Nostalghia (1983; Tarkovsky): is this the greatest film ever made? A mediocre art film? One of the shortest Tarkovsky movies that somehow feels like his longest movie? Do none of the main actors have any charisma? Am I going insane trying to squeeze in as many movies as possible before the end of the month and no longer understand quality anymore?
Who's to say, really? _________________ Under New Management
Joined: 25 Apr 2015 Posts: 32332 Location: Anaheim, CA
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:52 pm Post subject:
Baron Von Humongous wrote:
ChickenStu wrote:
Baron Von Humongous wrote:
Maybe it's just me, but that Eurovision movie on Netflix with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams looks really ugly, right?
I think I commented on this. I thought it was awful.
Sorry I missed your comment otherwise I could've saved myself some time. I honestly turned it off after 30 minutes.
The Rachel McAdams line delivery about the elves was pretty good, but the "Ja!Ja! Dingdong" song critics seemed to love was a rejected Lonely Island gag and...how do you make Iceland look so blah? It should be a misdemeanor to make Iceland ugly in a movie.
Outside of some of the costumes and songs it looks like there was almost zero interest in production design and the director wouldn't recognize an interesting, well-lit frame if his life depended on it.
The only things I found somewhat entertaining were a couple of the song performances and the fact that they did capture a little -- just a little -- of the camp that is the Eurovision competition. And there are moments where McAdams' natural charm shines through. But yes, just a terrible movie where almost all of the comedy fell flat. As Omar said about Will Ferrell, he's just very overrated when it comes to comedy.
Watched it recently when I was feeling a bit down and it was a great pick me up. A surprisingly sweet, warm hearted romantic comedy with a top notch cast and impressive performances from Sandberg, Miloti, and, of course, J.K. Simmons
Time loop movies are catnip for me and Palm Springs adds to its Groundhog Day riff with a legitimately touching romance between its two flawed, but likeable lead characters. It captures that feeling of being in a private world with the person you're falling in love with as well as the fear of both being stuck and the unknown future of any relationship. And it's funny to boot albeit with some gross out gags that may not work for everyone.
Good flick. Solid B.
good looking out. meant to check it out last week but my superior half wasn't feeling the schmaltz.
no thoughts on demme and kubrick? you asked, i answered, friendo.
*phew!*
Demme - empathetic, flexible, and known as an actor's director. Much more effective as a "studio guy" who worked within a given genre to guide it towards his sensibilities whereas Kubrick's early studio work is his weakest,* imo, until he fully breaks out with Dr. Strangelove and imposes his sensibility over everything.
Demme was a writer turned director via the Roger Corman machine in the late-60s and 70s and was always less formally stark in his compositions and mise en scene, but his films also feel more "natural" for it. Even in his most visually heightened movie, Silence of the Lambs, there's something alienating yet inviting to the filmmaking - compare it to A Clockwork Orange, which is what I imagine Kubrick's version of a Hannibal Lecter movie would look like. There's an opening scene in Swing Shift (1984) stupidly cut from the mediocre theatrical release - Demme hated the studio heads there and years later pieced together an informal director's cut you can see floating around YouTube - that's a 2 minute continuous tracking shot of Ed Harris coming home from his job at the mill while Goldie Hawn waits for him on the front porch that's both lovely, technically impressive, and yet doesn't feel showy. That's Demme to me.
Anyway, I'm on a Demme kick so I could go on forever, but he had some real clunkers later in his career outside of the transcendent family dramedy Rachel Getting Married and his peaks are well below Kubrick's best, which were more formally inventive and challenging. But Demme was still a talented synthesizer of styles - he drew on Kubrick quite a bit - and his unique combination of empathy and rhythm - perfected as a concert filmmaker most famously with The Talking Heads collaboration Stop Making Sense - lures the viewer in while allowing the screenplay and performances to rock you back.
* excluding the exceptional Paths of Glory and the very good The Killing.
But do you see how PTA draws from them? Kubrick seems especially obvious but PTA is a noted Demme fan and you can see it most in his close ups - thinl Macy in the dentist chair in Magnolia, or any number of shots in The Master, particularly in the processing scenes, and particularly particularly when Amy's eyes turn to black
and apologies if this is not as substantively compelling a response to your well thought out post - too busy. but wanted to circle back to our original discussion of PTA that prompted this chain
No, no, my apologies for the late reply, Cut. I think PTA has always been a gifted visual artist, but his filmmaking took a leap forward with Punch Drunk Love when his distinctive tone matures and comes through even as he's lifting shots and synthesizing styles from Altman, Scorsese, Kubrick, Demme, etc.
But the key distinction when comparing Anderson to those greats is that PTA writes everything he directs. He's one of the great living screenwriters, particularly when it comes to indelible, rich characters who are both familiar and larger than life or otherworldly. There's something special seeing someone work at such a high level as both screenwriter and director over such a sustained period.*
* Obviously PTA is there with a small handful of his peers, but it's fascinating that the peak 80s/90s American writer auteur seems to have faded unless one thinks of Ari Aster as great at anything. _________________ Under New Management
Walker (1987; Cox): Amazing. I could watch it twenty times. Universal tanked the marketing budget for this aggressively on the nose, hilarious, and vicious satire of US foreign policy in Central America over the centuries - despised by the no doubt Reagan supporting, Iran Contra loving studio execs at the time - and Cox's blank check movie predictably bombed. He was then blacklisted by the DGA after turning scab under a pseudonym during the 1988 strike, which ended his brief, weird stint in Hollywood after Repo Man was a cult hit that earned him an unexpected studio contract.
But if you do have to go out, few rarely go out with a movie this entertaining, this funny, and this thorny. Ed Harris is the most Ed Harris he can be* and Joe Strummer's score is to die for. What a picture!
* I would double bill Walker and Romero's Knightriders just for the Harris performances.
Its easy to say that one likes Breaking Bad. As such, I appreciate it when someone bucks the trend by providing a contrary opinion to the general sentiment of a work. And for that, I will give this one a whirl when next I see it on one of the networks or providers.
ribeye, I appreciate that note. I'm doing an 80s deep dive this year and unearthing or re-polishing the occasional gem in the midst of the crap has been a lot of fun so far.
On that note, you (and other folks) should check out Night of the Juggler (1980), which is only available on YouTube these days:
It's James Brolin going Liam Neeson 30 years before Taken set in scuzzy 70s/80s New York. Not as good as Walker, imo, but it's still good brutal action fun and available right now. _________________ Under New Management
Maybe it's just me, but that Eurovision movie on Netflix with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams looks really ugly, right?
I think I commented on this. I thought it was awful.
Sorry I missed your comment otherwise I could've saved myself some time. I honestly turned it off after 30 minutes.
The Rachel McAdams line delivery about the elves was pretty good, but the "Ja!Ja! Dingdong" song critics seemed to love was a rejected Lonely Island gag and...how do you make Iceland look so blah? It should be a misdemeanor to make Iceland ugly in a movie.
Outside of some of the costumes and songs it looks like there was almost zero interest in production design and the director wouldn't recognize an interesting, well-lit frame if his life depended on it.
The only things I found somewhat entertaining were a couple of the song performances and the fact that they did capture a little -- just a little -- of the camp that is the Eurovision competition. And there are moments where McAdams' natural charm shines through. But yes, just a terrible movie where almost all of the comedy fell flat. As Omar said about Will Ferrell, he's just very overrated when it comes to comedy.
I liked Ferrell in small doses on SNL, but over the course of his film career I've come to realize that the Ferrell movies I like best are mostly due to John C. Reilly being an incredible comedic actor. _________________ Under New Management
Well I saw Tenet and if you were excited by the trailer then you’re gonna love the movie. It definitely lived up to the hype. Inception feels like a rough draft compared to how good this was.
Well I saw Tenet and if you were excited by the trailer then you’re gonna love the movie. It definitely lived up to the hype. Inception feels like a rough draft compared to how good this was.
Interesting. I don't know if it's enough to get me to a theater. But interesting. _________________ Under New Management
Mubi just started running a brief Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-Hsien retrospective, and you best believe the hard to track down New Taiwan Cinema compilation In Our Time (1982) is included!
I haven't seen it yet, but a shout out to Lingua Franca, the other Netflix original to hit the streaming service this weekend that has received strong reviews. A film directed by and starring trans women that has gone a bit under the radar. _________________ Under New Management
So Disney's Mulan remake not only stars a supporter of anti-democracy in Hong Kong, but in its credits thanks authorities in Xinjiang - where an active ethnic cleansing is taking place - where some of the movie's filming took place...?
Interesting. _________________ Under New Management
The New York Ripper (1981; Fulci) > Dressed to Kill (1980; De Palma):
It's fun to see the legend of nihilistic Italian genre schlock, Fulci, cut through De Palma's prudish pretention. Often considered an empty visual stylist, De Palma's stylized fetishes are superseded by Fulci's even more pure, raw aesthetics, which ultimately lend the sillier The New York Ripper moral clarity while De Palma struggles with and loses out to his trans panic impulses in Dressed to Kill.
Two movies near and dear to my heart, but I think Fulci's underrated classic transcends De Palma's much more lauded New York slasher. _________________ Under New Management
Joined: 17 Nov 2007 Posts: 68296 Location: In a world where admitting to not knowing something is considered a great way to learn.
Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 7:19 am Post subject:
Don't know if this has been mentioned. No Country For Old Men.
1) Did Llewelyn Moss die? Was the man in the plaid shirt him? They didn't show his face.
2) Did Anton Chigurh kill Carla Jean Moss? He wiped his feet when he left. I believe he did that after he killed someone.
3) Did Chigurh die? He left limping with a broken arm. Just disappeared.
4) Did Ed Tom Bell finally go home to stay with Loretta Bell? He was in the diner at the end. He told Ellis he was going to quit.
That movie left so much up in the air it pissed me off. _________________ Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Don't know if this has been mentioned. No Country For Old Men.
1) Did Llewelyn Moss die? Was the man in the plaid shirt him? They didn't show his face.
2) Did Anton Chigurh kill Carla Jean Moss? He wiped his feet when he left. I believe he did that after he killed someone.
3) Did Chigurh die? He left limping with a broken arm. Just disappeared.
4) Did Ed Tom Bell finally go home to stay with Loretta Bell? He was in the diner at the end. He told Ellis he was going to quit.
That movie left so much up in the air it pissed me off.
1) Yes
2) Yes
2) No
4) Most likely
The movie was most interested in American violence. We're all passing through this life like the characters in the film, but the violence is permanent. _________________ Under New Management
So Disney's Mulan remake not only stars a supporter of anti-democracy in Hong Kong, but in its credits thanks authorities in Xinjiang - where an active ethnic cleansing is taking place - where some of the movie's filming took place...?
Interesting.
Quote:
Disney's Michael Eisner about Scorsese's Kundun (1997): “The bad news is that the film was made; the good news is that nobody watched it,” Eisner said. “Here I want to apologize, and in the future we should prevent this sort of thing, which insults our friends, from happening.”
I think Disney has long been terrible and they're the worst steward for Hollywood. _________________ Under New Management
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