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American Graffiti - At some point during the ending of Carol's arc tears started streaming down my face and couldn't explain why. Now that it's over I understand. It's a film so deeply personal, so nuanced in how it's about taking your childhood era and crystalizing a moment in time, the good and the bad, while cutting ties with it so you can move on as well. There's something gnawing at my heart as I sit here and think about all the times I had growing up, those little single moments that I never could have guessed I'd be carrying with me until adulthood, the darkness lurking under my teenage years, the context I wouldn't have the emotional capacity to even recognize until decades after. I'm just staring into space and turning it around in my mind, shattered to pieces. Hilariously, I did a double feature with Walk Hard and it paired extremely well in how they both take apart the idea of the convenient narrative and embrace the messy, complicated nature of it all in a manner that is still undoubtedly full of love. There's something to be said about a movie so deeply steeped in one's personal experience that still manages to be immensely relatable to anyone of a certain age. I wasn't even born 'til the 90s, man. Why am I out here crying about Wolfman Jack.
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May 27, 2023 03:14
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 22:43 |
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The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou - My first Wes Anderson. Fantastic colors, a great Bill Murray performance, some very strange and at times very amusing moments, but it really does sort of meander and float about a lot. The climactic scenes near the end are excellent and the soundtrack is sublime but I'm mad at it for using Here's To You so weakly!! That song begs to be used for the biggest, wildest scenes, not just playing on a radio! Deeply interesting film I can see sticking with me and it does make me want to seek out more of his filmography, even if I didn't love it. I'll take an interesting film over a supposedly great but dull one any day.
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Jul 2, 2023 01:58
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Boogie Nights - Was crazy into the music and vibe of the first half of the movie, absolutely loved the downfall into the 80s, but at some point the movie kinda lost cohesion for me and the ending just kinda happened and didn't really hit. I am a sucker for dark tragedies about the end of eras, though, so I can't knock it too hard. The mixtape scene owned. I wish I liked the last fourth-or-so of the movie more but I thoroughly enjoyed how much the movie hated Ronald Reagan and his policies that destroyed lives. Interesting stuff; might have to finally watch There Will Be Blood or Magnolia some time.
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Jul 9, 2023 15:33
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Barbie: Messaging feels around seven years too late and basically a bumper sticker but the jokes were very, very good and the set design was to die for. Some rapturous scenes and one early scene that was very moving, with multiple times where I was amazed Mattel let Greta and co. get away with what they got away with. Worth it for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, who are fantastic. It was fun seeing this in a theater next to two older women who were eating it up. Great last line. If you can accept the heavy-handed nature of it with the tongue-in-cheek elements it's great for the laughs. Just a fun time at the movies. I feel like teens are gonna be all about this one.
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Jul 21, 2023 03:54
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The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover -  I was really into the absolutely reprehensible and horrible sleazeball dialogue but the moment the last third of the movie hit all the way until the end I was in. It's a slow burn that is grim, tragic, and gruesome, and oh-so-worth-it. Holy poo poo. Also wow wow WOW the music is good.
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Jul 29, 2023 01:49
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Gaius Marius posted:Beautiful film It really is. When I realized the costume colors were changing from scene-to-scene I was blown away. It's so engaging and explicit in everything it did, a film both classy and disgusting, and the conclusion was stunning.
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Jul 29, 2023 02:06
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Almost Famous - Went into it blind and got nothing I expected and something far better than I could have ever imagined. Watched the Bootleg Cut and I can't believe they gave me a three hour movie where at no point I thought to myself "wow, it's three hours". Just enthralling. Loved it.
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Aug 2, 2023 13:53
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distortion park posted:The Graduate - didn't love this like so many seem to. Mrs Robinson is a great character, but Benjamin is so odd (almost got Taxi Driver vibes at various moments). The rest of the cast felt almost robotic (including the daughter at times), a sort of omnipresent being that Benjamin struggles to wriggle free of. He shows a lot of character growth, perhaps not in a great direction, I guess Mrs Robinson is to blame for that. Some killer lines too (Mrs Robinson, having just taken her dress off in front of Benjamin: "Benjamin, I am not trying to seduce you") Benjamin's "robotic" nature is part of the appeal - he is a deeply directionless and depressed kid who was shuffled into a future that was decided for him, and the moment he finds a way to break out of it and make his own choices he ends up making things even worse. Don't get me wrong, I don't love the movie as much as I wish I did, but it's mostly because it peaks early for me with everything up to and including the drowning and seduction scenes and the second half loses me until the ending and I wish it was almost even darker, but like...yeah.
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Aug 6, 2023 23:58
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Enter the Dragon - Saw this at the theater today, which kicked a ton of rear end and had impeccable vibes. I think they showed the new 4K version WB just released, which looked great. Would have given this movie five stars if Jim Kelly's character hadn't just been killed off. If he had survived somehow and shown up during the final battle it would've been awesome. Still a great, fun time, and it's so funny how between Way Of The Dragon and this movie you can see the basis of almost every fighting game ever made. Now I just have The Big Boss and I guess Game of Death and I'll have seen all of Bruce Lee's "big" movies.
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Aug 14, 2023 03:13
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Ghost in the Shell is a great-looking and very important film with a lot of big concepts introduced and explored that has also to me been outshone in almost every way since. I respect it for how it laid the groundwork and inspired tons of people (and I think it's extremely cool that Siskel & Ebert reviewed it positively when it played in US theaters) but the pacing is too odd for me to want to revisit it.
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Aug 15, 2023 10:52
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: An extremely cute, very energetic film! But also "What's Up" transitioning into HEEEYAYAYAY may be the most insane violent reaction to a needle drop I've had in a movie theater since Nightcall in Drive back when I was the only person who listened to Kavinsky. I'm very glad I have a partner who was wearing a Skeletor shirt and was reacting the same way and the theater was almost empty otherwise because that could have been utterly humiliating. I was FLAILING. It's a shame it doesn't seem to be making its money back. I think the Turtles themselves were adorable and there's a lot of cool action and the art style is great. Story is fine but it's all so heartfelt and full of good-hearted energy and solid jokes you can't help but like it. I want to see more!
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Aug 20, 2023 18:58
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I recently watched Sunset Boulevard and it's fantastic stuff. Double Indemnity is one of my favorites. The Hustler is also awesome. And Some Like It Hot I think is also on Criterion and it's hilarious and very fun.
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Aug 21, 2023 13:42
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Randalor posted:Onibaba (1964) is a very slow burn of a movie, and even though it's classed as a Horror movie, it's definitely more of a drama or thriller. Overall it's a very good movie about two women trying to get by in feudal Japan during the tail end of a civil war. I can't think of many movies that focus exclusively on the peasents and completely ignore the war, but it works in this movie. The shots of the waving grass are absolutely beautiful.
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Aug 30, 2023 20:05
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Bottoms may not be perfect but the moment it dropped us in a restaurant called But I'm A Diner it earned boatloads of goodwill from me. Frequently loving hilarious and exaggerated to the degree that any complaints I may have feel utterly inconsequential because of how much fun I was having. Sometimes you really do just gotta make it queer.
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Sep 3, 2023 20:32
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For me, while it definitely courts mid-to-late-00s comedies and the Heathers comparison is invited, the film I kept going back to was the incisive yet silly nature of Polyester. Considering But I'm A Cheerleader is clearly a favorite of the crew involved, and that film was (unflatteringly!) compared to John Waters' work, it makes sense to me. God, now I want to go see it again.
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Sep 6, 2023 01:38
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Donnie Darko - It's so strange to be living in a post-"I have seen Donnie Darko" world after two decades of hearing about it in my periphery. I remember when this movie was all my older brother and his friends talked about. I can see why it would be a cult hit, especially with how big it was in high schools, but I'm surprised at how prevalent it was when it's so offbeat. I really wasn't expecting something quite so Lynchian - Fire Walk With Me kept flashing into my mind during the climax - and the sense of dread and tension throughout the entire movie was really something special. Two moments near the end really made me sit bolt upright, first Under The Milky Way hitting because I love that song and that entire scene is amazing, second the moment I realized what The Twist was going to be. Holy poo poo I haven't been able to get the images and feelings of seeing the plane crash and realizing what that meant, followed by Donnie laughing as he climbs into bed out of my head. It really was nothing like I expected, so much stranger and sadder, but that's a plus in my book. It doesn't compare to a true Lynch film but it's still something I think I'll remember for a while. Side note, the first Steins;Gate box set I bought had a quote from Anime Vice's review on the back of the box I make fun of constantly - "It's like someone taped The Big Bang Theory over a copy of Donnie Darko." - and now that I've actually seen Donnie Darko I gotta say that quote actually makes even less sense.
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Dec 8, 2023 11:42
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I watched Josie when it hit the Criterion Channel earlier this month and to quote myself:Erin M. Fiasco posted:Thanks to this month's collections on the Channel I watched Josie & The Pussycats and holy poo poo that was a phenomenal movie. Bubblegum-flavored They Live. Funny as gently caress, great music, absolutely bonkers wild, and the set design and product placement were high art. There's no way 2001 was ready for this movie and yet it's somehow the most Y2K film ever made. I'm so glad they added it. It and Speed Racer (2008) are shaking hands. As the weeks have went on I find myself thinking about it more and more, and that's the sign of a great movie for me. It may potentially end up in my year's top ten, and it's been a stacked year. I agree on the third act not fully coming together but gently caress, when the actual ending scene is as sugary and silly as it gets (and has one of the funniest gags in the whole movie) what's there to complain about? Exactly my speed.
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Dec 21, 2023 13:22
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The Iron Claw - It understood wrestling, and by that I mean it understood it at the deepest level, where to love something so utterly destructive and devastating is intoxicating, a furious blend of fantasy and reality, impossible to ignore, a love that will burn you to shreds. The scene where Kevin can only process his emotions by running the ropes and bumping over and over cut deep because it's a position I've been in. Zac Efron was incredible. That said, holy poo poo, HOW did the Ric Flair actor not even TRY to do his voice? Arguably the most famous wrestler to a mainstream audience in the movie and you're not gonna have a guy try to imitate his extremely recognizable voice?! You're gonna deliver a pitch-perfect Harley Race but not Flair?!?! It didn't kill the scene for me but wow was it close. Great movie. If you watch this with The Wrestler, The Calamari Wrestler, and an El Santo movie you'll have one hell of an education on the artform.
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Jan 16, 2024 03:06
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Being John Malkovich - Malkovich. Malkovich? Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Gloriously surreal piece of work, inventive, very funny, surprisingly creepy, was utterly delighted at the twist with Lotte. The monkey getting a sad backstory was delightful. Intoxicatingly depressing and off-putting yet whimsical and wondrous. My recent rewatch of Her made me realize I quite like Spike Jonze and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind introduced me to Charlie Kaufman and now I want more of both. My partner loved Adaptation; maybe that's next on my list.
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Jan 20, 2024 14:21
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The House of Yes: Parker Posey should retroactively get the Oscar. Love how unhinged and dense the dialogue is and how uncomfortable the atmosphere is. Shockingly great. If this movie was released in modern day I feel like the inciting incident would have been 9/11.Breetai posted:To my dying day I will maintain that a better ending would have been that there's nothing supernatural going on at all, it's just a bunch of rich jerks needlessly murdering people for no good reason because they're fuckwits who believe they're special. Just an anticlimax when the time passes, followed by slow creeping realisation that they are monsters who committed atrocities for no reason at all. I don't think the movie would have been improved by removing the best scene.
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Feb 3, 2024 18:58
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The Elephant Man - Me when David Lynch tackles the same themes and has the same ending as like three of his other movies: [RAUCOUS APPLAUSE, CHEERING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS] yeah this was a good one
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Mar 9, 2024 03:48
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Tank Girl: Man, this movie almost had it. Lori Petty is incredible and super charismatic, and all her dialogue is funny as hell. There's lots of great sets and production design. There are artistic choices that almost, but don't quite, come together. The soundtrack is full of all the right artists and all the wrong songs. I don't know if it's the director, the script, or both, but the sense of rhythm and progression is completely wrong. It's a shame because there were times where I was completely keyed in and times where I was too busy dissecting it and wishing it was different to enjoy it. The comic transitions looked great but were a detriment in how they took away from any real world action that was there. Tank Girl isn't unfilmable. Like, I feel like in the right hands, this could have been a blistering good time. I want to see someone (the easy answer is Edgar Wright) take another crack at it. Keep Jet Girl, she was fun. Or, hell, give it a Spiderverse-esque animated film and get Lori back. There's really something there and I can see myself holding this film close to my heart, but what a weirdly-specific type of missed opportunity for a film.
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Mar 13, 2024 01:02
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I'm often cold on Scorsese because he has some specific storytelling techniques he leans on that I'm not big on and tend to derail his movies for me, but Wolf of Wall Street was the first movie of his I watched that was almost a total winner for me because for much of the runtime it felt great seeing a terrible person be terrible and get set up for some big falls. However, I think that (due to the movie having to be overseen by the Real Actual Guy) the ending somewhat cheaps out and makes him seem way too cool, at odds with a lot of what the rest of the movie was saying and doing. It's a great performance, though, and a movie that kept me going through his filmography. It's good stuff.
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Mar 26, 2024 16:44
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Had a really fun double feature last night. The War Of The Roses - Danny Devito was such an interesting director. There's this fascinating combination of childlike whimsy and obvious Hitchcock techniques in all his films, and it's great to see that particular latter thing used to its fullest effect in this movie. I really wish he still directed; he has such a unique eye. I know this movie was once big enough to become a German colloquialism and I knew this was raved about upon release but it feels like it's become something of a hidden gem. I have some issues with the movie - mostly I feel the wraparound story (while fantastically-acted by Danny) was a bit cheap and lessened the awesome impact of the story's conclusion by dragging on too long - but wow, it's a lovely grim little fable, huh? The Grand Budapest Hotel - While Fantastic Mr. Fox is still my favorite Wes Anderson film (and The Life Aquatic was my first and is a movie I think about so much more than my overall opinion of it would dictate) this was a strong contender for second place. The performances were immense, the action funny and energetic - the musical scene on the ski lift made my jaw drop - and the story so pulpy and whimsical that it wouldn't be out of place in a Lupin III movie. Hell, get Wes to direct that next. It had a real cohesiveness to it that I really clicked with, and some wickedly funny bits on top of it. My only complaint is that certain emotional payoffs to things set up early in the story didn't really hit like I thought they would, but the last scene of the story was great, and this movie did the wraparound well. Lots of fun!
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Apr 24, 2024 15:26
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Escape From LA - A rapturous and glorious "gently caress you" to sequels that are More Of The Same and to the American ideals of idol worship and how Christofascism prevents unity in crisis. Maybe it's not very "good" for most of the runtime (my partner called it R-rated Spy Kids, lovingly-so) but the bombastic fury Carpenter imbues every frame with makes it a delight. The basketball scene. The surfing & car chase. The ending. Oh my god, I was cackling. I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards. It is such a delight to compare and contrast this with Escape From NY on a purely metatextual level but it's so fun on its own merits as well.
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Apr 26, 2024 13:12
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 22:43 |
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Baby Assassins 2: Yeah as long as they keep the central concept of these two actresses doing funny poo poo in their crappy apartment and then brutally murdering people in cool-as-hell action scenes I'm going watch every single one of these movies that Yugo Sakamoto pumps out. This isn't quite on the level of the first one in terms of stakes and energy but it makes up for it in sheer comedy and relaxed, entertaining character bits. Oh, and the ending was phenomenal.
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May 10, 2024 02:17
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