Recorded "Possession" off TCM a few weeks back. Haven't watched it yet, but reckon I will tonight. LTROI is amazing. Let Me In almost as good.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:25 (twelve years ago) link
I still haven't seen LTROI (which I will rectify) but I really enjoyed Let Me In
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
i "respect" it for being so aggressively out there and unique, not for being "smart" or whatever. it's definitely art of some sort.
xposts
― circa1916, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
QUOTES
― circa1916, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:27 (twelve years ago) link
Is the recommended-quality version of CoS streaming/available for download anywhere for European people too, without fiddling around with proxies? I really doubt this clusterfuck of license negotiations will be solved during my lifetime.
― the europan nikon is here (grauschleier), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:29 (twelve years ago) link
Possession's insanity frequently falls on the side of funny too, purposefully I imagine.
Yeah, I mean some of that stuff is just outright goofy at first. Like Heinrich's wild gesticulating while he's talking to Sam Neill. But after a minute or so of that, it feels like the product of a diseased mind. There's so much stuff like that in there, these offhand moments where the tone shifts without reason and it momentarily feels like the tension is letting up a bit but, when considered in the larger context, it's just...disturbing.
― Quiet Desperation, LLC (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:34 (twelve years ago) link
This is rocketing to the top of my must-see list. Plus that screencap!
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
yeah I'm def going to check this out
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
The best thing I can recommend re: watching Possession for the first time is go in blind. The less you know, the better. Alternately, see it how I first saw it: post-LTR breakup, drinking Jamison straight from the bottle. Oddly appropriate.
― Quiet Desperation, LLC (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
I really, really wish I didn't have anything to do right now because I would totally rewatch Possession right this very minute. Oh, well. Nighttime is the right time, anyway.
― Quiet Desperation, LLC (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:40 (twelve years ago) link
Hopefully I will not have cause to see it post-LTR breakup, so I'll just be careful to skip any future discussion of it.
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
"I'd be LYNE if I said I ever dreamed this movie would place this high!"
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7100/7255248286_ed3f13768f_o.jpg
22. JACOB'S LADDERAdrian Lyne, USA, 1990(565 points, 17 votes, 4 first-place votes)
this movie is fun but really it does not make any goddamn sense at all― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:27 PM (3 years ago)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/w1nt3rmut3/GarfieldJacobsLadder.gif― Dan I., Tuesday, November 18, 2008 2:48 PM (3 years ago)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/w1nt3rmut3/GarfieldJacobsLadder.gif― Dan I., Tuesday, November 18, 2008 2:48 PM (3 years ago)
― Count-Dracula-Down (Eric H.), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
jacob's ladder one of the few movies i found genuinely frightening
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:43 (twelve years ago) link
FOUR first place votes?!
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:44 (twelve years ago) link
(Yeah, my head spun a little bit from that one too.)
― Count-Dracula-Down (Eric H.), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:44 (twelve years ago) link
great movie.
― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:45 (twelve years ago) link
HUH.
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:45 (twelve years ago) link
Boo.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:47 (twelve years ago) link
one of those first place votes was me
this is my favorite movie of all time
― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:47 (twelve years ago) link
that said lol @ four first places
― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:47 (twelve years ago) link
Boo. Jacob's Ladder, the Boondock Saints and Donnie Darko of its time.
(I might be exaggerating a little)
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
omg I love Jacob's Ladder
sent me wayyyy down the rabbit hole on Project 112 and MKULTRA and all that creepy irl mindblowing shit too, which was a nice bonus
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
Hot dog, I'm happy to see this. When it comes down to my very top few votes, it ends up being the movies that serve well as horror films but also just plain move me. And JL is just filled with crushingly sad scenes. So beautifully shot, and what a great balance between a drama with extremely believable/sympathetic/complex characters and total surrealistic nightmare.
― The Thnig, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
~controversial~ poll result
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
I love that Garfield
― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:49 (twelve years ago) link
I stand by my original comment. The "it was all a dream"-style ending always struck me as cheap and lazy, not to mention nonsensical
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:49 (twelve years ago) link
Jacob's Ladder is one of those movies where all the disturbing visuals and odd atmospheric things under the surface stuck with me for days after first seeing it, much like The Shining or Exorcist
― some dude, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:50 (twelve years ago) link
― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 12:47 PM (2 minutes ago)
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:51 (twelve years ago) link
xpost Shakey I usually hate those endings but I disagree on this one. In JL they pull you soooooo deeply into his life, into his paranoias and hallucinations that the ending is almost a relief, somehow? I dunno, it really moved me. And scared the BEJABBERS out of me too.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:51 (twelve years ago) link
it fascinates me a little that Lyne made this movie in the middle of a 10 year run in which his other movies were 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal
― some dude, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:52 (twelve years ago) link
I love that he made BOTH Flashdance and Jacob's Ladder.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
every time I think of Jacob's Ladder, the phrase "house party dance scene" comes to mind and I cringe a little
this film makes me understand why/how people become horror buffs, but it's far enough removed from the splattergore that has come to define the genre that I can actually embrace it
― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
In JL they pull you soooooo deeply into his life, into his paranoias and hallucinations that the ending is almost a relief, somehow?
YES. It's like allowing him mercy: please, let this tortured soul go. It's hardly in the same category of the end of Boxing Helena, y'know?
― The Thnig, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
I honestly never thought of it as a horror movie but I guess it's kind of 'a personal horror', and I'm happy to see it get so much love ITT
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:54 (twelve years ago) link
it fascinates me a little that Lyne made this movie in the middle of a 10 year run in which his other movies were 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal― some dude, Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:52 AM (8 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― some dude, Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:52 AM (8 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Some of that shows through in the freaky dance scene.
― oh jeez. I can feel myself quicken. (Austerity Ponies), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:56 (twelve years ago) link
for years i would get this movie confused w/ Lorenzo's Oil, and then even when i started watching it at first i thought it was just a Nam vet movie, so part of my enjoyment of it was the total surprise/confusion
― some dude, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:56 (twelve years ago) link
I think there are several disconnected levels going on in the movie; obv there is the intramovie extended fantasy where all of these conspiracies and torturous events were psychic manifestations of dude clinging to life and trying to make sense of what happened to him, but there was also a metatextual extramovie angle re: the testing of battle drugs on our soldiers, and I think the confusion/inconsistency arises from trying to make the two fit together when I think it's supposed to be more that one is supposed to set the stage for the other and Tim Robbins' character never REALLY finds out what happened to him before he dies.
― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:57 (twelve years ago) link
the atmosphere of jl *is* great. i'm always down for sad horror movies too.
― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:58 (twelve years ago) link
my problem with the ending is that positing that the majority of the film's narrative was a hallucination raises more questions than it answers. As he was dying, he hallucinated information he could not possibly have known, including the explanation for his hallucinations (the chemist), Danny Aiello, his surviving platoon-mates having hallucinations, etc.? It's just... waht? There's plenty of good stuff in the film, but I felt kind of betrayed by its sloppy construction. The ending is like the scriptwriter going "omg look! What's that over there?" to the audience and then running away
xp
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:58 (twelve years ago) link
Confession: I always used to get Jacob's Ladder confused in my head with Flatliners.
― Count-Dracula-Down (Eric H.), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:59 (twelve years ago) link
Does someone grow a snake tail in this one?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:59 (twelve years ago) link
The dance scene: classic.The ice-water bath scene: classic.The girls singing "Wait a minute, Mr. Postman" as he delivers mail: classic.The nightmare hospital surgery sequence: classic.His name being Jacob and the drug being called "the Ladder": dumb, but I forgive it.
― The Thnig, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:59 (twelve years ago) link
Wow. I voted for Jacob's Ladder in the middle-ish of my ballot, but this placing is a surprise!
What Maurice Jarre did for the film is underrated even by film score nerds...
― but he go's to a resturang and then die in a toilet (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
lol @ Flatliners. so bad.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
LTROI is amazing. Let Me In almost as good.
They're totally worth watching back to back, or on successive nights. I like them about equally. Very different strengths.
― but he go's to a resturang and then die in a toilet (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:01 (twelve years ago) link
Anyone ever read the much-longer original screenplay for this? Much more political, lots about Jacob trying to get the government to fess up to what the did in the war, culminating with a scene of him on courthouse steps, doused in gasoline, threatening to set himself on fire.
― The Thnig, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:01 (twelve years ago) link
Elizabeth Peña: classic
― some dude, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:02 (twelve years ago) link
Ha, Flatliners. My roommate in college put the bit where the little girl curses out Keifer Sutherland on our answering machine.
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
For two, uh, thematically similar movies, Carnival of Souls > Jacob's Ladder
― it was a dark and stormy genitals. (Phil D.), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:04 (twelve years ago) link