My Movie Journal

SOILER AHEAD!

The euthenasia was rather tacked on. The trouble is that it was telegraphed way too soon.

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let me try and bite my tongue off first............. :wink:

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I just saw the Dark Crystal in a theater for the first time ever. I own the movie, have a tatto based on drawings done from the movie, and have seen it many many times. It has been remastered and I got to see it on the big screen! I spent most of the movie watching the sides of the screena nd peeking into the shadows. The movie is chock full of tidbits. Well worth the $9 even though I missed the first 15 minutes.

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Lightwizard wrote:

Hey, Craven, where are you? I know you've likely seen a lot of movies through NetFlix and have recommendations or thumbs down?

I haven't really been watching any films. Just haven't had the time.

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Oh, they are keeping you busy, huh? I know. We are having a one-man show coming up and my time is going to be cramped in the next few weeks.
The film I rented to try and watch this week is "The Battle of Algiers," but I also rented "Meet the Fockers" for my Mom.

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Ok, saw some movies recently:

Enduring Love - Saw a trailer and was very interested in the balloon scene. Saw the movie and remained interested in the opening baloon scene but the rest is drek.

Still, a goddamn good balloon scene (dunno why).

Sin-City - This is a movie I should hate, but I liked it a LOT for artistic reasons. It had no heart, no soul and the character development never made me care a whit about any of the characters, but the imagery of the film was captivating for me.

The use of digital backgrounds to create the first comic book movie that didn't rely exclusively on darkness was interesting.

The use of black and white with selective colour was interesting, if old.

I got over how stupid the shock-jock art form is for this film and enjoyed it even while not paying attention to the story.

Basically, it is interesting to see a comic book finally transcend into film the right way. Too bad it took a crappy film to do it.

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Craven de Kere wrote:

Ok, saw some movies recently:

Enduring Love - Saw a trailer and was very interested in the balloon scene. Saw the movie and remained interested in the opening baloon scene but the rest is drek.

Still, a goddamn good balloon scene (dunno why)

Interesting - that absolutely reflects the book - the opening balloon scene is breath-taking, the rest never measures up.

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well, i like mystic river too
i think it's a good film that i have ever seen, for it uncovers one's blind side unutterably, everyone has weakness, everyone...it gives us a chance to face it as an outlier... Rolling Eyes

anyway, i love sean pan

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Mexican film week, only film with English subtitles was El Evangelio de las Maravillas, last Sun. Took Esther who loves magical-realist films. And very weird it was, indeed, yet funny - and definitely very inventive. Some intriguing cinematographic masturbation on the part of the director when he makes the second-coming cultists believe that movies are part of how God talks to the people. Dont know if the movie was also supposed to be moving, if so that part didnt quite work - but curious and entertaining, in all.

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This week its Jarmusch week in Orokmozgo. Tonight saw Mystery Train, third time I did. It's still really good. Beautiful, funny, full of titillating details. Great photography. Jarmuschesque brilliance in understatement. Good as an ode to - imperfect people; and as one to America, soul music, Elvis, the soul of a city. To the way American cities look, the wear and tear of their day-to-day backdrop. Bringing out the unique, quintessentially American in the interchangable visual clutter (road, railroad, hotel, bar, houses, parked cars. Thats where the photography comes in, Robby Muller).

And the cast! Set of people brought together that only becomes more impressive the longer it's ago. Joe Strummer - hero of mine; Screamin Jay Hawkins, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Rufus Thomas dropping by. Like music and film are the same art. Those who had fame behind them already, now dead; the others now famous (inclus Jarmusch himself).

Film bored the **** out of 'Susannah' though, whom I'd taken. Misestimated. Felt a bit guilty.

Which makes it probably a good thing that I didnt take her to Stranger than Paradise yesterday, as originally planned. Saw that one for the second time; I remember exactly where, when and with whom I saw it the first time too - and how we (only 21 at the time) lolled away at an empty train station afterwards singing I Put a Spell on You (well, I did). More minimalistic than I'd remembered, for one. More eighties.

Sure looks different now, seeing it back. Though back then already we had a lengthy argument about the meaning of the end, about those guys, period. What she saw, defiantly, was Really Cool Guys. Pure art of Cool. And she really resented me suggesting they were also just kinda losers, and the coolness the veneer they hid their insecurity with, and their failure kinda. She savoured the dadaist un-logic of the end; I thought the director also probably wanted to save the guy, or sent a message; just send him home. Its OK. You can go home now... it didnt work out, and thats OK. Time to move on.

Yeah, still can remember that conversation (odd, no, thirteen years later?). Seeing the movie back, the sheer sadness of it spats out. We love those guys for it. But still, the bleakness. So obvious.

In that movie too, how old America looks! Factories, Cleveland, empty lots. A fast food joint from an era ago. Well, it is twice as long ago that the movie was shot, by now. But its also like an ode to the industrial, Rust Belt architecture, to that past America. Kinda like the cartoons of Seth (see Clyde Fans and It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken. Clyde Fans is brilliant).

Tomorrow a pre-screening of Broken Flowers with Esther, Thursday a chance to re-see Down By Law; Friday Night on Earth with Cs. Yes, I love Jarmusch films <sheepish>. Down By Law was my favourite, so I'm really glad I'll be able to see it again. Night on Earth I never saw, because I didnt like Dead Man and just kinda gave up after that. Perhaps see Ghost Dog as well on Sunday, didnt see that one either for the same reason.

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nimh, you and Craven both ought to see Crash2005.

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About Sin City.

I totally agree with CDK.
And I remember the whole film as a cartoon, not with real actor.

nimh:
Is El Evangelio de las Maravillas by Arturo Ripstein?
If so, it's supposed to be social drama, believe it or not.

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Yep, thats the one.

I can see that, actually.

If you just turn it in the light another way...

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Ack.

Yesterday I wrote about the two Jarmusch movies I'd seen, listed them as Permanent Vacation and Mystery Train. But it wasnt Permanent Vacation of course: it was Stranger Than Paradise.

Always keep mixing those two titles up. Embarassing.

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Re: My Movie Journal

Craven de Kere wrote:

I'm trying to get back into movies through Netflix, after having shunned mass media (Movies, TV and Radio) for a few years and here I'll collect my comments on movies that don't deserve their own threads.

Elf

I like Will Ferrell a lot, one of my favorite SNL actors. A pity that with one more of his movies under my belt I still haven't found one that is funny all the way through.

The Day After Tomorrow

I got what I expected, pure garbage. I started writing code after a few minutes while watching this on an itty-bitty 1 inch mediaplayer screen.

Just Cause

Just watching it again, also in the ole 1 inch anchor window as it's just fun the first time.

Anyone know if Mystic River is any good? I have to decide whether to watch it or return it for another.

i like Will Ferrell but i don't see the Mystic River

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Saw Night on Earth tonight. Hadnt seen it yet, it was for me the missing link between Mystery Train, which I loved, and Dead Man, which I yawned at, so I'd been curious about it.

It was cute enough, nice, funny, quirky. Clearly a transition kind of film: more happening, more comic distraction, fuller focus on the actors, than in Mystery Train or Stranger than Paradise. Cute, it was, of a human scale, but I dont know how much I'll remember.

Yesterday meanwhile I got to see Broken Flowers, his newest, which for Hungary was an avant-premiere.

Ack. Sorry to have taken Esther to go see it. What a boring, nothingish movie. No spice no taste. Just drags on, to eventually yield what are at best dime-store philosophies.

Little particularly Jarmuschesque about it, either. Its like all his authentic spirit got diluted along the way. Instead of the lovingly observing camera, quirky stories and just slightly off-kilter amblingness of early films, this was equally slow but soulless, inspirationless and bland.

I was thinking about what that's all about, cause I had the same with Wenders. I loved the films of his from the seventies that I saw (Alice in den Städten, Im Lauf der Zeit). What I liked about them was their gentle observantness, keen eye and small stories, the pleasant moodiness of it. I loved Himmel über Berlin too and Paris, Texas was one of its kind.

But later I saw The End of Violence, and it was just ... vacuous. It was meant to be vacuous, I suppose, to reflect the oppressive emptiness of, I dunno, modern life or something, but even then it was, like, top-heavy in intentions and anemic in soul and body. Like it never got beyond the idea, like nobody put their heart in it.

Not to mention Beyond the Clouds, which he did just prior to that with Antonioni, and which was just creepy. It just oozed the suggestion of old directors, all full of themselves, spoiled but empty-hearted, who indulge in stuffing a film full of beautiful women and "oh-thats-so-deep" philosophies and expect to be feted for it.

Anyway. (Sorry, got a bit carried away there). Broken Flowers reminded me of The End of Violence. Meant, I suppose, as a Lost in Translation-like tale of a man of middle age facing the emptiness of his life and having something happen to him that puts it all in a new light. But while Lost in Translation was itense, this was vacant. And there was no new light, really, either. Perhaps that was the point. But if the point was dreariness, then all the pretty actresses and slick design prevented it from getting that across, kinda.

Is that perhaps the price directors like that might pay for getting rich and famous? That the change of lifestyle that comes with that, robs them of the inspiration or empathy, and the movies become as bland as Beverly Hills life must be? Or something? <shrugs>

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Hated "Dead Man," but really liked "Broken Flowers" as a poignant narrative on the eroding character of a man. It certainly isn't uplifting and Jarmusch does seem to have erased most of the eccentric, quirky affectations of the past. I guess I understand why it isn't appreciated by the average moviegoer but I think it may need some repeated viewings before it sinks in. Did not find any "dimestore philosophies," and, in fact, I think it dealt more with a basic humanism than any philosophical ideology. I think because of all the angst and tragedy we are dealing with in the real world, this kind of movie is not welcome. The criticisms of the film could be also credited to such films as Bergman's "Persona."

I am not prepared to state, "What was the Venice Film Festival" thinking in bestowing the award and I've not liked many films that do get awards and critical acclaim.

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Hhmmm Light, I dont exactly fit your model of "the average moviegoer". Nor am I averse of "this kind of movie", if what is meant with that is, like you say, movies of "angst and tragedy". Thats clear even just from the movies I've mentioned in this thread.

And yet I still didnt like this movie one bit.

Now that doesnt need to mean anything much at all. I have no problem with differing of opinion with you about one movie or another, anyway. But perhaps you should reconsider the kneejerk reaction that if someone doesnt like a movie you liked, he must just be the "average moviegoer" type, or one of those who cant stomach all too depressive stuff? Perhaps thats a bit all too easy a brush-aside? Especially if its so obviously, you know, not true ...

Hey, perhaps there are actually people out there who are on 'your level' of movie-ism, and yet turn out not to agree with your takes... ;-)

Dont get me wrong, no need to engage with my opinion; just another opinion. But perhaps also refrain from the knee-jerk defensiveness of "if they disagree with me, they must just be of simple taste" kinda thing, eh?

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Re: Broken Flowers, I think this reviewer on IMDB pointed out an additional couple of things that annoyed me, too.

Quote:

Author: (yaadpyar) from Chicago, United States

[..] There's a great premise - modern Don Juan re-visits past to find if something lasting came from his former relationships [..], but the most uninteresting choices have been made here. There is almost no character development, no story development that engages the viewer in any significant way, and a cast of characters that are cartoonish in their broadly drawn quirkiness: the aging Don Juan, the out-of-control Lolita, the warm family-man, the biker chic, the lost young man searching for meaning...this is a stable of old characters that take up time and space in this movie, but add nothing of substance.

We are reminded in every possible way that this man is a "Don Juan" and yet NOTHING in the story or character development suggests how someone so broken, so numb, so completely uninterested in life or people, could be that sort of man. We have no idea how or why he has become so broken, and so ultimately don't much care that he is. No light is shed on this at any point - the movie is just one long dip into a stagnant pool of listless nothingness.

I can only imagine that the transitions between scenes of simply fading to black again and again and again, and the endless travel footage [..] were one of three things: lack of imagination, self-indulgence or laziness. [..] The parallel between the film's pace and Don's life seems like an amateurish parlor trick to fool the audience into thinking that the mundane is meaningful - not in this movie! Here, the mundane is just plain old boring. All the symbolism is lurid in its obviousness (ex: Don watching the old/original "Don Juan" movie on TV as his life unravels) while the character/story development is so subtle as to be non-existent.

I could not imagine a more uninteresting use of major acting talent (not just Bill Murray, but the whole cast). In so many instances, the Don Juan theme seems a license for the director to show off the physical attributes of younger women - how else can naked Lolita possibly be justified in this story. Oddly, it doesn't seem to be Bill Murray's Don himself who is interested in these women, making the display of skin even more gratuitous.

I'm guessing the lack of resolution at the end was supposed to be indicative of Don's ambivalence about life's direction, but it just looked/felt like the scriptwriter had run out of ideas and so ended the movie. [..]

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Have you guys seen/discussed Kung Fu Hustle?

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