Last (x) movies you saw

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!

at the time preferring EB was like saying you preferred En Vogue to Radiohead.

but I do

exactly!

gays in falling-for-Julia's-2000-teeth shockah

plus, damn, Finney and Roberts work so well together. If this was the early eighties they'd be given a shitty CBS sitcom.

I'm not gay!

Finney was p much doing a Southern Lou Grant

that's praise, right?

And the problem is ... ?

lol xp

"Oh bite my ass, Krispy Kreme!"

I liked EB, mostly, but sighed wearily when Julia started nodding and smiling while listening to some helpless woman about 2/3 of the way through. Candyass sentiment is why American movies don't do politics.

No, candyass sentiment is the only thing that allows American movies to do politics.

I've been called a lot of things but never loving gay icons (speaking of, where does it say that Julia Roberts is a gay icon?).

I liked EB, mostly, but sighed wearily when Julia started nodding and smiling while listening to some helpless woman about 2/3 of the way through

OK how was this scene not "political" (especially with Marg Helgenberger's restraint helping)?

I'll get back to you someday, as I haven't seen it in 12+ years.

Or realistically, maybe not.

i saw erin brockovich when it came out, the theater was filled with gay dudes hooting in delight at julia's outfits

gawd

Same gay dudes were hooting at Benicio Del Toro playing gay in Traffic's bar scene.

anyone seen Against All Odds, the forgotten eighties remake of Out of the Past? The commentary track by James Woods, Jeff Bridges, and Taylor Hackford is amazing: an exegesis on L.A. real estate, Woods and Bridges' reminisces, what it was like in Paramount to finance a movie when Don Simpson and Michael Eisner were in charge. Quite worth the time.

that sounds great

wow yeah

It makes up for Rachel Ward's defiant unsexiness.

But god Jeff Bridges never looked better. His Thin White Duke phase.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5540078793_1af9070e3e.jpg

The great Phil Collins ballad you know. The rest of the soundtrack: top drawer Stevie Nicks, Kid Creole (performing live in the film!), Peter Gabriel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_All_Odds_%28soundtrack%29

as eighties thriller hokum it's much beter than To Live and Die in L.A..

idk, bridges in cutter's way is like an apparition to me; like michelangelo's david rendered in golden california sun

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mWIl6ptMJUs/ThQ19fCko9I/AAAAAAAACWo/klTwHP54y1I/s640/JeffBridges15.jpg

*dreamy stare*

so um hi yes I would like to see this movie plz

Turn Me On, Dammit! (4/5)
The Horse Thief (drifted...sorry, Marty)
The Squid and the Whale (5/5)
The Social Network (5/5--initial misgivings are gone; I completely love this now)
The Andromeda Strain (remake--3/5)
Alien (3.5/5)
Oblivion (3/5)
The Goddess (Ruan Lingyu, mentioned in The Story of Film; slept through half, not the film's fault)
Farewell My Concubine (3.5/5)
Valley Girl (3.5/5)

Project AII (1987, Chan) 8/10
Project A (1983, Chan) 7/10
Armor of God II: Operation Condor (1991, Chan) 7/10
Stage Struck (1925, Dwan) 7/10
Fruitvale Station (2013, Coogler) 6/10
Of Human Bondage (1934, Cromwell) 6/10
Manhandled (1924, Dwan) 8/10
The Master (2012, Anderson) 7/10
Nostalghia (1983, Tarkovsky) 7/10
Blackfish (2013, Cowperthwaite) 6/10
The Only Son (1936, Ozu) 8/10
An Inn in Tokyo (1935, Ozu) 9/10

Anyone seen No, the Chilean film about the '88 plebiscite? It's pretty good, although Gael Garcia Bernal doesn't smile often enough.

yes

I like dour GGB better

oh i dug it. i think i am a sucker for the whole modified u-video mania in general, but i thought it was very interesting; something kinda powerful in its idea of community or allegiance, like the last shot & the distance between the guy & the crowd. sorta wishing i could remember this movie better rn but i really dug it, found it v rich.

No smiles, its not a comedy.

Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon, 2012) - best Shakespeare at the pictures ever! Or maybe the language is finally registering around my ear. Anyway I laughed along, wasn't expecting to at all.

Like Someone in Love (Kiarostami, 2012) - so I hear people might get annoyed at the abrupt ending? Get over it! Loved the main character listening to her messages as she rode around in a taxi.

Thérèse Desqueyroux (Miller, 2012) - wonder how it compares with the Franju adap?

so I hear people might get annoyed at the abrupt ending? Get over it! Loved the main character listening to her messages as she rode around in a taxi.

kiarostami movies have very pleasing, circular ways of ending &, remembering this criticism a week after seeing it, i was pretty bemused; i didn't think it abrupt or premature at all. like do people need some kind of grizzly onscreen denouement?

Or some bits of dialogue to neatly wrap up. Really must see Certified Copy sometime.

Also saw:

Szindbad (Zoltán Huszárik, 1971) - a screen adap of Gyula Krudy's short stories (which I re-read a couple of weeks ago, love the bk!). Gorgeous looking film, manages to captures the mixture of play, utter doom and chaos in the relations between men and woman as described.

Repo Man (Cox '84)
They Were Expendable (Ford '45)
Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (Les Blank 1980)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson 2001)
(nostalgia) - (Hollis Frampton 1971)
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (Anderson 2004)

Neil Jordan's Byzantium is well filmed with some nice acting but right around the time lil vampire Saoirse Ronan started telling the kid she just met who she was falling in love with "have you ever had a secret you could never ever share but wanted to more than anything else" i realized i was not a fourteen year old girl and bailed

Love in the Afternoon (Rohmer 1972) 4/5
Black Christmas (Clark 1974) 3/5
Paris Nous Appartient (Rivette 1961) 4/5
Man of Steel (Snyder 2013) 2/5
You, The Living (Andersson 2007) 3/5
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Yates 1973) 4/5
Scarlet Street (Lang 1945) 4/5
World War Z (Forster 2013) 1/5
The London Nobody Knows (Cohen 1967) 3/5
Histoire(s) Du Cinema (Godard 1988-1998) 4/5
The Silent Partner (Duke 1978) 3/5
Heaven Can Wait (Lubitsch 1943) 3/5

in the last month:

Bottle Rocket 4/5
Dog Day Afternoon 5/5
Blue Velvet 4/5

all seen before. In happier news, the terrible local theater chain monopoly has been sold! Good riddance Empire! Soon I'll be able to see movies on a big screen again.

watched Stranger Things a bit ago in a short super-indie NY run. Saw it because someone I know from college cowrote and directed it. Don't watch indie-ish films that often, but was very impressed. Subtle, careful, on the right side of almost going wrong, very well shot. Didn't remember to post about it at the time but now I really should because you can get it digitally in a variety of ways http://www.strangerthingsfilm.com/watchnow/

Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961, Dwan) 6/10
Premium Rush (2012, Koepp) 6/10
Frances Ha (2012, Baumbach) 7/10
Force of Evil (1948, Polonsky) 10/10
The Pleasure Garden (1926, Hitchcock) 6/10
Out of the Past (1947, Tourneur) 10/10
Downhill (1927, Hitchcock) 6/10
The Lodger (1926, Hitchcock) 8/10
The Ring (1927, Hitchcock) 7/10
Mud (2012, Nichols) 7/10
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2012, DeNicola, Mori) 7/10
Monte Carlo (1930, Lubitsch) 7/10

Morbs how many of Premium Rush's points are for JoGo in bike shorts

Michael Shannon has a lot of fun in that movie

from up on poppy hill (gorō miyazaki, 2011) 8/10
pom poko (isao takahata, 1994) 6/10
we steal secrets: the story of wikileaks (alex gibney, 2013) 7/10
mr. smith goes to washington (frank capra, 1939) 9/10

A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, 2013) - The bit where a roped and brain-scrambled Reece Shearsmith emerges from a tent and bumbles across the field is one of the oddest, darkest, funniest, most unsettling scenes of any film this year. An hallucinatory nightmare set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, like a 17th Century Apocalypse Now. 8/10

Paprika (Satoshi Kon, 2006) - I enjoyed just its sense of wild abandon and colourful down-the-rabbithole weirdness. Great music, too, and it was nice to see a homage to Monkey (Saiyūki) in there also. Story-wise, it fell kind of short, but that didn't matter too much. 8/10

Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013) - Worthless, really. 0/10

Behind the Candelabra (Soderbergh, 2013) - Amusing, enjoyable performances, and a great look to it, I thought. Obvious Boogie Nights parallels, but the story here is soured by a snide, bitchy undertone. 7/10

Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) - Every film has this 'piss-filter' look nowadays. Despite a
strong '90s movie vibe, it hasn't dated anywhere near as badly as I had assumed it would have done. A well made slab of nonsense. Oh, and Helena Bonham-Carter is really, really good in this. 8/10

Blood on Satan's Claw (Piers Haggard, 1971 ) - Uneven but wonderfully atmospheric British occult horror that should, by rights, be ranked alongside The Devil Rides Out and Witchfinder General. The gorgeous photography of the early springtime countryside is finally given justice on the Blu-ray restoration. 9/10

Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963) - Another film that's scrubbed up well on Blu. Poignant and funny as ever - the ending still kills - but I forgot just how good Leonard Rossiter is in this. And, of course, Julie Christie, as a symbol of the fast-approaching, free-spirited sixties, swishing through. 9/10

Europa Report (Sebastián Cordero, 2013) - Like a more serious, found-footage Dark Star. Impressive, though. It captures the mystery and awe, as well as the mundanity, of what you would imagine deep space travel would be like. Creepy and haunting, this is a real star trek into darkness. 8/10

Trance (Danny Boyle, 2013) - Flashy editing and a ton of twists and revelations are dumped on the viewer to try and force the film into being exciting, as opposed to relying on story and performances. Messy. 4/10

The Duellists (Ridley Scott, 1977) - A rather thin story swallowed up in stunning visuals with atmosphere to spare. It's no Barry Lyndon, that's for sure, but has its fair share of memorable scenes and images. Ridley Scott starting as he means to go, basically. 7/10

World War Z (Marc Forster, 2013) - The new thing here is that the zombie hoards move through cities en masse like a tsunami of bodies. Otherwise, it's 28 Days/Weeks Later but far less inventive and interesting, and tailored for a PG-13 audience. The we-are-the-world ending is also blah. Still, it has its moments - if your expectations are low. 5/10

Dark Skies (Scott Charles Stewart, 2013) - A movie where visiting aliens sneak around an anxiety-ridden American suburb, which at least manages to channel '80s Spielberg better than JJ Abrams has managed so far. Aside from a couple of surprisingly bleak moments (including the ending), it's pedestrian stuff. Keri Russell, as the mom, is good. 6/10

Passion (Brian De Palma, 2013) - A weird, unwanted throwback to Joe Eszterhas' twisty '90s erotic thrillers like Sliver. Rachel McAdams, at least, seems fully aware she's appearing in utter trash; a dazed Noomi Rapace, on the other hand, doesn't have a clue what planet she's on any more. Embarrassing. 2/10