good day, sk, & happy new year!
i caught klaus when it was added to netflix last year, and i enoyed it quite a bit. nice animation, very sweet story. 4/5
red eye was a pretty effective, pacey thriller for me. 3.5
i loved ash vs evil dead. i've kinda forgotten most of the details already, but i know i liked s3 the most of all of them, & thought s2 was maybe a little weaker than the others.
my week:
the house that jack built (2018) 3.5 this is chock full of great things.
it has bursts of imagination and shocking violence coupled with the darkest humor. the analogy about lamppost shadows? truly inspired & perfectly visualized.
and you totally get to see riley keough's boobs. is that a first on film? it was a first for me, i'm pretty sure.
it would absolutely be great and a minimum 4 star film if it wasn't 150 grinding, endlessly long minutes.
straight up (2019) 3.5 i know it's been almost two years, but i still have a huge burr up my butt about the way everyone ululated over booksmart.
that movie was not clever or imaginative.
critics praised it for its hyper-woke messaging.
this is actually clever and witty and filled with bona fide heart.
there are a few moments where it tips over into that dialogue equivalent of the uncanny valley where people say relentlessly clever things again and again in a rapid fire manner that no normal human being is capable of.
so it's not perfect.
but it's super good.
supersonic (2016) 3 doc on oasis. maybe this is just me being primed too much, but i was hoping for more anger and rage and nastiness.
it's a very fun doc, anyway. i have no great love for oasis myself, but i do think their first record is a fun balls-out flab-free album
escape room (2019) 3 solidly entertaining, if very pg and bloodless.
i still find parts of it oddly confusing. particularly the upside down room. i get very confused sometimes, so this is probably just me, but i didn't understand the code they cracked at all.
luz: the flower of evil (2019) 1.5 you'll see lots of comparisons to the witch and hagazussa here. & that's accurate, i guess.
all i can say is that, whereas i was into those films and found them hypnotic and ultimately rewarding, holy fucking shit did this movie cheese me off.
i was so tired of its ethereal, pretty score and whispered dialogue & voice-overs and sinister atmosphere by the 1 hr mark, only pure will-power & my ocd-ish compulsion to watch things to the end allowed me to see it through.
there's lots to admire in it, i guess. lots of nice shots. very scenic. you could turn any given moment from this into a picture or a jigsaw puzzle or a framed piece of art. it looks awesome at times.
& the actors acquit themselves reasonably well, though the father (?) seemed to be on the verge of chewing scenery at times.
it just fell on the wrong side of some sort of intangible line for me, and i hated it instead of really liking it, and i spent almost the entire running time screaming in my head 'get on with it already, please!'
relic (2020) 3 pretty good, but i think may have suffered in my appraisal by being the second of two rather pokey, atmosphere-heavy films i watched this afternoon. this was definitely the better of the two, but by the time we got into the last 1/2 hr i was absolutely filled to the brim with slow-burns, & i am now pining for a little bit of energy.
abc's of death 2 (2014) 3.5 my favourite gothy sex goddess tristan risk shows up in 't!' a very nice surprise. and she looked very good.
i liked this lot more than i expected to. as i recall, the first one was a big mixed bag, with the mix more heavily on the negative side, and ultimately a bit tedious to get through.
this certainly still has its ups and downs, but overall i found it to be a hoot and mostly great fun. exactly what i needed after two rather dreary, atmosphere heavy downers.
it does end a bit poorly - the last 2 segments in particular are slight duds imo, but overall i'd call this a smashing good time.
radius (2017) 3.5 good! a very pleasant surprise. it moves along nicely and unfurls its surprises very effectively.
if the words 'twilight zone inspired' still get your neurons a bit fired up, this is very much worth a look.
nostalgia for the light (2010) 1.5 doc on chilean astronomoers & women searching for survivors of pinochet's tyranical gov't.
a movie like this has to strive for a respectful tone, granted.
but you're doing no tribute to anyone by being so flagrantly boring imo.
i got very very tired of all the ethereal prettiness and dolorous narration. and eventually i grew to hate those things.
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[deleted]
3 years ago
infinity chamber (2016) 3.5 pretty good sci-fi puzzle movie. gets a lot out of its small budget.
my only objection is the same thing i always think when it comes to twisty sci-fi - the twilight zone would have dealt with all this in a tidy 25 minutes. did you really need a full 100 minutes for all this? at minimum, i think this could have been streamlined.
but it's quite entertaining and engaging and well done. would definitely be keen on seeing more from this director.
satan's slave (1982) 2 i found myself pretty underwhelmed by this, tbh. it has very few interesting or enjoyable scenes, & the few gore & makeup effects...well, even graded on a curve, allowing that this is a cheap indonesian affair, it's hard for me not to declare them to be pretty poor.
i love amateurism. applaud it, seek it out. but this isn't enjoyable amateurism. it's just dull and plodding.
the driller killer (1979) 3.5 those blonde back-up singers in the scene that starts at around the 22m mark...dang. i wish i was a completely different person so girls like that would like me.
reno's table manners when eating pizza are repulsive. i can watch gore, genital mutilation, whatever you got. but don't show me someone making noise when they eat & with food on their face. please. i never need to see that.
blindspotting (2018) 4 great! a breath of fresh air - daring & bold & funny & all that good stuff.
except for the last 15-20 minutes, where it seemed to lose its balance to me, and get a bit too heavy handed & didactic (favorite word of mine these days, sorry if i'm over-using it), if not a little silly.
absolutely worth a look, regardless.
dirty harry (1971) 4 thoroughly, deeply seventies in the best possible ways.
under the silver lake (2019) 5 usually when films are 2+ hrs long, i'll kvetch a good amount.
not here. i love every minute i get to spend in its incoherence
singin' in the rain (1952) 5 i think you could make a solid case for the sequence from moses supposes through singin' in the rain being the greatest patch of film ever made.
mad max fury road (2015) 5 a smart person once told me that you should only use the word genius three times a year.
since it's the 1st day of a new year, i'd better deal them out carefully.
genius genius genius.
silent night deadly night 4 (1990) 3.5 very fun! approach it as a yuzna film, not a sndn film. it's weird & silly & nonsensical & a very good time all told.
the lives of others (2006) 5 perfect.
except maybe it could have been a touch shorter.
metropolitan (1990) 5 i wish i was like these people.
terminator 3 rise of the machines (2003) 3 somewhat unfairly maligned, i'd say.
it's not 1/2 as good as the first two, granted. maybe not a fifth as good. i'll cede that point.
but the first chase with the crane? a genuinely great action scene that almost compares to the first chase in t2.
nothing in it comes close to that. it feels very action movie generic from that point onward. competent but unexciting. you'll be pining for the bleak intensity of the originals.
and it's got far too many funny moments that aren't too funny.
but:
it's pacey! and relatively short! yay for action films that aren't endlessly long.
and that ending is wonderfully dark, which i still think is underappreciated.
this is decent, large scale action film making. it's nothing that will inspire devotion, but it's watchable enough.
the dentist (1996) 3 there are a lot of films on tubitv that almost any sensible person will scroll past without pausing because it seems impossible that it could be anything other than complete balderdash.
and a lot of the time you'd be right to do so.
not this time, i think. this is pretty fun. could have used a bit more violence & gore & so on, but it's silly and goofy and a pretty reliable good time.
it's becoming important to me to see as many yuzna movies as i possibly can.
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Mrmojo4700 (20411)
3 years ago
Ferrara really did have a knack for showing New York City in the grimiest of ways. I get a dirty feeling just thinking about The Driller Killer.
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LauraGrace (15570)
3 years ago
I saw a film called Tapeworm. It is filmed entirely in Winnipeg. I think you might like it. It's an indie , so a little rough, but I thought it was good. It's on putlocker.
https://ww1.putlocker.style/movie/tapeworm/kZbUUVdd
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[deleted]
3 years ago
this 100% looks like something i'd dig. i will almost definitely watch it today. thanks!
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[deleted]
3 years ago
i just finished watching it.
VERY GOOD RECOMMENDATION!
this is the kind of nonsensical, shambolic indie fuckery that i love. don't ask me why i like things like this so much. i just do. they make me happy.
& it's definitely the most 'winnipeg' movie i've ever seen. it is winnipeg through and through.
it's streaming on amazon prime.
thank you!
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FredBurroughs (19659)
3 years ago
If you liked Metropolitan, consider checking out The Last Days of Disco. Same writer/director, a few shared cast members, and a very similar rhythm and atmosphere.
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[deleted]
3 years ago
i'm a big, big whit stillman fan, & really like everything he's done, even damsels in distress, which is seen as his weakest, i guess. i watched last days of disco a few months back for the first time in ages, and enjoyed it a lot as always. i'd probably still rank metropolitan as my favourite of his 90s films, but i kinda see them as three parts of one whole series, and i think of them as being all kinda co-equal.
i've actually had a couple of neat, fun little interactions with him on twitter - he couldn't have been nicer & friendlier. he gave me film recommendations!
love and friendship is probably my favourite stillman - if you haven't seen that, i give it a big recommendation. it's funny & clever & an absolute good time.
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StoneKeeper (21044)
3 years ago
the house that jack built: 8/10
Supersonic: havent seen it but I dig Oasis a lot.
About your now famous table manners repulsiveness; what do you think of Russell's nacho rape scene in Death Proof?
under the silver lakes: I'll have to see it for myself
Singin' in the rain: One of the very few musical I love. 8.5/10
Fury Road: 7.5/10
I own the lives of others
T3: 6.5/10
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[deleted]
3 years ago
i don't remember that nacho scene at all - it's been ages since i watched death proof. probably since the year it was released. i just poked around and it doesn't seem to be on any of the streaming sites i use, but i have a cineplex credit, so maybe i'll rent it from them tomorrow. i think it's the only tarantino film i've seen just once.
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