Films Recently Watched

  On 5/6/2019 at 12:31 PM, sunshine recorder said:

high life - enjoyed this a lot,reading reviews beforehand,it was nowhere near as arty/surreal as people where implying,but i thought it was a cool,obviously low budget,well acted/directed,interesting sci-fi movie with a nice soundtrack - juliette binoche is great in it - 8/10

I did not know what to make of it tbh. Some strong Tarkovsky feelings - particularly the flashback stuff. 

I got lucky that Austin's showing this. Saw the first portion of Wang Bing's "Dead Souls" last week, catching the rest in weekly installments. So far, it's a masterpiece (I doubt the rest will change that status), and a necessary document about a piece of history woefully unknown. Not an easy watch by any means, but certainly a rewarding one.

Specifically, this film deals with the internment of "rightists" at the Jiabiangou and Mingshui labor camps in Northwestern China in the late 50's. Comparable to Lanzmann's "Shoah", or books such as Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" series or Dostoevsky's "The House of the Dead".

Vagabond is a really great film; its on mubi right now along as part of their Agnes Varda retrospective.  As with her documentary shorts, Varda was masterful at pacing and creating a compelling narrative from a realistic subject.

Also, even though they are  different, the format of this film must have influenced Twin Peaks..

  On 5/6/2019 at 8:18 PM, markedone said:

Vagabond is a really great film; its on mubi right now along as part of their Agnes Varda retrospective.  As with her documentary shorts, Varda was masterful at pacing and creating a compelling narrative from a realistic subject.

Also, even though they are  different, the format of this film must have influenced Twin Peaks..

Agreed. The "wine dregs" festival is a real thing and a lot of that scene wasn't acting. Supposedly Sandrine Bonnaire was terrified. 

I always liked the structure of the film, with the tracking shots as a narrative framing device. Varda always had a knack for creative and interesting framing devices (time markers in Cleo from 5 to 7, color markers in La Bonheur, etc.).

  On 5/6/2019 at 12:31 PM, sunshine recorder said:

high life - enjoyed this a lot,reading reviews beforehand,it was nowhere near as arty/surreal as people where implying,but i thought it was a cool,obviously low budget,well acted/directed,interesting sci-fi movie with a nice soundtrack - juliette binoche is great in it - 8/10

  On 5/6/2019 at 12:53 PM, MadellisTheSixth said:

huh.. I skipped out on this completely I think because I saw the twilight guy. gotta check my subconscious bias'. Juliette Binoche is maybe my favourite actress, didn't realise she was in it.

  On 5/6/2019 at 7:47 PM, Crossword Enthusiast said:

I did not know what to make of it tbh. Some strong Tarkovsky feelings - particularly the flashback stuff. 

guys the twilight guy is a pretty good actor, i love him since he did cronenberg's cosmopolis, besides everybody hating that movie... he's pretty great! and then he did that end of the world movie and the psychedelic one with his retarded brother, he's solid... give him a chance...

wow this was really good. damiano was a master of adult cinema and this is one of those films that cemented his position as a true auteur.

the film is broken up into six vignettes that showcase different couple's relationships in all their tawdry details.

i'd go into more details but let's just say there's too much action and anything would pretty much be a spoiler.

9.5/10

should we just start a porn review thread for nebraska

There was a yogurt-weaving hippy rumour, many many moons ago, about a lady with a clit, in her throat.

Seems anatomically spurious.

Doctor Strange. After being annoyed in ever decreasing circles since pressing play, I decided to calmly switch it off after 25 minutes. In an ideal world I would off loved to put a pick axe spike savagely through the screen while making a deep animal bellow.

Then decided to watch Platoon, a favourite film of mine when it was released, and don't think I've watched since then. Still a classic, and was quite impressed how it held up all these years later (though that maybe due to nostalgic rose tinted glasses?)

More majestic Neil Breen at the Cinema. This time Fateful Findings

high life - a pretensions, uninspired and meandering mess about cum doctors in space and bad rapey people. too many useless, naturalist shots of a baby, too many annoying art house mannerisms that suck all energy out of the film, and non-human, hollow dialogue.

  On 5/8/2019 at 4:51 AM, Nebraska said:

wow this was really good. damiano was a master of adult cinema and this is one of those films that cemented his position as a true auteur.

the film is broken up into six vignettes that showcase different couple's relationships in all their tawdry details.

i'd go into more details but let's just say there's too much action and anything would pretty much be a spoiler.

9.5/10

 

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Looks very interesting. Might watch tomorrow. Thanks for the recommendation

  On 5/11/2019 at 9:35 PM, eugene said:

high life - a pretensions, uninspired and meandering mess about cum doctors in space and bad rapey people. too many useless, naturalist shots of a baby, too many annoying art house mannerisms that suck all energy out of the film, and non-human, hollow dialogue.

High life has now leaked and is available to download from your favourite torrent site.

  On 5/12/2019 at 11:05 PM, tec said:

High life has now leaked and is available to download from your favourite torrent site.

eugene got late on this, it leaked ages ago...

  On 5/6/2019 at 3:08 AM, Nebraska said:

wow- i cannot believe they fucked this up as much as they did but it's almost like netflix is on a mission to make the shittiest films possible. 

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I think Netflix bought it at the last minute after it was already made because the studio realized it wasn't going to get a wide theatrical release. Still tho. 

Vaguely lite-spoilers ahead - 

They really should have focused more on the time before he was first caught and not so much on the trials. A lot of the trial stuff exists in real life footage anyway, so it seems kind of pointless. I get that they were trying to show the way that Bundy charmed people, both in his personal life and public/legal persona, but it could have worked much better if it wasn't jumping through the timeline so fast. If you don't have a pre-knowledge of the whole thing, it probably plays like a highlight reel with no coherent narrative. Done well, it could have really pulled the rug under the viewer if it played up the terrible contrast between the acts he committed and the wholesome-ish guy he pretended to be. Part of that would include showing some things that a movie with this kind of cast probably never would. 

I thought the ending redeemed it a little. And I think Effron and most of the cast did a decent-good job with what they had. But wtf John Malkovich? He didn't even try to do a southern accent. Just John Malkovich playing John Malkovich judge, not at all like the one in the real life trial.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Well, it was made well I guess. I enjoyed watching it. But quite forgetable. It also drives me mad how in all musical biopics managers and industry people always smile and respect egomaniacal demands and visions of young musicians like it proves them genius. I work in the music industry and in reality all these bigger-than-thou musicians would be put down quite quickly. Like in the scene where they (still nobodies) meet a big manager and he offers them his support. "What can you give us?" they say. "Maybe I can get you a tour in China," he says or something like that. "We want more," says Mercury. The managers smirks like holy-fuck-you-just-said-what-I-wanted-to-hear. NOPE. In reality he would get up and walk the fuck off, because these kind of statements indicate a lot of problems down the road.

The Death Of Stalin

Wow, I didn't know Armando Iannucci directed this beforehand, but I guessed it while watching it. Nobody does satire better than him. Hilarious and important. No wonder it's banned in Russia.

death of stalin was kind of annoying. which makes me sad because i obviously love (most) Iannucci. (veep is super overrated) Like it was sorta funny, I guess - but there Beria is raping young women in prison. I understand the accuracy in that, but it doesn't need to be shown in a "farce" about a power struggle. I generally thought the casting was poor. Tambor was terrible - had no idea how to play it. jason isaacs and paul chahidi were the best. i dunno it kinda fell flat for me. there could be an equally funny comedy about post-watergate.

  On 5/13/2019 at 11:31 AM, Dpek said:

Bohemian Rhapsody

Well, it was made well I guess. I enjoyed watching it. But quite forgetable. It also drives me mad how in all musical biopics managers and industry people always smile and respect egomaniacal demands and visions of young musicians like it proves them genius. I work in the music industry and in reality all these bigger-than-thou musicians would be put down quite quickly. Like in the scene where they (still nobodies) meet a big manager and he offers them his support. "What can you give us?" they say. "Maybe I can get you a tour in China," he says or something like that. "We want more," says Mercury. The managers smirks like holy-fuck-you-just-said-what-I-wanted-to-hear. NOPE. In reality he would get up and walk the fuck off, because these kind of statements indicate a lot of problems down the road.

The Death Of Stalin

Wow, I didn't know Armando Iannucci directed this beforehand, but I guessed it while watching it. Nobody does satire better than him. Hilarious and important. No wonder it's banned in Russia.

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I thought it was funny Bohemian Rhapsody won alll those awards, but everyone acted like Bryan Singer doesn't exist.

Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092546/

beaut ozi surfie movie set in 1970s & vivid adaption of the tim winton novel of the same name. 8/10

Found a stash of shit horror DVDs at work while doing the night shift. First three SAW films, Wrong Turn, that kinda thing.

There was a trailer for Jeepers Creepers II on the Wrong Turn DVD and I didn't realise it was some goofy thing with Ray Wise in it. I'm so watching that asap.

  On 5/13/2019 at 3:08 PM, dr lopez said:

death of stalin was kind of annoying. which makes me sad because i obviously love (most) Iannucci. (veep is super overrated) Like it was sorta funny, I guess - but there Beria is raping young women in prison. I understand the accuracy in that, but it doesn't need to be shown in a "farce" about a power struggle. I generally thought the casting was poor. Tambor was terrible - had no idea how to play it. jason isaacs and paul chahidi were the best. i dunno it kinda fell flat for me. there could be an equally funny comedy about post-watergate.

right there with you. i turned it off after 10 minutes despite loving armando. the film was just kinda pissing me off and annoying me.

I can see myself watching The Death of Stalin periodically for the rest of my life. I love it.