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Post by GR on Jun 19, 2012 2:09:42 GMT
Fat City -- just finished watching this on Turner Classic Movies. Excellent boxing drama, gritty yet especially sensitive in its detailed depiction of life outside the ring; Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges are great in their respective roles as a boozy ex-boxer trying for a comeback and the young fighter he takes under his wing. 
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Post by RydCook on Jun 21, 2012 22:55:31 GMT
***TIE 88' SPOILERS***BUT YOU'VE SEEN IT RIGHT? COURSE YOU 'AVE!****
Finally got around to watching TIE '88 again. Posting it in this thread because it really is a film, it works perfectly cinematically. It was a real pleasure to watch the whole thing together as once piece (a bit of a shame they left credits in-between episodes mind..) it totally works as a film. The whole thing is an absolute masterpiece. And of course, I would say that, but I do believe it. TIE '88 is actually incredibly cinematic, more so than some Shane's other films. Something about the cinematography is different. I love those close ups of the "woody" and "lol" tattoos at relevant times. I've probably said all this elsewhere, but i'll say it again. Astounding performances from Vicky & (struggling to remember their real names here, a testament to how much I believe in these characters).. JOE! thats the one. Can't believe they did not pick up awards. And of course the rest of the cast are excellent too. Only Meadows can make me laugh & cry in the same scene. The whole film is a rollercoaster of emotions. You really feel for every character in every scene. The characters are so deep. I love the ending. I can see the love triangle between Woody, Lol and Combo being the main theme of the next one. The cut straight to Combo after Woody & Lol's scene is telling. Stunning work from Meadows and the entire team. Roll on TIE '90.
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Post by Bill Edwards on Jun 23, 2012 17:19:39 GMT
Juan of the Dead
Daft fun with plenty of sick and nonPC humour. Sometimes the humour skirted close to being homophobic but it was done in such a good natured and self deprecating way they got away with it IMHO. The film didn't take itself at all seriously so neither did I.
The charmingly shoddy FX added to the enjoyment.
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Post by GR on Jun 24, 2012 3:36:22 GMT
Meek's Cutoff -- an art-house Western inspired by the ill-fated 1845 journey that frontier guide Stephen Meek led through the desert along the Oregon trail.
The film is glacially paced and relatively thin in plot (which has Meek leading two couples and a family of three across the Oregon High Desert), but I was drawn into the simmering tensions between Meek (I'm Not There's Bruce Greenwood) and his band of settlers -- especially one of the wives (Michelle Williams, also of I'm Not There) who seems to see right through him from the outset -- as they search for water, deal with an Indian they've captured, and so on.
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Post by Bill Edwards on Jun 25, 2012 22:17:25 GMT
London 2012 Festival Films
3 out of 4. The live streamed Q&A was good with Mark Kermode and a passionate Ramsay and Leigh
What If
Off to what turned out to be very strong start with this. It did make me feel very old but it was excellent and the best of the four IMHO. A bit of wish fulfillment but inspiring and thoughtful.
Swimmer
A beautifully shot mood piece. A visual poem about self doubt and determination with some excellent music choices including snippets of soundtracks from other films. Ramsay revealed that this was shot on actual film stock. It looked sumptuous in luminescent back and white. Produced by WARP Films too!
The Odyssey
A clear sighted doco on the effect the Olympics are having on London and the events carrying on outside of them. Some dramatic vertiginous shots of the London skyline. This had a strong visual connection with What If and if the London 2012 Festival Films had ended with it, it and The Odyssey would've made perfect book ends between which Ramsay's dreamlike shimmering piece would've hovered perfectly.
But it didn't end there. There was this...
A Running Jump
After the cool, restrained and contemporary trio of well judged films I just wasn't in the mood for a dollop of Mike Liegh's highly concentrated candy-coloured brand of working class whimsey. The broad and somewhat patronising caricatures really jarred with what had gone before and horror of horrors the whole thing was plastered with a ceaseless music track of mood dictating oompahpah shit which screamed, "THIS IS A COMEDY! FUCKING LAUGH!" The whole thing was over-acted shitless and the end credits ramped up the jaunty brassage to 11. It only made me want to hate and destroy. Not a great way to wrap things up.
It didn't fit at all with the others and I completely disagreed with Kermode and the other directors in the Q&A who all said how well they all fitted together. One of the directors even said, "Synergy". Twice. Not in my puny opinion they didn't. I felt a bit guilty at not liking Leigh's as he was brilliant in the Q&A and made some great points about the British film industry.
Worth checking out if you get the chance.
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Post by RydCook on Jun 27, 2012 21:52:23 GMT
I loved Meek's Cutoff. I proudly have the awesome Quad poster on my wall.
Like Chrome, I also saw the London 2012 Festival films + Q&A. Agree with most of his points.
What If
Really liked this one. Basically visualising Rudyard Kipling's poem "If.." to inspiring effect, within a realistic narrative structure. The whole thing was a little too cool and over stylised for my tastes. Other than this minor quibble, I thought it was great. Will definitely appeal to those who enjoyed Kidulthood & Streetdance (same directors as the latter). Great to see BMXing, Skateboarding, and Graffiti represented positively too.
Swimmer
My favourite of the lot. Left a lot to the viewer to think about, I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful visuals and thinking about what it must be like being a competitive swimmer. A real thinker, which i always enjoy. Brilliant filmmaking with excellent use of sound and visuals without spelling anything out. WARP films!! YEAH!!
The Odyssey
My second favourite. Kapadia uses his trademark Senna style in not showing interviewees, we just hear voices. He takes it one step further in not even crediting the people, which really works. Visuals cut from brand new helicopter footage of London, archive footage of London events & archive footage from Olympics of the past. The film chronicles from 2005 (when we won the olympic bid) to right now. Kapadia includes views from all perspectives on the events & olympics, negative and positive, making it a very balanced documentary. Superb stuff. He's fast becoming one of my favourite directors. He tweeted at me after the screening as well! What a guy!
Running Jump
Totally agree with Chrome. Not much more to add. Sickeningly & not realistically sweet. I'm all for uplifting films, but this was way too OTT to the point it wasn't believable at all. The one plus point was that Perry Benson starred, and was of course excellent! It was kind of like Happy Go Lucky in style (which I liked) but just ramped up to 11 on all the lovely happy funny stuff. Bad. Soundtrack was incredibly annoying. What a shame!
As Chrome said, the Q&A was excellent, and inspiring. The directors had some great messages. Leigh even used the F word to complain about big wigs ruining films. So although his film was shit, his presence was welcome.
I highly recommend seeing the first 3 films mentioned.
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Post by Bill Edwards on Jun 28, 2012 19:55:40 GMT
Agree with all of that Mr Cook sir except it was Sam Kelly in A Running Jump! Famous for saying, "CLUP!" a lot in Allo! Allo! But I thought it was Perry Benson at first too.
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Post by GR on Jun 28, 2012 21:46:01 GMT
Running Jump Totally agree with Chrome. Not much more to add. Sickeningly & not realistically sweet. I'm all for uplifting films, but this was way too OTT to the point it wasn't believable at all. The one plus point was that Perry Benson starred, and was of course excellent! It was kind of like Happy Go Lucky in style (which I liked) but just ramped up to 11 on all the lovely happy funny stuff. Bad. Soundtrack was incredibly annoying. What a shame! As Chrome said, the Q&A was excellent, and inspiring. The directors had some great messages. Leigh even used the F word to complain about big wigs ruining films. So although his film was shit, his presence was welcome. Leigh's film was a short, wasn't it? From the sound of it, I hope it's not his feature follow-up to Another Year... *** Open Range (watched last night on American Movie Classics) -- another Western, this time with Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner. I'd seen it once before a few years ago; I'd forgotten how good it was! |
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Post by Bill Edwards on Jul 1, 2012 9:04:45 GMT
Leigh's film was a short, wasn't it? From the sound of it, I hope it's not his feature follow-up to Another Year... Leigh did hint in the the Q&A that it could form the basis of a feature film. But I think, and hope, by that time it would be more rounded and less saccharine. HugoA touching celebration of the birth of cinema. A bit in love with itself and on the cheesy side but engaging and soulful. Kingsley's 'young Melier' make-up was a bit disturbing. I was surprised it was packed full of Brits and I especially enjoyed the Kevin Eldon cameo. He's a legend! |
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Post by RydCook on Jul 1, 2012 16:17:59 GMT
Agree with all of that Mr Cook sir except it was Sam Kelly in A Running Jump! Famous for saying, "CLUP!" a lot in Allo! Allo! But I thought it was Perry Benson at first too. Oops! I did keep wondering... but by the end I was so certain I didn't even bother to check the credits! How foolish of me. Ha ha. DEAD MAN'S SHOES *SLIGHT SPOILERS* - On Blu-ray, with brand new glasses, and headphones! I'm really not sure why I put myself through it really, I was blithering mess of tears by the end.  Haven't watched it for a while. Such an astounding film. Very probably THE most devastating climax and ending in cinema. Looked beautiful in HD, I've only ever seen it on VHS & DVD before. I can only hope I get to see it in a cinema one day. |
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Post by RydCook on Jul 1, 2012 18:47:42 GMT
Tucker & Dale vs Evil - Superb! Great concept, very funny and some great gore & effects. Loved it! Loved the main characters. Definitely watch it!
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Post by Bill Edwards on Jul 1, 2012 22:08:12 GMT
Tucker & Dale vs Evil - Superb! Great concept, very funny and some great gore & effects. Loved it! Loved the main characters. Definitely watch it! I do want to watch this. The MuppetsEnjoyably surreal & inspired take on the Muppet legend with very funny post modern song & dance numbers. Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh. ;D Killer JoeOooff! Blackety black black comedy viciousness. Too violent and dark and nasty for me to be laff-out-loud funny but funny it most certainly was. It was also excellently performed by all the players and on top of all that the film looked great and was very sharply directed. In fact the whole film was lean and mean with no flab at all which is surprising when you consider how long William Friedkin has been directing films. Just as long as Spielberg and Scorsese both of which now make flabby and bloated gloss-fests with little life. Sez me. Killer Joe looks like it was made the day after Friedkin had finished The French Connection! It had the feel of a twenty something's first feature. |
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Post by GR on Jul 1, 2012 22:52:04 GMT
Leigh's film was a short, wasn't it? From the sound of it, I hope it's not his feature follow-up to Another Year... Leigh did hint in the the Q&A that it could form the basis of a feature film. But I think, and hope, by that time it would be more rounded and less saccharine. Ah. *** The Artist -- I bought this on DVD yesterday. Well worth the $$ and the wait. I knew going into it that, story-wise, it would be basically a cross between Singin' in the Rain and A Star is Born -- part comedy dealing with the movie industry's transition from silent films to talkies, part drama tracing the relationship between an ingenue on the rise and an older male star in decline -- so nothing really groundbreaking or mind-blowing here. But I think this combination works very well; it helps that the script and performances achieve a decent balance between gentle humor and emotionally affecting moments. Also, I think writer-director Michel Hazanavicius' choice to tell this sweet, old-fashioned story primarily in the style of an old silent film was interesting; for George Valentin (Jean DuJardin, quite charming even at his character's most prideful and self-destructive), silent film is literally his whole world, and just the mere thought of sound intruding upon that world is enough to make him feel seriously threatened. Overall, the film is beautifully crafted, and I think it works best as an affectionate ode to Old Hollywood. Hemingway & Gellhorn -- made-for-HBO docudrama recorded during a recent Free HBO weekend, I finally got around to checking it out today. I didn't really know anything about the journalist Martha Gellhorn before I saw this teleplay; afterwards, I was certainly convinced that a bio-pic of her own could've been pretty cool. But by focusing primarily on her relationship with writer Ernest Hemingway (they met in 1936, and were married from 1940-45), what starts out as snappy and thrilling becomes more tedious and exhausting over some two-and-a-half hours. :-\ Still, Nicole Kidman seems to have some fun with her role as the ballsy Gellhorn, and Clive Owen is nearly her match as the swaggering (if sometimes obnoxious) Hemingway. |
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Post by GR on Jul 2, 2012 22:14:28 GMT
Head (recorded on Turner Classic Movies a few days ago and watched last night) -- the movie the Monkees made after their TV series was cancelled. Little if any plot to speak of -- it plays like a loose collection of sketches as the boys keep trying to assert their freedom, repeatedly breaking from the constraints of their fictional world only to find themselves in another (war story, desert adventure, Western, boxing drama and so on) -- and visually an unmistakable product of the psychedelic late '60s. Such a high-minded, image-tweaking approach may have alienated the show's young fans (and the older, hipper audience at whom the film was aimed ended up rejecting it anyway, simply because of the Monkees' involvement), but I think it's held up pretty well as wonderfully weird fun.  Some terrific tunes, too (including "Porpoise Song," the Peter Tork composition "Can You Dig It?", and the Harry Nilsson-penned Davy Jones showcase "Daddy's Song).
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Post by jill on Jul 4, 2012 17:55:59 GMT
Winter's Bone
Wish I'd caught this on the big screen. One of the best films I've seen in a good while.
The Green Butcher's
Danish black comedy about two losers who start up a butchers business, which seems doomed to fail until they start selling marinated 'special stuff.' Inevitable comparisons to delicatessen, although it's more Roy Andersson meets the League of Gentlemen. Not as 'grisly' and 'decidedly sick' as advertised, but funny enough-some good lines.
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