General Movie Thread

[Chris L]

Korine does have excellent taste.  I remember reading years ago he's a huge Flannery O'Connor fan too. 
 

Yabbut it's a weird taste, I think is what I meant, you know? Those are all good movies, but collected together as his top ten (& his O'Connor worship), well, that's quite a statement. I love O'Connor too, though, so there you have it.

BTW I actually have Fat City in my netflix queue - haven't seen it. Do youse like it?

Oh, I'm sure to some extent that kind of namechecking is calculated to boost the cachet of his trash humping experiments and what not.  I don't recall reading any of his actual thoughts on any filmmakers.

Fat City is pretty damn great.  I should watch it again sometime if it's on instant, actually.

[Gilly]

Fat City's in my queue as well and if I remember right it's in HD.

[Bryan]

I loved Fat City. I haven't seen it for years, but I've been thinking about revisiting it as well.

Sure is true for me.  I've given up on trying to improve myself or impress others; now I just want to be entertained.

Around when I turned 30, I observed that I was entering my "potboiler years". All I wanted to read were detective novels and comic books. This more or less remains the case.

[cavorting with nudists]

Is it a common thing to move away from more challenging movies/books/art as you get older?

I dunno--I think what's more common is to grow more skeptical about pretentiousness in movies/books/art, especially when they're made by people you come to see as lacking in real-life experience--i. e., younger than you (Hey, get off my fuckin' lawn.)

I'm in my 50's and am sort of flabbergasting myself by acquiring a taste for opera, which I never would have abided up until a few years ago.

[Sarah]

But opera isn't challenging.  It's just comic books/soap operas set to fancy music.  (You're in for a lot of fun, in other words.)

[crumbum]

Watched Memories of Murder last night. Great movie.

After I first saw Zodiac, I said to my viewing companion, 'That was the first truly original take on the police procedural since Manhunter'. Well it turns out Bong Joon-Ho beat Fincher to the punch by two or three years. If you admired Zodiac you've got to seek this one out.

[sparkatus]

crumbum - I loved Zodiac, especially the extended Fincher cut, so will be sure to check that out. Another great police procedural is Jar City (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805576/), an inventive, exciting Icelandic movie which is soon to be remade by Paranormal Activity 2 director Tod Williams. I think the single 'd' in his name tells me all I need to know about that.

Going to see Chris Morris's (Brass Eye, Day Today, Jam etc.) directoral debut Four Lions today with high hopes.

[Sarah]

I saw Blindness the other day and found it interesting enough to buy the book.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I loved Blindness. It made me angry.

[Martin]

I thought Blindness was pretty universally panned.

[Chris L]

There's currently a lot of doubt as to whether this incompetent-looking movie is real.   I'd say one look at the "MRI scanner" and the ceiling fan above it would indicate... noooo.    Here's an alleged interview with the writer/director where he claims the budget was $5 million.  

A big update on After Last Season! It's playing in real cinemas starting this Friday.

Austin TX, Rochester NY, North Aurora IL, and Lancaster CA FOT, please check it out and report back! I don't remember the last movie that seemed this mysterious.

Here's a review. It sounds for all the world like someone trying to engender a Tommy Wiseau-esque cult following.   I too have Wiseau-esque ambitions, but they're pretty much limited to putting my feet up on things all the time.  

I finally downloaded and watched as much as I cared to of After Last Season.  It's not really a "fun" bad movie, just completely baffling.  I've never seen so much pointless small talk in a movie.  The whole thing seems like something a schizophrenic with no concept of production values would make while killing time on the massive warehouse set from Synecdoche, NY.

[Sarah]

I thought Blindness was pretty universally panned.

Point?

[Martin]

No point, I just found it interesting that two people I respect thought highly of it - most other people I've talked to didn't care for it at all. I might see it now.

[Pat K]

I caught The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo this weekend and found it way, way overhyped, with an utterly chemistry-free leading couple and many glaring plot holes that I'm guessing were explained in the book.  If you ask me (which you all did, right?), any comparisons to Silence of the Lambs are crazytalk.

For once I'm welcoming the inevitable American remake, if only to see the story get tightened up and made more exciting. As it is, the plot includes at least 4 looong sequences of characters doing "research", which are presented on film as montages of them shuffling through papers, typing things into computers, and squinting at photographs while making scowling, exaggerrated "hmmmmm" expressions.  It seriously feels like these scenes take up at least 15-20 minutes of the running time. Not my idea of compelling cinema.

[Sarah]

No point, I just found it interesting that two people I respect thought highly of it - most other people I've talked to didn't care for it at all. I might see it now.

"Highly"?  That's way too enthusiastic.  As I said, I found it interesting enough to want to see how it worked as a book (almost certainly better than as a movie).   

I'm looking forward to watching Jar City, sparkatus.  I recorded it the other week but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I liked the book.