HarryArchieGus Posted January 5 Posted January 5 Marty Fucking Supreme! Saw'r it Friday and it exceeded my lofty expectations. Chalamet at the peak of his powers and an outstanding cast throughout - Mr. Wonderful proves to be a great choice. I love the inclusion of Abel Ferrera, whom seems to be playing a role that pays homage to his tremendous legacy. Masterful authorship from J. Safdie. Great score and song selection. Absolutely magnificent. Bi Gan's Resurrection came in a little lower than expectations. A plus sound and vision, but the less than satisfying 'story' content made it a bit of a slog. I loved his previous two, but this missed the mark for me. That said, I expect it'll sit with me for awhile, so I'll refrain from registering my 3 1/4 rating just yet. Also, really excellent score from M83 (who returns to my radar 10 plus years later). 1
Mister TV Posted January 5 Posted January 5 10 hours ago, Andrew POE! said: Movies today.... Framed (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 2/5 stars Reveal hidden contents Framed as a noir and as a movie makes zero sense. It has a very good opening - a guy driving a truck in danger of crashing due to no brakes that was exciting to watch. Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford) only took the job because he couldn't find anything else. He goes into a cafe and meets a woman Paula Craig (Janis Carter) who is extraordinarily good looking - the way she's captured in her first appearance lets you know this. Then it turns out that Paula Craig and another guy Steve Price (Barry Sullivan) are working together and have nefarious plans for Mike Lambert on account of Lambert looking like Price. Oh, and did I mention that Lambert has a college degree in mine engineering and Price is the manager at the bank? I bet if the movie went further Lambert would also have a degree in chemistry and Price would have a master's in English literature and French poetry. The movie's story literally cobbles together things because the characters are there. Jeff Cunningham (Edgar Buchanan) that Mike Lambert hit while he was backing out at the start, wants to restart a mine and walks into the office for mining. Lambert is standing right there and agrees to help Cunningham with the mine. Cunningham wants to celebrate which involves buying a new hat and buying Lambert a hot meal. Cunningham goes into the bank where Price is the manager and gets turned down for a bank loan. Then after Price, Craig, and Lambert meet together where it would be thought that Price and Craig's trap would be sprung (whatever that entails), they go for a drive. In probably the most confusingly shot sequence I've seen in awhile, the camera cuts between the three characters. Craig is holding a wrench while Lambert has fallen asleep. Craig has the wrench up and instead, hits Price, knocking him out. The camera cuts to Craig with her arms out stretched near Price and then Price is shown hunched over. Somehow, all three didn't die (I guess Price wasn't driving that fast). Lambert is pulled from the car by Craig and Craig gets the car to careen over a cliff. Newspapers show that Price is now dead. Remember Cunningham? Now because he happens to be sitting there with nothing to do, he gets charged with murder. On account of, get this, he went into the bank and argued with Price about the bank loan. I realize that Hollywood doesn't believe that the US justice system makes any sense (and it doesn't), but even that wouldn't be a case that someone like Pam Bondi would do (although I don't know, she might). Lambert decides to clear Cunningham's name and tracks down the secretary Jane Woodworth (Barbara Woodell) who took a phone call for Price. Jane's husband Jack (Jim Bannon) talks to someone....the movie never explains who to get the police. Lambert is now on the run. Lambert gets back to his place and sees Paula Craig. Craig wants to run away with Lambert and prepares tea (with a great shot of a box of poison). Craig puts poison in Lambert's tea then....changes her mind about poisoning Lambert. HUH? Why do an action if you change your mind? (Because she's a woman, says Hollywood screenwriter Ben Maddow. That's what women do in 1940s. Excuse me while I slap my secretary's butt). Craig goes to the bank with a key and somehow....Lambert gets there too while Craig is cleared out the safety deposit box. Craig goes to leave and...sees the police with great shots of everyone in the bank. Lambert somehow got Cunningham freed and revealed that Craig did the murder of Steve Price, which also doesn't make sense. But it's 1940s Hollywood and this movie has to do something to get finished. It doesn't matter if it didn't make any sense. This movie would be nearly unredeemable if it weren't for Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, and Barry Sullivan being committed for their roles. There are times at which the movie does display competent direction with shots are done and how it builds tension (although the murder of Steve Price was the lone amateurish scene). The movie at the start implied a greater impact or knowledge for the characters; as if Lambert was known by Paula Craig and Steve Price before meeting them and more would be revealed about their connections. Except the movie didn't go down that route and did something else entirely. Also, that scene where Lambert pawns his watch at the bar for $10, walks into a dice game, and makes back double what he spent and buys back the watch for $20. I wish I had that kind of luck in Vegas. Sometimes, if you have great locations and maybe a story, you'll have a movie. Framed deserves to be broken apart. The Secret Agent (watched in the theaters) - 4/5 stars Reveal hidden contents It wouldn't be fair to compare The Secret Agent with I'm Still Here. Both movies use the 'past as present' and cycle history from 1970s Brazil to today, but that's where the similarities end. (To be honest, I think 1970s Brazil is as close to 2020s America as any of us would admit, so we'll likely see a movie 20-30 years from now that strike a similar tone). The Secret Agent is a jumble of tones and of images and at times it lands. At other times, it doesn't, with introduced story threads not truly having significance in the final story. The movie starts with a person driving a yellow VW bug named Armando / Marcelo (Wagner Moura) stopping at an Esso gas station. There's a dead body in the parking lot, covered up with cardboard. The police then arrive, with Armando seemingly thinking it's about the dead body. No, they are just there to fuck with him because they can; they search his car and his trunk, then let him drive off. Armando finally reaches his destination and meets a woman named Elza (Maria Fernanda Candido) for lodging. Armando goes under the name of Marcelo and is to work at the office of identification, just to search for where there is a record of his wife Fatima at the office. Helping him on this search is Anisio (Buda Lira), who also keeps secret his involvement with Armando. The office is made to be a 'police station' temporarily with Armando meeting the police chief Euclides (Roberio Diogenes). The title "Secret Agent" isn't in allusion to any governmental or spy work that any character does; it's more to do with Armando (and others) 'hiding in plain sight.' Armando is sought after by Augusto (Roney Villela) and Bobbi (Gabriel Leone), like something out of 1947's The Killers. Euclides becomes aware of their search in a scene where those two ride along in a police car with Euclides and one of his officers Arlindo (Italo Martinis). Also, 'hiding in plain sight' is Hans (Udo Kier), who can be considered a 'silver Jew' due to his hair and complexion that Euclides mistakes to be a German soldier from WWII. Elsa and a couple from Angola Thereeza Vitoria (Isabel Zuaa) and Antonio (Lucinio Januario) that learn of Armando's true identity at a party are also 'hiding in plain sight.' The Secret Agent is about a very paranoid time in world history - elements of American films like The Conversation (the present day history students listening in to recorded conversations), Nashville (a vehicle driving around and blasting a message), and The Godfather (the restaurant meal is setup almost the same as the hit in that movie, not to mention the horse's leg being swapped with the severed leg in the morgue). The movie doesn't fully resolve itself, even with the 2+ hour run time. A lot of the story threads, like who were the two men that came to the university Armando worked, were dramatic to watch, but ultimately seemed a bit lacking. While I liked the scenes for showing that kleptocrats interfering with public university and their research (they only wanted research into leather tanning rather than any other significant research), it seemed to not have a resolution. The man involved hired Augusto and Bobbi to find Armando, but that's just it. The scene with the severed leg attacking people in the park was funny, but ultimately irrelevant to the story. The purpose seemed to be that even in 1970s Brazil, the news media is just as culpable to publish stories that serve as distractions. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?). While I love the stylistic choices for camerawork and shots taken for the movie and the overall cinematography look, I found myself a bit disappointed. Compared to I'm Still Here, The Secret Agent didn't conclude as well as it did. I'm Still Here left me a bit emotional. With The Secret Agent, there is a sense of closure with present day Fernando (also played by Maura) receiving a flash drive of his father's recordings. Armando's fate is much like cinema of the 1970s - they never meet good ends, like Jake in Chinatown. I did like the sequence where the 'walls are closing in' on Armando as the assassins begin to locate him - it reminded me a bit of a similar sequence in No Country For Old Men. For the most part, The Secret Agent is a great in style but not great in story. Superman (1978) (watched in the theaters) - 2.5/5 stars Hide contents Superman (1978) is such a weird weird movie. What makes it weird is countless number of things - what's introduced at the start of the movie has no bearing upon its conclusion. It feels almost entirely like a 'first act' even as the movie concludes. Marlon Brando gets top billing despite being in the movie for maybe 15 minutes. Gene Hackman gets second billing despite introduced an hour into the movie then sporadically after that. Superman came out a year after Star Wars and it shows. There's FOUR screenwriters (including the author of The Godfather Mario Puzo) and about SEVEN people doing the continuity. Even though it's a 2 hour runtime, so much of the movie feels like 'something' was left out. The scenes on Krypton with Brando as Jor-El sentencing three people (including Terrence Stamp as General Zod) to the "Phantom Zone" feels like a strange drug-induced sci-fi movie. The lighting is weird with the suits brighter than the actors' faces, obviously on purpose. Brando hams it up and acts like he doesn't really understand half the words he's saying, looking off into the distance for most of his shots (obviously reading cue cards too). His baby with Lara (Susannah York) get rocked off of Krypton as everything falls apart. Once Jonathan Kent (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) find a baby Kal-El, Superman (1978) resembles a sped up American Graffiti. The shots are absolutely gorgeous in those scenes - I especially loved the shot after Jonathan's death where Clark (Jeff East) is standing in a field. I would have loved to have seen a Superman movie more about this, but with this one, it was already nearly 45 minutes into the movie. Clark Kent takes what he found in the barn and goes to the Arctic and throws it into the water. It turns into the Fortress of Solitude while Jor-El intones instructions and then there's a time lapse. We get Superman (Christopher Reeve) flying away. It then goes to Daily Planet and quite honestly it resembles the newsroom in All The President's Men. I almost wonder if Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) and Kent (Reeve) would be seated diagonally from each other like Woodward and Bernstein were in All The President's Men. Lane is introduced to Kent rather briskly and Lane is to interview the President of the US and to leave via helicopter. Honestly, this is where the movie goes off the rails a bit. A robber tries to steal from Lane and Clark Kent catches the bullet. Throughout the sections with Kent and later with Superman, I liked how Reeve had an almost Woody Allen demeanor to his character of Clark Kent. A lot of the comedy is in the scenes between Kent and Lane then Superman and Lane. Probably the best scenes were the interview and flight around the city; Lane wondering in a voiceover if Superman could read her mind is great feminine fantasy. In a completely different movie, it would be a great romantic character comedy/drama. But yet it's not in this case. I guess I need to talk about Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, which seems completely out of place in this movie. Hackman's Luthor is more at home with the 1970s James Bond movie villains than anything related to the actual comic book. His 'plan' literally doesn't make any sense (buying up land then using missiles to trigger the San Andreas fault to break up California? Ummm, okay). Eve Teschmacher (Valerine Perrine) saving Superman is due to one of the missiles going to her hometown of Hackensack, NJ, which seems really really convenient. Then the last 20 minutes or so is....some terrible writing. Superman stops one of the missiles, the other goes into the San Andreas, but Superman somehow seals it up. Yet he's too late to save Lois Lane, who dies a pretty grisly death. Then he somehow goes backwards in time (?) then flying around the Earth backwards. He's able to rescue Lois Lane then somehow drop off Luthor and Otis (Ned Beatty) at a prison. Despite you know: * Superman was underground the time the missiles were flying toward California. * Lex Luthor was transmitting at a frequency that only Superman could hear. * Lois Lane was driving and her car got out of gas, which places her at the point where the missile hit the San Andreas. * So how was Superman able to stop the missile AND grab Luthor and Otis? * He literally would have to be THREE places at once: spinning backwards, plugging up the San Andreas, and capturing Luthor and Otis. Editing throughout the movie just seems so haphazard as to how scenes are put together. Superman (1978) feels like a movie done under the worst deadline imaginable with the shortest deadline possible. Maybe they have said 'fuck it' and recast Jor-El. Brando wasn't the biggest problem with Superman, the writing and plot was. So maybe in comparison, 2025's Superman is a better movie. The story makes more sense (despite the namelessness of the countries in that movie and how they definitely aren't Israel and definitely aren't Palestine, no way). Still, John Williams' score and Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve made a nearly bad movie almost....super. If I remember right, Mario Puzo didn't really write anything for the movie, the Salkind's gave him a bunch of money just so they could use his name. 1
Andrew POE! Posted January 5 Posted January 5 (edited) 18 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said: Marty Fucking Supreme! Saw'r it Friday and it exceeded my lofty expectations. Chalamet at the peak of his powers and an outstanding cast throughout - Mr. Wonderful proves to be a great choice. I love the inclusion of Abel Ferrera, whom seems to be playing a role that pays homage to his tremendous legacy. Masterful authorship from J. Safdie. Great score and song selection. Absolutely magnificent. Bi Gan's Resurrection came in a little lower than expectations. A plus sound and vision, but the less than satisfying 'story' content made it a bit of a slog. I loved his previous two, but this missed the mark for me. That said, I expect it'll sit with me for awhile, so I'll refrain from registering my 3 1/4 rating just yet. Also, really excellent score from M83 (who returns to my radar 10 plus years later). Glad you liked Marty Supreme as well. I had saw it over Christmas break and gave it a five star rating on Letterboxd. I'll probably see Bi Gan's Resurrection this upcoming weekend or I may wait until it appears on the Criterion Channel (since it's a Janus release). Which reminds me, I need to watch Cloud that's currently on the channel. Edited January 5 by Andrew POE! 1
Andrew POE! Posted January 5 Posted January 5 38 minutes ago, Mister TV said: If I remember right, Mario Puzo didn't really write anything for the movie, the Salkind's gave him a bunch of money just so they could use his name. Yeah, I read about the production from wikipedia and it was a mess. Puzo had a 500 page script that was basically unfilmable and needed to be edited. However, how they did it made it worse. It makes me wonder if they could have been better suited to have three separate movies about Superman (Krypton days with Brando as Jor-El, Clark Kent in Smallville, and then Reeve as Superman/Clark Kent), but that also would have been impossible. Marlon Brando asking for a lot plus percentage of gross didn't help. It's a wonder that the movie got released at all.
Curt McGirt Posted January 5 Posted January 5 Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor was just on so I watched most of it. I follow this Facebook channel called VHS of Death and they show brief clips of ridiculous things from old movies and I'm pretty sure either this was on it or should be. It was always at the video store, whether it be a legit one, a supermarket one, a gas station one, it was always there so I had to see what was up. It was a really goofy and awful monster movie where they made their version of Carpenter's Thing via practical (horrible) FX and actual stop motion! It would shoot out tentacle grabber things like the Thing and also these bug dealios that stuck to people, but was basically a big long neck with a mouth on the end connected to this blob with legs. It ate some heads and stuff. It also had a spawn that ran off and at the end turned into a giant monster that busted out of the ceiling of the building in stop-motion form. That was pretty neat. But yeah this is a lot of people running around corridors being chased by this crappy chunk of rubber. Total MST3K stuff. I also tried to watch Wizards last night but the parallels to our current state of affairs were just too depressing and I turned it off. The ork types in Bakshi's bootleg Mordor watching film of Nazi propaganda really hit it on the nose and just was saddening. 1
Log Posted January 5 Posted January 5 7 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said: Marty Fucking Supreme! Saw'r it Friday and it exceeded my lofty expectations. Chalamet at the peak of his powers and an outstanding cast throughout - Mr. Wonderful proves to be a great choice. I love the inclusion of Abel Ferrera, whom seems to be playing a role that pays homage to his tremendous legacy. Masterful authorship from J. Safdie. Great score and song selection. Absolutely magnificent. Ah! I'm dying to see it. Planned to make it while I was off work last week, but never could. I caught 28 Years Later a couple nights ago. I wasn't really expecting to be so emotionally touched by that movie. Again, 2025 was really a hell of a year for movies. 2
Andrew POE! Posted January 6 Posted January 6 Selected movies today.... The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (Netflix, leaving on 1/8) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler At times, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials resemble The Last of Us, even at the start of the movie. It's like The Last of Us but it worked backwards: it's starts at an underground facility/hospital and ends outside of it. The story this time around is almost purely zombie apocalypse spectacle - the narrative tightness of the first movie is jettisoned for more of a nebulous story about how those picked up from the maze are to be sacrificed for a 'cure.' The illness resembles zombies from 28 Days Later / The Last of Us. Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) is regarded as 'important,' whereas in the first movie the story was around the mystery of him and his significance. With this, those that have him like Janson (Aidan Gillen) present themselves as safe yet Thomas has a nagging feeling something is off. The movie turns into one chase after another - Thomas and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) and others escape into the desert in some nice widescreen scenery and avoid the zombies (or Cranks as they are called here, they look like zombies to me) before meeting Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) and Brenda (Rosa Salazar) in some hidden industry area. Apparently, Jorge and Brenda can't be trusted either, because they are about to surrender them to Janson. They change their minds and help the kids escape, although the sequence set to "Walkin' After Midnight" was a nice highlight. Rather than continue to recite the plot, they eventually get to another group called "The Right Arm" led by Mary Cooper (Lili Taylor), who is working on a cure. Teresa decides to inform Janson and Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) of their whereabouts due to all of a sudden 'remembering her past.' An explosive shootout occurs with Janson capturing one of the group and fleeing with Teresa and Ava Paige. I wasn't too mad about the change, but I did feel that narratively it didn't make sense. It would have worked better if Jorge turned on the group, since it was established earlier that he has a price. Even then, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a nice theater movie, although it has as much thought process as a large fizzy soda and a bucket of popcorn. Saw Black Angel and Deadline at Dawn, two 1946 noirs, and Lata, a short film from India, on Criterion Channel.
Andrew POE! Posted January 7 Posted January 7 Selected movies today... The Competition (2016) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler "So you want to be a rock and roll star? Then listen now to what I say Just get an electric guitar Then take some time and learn how to play" -The Byrds, "So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star" The Competition as a documentary is about a film school in France called La Femis, which boasts alumni like Alain Resnais and Claire Denis. The documentary isn't particularly enlightening as to what prospective students go through or even what teachers at the school do, but is more about the selection process to admit students into the school. The thing with higher education especially in the United States is factors other than the students themselves determine admission. There's a danger of selecting students because of demographics or how the student makes the person selecting them 'feel.' With The Competition, a lot of the documentary is showing students explaining their thought process and adults debating about their thought process. The age that many of them applying are around the age of 19-22, where a lot of emphasis is seemingly placed on they having 'experience,' but also not appearing to be 'too prepared' for an oral exam. One student I thought was interesting was a woman from the Ivory Coast, whose father was a politician and had became a refugee. She wanted to become a filmmaker because she felt like not enough emphasis was placed on stories like hers and because "you can change people's minds through film." The drawback is she wasn't able to identify a film that touched her, which means she either does have a vision for filmmaking, but not the means to access films, or she doesn't really understand films and hoping that going to film school brings a sense of 'completion' to her life. The professionals interviewing her were aghast by this lack of knowledge of films and this somehow became a barrier of entry for her (she never appears in the final round of interviews). Three other students jumped out. One was a woman who wanted to be in distribution due to her love of Demy's "Young Girls of Rochefort," and was remarked about her style of dress being similar to a Demy character. Another was an Italian man who interviewed a fisherman for 3 hours and had gotten a good luck charm out of it; his interest in film is more about the day to day life. Another student that was interesting was a bartender who had his own film production company that indicated that 'filmmaking was in the hands of the distributors, and not the auteurs.' I found it interesting that most of the conversation about him were about how they were made to feel and how, for one of the professionals, was 'scared by him' and how 'he might be on cocaine.' The conversation then directs to either letting someone in because they fit the 'mold' of a student at La Femis or letting someone in because they don't fit that 'mold.' There's also the students that can barely talk but writes extremely well that was touched by Gremillion's Remorques and another that a professional arrogantly accessed was autistic, despite that person not being a professional to diagnose him. "He's going to be a student all his life," he says, perhaps projecting onto him what he feels about himself. From this documentary, there is no tell-tale sign of success or failure in the French film industry. What it does make me wonder is perhaps there is a failure of the industry to find people for admission to La Femis that fits those selecting them's viewpoints. The age group for it is malleable enough to where they don't have the life experience to make films that speak to other people; one applicant had a film proposal that was so convoluted that even she got lost in the plot. It's not simply "I watched The 400 Blows by Truffaut when I was 17," or "I watched Young Girls of Rochefort," or "this guy is crazy, look at Nicolas Winding Refn, he didn't talk to his film crew at all." The future of making films in France shouldn't be a reinforcement of life experiences and viewpoints for those older imposed upon those younger, it should be what speaks to those younger filmmakers with those older guiding them along and serving as an outlet to springboard ideas. The drawback with this documentary is at times it's very dry and could be uninteresting. Watching academics debate amongst themselves isn't exciting, no matter how many filmmaker names they toss into the conversation. I do wish that La Femis did accept people older than their 20s, because I'd certainly would love to go in (despite my French being out of practice). Those older would be more likely to benefit from film school, since they have other experiences in life and other experiences in academia to shape what they want to do while at film school. The point is if you love movies, do it. Make them. You don't need a film school to validate you. The Maze Runner: The Death Cure (Netflix, leaving on 1/8) - 2/5 stars Spoiler Compared to The Scorch Trials, the story seems more 'solid,' despite it not really having a narrative per se. Thomas (Dylan O'Brien)'s arc isn't really resolved at the end of it; he's presented as 'having been bred to generate the cure,' but that's just it. What made him escape with Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) seems to be just as much of a mystery as it was in the first Maze Runner. Not to mention Teresa deciding to side with Janson (Aidan Gillen) and Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson). The script seems to mention the reasoning in passing dialogue, which just as well not be mentioned at all. What's different with The Death Cure are the visuals more stunning and more of a cinematographer's showcase. Shots throughout the movie feel like 'copycats' of shots from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, John Carpenter's Escape From New York, George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, Sam Mendes' Skyfall, and Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049. It's literally breathtaking to watch The Death Cure despite everything depicted seeming familiar and derivative. I did completely enjoy the opening as Thomas and others pick up a train car with a helicopter to look for Minho (Ki Hong Lee). How those scenes were filmed had elements of Mad Max and some modern Westerns. What isn't as satisfying is the decision to bring back Gally (Will Poulter) as part of a resistance movement led by Lawrence (Walter Goggins). How Gally survived after being left for dead and how Lawrence was able to stave off being turned into a "Crank" was never really explained. It would make logical sense for Gally to have a grudge against Thomas and turn against him, but he actually doesn’t. Ava Paige being killed seems a bit unnecessary as does Teresa (but I guess romance isn't supposed to bloom in a dystopian future). The final 20 minutes of the movie is great big budget filmmaking with smoke, fire, and red lights and the final battle between Thomas and Aidan. The movie tried to make Thomas and Aidan like Batman and The Joker without as much of an emotional investment. I did like the final letter from Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) that Thomas reads over and having a voiceover from Newt. I still think the final shot of the movie should have been the memorial rock with everyone's name carved in as opposed to Thomas staring at the sea with the cure in his hands. It does make me wonder if he would be tossing the cure into the ocean, but I guess that's a story for Maze Runner 4. Unrest (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Watchmaking At Hanging Rock is more like it. Unrest is a movie about time and making watches. It's almost unconcerned with time that it feels hypnotic to watch. Peter Kropotkin (Alexei Evstratov) has moved into a town in Switzerland that makes watches and clocks. Much of the time is centered around the factory that the factory has its own hours for time measurement. What is happening under the radar of the factory is an anarchist movement that Peter is apart of, although he doesn't really express or broadcast it to anyone. Several workers at the factory are part of the movement and there's a photographer that is concerned with taking people's photos for money. Workers from the factory buy photos including those of anarchists. At times, whatever the town has for business is like a snake biting its own tail - the factory pays people small amounts of francs that they then donate to anarchist causes and to buy photos. It's unsustainable. During the visit, an election is happening where only one person is running. The anarchist collective vote for "The Commune," which obviously doesn't win. But the argument is as good as the attempt despite the outcome. And what the town seems to be concerned with is paying taxes. There's 8000 people in the town, but only 2300 eligible people to vote. Women, people under the age of 21, and mentally ill people cannot vote. Two people are spotted and asked why they haven't paid their local tax. One of them says he has. That's not good enough. No voting for him. So it's like a lot of local elections - the candidate that was pre-picked wins due to looking for a way to reduce the number of people opposed to the candidate. It's much like the 'poll tax' in the United States and using authority of employers and lack of vehicles to prevent people from voting. Another example of the pre-occupation with taxes is two guys aren't allowed to drink because they didn't pay their municipal taxes. Did they beat up the bartender and break chairs and glasses? Nope, it's not that type of movie. These people are more worried about raising their voices than raising their fists. There are moments of extremely dry humor - Peter sends a telegram to the telegram office and reads off the letter to a friend in the United States. The telegraph employee gives Peter a look and the telegraph is sent (as far as we know, who knows what the response is and if the person sending it didn't change it). Almost conveniently later in the movie, the telegraph is down, which sends everyone into a tizzy. What time to use for the telegram office? Let's use the factory's time. So there is a romance between Peter and Josephine Gräbl (Clara Gostynski) that closes out the movie. Josephine works for the factory and is extremely skilled. She is also a member of the anarchist group and towards the end is dismissed for violating their employment agreement due to membership (yet only she and three other people were dismissed despite a larger number of people throughout the movie). Peter and Josephine get asked to mark going through a forest and the speed they walked. They of course get paid. They can't walk by the factory because the photographer there must take their precious photos for the catalogue of the factory and "they don't want anyone in the frame." The two are like "fuck this" and walk on. Policeman blows his whistle but fuck giving a chase. He doesn't get paid enough for this shit. Unrest as a movie is so drawn back for camerawork that it can interpreted to not even be participatory. It feels like a 'documentary' but the angles are such that it's easy to get distracted or bored or looking at other things (like a phone or a computer). For whatever reason, it reminded me of Topology of Sirens, which was also a bit obtuse narratively but fascinating visually. Unrest isn't for the weak. Watched Ghost in the Shell 2.0 on Criterion Channel and it's the same movie as Ghost in the Shell but with PS2 cutscene looking CGI. 1
Curt McGirt Posted January 7 Posted January 7 3 hours ago, Andrew POE! said: Peter Kropotkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin (PS read Mutual Aid it's awesome)
JLSigman Posted January 7 Posted January 7 11 hours ago, Andrew POE! said: Watched Ghost in the Shell 2.0 on Criterion Channel and it's the same movie as Ghost in the Shell but with PS2 cutscene looking CGI. Agreed - as amazing as the soundtrack is, the second movie is absolutely pointless. 1
Andrew POE! Posted January 8 Posted January 8 Selected movies today.... Audrey's Children (Peacock, leaving on 1/15) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Audrey's Children as a movie is a bit clinical and detached, even with Natalie Dormer anchoring it with a great lead performance as Dr. Audrey Evans. Dormer channels a bit of Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins in Dr. Evans; the character (and Dormer) handle children with cancer sensitively as they are going through the worst possible illness. Where Audrey's Children somewhat fails is the fact that the movie seems to be more elongated for the drama produced. Much of the conflict in the movie is with Dr. Evans against those running the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and specifically Dr. C. Everett Koop (Clancy Brown). Dr. Koop has a weariness at Dr. Evans 'speaking out of turn' with wanting to approach pharmaceutical companies then later Philadelphia Eagles players and finally administering two drugs in combination for a patient named Mia. Audrey's Children resembles a bit of Patch Adams where it's "why won't this pesky hospital let me practice medicine the way I want?" when the reality is vastly different. What Dr. Evans proposes (and eventually) gets is a house for parents that have children with cancer at the hospital. Eventually, those around Dr. Evans like Dr. Koop and Dr. Dan D'Angio (Jimmi Simpson) comes around to what Dr. Evans is doing and what she's trying to provide for children. It's somewhat sweet that a movie like this would be out in 2024 for such an outwardly aim to show altruism. The other highlight for me is the production design and lighting, which covers up for the low-budget nature of the movie. Ami Canaan Mann as a director isn't like her dad Michael Mann, but has a competent way of framing shots. I especially loved how conversations between two characters would use symmetrical framing as the characters sit across from each other. Audrey's Children doesn't do anything new for biopics, but it's unique in its handling and its approach. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Netflix, leaving on 1/15) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Confessions of a Shopaholic is interesting as a romantic comedy. It takes a very serious and very troubling issue - credit card debt - as part of its comedy. Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a columnist for a magazine that wants to be part of Alette, which is likely a stand-in for Alure. The one problem: she has over $16,000 in credit card debt and can't stop buying shoes, purses, and clothing with credit cards. (Don't worry Rebecca, I have the same problem with Criterion Collection Blu Rays). Isla Fisher is the highlight of the movie, conjuring images of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless and Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30. Fisher plays the character with the same kind of 'ugly duckling turn into a beautiful swan' energy that Garner did; it's practically impossible to watch and not find her attractive, not just due to her physical beauty but her energy and willingness to do physical comedy. Rebecca then works for Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), who is the editor of Successful Saving, a money and investment magazine that has Rebecca as a columnist. Much of the movie goes about in almost typical romantic comedy fashion - Rebecca wants Luke, but has to sacrifice something and feels like she has screwed up her chance to get it. In this case, Rebecca's moment comes when the debt collector Derek Smeath (Robert Stanton) calls her out on live TV. Rebecca does a sale and auction for her clothes including her famous green scarf and is able to pay back everything (gee, I wish something like that would work out for me). Rebecca eventually goes to the new magazine that Luke works as a columnist. Everything comes together in the end in New York City. One thing I didn't like as much was the choice to make light of shopping addiction with the "Shopaholic Anonymous" group that Rebecca visits. Rebecca describes to those there the feeling she gets when she walks into a store, the smells, and how the objects feel. "When I shop, the world gets better, and the world is better, but then it's not, and I need to do it again," she says. For the briefest of moments, that's true. Given when the movie came out in 2009, having something that removes temporarily the issues in the world were needed. But it doesn't cover up the fact that they happen and still happen today. The movie's ending had been changed to make Rebecca a sympathetic character, when if anything, she should have been a warning for others or at least a message. Nowadays though, credit card debt has skyrocketed; the average American owes more on credit cards than in the previous generation. The idyllic world depicted is like what Rebecca sees as a little girl in the intro of the movie is no longer there. PJ Hogan directed a conventional movie, which isn't nearly as good as his previous work Muriel's Wedding and My Best Friend's Wedding (and funnily enough, Rebecca attends the wedding of her roommate). A lot of the movie is carried with the acting as opposed to the scenes. I did like the scene towards the end where the mannequins started clapping for Rebecca as she walked by. There were also some great split diopter shots during the movie, especially in the meeting between Luke and Edgar West (John Lithgow). For the most part, Confessions of a Shopaholic is a great late 2000s romantic comedy. Conan The Barbarian (1982) (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars Spoiler "Do you wanna live forever?" Conan The Barbarian is almost a Western than a high fantasy film. The components of Westerns are there. Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) witnesses his family killed by Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) and his men during a raid. What's striking with Conan The Barbarian is how there is a low amount of dialogue, even at the start. Conan's father (William Smith) tells Conan about how Crom created the world and where Crom dwells. He instills within Conan a lack of trust in others: "he secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts." Once Conan is captured, he is enslaved and made to push a millstone. Time passes as Conan changes, grows older, and seasons change. Eventually the young Conan becomes the older Conan. Conan is made to fight in gladiator arenas and grows in prowess there. (What's fascinating is how much the premise of Conan The Barbarian resembles the premise of Gladiator II). Conan is depicted as simplistic, almost still a child. Conan doesn't speak that much except to say "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women." Conan, once freed, doesn't know what to do. He meets a thief named Subotai (Gerry Lopez) after fighting with The Witch (Cassandra Gava). Conan on his own has an almost childlike sense of humor - he punches a camel and dons a disguise as a monk to a ceremony for Thulsa Doom (it's hilarious how out of place he looks). Completing their group is Valeria (Sandahl Bergman). Conan and Valeria's relationship is of equal trust and respect and of physical attraction. Valeria leads the two to rob from Doom as they fight off guards and dive away. Frederich Nietzsche's philosophy plays into the movie from the quote at the start of the movie. Also, it appears during Conan meeting Thulsa Doom for the first time since childhood: "Steel isn't strong, boy, flesh is stronger!" Nietzsche's concept of 'man and superman' is within Conan. Conan is created out of his efforts through an unspoken force and drive; Conan himself doesn't understand it. But who created this drive? Thulsa Doom brings this up before Conan kills him: "My child, you have come to me my son. For who now is your father if it is not me? I am the well spring, from which you flow. When I am gone, you will have never been. What would your world be, without me? My son." Thulsa Doom killed Conan's father, but he can't help but to claim credit for making Conan who he is today. What I found interesting is how the director John Millius filmed this. There is a lot of usage of crossfades, wide angle shots, and in some cases shots from multiple angles. In some respects, this is to cover for the low amount of dialogue the actors are given. Schwarzenegger barely speaks through the movie and mostly does physical acting through his facial expressions, laughs, and grabs on people. James Earl Jones gives Doom a sense of pathos; this is true at the start where the two men with Doom look mournful for what they have to do as does Doom. Yet Doom kills Conan's mother without a second thought. The narrator The Wizard (Mako) relays what Conan is going through and what Conan doesn't say through his voiceover. At times with Conan the Barbarian, it does tend to run a bit long. It does however, tell a well rounded story even through the visuals. The actors are there to progress through the space and tell the stories with their eyes and movements. It's like any other Western that's been made where a gunfighter watches his family killed or the people of the town are threatened. It's visceral, like blood. Watched Tripping With Nils Frahm on Mubi and The Bodyguard (2016) on Criterion Channel. The Bodyguard is a Sammo Hung movie that's a lesser effort from.
Curt McGirt Posted January 8 Posted January 8 How did Conan end up showing there?! Is it one of those Phoenix revival showings? I'd kill to see Conan in the theater; that's one of my favorite movies. 1
odessasteps Posted January 8 Posted January 8 At least at the Regal, there seems to be at least one "revival" film every week if not more.
RazorbladeKiss87 Posted January 9 Posted January 9 On 1/2/2026 at 8:20 AM, odessasteps said: Amazing if legitimate. I can't get this to show, what is it?
odessasteps Posted January 9 Posted January 9 All of the Cahiers du Cinema archive is available online now. I think €5 or so per issue. 1
Curt McGirt Posted January 9 Posted January 9 I checked my own local and they're doing Labyrinth now, then next week is all the LOTR movies in a row, and The Outsiders.
odessasteps Posted January 9 Posted January 9 (edited) One of the local Regals also has at least one or two Bollywood movies every week, so I guess Delaware has enough of an Indian population to support that, since they’ve been doing it for years and years. I think I went once to see one of those films, because it was subtitled in English and starred Ashawarya Rai. (Wow. Bride and Prejudice is over 20 years old.) Edited January 9 by odessasteps
Andrew POE! Posted January 9 Posted January 9 2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: How did Conan end up showing there?! Is it one of those Phoenix revival showings? I'd kill to see Conan in the theater; that's one of my favorite movies. It's at the local Regal. They'll be doing Christopher Nolan's Following this month too that I'm excited about seeing. 1
Andrew POE! Posted January 9 Posted January 9 Selected movies today.... Rachel Getting Married (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 5/5 stars Spoiler "Love will keep us together," Captain & Tenille, "Love Will Keep Us Together" The thing with Rachel Getting Married is how polished the unpolished nature of it looks. It doesn't feel like actors acting, it feels like people who look like actors existing. Kym (Anne Hathaway) is awkward and uncomfortable about going home from rehab for the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt). Rachel Getting Married at times feels like what Noam Baumbach did previously in Margot at the Wedding except Kym is trying to connect again with her family, but also failing. Rachel feels what Kym is doing is performative and is drawing attention to herself. And sometimes it is. The conversations between Kym and Rachel over Kym being the maid of honor then the one at the salon where Kym is confronted about making up sexual abuse before Rachel ditches Kym feels too real; it feels like an actual conversation between siblings, not actors in the moment acting out scenes. There are other scenes like that throughout the movie - the famous dishwasher scene/contest between Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe) and Rachel's father Paul (Bill Irwin). Kym going to see her mother Abby (Debra Winger) and the two slapping each other. One series of scenes I liked were the rehearsal dinner. Everything that the actors involved said felt like real people wishing luck and sharing stories about Rachel and Sidney. Kym's speech felt real in the moment, although it became a source of resentment for Rachel afterwards. Rachel felt like Kym was drawing attention to herself; she pointed out that their father would ask Rachel how Kym was doing. Another great scene was during the contest over the dishwasher. Kym pulls out a stack of plates and finds one with Ethan on it. Her father sees it and freezes. Her father just walks off as Kym just sits down, quietly dealing with something that brought up a memory. More is revealed later about Ethan - Kym was driving a car, on a drug binge, with Ethan in it. The scene where it's talked about was highly emotional and felt real; everyone in the scene was crying. The moment felt like the camera catching them at a disarmed moment, coming to actual realizations about their family. With Kym, I loved one scene after the argument with Abby. Kym is driving in the rain, crying, and sees a fork in the road. Instead of going left or right, she goes straight ahead. This is symbolic of her life. She stays overnight in the car, sleeping, after the airbag is deployed with two joggers finding her in the morning. That scene felt like real life happening and not an actor playing a character. Kym is checked for sobriety, the car is towed, and Kym gets a lift back. What I liked is how Jonathan Demme and cinematographer Declan Quinn captured the moments; it felt like a documentary than an actual feature film. The music in the background played by live musicians lends itself to be almost Robert Altman-like; indeed, the camera focusing on Hathaway during crowd scenes feels decidedly Altman. The dysfunction of Kym and Rachel's family is evocative of Margot at the Wedding, but there's never a sense of the people involved being the most caustic or difficult people in the world. They are caustic and difficult, but they are trying not to be and failing at it. Rachel Getting Married is a beautiful, sad, and ugly movie and is worth revisiting, no matter how raw the emotions generated would be. Daughters of the Dust (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31, this is a re-watch) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Having watched this again (and developed more patience from the last time I saw it for movies that are a bit oblique in its storytelling), I still don't understand Daughters of the Dust. I don't think I'm supposed to. Daughters of the Dust is born from the same type of imaginative and spiritual films of Tarkovsky and non-linearity of Godard. It functions on the level of dreams, memories, and spoken ruminations appearing visually. It's past tradition colliding with the present ("past is prologue" as said at the start) and the desire to stay due to traditions while wanting to leave due to progress. The fact that this came out in 1991, was highly touted, yet the director hasn't made another feature is more of a failure of Hollywood and their unwillingness to experiment. It's vastly different than other directors that would get lumped in with Julie Dash. The story for this isn't readily apparent (still) and different characters share their memories with a matriarchal figure sharing the most. The movie concludes with those wanting to leave leaving the island while the narrator for most of the movie, an unborn child, tells about her parents staying on the island. Is Daughters of the Dust terrible? No, just because I didn't understand it completely doesn't make it so. Conan The Destroyer (Netflix) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler Conan The Destroyer nearly misses the point of what Conan The Barbarian was doing. Conan The Barbarian is a story about a character building himself up for revenge, becoming stronger while seeking it. It does so through showing the story and selectively using dialogue to fill in the gaps. Conan The Destroyer at the start has Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) talking and giving quips. Conan ceases being merely a warrior of brute force and instead is lead on a quest. Conan The Destroyer lends itself to be like a lot of kids' adventures of the 1980s, The Goonies, The Neverending Story, and so forth. Conan is told that Princess Jehnna (Olivia D'Abo) must get a gem to locate a horn. Doing so allows Conan to see his dead lover alive again. Jehnna has with her Bombaata (Wilt Chamberlin) who serves as her guard. They meet Zula (Grace Jones), who is chained to a stump and Conan frees her; Zula does a booty shake and fights off the men to join him. The thing with Conan The Destroyer is it's very much a comedy. Kills are shown, but the beheadings and the violence is mostly 'off screen' with the camera focused on the heroes doing it. Jehnna asks Zula for love advice at one point. "How do I get a man? I just capture him and take him!" Zula says. Malak (Tracey Walter) is asked the same thing and really doesn't know. Then, later Conan is drunk and tries to teach Jehnna to use a sword before bumping into Bombaata and falling down comically. Apparently, and almost predictably, what Queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) promised Conan for taking Jehnna to the horn isn't so. It turns out that Bombaata and Queen Taramis want to sacrifice Jehnna to awaken Dagoth. Conan and others fight off and kill various people and eventually destroy Dagoth with pulling off its horn. The final scenes resemble the throne room in Star Wars as Zula is made captain of the guards, Malak the jester, and the Wizard (Mako) the court wizard. Conan walks off and it shows the same scene from Conan The Barbarian where Conan is seated with the promise of another adventure (yet there isn't one). In all honesty, Conan the Destroyer is a no fills, all action movie that doesn't require too much intelligence for its story. Even though the dialogue is borderline terrible. Richard Fleischer for this movie directed it well despite at times it not being that good. Gotta sell toys and merchandise somehow in the 1980s. Watched Psycho Beach Party, a parody of slashers, beach movies, and 1950s drama on Criterion Channel.
Curt McGirt Posted January 9 Posted January 9 Fun fact: Andre was the person in the Dagoth suit in Conan the Destroyer. 2
odessasteps Posted January 9 Posted January 9 I was going to post the Arnold/wilt/andre picture but got busy at work.
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