Last (x) movies you saw

Watched Jack, the CBC biopic about Jack Layton. Turns out, he was a really great guy. Who knew?

gimme the loot was really good, like unexpectedly so.
good script, good acting, good direction, good choices throughout.

March viewing:

Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012) B
Rust and Bone (Audiard, 2012) A-
The Shining (Kubrick, 1981) A
Keep the Lights On (Sachs, 2012) D
Killing Them Softly (Dominik, 2012) C
Headhunters (Tyldrum, 2011) B
The Master (Anderson, 2012) B+
Trance (Boyle, 2013) B- Works brilliantly when it's pulpy gangster hijinks. As soon as they start delving into the hypnosis mindgames then it stumbles badly. Entertaining though.
Babette's Feast (Axel, 1987)

Saw Trance last night, more or less agree with the B- grade. Concept was great but the characters, plot and mindgames were surprisingly one-dimensional. Even more traumatically, I've ended up agreeing with a Peter Bradshaw review because of it.

Collaborator -- martin donovan wrote and directed. Very theatrical, writerly, and sort of slight, but there are some very nice moments and i'll watch donovan read the phone book, so...

robert wise film-festival chez moi:

born to kill (1947): 4.5/5 -- creepy Lawrence Tierney and wormy Elisha Cook, Jr. = can't go wrong w/ this noir
the house on telegraph hill (1951): 3/5 -- too many unlikeable characters & too big story flaws for this one to anything more than mediocre
somebody up there likes me (1956): 3.5/5 -- sorry, i just don't buy Paul Newman as a 1940s Lower East Side greaser; pretty good fight scenes though
i want to live! (1958): 3.5/5 -- all about Susan Hayward, who does great job in portraying a fundamentally unlikable film; a bit too clinical & preachy, though
odds against tomorrow (1959): 3.5/5 -- Robert Ryan, Harry Belafonte & (young) Shelley Winters as good as can be expected; a bit too cold for me to get that enthusiastic about it, though
the haunting (1963): 5/5 -- perfect; i wish that i'd seen this before last year's Horror Poll, i would've definitely voted for it (and probably in the Top 10)
the andromeda strain (1971): 4.5/5 -- clinical treatment & slow development works well, esp. when one gets used to the film's rhythm
star trek: the movie (1979): 3.5/5 -- unexpectedly, a pretty good Easter movie (b/c of its metaphysical/religious overtones) & special effects are still impressive; still, a bit overambitious for what it is essentially a souped-up original series episode.

On a whim I started watching the Masterpiece Theater 'Wuthering Heights' with Tom Hardy

I lasted maybe half an hour - I couldn't take Hardy's Heathcliff seriously because all I could hear was bloody Bane whenever he opened his mouth :( Stupid Nolan

Spring Breakers. Amply covered in its corresponding thread.
A Canterbury Tale. Not my favorite Archers flick; it dawdles, and John Sweet got my nerves. But the smell of hay and beer-soaked pubs wafts off the screen, and he knows how to record yokels chatting without condescending to them.

Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976) - Oh man. It could have been a taught, gripping if generic thriller if it was less concerned with sadness and Ben Gazzara's face, with its broken pride smile. Despite there being just too much of the awful Mr Sophistication stage act scenes, its an otherwise incredibly powerful film. Gazzara's speech at the end about only being happy when he's being what others want him to be, rather than himself, is crushing. 4.5/5

batch of john ford films tonight:

the hurricane (1937): 3.5/5 - before Baltimora was Tarzan Boy, Jon Hall was in this one.
the long voyage home (1940): 3.5/5 - lol John Wayne's "Swedish" accent
they were expendable (1945): 3/5 - they were also interminable
3 godfathers (1948): 3.5/5 -- john ford's version of three men and a baby, w/ religious symbolism as an added bonus
rio grande (1950): 3.5/5 -- not as good as fort apache or she wore a yellow ribbon, but it gets the job done.

Die Hard. For the first time. And it's great, absolutely, but I was kinda watching because I've read all these people talking about plotholes in new movies, and they often bring up Die Hard as a well-plotted movie, and well, it's not. Everyone is really dumb, and the baddies' plan makes no sense. So Hans Gruber has researched Tagaki but doesn't know how he looks? Obviously he is just being menacing, but why on earth does Holly fall for it? And why does she draw attention to herself, when she knows that there is a picture of her and John in the room where Hans sits? And how on earth did the bad guys expect to get away? They didn't think anyone would notice an ambulance? And what did they think the authorities would think caused the explosion? And they didn't notice a limo with music playing really loud? Come on, it's as dumb as every other movie. But I'll watch again and stop thinking about it, and it will obviously be great.

hell yes you will watch it again and stop thinking about it. it's DIE HARD. c'mon. :)

You're wrong about all those things tbh. Listen to it next time imo.

I find eisbaer's director binges puzzling...You couldn't watch all those Ford films in one night, could you? And how long did it take to watch all those Robert Wise films?

I find eisbaer's director binges puzzling...You couldn't watch all those Ford films in one night, could you? And how long did it take to watch all those Robert Wise films?

several nights, for both Ford and Wise. i have some time on my hands these days, so why not watch some good movies?!?

and tonight's bunch (yes, all in one night) are joseph mankiewicz joints (long, stagy & talky as mankiewicz joints tend to be):

julius caesar (1953): 3.5/5
guys and dolls (1955): 3.5/5 -- lol Marlon Brando as a song-and-dance man
the honey pot (1967): 3/5 -- maybe i'm being too much the lawyer now & i've seen enough movies and tv shows (and their lol interpretations of law) to be a humorless martinet on these matters, but are we supposed to believe that Cliff Robertson is supposed to be such a criminal law maven and yet forgot that Colorado (the state whose law would've controlled the distribution of Rex Harrison's common-law wife's estate [testate or otherwise]) also probably has either a Slayer Statute (or common law to that effect)?!? methinks that someone didn't do their homework. also, a bit overlong and too stagy.

respect

Life And Nothing More (Kiarostami, 1992) 3.5/5
Bronson (Refn, 2008) 3.5/5
Blow Up (Antonioni, 1966) 4/5

oh a fucking lawyer pickin apart a plot.... "plausibles" don't come any worse.

Legend of Ni**er Charlie
not sure how good this is as a moovie, has really controversial title obviously but seems a bit soap-y possibly and not great production.
Think i saw it mentioned as an influence on Django Unchained in the Sight & Sound article. But I mainly grabbed it cos I rewatched the documentary American Grindhouse yesterday and it was mentioned in the Blaxplotation section.

American Grindhouse, history of exploitation cinema in the US , covers everything back yto silent movies. Interesting film.

Had that burned to disc with the 2010 THe Killer INside Me which is an ok film but I didn't find it fully riveting. Ws trying to work out if the end was the same as th ebook but can't remmeber since it's been a while since I read it. Could be its the truest film to a Jiom THompson book but I'm not sure. Certainly doesn't give it a happy ending like the 90s Getaway & even the Peckinpah version of that altered the story a bit I think, or was taht just a different represerntation of the end? Again been a while since I saw it but don't remember long periods of hiding in dung heaps only to wind up with their fate in the book.

Good Vibrations
Terry Hooley biopic. Thought it was pretty nice as a film seems a bit cosy possibly & domesticated. maybe it was just low budget. But it made me laugh, cry want to dance in my seat and had Suicide Dream Baby Dream on th esoundtrack which is pretty fine.

so Hans Gruber has researched Tagaki but doesn't know how he looks?

his computer couldn't access Wikipedia iirc

Les mIserables
Had been meaning to see it for months to see what it was like.
Visually qyuite sumptuous in places but as a musical it is really questionable. Why do you get Hugh Jackman for one of the main singing parts? Not sure if he just can't sing or if his singing is just totally wrong for the musical style.

& as for memorable tunage, think it lacks it wholesale or is that ust the treatment in the film?
Can't really see a Coltrane equivalent being drawn to fully explore the melodies of this as JC was to songs from The Sound Of Music, Mary Poppins etc

so strange film, I take it if I'm getting to see it 2 months or morea fter it hit Galway it must be somewhat popular. Does make me intrigued about reading the book. Is that deserving the status of classic or just a long soap opera that everybody read so thought of as deeply cultural significant?

Upstream Color is really good
director spoke afterwards and i was shocked that he added walden as the pivotal book long after the script was done

Just watched This Must Be The Place. Strange, sweet film. Couldn't find any discussion on ilx. Makes me want to watch a bunch more Sorrentino. Penn's character feels really unique in the pantheon of screen rockstars, and overall felt elements of Lynch's Straight Story and overtones of... I'm not even sure. The treatment of the holocaust was decidedly european. Not sure of the right traditions to place it in, in that regard.

ah, three prior mentions on this thread. nobody else seemed very keen on it.

I thought it was a bit of a mess tbh. Holocaust angle seemed tacked-on.

The Adventures of Tintin (Spielberg 2011)
Floating Weeds (Ozu 1959)
Holy Motors (Carax 2012)

Beyond The Hills opens this weekend; looking forward to catching it.

how's that tintin movie

on a good run recently - loved all these movies - Amour, The Master, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo and a documentary called Etre et Avoir about a rural French school.

how's that tintin movie

― rust in pieces (darraghmac), Thursday, April 11, 2013 8:12 AM

Amazing to look at, Spielberg obviously had fun conceiving some of the swooping rollercoaster shots (incl. where the camera zooms in on and through an aquarium, stuff like that) but pure drudgery to experience with the sound on, trying to give a damn about the story.

Why do you get Hugh Jackman for one of the main singing parts?

He began in musical theatre, became a star there first

i really liked the Tintin movie, good bit of adventuresome funlols, in the spirit of the books i felt

thought it's hard to adjust to 3 dimensional faces. the noses all look like sausages

Simon Killer is a little too exploitative for me to really recommend but if you're into "HOW SOCIOPATHS ARE MADE" and like your films slick and seedy, slightly self-congratulatory and fronting like they're deeper than they are, go for it. Really solid lead acting job. I have no interest in seeing martha marcy mae etc at this point tho.

hm, i liked it more than that. it does think it's sorta clever/deep but it worked for me, i dont really get exploitative from it. i really like the first movie campos made afterschool

Watched the 70s Great Gatsby last night. Not at all underrated. A corpse of a movie.

yeah I hate that movie a lot

Jc: i got bugged by the whole "let me take you on a journey in the mind of a budding psycho, oh how horrible the privilege, the privilege" and then it has loads of porno ready full body fucking and frontal nudity (but not for our anti hero). , Plus, he ends up being shown as sortof a maybe-not-so-bad position, like this is a life that has some rewards. The slickness and crudity got me tired od it eventually.

idk, i got a lot of tension out of it, like every intimate scene is p charged. i didnt love it but i dont think what it intends to do is bring u into the mind of a psycho, it more wants 2 make u squirm at his cloying neediness, his literal sniveling, but also his relatability imo, the everyday nature of events, etc def subverts a trad "suspense" movie or w/e; he most made me think of stephen glass/'shattered glass' (which is a miles better movie than this but still)

i found this interesting that campos said in an interview

but as far as my writing it came out of a lot of things but primarily out of the writings of Georges Simenon. I’d been interested in the noir world for quite some time, the books of Simenon and Jim Thompson and others, and I was interested in exploring those sorts of worlds in a contemporary way.

yeah that relatability is what i found false; like the lead characters thoughts and approach and desire and were in some way justifiable. I love thompson, but his characters are interesting messes and not at all glamorous and i think there were moments where this guy's actions kind of are filmed as if they were? less full body graphic sex would've been a hint that the filmmaker's sympathies are less with the antihero; it just got tiresome after awhile.
not a bad film exactly but just about at my limit of what i can put up with for that kind of lurid stuff i guess

Jc: i got bugged by the whole "let me take you on a journey in the mind of a budding psycho, oh how horrible the privilege, the privilege" and then it has loads of porno ready full body fucking and frontal nudity (but not for our anti hero). , Plus, he ends up being shown as sortof a maybe-not-so-bad position, like this is a life that has some rewards. The slickness and crudity got me tired od it eventually.

Expert description of the seventies Gatsby film.

haha

THE WARRIORS

it was exactly what i'd hoped

so yeah, since friday night

The Warriors
Hearts of Darkness
The Third Man
His Girl Friday

all first viewings except third man

i saw hyde park on the hudson two nights ago and it was terrible.

Amour (Haneke, 2012) 3.5/5 gruelling but touching too
Argo (Affleck, 2012) 2/5 pretty dumb on the whole
Certified Copy (Kiarostami, 2010) 4.5/5 this was genius.
A Taste of Cherry (Kiarostami, 1997) 3/5 still processing... love the basic conceit but it got painfully slow at points

Beyond The Hills. I've got qualms, most of which involve Mingiu's belting you out of the theatre.

The 49th Parallel. Amazing open air sequences. One sequence of unexpected violence that unfortunately did not result in the death of Leslie Howard.

49th parallel owns

the devil wears prada on tv. think I've watched this like four or five times and it never gets old. best meryl streep.

worst Anne Hathaway though?