Let's all go to the lobby - new movie thread

[edison]

mostly a cheap excuse to capitalize on Clooney's cool charm by artificially recasting him as a modern-day Alain Delon to try to pass as innovative.

yeah, that about nails it--the film's coldness had me thinking of Antonioni (and the cafe scene with the tour bus--which I actually did quite like--was what wedged The Passenger into my mind as the primary reference point), but the Melville-aping is pretty undeniable too.

On that note, I thought the scene where Clooney enters a small empty Italien café with "Once Upon A Time In The West" on the TV and watches silently for a while until the bartender sternly announces "Sergio Leone! Italian." was almost like a self-parodic aside on the movie's whole MO (like "Hey, look at my AWESOME REFERENCES!"). But yeah, the frustrating thing about it is that Corbijn's obviously not untalented, and it's quite a shame to see him use his talents on such vapidity.

x-post with pollo

[auto-da-fey]

couldn't resist the Kanye dig--I bought the new one, listened to it with open ears, and just don't get it, but no need to derail; I realize I'm in the minority, and I feel more indifference than antipathy anyway.

but yeah, I rent from a video store--TLA in Center City. it's not the most efficient way to roll, especially now that I live a walking mile away (after a year spent in close proximity), but I think of my monthly two-at-a-time fee as being in the vein of donating to a museum--given my position on these things, it'd be hella hypocritical of me not to support the place (which was a chain with three branches in the city, but this is the last one standing).

independent video places do still exist in Philly, but I wouldn't call them thriving--there are a few in the Gayborhood that seem pretty reliant on porn but still carry decent selections, TLA, and then another place near Rittenhouse that I think (hope?) is still alive. generally speaking, the video store is clearly at the attrition stage of its death throes, but these places, by virtue of location (and cruisy community use-value) stand a decent chance of surviving, I think.

x-posted--and similar scene in I Am Love, except it's Philadelphia, of all things.

[elpollodiablo]

By the by, for those of you itching to see True Grit, the screener leaked and is in the wild.

[nonotyet]

I saw The King's Speech this weekend.
if Colin Firth does not get some sort of something for it I am seceding, and also, I had no idea that this history of the royal family was so scandalous.

[Bernard]

Saw Raúl Ruiz's four hours and a half-long Mysteries of Lisbon on New Year's Day - still processing it, but I think I mostly liked it, even though it required a lot of patience, all of which I'm not sure paid off.

Oh man, he's one of my favorites. Have you seen anything else of his?

[edison]

Only Ce Jour-Là (That Day), which I remember liking! I should see more, I know - what would you recommend? The one he did with Isabelle Huppert might be lying around somewhere in the flat.

[jm]

on New Years Day, I watched The Ten, thinking that hey, The State was some brilliant comedy written by hilarious geniuses, so this shouldn't be too bad.  Man, was I wrong!  Most of the vignettes were just plain boring and unfunny, and the absolute best of them felt like skeletons of a good idea padded with throwaway non-sequiturs and tired gags.  One of the vignettes was actually about prison rape, they were so hard up for material.  So I watched all three and a half hours of Malcolm X to cleanse my palate.

[elpollodiablo]

on New Years Day, I watched The Ten, thinking that hey, The State was some brilliant comedy written by hilarious geniuses, so this shouldn't be too bad.  Man, was I wrong!  Most of the vignettes were just plain boring and unfunny, and the absolute best of them felt like skeletons of a good idea padded with throwaway non-sequiturs and tired gags. 

This is how I feel about basically everything Michael Ian Black has ever been majorly involved in.

*Although looking now I see that he wasn't involved in The Ten. But I don't much care for David Wain, either.

[jm]

dunno, man.  Like I say, I loved The State and at least loved most of Stella.  Though I think I do find him the most tiresome of all those dudes.

[davy]

Thomas Lennon and Ken Marino were my favorite Statesians, but all those folks together built up so much good will with that show than all their subsequent failures have been immediately forgiven.

When I was a freshman in college, before the days of widespread downloading and even DVDs, I bid on a VHS tape containing every episode of The State on eBay. I didn't win, but after the auction, I emailed the guy and was like, dude, I'll just buy one from you for $40. Of course he agreed, so some friends and I split the price and got our tape.

To this day, it's the only VHS cassette I've actually worn out.

[auto-da-fey]

I had no idea Oliver Stone had just made a documentary about Latin American leftist politics (South of the Border). I kind of doubt one actually needs to see it to know exactly what it contains, but since Restrepo is never in, I checked it out anyway. Might watch it today, might just forget that I didn't actually see it and return it. (Though I mean, I kind of love Oliver Stone and am sure I agree with most of what the film has to say--having generally sided with RavingLunatic in those good old Chavez debates but being too lazy to weigh in--but that makes it even less enticing, really).

[peacocks]

I recently watched Renoir's Le Bete Humaine.  It was really beautiful, I loved all the tones and train shots although the music was way over the top.  Jean Gabin is great.  I saw him once before in Port of Shadows, he's so intense.  I can't really talk about the rest because I fell asleep but it started getting a little silly.  Renoir talked about getting a non-vamp looking girl to play a vamp part but I thought the girl he got looked pretty vamp-y, I don't know.

[mixed cats]

Thomas Lennon and Ken Marino were my favorite Statesians, but all those folks together built up so much good will with that show than all their subsequent failures have been immediately forgiven.

When I was a freshman in college, before the days of widespread downloading and even DVDs, I bid on a VHS tape containing every episode of The State on eBay. I didn't win, but after the auction, I emailed the guy and was like, dude, I'll just buy one from you for $40. Of course he agreed, so some friends and I split the price and got our tape.

To this day, it's the only VHS cassette I've actually worn out.

please tell me the dude's name was Derek.

[davy]

Oddly, that was the name of my roommate at the time, who may or may not have contributed money. Same spelling and everything.

[mixed cats]

I know a guy named Derek who set up a system of VCRs in his dorm room closet to make copies of The State to sell on eBay. Haha

[peacocks]

That is awesome.

[jebreject]

I feel like I probably have some things to say about it, but overall, I did not really care for Black Swan

[elpollodiablo]

I thought it was really silly, and then I didn't think about it at all.

[davy]

I'm revisiting Children of Men this evening. Needed some solid sci-fi after a few wrong turns in that department.

[davy]

Yeah, this movie is bad ass.

[auto-da-fey]

I had no idea Oliver Stone had just made a documentary about Latin American leftist politics (South of the Border). I kind of doubt one actually needs to see it to know exactly what it contains, but since Restrepo is never in, I checked it out anyway. Might watch it today, might just forget that I didn't actually see it and return it. (Though I mean, I kind of love Oliver Stone and am sure I agree with most of what the film has to say--having generally sided with RavingLunatic in those good old Chavez debates but being too lazy to weigh in--but that makes it even less enticing, really).

holy fuck, what a limp, lazy piece of halfassery. This movie was literally made by a) Oliver Stone smoking a herb while channel-surfing, taping a few random moments of U.S. media complicity in peddling government-produced narratives of Latin American leftists as terrorist dictators, then b) driving around Latin America basically kissing the ass of any and every leftwing leader in sight. At one point, he plays soccer with Evo Morales. It is fucking embarrassing; it doesn't even work as onesided agitprop polemic--which would be fine with me--but instead exists solely because Ollie thought it would be cool to hang with Rafael Correa et al. There isn't an ounce of critical engagement, or even one challenging question posed. Pathetic. Makes me want to go read an NRO editorial about Honduras out of sheer spite.

[auto-da-fey]

man, I am not on a cinematic winning streak of late.

gotta get up early to fly north tomorrow, but might watch Spielberg's Duel tonight just to enjoy something for a change.

[G.C.R]

Better than me - I haven't even felt like watching films at all at the moment, and there's been a weird sense of obligation with which I've approached the whole task. Adoration and La Vie En Rose are both sitting there, eyeing me disapprovingly for not having watched them yet.

[Trousers and Pat]

I think I'll go see Somewhere this weekend maybe... I get a free ticket for my burfday. I feel like there hasn't been shit at the movies for a while.

[elpollodiablo]

With the release of that one, I'd say there's definitely shit at the movies again