STOP THE LISTS!

dear stop the lists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

has anyone seen bertolucci’s version of “the sheltering sky” with malkovich winger et al.?

i mean i’m curious but it’s the kind of curious that compels people to possibly insert themselves bodily into the garbage disposal. someone confirm or allay my fears :(

—PolarisDiB

let’s hope its better than this:

What a great birthday spent at the cinema—three 5/5 films!

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Benh Zeitlin
MOONRISE KINGDOM Wes Anderson
AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY Alison Klayman

Re: earthquakes—there was another one this morning, same magnitude as last night. Seriously, it’s like living in a state-sized themepark.

Unless that’s actually what’s happening…

(…Directed by M. Night Shymalan)

Anyway, happy birthday, House.

Despite their identical rankings, is there one of those films you favored over the others? Also, I’m curious to hear your take on Beasts Of The Southern Wild (haven’t seen it yet or heard much other than general acclaim).

@House

Sounds like a fine ass day. Talk a little on Ai Weiwei if you could, I’m interested.

Dada:

Thanks! BotSW is a magical realist story told from the POV of a little girl living on an impoverished island called The Bathtub. It’s her take on the world and the things adults are telling her, so there is room for a lot of inventiveness in the presentation. It’s not Disneyesque, though. It’s dark and sad, but also beautiful and poignant. I really, really loved it. Can’t believe this is a director’s debut. Behn Zeitlin—make more movies!

Lover:

It’s a documentary about the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, whose reactionary art has caused him to be detained and censored time and again by his government. You get close to this charming, seemingly unafraid but all-too-human man and his struggle to foment change in China.

@Sensational – I know I’m 15 hours behind now, but I have seen The Sheltering Sky. It’s a decent movie and fun to compare with the book. It doesn’t quite capture the weird horror of the novel, though.

Thanks for the rundown. Sounds intriguing.

And now I recall that I saw the trailer for Never Sorry in theaters a few weeks back. Glad to hear it worked out—it looked rather great.

I also ended my day with the Total Recall remake. It started out strong—the first two set pieces are actually pretty good—but the film just stopped right after that and never got back on track. Skip it.

@house: Glad you loved Beasts. Can you team up with me to confront the haters :P?

Show me these haters and I shall smite them.

Actually, I never try to change someone’s opinion, just to reach clarity between mine and theirs, so we can at least agree to disagree.

But yeah, I loved it. Three 5/5 films in one day. Man. And I got to visit one of my favorite local arthouses.

So tell me what you thought about it.

@house: I wish I had your experience of seeing multiple 5-starrers in a single day. The closest I’ve been to doing that was watching Zulawski’s Possession and then watching Dieterle’s Portrait of Jennie the next day, both of which I loved and became favorites of mine, the Zulawski being my favorite movie of all time.

I think what I love most about Beasts is how abstract it was, and how it creates its own kind of world but never forgets to acknowledge a certain kind of realism in it. It’s definitely the most exhilarating movie experience I’ve had since Drive.

Beasts is a movie I can’t wait to see again. Same with Moonrise Kingdom.

Possession is coming to Dallas in a couple of weeks. I’ve seen it twice but never in 35MM, so I hope I can make it.

“I also ended my day with the Total Recall remake. It started out strong—the first two set pieces are actually pretty good—but the film just stopped right after that and never got back on track. Skip it.”

A local review said that the worst part about it is that it took all these pains to advertise itself as different from the original, a unique new look, and in the end pretty much just aped the original with a new gunmetal look.

—PolarisDiB

So jealous of you, House! I have a copy, but still…

@Dude
What is so great about movie watching is you don’t know if the next movie you watch will be your favorite ever. Im gonna see Possession as soon as possible now that you’ve brought it to my attention :)

I also loved Beasts. One of the best movies overall I watched last month. I really dig how it doesnt smear dirt in your face and tell you to feel bad for the characters. The residents of The Bathtub are happy!

On a personal note, im done with the letter grading system. Im just doing stars. Just 0,1,2,3,4 and 5. No half star ratings.

It did to a point, but Mars is not a factor. An implausible contraption called The Fall (which transports workers from the impoverished Colony (Austrailia) to The Federation of Britian—through the center of the Earth!!!—is what is at stake here, and I really couldn’t have cared less about it.

Possession is a failed comedy, absurd (I think it is one of the three most divisive films here on Mubi)

Many marriages are failed comedies.

I agree

hmmmmm, interesting. Antichrist is also very divisive here, and Possession and Antichrist compare quite well

You know I never thought of the two as a point of comparison, but at least at first glance you might be right.

Antichrist takes great pains to show a marriage (and even a world) where nothing is right—everything from nature to the relationship to sex—everything is the opposite of what would be considered as good (hence the title).

Possession shows the dissolution of a marriage through different devices but it’s still saying some of the same things. I’ll have to think a bit more about this.

Feel free to expand on your point, though.

Isn’t Possession the movie where the chick loses her shit in the train station and shouts “BRAH, BRUH, UH” 1000 times while jerking around?

It’s an incredible scene.

House, while I appreciate the technical aspects of Antichrist, neither film do I much care for.

But it may make for a double feature and discussion that could be quite interesting.

I’d need to them both again to go into greater detail.

Affecting and disturbing. I’ve seen that scene twice on youtube.

Possession is one of the finest psychological horror films I’ve ever seen.

HoL, happy birthday.

Thanks, man. Yeah, Possession works on so many levels and is worthy of study and pulling out all of those things. And it’s just an incredible experience to sit through, even just on a surface level.

I find Possession and Antichrist to both be quite fine films.

Is it your birthday Josh? if so, Happy Birthday hope it’s dandy!