I liked it a LOT.

please say it was the original swedish version!

(i actually haven't seen the american one-- i'm just highly prejudiced)


me too! it was awesome!

wes anderson is a very imaginative child.

no I loved the American version - but I'm a big David Fincher fan, so maybe I'm biased.

this film was pretty much perfect.

everyone worries about nuclear weapons but it is the thermonuclear weapons that are the real shit-storm.

Inland Empire or Snowpiercer, I can't remember in which order

Welcome to New York, liked it which surprised me because I've never liked any Abel Ferrara movies before

Snowpiercer (2014)- Bong Joon Ho does it again, adding wit and verve to a well worn genre.

Man Without A Map (1968)- been watching alot of Hiroshi Teshigahara, and this one is his most difficult to find.. and just a plain difficult film.
Calling it a detective mystery (like on IMDB) is very misleading. If anything, “Man Without A Map” is an anti-mystery. Like the great neo noirs of the 70’s (“The Big Fix” and especially “The Long Goodbye”), Teshigahara’s film raises more questions than it answers…. never really solves anything… and devours the lead detective in a world of loose ends, digressive leads, and his own doubt about the missing person case. The unnamed Detective (played by Shintaro Katsu, who would go onto later prominence in the “Hanzo” series) is recruited by a woman to find her missing husband. Along the way, the detective is continually thwarted by the brother of the missing man who has his own agenda to follow (namely a violent workers clash), the unclear motives of a taxi driver service the missing man may have worked for, and the inability of the wife to recall any key details about the last days of her husband. Instead, the detective is haplessly relegated to mute witness as he scowers the depths of Japan’s brothels and low level businessmen. Going into “Man Without A Map” with a sense of narrative is probably not the best way to approach it. This is a film that deserves multiple viewings as you realize it’s an atmospheric psychological study of a nation rather than a thriller.

A Serbian Film (2009)- Another film about a nation (and the screw you or get screwed nihilism of it all), I'd been hearing about this one for years. Finally tracked down a copy and while its disturbing, its also pretty pointless.

The Vampire of Dusseldorf (1959)- Actor turned director Robert Hossein may be one of the best kept secrets of French cinema. His directorial efforts have been outstanding, if only they were more readily available. I've only seen this one and "Death of a Killer", but Hossein's pace, camera placement and visual style are intriguing. This one also stars himself as a murderer loose during Germany's WW2 years. Frank and at times shocking in the way he blandly presents the murders of various women, it also features a scene that predates the vulgar confrontation between Keitel and Christ in "Bad Lieutenant", albeit in a much more quiet and effecting manner. Find his films if you can!
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This. Really liked it.

Anyone seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet?

i watched what i think are 2 important movies in the past few days but i only have the mental clarity to write about the first one.

buñuel's THE MILKY WAY






it's been a long time that i have laughed so hard about anything that wasn't idiotic dumbfuckery and turd jokes, so let me say, loudly, this was the funniest thing i have watched in a long time, and i say this having binged on "archer" this morning (archer is also great but not as smart).

the fantastic absurdity of having modern characters engaged in medieval theological disputes is just-- it's too much to explain, do you understand? because i am familiar with these disputes. they're a part of history and all that and although i do not know them deeply (because really i do not care because really they are all bullshit and not worth wasting time unless you're a believer) i do get them and i get their consequences and i get why it was that people had to be burned at the stake (it was because of power, but regardless-- it was still serious business).

two people who MUST WATCH this fucking thing are SUCHFRIENDS and poor GLICE. suchfriends because he is the only one here who has actually read that shit, glice because he is being eaten alive by theory.

anyway if anybody else dares watch this shit please consider the lillies. no, that is the life of brian. but along the same vein one could say, only lots more obscure, considering.

PLEASE ENJOY. MASTERPIECE-LEVEL COMEDY.

ps for those familiar with buñuel this somehow brought back memories of L'AGE D'OR. here's the surrealist writing an actual novel.

pps it also blows simon of the desert out of the water because that was basically one big joke and these are LEGION.

seriously, a riot.

Yes, and I really enjoyed it. Its been getting "Star Wars" comparisons, for me it reminded me of a toned down live-action version of Heavy Metal. That's a compliment.

i haven't dared go watch that because it's "from the writer that brought you scooby doo and its yet-more-dreadful sequel"

but who knows-- he is troma-related and maybe he was betrayed by the director (ask faulkner about all that)

lol all I can say in response to that is, hell, we all got to eat. Writing those movies probably gave him a good paycheck.

I was expecting the worst when I first saw that but I really ended up liking it. For more John Watersy than I'd expected.

Mary Poppins

Every time I watch The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, I can't help but find myself completely captivated by the murder mystery which unfolds, despite knowing every twist and turn along the way. It's a film which has fluidity in its editing, smart framing, and a tense plot which refuses to let up. The film's haunting score compliments the atmosphere perfectly. There is a thick film of weird clinging to The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and I love it. I can't believe this was Argento's first attempt at directing a feature length, he honestly could not have knocked the ball further out of the park.

He obviously made his name later with horror stuff like Suspiria but I'm starting to think his earlier Giallo films, up to probably Deep Red, represent his best work.

^^ LA confidential is fucking awesome and i wish you had talked a little bit about that.

----

i finished watching the extras for the buñuel movie above and they were extra-interesting, expounding on the obsession with heresy and parallels with the times when the movie came out (soon after may 68) and all the ideological debates. in a way, this movie was a response (not a direct one, more of a reaction) to godard's "la chinoise". reportedly buñuel didn't like it and thought he could do better with a film about heresy.

i found the main character to be both relatable and annoying

I've not seen that Bunuel film but given what you say about it I was wondering if you're a big Pasolini fan. I can see you really getting into stuff like Oedipus Rex, Medea and The Gospel According to Saint Matthew - assuming you aren't already.

i admire pasolini but i'm not crazy about him. he's tremendously intelligent but also super fucking slow and puts me to sleep. whereas this buñuel movie was really funny.

i walked out of the gospel, i remember, when i was in college, in a cine club screening, as it reminded me of those endless religious movies they used to play on good friday. ew!

medea i vaguely recall look pretty great but again super slow. i liked the lars von trier version more, even though it was shot on blurry video. haven't seen oediups but i hope some day.

saló i had to watch over the course of 4 days and with much reading around it. it was tremendous, sure, at the intellectual level, but it was hard to watch-- i'm not saying this in a bad way though, but it was difficult.

the milky way is a picaresque though, very non-serious, as it tells the story of 2 bums on a pilgrimage -- it's pretty lively, and it's super hilarious! not just for the heresies but for many other reasons. check it out, i swear it's lots of fun. this reminds me i haven't seen pasolini's decameron, which should be funny if he went by the material, but i don't know.

ha ha ha

lars von trier didn't put me to sleep though! i can't remember pasolini's medea except for some terracotta buildings. von trier may be less intellectually smart but he's visually smarter.

speaking of him i just watched nymphomaniac vol. 1 but i'll save my commentary for another day.

obviously you didn't grow up in a catholic country going to catholic school!

you know how many religious movies i had to watch growing up?

i didn't make it past the nativity scene

for a parallel--ask porkmarras how he likes polenta. you'll get an earful.

gloria grahame is fantastic, need to watch more with her

I can't get my wife to watch LA Confidential because she hates Kim Basinger

L.A. Confidential is completely awesome. Unfortunately, I don't really have much specific to say about it. I own it via this triple feature blu-ray, which I initially purchased for The Player. Body Heat is also an excellent movie. I love 90's neo-noir (?).



One thing I can say about L.A. Confidential is that it seemed to do everything which the more recent film, Gangster Squad, did wrong - correctly. Despite having both Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone (two of my favorite talents in Hollywood right now) in leading roles, Gangster Squad was too corny for its own good. A majority of that flaw could, and should, be attributed to Sean Penn's gawdy over-acting. That guy's a fucking ham and a half.



He practically nose-dived the film, single-handedly. How else could I not enjoy a film with a Gosling/Stone sex scene? Nonetheless Gangster Squad choked on its own cheesiness which kept it from achieving a more believable scenario. Films such as L.A. Confidential or the Untouchables managed so successfully to break the ice occasionally with some tasteful wit, but Gangster Squad fell off the tightrope hard, and Johnny Dangerously; Gangster Squad is not.



So yeah, Cheers to L.A. Confidential! However, what I did watch today was Paul Blart: Mall Cop.



This film has been on my to-see list since it hit theaters. I'm a fan of Kevin James' stand-up and can't seem to turn off a King of Queens re-run for the life of me. This film, while far from a laugh riot, or even clever, still contains a fair share of good belly laughs. I enjoy physical comedy, and Paul Blart has a few entertaining gags of that caliber up its sleeve (and plenty of fat jokes to boot). While more enjoyable than its potty-mouthed, Seth Rogen-starring contemporary, Observe and Report, Paul Blart: Mall Cop reeks of being a Happy Madison production, and never seems to rise too far out of the realm of stupidity. Unfortunate for Kevin James, who I think has a lot more comedic talent than any of his films have allowed him to showcase.

someone please please please recommend me something sad (preferably w/ first world problems and young girls)

I assume you have seen Ghost World pony?

yes, i have!

A jimmy saville biography?

the last days of disco

Saw this as part of MIFF - er, as in the Melbourne International Film Festival..



It's a story about one year in Hendrix's life just before he really took off.
André 3000 as Jimi Hendrix works quite well. T'was good...