|
Post by pacinoyes on Dec 7, 2022 18:34:50 GMT
Zerograd (1988) - Fascinating and layered comedic mystery that is VERY Franz Kafka - and VERY Russian.......this is one of the best first time watches of this year for me....... just below the 2 Manoel de Oliveira titles I saw ( Doomed Love, and Benilde or the Virgin Mother) This movie is available on Youtube - in what seems like a good translation and a fairly beautiful print actually - and I can't really find it on DVD or any streaming (I must be missing it?) HIGHLY recommended to the more adventurous types themoviesinner , Mattsby , Javi and JangoB - who may know this as a Russian movie? I think Martin Stett might even like this .........and that dude is hard to pick movies for....... Quite the buried gem I think........or it was to me.....also quite a political gem in the manner of Czech or Polish films too......anyone know or see this movie......is this more famous than I think? It has a lot of ratings on IMDB ........I don't know where people saw this? Edit - seems it recently got a DVD release so there ya go
|
|
|
Post by Mattsby on Dec 8, 2022 5:10:42 GMT
Zerograd (1988) - Fascinating and layered comedic mystery that is VERY Franz Kafka - and VERY Russian.......this is one of the best first time watches of this year for me....... just below the 2 Manoel de Oliveira titles I saw ( Doomed Love, and Benilde or the Virgin Mother) This movie is available on Youtube - in what seems like a good translation and a fairly beautiful print actually - and I can't really find it on DVD or any streaming (I must be missing it?) HIGHLY recommended to the more adventurous types themoviesinner , Mattsby , Javi and JangoB - who may know this as a Russian movie? I think Martin Stett might even like this .........and that dude is hard to pick movies for....... Quite the buried gem I think........or it was to me.....also quite a political gem in the manner of Czech or Polish films too......anyone know or see this movie......is this more famous than I think? It has a lot of ratings on IMDB ........I don't know where people saw this? Loved this. "Kafkaesque" movies are hit or miss for me and this, thankfully, falls into the quality lane of After Hours - so..., amazing, hilarious, very witty and worth repeated viewings. It reminded me of Being There, The Town Where No One Got Off, Back to the Future II, etc. I see some other reviewers comparing it to Lynch, Gilliam, Wes Anderson, The Truman Show. It's such a wry, involving movie that doesn't cast you out even tho it's so Russki-specific and reference loaded.... and segment-ish. But I loved how I had no idea where it was going next. I laughed a lot too. Thanx for the rec Pac! And "beautiful print" is right.... !
|
|
|
Post by JangoB on Dec 8, 2022 20:33:34 GMT
Zerograd (1988) - Fascinating and layered comedic mystery that is VERY Franz Kafka - and VERY Russian.......this is one of the best first time watches of this year for me....... just below the 2 Manoel de Oliveira titles I saw ( Doomed Love, and Benilde or the Virgin Mother) This movie is available on Youtube - in what seems like a good translation and a fairly beautiful print actually - and I can't really find it on DVD or any streaming (I must be missing it?) HIGHLY recommended to the more adventurous types themoviesinner , Mattsby , Javi and JangoB - who may know this as a Russian movie? I think Martin Stett might even like this .........and that dude is hard to pick movies for....... Quite the buried gem I think........or it was to me.....also quite a political gem in the manner of Czech or Polish films too......anyone know or see this movie......is this more famous than I think? It has a lot of ratings on IMDB ........I don't know where people saw this? Edit - seems it recently got a DVD release so there ya go I definitely do know of this film but I've been reluctant to watch Shakhnazarov's stuff because nowadays he's nothing but a propaganda mouthpiece with regular appearances on pro-government Russian TV so I never felt any strong desire to get acquainted with his filmography. I'd say this movie is considered a very minor classic here, mainly because there's a school of thought that it predicted the collapse of the USSR. But overall Shakhnazarov has one stone-cold classic here which is "Courier" (I do want to watch that one). Your post prompted me to watch this movie and unfortunately I wasn't fully into it. The more it went on, the more it was losing me. The trick with these absurdist films is to always keep the situations interesting but to me the film sled off that path in its second half. Although I appreciated its humor and its peculiarly presented ruminations on USSR. The problem isn't that the film is too Russian - it's that it's too Soviet I think you really have to be a person of a very specific time to fully appreciate all its references and conclusions. Even I felt lost a couple of times although a lot of this stuff would certainly be more relatable to someone like me as opposed to an English-language viewer. What did strike me was the line we could draw from this movie to the current state of Russia. Seems to me that the film was a warning for the Soviet people to look around and recognize the absurdity of the world they were living in - the world in which the country's place in the world's past was of more importance than figuring out a good future, the world in which it was easier to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary was happening around you, the world in which society was split between wanting to have the better things of the West and needing to stick to its old principles. The warning didn't really work though since these days it's Shakhnazarov himself who's basically living with the same mindset he was satirizing. And it's that mindset that's being put into TV audiences' brains every day.
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Dec 9, 2022 11:33:01 GMT
The Cry of the Owl (1987) - multiple rewatchA film I may have rated negatively on here (?) or on IMDB and if I did I was wrong because Cry of the Owl is actually - along with Masques (1987 also) - a crucial film in Chabrol's filmography - which includes a whole bunch of modern classics of entertainment FIRST, "Art" 2nd (he is a Frenchman who wouldn't get - on some level - Jeanne Dielman or some of his artier colleagues God Bless Him)......he is indisputably great - yet with a lot of junk on his resume.....but that's part of the fun - rediscovering and reassessing what's "great" about him anyway.......and how deep do you go.......rewatching Cry of the Owl - I may rewatch a couple more that I glossed over and that I've seen more than once too! Unlike some buried gems in his long career - like Masques (1987), The Bridesmaid (2004), The Third Lover (1962) - The Cry of the Owl looks less distinct when he made it......I think at some points I've called it "cookie cutter Chabrol"......and unlike all of his best films - it doesn't exactly pack a big ending, it rather, literally "stops"........as you then reflect...... But when you revisit Cry of the Owl you realize how masterful he is and how he owns this stuff as much as Hitchcock ever did - the central character here - is "responsible" for several deaths depending how you read the word "responsible" ......he is quite clearly a bit mad but noticeably not any more "mad" than several others here ....he is merely placid and yet he causes so much through that. To Chabrol - Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" is merely the start of things - and Chabrol has great fun placing this "depressive" (his own words, he's been diagnosed!) at the center of a film where people react to him as cipher to project a madness onto him (what kind of man creeps onto another's life the way he does - almost like he wants to get caught .....remember that!) .....he is neither a protagonist or an antgonist - this is one of the few movies where this true for the entire runtime of the movie. In 1987 - Chabrol had a dazzling come back imo - even if Masques and Cry of the Owl can't measure up with his best movies before or what would immediately follow (Story of Women - an arguable or near masterpiece would follow) - well Masques ends with a killer final line "Get Fucked" ........in Cry of the Owl he completely illustrates it....
|
|
|
Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Dec 9, 2022 19:20:24 GMT
Death to Smoochy. This movie does not get the respect it deserves. Utterly hilarious and brilliant satire. Entire cast is great but Williams steals every single scene he’s in. “It’s small but it’s fierce”
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Dec 10, 2022 12:20:25 GMT
Courier (1986)JangoB mentioned this funny and sweet movie in comparison to the same director's Zerograd (1988)- reviewed above in this thread - and whiie I liked this a lot too to me it seems more minor .......less wild, less on its mind, less baffling and less laugh out loud.....on the other hand it's way more focused and easier to get - while still being winning in tone - this has a higher IMDB and Letterboxd score which totally makes sense. This movie also seems more dated though imo - or at least more specifically from it's era - in a lot of ways this actualy reminded me of Ferris Bueller's Day Off but that makes it sounded more toothless than it really is......it's ike Ferris in the best ways - it's a youthful mass entertainment and recognizable as such for everyone..... Kind of remarkable as a movie of its type and a good 1-2 punch with Zerograd which actually makes sense in that they were made back to back - and expressly represent different age perspectives....... Like its successor film.....highly recommended...... and also on Youtube
|
|
|
Post by DeepArcher on Dec 10, 2022 16:22:35 GMT
Murina (2022): Kind of your stereotypical indie-ish Eurodrama... It's fine, sure. Quiet as a mouse critic bait. Has its moments, Cliff Curtis is cool, compelling debut lead.
Hit the Road (2022): I think this does, like, one thing too many by the end; clearly the work of a debut filmmaker who has a lot of ideas to throw at the canvas. But mostly works as a really, really charming and moving family drama imbued with these little moments of pure levitation. Great performances from each of the four cast members and some stunningly composed shots. Enjoyed the heck out of it.
|
|
|
Post by DeepArcher on Dec 11, 2022 6:55:35 GMT
Resurrection (2022): Pretty compelling for awhile though it gets tedious as it goes along. Rebecca Hall is incredible in this. Not really horror but what is these days.
|
|
|
Post by themoviesinner on Dec 11, 2022 7:33:50 GMT
2014 Scavenger Hunt #3
The Blue Elephant (Director: Marwan Hamed) Satoshi Kon found dead in Cairo. On its surface, this is pretty much a standard 1990s style thriller about a psychiatrist named Yehia (Karim Abdel Aziz) trying to determine if his friend and fellow psychiatrist Sharif (Khaled El Sawy, chewing every bit of scenery he can) is indeed schizophrenic or just faking it after murdering his wife. Lots of pretty standard plot twists and weird stuff happening that makes Yehia (and the audience) doubt his own sanity. And in truth, looking back on it... it really isn't anything more than that. And yet I had a blast, because this is such a great visceral experience. This has some of the best jump scares I've ever seen (interestingly, the movie sets you up to expect them and then gives you a jump scare, but from a different place, in a way different way - when you think a creepy shadowy figure is gonna appear in frame, A SNARLING CGI DOG JUMPS AT CAMERA OUT OF NOWHERE AND RIPS YOUR FUCKING THROAT OUT - which is a really cool way of discombobulating your audience), a wonderfully twisty plot that dips its toes into satanic horror, some surreal sequences that are truly unsettling, and VERY LOUD NOISES. It uses every trick in the DTV horror playbook and does it all with so much fury and enthusiasm that I got swept along. Does it make one bit of sense? Bugger me if I know. Did I have a grin on my face the whole time? Ooooooohhh yeah. Gotta recommend this bad boy. This is great! One of my favorite films of 2014. It's just so unique and fun in it's approach to psychological thriller/horror that it's just a blast to watch. Glad you liked it! You should also check the sequel out. It's even better!
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Dec 11, 2022 14:14:31 GMT
2014 Scavenger Hunt #3
The Blue Elephant (Director: Marwan Hamed). This is great! One of my favorite films of 2014. It's just so unique and fun in it's approach to psychological thriller/horror that it's just a blast to watch. Glad you liked it! You should also check the sequel out. It's even better! I couldn't find the sequel anywhere. Well, not with English subtitles, anyway.
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Dec 11, 2022 15:29:32 GMT
This is great! One of my favorite films of 2014. It's just so unique and fun in it's approach to psychological thriller/horror that it's just a blast to watch. Glad you liked it! You should also check the sequel out. It's even better! I couldn't find the sequel anywhere. Well, not with English subtitles, anyway. Sequel is on Netflix
|
|
|
Post by mhynson27 on Dec 12, 2022 5:44:17 GMT
See How They Run Oh Saoirse
|
|
|
Post by PromNightCarrie on Dec 12, 2022 7:16:35 GMT
Death Becomes Her (a re-watch of course) Words can't explain how much fun I have with this movie. Streep, Hawn, Bruce Willis, and even Isabelle Rosselini had me cackling. I would say guilty pleasure but there's no guilt here.
|
|
|
Post by Pavan on Dec 12, 2022 12:47:43 GMT
Amsterdam (2022)-
Theatrical and chaotic but not in a good way. Only makes sense right when it is reaching the climax, and this is where it gets interesting but an insufferable Russell gets in its way and makes weird directorial choices and ruins it. The background, a couple of characters and the message are decent. If only it was directed by someone who can do chaos and whimsy without losing clarity, like Wes Anderson. Would've been unwatchable if not for the cast and Lubezki's visuals- 6/10
|
|
|
Post by Pavan on Dec 12, 2022 12:57:00 GMT
^ Also Bale needs to understands two things 1) that he needs to stop working with Russell and 2) he is at his best when he is being his natural self without any bodily gimmicks.
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Dec 13, 2022 12:24:56 GMT
Friendly Beast (2021) on TUBISlightly offensive, man-hating "representational" BS that manages to insult everybody it pretends to give a voice to.......this Brazilian film is like a really annoying Petrified Forest crossed with a culture war pamphlet you might find in a Starbucks in Seattle....and even if I was cutting it a whole lot of slack ........it's even more offensive to such old-fashioned things like logic and character development. Rated deceptively high on Letterboxd .......
|
|
|
Post by Martin Stett on Dec 14, 2022 1:48:43 GMT
2014 Scavenger Hunt #4
A Hard Day (Director: Kim Seong-hun) Homicide detective Go (Lee sun-kyun, best known as Mr. Park from Parasite) hits a man with his car one night. Stuffing the corpse in his car's trunk, he is later stopped at a DUI check... Also, his unit has just been raided by Internal Affairs and found lots of cash locked in his desk. Also, this night is his mother's funeral and everyone is getting mighty antsy wondering when he'll show up... But that isn't the Hard Day of the title. No, that comes later, when homicide receives a tipoff that a known murderer has been seen at a certain location... and another tipoff has gone into traffic that there was a hit and run on the road nearby. The bastard was so cold-blooded that he stuffed the body in the trunk, the anonymous caller says. Boy is thus a lot of fun... at first. I don't want to spoil the surprises, but there's a lot of fun cat and mouse stuff, with our mouse scrambling to get out of his situation without getting arrested. Unfortunately, this just gets silly in the final act. The seams start to fray in the middle when some characters make decisions only to move the plot forward instead of having any logical reason to do so, and the end is a lot of Hollywood action stuff. But it's fine. The movie is an enjoyable night out, even with the quality steadily dropping and getting less clever as it goes.
|
|
|
Post by mhynson27 on Dec 14, 2022 5:33:28 GMT
Prey (2022)
Instant thoughts, this is my fave Predator movie.
|
|
|
Post by Brother Fease on Dec 15, 2022 2:07:02 GMT
Mine were EEAAO and Elvis. Both were fantastic
|
|
|
Post by mhynson27 on Dec 17, 2022 3:54:23 GMT
Jingle All the Way Better than 19% on RT suggests tbh. But also, what in the fuck was that Ted storyline
|
|
|
Post by mikediastavrone96 on Dec 17, 2022 6:27:00 GMT
Jingle All the Way Better than 19% on RT suggests tbh. But also, what in the fuck was that Ted storyline Love that Arnold has enough of a sense of humor about himself to be in a movie where his character has to worry about being cuckolded by Phil Hartman. Absolutely fantastic, every megastar should follow his example.
|
|
|
Post by theycallmemrfish on Dec 17, 2022 7:15:53 GMT
Jingle All the Way Better than 19% on RT suggests tbh. But also, what in the fuck was that Ted storyline Love that Arnold has enough of a sense of humor about himself to be in a movie where his character has to worry about being cuckolded by Phil Hartman. Absolutely fantastic, every megastar should follow his example. "You're in my house... eating cookies... WITH MY WIFE?!"
|
|
|
Post by mhynson27 on Dec 17, 2022 12:35:41 GMT
The fucking way in which he says how delicious they are My man was having a goddamn orgasm.
|
|
|
Post by theycallmemrfish on Dec 17, 2022 22:59:40 GMT
The Nanny (new on Prime) -
This isn't a horror movie. This is just a movie about a nanny. Ooo sometimes she has a weird dream where she's drowning. Spooky! When it was done I had to check the genre tags again to see if I had just imagined it was horror. Horror was the first tagged genre under it.
And don't even get me started on that fucking ABC Family ending...
|
|
|
Post by mhynson27 on Dec 18, 2022 3:57:39 GMT
Deck the Halls
Yeah now this, this was not good. Kristin/Kristen were nice to look at, at least.
|
|