Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Spring Breakers

Watched it again. Kind of so-so, with all the standard Harmony Korine reservations. James Franco is great, though, and pretty much saves the movie.

I sort of liked Mr Turner. I didn't think it was the in the better ranking of Mike Leigh's movies. It was really pretty for sure. For better Leigh, I'd say Naked, Happy Go Lucky and Another Year. Spall has also been a lot better in other roles.

i saw naked and i did not like it. i'm not saying it was "bad" but it was definitely not for me because a) i couldn't understand a word the fucker was saying, and b) when i could understand him it was dark disturbing shit. i can't sit in front of that for 2 hours. but not saying it was bad, just that it was too successful in doing its thing with me.

other stuff of him i've seen
-a handful of his five minute films. nice sort of slice of life/social.
-life is sweet. saw this recently. iiked it a lot. timothy spall is in it.
-secrets and lies. i really liked this movie when i saw it many years ago. again timothy spall is the central character if i recall (the one who has the climactic speech anyway)
-vera drake. solid. good piece of social realism

haven't seen topsy turvy (want to), happy go lucky or another year, BUT-- my sense of his previous films (well, those i've seen) is that they're all about the dialogue. endless talking, and very good (and disturbing as in naked), but talk-based.

this film however is rooted in silence. not just because turner grunts a lot-- it's in the pace of the film. a lot of quiet moments. a lot is unsaid. i think that poor maid for example says no more than 30 words in the whole film and still you get her whole predicament. brilliant. but also among the "intelligent" characters and in every scene there is a lot of quiet. a lot is said without the dialogue that i'm accustomed to when it comes to a mike leigh film. where secrets and lies or vera drake were good filmed theatre, this one is film.

true i haven't seen the 2 before so maybe he's been testing that out already but this for me was a good big surprise. it's definitely a lot more than "pretty". there is an ecstatic quality about many of those images-- he tries to put you in those paintings, or behind the eyes that saw those paintings. in that, it's really brilliant work.

I think I hate Mike Leigh films because I am unable to draw meaning and intent from facial cues. I have always been horrible at it. My wife constantly has to explain why characters in movies and TV are doing what they do because I miss the non-verbal stuff that seems plain as day to her.

I think that is why I always loved books and written stories and not films, other than hard sci fi, action, and comedy movies. everything that is subtle, facial tics, eye expressions, body language, etc. means nothing to me.

It's also why I HATE dance. I love TO dance, but I fucking HATE watching dance performances. I tune out REAL fast.

maybe a little autissss?

I followed up T2 last night with T3: Rise of the Machines. Will start the 4th one this evening likely.

Topsy Turvey was excellent as was Vera Drake.

When is Dafoe not good in anything? I just saw Red 2, he was fantastic even in that! Ok, Red 2 was pretty good all around but i also have a soft spot for Bruce Willis.. possibly just cuz he looks like my pops

aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

that explains a lot! i wish you had explained this before.

this kind of thing is the sort of scene that makes almodovar hilarious:



and it's hard to translate the expression in her eyes with the box of pastry (or something) on her lap-- it's like, she's really uncomfortable but putting up with it, which is absurd, and the woman getting fucked there looking like she's having a conversation. because obviously you're either scandalized and walk away or you don't give a shit and just talk-- but she's in that middle space where she doesn't want to be there but she's there and her eyes tell you everything.

i can see also why you like les enfants du paradis-- it's like a play. lots of wide shots and few closeups, everything is spoken outloud. but what about the mime? is it because the mime's expressions are "big"?

so i imagine maybe you liked "a scanner darkly" a lot? (animations, lots of philosophical talk, etc.)

neurological diversity is fascinating. i know a bunch of dyslexics-- all of them happen to be photographers!

I did dig Scanner Darkly. I like words for communication. I fail at non-verbal communication, both coming from me, and being directed at me.

yes, the mime in Les Enfants du Paradis and all great mimes (chaplin, Keaton, Harpo Marx) are always faves of mine. It is because they are intending for you to read their body and facial language, as opposed to most of the movies I cannot stand where the outward actions of the body are actually in conflict with the inner self being shown on the face, like Almodovar.

You should have seen how badly I misunderstood El Sexo y Lucia! That shit made no sense!


because of this "thing" I have in my brain, people's emotions mean very little to me. I see them as ephemral, inconsequential things. emotions are signals, and signals only, to me. They do not "mean" anything. I cannot relate with people whose emotions overrule their reason in their day to day living. I find it very irritating.
This is also why for YEARS my wife and I would argue about all the things I hate about Mexican books, movies, music, etc. It is all melodramatic emotional vomit to me.

it may also be why my idol growing up was Spock.

riiiight. almodovar is all about the melodrama, but also with a huge dose of comedy-- it's camp, but maybe "high camp", because it's so well done. and it's super entertaining-- at the same time heart-wrenching but also not serious. so while the guy loves venezuelan telenovelas, he also takes the form to another level where it becomes really good art-- a place where you can observe the emotion and understand the suffering but also laugh at it like a maniac because you see the absurdity of it all. it achieves aesthetic detachment but it's not aloof in the least. a great dialectic.

he in a way sees the same emotional vomit that you see, but instead of disgust he can laugh, then have great compassion for it, and then have a huge laugh again. it's just brilliant.

sexo y lucia is not his but julio medem's i think (if that's his name). nowhere near as funny/memorable/anything. i saw it but can't remember much now.

and yeah, i was gonna say spock!

you should probably love kubrick then. he was also not much into emotion, he was often accused of using "wooden" actors, and he was suspected of being mildy autistic. he's also one of my favorite filmmakers. i have a lot of favorite filmmakers ha ha ha.

do you like epic ultraviolence? have you tried sam peckinpah? fucking excellent.

The trick to any novels in Spanish is to have a superb translation

I watched Straw Dogs and found it completely tedious and needless.

I do not trust filmmakers that spend weeks and months preparing and filming violent rape scenes. I think they are sick fucks.

straw dogs is not the best intro-- a minor work at best. instead check out THE WILD BUNCH. also, PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (bob dylan has a role in it, hilarious). check those two.

I am not into horror movies, or ultraviolence films too much either. I do not find them entertaining unless the plot or the filmmaking itself lets it rise above.

I get enough ultraviolence and horror from the world around me daily. i do not feel entertained by those movies usually.

I dug Oldboy, and Children of Men, and Starship Troopers and Tetsuo Ironman, because those films were not strictly about the violence, but about violent people. I cannot watch things like SAW, or house of 100 corpses or eli roth's shit, because it makes me feel like those movies are made for sick fucks to get hard and masturbate to.

Wild Bunch was good. Have not seen Pat Garrett

wild bunch i think was sublime.

pat garret is a bit of an unwieldy mess that was chopped up without the director's consent, but it has some great scenes/moments/lines that stay with you. you gotta "hear" them with the right drunken cowboy accent but here's the text for one that gets repeated around my house often for laughs:

You want yourself a woman?... One come in there from Albuquerque around the cat house over... name is Bertha... Got a ass on her like a forty dollar cow... and a tit... I'd like to see that thing filled full of tequila.