Seconds is excellent. A classic tale of science and paranoia. Be careful what you wish for.
Seconds is excellent. A classic tale of science and paranoia. Be careful what you wish for.
Blog!
And it's happened once again
I'll turn to a friend
Someone that understands
And sees through the master plan
But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well, I guess this is growing up
Duke's Top 50 Most Influential Movies Throughout Life
The movies I've seen from age 10-35 that have had ANY (small or large) impact on my personal viewpoint on life, lived by myself, or the perceived perspective of someone else's life.
#48
Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
Another fresh one. This film does not care about your feelings. It is completely non-forgiving, but there's just one scene that stands out as a gut punch, especially with new parents or soon to be come parents. It feels like a complete non sequitur when the scene begins. A woman, Jennifer Carpenter, who has postpartum depression, is about to go back to work for the first time in months after giving birth. The love for her baby is completely drawn out and they even show a shot of the husband holding the baby as mom is going to work... at a bank. What hits hard about what comes next is the complete misdirection from an advertising point of view. Jennifer Carpenter is on the freakin' poster, 5th billed. If anyone knows the slightest thing about one sheets and screen time there is probably a good chance that Jennifer Carpenter becomes a hostage at the bank. Whelp, I won't spoil it here. Watch it and get back to me or just take my word for it.
Run Lola Run was fun stuff indeed, and something that made me look into more movie scores.
Nightingale is one of the more overlooked movies from last year because it's hard to recommend that type of movie to someone.
Nice, Duke. I freaking loved that movie. It doesn't feel as long as it is.
Didn't realize you loved it that much. Super cool.
Yep. Certainly goes against convention, just like his other movies (and books) do.
DAC was great. Still need to see Bone Tomahawk.
[+] closer to next rating / [-] closer to previous rating
- Dark (S3) ✦✦✦½ [-]
- Fall (Mann, 2022) ✦✦✦½ [-]
- Ms. Marvel (S1) ✦½ [+]
- Dark (S2) ✦✦✦✦
- Moon Knight (S1) ✦✦½ [-]
- Get Carter (Hodges, 1971) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Prey (Trachtenberg, 2022) ✦✦✦ [-]
- Black Bird (S1) ✦✦✦✦
- Better Call Saul (S6) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Halo (S1) ✦✦✦ [-]
- Slow Horses (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- H4Z4RD (Govaerts, 2022/BE) ✦✦½ [-]
- Gangs of London (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- We Own This City (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Thor: Love and Thunder (Waititi, 2022) ✦✦ [+]
All three are winners for me. Zahler + Vaughn is an unforeseen successful combination.Quoting megladon8 (view post)
#48
Duck Amuck, La Jetee, The Man Who Planted Trees, Pas De Deux, The Red Balloon, and World of Tomorrow
all the balloons in paris
can make a child smile
and lift into the sunset
will they ever be back?
Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 09-26-2020 at 01:14 PM.
I cheated.
Duck Amuck probably deserves to be on my most influential list. It's the first thing I remember belly laughing over.
That director is 3 for 3 with me as well, but Vaughns performance in Cell Block shows that guy really does have acting chops. I've said so for years.
48.
Movie: High and Low (1963)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Commentary: One of the great sweaty movies, as two vastly different worlds come face to face and try to figure out how it all went awry. Superb use of 2.35:1 and a sly script that makes you think it’s heading towards an obvious narrative reveal, but instead just doubles down on its title dichotomy. Throw in the fact that this goes proto-Zodiac for a good hour or so, how can you not just shake your head and smile. Kurosawa, man. What the hell was in his water?
Key Quote: “Don't worry. You wouldn't understand. It's business.”
Best Moment: The carnival...
Director: Ron Shelton
Films Seen: 4
Average: 69/100
Commentary: So we quite quickly meet the first director on this list that I would never claim to be a favorite from a subjective perspective, but the stats don’t lie. (Also, I didn’t see his most recent two films, so that helps.) Sturdy and unspectacular as a stylist, Shelton knows how to sketch the sports-inflected insecurities of the American male.
Best Film: Bull Durham
“Worst” Film: Dark Blue. It’s more mediocre, really, anchored by a typically fine Kurt Russell appearance.
Key Quote: "When you make a hit movie, people answer your calls and things get financed. When you don’t, they don’t."
Musician: The Breeders
Commentary: I’m a sucker for crunchy guitars and female singers - and The Breeders are one of the reasons why. Hit me at exactly the right time, and they keep popping up at irregular intervals with damn solid albums to remind me all over again how lucky we are to have Kim Deal.
Best Album: Last Splash (1993)
Best Song: “The She” from Title TK (2002)
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
High and Low is next-level awesome. Cool screenshot.
Black and white Kurasawa? I haven't seen it but I'm sure its fucking spectacular.
Hahaha Dark Blue wasn't bad at all from what I remember!
Strangely enough, it was my first Kurosawa. It's fantastic.
Mine was Seven Samurai, on IFC or Sundance, in 1998. Nasty week of insomnia, it was 2a.m., I bet this will put me to sleep. How very wrong I was. Watched every frame.
48. LAUREL CANYON (2003)
“I can't control my heart... I wouldn't want to, even if I could.”
I struggled with trying to decide where to rank Laurel Canyon. This is not a particularly great, groundbreaking, nor epic film. It doesn’t have any significant storytelling nor impactful material. But what it does have is a good cast - Christian Bale’s Sam and Kate Beckinsale’s Alex are a cute-yet-uptight studious American couple who are looking to spend some vacation time at the home of Sam’s mother Jane before their upcoming nuptials. Off they fly to California, for some relaxation in mom’s allegedly empty home. But what they find instead is an occupied homestead, including Jane herself (Frances McDormand). She’s a legendary record producer who drives Sam crazy because his mom is just so… wacky (i.e. not conservative).
What makes this an enjoyable film, despite its sort of lackadaisical scripting and motivations, is its commitment to fuck around, smoke a joint or cigarette, and get drunk. It’s a hangout movie that, at first, doesn’t really want to be one- and that’s where the Sam and Alex push/pull comes in. Fittingly, the film starts out with the two of them having a coitus session interrupted by Jane leaving a voicemail on their answering machine. And by the end of the film, Jane has, effectively, taken over their lives and the characters have learned to succumb to their emerging free-wheeling desires (sex stuff) that they normally would suppress in other settings, as well as make peace with the disrupted road ahead of them. Sam discovers he has urges to be with another woman, while Alex becomes seduced by Jane and her Rock ’N Roll aura.
On top of all of that conflict for the viewer, there’s the music. Oh, the music. The opening credits of the film features text flowing over the lovely Los Angeles canyons of the story, set to a dreamy track called “In a Funny Way” by the band Mercury Rev. This ushers in a fluttery, mystical mood regarding the musical history and creations of a time now past - the history that Jane was part of and is still trying to continue in her in-home record studio. This throwback feeling is all around them in the present- and thankfully also embodied within Jane’s partner Ian (Alessandro Nivola, who isn’t British but it doesn’t matter- the man is sex on legs). He’s somewhat of a catalyst for the behavioral changes in the leads, while also adding needed color as he croons in the studio during creative collaborations with Jane and his band. Overall, while Laurel Canyon isn’t as artistically lush a picture as the storied musical history that came before it, the attempt to evoke a certain mood is often quite successful, so much that I can’t help but watch it over and over, always wanting it to be better, yet still enjoying what is available as a feeling and experience.
(Available via digital rental on most platforms)
Last edited by Mal; 08-09-2020 at 04:15 AM.
added to queue.48.
[SIZE=2]
Movie: High and Low (1963)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Commentary: One of the great sweaty movies, as two vastly different worlds come face to face and try to figure out how it all went awry. Superb use of 2.35:1 and a sly script that makes you think it’s heading towards an obvious narrative reveal, but instead just doubles down on its title dichotomy. Throw in the fact that this goes proto-Zodiac for a good hour or so, how can you not just shake your head and smile. Kurosawa, man. What the hell was in his water?
and
LAUREL CANYON has been on my to watch list for years.
I got this from the Criterion sale and watching it for the first time since my early 20's. Just watched Part I which is wild that a movie spends so much time establishing its team and the setting, especially with it really being the first time that the "team assembly" story happened as far as I'm aware.
Mifune's bit where he gives the children rice almost seems entirely improvisational. He's so happy while doing it
I'd never even heard of Laurel Canyon until Zac spoiled the choice on letterboxd the other day. From now on I will try to skip over those letterboxd updates in an effort to preserve the sanctity of this thread.
Number of movies I've seen from each list:
trans - 1
Zac - 1
Duke - 0
Either Duke has obscure taste or I tend to avoid the types of movies where actors wear phallic prosthesis on their face.
I am rewatching some movies on LB for this list, but I only count rewatches if I finish the movie. And a positive star rating is no guarantee that its on the list.
Last edited by Mal; 08-09-2020 at 02:50 PM.
Duke's Top 50 Most Influential Movies Throughout Life
The movies I've seen from age 10-35 that have had ANY (small or large) impact on my personal viewpoint on life, lived by myself, or the perceived perspective of someone else's life.
#47
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
As a kid, I used to believe the tile was part of a trilogy. I was knee deep in trilogies at this point in time when I saw it (a few will be referenced later in this list) and I just assumed every successful movie had it's own trilogy. Plus how misleading: "The Adventure Begins". Where's the Adventure Strikes Back and the Last Adventure? But this was the VHS age and I'll be damned if I'm not going to memorize every line in this movie. There's something about the campyness of the tone, the secret agent parts and the kung-fu parts that made this stand out. It's probably more of a guilty pleasure at this point, but it had a huge impact on sub-genre films. Fred Ward also gets the credit for introducing me to Tremors.
Man I have got to watch this damn Remo movie. My whole life I've heard people talk about it and I've never seen a frame.
Yes you do.
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