A few films recently watched.

[sneaksta303]

watchin Blood Simple for the first time...fucking fnally.

 

excellent film, im surprised with all the film fags on Watmm ' A serious man' their newest movie (its been out for over a week) seems to have gone under almost everyone's radar

 

it has a thread.

 

also, it doesn't seem to have gotten a wide release.

[Rubin Farr]

Sleep Dealer - 9/10 very well done low budget sci-fi similar in tone to District 9

 

Grace - 8/10 pretty creepy and completely fucked story about satan's baby.

some sublime subtext involving vegans vs. carnivores

 

Witchfinder General - 6/10 i've been hearing about this flick for years but i have to say

it was a letdown, even starring the master Vincent Price

[Ego]

Un homme qui dort 10/10

French cinema at its best.

how did you get a hold of this??

 

Surrealmoviez :)

[goffer]

Un homme qui dort 10/10

French cinema at its best.

how did you get a hold of this??

 

Surrealmoviez :)

Thanks... ive been waiting to buy a copy but it's never at a reasonable price. I guess I'll rent it from these dudes until then.

[patternoverlap]

I saw it yesterday. It was not very good. I do not recommend it.

[Squee]

I watched A Serious Man last week. Lovely movie. Great actors, great Coen-ish story, but the ending was also very Coen-ish which isn't always a good thing.

 

8/10

[Guest zaphod]

seemed like some people here were watching the series Dexter, so I figured I'd give it a shot and bought the boxset, so far not feeling it. So I went for a complete change of pace and went back and watched Totoro and Spirited Away. Spirited Away is such an amazing film, certainly in my top 10 list. I cried 3 times. Why can't Pixar understand that you can't evoke an emotional response from your audience by browbeating them? Instead they give us the opening sequence to "Up", with vomitous shit like the husband and wife putting their painted handprints on the mailbox, and her not being able to walk up the hill with him because she's so sick. The only time they've tried a more subtle approach, with the beginning of wall-e, it paid off so I don't see why they don't experiment more with real feelings, as opposed to cliches that the masses agree should represent feelings.

 

while i absolutely agree, you actually can evoke an emotional response by browbeating, which is exactly why pixar is so popular.

i rewatched spirited away after watching where the wild things are. i always tear up during this scene:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDvwHKT9GI

 

(chihiro on the train)

 

the music in the film is one of the main reasons it's so successful, but then it's also very effortless in its expression of emotion, which is something i don't feel like pixar has ever been able to do (they got close with walle).

[lumpenprol]

haha you cocksucker, just watching that again gave me a lump in my throat. For some reason I always tear up at the Haku parts, when he's attacked by paper cutouts (the music and animation of his writhing is so well done), and later when she tells him his true name. Also the entire intro sequence, from the moment Chihiro gets to the bathhouse bridge until she cowers near the ferryboat, is certainly one of the most gripping and emotional sequences in any film. To me that film contains everything I could ever want a piece of art to contain. For example, there was a time in my life where I think I was "no face", and seeing that captured so well blew me away. If Pixar had done it, they would have simply made him greedy, or perhaps evil masquerading as good, but they'd never take the leap to show how the desire to be appreciated for doing good can be another form of selfishness. I love how Miyazaki has such a delicate touch, but can also go balls out with the most intense sequences - it seems effortless as you say. He's a visual poet.

[Guest zaphod]

yeah the first twenty minutes of that film are flawless, although i'd be hard pressed to find flaws in the last hour or so either. i love the little atmospheric details as well; when they find the tunnel in the forest and there's an air flow that's drawing the leaves toward it, or the doppler effect in the sequence i posted. i love how miyazaki is always willing to take his time building up a world, but his films never feel too long.

 

fuck, i may have to watch it again tonight, lol

 

spirited away - 10/10

[lumpenprol]

yeah it's definitely the small details, combined with his masterful use of music and pacing. He frames things in just the right way and holds shots just long enough. I was reminded of that last night when I rewatched the opening of Princess Mononoke, the first shot in the forest king's lair when the hero is getting water from the stream, and then peers through the trees and spots the forest king, is brilliantly done, from the bowl kicking up a small plume of debris in the clear river water, to the way the trees pull back to reveal the deer silhouettes followed by the forest king's silhouette.

 

Incidentally, speaking of the intro to Spirited Away, and re-rewatching it, I watched it two nights ago and then started watching it again last night with a hookerfriend. She was bored by the intro until Haku appears and the mood changes, from that point on she was riveted, didn't want to turn it off mid-way even though it was 3:30 am. We'll finish it tonight. I'm curious how she sees it given the bathouse/mamasan overtones...I really want to do a series of hooker video movie reviews, just imagine Synechdote, New York reviewed by a couch-full of Chinese hookers...

[Guest zaphod]

you should do that. only review art films. "fou hundreh bwohs is noh truffles best, but ih wah weh infuenshow"

 

i'll have to rewatch mononoke. it's been a while. that was my second favorite miyazaki film. admittedly, not all of his movies are as moving as those two, but they're usually pretty strong. i still haven't seen his two most recent films.

[keltoi]

this thread is turning gay

 

too late it's now completely gay

[lumpenprol]

when it gets too gay you can always retreat to the gaarg penis thread.

[keltoi]

we all know there's no such thing as too gay.

[lumpenprol]

whenever talking about cartoons seems too gay, I just think of the pedo angle

[keltoi]

ok i think maybe crying at cartoons might be too gay.

 

crying at cartoons while thinking of the paedo angle is reaching new levels of gay.

[lumpenprol]

i take it mugwumps don't make you cry

[keltoi]

sometimes yeah.

 

actually i'm going to take 1 gay point away cos you were watching with a prostitute while you cried at cartoons.

[YEK]

just a heads up, the Nazi zombie movie "dead snow" is out on dvd in north america.

[goffer]

lumpenprol - which DVD do you recommend for Spirited Away? I saw they have 3 different versions on amazon, or is there a different region with a better transfer? I remember seeing previous to this a few years back and wanted to check it out.

[YEK]

lumpenprol - which DVD do you recommend for Spirited Away? I saw they have 3 different versions on amazon, or is there a different region with a better transfer? I remember seeing previous to this a few years back and wanted to check it out.

 

you'd want one dubbed no?

[goffer]

I don't mind subbies... i'm mostly just after the one with the best transfer... there is nothing that turns me off more than a shabby transfer,

[SR4]

the scene with haku getting fucked up royally got me so pumped up when i first saw it....that and the furnace worker with the nietzsche beard....and who doesn't love noface? classic character.

 

in fact, i loved the haku fuckup part so much I ended up making a shitty dnb remix of the track playing over top of it.

[awepittance]

ill have to check out Spiritied Away, it sounds lie it won't be boring as hell like Princess Mononoke was

 

..I really want to do a series of hooker video movie reviews, just imagine Synechdote, New York reviewed by a couch-full of Chinese hookers...

 

if you do it make it a blog and ill help it go viral!

[perunamuusi]

in fact, i loved the haku fuckup part so much I ended up making a shitty dnb remix of the track playing over top of it.

 

 

 

i think i remember that. i remember someone once posted a spirited away track in ylc (about 4 or 5 years ago?)

 

 

 

dona speir and hope carlton fantastic as DEA agents donna and taryn again, let down by a confusing plot, a twist in the climax which resolved something i had completely forgotten about and some amazing make up work on the japanese ww2 soldier to age him the 40 odd years he has been alone on a desert island. can't believe sidaris didn't enlist ron moss as rowdy abilene in this one. great action packed intro but downhill from there on. didn't come anywhere near close to hard ticket to hawaii. death scenes lacklustre but a reasonable boob count.

 

next up... picasso trigger