A movie/TV thread on a knife-nut forum? Why not? How about we share what films/tv we've been watching lately. I'll get us started with some stuff I've been watching and some brief write-ups (when I feel like it). All films are rated out of 4 stars.
-The Critic (1994-1995): Let's see: two Simpsons writers/producers+John Lovitz as a film critic+Alf Clauson's hilariously knowing musical homages to movie genres+film buff references galore=comedy gold. I can kinda see why this bombed (how many people get Berlin Alexanderplatz and Eraserhead jokes?) but damn it was special. Choice bit: the poster for "Bob and Carol and Beavis and Butthead." Bliss.
-Tokyo Story (1953) ****: I've never cried this much during a movie. You'll be going along just fine and then a scene hits you like mustard gas. So nuanced, so sensitive is Ozu's storytelling that a single shot can dismantle you. Untouchable.
-T-Men (1947) ***: Tough no-nonsense noir, all enrobed in John Altman's painstaking black and white. Plus this pre-AIRPLANE bit of unintentional hilarity: "Did you ever spend ten nights in the Turkish baths looking for a man?" See it!
-Sonatine (1998) ***: Jarring, entrancing and totally subversive "gangster" film is a singular achievement. Basically plotless, it goes from one disarming vignette to the next, pulling you in deeper. Beautifully evocative of Okinawa and its billowing beachiness. And remember, "indecent exposure is fun."
-The Last Detail (1974): ***1/2. This made me a believer in Jack Nicholson. It's a film very much of its time, but Jack's on-the-sly humanity makes it timeless. Many unassuming, lovely moments here.
-The Desperate Hours (1955): **
-Moonlight (2016): ***1/2
-Mildred Pierce (1946): ***1/2
-All about Eve (1950): ***
-Man with a Movie Camera (1929): ****
-Coming To America (1988): *** John Amos nearly walks away with this flick. Tell me I'm wrong.
-In a Year with 13 Moons (re-watch) (1978) ****: When it comes to bone-deep insights that haunt you for goddamn weeks, nobody does it like the Germans. Fassbinder spares nothing -- and I mean nothing -- to convince us how hard some people have it (and let themselves have it). The sheer hell of bottomless emptiness and blindness to one's authentic self are but two of Fassbinder's hard-boiled preoccupations. It's ugly and destructive and amounts to a psychological mudslide, but it's put on the screen with the precision of laser-cut steel. Viewing the film as Fassbinder's Francis Bacon-like attempt of relieving himself of his lover's suicide through art, the film transforms into one of the Everests of artistic catharsis. NOTE: On this third viewing of the film, I noticed a nun clutching a book of Schopenhauer. This flick comes HARD, son.
-Paterson (2017): **
-Dekalog ep. 1 (1988): **
-Dekalog ep. 2 (1988): ***
-Tyrannosaur (2011): ***
-Au Hasard Balthazar (1966): ***1/2
-The Critic (1994-1995): Let's see: two Simpsons writers/producers+John Lovitz as a film critic+Alf Clauson's hilariously knowing musical homages to movie genres+film buff references galore=comedy gold. I can kinda see why this bombed (how many people get Berlin Alexanderplatz and Eraserhead jokes?) but damn it was special. Choice bit: the poster for "Bob and Carol and Beavis and Butthead." Bliss.
-Tokyo Story (1953) ****: I've never cried this much during a movie. You'll be going along just fine and then a scene hits you like mustard gas. So nuanced, so sensitive is Ozu's storytelling that a single shot can dismantle you. Untouchable.
-T-Men (1947) ***: Tough no-nonsense noir, all enrobed in John Altman's painstaking black and white. Plus this pre-AIRPLANE bit of unintentional hilarity: "Did you ever spend ten nights in the Turkish baths looking for a man?" See it!
-Sonatine (1998) ***: Jarring, entrancing and totally subversive "gangster" film is a singular achievement. Basically plotless, it goes from one disarming vignette to the next, pulling you in deeper. Beautifully evocative of Okinawa and its billowing beachiness. And remember, "indecent exposure is fun."
-The Last Detail (1974): ***1/2. This made me a believer in Jack Nicholson. It's a film very much of its time, but Jack's on-the-sly humanity makes it timeless. Many unassuming, lovely moments here.
-The Desperate Hours (1955): **
-Moonlight (2016): ***1/2
-Mildred Pierce (1946): ***1/2
-All about Eve (1950): ***
-Man with a Movie Camera (1929): ****
-Coming To America (1988): *** John Amos nearly walks away with this flick. Tell me I'm wrong.
-In a Year with 13 Moons (re-watch) (1978) ****: When it comes to bone-deep insights that haunt you for goddamn weeks, nobody does it like the Germans. Fassbinder spares nothing -- and I mean nothing -- to convince us how hard some people have it (and let themselves have it). The sheer hell of bottomless emptiness and blindness to one's authentic self are but two of Fassbinder's hard-boiled preoccupations. It's ugly and destructive and amounts to a psychological mudslide, but it's put on the screen with the precision of laser-cut steel. Viewing the film as Fassbinder's Francis Bacon-like attempt of relieving himself of his lover's suicide through art, the film transforms into one of the Everests of artistic catharsis. NOTE: On this third viewing of the film, I noticed a nun clutching a book of Schopenhauer. This flick comes HARD, son.
-Paterson (2017): **
-Dekalog ep. 1 (1988): **
-Dekalog ep. 2 (1988): ***
-Tyrannosaur (2011): ***
-Au Hasard Balthazar (1966): ***1/2