone. This is an audience of four by the way. I could hear some rumblings, but wasn't close enough to them for it to annoy me. A couple were just talking a lot, and someone was annoyed and shared their complaint. Alamo kept their eyes out, and the couple, drunk most likely, purposely got louder to where I could hear it too, and were quickly kicked out. Nice job on the Alamo staff.
Anyhow, casting Nic Cage in this is pretty effective at this point. It'd be a great tip to his career if he finished his career on this. We know he's nowhere near the end to this, but still.
I realized later that this was the first Nicolas Cage movie I've seen since Adaptation (not counting animation and cameos).
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
Three stars is about right.
This is the Neon Demon of the year.
The bathroom freak out alone is better than anything in Neon Demon. Cage forging some bizarre custom sword that he somehow knows how to do is better than Neon Demon. "You ripped my shirt" is better than Neon Demon. ... just way better than Neon Demon.Quoting Ezee E (view post)
I too prefer the intimate, somber first half over the raged up second half (though there are many poetics moments of stillness amidst all the chaos_
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
More in that it's a strange, unique movie that will have many lovers and probably even more hating on it. But essentially is a midnight movie all in the end.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
I also thought of The Neon Demon as I was watching it. More in the sense of it being a movie with an artistic aesthetic I wished more directors would emulate, but unfortunately in service of a script with nothing to say.
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
Can you remember a single scene, outside of the ending, of Neon Demon?Quoting Ezee E (view post)
Mountain lion in hotel room comes to mind.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Still had to google it.
Oh man, that movie has several absolutely gorgeous shots that are crystal clear in my memory. My favorite is Jena Malone lying naked in her room, illuminated only by the moon which creates a silhouette effect. She later spreads her legs (again, silhouette effect so nothing explicit is really shown) and a puddle of blood slowly emanates below her.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Another shot I really like is Elle Fanning listening to some bit of violence through her motel room wall while the camera keeps going back and back and back until the perspective is clearly way beyond the geometry of the motel room, but she is still enclosed in total blackness.
I also like the strobe triangle scene.
I'm a cinematography whore, so I'm all about these things.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Necrophilia isn't some shit you just forgetQuoting Dukefrukem (view post)
The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.
46/100
Turns out, dull, monotonous revenge porn covered in a self-consciously nostalgic sensibility married to a strong sense of atmospherics is still dull, monotonous revenge porn when you get right down to it. As soon as the inciting event occurs, it is pretty much all downhill as Cosmatos and Cage preach to the perverted.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
That bathroom scene might be the worst scene I've seen all year. It's just bad.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM