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Post by Martin Stett on May 13, 2024 15:23:43 GMT
Fearless (1993) - It can't quite pick a lane between fantastical (the godlike worship of the little kid for Bridges, the heavenly depiction of approaching death) and grounded, and I can't quite figure out what it's trying to do. Bridges is quite good, and the *ideas* of the movie are interesting, but I'm not totally sure what Weir and Yglesias were trying to achieve. 6/10
Sisu (2022) - Exactly what it says it will be: killing Nazis with lots of gore. It peaks early on, and then just repeats itself. That's fine. 6/10
Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (1964) - The one with the baby. It's cute, it's funny, it has a fight scene in which Ichi kills a bunch of bad guys while on fire (back in the day when fire wasn't all CGI!), it's good stuff. I don't think this is the dramatic highlight of the series many seem to consider it, though - Ichi is too wholly good in this one. In the early films, he wrestled with his gangster side and kindhearted side in a constant duel, and that's pretty much entirely absent here. But does the movie work as another formula entry in the franchise? Hell yes. 7/10
Paranoia Agent (2004 rewatch) - Second watch, no change. Satoshi Kon's most focused, heartfelt work. The wild ride of each episode (in what is practically an anthology format) is great fun, but they come together into such a damning portrait of modern society's refusal to accept responsibility, instead choosing to seek solace - but never any true peace - in "art." It's such a rich and fascinating story, and easily Kon's best. 10/10
La Chimera (2023) - That scene with everyone "barking" at each other is so on-the-nose that it sinks the rest of the experience. Not that the movie is very good outside of it: Arthur's motivation is left too vague to have any sort of connection to him, and the movie meanders about aimlessly from set to set because it refuses to get inside of his head. The magical realism just muddies the thematic waters as well. What does Arthur believe? What drives him? Why should we care about him? He's an enigma, and that is fine to a point, but basing a whole movie around him and his desires doesn't work without a way in. And then there's the aforementioned "barking" scene, which shows that Rohrwacher is not at all afraid to drop any subtlety and hammer in her point like a total hack. So who knows what she was thinking. 5/10
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bigmilko
New Member
Posts: 213
Likes: 62
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Post by bigmilko on May 13, 2024 15:59:41 GMT
Amistad (1997) - 7/10: There is enough for me to enjoy out of this (Hounsou and McConaughey especially), but feels very clunky at times. Solid Oscar Cheese
Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 9/10: Just a monumental film. Definitely lives up to its status
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) - 10/10: A purely joyful experience, and like Satoshi Kon's other movies, only gets better the more I think about it. Cannot wait to see Paprika
Mafia Mamma (2023) - 5/10: Was not the same experience as watching 80 for Brady, too vulgar for the wine mom vibes I really hoped for
RW Unstoppable (2010) - 8/10: classic fist pumping movie
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - 8/10: I thought it was gonna be a fun cute kids Pinocchio adventure, not this bizarre and sad and frankly insane movie
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) - 5/10: Liked what I saw until the clan of children showed up, then the movie really just falls apart after that
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) - 8/10: Doesn't have the same empathetic themes and tones of the Caesar trilogy, but instead introduces us to a new world and history yet to be fully re/discovered, which is just the shit I eat up
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Post by Martin Stett on May 13, 2024 17:03:59 GMT
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) - 10/10: A purely joyful experience, and like Satoshi Kon's other movies, only gets better the more I think about it. Cannot wait to see Paprika Have you seen Paranoia Agent? TG is my favorite Kon movie, but PA is his masterpiece.
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bigmilko
New Member
Posts: 213
Likes: 62
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Post by bigmilko on May 13, 2024 18:09:43 GMT
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) - 10/10: A purely joyful experience, and like Satoshi Kon's other movies, only gets better the more I think about it. Cannot wait to see Paprika Have you seen Paranoia Agent? TG is my favorite Kon movie, but PA is his masterpiece. Not yet, saving it for later once I finish through a few other series I wanna see first
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on May 13, 2024 18:14:00 GMT
Mogambo (1953) - sexy John Ford safari love triangle. Lots of golden hour sexual tension with our lovers cavorting in tents framed against the African sunset or embracing near lush waterfalls, all exquisitely captured by Robert Surtees (HOW did this not get a cinematography nod??). Kelly and Gardner are drop dead gorgeous, Gable the macho man they're fighting over. 7.5 The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) - was lowkey expecting a disaster given its infamously troubled production but it was surprisingly delightful, with sharp quick jokes and Monroe at her most charming and naturally funny. The comedy refreshingly doesn't rely on her being a dumb blonde but rather her self-aware rebellious playfulness. She matches Olivier's stick-in-the-mud Prince with wit and mischief and even does some behind-the-scenes political shenanigans (it's not that she doesn't understand the rules, she just chooses to ignore them). The largely one-set location makes the film function like a play, relying mainly on long talky takes (no wonder Monroe struggled with it) to drive forward the story and jokes and at just under two hours it feels slightly too long, but I had lots of fun with this one. 7.5 Career (1959) - Anthony Franciosa plays a struggling actor in this "dark side of Hollywood" movie. Self-aware and bleak, with Fransciosa slowly losing nearly everything on his doomed quest for success. A predecessor to Inside Llewyn Davis. Talent isn't enough. The film sort of loses itself in the ending but comes close to greatness a few times in getting there. 7.5 Tiger Bay (1959) - suspense thriller directed by J. Lee Thompson. Hayley Mills is a lovably incorrigible brat who witnesses an accidental killing and John Mills plays the police investigator who investigates. The film takes a surprising turn when Hayley meets and strikes up a friendship with the killer. Thompson does an excellent job making you feel sympathy for the killer played by baby-faced Horst Buchholz who looks like he wouldn't even swat a fly. When we first see him in the opening scenes he's wearing a huge boyish grin and pushes kids on the swings on his way to meet his girlfriend. Upon becoming his friend, Hayley decides she'll do or say anything to help him escape justice. Really like John Mills too, and he gets a couple scenes toward the end where he has to interrogate little Hayley about her obvious lies. Those scenes must've been fun for them to film. 8 The Hanging Tree (1959) - LOVED this movie! A redemptive Delmer Daves western set in a backwater Goldrush town. Everyone's come to strike it rich except for Gary Cooper who's just come to escape his past. Cooper plays a doctor but looks more like an undertaker all dressed in black with a vacant scowl and a short fuse. All that changes when Maria Schell arrives in town injured from a stagecoach attack and burnt by the harsh Montana sun. He takes her under his wing to rehabilitate and protect her and in so doing begins his own slow process of healing. Schell is outstanding in this. She has such a beautifully expressive face and her smile is like a beam of sunshine but there's also so much strength in her resolve. I've loved discovering her work in the 50s, especially Le Notti Bianche and Brothers Karamazov and this in the same league as that excellent work. The cinematography by Ted D. McCord is wonderful too, and the music by Max Steiner is rousing and poignant. One of my new favorite westerns. 9 ![https://livius1.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/10.jpg](https://livius1.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/10.jpg)
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Post by therealcomicman117 on May 13, 2024 18:46:31 GMT
Unfrosted - 4 / 10
Vivo - 7 / 10
The Idea of You - 5 / 10
Millennium Actress - 10 / 10
Love Lies Bleeding - 7.5 / 10
The Book of Clarence - 5 / 10
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on May 13, 2024 19:01:22 GMT
The Fall Guy (2024) Hard to Kill (1990) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) Alpha Dog (2006) If Looks Could Kill (1991)
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Post by mhynson27 on May 13, 2024 22:32:45 GMT
Challengers
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hilderic
Junior Member
Posts: 329
Likes: 140
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Post by hilderic on May 14, 2024 22:48:18 GMT
Montmartre-sur-Seine Mark of the Tortoise The Ambush Ahed's Knee
There's just too much plot and characterisation in Montmartre-sur-Seine to dismiss it as no more than an excuse for Édith Piaf (apparently also an actress) to sing a few songs. Still, this is very much Édith Piaf: The Movie. Her star rose under the Nazis, and it's clear that by the time this film was released (November 1941) her myth was fully formed. She plays a poor, uneducated and plain working girl who starts performing in the streets and then in increasingly sophisticated nightclubs. She doesn't look like a star, but the audience becomes transfixed as soon as she begins to sing. She even wears a blouse bearing the initials "E. P.", though she's called Lili Talia in the movie. Given the above, I wonder what the audience made of Henri Vidal's character, the handsome object of Lili's (unrequited) affection. She employs him as an accompanist to keep him close to her (and away from the girl he loves) in the hope that he might eventually fall into her arms. Considering that this was Vidal's film debut and that he was selected by Piaf herself after winning the "Apollo of 1939" contest, I suspect it caused quite a bit of gossip.
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Post by JangoB on May 15, 2024 0:29:34 GMT
Serpico - REWATCH. Terrific, and Pacino's performance is simply staggering. Both him and Lumet had an astonishing run in the 1970s. The Music Lovers - Yep, just as I expected a Ken Russell biopic on Tchaikovsky to be. Meaning that it's very good. And bonkers. Savage Messiah - A smaller, more reserved Ken Russell film... but a Ken Russell film nonetheless. Amazing performance from Dorothy Tutin. Amazing nude scene from Helen Mirren. Crimes of Passion - Maybe the sleaziest film I've seen? It's a lunatic asylum of a movie, and it's quite fun. Could've done without the rather standard family scenes and without John Laughlin entirely (he's just dull) but Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins are great. The latter in particular is just nuts. A psycho, you could even say. Love Lies Bleeding - I love how you slap the A24 brand on even the trashiest piece of pulp and the Letterboxd/Film Twitter herds are instantly there to declare it high art ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/6692321/images/MZ2eSp2yC2LljdVTLpdl.gif) T'was okay. Better than Saint Maud but still not entirely good. We're getting there, I guess. Scarface - REWATCH. The De Palma one. Among the great crime films out there for sure, not least because of how representative it is of the time period it was made in. It's not just a gangster story, it's an 80s American success/excess story, and as such it works quite incredibly. Very interesting to me that De Palma kind of reined himself in directorially for it too - I guess it's a bit OTT compared to some other examples of the genre but for De Palma himself? Somewhat restrained. While still maintaining a highly cinematic sensibility, of course. To think that the stupid Razzies nominated him for Worst Direction for it... morons. Pacino's monumental too, what a complete disappearance into the character. It's shocking that just 10 years earlier the same man played Serpico. Or that just 1 year prior he did Author! Author! That's why the's the GOAT. Gothic - I feared that going to later-period Ken Russell stuff would be like watching movies that try too hard to be cult hits... and that's kind of what I felt with this one. It's just not the same as his fantastic 70s escapades. There's a desperation to it. And it's kind of tiresome. The Stunt Man - REWATCH. Kinda crazy that this was an awards hit, isn't it? Good movie though. A bit all over the place but that's part of its charm. A fantastic main trio of actors is a great ace in the hole too.
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tylosaur
Junior Member
Posts: 276
Likes: 143
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Post by tylosaur on May 15, 2024 22:54:59 GMT
Love Lies Bleeding - I love how you slap the A24 brand on even the trashiest piece of pulp and the Letterboxd/Film Twitter herds are instantly there to declare it high art T'was okay. Better than Saint Maud but still not entirely good. We're getting there, I guess. Feel exactly the same way. The only complement I have for this one is that it's a step up from Maud. Giving kudos to Rose Glass for going from a 5/10 film to a 6/10 film. She's getting to the promised land ever so slowly.
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Post by ingmarhepburn on May 16, 2024 11:51:39 GMT
Farewell, My Concubine (1993). Couldn't see this in time for the AMARA nominations, but it still made it in the categories where I would have placed it (Makeup, Costumes and Cinematography). Cinematography was especially deserving, this was always beautiful to look at and had an almost dream-like aesthetic that I really enjoyed. Seeing it in 4K must be awesome.
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Post by taranofprydain on May 18, 2024 3:00:24 GMT
Serpico - REWATCH. Terrific, and Pacino's performance is simply staggering. Both him and Lumet had an astonishing run in the 1970s. The Music Lovers - Yep, just as I expected a Ken Russell biopic on Tchaikovsky to be. Meaning that it's very good. And bonkers. Savage Messiah - A smaller, more reserved Ken Russell film... but a Ken Russell film nonetheless. Amazing performance from Dorothy Tutin. Amazing nude scene from Helen Mirren. Crimes of Passion - Maybe the sleaziest film I've seen? It's a lunatic asylum of a movie, and it's quite fun. Could've done without the rather standard family scenes and without John Laughlin entirely (he's just dull) but Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins are great. The latter in particular is just nuts. A psycho, you could even say. Love Lies Bleeding - I love how you slap the A24 brand on even the trashiest piece of pulp and the Letterboxd/Film Twitter herds are instantly there to declare it high art ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/6692321/images/MZ2eSp2yC2LljdVTLpdl.gif) T'was okay. Better than Saint Maud but still not entirely good. We're getting there, I guess. Scarface - REWATCH. The De Palma one. Among the great crime films out there for sure, not least because of how representative it is of the time period it was made in. It's not just a gangster story, it's an 80s American success/excess story, and as such it works quite incredibly. Very interesting to me that De Palma kind of reined himself in directorially for it too - I guess it's a bit OTT compared to some other examples of the genre but for De Palma himself? Somewhat restrained. While still maintaining a highly cinematic sensibility, of course. To think that the stupid Razzies nominated him for Worst Direction for it... morons. Pacino's monumental too, what a complete disappearance into the character. It's shocking that just 10 years earlier the same man played Serpico. Or that just 1 year prior he did Author! Author! That's why the's the GOAT. Gothic - I feared that going to later-period Ken Russell stuff would be like watching movies that try too hard to be cult hits... and that's kind of what I felt with this one. It's just not the same as his fantastic 70s escapades. There's a desperation to it. And it's kind of tiresome. The Stunt Man - REWATCH. Kinda crazy that this was an awards hit, isn't it? Good movie though. A bit all over the place but that's part of its charm. A fantastic main trio of actors is a great ace in the hole too. I see you are on a Ken Russell kick. Crimes of Passion truly is berserk. I really don't think it worked at all outside of Kathleen Turner and Annie Potts, but it was certainly a bold experiment. And it probably gave the MPAA a major headache. And Music Lovers and Savage Messiah are both some of Russell's strongest hours.
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Post by JangoB on May 18, 2024 3:22:20 GMT
Serpico - REWATCH. Terrific, and Pacino's performance is simply staggering. Both him and Lumet had an astonishing run in the 1970s. The Music Lovers - Yep, just as I expected a Ken Russell biopic on Tchaikovsky to be. Meaning that it's very good. And bonkers. Savage Messiah - A smaller, more reserved Ken Russell film... but a Ken Russell film nonetheless. Amazing performance from Dorothy Tutin. Amazing nude scene from Helen Mirren. Crimes of Passion - Maybe the sleaziest film I've seen? It's a lunatic asylum of a movie, and it's quite fun. Could've done without the rather standard family scenes and without John Laughlin entirely (he's just dull) but Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins are great. The latter in particular is just nuts. A psycho, you could even say. Love Lies Bleeding - I love how you slap the A24 brand on even the trashiest piece of pulp and the Letterboxd/Film Twitter herds are instantly there to declare it high art ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/6692321/images/MZ2eSp2yC2LljdVTLpdl.gif) T'was okay. Better than Saint Maud but still not entirely good. We're getting there, I guess. Scarface - REWATCH. The De Palma one. Among the great crime films out there for sure, not least because of how representative it is of the time period it was made in. It's not just a gangster story, it's an 80s American success/excess story, and as such it works quite incredibly. Very interesting to me that De Palma kind of reined himself in directorially for it too - I guess it's a bit OTT compared to some other examples of the genre but for De Palma himself? Somewhat restrained. While still maintaining a highly cinematic sensibility, of course. To think that the stupid Razzies nominated him for Worst Direction for it... morons. Pacino's monumental too, what a complete disappearance into the character. It's shocking that just 10 years earlier the same man played Serpico. Or that just 1 year prior he did Author! Author! That's why the's the GOAT. Gothic - I feared that going to later-period Ken Russell stuff would be like watching movies that try too hard to be cult hits... and that's kind of what I felt with this one. It's just not the same as his fantastic 70s escapades. There's a desperation to it. And it's kind of tiresome. The Stunt Man - REWATCH. Kinda crazy that this was an awards hit, isn't it? Good movie though. A bit all over the place but that's part of its charm. A fantastic main trio of actors is a great ace in the hole too. I see you are on a Ken Russell kick. Crimes of Passion truly is berserk. I really don't think it worked at all outside of Kathleen Turner and Annie Potts, but it was certainly a bold experiment. And it probably gave the MPAA a major headache. And Music Lovers and Savage Messiah are both some of Russell's strongest hours. Yeah, on April 13 I decided to check out The Boy Friend and that led to me watching/rewatching 10 of his other films since. And I still have quite a few in my queue: Mahler, Salome's Last Dance, The Lair of the White Worm, The Rainbow. Plus a rewatch of Altered States. As for Crimes of Passion, I think the one who endured the most headache was Russell because MPAA made him cut the movie time and time again for an R rating. Thankfully I watched the uncut director's version, and I can't imagine the movie in any other iteration. What would it even be without the scene where Turner sodomizes a cop?
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