Last (x) movies you saw (II)

not only boring but contemptible, a film revolving around an absurd conceit and a 'moral tale' that gives too much (any) credit to the protagonist's dilemma. it's the first Rohmer I've seen and I will continue to plug away, but wow, after trying to see Claire's Knee for the better part of a year, it was a real letdown.

Loving You (To, 1995) 6/10
Miami Vice (Mann, 2006) 9/10
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (To, 2011) 6/10
*Breathless (Godard, 1960) 7/10
The 15:17 to Paris (Eastwood, 2018) 7/10
Cosmopolis (Cronenberg, 2012) 6/10
*His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940) 9/10
An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu, 2018) 8/10
Shirkers (Tan, 2018) 7/10
xXx: State of the Union (Tamahori, 2005) 5/10
Patience (After Sebald) (Gee, 2011) 7/10

MUBI run:

Lovers of the Artic Circle (Medem, 1998)
Room in Rome (Medem, 2010)
Chaudhvin Ka Chand (Sadiq, 1960) - this was really great: utterly farcical plot pushed to the limit.

not only boring but contemptible, a film revolving around an absurd conceit and a 'moral tale' that gives too much (any) credit to the protagonist's dilemma. it's the first Rohmer I've seen and I will continue to plug away, but wow, after trying to see Claire's Knee for the better part of a year, it was a real letdown.

― flappy bird,

lol I understand. My favorite Rohmers aren't even CK or My Night at Maud's. His writing and filmmaking got better in the eighties.

Yeah, I saw Love in the Afternoon and Claire's Knee first, probably due to the Criterion stamp. It was years before I tried again and realized the actual breadth of his work.

yeah i just find men intellectualizing their horniness to be really tedious. I'll see if the video store has The Green Ray this weekend

Its probably his best film - there was a switch in his writing and he focused on women a lot more, and his films are perhaps better for it.

I like Claire's Knee a lot. But I'm like the Don, may he rest peace--my way of doing things is over.

the film he made before it, Full Moon in Paris, is almost as good as a record of the young chattering classes.

I like Claire's Knee now. I was just under a misconception that this was his whole shtick. It's more palatable knowing that he can also write amazingly sympathetic and natural female-centered stories.

are all of the moral tales m/l similar to Claire's Knee in approach?

I guess my favourite is Maud's, though. I've six or seven in all, some of them later.

"seen"

are all of the moral tales m/l similar to Claire's Knee in approach?

― flappy bird,

It's hard to say. Love in the Afternoon is my favorite of the batch in part because the male protagonist's confusion about Zouzou's character was honestly rendered; also, she makes it clear she doesn't need him.

It's been many years, though.

i own the moral tales box but i've only seen la collectionneuse and love in the afternoon, both of which are tremendous though i prefer love. every rohmer short i've seen is also excellent. boring but contemptible is my thing i guess

I like when his characters go to the beach. Rohmer's good at beach sequences.

That's the side of Rohmer that really won me over.

yeah i just find men intellectualizing their horniness to be really tedious.

Maybe that's why I like Triple Agent best of the Rohmer's I've seen?

Body Melt (Brophy 1993) [TV]
Batman Returns (Burton, Waters 1992) [TV]
Ralph Breaks The Internet (Moore, Johnston, Ribon, Reardon, Trinidad, Younger, Reilly 2018) [3D DCP]
Computer Chess (Bujalski 2013) [TV]
Results (Bujalski 2015) [TV]
Gräns [Border] (Abbasi, Eklöf, Lindqvist 2018) [DCP]
Gremlins (Dante, Columbus 1984) [DCP]
Never Goin' Back (Frizzell 2018) [TV]
* Role Models (Wain, Dowling, Herron, Rudd, Marino 2008) [gym]
Faces Places [Visages, Villages] (Varda et R 2017) [gym]
Nancy (Choe 2018) [TV]
Heat (Mann 1995) [DCP]
The Favourite (Lanthimos, Davis, McNamara 2018) [DCP]
* The Informant! (Soderbergh, Burns 2009) [TV]
Roma (Cuarón 2018) [Laser]
Burning [버닝] (Lee, Oh 2018) [DCP]

Vox Lux (Corbet, 2018) 6/10
Green Book(Farrelly, 2018) 2/10
The Favourite (Lanthimos, 2018) 7/10
Shoplifters (Kore-eda, 2018) 9/10
Hereditary (Aster, 2018) 7/10
Widows (McQueen, 2018) 6/10
Mirai (Hosoda, 2018) 8/10
Beautiful Boy (Van Groeningen, 2018) 3/10
Roma (Cuaron, 2018) 5/10
* A Day in the Country (Renoir, 1936) 9/10
* Boudu Saved from Drowning (Renoir, 1932) 9/10

Ex Machina (Garland, 2014) 4/5
*Mandy (Cosmatos, 2018) 4/5
*Opera (Argento, 1987) 4/5 (I like these films ok)

*A Blade in the Dark (Bava the lesser, 1983) 1.5/5. The ending is- rot13 to blank out spoilers for this insanely mediocre giallo- genafcubovp nf fuvg; seeing it in Italian (with the surrounding films, as part of Philly's Exhumed Films birthday screening) also made it obvious that what little enjoyment could be found came almost entirely from the infamously shitty dubbing ("Is it possible you're such a vacant nerd that your pleasure is to bake like a frog in the sun?!") Just a dreary film- boring locations (shot in a producer's villa on the cheap and it shows), a sub-Friday the 13th score that Bava thinks is compelling enough to put front and center (remember the amazing crane shot in Tenebrae where the music is suddenly revealed as diegetic? now imagine that it's almost two hours long and it fucking sucks) and no visible care or passion put into anything but the kills, which- with the twist mentioned earlier- make it feel even more misogynist than your average giallo. Garbage. Avoid.

Formula for a Murder (de Martino, 1985) 2.5/5. this, on the other hand! Also a minor giallo from the tail end of the genre, also cops some moves from American slasher movies, but it's so fucking coocoo bananas that it's kind of fun. Also much more pleasant to listen to because instead of beating us over the head with a single uninspiring cue for nearly two (!) hour (!!) it just recycles the score from The New York Ripper instead.

*Inferno (Argento, 1980)- 4/5. I'm back at the point in my cycle where I think this movie is brilliant again? I'm definitely past the point of wishing there was any strong central presence like Jessica Harper and embracing the confusion of viewpoints as the point of the thing. Emerson's score (with the one awesome exception still hasn't grown on me, which is a shame.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (Henson the lesser, 1992)- 4/5. OH MY GOD THIS WAS A PURE DELIGHT. I grew up in kind of a non-Muppet household so this was, believe it or not, the first mainline Muppet movie I've ever seen. And it's so good! Caine commits entirely to the part without a single wink to camera (not even at "Why, it's Mr. Fozziwig's rubber chicken factory!") and it's a surprisingly faithful adaptation, retaining most of Dickens' chewiest dialogue. The only complaint I could possibly have is the songs aren't up to the standard of like, "Rainbow Connection" or the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack, but come on, it has the greatest kiss in screen history.

The Marleys were dead: to begin with...

Continuing my past year media dump; here's my 2018 seen and wanna see; would welcome any that I missed on the list:

Best Movies 2018:
Monrovia, Indiana
Hereditary
Zama
The Guilty
The Death of Stalin
Kusama: Infinity
Private Life
Life and Nothing More
Mama Africa

No:
Sorry To Bother You
Damsel

To See:
Free Solo* - Will likely see in theaters shortly
Shoplifters* - Will likely see in theaters shortly
The Favourite* - Will likely see in theaters shortly
Unsane (Amazon)
First Reformed (Amazon/Kanopy)
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (Kanopy)
Let the Corpses Tan (Kanopy)
The Other Side of the Wind (Netflix)
Roma (Netflix)
Black Panther (Netflix)
Shirkers (Netflix)
Filmworker (Netflix)
Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Eighth Grade
Burning
Mirai
We the Animals
Have a Nice Day
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Isle of Dogs
Three Identical Strangers
A Quiet Place
I Am Not a Witch
Incredibles 2
Leave No Trace
Won’t You Be My Neighbor
Vice
The Sisters Brothers
Paddington 2
Love, Gilda
Loveless
Annihilation
BlacKkKlansman
Amazing Grace

i'm not so full of myself to suggest this was a bad year in film but i did a bad job seeing good films apparently.

all great / very good:

Unsane
Burning
Paddington 2
First Reformed
Eighth Grade
BlackKklansman
Annihilation
Three Identical Strangers
Mirai
The Favourite

Can You Ever Forgive Me? was good too

you know if anything i didn't note with a streaming service is currently streaming somewhere on amazon/hulu/kanopy/netflix/hbo?

The Grace Jones doc is also on Hulu, that's all I got.

Three identical strangers is an incredible story, def worth seeing on Netflix or wherever but no need to see at the cinema - the presentation is very boilerplate Insane True Story Documentary, like it has pretty much the exact same structure of something like the impostor from a few years ago, with the obligatory landfill doc music

I wanted to see more of the amoral eugenicist lady.

I saw Three Identical Strangers in a big, full theatre at a film festival, not knowing the story already, and being in a gasping audience was great

forks! the following comic book movies are all better than Black Panther:
Teen Titans GO! To The Movies
Ant-Man & The Wasp
Mutafukaz
Bernard & Huey

these non-fiction films would probably be of interest to you:
The Road Movie
The Green Fog
Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records
Hal

and these might also work for you:
Blindspotting
Mandy (on Shudder)
Nancy (on Kanopy)
Border [Gräns]
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (on Netflix)

Great Day in the Morning (1956, Tourneur) 6/10
*Stars in My Crown (1950, Tourneur) 10/10
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018, Coen, Coen) 7/10
Circle of Danger (1951, Tourneur) 6/10
*The Fortune Cookie (1966, Wilder) 8/10
The Fascist (1961, Salce) 7/10
*Nightfall (1957, Tourneur) 8/10
Humoresque (1946, Negulesco) 7/10
La Commare Secca (1962, Bertolucci) 7/10
Bitter Money (2016, Wang) 6/10
Ten Days Wonder (1971, Chabrol) 7/10

thanks sic; i'll add most if not all of those to the pile!

after deadpool and antman and as much of batman v superman as i could stomach, I honestly am done with DC/Marvel superhero movies (though MAYBE shazam will overcome as i am a huge cc beck nerd); the main attraction of black panther is solely for the cultural import and the ever necessary RIGHT TO HAVE AN OPINION

... though i _did_ just reread the Jungle Action books that the movie is at least partially based on so i'm curious to see the fidelity to McGregor's source material. Coates' writing with the character is just not good; would love someone to convince me otherwise though.

Is black panther from 2018?! Jesus fucking Christ

February!

Wow

seems like only 2 weeks ago i was chuckling at thinkpieces about its importance

some streaming additions to my "to watch" list if anyone else wants to play along:

Bird Box (Netflix)
Mary and the Witch’s Flower (Netflix)
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (Netflix)
What Still Remains (Netflix)
Nancy (Kanopy)
Bernard and Huey (Amazon)
The Road Movie (Amazon)
Paddington 2 (HBO)
Loveless (Starz)

seems like only 2 weeks ago i was chuckling at thinkpieces about its importance

Border might still be in cinemas in NYC, was here two weeks ago

Ant-Man 2 is only moderately good, but charming ppl + lots of jokes + Michael Peña on 70+% sets and locations absolutely beats Black Panther’s scowl-faced srsness on, under, & surrounded by a shimmering haze of pixels

there’s one okayish heist scene in BP though, shrug emoji

yeah, border really should've already been on that list as it's been something I've wanted to see for a minute. May try to catch it at IFC.

Mutafukaz- I missed my chance to see this in Philly and it’s doing hat standard Funimation thing of no streaming (except maybe on their own service) and MAYBE a disc release in the distant future, but I’m curious about anything Studio 4C. But I’ve been concerned...how minstrel-y is it? Because it seems like it’s walking a real tightrope with that kind of imagery

if you're hyper-sensitive to that, it could be a cringe, yeah. But the two-elements-inspired levels of magpieing in the film are leavened by magpieing loads and loads of other snippets of US culture that have come, fragmented, to the author through relentless corporate exports. For mine, the aspects of the story that are about the characters feeling lost and overwhelmed by a city that seems built out of things that are alien to them, and the author's obvious passion for hip-hop, outweigh the perception of appropriation.

(I haven't read the books, though.)

Santa's Workshop (Jackson, 1932)
Jack Frost (Iwerks, 1934)
*Hogfather (Jean, 2006)
Prince Bayaya (Trnka, 1950)
Hello Sailor (Sandrich, 1927)
Passion (Trnka, 1962)
Cybernetic Grandma (Trnka, 1962)
Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose (Trnka, 1964)
The Hand (Trnka, 1965)

j.lu, what are the must-watch Trnka's?

The only one I've liked so far was The Emperor's Nightingale. Old Czech Legends and Prince Bayaya struck me as rather too twee. The Hand is as powerfully allegorical as it is polemical.

Yesterday: A Simple Favor, which was better than I expected. Blake Lively is very good at playing white trash grifters.
Today: Nico, 1988, which made me want to investigate her 80s albums (like most people, I stopped paying attention after The End). The lead actress is great.

Couldn't do anything with Shirkers, which seemed endlessly referential, self-mythologizing and the equivalent of a filmed zine, which sounded good to me in theory but not so much in practice.

Isle of Dogs was a Wes Anderson film through and through: visually interesting, technically impressive, mannered to the point of absurdity, outrageous cast generally thrown away, script better served to a picturebook. I will say that the animation was maybe a bit cutrate by the standards of Laika.

Isle of Dogs is the third Anderson film in a row that I just can't bring myself to care about enough to watch.

Mary and the Witch's Flower was (at least for the half hour I got through before i gave up) paint-by-numbers Miyazaki, right down to the character animations and poses. Felt weirdly manipulative.