Last (x) movies you saw

Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story (7.0)
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary (7.0)
The Deep (6.0)
Mansfield 66/67 (6.5)
Certain Women (7.0)
Ode to Billie Joe (6.0)
The Fabulous Allan Carr (7.0)
The Bling Ring (6.5)
Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film (6.5)
Drinking Buddies (7.0)

The Polaroid documentary was really good for the first half, comprised mostly of interviews with Polaroid obsessives and their work. My dad was a Polaroid guy; he ended up giving his camera, a very early model, to the company for their archives. The second half documents the project to re-launch a substitute version of Polaroid after they close shop, and I didn't find that all that interesting.

Blue Is the Warmest Color (Kechiche, 2013)
In a Lonely Place (Ray, 1950)
*Louie Bluie (Zwigoff, 1985, with director commentary)
A Woman's Face (Molander, 1938)
Life Is Sweet (Leigh, 1990)
Cailleach (short - Hillman, 2014)
Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997)
The Entertainer (Richardson, 1960)
*Masculin Féminin (Godard, 1966)
Mystery (short - Ibarra, 2013)
45 Years (Haigh, 2015)

Some interesting/controversial choices here, some pleasant surprises as well:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/09/movies/the-25-best-films-of-the-21st-century.html

The 25 Best Films of the 21st Century So Far.

There Will Be Blood
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007
Spirited Away
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, 2002
Million Dollar Baby
Directed by Clint Eastwood, 2004
A Touch of Sin
Directed by Jia Zhangke, 2013
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Directed by Cristi Puiu, 2006
Yi Yi
Directed by Edward Yang, 2000
Inside Out
Directed by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen, 2015
Boyhood
Directed by Richard Linklater, 2014
Summer Hours
Directed by Olivier Assayas, 2009
The Hurt Locker
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, 2009
Inside Llewyn Davis
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013
Timbuktu
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, 2015
In Jackson Heights
Directed by Frederick Wiseman, 2015
L’Enfant
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2006
White Material
Directed by Claire Denis, 2010
Munich
Directed by Steven Spielberg, 2005
Three Times
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2006
The Gleaners and I
Directed by Agnès Varda, 2000
Mad Max: Fury Road
Directed by George Miller, 2015
Moonlight
Directed by Barry Jenkins, 2016
Wendy and Lucy
Directed by Kelly Reichardt, 2008
I’m Not There
Directed by Todd Haynes, 2007
Silent Light
Directed by Carlos Reygadas, 2008
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Directed by Michel Gondry, 2004
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Directed by Judd Apatow, 2005

smh at not picking Step Brothers as the comedy

Trash, art and the movies

The art picks are absolute boys for the most part but the trash picks and the the movies picks are like wow these list makers are just terrible at navigating these particular brows

"Inside Llewyn Davis" seems like an odd Coen bros to pick from this century.

Like seeing In Jackson Heights; would rather have Carlos there than Summer Hours.

v strange to not see mulholland drive in a best-of-21st-century list

clem, it's hard for me to choose between Carlos and Summer Hours, as Assayas is my favorite living filmmaker. SH makes more sense the older I get.

The art picks are absolute boys for the most part but the trash picks and the the movies picks are like wow these list makers are just terrible at navigating these particular brows

― K-hole MacLachlan (wins)

idk any list that introduces White Material, Three Times, Silent Light, and A Touch of Sin to NYT readers is on the right track. No?

They also picked the wrong Spielberg. It should have been "Catch Me If You Can", the kind of deceptively breezy epic that Scorsese has been straining to make this century. Shutting him out was one thing they got right.

I haven't seen it so I shouldn't say this but having some slow movie about Mennonites as the only movie from a Mexican director on this list seems typical of their hatred of fun.

shutting him out was one thing they got right.

Very much agree. Will have to see Summer Hours again--don't remember it that well (I've seen Carlos three or four times).

If I balance what I love myself with something approaching general consensus (based solely on the latter, J.D.'s right about Mulholland Drive), I'd want to see either Zodiac or The Social Network on there.

lists are terrible

idk any list that introduces White Material, Three Times, Silent Light, and A Touch of Sin to NYT readers is on the right track. No?

That's what I meant (and I love Timbuktu & gleaners too), the highbrow picks are good but the "films u plebs will have seen" bit is a state

Morbs otm tho nobody needs my opinion on a list, as you were

Danish film people did this recently as well, and There Will Be Blood won that one too. Kinda weird.

"Children of men" is am odd omission too

Wake me up when there's a list with Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning on it.

have you a pillow?

Actually, I'd love to read your take on it. It's the only direct-to-video action sequel I've ever seen that blatantly steals from both Lynch and Noé, while still remaining entirely its own amazing thing, with some of the most holy-shit-how-is-that-guy-not-dead? fight choreography I've ever seen. Check it out if you can. (I'm not sure if it's on Netflix or not.)

Gimme Danger (2016) 3/5
Misterio (2013) 2.5/5
Escape from New York (1983) 3.5/5
The Silent Partner (1978) 2.5/5
A Poem is a Naked Person (1974; rewatch) 4/5
Dangerous Men (2005) 0.5/5
Verboten! (1959) 3.5/5
The Big Red One (expanded edition; 1980) 4/5
David Lynch: The Art Life (2016) 3/5
Duelle (rewatch; 1976) 4/5
Nuts! (2016) 3/5
Le Joli Mai (1963) 4/5
Viva (2007) 3/5

lists are terrible

Generally interested in these things, but something about this one struck me as particularly insufferable. Like too obviously constructed to hit certain notes and be ~controversial~. Morbs maybe ultimately OTM.

Dear Diary (Moretti, 1993) 5/10
True Stories (Byrne, 1986) 6/10
La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) 7/10
Nightfall (Tourneur, 1956) 7/10
Metro Manila (Ellis, 2013) 8/10
Hacksaw Ridge (Gibson, 2016) 7/10
Manchester by the Sea (Lonergan, 2016) 8/10
Vera Drake (Leigh, 2004) 9/10
Spotlight on a Murderer (Franju, 1961) 7/10
The Reckless Moment (Ophuls, 1949) 6/10

The Reckless Moment (Ophuls, 1949) 6/10

really

the Gibson war porn film and LLL are better at what they attempt than The Reckless Moment?

I saw the latest kaurismäki and liked it

This is the 5000th post itt btw

*The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927, Lubitsch) 8/10
Cisco Pike (1972, Norton) 8/10
Torch Song (1953, Walters) 6/10
*The Knack… and How to Get It (1965, Lester) 6/10
Loving (2016, Nichols) 5/10
Eternal Love (1929, Lubitsch) 6/10
Broken Lullaby aka The Man I Killed (1932, Lubitsch) 7/10
*Last Summer (1969, Perry) 8/10
Doc (1971, Perry) 6/10
Série noire (1979, Corneau) 8/10

The Salesman: Wake up to a horrible noise from construction or demolition project, apparently one with no prior announcement, and you don't complain to the city, you just move, that's all, to the first place your connection tips you to, even though you have to sell your car to make the deposit because you're a high school teacher, ha-ha. (Oh, and your colleague is sending back those books; too politically controversial for his innocent students.) One who's playing demolition project Willy Loman in a little theater production; your wife is playing his wife (the government rep likes it, just wants you to make three little cuts). What the heck, lots of times and places when it seems better not to bother the cops, to take personal responsibility---so this was filmed and also released in Iran, I take it (any little cuts seem to have done absolutely no harm), even won an Oscar, even though the director didn't take the bait, what with Trump's initial travel ban chaos.
Psychological suspense, kinda makes me think of 50s Kurosawa (or Hitchcock?) adapting non-Maigret Simenon.
Personal Shopper: Promising, but last third down the tubes, jittery and sluggish

Wonder Woman.
Quite fun. Much much better than that Batman vs Superman anyway, but most things are.
Hope that BM vs SM stands as the absolute worst in a related series.

Sullivan’s Travels (Sturges, 1941) 8/10
It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934) 9/10
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954) 8/10
Eyes Without a Face (Franju, 1960) 7/10
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (Gunn, 2017) 6/10
* Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alfredson, 2011) 8/10
Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992) 7/10
Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer, 1949) 6/10

Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer, 1949) 6/10

I'm not saying I can't see someone not being a fan of this film, but I'm close enough to your rankings on many of the above movies to be baffled by this rating.

need to rewatch cause it didn't really get a fair shot, was dead tired when I put it on and ended up having to interrupt it a lot.

just watched Double Team (1997) with Jean Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman. hilarious, OTT late 90s action at its best. Rodman's hair changes color every scene. so many unnecessarily silly things happen in here. the script is insane. they run into a bunch of monks who take them into their convent and then down to the basement where there is this crazy 90s hacker lair full of wires everywhere and they say "These guys are cyber-MONKS". the ending is so sick, it looks like a man-on-man fight VD vs. Mickey Rourke is about to happen (in a Colosseum filled with land mines) and then they throw a tiger in there for no reason at all. i only caught the last 3/4 of the film (it was on tv) but it was amazing, i loved it.

oh i guess the tiger makes sense wrt the colosseum, it's just the way it's set up, this whole movie you are going "whaaaa?"

Cruel Story of Youth, dir. Oshima, 1960) (AKA Naked Youth): Students, boy and girl, fight, fuck, fall in love, exploit older people (incl. sometimes envious, prematurely ageing), incl. sexual extortion (she's the bait, he's the avenger), in homage to Godard and the director's own generational experiences, back when "Made In Japan" was still an American punchline.
On TCM last night, and I got swept along, managed to stay awake for the whole thing, unlike Friday's Portrait of Jason---any takes on that one?

An homage to Godard from 1960?

I liked Portrait of Jason when it was shown at DOX a few years back. The final stretch is deeply uncomfortable though.

Born in Flames (Borden, 1983)
Dragnet Girl (Ozu, 1933)
La Cambrure (short - Shaki, 1999)
Yi Yi (Yang, 2000)
*La Jétee (Marker, 1963)
Wonder Woman (Jenkins, 2017)
Everything Will Be OK (short - Hertzfeldt, 2006)
The Lamp (short - Polanski, 1959)
Manchester By the Sea (Lonergan, 2016)
Cat People (Tourneur, 1942)
The Trial (Welles, 1962)

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (Argento, 1970) - new Blu-Ray remaster. Looks great, and still one of the smartest and most coherent movies he's ever done.

Cremator by Juraj Herz. Pretty good, I can see why people would think it's his best film, but I still prefer Beauty And The Beast and Morgiana. I don't recall their camera work being as creative as Cremator.

It Comes At Night, dir. Trey Edward Shults (2017).
Staying Vertical, dir. Alain Guiraudie (2017).
Afterimage, dir. Andrzej Wadja (2016)

Revisiting William Friedkin's The Hunted tonight.

^^^^ all-time imo

In the opening scene, set in modern Kosovo, there is a brief shot of what it appears to be a Serbian gendarme on a bicycle. Serbian gendarmerie (along with their recognizable uniforms) ceased to exist 55 years earlier.

office Christmas party (will speck/josh Gordon, 2016) 2/10
what time is is there? (tsai ming-liang, 2001) 6/10
whose life is it anyway? (john badham, 81) 6/10
a star is born (frank pierson, 76) 4/10
the wizard of lies (levinson, 2017) 6/10
backstage (chris fiore, 2000) 5/10
trapped (mandoki, 2002) 2/10
we were the mulvaneys (peter werner, 2002) 5/10
beatriz at dinner (arteta, 2017) 7/10

Hard to be a God
Cemetery of Splendour
Mon Oncle Antoine (I LOVED this one. It might be a perfect film.)
Still Life (Jia Zhangke)
Solaris, on the big screen

Re-watched John Carpenter's Vampires and Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice this week. Kinda amazed my dad took me to see a testosterone-poisoned bloodbath like EP when I was 14 (and my brother was 11). The scene where Nick Nolte blasts a guy's foot with a shotgun still makes me wince.

The Transfiguration (2016) - Rockaway in Queens makes a good location for a low-key horror like this one. Liked it. Reminiscent of Martin and Let The Right One In 7/10

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) - Top notch Lynch. I'd put off seeing it for years because of all the bad press it got but I think people have come around to it now. Last hour is amazing. Sheryl Lee so good too. 8/10

The Intent (2016) - Tries to be a London Grime Scarface (with a bit of Heat in there for good measure) but fails terribly. I actually turned this off, bad acting, bad script, bad everything really 4/10

Arizona Dream (1993) - I saw this a good few years back and remember disliking it for being so wacky. Its still incredibly wacky but I appreciated it more this time around. Very 90s - slacker dreamers, anti-conformity, hollowness of the American Dream 7/10

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (7.0)
The Edge of Seventeen (6.0)
American Pastoral (6.5)
American Honey (8.0)
Spring Breakers (6.0)
Monterey Pop (8.0)
Made for Each Other (1971—6.5)
The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography (7.0)
The Promotion (6.0)
Tower (7.0)

The Edge of Seventeen (6.0)

I was sure that if anyone here was gonna be as nuts about this movie as I was, it'd be you.

My biggest problem with it was Hailee Steinfeld--just didn't like her at all. (The performance, I mean--I realize her character was intentionally abrasive.) On the other hand, I thought Woody Harrelson did a lot with a basically nothing role.

And I liked the ending. I see so many films I'm so-so on where I like the ending.

That movie left me cold too.