Films Recently Watched

interesting documentary; although it feels so impersonal with so many voices and not a hint as to who they are. the restoration work though is pretty mind-boggling but it's basically looking at world war 1 footage with people telling you what happened to them one time and another guy chiming in with his own story. then another. for an hour thirty minutes

I watched Primer for the first time in a while. It holds up. I noticed the dialogue a lot more this time. It's all colleague shorthand. Not finishing sentences. Like how some technologists I work with talk with each other.

yeah I've seen Primer 20+ times since it came out and it only gets better

I’m not hearing enough praise for Burning in this thread.

I live in a tiny seaside town but it does have a cinema so I go when I can and as they had the Oscar Best Film winner - "Green Book".. I went along

Christ what a saccharine-washed feel-good cliche-ridden load of shit......Oscar my ass! 

Now the Favorite - THAT was a film! 10/10!  

Was very surprised to hear about the Favorite winning an Oscar.

Usually that only happens to "saccharine-washed feel-good cliche-ridden load of shit".

  On 3/1/2019 at 8:08 AM, rhmilo said:

Was very surprised to hear about the Favorite winning an Oscar.

 

Usually that only happens to "saccharine-washed feel-good cliche-ridden load of shit".

  On 2/25/2019 at 5:03 AM, Nebraska said:

 

 

interesting documentary; although it feels so impersonal with so many voices and not a hint as to who they are. the restoration work though is pretty mind-boggling but it's basically looking at world war 1 footage with people telling you what happened to them one time and another guy chiming in with his own story. then another. for an hour thirty minutes

Kind of a bummer, I suppose they ended concluding the footage alone was worth a watch and kind of bungled the narration / interviews part. The old 70s era WW2 in color doc is a classic and has no interviews in it, narration only, but it works in being that straightforward. Otherwise seeing the actual people talking adds a dimension to it. Vietnam in HD and numerous other WW2 docs have done this, and if the person is no longer alive they would still show a name and/or picture to it. Haven't seen the Burns doc yet but I heard it's similar. That coupled with the raw and visceral found footage is quite effective.

WWI is a conflict I'm not as informed about so I still want to check it out

the narration isn't bungled at all, it's just woven between fragments of interviews with different people in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way which works well on a personal, conversational level. I don't get Nebraska's take. it's completely worth seeing.

  On 3/2/2019 at 12:15 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 2/25/2019 at 5:03 AM, Nebraska said:

 

 

interesting documentary; although it feels so impersonal with so many voices and not a hint as to who they are. the restoration work though is pretty mind-boggling but it's basically looking at world war 1 footage with people telling you what happened to them one time and another guy chiming in with his own story. then another. for an hour thirty minutes

 

 

WWI is a conflict I'm not as informed about so I still want to check it out

 

me too: which is why i watched it. i'm very intrigued by WW2 but i'm absolutely clueless about WW1. 

i'm really curious about your assessment of the film- and anyone else. 

  On 2/26/2019 at 7:39 PM, Squee said:

I’m not hearing enough praise for Burning in this thread.

thought it's another one of those over the top korean crime thrillers with stupid twists that you like. turns out it's a pretty good polanski-feeling mystery that is fueled by contemporary social issues and youth's modern despair rather than mystery for its own sake/entertainment. solid stuff.

  On 3/2/2019 at 5:12 PM, eugene said:

 

  On 2/26/2019 at 7:39 PM, Squee said:

I’m not hearing enough praise for Burning in this thread.

thought it's another one of those over the top korean crime thrillers with stupid twists that you like. turns out it's a pretty good polanski-feeling mystery that is fueled by contemporary social issues and youth's modern despair rather than mystery for its own sake/entertainment. solid stuff.

 

kim ki duk lite

lol satanists are the best

  On 3/1/2019 at 5:01 PM, Rubin Farr said:

 

  On 3/1/2019 at 8:08 AM, rhmilo said:

Was very surprised to hear about the Favorite winning an Oscar.

 

Usually that only happens to "saccharine-washed feel-good cliche-ridden load of shit".

 

Myers seems underappreciated, this is dead on as a skit.

I'm not shocked Green Book won, it's the perfect cop out from the old liberals who have the voting block at the Oscars - i.e. let's avoid a bombastic and/or visceral film about racism in America, let's snub Netflix films (Roma), let's avoid revisiting the W and Cheney mess, etc. Oh and we can say this was a statement over the other safer picks about musicians. ITS PERFECT! 

It's pathetic white savior films are still so goddamn consistent in accolades and popularity - they serve as token "I'm not racist" fodder for right-winger baby boomers who frequent theaters and casual liberals alike. They often are well made and sincere films but the time and place for them is over. Real courage would be to snub them over far more provocative films. Nazis are literally coming out and civil rights laws from the 60s are being attacked relentlessly in red states and via the executive branch. 

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2019/01/experts-predict-black-panther-and-blackkklansman-will-lose-best-picture-to-the-one-about-a-white-guy-who-had-a-black-friend-once/

  On 3/2/2019 at 5:03 PM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 3/2/2019 at 12:15 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 2/25/2019 at 5:03 AM, Nebraska said:

 

 

interesting documentary; although it feels so impersonal with so many voices and not a hint as to who they are. the restoration work though is pretty mind-boggling but it's basically looking at world war 1 footage with people telling you what happened to them one time and another guy chiming in with his own story. then another. for an hour thirty minutes

 

 

WWI is a conflict I'm not as informed about so I still want to check it out

 

 

me too: which is why i watched it. i'm very intrigued by WW2 but i'm absolutely clueless about WW1. 

 

i'm really curious about your assessment of the film- and anyone else. 

 

Hell, I might as well as Ken Burns Civil War doc on my list too. I've been into WW2 since I was a kid because my gateway was an interest in aircraft and that war is more modern than the others in that regard. They are just as significant historically of course. WW2 was more destructive (incredibly) than WW1 and yet I find WW1 far more depressing - the slaughter at the Western Front, the ushering of the Russian civil war, turmoil of Spanish Civil War and brewings of facism, the foundations of 20th century instability in the Near East, etc. Not to mention the end of whatever vestiges of "chivalry" war once had for mechanized carnage. Crimea, the US civil war, and various colonial-oriented bloodbaths previewed it but it was a watershed even for Europe. I suppose I just can't casually read about the way I jump into niche or specific aspects of other 20th century conflicts.

The Civil War is sublime, easily one of the most well-made & thorough docs. There's so much included & yet it never feels compressed or remote. Ken Burns does something magical with portrait photos that lifts the people involved into your here & now & Jackson achieves the same, just with different film techniques. One is an epic, the other a short, poignant burst of ghosts. I'd have much rather seen these at school, than have some droll joyless cunt drone on about the unification of Italy & the Second Reform Act.

Some early childhood revisits.

The Wizard of Oz

4.5/10

Return to Oz

9/10

Return to Oz was the very first film I ever saw (around 3yo), never saw it again, thought it was a dream I had until I came across this film's synopsis and stills in my late teen years. Remember seeing Wizard of Oz a few times in the 90s as a kid (without making the connection). First revisit of both since then.

Wizard of Oz turns out to be purely for the tots (ala The Land Before Time), more torturous to anyone beyond single digits. not fit to serve as toilet paper for Murch's Return to Oz, a truly great film which mostly stands up incredibly well. I can't think of a more grossly unjust case of comparative franchise film legacies.

  On 3/2/2019 at 6:26 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 3/1/2019 at 5:01 PM, Rubin Farr said:

 

  On 3/1/2019 at 8:08 AM, rhmilo said:

Was very surprised to hear about the Favorite winning an Oscar.

 

Usually that only happens to "saccharine-washed feel-good cliche-ridden load of shit".

 

Myers seems underappreciated, this is dead on as a skit.

 

I'm not shocked Green Book won, it's the perfect cop out from the old liberals who have the voting block at the Oscars - i.e. let's avoid a bombastic and/or visceral film about racism in America, let's snub Netflix films (Roma), let's avoid revisiting the W and Cheney mess, etc. Oh and we can say this was a statement over the other safer picks about musicians. ITS PERFECT! 

 

It's pathetic white savior films are still so goddamn consistent in accolades and popularity - they serve as token "I'm not racist" fodder for right-winger baby boomers who frequent theaters and casual liberals alike. They often are well made and sincere films but the time and place for them is over. Real courage would be to snub them over far more provocative films. Nazis are literally coming out and civil rights laws from the 60s are being attacked relentlessly in red states and via the executive branch. 

 

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2019/01/experts-predict-black-panther-and-blackkklansman-will-lose-best-picture-to-the-one-about-a-white-guy-who-had-a-black-friend-once/

 

for what it's worth.. i saw blackkklansman and thought it was pretty trash.

nothing in the film made any damn sense. 

the characters felt over simplistic in a way that felt cartoon-y and detached from reality. 

... it felt cheap. like, it's going to be impossible to criticise or say the movie is bad when it has such a strong, socially positive message.

i don't think the film was *snubbed* at all, i think it was just a sloppily written, shitty feel good movie for socially conscious people.. 

.... IMO ****

  On 3/3/2019 at 4:33 AM, Roo said:

Some early childhood revisits.

 

The Wizard of Oz

4.5/10

 

Return to Oz

9/10

 

Return to Oz was the very first film I ever saw (around 3yo), never saw it again, thought it was a dream I had until I came across this film's synopsis and stills in my late teen years. Remember seeing Wizard of Oz a few times in the 90s as a kid (without making the connection). First revisit of both since then.

 

Wizard of Oz turns out to be purely for the tots (ala The Land Before Time), more torturous to anyone beyond single digits. not fit to serve as toilet paper for Murch's Return to Oz, a truly great film which mostly stands up incredibly well. I can't think of a more grossly unjust case of comparative franchise film legacies.

A* post. I’ve always thought this, but I believe its time will come.

Fucking watched Independence Day: Resurgence

Lacked entertainment, humour and excitement. Was an awful pastiche of throw backs to the first film whilst missing everything that was fun about it.

Too much dense seizure inducing CGI, not enough lols.

Even Jeff Goldblum had zero good lines of dialogue and just had to look mildly concerned at the peril.

Shite/10

It was beyond SyFy Channel shit.

Loving Vincent. About Vincent Van Gogh's last days and death from the perspective of his postman/friend's son. Every frame is a painting. I was able to get into it as a film more than I thought I would, not just being wooed by the spectacular presentation (which is something to behold) The sense of melancholy and wonder that Van Gogh is often associated with came through nicely. Though it walked the line veering close to the maudlin, it didn't cross over into it for me at least. Actually found it quite moving.

At Eternity's Gate was great also. I like Willem Dafoe in anything. also Mads Mikkelsen.

Finally watched Bladerunner 2049 again since it was in theaters. I thought it was okay when I saw it in theaters and was kinda bored at times but I enjoyed it way more this time. I think it will end up being a classic alongside the original if not even more classic-y.