Saturday, November 12, 2016

Weekend Open Thread


40 comments:

  1. Now I need to see Mad Max: Fury Road again. That leviathan of a movie became an instant classic for me. It feels like a modern version of the good 80s blockbuster (and the 80s went from 75 - 95, right?), which is great and which was intended. Awesome...

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  2. In a few hours, I'm hopping on a bus and will be on my way to Night Visions, a genre festival in Helsinki, for an all-nighter (9pm to 9am). This year I went with all new stuff, I've got tickets to The Love Witch, Arrival, Yoga Hosers, Don't Kill It and Beyond the Gates. That should take my mind off things.

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    1. Report back on Don't Kill It. I'm looking forward to that one.

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    2. im excited about this too, Demon killing Dolph!

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    3. That reminds me -- anyone who has the El Rey network should watch the all-Dolph marathon they have going on this weekend. There are still good things in the world.

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    4. Beyond the Gates just finished. Of the movies I saw, Arrival was the best, but Don't Kill It was undoubtedly the most fun. It's gory, it's funny, Dolph is great and the movie looks amazingly good.

      Overall, had a great time. Of the five movies, four were good to great. The other one was Yoga Hosers. And that's coming from someone who kinda loves Tusk.

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  3. Oh, I also wanted to mention that A Monster Calls is definitely one of my favorite movies of the year. I went in knowing very little and it really floored me. Having watched my mom lose the battle to cancer, I could relate to the story (although, unlike the central character, I was thankfully grown up when it happened), and the movie just expressed something I had deep inside myself. It was a beautiful, cathartic experience for me, but may not be that for anyone else.

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  4. Been a tough week, but I'm taking solace in THE TOXIC AVENGER series, which I'm watching for the first time. #ToxieForPresident

    Also going to hit the B&N Criterion sale for some retail therapy.

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    1. is it me?

      I went into a B and N in florida and I thought it was really expensive? I bought nothing though there was loads I wanted, they did have a good choice but the prices were a bit steep for me

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    2. Their usual retail prices are really high for movies, but their twice-annual Criterion sale is the time to buy those titles. Most can be had for under $20.

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    3. Thanks for the tip, Rob! I was able to pick up In Cold Blood, The Freshman (Harold Lloyd), and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. On reflection, I realize that is something of an odd combination. I likely won't watch In Cold Blood on the same night as the other two.

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    4. Nice! I ended up going with Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place. Felt oddly appropriate.

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    5. That sounds more reasonable, cheers, i need to time a holiday with B and N sales, what a weird BreXtro world we live in

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    6. I went the first day of the sale, but I had to go back again this week. Both trips combined, I picked up Seven Samurai, Broadcast News, Easy Rider, Scanners, Blow Out, Moonrise Kingdom, Modern Times, and The Killing. Winter break is going to be busy.

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  5. I was lying around this morning feeling blue, so I turned on my tablet to find a movie to lift my spirits. I've been in a musical mood lately, so I settled on 2007's "Hairspray," a film I had never seen before. Serendipity can be wonderful indeed, because I could not ask for a more inspiring figure than Tracy Turnblad (played beautifully by Nikki Blonsky). I was particularly moved by a scene between Tracy and her father. Tracy talks about having lived in a bubble for years, because she believed that fairness was something that just "happens." She realizes that fairness and justice is something individuals need to fight for, every day. So it is, and so it has always been. You fight the good fight, Tracy. And so will I. And so will we all.

    Also, it's a damn good movie. Check it out!

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    1. Yes! Hairspray is insanely good. The choreography was so good on such a big movie scale it reminded me of Grease. It's smart, hilarious, and relevant.

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    2. Seconded. One of the most pleasant surprises in my moviegoing experience.

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  6. gladiator

    somewhow i felt like watching a fiction about the wrong leader getting elected to a big country and then get his due

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    1. Come on...I know JT promised sunshine and rainbows forever, but it hasn't been that bad?

      BTW, Gladiator is a long time late-night-I-know-I'm-falling-asleep-soon movie for me. Love that movie. Also love the Robin Hood (2010) movie. Anything with Russell Crowe. Damn, I might have been the only person who liked Body of Lies...but I do.

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  7. Damn, I actually laughed at the pic and video pic this week. Thanks, we here in New York City could sure use a laugh... well, 76% of us anyway. :-)

    The day of the election I actually went to Film Forum to watch a 2-for-1, both-new-to-me double feature of Hitchcock's "Saboteur" (except for the Statue of Liberty being really dull and anticlimactic, awesome flick!) and Leo McCarey's "Duck Soup" (my first Marx Bros. flick and it's freaking hilarious, I haven't laughed this hard in ages; suddenly the ZAZ sense of humor makes more sense to me than ever before). The title of the series Film Forum was running: 'DEMAGOGUES.' :-(

    They were showing "Citizen Kane," "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Manchurian Candidate" after last Tuesday, but suddenly the idea of watching these still-classic movies after you-know-who's victory on the 8th just felt like rubbing salt on a still-fresh wound. Haven't been able to force myself to watch anything, movie or TV, since Tuesday night. Would rather spend every free minute working or keeping my mind on other things rather than face reality. Although I'm of half-a-mind to watch 1983's "The Day After" or 1942's "Citizen Kane" for a little morbid R&R for the next four years. Welcome to "Cold War II: The Sequel." God, I need a hug. :'(

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  8. On YouTube, I managed to watch Paul Schrader's Light of Day (1987) with Michael J. Fox, Joan Jett and Gena Rowlands. It's a miracle this film has still been on that site considering it's never on DVD probably due to music rights issues. Fun fact: the title song was written by Bruce Springsteen.

    And last night, I chose to watch a film on Netflix that Patrick recommended back in April which is Blink (1994) with Madeleine Stowe and Aidan Quinn.

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  9. Everyone should watch The Bees (1978) on Shudder. After that, watch The Happening and realize you were wrong about it and send an apology tweet to M. Night.

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    1. Sticking up for The Happening? I like it! That movie may not be "good" but it is wildly entertaining.

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  10. Just watched DePalma's Blow Out for the first time.....really great. I hope it's not an overreaction, but it's maybe my favorite DePalma so far. I have a really strange history with DePalma, first movie of his I saw was I think Dressed to Kill when I was maybe 7 (not a great idea, btw). But then when I was a teen, I watched his popular stuff and was super mixed on them. Love Mission Impossible, like Carrie and Carlito's way. Don't let like The Untouchables, REALLY dont like Scarface. Snake Eyes and Mission to Mars are movies, that's about all I remember. However, hearing Patrick talk about him for a few years now, I'm attempting to go through as much of his catalog as I can. Watched The Fury (great) and Passion (not great) on Netflix. Found a copy of Body Double (great) at the library. I'm gonna try to rewatch Dressed to Kill this month, and see if I can track down Phantom of the Paradise. I'm also pretty excited to check out the Baumbach doc.

    So I guess the moral of the story is.....Blow Out is awesome. And John Lithgow rules.

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    1. John Lithgow in Blow Out is one of my favorite movie villains.

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    2. Be sure to check out DePalma/Lithgow in
      Raising Cain. Where my Cain-iacs at?!

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    3. I'm one! I need to get the new blu ray release to see how the re-editing affects the film.

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    4. It's interesting, and maybe a purer vision, but the pacing is way off for me. Although I tend to side with the first cut of a movie I see...

      Definitely check it out for yourself.

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    5. I finally completed the DePalma filmography this weekend (I had Greetings and Hi Mom left, both were okay). Raising Cain is great, though not nearly close compared to some of his other films.

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    6. Nice. I've got a way to go but I'll get there. I agree it's not one of his masterpieces, but it's fun and I like it a little more each time I see it.

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  11. The Frontier is a fantastic modern Noir, shot beautifully and everyone is great in it. Really liked it.

    The Shelter - Meh. Low budgeter with Pare as the main character. Tries to be arty but slugs along even with a very short runtime.

    The Monster - starts out with promising, great performances from our two leads. Unfortunately, the movie meanders and turns into mediocre, common Horror fare.

    I know You're In There - "The Shining" lite. Did not like it.

    Within - Some good use of practical scares but the premise has been killed to death and the execution is pretty bad. The ending is absolute garbage.

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  12. A guy tried to comfort me yesterday. He said "You shouldn't feel so harsh about it. I mean if you look back through history, you'll see that ALL presidents manhandled women. They just didn't have technology so no one knew about it." Oh wow, actually that DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL BETTER...but thank you.

    I already miss her voice, poise, intelligence, smile, hair, pantsuits. I miss her body, you know. I just marveled at the woman who is not going to have to give a F what men think about her body at all. I love the photos of her "messy hair don't care" style throughout her service. I love that she was too busy to obsessively care about her looks. I LOVED LOOKING AT ALL THE WRINKLES ON HER FACE. I woke up in bed this morning feeling motivated, remembering the words of this gracious, brilliant woman: "Let us not grow weary, for there are more seasons to come and there is more work to do." She and so many women inspire my life. I realized *I* also want to be a woman who inspires girls and other women. And that is kind of a ton of responsibility. So there is a lot of work to do.

    I still want to understand what the whole country is reading/watching/hearing leading us to such polarized ideas. I mean where does research and knowledge factor in anymore?

    On my 10 hr plane ride home next week I plan on watching Beyond The Gates, first movie I've had time for in months. And maybe Certain Women with Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern, a western.

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  13. Arrival is very good for those in the mood for some cerebral sci-fi drama. I liked it very much, but feel like I still need to think about it. That's about all I've seen this week, but it was a good choice.

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    1. I just saw it. I agree with you. I think I'll have to see it again.

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    2. Just IMO, Arrival was no bueno. This Villeneuve guy sure knows how to make his movies feel flush with gravitas, but I'm not really sure how he picks his projects. Even if it wasn't competing against the newest Harry Potter movie, I'd have wagered its second weekend box office would drop dramatically.

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    3. Maybe because it was so mainstream, it forced him to explain the ending more than his past films? It wasn't as good, IMO, and kind of a let down although I liked the alien sequences and communication themes. I think we need more films about communication for our very fractured society right now, I swear.

      My no-nonsense parents saw alien spacecraft in like '85. I always remember the beautiful way my mom described them: "So benign".

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  14. I started this weekend with the sunny optimism of 2007’s Hairspray. I ended it with the bleak finality of 1967’s In Cold Blood. These movies could not be more dissimilar. Still, there is a common thread in their very opposition. Hairspray’s Tracy Turnblad is a young woman buoyed by the love and support of her friends and family. Though she lives in a world of discrimination and injustice, her “village” (as one Hillary Clinton might put it) gives her a foundation to go forth and fight that injustice. In Cold Blood’s Perry Smith (played to perfection by Robert Blake – who as it turned out had his own demons) is a man beaten down by poverty and abuse. He and his partner in crime Dick Hickcock have come to believe that the world is a dark place where dog eats dog, and no dog has his day unless he uses a gun. There is no village, there are only tribes that scratch and claw at each other for what little the world may offer. And society’s only response is to kill (through capital punishment) those who push too far. I have my own thoughts about capital punishment, but the film makes a compelling case that it is an ultimately futile response to the problem presented by Smith and Hickock.

    In Cold Blood is downright creepy in its intensity, in particular its recreation of the horrific murder of an entire family. The filmmakers actually used the very house in which the murders occurred, which elevates the creep factor through the roof. And the black and white photography by Conrad Hall is beautiful in its starkness.

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  15. Saw Moonlight over the weekend. Great film, the acting was terrific and the music really drove the movie home. What's nice too is that as rough as a subject as it was, you leave in a good place. I think I really needed that type of ending after this week.

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