Films Recently Watched

Gränz / Border was wicked. One of the best movies of the last couple of years, I think.

Fantasy Island - what a mess, still entertaining if you have popcorn...

Aniara - (2nd viewing) psychedelics, AI, cults, space travel, colonization, aliens, you name it, how come you mix all of this and still make a pretty bland movie i don't even...

Martha Marcy May Marlene - didn't give 2 cents about it on a first viewing but actually it's a pretty good movie... love the photography, looks like old polaroids with blacks full of brightness, gama, whatever...

The Nightingale - thought this was gonna be way more straightforward vengeance movie but ended up dragging and dragging with no purpose whatsoever... still pretty good cinematography...

Upgrade - was too stoned the first time i watched... mega movie, is this low-budget? looks awesome...

Tau - been re-watching sci-fi movies which i don't remember watching, and makes sense i didn't remember shit about this one cause it's terrible, the vfx looked like i was watching robocop 2... everything made of cardboard mixed with sfx to make it look real...

Pandorum - another one to add to the pile of shit list, predators vs humans in a space-ship...

The Signal - critics say it's shit cause it steals a lot but i didn't hate it, it's cheesy and childish but kept me entertained... still don't understand one thing about movie making, everybody praise this guy for his special-fx but there's an entire team beyond it that make it possible... it's not just this movie, i don't get it...

Mute - another mess, neo-noir they call it... neither paul rudd and justin theroux cool acting could save this shitstorm...

THIS IS THE MOVIE !!!

  On 6/9/2020 at 10:02 PM, zero said:

Keanu looks like he's struggling a little bit there to get back into character...hope there's enough Ted-ness left in him to pull it off.

I bet it was a real challenge for him. Basically, his whole pst-bill-and-ted career was a conscious effort to redefine himself as very specifically "not ted".

He had to kill ted and bury him so deep in his mind that he probably had quite a hard time bringing him back. 

I'm very curious how this will go tho. I saw Bogus Journey for the first time in 25 years or so and felt it definitely did not hold up.

Part of me wishes the new plot would be that Bill and Ted of the present were conservative businessmen that lost their way needed to somehow get back to heavy metal altruism.

  On 6/4/2020 at 11:47 PM, brian trageskin said:

i tried to watch parasite but had to stop 2/3 into it, got bored. for some reason i thought it was gonna be a horror movie so i was disappointed. and didn't care how things would unfold + i'm not 15 anymore, if i wanna see an anime i just, you know, watch an actual anime

the film is very explicitly designed to play with your expectations so without spoiling too much ill just say you need to finish it before passing judgement.

  On 6/14/2020 at 8:06 AM, markedone said:

the film is very explicitly designed to play with your expectations so without spoiling too much ill just say you need to finish it before passing judgement.

i just read the rest of the script on wikipedia. yeah i stand by my opinion, it just doesn't do it for me. the film is very well crafted but the plot is so far-fetched i can't take it seriously. great for an anime but borderline cringe for a film, to me 

and the oh-so-clever social metaphor, i'm sorry but no. this isn't deep. zoolander makes a deeper statement than this and it wasn't even trying to be clever or subtle. imo

brilliant.

10/10

  On 6/14/2020 at 2:01 AM, Tim_J said:

Upgrade - was too stoned the first time i watched... mega movie, is this low-budget? looks awesome...

This movie rules

  On 6/14/2020 at 3:25 PM, brian trageskin said:

this isn't deep. 

 

Nope, but it's a lot of fun. Fun beats deep every time.

  On 6/14/2020 at 5:21 PM, Nebraska said:

brilliant.

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watched this ages ago and it left a very unnerving feeling again. revisited again last night and i can say: the story is now clear to me. 

10/10

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Love love love this movie. Also the only film where Pasolini didn’t use Tonino Delli Colli as his DoP. Interesting contrast.

  On 6/15/2020 at 2:43 PM, rhmilo said:

Nope, but it's a lot of fun. Fun beats deep every time.

fun is great but this just wasn't my cup of tea. i'm more of a zoolander/the other guys guy

  On 6/15/2020 at 4:36 PM, brian trageskin said:

fun is great but this just wasn't my cup of tea. i'm more of a zoolander/the other guys guy

Yeah, that’s fair.

It has a bit of an over the top quality to it that I personally happen to like, but I can see why it would put people off. And then you’re just left with something that’s not particularly deep or interesting, agreed.

life-shatteringly awesome.

this is a film that needs to be experienced to be understood, and felt. heady stuff

I saw last night that BlacKkKlansman but saw it was about to be dropped from HBO so I finally watched it. Goddamn that was powerful. I had heard about the ending but it still left me stunned.

  On 6/15/2020 at 5:37 PM, Nebraska said:

life-shatteringly awesome.

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stalker is about a guy who takes people into the zone- an area that has been affected by "something like a meteorite". the zone changes, paths alter. once inside the zone, one cannot go back the way one came. beyond this area is the room where any request will be granted. at the crux of this reward is the question of how well humanity knows itself. a previous stalker was granted millions when his request for his brother's life to saved was deemed to not be his true self-fish intention. as a result, he killed himself. a writer, a professor and a stalker go into the zone to seek their own fortune.

this is a film that needs to be experienced to be understood, and felt. heady stuff

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My current job has taken any free time away, except for getting to smoke and read a bit before falling asleep. I am currently reading Voices from Chernobyl. Everyone refers to the "Zone" around Chernobyl. At the same time, the word choice obviously came from Stalker. Then to go deeper, and realize that when these people use the term "Zone" to describe the Chernobyl fallout, they're not just referring to the exclusion aspect, but several attributed the same magical qualities as found in the book/film.

Curious for your thoughts on the ending.

  On 6/15/2020 at 5:31 PM, rhmilo said:

Yeah, that’s fair.

It has a bit of an over the top quality to it that I personally happen to like, but I can see why it would put people off. And then you’re just left with something that’s not particularly deep or interesting, agreed.

What movie are you guys talking about?

  On 6/15/2020 at 5:47 PM, joshuatxuk said:

I saw last night that BlacKkKlansman but saw it was about to be dropped from HBO so I finally watched it. Goddamn that was powerful. I had heard about the ending but it still left me stunned.

man, same.  the story carried me along nicely but then wasnt expecting that gut punch putting everything into context.. really powerful

@Gocab Parasite

  On 6/15/2020 at 6:00 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Curious for your thoughts on the ending.

  On 6/15/2020 at 6:23 PM, Nebraska said:

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i believe the ending is a warning about our rapid advancement in industry and technology. the stalker's sojourns into the zone have left his daughter a mutant. his wife tells him her marriage has been joyless and had she known this was her future, she would have chosen a different husband. the stalker too is left unfulfilled- like an automation in bed. 

the impending sound of the train that shakes the entire house is the rapid movement into a more technologically advanced, yet soulless future. the fallout from all this advancement doesn't give us exactly what we want and even that comes with a caveat.

 

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  On 6/15/2020 at 6:47 PM, Taupe Beats said:

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I agree with much of this reading. It's obvious there is no joy within that family upon the Stalker's return (or before his departure, for that matter). The daughter's condition being a byproduct of her father (not to mention she's called "Monkey", implying a potential lab experiment). 

I've had similar thoughts regarding the train in the final shot. With that said, I'd argue that reading implies a certain impulsiveness on Tarkovsky's part. To include Ode to Joy in the dissonance of the moment is very much in line with Tarkovsky's insistence on mystical elements that tie nature to the human spirit and its output. Ode to Joy acts as a rebuttal to a separate/conflicting striving from humanity (progress/technology). Admittedly, this thread in all of Tarkovsky's films (save for Andrei Rublev and Mirror) has always left me a bit cold. It does here, too. 

I guess it could be expanded to the moving glasses on the table. The glasses are a reflection of this chaos and conflict surrounding this girl and the world she lives in. But she seems to learn control after a glass breaks...

 

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  On 6/15/2020 at 6:00 PM, Taupe Beats said:

My current job has taken any free time away, except for getting to smoke and read a bit before falling asleep. I am currently reading Voices from Chernobyl. Everyone refers to the "Zone" around Chernobyl. At the same time, the word choice obviously came from Stalker. Then to go deeper, and realize that when these people use the term "Zone" to describe the Chernobyl fallout, they're not just referring to the exclusion aspect, but several attributed the same magical qualities as found in the book/film.

Curious for your thoughts on the ending.

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That's interesting; are you sure they use the term in the Tarkowskyan sense and not just as a more general term for "exclusion zone" or "fallout zone"?

In any case, it really is one of the best movies ever made. If you haven't already, please also read the aptly titled Zona by the ever brilliant Geoff Dyer for an in-depth, almost frame-by-frame analysis.

  On 6/15/2020 at 9:06 PM, IDEM said:

That's interesting; are you sure they use the term in the Tarkowskyan sense and not just as a more general term for "exclusion zone" or "fallout zone"?

There are definitely times where the term "zone" is used w/o any reference to Tarkovsky. But there are other times when it's obvious that it's used with double-meaning (either by the word "Zone" being capitalized, contextual usage, and once even the Strugatsky brothers being directly referenced).

I still need to read that book by Geoff Dyer. Been meaning to, thanks for the reminder!

Killing of America. 1981

Not much has changed. Less crazy serial killers I guess. 

  On 6/15/2020 at 5:47 PM, joshuatxuk said:

I saw last night that BlacKkKlansman but saw it was about to be dropped from HBO so I finally watched it. Goddamn that was powerful. I had heard about the ending but it still left me stunned.

I was getting a bit tired of movies like this, but ended up thinking it was Spike Lee’s best movie in a long time. Topher Grace as David Duke was so dank. 

  On 6/15/2020 at 3:23 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Love love love this movie. Also the only film where Pasolini didn’t use Tonino Delli Colli as his DoP. Interesting contrast.

  On 6/15/2020 at 5:37 PM, Nebraska said:

life-shatteringly awesome.

  Reveal hidden contents

stalker is about a guy who takes people into the zone- an area that has been affected by "something like a meteorite". the zone changes, paths alter. once inside the zone, one cannot go back the way one came. beyond this area is the room where any request will be granted. at the crux of this reward is the question of how well humanity knows itself. a previous stalker was granted millions when his request for his brother's life to saved was deemed to not be his true self-fish intention. as a result, he killed himself. a writer, a professor and a stalker go into the zone to seek their own fortune.

this is a film that needs to be experienced to be understood, and felt. heady stuff

Expand  

The Wrong Missy - dumb stoner comedy with some lols, Lauren Lapkus is pretty much a female Jim Carrey.  I am getting tired of seeing Sandler's wife in all of his movies though.  That ship sailed wth Judd Apatow and Rob Zombie.