Movies

Hey, we don't have a movies thread anymore. This is the movies thread.

I just got back from The Hateful Eight in 70mm and I really loved it! It wasn't really even a Tarantino film — that is to say, there's no clashing pastiche, no close-ups of feet, and it's chronological but for one flashback — it's just a classically-made Western and taut pressure-cooker mystery-thriller, but hard R and allowed to directly mention dicey social issues. A real model of restraint to convention, with fantastic results.

Its only quirk — and likewise its only flaw — was the existence of two narrated scenes, which both succumbed to a fatal case of Tell-Don't-Show and could have been elegantly directed around so seamlessly you wouldn't have even known it, because it would have been competence. Instead, you get two sore-thumb narrated scenes in the last half of the film that emerge from no perspective at all, emerge from nowhere at all since narration neither opens or closes the film, undermine the reality and mood of the film, and all in the service of naked script spackle.

I love me a good western, and despite the above this was one of the best I've ever seen — right up there with the likes of The Searchers and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. (Nowhere near as beautiful as those two, though. They didn't even really try. It's a writer's movie.)

(Whoops, I let the post sit in a tab for three hours and now the part where I said I just got back was a lie.)

I liked the post-intermission narration. I didn't think it was jarring, since it was literally right after the intermission, and I thought that its hit-you-over-the-head obviousness was intended, given the "and that's why this chapter is called ___" at the end. I found it funny and charming.

mind game is and forever will be the movie that made me less suicidal. it's just such a fun fucking time and really deep too. I'm at a loss of words to describe it in any way besides maybe "Wario Ware as an animated deal", or just "ADHD the movie.".

I'll let the trailer do itself justice cause I'm the literal worst at hyping people up!

I like Star Wars

I've been watching a ton of movies recently so I'll just offer up some thumbnail reactions to some in no particular order:

Big — Tom Hanks is always charming, but one has to wonder why the filmmakers thought the world wanted to see a grown woman get hot for a 13-year-old boy in a man's body.

A Fish Called Wanda — Fails to graduate from "light-hearted caper movie" to an outright farce comedy until after the first 45 minutes, when John Cleese is finally fully roped into the action.

Bonnie And Clyde [1967] — Apparently a big deal for... some reason. The graphic violence (that's not that graphic)? The bevy of soon-to-be-movie-stars? People say that it's like the French New Wave finally hitting Hollywood once and for all, but then, I've never understood what was so different and special about the actual films of the French New Wave (as opposed to their contribution to criticism.) Maybe you just had to be there.

Gun Crazy — Now if you wanna see a movie about two lovers who rob banks, this is the one you want to go for. It's just peppered with A+ directorial work from that era when everyone was a child of Citizen Kane: lots of crane push-ins, depth staging with big-ass heads in the front, high-contrast black-and-white, even a "hey look at me" long take. Check it out if you're in the mood for a good noir.

Wall Street — Okay. In the third act, the movie switches to long takes on hand-held camera, moving from one-shot to one-shot, which is effective for the more harrowed atmosphere. The opening sequence is frustratingly vague, just establishing shots of New York City, but somewhat redeems itself by bookending at the finish. I like the soundtrack, but then, I would, wouldn't I?

Putney Swope — A woozy experience front-to-back, one that deliberately evades any sort of categorization, but with some indelible moments and tics, like how people in scenes repeat themselves with the exact same inflection over and over to underline how banal everything is.

Solaris — Disappointing Tarkovsky. Like a mid-grade original Star Trek episode, really, and its best moment (the car ride) has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie.

Yojimbo — Great. Not much I can really think of to say about it past that right now, which shouldn't be taken as a condemnation.

Man With A Movie Camera — Fucking holy shit, so good. I have this version with an anachronistic acid jazz soundtrack that makes this hoary old silent film come positively alive, like how it and its innovative editing techniques must have been received Back In The Day I imagine. Check it out.

A Man Escaped — An extremely systematic and logical film, almost to the point of minimalism, about a prison break. Good.

Animal House — Wow, literally all the college movie cliches come from here, huh? Dad's right though: Caddyshack's funnier. (I like when they lead the marching band into a dead-end alleyway at the end.)

Persona [1966] — Really gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, and fairly accessible for being a pretentious low-stakes philo-psychodrama about postmodern ennui that begins with a montage of thrilling, surreal nonsense.

Hard Boiled — Yeah, John Woo's magnum opus alright (I say, having seen this and The Killers.) I think I like the Die Hard model of slow-building suspense to an explosive action conclusion more still, though.

Lost In Translation — I also like this soundtrack, and though usually I'm a deep focus guy, I really go for this movie's use of shallow focus because it's pretty on the multicolored city lights and emphasizes the isolation well. By far the most strikingly human of the movies in this post, in terms of how the characters behave and talk and think and how this is all embodied by the actors — it's like it's unstylized, even after it spends minutes mocking the inherent artificiality of acting.

Bicycle Thieves — Critics say this is a really, really great movie, but I honestly think they have just confused something being really serious for being good.

Donnie Darko — It's up its own ass with angst and bullshit, but for some reason that didn't grate on me like it should have? I just wanted to know where it was headed the whole time instead. I don't know, maybe it's just my love of time travel.

The Public Enemy — The opening and closing title cards claim that the movie is not out to glorify gangsterdom, but just like for Scarface I'm gonna have to call bullshit. It might end badly for our protagonist, but Tom looks cool and loves his mother and makes money and is even a little charming the whole way through. It's fascinating to watch the seed of a whole genre like this one is, too, having seen its many offspring: I can even pick up whiffs of Sonatine (the "hold up and wait it out here" part, followed immediately by an off-screen climactic shootout.) It's just a shame how many shots are flat-out out-of-focus, though.

Stuff i've watched recently; both actually quite similar? Both about women who have been trapped in bunkers.

10 Cloverfield Lane- Quite tense and kept that tension really well through the entire movie; when you though something was (relatively) safe or settled then something would upset it again without it ever feeling forced. Except for the one dying old lady, which came out of nowhere. Really enjoyable until the last 10-15 minutes, at which point you might as well get up and leave. :B

This one also really tripped my abused child alarms! It made me genuinely scared and uncomfortable, though not so much that i didn't enjoy the film. Just a heads up.

Room - I looked this one up because the kid apparently got a bunch of awards recently? It was really good too, though unlike 10 cloverfield lane the captor isn't in the room with them the entire time so its less immediately scary. This is angry child who doesn't understand vs severely depressed mother, and its a really good study in human psychology and similar which is super my jam. My only real complaint is that when they (spoilers??) escape, they do an interview and the reporter asks some hideously inappropriate questions about suicide and implies that the woman is a bad mother. I also found the kid's outbursts kind of annoying but they're not really out of character for a 5 year old. :v

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Panic room was also pretty good, from what little i remember of it

Thank you CHWOKA for doing Gods work and making a thread about movies. I've been watching some films by the *Coen Brothers and also that awful fucking movie with Scarlet Johanson, Lucy. Fuck that movie, it is pure steaming garbage.
*The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Hail Caesar! All 3 are great and are funny in the exact same order that I've typed them in. I'm sure I will appreciate Hail Caesar more if I give it a 2nd watch but first I'd need it to come out on DVD. Marge the protag from Fargo was probably the biggest strength of that film, she's a real charmer I tell ya h'what!

I watched Forrest Gump this evening for the very first time. I contemplated watching that new Strange Things film series or whatever but I don't think mom really appreciates horror all that much. So I just sort of shrugged and said ah fuck it. My stepfather joined us like halfway through the movie, around the time Gump started ping-pong and the Lieutenant lost his legs.
Edit: Oh and I watched Blood Simple and Raising Arizona by the Coen bros. Raising Arizona I'd highly recommend over Blood Simple in my honest opinion. I guess it was their very first movie.

I watched The Babadook with my friend the other day and the beginning was alright but it totally lost me by the end. Horror is generally a hit or miss for me. It was sort of psychological horror in an artsy kinda way but I think I found some parts more funny than scary and it took me out of it.

The art in the book she finds was real cool, though. Albeit never explained

I watched Forrest Gump this evening for the very first time. I contemplated watching that new Strange Things film series or whatever but I don't think mom really appreciates horror all that much. So I just sort of shrugged and said ah fuck it. My stepfather joined us like halfway through the movie, around the time Gump started ping-pong and the Lieutenant lost his legs.
Edit: Oh and I watched Blood Simple and Raising Arizona by the Coen bros. Raising Arizona I'd highly recommend over Blood Simple in my honest opinion. I guess it was their very first movie.

The next Coen bros' film I watched was Miller's Crossing which was kinda fun. It was more serious than RA and less serious then BS. Nice story, lots of horrifying mobster/gangster violence if that's your thing. Really great soundtrack, especially the opening theme:

Edit: I forgot to mention that Jon Polito was entertaining as hell. He contributed a lot of the funny (to me at least) moments in the film.

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Agree. And if you like it i would recommend playing Oxenfree.

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Spoiler
I had to post that.

If you were replying to one of my previous posts: I never said I don't enjoy horror (Stranger Things is definitely on my to-watch list). I love horrifying things and monsters, I wouldn't be the Bobert I am today if I didn't. I was just saying that it's not exactly me mam's cup of tea, so we wouldn't be able to watch it together. If you know of any good martial arts films though then by all means recommend away, my ma digs that shit a lot more than I do.

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Kung Fury was good. We actually watched it after watching Fargo, it was some funny shit. My favourite part was where Hitler killed some dipshit through a telephone.

Kung Pow is another great, ultra-dumb "martial arts" film. I'd recommend more legitimate stuff but as I said that's my ma's area of expertise.

Kung Pow was formative viewing for me as a kid

I really really wanna watch Hunt For The Wilderpeople but it's not practical for me to find a recent New Zealand film in Japan :(

It's also just not out in any legal fashion outside of theaters anywhere in the world until October apparently :x

Hunt for the Wilderpeople made me laugh so hard i cried. If anyone has the chance to see it PLEASE DO.

Kung Pow was formative viewing for me as a kid

I really really wanna watch Hunt For The Wilderpeople but it's not practical for me to find a recent New Zealand film in Japan :(

Same, you must have very good taste in cinema Schazer.

I one time had an opportunity to watch a whole bunch of Japanese films and then give them non-spoilery reviews but I blew it. So kind of the opposite of your situation, approximately since I live in Australia and not New Zealand.

I'll put the Wilderpeople on my to-watch list.

I recently bought the dvd for The Big Lebowski, now I can watch it infinitely without relying on Netflix. Those shams took it down. Denying people such a wonderful film.

I bought the Army of Darkness. It's gonna be hella of a watch.

Still have not watched Army of Darkness.

But I have watched The Cable Guy, some old Russian films, A Serious Man, Die Hard 1 and 2, National Lampoon Christmas Vacation, The Wild Hogs (it kind of sucked) and Redline. I tried to watch Hot Fuzz on Netflix but got interrupted a few times so I had to put it off.

I'm bringing this back because I just watched an excellent movie that fucked me right up, and I wanted to share.

The movie's name is "The Girl With All The Gifts", and it's a tragedy where a fungal epidemic causes a 'zombie apocalypse'. It revolves around a special girl who is a zombie but maintains her human intelligence.

I don't really want to give anything away more than that, but let me add that it is distinct from the typical zombie apocalypse movie (and made me cry at the end ).

Fellas, should I watch the GoodFellas movie?