truth 24 times per second: the new movie thread

[auto-da-fey]

hey coldforge, you know where i picked up that unseemly term? HERE. so, you know, fuck you and all.

[coldforge]

so? most of the shit around here is unseemly. don't act like i walk around like some kind of anglophile 16 year old, all greasy ponytail and reciting lines from holy grail in mixed company

[jebreject]

zach, there's no need to talk about GI that way

[jebreject]

(i know, i know, that joke only sorta makes sense)

[dieblucasdie]

Actually, that's more jordanmichael.

wot wot

[Good Intentions]

I remember when JM dropped into the TV thread once and claim that all the good TV shows are made in England. That was pretty ill-considered.

[jebreject]

I don't believe that ever really happened!

Or are you making a joke?

[Good Intentions]

No, god-honest truth.

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, I remember that.  He was being over-enthusiastic about "The Office" IIRC. 

[Greg Nog]

I totes use maths to count my legos

then I post on the internets


TIS BUT A SCRATCH

[Maaik]

I happened upon this documentary about Klaus Nomi, I'm watching it now.  There's this awesome footage of him performing on SNL with David Bowie.

[Greg Nog]

I own that!  The Nomi Song!  I was flipping through the channels late one night, and clicked on a live performance of "Total Eclipse" on New York public television.  I'd never even heard of him before, but I was immediately entranced.

[auto-da-fey]

I thought The Nomi Song could have used a bit more candor in exploring his sex life, but it was still one fascinating documentary. For my part, my throat cold spread to my head last night, and it was all I could do to sit on the couch and zone out to a movie. The 1976 Italian crime flick Cop in Blue Jeans fit the bill perfectly--a nonstop onslaught of fisticuffs and car chases, executed with pulpy verve. Plus Jack Palance shows up for a while as a villain; I'm kind of fascinated by those years from the 60s to the early 80s when Palance was basically set adrift in cheap European movies, before his apparent exile from Hollywood ended. Also, this DVD seemed cut--no way there was no swearing, bloodshed, or nudity in this thing--but I was less distraught than usual because I bought it at the 99 Cent Store, and I drifted in and out of consciousness during it anyway.

[auto-da-fey]

Then this morning--still feeling under the weather, but more fully conscious--was The Offence, a 1973 Sidney Lumet film with Sean Connery as a cop who beats a child molestation suspect to death. Bleak stuff, with incredibly drab imagery, and pretty haunting--Lumet was on one incredible roll for a while there, and between this and The Hill in 1965, he helmed all two of the films I've ever actually admired Connery as an actor in.

[YojimboMonkey]

Darby O'Gill and the Little People not good enough for you, eh?   

[elpollodiablo]

What about Goldfinger goddammit

[auto-da-fey]

I mean, I'm 100% sure that the distinction between "actor" and "movie star" is ontologically as useless as the concept of authenticity, but I don't care, I use it anyway. Connery strikes me as good at the latter, generally insignificant as the former.

[elpollodiablo]

Your mother is ontologically useless

[lastclearchance]

I own that!  The Nomi Song!  I was flipping through the channels late one night, and clicked on a live performance of "Total Eclipse" on New York public television.  I'd never even heard of him before, but I was immediately entranced.

what up New York Noise

[auto-da-fey]

I'm not sure if being sick makes me emotional, but I must have cried about five or six times during The Ground Truth. It's a documentary about American vets returned from Iraq, and it emphasizes psychological fallout as much as physical damages; cinematically, it's nothing great, being shot like a TV news doc, but it devastated me regardless. I'm not sure how much of my reaction is intertwined with my feelings about the effects serving in Vietnam had on my father, or even my concerns for my cousin Chad, who's in Iraq now, but whatever the case, the movie ended an hour ago and I'm still reeling from it.

Also sometimes I can barely contain my absolute hatred for the inhuman fucks who begin these wars. Just thinking about them makes me seriously question my opposition to the death penalty.

[Maaik]

What am I watchin right now?

Motherfuckin THRASHIN.

[auto-da-fey]

Going for the three-peat day, since illness has sort of immobilized me most of the day: The Gift. Not that naked-Katie-Holmes movie, but a 2004 documentary about "bug chasers," young gay men who seek HIV. It manages to avoid being too depressing, but it raises valid criticisms of how some segments of the gay populace have handled the AIDS crisis through denial and a misplaced valorization of seroconversion. As with The Ground Truth, the agitprop value here outweighs the cinematic elements per se, but I'd still recommend it to anyone.

[difficult]

could have used a bit more candor in exploring his sex life

Is there a movie you don't think suffers from this problem to some extent, Whit?

[auto-da-fey]

could have used a bit more candor in exploring his sex life

Is there a movie you don't think suffers from this problem to some extent, Whit?

Hmm, fair question. Sex: The Annabel Chong Story and Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes I thought proved sufficient on this front. Otherwise, yeah, it's a pretty ubiquitous problem. What can I say, I find people's sex lives interesting. 

That said, it did have a special relevance to the Nomi documentary, because IIRC, he continued to cruise the meatpacking district in the early 80s, even after sex had been identified as the primary means of transmission for AIDS. Some of his friends in the film seemed candid enough, so I would've liked to hear more about his mental framework regarding this situation--how he perceived his risky behavior, and what it meant to him. It was still a fascinating movie, though.

[Greg Nog]

Wasn't he already dead when the documentary was made?