SCFZ

Joseph Losey's M -- an honorable attempt at updating and Americanizing the Lang masterwork. Alas, apart from some tasty 1951 Los Angeles location cinematography (especially a memorable sequence in the magnificent Bradbury Building) Losey cannot conjure the brilliance of Lang's original, nor even approach it, and I mean not come close, not by light years. Luther Adler manages some fine moments as a lush attorney.

3/10 Sit through it once, if you've a mind to. There are worse ways to spend the afternoon.

Tiger Bay (J. Lee Thompson, 1959) 8/10

The best of the dozen films I've seen from J. Lee Thompson. Great script allows for a proper development of the characters, presentation of the world they inhabit and challenges they face. A star is born as young Hayley Mills steals every scene and it is definitely one of the best child performances I've ever seen. First English-speaking role for Horst Buchholz who will go on to star in The Magnificent Seven the next year. Maybe his performance in Tiger Bay helped him land the next big gig. It was also great to see the menacing Anthony Dawson from Dial M for Murder and Dr. No. Tiger Bay, no doubt, will be on my final list for 1959 poll.

Other 1959 titles I've already watched for the poll:

No Trees in the Street (J. Lee Thompson, 1959) 4/10
Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi, 1959) 7/10
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) 9/10

101 DALMATIANS -- the Disney animation, and a generally entertaining enough effort. There's a weird lack of focus to the proceedings -- Pongo and Perdita kind of vanish from the film for a while, and the secret hero of a movie about dogs is a cat who does more than anybody else to save all those pups. OK, I guess, but there's no denying the flaming fabulousness of Cruella De Vil.

ON ICE -- an early color Disney short, basically the gang doing hijinks on a frozen body of water. There's nothing as base as a plot. It's really about the joy of motion and color and all the impossible things that animation can put on the screen, weird angles and closeups and a few magical moments of Pluto on ice skates trying to find his footing on ice. Tasty.

And then SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS -- I put it on intending to turn it off after "Heigh Ho" and so much for intentions. The delight only really flags in a couple of scenes involving the dwarfs, and the flags don't last long. After all the years of parodying, there's little in movies that is as guaranteed delightful as Snow White and her Forest Pals whistling while they work, it never gets stale. Ever. And I'm always taken by Grumpy's evolution from Woman Hater to Defender -- when the dwarfs get word that Snow White is in danger, it's Grumpy who jumps on a deer and leads the charge, and it's clear that the Witch had better not be within easy reach when he gets back to that little house.

HOPSCOTCH -- Ronald Neame's film of Brian Garfield's spy story about a career CIA agent who is rather rudely put out to pasture by new management, and decides to get even in a rather interesting way, by writing a tell-all book and sending it, chapter by chapter, to the assorted intelligence agencies around the world, and by staying one step ahead of the authorities as they, not surprisingly, try to silence him.

The movie plays up the comedy inherent in that setup, as opposed to the more serious tone of the novel. With Walter Matthau in the lead, there's some enjoyable low-key fun going on. Part of the point is the up-ending of spy and action movie conventions, but it's hard not to wish that there was just a little more spark and tension going on. Still, an agreeable hour and forty five.

6/10

countryman (dickie jobson) edwin lothan was a greek god. infinitely watchable for his presence alone, but wait there's more! rastafilm pleasures abound. feel free to dismiss the nigh incomprehensible plot as background noise at best. this one is all about watching ed be the badass jamaican dude he was (rip '16). i could watch this guy chill and grill fish and smoke all day. did i mention the more than serviceable direction? there's some damned fine shots throughout. that sequence of countryman paddling out from his rural village, encompassed by vegetation, gradually revealing the city skyline in the background. and the genre-jumping keeps things entertaining in an old-school-b-movie-level way. at one point, it actually turns into a kung fu film! seems like it should be bad, but it's really not. very far from it in fact

NIAGARA -- Noir shenanigans at the famed Falls, with the only slightly less photogenic Marilyn Monroe as a conniving tramp married to a guy with emotional problems. Is he crazy because he's married to a tramp, or is she a tramp because she's married to a loon? Beside the point. The lush Technicolor lusciousness is just lushly lush. The movie just deflates about two thirds of the way in, you'll know exactly precisely absolutely what I mean when you see it, and hell yeah do so.

The Graceful Brute (Yûzô Kawashima, 1962) - OG proto-Parasite. A most enjoyable satire, sharp and funny, could have used a more punchy final act though I prefered it to Parasite's mindless tone shift.

Ayako

i regret to say i am not sure spike lee is capable of making a great picture again. *sigh*

also why is the fucking soundtrack so annoying



delroy lindo is great but did he have to speak directly to the camera for like 20 mins. get an editor, spike lee!! guess i should've known what to expect after blackkklansman

rischka wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2020 11:52 pm i regret to say i am not sure spike lee is capable of making a great picture again. *sigh*

also why is the fucking soundtrack so annoying

yes to all of this, though i see dozens of four-star reviews from friends on letterboxd? i can't believe like half an hour of the film's runtime is devoted to people doing that two-minute long bloods handshake like fifteen times. the soundtrack choices were incomprehensible. i did like something about the cinematography though, something about the texture of the light was appealing. the script was unbearable, if i took a shot every time i heard a cliché i'd have been unconscious after twenty minutes, and i hate sitting through people endlessly bickering about nothing. fewer words, less music, completely different last act, would have been a much better picture.

Watched The Duchess of Langeais and I can only think of a few films I've been more bored by in my entire life. I need more Rivette in my life, though, somehow this dud has only inspired me to seek out his earlier work.

rischka wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2020 11:52 pm i regret to say i am not sure spike lee is capable of making a great picture again. *sigh*

It can only get better after "Blackkklansman"...

The first half hour or so of LA LA LAND, had some time to kill before something else was on and there it was and why not check it out to see if it was as bad as I remember, and well yeah. My take on it stands -- derivative, banal, and self-congratulatory in all the worst ways. Clueless in having its hero proclaim ceaselessly about how he's a "serious musician" who is deeply offended at being asked to play Flock Of Seagulls at a party, and who then spends the entire fucking movie sweating out a song that's the equivalent of the Kars 4 Kids jingle.

Another reason for me not to see it (that post is), which is something I really appreciate. Thanks.

Yeah it's junk!

Roscoe wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:12 am and who then spends the entire fucking movie sweating out a song that's the equivalent of the Kars 4 Kids jingle.

Same as A Star Is Born... keeps talking about how she has a wonderful artistic gift of expression, and "has something to say to the world" - cut to her big song co-written by 67 major label producers with lyrics that could've been done by any Nasdaq intern. But of course, err, music is subjective

with pabs, thanks for giving me more reasons not to see those films

SPOILERS

Argo was dreary and mediocre to begin with - awful, ham-fisted writing; bloated running time; non-existent characters (except for the main character, WHO HAD A SON); noble, rational (white) heroes vs monstrous, irrational (brown) villains; just boring Hollywood nonsense overall - ...in my opinion... - but more than that, good lord!! How can anyone in their right mind stomach this inappropriate, ahistorical, self-aggrandising, smarmy, and just plain obnoxious ****ican trash?

QUITE aside from the fact that Canada actually did most of the work in real life - and not only did Americans make this movie and pretend they were the real heroes, but they also went to great lengths to make it entirely clear that Canada actually didn't do anything and were only graciously allowed to take the credit so that the humble and heroic America could softly step aside and prevent any harm by appearing involved in the matter - quite aside from the fact that America needs to take credit for all stories, ever (e.g., single-handedly winning both World Wars)...

America obliterates Iran's (finally) flourishing democracy, undermining the freedom and autonomy of its people and paving the way for it to become a disgraceful abomination of what it should have been; a horrible religious dictatorship ruled by a psychopathic zealot under which rights are arbitrary (or for women, non-existent). So, a lovely gift from the world police, plunging some 100,000,000 lives, past and present, into this fundamentalist nightmare.

...Cut to 2012, when Mr. Affleck makes a Best-Picture-winning inspirational drama about a crisis in Iran - only rather than the one we just described, it's the one in which 6 sweet American souls are in jeopardy at the hands of brown Muslim savages who evidently want to charge them en masse and tear them apart like cannibals just because they're innocent Americans. But there's of course a happy ending, as the noble individuals escape that ****hole country and everyone lives happily ever after. Well, except for the 40,000,000 Iranians still living under a dictatorship (which, 40 years later, still has no end in sight) engendered by the USA. But they don't have American flags waving in their green-grass backyards, so fuck 'em! (The good little lone civilised Iranian who helps them out gets, for her trouble, to escape as a refugee to the lovely country of Iraq, in a heartwarming little scene showing she's still OK!)

Am I on drugs? Am I missing something? It's not that I'm in any way surprised by this foolery, and particularly mad about this movie, but in a hypersensitive world in which everyone chastises and protests and cancels anything remotely (potentially-perceived-as-)insensitive - c.f. Green Book - ...no one has a problem with movies like this? Absolutely no one is ever offended by all these American circle jerks rubbing it in the faces of their victims they've royally fucked up, and over, for the past century? Maybe in 2023 this stuff will start to be cancelled, and Argo will be seen as the modern Birth of a Nation or something... until then, I'm going back to watching Taken 15, in which The Entire World Kidnaps All American Daughters so they just bomb every single other country on earth so they can finally live in peace already, unperturbed by freaky foreigners (where's :shiftyeyes: when you need it?)

Not a hill I want to die on, particularly, but I saw La La Land in the cinemas twice and enjoyed it thoroughly on both occasions. The leads are attractive and charming, I liked how authentically mediocre their singing and dancing was, and the ending is nicely melancholy.

and i thought argo was pretty good. didn't care for la la land though, and couldn't stand the new a star is born

IN A LONELY PLACE, seen for the first time since being seriously underwhelmed a couple years ago, and I'm still underwhelmed. The film only rises above mediocrity in one brief moment, where Bogart suddenly gets very menacing, he just conjures danger out of thin air, it's really very rermarkable and is the only interesting thing in this dull little flick.

flip wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:42 am

rischka wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2020 11:52 pm i regret to say i am not sure spike lee is capable of making a great picture again. *sigh*

also why is the fucking soundtrack so annoying

yes to all of this, though i see dozens of four-star reviews from friends on letterboxd? i can't believe like half an hour of the film's runtime is devoted to people doing that two-minute long bloods handshake like fifteen times. the soundtrack choices were incomprehensible. i did like something about the cinematography though, something about the texture of the light was appealing. the script was unbearable, if i took a shot every time i heard a cliché i'd have been unconscious after twenty minutes, and i hate sitting through people endlessly bickering about nothing. fewer words, less music, completely different last act, would have been a much better picture.

Spike Lee movies tend to look good, so that isn't surprising. His films have been characteristically messy since the mid 90's though, with few exceptions. Sometimes the mess works, but lately it has resulted in mediocre films; and by lately I mean the better part of the last 20 years.

I haven't seen the new one yet--I wanted to watch it this weekend but I forgot to update my Netflix account--but it looks more like a typical meandering Spike Lee 'joint' than Black Klansman, which was almost anonymous in terms of style.

Elena and Her Men: finally got around to watching this. Looks great and Bergman is surprisingly good in a comedic role. The accusation that it's a fairly lightweight retread of Rules of The Game is pretty much correct, and there isn't much to it, despite some sly political commentary that isn't really developed, but I did enjoy it, especially formally. The use of colour is excellent as expected. Renoir was amazing with colour. 6.5/10

MrCarmady wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 11:40 am Not a hill I want to die on, particularly, but I saw La La Land in the cinemas twice and enjoyed it thoroughly on both occasions. The leads are attractive and charming, I liked how authentically mediocre their singing and dancing was, and the ending is nicely melancholy.

The mediocre singing and dancing was what it was, and I thought Ms. Stone was better than mediocre -- it was the stark staring utter all caps underlined BANALITY of the script and score that appall so completely. I might have been offended by the less than stellar musical performances if I thought the material demanded any better. We're not talking Sondheim Rodgers or Gerswhin here.

Roscoe wrote: ↑Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:30 pm it was the stark staring utter all caps underlined BANALITY of the script and score that appall so completely

And on top of it all the banality was complemented by totally banal directing as well. That's the real sin for me: bad directing, every minute of the film.

^^Agreed -- Chazelle's attempt to disguise the abject emptiness of the enterprise with flashy camerawork and bright bright colors and more flashy camerawork (I swear if I never see another camera take a dive into a pool it'll be too fucking soon) is the real final nail in the coffin.

JEZEBEL -- Wyler's tale of a headstrong Southern belle who keeps getting more than she bargained for, with an absolutely brilliant Bette Davis as Julie Marsden and that block of wood known as Henry Fonda as the utterly unworthy object of her devotion. Handsomely made and acted, with more than a few wince-inducing bits of dated racial representation. Pretty good overall. Must say I much prefer THE LITTLE FOXES.

prefer the letter

last watched sombra verde (gavaldon 1954) sweaty ricardo montalban in the jungles of vera cruz resolves into the usual tempest adaptation. wish it was in color

had been meaning to rewatch lester's robin & marian since the lester poll (which seems absolute ages ago now). it's a lovely movie, and a strange one. there's almost no "plot" in a way - robin comes home from the failed crusades, reunites with marian, stages a relatively small rescue attempt, and makes a final and obviously doomed stand in sherwood forest before (spoilers i guess) marian poisons herself and robin at the end.

ride the high country seems busy by comparison; there are some typical wonderful grace notes and attention to detail but lester isn't using the same kind of obsessive foreground/background staging he usually goes for. it's a movie very much centered on the central performances - connery, hepburn, nicol williamson, robert shaw, all selling goldman's script far better than some of the flowery dialogue choices might warrant.

rewatched shanghai blues thx to nrh

THE IRISHMAN again, needed something with an I.Q. in a hurry after an appalled look at an appalling gameshow on Netflix called FLOOR IS LAVA, and there was THE IRISHMAN in my queue, and I fell right in and am glad I did, as I always am with this one. Watched in two sittings, the first up to the great Testimonial Dinner sequence, and the second the next day from that point on. The tension is inevitably lessened a good deal watching it this way, there's just no doubt about it, and I won't make that mistake again. Repeat viewings make some of the CGI stuff a little more apparent, there's one bit where a glass door is shattered is really shoddily done, and a couple shots of De Niro look like a badly retouched photo. Whatever.

mirai (mamoru hosoda) couldn't figure out whether to post this in the animation station thread or the japanese cinema thread, so when all else fails fall back on the last watched thread: hey y'all, this one was really good! beauty without sterility. a warm film full of life between the artifice. the sort of grounded realism that it flirts with at the beginning reminded me a bit of takahata's only yesterday, but then it goes slightly spirited away, except the world in which the main character comes-of-age isn't a fantastical plane, rather a timeline of past, present, and future. this is my first hosoda - so can't speak to summer wars, or his other work - and i was impressed throughout. compositions are of course pristine, but so are the pacing and editing. it's a fluid work that should seem full of stop-starts with its shift in realities, but it all comes together wonderfully. can't say enough about how convincingly they capture children of a certain age. the movements, motivations, actions, reactions, etc., of a young child have rarely been captured as well through animation imo. wanna rec this for umbugbene cuz of his (and my) most recent appreciation for c/o kancharapalem; if c/o envelopes an expansive universe that whittles itself down to a realization of singularity, mirai at first embodies a very singular world that moves toward a larger universality, each equally impressive in how they get there, and eventually supremely rewarding in the emotional payoff. also particularly rec'd for kanafani (if he's lurking) and papa jerry (if he's alive), and anyone else who might have (had) children. also also rec'd simply for peeps who like movies