Last (x) movies you saw

February:

Cameraperson (Johnson, 2016) 8/10
Denial (Jackson, 2016) 5/10
Toni Erdmann (Ade, 2016) 9/10
Les Vampires pts 1-10 (Feuillade, 1915-16) 8/10
The New Centurions (Fleischer, 1972) 6/10
Midnight (Leisen, 1939) 9/10
Hugo (Scorsese, 2011) 5/10
The Woman Who Left (Diaz, 2016) 8/10
Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016) 6/10
The Other Side of Hope (Kaurismaki, 2017) 8/10
Stuff and Dough (Puiu, 2001) 7/10

I Am Not Your Negro - 7/10
Superstar (1999) - 6/10
A Cure for Wellness - 0/10
Polyester (1981) - 8/10
Get Out - 9/10
A United Kingdom - 4/10

*McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman, 1971) 9/10
The BFG (Spielberg, 2016) 4/10
*Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Spielberg, 1984) 8/10
The Fits (Holmer, 2015) 7/10
Ararat (Egoyan, 2002) 6/10

Did you go to that screening of McCabe at the Royal last week? I wanted to, just didn't have the energy that night.

20th Century Women 6.5/10 - Annette Bening and Greta Gerwig turned in good performances

I liked that it seemed so much like Norwegian directors like Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, except a lot more feminine.

Did you go to that screening of McCabe at the Royal last week? I wanted to, just didn't have the energy that night.

Nah, just watched the new-ish Criterion disc from the library (feat. Kael on The Dick Cavett Show!). I totally gotta catch a screening of something or other next time I'm in Toronto, though.

Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987)

this was really crazy. what do people make of this movie?

Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon are all BFFs intellectuals and artists nerdy/outcast witches that don't know they are witches. Jack Nicholson is "The D" as Aladdin's genie as pony tailed liberal arts educated cokehead billionaire. outcasts in crackerville (a town mostly defined by scenes of a school band rehearsing The Star Spangled Banner), together they live a fantasy of decadence and messy 80s sexual politics. its also a superhero team origin story! of feminism! or something!

It is super weird, including that weird little thing Nicholson turns into.

i recall the fx in the tennis match being super embarrassing; the novel is good

in "hit & run" it's described how the pitch to jon peters went. he seemed to not be paying attention, then suddenly he has an epiphany and says "witches! i get it!"

I haven't seen it since I was like 11 or so, but I remember it being pretty nuts. The scene with Cher and the snakes really freaked me the eff out at the time.

Clouds of Sils Maria (Assayas, 2014)
Yakuza Apocalypse (Miike, 2015)
Death of Cyclist (Bardem, 1955)
Hangmen Also Die (Lang, 1943)
Something Wild (Garfein, 1961)
The Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975)
Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989)
Gangs of New York (Scorsese, 2003)
Ace in the Hole (Wilder, 1951)
Ossos (Costa, 1997)
The Shower (short - San Martin, 2011)

Eastwick is a mess, and quite unfaithful to the Updike novel.

SPO
I
LER

In the book, Jack's
character
doesn't turn out to be
Satan
but
just gay.

Close enough.

i recall the fx in the tennis match being super embarrassing; the novel is good

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 7:39 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, this was lame af. the creature at the end was totally awesome and weird. Cher's snakes in bed = Adam nightmare fuel.

the movie succeeded most when it was just the three of them hanging out, or dealing with the stuck-up town. like they are in line at the grocery store and someone calls them sluts and they don't take that shit. there was a point where Cher calls somebody a nazi, not sure if it was the same scene or not.

I only remember barfing cherry pits. 80s were good for barf.

Re-watching A Simple Plan tonight. Haven't seen this since it was in theaters.

toni Erdmann (ade 2016) 6/10
moonlight (Jenkins 2016) 6/10
postcards from the edge (Nichols 90) 7/10
Christine (campos 16) 5/10
hell or high water (Mackenzie 2016) 9/10
tickled (david farrier / Dylan reeve 2016) 7/10
I love you Phillip morris (requa / ficarra 2009) 5/10
ruby sparks (jonathan Dayton / Valerie faris) 4/10
get a job (Dylan kidd 2016) 4/10
mommy (dolan 2014) 9/10

John Wick Chapter 2. I really like the way, when he's not kicking the shit out of an army of henchmen, Keanu Reeves walks around like he's old, tired, in constant pain, and just really, really wants a nap.

Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016) - 7/10
Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo, 1966) - 10/10. I mean fuck, 100/10

Jackie (5/10) - Movie looked beautiful but this just felt like a bunch of disparate conversations in search of a film. It had its moments, but it felt like it was over before it got anywhere.

Downhill Racer (6.5)
Grand Canyon (7.5)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (8.5)
Paterson (7.0)
What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann (7.0)
The Witness (7.0)
Eva Hesse (6.5)
I Am Not Your Negro (7.5)
The Way Way Back (5.0)
Fish Tank (6.5)

I don't much like Lawrence Kasdan's two most famous films, and I avoided Grand Canyon forever--figured it would either be unbearably sappy or unbearably smarmy. (Bearded Steve Martin--yikes.) Either it benefited from setting the bar so low or I was just in the right frame of mind, but I thought it was surprisingly good.

The Way Way Back (5.0)

:-(

Yeah, I didn't like it. The biggest problem for me was the scenery chewing from Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney--I thought Rockwell was awful. The kid was interesting.

A Monster Calls
which was beautiful and moving.
But I'm puzzled about Sigourney Weaver playing a Brit when there's loads of real Brit actresses around.

LOGAN
also pretty moving. Does it map to any comic run directly? Also did I miss explanation as to why no more mutants or did they give it? Or throw it away in one line?
Odd to see Steve wassisname Ricky Gervais buddy as Caliban.
Also odd timing for this film story, presumably must have been filmed and almost completely edited before the November Trump win?

I saw a lot, thanks to Miami Film Festival:

Harmonium (Fukada, 2017) 8/10
Frantz (Ozon, 2017) 7/10
It's Only the End of the World (Dolan, 2017) 6/10
The Unknown Girl (Dardennes, 2017) 5/10
Afterimage (Wadja, 2016) 5/10
Santa & Andres (Lechuga, 2017) 5/10
Are We Not Cats? (Robin, 2017) 5/10
Handsome Devil (Butler, 2017) 4/10
El Amparo (Calzadilla, 2017) 6/10
Cargo (Mortimer, 2017) 7/10
The Daughter (Stone, 2017) 4/10
Embargo (Rice, 2017) 7/10
The Dark Wind (Hassan, 2017) 6/10
The Salesman (Farhadi, 2016) 7/10
The Fits (Holmer, 2016) 7/10
Hacksaw Ridge (Gibson, 2016) 3/10
The Confession (Costa-Gavras, 1970) 8/10
* The Jewel of the Nile (Teague, 1985) 4/10
* Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979) 8/10
Hatari! (Hawks, 1962) 5/10
* Casablanca (Curtiz, 1943) 8/10
* Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks, 1940) 9/10

clem: I'm starting to think I'm alone on The Way Way Back. Rockwell didn't even bother me, mostly because I saw him as doing Bill Murray in Meatballs (I look at TWWB is basically a remake of that film from the perspective of the Chris Makepeace character).

Alfred: Your rating of The Jewel of the Nile doesn't surprise me at all. I remember thinking it sucked even when I was 8. I do wonder if Romancing the Stone holds up at all, though.

It does.

(xpost) I can see the Meatballs comparison--Adventureland, too, obviously, the water park replacing the amusement park. I think Murray's so much funnier, though; Rockwell crudely hammers away at one obvious point--"I really hate this job and myself"--while Murray has some fun with his mock-sincerity.

@clemzo - I accidentally picked up Grand Canyon last week in a lot I don't remember bidding on, I'll bump it up closer in the queue

I was originally interested in the lot for b/ccs reasons
http://i.imgur.com/IovDjub.jpg

(xpost) Accidentally buying Grand Canyon is a good start, but I've probably ruined it for you already--the kind of film where you want to get caught by surprise.

All I really remember of Grand Canyon is watching it with my grandparents and them getting upset because they didn't immediately catch on that the bus massacre scene (I think it was) was a movie-within-the-movie.

Grand Canyon, which I used to own on used VHS purchased at Blockbuster, is larded with a lot of L.A. psychobabble, which is Lawrence Kasdan's idea of profundity; he has no idea how to stage his ideas except to give his characters monologues. I'm not sure what Kevin Kline's character is; I'm not sure he knew either, for it's a blank performance. Mary McDonnell and Danny Glover are top-notch, though.

Fascinating movie. I'd teach it.

Thought Kevin Kline was very good.

(xpost) Funny! Grand Canyon actually scooped the fake Bruce Willis-Julia Roberts movie in The Player by a year, although I imagine you can find earlier Stallone-Schwarzenegger parodies than that.

There's a flying sequence, right? Kline flying across the city? Or am I thinking of another movie?

There is--I think both he and his wife get dream/daydream sequences...Other parts of the film reminded me not of The Player but Short Cuts (which is definitely the superior film).

"Also did I miss explanation as to why no more mutants or did they give it? "

the scientist put a mutant inhibitor into corn. which makes it odd that the movie features product placement for Corn Flakes.

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (Blair, 2017)
Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016)
Hunger (McQueen, 2008)
The Invitation (Kusama, 2015)
The Confession (Costa-Gavras, 1970)
Cemetery of Splendour (Weeasethakul, 2015)
Putney Swope (Downey, 1969)
The Company of Strangers (aka Strangers in Good Company; Scott, 1990)
Logan (Mangold, 2017)
The Decline of Western Civilization (Spheeris, 1981)

"Cine-Essays" by Evan Johnson & Guy Maddin, 2014: "Puberty" "Colours" " Elms" "Cold"
Spanky: To the Pier and Back (short - Maddin, 2008)
The Hall Runner (short - Maddin, 2014)
Louis Riel for Dinner (short - Christie, 2014)

Who’s Crazy? (1966, White) 5/10
Men Go to Battle (2015, Treitz) 7/10
La sombra del caudillo (1960, Bracho) 7/10
*Ugetsu (1953, Mizoguchi) 10/10
Little Sister (2016, Clark) 6/10
Nocturama (2016, Bonello) 8/10
American Honey (2016, Arnold) 5/10
A Bigger Splash (2015, Guadagnino) 6/10
Moonlight (2016, Jenkins) 7/10
*Silver Streak (1976, Hiller) 4/10

Inland Empire (2006; rewatch) 4/5
Tangerine (2015) 3/5
Tickled (2016) 3.5/5
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1974) 4/5
Lost Highway (1997; rewatch) 3.5/5

Kong: Skull Island (Vogt-Roberts, 2017) 6/10
Logan (Mangold, 2017) 7/10
Cronos (del Toro, 1993) 6/10
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (Blair, 2017) 6/10
Voice Over (Monger, 1981) 4/10
52 Pick-Up (Frankenheimer, 1986) 7/10
The White Helmets (von Einsiedel, 2016) 8/10
Wiener (Kriegman, Steinberg, 2016) 7/10
Don't Look Back (Pennebaker, 1965) 7/10
rw:
To Live and Die in LA (Friedkin, 1985) 8/10
Paths of Glory (Kubrick, 1957) 8/10
The Squid and the Whale (Baumbach, 2005) 7/10
The Devil's Backbone (del Toro, 2001) 7/10
Pan's Labyrinth (del Toro, 2005) 7/10
Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942) 10/10
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974) 10/10

*performance (1970) 10/10
funny farm (1975) 7/10
a walk among the tombstones (2014) 5/10
batman v superman (2016) 4/10
your name (2016) 7/10
a date for mad mary (2016) 6/10
wifey redux (2015) 7/10
the kings of summer (2013) 6/10
*metallica: some kind of monster (2004) 7/10
i dont feel at home in this world anymore (2017) 7/10
ace in the hole (1951) 9/10
train to busan (2016) 7/10
young frankenstein (1974) 7/10
swiss army man (2016) 5/10
a follower for emily (1974) 6/10
toni erdmann (2016) 9/10
*mr turner (2104) 8/10
the civil war (1990) 10/10 (brilliant 9 part documentary on the american civil war that was originally broadcast on PBS, you can find it on Netflix now)
the decline of western civilization part III (1998) 8/10
american boy: a profile of steven prince (1978) 7/10
the mayfair set (1999) 8/10
logan (2017) 7/10

The Deer Hunter (1978) - 10/10
Table 19 - 1/10
The Salesman - 7/10
True Stories (1986) - 6/10
Kong: Skull Island - 5/10

Spring in a Small Town (Fei)
Come Drink With Me (Hu)
Dragon Gate Inn (Hu)
A Touch of Zen (Hu)*
The Fate of Lee Khan (Hu)
The Red Meadows (Ipsen & Lauritzen)
Be Dear to Me (Hovmand)
Once in a Lifetime (Bier)
Open Hearts (Bier)
In a Better World (Bier)
Deliver Us From Evil (Bornedal)
Labrador (Aspöck)
Bridgend (Rønde)*
Men & Chicken (Jensen)*
The Gold Coast (Dencik)*
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (Chazelle)
Whiplash (Chazelle)
La La Land (Chazelle)
Old Joy (Reichardt)
Wendy & Lucy (Reichardt)
Certain Women (Reichardt)*
The Wolfpack (Moselle)
The Act of Killing (Oppenheimer)*
The Look of Silence (Oppenheimer)*
Our Daily Bread (Geyrhalter)
Whore’s Glory (Glawogger)
Hundstage (Seidl)
Import/Export (Seidl)
Jesus, You Know (Seidl)
Paradise : Love (Seidl)
The Birth of a Nation (Turner)
Kapò (Pontecorvo)
Quiemada (Pontecorvo)
Quilombo (Diegues)
Shame (McQueen)
12 Years a Slave (McQueen)
Spartacus (Kubrick)*
Lolita (Kubrick)
Glory (Zwick)
Amistad (Spielberg)
Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg)*

I'm beginning to appreciate Spielbergs historical films. I'm getting old...

What's The Fate of Lee Khan like?

Kinda like the other ones :) A Touch of Zen towers over the rest, but the others ones are good. It's an Inn-film as well, there is much more intrigue and subterfuge, but it all climaxes in a lot of lovely fighting.

I said so in another thread, but I'm pretty sure Tarantino took a LOT of inspiration from King Hu when he wrote The Hateful Eight.

I want to see Raining On The Mountain & Legend Of The Mountain next. Apparently one is among his best, the other is supposed to be much weaker. Legend exists in 3 different versions.