two hours older and more tired- movies thread!

[jm]

I just saw The 400 Blows for the first time. Wow, whatta film.

Word, yes.

[Wally]

I watched the Chicago Conspiracy yesterday, a pretty great documentary on the damage neo-liberalism has done to Chilie, and the anarchist, student and indigenous resistances to the state. I streamed it from the Crimthinc website, which maybe suggests that their days of childish dumpster diving books are behind them, probably not.

[jebreject]

Crimethinc has been spot on lately, actually. Their piece on the goings-on in Wisconsin was incredibly good.

[ellaguru]

I just saw The 400 Blows for the first time. Wow, whatta film.

Word, yes.

[elpollodiablo]

That's one of those that I know I should have in my general knowledge of film but every time I put it on I get distracted and end up doing something else.

[Wally]

Crimethinc has been spot on lately, actually. Their piece on the goings-on in Wisconsin was incredibly good.

Yeah, this year they seem to have hit the target more often than not. I quite like the fighting in the new terrain article as well, but for everything like that they'll still do a capitalist pyramid scheme poster. Hit or miss stuff, but they're hitting more often that they used to.

[Ignatius]

So they're running at Arthur Penn retrospective at the theater where I work... I'd like to see Bonnie & Clyde. Any other recommendations?

They will be showing:
Bonnie & Clyde
The Miracle Worker
The Left Handed Gun
Night Moves
The Missouri Breaks
Mickey One
Alice's Restaurant
The Chase
Four Friends
Penn & Teller Get Killed

[G.C.R]

The Left Handed Gun I quite liked - a strange little film. I haven't seen Mickey One but I'm mad keen to.

[jm]

OK, for some reason (that is, I was flipping through the channels and it was on), I watched a significant portion of Apocalypto last night, and like, the whole three-times-as-long-as-it-should-be intro bit where they're playing pranks on the village dum-dum aside, I found it unexpectedly compelling and completely gorgeous. Also I'm a sucker for the Yucatec dialogue.  That said, I still didn't have the patience to watch the whole thing.

[peacocks]

I watched double life last night, about an actor who gets so into his characters that he becomes them. His leading lady is usually his ex wife and they usually get along really well and are still in love with each other. But. Their new play is Othello. RUH ROH.

The beginning was cool but the second half kinda fell apart and was a thumbs down by the end. I just got african queen and am planning to watch the maltese falcon later this week. I doubt they will do me wrong.

[fishjim]

I watched double life last night, about an actor who gets so into his characters that he becomes them. His leading lady is usually his ex wife and they usually get along really well and are still in love with each other. But. Their new play is Othello. RUH ROH.

Two of my favorite films are along these lines - All About Eve and Bergman's Persona. Also, my favorite TV drama - Slings and Arrows. God bless you, CBC.
 

I just got african queen and am planning to watch the maltese falcon later this week. I doubt they will do me wrong.

This photo of my scotch & soda was taken at the Tunnel Top, a bar that borders on the alley at the beginning of the Maltese Falcon. There's a plaque there that reads, "On approximately this spot, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade, was done in by Bridgit O'Shaughnessy."

[auto-da-fey]

So they're running at Arthur Penn retrospective at the theater where I work... I'd like to see Bonnie & Clyde. Any other recommendations?

They will be showing:
Bonnie & Clyde
The Miracle Worker
The Left Handed Gun
Night Moves
The Missouri Breaks
Mickey One
Alice's Restaurant
The Chase
Four Friends
Penn & Teller Get Killed

I love Night Moves (being a sucker for 70s neo-noir) and have adolescent affection for Penn & Teller Get Killed and Alice's Restaurant that I'm honestly terrified of subjecting to current scrutiny. Agreed with Grace on Mickey One--have long wanted to see, but never have. And I hate Four Friends with a fiery passion--an absolute piece of shit, almost worth seeing just to see how worthless it is.

[auto-da-fey]

oh wow, "shitty" is also precisely how I described Four Friends in 2006, ha.

then Andrew and I discussed Spalding Gray's porn career and hannah suggested an orgy. those were the days.

[elpollodiablo]

I just finished a paper so I'm going to smoke a bowl and watch something ridiculous from the huuuuuge backlog of downloaded movies I've got. Looks like Battle: LA it is.

[hannah]

oh wow, "shitty" is also precisely how I described Four Friends in 2006, ha.

then Andrew and I discussed Spalding Gray's porn career and hannah suggested an orgy. those were the days.

Ha! On the other hand, though, 2006 was a pretty crummy year. So, orgy or no, perhaps it's for the best those days are behind me.

[auto-da-fey]

oh, word. I mean, I only started posting here because I was miserable and isolated in Miami, and this seemed preferable to drinking myself to death in self-pity.

plus, my old partner was way too uptight for an orgy anyway. I could tell J wanted to get down, but she was all "nooo, let's stare at the walls in our well-furnished and decorated apartment, which you can see with clarity because there are absolutely no beat-up posters from 1995 punk shows marring their pristine beauty."

so yeah, onward, upward.


okay, that was a cheap shot and she's a good person who does good things etc etc etc. but still uptight and good lord let's all be thankful 2006 is far in the rearview.

[auto-da-fey]

also now I sort of feel like doing an Arthur Penn retrospective. I've never seen The Chase either, despite meaning to since like 1993.

[elpollodiablo]

I just finished a paper so I'm going to smoke a bowl and watch something ridiculous from the huuuuuge backlog of downloaded movies I've got. Looks like Battle: LA it is.

Boring as shit, is the verdict on this one.

[Ignatius]

also now I sort of feel like doing an Arthur Penn retrospective. I've never seen The Chase either, despite meaning to since like 1993.

I know it's pretty far out of your way, but if you can make it up to Westchester I can offset your transportation expenses with free tickets. Here is the schedule for the Penn retrospective. There's a lot going on in May, in fact, though I'm not sure how much of it is up your alley.

[jebreject]

I watched Science of Sleep last night. For some reason I can see that as a movie that the LPTJ hegemony hates, but I really enjoyed it quite a bit.

[milly balgeary]

I just finished a paper so I'm going to smoke a bowl and watch something ridiculous from the huuuuuge backlog of downloaded movies I've got. Looks like Battle: LA it is.

Boring as shit, is the verdict on this one.

Couldn't finish it

[Trousers and Pat]

I take it this is not The Chase with Flea and Henry Rollins?

[jebreject]

Wherein Jeb gets all wistful after re-watching the 1995 teen comedy/coming-of-age flick Angus:

It's hard to say how much of my love for this movie is based on nostalgia. Certainly some, but it's also difficult to say that I have much of a fondness for 1995, when I was myself a 13 year old fat kid who was picked on and wanted more than anything to be someone else: someone cool, someone popular. I related to Angus more than I would ever have admitted at the time, and this was an important movie for me, the same way punk rock was one of the most important discoveries of my life. It made me feel like it was okay being who I was, and that I'd survive high school and all of it. That feeling wasn't always with me, but still, the lesson of Angus--that there is no normal, that it's okay to be who you are, that sometimes the fat kid gets the girl--stuck with me. Now, 15 years later, it's hard to even remember how bad it was at the time. Re-watching Angus made me relive all those experiences, and all the torment and self-loathing and feelings of despair--and it also reminded me that through it all, I always held on to a hope that it would get better. And it took a long time, but it did. I'd like to think that at least some of that hope is owed to Angus.

But enough sentimentality. Re-watching Angus, is it a good film? How does it hold up? Well, by and large, it's an incredibly by-the-numbers coming of age story where you realize that nerds are people too, and the geeky hero overcomes the odds, gets the girl, learns some pretty important (and hard-earned) lessons about himself. There are some big laughs, but the story is pretty formulaic and none of the major plot points are going to catch you by surprise. Where Angus shines, however, is in the little touches, its eccentricities that lend to its verisimilitude, like the butch mom or the grandpa's car. Angus's relationship with his best friend Troy. Even the fact that the actor who plays Angus (and does a great job) is, you know, actually fat, and not just Hollywood fat. These feel like real people, and, while the story may be cliche, you feel for them all the more thanks to their realness. Angus gets all the little touches right.

It's not a perfect film by any means. Maybe it doesn't amount to much more than filmic comfort food. But it legitimately helped this guy, if not others, realize that it's not so bad, and that it will get better.

Plus it has a pretty killer soundtrack.

[peacocks]

Yeah, I think one of the reasons I can still watch it from time to time is remembering what it was to me when I was a kid, because my nick name on the bus in 6th grade was winnie the pooh, and I can remember all the little inside jokes and remarks from it I've quoted with friends for years. Now, the dancing scene in Troy's bedroom makes me cringe. It's kind of creepy how they went through the trouble of getting an overhead projector page thingy made of her cheer leading picture and outline all the parts of her body that are hot without ever having even talked to her. The movie is focused around other things enough- like his relationship to his grandfather, his science experiment, and with "fitting in"- that it doesn't feel objectifying for very long (even though after watching this as a 12 year old I pined for "little stomach muscles" and wondered if my "tiny hairs on the thighs" were noticeable to anyone- christ, I have watched this movie too many times). Anyway, he's not just another jerkface.

I watched maltese falcon last night! SOLID! The interactions between peter lorre and bogey were my favorite parts. Did not feel sentimental at all about the love stuff, which I like. Love all the subtleties, bogey's squints, all of it. I was going to watch african queen tonight but I got all caught up in the internet and now I'm sleepy.

[jebreject]

Yeah, Maltese Falcon is GREAT.