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Everything I've seen so far in theaters from 9/20-10/27 (I live in NYC, can sit through movies easily, work freelance so don't mind going after or before work & I have moviepass) The Good: Spider Man Homecoming (not really a marvel person but the vibe was fun esp compared to the other versions) Loving Vincent Tragedy Girls Florida Project Killing of a Sacred Deer The Pretty Good (but I doubt I'd ever rewatch it): Blade Runner 2049 Dunkirk It Mother The eh/mediocre/catch on cable: Leatherface Happy Death Day American Made Hong Kong Trilogy Battle of the sexes The I wish I could get my time back list: Flatliners American Assassin Total ticket cost: $230 (it's about 17 bucks on average per ticket) I can expound on any of these since they've all been in the last 5 weeks if anyone wants to discuss. zer0spunk fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Oct 27, 2017 |
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Oct 27, 2017 22:32
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Tell me about Loving Vincent because I'm still mad no theatre around here shows it.
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Oct 27, 2017 23:05
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Samuel Clemens posted:Tell me about Loving Vincent because I'm still mad no theatre around here shows it. I went into it sorta blind, I saw a few seconds of the trailer through some sort of autoplay on social media (instagram maybe?) and thought the motion/painted thing looked rad, liked van goghs work like everyone else and figured why not. It's 4:3 which kinda threw me off but I guess makes sense considering his paintings were "portrait" aspects as it were. I also sadly didn't really know much about van gogh's life, despite having been to the museum in Amsterdam, and having a BFA and multiple art history classes in my life. The movie basically is a whodunnit style narrative (which was kinda interesting coming off seeing blade runner OG and 2049 recently) that stars people, real people, that van gogh knew and painted. It essentially revolves around the question of did he shoot himself or not a year after his death. It's incredibly clever, and then, of course, the hand painted frames are so beautiful. I really loved it, but I can see how it's not everyone's cup of tea..and the theater barely had anyone in it at my showing. I will absolutely buy a copy of this on blu ray or if there's luck in the universe UHD when that's possible just to show it off to friends visually. When I described to a friend he said it sounds like scanner darkly meets starry night... You should see it if it's playing in an art theater near you but I have a feeling it's really NY/LA only....
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Oct 27, 2017 23:19
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Samuel Clemens posted:Tell me about Loving Vincent because I'm still mad no theatre around here shows it. The theater in PDX that I work at has it. It's been very popular here, especially with 'the olds'. It's beautiful to look at, sure, but otherwise dull as dishwater. It has a very generic score and flashback structure, and it feels like you're watching extremely beautiful PBS bio-pic programming. Scenes that involve animating during a pan look incredible, but most of the film is animated faces against completely still backgrounds which definitely feels less impressive. Honestly, if they'd made it a short film rather than a feature they could've focused all their time and budget to keep the quality more consistent.
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Oct 27, 2017 23:28
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Can we talk about killing of a sacred deer??!?
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Oct 27, 2017 23:37
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zer0spunk posted:Can we talk about killing of a sacred deer??!? Let's do it. I just saw it tonight and I'm sorting through my feelings on it. I didn't research anything about the director; I might have adjusted my expectations going in if I had known it was the same director as "Dogtooth" (which I saw ages ago and didn't really care for). The trailer makes it seem like much, much more of a straight-forward psychological thriller than it was. I rolled my eyes when people had similar complaints about how "Mother!" was marketed yet here I am being a hypocrite. I want Collin Farrel to make me literally eat my hair.
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Oct 28, 2017 03:58
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zer0spunk posted:Can we talk about killing of a sacred deer??!? It's amazing, funny, and brutal, with Kubrick-level tension, photography, and social commentary.
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Oct 28, 2017 09:09
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Two people walked out minutes before the cafeteria scene at my screening. You came so close!
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Oct 28, 2017 10:23
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In some ways it's even more alienating than mother!, though I do still think that mother! is the feel bad movie of the year.
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Oct 28, 2017 10:40
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Is The Killing of a Sacred Deer scary at all? I can't really handle scary movies but I like the director so I'd like to see it if I could refrain from peeing my pants.
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Oct 28, 2017 15:26
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TychoCelchuuu posted:Is The Killing of a Sacred Deer scary at all? I can't really handle scary movies but I like the director so I'd like to see it if I could refrain from peeing my pants. If you could handle Get Out I don't think this one is that much worse gore-wise, though the tone is decidedly darker once things get going. Definitely not as high octane as a slasher/torture film or anything. A lot of the most gruesome imagery of the kids is in the trailer already. To those who have seen it already, am I missing something or did Nicole Kidman's character never exhibit signs of the disease/poisoning? I thought maybe I had misunderstood Martin's explanation and that only the two kids would suffer, but in the end she has a pillowcase over her head too? I also could have sworn the daughter tells her mom "it's not that bad; [she'll] get used to being paralyzed too" or something to that effect. The refusal of sex by Colin Farrell's character lined up with "refusing to eat" in my head, but the rest of the film is so surreal that I'm not sure if looking for metaphor in the 3 stages of the disease is useful. warez fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Oct 28, 2017 |
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Oct 28, 2017 16:15
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warez posted:
I assumed body-weight had something to do with onset, as it often does in the medical realm. Or at least that was the implication, but much of the movie is metaphorical, too. TychoCelchuuu posted:Is The Killing of a Sacred Deer scary at all? I can't really handle scary movies but I like the director so I'd like to see it if I could refrain from peeing my pants. It's not particularly scary or startling so much as psychologically probing and profoundly discomfiting.
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Oct 28, 2017 16:28
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I should've been clearer - I don't have a problem with gore or anything, what really gets me are jump scares and spooky music. It sounds like maybe I can handle this, which is good news! Thanks everyone. Now if only theaters near me were playing it...
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Oct 28, 2017 17:41
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Watched Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. A movie that's 100% in his style. Very entertaining, kids will probably like it. Not really a deep movie and kinda sweet with cameos galore.
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Oct 28, 2017 18:28
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Silent Hill - 7/10 My Little Pony: The Movie - 6/10 The Purple Rose of Cairo - 9/10 Friday the 13th (1980) - 7/10
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Oct 28, 2017 19:46
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nerdman42 posted:Silent Hill - 7/10 All of them if you please
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Oct 28, 2017 20:47
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Why not. Silent Hill - Absolutely nails the atmosphere of the games. Characters make weird decisions, have bizarre conversations, and generally causes a sense of general discomfort in the audience. The ending, however,, kind of has everything go off the rails and its both hard to follow and frustrating to watch. Two thirds of it are a great time, but the final thirty minutes are full of so many baffling decisions it makes the journey harder to remember. That flashback goes on waaaay too long and really could've left some stuff to audience interpretation. My Little Pony: The Movie - two weeks later and I'm struggling to remember anything memorable at all about this. The dialogue often feels like its mostly made up for trailers or exposition, with little bits of interesting things in the meantime. There's way too many characters they have to balance and its hard to keep track of them all. But all the kids in the theater were having a good time and I remember having fun, so its not the worst thing ever made. Also some lady in front of me yelled "I'm gonna shove my fist down your loving throat" to the dude next to her during the credits, and that was certainly a good capper. The Purple Rose of Cairo - God. I am not a Woody Allen fan and I still don't like the guy but jesus what a fun movie. Everything after the Tom Baxter looks at Mia Farrow's character through the screen is just so gut-busting. Every line delivers and I was in hysterics for almost all of the film. Its an utter romp and a concept that's gonna stick with me for a long time. My only major complaint is the ending, which 100% undermined where I thought the story was going. The whole point of the film seemed to be an ode to those 1930s era of movies, with some playful ribbing, but then it just goes loving downhill into a stupid "reality sucks" message. It was mean-spirited, cruel, and not at all in line with the tone of the film. I came up with a better moral in like seconds: reality sucks, but why not try to be like the movies? Have Gil and Mia Farrow's character try dating or something. Be nice to your goddamn female character, Woody. Even with all that, the journey is such a wild ride that it makes up for the frustration. Friday the 13th - So like. My understanding of the franchise is entirely "Jason in the hockey mask goes and murders some teens". Perhaps because of that, the movie feels very slow and its only until the last half hour that anyone actually realizes something's gone wrong. Its a very slow journey and I felt some frustration with that at first. But in retrospect, this works the exact opposite way I felt about Silent Hill. Two thirds may be frustrating, but that last section. Holy poo poo The reveal of Mrs. Voorhes, I think, works way better after the franchise's success than it probably did at the time. I know the vague lore and as such, I was completely startled by her appearance. My mind goes into overdrive of like "is she covering for him? Has she been covering for him all this time?" But the truth is so much more interesting. Its like a reverse Psycho? Mom murdering for what she thinks her son would want, rather than the other way around with Norman. The twist makes the movie way more interesting than it has any right to be and I had a blast with that whole section. What a fun teen murder time.
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Oct 28, 2017 23:20
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So... does that mean you could make a perfect horror movie by taking the first two acts of Silent Hill, and bolting the last act of Friday the 13th on the end?
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Oct 29, 2017 02:50
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Hmmmmmmmmm.... I guess by that logic, the Silent Hill twist would be Sharon doesn't exist/is already dead and the monsters are a production of Rose's guilt/delusions? Which kinda works for Silent Hill.
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Oct 29, 2017 05:14
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:I assumed body-weight had something to do with onset, as it often does in the medical realm. Or at least that was the implication, but much of the movie is metaphorical, too. I liked that it's sort of ambiguous if you want it to be. You could either take it as, he poisoned all of them and she was taking much longer to exhibit signs, orrrr, he only poisoned the boy, the girl was just faking it to stay with him and he never touched the mom..either way still works with option #2 being that much more disturbing I can't stop thinking about the spinning scene. Jesus christ. I also wonder what it says about me that for the first half of the movie I just assumed he was molesting the kid. Indie movies have made me cynical..I was also expecting the end of the florida project to be a car running those kids over or something. I need to just binge pixar poo poo for a while. zer0spunk fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Oct 29, 2017 |
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Oct 29, 2017 16:02
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zer0spunk posted:I can't stop thinking about the spinning scene. Jesus christ. I mean, it doesn't say that much about you really. The film makes a special effort to associate the family's wealth and elite social status with actual perversion as well as an unemotional sense of logical imperative that verges on sociopathy. It's an unsparingly political film.
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Oct 29, 2017 20:03
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JIGSAW - (2017) - Yep, it's Saw 8. We're back with more traps, more bad dialogue, and more gore. This time, a group of 5 people are stuck playing a deadly game (and paying for past sins) in a barn while a corrupt cop and a medical examiner with a tortured past investigate. It's been 10 years since Jigsaw was dead and buried. Is... is he back? I see these films out of tradition, not because they are good. 1 and 2 are pretty interesting but the series get progressively worse and unfocused as time goes on. 8 isn't a terrible film but it's as stupid and sloppy as any of the latter Saw films. The dialogue approaches the federal limit on hamfistedness, complete with characters narrating their own histories to each other or repeating taglines written for trailers, not for real humans. The plot is standard SAW twisty-turny fair. Whoa is Jigsaw still alive? Whoa is someone working with him? Who's in on it? What's REALLY happening? The twists are lazy and unearned, but if you were expecting Hitchcock... why? Many characters are forgettable, some are mildly likable, but no one really steals the show. The traps and gore are... fine I guess, but there's only so many ways you can watch someone get dismembered and the franchise has done it all. The grand over-the-top trap didn't even really make any sense and it wasn't clear exactly how it managed to mangle the victim. All in all this was an unnecessary, unasked-for re-boot/visit/hash that adds little to the franchise, certainly no fresh ideas. That said, as someone who has seen every Saw film in theaters, I can't say I was BORED. It was a middle of the road stupid slasher coasting on the wings of an iconic mythology. I don't regret going but... this isn't going to rekindle anyone's passion for this stupid franchise. 2/5 for normal people 3/5 for idiots like me That Dang Dad fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Oct 31, 2017 |
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Oct 31, 2017 14:57
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Nightmare Before Christmas (rewatch) 4/4, still a really solid movie with a unique story. Looked gorgeous on a big screen, and whatbreally stands out is the active camera and character blocking.
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Oct 31, 2017 23:42
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I didn't have a lot of knowledge as to what Wicker Man would be, I just know of the infamous remake of the movie that I also haven't seen. This is great. If you're expecting a modern, scary film maybe avoid it, but if you're looking for an example of like the true nightmare of the puritanical, this is it. The music is especially wonderful. Okay so this movie, The Santanic Rites of Dracula (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070634/) had a title on the DVD (a box set of 50 horror films) we watched that was different than any of the alternate titles, it was listed as "Dracula and his Seven Brides" which is confusing because it is basically a combination of multiple film titles in that series of films. But ah! This is what 80s movies are parodying when they are parodying the idea of the suburban vampire hunting professor. So it's worth seeing for that reason, even though it's a pretty rough film overall, not for lack of effort by Peter Jackson and Christopher Lee. The Devil's Rain on the other hand is a very good, bad film and is absolutely must see if you're inclined towards that sort of thing. Another good reason to see it is to attempt to count how often Joan Prather blinks in the film (hint: you might only need one hand). It's extremely silly with lots of bubbly special effects, extreme overacting, a story that doesn't make a lot of sense and an ending that never ends.
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Nov 1, 2017 00:27
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:In some ways it's even more alienating than mother!, though I do still think that mother! is the feel bad movie of the year. as someone who liked mother! and absolutely adored Dogtooth and The Lobster, I'm supremely excited to see Sacred Deer tonight now
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Nov 1, 2017 15:15
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DLC Inc posted:as someone who liked mother! and absolutely adored Dogtooth and The Lobster, I'm supremely excited to see Sacred Deer tonight now I don't think we've had as many walk-outs for Deer as we did for mother! but we've had a good number, and some people definitely have been approaching us while cleaning the theater to make sure we know they "hated this movie."  We even had a girl pass out the other day from the stress of watching it 
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Nov 1, 2017 18:40
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I loved Killing of a Sacred Deer It was an absurdist nightmare, almost Pinter-esque in how mindnumbing and puzzling it could be and subtle with horror but also had genuinely funny, black humor moments (everyone laughed at the "it's too late for me" cigarette speech.) It's a unique and ponderous hodgepodge of ruminations on haves and have-nots, the safety of medical knowledge versus facing a complete unknown, the humane dilemma of choice in dire circumstance, and almost magical realism in terms of cosmic justice or what karma and "eye for an eye" really do to us and if it really makes us happy. Although I do think a film like Joel Edgerton's The Gift handles this with more straightforward drama and a cool twist, this is one of the weirdest films I've ever seen and the fact that it's so absurd makes me love it.
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Nov 2, 2017 03:22
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A bit late to the Unfriended club but I'm drat happy to see that still getting love. In addition to the performative pressures place on people, especially women, on the internet I love how data mining/targeted advertising is presented as this oppressive thing that exists solely to taunt the user. For the recent stuff, I have had an incredible run of film viewing. My scale is Like/Indifferent/Dislike - and all of these movies are firm will-probably-return-to Likes. It Comes at Night (2017) (full review at the link) Capsule thoughts: I admit, the first fifteen minutes or so pushed my love of slow horror to the brink. Once it settles down and starts focusing on Travis, who's played excellently by Kelvin Harrison Jr., I got into it deep. There's a thread of apocalyptic wish fulfillment in the vein of a monkey's paw, with a perverse gratitude for the disease eliminating the need to make the existential choice. When I went back to get screencaps I was flabbergasted by the photography in the family dining scenes, especially after the joining, with everyone's unsaid dreads getting projected on one another. Under the Shadow (2016) (full discussion at 23:59 at the podcast in the link) Capsule thoughts: Good lord is this dense and tense. You wanna focus on the film as a commentary on regressive gender politics post-'79 revolution? Go for it. How religious symbols get perverted through zealous ownership? Go wild. As a drat fine horror film where the threat stays forever just out of reach in a veil of darkness? *shudder* Excellent stuff all around. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001) (full review at the link) Capsule thoughts: I needed this. Zacharias Kunuk sets The Fast Runner on this blissful rhythm between the lost joy of good labor and stops the passage of time to hit mythic emotional beats. Kunuk also has a great ear for the different sounds of cold, with the cracking of packed snow tuned into a pleasurable beat contrasted with the harsh thuds of bodies on ice. Natar Ungalaaq, as the titular Atanarjuat, has a smile that gives me joy goosebumps. Then there's Kunuk's masterful foreshadowing, giving us bits of information about the many uses of snow as buildup to later confrontations. I loved this. Loved it loved it loved it. I'm going to try and get Kunuk's other films and those of the production company he set up to film Inuit stories. Messiah of Evil (1973) (full review at the link) Capsule thoughts: My hesitation about It Comes at Night lasted about fifteen minutes. With Messiah of Evil it was about fifteen seconds. Get over the initial cheesy bump of music and you'll find a nightmare journey of the kinds of walks Maya Deren used to film. Spacial geometry is all sorts of hosed, as trying to figure out where everything goes is madness as disruptive contrast is the general filmmaking philosophy. Even the moments I wanted to laugh were cut short by the writer/director team of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz anticipating my levity and throwing it off balance before I could get that first chuckle out. If you're a fan of very early Cronenberg, like Shivers or The Brood, you need to give this one a shot. White Dog (1982) (full review at the link) Capsule thoughts: I'm depressing myself trying to imagine a time White Dog won't be timely. Samuel Fuller gets at how white supremacist view themselves in action movie dog-based heroics, then he gets at how the rest of us view them in the dog's attacks on black people whose only crime is existing, then how ostensibly liberal business owners and citizens can only come up with snap decisions, then how long lasting solutions may run counter to established financial practices...and on, and on, and on. The melodrama heightens the contradictions in answers, with my personal favorite moment being when the actress bathes the dog. It's all soft focus steamy hugs while she's fully dressed - a perfectly chaste visual that, when put through the white supremacy ringer, has uncomfortable implications about the reward white supremacists think they're owed by taking care of black people. I'll be revisiting this in a year or so, I can't imagine my thoughts will be the same. Train to Busan (2016) (full discussion at 19:00 at the podcast in the link) Capsule thoughts: I'm a bit zombied out, but Train to Busan has a fascinating approach that makes the "zombies" more like media-infected virus incubators with the only goal of infecting others. It's horrific at times in its sense of scale, taking the zombie ant pile of the cinematic adaptation of World War Z and placing it in a variety of creative scenarios. Toss in what seems to be a superpowered working-class dude of dry wit awesomeness, a heaping helping of domestic drama, and a bit of the ol' zombie standby of class criticism and you've got a great time on your hands. Martyrs (2008) (full review at the link) Capsule thoughts: A film that makes me regret having ever used the phrase "torture porn" while reminding me it's a drat shame Pascal Laugier doesn't have a larger body of work. It's intense, and violent, but there's something creepily reassuring about the scant moments of tenderness. Laugier really gets at how we don't treat abuse or trauma with the care needed, that only a few people are worthy of praising survival because they can provide some kind of story or celebratory insight that inspires others. It also brings up questions about what to do with the offspring of a generation that built its strength on dominating, exploiting, torturing, and murdering others. No easy answers there, but for my money Lucie does the right thing. Lake Mungo (2008) (full review at the link) Capsule thoughts: My default state is melancholy if optimistic, and Lake Mungo is my Platonic Ideal for found footage. It's horror in absence, chronicling how technology has enabled us to keep old wounds open and rip them fresh with new revelations. And are they revelations, or are they just people doing what they think the other needs in order to move forward in life? The film itself is a cruel trick on the Palmer family, subtly sexist in its own way, and ends on shots that are destined to keep the Palmers in their cycle of grief for a while longer. First time I've seen this and I'm hoping to find a way to slot it in with my podcast partner soon.
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Nov 3, 2017 18:16
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Thor Ragnarok 5/5: everything I want in a super hero film and easily in Marvel's top three (along with GotG 1 and Winter Soldier) and the best Thor stand alone film by a thousand miles. Great action, great humor, and a ton of color and great cinematography and memorable moments visually. Really strong performance from Cate Blanchett elevating what would have been an otherwise mediocre villain. Hilarious cameos and small characters abound.
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Nov 3, 2017 19:33
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The Conformist - 88/100 Twin Peaks: The Return - 89/100 Jane - 92/100 Blade Runner 2049 (rewatch) - was 85/100 now 87/100 The Killing of a Sacred Deer - 90/100 The Square - 89 Nocturama - 83/100 Lucky - 71/100 Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton - 80/100 HyperNormalisation - 88/100 *Spiderman: Homecoming - decent/marvel *Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 - decent+/marvel Ex Libris: The New York Public Library - 80/100 Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards - 57/100 Loving Vincent - 70/100 Logan Lucky - 72/100 Noah - 71/100 Dark Star - 72/100 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - 80/100 The Room - plastic spoon/rose petal *Done rating Marvel/DC universe movies on a number scale because they're all the same kind of homogenized chow that goes down easy with beer.
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Nov 4, 2017 02:50
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What is the difference in an 85 and 87 in a 100 point scale?
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Nov 4, 2017 02:54
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Blade Runner?I liked it more on the second viewing because I was able to relax and put the marketing and my suspicions for the plot aside and accept the movie for what it was. The environment sort of sank in a bit more as I concentrated on the film's vibe, symbolism, and character subtleties rather than on its narrative destination. The presentation was better in the second theater, at least as far as sound goes, so that made a bit of a difference as well with respect to some of the sound mixing in the third act.
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Nov 4, 2017 03:04
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No I'm just asking how you rate with granularity like that. Do you have a tick list or some kind of scoring system to be that fine? I'm genuinely curious.
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Nov 4, 2017 03:10
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Gut feeling. I don't exactly believe in rating movies per se but I think the 100 pt scale just works in my brain. So in absence of a conversation about influence, impact, and pros/cons I usually rely on how I think it compares to the films I've seen in a single year, then how I think it compares to other films in its genre, how well it has aged (if it's an older film) and whether it influenced other films, and if I've seen it before I finally compare it to all movies I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever given a film a straight 100. Most of the time all this irrational headiness seems to add up to a discrete number in my head. So films like Andrei Rublev, Pather Panchali, Vertigo, Days of Heaven, etc I've seen multiple/many times and reward multiple viewings as they have gotten better with age. Most movies that score 60-80 aren't a waste of time to me by any means but I'm unlikely to watch them multiple times. Most things 87-100 I would consider among the best films I've seen. BeanpolePeckerwood fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Nov 4, 2017 |
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Nov 4, 2017 03:27
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The Mackintosh Man: 3/4, a low key but well-shot Bond-alike
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Nov 4, 2017 06:33
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:Gut feeling. I don't exactly believe in rating movies per se but I think the 100 pt scale just works in my brain. So in absence of a conversation about influence, impact, and pros/cons I usually rely on how I think it compares to the films I've seen in a single year, then how I think it compares to other films in its genre, how well it has aged (if it's an older film) and whether it influenced other films, and if I've seen it before I finally compare it to all movies I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever given a film a straight 100. Most of the time all this irrational headiness seems to add up to a discrete number in my head. What would Vertigo rank on your marvel scale
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Nov 4, 2017 20:52
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:What would Vertigo rank on your marvel scale pursuit of the glorious ideal/marvel
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Nov 4, 2017 21:05
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Didn't get to watch as many Halloween films as I wanted and had to miss House on Haunted Hill because I was working.  Rabbit's Moon (1972/1979, Kenneth Anger) [Blu-ray] - '72 version: 5/5; '79 version: 4/5 [r] Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954, Kenneth Anger) [Blu-ray] - 4.5/5 [r] Lucifer Rising (1980, Kenneth Anger) [Blu-ray] - 4.5/5 [r] The Skeleton Dance (1929, Walt Disney) [DVD] - 5/5 [r] Lonesome Ghosts (1937) [DVD] - 5/5 [r] Shiver Me Timbers! (1934, Dave Fleischer) [DVD] 4.5/5 [r] Repo Man (1984, Alex Cox) [Blu-ray] - 4.5/5 Jim Henson short films: Cat & Mouse, Alexander the Grape, Shearing Animation, Wheels That Go, Run Run, Ripples, Drums West (1960-1967, Jim Henson) [Filmstruck] - n/a Time Piece (1964, Jim Henson) [Filmstruck] - 5/5 [r] - One of my favorite short films of all time. The Cube (1967, Jim Henson) [Filmstruck] - 4/5 Monster Maker (1989, Giles Foster) [Filmstruck] - 4/5 - Produced by Henson, a wonderful hour-long movie with Harry Dean Stanton as a Harryhausen-like puppeteer with a giant dragon in his workshop. Dune (1984, David Lynch) [Blu-ray] - 4/5 - While it's barely coherent story-wise, one of the most imaginative and unique sci-fi movies I've seen. It's undeniably a Lynch film, too. The Mouse on the Moon (1962, Richard Lester) - 4/5 - Deserving more than being a footnote to Lester's career. Snappy pacing, some genuinely funny cold war comedy, and visually interesting. An American Werewolf in London (1981, John Landis) - 4.5/5 [r - sorta] - I've only seen this edited for TV, so it's nice to see all the gore intact. I forgot how darkly funny this was and how unique it presents the tropes. Also, TIL that the porno film in the film was shot specially for the movie.
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Nov 6, 2017 04:45
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Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse) 5/5 - It took me way too long to see this one. Totally lives up to its reputation for being awesome. Enter the Fat Dragon 3/5 - Sammo is hilarious as always and does a very good Bruce Lee while also being solid take-down of bruceploitation. There's a bit of blackface though, which even if intended as meta-commentary was not great. Running out of Time 2 4/5 - Stranger and more whimsical than the first. It's got all the elements of a tense genre thriller and sets up what should be some pretty high stakes but is only interested in having as much fun as possible with the concept. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts 5/5 - Broad comedy with some real emotional heft to it. This is exactly what I watch Johnnie To movies for and Sammi Cheng is really great. I'm up to 21 Johnnie To films watched this year and nearly all have been great. Even the couple exceptions were at least solid and at this point I'm comfortable putting him among the best working filmmakers. I'd like to finish watching at least the Milkyway Images films by the end of the year but I think I've got like 17 more to go. Happy Together rewatch 5/5 - I think this might just be the most beautifully shot film ever. I could post screenshots from it all day long. The best of the Wong/Doyle aesthetic in my opinion, and amazingly affecting performances from Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung. It expires from Filmstruck at the end of this month and I highly recommend catching it while it's there because who knows when/if it will ever be back in print.
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Nov 6, 2017 18:28
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FancyMike posted:
God I would love a Criterion box of some of the more obscure WKW films. Days of Being Wild, Happy Together, and Chungking Express (released last year and almost immediately out of print) all in one box.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:18
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