Last (x) movies you saw

Bought a Blu-Ray twin pack of The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven for $15 at Target. I was expecting it to be both movies stuffed onto a single bare-bones disc; it turned out to be the original stand-alone Blu-Rays, extras and all, tucked into one case. Unforgiven isn't as good as I remembered, though Gene Hackman is fantastic and genuinely terrifying in a couple of scenes, and Wales was about what I remembered it being - morally dubious in some ways (Eastwood as a "good" ex-Confederate in a movie with absolutely zero black people on-screen) but surprisingly humanist in others (the Native characters are both well-written and -played).

Dialogues of the Exiled (1975, Ruiz) 6/10
Wiener-Dog (2016, Solondz) 5/10
Silence (2016, Scorsese) 7/10
The Measure of a Man (2015, Brizé) 6/10
Tower of London (1939, Lee) 6/10
Fire at Sea (2016, Rosi) 7/10
Tom Brown’s School Days (1940, Stevenson) 5/10
I Love Melvin (1953, Weis) 6/10
*Silkwood (1983, Nichols) 7/10
Cameraperson (2016, Johnson) 8/10
The Champion (1915, Chaplin) 8/10
A Night Out (1915, Chaplin) 7/10
*The Other Side (2015, Minervini) 9/10
*Frenzy (1972, Hitchcock) 10/10
In the Name of the Italian People (1971, Risi) 8/10

Too low on: Measure of a Man, Fire at Sea
Too high on: Frenzy, which is exactly like the giallo you disdain
Agreed on: Silence

most of the giallo guys can't direct traffic

have never seen em do the moral/aesthetic equiv of the staircase/door reverse dolly shot

i think it was Mike d'Angelo who called Measure of a Man "a wan version" of a Dardennes film

No snark, what do you mean by moral? I mean, Frenzy strikes me as quite an immoral film, in as much as it is a piece of exploitation - exploitative of human misery - and pleasurable and problematic as such. That staircase/door reverse dolly shot is the kind of technical showoffery that's all over giallo - in the service of exactly the same commercial imperatives as showman Hitch.

man, i couldn't disagree more, esp as the victim is a salt-of-the-earth barmaid, the most likeable character in the film.

Fire at Sea was fantastic - the kid never annoyed me much, but your mileage may vary I guess. Formally tho' it was something else.

Measure of Man should have gotten more attention. Wonde if it hit a nerve in France the way I, Daniel Blake did over here.

better film too

hmmmm no

like's both, MOAM had more going on cinematically and psychologically.

*like

Measure of a Man is the better film, although I might not feel that way if I Daniel Blake had stayed focused on the bureaucratic nightmare the whole way through, instead of focusing more on a sort of personal degradation in the final stretch. Uhm, spoilers and all that. I really felt that Loach messed up the landing of his film.

I mean what to do with your reading of this film but to thrash it? I, Daniel Blake worked the logic and oppression of the bureaucracy through to its human consequences.

Not going to choose between these - be a horrifying dbl bill tho'.

Just saw this comment on a video of Jacques Tourneur talking about escapism.

thats possibly the best and the only definition of cinema I agree with, fuck you ken loach a thousand times, you grim reaper

Not my opinion but I laughed.

I might not feel that way if I Daniel Blake had stayed focused on the bureaucratic nightmare the whole way through

but it did?

Nah, the scenes in the final act between Katie and Daniel, and Daniel and Katie's daughter, shifts over into some kind of personal catharsis instead, and I found it cloying and superfluous. The speech at the end as well. The consequences are there from the beginning, you feel it in every little conversation, just the way Blake moves through the city, the chillness of the camera-movements. The first half is kinda remarkable. It seemed to me more of a case of them not knowing how to end the bureaucratic story, and throwing a bunch of other stuff in there in the last stretch.

I'll admit that the emphasis shifts, and I liked this emphasis less, but the movie never loses sight of what it's indicting.

It seemed to me more of a case of them not knowing how to end the bureaucratic story

Its documentary fact in the UK.

Or documented fact - there are many stories like this, in this country.

Yeah, it feels like documentary. You can really feel the research, the language is absolutely chilling, the constant references to 'the decision maker' for example. But I just think they miss the larger picture in the way they end it. There's a reason Kafka never managed to finish one of his novels, almost the essence of these bureaucratic nightmares is to create the illusion that they're never-ending. So how to end a story about them and still give the right feel? I still gave the film 4/6, would have given it 4,5 if I could. I like the film all in all. I just think the first part is a great achievement, and the last part isn't. And I like Measure of Man more, but I really like Measure of Man.

50 shades of grey. Numerous times. I wanted to get angry, I guess. It worked. But still I somehow like it?

Also Nymphonia vol 1.

little sister (Zach clark 2016) 5/10
America's sweethearts (joe roth 2001) 5/10
god's country (malle '86) 9/10
misconduct (shintao shimosawa 2016) 2/10
violette (chabrol '78) 7/10
vagabond (varda '85) 5/10
the gleaners and I (varda 2000) 7/10
*who'll stop the rain (reisz '78) 9/10
dirty grandpa (dan mazer 2016) 8/10

Arrival (7.0)
Cracked Actor (6.0)
TiMER (6.5)
Angels in America (8.0)
Moonlight (7.5)
Good Night, and Good Luck (7.0)
Super Girl (5.0)
Nocturnal Animals (7.5)
Silence (7.0)
The Dead Zone (9.0)

There's a reason Kafka never managed to finish one of his novels, almost the essence of these bureaucratic nightmares is to create the illusion that they're never-ending.

One reason huh?

Not every bureaucratic nightmare automatically equals Kafka. Also nobody really knows the exact reason as to why he didn't finish his novels, From the letters and other materials is just as likely that he was highly self-critical and also dying prematurely. That couldn't have helped.

Didn't he request them not to be published because they were unfinished?

Yes, according to his request to Max Brod, they should've been burned.

the "ending" of The Trial feels pretty satisfactory to me

anyway, needed a thread to reminisce about seeing the trailer for Hacksaw Ridge last weekend, it all looked pleasant and banal enough and i was thinking "i'll probably see this on TV some time and it won't be the worst thing" and then there was a shot where the pacifist hero literally round-house kicked an incoming grenade and i was laughing so hard i nearly missed the beginning of Silence

La Lisière (short - Simon Saulnier, 2015)
The Neon Demon (Refn, 2016)
* The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (with Powell & Scorsese commentary - Powell/Pressburger, 1943)
Fantastic Planet (Laloux, 1973)
Just Neighbors (short - Lloyd, 1919)
Charlotte et son Jules (short - Godard, 1960)
Entr'acte (short - Clair, 1924)
Uncle Yanco (short - Varda, 1967)
Du Côté de la Côte (short - Varda, 1958)
The River (Renoir, 1951)
Me and You and Everyone We Know (July, 2005)

Paterson (2016) 4.5/5
Dillinger (1973) 3/5
13th (2016) 3.5/5
Fifi Howls From Happiness (2013) 4/5
Silence (2016) 4.5/5

the "ending" of The Trial feels pretty satisfactory to me

Sudden and brutal but maybe too hasty for Kafka - so much amazing writing on there. Would never burn the thing.

I rated The Measure of a Man way way higher than IDB, but I have a massive aversion to the Loach infestation - no matter how worthy his themes are I can't stand his one dimensional proles.

The Piano Teacher. God I adore Haneke.

Moonlight (7.5)

really liked this one, can't believe I didn't realize the drug dealer's girlfriend was Janelle Monae.

Split - 4/10
La La Land - 5.5/10
Silence - 8/10
Rogue One - 8/10
Sing - 5/10
Elle - 7/10
Miss Sloane - 6/10
Fences - 8/10
Edge of Seventeen - 6/10
Moonlight - 8/10

El Dorado. This was fine. I'm not a big John Wayne fan. My biggest takeaway was that it seemed to me like Bob Dylan borrowed a lot of his Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid character's look, demeanor, etc. from James Caan's work here.

2017 so far, not including a couple revivals:

Lion - 6/10
A Monster Calls - 3/10
Elle - 8/10
Silence - 9/10
Hidden Figures - 6/10
20th Century Women - 5/10
The Founder - 7/10

Hospitalité (Fukada)
Harmonium (Fukada)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese)
Kundun (Scorsese)
The Departed (Scorsese)
Shutter Island (Scorsese)
Wolf of Wall Street (Scorsese)
Silence (Scorsese)
Silence (Shinoda)
King of Pigs (Yeon)
The Match Factory Girl (Kaurismäki)
Drifting Clouds (Kaurismäki)
Le Havre (Kaurismäki)
Subway (Besson)
Tony Manero (Larrain)*
Post Mortem (Larrain)*
Jackie (Larrain)
Amadeus (Forman)
The People vs Larry Flint (Forman)
One Week and a Day (Polonsky)
A Hard Day’s Night (Lester)*
Orlando (Potter)
Labyrinth of Passion (Almodovar)
“10” (Edwards)
The Man With the Golden Arm (Preminger)
Advise & Consent (Preminger)
The Cardinal (Preminger)
You Can Count on Me (Lonergan)
Margaret (Lonergan)
Manchester by the Sea (Lonergan)
Anchorman (McKay)
A Single Man (Ford)
Home From Home (Reitz)
Compliance (Zobel)
Stuff and Dough (Puiu)
Aurora (Puiu)

Arrival (5/10)
Doctor Strange (7/10)
Silence (9/10)
Break-Up (8/10)
La Traversée de Paris (7/10)
Toni Erdmann (7/10)

T2 Trainspotting (Boyle, 2017) 6/10
Silence (Scorsese, 2017) 8/10
Manchester by the Sea (Lonergan, 2017) 5/10
The Black Torment (Hartford-Davis, 1964) 6/10
Under the Shadow (Anvari, 2016) 7/10
Bright Lights (Bloom, Stevens, 2016) 7/10

rw:
Escape from LA (Carpenter, 1996) 6/10
Pontypool (McDonald, 2008) 7/10
When Harry Met Sally... (Reiner, 1989) 7/10
The Blues Brothers (Landis, 1980) 8/10
The Graduate (Nichols, 1967) 9/10

T2 Trainspotting (Boyle, 2017) 6/10

seems like a weird mashup

I thought Manchester was maybe a little less than advertised, but I did like a lot of it. Looks like you didn't like it much at all...

I was very much in the mood for some wintry miserablism, and, as such, I had fairly high hopes for Manchester, but the film gradually wore them down. No weight to Affleck's performance.

I missed one off my list:

The Angry Silence (Green, 1960) 7/10

The Blues Brothers (Landis, 1980) 8/10

Cocaine's a helluva you-know

Five Graves to Cairo (Wilder, 1943) 6/10
Manchester By The Sea (Lonergan, 2016) 7/10
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (Herzog, 2016) 7/10
Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016) 6/10
La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) 4/10
De Palma (Baumbach, Paltrow, 2015) 7/10

Kiki's Delivery Service 9/10
La Grande Bellezza 7/10

The Man From Snowy River - 1982 - George T. Miller 8/10
The Sons Of Katie Elder - 1965 - Henry Hathaway 9/10
Results - 2015 - Andrew Bujalski 6/10
The Black Stallion - 1979 - Carroll Ballard 10/10
Never Cry Wolf - 1983 - Carroll Ballard 8/10
King Of The Hill - 1993 - Steven Soderbergh 8/10
The Wild Bunch - 1969 - Sam Peckinpah 10/10
7 Men From Now - 1956 - Budd Boetticher 8/10
The Magnificent Seven - 1960 - John Sturges 9/10
There Was A Crooked Man... - 1970 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz 9/10
How The West Was Won - 1962 - Ford. Hathaway, Marshall 9/10
Three Violent People - 1957 - Rudolph Mate 9/10
Forty Guns - 1957 - Samuel Fuller 9/10

Loaded (Anna Campion, 1994) - not too bad
The Elephant Man (Lynch, 1980) - liked it
Freejack - (Geoff Murphy, 1992) - eh
Young Sherlock Holmes (Levinson, 1986) - had some good parts
Heavenly Creatures (Jackson, 1994) - ok
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Reinhardt and Dieterle, 1935) - liked it, ballet scenes are fantastic, James Cagney and Joe E. Brown are great, but Mickey Rooney is such a twerp
Morgan The Pirate (De Toth, 1960) - I guess this was OK
inside Daisy Clover (Robert Mulligan, 1965) - liked this a lot
Clash of the Titans (Desmond Davis, 1983) - eh
The Borrower (McNaughton, 1991) - enjoyed this one
Thursday's Game (Robert Moore, 1974) - This was fun but probably not as good as you would hope a James L. Brooks, Gene Wilder and Bob Newhart film would be
Ghost Story (Irvin, 1981) - probably would watch again
Panther (Mario Van Peebles, 1995) - I liked it