Last (x) movies you saw

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

Silence (Scorsese, 2016)
...But Film Is My Mistress (Björkman, 2010)
Lions Love (...and Lies) (Varda, 1968)
Incident by a Bank (short - Östlund, 2010)
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (Misumi, 1972)
Dégustation Maison (short - Tatischeff, 1978)
The Birth of Magellan: Cadenza One (short - Frampton, 1977)
Gloria! (short - Frampton, 1979)
The Tin Drum (Schlondörff, 1979) -- David Bennent, the kid who plays Oskar, is astoundingly good in this
Chris Marker's Bestiary (shorts, 1990-1994)
— Bullfight in Okinawa
— Cat Listening to Music
— An Owl Is an Owl Is an Owl
— Slon Tango
— Zoo Piece
The Merchant of Four Seasons (Fassbinder, 1971)

Experimenter has left me utterly depressed.

Paterson - 5/10
Julieta - 8/10

slow soggy weekend:

Florence Foster Jenkins (Frears, 2016) 4/10
* Postcards from the Edge (Nichols, 1990) 6/10
* The End of Summer (Ozu, 1960) 7/10

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Edwards, 2016) 4/10
Spectre (Mendes, 2015) 7/10
*Mother (Brooks, 1996) 8/10
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956) 7/10
Hell or High Water (Mackenzie, 2016) 5/10
*His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940) 5/10
*They Live (Carpenter, 1988) 7/10
Bad Day at Black Rock (Sturges, 1955) 7/10
Finding Dory (Stanton and MacLane, 2016) 6/10
Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story (Stabile, 2015) 7/10
Seashore (Matzembacher & Reolon, 2015) 6/10
Bamboozled (Lee, 2000) 6/10

January:

Adam's Rib (Cukor, 1949) 7/10
Things to Come (Hansen-Love, 2016) 8/10
Horror Express (Martin, 1972) 7/10
Silence (Scorsese, 2016) 7/10
An American in Paris (Minnelli, 1951) 8/10
Napoleon (Gance, 1927) 8/10
Cry of the City (Siodmak, 1948) 6/10
Manchester by the Sea (Lonergan, 2016) 8/10
Psychomania (Sharp, 1973) 7/10
Expresso Bongo (Guest, 1959) 5/10
Pat and Mike (Cukor, 1952) 7/10
Irma Vep (Assayas, 1996) 8/10
Days of Wine and Roses (Edwards, 1962) 8/10
The Burmese Harp (Ichikawa, 1956) 7/10
Gaslight (Cukor, 1944) 7/10
The Blade (Tsui, 1995) 7/10 - this was viewed on a legit but very ropey looking Region 2 DVD - want to rewatch sometime
Experiment in Terror (Edwards, 1962) 7/10

The Man Between (Reed 1953) 8/10
A Generation (Wajda, 1955) 8/10
Barfly (Schroeder, 1987) 5/10
They Won't Believe Me (Pichel, 1947)
The Shallows (Collet-Serra, 2016) 7/10
Wiener-Dog (Solondz, 2016) 7/10
Foul Play (Higgins, 1978) 5/10
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Miyazaki, 1984) 7/10
Romance (Breillat, 2004) 4/10
Bunny Lake is Missing (Preminger, 1965) 9/10

Foul Play (Higgins, 1978) 5/10

aww :-(

i saw it in '78; best for martial-arts fight between Rachel Roberts and Burgess Meredith

as movies written by Colin Higgins go, at least it beats Harold and Maude

Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo (2016, Ducastel, Martineau) 6/10
Captain Fantastic (2016, Ross) 6/10
Law of Desire (1987, Almodovar) 8/10
Manchester by the Sea (2016, Lonergan) 7/10
*The Bad and the Beautiful (1952, Minnelli) 8/10
Susan Slept Here (1954, Tashlin) 6/10
Panique (1946, Duvivier) 8/10
Spa Night (2016, Ahn) 6/10
*Mother (1996, Brooks) 7/10
Aferim! (2015, Jude) 8/10

It's possible that I saw Law of Desire 20+ years ago, but i think i would've remembered Antonio Banderas as a psycho bottom.

Debbie Reynolds pockets both Susan Slept Here and Mother.

Sieranevada (Puiu)
Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces (Nasrallah)
The Suffering of Ninko (Niwatsukino)
A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (Diaz)
Bad Influence (Huaiquimilla)
Wùlu (Coulibaly)
Heartstone (Gudmundsson)
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Kuosmanen)
Ascent (Tan)
I, Olga Heparová (Kazda & Weinreb)
Sami Blood (Kernell)
Take Me Home (Kiarostami)
76 min 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami (Samadian)
Knife in the Clear Water (Wang)
Death in Sarajevo (Tanovic)
Birdshot (Red)
Little Wing (Vilhunen)
Burning Birds (Pushpakumara)
The Inertia Variations (St Michaels)
Death of a Child (Barkfors & Barkfors)
Manifesto (Rosefeldt)
The Human Surge (Williams)
For the War to End, the Walls Should Have Crumbled (Dardenne & Dardenne)
The Unknown Woman (Dardenne & Dardenne)

Smaller festival haul than usual. But some really good ones in there, especially Knife in the Clear Water and Burning Birds. If you get the chance, jump on them!

My Best Friend's Wedding (Hogan, 1997) 3/10
John Wick (Stahelski, 2014) 5/10
Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016) 8/10
Elle (Verhoeven, 2016) 7/10
The Handmaiden (Chan-Wook, 2016) 7/10
Things to Come (Hansen-Løve, 2016) 9/10
Love & Friendship (Stillman, 2016) 8/10
Embrace of the Serpent (Guerra, 2015) 8/10
Network (Lumet, 1976) 8/10

Toni Erdmann (Ade, 2016) 7/10

Executive Suite - 1954 - Wise 7/10 (man, this movie has the best people in it. william holden, barbara stanwyck, walter pidgeon, fredric march, shelley winters! and its directed by an american hero. so many people i would have sex with. but then they add the excruciating horror that is june allyson. with that voice that will make your skin crawl like something out of a lovecraft short story. oh well.)

Texas - 1941 - Marshall 9/10 (speaking of sexy...when was the last time you saw YOUNG william holden in a movie? oof....this movie rules. also, george marshall made a zillion awesome movies and hardly anyone knows who he is. not talking about YOU dweebs. i would watch any of his movies any day of the week.)