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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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Crisis: Behind a Presidential Committment - 5/5 (Blu-Ray) Faces of November - 5/5 (Blu-Ray) Two-Way Stretch - 3/5 (TCM) Weary River - 2.5/5 (TCM) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - 4.5/5 (TCM) Rogue One - 4.5/5 (cinema) Godzilla (1954) - 4/5 (Blu-Ray) The Double Life of Veronique - 5/5 (Blu-Ray) Secret Honor - 3/5 (FilmStruck) Aparajito - 4.5/5 (Blu-Ray) Ali: Fear Eats the Soul - 5/5 (FilmStruck) The Best of Cinerama - 2.5/5 (Blu-Ray)
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Feb 12, 2017 05:52
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Godzilla - I wasn't expecting something this dark. It has this post-war gloom over it. I will say that the effects are excellent for the time and the occasionally "rickety" effect gives it character. It's disturbing in a few parts like when Godzilla attacks a radio tower and the announcer says goodbye over the air or people getting blasted with radioactive vapor. The pacing is a little off and it has a fairly odd use of stock footage (all of which is in bad shape). The Double Life of Veronique - I love Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy, but that's all I had seen by him. This is another masterpiece. It's about the beauty of life. Besides being gorgeously shot, one thing that stuck out was how sex is portrayed. Movie sex tends to either come off as voyeuristic or titillating. Instead, it's shown as a beautiful part of life. Two-Way Stretch is a British jailbreak comedy starring Peter Sellers. Nothing amazing, but it's interesting seeing Sellers in a more plain role and there are some funny parts. Also, The Best of Cinerama makes me wish I had a projector and a wall-sized screen. I have recently re-situated my living room, so the couch is much closer than before. The film is 2 1/2 hours of travelogue footage from other Cinerama films of the 50s, with narration. It kind of gets old after a while, but I know it has to play a lot better in an actual theater.
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Feb 12, 2017 15:08
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The Crowd - 4.5/5 [TCM] I Am Cuba - 4.5/5 [FilmStruck[/b] Kubo and the Two Strings - 4/5 [in-flight movie] Hail the Conquering Hero - 5/5 [DVD] The Crowd is one of the important films I had tried to see for literally half my life, but even as of 2017 it's one of many films that was only released on VHS and laserdisc. It's fascinating in how it comes off as a proto-neo-realist film, while also having incredible silent film form. It's not exactly uplifting, but it's committed to its realism. I Am Cuba has to be one of the most stunningly photographed films I've ever seen. The camera is constantly moving, often seemingly impossible movements. Like a shot that starts at the top of a building and ends in a swimming pool, all in one unbroken take. The stories are threadbare, but the point is a stylized sort of storytelling. I totally see why so many filmmakers were inspired, though. Kubo and the Two Strings continues the Laika tradition of absolutely stunning stop-motion animation with unconventional storytelling. I think it's a pity their films aren't as appreciated since I think ParaNorman is one of the best films of the last ten years (and a masterpiece). This is close, even with having a bit of awkwardness. Still, I think the ending was gutsy and wouldn't have worked in a lesser made film. I'm trying to go through Preston Sturges' filmography and I've yet to not love one of his films (others I've seen are The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, and The Great McGinty). This manages to top one scene after another with something funnier. But I love how it has a lot of heart and is one of the more honestly patriotic films I've seen. Eddie Bracken nails it in his lead role. Plus, you get the usual Sturges actors like William Demarest, Jimmy Conlin, and Franklin Pangborn. Demarest steals every scene he's in. Extra points for some really impressive long takes.
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Feb 20, 2017 04:53
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Kangra posted:How on Earth is it that The Crowd has not been released on a digital disc!? Is there some studio weirdness holding it back? More like Travels. The print on TCM had a few spots with nitrate decomp or poor quality dupes, so maybe they needed to do a lot of work. Apparently, The Big Parade wasn't a big seller on Blu-Ray despite being MIA for about 20 years. It has an orchestral score by Carl Davis, so music isn't a problem.
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Feb 20, 2017 22:46
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The Paradine Case - 2/5 [DVD rip] Burroughs: The Movie - 4/5 [FilmStruck] Mrs. Miniver - 4.5/5 [DVR] How Green Was My Valley - 4.5/5 [DVR] Going My Way - 4.5/5 [DVR] Having seen The Paradine Case, I only have one more American Hitchcock movie to see (Under Capricorn). This is a real slog of a film that's redeemed only by some splendid photography, Alida Valli's performance, and some alright supporting turns for Charles Laughton and Louis Jourdan. The narrative is jumbled, with haphazard editing, and non-sequitors of scenes. Not surprisingly, producer (and screenwriter!) David O. Selznick chopped out a ton of footage out of the film before release. Meh. I'm not at all familiar with William S. Burroughs, but this is a fascinating documentary. Made up entirely of candid, and oddly frank interviews with Burroughs and his friends. What's interesting is how a lot of the stranger things in his life are portrayed without condescension. A lesser film would have spun Burroughs living with his male assistant as freakish, but it's portrayed warmly. Probably should read Naked Lunch someday... I held off on several Best Picture winners since they looked kind of "meh" to me. Mrs. Miniver is a real eye-opener. I don't particularly care for the golden age MGM aesthetic, but this plays on it. When the film starts, it seems like another weepie. Instead, it's a dark, stoic take on British life just before and during WWII. The scene that takes place during the London bombings is terrifying, with the family huddled in a shelter reading from Alice in Wonderland. Not surprisingly, it was directed by William Wyler, who seemed to know a thing or two about making great movies. One of the best endings I've seen on a wartime film. How Green Was My Valley is probably treated unkindly by many today for beating Citizen Kane at the Oscars, but even Welles had nothing but praise for this film. This is prime John Ford. Beautifully shot, but also unrelenting on life in a Welsh coal mining town. While it's mostly serious, Ford indulges a scene of comedy with an abusive teacher getting his comeuppance. One highlight is a young Roddy McDowall in one of the more impressive child acting roles I've seen. Also has great roles for Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, and Walter Huston. Going My Way is another lovely film that manages to avoid gloom. It's such a positive film, it's no wonder it was extremely popular when it came out during the war. Very nice mix of comedy and pathos, not surprising that it was directed by Leo McCarey. Only negative point would be an opera scene that goes on way too long, but other than that a great film.
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Feb 26, 2017 05:19
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Alhazred posted:The Lone Ranger Yeah, the last 20-some minutes are great. Really, the film would have been improved just by taking out the "Old Tonto" scenes, because they add absolutely nothing to the movie. They come off as contractual obligation, as if Johnny Depp had to appear in a fixed percentage of the movie.
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Feb 26, 2017 17:05
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The Third Man (rewatch) [Blu-Ray] - 5.5/5 (gets better every time I watch it) Hail, Caesar! (rewatch) [Blu-Ray] - 4.5/5 (might be one of my favorite Coens films, but they have yet to make one I didn't enjoy) Cinerama Russian Adventure [Blu-Ray] - 2.5/5 (interesting for the cultural documentation and rather impressive camera work, but some scenes like one of a whale being gutted in close-up or dogs mauling a boar to death are disgusting)
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Mar 7, 2017 01:47
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GIGA-Reagan posted:Drive - 1/10 I'd be careful, Refn could probably kick your rear end and he wouldn't be nice about it.
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Mar 11, 2017 16:51
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Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele) - 4.5/5 [theater] Ended up having another movie orgy this weekend since I'm trying to clear out my DVR. Some of these I recorded a year ago! Friday: Nashville (1975, Robert Altman) - 3/5 Saturday: The Man from Laramie (1955, Anthony Mann) - 4/5 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Mike Nichols) - 4.5/5 All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk) - 4.5/5 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1966, Robert Aldrich) - 4/5 Sunday: Now, Voyager (1942, Irving Rapper) - 4.5/5 Wuthering Heights (1939, William Wyler) - 3/5 Klute (1971, Alan J. Pakula) - 4/5 Magnificent Obsession (1954, Douglas Sirk) - 3.5/5 Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Mar 13, 2017 04:16
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Magic Hate Ball posted:three??? four?!?!? why i oughta I would give Nashville 5/5 just for the performances, but I felt it didn't really go anywhere. Altman seems bad about this, sort of like how MASH goes on this long tangent with the football game. So far, my favorite Altman films so far are The Long Goodbye and Popeye, so that's probably just me. As for Virginia Woolf, I meant 4.5/5 - it's a terrific film. I'm really wanting to see more Bette Davis movies since she's incredible in Baby Jane and Now, Voyager. I think before, I've only seen her in All About Eve.
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Mar 13, 2017 04:39
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DeimosRising posted:Do you just categorically dislike picaresque? I mean it's not strictly picaresque but it's a plotless, horizontally structured film about low class schmos, so similar I don't mind loose narratives, but I felt Nashville just wandered a bit too much. American Graffiti is one of my favorite films, but it's a lot tighter in structure and has definite arcs. I'm just a little disappointed since I love the concept of just following people on multiple tangents that add up to a thematic whole. In fact, I'm wanting to see more films like Nashville, Boogie Nights, American Graffiti, etc. since I'm wanting to write a script in that sort of form.
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Mar 13, 2017 05:00
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The Americanization of Emily (1962, Arthur Hiller) [TCM DVR] - 3/5 Anatomy of a Murder (1959, Otto Preminger) [Blu-Ray] - 4/5 "Fatty" Arbuckle Comedies featuring Buster Keaton (1917-1919, all directed by Roscoe Arbuckle) [Blu-Ray] 1917: The Butcher Boy, The Rough House, His Wedding Night 1918: Oh, Doctor!, Coney Island, Out West, The Bell Boy, Moonshine, Good Night Nurse, The Cook 1919: Backstage, The Hayseed, The Garage (co-dir by Keaton) Avg: 3/5, with a few standouts. One of the great tragedies of film history is the scandal that ruined Roscoe Arbuckle's career. Not only did it wreck him personally, his films drifted into obscurity. Even on this fantastic Blu-Ray set (from Masters of Cinema), many of these films look like they're from well-worn nth generation copies of prints. Thankfully, Arbuckle's reputation was saved largely from Buster Keaton's involvement in 14 (all but one exist today) two-reel comedies starring and directed by Arbuckle. The first thing that's obvious is Arbuckle's talent for film comedy. They're often as brilliantly constructed as Chaplin's work of the time, but with a surreal touch that Keaton would become more famous for. What's admirable is that even with his stardom, Arbuckle was more than happy to let his co-stars steal scenes like Keaton or Al St. John. Not all of these are great films, but some are every bit as great as Keaton's later work. Coney Island is one, but I think Arbuckle's masterpiece is Out West. He's mocking the films of William S. Hart (though, not as cruelly as Keaton would with The Frozen North) and D.W. Griffith, while much of the humor comes from the fact he's using surprisingly high quality filmmaking to make it funnier. The first scene takes place on a moving train. He could have easily used backdrops or more static shots, but it's funnier because people are really running around on a moving train. There's also a lot of great sight gags that the Looney Tunes guys must have remembered like Arbuckle literally spitting out wads of cotton in a desert on leaning down to appear to guzzle a large puddle of water in a few sips. Keaton gets a great turn as the town sheriff, shooting a card cheat, then coldly shaking his head at seeing his cards ("He would have lost anyways."). There's also a great sequence where Wild Bill Hiccup (Al St. John) is shown to be indestructable as Arbuckle and Keaton conk him on the head with dozens of beer bottles, barely stopping him from terror. Until they start tickling him, which subdues him. There is one awkward scene with cowboys cruelly making a young black man "dance" to their gunfire before a Salvation Army worker comes in to scold them. As Arbuckle was seen cheering it on earlier, she gives him the cold shoulder initially for partaking in it. The Cook has a lengthy sequence parodying the now-lost Cleopatra (starring Theda Bara), which has both Keaton and Arbuckle doing increasingly ridiculous dances, culminating with Arbuckle wearing a cookware "bikini" and letting a sausage stand in for a poisonous snake. Back Stage has a great running gag with a strong man who makes his girlfriend carry all his luggage and equipment. The Hayseed also has quite a complex plot, reminding me of Keaton's later work. One thing that's funny is that Arbuckle appears in drag in at least a quarter of these and looks about as natural as Bugs Bunny. You also get to see a lot of great physical comedy from Keaton, with the usual stunts and acrobatics. In their first film together, The Butcher Boy, there's a neat running gag with Arbuckle flipping a butcher knife that looks way too dangerous. These are just the 13 surviving films with Keaton as featured player or rather co-star (after the first few), but Arbuckle's other work is often just as entertaining. He even appeared in a few films with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd as co-stars. But there would have never been a Keaton without Arbuckle, so his contribution to film comedy deserves its due.
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Mar 20, 2017 03:19
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I'd like to prove someday that The Dark Knight Rises was abandoned halfway into editing. It's almost amateurish.
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Mar 30, 2017 01:02
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got any sevens posted:Rebel Without a Cause 4/4, had no idea what this was about and am glad. Just a solid teen drama in the 50's. Nicholas Ray is the cinema.  You should also see In a Lonely Place, Bigger Than Life, Johnny Guitar, and his remake of King of Kings. Bigger Than Life is basically a body horror/monster movie disguised as a melodrama.
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Mar 31, 2017 05:38
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Eh, I have both of these already, but I couldn't resist TCM's airings: Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock) [TCM - rewatch] - 5/5 Peeping Tom (1960, Michael Powell) [TCM - rewatch] - 5/5 These are all from my DVR, which I'm continuing to clear out. The Petrified Forest (1936, Archie Mayo) [TCM] - 4/5 Baby Face (1933, Alfred E. Green) [TCM] - 4.5/5 The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968, Tony Richardson) [MGM HD] - 3/5 Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933, Mervyn LeRoy) [TCM] - 4/5 Jane Eyre (1943, Robert Stevenson) [TCM] - 4/5 Captain Blood (1935, Michael Curtiz) [TCM] - 4.5/5 Moby Dick (1956, John Huston) [MGM HD] - 3.5/5
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Apr 3, 2017 04:22
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* = my favorites of the programmes National Film Board of Canada shorts (mostly TCM, some on NFB.ca): Mail Early Boogie-Doodle* Lines Vertical A Chairy Tale* Very Nice Very Nice* Fine Feathers* The House That Jack Built What on Earth! Walking Hot Stuff* Monsieur Pointu An Old Box Who Are We? The Goose Who Married An Eskimo Mindscape The Family That Dwelt Apart* When the Day Breaks* Why Me* Every Child My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts Blackfly Irises The Street Zea* Log Driver’s Waltz The Sweater The Cat Came Back* The Big Snit* When the Day Breaks Bob’s Birthday* The Railrodder* Paddle to the Sea* Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen* Carnal Knowledge (1971, Mike Nichols) - 5/5 Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989, Steven Soderbergh) - 5/5 American Experimental Films (Blu-Ray): Four in the Afternoon Abstronic* Eaux D’artiface* Bells of Atlantis Evolution Gyromorphosis* Hurry, Hurry! N.Y., N.Y.* 9 Variations on a Dance Theme Castro Street Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter* Walden: Diaries Notes and Sketches (reels 5 and 6) Our Lady of the Sphere Love It/Leave It* Disintegration Line #2* Transport Sappho and Jerry, Parts 1-3* Ch’an
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Apr 25, 2017 14:29
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Bunch of first-timers: Akira Kurosawa's Dreams - 4/5 [Blu-Ray] This is a bit of a departure from his earlier films. I've seen most of his output through High and Low (just missing The Quiet Duel, The Idiot, and I Live in Fear). This is a film meant to be 100% about the visuals. And they're breathtaking from start to finish. Perhaps not the most cohesive, but still one memorable sight after another. It also has a clever use of special effects, with a man walking through Van Gogh's paintings or Mt. Fuji on fire. Intentionally episodic, but worth it just for how beautiful it looks. The World of Apu - 5/5 [Blu-Ray] The Apu Trilogy was one of the big holes in my film viewing list. In fact, I've only seen one other Indian film, The Music Room, but I hope to further remedy that. These are films that go for true emotions without embellishment. The last of the Apu films, this carries on more of the themes while having the best production values of the trilogy. I think my favorite part of the film is seeing the relationship between Apu and Aparna grow over the film. I'm going to have to check out more of Ray's work, since he's probably one of my favorite filmmakers now just on the merits of the Apu films. Blood and Black Lace - 4.5/5 [TCM DVR] You always know a Mario Bava film is going to at least look incredible. Candy-colored lighting, great tracking shots, and spooky framing. This is apparently the film that started the Italian giallo/slasher trend. The plot itself is a little silly, but it has some really neat turns and twists. I guess I need to see more giallos since I'm usually turned off by excessive gore, but this is done artfully enough. Advise and Consent - 4/5 [TCM DVR] While I think it's just a little inert and a few performances are kind of hokey (Charles Laughton is slightly irritating, perhaps intentionally), it's still a neat concept to have an almost documentary-like approach to politics like this. The Best Man - 4.5/5 [TCM DVR] Involving political drama with Cliff Robertson and Henry Fonda acting the hell out of the film. Not a lot has changed in politics. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre - 4.5/5 [HDNET Movies DVR] Roger Corman can do no wrong. This is part procedural, part historical, while remaining fun and suspenseful despite the obvious conclusion. Paul Frees as narrator. D.W. Griffith: Father of Film - 4/5 [DVD] Rewatches (all Blu-Ray): The Big Parade - 5/5 The Man with a Movie Camera - 5/5 The Kid - 5/5 City Lights - 5/5 Intolerance - 4.5/5 Also, I've watched all of MST3K Season 11 except for At the Earth's Core, plus a bunch of classic episodes. Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 16:53 on May 30, 2017 |
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May 30, 2017 14:52
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Samuel Clemens posted:If you please. Updated my original post.
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May 30, 2017 16:53
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Serpico - 5/5 (HDNET Movies DVR) 70s Al Pacino directed by Sidney Lumet. See this immediately if you haven't already. Clash of the Titans (1981) - 4.5/5 (TCM DVR) Wow, for some reason I had remembered not liking this movie. Watching it again, it's a huge bit of fun. Yeah, it has a wooden lead, but it has so much imagination and not a wasted moment. As a side note, I recall the movie looking really grainy and ugly in the past, while it looked gorgeous here. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Roadshow Cut) - 4/5 (Blu-Ray) I haven't watched this all the way through in years. The extended cut on VHS was what I watched a lot in middle school. Through some miracle, about 20 minutes of footage was salvaged from decayed film, an old video master, and still photos. It works amazingly well, even if the film kind of works better in its shorter form. Kino-Eye - 2.5/5 (Blu-Ray) Kino Pravda No. 22 [short] - 3/5 (Blu-Ray) Dziga Vertov's best known film, Man with the Movie Camera, is a masterpiece. This earlier experimental "documentary" is a bit amateurish in comparison. Literally two reels of the film are spent just showing stuff shot backwards. Including a bull going through the slaughterhouse, so you get to see them stuff entrails back into the carcass. It reminds me of how amateurish Strike is in comparison with Eisenstein's next film Battleship Potemkin. Oh well. Enthusiasm (1931) - 4/5 Dziga Vertov's first sound film is a fascinating companion film to "Man" - though, with the coming of sound is far more blatant propaganda. I think it's funny how Eisenstein comes off as more interested in form than the propaganda aspect on his films, but Vertov is a true believer. There's a bizarre sequence with a church being raided for icons and artwork complete with split screen kaleidoscope shots making it look like cathedrals are disintegrating into themselves. Still, the use of sound is amazing - it's so abstract and creative. There's also some really nice photography of stuff like steel mills and farms. Buster Keaton Short Films (1920-1923): (Best films with *) The High Sign* One Week* Convict 13* The Scarecrow Neighbors* The Haunted House Hard Luck The Goat* The Playhouse* The Boat* The Paleface Cops** - My pick for the greatest silent comedy short ever made. Day Dreams The Frozen North The Electric House* The Blacksmith My Wife's Relations* The Balloonatic The Love Nest
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Jun 12, 2017 02:40
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TCM/HDNET Movies DVR: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution - 2/5 Breakfast at Tiffany's - 3/5 (4/5 without the goddamned Mr. Yunioshi scenes) The Amazing Transparent Man - 3/5 Filmstruck: Targets - 4.5/5 Multiple Maniacs -  The Blob - 3.5/5
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Jun 19, 2017 04:47
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Wonder Woman (2017, Patty Jenkins) - 4/5 [Theatrical] One of the best superhero movies I've seen in a while and definitely the best DC property since The Dark Knight. I liked how it took place during WWI and generally strayed from cliches. Harold and Maude (1971, Hal Ashby) - 4/5 [TCM] I had tried watching this about a year ago and it didn't click. Now, I think it was a fairly brilliant dark comedy. It's pretty much Wes Anderson, beta version. I do think some of the comedy borders on being overt slapstick at times, but perhaps that's intended. Still, a fantastic soundtrack of Cat Stevens songs, outstanding performances by Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon, and enough surprises to make it worthwhile. Fail-Safe (1964, Sidney Lumet) - 4.5/5 [TCM] I think I managed to find the most nihilistic classic movie. Goddamn. The Odd Couple (1968, Gene Saks) - 3.5/5 [TCM] After such a grim film as Fail-Safe, I thought a comedy would do well, also starring Walter Matthau. Often a bit silly, but him and Lemmon have an incredible screen chemistry. It's also amazingly well composed for Panavision, which I didn't expect. Also has a real earwig of a score. Black Sunday (1960, Mario Bava) [English language Italian cut] - 4/5 [Filmstruck] Mario Bava knew how to make pretty movies, even when they were about undead vampires. Creepy, amazing cinematography, and Barbara Steele's incredible face. Eating Raoul (1982, Paul Bartel) - 4/5 [Filmstruck] Haha, this is exactly my sort of comedy. Endlessly tasteless, but droll. I love how the Blands live up to their name (Paul sleeping with a wine bottle pillow  ), while everyone around them is a horny perv. This could almost be a John Waters comedy, except he would have switched bloodless bonks on the head with something far more disgusting. Withnail & I (1986, Bruce Robinson) - 4.5/5 [TCM] Either I think I got the fear or a pig shat in my head. Rokk í Reykjavík (1982, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson) - 4/5 [DVD - Thanks, FreudianSlippers!] This is basically punkrock.avi. Among the sights: a guitarist wearing a SID VICIOUS IS DEAD tabloid cover t-shirt, an audience member knitting, and a group of preteen singing "Antichrist" and talking about huffing gas fumes.  Á köldum klaka [Cold Fever] (1995, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson) - 4/5 [DVD - Also thanks, FS] Weird, meandering, but I couldn't take my eyes off it. After a short prologue in Japan (in 4x3), it expands to Panavision when it gets to Iceland. It's a road trip movie. I haven't seen any Jim Jarmusch films yet, but this seems to be similar to his style. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012, Terence Nance) - 4/5 [DVD - Thanks, axleblaze!] This is both a college and collage film. Scenes change from past to present, narrative to documentary, VHS to HD, live-action to animation. Brilliant and dizzying. Cop Car (2015, Jon Watts) - 3/5 [Blu-Ray, also thanks, AB] I liked the simplicity, though, I felt the ending was a bit grim. I was kind of hoping the angry woman would blow away the bad guys and save the kids. But perhaps the point is that adults can't really be trusted to do the right thing. Kevin Bacon was terrific as the title character, especially with such a majestic mustache. Early Women Filmmakers - Disc 1 (New Blu-Ray set from Flicker Alley) All short films except for The Blot. Les chiens savants (1902, Alice Guy) Une histoire roulante (1906, Alice Guy) L'enfant de la barricade (1907, Alice Guy) Falling Leaves (1912, Alice Guy) - 3.5/5 Making An American Citizen (1912, Alice Guy) - 4/5 The Girl in the Arm-Chair (1912, Alice Guy) - 3/5 Suspense (1913, Lois Weber) - 5/5 Discontent (1916, Lois Weber) - 4/5 The Blot (1921, Lois Weber) - 4/5 Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914, Mabel Normand) - 3/5 The first three are really just quick vignettes. Trained dogs, a bum rolling in a barrel, a firing squad. The next three were made after Guy moved to the US. Falling Leaves is about a woman suffering from consumption and how a doctor takes care of her. Making An American Citizen is slightly racist, but darkly funny. A Russian immigrant abuses his wife time after time, while Americans tell him down. After hitting her, he's arrested and spends time in a labor camp. He comes back appreciating his wife and doing her chores! The Girl in the Arm-Chair is way more melodramatic about a gambler going into debt (with typical anti-Semitic stereotypes). It does have a neat scene where the gambler has a nightmare about the debt and playing cards circle around him. Lois Weber's films are fascinating because she seems to have this Christian socialist ideology. Suspense is an essential early cinema short, that outdoes D.W. Griffith's films of the type in terms of form. Discontent is about a cranky Civil War veteran who's unhappy living with family and wants to live back at the retirement home. There's a really neat moving matte shot with him imagining being back at the home. The Blot is considered one of the great early 20s silent features. It's overtly moralistic, but for a good cause. The father of a family is a hard-working teacher and clergyman, yet his family is poor because he was paid barely a livable wage. Meanwhile, his daughter is courting with a guy from a rich family. Meanwhile, the mother is thought to have stolen food when the guy had ordered it for her family. The neighbors are all overweight and even get into a huff when the poor family's cat raids the garbage. There's even a scene with a rich family eating dinner and every course is outrageously expensive. The boy tries to help as best as he can, with a recurring shot of him reciting a Bible verse about giving. The film also has some really nice naturalistic lighting. I also really like how Weber loves her characters and ends things on a happy note for even the jerk characters. Also worth noting the restoration here looks quite nice and has a great score. Lastly, there's one of Mabel Normand's Keystone comedies, also starring Charles Chaplin. Mabel is trying to hide from a drunk (Chaplin in oddly haggard tramp makeup instead of whited up) and things get complicated from there. There's a really gross shot of her hiding under a bed with hairy stinky feet in front of her face. Ew.
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Jun 26, 2017 02:48
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films from Early Women Filmmakers (Blu-Ray): The Star Prince (1918, Madeline Brandeis) - 2.5/5 La Cigarette (1919, Germaine Dulac) - 3.5/5 La souriante Madame Beudet (1923, Germaine Dulac) - 4/5 The Star Prince's main appeal is that it has a cast made up almost entirely of children. It's unfortunately a little slow and the surviving print isn't great, but it's a clever concept. La Cigarette is about an unhappy husband who plots to kill himself by slowly smoking poisoned cigarettes. Actually much faster paced and interesting compared to a lot of features I've seen from this time. Madame Beudet is much more surreal, with an unhappy wife and insane husband. Some really incredible lighting for its time and some clever uses of distorting lenses/mirrors. films from Pioneers of African-American Cinema (Blu-Ray): Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918, R.G. Phillips) - 4/5 Two Knights of Vaudeville (1915, unknown) - 3/5 A Reckless Rover (1918, C.N. David) - N/A I just received Kino Lorber's collection of early African-American films. These three were made by Ebony Films - white-owned, but usually cast with all black actors. They're not in the best shape - I decided not to give A Reckless Rover a rating since a large percentage of it is eaten up by nitrate decomposition, thus making it hard to watch. Out of these, I thought the mummy comedy was hilarious. Fast-paced and great gags. I'm realizing how rarely you actually got to see African-Americans in silent films since they either didn't feature them at all or opted for blackface. Hairspray (1988, John Waters) - 4.5/5 Waters dials down the gross-out factor, but doesn't skimp on the subversive angle. I can see why this is a cult classic since it's such a fun, charming movie. Also, I was really surprised by how good Divine's performance is. Ikiru (1952, Akira Kurosawa) - 4.5/5 Wow, what a gut punch of a movie. I've yet to see a Kurosawa film that didn't impress me on some level, but I think the film actually gets into its best part in the second half. I like how he skips along time in a way that makes it sort of like a mystery. Of course, Takeshi Shimura's performance is incredible - the scene where he sings in the bar is absolutely haunting. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968, William Greaves) - 3.5/5 I'm not really sure what to make of this, but I liked it. I probably should watch again. La Notte (1961, Michelangelo Antonioni) - 4.5/5 Something about Antonioni films makes me unable to turn away. They're almost hypnotic by design. I'm pretty sure I still have my crush for Jeanne Moreau.
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Jul 3, 2017 14:01
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The Peasant Women of Ryazan (1927, Olga Preobrazhenskaya) [Blu-Ray] - 3.5/5 It Came From Outer Space (1953, Jack Arnold) [Blu-Ray 3-D] - 3.5/5 The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah) [Blu-Ray] - 4.5/5 They Live By Night (1948, Nicholas Ray) [Blu-Ray] - 4.5/5 Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki) [Blu-Ray] - 5/5 Strait-Jacket (1964, William Castle) [TCM DVR] - 4/5 Also, some shorts: Manhatta (1921) [Blu-Ray] Ballet Mécanique (1924) [Blu-Ray] Anemic Cinema (1926) [Blu-Ray] Perversion for Profit (1965) [TCM DVR]
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Jul 10, 2017 04:46
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I hope one who sits through three Tom & Jerry movies is doing it for the kids. Though, I'd see the Shining one. 
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Jul 10, 2017 12:49
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Tom and Jerry has always been fuckin trash. The best Tom & Jerry cartoons are the cheap Czech ones that Gene Deitch produced in the early 60s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjaRSpRSz_Q
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Jul 10, 2017 15:31
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Wow, that actually has character to it. Looks weird with the heavy outlines but I could watch that. They're more like 30s Fleischer cartoons than the overly pretty Hanna-Barbera stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvWd2ZDRlj0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mMM4iEucEE Don't get me started on the Chuck Jones cartoons. Also, Gene Deitch won an Oscar for his 1960 cartoon, Munro, which was about a child being drafted to war. Pretty edgy considering the most "adult" animation at the time was The Flintstones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_cH8aDlHsE and produced an 11 minute "animated" pitch reel of The Hobbit mainly to avoid losing the movie rights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBnVL1Y2src
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Jul 10, 2017 17:18
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Samuel Clemens posted:The Cat Concerto is still great. It's thought to be a rip-off of Rhapsody Rabbit, which was released six months earlier by Warner Bros. I think in recent years, researchers found that Rhapsody Rabbit was started, copyrighted, and completed first, while The Cat Concerto had a mysteriously rushed production because it was copyrighted earlier than the rest of the year's cartoons. Also, Friz Freleng had produced an Oscar-nominated cartoon Rhapsody in Rivets in 1941 that used the same piece. Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jul 10, 2017 |
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Jul 10, 2017 17:37
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Early Women Filmmakers (Blu-Ray): All short films except for Le roi des aulnes and The Woman Condemned. Le roi des aulnes (1931, Marie-Louise Iribe) - 3/5 Harlequin (1931, Lotte Reiniger) - 4/5 The Stolen Heart (1934, Lotte Reiniger) - 4/5 Papageno (1935, Lotte Reiniger) - 4/5 Night on Bald Mountain (1933, Claire Parker/Alexander Alexeieff) - 4.5/5 The Woman Condemned (1934, Dorothy Davenport) - 2/5 Day of Freedom (1935, Leni Riefenstahl) - 2.5/5 Parabola (1937, Mary Ellen Bute) - 3.5/5 Spook Sport (1939, Mary Ellen Bute) - 5/5 Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren/Alexander Hammid) - 4.5/5 Bunch of rewatches: Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966, Hal P. Warren) - 1/5 [Blu-Ray] The Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton) - 5/5 [Blu-Ray] A Hard Day's Night (1964, Richard Lester) - 5/5 [Blu-Ray] The Running Jumping Standing Still Film (1959, Richard Lester) - 4/5 [Blu-Ray] Cops (1922, Buster Keaton/Eddie Cline) - 5/5 [Blu-Ray]
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Jul 20, 2017 15:03
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Jul 21, 2017 04:02
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Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky) - 4.5/5 [Blu-Ray] I'm going to have to watch it again, but this is such an experiential film. Amazing. The Green Slime (1968, Kinji Fukasaku) - 3/5 [TCM] This has to be the goofiest sci-fi movie I've seen outside of 50s AIP. Dig the catchy (and slightly incongruous main title song). Too Late for Tears (1949, Byron Haskin) - 4.5/5 [TCM] Wow, this is a great noir. Never stops taking some surprise twists and turns. Brainstorm (1983, Douglas Trumbull) - 2.5/5 [TCM] This had a LOT of potential, considering the overall concept has endless possibilities. Whether it's because of the labored production (star Natalie Wood died during production) or whatever. Most disappointingly, the film works its way up to what's on a "mind tape" and you barely get anything until the last minute. Twentieth Century (1934, Howard Hawks) - 4/5 [TCM] A lesser known screwball comedy. As the TCM intro notes, it was released close to It Happened One Night (both even share the same opening titles music). John Barrymore and Carole Lombard are both hilarious. Not surprisingly, this is worth seeing. Hawks really could direct anything and a snappy Ben Hecht script doesn't hurt either. Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Jul 24, 2017 |
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Jul 24, 2017 03:28
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The Civil War (1990, Ken Burns) - 5/5 [Netflix] I actually watched this over the period of a month since the nine episodes range from just over an hour to 90 minutes each. Overall a magnificent work of documentary filmmaking. Burns does more with photographs and sound design than filmmakers achieve with a mammoth cast. What really makes this work is how he intertwines so many stories. One of the best are the recurring diary entries by Elisha Rhodes, all for a great payoff in the last episode. The photographs are often startling and nothing is held back. There's also a few bits here and there from archival footage, some predating The Birth of a Nation. For that matter, I love how Burns doesn't uses a single frame from a fictional Civil War film. Also, I could hear Shelby Foote talk about the Civil War for hours and not get bored. I'm going to have to check out more of Burns' work since this is the first one I've seen of his. Hopscotch (1980, Ronald Neame) - 2.5/5 [Filmstruck] This is a perfect example of a movie that sets up a great premise, only for it to undermine itself at every turn. It's not awful, but the funny parts aren't that funny and it's not really suspenseful. Walter Matthau stands out, at least, and seems to be putting effort in. This would be a perfect film for Steven Soderbergh to remake. Wagon Master (1950, John Ford) - 4/5 [TCM] Ford rarely disappoints and even his follies are still quality filmmaking. This seems most inspired by Ford's own Stagecoach, with even more focus on just characterization. I love how well he balances the many different characters. Also, some excellent photography (and Monument Valley locations, obviously).
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Jul 27, 2017 01:06
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Mad Max (1979, George Miller) - 3/5 [HDNET Movies] The Terror (1963, Roger Corman) - 2/5 [TCM] Within Our Gates (1920, Oscar Micheaux) - 4/5 [Blu-ray] The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920, Oscar Micheaux) - 3/5 [Blu-ray] Am I bad person for finding Mad Max and The Road Warrior to be somewhat underwhelming, while I found Fury Road to be one of the best films of 2015? I do admire Miller's incredible use of editing and blocking, of which there's no deficiencies. The Terror is one of those many public domain movies that always looks like a "terror" on video, but TCM aired a nice print. It's still a slog, but I like the Mario Bava styled use of color. It's really obvious the whole thing was made up as they went along, since it's almost disorienting (it was shot over a weekend, I think). I'm slowly going through Kino Lorber's Pioneers of African-American Cinema Blu-ray set. Within Our Gates is an incredible film and edgy for its time. It goes for blood on casual "I'm not racist, but Blacks need to know their place" racists, while also satirizing Black preachers. I honestly didn't expect a 1920 film to go full edgelord on that sort of stuff. I'm really impressed by Micheaux's snappy editing style, which is more of the pace of comedies of the time than the dramas. I found The Symbol of the Unconquered to be a bit more underwhelming, especially since it has a subtitle of "The Story of the Ku Klux Klan" except they only appear for a brief scene that looks like something out of a horror movie (justifiably). Unfortunately, like many silent films, there was apparently a scene where the Klan gets taken out, but it's now lost. One problem I have with the film is that if you didn't know that it was directed by an African-American, you could easily mistake it for being a work of a racist, especially how one of the antagonists is a "mulatto". Still, it's refreshing to see silent films where characters are Black without being limited only to racial stereotypes.
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Jul 30, 2017 17:11
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Dunkirk (2017, Christopher Nolan) - 4.5/5 [theatrical/4K DLP] Inception is still one of my all-time favorites, but I think Nolan has made another great film. I think some of the timeline stuff was a little unclear, but I think it's more of a motivation to get you to watch it again. Body and Soul (1925, Oscar Micheaux) - 3/5 [Blu-ray] I forgot to write any notes, but I found it to be just alright. Still haven't seen anything as audacious as Within Our Gates. The Front Page (1931, Lewis Milestone) - 4/5 [Blu-ray - American version] Wow, I had held off this film for ages because every video was garbage quality. This is a slick early talkie, with some impressive camera and editing work, plus a cracking script. It says a lot that it has a lot of the same energy its remake His Girl Friday has. Forbidden Zone (1980, Richard Elfman) - 4.5/5 [Blu-ray] This is one of the most insane films I've seen. It's like if Ed Wood and Alejandro Jodorowsky collaborated on a movie. Carnival of Souls (1962, Herk Harvey) - 4.5/5 [Blu-ray - rewatch] I was lukewarm on this the first time, but I think it's a great film the second time. Stunning lighting in every shot and constructed like a feature-length Twilight Zone episode. Only wish that Harvey had made more films since this is a terrific debut for someone who was only making industrial films. The Zodiac Killer (who cares) - 0/5 [TCM DVR] Pure poo poo. I needed a shower after seeing this. Worse that it was made to cash in on the actual killings. This is the worst movie I've ever seen.
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Aug 8, 2017 02:15
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Five Came Back (2017, Laurent Bouzereau) - 4/5 [Netflix] Let There Be Light (1946, John Huston) - 5/5 [Netflix] Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1942, Frank Capra) - 4/5 [Netflix] MST3K Live: (5/5 for show) Eegah (1962, Arch Hall) - 1.5/5 Argoman: The Fantastic Superman (1967, Sergio Grieco) - 1/5 Straw Dogs (1971, Sam Peckinpah) - 4.5/5 [Blu-ray] Stop Making Sense (1984, Jonathan Demme) - 5/5 [Blu-ray - rewatch] Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984, Hayao Miyazaki) - 5/5 [Blu-ray - English dubbed] Zaza (1923, Allan Dwan) - 3/5 [Blu-ray] The Party (1968, Blake Edwards) - 4/5 [DVD - rewatch]
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Aug 20, 2017 23:51
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Samuel Clemens posted:Hell, just give me all of them. Straw Dogs - This is a fascinating film for how it manipulates your expectations. I found the film uncomfortable, but that's the point. It's a film about the dark side of humanity in the worst way. Having the lead character be an intellectual played by Dustin Hoffman is brilliant because you expect him to be above what the other characters do, except he's not. At the same time, Susan George's character almost seems masochistic and naive. Is it misogynistic? I think the rape scene is the logical conclusion to showing a woman in a broken marriage desperate for affection. Does she actually enjoy it first? I don't think the film answers that, but it shows the sort of darkness the hides beneath the surface. This is less a western, but more of a horror film. The lighting is natural and often subdued, but the real technical star is the editing. After the rape, the film uses brief multi-frame cuts to display Amy's trauma. Overall, I think Peckinpah was trying to make a film that makes the audience uncomfortable to prove a point - evil isn't something reserved for mustache-twirling villains, it's something we're all capable of and it's best we don't try to pretend it's not. Stop Making Sense - After a grueling film like Straw Dogs, I needed a film that was a bit more uplifting. What better than the Talking Heads concert film? This strips down sound and vision to the essentials to let the performance take center stage. I love how the film opens with David Byrne playing Psycho Killer on an empty stage with just an acoustic guitar and a boombox playing a synth drum track. For a quarter of the film, each successive song adds more. Heaven adds Tiny Weymouth on bass, Thank You For Sending Me an Angel adds Chris Frantz on drums, Jerry Harrison joins in with his guitar on Found a Job, and the rest of the band comes in on Slippery People. No fancy costumes besides Byrne's big suit on Girlfriend is Better. Not even that much of a stage setting, with each song having its own unique lighting treatment. If performance was the most important thing at the concert, the film adds another layer - light. This is particularly obvious on Once in a Lifetime, which uses one key light to make Byrne look like a living shadow or the way he dances with a lamp on Naive Melody. This film is an absolute joy to watch and one of my go-to films for when I'm feeling down. Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind - Every Miyazaki film I see becomes one of my favorites and this isn't an exception. What I love about his films is how he never lets plots become formulaic and obvious. He's not afraid to humanize antagonists instead of making them... well, cartoons. More so, I love how he excels at making strong women central to his films. Nausicaa is a brilliant character with so many nuances and quirks. You get an idea of her character immediately when she first appears. Instead of wasting time on romance, every moment of the film is used to build the plot or characters. For being a somewhat long film for animation (almost two hours), there's not a slow moment in the film. Of course, the animation and art design itself is absolutely splendid. It's amazing that this was made in the first half of the 80s, since it hasn't aged one fraction. There's also some genuinely beautiful moments, especially Nausicaa feared dead and being healed by the Ohms, all set to Handel's Sarabande. Perfection isn't something that happens often in cinema, but Miyazaki is one director that has made it his career to make perfect films. Zaza - A "dramedy" starring Gloria Swanson. She plays a dancer who falls in love with a married man, except she doesn't know until it's too late. Perhaps not the most complex plot, but Swanson is fantastic in her role. There's also a "cat fight" that has to be seen to believed (and was allegedly done in one take, as duplicate props/costumes weren't available). Not one of the best silents I've seen, but worth seeing. The Party - The first thing I'll get out of the way is the apparent racism of having Peter Sellers play an Indian actor. On the surface, it can look offensive, but Sellers gets so deep into character that he transcends stereotypes in favor of making a sympathetic character that happens to be Indian. The idea is that Hrundi is a fish out of water in the worst way. Taken out of his homeland to make American films, he's awkward by design. Obviously, a 90 minute film mostly made up of improvisation would never have been made at the time had Edwards cast an actual Indian actor, but Sellers is brilliant here and plays with total respect, with none of his comedy resulting from his race. Blake Edwards is obviously taking inspiration from the lengthy restaurant scene in Tati's Playtime, but favored working out things on the spot instead of laboriously working them out over years like Tati did. While this isn't exactly as brilliant as anything Tati did, there's enough to find funny here. There's some great running gags like a waiter that gets progressively more drunk, control panels that cause more destruction than convenience, and a bunch of supporting characters with their own quirks. I do think Blake Edwards too easily falls for overwrought comedy as if he's a bit too caught up in finding his own work to be funny, but it works here. MST3K Live - I was a bit puzzled by Eegah being chosen for the first show since it's one of the best episodes of the original show, but drat if they didn't come up with another set of jokes just as funny. While Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt appeared via pre-recorded video (which is immediately mocked), Jonah and the Bots were there in person. What's amazing is watching a live MST3K episode with a packed audience (at least 1400 people) takes it to a new level. More proof that comedy is best when shared. The second feature was the inexplicable Argoman: The Fantastic Superman, which is just about one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The riffing is spot-on. Argoman switches robes half a dozen times in the first quarter of the film (and is immediately mocked in a host segment). This wins the award for best movie experience I've ever had in my life. Five Came Back/Let There Be Light/Prelude to War - Five Came Back is a terrific look at the film unit of the War Department during WWII. It focuses on Frank Capra, William Wyler, John Huston, John Ford, and George Stevens. Lots of clips, plus each director has another modern director being their advocate (Guillermo del Toro on Capra, Paul Greengrass on Ford, Steven Spielberg on Wyler, Lawrence Kasdan on Stevens, and Francis Ford Coppola on Huston). There's a ton of footage used from the films, ranging from Capra's Why We Fight series to Huston's Let There Be Light. There's a lot of fascinating bits, but also morbid. Stevens had photographed carnage at D-Day and later at concentration camps like Dachau. Years later, he finally went back to look at his footage... and immediately put it back after a few minutes. I also watched Let There Be Light and the first Why We Fight installment Prelude to War. Light is a masterpiece from John Huston, with an incredible humanistic look at PTSD. It's terrible to think the government found it unpatriotic since it's actually the opposite. It puts mental illness in a mature, loving light and shows soldiers recovering as if they've conquered death. Prelude to War is impressive for being mostly made up of seized footage from German, Italian, and Japanese films, but turning their own propaganda against themselves. Both are essential.
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Aug 22, 2017 23:33
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The Bed Sitting Room (1969, Richard Lester) - 4/5 [Filmstruck] Bizarre depiction of post-apocalyptic London with dry, dry humor. It's hilarious to see respected actors like Ralph Richardson and Michael Hordern treat the surrealistic dialogue like it's nothing unusual. I'm trying to catch up on Lester's 60s films since what I've seen so far is mostly terrific (A Hard Day's Night, Help!, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum are all great). MST3K: Deathstalker and the Warriors of Hell - Episode: 4/5 | Movie: 1.5/5 12 to the Moon - Episode: 4/5 | Movie: 2.5/5 Space Mutiny - Episode: 5/5 | Movie: 1/5 Girl in Gold Boots - Episode: 5/5 | Movie: 3/5 I was surprised how 12 to the Moon wasn't that bad of a movie, but it's really obvious they had zero budget for effects. Deathstalker and Space Mutiny are both awful movies, but the latter is one of the best episodes of the entire MST3K series. Girl in Gold Boots is one I have a soft spot for because it's such a sleazy film, but in the best way. Also one of the best MST3K episodes. Also, almost done with the original Twin Peaks (probably going to watch the last 3 episodes during my travel tomorrow).
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Aug 28, 2017 14:49
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Phantom of the Paradise (1974, Brian DiPalma) - 4.75/5 [Blu-ray] This has to be one of the most fun movies I've seen in a while. Great performances from the leads, awesome soundtrack, and candy-colored visuals. I can understand why it's a cult classic because it's such a fearless film with every trick in the book. Easily the best "version" of Phantom of the Opera by far. Twin Peaks (1989-1991, various) - 3/5 to 5/5 [Netflix] Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, David Lynch) - 4/5 [Amazon Prime] (rewatch) Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, David Lynch) - 4.5/5 [Amazon Prime] Over the last two months, I watched all of the original Twin Peaks, followed by a rewatch of FWWM, then binged on the new series over the weekend. This is one of the most unique shows I've seen and that's not even counting the epic of this year. Even the frankly idiotic plots of the latter half of Season 2 are forgivable because it works as a whole. You really get to know these characters and even when the plot doesn't make sense, I was hooked. The new series takes everything even further, almost acting as Lynch's "ninth symphony" because it distills everything his films have been about into one singular work. On one end of the spectrum, you have dark and creepy images that stick with you like exploded heads... then you have bizarre slow-burn comedy as if Jacques Tati directed a Coen Bros. script (and every bit as funny). There's also one episode with a lengthy, haunting depiction of "evil" being born out of the first atomic bomb, followed by what could easily be a continuation of Eraserhead. As for the ending? I think it meant that...
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Sep 7, 2017 16:48
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Five Easy Pieces (1970, Bob Rafelson) - 4/5 [Blu-ray] Drive, He Said (1971, Jack Nicholson) - 3.5/5 [Blu-ray] A Safe Place (1971, Henry Jaglom) - 2.5/5 [Blu-ray] You almost can't go wrong with any early Jack Nicholson performances, even if the film varies in quality. He's a powerhouse in Five Easy Pieces, strengthened by an equally amazing performance by Karen Black. Nicholson's directorial debut, Drive, He Said, is fascinating as both an anti-war statement and a slice of Vietnam-era America. While it doesn't always work as a film, it has enough to make it worthwhile (also, another great performance by Black). A Safe Place is one film I knew would be underwhelming, but it sort of works as a film based on stream of consciousness and almost a drunk logic to it. Interiors (1978, Woody Allen) - 4.5/5 [Blu-ray] Woody Allen's first dramatic film is a real gut punch. He excelled at bringing a clever cinematic look to his comedies of the 70s, so it's not surprising that he and camera maestro Gordon Willis made something as stunning to look at. It's brooding, much like a Bergman film, but with an extra layer of dread and melancholy. Incredible performances, especially from Geraldine Page. Tampopo (1985, Juzo Itami) - 5/5 [Blu-ray] This is an absolute joy of a film. Some reviews compare this film to the work of Jacques Tati, which is apt. While there's the main "ramen western" story, Itami doesn't hesitate to turn the camera to other characters only tangentially related to the main plot for some great asides. It also manages to break the fourth wall a few times, almost like a cartoon. This is one great scene after another, with plenty of offbeat humor and easily the most delicious food photography I've seen in a film. Never see this film on an empty stomach. This shoots to the top of my favorite movies and I can't wait to watch it again.
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Sep 12, 2017 15:22
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The Last Picture Show (1971, Peter Bogdanovich) - 4.5/5 [Blu-ray] The King of Marvin Gardens (1971, Bob Rafelson) - 4/5 [Blu-ray] Finally finished the Criterion BBS set. The Last Picture Show is pretty much just an excuse to put a lot of terrific actors together and let them loose. Often haunting. It helps that it's in B&W, which gives it a stark feel, especially in the swimming scene. Great performances, but I think the best one if Cloris Leachman. Especially her last scene. The King of Marvin Gardens is another one set in the wastelands of America, this time in Atlantic City. Not as clear as Five Easy Pieces, but still some drat good acting. Ellen Burstyn, especially. Also, Bruce Dern makes any movie better by his presence. La ronde (1951, Max Ophuls) - 3.5/5 [Filmstruck] It's a pretty film, but I felt it was a bit too smug for its own good. A+ for style, but C for substance. Fantastic Planet (1973, Rene Laloux) - 4/5 [Filmstruck] Trippy. While the actual animation is pretty basic (it's more like a series of illustrations), it does have a lot of imagination. It's really obvious they were fans of the Disney's "Mars and Beyond" since a lot of the alien creatures are right out of that film. Paris, Texas (1984, Wim Wenders) - 4.75/5 [Filmstruck] With Harry Dean Stanton passing this week, I wanted to see one of his best films. This lives up to the reputation. Incredible performance by Stanton. Also, Hunter is one of the best child performances I've seen in a film. Pretty much any time he's on screen with Stanton is gold. Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 13:34
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