Last (x) movies you saw

Marriage Italian Style - Mastroianni and Loren (esp.) are great in this.

reality (matteo garrone '12) 2/5
traveller (jack n. green '97) 3/5
white hunter, black heart (eastwood '90) 2.5/5
the sadist (james landis '63) 3.5/5
those lips, those eyes (michael pressman '80) 3/5
rosetta (dardennes '99) 3.5/5

Zaza (1923, Dwan) 7/10
Me Too (2012, Balabanov) 7/10
Days of Youth (1929, Ozu) 6/10
Man to Man (1930, Dwan) 6/10
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013, Gibney) 7/10
Killing Them Softly (2012, Dominik) 6/10
Trouble in Paradise (1932, Lubitsch) 10/10
Citizen Kane (1941, Welles) 10/10
Student (2012, Omirbayev) 6/10
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974, Kotcheff) 8/10

Behind the Candelabra (2013) 3.5/5
Mother and Son (1997) 3.5/5
Raw Deal (1948) 3.5/5
Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980) 3.5/5
Upstream Color (2013) 3.5/5
Yoyo (1965) 3/5

seen some awesome films lately:

ink - movie somewhat set in dream state/alternate reality but as this is explicit from the beginning it's not lame. plus surrealism, kung fu, feels, 10/10
wreck-it ralph - as if a disney cash cow was scripted by pixar writing team, 8/10
movie 43 - random and silly but hillarious, 8/10
my uncle boonmee who can recal past lives - thai art film, started off interesting but i lost the thread a ways in, not sure that's entirely my fault, 6/10
triplets of belleville - a bit slow but interesting, awesome chase scene at end, 7/10
dazed and confused - still incredibly watchable on 17th viewing, 10/10

did you like the catfish scene in boonmee? hot stuff. 17th viewing of D&C? wow! I wonder if i've seen any movie that much.

Tabu (Murnau) 4/5
Queen Kelly (Stroheim) 4/5
Mouchette (Bresson) 4/5
L'argent (Bresson) 4.5/5

cajun, i applaud your filmic explorations. you're watching some good stuff.

I've been watching Mark Cousins' The Story of Film series lately, haven't made time for actual films. But I did watch They Were Expendable (Ford, '45) when it was on TCM a couple of weeks ago.

haven't done one of these for a while

The Phantom of Liberty 3/5 - lolled @ michel lonsdale in bottomless chaps
Beyond the Hills 4/5 - a shade below 4 3 2 - the long-tracking-shot-directly-behind-the-head-of-the-protaganist-style is already hardening into stylistic cliche - but i was still absolutely gripped, and thought the antireligiosity was much more nuanced than i was possibly expecting
The Kentucky Fried Movie 3/5 - watched this old teenage fave at my place, v. mashed, w/ a friend who had never seen it before, and who laughed VERY heartily at certain points - and that was more pleasing to me as host than parts of this film, which really fell flat all these years later(the 'hands-on cinema' sketch esp overstays its welcome)
Spring Breakers 3/5
Tabu (2012) 3/5 - MUCH preferred the first half of this split film - was rather wearied by the archness of the second part
This is not a Film 3/5
Evil Dead (2013) 1/5 - a fucking disgrace
Great Expectations (1946) 4/5 - film does lose some of its oomph once john mills enters - plus a sickly horrible performance by alec guinness! - but up till then the pictorial filmmaking is of a very high quality (the atmospheric scenes in graveyards and marshes are enough to make me regret that lean never directed a purely supernatural movie)
Rosetta 3.5/5 - i agree w/ j.crunch!
Iron Man3 2.5
The Campaign 2/5
The Girl 2/5 - saw this as an inflight movie so obv not ideal viewing conditions - but thought it was bloody awful, just as much of a travesty of hitchcock and cinema as the one w/ Hopkins (which at least moved at a zippier pace and didn't take itself so seriously)
Beasts of the Southern Wild 2/5
In the Fog 3/5 - i'd been working, i was very tired, i fell asleep for a while, what can i say
The Place Beyond the Pines - 2.5/5 - another movie i've seen recently where the first half is the best - only in this case the third act is p close to a total disaster
Theorem 4/5
Star Trek: Into Darkness 3/5 - an above average dopey star trek movie - loved all the future london cgi
Something in the Air 4/5
Marnie 4/5 - hadn't realised before just how much of a foundational giallo text this is - sean connery is fucking horrible throughout
Le Amiche 4/5 - love the BBFC 'warning' on the back of this beautifully presented Masters of Cinema Blu-Ray - "contains suicide references and scenes of smoking" - antonioni's entire career in a nutshell
Hors Satan 5/5 - this wonderfully mysterious film has haunted me since i've seen it - makes me want to drop to my knees like the lead character and worship before dumont
We jam econo 3/5 - a friend said to me abt this, "richard meltzer (oh dear) and richard hell (oh dear oh dear)"
Behind the Candelabra 3.5/5
Scarecrow 3.5/5 - funniest moment: when gene hackman shouts FUCK OFF suddenly at the old guy pawing at his sleeve in the diner - pure essence of 70s cinema - so lots of indulged method acting manchildren and marginalised female characters - but also glorious images, some kind of engagement w/ social inequality, moments of human reality - the final scene, with hackman hammering the heel of his shoe on the counter, is a perfect ending

yea i did like 'rosetta' but it felt a touch more contrived than la promesse or kid w/ the bike imo

id like to see hors satan

Oh good you really liked Hors Satan too!

I didn't know the behind-the-head tracking shot was a cliche. Don't see it utilised that often, or maybe it didn't leave that much of an impression whenever its been used.

We Jam Econo was disappointing (didn't finish but I should). Meltzer was horrible.

Hors Satan staying on my 10 Worst for the year, i'm confident

say whatnow?! we jam econo is great! idgi

iirc it had lots of gd footage, Mike Watt was good, that's about it...really couldn't take the whole "rock was meant to be over" in a doc about a band that covered a Steely Dan song.

The best scene in Kentucky Fried Movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2FiKyjojA&feature=share&list=FL_5EyVAJzOEw_Zp8NzDlZvQ

Scarecrow 3.5/5 - funniest moment: when gene hackman shouts FUCK OFF suddenly at the old guy pawing at his sleeve in the diner - pure essence of 70s cinema - so lots of indulged method acting manchildren and marginalised female characters - but also glorious images, some kind of engagement w/ social inequality, moments of human reality - the final scene, with hackman hammering the heel of his shoe on the counter, is a perfect ending

― Ward Fowler, Friday, June 14, 2013 3:30 PM (Yesterday)

I think this would be #1 on my list of Rorschach tests for one's tolerance of American films in the first half of the '70s. "Let's make a film about a couple of guys"--script done, begin shooting.

Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing: way better than I expected, in part because nobody mugs as shamelessly as Branagh and Michael Keaton did in the former's version.

World War Z. very generic, unambitious zombie film. also, i think brad pitt can do better than that hairstyle.

nice post ward

another year (leigh, 2010) 8/10
elephant (van sant, 2003) rewatch 8/10
the artist (hazanavicius, 2011) 6/10
saw (wan, 2004) rewatch 5/10
the queen (frears, 2006) 6/10
behind the candelabra (soderbergh, 2013) 8/10

The Details (5/10, which was better than I expected)

F For Fake (Welles) awesome
Metropolis (Lang) great. mine had some terrible english subtitles, but still great
My Blueberry Nights (Wong) terrible. truly terrible.
The Wizard of Oz (Vidor) great
Ratatouille (Bird) good. my favourite Brad Bird film I think
A Matter of Life and Death (Archers) good
Our Hospitality (Keaton) good
Lifeboat (Hitchcock) good

but Alfred, I can't see Emma, Denzel and Keanu being topped

(heh heh)

mugging in a comedy is fine btw

Thompson was great, yes. She woulda worked in this version too.

Saw more movies in the theater during the last couple of weeks than I attended during all of last year, thanks to the bf's co-workers making cheap night a regular thing.

The Wages of Fear (Clouzot, 1955) 8/10
Walkabout (Roeg, 1971) 8/10
The Great Gatsby (Luhrmann, 2013) 5/10
This is the End (Rogen and Goldberg, 2013) 4/10
Skyfall (Mendes, 2012) 8/10
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Hughes, 1986) 9/10
Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013) 2/10
The Grey (Carnahan, 2012) 7/10
Nine to Five (Higgins, 1980) 3/10
Erin Brockovich (Soderbergh, 2000) 6/10

Ferris the only rewatch, though I watched Walkabout twice.

how was watching walkabout twice

Better the second time when you don't need to worry so much about what has happened/is happening/will happen and you can just soak in the weird, hazy atmosphere of the thing instead.

Erin Brockovich sure holds up well.

walkabout is so gorgeous

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Hughes, 1986) 9/10

― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Sunday, June 23, 2013 10:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Erin Brockovich sure holds up well.

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 24, 2013 8:36 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Avoided it all these years cause I thought it looked boring when it was new and that whole "3 is the number of kids I have, [etc.]" speech that was always shown in clips annoyed me (I still don't find all of the instances of her telling people off in the film all that charming, though I love Finney's throwing it back at her at the end). Surprised at how entertaining I found the film, though; probably should have given it a 7/10 instead.

Nine to Five (Higgins, 1980) 3/10

wrong

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Hughes, 1986) 9/10

― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Sunday, June 23, 2013 10:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

― the REAL Dr Morbius (silby), Monday, June 24, 2013 2:32 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The real REAL Dr Morbius ain't gonna like this.

xpost

Yeah, I realize that I'm in the minority here, but I just didn't like it at all. Seemed like a textbook case on how to misuse a great cast and a (then, especially) hot button issue with so much dumb slapstick. Not that I'm anti-slapstick (see my Ferris rating above), but this was really clunky and unfunny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73GwyEyXps

I say "atta girl" a lot.

Is there anything else in Dolly's cinematic oeuvre worth looking at?

I thought Erin Brockovich > Traffic back then, and I think Erin Brockovich > Traffic still today.

Is there anything else in Dolly's cinematic oeuvre worth looking at?

Steel Magnolias.

If you don't like 9 to 5 I doubt you'd like The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas but I like that one too.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Hughes, 1986) 9/10
Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013) 2/10

well I should def see Man of Steel!

Nine to Five does suck tho. Maybe two good scenes.

You have two good scenes

not bad for an amateur

Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tokyo Story
Performance

ie things my wife wouldn't want to sit through

I thought Erin Brockovich > Traffic back then, and I think Erin Brockovich > Traffic still today.

― Not Simone Choule (Eric H.), Monday, June 24, 2013 2:57 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed.

cosign

all the non-Benicio del Toro parts of Traffic are kind of terrible

exactly.

I thought Erin Brockovich > Traffic back then, and I think Erin Brockovich > Traffic still today.

― Not Simone Choule (Eric H.)

you old so and so!