Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Yes! I keep hard pitching that film at everyone I meet. It's on Amazon Prime btw!

January:

House of Frankenstein (Kenton, 1944) 7/10
The Blood Spattered Bride (Arandi, 1972) 7/10
Taking Off (Forman, 1971) 8/10
Little Women (Cukor, 1933) 8/10
House of Dracula (Kenton, 1945) 6/10
Rio Conchos (Douglas, 1964) 8/10 (that's Gordon, not Kirk)
Little Women (Gerwig, 2019) 8/10
Short Night of Glass Dolls (Lado, 1971) 6/10
Heller in Pink Tights (Cukor, 1960) 7/10
The Missouri Breaks (Penn, 1976) 8/10
The Gore Gore Girls (Lewis, 1972) 6/10
The Big Racket (Castellari, 1976) 8/10
Ghost Story (Weeks, 1974) 6/10
Major Dundee (Peckinpah, 1965) 8/10
Woman is the Future of Man (Hong, 2004) 8/10
Isle of the Dead (Robson, 1945) 7/10
The Church (Soavi, 1989) 7/10
A Hidden Life (Malick, 2019) 8/10
The Personal History of David Copperfield (Iannucci, 2019) 6/10
On the Buses (Booth, 1971) 3/10
Mutiny on the Buses (Booth, 1972) 4/10
Holiday on the Buses (Izzard, 1973) 5/10

Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970, Furie) 5/10
L.A. Plays Itself (1972, Halsted) (51m) 6/10
The Sex Garage (1972, Halsted) (35m) 5/10
The Lighthouse (2019, Eggers) 6/10
Guns of the Trees (1961, Mekas) 8/10
The Strange One (1957, Garfein) 7/10
Bless Their Little Hearts (1983, Woodberry) 8/10
The Old Fashioned Way (1934, Beaudine) 7/10
Nationtime—Gary (1972, Greaves) 6/10
You’re Telling Me! (1934, Kenton) 7/10
*The Masque of the Red Death (1964, Corman) 9/10
*It’s a Gift (1934, McLeod) 10/10

Harriet (Lemmons, 2019) 4/10
* Mistress America (Baumbach, 2015) 7/10
The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky, 1985) 5/10
* Under Fire (Spottiswoode, 1983) 8/10
* Chinese Roulette (Fassbinder, 1976) 7/10
Kes (Loach, 1969) 8/10
Westfront 1918 (Pabst, 1929) 9/10

For January:

Great:
Spirited Away (2001, Rewatch in theater)
The Wind Rises (2013, Rewatch in theater)
Honeyland (2018, Rewatch in theater)

Very Good to Very Very Good:
Jay Himself (2019)
Muxes (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlzhXBjmaUw
Midnight Family (2019 in theater)
Porco Rosso (1992, in theater)
What Did Jack Do? (David Lynch 2020)

Okay to Very Good:
Color Out of Space (2020, in theater)
John Berger and the Art of Looking (2016)

Aborted:
Jacob, Mimmi and the Talking Dogs (2019)
Chained for Life (2019)

Immediately in Progress:
I Am Thor (2015)
Uncut Gems (2019)

Vertige (1969, Beaudin)
Logan Lucky (2017, Soderbergh)
The Wonderland Experience (2002, Hardyment)
Ford v Ferrari (2019, Mangold)
Anna (2019, Besson)
This Is Not A Test (1962, Gadette)
Beware Of Mr. Baker (2012, Bulger)
The 10th Victim (1965, Petri)
The Call of Cthulhu (2005, Leman)
Lost Landscapes of Los Angeles (2019, Prelinger)
Color Out of Space (2019, Stanley)
Black Tight Killers (1966, Hasebe)

The Ghost Walks (Strayer, 1934)
One Hour Late (Murphy, 1934)
Snow Birds (White, 1932)
Secret of the Chateau (Thorpe, 1934)
The Ghost & Mr. Chicken (Rafkin, 1966)
Daughter (Kashcheeva, 2019)
Hair Love (Smith et al, 2019)
Kitbull (Sullivan, 2019)
Memorable (Collet, 2019)
Sister (Song, 2019)
Brotherhood (Joobeur, 2018)
Nefta Football Club (Piat, 2018)
The Neighbors' Window (Curry, 2019)
Saria (Buckley, 2019)

Nights of Cabiria

I loved this. The final scenes are just devastating. Giulietta Masina is incredible in this. She has this mix of sassiness and naivety.

The Asphalt Jungle

I wanted to see this for years but it was disappointing. Its a bit stiff and I like my noirs to be a bit more feverish and crazed. The Killing is much better than this.

The Killing is much better than this.

Orson Welles said so too.

The Return (Zvyagintsev)*
The Banishment (Zvyagintsev)*
Elena (Zvyagintsev)*
Leviathan (Zvyagintsev)*
Loveless (Zvyagintsev)
Crossing the Line (Marcello)
The Mouth of the Wolf (Marcello)
The Silence of Pelesjan (Marcello)
No Fear, No Die (Denis)
I Can’t Sleep (Denis)
US Go Home (Denis)
Nenette and Boni (Denis)
Atlantics (Diop)*
Les Miserables (Ly)
Bad Company (Eustache)
Santa Claus has Blue Eyes (Eustache)
Frozen II (Lee & Buck)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Abrams)
1917 (Mendes)
Knives Out (Johnson)
Blade Runner (Scott)
Matchstick Men (Scott)
Logan (Mangold)
Ford v Ferrari (Mangold)
Jojo Rabbit (Waititi)
The Tiniest Place (Huezo)
Tempestad (Huezo)
Anima Mundi (Reggio)
Rome Wants Another Caesar (Jancso)
A Toute Allure (Kramer)
Muukalainen (Valkeapäa)
My God, How Low I’ve Fallen (Comencini)
Kagi (Ichikawa)
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (Hara)
Daddy Longlegs (Safdie & Safdie)
Heaven Knows What (Safdie & Safdie)
Good Time (Safdie & Safdie)*
Uncut Gems (Safdie & Safdie)

If you get a chance, check out those Huezo films. They were on the list of 25 best Latin American films of the last decade we discussed a while back, and they are pretty incredible documentaries.

tempestad is on my list.

2020 so far:

So Long, My Son (Wang, 2019) 6/10
*Terrorizers (Yang, 1986) 10/10
*Yi Yi (Yang, 2000) 10/10
Out-Takes From the Life of a Happy Man (Mekas, 2012) 8/10
Visions of an Island (Hopinka, 2016) 4/10
Malni – Towards the ocean, Towards the shore (Hopinka, 2020) 7/10
Une femme est une femme (Godard, 1961) 7/10
All the Corners of the World (Tsai, 1989) 6/10
Nothing Sacred (Wellman, 1937) 6/10
The Women (Cukor, 1939) 8/10
*Love and Friendship (Stillman, 2016) 8/10
Uncut Gems (Safdie, Safdie, 2019) 8/10
It Has to be lived Once and Dreamed Twice (Kohlberger, 2019) 7/10
Humming, Fast and Slow (Kohlberger, 2013) 6/10
Not Even Nothing can be Free of Ghosts (Kohlberger, 2016) 7/10
Keep that Dream Burning (Kohlberger, 2017) 8/10
To Sleep With Anger (Burnett, 1990) 8/10
Twentieth Century (Hawks, 1934) 8/10
Elena and Her Men (Renoir, 1956) 5/10
Five Year Diary (Reels 22, 23, 80,81) (Robinson) 9/10
As I was Moving Ahead… (Mekas, 2000) 9/10
Le Mepris (Godard, 1964) 8/10
Goldman v Silverman (Safdie, Safdie, 2020) 2/10
What did Jack Do? (Lynch, 2017) 5/10
Calypso (Tait, 1955) 6/10
The Drift Back (Tait, 1957)
Palindrome (Tait, 1964) 7/10
Walden (Mekas, 1969) 4/10
*Jeanne Dielman… (Akerman, 1975) 10/10
*Akira (Otomo, 1988) 6/10
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party (Jacobs, 2019) 6/10
The Georgetown Loop (Jacobs, 1996) 7/10
Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks, 1939) 10/10
*Phantom Thread (Anderson, 2017) 10/10
Rio Bravo (Hawks, 1959) 10/10
*Porco Rosso (Miyazaki, 1992) 9/10
Le Beau Mariage (Rohmer, 1982) 5/10
Alphaville (Godard, 1965) 6/10

Good Intentions (short - Mantzaris, 2018)
God Told Me To (Cohen, 1976)
Le Corbeau (Clouzot, 1943)
Sorry, Wrong Number (Litvak, 1948)
Ash Is Purest White (Jia, 2018)
Separate Tables (Mann, 1958)
The Last Details (Ashby, 1973)
The Swimmer (Perry, 1968)
What Did Jack Do? (short - Lynch, 2017)
Begone, Dull Care (short - McLaren, Lambart, 1949)
Chinese Roulette (Fassbinder, 1976)
The Fugitive Kind (Lumet, 1960)
Dragged Across Concrete (Zahler, 2019)
L'assassin habite au 21 (Clouzot, 1942)
My Best Fiend (Herzog, 1999)
Fata Morgana (Herzog, 1971)
The Image Book (Godard, 2018)
The Naked Prey (Wilde, 1965)
Hot Biskits (short - Williams, 1931)
Big in Vietnam (short - Diop, 2012)
Liberian Boy (short - Diop, 2015)
A Married Woman (Godard, 1964)

Missile (Wiseman, 1988) - 10/10
*Tout Va Bien (Godard, Gorin; 1972) - 9/10
Letter to Jane (Godard, Gorin; 1972) - 6/10
Not Wanted (Lupino, 1949) - 9/10
*The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Fassbinder, 1972) - 10/10
Daisy Miller (Bogdanovich, 1974) - 7/10
*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004) - 9/10
Targets (Bogdanovich, 1968) - 8/10
Le Petit Soldat (Godard, 1963) - 7/10
Perfect Love (Breillat, 1996) - 9/10
*The Terminator (Cameron, 1984) - 9/10
Kaili Blues (BI, 2015) - 8/10
The Swimmer (Perry, 1968) - 10/10
In Another Country (Hong, 2012) - 8/10
Innocents with Dirty Hands (Chabrol, 1975) - 7/10
The Green Ray (Rohmer, 1986) - 10/10

Domestic Violence (Wiseman, 2001) - 10/10
Hotel by the River (Hong, 2018) - 8/10
Rebels of the Neon God (Tsai, 1992) - 9/10
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Yates, 1973) - 9/10
Becky Sharp (Mamoulian, 1935) - 6/10
Madame Bovary (Chabrol, 1991) - 8/10
Point Blank (Boorman, 1967) - 7/10
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai, 2003) - 8/10
The Stationmaster’s Wife (Fassbinder, 1977) - 7/10
Isabelle Huppert, une vie pour jouer (Toubaina, 2001) - 8/10
The Naked and the Dead (Walsh, 1958) - 7/10
Fallen Angels (Wong, 1995) - 10/10
Ossessione (Visconti, 1943) - 8/10
Inspector Bellamy (Chabrol, 2009) - 6/10
Domestic Violence 2 (Wiseman, 2002) - 10/10

Parasite (6.0)
El Camino (6.0)
Little Women (7.5)
Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation (7.0)
Uncut Gems (5.0)
Bombshell (6.0)
Richard Jewell (6.5)
Dark Waters (6.5)
Making Waves (7.0)
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (7.5)

I thought 10 movies in two months (I last posted here Dec. 6) was a snail's pace, but that works out to 60 a year, which is normal for me, so moving out of the city hasn't changed much at all in terms of numbers--the change is that Bombshell and Richard Jewell probably would have been replaced by a couple more documentaries.

Finally got around to Knives Out; had no idea it had so much in common with Parasite in its own (very mannered, solidly entertaining, well cast) way

Boy, "Honeyland" was some rough stuff, like watching a live action Biblical (Old Testament) parable.

she calls a fucking plague on them!

Egoyan's new one, "Guest of Honor," is not good. Well acted, loopy and silly script.

Every time someone disses Guest of Honor I'm going to mention that it premiered at Venice last year, where there were only two women in competition, and the festival director refused critique because he only chooses the best art.

my first egoyan! unless someone argues otherwise, likely my last egoyan.

No! See his first ... 7? 8?

All great, iirc.

Remember honestly wasn't bad either. Very late style film, but the camerawork was good, and the script was insane enough to work. But boy has Egoyan made a lot of crap over the last, what, fifteen years? I suspect Where the Truth Lies will be horrifying on a rewatch.

Atlantics (2019) 9/10
Daddy Longlegs (2010) 8/10
Pickup on South Street (1953) 7/10
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) 6/10
A Hidden Life (2020) 8/10
Mission Impossible 2 (2000) 2/10
Good Time (2017) 8/10
Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) 6/10
Zama (2017) 9/10
Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979) 7/10
Funeral in Berlin (1966) 7/10
The Third Man (1949) 10/10
On the Bowery (1957) 8/10
Bob le Flambeur (1959) 9/10
The Color Out of Space (2020) 2/10
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) 7/10
Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954) 9/10
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1975) 7/10
Mission Impossible 3 (2006) 6/10

its been a weird month

what is the essential egoyan? Sweet Hereafter?
Guest of Honor was frankly bad; the twist in the middle literally had me shaking my head.

Sweet hereafter or Exotica which is a very odd but great film

Either of those two for sure. His first several movies have a lot of thematic consistency, so if you like those two you will like his earlier films as well.

will try at some point.

Saw Barbara Kopple's new documentary for the History Channel, "Desert One," about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis and the failed 1980 rescue attempt that ended with eight dead Delta Force members. I thought it was great; not sure how it could have been done any better without much discussing Reagan or the politics of that moment and our moment more closely... but that's honestly a different film. What she got out of the amazing lineup of interviewees (including Carter, who she said she had all of 20 minutes with) and the declassified phone calls between the white house and the military is stunning. Highly recommended when it comes to the teevee.

At the talkback, they had two of the helicopter pilots and one of the hostages onstage; it was real intense.

Legendary Weapons of China (SB; Liu Chia-Liang, 1982) 5/10 couldn't follow the story but the magic boxing was rad
Little Women (2019) 6/10
What Did Jack Do? (Lynch, 2017)
Marriage Story (white people, 2019) 6/10
Parasite (Joon-ho, 2019) 9/10

calendar is my favorite egoyan. but sweet hereafter is a better starting point.

The Tree of Life (2011, Malick; expanded version) 8/10
Georgia, Georgia (1972, Bjorkman) 5/10
It Happened to Jane (1959, Quine) 6/10
*The Tree of Life (2011, Malick; theatrical version) 9/10
Lions Love (1969, Varda) 5/10
*Matewan (1987, Sayles) 7/10
Afternoon (2007, Schanelec) 7/10
*Girl Shy (1924, Newmeyer, Taylor) 8/10
Fast Trip, Long Drop (1994, Bordowitz) 6/10
*Holiday (1938, Cukor) 9/10
An Affair of the Skin (1963, Maddow) 4/10
The Tamarind Seed (1974, Edwards) 6/10
Sextool (1975, Halsted) 4/10
Uncut Gems (2019, Safdie, Safdie) 8/10

The Panic Is On (Parrott, 1931)
The Hasty Marriage (Pratt, 1931)
The Phantom Fiend (Elvey, 1932)
A Honeymoon Adventure (Elvey, 1931)
The Mole People (Vogel, 1956)
Shirin (Kiarostami, 2008)
Ten (Kiarostami, 2002)

The Gentlemen (Ritchie, Atchinson, Davies 2020) [DCP] 1/10
* Death To Smoochy (DeVito, Resnick 2002) 4/10
Le Mans '66 (Ford x Ferrari) (Mangold, Butterworth, Butterworth, Keller 2019) [DCP] 4/10
* Aliens (Cameron, Giler, Hill 1986) 7/10
* True Romance (Scott, Tarantino 1993) 7/10
The Audition (Scorsese, Winter 2015) 2/10
By Dawn's Early Light (Hart, Berk 1974) 8/10

death to smoochy is a classic

I've probably said this elsewhere, but Le Mans 66, if done right, would have been a more effective anti-capitalist film than Parasite.

it really whiffed the opportunities that were there

attempts to gesture at some "maybe underdog narratives only exist because of the strictures of capitalism" themes but is terrified of actually having a point, let alone considering that glorifying motor vehicle production & wildly recreational burning of fossil fuels is plainly endorsing a death cult in 2019.

― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Monday, February 10, 2020 7:50 AM (one week ago)

MUBI:

Pierrot Le Fou (Godard, 1965)
Made in USA (Godard, 1966)
Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District (Kawashima, 1956)
The Devil's Eye (Bergman, 1960)
Clockers (Lee, 1995)

Cinema:

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Sciamma, 2019)

Ragin (Serebrennikov)
Leto (Serebrennikov)*
She’s Gotta Have It (Lee)
School Daze (Lee)
Mo’ Better Blues (Lee)
Jungle Fever (Lee)
Malcom X (Lee)
Clockers (Lee)
25th Hour (Lee)
Chi-raq (Lee)
Black Coal, Thin Ice (Diao)
The Wild Goose Lake (Diao)
What Time Is It There? (Tsai)*
The Skywalk is Gone (Tsai)
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai)
Afternoon (Tsai)
Water Lillies (Sciamma)
Tomboy (Sciamma)
Girlhood (Sciamma)
Portrait of a Woman on Fire (Sciamma)
Badlands (Malick)*
Days of Heaven (Malick)*
The New World (Malick)*
Voyage in Time (Malick)*
A Hidden Life (Malick)
Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl)
Klovn (Nørgård)
Klovn Forever (Nørgård)
Klovn: The Final (Nørgård)
Untitled (Glawogger & Willi)*
Angelo (Schleinzer)*
Fill Her Up With Super (Cavalier)
Tom of Finland (Karukoski)
Microphone Test (Daneliuc)
Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life (Jones)*
The Lighthouse (Eggers)
White Heat (Walsh)
Happy as Lazzaro (Rohrwacher)*
The Florida Project (Baker)*

Don't go out of your way to watch the Klovn trilogy... The Florida Project, on the other hand, might be my favorite American film of the decade at this point. That or Leviathan or Madeline's Madeline.

*Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (Fassbinder, 1975) - 10/10
Billy Two Hats (Kotcheff, 1974) - 7/10
Paris is Burning (Livingston, 1990) - 9/10
*Frownland (Bronstein, 2007) - 8/10
Abuse of Weakness (Breillat, 2013) - 7/10
Pauline at the Beach (Rohmer, 1983) - 9/10
Ludwig (Visconti, 1973) - 9/10 **full 4 hour TV version, highly recommended**
Ms. 45 (Ferrara, 1981) - 8/10
8½ Women (Greenaway, 1999) - 9/10
Death Wish 3 (Winner, 1985) - 6/10
L’humanité (Dumont, 1999) - 8/10
The Beguiled (Siegel, 1971) - 8/10
Bad Lieutenant (Ferrara, 1992) - 9/10
Lola Montès (Ophuls, 1956) - 8/10
Nada (Chabrol, 1974) - 7/10
Home Sweet Home (Leigh, 1982) - 9/10
Masques (Chabrol, 1987) - 8/10
The Headless Woman (Martel, 2008) - 8/10
Welfare (Wiseman, 1975) - 10/10
Brief Crossing (Breillat, 2001) - 10/10
Marty (Mann, 1955) - 9/10
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (Greenaway, 1989) - 9/10
In Praise of Love (Godard, 2001) - 6/10
Aspen (Wiseman, 1991) - 10/10

Dangerous Paradise (Wellman, 1930)
Pointed Heels (Sutherland, 1929)
Just Like Heaven (Neill, 1930)
Midnight Club (Hall & Somnes, 1933)
The Traitor (Bellochio, 2019)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Sciamma, 2019)
24 Frames (Kiarostami, 2017)
Like Someone in Love (Kiarostami, 2012)

Pain and Glory (2019) 3.5/5
The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999) 4/5
* The Piano (1993) 4/5
Three on a Match (1932) 3/5
Honeyland (2019) 4/5
Hustlers (2019) 2/5
Honey Boy (2019) 3/5
Visitation (2011) 3.5/5
Mad Mad: Fury Road Black & Chrome 4.5/5
Hollywood Shuffle (1987) 2.5/5
* Written on the Wind (1956) 4.5/5
All Through the Night (1942) 3.5/5
Logan's Run (1976) 2.5/5

I now consider the Black & Chrome edition of Fury Road the only way to watch it.

will try at some point.

Saw Barbara Kopple's new documentary for the History Channel, "Desert One," about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis and the failed 1980 rescue attempt that ended with eight dead Delta Force members. I thought it was great; not sure how it could have been done any better without much discussing Reagan or the politics of that moment and our moment more closely... but that's honestly a different film. What she got out of the amazing lineup of interviewees (including Carter, who she said she had all of 20 minutes with) and the declassified phone calls between the white house and the military is stunning. Highly recommended when it comes to the teevee.

At the talkback, they had two of the helicopter pilots and one of the hostages onstage; it was real intense.

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, February 14, 2020 11:11 AM

and those Reagan people were likely involved in a deal with the Iranians.

I was disappointed bcz it had been discussed in advance as a different cut, with even less dialogue, and as far as I could tell was just a straight conversion

would totally watch again, though

I really liked Honeyland

and those Reagan people were likely involved in a deal with the Iranians.

One more:
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) 2/5

Honeyland reminds me of one of Herzog’s fiction films, even though it’s a documentary.

That's a great point

A Study in Natural Magic (Pryce, 2013) 8/10
Journey to the West (Tsai, 2014) 8/10
No No Sleep (Tsai, 2015) 8/10
The Lighthouse (Eggers, 2019) 3/10
Gerry (Van Sant, 2002) 8/10
Pierrot le Fou (Godard, 1965) 10/10
Ringu (Nakata, 1998) 4/10
The Beguiled (Siegel, 1971) 8/10
O Nosso Homen (Costa, 2010) 7/10
Fragment of Seeking (Harrington, 1947) 8/10
The Assignation (Harrington, 1953) 8/10
The Fall of the House of Usher (Harrignton, 1942) 4/10
The Wormwood Star (Harrington, 1956) 6/10
Suzaki Paradise: Red Light (Kawashima, 1956) 7/10
Song of Avignon (Mekas, 1998) 6/10
Aberhart’s House (Margaret Paul, 1975) 7/10
Napkins (Margaret Paul, 1975) 7/10
Love (AI) (Iimura, 1962) 7/10
Song of Love (Genet, 1950) 10/10
Fuses (Schneeman, 1967) 10/10
Moment Dworskin, 1968) 3/10
Thorndon (Margaret Paul, 1975) 7/10
Point Blank (Boorman, 1967) 7/10
Pauline at the Beach Rohmer, 1983) 9/10
*Nuts in May (Leigh, 1976) 8/10
You Only Live Once (Lang, 1937) 8/10
Made in U.S.A. (Godard, 1966) 5/10
Yama – Attack to Attack (Sato, Yamaoka, 1985) 9/10
Full Moon in Paris (Rohmer, 1984) 7/10
Lost in the Mountains (Hong, 2009) 8/10
Lemon (Frampton, 1969) 10/10
The Green Ray (Dean, 2001)
They Live by Night (Ray, 1948) 10/10
On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (Hong, 2002) 9/10