truth 24 times per second: the new movie thread

[difficult]

Actually I really kinda liked Sleepless, in a Davy-ish sorta way - it felt like a greatest hits thing. And who in their right mind expects any decent narrative elements in a Dario film? And I really like Phenomena, that most nobody else seems to care for as much - way more than Suspirira.

[coldforge]

just finished Il Conformista. It was pretty good. Fascism just gets me all hot to trot.

[SPACERACE]

looking forward to southland tales

[elpollodiablo]

Same here

[auto-da-fey]

First movie today: A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine. Gaby thought she was ready for Jess Franco, but three minutes into Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties she exercised her veto power (not on the grounds of the film itself, but rather the 8th-generation-dupe picture quality [well, that and the bad dubbing and unremovable Scandinavian subtitles], something any dedicated Franco fan is well used to). So instead it was this, my second favorite David Friedman movie (after The Defilers), a 1966 grindhouse gem about a manipulative sex kitten who meets her violent comeuppance after ruining some lives, full of dialogue like "I might be a bitch, but I'll never be a butch." To my delight, Gaby enjoyed it, though she wasn't quite dedicated enough to pop on the great commentary track immediately afterward.

Then: Foxes. 1980 coming-of-age movie with Jodie Foster, Cherie Curry, Scott Baio and others negotiating adolescence in the San Fernando Valley. Decent stuff, certainly less alarmist than Thirteen, but I'm really not sure what inspired me to willingly watch an Adrian Lyne movie.

[auto-da-fey]

Actually I really kinda liked Sleepless, in a Davy-ish sorta way - it felt like a greatest hits thing.

This is an awesome way of putting it, though it doesn't make me like Sleepless any more.

Also the repressed-homosexual stuff kinda mars The Conformist, but yeah, it's still a mighty work.

[milesofsparks]

omg, why the hell was dangerous beauty in my netflix queue?  I think I lost a whole sector of brain cells watching that.  bleah.

[elpollodiablo]

The Darjeeling Limited kind of blew

[jebreject]

The Darjeeling Limited kind of blew

wrong

[Mike24]

I agree with the first assessment.  But i probably read way too many reviews before seeing it.  the only part that really got me was Adrien Brody's line when the kid dies in the river, something to the effect of 'I lost mine'. Also, the Indian train ticketguy/securityguy was very great.  Other than that, the story wasn't particularly compelling and the characters weren't believable or interesting.  visually, it was beautiful but that's not really good enough.  on a rating of one to wow i give it a meh.

[hannah]

American Gangster was ugly and horrendously boring.

Not enough Idris Elba or Chiwetel Ejiofor, too much of Russell Crowe pretending to be Jewish and from New Jersey; dude, not even in En-Jay do we have that kind of accent!

[hannah]

What movie should I see by myself today?

Michael Clayton
Control
Anatomy of a Murder

I most want to see the last of the three, but I don't know if I'll be ready by 1:30, which is the only time it is playing.

[edison]

I haven't seen any of those three, but my order of preference would definitely be Anatomy>Control>Clayton.

[auto-da-fey]

Clayton>Anatomy>Control, for me

[hannah]

I'll drink some coffee, get some work done, and see if I can make it to Anatomy.

Clayton would be good to see alone, though. Control I'll see later this week. YEAH.

[lastclearchance]

Not enough Idris Elba or Chiwetel Ejiofor,

Yes. But the perfect amount of Josh Brolin.

[elpollodiablo]

The Darjeeling Limited kind of blew

wrong

At some point I'll write out my thoughts on the film, but for a quick snark:
After the second long, half-speed tracking shot set to pop music, I thought to myself: "This is the second one of these in less than ten minutes. You've got one more before it becomes self parody."

There were three more.

[kadiekatRN]

What movie should I see by myself today?

Michael Clayton
Control
Anatomy of a Murder

I most want to see the last of the three, but I don't know if I'll be ready by 1:30, which is the only time it is playing.

I saw Control, and it was pretty good, definitely worth seeing.

[elpollodiablo]

Michael Clayton was just amazingly good. Not transcendent, but setting the bar higher as far as that genre goes, definitely.

[Lalitree]

I saw Darjeeling Saturday night. Mike24, I think the line was "I didn't save mine", which I thought was pretty moving (and spoiler-y since it's pretty much a turning point in the story's arc). Like I said in my little review elsewhere, I can't help it, I love Wes Anderson and all his predictable, overdone slow-motion walking scenes set to music.

[Mike24]

eep, sorry about the spoiler.

[auto-da-fey]

Top five Argento films: 1. Deep Red 2. Tenebre 3. Suspiria 4. Bird with the Crystal Plummage. 5. Opera.

For some reason I've been mulling this over all day, off and on. My list wouldn't look much different. I'm not too committed to the precise order here, but I think I'd have
1. tie: Deep Red / Suspiria (the conventional wisdom sometimes being actually wise, I guess)
3. Bird with the Crystal Plumage
4. Cat o' Nine Tails
5. either Tenebrae or Inferno, with Stendhal Syndrome at 7.

[auto-da-fey]

also I'm not totally oblivious to contemporary cinema; I almost went to see We Own the Night at the $3 theater today, but then I got all motivated and did actual work instead. Which I'm sorta regretting now, because Sunday is really the only day when it's feasible to park by that damn theater without paying, which defeats the point of a $3 theater.

[Greg Nog]

T-minus two days until I get to see Southland Tales and oh my goodness gracious I am psyched.

[elpollodiablo]

Two days? Does it open Wednesday?