@Robert
I’ve started Vanya on 42nd Street, but I stopped as I thought my friends would enjoy the film. It’s look really good so far, especially Julianne Moore. (Not quite convinced about Wallace Shawn in the Vanya role, however.)
Tokyo Chorus
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
73/100
Solid film. I enjoyed the mixture of family drama and slapstick. That sense of authenticity and realism that I associate with Ozu is there, too. I wonder if people consider him a humanist filmmaker. I do and I prefer his expression of humanism over someone like Kurosawa.
Metropolitan
Dir. Whit Stillman
73/100
This is my second viewing. I enjoyed it more when I saw this during college, and that makes sense to me, but I still thought it was quite impressive—the writing, low-budget and use of no-name actors. The thought occurred to me that the film is sort of a transition film between the 80s (yuppies) and the 90s (slackers)—as it’s basically a bunch of yuppies (preppies) acting like slackers (i.e., sitting around talking about “nothing”).
I didn’t care much for Vanya on 42nd Street, but I suspect I would have if I didn’t hold Chekhov in such high regard. As it is, I viewed at a misreading, but of course they weren’t really trying to do a reading of it at all.
At least that was my impression when I saw it (the year it was released).
The Lady Eve 10/10
@Jazzaloha
“The thought occurred to me that the film is sort of a transition film between the 80s (yuppies) and the 90s (slackers)—as it’s basically a bunch of yuppies (preppies) acting like slackers (i.e., sitting around talking about “nothing”).”
i don’t know how to begin asking this, but how could you possibly interpret Metropolitan (let alone any of Stillman’s work) as a film where the characters talk about nothing? i mean, i don’t even know how it’s possible to arrive at that interpretation. were you even paying attention?
and I know both those comments were you trolling, but fuck, you’re good at it.
dp
Re: talking about “nothing” in Metropolitan
A lot of the dialogue was self-conscious and clever and the conversations involved culture and the characters’ social status and life. That, to me, is quality of Gen X and Gen X films, imo.
“A lot of the dialogue was self-conscious and clever and the conversations involved culture and the characters’ social status and life. That, to me, is quality of Gen X and Gen X films, imo.”
lol, brilliant trolling.
I guess that adds Molière, Wilde, Fitzgerald, Wharton, James, Dickens, Trollope, Fielding, Richardson, etc., etc., etc…. to the list of Gen-Xers.
I mean, seriously, everything you post is so cleverly stupid; I’m really impressed, you know just when to stop too, never going over the edge. real kudos, i mean that.
Jazz may not have the best taste but I think he is sincere.
I could understand someone saying Stillman’s characters talk about nothing and I could also understand people of that generation and that class getting pissy about the very suggestion (the same way Dazed and Confused viewers think that film has some sort of zen to it when an objective viewer would see that The Stoned Age is better and its not even that good). the odd thing is both of you like the film even if you come about it from different ways.
Jazz may not have the best taste but I think he is sincere.
Haha. Thanks…I think.
Antichrist: 8/10
Not nearly as terrifying or gruesome as I was thinking it would be. Von Trier’s best directed film but not nearly as powerful as Dancer in the Dark or Dogville.
Antichrist: 8/10
Not nearly as terrifying or gruesome as I was thinking it would be. Von Trier’s best directed film but not nearly as powerful as Dancer in the Dark or Dogville.
Antichrist: 8/10
Not nearly as terrifying or gruesome as I was thinking it would be. Von Trier’s best directed film but not nearly as powerful as Dancer in the Dark or Dogville.
Sorry about the blanks posts… my browser is acting up.
Antichrist: 8/10
Not nearly as terrifying or gruesome as I was thinking it would be. Von Trier’s best directed film but not nearly as powerful as Dancer in the Dark or Dogville.
Antichrist: 8/10
Not nearly as terrifying or gruesome as I was thinking it would be. Von Trier’s best directed film but not nearly as powerful as Dancer in the Dark or Dogville.
I like a good backhanded compliment.
Have you seen Little Cigars Jazz. I started a thread on it. It is well worth checking out.
don’t bother to knock (1952) d. roy ward baker 7.5/10
an underrated thriller that probably contains monroe’s best performance. she’s genuinely frightening as the unstable babysitter and the film is suspenseful and unpredictable. plus anne bancroft looks smashing in her film debut
niagara (1953) d. henry hathaway 7.5/10
this was a lot of fun. film noir in brilliant technicolor on location at niagara falls. monroe doesn’t quite have the chops of a true femme fatale but she’s game and certainly looks the part. cotten gets progressively crazier as the film goes on, leading to an incredible climax, with more than a few nods to hitchcock on the way. also jean peters isn’t in enough films
Ruby is taking advantage of the M. Monroe fest on TCM. My favorite is The Misfits, Bus Stop and 7 Year Itch. I do like Knock though more for Widmark.
@Ruby
I haven’t seen Niagra, but have you seen Johnathan Demme’s The Last Embrace? Your comments made me think of the latter.
Have you seen Little Cigars Jazz.
No, but I don’t trust your tastes.
I’ll check out the thread. ;)
“exceedingly strange little movie which is quickly becoming my favorite Marx Brothers film. There’s a lot of delight here, mainly for me in watching Groucho romance the glorious Thelma Todd, the only actress who seemed able to join him in silliness rather than resorting to Dumontish disdain”
Monkey Business is one of their most difficult to watch imo. it’s all over the place, and in the past i would lose interest halfway through. Love it now though.
And Todd was definitely a good sport. i love the way she humors Groucho.
she was great in Horse Feathers too
wow, jazz i’ve never even heard of the last embrace; looks very interesting! and yes, i managed to catch two monroe films i haven’t seen before. i also love the misfits, really underrated imo
Todd was also good with Durante and Keaton. Horse Feathers is a better use of her considerable charm
@Ruby
The Last Embrace is streaming on netflix. There’s some flaws, but I really liked the chemistry between Roy Scheider and Janet Margolin (although I had a thing for Margolin in this, so…). The film starts off well and carries you a long, and then there are some problems, but it was decent entertainment. Demme definitely tries to recreate the older Hollywood films.
Btw, Marilyn as a babysitter, wow. I think that might disturb any boy, even if she wasn’t deranged. (Haven’t gotten around to The Misfits or Bus Stop.)
@Ruby
The Last Embrace is streaming on netflix. There’s some flaws, but I really liked the chemistry between Roy Scheider and Janet Margolin (although I had a thing for Margolin in this, so…). The film starts off well and carries you a long, and then there are some problems, but it was decent entertainment. Demme definitely tries to recreate the older Hollywood films.
Btw, Marilyn as a babysitter, wow. I think that might disturb any boy, even if she wasn’t deranged. (Haven’t gotten around to The Misfits or Bus Stop.)
@Den, Ruby or anyone else
Have you guys seen Still of the Night with Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep, directed by Robert Benton? It’s streaming on netflix, and it sounds interesting.
haha she babysat a girl. and that girl was terrified.
haven’t seen still of the night but i’ll check out the demme film, thx!How I Ended This Summer 2010
Kak ya provel etim letom
DIR Alexei Popogrebsky
SCR Alexei Popogrebsky
DP Pavel Kostomarov
CAST Grigory Dobrygin, Sergei Puskepalis, Igor Csernyevics, Ilya Sobolev, Artyom Tsukanov
124 Min
The film has all the right elements, but the film never comes together as something beyond the sum of those elements.
We are 80 minutes in (65%) when the film moves from drama to horror. There needed to be something expository there to get us from the happy kid to the nutty kid – or was that when he goofed up? See, if he was a perfectionist and high strung, I could believe the transition, but he appeared to be a fuck-up and after fucking up once, we are asked to believe he gets paranoid. Overuse of the Kushelov Effect was how Popogrebsky tried to get us to believe.
Not gonna rate this – there seems to be a lot of these chunky films coming direct from festivals distributed by Film Movement. Is there an edit step missing in that process?
dp
Drunken Angel 9/10
Out of all the Kurosawa I’ve seen the most underrated. Probably some of his strongest characters.
Tree of Life, by Terrence Malick. Probably 6/10 or 7/10
Some of my friends liked it even less (and they do like Malick). The cinematography was amazing (Lubezki), some things were beautifully done, the actors were convincing but some things were terribly cliched and it was obvious Malick had no idea how to end this (or maybe he did, but the ending was terribly overwrought and silly).
Jazzaloha
@Robert
I’ve started Vanya on 42nd Street, but I stopped as I thought my friends would enjoy the film. It’s look really good so far, especially Julianne Moore. (Not quite convinced about Wallace Shawn in the Vanya role, however.)
Tokyo Chorus
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
73/100
Solid film. I enjoyed the mixture of family drama and slapstick. That sense of authenticity and realism that I associate with Ozu is there, too. I wonder if people consider him a humanist filmmaker. I do and I prefer his expression of humanism over someone like Kurosawa.
Metropolitan
Dir. Whit Stillman
73/100
This is my second viewing. I enjoyed it more when I saw this during college, and that makes sense to me, but I still thought it was quite impressive—the writing, low-budget and use of no-name actors. The thought occurred to me that the film is sort of a transition film between the 80s (yuppies) and the 90s (slackers)—as it’s basically a bunch of yuppies (preppies) acting like slackers (i.e., sitting around talking about “nothing”).