Andrew POE! Posted November 10, 2024 Posted November 10, 2024 Movies today... Bed of Roses (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 2/5 stars Spoiler Rather on the low end of the scale as a pre-Code movie. Only interesting scenes were towards the end with the party and the department store scene that's almost Altman-like. Joel McCrea I fail to see what others see in him as an actor. Constance Bennett didn't have as much bite for her character as I thought she should. Empire Records (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler This movie today seems to be almost a sad relic of the 1990s. Music stores like Tower Records shuttered to give way to CDNow.com before a weirdo in a cowboy hat named Jeff bought CDNow to make a company that completely destroyed mom and pop stores like Empire Records. So a community of fans coming together to 'save the store' from corporations is for naught. If this movie happened today, the ending would have been sadder and Mitchell (Ben Bode) would have arrived with an army of lawyers to shut down the party and sue Joe (Anthony LaPaglia) out of existence. Even then, the initial premise of the movie where an employee Lucas (Rory Cochrane) steals $9000 to gamble in Atlantic City with the hopes of doubling it is a bit far fetched at times. Joe doesn't somehow sack Lucas immediately because to quote the ubiquitous Gin Blossoms song, he figures everything is cool. The movie almost functions like an earlier movie - Between The Lines - where a lot of side stories are occurring with the characters while the main story is going on (in fact, the premise of Empire Records is remarkably similar to the premise of Between The Lines). It does attempt to have a Robert Altman-esque freewheeling spirit (the mock funeral for Robin Tunney's Deb is straight out of M*A*S*H*) but it's not nearly as fun as Altman's highs. It's more like a lower version of Fast Times At Ridgemont High or one of John Hughes' 1980s teen movies. You don't really get the sense that the location (Delaware) is a place in the movie; they just as well had Empire Records be a store in the greater Chicago area (like other Hughes teen comedies). What's somewhat annoying is the movie attempts to make Liv Tyler the Phoebe Cates or Winona Ryder or Molly Ringwald type of breakout star. She's adequate at best as an actress; her standout scenes usually involve the much better Renee Zellweger. Namely, the scene where the two have an argument before Corey (Tyler) runs rampant in the store and has to be calmed down. Zellweger really shines in every scene she's in - let's not forget her famous scene wearing nothing but an apron and underwear. Or her singing on the rooftop towards the end. Despite some of my issues with the movie, this is a competently shot and well directed movie and made working at a record store the coolest job in the world. I really loved the conversation at the end credits over various bands like Misfits, The Pixies, and Henry Rollins and wish that was everywhere in the movie (despite the brief mention of The Shaggs and The Residents). Allan Moyle really taps into Hughes like teen dramedy and updates it a bit for the 1990s. The usage of music throughout the movie is smart; I loved the sequences where "Video Kills The Radio Star" as David Hasselhoff like Rex Manning (Maxwell Caulfield) is scheduled to appear and where they are setting up the donation drive to "Plowed." One really well directed scene was where Zellweger and Tyler are talking at a pizza restaurant with how the camera does coverage for the shots in that scene. Empire Records is a relic from the 1990s and really is nostalgic for that time period. Small Things Like These (saw at the theaters) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler At the theater I went to, a nearby movie was nearly drowning the sound for this movie out. It makes me wonder if this is a better movie to see at home or headphones than in a theater setting. The movie is really a quiet movie; Cillian Murphy plays William, who runs and operates a coal business. Murphy has William as almost stoic until he recalls his past, which we see scenes of his childhood. I especially love one scene where he scrubs away at his hands while remembering his mother's death. William doesn't say anything but the hurt shows. William seems particularly troubled when he encounters a pregnant runaway Sarah (Zara Devlin) while delivering coal to a local Catholic convent. William is given an implicit threat about involving himself with the woman and the Mother Superior (Emily Watson) implies that his daughters won't be able to attend the school any longer. It's not exactly clear why William is compelled to involve himself with this woman. It's implied that it has to do with his five daughters and he feels a sense of protection because the girl is of a similar age to one of his daughters. It may also be that it has to do with the flashback scenes as William reflects on the time of his mother's death and an unfulfilled Christmas wish for a puzzle set (we see a puzzle set in a window later on in the movie). It's not exactly clear what prompts this. Even though the character motivation for William is unclear, I love the cinematography for this movie completely. It has a wintry feel to it and I would say it's secretly a Christmas movie. Quite frequently, there are a lot of shots of characters standing at a window with the outside in focus and the character becoming in focus with the outside out of focus. One of the opening shots of the movie is of men loading up coal on a truck from inside an office as a phone rings. The Band Of Outsiders like mounted camera to lorries is especially neat and brings a worn sense of realism. The ending is rather ambiguous as to what will befall William and his family after bringing Sarah in. Will he indeed have his children unable to attend school is not known. Still, this is a great movie to check out, hopefully at a quieter theater. Heretic (saw at the theaters) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Incredible first hour before it turned into stupid Blumhouse horror in the last hour or so. Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed is a compelling Vincent Price-like character, delving into a lecture on the nature of religion and the process of belief that individuals undertake. Having taken college courses and attended classes on classical literature including the religious texts, religious beliefs boil down to the individual. Yet, at the same time, the individual cannot make a religion simply because that person believes in the religion and convince other individuals to believe too. The discussion that Mr. Reed and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) have about this subject in the first hour is tremendously satisfying and interesting. The writers really did a great job with developing this discussion between characters; although really Mr. Reed was again leading a lecture with essentially students. When Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton have to escape, the movie fell apart. It turned into an almost standard PG-13 Blumhouse horror movie (even though it's rated R, it felt pretty PG-13). Creepy things happen as the two girls try to escape. It somewhat stretched credibility in the second hour with a lot of what happened - essentially, the girls are in one room with two stairways leading back to a library. There's a nice dramatic and tense scene as they try to get matches by pulling a rug while a body gets switched....and it's too much to remember. A lot of it is to cover up for the two sisters not really being well developed as characters (despite one of the sisters discussing why she doesn't like Taco Bell due to a kidney illness from eating e.coli tainted beef there). I as a viewer wasn't really looking for the characters to escape or even caring that they would escape. At the same time, I wasn't convinced that Mr. Reed was evil due to character choices made about him up to a point. Where it strained credibility for Mr. Reed is with the basement and the sub basement. The house isn't really explored - it just leads to a kennel (WTF?) for women that Mr. Reed keeps them in (despite it defying all logical explanation for his character to having done so). It felt like the writers panicked and thought,"Quick, let's have him do something that makes the audience know he's evil!" so keeping women against their will (it isn't explained where they come from) was the solution. Topher Grace as Elder Kennedy had me wondering if it would turn out that he was orchestrating what happened to the two sisters with Mr. Reed playing a part in the orchestration (essentially Elder Kennedy wants to challenge his own missionaries' faith by having them go through the ordeal of the mousetrap set up by Mr. Reed). I also wondered if Elder Kennedy would have known about Mr. Reed and found a way in to rescue the girls (oftentimes in movies like this, there is a revelation about the villain character that explains the origin of their behavior). We never learn about why Mr. Reed is doing this. There's no explanation about the origin of his wife - was she one of the women in the kennels? Why didn't the movie do a Hitchcock like scene where the sisters find Mrs. Reed alright - as a decomposing body in a bedroom? Elder Kennedy briefly appeared, asked Mr. Reed for the sisters' whereabouts, then he disappears for the rest of the movie. It turns out to not be the case and the reality is a bit more mundane and even mediocre. We know less about Mr. Reed leaving this movie than we did going into this movie. Despite story issues, it wasn't completely bad. I did like that the casting for the two sisters were actresses that have a familiarity with LDS, so it made their presentation as missionaries a bit more authentic and truer to the faith. I thought it was hilarious with Sister Paxton discussing watching porn yet claiming to not watch porn (she watches porn). Hearing Hugh Grant doing a Jar Jar Brinks impression and trying to sing Radiohead's "Creep" is genuinely hilarious. Some of the cinematography choices in the first hour were really great; I loved how the sisters moving through the town was shot especially with their going up and down stairs. Some of the shots in the room where Mr. Reed presents the board games and comparing them to The Hollies/Radiohead/Lana Del Rey and religions was ingenious. Cinematography sorta crapped out once the movie got into the basement. Lots of darkly lit areas that are barely compelling. The last 20 minutes was okay although it turned into "he stabbed her, she stabbed him" that's typical in Blumhouse horror and is a bit unrealistic (no one just has a long bleed out then sits back up to hit Daniel Cleaver with nails on a 2x4). To be fair, having watched Anora, Memoir of a Snail, and Small Things LIke These over a weekend and then watching Heretic puts Heretic at an unfair disadvantage. Heretic isn't really much in the way of horror, but if it were more like a Brian De Palma or Alfred Hitchcock thriller, I think it would have a lot more to offer. The opening titles and the philosophical discussions were about the only things unique to this movie compared to other dramas of its type. Still, after this movie, it does give Hugh Grant more options regarding the type of movies he can be in - I would love to see Hugh Grant star in an Osgood Perkins horror movie because I think he would be perfect for it. The two women (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) could work as romantic leads for sweet romantic comedies - Sophie Thatcher has a bit of a Winona Ryder like gothic edge to her, so maybe she can be in the third Beetlejuice movie or another Tim Burton movie with Jenna Ortega (or a Heathers remake with Jenna Ortega perhaps?). Heretic starts out great, but spins its wheels by the end. 1
Curt McGirt Posted November 10, 2024 Posted November 10, 2024 God my mom loved the Empire Records soundtrack. She probably only listened to four songs off of it though -- the ones we all had hammered into our head like nails back in the '90s. 1
Andrew POE! Posted November 10, 2024 Posted November 10, 2024 1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said: God my mom loved the Empire Records soundtrack. She probably only listened to four songs off of it though -- the ones we all had hammered into our head like nails back in the '90s. I forgot to mention that I loved this year's The Outrun usage of "This Is The Day" in its movie versus Empire Records (although I did enjoy the usage in Empire Records).
J.H. Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 (edited) When it comes to Empire Records, "Sugar High" really gets stuck in your head the same way "Scotty Doesn't Know" from Eurotrip does. If you were to ask me which movie I liked better... I'd have to take the 5th as both have their moments James Edited November 11, 2024 by J.H. 2
Andrew POE! Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 Movies today.....a bunch of French speaking movies watched. Falcon Lake (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler A French Canadian echo of Stand By Me in some ways. Bastien (Joseph Engel), his brother and parents go to a lakehouse to spend a summer with Chloe (Sara Montpetit). Chloe reacts almost violently with having to spend time with Bastien and his brother Titi during the start of the movie and argues with her mom about to do so. The movie talks a bit about ghosts and ghosts following people. I loved the introductory scenes once the family arrive - they are moving through the house with the lights off, almost as if they were ghosts. Chloe appears in a ghost costume and gets shoved off a pier. Bastien puts on a mask and dances at a party. Chloe takes a picture of Bastien in a ghost outfit near the lake. The camera in a lot of ways follows the actors as if it were a ghost as well - there's a lot of usage of medium close up shots and close ups of actors' faces throughout the movie. Ghosts oftentimes also means memories - either memory of a place or a feeling or a person. I love the way Charlotte Le Bon has scenes with Bastien set up - it's almost as if he's a 'ghost' in the room and separated out from everyone. Chloe and Bastien share their fears during one scene - Bastien says his fear is 'masturbating in front of his parents,' while Chloe says her fear is being alone. 'You're not alone,' Bastien says. In a lot of ways, Bastien being separated and possibly also being afraid of being loneliness is a natural feeling growing up. I loved how the relationship between Chloe and Bastien evolved. At first, Bastien regarded Chloe with amazement and not completely comfortable with approaching her. Eventually, Chloe warms up to Bastien and they are inseparable. The scene where Bastien is in a lake, nearly going under while watching Chloe almost take her top off was shot really well. The camera was almost as if it could barely stay above water like Bastien as well. Bastien brags to one of the English speaking friends that he and Chloe slept together (it's entirely possible that Bastien didn't understand English, but I have my doubts). Bastien seeks social acceptance from the guys that he meets with such a brag. It's natural for guys growing up to want to have other guys accept them (although honestly yes Bastien shouldn't have bragged about that when it didn't happen). Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit really did awesome in their performances for these roles. Engel perfectly captured the awkwardness of being a teenage boy going through changes at that point in his life. Montpetit displays the anger of having to deal with a younger almost kid brother like teenager although she does confide in him then later is completely disgusted with Bastien. The other thing I noticed is a recurring scene where Chloe and Bastien try to bite their own hands to cause it to bleed. The origin of this is a scene where Bastien is watching an anime and a character bites his hand and causes it to bleed in order to transform. Obviously, Chloe and Bastien don't transform - Bastien towards the end of the movie is finally successful in making himself bleed. Throughout the movie, there are wonderful cinematography that's reminiscent of 2024's My Old Ass. Like that movie, the lake and the lake house is rendered in beautiful colors with Falcon Lake having an almost muted lighting even when the sun is out; it's almost like old photographs on 16mm stock brought to life. The scene where Bastien and Chloe are on a chair as it is being pulled by a boat especially reminded me of My Old Ass. I love the shot at the end of the scene where the chair is shown almost submerged in the water. The movie starts and ends almost similarly; at the beginning, the camera follows the car driving to the lakehouse and as it is leaving the lakehouse towards the end. The camera towards the end follows Bastien as he is seemingly able to run long distances over a bridge and through the path to the dock to see Chloe. I found the ending rather interesting; Bastien's parents go to a place near the lake leave something behind at a mural. Yet Bastien isn't standing with his parents; only Tiki and the parents are there. Did Bastien drown? Bastien in going to the dock is only panting a little bit; for someone to run that distance that fast would leave the person completely out of breath. So Bastien is seemingly a ghost and now dead. He calls out to Chloe, who doesn't react but starts to turn around towards the camera. It's ambiguous at the end if Bastien really is dead or alive. Does his parents even know where he is at the end? The other aspects I like is the music throughout the movie. One thing I noticed as well is the cultural appropriation that occurred - the teenagers at the party listen to rap music and one of the kids of the family that owns another lakehouse plays djembe. The music in the movie doesn't appear often but when it does it really sets the mood for the scene. I will say that for a movie about 'coming of age' there wasn't a terrible lot that happened. The movie is more about the emotional journey for Bastien or at least an understanding of his emotions. Also, there weren't really a lot of scenes where Bastien's parents try to talk to him or understand what he's going through; he and Chloe sneak away to go to the party and drink at a beach, but there isn't a conversation about what would mean to Bastien's father for example. I realize that French culture about alcohol is completely different than the United States (having to wait until a person is 21 to be able to drink in the United States is completely idiotic). But it's not really so much the act of drinking but rather the act of Bastien being a crowd that's older than him. Falcon Lake is a great movie and I can't wait to see what Charlotte Le Bon does next. Girlhood (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler Finding a group that accepts someone is a challenging difficulty. Even growing up in the United States, this difficulty is apparent. Oftentimes in high school, people divide themselves into 'cliques.' The students that take band together hang out with each other. Same with the students taking chorus. The rich kids that hang out with the other rich kids. Athletes that hang out with athletes. Girlhood applies this universal concept to a young girl Marieme/Vic (Karidja Toure) living in France. Marieme has a difficult life - she lives with a single mother and experiences routine attacks and harassment from her brother. Celine Sciamma has all but updated Truffaut's The 400 Blows but for a young Afro-Francois girl. I found it interesting that Sciamma opened the movie with girls playing American football. Much of the concept of cliques mentioned apply to American football for whatever reason. With American football, there's a layer of protection not apparent in other team sports. Those that play football (or soccer as us Americans seem to call it) aren't offered this layer of protection. Marieme operates through the world on this layer of protection. When we first see the character, she has a sullen, almost sad visage due to situations in her life. She gets told that she can't go to high school and has to resort to vocational school. She meets three girls that she rejects until another group of boys appear. She finds her clique as the story begins. What I love is how the movie was filmed - Crystel Fournier (who collaborated on other Sciamma movies) has a great eye for detail in her shots using CinemaScope filming. A lot of really great close-ups and a repeated shot that's used is at a skate park - one time with the girls walking together, another time with Marieme walking in the rain towards the end. This review can't be completed without mentioning the incredible scene set to Rihanna's "Diamonds" as the four girls lip sync then eventually sing to the song. In that moment, Marieme had found her people. But the one I liked was towards the end - where Vic is slow dancing to a fast/midtempo song. That moment is beautifully shot as Vic embraces a girl she loves Monica before Adou (Djibril Gueye) tries to force her to kiss him. One thing I liked was Sciamma's usage of music to denote character changes to Marieme. In a lot of ways, the movie is constructed as a series of vignettes about the same character with the usage of the soundtrack as the interludes prior to the next vignette. I will definitely watch the other movies from Celine Sciamma. Next of Kin (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler Probably unlike a lot of people, I liked the first 90 minutes or so of the movie. It had a great atmosphere similar to The Shining and Psycho even for a low budget Australian psychological thriller. The last 20 minutes or so was sorta bad. Although I did like the stairwell shot as Linda (Jacki Kerin) tries to escape. The last 20 minutes or so seem to be opposite of what the movie was building towards, which lead me to believe it would be a ghostly horror movie since the diary Linda's mom kept mentioned that the house was haunted. Instead, it's a character Mrs. Ryan (Bernadette Gibson) who is now Rita, a character thought long dead and the movie deciding "let's see how many corpses we can show in less than five minutes."The movie really didn't handle revelations about the character that well at all. It's really bad writing to have two secondary characters that were introduced near the start of the movie be the source of the issues for Linda and then going around and murdering other characters. There were a few technical aspects that stood out to me like the opening shot on a dirt road and the camera panning down to the truck. The wide angle far off shot as the truck goes around a bend. I really loved the match cut with the eye drops to a resident at the house (not quite to the level of Lawrence Of Arabia's famous match cut but that jumped out at me). Next of Kin isn't bad but not good either; there are better Australian/New Zealand made movies to see versus this one. De Palma (Max, leaving on 11/30) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Utterly fascinating for me. Much like the documentary Made In England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, I thoroughly enjoy movies about the entirety of the filmmaking process. Basically, the movie is De Palma examining his own work and what his thought process and feelings were about movies he did (up to 2012's Passion). At the end it made me want to drown myself in De Palma's other works and watch those. De Palma admits to owing a lot to Hitchcock (which isn't a bad director to copy). If you find this completely boring, you won't like this. My Life As A Zucchini (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler Somewhat of an earlier French cousin to Memoir of a Snail. The movie moves in a similar fashion to Snail except a bit more narratively concise and is focused on a single event in Courgette (Gaspard Schlatter)'s life. Courgette's mother dies and he has to live in a foster home and his life is rather sad due to the change. He meets Camille (Sixtine Murat) and everything changes. A scene that stuck out to me is Courgette giving an empty beer can that he turned into a boat for Camille. It's a small but noticable aspect to his character that he cares for Camille enough to discard a memory of his mother for it to become a gift for someone he cares about. Like Memoir of a Snail, the movie uses claymation to tell the story and for the characters to move within the story. Compared to Snail, the world of My Life as a Zucchini is much brighter even with the dark subject matter. I loved the introductory scenes as there's more of a light source on the objects and the character in the scene. The only drawback to the movie may be the short time and the story wraps up a bit too conveniently. Camille due to having recorded her aunt doesn't have to live with her (although the cynic in me would wonder if a judge would do it anyway because they're assholes). Even then, this is still a really great under 90 minute movie. 1
Curt McGirt Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 I can't remember what his go-to curse word replacement is but De Palma says it a lot in that movie. It's rather quaint, like a grandmother trying not to say "shit" or "fuck". 1
zendragon Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 9 hours ago, J.H. said: When it comes to Empire Records, "Sugar High" really gets stuck in your head the same way "Scotty Doesn't Know" from Eurotrip does. If you were to ask me which movie I liked better... I'd have to take the 5th as both have their moments James https://uproxx.com/movies/scotty-doesnt-know-eurotrip-oral-history/ ever see this? Answers the question of Matt Damon's shaved head 1
HarryArchieGus Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 18 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: God my mom loved the Empire Records soundtrack. She probably only listened to four songs off of it though -- the ones we all had hammered into our head like nails back in the '90s. I looked over the track listing to refamiliarize myself. I remember seeing the CD a lot, but was never a listener. Still you couldn't escape some of these tunes. I know a lot a ppl with an affinity for the Gin Blossoms, but I am not one. So to Dando, Cracker, the Cranberries and Toad the Wet Sprocket. Edwyn Collins however, 'Girl Like You' is one of the most overplayed songs of the era - yet, I still love it. Any Orange Juice fans in the room? When I think of the movie, I think of the beautiful ladies first. Second, that scene where the owner plays the drums to 'If You Want Blood' by ACDC (which would've been easily my second favorite track on the soundtrack had it made it). Empire Records was a nice movie to watch as a teen, but less so on the later return. Somehow I ended up with a copy on Laserdisc. It seems to have some value online. I wonder if I could find a buyer. 1
Curt McGirt Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 Oh ho ho, you most definitely can find a buyer. 1
Technico Support Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 On 11/8/2024 at 6:16 PM, Curt McGirt said: Here's the Lighthouse dealio “Why don’t you just try acting?” -Laurence Olivier 4
Curt McGirt Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 I can't remember who he told that to; was it Pacino?
Technico Support Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 10 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: I can't remember who he told that to; was it Pacino? Maybe Dustin Hoffman? The whole story is just apocryphal anyway. I still can’t resist dropping that quote when the situation calls for it, though. 2
Curt McGirt Posted November 11, 2024 Posted November 11, 2024 https://tubitv.com/movies/463208/nameless-gangster NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME (2012) A clip of this has been playing on the Midnight Pulp channel on Dish over and over but they never play anything they promote, so I looked it up online. Sure enough the smiling guy with the glasses in it is Choi Min-sik, the lead in Oldboy and I Saw the Devil. I'm only halfway through but this is a fantastic mob potboiler about Choi climbing the ladder through the ranks of the Korean mafia, which apparently is structured like a "family ties" version of the Japanese yakuza. What strikes me is that Choi's character is very much like Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb/the Penguin. He basically fakes it until he makes it. He's a dumpy and put-upon looking older guy (he says he's "almost 40" which has to be a total lie) who sees he can fool someone into a scam, gains their allegiance, then finds another scam, they multiply and so does his status. He really has no standing but bullshits his way into it; he's always somebody's cousin-twice-removed or old friend and somehow it ends up true or it gets bought by the sucker he's trying to work. I really didn't expect there to be such a similarity but it's fantastic to watch unravel.
The Comedian Posted November 12, 2024 Posted November 12, 2024 3 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: I can't remember who he told that to; was it Pacino? Dustin Hoffman, upon learning that Hoffman had actually gotten a tooth drilled without novacaine in order to prepare for the "Is it safe?" scene in Marathon Man... 3 1
Curt McGirt Posted November 12, 2024 Posted November 12, 2024 Yep, that's it. Fuck I love that movie.
RazorbladeKiss87 Posted November 12, 2024 Posted November 12, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFqioXf52xA Carolina from 1934
Andrew POE! Posted November 12, 2024 Posted November 12, 2024 Movies today....was going to AMC's Screen Unseen but they were showing a movie I didn't want to see. I'll likely see it later. Hannah Takes The Stairs (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 2/5 stars Spoiler Structurally, it's almost not a movie but rather recorded conversations with some slight plot elements. Basically, Greta Gerwig plays Hannah who jumps from one boring loser guy to another including two she works with. Whatever wider point the movie is making about relationships is completely drowned by the execution (or lack thereof). The ending is an image that will stain my mind forever. Presumably, both Hannah and Loser Writer Boyfriend #2 got fired when they showed up for work after staying out to play the 1812 Overture in a bathtub naked. There are better mumblecore movies out there than this, including ones that Greta Gerwig has done. Nights And Weekends (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Much more of a movie compared to Hannah Takes The Stairs. At times felt like a Chantal Akerman movie with Temu version of John Cassavetes and Gina Rowlands except this couple doesn't actually argue or seem to experience emotions (late 2000s for ya). Greta Gerwig is more of the Cassavetes in the relationship. I did like the scene where they talked about they looking like their parents while driving or angry and having dinner with the couple and Greta Gerwig holding a baby while being uncomfortable. The movie is still mostly conversations between two characters, but there's more of a structure with it. The way Greta Gerwig's character acted when her boyfriend was coming over and frantically trying to fix things up is how I feel whenever anyone visits me. Lady Killer (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 4/5 stars Spoiler This is my first exposure to Jean Gremillon - as a director, some of what he did was a bit ahead of its time. This type of story wouldn't have happened in American cinema until at least the 1960s (or possibly in pre-Hayes Code years in the 1930s) but the camera techniques he used was at least 5 years ahead - I love the shot in the restaurant when the camera pulls back as Jean Gabin and Mireille Balin are walking away from the dancefloor and other dancers appear on screen before the camera stops on Gabin and Balin as they appear back in frame. Very few American directors at the time would have done that on a mid-length shot. There's other things as well - the shutters opening as the soldiers march through Orange and Jean Gabin in center frame as the camera looks at the crowd. Lucien Bourrache (Gabin)'s occupation as a printer and showing him using a printing press. This movie is mentioned as part of the poetic realist movement so I imagine having a character shown doing work would be part of that film-making approach. What's really interesting is ultimately the movie is about a relationship between Bourrache and Rene (Rene Lefevre). Bourrache tries to warn Rene about Madeleine (Balin), while Rene thinks he's trying to win her affections. I loved the close up that's used when Rene mentions Madeleine's name - Gabin's face turns to ice at the mere mention. It's a similar icy closeup that was used earlier in the movie when Madeleine kicks Bourrache out of her house and Bourrache having a final comment that "was getting money that much worth it?" The movie can construed as a romance and as a film noir, but it's clearly not. It's remarkably similar to a lot of dramas where women find themselves on the end of heartbreak due to their partner - Cukor's The Women springs to mind for me. The difference is it's a man on the receiving end of it. The character is built up as a charmer and "Gueule D'Amour" so his getting what would happen to him is an eventual thing. What I noticed is Gabin's change in voice as the character changes - he starts out bragging and victorious and then sullen and withdrawn after Madeleine kicked him out. When Madeleine is killed, the camera focuses on the content of her purse spilling out with coins spilling out (coins are a close substitute for blood). The ending of this movie is completely sad. Rene really is the only person that loved Lucien and kisses him before Lucien boards a train. This is really an underrated gem. Strange Monsieur Victor (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Great precursor to noir in a lot of ways and really well done. The movie somewhat felt 'abbreviated' to me - it's as if it's missing footage and this is what they could recover. In some ways, the vibe of the movie pre-dates Carol Reed's The Third Man by decades. Raimu is Victor Agardanne, a shopkeeper who tends to be flabbergasted when speaking quickly (as if he's caught up in a lie) but is deadly serious and deliberate when threatening. Pierre Blanchar is Bastien Robineau. The majority of the movie has a 'dual focus' on both characters during the runtime; the first 45 minutes or so builds up the story and the atmosphere as Victor is running a theft/smuggling ring and Bastien has a run in with one of the thieves involved. Victor meets with the thief that tried to make moves on Bastien's wife and kills him. I loved the way Jean Gremillon shot the murder scene and the immediate aftermath; Bastien stumbles home drunk and the police find the murder weapon. Next thing that's seen is Bastien in prison (with a nice high angle shot of the prison yard). Bastien gets a letter that he's being divorced and there's an abrupt cut to 'seven years later' (this is where I wondered if there were footage missing since this is a restoration). All the characters involved have moved on with Bastien's son and Victor's son having gotten a bit older and eventually Bastien escapes. I loved the way Bastien's return to Tolon was shot; there was some extraordinary camerawork even for a 1930s movie. Bastien goes to Victor's place and hides. I loved how Gremillon did the scene for the revelation that Victor's wife (Madeleine Renaud) knew - it was very later Hitchcock in how it was shot. Later, Bastien's son spots a man hiding in another room and describes to the guys involved in the smuggling ring how he looked. One of them named Robert (Andrex) visits Victor and threatens to blackmail again and there were another great tense scene. Eventually, the police gets involved and Victor is choking Robert while Robert is revealing who committed the murder. Then it does a great, sudden cut back to a bar where Adrienne (Viviane Romance) is overhearing about Bastien's return. Victor and Bastien are both arrested. For the most part, I loved how this movie turned out despite my feeling that the story was 'incomplete.' It's possible that I was wrong and this is how the movie was intended to be even with the restoration. I did like the elements of German Expressionism and like I mentioned similarities to The Third Man that Jean Gremillon did for this movie. Like Lady Killer, professions (cobbler and tradesman) were highlighted within the photo realist film approach. Hopefully I can see more of Jean Gremillon's movies.
HarryArchieGus Posted November 12, 2024 Posted November 12, 2024 8 hours ago, Andrew POE! said: Movies today....was going to AMC's Screen Unseen but they were showing a movie I didn't want to see. I'll likely see it later. Hannah Takes The Stairs (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 2/5 stars Reveal hidden contents Structurally, it's almost not a movie but rather recorded conversations with some slight plot elements. Basically, Greta Gerwig plays Hannah who jumps from one boring loser guy to another including two she works with. Whatever wider point the movie is making about relationships is completely drowned by the execution (or lack thereof). The ending is an image that will stain my mind forever. Presumably, both Hannah and Loser Writer Boyfriend #2 got fired when they showed up for work after staying out to play the 1812 Overture in a bathtub naked. There are better mumblecore movies out there than this, including ones that Greta Gerwig has done. I sometimes look over lists of Mumblecore movies fueled by the question 'Do I hate mumblecore?' As long as Frances Ha is considered part of this wave I guess I don't. I also really liked Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture. Is Computer Chess considered mumblecore? Some of the movies I have seen, or started and shut off, like Hannah have been very underwhelming. I read a Paste magazine article on this wave of films and filmmakers in the early aughts, and was sure I'd found a treasure trove. It's almost entirely failed to live up to my expectations. That said, I bet there's a few titles that I would really like. And I'm sure there's more that I don't think of as mumblecore movies, but fit whatever the title suggests. What are some of the better mumblecore movies you've seen Poe (or anybody reading this post)?
Andrew POE! Posted November 12, 2024 Posted November 12, 2024 (edited) 5 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said: I sometimes look over lists of Mumblecore movies fueled by the question 'Do I hate mumblecore?' As long as Frances Ha is considered part of this wave I guess I don't. I also really liked Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture. Is Computer Chess considered mumblecore? Some of the movies I have seen, or started and shut off, like Hannah have been very underwhelming. I read a Paste magazine article on this wave of films and filmmakers in the early aughts, and was sure I'd found a treasure trove. It's almost entirely failed to live up to my expectations. That said, I bet there's a few titles that I would really like. And I'm sure there's more that I don't think of as mumblecore movies, but fit whatever the title suggests. What are some of the better mumblecore movies you've seen Poe (or anybody reading this post)? Yeah, most mumblecore movies I've seen have veered from passable to borderline crap. They seem to want to ape Mike Leigh, John Cassavetes or Terrence Malick (sometimes all three!). Yeast was about the only I liked enough to give a really high rating but the story spoke a lot to me - it does fall into the same trap as other mumblecore movies. Daddy Longlegs and Heaven Knows What are somewhat in the camp of being mumblecore and I found those to be great. Funny Ha Ha and Gabi On The Roof In July were slightly above average for me. Sun Don't Shine is just garbage. I haven't seen almost all of the movies that are considered mumblecore, so I'm not sure my assessment is entirely correct or accurate. For directors, Alex Ross Perry is about the only one so far that seems to be able to work within the style and still create a compelling movie. Same with Noah Baumbach (although he's not quite a mumblecore director and more of an indie director). Baumbach basically popularized the film movement with Frances Ha and Greenberg but he's done his own thing (I've reviewed a few of his movies recently including De Palma and While We're Young). EDIT: Celeste & Jesse Forever was identified on a wikipedia page as part of mumblecore but I never felt it was mumblecore at all. It's more like a typical indie romantic comedy to me where they spent actual money on equipment and cameras. Edited November 12, 2024 by Andrew POE! 1
RazorbladeKiss87 Posted November 12, 2024 Posted November 12, 2024 I've been going through Rarelust and Rarefilmm lately, along with some Letterboxd lists of weird and cult movies. I'm going to spoiler box these reviews because a lot of these movies are full of interesting content. First up, Baby Cat (2023)----availble on Tubi https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27756860/ https://letterboxd.com/film/baby-cat-2023/ Spoiler A woman moves into a new apartment and finds out they have a "building cat." Only issue? The "building cat" is a girl in her underwear wearing a cat tail and ears. A love story ensues. This was bad. Obviously. How could it not be? Unfortunately, it knows it's bad. It doesn't have that delusional spirit that some "so bad it's good" films have. Copious green screen use, even in situations where it's not needed. The delivery guy showing up is played for laughs but there's none to be had. Somehow they shoe horn a subplot about drugs and a MK ULTRA situation into the movie. If you want to try and find a positive note, you might say the love story is sweet, in its own weird, twisted way. The idea of there being someone out there for everyone kind of ties the movie together nicely but it isn't enough to push this film into a recommendation. 1
Andrew POE! Posted November 13, 2024 Posted November 13, 2024 Fort Buchanan (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 2/5 stars Spoiler Having watched enough French films, I've begun not to give French films an automatic 3 to 5 star rating on the basis of it being French. Same with queer centric films - there are some great queer films (anything from Todd Haynes and Luca Guadagnino for example), but I'm not going to give out 3 to 5 star rating on the basis of that either. With Fort Buchanan, I was faced with a dilemma: I can't decide if it's a bad movie with good parts to it or a good movie badly made. The acting is weirdly wooden for the subject matter and the movie is shot like a late 1980s Made for TV movie. Criterion Channel says that this is "shot in richly textured 16mm and slyly appropriate dialogue from American television shows." I think they're being a bit too kind. For whatever reason, there are a lot of freeze frames on shots - I can't tell if it's deliberate or a stylish choice or just someone who is a really bad director. It feels like a 'student film' (which a lot of people toss out to denote lower budgeted movies). I realize that making movies and shooting movies is as much of an art as it is a technical science, so I'm not going to fault the director for choices made in how the movie was made. The story for this movie is really disjointed - initially, the focus seemed to be Roger (Andy Gillet) and his relationship with his husband and his daughter (Illiana Zabeth) and there seemed to be something on the nature of relationships on an army base and with a service member. Then, weirdly comic scenes happen (I busted out laughing at the conversation in the foreground while Roxy stumbles around with toxic chemicals). The tone for this movie is all over the place - it can't decide to whether to be a serious drama or tragicomedy drama. The movie changes when news clips are shown of French bases closing and the characters are shown packing up and talking about life after the military. The movie ends with a suicide (that's somewhat badly shot) and a funeral. The way the movie treats even the funeral is strangely comic as the movie ends on Roger asking someone out. None of this is supposed to be funny yet the movie is funny due to either the acting or the direction or both. It’s not funny in a dark comedy/satire way, it’s funny in a “I can’t believe these people agreed to act in this and they don’t know how or want to act” way. As a result, I would say this isn't really that great of a movie. Midnight Mary (Criterion Channel, leaving on 11/30) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler Nice pre-Code melodrama that’s focused on the main character Mary Martin (Loretta Young) as she’s on trial for murder. I loved how the movie used the book bindings with years to denote various times in Mary’s life. I did notice that it did the “left to right” screen transitions that Obayashi used in his “anti war” trilogy. At the center of the movie is the love story with Tom Manning (Francot Tone) and the young Robert De Niro like Leo Darcy (Ricardo Cortez). I loved a lot of the camera choices made - very good closeups on romantic scenes and nice camerawork during the robbery scene. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) (saw at the theaters) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler "It's an all night drive From your house to Reno To the T-bird graveyard where we play with fire In another life, we were arsonists" - Boygenius, $20 Surprisingly funny and full of heart, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever seems a bit like a comforting blanket to pull over and sit by the fire. The movie is shot very similarly to Bob Clark's A Christmas Story and every shot has the 1970s vibe of that movie to a tee. I never read the book growing up (I didn't even know that it was based on a book when I saw this movie), but I found myself enjoying this quite a bit. Judy Greer plays Grace, who has a "everything is on fire and I need a fucking martini NOW" look on her face throughout the entire movie. She plays the mother of Beth (Molly Belle Wright), who is narrated by Lauren Graham in Jean Shepherd fashion. At the center of the story are the Herdmans, which is the combination of every bully from A Christmas Story. Imogene (a really great Beatrice Schneider) is the ring leader of the kids. A lot of the movie has a bit of Frank Capra's Americanism from It's A Wonderful Life infused as well. One shot as Grace and her family drive through town to get a Christmas tree with the lights everywhere is a visual example of this Americanism. We never know what the Herdmans' mother does nor what causes the kids to act the way they do or lead the lives they lead. The movie says at the start that the Herdmans are the worst kids in town and typically steal things, set fire to things, and are terrible to deal with. At one point, Imogene mentions that "their mother works at night" so I can only guess it's some thankless job that the rest of the town look down upon (like being a nurse, or a custodian or something that the upper middle class parents in the movie think is beneath them). In a pivotal scene, a fire is started in the church during a rehearsal and the adults are quick to blame the Herdmans. Grace has a look of shock on her face and tells the other women there what she thinks of their judgments toward the Herdmans. Beth goes to retrieve the Harmans and they are gone. What I found interesting is so much of the movie is female centric (which is surprising for a conservative Christian movie from Kingdom Story Company). Judy Greer, Beatrice Schneider and Molly Belle Wright really shine in their roles and Greer especially leans into her comedic chops for certain scenes. Pete Holmes as the dad is practically an afterthought character wise. Throughout the movie, I actually found a lot of the scenes funny. Maybe it appealed to my slightly dry subversive sense of humor, but the jokes were a bit more smarter than usual. I enjoyed Imogene and the other Herdman kids questioning why a lot of Christianity is just accepted ("Heron wants Jesus dead!"). For a lot of people that attend the mostly white upper middle class church straight out of a Chick Fil A commercial like was in this movie, they don't really question or attempt to understand their religious beliefs. In a small way, this and Heretic would be great movies to watch back to back because both examine beliefs (although this movie didn't examine them as much as Heretic). As I mentioned with the cinematography being remarkably similar to A Christmas Story, there were a lot of Wes Anderson touch to how shots were framed in this movie. An example would be a scene in the hospital where two women on each side stand next to the injured director and voicing their displeasure to Grace. The ending was surprisingly sad and had me wondering if it would turn out that the Herdmans were all dead as the older Beth (Graham) looked around the room in the church and saw the angel wings on the wall. The American Graffiti / Fast Times At Ridgemont High like coda where you find what the kids did was a bit of a relief. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever isn't the best movie, but it's really great. Demolition (Max, leaving on 11/30) - 2/5 stars Spoiler Having watched quite a few of Jean-Marc Vallee's movies (most recently The Young Victoria), he has a tendency to veer in quality of his movies. This was his last movie and was the most uneven. With Jake Gyllenhaal's character Davis Mitchell, it has to be accepted that the character is an asshole and emotionally stunted. Davis within the story isn't over his wife's death nor he want to be over it - it's just for whatever reason he's fixated on things that he can't engage with his emotions at all. Someone like that eventually breaks. With Davis, he seems to experience release in causing literal destruction. He goes from a cushy investment banker job to demolishing houses. "He must be on crack," says one of the construction workers. "A crackhead doesn't pay you $200." Davis goes from destroying someone else's house to destroying his own. Everything he has contact with he destroys - the cappuccino machine is meticulously destroyed piece by piece. He destroys Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts)'s life and eventually causes her to break up with her boyfriend - the guy that owns a vending machine company. Davis destroys his relationship with his father in law Phil (Chris Cooper). Cinematography wise and technical wise, this movie does some different tricks to show Davis' psychosis. There are quick cuts as Davis recounts memories that are wordless images of him and his wife Julia (Heather Lind). Oftentimes, these memories seem to trigger at odd points or at odd places; this may like be true of the grieving process. Just recall for example Archie Bunker played by Carol O'Connor finding his wife's slipper and talking to the slipper as if it were his wife. A lot of the coloring for the movie is a muted, blues and grays; only towards the end does a bit of sunlight appear as Davis is finally out of his funk after his wife's death. The complaint I have for the movie is a bit numerous - story wise, the movie just isn't that interesting. Davis as a character as I mentioned is an asshole and what he does gets old. You want for Davis to 'get out of the way of himself' throughout the story; his essentially stalking Karen Moreno from an address in a magazine can't be justified at all. I actually cringed the most during those scenes because there's no way that Karen Moreno would have been okay with a guy that wrote a letter to her company showing up on her doorstep much less continue to appear. I was about to turn off the movie at that point; having guys show up at a workplace then a house would make anyone uncomfortable and fearful for their lives. Despite my issues with some of the story, Demolition is an okay at best drama.
odessasteps Posted November 13, 2024 Posted November 13, 2024 I watched first five minutes expecting to see Mason looking like Peter Sellers in Fiendish Plot or Murder by Death.
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