movies

[CardsofSTL]

I like movies.

They should make more good movies.

[The Third Man]

Recent watches:

You Were Never Really Here: So good I watched it twice in two nights. It's an incredibly bold and disquieting anti-genre flick, about a brutal man doing brutal things to terrible people, but with his violent acts portrayed so elliptically that you're usually left only with the grisly aftermath and the psychic agony it inflicts on the protagonist, who seems to harbor such incredible amounts of trauma that his only outlet is the threat of harm to himself or others. Ramsay has pushed her formal abilities even further since We Need to Talk About Kevin. Joaquin Phoenix is the best actor alive.

The Stranger: Weird that there was a Welles film I still hadn't seen. Kinda funny to watch a film in 2018 about a Nazi who actually feels the need to hide in a small town, instead of recruiting on facebook. Even Welles' unmatched abilities aren't enough to save the thinly-plotted script, but it's enjoyable enough as lesser noir.

We Own the Night: Honestly never gets better than its opening montage of old NYPD photographs segueing into "Heart of Glass" by Blondie, but James Gray (and Phoenix again) are talented enough to forgive how utterly secondhand the entire setup is. It feels a bit genteel for what should be a tawdry exploitation film, which I suppose may have been the point, but if so, seems self-defeating. Why is Mark Wahlberg taken seriously as an actor?

A Ghost Story: Retains just enough ambiguity to remain a touching evocation of the ineffable and ephemeral nature of love. The way it slowly disposes of its protagonists until they're dwarfed by time and the universe is admirably bold. If it has a weakness, it's that goddamn Will Oldham scene; no need to state the film's central thesis through the mouth of an incredibly annoying character.

Into the Wild: There's a push-pull tension between so many aspects of Into the Wild that I find fascinating: the attempts to mythologize McCandless balanced with the undeniable reality of the recklessness of his decisions; Penn's forays into bolder directorial strokes which are often thuddingly obvious; the rinse-repeat nature of the plot, which seems to not-so-subtly hint at a truth that our protagonist arrives at (hilariously) at the moment of his own death; etc. My major complaint? It's much too long.

High Rise: What's curious about High Rise is that there's no real, crucial inciting incident that leads to the collapse of the sealed-off society; it's gradual, almost arbitrary, how quickly things turn to [expletive]. And while that makes it feel a bit thin, it compensates with inspired design (owing much to Gilliam) and perfectly deadpan, absurdist dialogue ("They're raping people they shouldn't now!"). It also features the most memorable opening scene in a while.

Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans: A hypersurrealistic vision of a bad man doing very bad things and seeming never to take any joy in any of them. It has the same hallucinatory, fine-art/postmodern bent as late-period David Lynch, but with a manic energy that stems as much from Cage's unhinged performance as it does its incredibly expressive and active cinematography.

The Blue Kite: The non-ideological underpinnings keep it from losing sight of its central tale of a mother and her son struggling to make sense of their lives during times of great cultural turmoil, but Zhuangzhuang perhaps underplays his hand, leaving the film without a particularly strong sense of interiority. It is, however, a remarkably valuable document of a time and place, particularly given the miracle of its own making.

The Lobster: Yorgos Lanthimos makes comedies that all but dare his viewers to laugh. The palpable absurdity of his concepts and the discomfort which stems from it is played so po-faced and straight that it becomes damn-near wounding.

Y Tu Mama Tambien: Has a literary sweep in the way it compresses so much of its characters’ lives (both the major and the minor) into the small window of time that we spend with them. I have very little I can think of to say, other than that absolutely adored it.

[Freed Roger]

Haven't seen reviews like this since Clement. Thanks TTM.

"Calibre" on Netflix. Quality flick. a setting we don't see much (north Scotland). the cliche "worth a watch" fits, especially since it's a one and done (rare these days). 7 outta 10

[Famous Mortimer]

Colossal

The Moolah showed it for free (in the lounge and at the bar) last night, so I took Mrs Mortimer, who will watch [expletive] movies with me, but won't make a special trip to do so.

I really enjoyed it - I think there's some real meat on its bones and I'm still pondering it. Hathaway was good, Sudeikis was amazing, lots of interesting stuff happening in it.

[thrill]

We Own the Night: Honestly never gets better than its opening montage of old NYPD photographs segueing into "Heart of Glass" by Blondie, but James Gray (and Phoenix again) are talented enough to forgive how utterly secondhand the entire setup is. It feels a bit genteel for what should be a tawdry exploitation film, which I suppose may have been the point, but if so, seems self-defeating. Why is Mark Wahlberg taken seriously as an actor?

I agree about Wahlberg, especially in that movie. If that was someone who could hang with Joaquin & Duvall, like a Jason Clarke or Michael Shannon, it would have been a much better movie.

This isn't a super well hashed out thought but maybe you can follow it: I really like James Gray, but it feels like he tells small stories in a big way, visually. I don't know if that makes any sense. All of his movies have these universal themes of family, love, obsession, friendship, tragedy, etc but he never really gives you the cheap manipulation that makes you care about his characters enough for the story to really hit you as hard as it could. Maybe in The Immigrant, but not really. He just shoots so beautifully and tells the story so dispassionately. It's admirable in a way, but it's what keeps his movies from being on the level of the classics that tell similar stories. The Godfather, Goodfellas, etc. I am VERY psyched for Ad Astra and will continue to watch everything he makes, even if it's a little colder than it could be.

[The Third Man]

I could totally buy that. I think my favorite so far is The Lost City of Z, but that was inevitable; I'm a sucker for movies about man trying to conquer the wilderness, especially the jungle (my favorite film is Apocalypse Now, natch).

[Famous Mortimer]

I assumed it would be, you know, The Third Man.

[thrill]

I could totally buy that. I think my favorite so far is The Lost City of Z, but that was inevitable; I'm a sucker for movies about man trying to conquer the wilderness, especially the jungle (my favorite film is Apocalypse Now, natch).

Should I watch Fitzcarraldo?

I bought City of Z on iTunes without having seen it. When it was over I felt that it was good but I didn't think it was essential or that I'd ever re-visit it. I've watched it four times since. It's just so beautiful and pulls you along gently. It's like what Terrence Malick used to do before he got bad at movies. James Gray is Days of Heaven era Malick but consistently.

[cardsfantx]

I could totally buy that. I think my favorite so far is The Lost City of Z, but that was inevitable; I'm a sucker for movies about man trying to conquer the wilderness, especially the jungle (my favorite film is Apocalypse Now, natch).

wait...it's been a bit since i've seen it, but isn't the guy in lost city of Z, charlie hunnam? the awful actor from SOA, pacific rim, that king arthur movie, etc?

wahlberg is not a good actor at all, but hunnam is truly awful...like the worst actor alive (after that poor guy died that was in those fast & furious movies? paul walker i think?)

[CardsofSTL]

Rented Rampage. Didn't hate it. Didn't love it. I had very low expectations; the storyline was as predictable as I thought it would be. Effects were pretty good and the interaction with Rock and the CGI was pretty convincing; they have come a long way on that.