Ah, OK. I have a similar problem with Gremlins. Not a bad film at all but for some reason it always sends me to sleep.

it was not about motherhood, that's for sure.

i agree

McQueen

another of those biopics that shows too much of the tragedy in a persons life and not enough of the artistry. Soundtrack pretty iffy, too, for instance, single piano notes every 2 seconds at a volume similar to or above the person being interviewed. On the plus side, good bio information and a LOT of stunning models

BODY HEAT (lawrence kasdan, 1981)



daaaaaaamn!

Blue Velvet is one of the greatest films ever made. It’s both terrifying and laughably ridiculous. Also beautifully filmed. Closest Lynch ever came to replicating the vibe of Twin Peaks in feature film format (aside from the feature film sequel to Twin Peaks, of course).

ha ha ha ha maaaan

i’ve been talking about ERASERHEAD all along.

ERASERHEAD.

(also, blue velvet was made years before twin peaks, so the replication runs the other way. but yeah it’s also about a small town with a hidden dark side. both great no doubt, both highly watchable)

anyway

it’s eraserhead that put me to sleep. eraserhead !!! :D

After finishing reading Jurassic Park last night, I figured I'd make tonight a Jurassic World(s) night.

From what I've heard Jurassic World is pretty good (can testify), but the one after it isn't.

My dad argues that no movie based on a book has ever disappointed him as much as Jurassic Park 2.

Honestly, Spielberg took quite a lot of creative liberty with the original movie, given how different it is from the book.


I prefer movie Lexi over book Lexi, who is just annoying in text.

I didn't hate Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. That was the new one for me.

françois truffaut’s DAY FOR NIGHT (la nuite americaine), 1973







i saw this ages ago but remembered little

this was i realize now on rewatch his 81/2, and a love letter to filmmaking—which is so crazy and so much work but appears here as a glorious thing with the help of what sounds like scarlatti.

this movie is of course much more interesting and entertaining once you’ve watched a few of his movies and can pick up references and allusions and jokes, and understand who is who a little bit.

jacqueline bisset was so beautiful in this it can blind one like staring at the sun

I KNEW THAT!

I should have said closest he came to “doing whatever he did with Twin Peaks in a feature film except for that Twin Peaks feature film.”

I know Blue Velvet was pre-TP.

Goddammit. But nobody would have any reason to believe me. FUCKAAAH


Eraserhead is certainly not the kind of movie I want to watch all the time. Hell no. Once a decade maybe. Yeah it drags. But the end gets seriously fucking weird and many different kinds of crazy. There’s a payoff. It’s suoer disturbing too.

“nobody understands anything, some things you just feel. a story you understand was just badly told.”

And?

And it’s damn good.

Super Coeny. I hesitated before flipping it on, because I feel like they’ve gone a bit far with the westerns, but it’s BEAUTIFUL, and even though it’s segmented into six stories, you get fully sucked into each one.

They run the gamut — from absurdist and cerebral comedy to tragedy to Barton Fink-esque heaven and hell allegory to straight-forward stories of love and loss and shit. Honestly the only part I found wanting was the introduction, which feels a bit like an intro to a TV show or 1950s movie, but maybe that’s on purpose?

Anyway, makes for a very enjoyable experience. And Tom Waits is fucking in it, so... yah.

fassbinder’s CHINESE ROULETTE (1976)



i see the sirk!!!

(but so much more...)

—

pure gold

Better Off Dead. Regardless of first time posting this one or not, forever an underrated classic.


It's my understanding that John Cusack doesn't think the highest of it, which is a damn shame.

I FUCKING LOVED THIS when I was little.
It’s ridiculiusly stupid, I realized when I was slightly older, and damn near unwatchable for an adult.

Know what’s good though? Drop Dead Fred.

He's one of those directors I know I'm supposed to love but can't bring myself to do it. The films I've seen of his were all pretty good but that's it for me.

which ones?

i started “world on a wire” yesterday but dropped it after 15 minutes

Only Ali:Fear eats the soul and The marriage of Eva Braun thinking about it. I thought I'd see Tears of Petra Von Kant but if I have I remember zilch.



We watched this last night for film club. I really enjoyed it and one the seems to have been mostly forgotten, about which is a shame, as there's a lot to recommend for it. Also, there's a song in they play a few times and it's catchy as hell and so, so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRXM-qGIeZA

hear, hear!

oooh saura is great. still important in spain and latin america i think.

...

the thing with fassbinder to remember you probably already know but it’s central to the like/dislike is that he came out of the theatre (and one of the reasons why he was so prolific was he stuck to his company more or less and essentially did filmed theatre.)

the other thing is that he was under heavy brechtian influence so they’re not going for naturalism and things can appear odd.

third is he was heavy under influence of douglas sirk (demonyo turned me on to him, ask him anout sirk) which i think was also a second-hand brechtian thing after all but also very hollywood.

fassbinders cinematography is great, had an eye for beauty and understood a great shot, but for me he’s not primarily cinematic, he’s theatrical instead. so going with a mind to see a political play that also uses the devices of 50s technicolor melodrama might be a good entrance.

i won’t deny im also under the influence of his legend—the genius, the relentless work rate, the debauchery, the devious manipulation of his circle, the early death. so i guess that does color my perception a bit.

and he was a damn good actor!


so hmmm lost the plot of what i was saying haaa haaaaa

oh in a way i also think what blocks people out is he was dealing with very german topics german problems and german issues—the postwar, the recovery, fascism in the family, etc. and i can catch some of that but i also know i miss little things—like in chinese roulette ther’s something about the name of the nanny traunitz and i get what the character is supposed to be and there is some big reveal at the end—but i don’t have the full context.

anyway...

i liked the merchant of four seasons more than ali, as i recall.

and try “fox and his friends” maybe? fassbinder himself plays the character.

also, satan’s brew i recall was hilarious. not great or deep but very funny, thinking of damned artists and what not. wanna rewatch it this week.

these are his middle period more or less, after the black and white stuff but before his more famous ones.

ah i gotta run out of the house.... feck, as father hackett sez.

Prometheus was awesome, eat shit

When you let Neil DeGrasse Tyson review sci-fi movies. lol Still have a lot of respect for Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

As a 35yo adult I still consider it watchable because it is so damn stupid and off the wall.

fox and his friends

(r.w. fassbinder, 1975)

well...

it was slower than i was expecting! in this day and age, such a story would be resolved in 75 minutes, not 2h + change

BUT... such good characters and story. worth the wait even though one knows the payoff early (ok, i had seen this before, but still, it was evident)

anyway, i don't know if this story is original, but i'm pretty pretty sure woody allen ripped it off a couple decades later for a related scenario

on rewatch, and decades since it was made, i could have done without the final scene i think, for a different sort of ending... but it was a good one regardless

eta: https://www.criterion.com/current/po...nd-his-friends

Bedknobs and Broomsticks, cause why not.

I’m watching The Shape of Water finally.

I’m halfway through it and it’s not terrible but it’s, like, so totally not even kind of in the same league as Dunkirk or Ladybird or Blade Runner 2049 it just pisses me off to the think about the fact that it won Best Picture.

Oh well.

Decided to follow up with Mary Poppins.

THE SHAPE OF WATER FUCKING SSSSUUUUUUCKED

What!?

Sucked.

A) It’s about bestiality
B) There are too many plot holes to list
C) It’s a rip-off of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s signature style — only Guillermo Del Toro-fied with a fish monster and nobody speaking French (but French music inexplicably playing throughout?) Yeah, Del Toro has made some nice films, but this was an aesthetic heist of another — BETTER — filmmaker’s vision and style. (City of Lost Children/Delicatessen/Amelie/A Very Long Engagement — all better by far than this thing)
D) It’s gross without needing to be
E) It’s a little on-the-nose with its social commentary (though I agree with its message)
F) It’s basically just a mash-up of Beauty and the Beast and Creature from the Black Lagoon
G) It came out at the same time, and competed against, movies that are INFINITELY better, more important, more daring and more stylistically adventurous

... IN NO UNIVERSE IS THIS THE BEST MOVIE OF 2017.

Blade Runner 2049, Drunkirk and Ladybird all make this thing feel like an utterly empty little fairy tale.

If it hadn’t garnered so much acclaim, I probably wouldn’t dislike it so much... but it was not a great film.

:D :D :D was waiting for the inevitable follow up and you didn't disappoint. I actually only got round to watching it myself a coupla months back and everything you said I agree with. Every conceivable film cliche you can think of was in there and they ramped that up to 10. Some bits were especially so eye rollingly lame that all it did was baffle me all the more as to how it did so well.

Then again, it highlighted once again how the Oscars are an absolute joke and have been for a long, long time. The only plus was Sally Hawkins. Man, I've got the weirdest crush on her.

Yeah, it was just bleeeech.
I wanted to not hate it. I wanted to NOT be mad at the academy because I’m already mad enough at every academy for every foolish decision, but my GOD was it a pile.

Style over substance and the style was stolen.


ALSO, SPOILER ALERT...
...
..
..

If creatures can heal things, why do they *slit the throats of insane people who are causing them harm instead of curing them of their insanity*? Seriously. Huh?! What. Point. Are. You. Making bro.

suitably for the season...

BABETTE’S FEAST (sum dude, wassisname, 1987)



oh yeah that there is stéphane audran, chabrol’s muse

lots of fun as usual— i watch this every so often. this time i read it diferent than the previous one—this one was about the role of the artist. great.

another similarly themed one for anybody who liked this one is stanley tucci’s “big night” , made in the 90 with tony shalhoub, ian holm, allison janney in pre-cj cregg days... oh! isabella rossellini... great little film really, and so tasty.

food!

i dont feel it’s as great as they say, and halfway through it im having a really hard time watching it due to some disturbing shit

huge downer so far! and kinda slow...

i mean maybe it’s great in the neorrealist sense but not... “funny,” as the poster claims

It's a great film. Katie Jarvis's performance is brilliant - although I can see how it might not travel well. It's a cliche saying a film has a heart but this one really does.

nominated for best picture in 1977: "Taxi Driver," "All the President's Men," and "Network."

The winner? Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky."