Since there's really nothing else on this thread I'm just going to talk about movies I've recently seen.

Dune (David Lynch) - I've always thought of "Dune" as the one Lynch film that wasn't really an actual Lynch film. I'd read about all the problems he had with it, and everyone else said it wasn't all that hot. However, I was under the impression that "not all that not" meant simple mediocrity; "Dune" was garbage. It was overtly BAD. It had some absolutely gorgeous shots and sets in it, but it was like they blew their whole budget by the time they got to editing; there was so much sloppiness and low budgetry that it just ruined the film for me. It didn't seem like it was intended, but knowing Lynch it very well could have been. Or something. I didn't like it one bit.

Showgirls (Paul "Creepy" Verhoeven) - What a delight! There are so many things fantastic about this movie. One is how bipolar Nomi's behavior is: she's either cute and pouty or angry enough to rip your dick off. One is Gina Gershon's constant smirk thoughout the entire film. One is how such a poorly-written film got such a large production budget. One is how Nomi did that weird backwards-flipping motion every time she had sex with Zack Carey. One--my absolute favorite moment in the entire movie--is the way she does a very dancey spin while she's kicking the shit out of Andrew Carver I could go on and on; my friend with whom I was watching absolutely hated it, but I savored every moment like Doggie Chow. I need to own this.

Dune was better than Wild at Heart, at least on one viewing.

3 Women is one of those batshit movies you end up loving passionately. Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek's sisterly/sapphic relationship is well done. Also: most sympathetic, three-dimensional depiction of an airhead ever?

3 Women sort of changed my world when I first saw it.

Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman) - Very excellent and beautifully paced and structured. And, of course, photographed with sheer grandeur. I think I still like "Fanny and Alexander" the best, but, my goodness! what a fascinating and thought-provoking concept for a narrative (but, hey, what Bergman film isn't?). I absolutely loved his use of fading to black. I can't wait to watch the other 2 films of the (apparently not even real) trilogy.

What fascinated me in 3 Women was its ambiguity of protagonist and antagonist; the roles kept switching back and forth.

And "Wild at Heart" was phenomenal the first time I saw it and made me realize what a cheap, horrible, worthless ripoff "Natural Born Killers" was. "Dune" is just trash.

Laura Dern and Sherilyn Fenn are great in Wild at Heart. The rest is attenuated trash. I mean, the thing goes on for fucking ever.

There is enough weirdness in Dune to have kept me watching (Kenneth MacMillan popping his boils). WaH just gave me a headache.

The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky) - Criminally underrated and attacked. Yes, it's incredibly ambitious, but I thought it was near-flawless. The manner in which Aronofsky uses the camera is nothing short of sheer genius; he is truly a master of his craft. Visual effects were also pretty stunning, and its lack of CGI served it very well. I sincerely hope in 20 years from now, it will be looked back upon as a forgotten classic.

I did not hate it (ie, admirable failure), but Hugh Jackman being near or in tears 4 or 5 times is not a good idea for any film.

Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman) - Yes, it was wonderful and fantastic and dramatic and excellent, but not more so than any other Bergman, and certainly not as much as, say, "Scenes from a Marriage", which, from what I've seen, is the pinnacle of "Let me absolutely crush you by telling you the truth about everything that's really going on". I'm beginning to find Bergman boring and formulaic, which horrifies me, because it's always such a treat when I watch one of his films. However, the last three I've seen (Persona, Though a Glass Darkly, Autumn Sonata) can all be reduced to a number of characters you can count on one hand stuck in a house/remote location with some sort of intense, underlying conflict that is gradually brought to the surface via an intense and heartfelt dialogue lasting upwards of 20 minutes. Except instead of "I wish I could be you" or "Help me! I'm losing my mind", it's "You were a rotten mommy!". Hopefully I'll like "The Silence' and "Winter Light" more, as I have both of them checked out of the library right now as well.

It's a tonier Mildred Pierce (and not as much fun).

The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff) - I liked it. Granted, it didn't scream Palme d'Or to me, but it was quite pleasant nonetheless. I'm always a big fan of peppering bits of fantasy into an otherwise realistic narrative (e.g. a boy who stops growing for 17 years through sheer willpower alone). I don't really have all that much to say about it though, other than I thought it contained one of the best screams in cinematic history.

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz) - I always like to ask people the question of who they think is cooler between Morrissey and Humphrey Bogart. I still think it's Morrissey, but now I understand why Bogey puts up a good fight. No, I'd never seen it before. I really didn't think I'd like it that much, or that I'd find it sappy and cliche, but I found it much more enjoyable than I though I would. Of course I've been so bombarded with every "classic movie moment" in the film that I felt like I'd already seen a tenth of it, but I was still surprisingly oblivious to the central plot, which I also found quite interesting. I also found it quite amusing how every close-up of Ingrid Bergman had that Barbara Walters glow about it.

lol

lovin it stevo

sounds like i need to see 3 Women. and buy Mildred Pierce.

Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott) - Oh god; this was the most depressing film I've seen in an extremely long time. I thought this would be a popcorn movie, that it would be something pleasant where you could enjoy all the suspense and excitement but still maintain an emotional distance; that it would simply be two girls HAVING FUN breaking the law and being fugitives. Let me first say that both Sarandon and Davis were absolutely brilliant in their roles, which was particularly crucial for the film's effectiveness (more so than most other films, I felt). I found bits of the technical aspects a little trite (Look how he uses a shaky handheld camera to convey a turbulent home life!), but it's probably just all the film studies courses catching up with me.

The narrative's exposition was very skillful, as the characters' personalities in the first 20 or 30 minutes of the film were well-portrayed enough for me to hold on to them throughout the remainder of the film (which made it all the more bleak and depressing), particularly their initial car ride after Louise picks up Thelma. Knowing how fun and cheerful they were, and how beneficial their vacation would be in contrast to their miserable "normal lives", the following 2 hours were so much more difficult to watch. There was enough foreshadowing for the viewer to be able to see what happened one or two steps ahead of where they were, and knowing what was going to happen just nullified the few positive moments they did have. When Louise hands Thelma money and tells her to keep it safe, and moments later J.D. shows up at her door, you know instantly that he's going to end up taking it before he even mentions he's not actually a student, making it more troubling when he tells her he's a thief and absolutely unbearable by the time Thelma goes to have breakfast with Louise in the morning (I spent the entire scene wishing it would just end as soon as possible).

The bulk of the suspense I experienced from the film was nothing like the typical action-movie suspense that I was expecting, but rather that of already being aware of all these horrible things that would happen to these people, and having to watch them be totally oblivious to it until they actually occurred, which I had never quite experienced in a film to this degree. I wanted so badly to just see them like they were in the beginning, or as close to it as their situation would allow, but even in the final scene, they never even come close. The whole tone of the film was so bleak and nihilistic; these characters were so real and relatable that it made it that much more excruciating to witness, enough that I'd find it too painful to watch again any time soon.

So in the sense that it was so emotionally wrangling for me, I'd have to say it was a pretty fucking good movie.

but an extremely unpleasant viewing experience.

it's a very tough tension to straddle for the duration of the movie, but i'm not sure how accurately i can comment because i've seen it so many times. overall, i find it easy to enjoy the absurdity of their adventures in spite of the ending. but it is an experience of emotional extremes, as there are many moments when the narrative is fraught with an overwhelming sadness. the simplicities of everyday life around thelma and louise are portrayed from a nihilistic point of view, because even if they hadn't finally driven off, nothing would ever be the same.

watching louise call jimmy to tell him she needs money, or their interaction when he finds her at the motel, is almost too painful to witness. she knows their love, once burdened with commonplace worry, is now as good as over as she flees for her freedom. she recounts the story of an early encounter between the two and reminds jimmy how she covered his eyes, and asked him what color her eyes were. he didn't know. so she covers his eyes again and asks "what color are my eyes, jimmy?" this time he knows. and they both know, no matter how hard it was or had been, they never wanted it to end. but it would.

the same emotion comes through watching louise waiting for thelma in their convertible outside a convenience store. she catches a glimpse of a few women inside what looks like a salon, going about their day with an appropriate level of contentment and antipathy. and in her eyes is the slow realization that she will never have that luxury again.

i find the movie an astute study of those rare moments when you know everything in your life is about to change forever, in addition to a study of female companionship in the society of men. and all things considered, it's tremendously entertaining.

so she covers his eyes again and asks "what color are my eyes, jimmy?" this time he knows.

I believe you're wrong. When she asks, he says brown, but later in the film there's a voice-over of a police radio describing them, and they say green.

hmmm...! well that's obviously a fuck-up if the radio was indeed referencing louise, cuz sarandon's eyes R brown in the movie

Oh ok nevermind. I read into it as her self-confirmation that the relationship was very very nice but it was something imperfect enough for her to leave behind.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/images/emily-litella.jpg
....nevermind

i see. i think it was more, love is hard but at the end of the day, worth it. but i do remember something about green eyes on the radio.

i mean there was some back story of jimmy not treating her right. and finally, he almost met her halfway, it seemed like. but just at that point, she had to run.

i kind of lose it there every time :/

Autumn Sonata might be Bergman's worst "You were a rotten parent!" film.

Honestly, based on the one time I saw it, I think Thelma & Louise IS a popcorn movie. Also, as Armond White called it, pseudo-feminist claptrap.

The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola) - Quite satisfying, especially having just seen "The Godfather" a week or two prior. It was, of course, beautifully shot and edited and the dialogue and acting was nice and it was a masterpiece and all this and that. But nothing really made it stand out, per se; it was a masterpiece in the most generic sense I could imagine. I don't know if it's just been copied so many times since that it now seems generic to someone experiencing it just now (like the way all my friends think Pavement sound completely generic as well) or if it just really is simply very good but not spectacular. Either way it was wonderfully directed and quite enjoyable.

Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman) - OK guys so THIS time it takes place in a church, right, and the preacher has lost faith in God, and the big epic heartbraking conversation is about how he doesn't really like his girlfriend/mistress/person all that much. Disappointment. It would be the closest thing to "weak Bergman", if there was such a thing; the notion of a pastor losing faith seemed too simple and obvious, and it lacked the rich complexity of all the other Bergmans I've seen. Which I'm sure was intentional, but left for a boring film. I mean, it was OK and everything, and Nykvist makes it marvelous, but I think I'm on Bergman Burnout after Persona, Autumn Sonata, Through a Glass Darkly, and then this all within the course of a few weeks. Maybe I was just cynical going into it, and I'll rewatch it later and find it lovely, but this time I just found it dull and insipid.

I don't see why people condemn an artist for repeating a (strong) similar formula with slight variations.

but i like giorgio morandi

http://www.artsjournal.com/man/images/MorandiLucas.jpg

and winter light is one of my fave bergmans!

I'm not condemning him at all, I was just somewhat disappointed when I realized there was a formula. I mean, don't get me wrong, I adore Magritte and the like. I just wasn't expecting THAT much similarity between narrative structures.

I think you need Smiles of a Summer Night.

It's on sale at J&R for $19.99, as are Fanny and Alexander and some other Criterions.

Demonlover (Olivier Assayas) - When a back-cover synopsis includes things about a "high-stakes game of espionage...tak[ing] us deep into the underbelly of the illicit & financially lucrative world of 3D animated pornography", "The Hellfire Club, an interactive torture website", and an "outspoken, pot-smoking American executive" played by Gina Gershon, the first thing that comes to my mind is how massively and wildly entertaining this could be. I had my hopes set for Showgirls-good; sadly, it wasn't. First of all, something like 90% of the film is shot in character close-ups or extreme close-ups. If they're standing in a room, the camera's right on their face, and if they start moving, the camera just follows it. I'm sure it was intended to be "edgy" and "claustrophobic" or something but instead gave the effect of a bunch of camera men who'd never actually shot a movie before and had no clue what exactly they should be filming. The content of the film itself was boring it well. It's not that it took itself too seriously (as if Showgirls didn't), but that it just wasn't as outrageous or over the top as I'd hoped. It was just boring. The whole porn thing had very little to do with the plot other than it just happened to be what the "high-stakes game of espionage" was about--it could have been government secrets or a top-secret egg salad recipe and made no difference--and was just haphazardly interjected to feign provocativeness. Total disappointment.

OT: Our Town (Scott Hamilton Kennedy) - A nice little documentary about an inner-city high school in Compton that decides to put on its first play in 20 years. It sounds like it would be extremely powerful and endearing, but the filmmakers focused too heavily on the production of the play itself and not enough on what was going on outside the walls of the school. When they did give us an obligatory glimpse into the personal lives of the students, it was done so once, briefly and superficially, and was never returned to. It was a good documentary, but it had the potential to be a GREAT documentary.

Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud) - My, what a delight! I was so happy to see that my library carried this, as it's been something I've been really eager about since i first heard the news of a film adaptation. It didn't disappoint. It was gorgeously drawn and animated (by hand, too!), and captured the charm of the graphic novel quite well. It's hard to write of it objectively, because I approached it with prior knowledge of the plot and mainly saw it to see how good it turned out, so I can't really say what sort of eftect it would have had on someone completely unfamiliar with the work, but I simply loved it.

Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch) - I must say this one caught me by surprise. I was not expecting something nearly as interesting or quirky as it turned out to be. There are so many things I loved about this film. First off, Jarmusch's approach of simply examining a bit of the character's life without feeling obligated to provide answers to proposed questions. I loved the anticipation of seeing the reactions of all four women and all of the awkwardness involved. I especially loved the setup of the whole "Lolita" gag, with the character acknowledging the ridiculous weirdness and irony of the situation along with the viewer. The whole dog being named Winston thing I found particularly fascinating as well, as no one ever seems to give two beings the same name in films, despite its very common occurrence in actual life. This was probably my favorite movie so far this summer.

thru a glass darkly is great, but winter light and the silence didn't grab me. I guess you should see the the silence for reference purposes, but skip ahead to hour of the wolf or shame if you want some variation from the chamber pieces.

double feature suggestion: the silence / the shining

Female Trouble (John Waters) - A fine film about house robbing, new gowns, murder, scars, fingerprints, and LASHES! I really loved everything about it, particularly Divine frantically striking poses ("Model for me, Dawn! Go, girl, go!! Model!") and Mink Stole's performance ("OH MY GOD!! CALL AN AMBULANCE!!! THERE'S BEEN A HORRIBLE ACCIDENT!!!"). The dialogue of the entire film is more or less a string of fantastically campy and fucked up quotables, and, of course, the situations and scenarios are alarmingly weird to the point where it's impossible to remove the actors from their roles; you know that these people have to be just this fucked up IRL to make such a film and to make it the way they did. I adored it.

Boudu Saved from Drowning (Jean Renoir) - A pleasant send-up of bourgeois ideals and such. I liked it, but after a while I had a hard time retaining affection for Boudu; he went from a mischievous rascal to an ignorant dipshit. The whole scene of him "looking" for the shoe polish in the kitchen/bedroom pissed me off more than it made me laugh. Yes, I get the absurdity of HAVING to shine your shoes before you leave the house, but after a while his responses lost their comedic effect and just became irksome. I did, however, find a lot of humor in the wife falling in love with him after his super-bourgeois makeover.

The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola) - A really over-the-top and silly way to cap off an otherwise well-done series. The whole pope thing was just completely absurd, and while I loved Sofia Coppola's character and Sofia Coppola's look, I did not love Sofia Coppola's acting. I must say, however, that the final half hour or so of the film in the opera house was flawless, and the bit on the stairs was my favorite moment in the entire trilogy. Looking back, the three films were very solid, but a tad overrated and didn't really do for me what they apparently do for everyone else.

The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci) - Dull. It was big and pretty and grand in the most cookie-cutter way possible, and there was really nothing that kept my attention aside from the typical grandiose "epic film" cinematography. Nothing really made me care about the characters and looking back it didn't seem like it needed to be that long. I found it highly overrated and ultimately forgettable, and a big disappointment considering how high my hopes were.

Cabin Fever (Eli Roth) - I love horror films. I love them. I love Argento, I love (and own) the entire "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, I love "Saw"... I've craved them since they were forbidden by my mother when I was a child. When we'd go to Blockbuster, I'd spend a bulk of my time there sneaking off into the horror section and staring at all the videos (the covers of "Popcorn", "Dead Alive", and John Russo's "Midnight" are forever burned into my memory). My obsession diminished over the years but has never died, and the entire horror genre holds a special place in my heart.

That being said, I had high hopes for "Cabin Fever" after reading all about its premiere at Toronto Film Festival and how everyone praised it as a return to form or some shit like that. I bought it a year ago on the cheap, and didn't get around to watching it until last week. It sucked. It was offensively bad. The dialogue was offensive, the characters were offensive, it unironically and unflinchingly embraced every cliche in the book without a trace of satire, and the entire film was so forced and contrived that it serves as a slap in the face to anyone who even remotely values narrative coherence.

Where do I even begin? For example, The constant pejoratives. Take the following bit of dialogue. Upon taking a gun to go shoot some squirrels:
Paul: Why would you wanna kill squirrels?
Bert: 'cause they're gay.
Karen: Bert, don't be a fucking retard.
Yes, I know, it looks too constructed to not have at least some intent as irony or social commentary or something. But somehow in the context of the film, all of that is erased and it just comes out as unintentionally offensive. I really don't think anyone's supposed to stop and think "Hmm, look at how these students use this inappropriate usage of language"; it's just supposed to sound natural or something. Which I guess it sort of does, but it doesn't make it any less offensive and irritating.

The overwhelming idiocy of the characters. So you have the stock-character imbecile who I'd assume is supposed to be believably stupid yet defies even the most basic of logic inherent in any six year old. He gets bored and decides to light a bunch of of leaves in the middle of the woods on fire. Uh oh! What do you think might happen, boys and girls? Luckily, his friends find and extinguish it. The following ensues:
Jeff: Hey, dipshit, what the fuck?
Bert: What are you, fuckin' Smokey the Clown now?
Jeff: Don't you mean 'Smokey the Bear?'
...really? Like, really? It's that time-tested "Look how the village idiot is oblivious to common pop-culture references", except overshot by like thirty miles.

The creepy sexism. Note when Rider Strong is feeling up that girl while she's sleeping and unaware, and the discovers that she has the virus and that her thigh has been partially dissolved. So instead of showing, you know, how it's bad or wrong to try to take advantage of a girl in her sleep, it was all IT'S GOOD THING YOU TRIED TO RAPE HER SO YOU COULD FIND SHE HAD THE VIRUS!! GREAT JOB! Using such a vile and creepy act as a consequence-free vehicle to advance the plot is despicable.

The whole "nigger" thing. Wow. Let us, ladies and gentlemen, hold this up as a shining example of bad fucking execution. The set-up was bad, the delivery was worse, and everything about it was uncomfortably awkward and inappropriate. It's like those jokes you've heard dozens of times that you used to think were funny back in middle school that sort of make sense but are so far from reality or logic that you can do nothing but marvel at its stupidity.

Then of course there was the constant barrage of stupid dialogue and stupid decisions and stupid scenarios that would have been much nicer if they were actually well-implemented satire or homage, which, regardless of the directors intent, were not at all presented as such. So what did the movie even do right? I mean, I suppose it made the R-rated horror film fashionable again, but if it had been released in 2008 it probably would do OK at the box office and get horrible reviews. There's really not a lot going for it. "Shit Fever", if you will.

So right now I am in the same situation I was last time I was posting (forced to move back under my mother's roof, and checking movies out of the local library). It seems apt, then, to revive this.

Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall, 2002)\
I mean, eh. This wasn't awful but I realize I don't like movies where people are stuck in the woods, especially when they're "horror" films, because they just bore me for some reason. I spent most of this film wishing I was watching 28 Days Later, or at the very least that the handful of v. attractive Scottish men would remove their shirts, which sadly never happened. It was also one of those films that is greatly serviced by showing as little of the monster as possible, which it eventually stops doing and thusly loses a great deal of its suspenseful tension. It had a decent twist at the end but looking back I'm kicking myself for not figuring it out earlier. It was OK but I have no real desire to ever watch it again, and it was certainly no Descent

Next on my list:
Herzog's Nosferatu
Clueless
12 Angry Men
Amarcord
Blade Runner
I have only seen the first two!

How lucky, to be able to see Blade Runner for the first time. Which version are you watching?

The old/original Director's Cut. I was tired and couldn't hear the sound v well and was just confused the entire time. I have to rewatch it. It was really uncomfortably dark and cold and blech!

Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)

WHEEEEEEEEEE!!! It's been like 6 years since I saw this and I forgot how much I loved it. It's so nice to just have the frothy feel-good fun without some stupid conflict, and for once to have the dumb, vapid popular girl just be lovable #1 instead of most-hated-on queen bitch. Even my 16 year old brother liked this, and he only likes things like Wu-Tang Clan and 8 Mile. I guess I should point out that I have this really strong obsession with the 90's (90-96, really) and mostly everything about--the clothes, the dialogue, the editing techniques--so of course this film, along with Empire Records and Party Girl, does something for me that very few other films are capable of. I was actually at a dept. store later that day and started looking for a baseball cap that fit the way Paul Rudd's does. I want to be this movie.

12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957)

Much more fascinating and watchable than I thought it'd be. Really loved the acting and the pacing, and the use of low-key lighting was a nice (albeit obvious and predictable) touch. I thought all the characters were pretty well-developed too, at least in a sense of their personalities and the way they were reacting to things. I also sort of fell in love with Juror #2 and want him to be my next-door neighbor.

I love that movie but it's clunkily melodramatic and Henry Fonda is kind of an ass

The made for TV remake with Tony Danza fixes most of the issues tbh

Le Ballon rouge/The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse, 1957)

I wish I watched this as a kid. It was very cute and very pretty to look at. Also, jeez, those kids were such a miserable bunch of shits! Between the beautiful 50's era Technicolor Paris and the tiny little boy in his blazer and the balloon with a mind of it's own, I can't figure out what was the most adorable. If I ever have kids, this will be in our DVD collection.

The Exorcist III (William Peter Blatty, 1990)

I only watched this because there's this one semi-famous allegedly terrifying scene in the film, but unfortunately it's the only real shocker in the movie so if you already know about it there's really little point in watching the whole damn thing. It's one of those films that is all plot progression in the first two-thirds and saves all the (few underwhelming) chills for the end. Normally I'm OK with this, except that A) when you attach a name like The Exorcist, you expect it to be seriously unsettling and bone chilling throughout (iirc the first film was constructed similarly, though it had nice atmospherics to support it), and B) it's just not a very good film, so if you're not at least giving me some suspense or gore there's little to keep my interest. I mean, it's certainly decent for a "III", but it's purely mediocre as a film. It seemed slightly sloppy and overacted at times, but it did have a few nice shots. Also of note was a really wacky and shrill nurse with bad lipstick
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2102/vlcsnap2010062413h16m19.jpg
and also a really absurd attemped kill scene towards the end with a bunch of quick edits to things like this grandmother reaching out to her granddaughter in "panic"
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/3464/vlcsnap2010062413h04m50.jpg
who is about to be killed
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/4849/vlcsnap2010062413h05m05.jpg
and her mother who, despite her apparent upset, just sort of slightly moves her arms around this position
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4928/vlcsnap2010062413h06m06.jpg

Let's get a close up of that last one
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/4928/vlcsnap2010062413h06m06.jpg

all the scenes with the family are insane

Dune (David Lynch) - I've always thought of "Dune" as the one Lynch film that wasn't really an actual Lynch film. I'd read about all the problems he had with it, and everyone else said it wasn't all that hot. However, I was under the impression that "not all that not" meant simple mediocrity; "Dune" was garbage. It was overtly BAD. It had some absolutely gorgeous shots and sets in it, but it was like they blew their whole budget by the time they got to editing; there was so much sloppiness and low budgetry that it just ruined the film for me. It didn't seem like it was intended, but knowing Lynch it very well could have been. Or something. I didn't like it one bit.

― Stevie D, Thursday, August 21, 2008 7:46 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

There are definitely some parts in this movie that feel like they're from the best science fiction film every made. But we're talking like 2 minutes of screen time.