I'll have to check this out. I usually like Egoyan's work.

Entertaining is just that-- you liked the film because it made you think or you liked the story or it made you cry or the art direction was great or whatever. In this context your 'entertainment' was marred because you found Goodfellas 'posturing'. I do not know if your criticisms of Ray Liotta's performance contribute to that particular verdict, however.

I found The Departed to be filled with posturing. Not Goodfellas.

Little Children: I'm still plugging away at 2006, hoping to get to 50 movies seen (Two away), and this was my most looked-forward-to, yet still-unseen flick. And it did not disappoint. I don't know if I'm completely onboard with calling this a suburban satire, though portions of it are definitely delightfully satiric. It's the story of two couples, where the wife from one family (Kate Winslet) feels trapped and alone until she meets Brad (Patrick Wilson), the husband from the other family, and they begin an affair. This affair is set against the backdrop of a neighbourhood where a pedophile, Ronnie (Jackie Earle Haley) has recently moved back in with his mother. The whole thing is chock full of great performances: there are of course the two Oscar-nominated ones, Winslet, and Haley, but there are also the two overlooked roles: Noah Emmerich as Brad's old friend Larry who reconnects with him, and obsesses over the pedophile as a way of salvaging his life in crisis, and Phyllis Somerville as Ronnie's mother, who is possessed of an uncommon inner strength to defend her son, regardless of what he's done. Terrific film.


The Spirit of the Beehive {El Espiritu de la colmena}: I always check TCM on Sunday nights because they seem to show random foreign movies at that time that you never see at any other time of the week (I missed Tokyo Drifter when I was sick, but caught some of Seven Samurai in recent weeks), and I hadn't heard of this one, looked it up on IMDB, and decided to watch it based on the praise some gave it. Now having watched it, I'm not sure I can really give it much of a description. It's about a family in 1940s Spain that has grown distant from each other. The mother and father hardly talk, no one seems to pay much attention to either daughter. Together, the daughters see a screening of Frankenstein. When one daughter asks the other about why Frankenstein is killed, the other daughter explains it was fake, and that Frankenstein lives near them. They frequen an old abandoned building, looking for Frankenstein, and generally pass the time away. Later, when someone comes to live at the abandoned building, the youngest daughter, Ana, befriends him. It is beautifully shot, and looking it up on IMDB, the cinematographer was beginning to go blind, which I can believe becase The Spirit of the Beehive can be watched almost as a catalogue of beautiful images that he sought to get down on film before his eyesight gave out. It is amazingly slow-paced, but there's enough to look at, that it should never really get you down. I'm really glad I saw this.

I guess what I'm asking for in my own thumb-fingered way is for you to define your terms. What do you mean by 'posturing'. The laundry list you had earlier doesn't really spell out 'posturing' to me. But I don't understand your term, so I am likely in the dark here.

... In my opinion this was laughably bad. Terrible acting on everyones part and just a ridiculous plot on the whole. However, there is quite a bit of nudity, which is nice.


I need to see this about 10 more times before I even have a solid opinion on it... twisted.

WKRP In Cincinatti

I really hate the fact they had to change the original music. Fortunately, the characters and writing are still flawless.
Hilarious stuff!

How is this possible?


Just saw this. It's incredible, quite possibly his best film (and I hated it when I saw it a few years ago!)

sounds interesting
i saw it at the library today. will probably borrow it next time i go there

This is the only Lynch movie that I have gone out of my way to see more than once. Barring the straightforward yet moving The Straight Story, I think it's his most approachable work.

i rather like "mulholland drive" too. the soundtrack to it is very very good. really spooky, obviously.
my host mother took me to see it when it came out. it was a bit akward watching the "lesbian" scene though, cos she was this almost an angel like type old lady. i bet she was a bit horrified, although she didn't say a thing.

I need to pick this up.

looking at that picture, I wonder how anyone ever thought Loni Anderson's Jennifer was sexy.
It's all about Bailey Quarters

yea, i've always preferred bailey over jennifer. she's like the godmother of indie fashion.
no feist without bailey --> martha quinn.

word.

it's been a rosy past couple of nights in my apartment, just peaches and cream watching this stuff.

At the Height of Summer by Tran Anh Hung (2000)

visually this was very beautiful. vietnam looks gorgeous (or at least the parts that the director showed, i suppose). so full of colour and it's all in exact proportions. they story itself was ok, mostly about family relationship, infidelity and such. but it was all mixed up, because of the stories of 3 sisters, so you only understand what's going on at the very end. but the ending is somewhat trivial, so the whole confusion feels kind of unnecessary, maybe. didn't work very well for me.

here's an interesting quote from the director where he talks about the film a bit:


it was cool though to see vietnamese culture. rituals. everyday behaviour. women talking about how they think a man's penis would taste like if you fry it with garlic. hmm. yeah. that was kind of odd.
oh, and the soundtrack was pretty cool. the velvet underground and some arab strap. very fitting songs, which they chose to play for evey morning scene where one of the sisters would wake up.

Enjoying a little brainless-yet-fun late-night TV with:



the Odd Couple

And just like that - the theme is stuck in my head. La-da-dee-da-dee-daaaa...Da-dee-da... Da-dee-da-daaaaaa....

You. Bastard.

Awful. Just awful. Slow. Stupid. Boring. Kevin Spacey should be forced to regrow his hair and then scalped for this one.

Happily N'Ever After--the wife watched it one night while she was stuck with Baby Daniel. Said it was lame. I won't bother trying to watch it, either.

more interesting--->

Mr. Arkadin (aka Confidential Report)--Never heard of this Orson Welles production until I happened to find it at the library. A bizarre story of intrigue, secrets and dirty dealings--where everyone has a price for information...this was apparently never officially finished or released as Welles had wanted. Well worth a look for anyone who loves Welles, it's quite interesting to see what he could do on his own with meager than usual production values (although the location shooting in Spain and elsewhere is fantastic).

Criterion goes nutzoid with this one, by providing a boxset of all extant versions of the film with commentaries and supplements galore. Because Chicago Public Library separates its boxsets into single disc checkouts, I have only seen the "Corinth Version" and plan to rent the others in the set out of historical curiousity.

People always associate that music with the TV show when 'The Odd Couple' theme was written for the 1968 film version and used there. Composer Neal Hefti will turn 85 later this year. He wrote the Batman TV theme as well.

The Sacrifice
by Andrei Tarkovsky

probably my least favourite tarkovsky's film out of the 5 or so other films that i saw by him.
a nuclear was is about to happen, and this man asks god to stop it. in return he promisses to sacrifices all he's bound to life by: his family, house, friends.

the first part was rather good. i liked all the dialogues and monologues a lot. the middle part was kind of borring. and the final part sort of came out of nowhere. i mean, the movie led to it, but it all happened all of a sudden without much deliberation.

and i didn't like the acting in that film that much. especially, the female lead roles.

but overall it was good.

solaris

*sigh* it was on cable. I taped it. I never bothered seeing this because I knew it would be basically a horrible remake of the original by Tarkovsky-and it is! Soderberg can be so hit or miss it drives me nuts sometimes but I had to watch it... I had to be reminded that this might be the dumbest thing outside of remaking 2001 or Citizen Kane.

or Psycho.

You. Bastard.

Wazzamatta, Ox? Did they kill Kenny?

i'm not sure where this belongs but i just found out about this and have to vent my frustration: somebody (ies) need to die for making 28 weeks later. i have soo little respect for it i refuse to use italics for the title. fuck you.

Children of Men

Thanks to the SOMB for this one - I had never even heard of the film until I saw it being heralded among these very web pages. So I thought... Huh. Let's check this out. Probably one of the best sci-fi flicks ever - certainly one of the most serious attempts ever produced in the genre. The only flaws are quite minor, ie: [spoiler]it seemed consistently easy for the characters to find escape routes throughout the film, even tho civilization was falling apart. You'd think that the sheer number of people running for their lives would have gridlocked every place to run. And some of the quieter scenes seemed to drag a little, but that could just be due to the incredibly high intensity of the action sequences[/spoiler] - which were phenomenal. Viciously powerful stuff, with hardly a hint of the usual cliche'd subplots that tend to ruin 99% of sci-fi movies. The art direction + sound design alone are worth the price of admission. In short: check this one out.

Aftershock OTM.
Surprisingly good movie.

I agree, the art direction was extremely effective. It really succeeded in creating a little world of its own.

I wish they had toned down the allegorical elements though. It was The Nativity Story for film buffs. Joseph and Mary in a dystopian future carrying a baby savior who spurs everyone that sees him to mutter 'Jesus'.

^

yea, not a big fan either. though i did enjoy the scene [spoiler]that superman stopped the plane and the crowd erupted with applause...and i thought to myself, i bet tjenz really enjoyed that moment too.[/spoiler]

Talk to Her
by Pedro Almadovar

this was really good
i'm surprised that i liked it, considering my somewhat negative view of spanish cinema.

i'm fucking sad now

wtf is with artem watching all the good movies.

I have been on a big Lou Diamond kick for the last week. So, tonight I decided to watch that piece of crap...Dakota. Goodumit, this movie was more unpleasant than Rosie O'Donnell's halitosis. It's like a dork or retard could have directed this movie, not one of those intellectuals from Hollywood. I think the fucker who directed worked on the Barney the Dinosaur show. Shit, this movie was ultimately responsible for derailing Lou Diamond's career. I guess 1987-1988 were Lou's golden years.

our library has a decent collection of world cinema. too much stuff, unfortunately, is only available on vhs, but there're a few good titles on dvd too. so i'm catching up on a lot of things these days. cinema is definitely becoming as much of an addiction to me as music has became.
i miss having the opportunity of attending cinema courses as an undergrad. i guess i could sit in in some classes here, but "studying" cinema on your own has its benefits too.

lolz
one of the few moments of that movie that I did enjoy

Yeah, I might have to agree. I was stunned at how many people lined up to praise this when it first hit the theaters. It started off OK, but quickly fell apart. Even when [spoiler]Luthor discovers that Lois' kid might be the son of his worst enemy, and a mix of human / Kryptonian at that - he does NOTHING with this information.[/spoiler] What an unforgivable waste of a brilliant opportunity. Looking back, I'm sure the filmmakers are saving that little tidbit for the sequel, but it made no sense for an opportunistic character as intelligent as Luthor to simply file that on the back burner.

Ahem. Anyway - looooooook what I just got in the mail:



Get Smart - the Complete Collection

Bye, bye summer! Now I have something fun to while away the uber-hot Vegas summer (much like I used to look for things to while away the uber-cold Chicago winter). Hee Hee!

Jerry Springer - The Opera

Blind Bought this based off the critical acclaim (Amazon.co.uk has it for 3 pounds now!)

So funny, foul

EDIT: the wiki entry led me to find that the stage production opens May 14 in Chicago at the Bailiwick Repertory

the 70's dimension.
bunch of ads from the 70's. fucking hell, the Folgers Coffee ads were still subservient as a mofo' in the way they treated the woman. lead dude from 7th heaven you should be ashamed! but yea, good for background noise @ a party.

I must get this immediately. Been on a 70's kick lately... dunno why.

one of my favorite horror movies here. been a while since i've seen it and the proclamation stands. i imagine what is great about this film may be lost on the Hostel generation. not that i'm against the achilles tendon being cut...i love that shit. but most horror movies today pay little attention to anything more than the absurdity of a horror scene. dead waters (aka dark waters) is one of those horror films that pulls you in with everything from camera angles, set design, costume, sound, lighting, cinematography...all of it sets the mood. i'm winnin'.


if you are in 70's mode, it will def.ly hit the spot. soo many gems found here but i won't spoil any of them. damn...70's talk always takes me back to vanishing point. gotta get on that.

Mirror
by Andrei Tarkovski

pretty good film. a wonderfully shot collage of childhood memories, thoughts and inspirations.

Volver

Great Mother's Day movie, I'll be throwing it a few points in the 2006 EOY Retread

i saw this earlier this year, and I was so geeked to see it, but i really couldnt stand it after about 30 minutes.

what did you think?

i watched this film today
it does feel pretty long and sort of tedious for the most part of the film. only at the very end, at the criminals' trial is where it gets interesting, i think.
i rather liked the ending, cos from what i understood, the state's court gave the killer death sentence too, just like the criminals' court. i really like how that part was handled in the film. it's short, seems unclear, but you do get the point of what has happened.

i can't say that i like Lang's films that much. i watched one part from the dr. mobuse series, which was all right. i liked it much more than "m". it was sort of funny in places, and just in general, the plot wasn't as dull and slow moving as it was with "m".

has anyone seen "metropolis" by the way? is it any good?

Are you people high? M is awesome! Looking at it and the early 1930s Dr Mabuse film really makes clear what a huge influence on Hitchcock he was.

Metropolis is great but don't expect break neck plotting. It's worth watching just for how much 20th century iconagraphy Lang pioneered.

that's cool, but do i always have to think about what other people took from something else and made it better/famous?