Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[slim jenkins]

The King and I
Rodgers & Hammerstein are not a new dubstep duo.
Right song and dance on themes of slavery, sexual equality, race and cultural conflict etcetera, etcetera...

 

[e/y]

 

[Corpsey]

Before Sunrise / Before Sunset - both films are flawed and potentially hugely irritating but I basically 'fell' for both films in an appropriately romantic fashion. The films (due to european settings, self-consciously mulled over questions of time/destiny and love etc.) reminded me of 'Midnight In Paris', which I loathed. So I don't know why I preferred these. But I did, I loved both films, especially 'Before Sunrise'.

The Grey - hardly a great film, felt slightly pretentious, or at least hampered by its genre-conventions, but very well made and tense and bleak and conjures a genuine sense of confrontation with death, in spite of its ropey CGI wolves. Liam Neeson was very good in it, too.

And I rewatched 'Kung Fu Panda' and the sequel to it this week and loved them both all over again. Kids films, of course, but so full of visual beauty and verve, and very funny too, even for a jaded, bitter husk of a man like me.

 

[baboon2004]

Before Sunrise / Before Sunset - both films are flawed and potentially hugely irritating but I basically 'fell' for both films in an appropriately romantic fashion. The films (due to european settings, self-consciously mulled over questions of time/destiny and love etc.) reminded me of 'Midnight In Paris', which I loathed. So I don't know why I preferred these. But I did, I loved both films, especially 'Before Sunrise'.

Snap, love both of them. I think they capture very well the conversations people have once they lapse into an unself-conscious mode, and then afterwards sort of decry as 'embarrassing' or 'naive' but they're anything but that, cos they're real expressions of how you feel.

 

[Corpsey]

Yes, you're right - that sort of deep enthusiasm which gets dismissed by them as soon as its come out of their mouths.

I bought 'Slacker' because I liked Before Sunrise/Sunset so much but I haven't watched it yet. I really love 'Dazed and Confused' also.

 

[baboon2004]

Dazed and Confused is brilliant- never got into Slacker but in general I think Linklater is great.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i like linklater too.

if you liked the sunset/sunrise films i recommend prelude to a midnight kiss. or stranger to a midnight kiss. whatever that film is called. i never get it right. but its great.

 

[baboon2004]

yeah, saw it at the cinema in fact. the ending was pretty heavy, as i recall, very good film. In Search of a Midnight Kiss is the title apparently

Dunno why it popped into my head just now, but Two Lovers is incredible, shocking in the same way as that film.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

MAN

i love two lovers.

joaquin phoenix was one of my favourite actors until that fake documentary where he was trying to be a rapper (though the scene with diddy was worth it).

 

[baboon2004]

snap, was thinking that yesterday when reading the interview for that new Paul Thomas Anderson film about scientologists with Phoenix in the lead role (which is a must-see, obv).

Joaquin Phoenix and the unfairly-maligned Gwyneth Paltrow (well, OK, she's probably annoying on a personal level, but great actress at times) have such good chemistry together in Two Lovers - the whole film feels like it's evoking the spirit of 70s Hollywood.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

yeah i cant wait to see the new PTA film

and agreed, paltrow is kinda underrated

on a similar note, i think i am starting to like keira knightley. i saw dangerous method and its not a great film (all the accents are weird, even fassbender doesnt seem that good - the best performance is vigo mortenson) and knightley basically goes through the whole film basically showing you that she is Acting (albeit with a ropey accent) but i like her more. i cant tell though if its that i actually think shes half decent, or that i sort of feel sorry for her as i can see shes really trying to act and i can see her angst *about* trying to act which makes me empathise with her (though not necessarily the actual character).

 

[baboon2004]

I have to think it's got to be the second option with Knightley! I don't dislike her really, but I don't think she's a good actress. Saw Never Let Me Go on TV recently, now there's an odd film.

yeah i cant wait to see the new PTA film

and agreed, paltrow is kinda underrated

on a similar note, i think i am starting to like keira knightley. i saw dangerous method and its not a great film (all the accents are weird, even fassbender doesnt seem that good - the best performance is vigo mortenson) and knightley basically goes through the whole film basically showing you that she is Acting (albeit with a ropey accent) but i like her more. i cant tell though if its that i actually think shes half decent, or that i sort of feel sorry for her as i can see shes really trying to act and i can see her angst *about* trying to act which makes me empathise with her (though not necessarily the actual character).

 

[IdleRich]

Watched a Czech animation (actually a mixture of animation and live actors) thing called Baron Prasil yesterday - it's completely amazing. Just absolutely magical all the way through with something new in every scene - and real humour too. Really incredible


I guess Terry Gilliam was a fan as he nicked the style (check the moments at 1.06 and 1.27 in the clip) and also made a version of the film - but he never made anything that even began to approach this.

 

[baboon2004]

is this the one you saw?

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah. It's on youtube whole as well I think but dubbed into English.

 

[baboon2004]

ah ok, that one is subtitled but doesn't seem that all the parts are still up. why the fuck does dubbing even exist? terrible practice.

 

[yyaldrin]

Snap, love both of them. I think they capture very well the conversations people have once they lapse into an unself-conscious mode, and then afterwards sort of decry as 'embarrassing' or 'naive' but they're anything but that, cos they're real expressions of how you feel.

If you guys are into drama and romance, don't miss out on Asian cinema. Somehow, I feel they are able to transfer idea's and feelings that are extremely recognizable, in contrast with the million dramas and romantic comedies that are produced in Hollywood. It's in small things, in facial expressions, in gestures and in, especially, silence. I guess a good and obvious start would be In the mood for love and 2046 but there's so much more. Something more obscure would be the work of Hiroshi Ishikawa, this scene pretty much explains what I mean, I can almost hear what they are thinking it is that realistic and honest:


There's hundreds of other movies in between these films, ranging from China to Taiwan. I'd be happy to give some suggestions if you're interested. Haven't seen Before Sunrise or After Sunrise but will definitely check them out now.

 

[baboon2004]

(Before Sunset! After Sunrise would have been an interesting film though in the circumstances)

Imo, the problem with trying to find good films from east Asia, if you live in the West, is that there's a lot of exoticism in the way films are rated, so that good-looking fluff will frequently be described as 'amazing', and more interesting films are harder to find out about (this is also often true of French films as rated by British critics though!).

Really didn't like In the Mood for Love tbh (for reasons cited above), but will check out 2046 cos I've been meaning to see it, and the Ishikawa.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i think a lot of distributors pick films from abroad based on it being 'different' to what we already get here but yeah, i wonder if that means a lot of good stuff that isnt 'different' is never seen over here and how much certain directors make their films thinking of how it will be received by international arthouse audiences/festivals.

as far as recent-ish asian cinema i did see mother by joon ho bong a while ago but really didnt see what the fuss was about. ive yet to read a bad review of it but i found it really boring (this might have been as i was expecting something a bit like his other film the host which i loved).

i finally saw scorseses first film - whos that knocking at my door and thought it was fab. some of the best filmed sex scenes ive seen actually. pretty obv influenced by european cinema too obv.

 

[stephenk]

(Before Sunset! After Sunrise would have been an interesting film though in the circumstances)

Imo, the problem with trying to find good films from east Asia, if you live in the West, is that there's a lot of exoticism in the way films are rated, so that good-looking fluff will frequently be described as 'amazing', and more interesting films are harder to find out about (this is also often true of French films as rated by British critics though!).

Really didn't like In the Mood for Love tbh (for reasons cited above), but will check out 2046 cos I've been meaning to see it, and the Ishikawa.

that might be true.
wong kar wai is a solid intro.
but apichatpong weerasethakul, tsai ming liang, edward yang have all been revelatory for me. especially in methodical pacing and letting the natural world blend into very modern stories. it's the same thing i love about certain terrence malick, or david gordon green's george washington.