Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[blacktulip]

I loved The Stoker! You must see Cargo 200. The director of both, Balabanov, died last week.

 

[blacktulip]

BTW in a not completely dissimilar vein, my favourite film of all time is My Joy by Sergei Loznitsa (2010). Couldn't recommend it more highly.

 

[IdleRich]

"I loved The Stoker! You must see Cargo 200. The director of both, Balabanov, died last week."

Yeah, saw that yesterday - shame. The only other one of his I've seen is Of Freaks and Men but I intend to work through his others as and when I find them.
What did you think The Stoker was about?

"that sounds good Rich, and reminds me of a Pete UM recommended film i watched over the weekend called Down Terrace. no idea who the director was, but it was very Shane Meadows. it also had some great music by Stephen Thrower."

Is that a recent film? I'm sure I've heard the name.

 

[benjybars]

Down Terrace is by Ben Wheatly, who also made Kill List and Sightseers.. but Down Terrace is the best of the lot imo... proper weird film

 

[baboon2004]

What did you think of Sightseers? I only got round to watching it last week, though Kill List was my favourite film I saw in 2011 or whenever it came out. I thought the set-up was brilliantly managed, but it never really went anywhere interesting with the characters. The similarities with Magnus Mills' novel The Restraint of Beasts reflected a bit unfavourably on it too, but obviously only for people who'd read that previously.

 

[luka]

sightseers should have been a short on tv at best. totally pointless.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

thought it was better than kill list overall... but the first half of kill list was better than sightseers. still not seen down terrace. kill list looked a bit like TV as it went on too, but i find that a lot with british directors. look of love was like that also. i think ben wheatley is doing some big historical drama next.

 

[IdleRich]

I almost picked up Sightseers the other day but despite all the good reviews from critics pretty much everyone I know who has seen it has had a reaction like yours Baboon and Luka.

 

[Bangpuss]

BTW Upstream Color is getting a UK release in August/September. Can't wait to witness the divorce-worthy arguments on Dissensus when it comes out.

 

[paolo]

I thought Sightseers was good. Not really good, but pretty good

 

[baboon2004]

thought it was better than kill list overall... but the first half of kill list was better than sightseers. still not seen down terrace. kill list looked a bit like TV as it went on too, but i find that a lot with british directors. look of love was like that also. i think ben wheatley is doing some big historical drama next.

I don't think that need be a bad thing though (not that you're necessarily saying it has to be either). It was a bit Tales of the Really Fucking Unexpected, but then British TV has often been superior to/weirder than British films.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

British TV has often been superior to/weirder than British films.

true. i really liked look of love btw... for a movie about a guy who controlled soho and strip clubs, the whole focus on his tragic relationship with his daughter was a nice flip of what youd expect, but also like it was trying to stop it getting seedy. in fact i felt deprived of the seediness i was expecting.

saw 5 broken cameras recently. amazing docu on palestine. up there, and not that diff from the other docus like the wall about the same thing. they all do similar things, and know how to quietly make you feel incredibly angry.

 

[nochexxx]

really enjoyed Allen Baron's Blast of Silence. same director responsible for Automan

 

[baboon2004]

I remember watching that ages ago when in Paris - it was meant to be a big influence upon (some of) the French new Wave directors iirc, and I can see the links.

Tried to watch 5 Broken Cameras this past weekend, but I couldn't make my way through the whole thing in one sitting. Very brutal and difficult viewing, as rdr said

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

landau is brilliant in that but i found i was gettting irritated by woody allen doing his usual 'women reject me!' shtick. was distracting from the real interesting story of the film.

saw the ulrich siedl paradise trilogy yesterday at the rio. the middle story i wasnt that sure about but the first and last - one about the mother as sex tourist, the other about her daughter as weight loss camp attendee were really good. found them quite like todd solondz, lots of bleak humour about painful situations. he uses really great and simple framing too (made me think of wes anderson) though i did occasionally long for some alternate angles.

i also recently saw the rep at the prince charles cinema, a docu about 3 guys in toronto who set up an ill fated rep cinema. i have a lot of sympathy for that cause, but even so, its not as great, energising/galvanising docu as you might hope for, it is - inevitably - a bit self pitying, and the discussion after was really painful as it was basically the guy from the pcc (which i love) promoting himself for about 45 mins and everyone else on the panel barely getting a word in - made me wonder why they bothered to do a discussion in the first place. was interesting to learn though that 'young people' dont seem to attend repertory screenings - made me wonder what the future of rep cinema is (prob not a great one, though maybe the future entails showing lots of batman and avengers assemble re runs).

 

[nochexxx]

I remember watching that ages ago when in Paris - it was meant to be a big influence upon (some of) the French new Wave directors iirc, and I can see the links.

i don't know much about French New Wave, but i thought Blast of Silence reminded me of Melville. not sure if that counts.

any recommendations? the seedier the better.

 

[empty mirror]

I finally got around to Truffaut's Stolen Kisses (on Hulu) - amazing! Worth the wait, for sure. Obviously the template for Bored to Death.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

saw 12 years a slave at the LFF. not without its flaws - you can see its stretching mcqueen - but it was seriously difficult to keep my eyes dry. it does slavery in a very different way to what weve seen before. chiwetel ejiofor is a really underrated actor. and fassbender is fucking amazing.

 

[zhao]

Gravity is just like this time i walked out of the club at 6am after 12 glasses of scotch, struggling to get to a doorway to throw up 3 times, getting up after sitting for a while only to have the ground come up and punch me in the face... Trying to get home that morning was every bit as intense and dizzying as this movie. Pretty good.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

you made it sound like enter the void. not what i was expecting.