Films you've seen recently and would recommend WITH reservations
- Thread starter Corpsey
- Start date
I watched the counselor the other night, as its recommended by jasun horsley. Rich and version have already discussed and explained it pretty well on the Claire Denis thread, starting here
Post in thread 'Claire Denis' https://www.dissensus.com/index.php?threads/16904/post-651288
I did like it, particularly as it got a lot better as it went on. It felt very Michael Mann in places, the best bits actually, where you've got the motorcycle incident and the methodical nature of the set up, and also the end with westray.
And I did enjoy the completely unbelievable dialogue, especially the guy at the very end who fassbinder is on the phone to. Probsbly those lines would work a lot better in a book. I read blood meridian but had a similar feeling about what Mccarthy is trying to say. I like it but it comes off a little heavy handed to me.
It just needed some more work, to make it a bit more cinematic. Very hard to get two people talking in a room to be engaging if there's not a lot else going on.
And some frankly ridiculous scenes, like the very beginning when they are in bed. Javier bardems whole character was a big too OTT as well I thought. Could have done without those leopards too.
But pretty solid, reminded me of the insider by Mann. Crazy cast and budget, could have been much better.
Post in thread 'Claire Denis' https://www.dissensus.com/index.php?threads/16904/post-651288
I did like it, particularly as it got a lot better as it went on. It felt very Michael Mann in places, the best bits actually, where you've got the motorcycle incident and the methodical nature of the set up, and also the end with westray.
And I did enjoy the completely unbelievable dialogue, especially the guy at the very end who fassbinder is on the phone to. Probsbly those lines would work a lot better in a book. I read blood meridian but had a similar feeling about what Mccarthy is trying to say. I like it but it comes off a little heavy handed to me.
It just needed some more work, to make it a bit more cinematic. Very hard to get two people talking in a room to be engaging if there's not a lot else going on.
And some frankly ridiculous scenes, like the very beginning when they are in bed. Javier bardems whole character was a big too OTT as well I thought. Could have done without those leopards too.
But pretty solid, reminded me of the insider by Mann. Crazy cast and budget, could have been much better.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I've just watched Le Grand Depart (Martial Raysse 1972) which is something that I was reminded of by the "Shitting in Art
Galleries" thread because I saw it years ago in a gallery. I had a distant memory of the plot and after a bit of investigation I was able to figure out, first what it was, and then how to source a copy.
Today sat down to watch it with the question of whether it would be suitable to show at my short film night in the back of my mind. It's an hour long so right at the upper limit of my definition of "short".
Anyway le Grand Depart focuses on a weird cat headed man who drives around talking bollocks - and sexually assaults a sort of red riding hood character out of the blue. His journey intersects with that of some kind of cult led by a bearded figure called Cain who decrees that today is the day of the grand departure when they must leave for heaven.
But more than the plot the film is noteworthy for its look. The majority of it is shot with some weird effect - I've seen it described as the colours being reversed whatever that means - for the viewer the result is that everything is coloured in alluringly fuzzy psychedelic shades of pink, purple and blue that, especially combined with the at times crazed soundtrack from Gong, is pretty effective in frazzling the mind.
It culminates in the cult boarding their raft and being transported to heaven as the fx are ramped up to eleven with double exposures and a painted backdrop buried somewhere behind everything else. The music becomes a total headfucking cacophony making the last, climactic, part of the film satisfyingly intense.
Certainly worth checking for the beautiful imagery and the madcap (if minimal) storyline, I just wish it had been edited down by some twenty minutes or so to remove some of the flab in the form of meandering conversations and overlong scenes involving processions of hippies and animals winding through the glowing countryside. Not that those scenes are bad as such, I just think that there are too many and they go on too long, if they were shortened and the film made as taut as it possibly could be then it would be a properly affecting and involving darkness tinged trip.
Haven't decided about whether or not it makes the cut for film night though.
Galleries" thread because I saw it years ago in a gallery. I had a distant memory of the plot and after a bit of investigation I was able to figure out, first what it was, and then how to source a copy.
Today sat down to watch it with the question of whether it would be suitable to show at my short film night in the back of my mind. It's an hour long so right at the upper limit of my definition of "short".
Anyway le Grand Depart focuses on a weird cat headed man who drives around talking bollocks - and sexually assaults a sort of red riding hood character out of the blue. His journey intersects with that of some kind of cult led by a bearded figure called Cain who decrees that today is the day of the grand departure when they must leave for heaven.
But more than the plot the film is noteworthy for its look. The majority of it is shot with some weird effect - I've seen it described as the colours being reversed whatever that means - for the viewer the result is that everything is coloured in alluringly fuzzy psychedelic shades of pink, purple and blue that, especially combined with the at times crazed soundtrack from Gong, is pretty effective in frazzling the mind.
It culminates in the cult boarding their raft and being transported to heaven as the fx are ramped up to eleven with double exposures and a painted backdrop buried somewhere behind everything else. The music becomes a total headfucking cacophony making the last, climactic, part of the film satisfyingly intense.
Certainly worth checking for the beautiful imagery and the madcap (if minimal) storyline, I just wish it had been edited down by some twenty minutes or so to remove some of the flab in the form of meandering conversations and overlong scenes involving processions of hippies and animals winding through the glowing countryside. Not that those scenes are bad as such, I just think that there are too many and they go on too long, if they were shortened and the film made as taut as it possibly could be then it would be a properly affecting and involving darkness tinged trip.
Haven't decided about whether or not it makes the cut for film night though.
version
Well-known member
Barb Wire (1996)
I remember seeing it in the video rental places back in the day and everyone saying it was the worst film ever, but it really isn't. The second half drops off a bit and isn't as good, but the first half is great. It's basically Casablanca with bits of Mad Max and Blade Runner and Pam Anderson smouldering whilst riding motorcycles, throwing stilettos and shooting people.
Once it gets into the outdoor stuff in the daytime, it loses the mood a bit and looks quite ordinary. The moody club and night scenes are gorgeous though.
I remember seeing it in the video rental places back in the day and everyone saying it was the worst film ever, but it really isn't. The second half drops off a bit and isn't as good, but the first half is great. It's basically Casablanca with bits of Mad Max and Blade Runner and Pam Anderson smouldering whilst riding motorcycles, throwing stilettos and shooting people.
Once it gets into the outdoor stuff in the daytime, it loses the mood a bit and looks quite ordinary. The moody club and night scenes are gorgeous though.
IdleRich
IdleRich
We watched a film called The Deadly Trap (based on a French book called The House Beneath The Trees or something) which, let's make no bones about it, as the narrative work it aimed to be was an almost complete failure. And yet it did manage to conjure something of the cold dreamlike atmosphere of more successful films with Anglos lost in a European city normally thought of as beautiful. Specifically Don't Look Now (which was actually two years later). Here Faye Dunaway and Frank Langella are in Paris and again it's about their relationships with each other, their children and the city.
The main interest here lies in the way the camera sought out and found the most mundane, dirty and ugly parts of a Gay Paris peopled with fat, balding nicotine stained men in grotty cafes - and a smattering of impossibly beautiful women. The first scenes manage to make it look like Sunderland or something and after that every mist wreathed damp shot exudes menace far beyond that generated by the flimsy plot and average acting.
The main interest here lies in the way the camera sought out and found the most mundane, dirty and ugly parts of a Gay Paris peopled with fat, balding nicotine stained men in grotty cafes - and a smattering of impossibly beautiful women. The first scenes manage to make it look like Sunderland or something and after that every mist wreathed damp shot exudes menace far beyond that generated by the flimsy plot and average acting.
version
Well-known member
Finally watched Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees last night. Think some might find it a bit dull and irritating, but I loved it.
A beekeeper who works on missiles and fighters gets a hole drilled in his head by Mesopotamian bees then hallucinates he's become a missile, that he's several people at once, that the dead want revenge and live on the moon and want him to kill someone.
There's a Burroughs cameo and lots of 90s digital stuff. It was the first film streamed on the internet.
A beekeeper who works on missiles and fighters gets a hole drilled in his head by Mesopotamian bees then hallucinates he's become a missile, that he's several people at once, that the dead want revenge and live on the moon and want him to kill someone.
There's a Burroughs cameo and lots of 90s digital stuff. It was the first film streamed on the internet.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Just watching Machete Kills for, I think, the second time. Whereas the first film I've seen about fifteen times. it seems to be on telly a lot.
To be honest, although both films have great casts, great characters, odd moments of fantastic comedic violence and that very typical Rodriguez over the top grinding surf-rock sleaze feel, they both suffer from being overstuffed with unnecessarily twisty-turny plots that ultimately go the wrong side of silly, and they also have so many characters that he seems to lose track of them and just forget/abandon a few of them halfway through the films.
That said, the first film probably does enough to keep it in the ballpark of entertaining until the end (I think that's the most enthusiastic thing I've ever said about a film with Steven Segal in it), whereas I'm watching the second one now and I'll be honest, I'm struggling to make it to the end.
I'm assuming he didn't really make a third one despite the adverts as the joke has already worn desperately thin.
To be honest, although both films have great casts, great characters, odd moments of fantastic comedic violence and that very typical Rodriguez over the top grinding surf-rock sleaze feel, they both suffer from being overstuffed with unnecessarily twisty-turny plots that ultimately go the wrong side of silly, and they also have so many characters that he seems to lose track of them and just forget/abandon a few of them halfway through the films.
That said, the first film probably does enough to keep it in the ballpark of entertaining until the end (I think that's the most enthusiastic thing I've ever said about a film with Steven Segal in it), whereas I'm watching the second one now and I'll be honest, I'm struggling to make it to the end.
I'm assuming he didn't really make a third one despite the adverts as the joke has already worn desperately thin.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Oh shit Machete Kills has a cameo from Musk plus what amounts to an advert for Space X at the end. Up to a minute ago you could say that the bad guy was Musk but that switch-up loses the film a few points.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I was actually gonna show that at my first film night... but then on the actual day I had a crisis of confidence and decided to have a total re-think, make it a short film thing instead etc think it was the right decision.Finally watched Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees last night. Think some might find it a bit dull and irritating, but I loved it.
A beekeeper who works on missiles and fighters gets a hole drilled in his head by Mesopotamian bees then hallucinates he's become a missile, that he's several people at once, that the dead want revenge and live on the moon and want him to kill someone.
There's a Burroughs cameo and lots of 90s digital stuff. It was the first film streamed on the internet.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Emily the Criminal - Aubrey Plaza is a zero hours worker sucked into a black economy of credit card fraud. Quite an interesting insight into a world that no doubt exists and Plaza is always watchable as a downtrodden type finding reserves of strength. The message such as it is seems to be that the quirks in her character that led to her picking up a minor criminal record and cause her to explode in interviews telling potential employers to get fucked are in fact representative of an inner strength that allows her to go around tasering and stabbing gangsters and climbing to the top of the pile. Though I'd guess that for a lot of people they are just unlucky and it doesn't work out that way.
IdleRich
IdleRich
In the 80s there were a few films that seemed to be sort of everywhere. I was a little young to actually go and see these films at the cinema but I remember seeing (presumably age-appropriate) trailers for them when I did go to the cinema - probably to see Willow or something. Because of their tantalizingly out of reach ubiquity and because they had adult themes that I didn't understand these films attracted or at least intrigued me. I also had older, cooler cousins who lived in the mighty metropolis - actually Watford but to my young self that was right smack dab in the beating heart of culture and it conveyed on them a jaw-dropping amount of urban sophistication to which I would never be able to aspire. And they would casually name-drop and even discuss these unreachable films making them even more desirable.
Only later when I was oder did I find out that David was so scared by Nightmare on Elm Street that he refused to go to bed for ages after seeing it... but at that point he was totally the arbiter of cool, teaching me the latest words each time we visited such as, for example "cool" to name one.
Anyway, I digressed a little there, back to the films; I guess I'm thinking of Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Beverly Hills Cop and, perhaps more than anything, with its neon title plastered across my memory of that time, Cocktail. What else should be added to that list?
Over time I saw all of those films except Cocktail and they I'd say they were pretty average at best.
Last week Cocktail was on, and as I'd half expected it was a slight story about a couple of wankers doing very little - despite the desperate attempts of the moronic chorus, the excitable camera and the empty soundtrack to hype it up, there is very little to be said about or gained from watching the big nose dwarf chucking some bottles around and grinning homoerotically at his partner. It seems to me that the the second I was able to understand the film I was old enough to see how empty and unsophisticated it was. I suppose it's possible that for some people there could be a lag between those two moments, but I don't get how that provided such a large audience for the film.
But it does seem that I'm feted to work my way through all these films with older wiser eyes, today Beverly Hills Cop is on and, I can say it's probably less shit than Cocktail, if only cos of Axel F, I think that counts as a recommendation with reservations. Got there I'd the end, phew.
Only later when I was oder did I find out that David was so scared by Nightmare on Elm Street that he refused to go to bed for ages after seeing it... but at that point he was totally the arbiter of cool, teaching me the latest words each time we visited such as, for example "cool" to name one.
Anyway, I digressed a little there, back to the films; I guess I'm thinking of Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Beverly Hills Cop and, perhaps more than anything, with its neon title plastered across my memory of that time, Cocktail. What else should be added to that list?
Over time I saw all of those films except Cocktail and they I'd say they were pretty average at best.
Last week Cocktail was on, and as I'd half expected it was a slight story about a couple of wankers doing very little - despite the desperate attempts of the moronic chorus, the excitable camera and the empty soundtrack to hype it up, there is very little to be said about or gained from watching the big nose dwarf chucking some bottles around and grinning homoerotically at his partner. It seems to me that the the second I was able to understand the film I was old enough to see how empty and unsophisticated it was. I suppose it's possible that for some people there could be a lag between those two moments, but I don't get how that provided such a large audience for the film.
But it does seem that I'm feted to work my way through all these films with older wiser eyes, today Beverly Hills Cop is on and, I can say it's probably less shit than Cocktail, if only cos of Axel F, I think that counts as a recommendation with reservations. Got there I'd the end, phew.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Exactly, I hated those scenes of two tossers smiling smugly at each other as they do a synchronized bottle dance - and the massive crowd laps it up! As if. I don't think I'm alone in that I go to a bar to get a drink and chat to me mates, not stand in a massive crush gawping at a lame show put on by idiots. After that the whole film makes no sense
shakahislop
Well-known member
saw last night last night. films from ten years ago look like they're coming from another planet now. obviously they look different coz its film not digital, but also the absence of phones from a film like this mark them out as coming from another era. i'm fully subscribed to the idea that most cinema is shitter than it used to be as well. this one felt as if everyone involved had a really skilful approach to making films, like they knew what they were doing. that whole creative assemblage must be totally different now given that the money has drained out of it and that the underlying financial model is content for streaming rather than arses in cinema chairs eating snacks and 15 quid DVDs for christmas.
the film itself is quite nice, part of that whole genre, that you see in a lot of books as well, which is about giving attention to detailing the lives of wealthy people in big cities, capturing the little affects that people are having on one another, the moral judgements they have to make. this one was made by someone called massy tadjedin, who from wikipedia seems someone who has always moved in pretty rich and elite worlds.
the film itself is quite nice, part of that whole genre, that you see in a lot of books as well, which is about giving attention to detailing the lives of wealthy people in big cities, capturing the little affects that people are having on one another, the moral judgements they have to make. this one was made by someone called massy tadjedin, who from wikipedia seems someone who has always moved in pretty rich and elite worlds.
version
Well-known member
Rancho Notorious, one of Fritz Lang's few Westerns. It's on iPlayer seemingly indefinitely.
www.bbc.co.uk
Rancho Notorious
Unusual western about a young man hunting for the brutal killers of his fiancee.
www.bbc.co.uk
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Godland
A hubristic young priest is asked to travel to Iceland to oversee the construction of a new church, which doesn’t go to plan
Cue Icelandic = savages, Danes = civilised plot foundation, partially saved by the bloke who plays the voyager’s guide and the majesty of the natural world depicted. It riffs superbly on the island’s elemental powers before unraveling into stupidity. Two plot tweaks leading to more ambiguous twists could’ve saved it all but a bit late now
Last night shift to be wasted on guff, time to delve deeper into old hard drives and their forgotten contents
A hubristic young priest is asked to travel to Iceland to oversee the construction of a new church, which doesn’t go to plan
Cue Icelandic = savages, Danes = civilised plot foundation, partially saved by the bloke who plays the voyager’s guide and the majesty of the natural world depicted. It riffs superbly on the island’s elemental powers before unraveling into stupidity. Two plot tweaks leading to more ambiguous twists could’ve saved it all but a bit late now
Last night shift to be wasted on guff, time to delve deeper into old hard drives and their forgotten contents
IdleRich
IdleRich
I saw this film Ready or Not yesterday. I came back at about three am and it was on and I actually got sucked into it. It's not perfect but the story of a woman marrying into a rich family of maniacs who have a wedding night tradition of "playing a game". They draw a card to decide the game and unfortunately she picks Hide and Seek, which means she has to hide from the homicidal family who are trying to find her and kill her before dawn. It's not perfect but it's fun.