Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Going to see the Neil Young this afternoon.

The Handmaid’s Tale (S5 – 6.5)
Ice-Breaker: The '72 Summit Series (8.0)
Stevie Nicks: Through the Looking Glass (6.0)
Women Talking (6.0)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Fifty by Four (6.5)
She Said (7.0)
The Fablemans (6.0)
Bullitt (6.0)
Dirty Harry (6.5)
Deliverance (6.5)

I'm reading the Tarantino book--sometimes insightful, often crudely and poorly written--and trying to see the films that get their own chapter beforehand if I haven't seen it in ages. Dirty Harry (and Eastwood in particular) was better than I remembered, Bullitt a lot slower. (Tarantino mostly writes about McQueen's performance, which is really unusual.) Agree with him about Deliverance: good up to the point where they start planning their alibi, then it loses its way. I did really like the shot at the end that pointed the way to way to at least three horror films I can think of, including most obviously Carrie. Didn't remember that at all.

Bullitt benefits a lot from a big screen, where it feels like a totally different film. I liked Tarantino's aside in the book about how no one can ever recall what the plot is in Bullitt.

Will keep that in mind. Seems like something I'll probably never get a chance to see in a theatre again (don't recall a rep screening in Toronto for decades)...I want to see Madigan again too. Tarantino seems to dismiss it in the Bullitt chapter, then praise it in the Dirty Harry chapter (or vice versa).

Convicted (Cabanne, 1931)
La estación de gasolina (1930 )
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Coogler, 2022)
The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (Gosho, 1931)
The Sky Pilot (Vidor, 1921)
The Yellow Dog Catcher (Blystone, 1919)
*Dogs of War! (McGowan, 1923)

Lucky Boy (Wilson & Taurog, 1929)
What Do Men Want? (Weber, 1921)
Le Noël de la Princesse (1911)
Take a Chance (Brice & Schwab, 1933)
Half-Baked Relations (Lamont, 1934)
For the Love of Fanny (Vernon, 1931)
Three's a Crowd (Langdon, 1927)
Invisible Agent (Marin, 1942)
Le Pupille (Rohrwacher, 2022)
The Green Perfume (Pariser, 2022)

The Fabelmans 9/10
Amsterdam ??(couldn’t finish this disaster)
Emily 5/10
Extreme Prejudice 6/10
Petite Maman 7/10
The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice * (9/10)

the main entertainment value of Amsterdam is seeing how demented it gets at the climax

(but I do not recommend persevering)

What I watched of it was like third rate Zulawski trying to do a Wes Anderson. Man oh man…

Autumn 2022

Seraphita's Diary (Frederick Wiseman, 1982)
Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)
Objectified (Gary Hustwit, 2009)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949)
Other, Like Me (Marcus Werner Hed, Dan Fox, 2020)
Kovasikajuttu (Jukka Kärkkäinen, Jani-Petteri Passi, 2012)
David Lynch: The Art Life (Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Jon Nguyen, 2016)
Tokasikajuttu (Jukka Kärkkäinen, Jani-Petteri Passi, 2017)
The Night Strangler (Dan Curtis, 1973)
*The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
Aspen (Frederick Wiseman, 1991)
Azor (Andreas Fontana, 2021)
Herostratus (Don Levy, 1967)
The Woman In The Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)
The Pink Jungle (Delbert Mann, 1968)
Thunderbolt (Gordon Chan, 1995)
Electra Glide In Blue (James William Guercio, 1973)
Pharos of Chaos (Manfred Blank, Wolf-Eckart Bühler, 1983)
Public Housing (Frederick Wiseman, 1997)

Final shots of Azor among the most unsettling I saw this year - I would have put it on my best of 2021 list had I actually saw it in 2021. Electra Glide In Blue feels like it's constantly hectoring film critics to call it a "unheralded 70s anti-hero masterpiece," most of which is unwarranted. Pharos of Chaos (a.k.a. hanging out with a latter days Sterling Hayden as he fills up his beat-up river barge with reveries) unexpectedly emotional. Finally saw Vertigo. Shrug.

Azor is a brilliant movie, the scene where he is with the priest who is referring to the fascist crackdown as a phase of purification or something like that - just drips with pure evil - well it gave me the chilblains!

Azor is a brilliant movie, the scene where he is with the priest who is referring to the fascist crackdown as a phase of purification or something like that - just drips with pure evil - well it gave me the chilblains!

good grief yes!

Banshee of Inesherin
blooming dark innit.

Making my way through the Bill Weber canon:

The Boat (Keaton/Cline, 1921)
Cops (Keaton/Cline, 1922)
Love me Tonight (Mamoulian, 1932)
Black Girl (Sembene, 1966)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls, 1948)
Bugs Bunny (Long-Haired Hare and Rabbit of Seville, Jones, 1949/50)
Rose Hobart (Cornell,1936)
In the Street (Agee, Levitt, 1948)

Only took a break to watch:

Possession (Zulawski, 1981)

Vicious Lips 6/10
Bullitt 6/10
RRR 9/10
Everything Everywhere all at once 9/10
Avatar 2 6/10
Spirited 5/10
Something from Tiffany's 4/10

Merry 10mas

I tried Everything Everywhere All At Once last week but was falling asleep throughout it. Had done the same to Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio the night before for a great chunk.
So may have to rewatch both before long.

Caught most of Django the Tarantino one on tv too. Pretty bloody.

I watched EEAAO with my mom over two days and she fell asleep both times. I was riveted.

Let's Go Native (McCarey, 1930)
Sweethearts on Parade (Neilan, 1930)
*Hogfather (Jean, 2006)
The Wheel of Life (Schertzinger, 1929)
Wild Beauty (MacRae, 1927)
The Green Goddess (Olcott, 1923)
The Menu (Mylod, 2022)
*The Thin Man (Van Dyke, 1934)
Glass Onion (Johnson, 2022)

Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) 3/5. Kind of a novel Bresson (he tries his hand at romance here, sorta), but also one of his least compelling.
* The Dead (1987) 5/5
White Christmas (1954) n/a - didn't finish
Glass Onion 4/5
The Squeeze (1977) gritty, Get Carter-like flick directed by Michael Apted, with Stacy Keach trying on an ill-fitting British accent
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) 4/5
* Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) 3.5/5 the production design will never get old, but I still think trying to fit in everything from the novel was a mistake
The Far Country (1954) 3.5/5

Short:
Le Pupille (2022) 4/5

Other:
The Kingdom: Exodus (2022) 3.5/5 - Lars Von Trier in extremely self-referential "ain't I a stinker" mode, with the added knowledge that he is pretty clearly at or near the end of the road. Better than series 2.

Sorry, The Squeeze gets 3.5.

Last (x) Christmas movies you saw:

Le Pupille (Rohrwacher, 2022) 7/10
The Holiday Sitter (Liebert, 2022) 4/10

Neil Young: Harvest Time (7.5)
The Getaway (Peckinpah - 6.0)
The Outfit (7.0)
Rolling Thunder (7.0)
Sisters (De Palma - 6.0)
Madigan (6.5)
White Christmas (6.5)
Paradise Alley (4.0)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (4.0)
Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (7.0)

Tried to watch “Paradise Alley” the other night as well and made it up to the arm wrestling. Stallone’s always gonna be an acquired taste for me. Same for Rian Johnson’s idea of what’s funny. “Glass Onion“ was irritating.
The fact it gets rated over a Bresson upthread is like some Sign Of The Apocalypse. Janelle Monae is excellent, though.

I’ve seen almost all the other Bresson features plus read Notes on the Cinematographer and I would place them all above Glass Onion, does the restore order to the universe?

Down with the King has some nice elements (Gibbs is fun if a little one note, the scenery is pretty, there's a solid story in there somewhere) but a bit too aimless to really recommend

Broker is decidedly minor Kore-eda, which means it's better than most but is a bit too noticeably "his sort of film". Song Kang-Ho is great.

xpost Yes, for now!

I plan on streaming Four Nights of a Dreamer in the next day or two but it does seem like it's basically his least-regarded of the entire run from A Man Escaped on.

Fire of Love had amazing footage but nothing holding it up beyond some vague visual Wes Anderson style. Miranda July's voice should be outlawed.

I finally got around to seeing the OTHER highly touted, visually innovative fantasy featuring the intergenerational conflict in an asian-(north)american family and i have to say that Turning Red was much more enjoyable than Everything Everywhere.

The Barbershop (2002) was our Christmas movie this year. Hilarious and charming of course.

His Woman (Sloman, 1931)
Men Are Such Fools (Nigh, 1932)
The Penal Code (Melford, 1932)
The Cheerful Fraud (Seiter, 1926)
*All Night Long (Edwards, 1924)
Shanghaied Lovers (Del Ruth, 1924)
The Way to Love (Taurog, 1933)

I plan on streaming Four Nights of a Dreamer in the next day or two but it does seem like it's basically his least-regarded of the entire run from A Man Escaped on.

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Wednesday, December 28, 2022 10:31 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bresson and comedy is an uncommon connection (Affairs Publiques (1934) is good though derivative of Tati and Vigo). I left the theater asking myself "Is 'wanker' a sexual orientation?"

Gonna try to get back into watching movies again this year.

The African Desperate was worth the watch as a microbudget Art School Confidential... NOW! through the eyes of a contemporary fine arts gallerist but I'd temper expectations to "first film" and "proof of concept" if you wanna give it a go.

A whole bunch of stuff popped up on HBO Max last night. I watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which I had heard was kinda good even though it was a failed attempt to big-screen reboot a TV series nobody gave a shit about anymore by the time it came out. And it was kinda good. Henry Cavill's essential dickishness was well used, Armie Hammer was a solid glowering antagonist and the fact that he's even bigger than Cavill (which I didn't realize) was important. Alicia Vikander was a placeholder, but when is she not? There were some good chase scenes and a few decent jokes. All in all, I don't regret watching it but the final scene, which promises/begs the studio for a sequel, feels lame as hell in retrospect.

The Cathedral (D'Ambrose, 2022) 7/10
Armageddon Time (Gray, 2022) 8/10
After Yang (Kogonada, 2022) 6/10
Glass Onion (Johnson, 2022) 6/10
The Eternal Daughter (Hogg, 2022) 8/10
Saint Omer (Diop, 2022) 9/10
The Whale (Aronofsky, 2022) 2/10
White Noise (Baumbach, 2022) 4/10
* The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles, 1942) 9/10

The Whale (Aronofsky, 2022) 2/10

Cursed movie

I awarded it an extra point thanks to Fraser's endurance.

Morbius canon (cont.)

Othello (Orson Welles, 1950)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Seigel, 1956)
Mikey and Nicky (May, 1976)
The heart of the World (Maddin, 2000)

I also got into:

The Kingdom part I & II (Von Trier, 1994-97)

Adrienne (2021). Documentary about the life and murder of Adrienne Shelly, doesn't really feel appropriate to rate it here. Lots of great/heartbreaking footage of her.
This Gun for Hire (1942) 3.5/5 - Cold-blooded protagonist who we're supposed to think is redeemable because he likes cats, which a lot of people online also hope for.
* Strange Days (1995) 4/5. We had no clue in 1995 how few movies would be this audacious 28 years later.
Kamikaze '89 (1982) 3.5/5 - Fassbinder stars as the New German Cinema equivalent of MST3K's Mitchell.
* Theodora Goes Wild (1936) 3/5. It finally happened to me. I rewatched a movie I had zero memory of until I saw I had logged it 4 years ago.
Le Camion (The Truck) (1977) 3.5/5. This entire movie is Marguerite Duras describing another movie that won't be made to a bemused/confused Gerard Depardieu, interspersed with footage of the bleak countryside and a blue truck. https://images.app.goo.gl/xEA2UwbjHkNLS5z66
* The Unbelievable Truth (1989) 4/5
The Round-Up (1966) 4/5
* The Boss of It All (2006) 3/5. Funny/odd movie from Lars Von Trier but I forgot about some dumb homophobia in it.

I should add I watched Strange Days on HBO Max, as I understand it's been hard to find for a while.

Holiday season watching

*The Talented Mr Ripley (Minghella, 1999) My mum rarely watches films anymore but we watched this together and she really liked it

Paddington 2 (King, 2017) It was alright if a bit jolly hockeysticks

Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008) I found this a bit of a chore to sit through. Woated action scenes too esp compared to Casino Royale

Jingle All The Way (Levant, 1999) A searing indictment of crass Christmas commercialism

Glass Onion (Johnson, 2022) This was enertaining. Decent post Xmas dinner fare.

Wonder Woman 1984 (Jenkins, 2020) Not exaggerating but this might be the worst movie Ive ever seen.

*Munich (Spielberg, 2005) This was much better than I remembered. Spielberg at his bleakest. The sex scene near the end was so stupid though

Death View (Roth, 2018) I thought with Eli Roth directing this would be outrageous and shocking but its just run of the mill straight to video shite

Babylon (Chazelle, 2022) Its good wildly indulgent stuff like this can still get made imo. I dont think it ever clicked with me though. I liked the Tobey Maguire scene (v Boogie Nights) and the ending. The non stop manic debauchery reminded me of Wolf of Wall Street (not as good though)

*Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980) One of Marty's best.

White Noise (Baumbach, 2022) This is a mess

The Switchblade Sisters (Hill, 1975) Trash but very enjoyable trash. Kinda tame for an exploitation film though.

Wild Company (McCarey, 1930)
The Shadow Laughs (Hoerl, 1933)
Hell's Headquarters (Stone, 1932)
In Old Arizona (Walsh & Cummings, 1928)
Benny, From Panama (Parrott, 1934)
Household Blues (White, 1929)
EO (Skolimowski, 2022)
Corsage (Kreutzer, 2022)
The Raven (Corman, 1963)
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Akerman, 1975)

2022 Letterboxd stats:
Most watched actor: Harry Langdon
Most watched director: Dave Fleischer

EO (7.0)
Tar (7.0)
Vinyl (Warhol – 8.0)
Empire of Light (6.5)
Play Misty for Me (6.0)
Scorpio Rising (7.0)
Pink Flamingos (7.0)
Daisy Miller (7.0)
Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World (6.0)
Memoirs of a Geisha (6.0)
Escape from Alcatraz (6.0)

The last is well made, and Eastwood's good, but--as silly as this might sound--once they got into the minutiae of the escape, my interested started to wander.

interest...attention...whatever

Woman Trap (Wellman, 1929)
Those Who Dance (Beaudine, 1930)
Manhattan Love Song (Fields, 1934)
Port of Lost Dreams (Strayer, 1934)
That Certain Thing (Capra, 1928)
Fellini's Casanova (Fellini, 1976)
*The Invisible Man (Whale, 1933)
Broker (Kore-eda, 2022)

The Menu (2022) 2.5/5
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) 2.5/5
Naked Killer (1992) 1.5/5
Tar (2022) 4/5
China 9, Liberty 37 (1978) 3.5/5 Not the best Warren Oates/Monte Hellman collab but hits some nice notes. You can tell how much nudity the producers demanded.
Caliber 9 (1972) 3.5/5
The Fabelmans (2022) 4/5
Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968) 3/5
* Deep End (1970) 3.5/5

since Christmas:

short: The Stolen Heart (Lotte Reiniger, 1934)
short: Christo's Valley Curtain (Maysles, Giffard, 1974) i thought this might have been their project that killed people and i was tense throughout
short: Pinball (Suzan Pitt, 2013)
*The Red Shoes (Powell-Pressburger, 1948) 8/10 up from 5/10 circa 2000; 2/3rds great
Johnny Corncob (1973) 7/10 inspired by yellow submarine and the restoration looks fantastic; i didn't follow all of the story
This Place Rules (Callaghan, 2022) 5/10
The Far Country (Anthony Mann, 1954) 6/10 3rd james stewart movie i know of that ends with a bell ringing
short: Accidence (Guy Maddin, Johnsons, 2018)
short: Stump the Guesser (Guy Maddin, Johnsons, 2020) good stuff
The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016) no rating; original and entertaining, but too anti-/post- comedy/satire for me

A Wireless Lizzie (Rodney, 1929)
Our Gang at Home (1925)
*Putting Pants on Philip (Bruckman, 1927)
The Golf Nut (Edwards, 1927)
The Waning Sex (Leonard, 1926)
Those Were the Days (Bentley. 1934)
The Silver Lining (Crosland, 1932)
The Lady From Nowhere (Thorpe, 1931)
The Patent Leather Kid (Santell, 1927)
The Kiss of the Vampire (Sharp, 1963)
Night Work (Mack, 1930)

After Love is a stunner as a first film but the main attraction is Joanna Scanlon fucking killing it.

The Long Gray Line -- A Ford I'd somehow never managed to watch and I pretty much revere the man. What a strangely affecting film. Irish yokels making their way through the decades inside West Point Military Academy; practically a semi-closed society. It could've happened inside a cavalry fort and the Fordian dynamics would've been the same. Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara hold down the center. 8/10

History Of The World, Part I - Dated as all hell but I'm still a sucker for the cornball old New York Jewish Humor that pops up here and there. Had me rolling. Moses/Last Supper Waiter are classics. 6/10

Pacifiction - Benoit Magimel plays sleazy French dude like few others. This entire seductive, confounding film pivots around his performance. 7/10

Coming Out Party (Blystone, 1934)
Stolen Sweets (Thorpe, 1934)
Defenders of the Law (Levering, 1931)
The Swan (Buchowetski, 1925)
Impatience (Dekeukeleire, 1928)
Laughing Heirs (Ophuls, 1933)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Berger, 2022)
*Godzilla (Honda, 1954)
2 a.m. in the Subway (1905)
Bob Kick, L'Enfant Terrible (Melies, 1903)
Basket Ball, Missouri Valley College (1904)
The Enchanted Drawing (Blackton, 1900)
Pan-American Exposition by Night (Porter & Smith, 1901)
The Girl from Montana (Anderson, 1907)
Crossing Ice Bridge at Niagara Falls (1904)
As in a Looking Glass (1903)
Won By a Fish (Sennett, 1912)

Nobody - had no idea Christopher Lloyd was going to be in this and what a delightful surprise