Yes, it was almost a month since I watched some films, but I'm making up for it I swear! Some traveling and a commitment to watch a good chunk of the third season of How I Met Your Mother on my vacation visiting New Mexico restricted my cinema time. But...
PUSHER (1996)
The first installment of the latest entry to The AV Club's New Cult Canon shows up for free in HD on Comcast On Demand! It's part of a Danish trilogy about drug dealers, with the second part released 6-7 years later, and man does the ending leave you wanting more.
JAPON (2002)
The debut film by the director Carlos Reygadas, who really intrigued me with his hypnotic and appropriately slow-paced movie about Mexican Mennonites, Silent Light. Same patient beautiful shots of nature that I liked so much, a little more abstract narrative that fits in with a large amount of difficult indie films. I'm really liking this filmmaker though.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Report
TIMECRIMES (2007)
This is really good. There's another low-budget sci-fi movie dealing with time travel called Primer that is ambitious but incredibly confusing. This is another movie in that style but the blend of Hitchcockian suspense, ambiance, and just enough screwy plot points (goes with the whole time-travel territory) make it nearly perfect.
This is really good. There's another low-budget sci-fi movie dealing with time travel called Primer that is ambitious but incredibly confusing. This is another movie in that style but the blend of Hitchcockian suspense, ambiance, and just enough screwy plot points (goes with the whole time-travel territory) make it nearly perfect.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Tuesday
EL TOPO (1970)
Known as the first "midnight movie" this is probably enjoyed best while on acid. However, if you're not a recreational drug user, an unstructured trippy movie should at least hit you with constantly bizarre images that are all the more wild because you have no past cinematic context to understand them, and this movie has those in spades. David Lynch marvels at that too, but this nightmare of a movie disturbs in different ways.
DIRTY WORK (1998)
Talking about the succesfull delivery of mediocre to irritating comic material, I don't think any single comedian cracks me up just by being present and saying stuff than Norm MacDonald, possibly because his presence on the pop culture landscape in not very ubiquitous. So I didn't see his major full length until now, when it popped up on Comcast Demand, and its hilarity is the sole result of him being in this movie. Directed by Bob Saget, oddly enough. So many dead hookers!
EXTRACT (2009)
Finally, I see a Mike Judge film when it is first released! For the record, when I first rented Idiocracy I was so fascinated that I watched it for the second time the very next day, something I NEVER do. This is very calm, no major social commentaries or really deep satire, but still full of eccentric characters and Jason Bateman to just perfectly play it straight. I wish there were more weirdos like in Office Space, but the nosy neighbor played by David Koetchner nearly makes up for any limitations in the movie.
Known as the first "midnight movie" this is probably enjoyed best while on acid. However, if you're not a recreational drug user, an unstructured trippy movie should at least hit you with constantly bizarre images that are all the more wild because you have no past cinematic context to understand them, and this movie has those in spades. David Lynch marvels at that too, but this nightmare of a movie disturbs in different ways.
DIRTY WORK (1998)
Talking about the succesfull delivery of mediocre to irritating comic material, I don't think any single comedian cracks me up just by being present and saying stuff than Norm MacDonald, possibly because his presence on the pop culture landscape in not very ubiquitous. So I didn't see his major full length until now, when it popped up on Comcast Demand, and its hilarity is the sole result of him being in this movie. Directed by Bob Saget, oddly enough. So many dead hookers!
EXTRACT (2009)
Finally, I see a Mike Judge film when it is first released! For the record, when I first rented Idiocracy I was so fascinated that I watched it for the second time the very next day, something I NEVER do. This is very calm, no major social commentaries or really deep satire, but still full of eccentric characters and Jason Bateman to just perfectly play it straight. I wish there were more weirdos like in Office Space, but the nosy neighbor played by David Koetchner nearly makes up for any limitations in the movie.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Tuesday Time
JESUS CAMP (2006)
A multi-layered reaction to this documentary, mostly only the lines of my views on faith, conformity, and politics. Viewing this in Bush America might have been one one upsetting experience, seeing this worship of leaders in Obama Nation is another. How many people in this movie respect, let alone look up to, Obama as a man of faith? And the cameo by closet drug-addict / homosexual Ted Haggard is another sick element.
YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (2008)
This could inspire as much thoughts as the above movie! But mostly it's a textbook example of why I consider myself a film snob. I did laugh at this, but there were so many clumsy moments, dragged out disgusting scenes, and just idiocy, that the only venue for watching this would be late night and/or drunk. Having to pay for this and watch it a theater would be absolutely horrible. It would be a cinematic prison, sitting in a dark multiplex while having extremely dumb images and words forced on me with no escape, while smart and intellectual things were going on around the globe without me.
What made this redeemable however, and it's something very important, is that if you're going to make something this insipid, hire good actors. Adam Sandler always has his moments, and if you cast John Turtorro as the main villian, you at least have lines that are delivered enthusiastically. There were points that I was chuckling BEFORE the punchline, just because the delivery was so much more important than any point any jokes in this film were supposed to make.
Anyway, more on this some other time.
A multi-layered reaction to this documentary, mostly only the lines of my views on faith, conformity, and politics. Viewing this in Bush America might have been one one upsetting experience, seeing this worship of leaders in Obama Nation is another. How many people in this movie respect, let alone look up to, Obama as a man of faith? And the cameo by closet drug-addict / homosexual Ted Haggard is another sick element.
YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (2008)
This could inspire as much thoughts as the above movie! But mostly it's a textbook example of why I consider myself a film snob. I did laugh at this, but there were so many clumsy moments, dragged out disgusting scenes, and just idiocy, that the only venue for watching this would be late night and/or drunk. Having to pay for this and watch it a theater would be absolutely horrible. It would be a cinematic prison, sitting in a dark multiplex while having extremely dumb images and words forced on me with no escape, while smart and intellectual things were going on around the globe without me.
What made this redeemable however, and it's something very important, is that if you're going to make something this insipid, hire good actors. Adam Sandler always has his moments, and if you cast John Turtorro as the main villian, you at least have lines that are delivered enthusiastically. There were points that I was chuckling BEFORE the punchline, just because the delivery was so much more important than any point any jokes in this film were supposed to make.
Anyway, more on this some other time.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Movie log
I was very concerned that in the waning days of summer, a Quentin Tarantino AND a Mike Judge movie would be opening weekend, keeping me out of the fresh air. Fortunately I got the dates wrong and Extract will be released a few weeks later.
MILK (2008)
AND... WAIT FOR IT...
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) !!!!
MILK (2008)
AND... WAIT FOR IT...
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) !!!!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
A Theater and a Netflix
FUNNY PEOPLE (2009)
DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE (2004)
I'll just say Michael Moore's movies might less irritating to those not part of the choir he is preaching to if done this way. Absolutely with no heavy-handed narration, just a depiction of an awful, awful, situation in an impoverished country. I had heard about this movie for a while, and knew that I would be upset if I saw it. Puts a lot of problems into perspective.
DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE (2004)
I'll just say Michael Moore's movies might less irritating to those not part of the choir he is preaching to if done this way. Absolutely with no heavy-handed narration, just a depiction of an awful, awful, situation in an impoverished country. I had heard about this movie for a while, and knew that I would be upset if I saw it. Puts a lot of problems into perspective.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Movies
I still remember sneaking in a free HD on demand movie on a Thursday night. I must try weeknight movie watching a little more, especially when my work weeks aren't going well.
By Friday night I was all movied out! Watched two great 70s movies.
The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Absolutely no padding in this movie. Like all classic action flicks, there's the set up, the crisis, a little dusting of characterization, and the good guys winning. But it's been a while since I've seen something so cut and dry as this movie. And what an ending!
Nashville (1975)
I had to split up this 2.5 hour epic over one night and one morning, but it's still great. Screw myself for browsing through a '100 greatest movie moments' book at Border's that might have ruined the movie. A small fortune is that I misread which character has the thing happen to them that was so pivotal, so a little surprise. Pure movie watching experiences can't happen for 30+ year movies I guess. It made me want to watch Robert Altman movies, especially rewatching Gosford Park, which I saw a long time ago and couldn't follow.
By Friday night I was all movied out! Watched two great 70s movies.
The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Absolutely no padding in this movie. Like all classic action flicks, there's the set up, the crisis, a little dusting of characterization, and the good guys winning. But it's been a while since I've seen something so cut and dry as this movie. And what an ending!
Nashville (1975)
I had to split up this 2.5 hour epic over one night and one morning, but it's still great. Screw myself for browsing through a '100 greatest movie moments' book at Border's that might have ruined the movie. A small fortune is that I misread which character has the thing happen to them that was so pivotal, so a little surprise. Pure movie watching experiences can't happen for 30+ year movies I guess. It made me want to watch Robert Altman movies, especially rewatching Gosford Park, which I saw a long time ago and couldn't follow.
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