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New year, time for a new Rating thread. Post about the last movie you saw, give it a rating on some metric. Don't spoil any movies without using spoiler tags. Fences I can see where some of the criticism is coming in the fact that it just feels like a Broadway show put on screen. Denzel doesn't really put too much direction into the settings, and there aren't many memorable shots (there are definitely a couple). But the characters and translation of a fantastic play are done so well and played so expertly that I can't fault it for slightly boring direction. Denzel and Davis are absolute powerhouses in this, and these might be the best performances of their careers. It's two and a half hours long, but those two, and even the supporting cast are so magnetic with their portrayals of these broken people that the time flies by. Excellent movie. 9/10
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Jan 3, 2017 19:53
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Just got a Filmstruck subscription over Christmas break and think it's just about the best thing I've ever done, way better than Hulu's wonky rear end Criterion channel. Breathless - My first time seeing this and also my first Godard. I think I avoided for so long because I expected a "difficult" watch, but instead it was pretty breezy even with the whole cop killing plot point. It honestly felt a little timeless, the long scene with Michel and Patricia in her apartment sounded a lot like conversations I've had when I was in late teens/early twenties. Characters who maybe "love" each other but are actually just young and dumb and don't really understand, timeless. I know it's known as a pretty revolutionary film within context, but I only set out to watch it as a movie and see whether it could be enjoyed and appreciated in 2016 with little to no knowledge of the inner workings of it or any extraneous details about jump cuts or being based on American films at the time. 8.5/10 The Immortal Story - I guess this is Welles' first color film and it is really beautiful. Clay sitting at the table with his visage repeated in the mirror next to him, Levinsky and Virginies conversation in the smoky courtyard, and the dark blood red and flower filled room where the climax hah takes place are all very striking. As well as the characterization, for a film that's only an hour long you get pretty deep into Virginie's character and motivation for initially turning down an offer from the man responsible for her family's downfall and her difficulty in following through as well as the sailer's tales of being alone on an island shipwrecked dreaming of his life if/when he ever gets rescued. I am also apparently deeply in love with Jeanne Moreau although that has no effect on the score. 8/10
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Jan 3, 2017 21:59
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Most recent first: (Manchester By The Sea: 5/5 Collateral Beauty: 1/5) - I saw these both on new year's day Orlando: 4.5/5 A Very Murray Christmas: 3/5 The Man From UNCLE: 4/5 Cosmopolis: 4/5 Hell Or High Water: 4.5/5 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: 5/5 Lethal Weapon (rewatch): 4/5 The Purge: 2/5 Suicide Squad Extended Edition: 2.5/5 The Nice Guys: 4.5/5 Everybody Wants Some!!: 4/5 Fateful Findings: 1/5 Rango(rewatch): 4/5 Quiz Show(rewatch): 3/5
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Jan 3, 2017 23:09
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Swiss Army Man - I liked it more than I thought I would. I typically find "quirky" films to ring pretty hollow but I enjoyed myself. I still am not sure I understand why it was raved about, at time felt like a carbon-copy of a Gondry music video. (6.5/10) The Man Who Knew Infinity - An interesting true story, well acted, but the film wasn't sure which part of the story it wanted to tell so it ended up feeling a little disjointed. (6/10) The Strange Love of Martha Ivers - I picked this up randomly and ended up finding a really interesting noir film. Kirk Douglas' film debut and he crushes it out of the park. Barbara Stanwyck plays Martha Ivers who kills her aunt when she is 15 and has to marry the witness to shut him up but his guilt drives him to the bottle. Directed by Lewis Milestone who also did All Quiet On The Western Front, one of my all time favorites. (8/10) Song Of The Sea & The Secret Of Kells - Both are beautifully animated and highly stylized film from Tomm Moore. I thought The Secret Of Kells was amazing to watch but found the story lacking (7/10), but Song Of The Sea is just about perfect (9/10), they just don't make animated films like this anymore. Kubo & Two Strings - Speaking of animated films, Kubo was an amazing feat to watch and really does feel like a culmination of all of Laika's work to this date. I take a little issue with the whitewashing with the casting choices. (8/10) Christmas in Connecticut - Enjoyed this and I am adding it to my usual Christmas rotation. (7.5/10) I Before E posted:Quiz Show(rewatch): 3/5 Quiz Show is one of my favorites. I'd like to hear your thoughts.
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Jan 3, 2017 23:12
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I Before E posted:The Man From UNCLE: 4/5 Could you expand of these? I'm particularly curious about The Man From UNCLE since I've never read much about it that was very positive, middling at best really from what I could gather.
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Jan 4, 2017 01:47
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York_M_Chan posted:Quiz Show is one of my favorites. I'd like to hear your thoughts. Quiz Show was one of my favorites as a kid, I had it on VHS and along with Down With Love and The Wedding Singer it was on constant rotation. When I saw it was on Netflix, I decided to revisit it, seeing as I hadn't seen it in approximately a decade. There's a lot to love, Ralph Fiennes in particular plays his part with a sort of dry nonchalance that can come off as either apathy or innocence and creates a delightful ambiguity around his character, but for the most part it's kind of bland, skimming over thematic veins it could tap into like the ethnic resentment behind Herb's character and the idea that game show viewers aren't really interested in legitimate competition as much as they want choreographed drama. There's a scene where Herb is talking to his son and pro wrestling is on in the background, which is the closest they really get to exploring that idea of game shows as theatrically performed simulations of competition. To my surprise, the part that really didn't hold up was John Tuturro's performance as Herb. I'm not sure if it's Tuturro, the direction, or the script, but Herb really just comes off as spiteful in a one-dimensional way that isn't really entertaining or thematically interesting. Mack The Knife is still a great song, though, setting the mood for an examination of high class trappings hiding cruelty that the movie itself never really becomes. Dol posted:Could you expand of these? I'm particularly curious about The Man From UNCLE since I've never read much about it that was very positive, middling at best really from what I could gather. Rango(rewatch): 4/5 - Maybe one of the prettiest animated movies I've ever seen, from the character designs to the way light and water are handled. What this reminded me of most was Blazing Saddles, but instead of everything including the characters being Western artifice in one compartment of a bigger Hollywood ecosystem, Rango himself is consciously affecting Western artifice to try to blend into a society that itself is moving from Western to Noir, leaving him one step behind at all times. This has its own equivalent to the bit in Blazing Saddles where things spill out of the Western soundstage and the artifice is laid bare, but this version is more respectful, portraying the Spirit Of The West as a dying titan, large yet still fading in his later years. This respect for Western artifice that still acknowledges the artificiality is kind of spoiled by the ending where Dirt just becomes a modern beach town. I mean, I get it, it's gone from Tombstone to Venice Beach, but it's still kind of lame. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: 5/5 The Nice Guys: 4.5/5 - These two use the same core dynamic, where a scrawny wiseass in over his head is paired with a gruffer, more experienced character, but where I found Ryan Gosling's Holland March to be the more interesting half in The Nice Guys, Val Kilmer as Gay Perry really stole the show in KKBB. The plots in both are mainly there as clotheshorses for the character interactions, but in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang there's a thematic thread of people being disappointed by the intersection of fantasy with reality and The Nice Guys doesn't do quite as much with its government corruption narrative. It's more than a little heartbreaking to see Shane Black try twice to really bring classic buddy cop comedy back, with both attempts resulting in great, fun movies, and have both underperform at the box office. The Man From UNCLE: 4/5 Hell Or High Water: 4.5/5 - One of the most powerful scenes in Hell Or High Water is the scene at the blackjack table, where Tanner and an old Comanche man have a conversation about what "Comanche" means, that being "enemies forever". Tanner replies: "You know what that makes me? ... A Comanche." It's one of the many scenes where men butt heads, but nothing big actually comes of it, all talk and no action. This is a theme that cuts across the cop/criminal divide, with Jeff Bridges' Marcus being just as antagonistic towards his partner, Alberto(Gil Birmingham), even as Alberto dispassionately shrugs off his barbs. These confrontations are an attempt to create some sort of feeling of individual power in a segment of society where poverty is a constant. From Kaleb Horton's review: quote:It was a popular pastime to joke about robbing the tiny little bank. You cross the train tracks, you sprint down the old road, you’re in there about 10 minutes, you take the small bills in the register but not the ink packs, you run like hell, you wash the money in another state. But we stopped joking when somebody actually did it. This kid went in, pretended to have a gun, and 20 minutes later he was sitting in his trailer. But he only had $5,000 to show for it, not even enough for a car you don’t have to fix on weekends, and he was on too much meth to get away with it, so he was really just renting the money. Even the cops feel powerless. Tanner kills Marcus' partner, but Marcus is unable to get closure just by killing Tanner in kind. He sees how Toby is the man who put the bank robbery plot in motion, and that his image of justice hasn't been done, but he can't see what put Toby in motion, the systemic problems that frame the entire conflict, and that his version of justice is woefully unprepared for the situation. He's a cowboy whose prarie is burning. In Man From Uncle, the clock is 50 years behind, but the masculine ego-sniping and the sense of powerlessness is still there. Despite the fact that Napoleon and Illya are ostensibly incredibly powerful, they are the cowboys that Marcus imagines himself to be, they're still made powerless by the systems that contain them, the grand game of geopolitics. It's played more for laughs than for tragedy here, with Cavill's smarmy Timothy Dalton-esque charm bouncing off Hammer's gruff stoicism, but they're allowed to see what Marcus doesn't. Napoleon is able to respect Illya and see past their national divide, showing him a human kindness by returning his father's watch. In kind, Illya finally realizes that what he may lose in allowing himself to be vulnerable he makes up for in genuine emotional connection. This is what finally allows them to put their larger conflict aside, destroying the item(I think it might have been microfilm, but does it really matter?) both countries wanted and putting friendship above national loyalty. I can kind of see why people might have disliked Man From Uncle, as it's not even the first revival of a show from decades ago nobody cares about anymore to star Armie Hammer, but Guy Ritchie's eye for flashy action (I mean god drat there's an action montage presented entirely in Brian DePalma-style splitscreens that blew my mind), ability to direct actors (I think this is the first interesting performance I've seen from either Hammer or Cavill), and dedication to 60s fashion turns what could have been another Starsky and Hutch into an underlooked gem that's retro without being a half-baked pastiche. Also it's maybe the only buddy cop movie I've seen where the petty sniping takes the form of both men aggressively demonstrating their knowledge of women's fashion, and that's beautiful.
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Jan 4, 2017 03:07
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The Human Centipede 3 - A friend turned this on while I was at her house, we thought it would be a schlocky B-movie we could all watch together. I was so aggressively bored by the lack of human centipedes despite making it halfway through the movie (there were 58 minutes left apparently) that I decided to turn it off, which nobody seemed to mind me doing. Even copious amounts of high quality liquor did not help me make it through this. I could not understand what the hell was happening or why. There were a few laughs to be had from the "acting" (if you can call it that), but on the whole it was barely even riff-able. -100,000/5
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Jan 5, 2017 00:36
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Looper: 2/5 How does one combine Akira and Terminator and get something as boring as this? Some cool ideas that should didn't necessarily belong in the same movie together. Very muddled, unfocused, and drawn out. Good performance by Jeff Daniels, and I think the loopers' shotgun cannons are neat. That's about the nicest things I can say about it.
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Jan 5, 2017 04:09
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Green Room (2015, Jeremy Saulnier) - 4/5 (thanks, axleblaze!) [Blu-Ray] Black Magic (1949, Gregory Ratoff) - 4/5 (I'm a sucker for Welles' phoney, but wonderful accents) [TCM] Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939, Sam Wood) - 3/5 [TCM DVR] Night and Fog (1955, Alain Resnais) - 5/5 [FilmStruck] Belle de Jour (1967, Luis Bunuel) - 4.5/5 [FilmStruck]
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Jan 5, 2017 05:47
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I watched a pair of comedies yesterday while working from home. Mr. Right 6/10 - The movie is written by Max Landis. That right off the bat will probably give you a good idea as to whether or not you like it. For an action Rom-Com the fight scenes were better than I anticipated. i would consider the acting to be strong overall especially Tim Roth's character. Anna Kendrick I felt like was the weakest of the big three characters, but I think I mostly chalk that up to her having to work with a poorly developed character to begin with. Regardless it was a decent time waster. Sisters 5/10 - I traditionally am a big fan of both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but this one didn't grab me like they usually do. It had its moments that made me smile or chuckle, but overall I feel like everything about it is about as forgettable as the just about every guest at the sisters' party. All in all, it just felt like a lot of comedic talent was under-utilized.
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Jan 6, 2017 23:47
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Passengers is a bit of a curiosity. I wonder how many couples are turned off by the Science-Fiction label and how many Sci-Fi fans by the romance. The movie is quite unremarkable, which is a feat in itself when you consider how much effort went into it. The cast does a solid job, but I got the impression they put an action-actor in a role that would require a bit more nuances. Then again that character was a simpleton to begin with, so why bother. Lawrence is very solid, but the script is hardly a challenge and her lines are milquetoast as well as everyone else's. There is nothing standing out, every conversation is just so bland. When they introduced the barkeeper-android and its over-generalised tips on how to life your life, I wasn't quite sure whether this was irony or meant to be serious. Maybe a failed attempt, who knows. The ending reroutes the movie back to the male fantasy that it was to begin with and could be read as outright misogynistic, but its hard to hate a flick that is so shallow and unobtrusive, so for that it just gets rolling eyes and yawns. Really, this should have been a hobby-project, or aspiring director's first film rather than a big production, but here we are. Not bad, just a bit disappointing. Liked the ship though.
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Jan 7, 2017 12:54
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Hard to Be a God - Aleksey German, 2013 Many reviews of this film provide a lengthy plot summary. I find this interesting because the film as it stands really has no plot. The book on which it's based definitely has one, so I suspect many people are using that as a basis to understand the film's story. But the film makes no effort to provide a narrative of any kind. Even the opening narration that ostensibly "explains" the setup is cryptic and brief. No, the film doesn't aim to tell a story. What it does aim to do is deeply immerse the viewer in a foreign world. And it succeeds amazingly. The camera itself acts as a tour guide through an impeccably detailed world of filth and depravity. I can't stress detailed enough. I have never seen a more thoroughly realized physical setting in all my years watching movies. It's stunningly impressive. Every inch of every shot - for three hours - is filled with some detail that helps bring this world to life. The sets and costumes are immaculate and the cast must be in the thousands. Every frame oozes with mud, sweat, blood, snot, feces, rain, smoke and entrails. Characters buzz around and in front of the camera. Objects swoop and dangle in the foreground. It's a frenzied barrage of motion and chaos, and the camera is always right there in the thick of it. The production design of this film puts every big budget Hollywood movie to shame. Director Aleksey German took 6 years to shoot Hard to Be a God. I get that. The passion and care with which it was produced is abundantly apparent. One gets the feeling that the vision he had for this project is precisely what we're seeing. His choice to present this world to us with little semblance of a story, as peculiar as that is, is exactly what he wanted to do. This is an uncompromised, ambitious work worthy of analysis and praise. There's never been another film quite like it, and there likely never will be. 5/5
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Jan 9, 2017 17:31
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The Love Witch - Anna Biller, 2016 Anna Biller has crafted a loving visual tribute to Italian films of the 60s and 70s. The colors, art direction, lighting and camerawork are all spot on. She really nailed it. Samantha Robinson is the perfect talent for the kinds of glamorous closeups in line with this style. But while the movie is visually top-notch, it has a lot of problems. First and foremost is the muddled script. The narrative is disastrously uneven. We jump from subplot to subplot, with some segments (such as the nightclub scene) feeling like something out of a different movie. The film's individual parts feel disparate from one another. The result is a rather tedious experience. With a running time of two hours, the film overstays its welcome. It's in desperate need of some serious edits. The movie is ostensibly a satire, but there are problems with this aspect as well. The best way I can describe the satirical nature of the movie is unfocused. Sometimes it feels like it's poking fun at the stilted acting and gaudy styles of the films after which it's modeled, but other times it feels genuinely silly. The effect is disorienting. An example: the actress who plays Elaine's friend Barbara - her acting is atrocious; one might assume this is intentional, but I'm really not sure. It's just confusing. While I love the ambition and passion that clearly went into this, I feel that Biller probably should have had some more chefs in the kitchen. Specifically a more meticulous screenwriter and a liberal editor. Tighter, leaner and more adept in its satire, this could have been something really great. 2.5/5
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Jan 12, 2017 17:31
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Three Days of the Condor: tense, more realistic than most spy/conspiracy movies where he isnt a superhero, he methodically tries to put a couple vague clues together. Reminds me of The Conversation a bit. Cool (real) phone hacking too. 4/5
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Jan 13, 2017 05:54
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Most recent first: Bye Bye Man : 3/5 Fences: 4/5 Comic Book Confidential: 3.5/5 Rogue One: 4.5/5 Underworld: Blood Wars: 2.5/5 American Ultra: 1/5
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Jan 13, 2017 05:59
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From most recent: Train to Busan - 2.5/5. Solid little Korean zombie blockbuster, sprinkled with (as opposed to Snowpiercer's dousing) some social commentary and melodrama. Good set pieces, but a bit too overstuffed. The Visit - 2/5. Not very scary but pretty drat funny at times. Not inoffensively bad unlike some of M. Night's work in the past decade (Airbender, The Happening, Lady in the Water). Pretty irresponsible messaging about mental illness though. Pitch Black - 3/5. Vin Diesel carrying what would otherwise be a mediocre sci-fy film through sheer force of will. 10 Cloverfield Lane - 2.5/5. John Goodman is loving fantastic. The film alternates between cozy and tense before ultimately losing me. Shin Godzilla - 4/5. Generally kicks rear end, but it felt like Anno was really held back at times (or held himself back). Particularly stupid subplot that just made my eyes roll. Dial M for Murder 4/5. Finely crafted. Hangs together brilliantly, but lacks that special something of Hitchcock's best works.
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Jan 13, 2017 09:24
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Horror Express - Eugenio Martín, 1972 Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee square off against a Thing-esque alien creature that absorbs the minds of its victims, set entirely on a trans-siberian passenger train. A pretty wonderful premise. And somehow the movie ends up being even more badass than it sounds. Its success lies in how marvelously unrestrained it is. It doesn't pull a single punch in executing its wacky premise. In the first five minutes we see a dude murdered, blood dripping from his eyes and mouth, his eyeballs turned a gruesome opaque white. And it doesn't let up from there. The skeletal ape-like creature, with its glowing red Terminator eye, starts offing people right away. And the death scenes are consistently satisfying. It goes without saying, but Cushing and Lee are endlessly watchable together, even if their characters aren't the most magnetic. Alberto de Mendoza as the monk is really good too, and his role becomes even more interesting as the story unfolds. And just when everything seemed like it couldn't get better, Telly Savalas appears in the third act. His character seems superfluous in the context of the story, almost as if his scene was a tacked on to the script as an afterthought. But it was most definitely the right decision, because he steals the loving show. I think every movie could benefit from a scenery-chewing Telly Savalas scene. And to top it all off, the film has interesting things to say about the moral consequences of scientific progression, as well as some sly humor. I can't think of anything I dislike about it. 5/5
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Jan 14, 2017 16:52
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The Lunchbox (2013) is an Indian romance / drama about a lunchbox that happens to arrive at the wrong address. It's a wonderful movie and there is a lot to like here. I thought the idea of the "invisible auntie" was great and enjoyed the flawlessly performing actors. The streets of India feel very real and close to the viewer. The slow pace however turns it into a test of patience. I like slow, quiet movies, but this one feels like a short story was blown up to 1:40 hours. The thin plot simply is not enough to hold your attention the whole time, even tough I admit its slowness goes well with the theme of the movie. For me it was about 15 minutes too long, with too many redundant or too drawn-out scenes. If you could discover this late at night, in a half-asleep state it would be perfect to dive into the Indian streets (and their hidden romances) though.
lllllllllllllllllll fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jan 17, 2017 |
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Jan 17, 2017 15:27
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lllllllllllllllllll posted:The Lunchbox (2013) is an Indian romance / drama about a lunchbox that happens to arrive at the wrong address. It's a wonderful movie and there is a lot to like here. I thought the idea of the "invisible auntie" was great and enjoyed the flawlessly performing actors. The streets of India feel very real and close to the viewer. The slow pace however turns it into a test of patience. I like slow, quiet movies, but this one feels like a short story was blown up to 1:40 hours. The thin plot simply is not enough to hold your attention the whole time, even tough I admit its slowness goes well with the theme of the movie. For me it was about 15 minutes too long, with too many redundant or too drawn-out scenes. If you could discover this late at night, in a half-asleep state it would be perfect to dive into the Indian streets (and their hidden romances) though. I just saw this as well and loved it, it held my attention just fine. I could understand how you see it being 15 min too long though. The VVitch - Surprised how much I liked this movie. Really not the type of movie I pick to watch but it was good. It was much more of a psychological thriller than I was expecting. I do think that showing the witch that early in the movie killed some of the suspense. I would have rather not know what was going on a little longer. The Secret Life of Pets - Didn't have any expectations but was somehow let down. I love kids movies but this one just didn't do it for me. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - My wife wanted to watch this one but I was surprised how much I liked it. Not amazing, but does a good job of showing teenage life without over dramatizing it or idolizing it. It really did capture that feeling of discovery (and hopelessness) you get as a teen. Ocean Waves - I was able to catch this old Ghibli at my local movie theater. It is a great simple story about a boy and a girl... actually funny how close this and Perk Of Being were now that I think about it. It also reminded me of Only Yesterday. Naked Lunch (rewatch) - I actually got a lot more out of the movie this time than when I watched it in my 20s. It didn't feel as "weird" this time and I was able to make some cohesive sense out of it.
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Jan 17, 2017 20:29
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Pieces - Juan Piquer Simón, 1982 So many slashers fail to stand out and make a name for themselves in the saturated early 80s slasher scene. I feel the worst sin a slasher can commit is that it isn't good enough to be great, and it's not bad enough to be memorable. Pieces doesn't commit this sin, as it's most definitely bad enough to be memorable. Director Juan Piquer Simón's attempt is sincere (which is integral to fulfilling the so-bad-it's-good requirement). The story is illogical, the acting is wooden and awkward, the editing is sloppy and the dialogue is hilariously awful ("Bastard! Bastaaard! Baaaastaaaaard!"). But Simón, in all his technical deficiency, knows how to keep us pining for that next gory death scene. Is it because we think it'll be shocking, or because we think it'll be comically inept? For me it's both. The kills really are something. The camera doesn't flinch as chainsaws rip through bare torsos and butcher knives impale heads. Even when we can see the rubber knife bend in half, we embrace this (yep, watch the waterbed scene closely). We're laughing while we're squirming. We also get some amazing non sequiturs. The girl on the skateboard at the beginning is presumably an attempt at light humor, but it's so jarringly out of place that it's just perplexing. And that ending, wow. Not the climax, which is actually pretty uneventful. I mean the final ten seconds of the movie. If there's an effective way for a film to imprint itself in my mind at the last moment, that's how to do it. 3/5
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Jan 18, 2017 17:02
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Captain Blood (1940?) - decent swashbuckling pirate movie, more focused on the characters than action, due to technical limitations of the time. Still holds up okay though if you like Errol Flynn stuff. 3/5. Would be 4/5 but they didnt end on a "steal a kiss" type of line that wouldve been perfect  Kim (1950?) - Errol is just a supporter in this one, it's about a boy getting mixed up in spy stuff in colonial India. Young Dean Stockwell was great and unrecognizable compared to later years. 4/5
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Jan 18, 2017 17:15
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Carol - 90/100 Bronson - 74/100 Manchester by the Sea - 82/100 Moonlight - 90/100 La Notte - 80/100 Silence (2016) - 85/100 Elle - 70/100 Lo and Behold: Reveries of a Connected World - 70/100
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Jan 20, 2017 11:03
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:Bronson - 74/100 Expand on these if you would
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Jan 20, 2017 22:34
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Moonlight - 90/100 This is definitely the highlight of the year for me. Endlessly creative photography and music, a structure that constantly surprises, and content that will challenge the preconceptions of its audience. It probes one's emotions in difficult, poetic, and nontraditional ways, without condescending on the material or settling for cliche. The casting, even when it seems like it shouldn't work (for continuity purposes), somehow magically does, I think mainly because of the attention to detail with regard to body language, mood, and clothing. The original score is just unbearably good, with any licensed tracks present being both interesting and obscure, and the colors....THE COLORS!, and little camera bobs and weaves, dreamy depth of focus, all things that are just icing on the cake of incredibly dedicated and sincere performances. Bronson - 74/100 I've never been able to get into Refn, but I do think his films are aesthetically engaging, carnivalesque at least. Hardy puts a lot of work into the role and the whole enterprise is both funny and dark in equal turns with an obvious debt to films like Oh, Lucky Man and Clockwork Orange. But I couldn't help but feel this overabundance of pseudo-profundity while watching, the numerous moments of slow contemplation where there just didn't seem to be anything worth contemplating. This movie put in solid effort, but watching it felt like doing time. I guess that's the point. Manchester by the Sea - 82/100 One of the better films this year. MbtS is just as formal and deliberate as Margaret was years ago, and both films feel like they could be stage plays given the director's history. Honestly, I saw this back to back with Moonlight and it really suffered due to the juxtaposition. Manchester is a clean, politely shot, well acted film, but it felt incredibly stuffy to me, so focused on the mundane and trivial, and both the cinematography and score really reflect an aversion to risktaking. I must admit that Affleck gives an astounding performance, one that manages to disguise some of the more mediocre elements of the film.
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Jan 20, 2017 23:24
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:
I have to say I disagree. I found it to be viscerally affecting because of that focus on the trivial and everyday. It takes these moments that at first glance are mundane and shows how even those little moments have the process of grief weighing on them. There's this maelstrom of emotion boiling under the surface of both Lee and Patrick, and the audience is put outside them, mostly unable to see through the facade of calmness and normalcy they put up until it cracks, until Lee explodes into impulive self destruction like in the bar scenes or when he punches through the window or when Patrick has that panic attack at the freezer, and the cinematography you describe as unambitious is a part of that, presenting these characters in a very matter of fact way, as well as reinforcing the tedium of waiting until winter for the ground to soften. I agree that it doesn't really pull out a lot of neat tricks, but it's not going for the sort of impressionistic camera work Moonlight is, and I think both approaches are appropriate for their contexts.
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Jan 21, 2017 00:09
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I Before E posted:I have to say I disagree. I found it to be viscerally affecting because of that focus on the trivial and everyday. It takes these moments that at first glance are mundane and shows how even those little moments have the process of grief weighing on them. There's this maelstrom of emotion boiling under the surface of both Lee and Patrick, and the audience is put outside them, mostly unable to see through the facade of calmness and normalcy they put up until it cracks, until Lee explodes into impulive self destruction like in the bar scenes or when he punches through the window or when Patrick has that panic attack at the freezer, and the cinematography you describe as unambitious is a part of that, presenting these characters in a very matter of fact way, as well as reinforcing the tedium of waiting until winter for the ground to soften. I agree that it doesn't really pull out a lot of neat tricks, but it's not going for the sort of impressionistic camera work Moonlight is, and I think both approaches are appropriate for their contexts. Yeah, I got all that out of it, and agree. I guess I'd say that the way it was structured, filmed and scored would not be something I'd likely watch again, even though I felt it worked pretty well to convey the point. So I docked it for that.
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Jan 21, 2017 00:45
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:Yeah, I got all that out of it, and agree. I guess I'd say that the way it was structured, filmed and scored would not be something I'd likely watch again, even though I felt it worked pretty well to convey the point. So I docked it for that. Fair enough.
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Jan 21, 2017 02:37
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 - Tobe Hooper, 1986 (rewatch) Comparing this movie to its predecessor is like comparing Alien to Airplane. The two movies are driven by entirely different aims. While the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a gritty and terrifying piece of visceral horror, Part 2 is an hilarious, wacko decent into gore and insanity. "It's not as good as the original" almost doesn't apply here. There are so many darkly humorous moments: the opening car kill, Leatherface's sexual encounter, the skin mask, the chainsaw in the rear end. The cannibal family members are all hilariously over the top, with each actor doing tremendous work. I really love the underground lair set, which is full of macabre details that give the feeling of a surreal carnival attraction (there's no doubt Rob Zombie took a lot of cues from this film). Caroline Williams does a fine job as the always screaming but often clever lead. And Dennis Hopper's crazed chainsaw-wielding lieutenant absolutely brings down the house (ha). TCM2 should feel right at home alongside other great horror comedies like Return of the Living Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Braindead. It's pure maniacal fun. 4/5
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Jan 23, 2017 01:13
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Faust - F.W. Murnau, 1926 (rewatch) Watching this film again has opened my eyes to just how great it is. Aside from the timelessly engaging story, it's a technical miracle, with some of the most dazzling and clever special effects I've seen. It's right up there with Metropolis in this regard. With his supremely imaginative compositions, such as the enormous winged Mephisto looming ominously over the town, Murnau achieves a surreal, spooky quality. Some of the more atmospheric segments, like when Faust first encounters the glowing-eyed Mephisto, come off like a fevered nightmare. It's a haunting, dreamlike masterstroke, and the kind of film that was only seen during the silent era. Although even then there was nothing quite like this. Nosferatu gets all the buzz, but Faust is Murnau's masterpiece. 5/5
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Jan 27, 2017 18:37
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-wrong place-
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Jan 28, 2017 00:01
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Just watched the '59 Ben Hur. Pretty good but probably didn't need to be over 3 hours, and if you didn't already know about the Jesus story it'd be a bit more confusing. I prefer Spartacus.
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Feb 2, 2017 14:30
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I have seen some great movies the last few months (Arrival, Nocturnal Animals, LA La Land) but nothing comes close to Moonlight . Easiest ten out of ten ever and quite possibly one of the most well made movies I've ever seen. The acting, the cinematography, the editing, the music...everything was fantastic.
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Feb 5, 2017 11:54
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SUNDANCE MOVIES Free and Easy B The Discovery C Wind River B- Colossal A+ The Polka King B World Without End A- Get Out A- XX C+ Raw A The Good Postman B+ A Ghost Story A Carpinteros (Woodpeckers) C Bushwick B Marjorie Prime B+ Kuso B- Burning Sands D+ Diedra and Laney Rob a Train B- Lemon B- And a few others Shin Godzilla A- 10 Cloverfield Lane B- Midnight Special B- Five Element Ninjas A Five Deadly Venoms B- The Kid with the Golden Arm B+ Invincible Shaolin B Masked Avengers A-
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Feb 5, 2017 14:38
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glam rock hamhock posted:SUNDANCE MOVIES
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Feb 5, 2017 14:46
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This one too if you would.
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Feb 5, 2017 15:33
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In Theory I'll write more about these in my Sundance thread but I'll go over them briefly here. Colossal A+ Basically the oddly perfect combination of an Apitow indie film and a Kaiju movie. I don't really know how they managed to mesh those genres so perfectly but here it is. The movie has a lot of strong themes throughout (some of which would be pretty spoilery if I went into). I'll just say that while there are certain parts of the indie formula it follows, there are others it subverts quite strongly, some by going places you don't think the movie is actually intelligent enough to go, but it goes there. In fact there's a tonal shift at one point that is really disconcerting because it's so against the expectations the movie is building up and you're not sure if the movie knows exactly what it's doing, but once it becomes clear it does, everything falls into place and it also becomes clear that this has always where things have been heading. Outside of that it's just a fun movie. All the performances are great with Hathaway managing to pull off such a silly premise and make it relatable. The Kaiju stuff is silly but also taken seriously enough that it's clear it's done out of love rather than mockery. Just an all around creative and interesting film Get Out A- This is not really the movie you probably think it is and to explain how that's the case is to get into some major spoilers. I'll just say this is way more about the blue states than the red ones. Peele in general makes a pretty great and interesting horror movie that evokes some of the best stuff from the 70s and 80s in that it smoothly but also bluntly integrates it's social criticism and makes something really silly and over the top with it. It's a horror movie that is mostly free of violence and jump scares and it mostly about how odd everything is. The most tense shot in the entire movie is simply and increasingly tight close-up on a character as she apologizes for something. In general the movie feels like the work of a horror fan in that it just pulls from all over with almost Tarantino like abandon. There are bits of the Stepford Wives, You're Next, Stir of Echoes, The Wicker Man, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and in general too much to even name. It's also pretty funny too. Marjorie Prime B+ The biggest downfall of this movie is that it is so obviously a play that it's ridiculous. It's all very small with scenes between maybe four characters at the most. The staging is stiff and any shot that takes place away from what would be the stage feels like it's just there to make it feel less like a play rather than to add anything. The writing is also this very specific type that sounds good when projected across a theater, but feels a bit unnatural in a movie. So yeah, this is a play but luckily it's a really good play with really good performances. Lois Smith steals the show, being the only person here that can really make the dialogue always feel natural. She gives such life and warmth to Marjorie which goes a long way. Hamm is also very good in a very different way. Here the unnatural dialogue actually works to the movie's advantage and Hamm manages to create this almost uncanny valley like effect with no special effects needed. Overall this is just a good thoughtful scifi piece that contemplates concrete things like AI and technology as a substitute for actual interaction to more abstract things like memory, grief, regret and death. This is a movie that I don't think gains all that much from being a movie other than being more widely available to be seen, which in this case is still a good thing. Kuso B- This is a gross movie. Like it makes an effort to just continually be as unpleasant and nauseating as possible. While I went in expecting this, it still takes awhile to get used to. If you can get passed that, there is some enjoyment to be had here. The visuals here are often as wildly creative and weird as they grotesque and the movie is also often really, really funny. The whole thing is pure William Street but without the limits that Adult Swim would usually put on something like that. Nothing is held back and it's hard to really say if that's a good thing, but it's there. I guess my main problem with this movie is it just doesn't seem to add up to all that much. Like many of the classic grossout films use there grossness to say something but here I'm not really pulling anything all that interesting. Maybe it's trying to say something interesting through all the blood, poo poo and cum but it was lost on me. Raw A This is one of the damnedest films I've ever seen. Like, at the beginning there's an endless listing of production companies and I don't even know how one person got convinced to put money into this but I'm glad they did because, holy crap, what a film. What we have here is basically a very french sexual awakening story. I mean you have the mousy but gorgeous virgin going out into the real world for the first time and her rebellious and sexy sister that has already fully embraced the carnality of the real world acting as her guide and rival. It's all kind of straightforward stuff for a late night cinemax movie except sex here is replaced with cannibalism. I mean don't get me wrong, there is A LOT of sex in this movie but it all gets focused towards the devouring of flesh and the sex scenes are either tinged with animalistic gnashing of the teeth and bloodlust or outright replaced with the orgasmic eating of other people. It's a movie that as I was watching it I constantly just could not believe what I was watching. This is like Crash (the good one) level stuff which coming from a first time filmmaker (who is so French btw that her profile pic in the film guide had her mid cigarette drag) is loving bonkers. Like it helps that the movie is constantly a visual treat and that she somehow films this stuff so it actually works which, once again, is insane for a first time filmmaker. I have no idea what kind of release this movie will ever see but seek it out because you will (probably) not regret it.
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Feb 5, 2017 17:09
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Regarding Majorie Prime - have any movies (other than just a recording of a normal performance) been made specifically as stage plays, as if the viewer is in the audience? With dvd's now, maybe you could have an audiotrack with/without audience noises as well? You could still use a bit of editing since it's a movie, but try to film it mostly like a play, i.e. Hitchcock's Rope.
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Feb 5, 2017 17:27
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got any sevens posted:Regarding Majorie Prime - have any movies (other than just a recording of a normal performance) been made specifically as stage plays, as if the viewer is in the audience? With dvd's now, maybe you could have an audiotrack with/without audience noises as well? You could still use a bit of editing since it's a movie, but try to film it mostly like a play, i.e. Hitchcock's Rope. The closest I can think of is Venus in Fur, which while not filmed like the viewer is in the audience, by it's nature is just staged exactly like it would be staged if it were a play with maybe a few minor differences
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Feb 5, 2017 17:37
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got any sevens posted:Regarding Majorie Prime - have any movies (other than just a recording of a normal performance) been made specifically as stage plays, as if the viewer is in the audience? With dvd's now, maybe you could have an audiotrack with/without audience noises as well? You could still use a bit of editing since it's a movie, but try to film it mostly like a play, i.e. Hitchcock's Rope. Powell and Pressburger's Tales of Hoffman and Greenaway's Baby of Macon come to mind, though they both play with the metatheatricals.
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Feb 5, 2017 18:10
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:50 |
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Ewar Woowar posted:I have seen some great movies the last few months (Arrival, Nocturnal Animals, LA La Land) but nothing comes close to Moonlight . Easiest ten out of ten ever and quite possibly one of the most well made movies I've ever seen. The acting, the cinematography, the editing, the music...everything was fantastic. Yeah, certainly one of the best movies I've ever seen. At the theater I work for there have been a lot of puffy, sobbing faces emerging from this one.
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Feb 6, 2017 08:15
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