Oh, definitely. A degree of obscurity is welcome in a story like this, but just a tiny bit of context would go a long way (who is this man, who is this woman, how are they related, etc.). The classic bare-minimum intertitle stuff: "The janitor." "His wife." "His daughter, soon to marry."Quoting baby doll (view post)
Is Jason and the Argonauts on topic? Drumroll.......... Yes, it is!
LB's most popular movies of 1963:
1. The Birds 291k views
2. 8 1/2 165k
3. High and Low 68k
4. Charade 87k
5. The Great Escape 96k
.
.
.
16. Black Sabbath 22k
17. Shock Corridor 20k
18. Jason and the Argonauts 31k
19. Scorpio Rising 20k
20. The Pink Panther 38k
I didn't know Black Sabbath was an anthology film. Watchlisted.
Watching the #3 most popular movie of each year according to LB (if I haven't seen it already).
___________
2013: Prisoners. Like Bong Joon-ho's Mother, I can't point to any aspect of this and call it "bad." The question I keep asking myself is "why?" Did I get more out of it than I had to give? A good movie I'll never watch again. Gyllenhaal > Jackman. Three stars.
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Next up: Boy did I groooooaaannn when I discovered what's next. From the director of Dear Evan Hansen and Wonder. How is this more popular than The Dark Knight Rises, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Hunger Games? Blegh. []
Huh, neat.
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
Watching the #3 most popular movie of each year according to LB (if I haven't seen it already).
___________
2012: The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I had a strong suspicion I wouldn't like this, and I was right. Normally, that would be the extent of it, but I had to dig deeper because my friend calls it one of his favorites and we watched it together. This time, "It's cheesy, what's next?" just wouldn't cut it. A flailing attempt was made (and the edibles didn't help) to express in exact language something I would normally assume is too obvious for words: "I am not the target demographic for this mass-market coming-of-age YA adaptation."
It should've been obvious once the first montage appeared not even five minutes into the movie that, with Perks, Stephen Chbosky has assembled a highlight reel of every monumental teenage moment -- first day of school, first kiss, first hipster friends ("Welcome to the isle of misfit toys"), homecoming, first party, Sadie Hawkins, first time getting high, prom, opening college acceptance letters, last day of school -- all expertly manufactured to maximize the highest amount of emotional response with the lowest amount of effort. Remember on graduation day when you and all your friends posed for a picture and everyone was happy and life was sweet and we were young and beautiful and the class clown did that funny thing? Remember your English teacher who recommended you read The Great Gatsby on the side? The man practically spoke in life lessons! Oh, you didn't have the perfect friend group, or the perfect English teacher? Well now you can imagine what it would've been like. Either way, doesn't that make you feel something? (Side note: discovering David Bowie and The Smiths as a teen is no doubt a monumental moment, but there needs to be more significance beyond simply name-dropping cool bands. In and of itself, watching someone's musical preferences mature is about as enlightening as following along with their potty training regimen. And we're supposed to believe they know The Shaggs but not "Heroes"? Someone didn't think this through.)
Highly recommended to people who regularly spend time flipping through their senior yearbook. I'll stay here, jaded and imperfect, along with the other adults. Two stars.
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Next up: Edward Scissorhands
Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 08-23-2022 at 12:28 AM.
Watching the #3 most popular movie of each year according to LB (if I haven't seen it already).
___________
1990: Edward Scissorhands. I would've unabashedly loved this if not for some wonky third-act shenanigans []. Otherwise a total oddball delight, with a prototypical 90s color palette, an excellent Danny Elfman score, and fairy tale morality I can stand behind: kindness, acceptance, celebrating our differences. How many Gen Xers fell in love with Ryder dancing in the snow? It's weird to think about nowadays, but Burton's early run was borderline miraculous. Three stars.
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Next up: fuck me, Dirty Dancing
Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 10-01-2022 at 01:44 PM.
Watching the #3 most popular movie of each year according to LB (if I haven't seen it already).
___________
1987: Dirty Dancing.
Why do people hate Johnny Castle?
a) He's a Gentile.
b) He didn't go to Princeton, Harvard, or Yale.
c) He's so hot he must be responsible for all pregnancies. Also he might be an escort.
d) It doesn't matter why people hate him. All you need to know is he wears all black, with sunglasses indoors, and doesn't bother to correct people's unfavorable assumptions about him. He's above all that. He's kind of like a monk in that way. In fact, he's actually a very caring, sensitive individual once you get to know him -- but only she has the intuition to do so. Curse these perfect pecs! Damn this sculpted physique! Is she the only one who can free this heart of gold from beauty's oppression?
Two stars.
1976: Rocky. Never judge a book by its cover, or an unexpected box office hit by its cavalcade of mediocre sequels. I avoided Rocky my whole life due to a cynical predisposition against "crowd-pleasers." (How dare someone exploit the pleasure centers of my brain! I'll show you, movie. I refuse to be pleased!) But Rocky is different. Despite its -- and this is true -- eleven-thousand percent box office return, it didn't bubble up from some rotted cesspool of Hollywood greed and opportunism. Instead, it was conceived, nurtured, and fervently protected by a struggling young actor with a partially-paralyzed face. When Rocky chugs a half-dozen eggs, we know it's really Sylvester Stallone (actor/screenwriter) who put in the work. And it's always satisfying to witness a great victory -- real-life or fiction -- born of a great determination. Four stars. Added to my list of favorite Best Picture winners.
___________
Next up: Two odd ducks from the 70s. The Rocky Horror Picture Show and El Topo.
I still havent seen rocky horror or el topo.
I've avoided a lot of these movies on purpose. But I'm looking forward to El Topo.
Why the hell wouldn't you want to see a movie that has a young Susan Sarandon in various states of undress?
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
Rocky Horror is good fun. El Topo is a great western that is truly something else.
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
Watching the #3 most popular movie of each year according to LB (if I haven't seen it already).
___________
1975: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry owns this and Susan Sarandon is a total fox (Baby Doll makes a good point as usual). Some good songs despite rock opera being maybe my least favorite musical genre. Favorite: "Touch-A-Touch." Least Favorite: Sorry... but it's "Time Warp." Undoubtedly a landmark in the mainstream-ification of queerness. Three stars.
1970: El Topo. So many questions... (TW)
Are the clouds real? They look incredible.
What would they have done if AJ flubbed his lines during the dead rabbit bonfire shot? Go out and procure a couple dozen more dead rabbits?
Is it lawful for that boy to be buck naked all the time? I'm not sure what exactly is allowed, but I would've assumed this crossed the line. Is it only admissible because he is AJ's son? Are God and the FBI monitoring me right now? (Sidenote: kid was cast as Paul Atreides in AJ's failed Dune.)
Which do you think AJ feared more: being killed by his lover, or watching her turn lesbian?
Would The Holy Mountain exist if not for the support given by John Lennon and Yoko Ono after they saw this?
Which AJ do we believe: the one who said he "really raped her," or the one who later said the original comment was a "surrealist publicity" stunt? I can't find Mara Lorenzio's account of the events. I've seen some use the word "unsimulated;" people may have varying definitions of that word, so allow me to point out the intercourse in this scene is implied. (How it's implied -- through associative editing of water shooting from a barren desert rock, Moses-style -- is its own disturbing can of worms. But what is this movie aside from a disturbing can of worms?) Three stars.
_______
Next up: Two from the 50s. Dial M for Murder and High Noon.
Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 07-04-2023 at 10:19 PM.
Rocky Horror is good fun, I much prefer Phantom of the Paradise when it comes to 1970s horror rock musicals.
El Topo is probably what people think of when they hear midnight movie or obviously weird, kind of pretentious 70s cult movie. As noted I thought it was great despite some of the questionable elements, I'm not sure I understood the ending.
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Also seems to me that it is a Last Tango In Paris situation as well. Still not good, I'm not sure how to respond to either one in terms of movie making. Seems to me upon some thought that a director should ensure people feel safe on set and not go through with something dangerous or harmful.
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Yeah, the Last Tango stuff... I wasn't aware of it back in the day during my first couple views. That situation seems worse than El Topo since Maria Schneider has spoken about it while Mara Lorenzio hasn't.
Watching the #3 most popular movie of each year according to LB (if I haven't seen it already).
___________
1954: Dial M for Murder. This was a lot of fun. Ray Milland was great -- I should really get around to Lost Weekend at some point. I think I actually saw this once before but forgot? Checks out... it's an enjoyable, intricately plotted lark that lost me a little by the end. Three stars.
1952: High Noon. When Gary Cooper gets the news early on that his nemesis will be arriving on the 12:00 train, then looks up at the clock to see it's already 10:41 -- indicating the entire movie will be taking place in real time -- I knew I was gonna like this. Gotta admire a movie that makes most other movies seem like they're full of nonsense. But the stark morality it postulates (roughly "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, damn everyone else's desires and/or safety") is one I simply can't subscribe to, which makes the whole thing feel like a moot point and brings to mind a different, not-so-revered Gary Cooper movie (The Fountainhead shudder). Foolhardiness is just as shameful as cowardice, yet here the emotional climax is a montage of the townsfolk looking like puppies who pissed the rug because they refuse to join an unnecessary conflict. Shout out to Katy Jurado, who is astounding. Three stars.
Didn't realize this was a Grace Kelly double feature. She is distractingly beautiful.
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Next up: 4 from the 40s. Big Sleep, Spellbound, Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, and Cat People.
Well, I liked it better than that, but I do feel that the movie showed its age somewhat in its take on the genre; something like [] definitely isn't as shocking/rousing as it would've been back in '52, and the main antagonist was essentially just there to be the token bad guy, so it would've been nice if he had been given literally any dimension or development at all, I feel. Still good, though!
Those things didn't bother me. The villain is more legend than man, which is appropriate for a western, particularly one in which the marshal is tasked with rallying the town past their collective fear. (I do think it would've been interesting if he was given more dimension via showing up a changed man or something, but that's not what this movie is.) And another way to frame your spoiled text is that it was ahead of its time, which is a positive.
True.
I'm not a fan of Dial M For Murder, I think it's one of Hitchcock's worst movies.
Now I absolutely love High Noon, I believe it was in my old western top 10 that I'm working on vastly improving.
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Not a big fan of Dial M either.
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