MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES! ACK!

[G.C.R]

I'm tutoring for the course on horror movies I took a couple years back, which means I am watching lots of them again. Man, Slither is a whole lot of fun!

[monkeypants]

I saw "Chico And Rita", the Oscar-nominated animated flick, last weekend.  It's got a nice look (kinda reminded me a bit of Ben Katchor at times, at least the backgrounds) and a terrific Afro-Cuban jazz soundtrack by Bebo Valdez, but the story is a pretty old-fashioned and I found my attention wandering when the focus wasn't on music.  Decent entertainment. 

[jebreject]

I wanted to see that just for the animation, which looked astounding.

[Good Intentions]

Saw my first Almodóvar a couple of nights ago, The Skin I Live In. Firstly, it looks gorgeous - the colour in particular is just astounding, and you can see how the director and his cohorts paid careful attention to keeping a certain palette all throughout the movie. Secondly, the performances are unadorned but very powerful. Thirdly, it didn't make much sense, especially once I started to think about it a bit the next day. So, a tight meditation on a topic it is not. A way to blast some striking imagery into your skull - that it is. I'm lead to believe that this is typical of the man's work?

[edison]

That was my first (and still only) Almodovar as well, a few months ago! I also was impressed for the reasons you mention - and yeah, tight meditation it certainly isn't, I guess I enjoyed it more as a supremely well done B-movie - I really liked the relentlessly depraved atmosphere.

I kind of wish I'd hated it though, because I'd been telling everyone I hate Almodovar for years, mostly because I always find him insufferable in interviews.

[Trousers and Pat]

In a way I wonder if this lingering doubt (I hate him, but I liked this movie) makes you hate him even more?

[edison]

It kind of does, but I'm slowly working on getting over it.

Hoping to be able to make time for Panahi's The Mirror tomorrow!

The only recent film I saw was Les adieux à la reine and that was boring.

[jebreject]

Watch more of his films! They are great!

[auto-da-fey]

I'm lead to believe that this is typical of the man's work?

my take, oversimplified but I think fundamentally accurate: The Skin I Live In is typical of his past decade, which emphasizes big, swooping, Cinemascope-era tropes and styles, a lot of Hitchcock/Grand Guignol/classic Hollywood type stuff. I found Volver vastly overrated but enjoyed Broken Embraces a hell of a lot more than expected.

His work breaks down roughly into the three decades he's been at it--though there are strong continuities all the way through. His 80s films--my favorites--are the most queer-in-a-queer-theory-way, full of willful and flamboyant perversity. Matador and Law of Desire are my favorites.

In the 90s, he kinda lost steam, and a lot of the stuff from that decade feels like retreads of his greatest-hits moments. Kika, while a minor film, has a nice dark meanness to its humor that I appreciated, but really you can mostly skip this decade. I like Tie Me Up Tie Me Down too, but partly because it was the first NC-17 movie I saw, and I was mad crushing on Victoria Abril in middle school.

The other thing I think about Almodovar--and I'm not trying to be contrarian here, it's just how I feel--is that his best-received films tend to be the least interesting: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Talk to Her, Volver, I'm not so into, even though they've become his iconic work. I say start with the early 80s, and largely stay there.

Bernard may be along shortly to punch me for saying all of this.

[edison]

The other thing I think about Almodovar--and I'm not trying to be contrarian here, it's just how I feel--is that his best-received films tend to be the least interesting: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Talk to Her, Volver, I'm not so into, even though they've become his iconic work.
 

You may have a good point there - these films you mention, though I'm sure some of them are good or at least not worthy of hating, always screamed "overrated" to me, while some of the lesser known ones sound much more interesting. Really I'm waiting for a big screen retrospective to delve into his filmography, but that hasn't happened in Strasbourg yet.

[hannah]

Hoping to be able to make time for Panahi's The Mirror tomorrow!

God, I love this movie.

Edit: This is Not a Film is coming to Chicago next month. I cannot wait.

[edison]

Hoping to be able to make time for Panahi's The Mirror tomorrow!

God, I love this movie.

That seals it, I am definitely going.

[hannah]

Seriously, if I were to start grad school all over again, wipe away all the research I've done towards totally different topics, I'd probably do a dissertation on Kiarostami and Panahi. For now, though, I am content with being a fan.

Really curious what you think, edison!

[G.C.R]

This is Not a Film is screening here in a couple weeks as part of the World Cinema Showcase. That, Margaret and the new Paradise Lost doco are the only things in it that i'm interested in seeing.

[Good Intentions]

Thanks for the Almodóvar run-through, adf.

[peacocks]

Saw a separation yesterday, loved it! All of the actors were brilliant, it barely felt like a movie.

[milly balgeary]

Hunger games. Hello lots better movie than twilight

[davy]

Hunger games. Hello lots better movie than twilight

This is absolutely true. Still fails at Storytelling 101, but that falls to Suzanne Collins.

[elpollodiablo]

It was pretty good, I thought! It's not really surprising that it made a shit-ton more money than Twilight, is it? The premise itself would seem to be more appealing to a broader audience than "pretty vampire seduces mopey teenager"

[milly balgeary]

Hunger games. Hello lots better movie than twilight

This is absolutely true. Still fails at Storytelling 101, but that falls to Suzanne Collins.

You mean show not tell? Yeah. Hahahah. I think my fav part of the movie was when they were training at catniss tells the boy that those people were looking at him like he's a meal, and she tells him to pick up a spiky thing and throw it to show how strong he is. It's hilarious because the whole "he's strong" thing is not only a terrible, ludicrious way to set up the climax, but it's also hilarious because he picks up this big spiked metal thing and throws it, and it's maybe the single most useless weapon in history and why would they have that there? Why would someone throw giant spiked pillows? And the reaction of the badass district professonal killers was hilarious... one of them, cato, says, "not bad".

[davy]

Also, there's the ending, where Suzanne Collins very clumsily attempts to pull the rug from under the reader (the first rule change), and then even more clumsily attempts to slide it back into place (the second rule change). Seriously one of the most awkward plot twists of all time.

Because really, why would you want to pull the rug out in the first place? You have incredible amounts of tension already! Katniss will have to kill Peeta! The first rule change obliterates that tension -- destroying the most compelling narrative element of the entire story -- and that's something you can't get back by simply changing the rules again. Not that she doesn't try.

[nonotyet]

you guys Katniss is spelled with a K, okay

[davy]

Noted and corrected. I was wondering.

[nonotyet]

 

[elpollodiablo]

Also, there's the ending, where Suzanne Collins very clumsily attempts to pull the rug from under the reader (the first rule change), and then even more clumsily attempts to slide it back into place (the second rule change). Seriously one of the most awkward plot twists of all time.

Because really, why would you want to pull the rug out in the first place? You have incredible amounts of tension already! Katniss will have to kill Peeta! The first rule change obliterates that tension -- destroying the most compelling narrative element of the entire story -- and that's something you can't get back by simply changing the rules again. Not that she doesn't try.

This is almost exactly what I said to D when we were leaving the drive-in.