"Not the art of scholars but of illiterates." (new movie thread)

[Nick Ink]

After 432 consecutive viewings, Wall-E was replaced in my house by Bolt. In an ironic life-immitating-art turn of events, my children now actually seem to believe that they are characters in this film. For the past 3 days, Ellie has been growling even more than usual and I have only been able to get Grace to respond to me if I call her 'Penny'.

[alex]

I know you don't need random people on the internet to point this out to you, but your daughters are awesome, Nick.

[Nick Ink]

[davy]

Went to see Moon last night. The movie was fantastic, and I got to drink beer in the theater. Double score. Jeb, thanks for the heads up on that one.

[Maaik]

Went to see Moon last night. The movie was fantastic, and I got to drink beer in the theater. Double score. Jeb, thanks for the heads up on that one.

that's playing at one of the theaters downtown--I've been wanting to go see it.

[davy]

The plot twist took me completely by surprise. Pretty intense.

[girl]

If you like the idea of Beatrice Dalle attacking people with large scissors and also like buckets of blood, Inside is the movie for you. (I'm not sure why Netflix thought I would like this one.)

[Andrew_TSKS]

I haven't watched any movies for a while, but the other night when I was depressed I tried to watch several, and could only make myself stick with one, that being David Mamet's "Heist," from 2001. Apparently Mamet sucks now, or so the general consensus goes, but I'm not sure whether eight years ago is recent enough to count as "now," especially since I liked this movie. It's full of plot twists and confusing incidents in which things are not as they seem, as any really good crime film should be. Also, it has pretty great dialogue, which I expect going into a Mamet flick but it's always reassuring to find it. It's one of those stories about a longtime criminal, Gene Hackman, who decides to retire but is forced to do one last big score before he can. A shady mob guy, Danny DeVito, is expecting a big payoff from the last score, but Gene Hackman wants to keep all the cash for his own retirement fund. This is a cliched setup for a crime film but if the specifics are handled right it's a plot I never tire of, so with Mamet on his game for this film I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I'm not gonna say everyone will have the same experience with it I did, because "Heist" contains several different elements that I'm a complete sucker for, but I definitely think it's worth a shot.

[milly balgeary]

man. i'm wondering if i should go bag the harry potter movie today.

[Andrew_TSKS]

So, last night I saw Val Lewton's "Cat People." I thought it was pretty great, especially for a 40s B horror film. Lots of proto-noir stuff going on in the direction, which made sense when I realized that the director, Jacques Tourneur, also did "Out Of The Past." Anyway, I wrote a blog entry about it, which you can read here. I thought there was some pretty interesting proto-feminist subtext embedded in the film, and that's what a good bit of the blog entry is about. Check it out if you're interested, I guess.

[alex]

edison and I saw that movie a few years ago in Strasbourg, with Sylvain Chauveau playing a live soundtrack. The problem was just that they'd turned off the original sound, thus relying entirely on the French subtitles. I was kind of annoyed by it, so I spent the first twenty minutes or so mostly staring down at my feet and treating it as a concert (the fact that I like Sylvain Chauveau, and am not much of a movie aficionado, certainly did its part). Then I realised that actually, between the fact that the subtitles weren't all that complicated and the fact that there wasn't all that much dialogue, I could actually follow the movie just fine, but I never quite got over the feeling that I must have missed something. (I did miss some of the background story about her village, certainly, but I got the basic idea.) Did seem like a cool film, in any case, and your blog entry is making me want to watch it again now.

[Andrew_TSKS]

You should, I highly recommend it. Obviously.

When I saw Pere Ubu do a soundtrack for "X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes," I thought they'd turn off the sound, but they didn't, and instead you could hear 90% of the movie at least, with Pere Ubu just doing ambient noise behind it. I liked that a lot better than what I thought I was gonna get. Also, I'd have been up shit creek at that performance you're talking about, because I don't speak a word of French.

[girl]

Nice write-up, TSKS! I rented both versions a few years ago and had trouble deciding which I liked better. It turned into a bitter battle in my head between my love of the 1940s vs. Nastassja Kinski with David Bowie singing the theme song. (The original is probably better.)

man. i'm wondering if i should go bag the harry potter movie today.

I haven't seen it yet either. Maybe I'll also go today.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I'm sure I will eventually see the Paul Schrader version, but I felt I owed it to myself to see the Val Lewton version first. I feel like, for a horror movie fan such as myself, his movies were a big gap in my awareness that I needed to fill. I'm glad I did so.

[G.C.R]

If you're continuing on the Tourneur track, motherfuckin' I walked with a Zombie!

[Daniel]

I saw Stóra planið (The Higher Force) last Thursday.  An Icelandic comedy, it was very patchy but charming, with dialogue in Icelandic, German and English.  They tried to have it both ways with an emotional plotline involving the  protagonist's brother and the comedic elements, but they didn't succeed at striking a good balance.

Harry Potter 6 yesterday.  Of course it's not faithful to the book but it was an OK movie.  I found some of the early scene transitions very jarring but it got better.  Michael Gambon's still a shitty Dumbledore.  Way too forced.

[mountmccabe]

I liked Moon but after the fact flaws in the story have killed my revelry.  I enjoyed it whilst watching because Sam Rockwell was fantastic and inside the station were so good and because it lets you ponder fun things but I don't think I'll be able to watch it again with anywhere near the same wonder.


I also just saw The Hurt Locker and thought it was pretty great.  It did a lot of things right and was compelling throughout.  It does have a number of war movie cliches but I think it survives that.

[mountmccabe]

Also!

a screening of Mishima that I missed

I know this movie came out 25 years ago but whoah!  Maybe loving an author does not necessarily mean that I'll love a movie about him but I am going to try to sneak this into the roommate's Netflix queue.



Also it is good to hear the talk of Mamet and Heist.  I remember enjoying it without really loving it when it came out.  Also I don't know of any consensus that he isn't any good any more though he has been more quiet on the directorial front.  I have his latest, 2008's Redbelt sitting in the Netflix instant queue but haven't pulled that trigger yet.  Hmm.

[G.C.R]

I went to see Four nights with Anna the other night. i liked it - despite the nonlinear narrative , which was necesscary to the story but was pretty confusing at times, and a pretty brutal rape scene (really not good with those.) But overall, a spooky, bleak, sad, desolate little film, with some moments that manage to be sweet and funny in spite of that - think Lars and the Real Girl sort of socially dysfuntional character, but placed in the decidedly noncomedic lonliness of abject cold and poverty in Poland.

Lord though, it was in the Te Papa theatre, which is The. Most. Uncomfortable. theatre that I have ever been in. There is not enough leg room for 5'4" me, so my 6'3" boyfriend was sort of struggling - add to this a wealthy looking middle aged couple right behind us who provided running commentary and needed to be told to shut up twice - it was all "Oh! Is this a horror movie?" "Look, snow." "She's going to make a cup of tea." Grr

[jebreject]

I liked Moon but after the fact flaws in the story have killed my revelry. 

What flaws? PM if you like.

[Andrew_TSKS]

If you're continuing on the Tourneur track, motherfuckin' I walked with a Zombie!

Well, "Curse Of The Cat People" is on the same DVD, so that's next, but I'll move to that one afterwards, because fuck, it's a Roky Erickson song, I HAVE to watch it!

[Thermofusion]

Going to see Whatever Works tonight, am more stoked than the reviews would have me be

[elpollodiablo]

Any of you guys seen this Danish film called Flame & Citron? I saw the trailer before Moon and was really intrigued and lo and behold it was available on Time Warner On Demand. Pretty good period action/drama in the American mold; I probably thought more highly of it since they weren't speaking English. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see this remade with Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrel, Clive Owen, Rachel Weisz, &c. A couple of great performances, especially the dude who played Citron. If those two guys did even half the shit that's detailed in the move IRL, they were hard as nails and cold as ice.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Going to see Whatever Works tonight, am more stoked than the reviews would have me be

Crap, I meant to see this, and now it's not at the theater near my house anymore. I can get a cheap ticket tomorrow, so I may go to see either "Public Enemies" or "The Hangover" instead, though really "The Hangover" is more of a catch-it-on-DVD movie, so if I'm not enthused for "Public Enemies" I probably ain't going.

Damn.

[edison]

Going to see Whatever Works tonight, am more stoked than the reviews would have me be

The other day, while I was sleep-deprived and rather depressed, I decided to go see this to have some distraction, but about 30 minutes after it started, I had to get up to pee. Only too late did I realize that I had walked through the wrong door, and I was locked out of the movie theatre (that door only led to an exit in a backstreet, so I could theoretically have come back through the front door at the expense of missing three or four minutes of the movie, but I was too pissed off at my own stupidity to even consider it). I was actually really disappointed by the first half-hour I did manage to see, but since I hate starting movies and not finishing them, I'll have to pay another ticket to finish the damn thing one of these days. Let us know what you thought!