jonathan demme!

he's a fricking genius, but Rachel Getting Married made me wanna chuck the telly outta the windae.

the ending to Married To The Mob (the couple kiss! everyone in the barber shop applauds! Pfeiffer's boss winks at the camera! a cartoon love heart appears onscreen!
New Order's Bizzare Love Triangle starts up!) is one of the best bits of any film i've seen in my life

Silence of the Lambs is, as Armond White once said, feminist claptrap.

must-see: his doc The Agronomist

I had both Melvin and Howard and Married to the Mob on my comedy poll. (The latter higher, even though I count the former as the better film, if that makes sense.) I have very good memories of Handle with Care/Citizen's Band, too--I've got a home-taped copy and keep meaning to watch it again one day. Sadly forgotten: Paul Le Mat, who inexplicably wasn't even nominated for Melvin and Howard (Steenburgen won, and Robards was nominated).

wow, dr morbs, your littl thread-bombs are transcendently irritating. would you ever care to actually explain, the first time out, any of your devastating contraventions of conventional wisdom? or is trolling just, you know, your thing?

Rachel Getting Married > any other Demme film I've seen, but I know I haven't seen most of the right ones

are you supposed to hate every single character in Rachel Getting Married?

i think so, actually; that's one reason demme liked the script.

The Jonathan Demme I once knew and loved was destroyed by a bad case of the Oscars, which may explain why everything he's done to the left of Hollywood lately has been massively better than his high profile pics. Beloved, The Truth about Charlie, Manchurian Candidate=yuck.

yeah philadelphia is the precise moment where he kind of flattens. though there are some good things in that movie.

Related: this is playing at our new documentary theatre this weekend (I don't think I'll be able to get in to see it, unfortunately).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185371/

am: no, and by your personal definition that seemingly applies only to me instead of the other one-line "trolls" on this goddamn shithole of a "community," yes.

tSoL is homophobic, too. Seven is much the better of the high-grossing Grimm's fairytales of the '90s.

am: no, and by your personal definition that seemingly applies only to me instead of the other one-line "trolls" on this goddamn shithole of a "community," yes.

please leave, then.

i dug rachel getting married but i dont know if i would if i re-screened it.

however i think rachel getting married to the mob would be a pretty amazing movie.

think about it.

i dug rachel getting married but i dont know if i would if i re-screened it.

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Saturday, March 17, 2012 10:58 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

picturing you in a roger ebert-like basement screening room with big plush seating and a 35mm projector. "roll film, please!"

"roll film, mother!"

i dug rachel getting married but i dont know if i would if i re-screened it

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Saturday, March 17, 2012 10:58 AM

wow, dr morbs, your littl thread-bombs are transcendently irritating. would you ever care to actually explain, the first time out, any of your devastating contraventions of conventional wisdom? or is trolling just, you know, your thing?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 17 March 2012 15:11 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this movie

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:12 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

formerly known as lol this guy

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:26 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:15 PM

like i said

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Thursday, 31 December 2009 19:49 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:10 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amplify?

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:28 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he made Storefront Hitchcock so he'll always be alright by me. Plus he was super nice the one time I met him.

!

Are we still talking about Morbs

Haven't met Morbs. And I doubt his Storefront Hitchcock would be about Robyn.

hey did anybody see the pilot of that Patrick Wilson "Doctor Who Sees Ghosts" show that Demme directed? Rough, clumsy stuff.

lol this movie

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:12 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

formerly known as lol this guy

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:26 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:15 PM

like i said

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Thursday, 31 December 2009 19:49 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:10 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amplify?

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:28 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, March 17, 2012 3:01 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/xnbty.gif

hey slocki, since i got a lot of shit from you on the rgm thread for not digging the movie, i'm curious why you think you wouldn't like it now

I've gotten some blowback on recommending Something Wild to people lately. Even if people admit the movie does more with the manic pixie dream girl archetype than most, they're still not glad they saw a movie where Melanie Griffith is a manic pixie dream girl.

I love Something Wild. Mr Veg made me watch it a fews ago, I love how it turns into a whole other movie

*a few years*

yeah i had be like "no, no, there's a tonal shift! just wait!" around the hotel scene

yeah I was NOT excited about it at all at first, lol

Difference is Griffith actually feels like a genuinely nutty and endearing character, not the random assemblage of indie quirks that made up later iterations of the form. She's more of a screwball heroine than anything

^^^

I think people are skeptical because Melanie Griffith has basically become a manic aging pixie.

Working Girl and Something Wild are maybe the only 2 movies I've really enjoyed her in, where I haven't wanted to stab myself in the eye.

She's amazing here. Demme gives her a closeup after Charlie unwittingly reveals how much she means to him that's devastating.

wow, dr morbs, your littl thread-bombs are transcendently irritating. would you ever care to actually explain, the first time out, any of your devastating contraventions of conventional wisdom? or is trolling just, you know, your thing?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 17 March 2012 15:11 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this movie

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:12 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

formerly known as lol this guy

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:26 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:15 PM

like i said

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Thursday, 31 December 2009 19:49 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:10 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amplify?

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:28 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, March 17, 2012 2:01 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

Difference is Griffith actually feels like a genuinely nutty and endearing character, not the random assemblage of indie quirks that made up later iterations of the form. She's more of a screwball heroine than anything

― Number None, Saturday, March 17, 2012 2:49 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, March 17, 2012 2:53 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

btw SW has my favorite use of music -- as commentary, found objects, counterpoint -- in a movie ever.

yeah seriously.

let's watch the ending shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z8NSqlaTMM

that film is a beautiful representation of the 1980s. dated in the best possible way.

I want The Feelies to play my reunion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_9Vlh1OtB8

i wonder -- is she actually hitting on him or is she playing with him since she probably knows he's not actually married to lulu?

also: love the couple in the background.

Demme has a great feel for music in general, imo. His choice of Goodbye Horses for the dancing scene in SoL was fucking genius. (Feel free to crap on my head now Morbs)

hey slocki, since i got a lot of shit from you on the rgm thread for not digging the movie, i'm curious why you think you wouldn't like it now

― da croupier, Saturday, March 17, 2012 3:40 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good question, i don't have a specific answer beyond 'it hasnt really stuck with me' tbh

no I like the way JD has used music, often

cept Storefront Hitchcock is Robyn on an off night

lol

I watched Married to the Mob the other day, it holds up pretty well. Michelle Pfeiffer and Dean Stockwell are both wonderful. I totally forgot that Alec Baldwin plays her doomed husband, and there's a funny cameo from Chris Isaak.

It hadn't really struck me before how strongly influenced this was by Desperately Seeking Susan; Pfeiffer is basically Rosanna Arquette as mob wife. I guess there was a whole genre of films in the 80s where straight-laced people go to NYC and have wacky things happen to them. After Hours is another like this.

just caught this interview portion last night, hes so likeable here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw8FKmqzfZI

watched married to the mob for the first time, what a delightful and odd movie. matthew modine kind of sucks in it but i'm not sure it's his fault, that character doesn't make any sense at all. but yeah pfeiffer and stockwell are fantastic, mercedes ruehl is really funny/over the top, and there are so many "oh that guy" actors in it.

the character doesn't make any sense but Modine is great in the role

yeah, it’s a very odd and very likeable movie - pfeiffer in particular is wonderful in a role that could easily have been a cliche but she invests so much in her character’s intelligence and self-reliance

the blank check podcast is just wrapping up a run on all demme’s non-documentary, it’s def worth a listen and has sent me down a demme rewatch rabbithole over the last few weeks (and revealed something wild as a perhaps intentional companion piece / mirror image to this one)

that's what got me to watch it! i listened to the stop making sense and something wild episodes and i realized i had never watched MTTM

hello fellow blankie

michelle pfeiffer is such an underrated actor tbh, it must suck to be incredibly talented but also supernaturally beautiful

i wish she and demme worked together again, it feels from this like they really got each other

Watched Philadelphia for the first time since December '93. It's not a good movie but....it's a complicated movie. Hanks doesn't play a character, but he plays a Gay Man and he doesn't flinch at all. I don't understand Washington's "arc" unless I read him as a closeted gay man -- which Demme absolutely suggests, i.e. the way Demme stages the homophobia, the way the famous aria sequence plays extra diegetically follows him home into bed with his wife.

Something Wild is terrific. It starts out kinda quirky and turns into a thriller 2/3 of the way in.

Plus, The Feelies!

I actually rewatched Melvin and Howard yesterday afternoon. Robert Ridgley as the game-show host is priceless.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGU5NTI0M2YtZDllNC00NzYwLTk0MWUtYzVkYjAxYmM5OGI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg

Something Wild is streaming on Amazon. Watched it for the first time since seeing it a bunch of times in my late teens. Lots of different thoughts, but (as Alfred does way above) I started comparing/contrasting it to Blue Velvet, which left me cold during those same late teens.

I love how busy this is with detail, all the background action and music (break-dancers at the gas station), how truly magnetic Griffith and Liotta both are, how Lulu seems a whole lot like Hannibal Lecter in the opening NY/NJ scenes of outwitting and controlling situations intuitively, how The Feelies songs evolve from "I'm A Believer" to their own ominous, songs in the course of the reunion, how much it brings back the joys of thrift-store shopping.

how The Feelies songs evolve from "I'm A Believer" to their own ominous, songs in the course of the reunion

Excellent point. I missed this.

Is it just me, or is their version of "Fame" in this supposed to be cringingly bad?

They cue to The Feelies own music right about the time Liotta enters the picture. Seems like the lighting gets a little dimmer then too.

I love those little bicentennial top hats they wear at the reunion.

In addition to Blue Velvet, another movie of the same era that I have always compared it to is Betty Blue, which had a similar "first half-madcap, second half-dark" vibe.

Hey, fancy new edition of Married to the Mob incoming

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage-partner-labels/products/married-to-the-mob-fun-city-editions

I finally saw Something Wild and loved it. I had always mixed this movie up with Wild at Heart (which I haven't seen either) until recently. The casting is superb - roles each of the three main actors seem born to play. I saw Melanie Griffith in an episode of Miami Vice a few months back and she was terrible, but here her awkwardness works for a character that is also acting by putting up a tough exterior. The dual reveals that Audrey and Charlie have been lying to each other and the tonal shift were really well done to me. Something about the movies' (and Melanie Griffith's) early energy prepares you for it.

Ray Liotta is so gorgeous and scary.

As a hardcore Lynch fan, I have to say that Something Wild >>>>>>>>>>>> Wild At Heart

It's pretty perfect, love the soundtrack. Is this the best Melanie Griffith movie?

That's Cherry 2000

Yeah, soundtrack is very good and Feelies are so good in the reunion scenes.

"Wild Thing" used really well in three different versions (including original).

Inspired cameos as well, John Waters, Su Tissue, John Sayles, etc. Probably my first exposure to both the Feelies and the Go-Betweens.

First time I heard the original version of New Order's "Temptation" was in Something Wild -- from a passing car, no?

Yes, I believe it was a car passing in front of Audrey's mom's house when they first arrived there.

"Something Wild" has maybe my favorite romantic exchange, when Audrey/Lulu finally unlocks the handcuff that Charlie has been wearing as a bracelet:

"What are you doing"
"Setting you free."
"Maybe I don't want to be."
"May-be you're not."