Multiple Cinegasms

[auto-da-fey]

Since I can find neither the real movie thread nor Jeb's inferior complement, this can serve as makeshift replacement, at least for the time being.

I finally saw The Departed last night, which I liked despite two strongly mitigating factors: its running time, which functioned to preclude sexin' because my lady gets up at 5am and it ran past midnight; and my unreasonably dogmatic loathing of American remakes of foreign films--a general rather than categorical principle, but one which taints films like this for me nonetheless.

All told, I thought it was roughly equal to Infernal Affairs, but not better. That film mined its moral ambiguities more subtly, whereas the good guy/bad guy lines were a bit more clearcut here. Still, I absolutely loved the last ten minutes, and while I agree with pollo's complaints about Jack, Mark Wahlberg more than made up for his excesses. Overall, it captured the feel of a tough 1950s crime drama, which strikes me as a good thing, but I don't quite see where all the critical acclaim comes from.

[girl]

Too bad about the missing threads, I really liked jeb's movie thread.

I finally got to see Knocked Up.  I liked it about as much as everyone else did. 

[jebreject]

Going to go see the matinée tomorrow.   

[diesel_powered]

Dear Will Smith,

YOU BETTER NOT FUCK UP ON THE REMAKE OF THE OMEGA MAN.

F'reals,

M

[YojimboMonkey]

Dear dp,

It is a foregone conclusion.  Sorry, dude. 

[auto-da-fey]

There was more manliness on my TV screen in the past two hours than I think I've personally emanated over the course of a lifetime, with Peckinpah behind the camera and Steve McQueen in front, but Junior Bonner turned out to be an understated, meditative film nonetheless. It has that ambling structure that I love about 70s cinema, and an absolutely persuasive sense of quiet resignation--not quite desperation (I wanted to compare it to the bleak John Huston boxing film Fat City, made in the same year [1972], but I think that one was desperate, this one not)--with McQueen as an over-the-hill rodeo star attempting to resist pressure to become a corporate lackey and market his cowboy image. As a general principle, I find the rodeo hideous and that laconic-tough-guy ethos ridiculous and destructive, but I'm also willing to suspend my disbelief/taste and become completely engrossed in such a narrative. Few have done it better than this one, which makes it kind of sad that apparently nobody ever watches it--Netflix has some pretty obscure shit, but not this.

[girl]

You know, I never got Steve McQueen.  He's like this all-time uber-masculine icon, but I just don't see it.  I was like this with Al Pacino until I saw Godfather II--then he clicked for me and I can understand the appeal.  Which Steve McQueen will do that for me?

[diesel_powered]

Dear YJ,

I know.  :-(

[Trousers and Pat]

we can just pretend Doomsday is the remake.

[auto-da-fey]

You know, I never got Steve McQueen.  He's like this all-time uber-masculine icon, but I just don't see it.  I was like this with Al Pacino until I saw Godfather II--then he clicked for me and I can understand the appeal.  Which Steve McQueen will do that for me?

Have you seen The Getaway? If yes and it didn't do it for you, I'd say just abort mission, because it pretty much epitomizes the essence of McQueen cool. Papillon is also a good place to start, or Bullitt, of course. Looking at his IMDB page, I'm realizing I haven't actually seen that many of his films, but another I'd recommend is Baby, the Rain Must Fall. It's been ages since I've seen it, but it was one of my dad's favorites and I remember bonding with him over that and Dirty Harry movies back in the day. Which probably won't add much to your McQueen investigation, but you know, adds a piece of adf family history into the mix.

[girl]

That's the one with Ali McGraw, right?  Not recently.  I'm willing to give it another go.  Thanks!

[hannah]

I just saw a bunch of short films by the director of Syndromes and a Century, Tropical Malady, Blissfully Yours, et al. I had never been to REDCAT before. It's unofficially more uncomfortable than the upstairs theater in Anthology Film Archives. Wow. The movies were excellent, however.

I might see a matinee of Oceans 13 tomorrow, because the Vista is a good theater, and it's within walking distance. Ah, life!

[difficult]

Wow. more apitchapong stuff, Hannah! Cool! My country sucks sometimes. Ill never see those, I imagine

Rewatched The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant w/t n/f the other night. I remembered very well the aggression, the edge, the fever dream nature of it, but I didn't quite remember the glasslike, brittle physical beauty of the cinematography, and the astonishing, shocking cuts that blast across the otherwise slow, mesmerising scenes. The cuts between scenes are just as astonishing. RWF was the subtlest unsubtle fucker.

And Irm Hermann is so unbelievably great in it too.

We did Fred Keleman's Fate as well. Probably no-one knows it but for GCR, this really devastating pre-digital video feature, set in the bleakest Berlin in the early 90s, directed buy on of Bela Tarr's cameramen. So tough, so harsh, it was (really) a fun time.

[edison]

So, after years of going to theaters on my own, I finally saw a movie all alone (meaning there was no one else in the 150-seat-room) on Thursday. I was kind of looking forward to it, because practically everybody I've met has had the experience already, even if they've seen less movies than I did. It was nice and quiet and it happened thanks to Catherine Breillat's new film, Une vieille maîtresse. Which was pretty good, too, if not majorly brilliant.


Seriously though, it's kind of worrying that nobody shows up in the theaters this year - but it's been such a poor year for cinema so far that it's sadly understandable.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Dear Will Smith,

YOU BETTER NOT FUCK UP ON THE REMAKE OF THE OMEGA MAN.

F'reals,

M

i find it strange that it's taken until the third movie version of this book for someone to use its original title.

meanwhile, i hear that the main villain of the actual book isn't even in the movie, so at this point i'm absolutely certain that this adaptation will suck donkey balls. then again, it's not like "the last man on earth" and "omega man" were good or anything.

[Andrew_TSKS]

You know, I never got Steve McQueen.  He's like this all-time uber-masculine icon, but I just don't see it.  I was like this with Al Pacino until I saw Godfather II--then he clicked for me and I can understand the appeal.  Which Steve McQueen will do that for me?

unlike adf, i'm just gonna straight up say it's "bullitt" and leave it at that. because seriously. that's what it is.

[nonotyet]

I think I am going to see "Once" tonight. Anyone seen it/hear anything?

[heather]

watching the x-files movie for the approx 200th time (not joking, i'm real serial about txf) today. i still can't watch the scene in the hallway. stupid shipper-ness.

how come every time mulder swears, it's like, incredibly stupid hott?

[hannah]

watching the x-files movie for the approx 200th time (not joking, i'm real serial about txf) today.

Come to Los Angeles, please, and bring it with you.

I tried to listen to Vince Gilligan's commentary on "Small Potatoes." How is the man behind the best episodes (after Darin Morgan, natch) so damn boring? I bet even John Shiban could muster up a joke once and while.

Oh, I saw Oceans 13. Is Soderbergh the reincarnation of Tati? I'm thinking this is his Playtime, in a way; but then, I didn't like Playtime all that much, so who knows? Oceans 13 is what someone else might call "a fizzy little pop confection." That's another term for a small Coke, I think -- or what you'd order at the concession stand and slurp up before the trailers end. I'm being disingenuous. Who else thinks Linklater and Soderbergh should mud wrestle? Come on, don't be shy!

[girl]

You know, I never got Steve McQueen.  He's like this all-time uber-masculine icon, but I just don't see it.  I was like this with Al Pacino until I saw Godfather II--then he clicked for me and I can understand the appeal.  Which Steve McQueen will do that for me?

unlike adf, i'm just gonna straight up say it's "bullitt" and leave it at that. because seriously. that's what it is.

Then I revise my original statement to say "I don't get Steve McQueen period", because I have seen Bullit.

NNY, be sure to report back on Once.  I've heard it's cute, but not from anyone I trust.

[auto-da-fey]

You know, I never got Steve McQueen.  He's like this all-time uber-masculine icon, but I just don't see it.  I was like this with Al Pacino until I saw Godfather II--then he clicked for me and I can understand the appeal.  Which Steve McQueen will do that for me?

unlike adf, i'm just gonna straight up say it's "bullitt" and leave it at that. because seriously. that's what it is.

Then I revise my original statement to say "I don't get Steve McQueen period", because I have seen Bullit.

With all due respect to Andrew, I advise ignoring his opinion here. I do like Bullitt, but if McQueen's cool there, he's fucking liquid-helium-cold in The Getaway, and it's a better film. While it is entirely possible that you just don't get McQueen, I don't think you can conclude that without further exploration.

Sayin'

[cool banana]

I saw Borat. It was rubbish.

I liked when he threw the bag down and the sound editors made like there was a chicken in the bag. That was it.

[Trousers and Pat]

I saw Karate Bear Fighter earlier today.
And while I was relieved that they didn't use a real bear, I have to admit the guy in the bear suit looked pretty silly.

[auto-da-fey]

When a film opens with blood flecked against a wall and rats chewing on a corpse's face, it pretty much has my heart from scene one. Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye does just this, and adds vampirism, semi-incest (if cousins count), madness, and a random orangutan who seems to have wandered in from a nearby shoot for "Murders at the Rue Morgue" or something, to boot. It's all a bunch of keep-it-in-the-family killing in a secluded castle, with not only a nubile Jane Birkin but even Serge Gainbourg filling out the cast, and while it doesn't exactly rise above gothic giallo genre conventions, there's something about atmospheric European 70s dreck that I just can't resist.

[jebreject]

Oh, I think I may have neglected to mention that we saw Knocked Up today.  It was atrocious.  I hated it.  Worst, most vile, disgusting movie I've seen in quite some time!