Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Apollo 11 is an amazing achievement, genuinely awe inspiring and beautiful. I'm sure it'll be on CNN before end of the year but do yourself a favor and see it in theaters or, better yet, IMAX.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/25/apollo-11-review-eye-opening-documentary-is-a-five-star-triumph
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/27/we-felt-a-huge-responsibility-behind-the-landmark-apollo-11-documentary
Director said they went through over 11k hours of footage and 18k hours of unsynched audio; took years to shake out. The effort and the love of production really shows.

Red Desert (Antonioni, 1964) 9/10
High Flying Bird (Soderbergh, 2019) 7/10
The Green Ray (Rohmer, 1986) 10/10
Love in the Afternoon (Rohmer, 1972) 8/10
Daisies (Chytilova, 1966) 8/10
This Land is Mine (Renoir, 1943) 6/10
Hanagatami (Obayashi, 2017) 5/10
Let The Summer Never Come Again (Koberidze, 2017) 8/10
Yourself and Yours (Hong, 2016) 7/10
The American Friend (Wenders, 1977) 8/10

Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018)
Yourself Yours (Hong Sang-soo, 2016)

does burning live up to the hype?
seeing woman at war tonight; will report back

I liked it. There is a thread here with a variety of takes:

BURNING (dir. Lee Chang-dong, 2018) - Murakami adaptation feat. Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo

Burning was great

You should definitely see Burning. In all honesty I probably prefer Woman at War, but both films good.

February:

Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018) 8/10
Fire (Smith, 2019) 6/10
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004) 7/10
Casque d'Or (Becker, 1952) 8/10
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Heller, 2018) 6/10 - might have rated this higher if the trailer hadn't given away the entire plot of the movie
Five Element Ninjas (Chang Cheh, 1982) 8/10
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Aldrich, 1964) 7/10
The Creeping Flesh (Francis, 1973) 7/10
Bram Stoker's Dracula (Curtis, 1974) 6/10
CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans (Dumont, 2018) 8/10
Machorka-Muff (Straub-Huillet, 1963) 7/10

Will wait on that thread till i view... bit looking forward to it!

might have rated this higher if the trailer hadn't given away the entire plot of the movie

snap

January & February in theaters:

Shoplifters (Kore-eda, 2018) - 9/10
On the Basis of Sex (Leder, 2018) - 4/10
Destroyer (Kusama, 2018) - 2/10
Glass (Shyamalan, 2019) - 1/10
Cold War (Pawlikowski, 2018) - 8/10
Stan & Ollie (Baird, 2018) - 1/10
When You Read This Letter (Melville, 1953) - 8/10
Wings of Desire (Wenders, 1987) - 9/10
Clara’s Ghost (Elliott, 2018) - 2/10
They Shall Not Grow Old (Jackson, 2018) - 2/10
Secrets of Women / Waiting Women (Bergman, 1952) - 4/10
What Men Want (Shankman, 2019) - 8/10
2019 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action (various, 2018) - 0/10
Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi, 1954) - 7/10
Cold Pursuit (Moland, 2019) - 6/10
2019 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Documentary (various, 2018) - 3/10
The Image Book (Godard, 2018) - 10/10

Free Solo. Amazing feat, but Meru was the much better man-vs-mountain face movie, imo.

Lost In The White City - 8/10
Peterloo - 5/10 ( broadest acting of any Mike Leigh film I've seen. Nearly Pythons-level broad. Extra point for the beautiful period look.)
All Is Lost - 7/10

flappy, why so down on Stan & Ollie? just the bio genre in general? this one was about as good as those get.

Funny aside re: that one. A friend of mine was telling me the other day that she had some time to kill a while back, and Stan & Ollie was literally the only thing playing in the time slot she had free. So she went to see it, more or less blind, and really enjoyed it. Which is typically a sign of a good (or at least successful) movie.

Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi, 1954) - 7/10

Tough audience.

Yes, if any films demands a 10/10 rating it's Sansho - though it obv has to be seen in as pristine a print as possible for maximum perfection. Never sure if I favour Sansho over Ugetsu Monogatari, another 10 out of 10er.

Ugetsu is such a great looking movie. I haven't seen it for a long while but I remember it being as visually arresting as Sunrise.

idk, i much prefer a geisha and sisters of the gion to ugetsu or sansho but the problem might be i haven't seen any of them in the cinema

Stan & Ollie left me totally cold and bored. I don't seek out biopics but I don't have anything against them. I thought the production value was suited for Netflix or something even less ubiquitous, just no artistry or anything interesting going on aesthetically, such a bland looking movie. Also, this could've been an issue with the theater I went to, but it sounded like elements of the soundtrack were missing or muted. Almost as if watching a sitcom without a laugh track, it felt technically incomplete. I would've been more forgiving and more engaged if I were a fan or even familiar with Laurel & Hardy's work. But I couldn't even get into it as an old Hollywood period piece, especially since it's them later in life and in theater. I was eager for a movie to lose myself in because right before it started, the woman sitting in front of me started screaming at me for talking with my friend about how much I disliked Roma - steam was practically coming out of her ears when the lights went down.

Sansho I will give another chance another day. I love Mizoguchi but I prefer him in contemporary settings, like Sisters of the Gion and Osaka Elegy. Sansho was confusing, but I was tired, and couldn't keep up with the particulars of whatever era of feudal Japan it's set in. The ending is brilliant and the "Isn't life a torture?" song is haunting, but my friend and I were flagging for most of it. A few days later I watched A Story from Chikamatsu and liked it a lot more, but I have a soft spot for star-crossed lovers damned by society. I liked Ugetsu and will watch The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums... tonight maybe!

I saw The Image Book for the third time today and might go back tomorrow for a fourth.

Don't see Greta, it really sucks.

Yeah, that Greta trailer makes me think Huppert did this on a whim. Looks awful and CGM always seems like she'd rather be doing something other than acting.

well, she's doing a play in New York right now.

sorry, CGM isn't! Huppert is.

saw Cold War in one of my favorite theaters. It was really beautiful to look at (pretty much enough for me), although I had a hard time staying interested in its single-minded focus on the disordered central relationship

I feel bad for missing image book. Is it at Lincoln center?

gone; gotta pounce on JLG, not a crowd pleaser

take the train down to Baltimore and we'll see it together

the trailer for was sorta bad but I thought how could you possibly screw up Isabelle Huppert + CGM?

watch Greta to find out

Wrong Again (McCarey, 1929)
Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018)
Birds of Passage (Guerra & Gallego, 2018)
Elmer's Pet Rabbit (Jones, 1941)
In the Money (Strayer, 1933)
Zama (Martel, 2017)

Greta wasn't even good camp.

trying Transit tonight and Anthropocene on Thursday; Burtynsky has a killer eye but i wouldn't be half as interested to see it on television. Scope!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBrXykjecx8

xp Zama and Birds of Passage are among the best films of the past five years, great doubleheader!

I'm still trying to process both films (plus Burning that same weekend).

i would imagine!

Greta wasn't even good camp.

― Let's have sensible centrist armageddon (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, March 3, 2019 8:01 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can't wait to love this movie

its problems are structural & technical... I'd be really surprised if you like it even with reservations

Zama was the most memorable film from the last couple of years for me

looking forward to seeing Birds of Passage, really liked Embrace of the Serpent

still haven’t seen Burning, Shoplifters, Lazzaro Felice

...or Claire's Camera, Girl, Transit, or Border

plan to see most of them in the next few weeks

Transit was quietly, confidently remarkable; the conceit of setting it in a contemporary world (sans cell phones and social media) gave it an immediacy that lent itself nicely to increased empathy.
lots of Kafkaesque dread and a great plot twist (and closing credits music) at the end. Not much in the way of sex or violence that wasn't only keenly implied. Surprisingly engaging every step of the way.
Pretty sure Franz Rogowski is gonna be a Hollywood star in three years or less.

Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion (6.5)
The Stranger Beside Me (5.5)
Wind River (7.0)
A Woman, a Part (6.0)
Rabbit Hole (8.0)
The Lovely Bones (6.0)
Moonrise (6.5)
The Snowman (6.0)
Double Jeopardy (5.5)
Bleeding Heart (6.0)
The Conversation (10.0)

Pretty sure Franz Rogowski is gonna be a Hollywood star in three years or less.

as New Joaquin Phoenix? He's a dead ringer.

Tension (1950, dir. John Berry), TCM: "Brief Synopsis
A man who had planned to murder his wife's lover becomes the prime suspect when somebody beats him to it." Narrated by wry homicide cop Barry Sullivan, a fedora hipster in the historical, trickster sense ("the Madison Avenue hipster" was a type, long before Normam Mailer arrived at the 1964 Republican Convention and immediately spotted the young operatives sporting wrap-around shades, skinny ties, skinny suits). practically bopping in the room at one point: he lovvves his job, ditto his partner, graceful fatman Willian Conrad. Won't tell you how it "ends," but like to think Sullivan ooutsmarted hinself, and nicer guy Basehart outlucked himself, when perp spills beans on stand. Audrey Totter nails her noirness, young Cyd Charisse is innocently glamorous good neighbor in nebbish druggist Basehart's other life.

Rabid(1977, written & directed by Cronenberg), TCM: "Brief Synopsis
When Rose is seriously injured in a motorcycle accident, an experimental surgery is performed on her that saves her life. But after the operation, she finds that she craves blood, and as she seeks out victims to satisfy her craving, the city is sent into hysteria." Well not exactly hysteria: the good Canadian health system deals with the epidemic of not-exactly-rabies by sending out garbage trucks with sharpshooters. That Cronenberg twinkle, yet concern for characters (back and forth; twisted yet tasteful considering, without pulling punches). It's not Rose's fault, and she seems ont that far from young Cyd above, except for being maybe even more delusional. Wasn't Marilyn Chambers originally known as a porn actress? Never heard of rest of cast, but they're all good (starts in a plastic surgery spa, with some well-heeled addicts etc.)

Marilyn Chambers isn't in this, where did I get her name? Sorry, movie came on really late here, TCM Underground prob.

Marilyn Chambers is definitely the lead actress in Rabid! And yeah, she was in Behind the Green Door and lots of other porno pre and post Rabid (which was definitely her most notable 'legit' movie credit).

Lost in the Stratosphere (Brown, 1934)
Ruben Brandt, Collector (Krstić, 2018)
Cocktail Hour (Schertzinger, 1933)
*Jack Frost (Iwerks, 1934)
*The Vampire Bat (Strayer, 1933)
Balloon Land (Iwerks, 1935)
The Sin of Nora Moran (Goldstone, 1933)

Polar (Akerlund, 2019)
Leave No Trace (Granik, 2018)
Mikey and Nicky (May, 1976)
*The Seventh Seal (Bergman, 1957)
The Death of Stalin (Iannucci, 2018)
The Foreigner (Campbell, 2017)
The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah, 1969)
Milford Graves Full Mantis (Meginsky, Young, 2018)
Enemy (Villeneuve, 2013)
Captain Marvel (Boden, Fleck, 2019)
Drunken Master II (Lau, Chan, 1994)

Tragedy Girls (MacIntyre, 2017) - 5/10
Secrets & Lies (Leigh, 1996) - 8/10
A Story from Chikamatsu (Mizoguchi, 1954) - 8/10
Suzanne’s Career (Rohmer, 1963) - 8/10
Kings of the Road (Wenders, 1976) - 6/10
The Searchers (Ford, 1956) - 8/10
My Night at Maud’s (Rohmer, 1969) - 10/10
Shoot the Moon (Parker, 1982) - 9/10
The Passion of Anna (Bergman, 1969) - 6/10
La Collectionneuse (Rohmer, 1967) - 8/10
Tout Va Bien (Godard, 1972) - 6/10
Dry Summer (Erksan, 1963) - 9/10
Love in the Afternoon (Rohmer, 1972) - 7/10
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (Greaves, 1968) - 10/10
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take Two ½ (Greaves, 2005) - 7/10
Nights of Cabiria (Fellini, 1957) - 9/10
I, Daniel Blake (Loach, 2016) - 9/10
The Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer, 1962) - 10/10
De L’origine du XXIe siècle (Godard, 2000) - 9/10
Je Vous Salue, Sarajevo (Godard, 1993) - 9/10
Meek’s Cutoff (Reichardt, 2010) - 5/10
Viridiana (Buñuel, 1961) - 5/10
The Old Place (Godard & Miéville, 2000) - 9/10
Liberté et Patrie (Godard & Miéville, 2002) - 9/10
The Lady from Shanghai (Welles, 1947) - 6/10
Á propos de Nice (Vigo, 1930) - 10/10
Taris (Vigo, 1931) - 9/10
What’s Up, Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972) - 9/10
Zéro de conduite (Vigo, 1933) - 7/10
Notre Musique (Godard, 2004) - 6/10
Bob le Flambeur (Melville, 1956) - 8/10
L’Atalante (Vigo, 1934) - 10/10

Saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with the kids, who liked it a lot. I hadn't seen it in close to 20 years. It held up well, but I remembered there being more to the story than what was there. I think I might have been conflating it with "House of Flying Daggers."

And boy, First Reformed was really something.

so I finally watched Stuart Little 2 in full with the kids (only 80 minutes!) and I'm left with a lot of questions. so the mice & birds can talk to humans *and* animals, but the cats can only talk to other animals? why is Stuart so horny for the bird? what kind of fucked up offspring would they produce? has Geena Davis ever acted before?