Films Recently Watched

Election - I actually really like Alexander Payne. He uses some of the film gimmicks wes anderson uses but without them diluting the films message into a style over substance P.O.S. Payne also has a deep love of the midwest (nebraska) which I find appealing - it's at times a love affair, at times pure hatred, but always with a certain detached understanding. wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot more of the obvious sexual tension between broderick and tracy flick in initial scripts or at least earlier edits. The introduction of tracy as a sexual object from the disgraced teacher early in the film sets the tone that almost anything is fair in this power struggle, and clearly it could have gone further than him imagining her as the head of his wife during sex. Glad I rewatched this, fun film that gives a lot after viewing too. Tom Perrotta is great anyway, love the book too.

I thought Election and About Schmidt were both pretty solid movies but I hated that one with George Clooney in Hawaii. edit: forgot I've seen Sideways also which i would rate as above average but not as good as Election or Schmidt. Can you recommend any others?

I think Election was his only good film, unfortunately (though I haven't seen Citizen Ruth). Everything since then has been a steady downhill slide.

Chasing Amy 10/10 (made me think about some stuff in my own life - more to this film than meets the eye, all about the dialogue)

King of New York 0/10

Persepolis 10/10 (amazing film that really opens your eyes to the frivolousness of western subcultures - very funny, very watchable, very sad)

  On 11/30/2013 at 6:50 PM, Atop said:

Can't wait for the uncut re-release of "Ms 45". Hopefully we get to see Zoe Lund's naked body! Yay!

Ooo, great rec! Sounds good - I shall try catch this on bluray!

Body Double

2 in a row, DePalma does it again! Greaaat film! One might dare to say Hitchcock done post-modern style - oozes Vertigo and Rear Window, but adds some much welcomed sex and violence - beautifully paced and plotted out, great cinematic language, top characters and a fun ride the whole way through. Bit of a gem really.

elysium - started off promisingly enough but fell into the trap of being one long boring manhunt without all the things that make that cool, started skimming, watched the action sequences near the end on double speed. sigh/10

  On 12/1/2013 at 6:04 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

I thought Election and About Schmidt were both pretty solid movies but I hated that one with George Clooney in Hawaii. edit: forgot I've seen Sideways also which i would rate as above average but not as good as Election or Schmidt. Can you recommend any others?

I've seen only those four as well. And I think Election is the most successful - sideways is alright and about schmidt is good (kathy bates lol yes) so I don't know if I can give any other recommendations.

I'm keen to catch his new one, nebraska. gotta love will forte in a dramatic role!

Frozen - double feature with Thor 2. Pretty disappointed, forgettable plot and music. Seemed more like those 2nd rate Dreamworks animated crap.

Thor Dark World - 2nd viewing, still way too many plot coincidences, and Portman is completely useless. If they do Thor 3, it should have nothing to do with Earth, I'm hoping for Beta Ray Bill.

Night Of The Creeps 8/10

Ghost In The Machine 6.5/10

8/10 Blue is the Warmest Colour (AKA The Girl with the Blue Hair)

Adele's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself, finds herself.

There were lots of things i got wrong about this film, for example i read that the director was 23 years old but he clearly isn't maybe it was the actress?

there were lots of strong performances in this film and i loved the realism. it seems impossible to encapsulate and entire relationship within the space of one film but it worked really well. you really got a sense of time and space and although there was quite a lot of sex it didn't seem gratuitous. it didn't seems 3 hrs long at all and i was engaged for the duration of the film. also it reminded me of a joke i wronte a while ago...

way too much love for chasing amy in this thread currently.

frances ha

i found a puzzle box on a recent trip to morocco. i brought it home with me, waiting until deep in the night to finally solve its riddle. the box eventually opened and horrific figures appeared. one of them, a pale man with pins in his head and nipple clamps, asked if i wanted to know true pain. then, from a pan dimensional gateway to hell, he produced the criterion collection blu-ray/dvd combo pack of frances ha.

oh come on it's not that bad. it's pretty bad but not that bad.

actually, maybe it is. but it's not as bad as funny ha ha

  On 12/2/2013 at 5:52 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

way too much love for chasing amy in this thread currently.

sorry about that

Encounters At The End Of The World 8.5/10

Serial Experiments Lain 9.5/10

Funny Ha Ha is terrible. Frances Ha is merely a boring film about boring people doing boring things.

I saw Parker. it was so weird. in a bad way. statham could save this dross

  On 12/3/2013 at 4:54 PM, Gocab said:

Funny Ha Ha is terrible. Frances Ha is merely a boring film about boring people doing boring things.

i was astonished by how bad it was. i literally couldn't watch it for more that 10 mins.

I loved the flow of the scenes, very consistent in emotion and acting. The characters are shallow and indicative of today's apathetic youngsters. I think that Noah Baumbach realizes this about our current narcissistic first world culture and this is his film about it. So by feeling bored by this film you are ultimately bored with your own life, unless you live out in the bush. None of you are special. We all die. Thank you Frances Ha for bringing it all home. This is one of the best black and white "digital" films I have ever seen. 8/10

Hi, Noah

Serp

i took it as an hour and a half long PSA about the horrors of new york and its inhabitants.

  On 12/3/2013 at 4:54 PM, Gocab said:

Funny Ha Ha is terrible. Frances Ha is merely a boring film about boring people hipsters doing boring things.

  On 12/4/2013 at 8:54 PM, Atop said:

I loved the flow of the scenes, very consistent in emotion and acting. The characters are shallow and indicative of today's apathetic youngsters. I think that Noah Baumbach realizes this about our current narcissistic first world culture and this is his film about it. So by feeling bored by this film you are ultimately bored with your own life, unless you live out in the bush. None of you are special. We all die. Thank you Frances Ha for bringing it all home. This is one of the best black and white "digital" films I have ever seen. 8/10

lolwut

the characters were repulsive twats without any conflict or anything of interest going on in their lives. if that's indicative of "today's apathetic youngsters" then i suggest you get out and meet more people. not everyone is a rich kid living in hipster enclaves in major us cities. baumbach has made a film whose subject is a listless white female who contributes nothing to society and lives a life without meaning or form. if this is meant to reflect the viewer's own listless existence then this is just lazy, bad writing. it's been done to death, over and over again, from baumbach's own kicking and screaming all the way to girls. and before that, how many movies were made about affluent white teens and twentysomethings finding themselves after boring themselves through to the other side of some kind of realization about life? why are these films still being made? it's not a reflection of anything but the director/writer's own creative bankruptcy, and i'll call out any audience that eats this shit up because they're fucking lazy and that's it. these kinds of films, books and television shows create a lie that states that people are apathetic and useless and that this is reality, and an audience buys into it because they believe the lie. it's the lowest form of art, it isn't entertaining, it isn't saying anything at all. it's like a teenager who can communicate that they feel angry, but they couldn't possibly tell you why.

  On 12/3/2013 at 11:35 AM, MadameChaos said:

 

 

 

 

Who are these cunts. Did you have an aneurysm ATOP?