Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[IdleRich]

The Handmaiden: intricate thrilling disturbing romantic erotic porny anti-porn 5/5

It's based on Fingersmith by Sarah Waters right? Did you see me talking about her novel The Paying Guests in the "What you reading now?" thread? Totally different from the twisty turny clever clever plot of The Handmaiden - and presumably of Fingersmith too I guess - but really very good and highly recommended by me.

 

[yyaldrin]

saw "bringing out the death" yesterday with nicolas cage, he's playing an ambulance medic going mental in a new york shown as nightmare. the film plays almost entirely at night in a wet and slimy city full of freaks, junkies and criminals. the whole film has this weird glow that makes everybody look like ghosts. i thought it was really great.

 

[Clinamenic]

saw "bringing out the death" yesterday with nicolas cage, he's playing an ambulance medic going mental in a new york shown as nightmare. the film plays almost entirely at night in a wet and slimy city full of freaks, junkies and criminals. the whole film has this weird glow that makes everybody look like ghosts. i thought it was really great.

Yeah that or Gangs of New York is probably my favorite Scorsese.

 

[version]

Casino had a bit of that glow too. I dunno how they did it, but there must be a name for it, something to do with the lenses or whatever. That aura round the edge of things, like everyone's in direct sunlight.

 

[version]

Yeah that or Gangs of New York is probably my favorite Scorsese.

You're the first person I've ever come across who even likes Gangs of New York, let alone rates it that highly.

 

[Clinamenic]

You're the first person I've ever come across who even likes Gangs of New York, let alone rates it that highly.

I mainly like Daniel Day Lewis, but yeah I remember liking it more than Scorsese’s other stuff. Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street I think are fun, Silence I remember being powerful albeit a bit Oscar-baity, Taxi Driver I really like (that actually might be my favorite, now that I think about it), Raging Bull I thought was a good film but I just didn’t enjoy it that much, After Hours I also liked a lot (that may beat out Gangs or Bringing out the Dead).

Aviator I thought was forgettable, Shutter Island I thought was interesting but ultimately still pretty forgettable, The Departed I enjoy but don’t take very seriously, and Hugo is probably the one I’ve forgotten the most.

 

[Clinamenic]

In the grand scheme of things these are all relatively good or even great films, obviously. Scorsese is no scrub, I admittedly just never really took to his films.

 

[IdleRich]

saw "bringing out the death" yesterday with nicolas cage, he's playing an ambulance medic going mental in a new york shown as nightmare. the film plays almost entirely at night in a wet and slimy city full of freaks, junkies and criminals. the whole film has this weird glow that makes everybody look like ghosts. i thought it was really great.

Absolutely never heard of that, when is it from?

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah that or Gangs of New York is probably my favorite Scorsese.

Really? Gangs of New York? I honestly thought that was awful, I couldn't watch it, it's really quite rare that I deliberately give up on a film. If I'mm hating a book and it's really long then i might want to avoid investing any more time, but once I'm half an hour or so into a film I tend to feel that there I might as well spend another hour to finish it, it's no big loss and it might get better - but there was something about GofNY that was so annoying, it felt so wrong.... I remember Liza and I turning to look at each other and we could each read the other's face saying "nope" - and that was that.

 

[IdleRich]

You're the first person I've ever come across who even likes Gangs of New York, let alone rates it that highly.

Agreed.

 

[yyaldrin]

Absolutely never heard of that, when is it from?

it's from 1999, i hadn't heard about it either, it's weird right considering it's by such a big director? i am not really that much of a fan of scorsese to be honest. i just like nightmare new york with all the wet streets and the dirty alleys and the bins on fire and then you have nicolas cage going through all of that slowly losing his mind. one could also see the movie as critique on the health system and if you watch it you feel like nothing ever changed in that regard.

Years later, Scorsese reflected to Ebert that Bringing Out the Dead "failed at the box office, and was rejected by a lot of the critics." Yet he added: "I had 10 years of ambulances. My parents, in and out of hospitals. Calls in the middle of the night. I was exorcising all of that. Those city paramedics are heroes -- and saints, they're saints. I grew up next to the Bowery, watching the people who worked there, the Salvation Army, Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker Movement, all helping the lost souls. They're the same sort of people."[11]

Thelma Schoomaker, the editor, praised the movie and said: "It's the only one of his [Scorsese's] films, I think, that hasn't gotten its due. It's a beautiful film, but it was hard for people to take, I think. Unexpected. But I think it's great." She claims that the film initially was mis-marketed as a car-chase film: "What happened was, that film was about compassion, and it was sold, I think, as a car chase movie. When I saw the trailer I said, "Wait a minute! That's not what the movie's about!" I think people were made nervous by the theme of it, which I think is beautiful. I think it'll get its due."[12] In 2021, Nicolas Cage singled out Bringing Out the Dead as one of the best movies he ever made.[13]

 

[version]

Another Schrader script too, although it was based on someone's novel.

 

[Corpsey]

Another Round

Loved it, a tragicomic tribute to booze, Mads Mikkelsen the legend

The last time I felt so nostalgic about the booze fuelled glories of youth was when I read the first of Knausgaard's My Struggle series. Those scandis know something about the liberation of booze. Perhaps cos they're as repressed as Brits?

 

[WashYourHands]

No-one is as repressed as the British, maybe the US but northern Europe is its own alcoholic hellscape

Top film, insightful yet familiar, same bonding rituals spun into a wider tale, gave me a bit of a thirst which is rare

 

[Corpsey]

Glengarry Glen Ross on Prime – I've seen this before but I rewatched it the other day and it got me right by my brass balls.

Funny looking at clips of it on youtube the comments underneath are full of people taking it as motivational. Like wolf of wall street, it's supposed to satirise the predatory nature of capitalism but plenty of people think "these dudes are awesome".

 

[craner]

Casino had a bit of that glow too. I dunno how they did it, but there must be a name for it, something to do with the lenses or whatever. That aura round the edge of things, like everyone's in direct sunlight.

View attachment 13662
View attachment 13663

This reminds me of the slightly washed-out, soft focus haze you get in Fulci films from the mid-70s on. I don't really like it. I like things to look hard, crisp, sharp, bold, saturated.

 

[Clinamenic]

I should perhaps rewatch Gangs of New York, to see if my high opinion of it still stands. It’s likely that I only remember liking it because I liked DDL’s performance. Think Brendan Gleeson was in it too, whom I also admire, but I could be wrong.

Anyway I’m surprised it’s eliciting such a strong pushback here.

 

[Benny Bunter]

I almost walked out when I saw gangs of New York at the cinema, couldn't believe how bad it was. That fucking U2 song at the end, what was he thinking?!

 

[version]

I almost walked out when I saw gangs of New York at the cinema, couldn't believe how bad it was. That fucking U2 song at the end, what was he thinking?!

I got Linebaugh into U2 recently by repeatedly posting their song from the first Jolie Tomb Raider film.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

bringing out the dead was pretty terrible too.