Andrew POE!
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Posts posted by Andrew POE!
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Movies watched today....
Booksmart (Peacock, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerNot bad high school comedy movie.....doesn't quite reach the level of '80s high school comedies like Fast Times At Ridgemont High or Ferris Bueller's Day Off but has a few memorable moments.
Made in Heaven (Criterion Channel, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerThe movie started out great - first 30 minutes or so had an interesting story albeit not really good. Emmet (Debra Winger) was a character out of a David Lynch movie.
After Mike Shea (Timothy Hutton) and Annie Packert (Kelly McGillis) are told they can't stay together (why? because reasons), the movie turns very uninteresting.
So they cram in Neil Young, Ric Ocasek and Tom Petty to attempt to make it interesting. And Timothy Hutton is now Elmo Barnett and Kelly McGillis is now Ally Chandler and they deus ex machina get together at the end.
That isn't to say it's all bad - Timothy Hutton and Ann Wedgeworth have an incredible scene in the car that helps the movie, but those are few and far between.
This isn't a bad movie, just a disappointing movie.
Melo (Mubi, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerI dug this movie quite a bit more than Love Unto Death. Love Unto Death had some pacing issues but this unfolds like My Dinner With Andre or Before Sunset in some respects - just conversations between characters.
Romaine Belcroix (Sabine Azema) is gorgeous but also a bit unhinged. It's easy to see that Romaine and Marcel (Andre Dussoiller) having an affair, but even then she very easily broke it off too.
It's rather difficult having a movie where the principal action is in three rooms, but Alain Resnais pulls it off.
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Movies watched today....
When Strangers Marry / Betrayed (Criterion, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerRobert Mitchum movie that's not very good. Some interesting choices with multiple images occurring over each other, but that's about it.
Luzifer (Mubi, leaving on Wednesday)
SpoilerThe beginning of the movie was interesting but soon turned into quasi-religious weirdness with a recovering drug/alcohol addict and her son.
The scene where the men come to force the woman to sign over the deed of the land, I thought "great, the son is going to get revenge for her and fuck their shit up like a Jason from Friday The 13th or the Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Nope, he just mumbles about "mama" and hits his mom with a Bible while she coughs away sick.
The cinematography and location shots are incredible, but it can't save the movie.
Kiss The Blood Off My Hands (Criterion, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerRather cool noir movie that has impressive photography and the story isn't too bad. I can foresee a remake of this movie with Bradley Cooper as Burt Lancaster's character and Carey Milligan as Joan Fontaine's character. It might actually work.
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1 hour ago, Death From Above said:
Why does the cynic in me expect splitting things into various groups to be just a trick to move all the losses into one of them for some sort of tax thing I don't understand
Or like I've been saying since Embracer has started, their company is a money laundering front. They were counting on Saudi Arabia to finance the company and that fell through.
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2 minutes ago, Raziel said:
Good on everyone recovering this show from the mess that is Chris Jericho.
Having the Young Bucks win the tag titles isn't part of the recovery.
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7 minutes ago, odessasteps said:
Not to be confused with the Michael Douglas film Black Rain
What's crazy is both movies came out in the same year. I guess let's give that version a Criterion Collection edition too!
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More movies today....
Sasquatch Sunset (saw at the theater)
SpoilerGoing into this movie, I wasn't expecting much. Even though there is no dialogue, there is a story to it. The movie starts out funny (I busted out laughing at the scene with the turtle grabbing probably Jesse Eisenberg's tongue), but turns dark very quickly. One by one, all of them die except for Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough's Sasquatches. Jesse Eisenberg's Sasquatch is clearly too incompetent to stay alive, yet he lives. Riley Keough's Sasquatch tells you everything without saying anything - she doesn't know why it's her and him and why he's such an idiot.
I found I enjoyed this movie because it's rare to see from mainstream Hollywood movies something that attempts to be this weird. There's no triumphant story moments or anything to make you 'feel good.' It's a group of people who die by misadventure, accident, or both. I wonder if Hollywood made more creative movies again if this would be regarded less than it's viewed now.
The showing I went to had TWO people - myself and one other person. Obviously, for the cutthroat business of Hollywood, that's a failure. Instead, let's have more Marvel movies or Transformers movies or big dumb action movies that tap into nostalgia rather than paying millions of dollars to take a chance on something different.
I dug the song at the end of the movie, which reminded me of songs from Vashti Bunyan.
Housekeeping For Beginners (saw at the theater)
SpoilerI liked it quite a bit but I can foresee Hollywood mining this for an American version in five to seven years (like they did with A Man Called Ove / A Man Called Otto). For (straight) Americans like me, I didn't see why a birth certificate had to be doctored for Mia (Dzada Selim). I guess in Macedonia, gay/lesbian people having a harder time with social acceptance and/or there's more outward discrimination occurring. Some aspects of the film resolved themselves too easily - especially with Vanesa (Mia Mustafi).
Still, incredible movie with mostly unknown actors and actresses carrying the work - Alina Serban (Suada), Anamaria Marinca (Dita) and Samson Selim (Ali) especially.
Hopefully, Goran Stolveski will continue to make movies and I can't wait to see what he does next.
Black Rain (Shohei Imamura) (Mubi, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerRequired viewing for those who have seen Oppenheimer. While Oppenheimer talks about the concern for the atomic bomb, this movie shows the direct result and the affect it had on the Japanese people's lives. Death is everywhere in this movie - the characters try to rationalize it and call the atomic bomb different things ("the flash" as it gets called frequently) or blame exposure it to for Yasuko (Yoshiko Tanaka) not getting married.
Every scene reminds me so much of past Japanese movies like Toyko Story or other movies from Ozu. Yet, it is very much a modern movie (the bombing destroying everything at the train station, bodies of the dead, nudity). The music is as beautiful as it is unnerving.
Sadly, this isn't on Blu Ray or in the Criterion Collection yet.
My Name Is Julia Ross (Criterion Channel, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerRather short British noir film. I didn't really like how every other character didn't believe Julia Ross' story, but that seems to be for the sake of the plot.
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17 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:
Oh, and while I'm at it: thoughts on Civil War? I... didn't like it much. But I feel like I should see it again? *shrug*
EDIT: I missed Andrew's post all the way at the top. I think my issue was that it didn't go far enough in some ways -- not spelling it out which I imagine will be the main problem people have it, but like in a Come and See way. But I'm a sick puppy. The end didn't do much for me, as I recall, but I was a little "hoo-ha" for the runtime, so another reason to watch again. Just had a bad taste in my mouth.
Yeah, I didn't feel it went far enough either.
SpoilerI talked to someone at the theater who just saw it on the night I saw Abigail and he felt like the movie going the way it did was to point out what would happen with the current political conflict in the US. We aren't supposed to feel 'any side' is supposed to be the cause, otherwise we'll feel a connection to one side over another.
I kinda wanted it to do what The Manchurian Candidate or The Parallax View or All The President's Men did with relating the story to the audience of the time. It kinda did a reverse of All The President's Men too - the journalists aren't noble heroes; in fact, they are just as bad as the people they are covering by embedding themselves with each side.
It'll be interesting to see where the conversation is about this movie six months from now or even around the time for the Oscars.
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More movies seen....
The Florida Project (leaving Netflix at the end of the month)
SpoilerAbsolutely devastating to watch. The people in this movie are the people forgotten in America. Sean Baker created a movie that shows people down on their luck and have nowhere else to turn or go. Oftentimes, children are caught in the middle and have to make due with the mistakes their parents (or parent) make.
Depicting the movie in Florida next to Disney World just adds to the desperation. Florida is not like how it was when I grew up and would visit. The people in this movie live in the shadows of the Magic Kingdom.
Willem DaFoe is incredible as a hotel manager for a rather crappy hotel. I knew women like Hailey (Bria Vinaite) in my hometown; their life hasn't gone the way they expect and they had deal with their life being in the gutter.
The movie is beautifully shot and has great cinematography. The last five minutes were off-putting but that adds to its charm.
Love & Basketball (leaving Netflix at the end of the month)
SpoilerIncredibly sweet movie about the double standards for men and women in athletics and balancing relationships between two people that have known each other all their lives.
Omar Epps (Quincy McCall) and Sanaa Lathan (Monica Wright) really deliver in characters with their own motivations and personalities. Alfre Woodard as Monica's mom really brings it home with her performance. Dennis Haysbert as Quincy's dad does great with a character that has a complicated history and upends what Quincy knows about his life - I somewhat wish more was done to delve into Quincy and his dad's relationship.
Gina Prince-Bythewood delivered a great movie that speaks to the early 2000s and to an element of the black experience.
Eve's Bayou (leaving Mubi at the end of the month)
SpoilerGreat movie and a bit underrated. The ending scene / voiceover is incredible.
The movie has elements of To Kill A Mockingbird with Eve (Jurnee Smollett) and her relationship with her dad Louis (Samuel L Jackson). Jurnee Smollett gives an incredible performance throughout the entire movie and her character has a sadness and vulnerability.
The story is a bit melodramatic at times, but there's a lot of the other elements of the movie that overcomes that. I especially liked when Mozelle (Debbi Morgan) is recalling the time her first husband was killed and is staring at a mirror to then be the image in the mirror (which somewhat ties in to the final lines of the movie from Eve).
One of my pet peeves in movies is the usage of slow motion in scenes depicting of a memory or a dramatic scene. I always feel that directors use that as a cop-out - it is distinct enough from present scenes but it's just annoying.
Overall, great first effort from Kasi Lemmons; she recently did Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody that I'll check out.
The Grandmaster (leaving Criterion Channel at the end of the month)
SpoilerNot really a martial arts movie as it is a biography that has martial arts in it. Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi say as much with their lines as they do with their facial expressions. The fights felt more like dances and not a fight to the death - even in Gong Ruo Mei (Ziyi) and Ma San (Zhang Jin).
Cinematography throughout the movie is incredible. I'll seek out the other movies from Wong Kar-wai.
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Movies today....
It's All About Love (Criterion Channel, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerPerhaps this is a prequel to Snowpiercer that we never knew about? Stylistically beautiful yet completely idiotic and makes zero sense. The movie establishes quite a few things that are never addressed. Such as:
- Why are people falling over dead and why isn't anything being done about it? It's seemingly just accepted.
- Why is it snowing all over the world? What is being done to stop it?
- Why are people floating into the air in Africa? Why not anywhere else?
- Why does Claire Danes get turned into three clones? How are they able to do this?The movie can't decide what it wants to be. Does it want to be a paranoid thriller? Does it want to be an ecological disaster movie? Does it want to be a love story? Why not all three? Okay, it decides to be all three and fails at being all three. Joaquin Phoenix and Claire Danes get their best effort despite the material. The director - who did the excellent Another Round - probably should have scaled the movie back some.
If you're going to watch a movie about the end of the world that's kinda depressing, Melancholia is right there.
How To Have Sex (Mubi, not leaving any time soon as far as I know, watched this off and on last several weeks)
SpoilerThis movie captures the superficial yet dangerous world that young women find themselves in. It spoke to me because I've been to numerous parties in college and on vacation and knew women that had to deal with men not fully being accountable for themselves and taking advantage of women. Badger (Shaun Thomas) "helps" I guess because he's not trying to rape Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce); yet he doesn't come out and ask Tara what happened or what's wrong. Paddy (Samuel Bottomley) had already moved on to another woman while Tara grapples with herself over what happened on the beach.
The lesson for me as a guy is don't presume women want to have sex if they are friendly with you. Sometimes, that person needs space, time and a chance to sort out their feelings. Being friendly is not an invitation to be taken advantage of.
I can't wait to see what Molly Manning Walker does next.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (saw at the theater)
SpoilerI enjoyed the movie for what it was, even though it was a retread of Inglorious Basterds. When it wasn't ripping off parts of Inglorious Basterds, it borrowed a bit from early James Bond movies. Guy Ritchie is a bit 'hit or miss' for me; the movie starts out hitting most of its marks, but by the end misses wildly.
The standout for me was Alan Ritchson, who I have to say I have a bit of a 'man crush' on. Ritchson honestly could take Dave Batista's place as Drax if he wants. Eiza Gonzalez was okay as well although she needs a role that's not just beauty (although I could watch her in a revealing white dress all day). Henry Cavill showed his personality at the start but after the boat heist faded into the background.
The drawbacks to the movie is its length felt a tad long at times and the night time scenes were dimly lit. The day time rescue worked really well and the boat heist just made everyone look nearly the same. It didn't have a sense of tension until the music was playing.
Probably worth checking out in the theater; at home, probably not so much.
The House on Telegraph Hill (Criterion Channel, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerHard to believe the director who did The Sound of Music and West Side Story could do a Hitchcock-esque film noir!
The premise of the movie was quite rough for the time - part of me wondered if something from Victoria being in a concentration camp would affect her in San Francisco. The reveal to Marc lifted a great cloud....until the last 22 minutes of the movie. The last 22 minutes picked up and did a great job in wrapping things up.
I wonder how Valentina Cortese would have done in a Hitchcock film.
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8 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:
I just recently watched A Matter of Life and Death, and loved it thoroughly. I wanna see everything by Powell-Pressburger. Black Narcissus is calling to me. I've been eyeing The Ghost and Mrs Muir for a long while. Thanks for the 'leaving' reminder and terrific review. Big Gene Tierney 'mark' here.
Yeah, I'll probably try to watch everything from Powell/Pressburger. Let's not forget The Red Shoes (which I see at Barnes & Noble and it calls to me but I never answer the call). They are seriously a film school by themselves. It's almost like all our favorite directors (Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Nolan, etc) watched their films religiously for the right way to do it.
I'm finding I like Gene Tierney as well now. She has intelligence and personality in her roles - if she were alive today, she would be there with Meryl Streep and Glenn Close.
It's sad that Jean Luc Godard had some disappointing movies that are leaving Mubi. His earlier work aged better than his later work - the two movies I saw yesterday from the '80s and '90s had everyone in a perpetual state of being mad at each other.
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19 hours ago, The Old-Fashioned Gamer said:
Finished Singularity over the weekend. Really enjoyed it. The time mechanics are a lot of fun and the offbeat, high-concept storyline is very interesting. Game has a “Russian BioShock” vibe to it that I dug. Pity it sold poorly and Raven Software got reduced to a Call of Duty support studio.
Been playing second-tier Xbox & PS3 games lately & having a blast. Lollipop Chainsaw, Shadows of the Damned, Ninja Blade, El Shaddai, the Sherlock Holmes games, Afro Samurai, etc. That generation has a lot of slightly janky games that never found an audience but are great fun.
The Platinum for Singularity is rough to get - it had annoying multiplayer trophies when they weren't needed.
I guess at some point I'll go back and finish up Lollipop Chainsaw and work on El Shaddai for platinums.
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Movies today....
The Married Woman (Mubi, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerI haven't seen many Godard films (I did see Breathless years ago), but his early work tends to have a similar style and seems to influence a lot of later directors (Tarantino and De Palma especially).
This film seems to be more of conversations with two men with one woman without one man discovering the other. I was surprised at how 'clinical' Godard treated the subject matter and surprised reading about the controversy at the time about this film. Through today's lens, the film seems positively tame.
The scene of violence from the husband to his wife was a bit out of ordinary and her reaction was rather complacent in their conversation afterwards.
The Book of Mary / Hail Mary (Mubi, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerThe 30 minute Book of Mary was probably a Wes Anderson inspiration (precocious teenagers).
I found the movie rather tame albeit at times bewildering. Once I got into the groove, it wasn't bad movie. Characters seem to be angry at times (shoving each other, shoving Mary, running off) and Mary seems to be a girl whose dad works for a gas station and her boyfriend runs a taxi. Once the child is born (and the baby cries a bit which is against what is thought of for Christ, but hey let's ignore that for the sake of the movie), it ends somewhat abruptly after the child gets a bit older.
'80s Godard is wild.
Abigail (saw at the theater)
SpoilerNice Dario Argento-like horror movie with not so usual twists on the formula. None of the characters are very deep, but no one goes to see a blood and guts horror movie for the characters. Melissa Barrera and Alisha Weir anchor the movie really well.
It does okay with execution, but wasn't really memorable for scenes or characters.
For Ever Mozart (Mubi, leaving at the end of the month)
SpoilerMovie is incomprehensible at times, but not difficult to follow either. There's a lot of complex subjects and topics covered - cinema, theater, war, tension, life, death. There's about 4 stories going on during the course of the movie.
An acting troupe gets left by their director in Sarajevo while guerrillas capture all of them except for the director. It then shifts to a beach for a film within a film. Then a lot of people (including some of the characters from earlier) gather to watch a concert.
Confused? You won't be after the next episode of Soap.
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59 minutes ago, RIPPA said:
Transformers One
Trailer felt like Taika Waikititi doing a Transformers movie. I mean that's slightly better than Michael Bay doing Transformers. The jokes in the trailer felt like jokes I've seen before.
We just need Christopher Nolan to make a Transformers movie now. Or Wes Anderson.
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2 hours ago, odessasteps said:
One of the themes for the Criterion Channel in May is 1999, and they have some good films (the straight story, virgin suicides) without actually having some of the great ones (John Malkovich, The Limey, Topsy Turvy).
it’s a murderers row of pictures that year.
The Limey will be on there as will Girl Interrupted, Bringing Out The Dead (!!!!!), Ghost Dog, Go, and The Insider.
I may end up watching every single 1999 movie that's added in a week, seriously.
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5 minutes ago, odessasteps said:
Are all of these ghost/heaven movies a theme this month? If not, an amazing coincidence.
I was going to mention Here Comes Mr Jordan yesterday, in relation to Heaven Can Wait.
Yeah, most of the ones leaving Criterion Channel this month are ghost/heaven movies. Except for Love Unto Death (which was okay), most of the ones I've seen are stone cold classics.
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More movies today...all on the Criterion Channel, all leaving this month.
The Ghost And Mrs. Muir
SpoilerGreat movie although physical copies of this are really expensive and hard to find.
This seems to be the second movie that Gene Tierney finds herself aged up (although I find odd that her housekeeper and the adult version of her daughter look to be similar age - I guess makeup does that).
Slight misogynistic streak and a bit of sadness throughout the movie. Rex Harrison as Captain Daniel Gregg veered into parody at times but the chemistry between him and Gene Tierney is noticeable.
The start of the movie lead me to believe it would become a gothic horror film, but it turned into a romantic film. Bernard Hermann's score is incredible and I loved the location shots, presumably of English coastline (or it could very well be the California coast).
Love Unto Death
SpoilerDeeply unsettling yet strangely on the nose, this is one of Resnais' lesser movies. I enjoyed it although not nearly as much as I did My American Uncle (Mon Oncle D'Amerique).
The interlude music made some of the scenes almost comedic, especially after Simon dies again. The earlier part of the movie where Simon seemingly recovers is normalized until Simon starts to wonder why he's still alive.
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
SpoilerGreat movie although the last 15 minutes were a bit deus ex machina for me (how did everyone get from Mr. Farnsworth mansion to the arena that quickly?).
Robert Montgomery had a great turn as Joe Pendleton I mean Farnsworth I mean Murdock. Dude leaped into more bodies than Scott Bakula did in Quantum Leap.
A Matter Of Life And Death
SpoilerOne of the most perfect films ever made. The movie is about love, but also about humanity, war, and philosophy. Every shot is perfect. Every scene is perfect. The movie had so many setups, shots, scenes, acting and camera angle that influenced movies that came later.
It influenced Defending Your Life. It influenced Atonement. It had some of the most memorable scenes - a simple crowd shot while soldiers practice Shakespeare in the background while Peter Carter (David Niven) and June (Kim Hunter) play chess. The court room scene had hundreds of people (although earlier films like Birth of a Nation among others had as many).
This is leaving this month on Criterion Channel. Just watch it seriously.
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Movies today....
Cowboys & Aliens (leaving Netflix at the end of the month)
SpoilerDecent summer blockbuster action faire which sometimes works. Does something a bit unusual where the main character Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) doesn't get the girl but just rides out of town. Has good character development for almost every character shown.
I wonder if there would have been plans for Cowboys & Aliens II to continue with Daniel Craig but we'll never know.
Irena's Vow (saw at the theater)
SpoilerSurprisingly affective and definitely better movie than One Life. For whatever reason, the movie didn't get a wide distribution and is only showing for two nights this week.
Sophie Nelisse is magnetic as Irena Gut Opdyke; honestly she should be in the running for an Oscar nomination.
The first hour or so had palpable tension as it builds upon whether Irena would get discovered; the dinner party scenes had moments of humor as a result of the people she's hiding preparing the meals.
Somewhat 'ick' factor with the Nazi commandant Eduard Rugemer (Dougray Scott) declaring his love for her - it was on appearances though.
I loved the scene where German Nazi officers were singing Christmas songs while the Jewish people were singing Yiddish Hankkuah songs. Nice counterpoint (although I think that showed up in other movies about the Holocaust like Schindler's List).
The only drawback to the movie is it was a bit long in spots and it was a bit sanitized (although the scene with the woman and her baby getting killed did elicit audible gasps). The "don't get an abortion or Hitler wins" scene was a bit heavy handed and showed the movie's evangelical backing.
Hopefully, this will get a wider run in the theaters or will show up on streaming.
Heaven Can Wait (1943) (leaving Criterion Channel at the end of the month)
SpoilerMovie holds up amazingly well. Don Ameche plays the sarcastic Henry Van Cleve and he seemingly pre-dates Robert Redford/Warren Beaty/Paul Newman/George Clooney/Brad Pitt for handsome ne'do'well types that appeared much later. Gene Tierney as Martha matches him for wit; the movie is rather progressive for the treatment of women.
The movie is hysterical at times but a lot of the scenes towards the end were very much emotionally affecting.
It's a shame black people didn't fare better in this movie, but that's sadly the case in Hollywood at the time. Clarence Muse as Jasper, the Strables' butler has a sarcastic edge as well in the scenes he appeared.
I'll definitely seek out more of Ernest Lubitsch's movies.
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Movies today....
Norte: The End of History (Mubi leaving on Thursday, watched this off and on over the weekend and today)
SpoilerThis movie just really isn't that good. I haven't nothing against slow cinema - in fact, some of my favorite movies recently have been part of that approach to movie-making (Perfect Days, The Turin Horse, Neighbouring Sounds, The Zone of Interest). I almost feel like there was no one around the director Lav Diaz who told him 'no' on any of the choices made for this movie.
The movie took four hours when it only needed two hours or two and half to tell its story. The first hour and 45 minutes worked and told the story succinctly. In order to have a movie go for four hours and still be compelling, either the story needs to carry it, the actors need to carry it, or how the movie was put together would need to carry it.
Sid Lucero (Fabian) is about the only decent actor in the whole movie. The character he plays is bad from the start - he starts as an annoying intellectual to eventually becoming an annoying psychopath. Yet he carried the sections of the movie he was in.
Joaquio (Archie Alemenia) is decent at times through the movie albeit with a character that's rather wooden. The other people involved simply can't act or aren't very good. I wasn't really upset that Magda (Mae Paner) got killed; she seemed to exist to stand in the way of Joaquio's family although they seem to make poor choices or expect a malnourished pig to be acceptable.
I was practically yelling at the screen when Joaquio's wife Eliza (Angeli Bayani) was trying to ask for an appeal for her husband's conviction 30 days later - what the hell was her character doing in that time?
Hours two through three were unmemorable and virtually an exercise in the director enjoying the smell of his own farts. The last 30 minutes or so actually picked up and Fabian is an absolute psycho by that point. The movie never explains what happened to Joaquio - Fabian's lawyer friends seemingly got him released (although it's never shown but only assumed). Joaquio floating on the bed could have been a great conclusion to the movie to be honest. The car accident and the introduction of Fabian's sister seemed rather out of nowhere rather than carefully crafted.
Just because a director can make a four hour movie doesn't mean the director should. By the end of it, I felt that the director needed to fire his editor, which is himself. Hopefully, Lav Diaz can work with better actors in another movie and make a movie that can tell its story sufficiently and succinctly.
The Zookeeper's Wife (Netflix, leaving after today)
SpoilerJessica Chastain literally could play anything. She's there with Emma Stone as far as being able to be an American that can almost convincingly sound European. Here, she adopts a slight German accent as the title character.
The movie has wonderful moments of grandeur especially in nature shots at the zoo. The movie does lose a little bit when it advances the story - Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh)'s change from cautious supporter to freedom fighter isn't really explained well - especially since we're lead to believe he's angry at Antonina (Chastain) for her (on appearances) affair with Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl).
The last 20 minutes of the movie pick up steam and has a very affecting ending. Overall, the movie is a sweet, humane portrayal of individuals saving the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
I will definitely check out Niki Caro's other work (including McFarland U.S.A. and the live action Mulan remake). She has an eye for tremendous imagery and terrific cinematography.
Horse Money (Mubi, leaving after Thursday)
Spoiler"Baravelli, you have the brain of a four year old boy and I bet he was glad to get rid of it." -Groucho Marx, Horse Feathers (1932)
For some inexplicable reason, critics think this is a great movie. Sight & Sound magazine, according to Wikipedia, thought this was the third best movie in 2014.
I've seen the movie and I'm not sure what movie they thought they were watching.
There is no plot to the movie or even an explanation of where this is taking place. Is it in Venturas' mind? Is it a dream? Is he in a physical place (like a mental institution) and everything is occurring in a room? Pedro Costa makes zero effort to help the audience find a way into his story or even something that helps the audience understand.
As far as I can tell, Venturas is....somewhere. The movie has various people standing in front of him and details about them are explained (it's not established if they are dead or alive or what state Venturas is in at the start of the movie). Voices talk to him in some ASMR-esque way about a friend (relative?) who is dead that the person's wife spends quite a bit of time recalling about his death. Venturas says he's alive.
I almost feel like Pedro Costa was figuring out ways to exploit Venturas for his movie. Stand him in a room! Have him mumble words! Have other people stand near him and whisper their lines! Have him walk through areas and that appears 'symbolic'!
Towards the end of the movie Venturas stands in an elevator for at least 20 minutes with a guy in a soldier's uniform (who again there is no explanation other than Venturas says "he's a revolutionary soldier"). People talking offscreen while the camera is on the soldier (is he an avatar for them?).
Then Venturas just leaves the place after force feeding the presumably dead husband of a friend (relative?) soup.
Mystery Science Theater 3000, when talking about a different movie, said "You know, it's economical not to have a storyline, because then you can just film people saying things." They would likely say the same thing about Horse Money.
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1 hour ago, odessasteps said:
Pekinpah !
I'm going to be so fucking broke with Pekinpah, Farewell My Concubine, and Perfect Days (!!!). I'll pass on Risky Business unless it shows up on the Criterion Channel.
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Movies I saw today...
La Chimera (saw at the theater)
SpoilerThis would be like if Robert Altman and Pier Pasolo Pasolini worked together and directed a movie about archaelogy. I'll have to track down the other movies Alice Rohrwacher directed, but there were parts I liked and parts I didn't. The first hour dragged somewhat, but it did pick towards the end and had a satisfying conclusion (even though the main character is pretty much dead).
Except for the main character Arthur (Josh O'Connor) and Flora (Isabella Rossellini), there weren't really that many interesting characters. The various people around Arthur just as well been one person. Italia (Carol Duarte) tried but seemed to exist in the movie to be put down by Flora. The scene where she gets angry over Arthur and the people working with him robbing graves was the only bit of character work she showed.
Robert Altman-esque bits were where characters spoke over each other in certain scenes.
It's not a completely terrible movie though. I love some of the shots that were set up in the movie (the upside camera angle was particularly inventive).
Worth checking out.
Civil War (saw at the theater)
SpoilerFor me, films are about capturing a specific feeling or emotion and having a story embody it thoroughly. There's a lot that Civil War does right. There's a few things that it does wrong. What it does right is the sound design - gunshots in the movie sound like actual gunshots or close to it. A lot of the scenery is setup beautifully.
The main crux of the movie - civil war - isn't exactly spelled out why people involved are fighting. It never tells you the reasons but you can somewhat guess (more likely the end of the road that the US is currently on with the current political parties).
Having played a lot of video games and recently going back into watching films, lots of scenes remind me of scenes I've seen in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II. The movie invoked a lot of the same feelings those games did - anxiety and paranoia throughout the story.
Kirsten Dunst was really great throughout the movie and is not the same woman seen in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy or Mona Lisa Smile. Her sighs and worn facial expressions convey so much of the character's trauma and history.
What was troublesome is how Dunst's character Lee Smith and Stephen McKinley Henderson's character Sammy die almost senselessly. There was no grand speeches or gasping for last breaths - they just get shot and killed.
The other troubling thing is how apparent the film tries to 'both sides' journalism in armed conflicts. The film not definitely saying what the civil war was about or spell out the aims of each side leads the film to not saying anything directly. The crux coming out of the film seems to be "war is bad, mmkay" rather than why the president is wrong (or why he's right). Journalism seems to be about "if it bleeds, it leads" and taking graphic pictures of people being killed rather than those journalists making a direct statement.
Despite all of this, this is a great piece of cinema and will be talked about in the years to come.
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Movies today - was out of town most of the day so I didn't watch as much:
Neighbouring Sounds (leaving Mubi next week)
SpoilerGreat amount of Hitchcockian tension throughout the movie about upper class Brazilian families living on a street with security guards. Throughout the entire movie, I felt like something violent or brutal would happen but that wasn't really the case. I think the tension had to do with the camera angles and it was shot rather up close at times.
I'll definitely check out the director Kieber Mendonca Fiho's other movies.
Play Misty For Me (leaving Netflix at the end of the month)
SpoilerMovie shows promise at times with some unintentional hilarious parts - the opening titles literally uses the same font as the Gilligan's Island TV show and Jessica Walter as Evelyn overacted to the point of hilarity. One of the songs sounds like a instrumental soundalike to The Rolling Stones and is completely out of place in the movie.
The sequence set to "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" to the Monterey Pop Festival was inspired filmmaking.
The last 10 minutes were rather rushed - the final part in the house was dimly lit to the point that it was hard to follow.
Clint Eastwood later figured out his way to make movies - including the underrated Jersey Boys and Changeling to the Oscar winning Million Dollar Baby - so this is a nice start.
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On 4/12/2024 at 12:21 PM, Curt McGirt said:
THE BEAST (dir. Bertrand Bonello)
Also, this
https://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/megalopolis-coppola-cannes
In yet another of the money travails in the career of Francis Coppola (remember that even Dracula was done for profit), nobody wants to buy Megalopolis. The saying goes that "what's the point of having money if you can't spend it". Why can't any of these rich fucks get behind that? I guess they would just tell me "the point of making money is to make more money" instead and take a limo back to their yacht. (Don't see how A24 wouldn't pick it up though if they have the cash, so it'll probably be their loss.)
The Beast is one I'll try to find tickets to see - only one theater in Atlanta is showing it so I'll have to go to Plaza Theater to see it.
I can see Apple or Netflix spending the money to have Megalopolis on their services instead of it playing in theaters.
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Movies on Friday
Rebels of the Neon God (Mubi, leaving Wednesday)
SpoilerCompared to the later Stray Dogs, a much better movie but a bit more conventional. The movie is better to me because it does have the same slow, methodical approach that Stray Dogs did but more compelling to view. The parallel stories work really well and show vibrant world and characters. Hsiao Kang (Lee Kang-sheng) is an absolute weirdo and follows Ah Tze (Chen Chao-jung) and Ah Ping (Jen Chang-bin) rather creepily without them knowing - I was surprised one of them didn't hear footsteps while they were stealing the arcade boards. Hsiao Kang jumping up and down like a school kid in his underwear when he sees the motorcycle vandalized was the height of weirdness.
I found it amazing that Ah Tze was seemingly fine with living in an apartment that's flooded half the time.
For the video gamers out there, there's lots of Street Fighter II gameplay and a few top down shooters in the arcade scenes.
Monkey Man (saw at the theater)
SpoilerMovie was really good, although it seemed almost a plot point by plot point lift of the first John Wick. (Just replace the mom with the dog and you would have John Wick)
The camerawork and editing is abysmal at times, but the action and the familiar plot carry the movie. Side characters are introduced to act as a mechanism to propel the story and propel the main character's goal. None of them play into the finale at all.
There isn't a Lance Reddick or a Ian McShane level actor that can stand equal to Dev Patel's John Wick in this. Sobhita Dhulipala as Sita and Vipin Sharma as Alpha come close, but they aren't interesting and lack a compelling story.
It's a great movie to catch in the theater and as you're waiting for John Wick 5 to come out.
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4 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:
It's interesting that you see his influence in Hughes. Scorsese was a devout follower of Cassavetes. As mentioned that doc called A Constant Forge is a great primer. I can't remember if you've seen A Woman Under the Influence? That's his masterpiece. Shared pretty equally with his wife Gena Rowlands who delivers one of the greatest performances I've ever seen.
I have that blu ray, but honestly Love Streams is probably best to tackle after the 60s/70s films. That's the most challenging of the bunch. I'm not yet sure what to make of it. Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Shadows and Faces are all far more accessible if not exactly accessible.John Hughes has a lot of other influences too - George Lucas from American Graffiti spring to mind for me for the teen movies and Fellini springs to mind as well for the Vacation movies he wrote, but I think it's more of the fact that he has "Chicago as a character" like Scorsese and Cassavetes have "New York City as a character" in their films. How he accomplishes it is vastly different - Cassavetes is more of a frame of reference than an actual influence like it was for Scorsese.
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2024 UPCOMING MOVIE DISCUSSION
in MOVIES & TV
Posted
At least it's not Spirit or Frontier, where the inflight entertainment system are the other passengers.