|
Post by Mattsby on Dec 21, 2021 19:33:01 GMT
The Bloody Olive (don't wanna spoil what year it was made). 9 min, an ingeniously hilarious Belgian xmas noir. Must watch.
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Dec 21, 2021 20:02:16 GMT
The Bloody Olive (don't wanna spoil what year it was made). 9 min, an ingeniously hilarious Belgian xmas noir. Must watch. That was literally better than half of my top 10 this year ..........very Buffet Froid and Gene Bervoets from Spoorloos too!
|
|
|
Post by hugobolso on Jan 6, 2022 20:20:39 GMT
La cabina Phone booth. Tv short. 7.5
|
|
|
Post by Mattsby on Jan 10, 2022 3:12:10 GMT
Went online Dec 30.... Don vs Lightning (2021)
Shocked we haven't posted it yet, I know the board appreciates all things Peter Mullan. (His small perf in Underground Railroad still has me a bit haunted slash mesmerized.)
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jan 10, 2022 3:18:26 GMT
I'm planning on watching at least one short film a week, and on Wednesday I watched Sion Sono's The Lonely 19:00 (I posted a link on the movie archive thread).
It was pretty bad. A Covid-inspired dramedy about a man born after society's collapse. When he hears a strange noise on the one day a year that the government allows people to leave their homes, he discovers social interaction for the first time.
There is one big laugh-out-loud moment when the guy leaves home because of a strange noise and finds the noise's source, but the rest of this is mawkish, shallow and just plain dumb.
I also watched two other films under an hour long this week (Ringing Bell & The Steamroller and the Violin), but they went longer than 40 minutes, so I'm counting them as features. I have to draw the line somewhere.
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jan 13, 2022 21:25:37 GMT
The Phone Call (2013) (Watched on Kanopy)
Stirring Oscar bait. Sally Hawkins is extraordinary as always and carries a simple, predictable, but nonetheless effective narrative of a woman at a crisis center trying to help a suicidal caller (an equally fantastic Jim Broadbent). If you want a simple litter tearjerker with fabulous performances, give it a shot.
Speaking of this being Oscar bait, it did indeed win the Oscar. Because of course something like this did. At least this is good bait.
|
|
|
Post by Mattsby on Jan 29, 2022 18:11:39 GMT
The Grand Inquisitor (2008) 22min, written-directed by Eddie Muller (TCM's weekend host for Noir Alley). Student film esque quality but very interesting and made deeper and better by the presence of 90y/o Marsha Hunt in a dark, phenomenal role. She wrote to Muller after filming - "There were years at a time when I forgot that I’d ever been an actress. Then along came Hazel Reedy and your strong hunch that I could fit into her. That kind of compliment deserves a college try. And yes, the memory did serve, and for five days I lived Hazel’s haunted life. We won’t know how effectively until it’s all assembled and edited. But I sense that you let me take part in a classic work.”
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Feb 16, 2022 22:52:19 GMT
Kwaku Ananse (2013) (watched on Kanopy)
The folkloric elements of this went way over my head, but it is obvious at a glance that director Akosua Adoma Owusu is somebody to watch for. Even if I had no idea what was going on, I was enthralled by the tone she set with this magic-realist work about a woman returning to her estranged family for her father's funeral before setting off on a journey through... folklore? Yeah, no idea what happened, but if Owusu makes a feature, it'll probably be pretty fantastic. (I think that the short format and the impenetrability for audiences unfamiliar with the legends she is drawing from hurt this one - a feature would likely fix both problems.)
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Feb 19, 2022 14:08:46 GMT
Puppies For Sale (1997) starring Jack Lemmon “People only go to movies for three reasons, to laugh, cry, or be frightened,” - William FriedkinThis one might make you cry - not me because I'm a hard ass - and if you think it's a sappy short movie, y'all can all go chase yourselves because I've got a ton of edgy, experimental stuff in this thread that you still haven't watched
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Feb 22, 2022 14:20:26 GMT
mikediastavrone96 - because of what he does for a living, The_Cake_of_Roth given its "fictional parallels" (The Stranger etc. see below) - though I can see no one "liking" this at all either - so I can't recommend it exactly .........but it's pretty fascinating Confessions of Sociopath (2002) - Joe Gibbons - 41 minutesMuch of the great Art of the 20th century was made up of people you wouldn't want to know or pretend didn't even exist - in books both major "Notes From The Underground" (19th century but....), "The Stranger" or less well known but dazzling - "Diary of Rapist" to film, both celebrated "Psycho", "Taxi Driver" or less well known but dazzling - "The Man Who Sleeps" (1974)This short movie, made by a guy I've heard a lot about but never seen ANYTHING by prior - obliterates the "fictional behavior" in the Art - by placing the "real guy" at the center - although you are not sure (or at least I'm not) how performative this is - if one thing is staged is it all fake by that "one thing" alone being fake? A guy with “narcissistic personality disorder” (there are several terms used) - who catalogs (or at times, "stages" maybe?) his specific downward spin...........criminal impulses, suicidal impulses, lack of purpose and a revulsion to work - and how all those things place him outside community or society in the larger sense. This is pretty fascinating even though you may not get through it - although at times some of this is also very funny - even that becomes a problem like "why are you laughing at this?" inappropriate - and whether you are (or "we are" as a culture) facillating endorsing his disorder - who says it's a disorder not to work anyway? Also, why is HE joking about it - he's aware enough to joke but not change - but he's in therapy so he is trying.......the film is full of such conclusions that may not be real.......what if he's conning YOU, laughing at YOU....... This is also - in addition to parallels in books and films - something akin to musical "revolutions" - like GG Allin was to Punk Rock or Beanie Sigel was to Rap - taking the "performative aspect" implicit in the artistic genre and saying "No, this is REAL" .........this ugly........this is "outside the way it's been portrayed in ways you think you know" Except you are not sure of the intent behind THIS either - is it to catalog the events?........to frighten you?........to manipulate you?.........to get better? .........or to never get better........? rarefilmm.com/2022/02/confessions-of-a-sociopath-2002/
|
|
|
Post by Mattsby on Feb 22, 2022 17:07:52 GMT
This was great and it's got me googling the day away about this Gibbons guy. I never heard of him! He's like a criminal, cracked up Jonas Mekas, or a real life David Holzman's Diary. Apparently this movie was inspired by Krapp's Last Tape by Beckett which is about the recollections of a 69yo - which is Gibbons age right now. His life has an uncanny way of informing his work and his work an uncanny way of predicting his life. “I wish I could go further. I’m just unfortunately not as deranged as I’d like to present myself to be," he said around 2016 while in Riker's Island for bank robbery. He elaborated on his life of crime (after lecturing at MIT for a decade?) - “I read the works of Arthur Rimbaud, who essentially believed a poet had to descend into the depths of all that was bad and report back. This whole thing has been one long project." He seems to be either an insanely committed performance artist....or just insane. When he says "Innocence doesn't sell" is he being sardonic or is he dead serious. I was already thinking Chris Smith would make a great doc on him (American Job, American Movie, Yes Men, Jim & Andy, Tiger King - he's been going at similar themes all the time) but another guy who's done some HBO docs jumped on it, already years in post - How to Rob Banks For Dummies.... might be out this year?
|
|
|
Post by themoviesinner on Feb 26, 2022 18:07:20 GMT
Has anyone watched Park Chan-wook's new short film Life is But a Dream? It's pretty fun.
|
|
|
Post by ibbi on Feb 26, 2022 18:39:13 GMT
Beast, which is among this years Animated Short nominees, is like Pablo Larrain before he sold his soul to start making prettily produced Hollywood garbage. If he's too far gone to be saved, someone give Covarrubias all the money! Very great, very fucked up film.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2022 14:15:36 GMT
Le Horla (1966) - Beautiful imagery and a very intriguing central performance from Laurent Terzieff. Thanks to pacinoyes for the recommendation!
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Apr 1, 2022 19:52:43 GMT
Film (1965)
Avant-garde horror(?) short directed by Samuel Beckett(!) and starring Buster Keaton (!!!) that comes off like a short film David Lynch would have made while playing around with a camera. I dug it. Keaton would have made one hell of a 1930s movie monster (come to think of it, all of the most gifted silent stars would have made good monsters - they have the moves).
|
|
|
Post by stephen on Apr 8, 2022 2:24:58 GMT
I stumbled across this unbelievable gem today. If you got ten minutes to kill tonight, watch this excellent short.
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on May 20, 2022 0:18:09 GMT
Autumn Harvest (2014) - 17 minutes Near dialog free, B&W horror that tells a simple straightforward story in a complex way - it masks grief, a monster from the sea...... a seductress and the seduction of evil. Very Lovecraft-like /sea "creature" like etc........ Interesting, but slow - may need to watch it twice but not if you watch it really, really closely so you get why this guy is this way and why he's doing these awful things. vimeo.com/groups/419130/videos/95991278
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jun 6, 2022 17:13:00 GMT
Illusions (1982) - 34 minutes, directed by Julie Dash (available on Kanopy) This is rather preachy and didactic (spelling out the film's themes directly at the end in some very on-the-nose speeches), but it is cool to see a movie that tackles Hollywood's hypocrisy head-on. A film about the erasure of real history in favor of a sugar-coated and simplistic view through the prism of a silver screen, and how the illusionists pretend to themselves that they are creating the "true vision" of what the world is like. It is more interesting in concept than in execution, but still not a bad film.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2022 14:19:18 GMT
Meet Marlon Brando (1966) - Just 28 minutes of Brando being one of the most magnetic movie stars, ever.
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Jun 13, 2022 18:54:48 GMT
Soulmate (2000) Chel White - 13 minutesThis is on rarefilmm - and Youtube - and it's quite curious, intoxicating and baffling - IMDB - 9 ratings (um), 1 review. This would make a great pre-credit sequence to a feature about obsession and loneliness. As it is it's essentially a narration from an (apparently) lonely landlady and her (apparently) lone(ly) male tenant. The visuals and music range from gothic horrorish and opera to mundane interiors and nudity (male) - with opera floating in but somewhat disconnected and outside the events. These then play as sad but can be read as terrifying based on the narration itself - she's spied on him, judges him, speculates on him. What's next? Something beautiful......or.......something else. The choice of the last shot either suggest Death, not sleeping or perhaps his fantasy that someone would want him in this way Intriguing but incomplete - if anybody out there writes screenplays you could take what's here and construct a film around it....
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Jun 23, 2022 10:10:50 GMT
The World Over (2018 / 2022) - 15 Minutes
Pretty awesome-ish horror, very slick and professional, that's original feeling in setting/approach (if not so much in themes) that was big at festivals and with a pretty intense and rabid internet following too - more than 500,000 people watched this before Alter picked it up where it now has a couple hundred thousand more views and rising.......this can actually be read as an anti-abortion movie ...........which I'm sure is not the intent (at all). This is a logical and coherent horror short by its own rules at least - and they aren't all like that, yanno? - which is not only pretty cool itself but you could make a sequel or 100 more sequels about this premise as well. Actually better than the remakes of Candyman, Scream and scarier in 2022 than Crimes of the Future, The Black Phone but also more frightening as a high concept mindfnck as it plays out than anything Jordan Peele or M. Night have actually done ......like............um........you know.......ever. Or at least since Unbreakable fell apart at the end, ammirite? Side note: This movie starts off with a "trigger warning" letting you know what you're in for - and while I know there's a long history in horror of using things like that as a cool gimmick - it is now used (I guess) to make people feel comfortable or some sh it like that - "safe spaces" and all that stuff that's the actual enemy of horror - isn't it? Maybe you shouldn't be watching horror at all if it might make you "upset" or "triggered" at all.......what's next - a trigger warning before porn? Do I put "don't read pacinoyes' posts if you may be offended by his "famously caustic sarcasm and righteous truth-telling" before every post of mine do I?
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jun 27, 2022 17:43:01 GMT
Dottie Gets Spanked (1993) - 30 minutes, directed by Todd Haynes
A messy but sporadically brilliant movie about a six year old boy in the 1950s that loves watching an I Love Lucy type sitcom, as his father fears that the show isn't masculine enough for his son. I think that Haynes has waaaay too many ideas in here. He explores the pain of isolation and of being different very well, but he loses the thread in the dream sequences. All in all, a decent film.
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Jul 6, 2022 21:02:43 GMT
"C'etait Un Rendex-vous" Claude Lelouch, 1976.......... 9 and 1/2 minutesI had never seen this - what a rush this is....camera, car, speed, go! All adrenalized chaos and a great last shot too........
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jul 14, 2022 17:44:43 GMT
No Through Road (2009) 7.5 ++ / 10 rewatch Steven ChamberlinOne of the little secrets in rating movies is a "1 to 10" scale doesn't show the range of disparity - I talk about This Transient Life (1970) or Demons (1971) being ~ 10's but they surpass mere "decent" movies (or 7's) by far more than "3" points. This short is a perfect example of that - it's not a 10 - but you wouldn't know it by how I have responded to it for years - I watched this a million times, I watched it when it first showed up on Youtube (more or less, I was slightly late to the party) and because I didn't know what it was and couldn't look it up it seemed more frightening to me and my friends......you didn't fall for it being "real" or anything............. but it felt real.......and real mysterious....... This reminded me a lot of the Local 58 video You Are On the Fastest Available Route by Kris Straub (simply because both are found footage road horrors). I'm a fan of Straub's Broodhollow comic books, mixing cosmic horror with a sense of humor: Route (and his other Local 58 offerings) plays along a similar line of being silly and just mysterious enough to unsettle the viewer. They're not high art or anything near it, but if you watch his stuff in the dead of night when you can't sleep, you may find your dreams a bit restless.
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Jul 18, 2022 17:17:08 GMT
Death of a Shadow (2012) - 20 minutes, directed by Tom Van Avermaet. Available on Kanopy. Oscar nominated fantasy film about a man (Matthias Schoenaerts, impressive as always) capturing moments of death on camera for a "Collector of Shadows." Fantasy is the most important word: In twenty minutes this creates an uneasily familiar, haunting world that never stoops to exposition, and instead lets you soak into the tale. Does it have anything to say? Not really. Is it an engrossing leap into a different world? Ohhhhh yeah.
|
|