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Parasite (2019) - 4.5/5 I guess it was pretty drat good. It's Bong Joon-ho being Bong Joon-ho and deciding to be a bit less action blockbuster and the tiniest (tiniest) bit more subtle than Snowpiercer was. I guess if you really don't know what it's about : a poor family doing minimum-wage poo poo-jobs in a basement gets a chance when the son's best friend, who was tutoring a rich girl in English, is going abroad, and his friend wants him to take over his place as a gesture of kindness. As the son starts, he realises that this rich family as a bit naive and there are ways to get his own family hired in various places around the home as long as they fake their backgrounds. As you go through the first act you're left admiring the takeover and also dreading the moment you know is going to happen when something makes the plan fall apart, and it doesn't quite turn out the way it's expected. There's some vague similarities to Shoplifters which won the Palme d'Or last year, but Parasite is the far more entertaining movie. bewilderment fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Jul 3, 2019 |
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Jul 2, 2019 00:49
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Thought it wasn't out until Oct for NY/LA...where'd you see it?
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Jul 2, 2019 16:05
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zer0spunk posted:Thought it wasn't out until Oct for NY/LA...where'd you see it? It's the magic of being in Australia.
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Jul 3, 2019 00:42
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It's been a while since I've had new movies to rate. Phone Booth (2002): B+ Juno (2007): A Really liked this film! Took me a little while to get used to the chirpy dialogue, but I grew to like it.
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Jul 4, 2019 01:05
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Yeah, I can imagine if you don’t like the dialog in Juno then that film is gonna drive you mad. I always liked it.
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Jul 4, 2019 01:17
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It was a bit off-putting at first, especially in the scene where Juno meets Vanessa and Mark for the first time. But I began to like her verbal sparring with Mark.
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Jul 4, 2019 04:45
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I Am Mother: Four and a half out of five stars. The story of a human raised by a robot after an extinction event whose trust in said robot is jeopardized by a stranger outside who claims that what the Robot was saying wasn't entirely truthful. While not entirely unpredictable, I strongly dug the poo poo out of this movie. It might be a that I'm just a huge sucker for movies that feature robots who do terrible things to humanity but said terribleness is essentially a long-term plan to keep humanity around as better people, and this one has a genocidal race of robots who killed off most of humanity and are working to breed a more ethical version of humanity is entirely up my alley, but I found the acting was fun and engaging.
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Jul 6, 2019 07:49
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Hollywood Shuffle (1987, Robert Townsend) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Pushover (1954, Richard Quine) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 The Burglar (1957, Paul Wendkos) [Criterion Channel] - 3/5 The Lineup (1958, Don Siegel) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Murder by Contract (1958, Irving Lerner) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Experiment in Terror (1961, Blake Edwards) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Kafka (1991, Steven Soderbergh) [laserdisc] - 2.5/5 War and Peace (1966-67, Sergei Bondarchuk) [Blu-ray] - 4.5/5 49th Parallel (1942, Michael Powell) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Criterion Channel's Columbia noirs were a blast to go through. I skipped The Big Heat and In a Lonely Place since I've already seen them, but watched the rest. Pushover benefits from starring Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak (  ). Wasn't as hot about The Burglar other than a few interesting shots. The Lineup is pretty fun with Eli Wallach as a psycho assassin (complete with a scene that anticipates Dirty Harry). Murder by Contract feels a lot like a European film with a guitar-based score (inspired by The Third Man probably) and lots of Antonioni-esque wide shots. Though, I think the best was saved for last - Blake Edwards' Experiment in Terror, which really goes off the rails in moments and has a ton of great scenes.Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle seems to fit nicely in the trend of media satires. It's a shorter feature and seems to have inspired UHF quite a bit. Townsend is hilarious in this and it has a lot of heart. Shame he's not as well-known since I remember The Meteor Man being fun, too. My very first start-to-finish laserdisc viewing was Soderbergh's Kafka, a strange mishmash of noir and expressionism without much direction. Just a bizarre movie. Sergei Bondarchuk's epic to end all epics based upon Leo Tolstoy's epic to end all epics novel is one of the most incredible films I've seen. This reminds me of the sort of non-stop camera trickery as seen in films like Abel Gance's Napoleon and Sergei Parajanov's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. The camera almost never stops moving. And when it's still, Bondarchuk makes amazing choices like covering a scene in long shot or inserting frames of glittering metal or fire. There's point of view shots in ultra wide angle view. Water seems to pour down the lens to show someone tearing up or even blacking out when someone closes their eyes. Hell, there's even a short scene from the point of view of a wolf. And there's narration stacked on narration, sort of reminding me of how David Lynch handled such things in Dune. You'd never, ever see a film this experimental be made while also being thrilling. And the performances are splendid. This is a major rediscovery by Janus Films this year because it's only been available in horrific quality editions for decades. Worth spending eight hours with this masterpiece. Rewatches: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles) [Blu-ray] - 4/5 True Stories (1986, David Byrne) [Blu-ray] - 4.5/5 The Stranger (1946, Orson Welles) [Blu-ray] - 4/5 Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger) [Criterion Channel) - 4.5/5
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Jul 9, 2019 03:05
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so who's seen Midsommar
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Jul 9, 2019 03:10
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Bottom Liner posted:so who's seen Midsommar I think it is worth watching if you like a very pretty film that in a way is like dominoes; you know exactly what is going to happen but the falling of the pieces manages to be silly fun. It's also worth watching if you are a fan of this film I'm going to put in spoilers because if you've seen it you'll know everything that happens in Midsommer just by the comparison: The Wickerman (1973). To break format, I'm not absolutely sure I liked it but I talked about it for days and smile at some of the silly things that happened in the film when I think of it.
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Jul 9, 2019 03:29
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Bottom Liner posted:so who's seen Midsommar I did! I thought Florence Pugh was pretty amazing, but the film itself was only alright. I dunno, I'll let it all sink in for a while before I score it but I sort of clashed with the run-time. There were some great moments though. For reference I liked Hereditary, wasn't over the moon about it, but thought it was well-crafted, acted, and fairly daring. I think Ari Aster is really talented.
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Jul 9, 2019 04:09
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:I did! I'm somewhere near you. I think this was better than Hereditary though. Definitely tighter. Just as well made, if not more so.
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Jul 9, 2019 08:33
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My first thought upon coming out of the theater was that I just watched a 2.5 hour metaphor for the predation of the Epstein high-society pedophilia scandal.
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Jul 9, 2019 10:07
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Bohemian Rhapsody: A movie as exciting as the Wikipedia article about the band and filmed like a TV movie. Well, the article is at least true.
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Jul 9, 2019 12:01
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Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (1991): B Not bad, but my favorite Robin Hood adaptation is still 1938's Adventures of Robin Hood, even if this is a more realistic version. Rickman does a great job as the Sheriff of Nottingham. I liked the slightly bug-eyed actor playing Little John; he may have been my favorite other than the actor (I think the same guy who was Professor Keenbean from 1994's Richie Rich) playing Friar Tuck. F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Jul 10, 2019 |
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Jul 10, 2019 00:29
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AstroWhale posted:Bohemian Rhapsody: A movie as exciting as the Wikipedia article about the band and filmed like a TV movie. Well, the article is at least true. Hooray, I'm not alone. I watched Bohemian a month ago and found it pretty badly presented "plot" wise and a bit confusing at times, even outside of the obvious bias the movie has. It's been on my mind because recently I stumbled upon the two part BBC documentary from 2011 or so that does a much better job telling the band's history and touches on some of the negative things that happened. Uh let's see actual content: Out to Sea 6/10 I wasn't totally into it while watching it but in retrospect it was a nice smartly written comedy about two old dudes getting caught up in a ridiculous con and finding love/ learning to love again. Also, apparently at least three television actors needed an extra paycheck in 1997.
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Jul 10, 2019 01:39
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Turbinosamente posted:Hooray, I'm not alone. I watched Bohemian a month ago and found it pretty badly presented "plot" wise and a bit confusing at times, even outside of the obvious bias the movie has. It's been on my mind because recently I stumbled upon the two part BBC documentary from 2011 or so that does a much better job telling the band's history and touches on some of the negative things that happened. Any movie with Lemmon and Matthau is always a delight.
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Jul 10, 2019 02:13
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Turbinosamente posted:Hooray, I'm not alone. I watched Bohemian a month ago and found it pretty badly presented "plot" wise and a bit confusing at times, even outside of the obvious bias the movie has. It's been on my mind because recently I stumbled upon the two part BBC documentary from 2011 or so that does a much better job telling the band's history and touches on some of the negative things that happened. Seems like most people turned against it. Two points I want to add: 1. The cutting in the scene where they pitched A Night To The Opera was cut worse than that infamous scene in the restaurant (?). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dn8Fd0TYek 2. I looked forward to the Live Aid Concert, but it was terrible. Why cut to some random people? I kinda get the cut to the family. Last movie: A View to A Kill: Watched it with the James Bonding Commentary. So dumb but so entertaining. Secretly one of my favorites in the franchise.
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Jul 10, 2019 11:33
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Sorry double post.
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Jul 10, 2019 11:35
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Oh god. I could only make it through half the youtube. I desperately hope I am never trapped in a room with that film.
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Jul 10, 2019 12:26
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Drilling down down down through the Kung Fu DVDs Snake-Crane Secret 4/10 This appears to have been butchered too much in the dub because there's a glimmer of a decent film there but goddamn. Like many janky looking martial arts DVDS this one is basically a VHS rip pressed on to a disc, but there were some fade to black then slam into the next scene editing that made me suspect that it was taken from a tape recording of a television broadcast. Each time it happened (and it was somewhat frequent) I expected TV commercials to start. I'm not sure I want to bother seeing if a better version exists because the plot as I could glean it was rebels fighting a tyrannical leader, but everyone is also after a kung fu manual that has secret info in it. Pretty standard as far as martial arts plots go. Flying Guillotine 2 8/10 Also about rebels plotting to kill a genocidal and cruel emperor but because it's got the Shaw Brothers behind it, it's much better than Snake-Crane Secret. Of course it also helps to be watching a higher quality release. This film focuses a lot more on the rebels' plans and attempts to assassinate the emperor and how far they're willing to go to stop this evil leader. I don't quite remember the first Flying Guillotine movie, but I think this film has less emphasis on the titular weapon and focuses on the characters and intrigue instead and its a better movie for it. Kept me guessing as to who would get the final blow in or even make it the end of the movie. Was not expecting the everybody dies, even the heroes ending though I probably should have. I swear I don't intended to pick a pair of kung fu movies with similar plots and yet somehow it keeps happening, since the last ones I posted had the drunken beggar is secretly a kung fu master and must teach the main character to not suck as plots. And one was much more tolerable than the other.
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Jul 14, 2019 23:47
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Evilspeak (1981): 3/10 Pokemon Detective Pikachu (2019): 7/10 Free Solo (2018): 8/10 Raising Arizona (1987): 10/10 Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999): 8/10 Runaway Bride (1999): 6/10 Extreme Job Aka Geukhanjikeob (2019): 8/10 100 Dinge (2018): 5/10
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Jul 15, 2019 00:42
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piratepilates posted:
Lmao. You watched a Schweighöfer movie. Not as dumb as me who watched: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote: No way, it could live up to the hype and it didn't. You could have done anything else, Terry. This is why you you shouldn't desperately cling to your dreams  .
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Jul 15, 2019 14:20
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AstroWhale posted:Lmao. You watched a Schweighöfer movie.  there were only like 3 german movies on the plane, one was 100 Dinge, another was Kalte Füße (which I saw half and didn't want to finish), and the third was probably good.
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Jul 16, 2019 02:18
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It's hilariously appropriate that The Lion King, a story about how the entire balance of nature and reality falls into disrepair when the elite class isn't around to curate the rest of us mongrels, would be seen as vacuous and farcical when reinterpreted through the lens of 21st Century politics, technology, and pop culture.
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Jul 16, 2019 22:52
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piratepilates posted:
My hot take is that German cinema hasn't produced a great film since Fassbinder died.
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Jul 16, 2019 23:25
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Ponyo (2008): A+ I'm weird because I don't always enjoy Studio Ghibli films as much as other people do. The worlds are beautifully animated and creatively magical and bizarre, but some stories just don't resonate with me. Sometimes it's because some of the stories can be depressing (see Princess Mononoke) or kind of static (My Neighbor Totoro). However, I loving love Ponyo. It's so bright and happy. This movie is absolutely adorable, and I love the sweet relationship that develops between Brunhilde/Ponyo and Sosuke. It also moves pretty fast, and I was surprised to find out it was about 100 minutes long because it seemed like it was over so quickly.
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Jul 20, 2019 07:20
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Just saw Apollo 11 and it’s brilliant. The quality of the footage is Incredible. Armstrong’s first step on the moon was shown from a camera I had never seen before, which made that part all the more interesting.
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Jul 20, 2019 22:59
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Bogus Adventure posted:I'm weird because I don't always enjoy Studio Ghibli films as much as other people do. You're not alone. They're fine movies but I have yet to be overly hyped by one like everyone else seems to be. I think of the ones I have seen I liked Howl's Moving Castle the most and the most heavy handed environmental message ones the least (Mononoke and Nausicaa) Totoro and Spirited Away are okay. Someday I want to track down Porco Rosso though that looks like it could be interesting.
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Jul 21, 2019 00:22
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Turbinosamente posted:You're not alone. They're fine movies but I have yet to be overly hyped by one like everyone else seems to be. I think of the ones I have seen I liked Howl's Moving Castle the most and the most heavy handed environmental message ones the least (Mononoke and Nausicaa) Totoro and Spirited Away are okay. Someday I want to track down Porco Rosso though that looks like it could be interesting. Yeah, I really like Howl's and Nausicaa, and now Ponyo. Mononoke is just really depressing. It's visually stunning and beautifully animated, but I'm depressed enough as it is.
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Jul 21, 2019 02:39
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I think Nausicaa is a straight up classic, and while Mononoke is a bit shallow I think it nails the broad spectacle pretty well. My sweet spot is Laputa: Castle In The Sky which beats them all handily and is probably the best steampunk anime ever released. It's got everything. It's the quintessential Ghibli Miyazaki production and was never topped by the studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgNEZ-Ps61w
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Jul 21, 2019 08:16
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My favorite Ghibli movie is the last one I watched. Forty Guns: I can see why Morricone liked this. It is almost there at the cynicism of his westerns, but not quite. Also Godard loved this movie. In the middle the narrative structure kinda falls apart, like in his movies. But this is where the movie lost me. There are some "funny" scenes with "funny" music. It's kinda like the scene in Wild Bunch where they pass the bottle around, which is the worst scene of that film. They date this movie quite heavily. It might be interesting to watch, if you are interested in the history of westerns. It's also just 76 minutes long. Sunset Boulevard:  I have been stuck in this nightmare for 25 years. But then I heard his name.. I want to back together with them again. It will be just like the old days 
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Jul 21, 2019 10:29
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https://www.fathomevents.com/events...SRoCmTgQAvD_BwE Taking my little cousin to see Kiki’s for her birthday and she’s going to love it. See one of his movies on a big screen if you can, makes the animation that much more impressive.
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Jul 21, 2019 14:54
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A Night At The Opera (1935): B+ Ghostbusters II (1989): C
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Jul 22, 2019 00:59
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The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988, Penelope Spheeris) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Anomalisa (2015, Duke Johnson/Charlie Kaufman) [Blu-ray rental] - 3.5/5 Taking Tiger Mountain (1982, Kent Jones/Tom Huckabee) [Blu-ray - original cut] - 3/5 Lost Horizon (1937, Frank Capra) [Blu-ray] - 4/5 Police Story (1985, Jackie Chan) [Blu-ray] - 4/5 Topkapi (1964, Jules Dassin) [Blu-ray] - 3.5/5 The Savage Innocents (1960, Nicholas Ray) [Blu-ray] - 4/5 The Wedding Party (1962/69, Brian DePalma) [Blu-ray] - 2.5/5 Murder a la Mod (1967, Brian DePalma) [Blu-ray] - 4/5 Greetings (1968, Brian DePalma) [Blu-ray] - 3.5/5 Hi, Mom! (1970, Brian DePalma) [Blu-ray] - 3.5/5 Rewatch: For All Mankind (1989, Al Reinert) [Blu-ray] - 4.5/5
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Jul 22, 2019 02:09
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36th Chamber of Shaolin 7/10 A very well constructed kung fu movie and its easy to see why this is the archetype for a lot of them. Plus it's Gordon Liu's break out role. This movie is 80% training sequence since the point is to see the main character's growth as, well, a character. As stupid as it sounds my personal dislike of training sequences in kung fu movies is what prevents me from rating this higher as in lesser films they tend to stop the plot dead while the character grinds his stats up a bit. Not all kung fu movies do this (Crippled Avengers is one where such a sequence is key to the overall plot) but too many do. And now some random Japanese films in the pile: Aragami: God of Battle 5/10 A predictable plot in which a samurai must kill a god of battle in a temple or be killed himself. The ending is entirely predictable and it unfolds ponderously. Apparently this film is one half of a challenge between two directors to produce a short film in 20 days with one set and a couple actors and dammit if the trailer for the other film doesn't look more interesting than this one. Lone Wolf and Cub 5: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons 5/10 Rather slow paced and definitely feels like you are jumping in the middle of the story if you've never seen or read any Lone Wolf and Cub before. The action's good but I didn't care about the intrigue behind the assassinations the main character was contracted to carry out despite the movie's attempts to make me. Plus this is another case where the trailer for the next film in the series looks way better (an entire ninja combat brigade on skis? Hell yeah!). Princess Raccoon 0/10 This one is too far up it's rear end with surreal imagery that it forgot the plot, which is a basic star crossed lovers story that takes forever to get going. And no, it isn't the fault of the cultural barrier, this movie is just style over substance. Most of it really feels like it was just there for the sake of being there (and to cheap out on sets) rather than trying to make any meaningful symbolism. I guess samurai films may not be my cup of tea after all. I've got one left to go before its back to China and kung fu and I'm trying not to pin all my hopes on it being the one good movie in the pile.
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Jul 22, 2019 04:42
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The Lion King 3/5 - yeah this is pretty soulless and not for story or performance reasons. The photo realism is stunning but does not work for the small fantasy story this relies on. I thought the live action Jungle Book was pretty good and worked really well thanks to the live actor to tie it all together and without that this film just never feels right, and despite being a visual treat it pulled me out more than in to the world. Probably more of a 2/5 but I’ll give it an extra point for visuals and Pumba, he was pretty drat great. I did go back and compare this to Life of Pi visually and I’ll say that still holds up incredibly well but this has the Disney feel in motion and animation, I just don’t know how they could make it work best. Oh well, Mulan looks pretty good.
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Jul 23, 2019 06:59
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Skin - 6/10. A seemingly fictionalized version of Bryon Widnor's story, who is a real life reformed skinhead famous for having his face covered in tattoos representing neonazi and odinist gangs, who then had them removed. Jamie Bell who I still can only think of as Billy Elliot is genuinely scary, and the recreation of Widnor's tattoos looks really spot on. The story itself is a bit typical, probably as I suspect Widnor's own story isn't amazingly exciting so a ton of drama and fictitious characters are added to beef it up a bit, and yet it still doesn't feel satisfying. A lacking script and deciding to jump over areas of character development instead to linger over less important details lets it down, which is a shame.
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Jul 24, 2019 17:49
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Egbert Souse posted:The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988, Penelope Spheeris) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Is this the one with the really drunk hair metal dude in the pool toy who yells at his mom off camera? yes, yes it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUxXO3eSHa0 it's..still pretty sad/amazing/hilarious/sad again
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Jul 25, 2019 04:25
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Egbert Souse posted:The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988, Penelope Spheeris) [Criterion Channel] - 4/5 Decline, Police Story, and Greetings/Hi, Mom! If you have time
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Jul 25, 2019 04:29
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