Last (x) movies you saw

A Walk Among the Tombstones (Frank, 2014)
The Lego Movie (Lord/Miller, 2014)
The Judge (Dobkin, 2014)
Inherent Vice (Anderson, 2014)
Taken 3 (Megaton, 2014)
Birdman (Iñárritu, 2014)
Miami Vice (Mann, 2006) - 1/10, what a piece of shit
X-Men: Days of Future Past (Singer, 2014)
The Thing from Another World (Nyby, 1951)
Lured (Sirk, 1947)
*Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger, 1947) - just got the Criterion blu-ray and omg, 10/10

The Lords of Salem. Bought this around Halloween, watching it for the second time. A huge leap forward from anything Zombie's done before.

William C's rare excursion into a points system otm

offtm

A lot of that batch are from the HBO/Cinemax free weekend on Directv during Thanksgiving -- binged on a lot of the action trash I'm a sucker for. Tombstones was better than I expected. Taken 3 was crap, but I'd seen the first 2 so I figured I might as well.

That batch, ranked best to worst:

Black Narcissus
Birdman
The Thing From Another World
Inherent Vice
Lured
A Walk Among the Tombstones
X-Men
The Lego Movie
the rest are banana-peel scrapings

Yesterday: To Live and Die in L.A.
Today: The Driver

I'm in a mood for car chases lately.

Wolf of Wall Street (rewatch; 4.5/5)
Days of Heaven (rewatch;5/5)
Drifting Clouds (1996; 4/5)
The Wolfpack (3/5)
Jauja (3/5)
Safe (rewatch; 5/5)
Finders Keepers (3.5/5)

*Moonrise (1948, Borzage) 8/10
Five Star Final (1931, LeRoy) 6/10
Christmas, Again (2014, Poekel) 7/10
Street Smart (1987, Schatzberg) 5/10
*Le joli mai (1963, Marker, Lhomme) 9/10
Jet Storm (1959, Endfield) 6/10
Bulldog Drummond (1929, Jones) 7/10
*Klute (1971, Pakula) 8/10
*The Reckless Moment (1949. 9/10)
Carol (2015, Haynes) 6/10
In Jackson Heights (2015, Wiseman) 7/10
Bridge of Spies (2015, Spielberg) 9/10

Since the last bunch I seen
Little Paradise (don't recall, drunk)
Nightingale (good performance but kinda meaningless)
then a whole bunch of shite; Heist, Criminal Activities, Red Herring, Bleeding Heart, Absolutely Anything, Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant, Alto, Fury: The Tales Of Ronan Pierce, Another World, Star Leaf, L.A. Slasher, Landmine Goes Click, ALL THESE FILMS WERE ENTIRELY WITHOUT WORTH.
So I washed my hands and watched Last Shift, 400 Days, Uncanny; none of these were good, but compared with the last bunch they might as well be Citizen Kane, Vertigo and, I donno, Stalker.
Then I watched the Julien Temple documentary about Wilko Johnson, which was actually quite inspiring re: his attitude to stuff, but it was Julien Temple so there was a buncha archive footage and film clips including Stalker, so then I rewatched Stalker, which may not be the greatest ever film, but is probably in the top one.
Then: Sleeping With Other People, then Night Owls (both meh, but good casts), Applesauce (which impressed me more than that boy's last film, and actually was quite enjoyable).
Today I've done Hotel Transylvania 2, The Wannabe (which I was led to believe was a film about rigging the Gotti trial, instead it was exactly the same plot as... I forget, something I watched recently... IMDB says "Rob The Mob"? probably both equally tedious), Cut Snake (Australian thingum, quite enjoyed this), 99 Homes, (I don't understand this american concept, the government pays for my house, but I'll watch Michael Shannon in anything. Andrew Garfield scowls his way through it with a bad accent, but there was one bit where he shook his head and I briefly thought maybe he could act?).
Now I'm watching OzLand, it's got the Zardoz conceit of post-apocalyptic quasi-religion based on the Wizard of Oz, but none of the batshit insanity, so not as interesting.

Only one lately (finals week) but holy shit, Footprints on the Moon is AMAZING. It's kind of in the same Polanski-ish neighborhood as my all-time favorite minor Italo-horror, Perfume of the Lady in Black. Great spooky church organ theme, gorgeously shot by Vittorio Storaro...the astronaut stuff is less important than you'd expect, it's the standard giallo excuse for a striking image or motif, but it's still creepy as hell. And the whole thing plays like someone dared the screenwriter to write a giallo take on Last Year at Marienbad. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night - 5/10 - seemed to think very highly of itself. not sure i loved it.
Lady In The Van - 7/10 - some great performances. i liked it, and i usually hate this kind of British comedy

Rented Knock Knock from Amazon for 99 cents. Worth every penny. It's an Eli Roth movie starring Keanu Reeves as a married architect who lets two rain-soaked young women into his house one night while his wife and the kids are away for the weekend. Things go awry. It's not a great movie, but it has the courage of its convictions and doesn't take the typical revenge-on-bitches angle. And considering it's a Roth movie, it's neither particularly gory nor leeringly sadistic. Recommended, with a shrug.

Knock Knock was appallingly bad in every possible sense. But maybe if everyone gave Eli Roth 99 cents he might just go the fuck away.

The Look of Silence (2014, Oppenheimer) 8/10
*Eraserhead (1977, Lynch) 9/10
Paris Belongs to Us (1961, Rivette) 8/10
Stinking Heaven (2015, Silver) 7/10
*Revenge of the Mekons (2013, Angio) 7/10**
Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One (2015, Gomes) 8/10
*The Forbidden Room (2015, Maddin, Johnson) 8/10
Lady Sings the Blues (1972, Furie) 4/10
Les Rendezvous d'Anna (1978, Akerman) 7/10
Gloria (1980, Cassavetes) 7/10
Anomalisa (2014, Kaufman, Johnson) 5/10

**Audience-shot cameo by yours truly

Timbuktu (Sissoko, 2014) 8/10
*Glassland (Butler, 2015) 5/10
Dope (Fumuyiya, 2015) 7/10
Unstoppable (T. Scott, 2010) 6/10
Amy (Kapadia, 2015) 8/10
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Abrahms, 2015) 6/10
Dark Horse (Solondz, 2011) 5/10

Very Semi-Serious (7.0)
Tarzan and Jane Regained...Sort Of (6.0)
Requiem for the American Dream (7.0)
Elegy (5.5)
All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records (7.0)
The Battle of Chile (8.0)
Don’t Look Now (6.5)
Only the Young (7.0)
Hitchcock/Truffaut (7.5)
Chelsea Girls (7.5)

Only the Young had some of the most beautiful colour photography I've ever seen in a documentary; the three teenagers were less compelling.

Carol (Haynes, 2015)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
When Harry Met Sally (Reiner, 1989)
Pyaasa (Dutt, 1957)
Hard to Be a God (German, 2015)

Loved Pyaasa, a genuinely brilliant musical drama about a friendship between a poet and prostitute that needs chance to start and work - and eventually blossom..it could have been 15 mins shorter at the end (too much exposition) but it all builds to the last couple of mins, which is a fantastic and properly romantic end to a film.

re: German's film - calling this even Tarkovsky like is a bit dim. Its Russian and medieval but the pace was relentless. I'm all been-there-done-that so it needed more violent kicks to keep you awake. It was like a perfect execution of an idea that wasn't that good. Was telling a friend I was with I was glad she recommended we see it - that might have usually come from me (although I would probably watch this on my own just because its three hours long). Has anyone read the book? I really want to..

Carol (Haynes, 2015) - 8/10
Steve Jobs (Boyle, 2015) - 4/10
While We're Young (Baumbach, 2015) - 5/10
The Man Who Wasn't There (Coens, 2001) - 7/10
Hard to be a God (German, 2015) - 6/10
Stromboli (Rossellini, 1950) - 8/10
Inside Out (Doctor, 2015) - 6/10
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Abrams, 2015) - 9/10

rewatches:
Slow West (Maclean, 2015) - 7/10
American Gangster (Scott, 2007) - 6/10
Pinocchio (Luske, Sharpsteen, 1940) - 7/10
Barton Fink (Coens, 1991) - 9/10

Die Hard (1988)
Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
Speed (1994)
Kingpin (1996)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
The Straight Story (1999)
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

oh, and Bridge of Spies - 7/10

Heart of a Dog (Anderson, 2015) 8/10
Creed(Coogler, 2015) 7/10
The Martian (Scott, 2015) 5/10
Listen To Me Marlon (Riley, 2015) 8/10
Steve Jobs (Boyle, 2015) 6/10
The Danish Girl (Hooper, 2015)
Youth (Sorrentino, 2015) 3/10
The Chase (Penn, 1966) 6/10
The Unfaithful Wife (Chabrol, 1968) 6/10
The First Legion (Sirk, 1951) 7/10

and Carol (Haynes, 2015) 6/10

story of women (88 chabrol) 8/10
the company you keep (2012 redford) 3/10
bergman island (2004 marie nyrerod) 9/10
enemy (2013 villeneuve) 6/10
daft punk unchained (2015 Hervé Martin-Delpierre) 8/10
no end (85 kieslowski) 6/10
victory (95 mark peploe) 6/10
the madwoman of chaillot (69 forbes) 6/10
slipstream (2007 hopkins) 3/10
polyester (81 waters) 7/10
hitchcock truffaut (2015 kent jones) 6/10
the seven five (2014 tiller russell) 1/10
the kidnapping of michel houellebecq (2014 Guillaume Nicloux) 6/10

Listen To Me Marlon 7/10
Star Wars TFA 8/10
The Revenant 7/10
Hateful Eight 3/10
Le Salamandre 8/10
Brooklyn 6/10

Don Verdean 7/10
The Lobster 7/10
Crimson Peak 7/10
Room 7/10
Parasyte part 2 7/10
Assassination Classroom 7/10
The Peanuts Movie 7/10
The Hateful Eight 7/10
The Revenant 7/10
Sicario 7/10
Joy 2/10

really nice creed piece, alfred

The Palm Beach Story (Sturges, 1942) 5/10

― Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Saturday, November 28, 2015 9:14 PM (3 weeks ago)

What happened here?

really nice creed piece, alfred

― bloat laureate (schlump),

thanks!

xpost

Aside from the manic opening and closing scenes (the latter beautifully described by Bill Hader in the Criterion supplements: "fuck you, they're twins"), and a delightful Claudette Colbert, I didn't laugh all that much. And yeah, I'll say it: the scairt negro on the train made me squirm; without getting into the whole thing about whether or not to overlook a certain degree of unavoidable racism in a lot of classics, this character was less an unfortunate prop than a punchline--we are clearly being prompted to laugh at his distress.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Third Man
The Diary of a Chambermaid (Renoir)
French Cancan
Inside Out

I loved French Cancan.

sorry crypto, my Christmas is already fulla crazy

yeah there's racism in 40s movies thx for the education

The Big Short. Shockingly bad. Like, "I can't believe this was made by professionals" bad.

the scairt negro on the train made me squirm

i was thinking "isn't that from sullivan's travels?" but no that guy was in a coach

I'm going to stick with ranking each batch from favorite to least-favorite for the time being, instead of listing them in the order I saw them.

* Mulholland Dr. (Lynch, 2001)
* Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955)
Apur Sansar (Ray, 1959)
Aparajito (Ray, 1956)
Big Hero 6 (Hall/Williams, 2014)
*John Wick (Stahelski/Leitch, 2014)
Man Hunt (Lang, 1941)
Star Wars: TFA (Abrams, 2015)
What We Do in the Shadows (Clement/Waititi, 2014)
Lady Snowblood (Fujita, 1973)
Satyajit Ray (Benegal, 1982)

The Martian 7/10
Thou Wast Mild And Lovely 7/10
Carol 7/10
Spotlight 7/10
Bridge Of Spies 4/10
*Scrooged (1988) 8/10
The Red Spectacles (1987) 7/10
*The Boston Strangler (1968) 7/10
Man In The Wilderness (1971) 6/10

*Ball of Fire (1941, Hawks) 9/10
45 Years (2015, Haigh) 8/10
The Assassin (2015, Hou) 7/10
Interlude (1957, Sirk) 6/10
*The Wild Bunch (1969, Peckinpah) 9/10
Pal Joey (1957, Sidney) 6/10
Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013, Silva) 5/10
The Savage Eye (1960, Maddow, Meyers, Strick) 7/10
Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One (2015, Gomes) 7/10
Arabian Nights: Volume 2, The Desolate One (2015, Gomes) 6/10
*Lost Highway (1997, Lynch) 5/10
Run for Cover (1955, N. Ray) 6/10
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940, Arzner) 6/10

Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, the (2014) 2
World's End, the (2013) 7
Short Circuit 2 (1988) 4
Life of Emile Zola, the (1937) 5
A Christmas Story (1983) 8 -- first time i've seen all of it at once
Hot Fuzz (2007) 8
Frank (2014) 7
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) 5
I Am Here.... Now (2009) 1?

I Am Here.... Now (2009) 1?

lol i tried to watch a bit of 'double down' last week. i think i made it about 10 minutes in. unwatchable. most of it is just him listing off stuff hes really awesome at while he walks around the desert. his old laptops and crappy mobiles were pretty funny tho

The Hateful Eight (Tarantino, 2015) 6/10
The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson (Temple, 2015) 7/10
*The King of Comedy (Scorsese, 1982) 10/10
Notes On A Scandal (Eyre, 2006) 7/10

Radiator 7.5
By Our Selves 7

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (this was amazing, 10/10)
The Red Shoes
Lola Montès
Ministry of Fear
Mata Hari
Ninotchka
Gremlins

Fat Man on a Beach (Michael Bakewell/ B.S. Johnson, 1973) 10/10
Screener Season:
Bridge of Spies 8.5/10
Trumbo 6/10
Brooklyn 6/10
The Big Short 3/10
The Hateful Eight 3/10
Steve Jobs 5/10
Creed 5/10
Spotlight 7.5/10

Aside from that barfy Lynne Ramsay thing, which I watched in a class, December was entirely a month of re-watches for me (which it typically tends to be):

We Need To Talk About Kevin (Ramsay, 2011) 2/10
After Hours (Scorsese, 1985) 10/10
Adventures in Babysitting (Columbus, 1987) 5/10
Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944) 8/10
Mon oncle Antoine (Jutra, 1971) 9/10
Home For the Holidays (Foster, 1995) 5/10
Dial M for Murder (Hitchcock, 1954) 7/10

Trumbo 6/10
The Martian 5/10
The Assassin 9/10

Oh yeah...

James Bond: SPECTRE 6/10

The Good Dinosaur 7/10
Just Jim 8/10
Tangerine 8/10
A Christmas Horror Story 5/10
Irrational Man 3/10
In The heart Of The Sea 7/10
The Wolfpack (doc) 7/10
The Punk Singer (doc) 8/10
The Seven Five (doc) 7.5/10
The Walk 3/10
Creed 8/10
Burnt 4/10
Pawn Sacrifice 7/10
Anomalisa 8/10

...and I'm going out shortly, so that'll be all til next year.

new Star Wars 8.5/10
Breathless 10/10
Spectre 6/10
Spotlight 7.5//10
Wild Tales 9/10
It Follows 8.5/10
Inherent Vice 9.5/10
Mockingjay 7/10
Milo and Otis 10/10
Concussion 4/10
Sicario 7/10
Midnight Diner 7.5/10
Neko Samurai 3/10
Hello Junichi 7.5/10
Lady Snowblood 7/10

forgot one: I saw Tangerine on Netflix it's rlly rlly good

American Ninja (1984) - Totally awesome 80s Peak Ninja. I love the scene where the bad guy is giving some other bad guys a tour of his base, declaring "This is my private army" as dozens of ninjas dressed in black, red, yellow, and blue, run through a collection of deadly obstacle courses. So cheesy and so great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9tkntwNSGM