saw a talkie at the picture show: new film thread

[G.C.R]

Have you seen the first one, Milly? I've entertained thoughts of watching it, but really, since I know what its about and I don't really expect it to be very good, I can't really be arsed. Did the second look just super disgusting, or more like super bad?

Anyway, I just watched 12 Angry Men for the first time, and I was pretty much expecting it to be, but jeez, it's pretty good, isn't it? 

[Good Intentions]

Yeah, quite.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

yeah, that film was just consistently enthralling throughout - i've never seen anything quite like it

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

(i am not talking about the human centipede)

[milly balgeary]

Have you seen the first one, Milly? I've entertained thoughts of watching it, but really, since I know what its about and I don't really expect it to be very good, I can't really be arsed. Did the second look just super disgusting, or more like super bad?

Anyway, I just watched 12 Angry Men for the first time, and I was pretty much expecting it to be, but jeez, it's pretty good, isn't it? 

the first one's actually pretty funny. i mean, it's gross, especially the climax, but it's definitely tongue in cheek. i only sampled this movie but i mean... oh my god.

[auto-da-fey]

oh man, 12 Angry Men reminds me that one tradeoff I made in getting into this whole relationship shindig was the effective abandonment of my crazed Sidney Lumet restrospective.

I mean, it was a good deal--making goo-goo eyes indisputably beats watching Sharon Stone play a Gena Rowlands role in an ill-advised Cassavetes remake--but still, I do kind of regret not following that one through.

[auto-da-fey]

this friend of mine wanted a human centipede 2, and so I downloaded it. I sampled it to make sure it was working when I burned it onto a dvd.

From my sampling I conclude that this is the fucking worst imaginable film. I'm absolutely horrified. Whit, please come wrap me in a blankie. I mean, we've both been down less travelled paths, but don't watch this.

milly, I'm not sure what you'll think of me for this, but I have treaded far from the Human Centipede path, such that the latest movie netflix sent me was . . . Warrior. after months of scoffing at every top ten list containing it, curiosity finally got the better of me. haven't seen it yet, but maybe tonight.

though as far as films to avoid goes, I recently saw Red State and hated every single second of it. probably my least favorite film of 2011, and one that comparatively escalates Jersey Girl and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back in the ever-dwindling filmography of Kevin Smith. what an utter piece of shit.

[jebreject]

Yeah, one of the worst movies I've ever seen by a long shot!

[elpollodiablo]

One of Babs' top ten of the year, I believe

[G.C.R]

My boss thought Red State was awesome, which is 95% of the time a reason to avoid avoid avoid.

Last night I watched this Raoul Walsh western, Pursued, starring an incredibly sexy Robert Mitchum. Its... real pulpy and sleazy, almost like a Sam Fuller picture, where the main love story is between Mitchum's character and a woman who was raised as his sister. And no one seems to blink an eye that they've gone from being siblings to suddenly clearly being desperate to bone each other and get married asap. Anyway, there's lots of hate and women getting turned on by shooting guns and family killing each other and hidden pasts and blood feuds and patriotism and then (spoliers) it turns out at the end that mama was a big ho and it was all her fault. It was really fun!

[jm]

Red State ... Kevin Smith

oh man, I didn't realize that Red State was a Kevin Smith movie.  Well, I already had no interest in seeing it, but now I know I'd feel justified in that had I not heard anybody's reviews.

[auto-da-fey]

Warrior, on the other hand, choked me the fuck up, in a way movies about meatheads pummeling one another really shouldn't be allowed to. But its emotional impact felt earned--never cheap, never sentimental. In some abstract world where cultural capital corresponded perfectly to actual taste, I'd scoff at the thing and leave it for my Palin-supporting relatives. In this world, I'm not sure there was a film nor directed by Bela Tarr that I preferred to it from 2011.

I mean, Mark Isham's laziest score (saying something there) ever is a pretty inglorious way for the credits to roll, but otherwise this would give your chosen fight films of all time a run for their money. I had, like, actual tears at the end.

[Dick]

Red State was really, really bad.

You know the fact that most nominal liberals have an ill-concealed and shockingly vicious hatred of poor rural whites is hardly news, but between seeing Red State and this whole furor over that Bell Curve guy's new book has really driven the point home for me.  I was reading some article on the New Yorker whose thesis was something like, "This guy may be an asshole, but he's right: poor rural whites really are shiftless layabouts who do nothing but father out of wedlock children, smoke meth, go to jail and have poor dental hygeine."

[auto-da-fey]

I did appreciate the courageous stand Kevin Smith took in having the John Goodman character say on the phone "No, they're not Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church," presumably to avoid a lawsuit. Nothing like a pointed critique of what barely qualifies as a strawman and is then further distinguished from its obvious reference point, leaving a residual condemnation of . . . well, like, imaginary red states, I guess.

Sadly, not even the dick jokes were funny, and that's really Kevin Smith's home turf.

[auto-da-fey]

oh, and Grace, that was great on Pursued. I saw that years ago on VHS, and now I wanna see it again.

also, is Day Night Day Night worth seeing? for some reason I only vaguely remember it existing, but something led me to it and its en route from my library soon.

[jebreject]

Red State was really, really bad.

You know the fact that most nominal liberals have an ill-concealed and shockingly vicious hatred of poor rural whites is hardly news, but between seeing Red State and this whole furor over that Bell Curve guy's new book has really driven the point home for me.  I was reading some article on the New Yorker whose thesis was something like, "This guy may be an asshole, but he's right: poor rural whites really are shiftless layabouts who do nothing but father out of wedlock children, smoke meth, go to jail and have poor dental hygeine."

My co-worker and friend is one of these liberals. A whole lot of disdain for poor/uneducated people in general. And I don't want to start A Thing but it's really fucking hard for me to refrain from saying, dude, those are my people. That's where I come from. You need to STFU before I punch you.

[milly balgeary]

Warrior, on the other hand, choked me the fuck up, in a way movies about meatheads pummeling one another really shouldn't be allowed to. But its emotional impact felt earned--never cheap, never sentimental. In some abstract world where cultural capital corresponded perfectly to actual taste, I'd scoff at the thing and leave it for my Palin-supporting relatives. In this world, I'm not sure there was a film nor directed by Bela Tarr that I preferred to it from 2011.

I mean, Mark Isham's laziest score (saying something there) ever is a pretty inglorious way for the credits to roll, but otherwise this would give your chosen fight films of all time a run for their money. I had, like, actual tears at the end.

me TOO. I was like...TOMMY!!!! That national song got in my rotation. i admit to actual tears also.

[Thermofusion]

I also liked Warrior a lot!

I mean, Mark Isham's laziest score (saying something there) ever is a pretty inglorious way for the credits to roll, but otherwise this would give your chosen fight films of all time a run for their money. I had, like, actual tears at the end.

Hahaha

There's an intermittently-interesting book called The Score: Interviews With Film Composers, in which a number of the interviewees (John Barry, Thomas Newman, Howard Shore, among others) are asked about their musical inspirations. And, for the most part, they cite, you know, Stravinsky, Penderecki, Bernard Herrmann, respectable guys like that. But there's a telling moment in the Mark Isham interview where, when asked about his biggest compositional influence, he blurts out "THE SECOND WEATHER REPORT ALBUM"

[elpollodiablo]

Red State was really, really bad.

You know the fact that most nominal liberals have an ill-concealed and shockingly vicious hatred of poor rural whites is hardly news, but between seeing Red State and this whole furor over that Bell Curve guy's new book has really driven the point home for me.  I was reading some article on the New Yorker whose thesis was something like, "This guy may be an asshole, but he's right: poor rural whites really are shiftless layabouts who do nothing but father out of wedlock children, smoke meth, go to jail and have poor dental hygeine."

I think that's a slight mischaracterization of the New Yorker piece, which was essentially saying that Murray's arguments, while all repugnant, were trying to address  real hardships and endemic poverty. I didn't at all get the tone you're describing, and I'm super sensitive to that usually.

[Babar]

One of Babs' top ten of the year, I believe

That's right, I really liked it. Warrior was in my bottom 10.

[jm]

Red State was really, really bad.

You know the fact that most nominal liberals have an ill-concealed and shockingly vicious hatred of poor rural whites is hardly news, but between seeing Red State and this whole furor over that Bell Curve guy's new book has really driven the point home for me.  I was reading some article on the New Yorker whose thesis was something like, "This guy may be an asshole, but he's right: poor rural whites really are shiftless layabouts who do nothing but father out of wedlock children, smoke meth, go to jail and have poor dental hygeine."

I think that's a slight mischaracterization of the New Yorker piece, which was essentially saying that Murray's arguments, while all repugnant, were trying to address  real hardships and endemic poverty. I didn't at all get the tone you're describing, and I'm super sensitive to that usually.

Same here

[Trousers and Pat]

Last night I watched this Raoul Walsh western, Pursued, starring an incredibly sexy Robert Mitchum. Its... real pulpy and sleazy, almost like a Sam Fuller picture, where the main love story is between Mitchum's character and a woman who was raised as his sister. And no one seems to blink an eye that they've gone from being siblings to suddenly clearly being desperate to bone each other and get married asap. Anyway, there's lots of hate and women getting turned on by shooting guns and family killing each other and hidden pasts and blood feuds and patriotism and then (spoliers) it turns out at the end that mama was a big ho and it was all her fault. It was really fun!

That sounds great, I'll have to see if the library has it

[Trousers and Pat]

only just now recovering from my ill-advised decision to watch the bitter tears of petra von kant for valentine's

but I saw this claire denis movie Nenette and Boni last night that was pretty good, especially the vincent gallo baker cameo. Vincenzo!

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

you know what is a movie and sucks? tiny furniture

[peacocks]

Last night I watched this Raoul Walsh western, Pursued, starring an incredibly sexy Robert Mitchum. Its... real pulpy and sleazy, almost like a Sam Fuller picture, where the main love story is between Mitchum's character and a woman who was raised as his sister. And no one seems to blink an eye that they've gone from being siblings to suddenly clearly being desperate to bone each other and get married asap. Anyway, there's lots of hate and women getting turned on by shooting guns and family killing each other and hidden pasts and blood feuds and patriotism and then (spoliers) it turns out at the end that mama was a big ho and it was all her fault. It was really fun!

That sounds great, I'll have to see if the library has it

I've read about that movie! Sounds good. Wasn't that one of Ava gardner's first movies?