Last (x) movies you saw (II)

*The Naked Spur : 7/10
Vampire's Kiss : 6/10
Dying Of the Light (Paul Schrader Edit): 7/10 -- only 7/10 because Nic Cage is in full on weirdo mode and Schrader's noodling around on Final Cut. The doctor accent is...wow...almost as great as the accent in "Vampire's Kiss"
*The Young One: 7/10 - minor Buñuel for me but still great

Crazy Rich Asians – kind of a riff on Philadelphia Story, but with better-looking people. Lots of film history embedded in it.

What Price Jazz (Baerwitz, 1934)
Felix Gets Broadcasted (Messmer, 1923)
High Flyers (Cline, 1937)
Inflation (Myers, 1933)
Felix in Fairyland (Messmer, 1923)
*Roast-Beef and Movies (Baerwitz, 1934)
*Big City Fantasy (Henabery, 1934)
The Magician (Bergman, 1958)
BlacKkKlansman (Lee, 2018)
Smiles of a Summer Night (Bergman, 1955)

Re-watching Whit Stillman's Barcelona tonight.

I was hoping for good things from Crazy Rich Asians, but found it fairly bland. I may have had the wrong expectations for a mainstream PG rom-com, but I felt like it needed sharper jokes.

kind of a riff on Philadelphia Story, but with better-looking people

!!! I'm sure this cast looks fine, but you are aware that Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn were considered pretty attractive, right?

in theaters July 26 - August 22

Killer’s Kiss (Stanley Kubrick, 1955) - 6/10
Summer Interlude (Ingmar Bergman, 1951) - 9/10
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, 2018) - 8/10
Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle, 2018) - 6/10
Blindspotting (Carlos López Estrada, 2018) - 7/10
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (Peter Rida Michail, Aaron Horvath, 2018) - 3/10
BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, 2018) - 9/10

! at low rating for Three Identical Strangers

I knew nothing about the backstory before seeing it at SIFF but on a str8 narrative level it’s my favourite doco of the year

it is an incredible story. a documentary that makes itself, really. what bothered me was how much they reused the same footage from the same Donahue, NBC, + other TV appearances. the same lines. it kinda falls apart at the end, and felt padded even at ~95 minutes. that has nothing to do with the actual story being unresolved, i just thought with so much material to go through (and so many years passed over) the reuse of footage was bizarre.

and fwiw I knew not only the backstory but most of the twists before I saw it. I would've rated it higher if I had gone in completely cold, I wish I could've.

yeah fair enough! the repeated lines are very few & read in SUPER different context the second times around, but if you’re not seeing it / that footage cold, those won’t have the same kick

a documentary that makes itself, really.

this undermines the work they do in visuals and research and in editing the story though — I felt v impressed by how manipulative it was without cheats in the first half-hour, and how well the makers shift to mostly-archival telling thereafter.

i've seen much worse evaluations of 3IS

Apostasy (Dan Kokotajlo, 2017) - fairly ho hum drama around Jehovah's witnesses.
The Heiresses (Marcelo Martinessi, 2017) - this is going to be top 2/3 for the year. Loved the use of (de-)focus to mirror the main character's state of mind (which could've been too on the nose), the script really nails the intricacies of class mobility across a more Latin American milieu, and then the final encounter between Chela and the much younger Angy -- all that hidden passion and desire across age and class -- really was a terrific driver for the last 1/3 of the film.

Missed a trick by not taglining this thread "Oh yes... There will be blood"

https://resizing.flixster.com/2vtSOfiWCmXUQ8Brs-b4y5qFYIY=/206x305/v1.bTsxMTE3NzU3OTtqOzE3ODU5OzEyMDA7ODAwOzEyMDA

Electric Bloodaloo

Kagemusha (1980)
RoboCop (2014)
The Endless (2017)
Deadpool 2 (2018)
*The Social Network (2010)
Super Troopers 2 (2018)
A Ciambra (2017)
Frenzy (1972)
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
*The Cabin In The Woods (2012)
A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018)
*Nightcrawler (2014)
First Reformed (2017)
*Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Super 8 (2011)
30 Days of Night (2007)
One Sings, The Other Doesnt (1977)

Re-watched Miami Vice tonight (the director’s cut). It’s kind of maddening how 90% of the shots are fantastically beautiful, and then the other 10% look like they were shot on somebody’s flip phone.

I've gotta get on that, watched Heat a few weeks ago for the first time and loved it. Haven't seen Collateral since it opened in 2004 but remember loving it, too.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall, good movie

The Heiresses (Marcelo Martinessi, 2017) - this is going to be top 2/3 for the year. Loved the use of (de-)focus to mirror the main character's state of mind (which could've been too on the nose), the script really nails the intricacies of class mobility across a more Latin American milieu, and then the final encounter between Chela and the much younger Angy -- all that hidden passion and desire across age and class -- really was a terrific driver for the last 1/3 of the film.

― xyzzzz__, 23. august 2018 15:15 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, for one reason or another Latin American cinema works a lot with de-focus these days, I find. Sergio Armstrong, most famous for shooting most films of Pablo Larrain, is masterful at it. Apart from Larrains films he does it greatly in From Afar and The Desert Bride. It's one of the most innovative little things happening in World Cinema at the moment, but I'll admit I have no idea what to make of it.

August 1st to 16th:

* The Brothers Bloom (Johnson 2008) 📺
Teen Titans GO! To The Movies (Michail, Horvath, Jelenic 2018)
True Confession (Ruggles, Binyon 1937) 📽️
* Sneakers (Robinson 1992) 📺
The Spy Who Dumped Me (Fogel, Iverson 2018)
Nothing Sacred [Kino restoration] (Wellman, Hecht, Schulberg, Lardner Jr., Parker, Howard, Hart, Kaufman, Carson 1937)
BlacKkKLansman (Lee, Wachtel, Rabinowitz, Willmott 2018)
Madonna: Truth Or Dare (Keshishian 1991)
To Be Or Not To Be (Lubitsch, Mayer 1942) 📽️

Re-watched Miami Vice tonight (the director’s cut). It’s kind of maddening how 90% of the shots are fantastically beautiful, and then the other 10% look like they were shot on somebody’s flip phone.

― grawlix (unperson), Friday, August 24, 2018 8:01 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've gotta get on that, watched Heat a few weeks ago for the first time and loved it. Haven't seen Collateral since it opened in 2004 but remember loving it, too.

― flappy bird, Friday, August 24, 2018 8:26 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

MV is the purest distillation of the Mann aesthetic. I actually recommend the theatrical cut over the director’s cut, though I’m not sure if one is easier to track down over the other. If you’re onboard with his “thing” it’s one of the greatest action films in recent years.

You can rent the theatrical cut on Amazon but the director's cut is the only one available on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Has the director's cut of Blackhat ever been released anywhere? I never saw the first version but the re-edit is supposed to be a substantially better movie, so I'm intrigued.

Apparently MV (theatrical cut, probably) will be free via Amazon Prime starting September 1.

*Out West (Arbuckle, 1918)
Charley on the Farm (Sullivan, 1919)
The Dippy Dentist (Goulding, 1920)
Standing Pat (Montgomery, 1928)
Campus Romeos (Pratt, 1927)
A Broadway Romeo (Blumenstock, 1931)
All the King's Horses (Tuttle, 1935)
*The Black Cat (Ulmer, 1934)
Re-Animator (Gordon, 1985)
Good References (Neill, 1920)

Primary (6.5)
A Bronx Tale (7.0)
Promised Land (7.5)
Shock and Awe (5.5)
Nico, 1988 (6.0)
Nico Icon (7.0)
Singer Presents...Elvis (6.5)
Twister (6.5)
Class Action (7.5)
Sorry to Bother You (6.0)

I was going to leave Sorry to Bother You unrated because a) I drifted a bit early on, and b) as it got weirder and weirder, I just didn't know what to make of it. So take the rating as more of a question mark than any kind of comment on how good it is.

lots of Hong Sang-soo, just hook it to my veins

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928) 9/10
Minnie and Moskowitz (Cassavetes, 1971) 7/10
Happy Hour (Hamaguchi, 2015) 9/10
La Collectionneuse (Rohmer, 1967) 6/10
Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong, 2015) 8/10
Three Colours: Blue (Kieślowski, 1993) 7/10
Three Colours: White (Kieślowski, 1994) 7/10
Three Colours: Red (Kieślowski, 1994) 7/10
In Another Country (Hong, 2012) 8/10
On The Beach at Night Alone (Hong, 2017) 8/10
Blackkklansman (Lee, 2018) 7/10
The Aviators Wife (Rohmer, 1981) 9/10
Woman on the Beach (Hong, 2006) 9/10
The Day After (Hong, 2017) 7/10

Crazy Rich Asians: 7.5

*Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971, Van Peebles) 8/10
The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928, Dulac) (41m) 8/10
La folie des vaillants (1926, Dulac) (46m) 6/10
La Belle dame sans merci (1920, Dulac) 7/10
Princesse Mandane (1928, Dulac) 6/10
Freaky Friday (1976, Nelson) 7/10
Surrender (1950, Dwan) 5/10
Dutchman (1967, Harvey) (55m) 7/10
Rendezvous in July (1949, Becker) 6/10
Nico, 1988 (2017, Nicchiarelli) 5/10
*The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961, Guest) 8/10

On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) - 10/10
A Colt is My Passport (Takashi Nomura, 1967) - 5/10
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) - 10/10
Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997) - 10/10
Auto Focus (Paul Schrader, 2002) - 7/10
Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000) - 10/10
Le Amiche (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955) - 6/10
Monte Carlo (Ernst Lubitsch, 1930) - 7/10

A Ciambra, a story about a Romani family of low-level criminals in Italy, and a young boy's coming-of-age/becoming-a-scumbag.

Alex Strangelove (Johnson, 2018) 6/10
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Milestone, 1946) 8/10
Vision Quest (Becker, 1985) 5/10
*Mean Girls (Waters, 2004) 6/10
*Heathers (Lehmann, 1989) 9/10
A Man There Was (Sjöström, 1917) 7/10
Heartaches (Shebib, 1981) 6/10
The Story of Temple Drake (Roberts, 1933) 7/10

Nearest and Dearest (Robins, 1972) 4/10
Smiles of a Summer Night (Bergman, 1955) 8/10
The Boys From Fengkuei (Hou, 1983) 8/10
Cabaret (Fosse, 1972) 7/10
The Big Combo (Lewis, 1955) 7/10
The Final Programme (Fuest, 1973) 6/10
The Devil's Rain (Fuest, 1975) 7/10
Rawhide (Hathaway, 1951) 8/10
Further up the Creek (Guest, 1958) 6/10
The Women (Cukor, 1939) 8/10
Ant-Man and the Wasp (Reed, 2018) 6/10

The Finsl Programme is one of the rare movies that I watched, thoroughly entertained the whole way through, with absolutely no clue as to what was happening.

I'd read the book many years ago, so that maybe helped - I'm not sure it was intended to be entirely coherent, in the manner of New Wave SF. Moorcock-loving fans of my acquaintance (and Moorcock himself) detest it, but as you say it's pretty pleasurable to watch. The director, Robert Fuest, had come from TV and things like the (Steed-Peel) Avengers, and he was a great set dresser and stylist - this set is the standout in FP:

https://thegameofnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/the-final-programme-02.jpg

The Good Marriage (Rohmer, 1982) - early to mid-80s Rohmer is really his best period. Also have an impression he is an interesting dabbler in these electronic music soundtracks - might be an idea to see them collected.

Heavy Love (Pembroke, 1926)
The Operation (Roth, 1930)
*That's the Spirit (Mack, 1933)
*Bubbles (Mack, 1930)
The Grab-Bag Bride (Hartman, 1917)
Guests Wanted (Ceder, 1932)
The Balloonatic (Keaton & Cline, 1923)
Take Next Car (Howe, 1922)
Pie-Eyed (Pembroke & Rock, 1925)
The Dummy Owner (Yarbrough, 1938)
The Door Knocker (Cline, 1931)
The Notorious Sophie Lang (Murphy & Menzies, 1934)
The Girl Ranchers (Christie, 1913)
Horseshoes (Davis & Semon, 1923)
This Can't Happen Here (Bergman, 1950)

in theaters August 25 - September 3

Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski, 2018) - 3/10
Never Goin’ Back (Augustine Frizzell, 2018) - 3/10
Crazy Rich Asians (Jon M. Chu, 2018) - 5/10
Summer with Monika (Ingmar Bergman, 1953) - 9/10
Juliet, Naked (Jesse Peretz, 2018) - 6/10
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) - 10/10
The Bookshop (Isabel Coixet, 2018) - 6/10
The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper, 1971) - 2/10

have been off work following an operation and attacking the dvd pile (which started at about 30 unwatched films)

Shin Godzilla (2016)
The Mysterians (Honda 1957)
Lady Snowblood (1973)
L'Atalante (Vigo 1934)
Stroszek (Herzog 1977)
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Herzog 1975)
The Soft Skin (Godard 1964)
Lady Snowblood 2 (1974)
Satantango (Tarr 1994)

(3 hours of satantango left to go, 5 days before work)

The Good Marriage (Rohmer, 1982) - early to mid-80s Rohmer is really his best period. Also have an impression he is an interesting dabbler in these electronic music soundtracks - might be an idea to see them collected.

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, September 1, 2018 8:11 AM

I like Full Moon in Paris, which I don't see mentioned enough.

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Herzog 1975)

― koogs, 4. september 2018 22:40 (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This might be my favorite Herzog. Though I should definitely watch it again soon. I love that he basically already has achieved what every Herzog-hero wants, he has transcended his field and learned to fly, basically, and it's only brought him trouble and he's just trying to be able to compete properly.

i didn't really know what to expect. but 50,000 people at a ski jump competition? 70m jumps without helmets?

yeah, everything about that film is crazy. but the flying passages with popol vuh are amazing.

North Korea Exposes The Western propaganda cos it was being circulated on Pirate Bay.
Weird take on American advertising etc . I think it has some clips borrowed from Adam curtis. odd taht it was saying that Americans were a people being brainwashed by their leaders but I guiess the idea is that the public who get to see the filma re brainwashed enough not to think that they are too.
Semi had it on in the background.

Active Measures new documenatry on the Russian influence on the 2016 election, lead up to and aftermath. Quite enjoyed it.

Boss baby, watched a few computer animation type things last week. Also saw The Secret Life of Pets, Captain Underpants and half watched Despicable Me 3. & had seen Incredibles 2 at the start of the week.

I like Full Moon in Paris, which I don't see mentioned enough.

― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 September 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes. I strongly suspect The Aviator's Wife and Pauline at the Beach are great. The Green Ray is my favourite.

Although looking at the filmography he didn't get going till the 80s. One film a year almost every year whereas before there are gaps with nothing.

Crazy Rich Asians (Chu, 2018) 6
Scarlet Street (Lang, 1945) 8
The Bat (Wilbur, 1959) 3
Alien Covenant (Ridley Scott, 2016) 5
Alpha (Albert Hughes, 2018) 5

August 24th to September 1st: not gonna lie, Moviepass nigh-collapsing is having an impact. But the elliptical at the Y now has Netflix, so I'm going to be watching more films in 45-minute chunks under fluorescent lights, the way the makers intended.

Green Room (Saulnier, 2015) 📺
The Happytime Murders (Henson, Berger , 2018)
* There Will Be Blood (PTA, 2007)
* No Country For Old Men (Coen x Coen, 2007)
The VVitch (Eggers , 2015) 📺
* Still Crazy (Clement, LaFrenais, Gibson, 1998) 📺
Landline (Robespierre, Holm, 2017) 📺
Mindhorn (Foley, Farnaby, Barratt, 2016) 🏋️
* Stop Making Sense (Demme , 1984)
Open Windows (Vigalondo, 2014) 📺
* Attack The Block (Cornish, 2011) 📺
Mission: Impossible - Rogue; Nation (McQuarrie, 2015) 📺
The Last Movie Star (Rifkin, 2018) 📺

Happytime was mulitplex DCP, the other cinema screenings were laser-projected at Cinerama.

Woman Walks Ahead. Free on Amazon Prime. Pretty good. Extra points for Jessica Chastain's character not sleeping with anyone.

the spooky month so far:
Lifeforce (Hooper, 1972) 5
Someone's Watching Me! (Carpenter, TV, 1978) 6
Humanoids from the Deep (Peeters and others, 1980) 4
The Entity (1982) 8
Christine (Carpenter, 1983) 6
The Company of Wolves (Jordan, 1984) 7
The Toxic Avenger (Kaufman & Herz, 1984) 5
The Toxic Avenger Part II (Kaufman & Herz, 1989) 3
The Toxic Avenger Part III (Kaufman & Herz, 1989) 3
The Toxic Avenger IV: Citizen Toxie (Kaufman & frat boys, 2000) 2
The Stuff (Cohen, 1985) 8
Cemetery Man (Soavi, 1994) 8
Alien Resurrection (Jeunet, 1997) 5
The Faculty (Rodriguez, 1998) 6
Saw (Wan, 2004) 6
The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (Aster, 2011) good
The Vast of Night (2019) 7
Gatlopp (2022) 4
Beetlejuice x2 (Burton, 2024) 7

Cemetery Man a.k.a. Dellamorte Dellamore is my discovery of the month: something like a combination of Possession and Dead Alive.

also:
Will & Harper (Greenbaum, 2024) 6

Spooktober viewing (although I didn't totally limit myself to spooky movies)

The Black Cat (Ulmer, 1934) 8/10
The Asphyx (Newbrook, 1972) 6/10
Angst (Kargl, 1983) 9/10
Lifeforce (Hooper, 1985) 5/10
Duck, You Sucker (Leone, 1971) 8/10
Old (Shyamalan, 2021) 4/10
The Hills Have Eyes (Craven, 1977) 8/10
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Hooper, 1986) 7/10
Trouble Every Day (Denis, 2001) 8/10
El Conde (Larrain, 2023) 5/10
*Tetsuo The Iron Man (Tsukamoto, 1989) 8/10
Rap World (O'Malley, 2024) 7/10

i watched Spike Lee's Malcolm X for the first time on monday, despite owning it on VHS for 32 years...

spook cinema:
* Hundreds Of Beavers (Cheslik, Tews 2024 [2022-2023 festivals])
I Know Where I'm Going! [BFI restoration] (Powell and Pressburger 1945)
My Old Ass (Park 2024)
Ravenous (Bird, Griffin 1999) 📽️
Les Yeux sans visage (Franju, Boileau-Narcejac, Redon, Sautet, Gascar après Redon 1960)
Blade (Norrington, Goyer 1998)
A Matter Of Life And Death (Powell and Pressburger 1946)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Burton, Gough, Millar 2024)
Megalopolis (Coppola, Coppola 2024)
Black Narcissus (Powell and Pressburger 1947)
Blade II (del Toro, Goyer 2002) 📽️
Opera [4K Severin restoration] (Argento, Ferrini 1987)
Bell, Book and Candle (Quine, Taradash after Van Druten 1958)
The Red Shoes [UCLA restoration] (Powell and Pressburger and Winter and Helpmann et al 1948)
Rumours (Maddin, Johnson & Johnson 2024)
† The Evil Dead (Raimi 1981)
Demon Knight (Dickerson, Bishop, Reiff, Voris
1995) 📽️
The Fall [4K restoration] (Tarsem, Gilroy, Soultanakis after Petrov 2006)
The Small Back Room [FF/BFI restoration] (Powell and Pressburger after Balchin 1949)

happy home:
Kiss Me, Stupid (Wilder, Diamond 1964) 💿
Bones And All (Guadagnino, Jajganich after DeAngelis David Kajganich after Camille DeAngelis 2022)

Trap (2024) 2.5/5
* Let's Get Lost (1989) 4.5/5
* Play Time (1967) 5/5
Anora (2024) 4.5/5
High Sierra (1941) 3.5/5
* The Brood (1979) 4/5
The Crazies/Code Name: Trixie (1973) 4/5
Rap World (2024) 4/5
The Witches of Eastwick (1987) 3/5
Martin (1977) 4/5
* Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 2.5/5. I hate the scene with the little people in jars A LOT.
Distant Sky (2018) 4/5. Nick Cave concert film
The Facts of Murder (1959) 3.5/5
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024) 4/5
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) 3/5
Q (2023) 3/5. Documentary on Criterion Channel about the director's mother, a longtime member of a Lebanese religious cult
The Church (1989) 3.5/5
Christine (1983) 3.5/5

“Curse Of The Werewolf” is such a bizarre Hammer: Spanish setting, rape, cursed offspring of that crime as main protagonist, Ollie Reed as one of the coolest looking werewolves in cinema but onscreen for - iirc - a small fraction of the film. Still - prob my fave werewolf flick.

The Ring (Verbinski, 2002)
The Substance (Fargeat, 2024)
The Blob (Russell, 1988)
His Three Daughters (Jacobs, 2023)
Saturday Night (Reitman, 2024)
The Fly (Cronenberg, 1986)
Emilia Perez (Audiard, 2024)
Heathers (Lehmann, 1989)
Hard Truths (Leigh, 2024)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Aldrich, 1962)
Woman of the Hour (Kendrick, 2023)
It Follows (Mitchell, 2014)
Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley, 1992)
Anora (Baker, 2024)
Mildred Pierce (Curtiz, 1945)
Conclave (Berger, 2024)