movies. good ones. seriously.

  SPD² said:

  beatfanatic said:

I saw Rachel Getting Married today and thought it was really good . i doubt anyone on here will like it though

 

i was wanting to see this. don't think it came local though. heard that speach she does is a dooz.

yeah the movie is full of awkward moments since Anne Hathaway is a drug addict and comes home to attend her sister wedding . Her sister is soo fucking beautiful in that movie . i have a huge crush on here. Anne Hathaway is fucking hot too

She looks a bit like an alien...

just watched Let the Right One In, based on the recommendations in this thread, and i thoroughly enjoyed it. thanks, watmm!!

  beatfanatic said:

  SPD² said:

  beatfanatic said:

I saw Rachel Getting Married today and thought it was really good . i doubt anyone on here will like it though

 

i was wanting to see this. don't think it came local though. heard that speach she does is a dooz.

 

yeah the movie is full of awkward moments since Anne Hathaway is a drug addict and comes home to attend her sister wedding . Her sister is soo fucking beautiful in that movie . i have a huge crush on here. Anne Hathaway is fucking hot too

 

My friend Mather is in Rachel Getting Married. His name is also on the poster! Big time.

I can now brag and say that before he was famous, he was on my web-show...

Rachel getting married is awesome, btw!

He could definitely get a huge electronic music beard...

  Z_B_Z said:

  Terpentintollwut said:

I've seen The Woodmans with Kevin Bacon a week ago on television more or less accidentally, it was dubbed in German of course but it was still obvious that it was quite good.

 

thats weird, i was thinking about watching this the other day but decided against it. so its worth watching?

I think it definitely is, but it's rather calm and serious, might be a bit of a letdown if you rent it and have other expectations. It doesn't exactly have a climax either. In my case, I wasn't planning on watching anything but then it appealed to me and had only just started so I sat down and saw the whole thing.

saw zack and miri make a porno yesteday

wasnt even that funny , woudnt recommend it

I just purchased: 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days and Maria Full of Grace and Wall-E. All were very good and I would recommend them

anyone whos a film buff needs to see this doc. a fascinating and tragic story.

  Quote

The Z Channel wasn't America's first premium cable outlet specializing in feature films, and it wasn't the most commercially successful, but few, if any, had as strong an impact on the film industry or a more influential list of customers. Based in California and blanketing sections of the state dominated by the movie business, Z Channel had been operating for several years before former screenwriter Jerry Harvey took over as head of programming in 1980. Under the guidance of Harvey and his staff, the channel became a film buff's dream, screening rare classics, important foreign films, and maverick American titles that had fallen through the cracks of commercial distribution. Harvey and his staff also programmed original and uncut versions of films which had only played American theaters in altered form (including Heaven's Gate, Once Upon a Time in America, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and The Leopard) long before the concept of the "director's cut" had currency beyond the most hardcore of film fans. And The Z Channel aggressively championed pictures they believed were overlooked, and programmed deserving Oscar-nominated movies during the Academy's voting period, years before studios began distributing video "screeners" to potential voters. (More than one industry expert has credited Z Channel's showings of Annie Hall as a key factor in the film winning Best Picture.) But Jerry Harvey was also a deeply troubled man, and when legal and economic problems began dogging the company in the late '80s, he snapped, leading to a horrible and tragic murder and suicide. The Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession is a documentary that looks at the channel's short but remarkable history as well as Harvey's damaged personal life. It includes interviews with Robert Altman, Quentin Tarantino, James Woods, Jim Jarmusch, Alexander Payne and a number of other filmmakers and critics who attest to Z Channel's lasting impact.

That Z-Channel doc is little more than a long commercial for Criterion(I own it)

thats really all you got out of it?

No, sure the guy who ran the Z Channel was fascinating enough, but I really hated the barely-hidden feel that the people who made this film had little to no personal memory of Z Channel(the folks who made this couldn't have been older than little children when the Z Channel actually existed).

It gives the whole thing a very "wow there was something like THAT?!" feel to it, which misses the point of why the Z Channel was so great(that it took a very different approach to what could be considered "acceptable" art to masses of people, and didn't fall victim to the normal fears of television programmers).

Also, if you really wanna see what I mean, watch the film w/commentary(don't ask why I was stupid enough to do this...). Xan Cassavetes comes off as a completely spoiled twit, imo...

I *also* found it funny how little attention there was paid to the Z Channel's need to show porn to keep afloat(they mention it in a pretty misleading way, imo).

edit: One more thing, I never remember this guy's name, but the guy who made Sideways comes off as a complete prick during his interview in this documentary. Not like his films didn't do that for him already, but yeah, to see that kind of smug "yeah I was *that* guy, bow down!" was wack.

  Rook said:

I just purchased: 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days

I need to rent this. I keep hearing good things about it.

  Soothsayer said:

edit: One more thing, I never remember this guy's name, but the guy who made Sideways comes off as a complete prick during his interview in this documentary. Not like his films didn't do that for him already, but yeah, to see that kind of smug "yeah I was *that* guy, bow down!" was wack.

The only thing I remember about his interview from the documentary is that he said he used to tape the movies that played on Z Channel because they aired stuff that was uncut or hard to find in general. Did you see 'Citizen Ruth', Soothsayer?

i dont thinks its necessary for the filmmakers to have a personal memory of the z channel. who cares? its a great story

i watched the commentary. i found xan cassavetes to be quite likable and charming. didnt get a "spoiled twit" vibe at all.

and actually, i found myself having a "wow there was something like THAT?!" reaction in finding out the existence of the z channel. i dont think that misses the point at all as theres nothing really like that channel around today (ifc and sundance suck for the most part)

  takeshi said:

  Soothsayer said:

edit: One more thing, I never remember this guy's name, but the guy who made Sideways comes off as a complete prick during his interview in this documentary. Not like his films didn't do that for him already, but yeah, to see that kind of smug "yeah I was *that* guy, bow down!" was wack.

 

The only thing I remember about his interview from the documentary is that he said he used to tape the movies that played on Z Channel because they aired stuff that was uncut or hard to find in general. Did you see 'Citizen Ruth', Soothsayer?

Nope, haven't seen "Citizen Ruth", and it may have been his interview in the extra features, but he tells a story about how he gets the Z Channel shirt he so proudly wears in his interview. Comes off as very "proud to be this image of the know-it-all nerd", very smug.

Z B Z: I do think a personal recollection of the Z Channel would have helped greatly in creating a documentary on it. Necessary? Not at all. Though it would have been helpful in giving more of a picture to the relevance of the Z Channel to the film industry around that time(something I would have had more interest in, personally, and don't feel like this subject is approached closely in this doc).

The commentary felt incredibly self-congratulatory to me. Honestly, I was curious the entire time *why* they even had a commentary track(probably the most pointless commentary I've ever listened to, even more than the Life Aquatic or any of the Aqua Teen commentaries). Sure you get an occasional anecdote which commentaries are good for, but it's almost all "That's on Criterion!", "That's coming out on Criterion!", "Let's raise our glasses to Criterion!"(I threw up a little in my mouth at that part). To think that the most usefulness that commentary had was to be the first teaser that Criterion was to eventually release "Overlord" is kinda funny to me, actually.

I guess Xan Cassavetes could have been worse, could have started to use the family as a fallback(I'll give her that, she wasn't that cheap).

As far as being caught thinking there's nothing like Z Channel now, imo, misses the point of why Z Channel was great. It should have been a floodgate, not a blip on the radar. I'd love to see people look at Z Channel as a template for possible entertainment/media today(esp as, imo, this is a better idea now than it's ever been, with people's tastes becoming as fractured and independant as they are now), instead of pining for something in the past.

This really leads into a greater rant about media image in general, but yeah, I saw the folks who made that Z Channel doc as looking at this channel as a time capsule, instead of a vision of a possible future.

oh fucking Z Channel, yes yes, own it. Jerry Harvey is from my town here and they even did a few shots in the city. i thought about going back in the local public records and looking up his hanging judge dad. Jerry described growing up here like a cross between American Graffiti and Two-Lane Blacktop, which i'm sure it was like then.

another doc that had a similar feel which i'm sure has a lot to do w/ IFC, is the 3 disc 'A Decade Under The Influence'. i thought that was quite informative and fun.

  Soothsayer said:

It should have been a floodgate, not a blip on the radar.

but it was a floodgate, wasnt it? would there be something like criterion without z channel?

  SPD² said:

another doc that had a similar feel which i'm sure has a lot to do w/ IFC, is the 3 disc 'A Decade Under The Influence'. i thought that was quite informative and fun.

me too. i love that doc :)

seeing z channel has made me want to go on a film watching binge. i havent seen two lane blacktop in ages. warren oates performance in that film is one of my favorite performances of all time. man i love that movie.

also, i gotta watch 'pat garrett and billy the kid' again. that scene where slim pickens is gut shot and and 'knockin on heavens door' is playing in the background makes me tear up every time i see it.

  Z_B_Z said:

  Soothsayer said:

It should have been a floodgate, not a blip on the radar.

 

but it was a floodgate, wasnt it? would there be something like criterion without z channel?

touche

I came to WATMM today to post about this movie I just saw. Found this thread. Yay!

So here it is: Underground by Kusturica. I'm blown away.

watching children of men atm

the scene with trying to jumpstart the car is so perfect

humanity's future reduced to one man's pathetic attempts to start a car, with the barbarians in hot pursuit

/returns to movie

  kaini said:

watching children of men atm

 

the scene with trying to jumpstart the car is so perfect

humanity's future reduced to one man's pathetic attempts to start a car, with the barbarians in hot pursuit

 

/returns to movie

One of my favourite movies, the long sequence near the end is amazing

  Ego said:

I came to WATMM today to post about this movie I just saw. Found this thread. Yay!

 

So here it is: Underground by Kusturica. I'm blown away.

word!

make sure you also check out "Black Cat, White Cat" by him

  beatfanatic said:

  kaini said:

watching children of men atm

 

the scene with trying to jumpstart the car is so perfect

humanity's future reduced to one man's pathetic attempts to start a car, with the barbarians in hot pursuit

 

/returns to movie

 

One of my favourite movies, the long sequence near the end is amazing

i love this movie.

the book was amazing

but this movie isn't the book. i loved both.

  essines said:

  beatfanatic said:

  kaini said:

watching children of men atm

 

the scene with trying to jumpstart the car is so perfect

humanity's future reduced to one man's pathetic attempts to start a car, with the barbarians in hot pursuit

 

/returns to movie

 

One of my favourite movies, the long sequence near the end is amazing

 

i love this movie.

 

the book was amazing

 

but this movie isn't the book. i loved both.

The book was way too depressing for me to finish it. The movie on the other hand *thrusts*