last day of filmstruck service....

managed to catch 2 great ones last night
fassbinder’s LOLA (1981)



the 2nd brd movie fassbinder made but really the 3rd one in his scheme, it shoves a red hot poker into the ass of the market ideologies that swept germany in the postwar, and it’s hilarious and sad and hilarious again, as it borrows heavily from the blue angel, the 30s movie with marlene dietrich about a moralistic schoolteacher who falls in love with a cabaret singer (i saw it only as a kid and remember it as sad as fuck, maybe there was some humor in it i missed at the time, planning to rewatch soon).

barbara sukowa (the time machine lady from that 12 monkeys tv show) is GREAT in it, armin mueller-stahl is great in it, udo kier makes a brief appearance, fassbinder’s regulars do a great job, etc., and to appropiate cecil taylor, “sukowa was hot!”.

anyway ,besides the great story, etc., the lights are BANANAS in this film. super-artificial and fantastic. he’ll light 2 characters in the same thing with different color lights, light someone outdoors with i door lights, make lights flicker, etc etc. it’s sometimes obviously a “code” with apparent meanings, but it goes so far it becomes a distancing effect at the same time (for me anyway, i’m like “whoa the lights...” and “hahaha the lights”).

brilliant movie really and im a little sad to miss some of the context (there’s a germany-sweden game on the radio at some point) but im gladder im not a postwar german haaa haaa haaa.

Wow, honestly - you fuckin' nailed it. I'm not sure why I never even considered that before.

the last one, because it’s better to die laughing, was fassbinder’s SATAN’S BREW [1976]. “satansbraten”. what’s braten. a roast? anyway



very fucking funny movie, a raucous satire of literature, and art, and artistic snobbery, of manipulative poets, of fassbinder himself?, of artistic fandom, of money, of ridiculous aesthetic enterprises, of sadomasochism, of abuse, of vampire myths, of the will to power, of fascism of course—the phrase “fascism will triumph” embedded in this movie scribbled by the poet (as it was in lola where esslin types it on his boss’ typewriter.) it has hilarious banter, it has physical comedy like the 3 stooges, and it’s basically just a filmed play, but so good, ha ha ha. absurd, cruel, poignant, absurd again.

It only occured to me watching it last night, and even then only when the action transfers to the hospital. The scene where Michael burns the woman in boiling water is a straight lift from Deep Red but even beyond that, the tone is VERY Suspiria, I know Carpenter is a huge Argento fan so, while he didn't direct it, he did write and produce it, so it certainly looks like the references (if that's what they were) were his - although I've never heard him mention them in an interview. He hates the film, apparently. But then he prefers the remake of The Fog to his own original. The guy's a bit weird.

I think I'll re-watch Prince of Darkness tonight, which he's upfront about being almost a straight tribute to Argento.

What's Dierdre Barlow doing in a Fassbinder film?

haha i dont know that person but this is the petra von kant lady.... margit carstensen? they gave her pimples, giant glasses, and she made stupid faces. quite the deranged fan

eta

heres her in mother kusters goes to heaven



and this is satansbraten haaa haaa haaa

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

This has always been the weak link in the franchise. There's just something fundamentally wrong about it: from the misjudged casting of Tina Turner through the silly child-tribe subplot to the fact you don't see a single car driven in anger till the very end. The fight in Thunderdome itself is pretty cool, and easily the highpoint in the film, but the fact it takes place so early in the movie means everything that happens afterwards (literally beyond Thunderdome) ends up feeling a bit flat. And Max never once getting to drive his V8 Interceptor is obviously the biggest wrong of them all.



Master/Blaster were cool, but not V8 Interceptor cool

Baby Driver: Starts off with constant cheerful music (like Soul or summit) being mimed to by cheerful pricks whilst pulling off a dangerous bank heist! 'One last job before getting out' check!. Not only did this films dignity take a hit by starring a pre-Hollywood banished Kevin Spacey but then who turns up to the party? No other than your boy R Kelly.* Turned off after 10 minutes.

*meh

baby driver gets better. I enjoyed it.

i agree with you on “plot”. i think the first one was great, the second one was even better, and thunderdome dropped the ball... HOWEVER

thunderdome has the most iconic and memorable characters. auntie’s look is GREAT. master/blaster is MYTHICAL, more even than rockatansky himself, something primal about that combo. TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVES was the catchiest most memorable fucking phrase of the whole franchise until WITNESS ME entered the picture recently (i was just saying it yesterday lolol).

but anyway, yeah, whenever they bring in children a movie usually becomes shit. except maybe for NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, which was awesome. and there may be a couple of others but not many.

@rob Hmm I dunno man. I mean the opening car chase scene felt dated. Like starsky and hutch dated: narrowly avoiding the glass window being inexplicably carried. Water on the ground to pull phat skids!! John Spencer. Soul. woo yea rok n roll baby.

It all felt a bit happy happy joy joy. Like Ren and Stimpy on acid.

Would it be racist to say this film could've only came from America? Does that make sense? Maybe if I say it could've came from somewhere else as well like France (seeing as they're into parkour and also made van damme movies in the 90's with identical car chases to baby driver) as well then this racism cancels the first racism. Pretty sure that's how it goes - two racism...s make a right (wing - eh?)

The final straw came when the dude turned up trying to look cool but was unironically dressed as a twelve year old!

I thopught the first 30 mins were stupid then it got better.

It's been quite a while since I've truly enjoyed a film. I've become awfully jaded in my late twenties, and sorta have a "been there, seen that" attitude towards the entire medium.

Malmhaus, or 'Metalhead' has changed that attitude. I haven't been blown away by a movie like this in quite some time. One review referred to the film as "Iron Maiden meets Ingmar Bergman" and I can attest to that assessment.

Malmhaus is a film which centers around a young woman named Hera living on her family farm in Iceland, who witnessed her metalhead brother being scalped alive by a tractor at age 12. The movie focuses on her and her family's individual grieving and coping methods, but mostly Hera's.

Hera clings to her brother's essence by adorning his old clothing, a leather jacket of her own, and eventually corpse paint. She smokes cigarettes in church, works at a slaughterhouse, and goes on drunken escapades on the tractor causing mayhem throughout her local town. Taking after her lost brother, she also has developed a passion for playing metal guitar.




Watch as Hera deals with her pain and lashes out by disrupting her entire Icelandic country town. Laugh at the 'normies' who simply don't understand where Hera comes from, and watch her grow as a person. The ending to this movie was possibly the most heartwarming thing I've ever seen.

There's so much more I want to say about this movie, but I don't want to spoil anything. If you get the chance, just watch it. To quote Andy Webster of the NY Times, "It taps into something universal, and very precious, about loss, art and adolescent rebellion."

Shit, you guys. I love metal, and I loved Metalhead.




10/10 - no hyperbole

Malmhaus is a fantastic movie. And that last scene with that epic performance, that's something to remember.
10/10 here too

Have never heard of this but it sounds interesting, just checked Amazon to see if it was there on prime, sadly it wasn't, but thanks for making me aware of it.

First off, this is an absolutely gorgeous movie. The scene composition as well as the models and the lighting: all top-notch. It's also quite funny and does pull at your heartstrings from time to time. Unfortunately, I felt it was probably one of Anderson's least consistent works. Characters were teased as big deals when their plot kind of went nowhere and the way things wrapped up just didn't do much for me. Isle Of Dogs tries to tie a lot of things together and in the end, they only kind of blend. In my opinion, his first stop motion film "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" was a lot more cohesive in that regard. That is not to say I did not enjoy Isle Of Dogs, as I find even the lesser of the Anderson movies very watchable. I just thought I was going to love it, but I ended up merely liking it. There are a lot of individual things to love about it though. Hell, the visuals alone are well worth a watch.


Something between 7 and 7 1/2 out Of 10

I think I preferred it to Mr. Fox, though I agree the character development could have been better.

The characters were just really lovable, and all the classic Anderson components were there. The stop-motion was better too (MAN some of those sequences look absolutely ANAZING) and I think it’s one of my favorite films of the year.

That said, I’m the kind of Anderson fan who suspects his best work is behind him. I look forward to breaks from the pattern, like Darjheeling Ltd., which added new narrative dimensions to the Anderson “house style.” Oddly, that film is the least favorite among critics, but it pulls the tears for me every time (when “Strangers” by the Kinks plays, or “Play with Fire,” I get down with my classic Irish weepy self).

His best films are Tenenbaums, Bottle Rocket and possibly Grand Budapest, but I’ve only seen that one once so I don’t want to really speak until I digest it more.

But as fun as Isle was, I’ll take a live action Anderson film over the stop-motion any day.

Just hoping he doesn’t stop adding to that world he’s built, but I worry he’s come close.

** Also there was that mild controversy about it being insensitive to Asians, and while it’s not something I think anyone did on purpose, I do think there’s a case to be made that it relies too heavily on stereotypes. But I’m not sure if it was actually offensive or just a little loose with its expressions of cultural reverence (* saw it as an adoration of the culture, not a caricature of it, but I’m not Asian so I can’t really speak to that.)

Muppets Take Manhattan