Wednesday
Apr172013
Watching You Watching...
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 10:09PM
It's confession time. Name the last three movies you watched. No editing. GO...
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It's confession time. Name the last three movies you watched. No editing. GO...
Reader Comments (110)
“Sinister"
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
“Skyfall"
All for the first time.
"compliance" (1st time)
"fireworks wednesday" (1st)
"a separation" (2nd)
Barton Fink -- Second time viewing it and it's good, but it knows that and is kind of gratingly smug because of it? Still, that hotel is genius and I'd like to take a return trip to the nineties, if only because it delivered prime Judy Davis on a yearly basis.
42 -- The Jackie Robinson biopic. Harrison Ford is un. bearable. The film itself is not a total disaster, but it's pretty blah nonetheless, although Chadwick Boseman is very good. He and Nicole Beharie ought to be on every casting agent's collective radar, fast.
Devil in a Blue Dress -- It's all pretty meh until Don Cheadle shows up halfway through and literally resuscitates it as only Don Cheadle can. That is one actor who should not be wasting away on a Showtime series that all but screams, "HE'S BETTER THAN THIS." Where's his Oscar? My biggest takeaway from this was that nineties-era Denzel was fine, and for that, we should all be grateful.
Il Futuro, Blancanieves, and Trance.
Jurassic Park (for hit me with your best shot)
Pitch Perfect
Admission
I haven't been watching many movies lately with Mad Men, Game of Thrones and Jane Campion's Top of the Lake on TV.
"20 Feet From Stardom" - look out Oscar?
"Venus and Serena" - not so rosy for Oscar.
"Mud" - Rather excellent. So good to see Reese doing something with her talent for a change.
Jurassic Park 3D - Finally! And it was awesome!
Marwencol - So strange. It's shocking how little time the documentary spends with other people.
The Man Who Wasn't There - I always feel like I haven't seen enough of the Coen Bros and this skyrocketed to the top tier. Why don't people talk about it?!?
Tonight's selection: Y Tu Mama Tambien. I've never seen it. So pumped.
ace in the hole
skyfall
mean girls (again)
1. The evil dead (1981)
2. The Rebound (I know...)
3. Zero Dark Thirty.
Last Days
Rashômon
Sling Blade
Grease 2, 21 Jump Street, Trance. Is it bad that I am most ashamed of Trance?
Once Upon a Time in the West-my first Sergio Leone! Westerns aren't my favorite, but it was good.
Rachel, Rachel-Wow! Joanne Woodward was amazing, and why didn't Paul direct more?
This is Not a Film-Loved the iguana!
Sleepwalk With Me, Bachelorette, Jurassic Park 3D
42 (theater), B-
Postcards from the Edge (first time!) B+
Jurassic Park III (second, and final time) C
Muriel's Wedding (An very bitter but ultimately triumphant piece. Toni Collette is towering. B+.)
The Wedding Banquet (Morally bankrupt garbage. Ang Lee's FAR better now than releasing a movie that, through visual framing and the utter lack of consequences, unabashedly endorses RAPE. C-.)
Ed Wood. (Everyone knows by this point this is a masterpiece and unquestionably Burton's second best film, right? Well, it is. A.)
Rust and Bone
Barbarella
On the Road
A Page of Madness (1926 silent Japanese movie. Awesome)
Zombieland (2009)
The Thief of Baghdad (1940)
Trance (2013) ***
Pandorum (2009) **1/2
Valhalla Rising (2009) ***
1. Life of Pi
2. Hunger Games (what?)
3. Bachelorette - so damn good and Kiki rules.
And a (not so horrible) confession? I'm getting really excited for The Great Gatsby.
Anna Karenina, Life of Pi and No. Last year was incredible.
Shame
melancholia...x3
Trance - First truly boring Boyle film.
Oblivion - Pretty and empty.
The Place Beyond the Pines - Ambitous but not a success.
At Any Price (2013)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1955)
Lust in the Dust
Full Metal Jacket
Eyes Wide Shut
Any Day Now, To the Wonder & The Conversation
Jurassic Park (1st time, IMAX 3D, what a thrill!)
Howards End (1st time)
The Godfather (2nd)
Pretty decent list I'd say, all rate 8/10 or above for me
Any thoughts on the new Man of Steel trailer? I was a yes before, but am now a HELL YES! Really hoping its as good as it looks, though I have my reservations due to Snyder.
Au Revoir, Les Enfants
Damage
Dead Man Walking
1.) Gun Hill Road (2011): It's no Pariah, but good films tackling LGBT issues from a minority perspective are rare and I think Rashad Ernesto Green's directorial debut shows a lot of promise. Excellent performances too.
2.) Killing Them Softly (2012): Definitely lacks subtlety (seriously, it knocks you over the head with it's message in every other scene), but it does it with such style and confidence that I was completely won over. Brad Pitt is really on a roll these days.
3.) Life of Pi (2012): Gorgeous and moving but I can name 10 movies from last year that I thought were superior. I was going to ask why Suraj Sharma hadn't been cast in anything else yet, but he's apparently doing a baseball movie with Don Draper for Disney so
can't he find something more interesting?yay!Fun!
Holy Motors
The Awakening
Keep the Lights On
Every day I thank Jesus Our Lord and Savior for Netflix and Redbox ;-)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the original)
The Times of Harvey Milk
Desperado
A Few Best Men
Rust and Bone
Mad Bastards
The first and last are Australian films of recent years that I'm finally catching up with via cable. Rust and Bone was in the cinema - hard to believe that it's only just opened in Aus, but there you go.
Django Unchained
The End of Summer
Tokyo Twilight
The Place Beyond The Pines
Spring Breakers
No
SanFran -- u only see movies in the theaters. well done!
MDA - the times of harvey milk! ISN'T IT SENSATIONAL? fav doc of ever (or way up there at least)
Ben -- so glad someone else has seen Rachel Rachel. so underseen and so so good.
Love Is All You Need (madcap and sweet)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (vital, if pasteurized)
Oblivion (an exquisitely made hunk of derivative, vainglorious, Cruise-controlled junk)
No, Five Easy Pieces, Sense and Sensibility.
Billy Elliot
Biutiful
Funny Face
Evil Dead (2013)--I liked it and I understand the gratuitious blood and gore was all in cheeky fun like the original, but regardless, it kind of grossed me out.
Beyond the Hills--pretty good, and the two lead actresses were well-deserving of their Cannes wins, but how can you successfully follow-up to the gut-wrenching 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days? Answer: You can't.
Zero Dark Thirty--(2nd time). Still just as spellbinding and terrific as the first viewing. Starting to feel the consensus that in ten years from now we'll be thinking Emmanuelle Who? Jessica Chastain should've been the dark horse and won best actress handily.
Oslo, August 21st - Amazing lead performance by Anders Danielsen Lie in a powerful film by Joachim Trier.
'night, Mother - Love Sissy Spacek in this. She tore my heart out. While Anne Bancroft giving broad stage-acting realness baffled me, she still manages to have her (few) moments.
*Saw these back to back and if anyone's seen the two films above then you know what a somehow perfect pairing they are in narrative (if not in quality). It was a completely accidental self-inflicted downer night, but great acting, so who cares?.*
Holy Motors - Soars, crashes, but takes off again. Love the fleeting musical number. More, Leos Carax, please?
Phantom of the Opera (1943)
Inglourious Basterds
Badlands
The Central Park Five (on PBS last night. Riveting stuff.)
Flashdance (30th Anniversary! Wrote about the big audition dance on my blog: http://dancindanonfilm.blogspot.com/2013/04/flashdance-audition.html)
Jurassic Park 3D (looked AMAZING on the gigantic Imax screen)
This was a week where I really caught up on stuff. Saw To The Wonder (sitting on that one), Room 237 (bullspit), No (excellent, Nathaniel was right), and catching up on Top of The Lake (loved its off-beat quality from the beginning and I really hope Peter Mullan and Elisabeth Moss get properly rewarded come TV awards season).
But here are the LAST 3:
Puffy Chair- I like Mark Duplass but mumblecore can die in a fire.
Side Effects- I get the haters but I enjoyed the ride for this.
This Must Be The Place- So kooky if a little too pushy on that tone (I should just abide to Sorrentino's off-beat, not quite reality) but I always dig the spirit with foreign directors shooting mostly in an American setting. Sean Penn's great.
Brady re: Marwencol- I consider that the point. Maybe it was because I saw a person really close to me go through a similar trauma but the way it showed Mark Hogencamp's subconscious knocked me out. Having it as a stand alone of the way a man cope is one of its geniuses and why it stands out from other docs.
Purple Noon
Tristana
Serial Mom
I really, really need to move to a city that shows better movies, cause I can't remember the last time I was in a theatre.
1 - Rust and Bone
2 - Trance
3 - Place Beyond the Pines
The Evil Dead (1981)
Wet Hot American Summer
The Snowtown Murders
Ruby Sparks - surprisingly well scripted and acted. Dayton & Faris don't make perfect films, but the tone and the heart are totally winning. Recommended.
The Campaign - thanks but no thanks, HBOGo!
End of Watch - Michael Pena is so awesome. And he and Jake make the greatest pair.
As usual, it's April and I'm still trying to catch up on all the films I wanted to see from last year that I just didn't get around to in a timely fashion. One of these days I'll finalize a top ten list from 2010...and then '11. Etc, etc.......
Stoker
Batman Returns
Black Swan
There is so little out there now that seems interesting to me. The only 2013 release I've seen in the theaters so far is Stoker.
Pitch Perfect
To The Wonder
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
The Sessions
I've Loved You So Long
Las Lagrimas /Dir. Pablo Delgado
1. Superman - Astonishingly awful aside from Christopher Reeve.
2. Jurassic Park 3D - Remains top notch.
3. 200 Motels - Zappa's "A Hard Day's Night" is the hard day's night that I would rather endure.