Movies Serious Movie Discussion

[chickenluver]

There are a few elements later on which start to add a lot more humour, but as much as I wanted to love it....I could only like it at best, unfortunately The Return doesn't come close to the original series.

I think I liked it better overall due to it being good all the way through, whereas the original had a run of episodes that I didn't like at all. It's difficult to compare them though, I kind of think of Twin Peaks as one thing with three distinct parts.

Never heard that expression before? lol

I had never heard of marmite before. The internet said people either love or hate it

 

[Rimbaud82]

I think I liked it better overall due to it being good all the way through, whereas the original had a run of episodes that I didn't like at all. It's difficult to compare them though, I kind of think of Twin Peaks as one thing with three distinct parts.

Agreed, and that is true...there's no awful middle scenes with Hurley having that incredibly boring affair in S3.

 

[chickenluver]

Agreed, and that is true...there's no awful middle scenes with Hurley having that incredibly boring affair in S3.

When I rewatched the original before the return I went straight from episode 17 to the finale. It flows surprisingly well that way lul. It's amazing how little importance that middle section has to the series as a whole.

 

[europe1]

@chickenluver you rotten scoundrel! Get in here so that I can kick your goblinoid behind! What evil machinations were going on inside your reptilian-brain when you kept asking me "Hey europe1, have you seen the Suspiria remake?" instead of "Save yourself! Stay away from the Suspiria remake! By Yahwe don't watch it! Nooooo!" *followed by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head*

That movie was terrible! It was bad! It was terribad!

Alright... clearly it wasn't aiming to ape the Argento version. I got much more Fassbender/Possession-vibes from it, with the political milieu, the body-writhing aspects (reminiscent of the subway scene in Possession) and the grimy, featureless German setting. Fairy tales on acid this was not.

A big part of my issue with this movie was just the storytelling. The plans of the coven are just overheard in everyday scenes, glossed over as if they were talking about the weather. It completely robs the movie of any mystery, menace or sense of momentum. You're just watching a bunch of weirdos impassionately talking about their plans. There is no sense of discovery or dread.

And what the fuck was the camera-work and editing? You get some drastic camera moments and zooms whose only impression is "whaaaa?" If they were trying to mount tension or alienation or anything like that then they drastically failed.

And then there was all that political stuff? Were they trying to link the Dance Academy to the Radical politics of the 70's? The Academy feels very much like some sort of feminist collective. And there are illusions to their dancers sprinting off to join the underground. The protagonist flees from an old-timey church-cult in the Midwest. Are they trying to equate the self-destructiveness (and plain old destructiveness) of those political movements with the self-destructiveness of the Witches Coven? By trying to radically alter themselves they only descend into fuckery and perpetuating the old order? I have no idea what I'm writing about at this point! All of this feels rather purposeless and fetid.

Some funny ending body-horror scenes don't save this picture. I don't know if that was meant to be funny. But it was so try-hard and absurd that it ended up as such.

And those red ropes wrapped around their bodies made me think I was watching a fucking Japanese bondage-porno!

Some days I just want to be like that old guy at the end of Rosemary's Baby and rise from my chair yelling "Heil Satan!!!"

 

[chickenluver]

@chickenluver you rotten scoundrel! Get in here so that I can kick your goblinoid behind! What evil machinations were going on inside your reptilian-brain when you kept asking me "Hey europe1, have you seen the Suspiria remake?" instead of "Save yourself! Stay away from the Suspiria remake! By Yahwe don't watch it! Nooooo!" *followed by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head*

Haha I still haven't seen it. The funny thing is some youtubers I like said it was good and that it wasn't anything like the original (that second part seems to be true at least). I didn't watch any more of the review after they said they liked it though since I do plan to watch it. As long as it has nice visuals and naked ladies I'll probably be happy.

 

[Rimbaud82]

The other day I watched

The Panic in Needle Park (1971)

Al Pacino's breakout role, he was outstanding. Extremely bleak, but a very realistic and emotionally resonant portrayal of young love and emotional manipulation in the grips of heroin addiction. On one level it's a sort of shocking exploitation film about heroin junkies in early 70s New York, and we get a few scenes of needles going into arms etc. to hammer this home. But it was interesting more because of the love story element, and in this respect it operates like more of a romantic tragedy (at it's best anyway). It is implied at some points that Bobby (Pacino) has manipulated other girlfriends in the past, but in the moments depicted in this film the love seems very real...which in turns makes the betrayals and tragic elements all the more impactful. Drugs addictions make for desperate people and desperate situations, but I won't go into spoiler territory as always.

Tonight I just finished

The Harder They Come (1972)

Excellent crime drama from Jamaica. The film is most notable nowadays for it's awesome reggae soundtrack and it's role in spreading that music, and although that adds a lot of enjoyment, it's also just a hell of a fun film on it's own. I did struggle at times with the thicker accents I have to admit, so I would probably recommend subtitles! It is about a young, aspiring musician who moves from the country to the big city in search of fame of fortune and who subsequently gets involves with shady record label executives, drug dealers and other characters. Very common story-wise but the fact that it is a Jamaican production adds a lot of unique colour.

 

[Yotsuya]

@chickenluver you rotten scoundrel!

 

[europe1]

And he wasn't even a gentleman about his deceptions like those Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on the French Riviera! He just straight-up duped me!

The Harder They Come (1972)

To proudly show off my utterly uncultured ways, the only thing I know about this movie is that they're watching one of my personal favourite films in it, Django. So, ipso facto, it must be a great film! Logan referenced Shane and that's a great film too, so this line of reasoning works perfectly!

 

[Rimbaud82]

The Mill and the Cross (2011)

A cinematic re-staging of Pieter Bruegel The Elder's iconic painting from 1564 'The Procession to Calvary'. It looks at the artistic process behind the work, acting essentially as a kind of 'moving painting' while Bruegel (Rutger Hauer) occasionally offers some insight into it's composition. However, there is generally very little dialogue (the only other voices are those of Bruegel's wealthy patron, and the Virgin Mary). Instead, a regular, structured narrative is replaced by vibrant - but mostly wordless - tableaux which illustrate certain scenes from the painting, as well as the historical context behind it. There is a significant focus on the everyday lives of the Dutch/Flemish peasants at the time (as befits Bruegel's paintings of course), and their religious persecution at the hands of Catholic Spain. In this respect the director would seem draw on the idea that the Bruegel, in updating the scene to his contemporary Netherlands, was drawing parallels between the imperialist repression of the Romans and of the Spaniards. But of course there is an equal focus on the religious inspiration, and general humanistic feeling, behind the painting. Stylistically it's really interesting, and I think the approach works very well.

In order to tell the story and attempt to recreate the painting it uses a mixture of what seems to be live action location shots, painted sets and CGI. In it's use of tableaux to tell an artists story, it very much brought mind to Sergei Parajanov's The Colour of Pomegranates. Though the use of painted sets which, although they are pretty stunning, are also very self-consciously artificial reminded me of The Ballad of Narayama (the original 1958 version).

 

[Bullitt68]

I haven't watched many movies lately - while writing a Steve Jobs essay I got sucked into Sorkinland and rewatched The West Wing on Netflix and I was disappointed in how badly it held up on a second run-through, literally every season was a bit worse than the last and Martin Sheen was the only cast member who was genuinely awesome episode-to-episode and season-to-season - but @Rimbaud82 and @chickenluver, you guys will be sad to learn that I gave up on Twin Peaks: The Return. Life is too short and that season is too stupid. When the doppelgänger Cooper got shot in the woods and then came back to life is when I gave up. I literally turned it off the second he sat up. That was the last straw. Just too dumb with zero fucking payoff.

That said, even though I threw in the towel, I'd still be interested to hear what happens. Can one or both of you guys give me the quick gist of how it wraps up? Does original Dale ever come back or does he do his Rain Man shtick the whole fucking season? Does anything else happen in/with the Black Lodge and/or with Bob? Is there ever an intersection between the two Dales and the Great Northern?

And then this is just the most obvious place for me to post this: I had an interview this week and I've been officially hired to teach my first film class in the fall. It's an adjunct post, so I still have to spend the summer hoping with my fingers crossed that enough kids sign up for it for it to actually run come the fall, but it's a class at one of the bigger community colleges around me called "Film and Society" that runs through the cinematic and cultural history of America from the invention of cinema to today. It's literally the perfect first class for me and I'm stoked to come up with my syllabus and pick which movies to screen

 

[Rimbaud82]

I haven't watched many movies lately - while writing a Steve Jobs essay I got sucked into Sorkinland and rewatched The West Wing on Netflix and I was disappointed in how badly it held up on a second run-through, literally every season was a bit worse than the last and Martin Sheen was the only cast member who was genuinely awesome episode-to-episode and season-to-season - but @Rimbaud82 and @chickenluver, you guys will be sad to learn that I gave up on Twin Peaks: The Return. Life is too short and that season is too stupid. When the doppelgänger Cooper got shot in the woods and then came back to life is when I gave up. I literally turned it off the second he sat up. That was the last straw. Just too dumb with zero fucking payoff.

That said, even though I threw in the towel, I'd still be interested to hear what happens. Can one or both of you guys give me the quick gist of how it wraps up? Does original Dale ever come back or does he do his Rain Man shtick the whole fucking season? Does anything else happen in/with the Black Lodge and/or with Bob? Is there ever an intersection between the two Dales and the Great Northern?

And then this is just the most obvious place for me to post this: I had an interview this week and I've been officially hired to teach my first film class in the fall. It's an adjunct post, so I still have to spend the summer hoping with my fingers crossed that enough kids sign up for it for it to actually run come the fall, but it's a class at one of the bigger community colleges around me called "Film and Society" that runs through the cinematic and cultural history of America from the invention of cinema to today. It's literally the perfect first class for me and I'm stoked to come up with my syllabus and pick which movies to screen

haha it had it's moments but I dont blame you at all. Original Dale does eventually come back, but only at the very end. Like literally the very last episode if my memory serves. I've not watched it since it first aired. I feel like I would need to rewatch it myself to recall the specifics. Which really doesn't bode well for the return I have to say lol.

 

[Yotsuya]

Just finished This Gun for Fire. Very likable. Not purebred film noir but more of an old school suspense/action movie with a dark side. Alan Ladd was dynamite in every scene. This should have made on my SMC top-10 list of best killers.


@europe1

 

[Rimbaud82]

Just finished

Mary, Queen of Scots (2018)

Bit of a mixed bag. Firstly, it looked fantastic in terms of bringing the period to life. Great costumes, lighting, cinematography and so on. It felt very authentic, in the vein of the grand hollywood historical epics from the 60s and 70s. There were elements of the story which were also good, some of the political intrigue within and between the English and Scottish courts was quite well done. If the film had stuck to this angle it would have been a lot better in my opinion. However, my main issue that it was much too revisionist. Now within the field of history revisionism is not a bad thing, in fact it's kind of the entire point. It's also true that all history involves a certain degree of interpretation. But when you start taking the history and fitting it into modern pre-conceptions, then that's when you start to go badly wrong. Unfortunately that's where this film goes downhill. Now, firstly I am not some "Anti-SJW" nut who whinges about lefties, so I actually have no problem with the general idea of taking a feminist angle to the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. Nor do I have a problem with little innacuracies, like Mary speaking with a Scottish accent; or even some modern liberties like having black characters. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. But this film tried to push the feminist angle at the expense of the actual history/story. I felt like it tried to push this narrative of Mary and Elizabeth being the best of friends, torn apart by a misogynistic society too hard. Like, yes, of course it is true that society was extremely misogynistic but it is also true that Mary and Elizabeth were ambitious women in their own right (who could also be bitter rivals). The overall idea, in my opinion, was lessened by the way in which they shoehorned nearly all their interactions into that feminist dichotomy. Not to mention certain transgender storylines....Also I found that the emotional impact of the ending was diminished by the hackneyed, cheesy dialogue about Mary's son James I succeeding to the throne and succeeding where Mary failed. But I also confess it's probably just me that has issues with that, as someone who studies the period, those less familiar with the history might have been grateful for that.

All in all a decent period piece, good at points and had it's moments, but could have been a lot better.

 

[KOQ24]

@chickenluver you rotten scoundrel! Get in here so that I can kick your goblinoid behind! What evil machinations were going on inside your reptilian-brain when you kept asking me "Hey europe1, have you seen the Suspiria remake?" instead of "Save yourself! Stay away from the Suspiria remake! By Yahwe don't watch it! Nooooo!" *followed by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head*

That movie was terrible! It was bad! It was terribad!

Alright... clearly it wasn't aiming to ape the Argento version. I got much more Fassbender/Possession-vibes from it, with the political milieu, the body-writhing aspects (reminiscent of the subway scene in Possession) and the grimy, featureless German setting. Fairy tales on acid this was not.

A big part of my issue with this movie was just the storytelling. The plans of the coven are just overheard in everyday scenes, glossed over as if they were talking about the weather. It completely robs the movie of any mystery, menace or sense of momentum. You're just watching a bunch of weirdos impassionately talking about their plans. There is no sense of discovery or dread.

And what the fuck was the camera-work and editing? You get some drastic camera moments and zooms whose only impression is "whaaaa?" If they were trying to mount tension or alienation or anything like that then they drastically failed.

And then there was all that political stuff? Were they trying to link the Dance Academy to the Radical politics of the 70's? The Academy feels very much like some sort of feminist collective. And there are illusions to their dancers sprinting off to join the underground. The protagonist flees from an old-timey church-cult in the Midwest. Are they trying to equate the self-destructiveness (and plain old destructiveness) of those political movements with the self-destructiveness of the Witches Coven? By trying to radically alter themselves they only descend into fuckery and perpetuating the old order? I have no idea what I'm writing about at this point! All of this feels rather purposeless and fetid.

Some funny ending body-horror scenes don't save this picture. I don't know if that was meant to be funny. But it was so try-hard and absurd that it ended up as such.

And those red ropes wrapped around their bodies made me think I was watching a fucking Japanese bondage-porno!

Some days I just want to be like that old guy at the end of Rosemary's Baby and rise from my chair yelling "Heil Satan!!!"

I hated the political angle too.If they leave that out, it's a much better Film.
Loved the violence though and Tilda was fantastic as always.

The small talk about witchy stuff takes away the mystery of the original, but it was kinda refreshing just seeing them do small talk about daily witch activities lol.
Though that could be an issue for people who'd never seen the original.

 

[ufcfan4]

I hated the political angle too.If they leave that out, it's a much better Film.
Loved the violence though and Tilda was fantastic as always.

The small talk about witchy stuff takes away the mystery of the original, but it was kinda refreshing just seeing them do small talk about daily witch activities lol.
Though that could be an issue for people who'd never seen the original.

Haven't seen the movie but I remember watching the trailer and thinking who is that old dude actor. Don't recognize the name. Then I look it up and see that it is Swinton. Lol. Impressive. I never would have called that in a million years. Good makeup, as it never occurred to me that was a woman.

Swinton is great in virtually any given role.

Trailer struck me like the film would end up being a bit pretentious. Sometimes when the horror movies go for that high art vibe, I lose interest.

 

[europe1]

Sometimes when the horror movies go for that high art vibe, I lose interest

The whole "elevate the horror genre" has led to a lot of pretentious bullshit and indicates a lot of disdain for horror tropes and customs that are in fact perfectly suited for making intelligent and thematic films.

 

[ufcfan4]

The whole "elevate the horror genre" has led to a lot of pretentious bullshit and indicates a lot of disdain for horror tropes and customs that are in fact perfectly suited for making intelligent and thematic films.

100 percent agree.

What horror movies of late have you enjoyed? There's been some well reviewed ones of the past few years but I'm not always in agreement. For example, I thought Hereditary and Get Out (which I consider more of a thriller type film) were very good but thought that Austrian film Goodnight, Mommy was unappealing to say the least.

 

[europe1]

What horror movies of late have you enjoyed? There's been some well reviewed ones of the past few years but I'm not always in agreement. For example, I thought Hereditary and Get Out (which I consider more of a thriller type film) were very good but thought that Austrian film Goodnight, Mommy was unappealing to say the least.

I thought Heredity was pretty good while Get Out was a few snaps superior.

"Of late" as in from, say, 2017 onwards? There really are only two movies that come to mind. The Ritual I loved, and its one of those movies that is much more traditional in its way of going about things, bucking the "artistic" trend (the problem is that so few others seem to have realized this self-evident truth) Then there is A Quiet Place which was an perfectly enjoyable movie, though really not the scariest piece out there.

Though I really haven't been watching a lot of horror recently (The Nun was so bad that it made me never want to watch another horror movie again)

 

[ufcfan4]

I thought Heredity was pretty good while Get Out was a few snaps superior.

"Of late" as in from, say, 2017 onwards? There really are only two movies that come to mind. The Ritual I loved, and its one of those movies that is much more traditional in its way of going about things, bucking the "artistic" trend (the problem is that so few others seem to have realized this self-evident truth) Then there is A Quiet Place which was an perfectly enjoyable movie, though really not the scariest piece out there.

Though I really haven't been watching a lot of horror recently (The Nun was so bad that it made me never want to watch another horror movie again)

Didn't see The Ritual yet but I've heard great things. Will check it out.

A Quiet Place was damn good. I thought that in addition to it being just well made overall, the very strong acting of Blunt, Krasinski and the child actors enhanced it.

 

[Yotsuya]

I enjoyed the new Suspiria a lot. For me it was genuinely puzzling movie which kept my mind occupied for several days to tie in together the overall storyline since the opening of Markos Tanz Group with the social themes and the mythology of Mater Suspiriorum. I even finally got around reading Thomas De Quincey’s original text about the Three Mothers.