wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Dec 15, 2008 12:35:31 GMT -5
wkw: WHO IS THIS SIDEHACKER FELLOW YOU SPEAK OF? We have no SIDEHACKER here.   CAREFUL, wkw, you came this close to revealing the existence of our secret forum utopia. ...whoops.  Nah, I though ie had an account at the deux? |
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ie
The Beatles
invadin yr spaec
Posts: 2,670
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Post by ie on Dec 15, 2008 16:45:11 GMT -5
drone: Puppahs and goggies are awesome, so that means Ballast will be ballastic. Obviously.
wkw/cn: As for the deux issue at hand, I've known about them for a while. Maybe a year, maybe two. I had an account at the old Y[CENSORED]B (now shompy) and did sign up at Y[CENSORED]B2 for a while later, but after only about 100 posts or so, I let my account lapse due to lack of interest. My post was mainly to point out how wkw referred to a person that doesn't post on this forum, even though I've actually talked with sidehacker once or twice.
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Dec 15, 2008 18:47:17 GMT -5
I was on the old and new Y(CENSORED)B but I also lost interest....
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wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Dec 16, 2008 18:21:01 GMT -5
Méditerranée (Jean Daniel Pollet, 1963) - ? (maybe a 9)  An unclassifiable experimental documentary, it's basically a series of repeating images and footage of Greek, Egyptian ruins, Spanish bull fights, and other random images with seemingly no connection between them. The voiceover is sparse but mysterious and poetic, obsessed with memory. If it's comparable to anything, it's like Lucifer Rising with a narration by Resnais or Marker, but one that is much more abstract. Godard was inspired by this film when he made Le Mepris, as evidenced by the interludes of statues in that film. Le Pont to Nord (Jacques Rivette, 1981) - what the hell?  Pascale Ogier is sooo freaking weird. |
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 18, 2008 21:13:16 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 22, 2008 15:10:02 GMT -5
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wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Dec 24, 2008 2:37:00 GMT -5
Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrera, 1981) - 7  Fun flick. The fact that Zoe Lund is smoking hot doesn't hurt. Enjoyed the NYC setting but its portrayal as such a sleazy place is kind of exaggerated (not that I would know too much about anyway). Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao Hsien, 1996) - 8  Not one of Hou's best films, but still a solid outing. This was also more stylistically varied than most of his other films, with many long tracking shots including emphasized POV shots. The story is kind of like a more bleak Millennium Mambo combined with Imamura's Pigs and Battleships (there's even a pig deal scandal subplot  ) . The Fox Lorber dvd looks like a VHS. |
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Dec 24, 2008 14:58:35 GMT -5
Religulous
8/10
Very interesting documentary from Maher. Sure its one sided and a little manipulative, but the subject matter is interesting enough to overshadow that.
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 24, 2008 16:55:56 GMT -5
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drone
King Kong
Posts: 184
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Post by drone on Dec 25, 2008 21:05:30 GMT -5
Wings of Desire: 10/10 Through A Glass Darkly: 9/10 ...and then it happened. Why can't Bergman be this consistent? Fantastic film from start to finish. I need to check out more early/mid '60's Bergman. And possibly rewatch The Seventh Seal, which as of now, I find horribly overrated. Short Cuts: 9.25/10 Sheer brilliance. The magnitude of this ambitious project is unfathomable, and completely entranced me for it's entire three hour running span. I could see myself watching this several more times. Definitely glad I purchased it. The Seventh Seal: 7.75/10 Better my second time through, but still overrated as hell.
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wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Dec 27, 2008 1:47:54 GMT -5
The River (Tsai Ming Liang, 1997) - 8  lots of water + ennui + disease + incest + deadpan comedy + lots and lots of faggitry = more or less your typical Tsai Ming Liang film. La Belle Captive (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1983) - 7  Has its moments, but this is easily the least interesting film from Robbe-Grillet. |
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drone
King Kong
Posts: 184
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Post by drone on Dec 27, 2008 3:31:46 GMT -5
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 7.25/10 Not as I expected, but all of the hate and discontent is completely undeserving. It's an epic fantasy, therefore the themes and shots are completely justified. The sunset scene, the dancing scene with Daisy, the affection and love felt between the characters is accentuated in ways that only a fantasy story could tell. The narrative between the daughter and Daisy could've been removed completely, but nonetheless it provided a passageway to progress the story, as well as tell another much more personal one. A fantasy is a fantasy, and a personal story is a personal story. There are ways you can tell each, and this is a tale told somewhere between the parallels of a fantasy and the epoch of most tragic grandeur. And you know what? It worked. David Fincher strays from his dark, gritty style to produce something much more lofty, elevated by it's dreamlike state of moments, a liturgy destined to end wherever seems fitting. It isn't worried about telling a coherent strand of logical thinking and ideas, it's transposing thoughtful fantasy worlds over the audience, fluctuating in and out of reality. I hear too much complaining about the running time, but if a film requires three hours to tell its tale, then so be it. Intriguing, innovative, and dreamlike, Finch manages to create a unique fabrication of dreams that, albeit strays from the short stories major themes, comes out just as compelling. To reverie in the film is to apprehend its effectiveness, indulge in the fantasy world he's created or get the hell out. The Children Are Watching Us: 8.5/10 Awesome film, but I really wish the first half held up as well as the final half hour. The ending was excellent, and definitely worth a watch for De Sica fanatics. The Decalogue: One: 10/10 If the entirety of this box set is as astounding and profound as the initial, this could quite possibly be the greatest film, or series of films, ever created. I am once again absolutely blown away by the power of Kieslowski.
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mixed
Hitchcock
We played with life and lost
Posts: 1,273
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Post by mixed on Dec 27, 2008 13:09:42 GMT -5
This is England (2006, Shane Meadows)
Absolutely brilliant, one of the best films I've seen all year. The performances throughout the film are fantastic and believable. It's a powerful portrait of skinheads in the time of Thatchers rule. Stephen Graham gives an intense and multilayered performance. It's very sad too. Highly reccommended.
10
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drone
King Kong
Posts: 184
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Post by drone on Dec 28, 2008 5:55:44 GMT -5
Man on Wire: 8.75/10
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 29, 2008 1:20:17 GMT -5
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Dec 29, 2008 23:21:59 GMT -5
Doubt
9/10
This film is all about the actors. Streep and Seymour Hoffman are absolutely phenomenal, as is to be expected from two titans of acting. They duke it out with vigor throughout the movie and the smooth over the thin plot. Amy Adams is great as well if a bit overshadowed by the two main characters. Definitely worth seeing for the performances alone.
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 30, 2008 0:38:54 GMT -5
Doubt 9/10 This film is all about the actors. Streep and Seymour Hoffman are absolutely phenomenal, as is to be expected from two titans of acting. They duke it out with vigor throughout the movie and the smooth over the thin plot. Amy Adams is great as well if a bit overshadowed by the two main characters. Definitely worth seeing for the performances alone. Agree with EVERYTHING you said...except for Amy Adams, who I thought was shrill and annoying. But yes, Streep and Hoffman carry this movie on their backs. Two incredible performances, and one incredible confrontation in her office late in the movie. |
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 30, 2008 0:39:18 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 30, 2008 23:10:54 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Dec 31, 2008 22:12:26 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Jan 2, 2009 0:11:11 GMT -5
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drone
King Kong
Posts: 184
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Post by drone on Jan 2, 2009 4:01:53 GMT -5
Wanted: 4/10
Step Brothers: 6/10
Almanac of Fall: 9.5/10
One of Bela Tarr's few films that's in color, Almanac of Fall is a terribly depressing film that timidly displays the production of failed relationships. The quarrels and awkwardness between two completely different individuals and the turmoil their thrust through. It not only helplessly displays this, but simultaneously questions it. Where are they going? Where are we going? In this brief shuffle of moments, does anyone truly, honestly care? Tarr's style isn't as heavyhanded in this as in his later films, but nonetheless it's the work of an aspiring genious. The camera is everywhere; under them, over them, constantly moving and shaping as the characters move within their world. The sets are absolutely amazing and beautifully shot. The colors are also extremely vibrant and metaphorical, a juxtaposition of their inner most emotions and their outward reaction to them. His themes of a bleak, existential outlook on humanity are still present, and only further push the characters beyond the context of the film.
The Weather Man: 6.75/10
The film really surprised me, needless to say. I find Nicholas Cage to be an extremely irritating actor, and can really only enjoy one or two films by him. My personal bias against him may or may not have affected the score given. The movie was quite melodramatic, but didn't stray down that path too far to be movie breaking. It had some really beautiful shots and moments, but would follow them up with some contrived drivel that was senseless and idiotic. It was American Beauty without the passion or intelligence, and really failed to grasp ahold of the ideas it seemed to toy with.
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Post by Clark Nova on Jan 4, 2009 18:59:48 GMT -5
Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard, 2008) The best on-screen depiction of a boxing match since Raging Bull. This is Ron Howard's best film, hands down. 8.5/10 ...but not a transcendent experience. No, my transcendent, mind-altering film-watching experience came when I watched the creme de la creme, now one of the most legendary movies ever made: Battlefield Earth (Roger Christian, 2000)rantsandmusings.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/battlefield-earth/
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wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Jan 4, 2009 21:23:04 GMT -5
The Last Bolshevik (Chris Marker, 1992) - 10  Structured as a series of video letters addressed to his friend Alexander Medvedkin, a Soviet filmmaker who lived through the birth and chaos of the Soviet Union and whose films were banned before release, Marker's film traces the history of Soviet cinema through Medvedkin and his contemporaries Eisenstein, Vertov, Dovzhenko, and novelist Isaac Babelthis. I've already seen The Train Marches On, Marker's previous film on Medvedkin and his agitprop trains, and Marker incorporates some of it into this film. Continuing his obsession of the nature of images his so illustrated in Sans Soleil, Marker explores how fictional cinematic images, like that of the famous Odessa stairs sequence in Battleship Potempkin, become accepted as historical truth. Although I haven't seen any early Soviet films other than Potempkin and MWtMC, and can't tell the difference between a gulag and a kulak, I was completely captivated by Marker's insightful essay, which creates so many clever insights through his esoteric connections between fact and fiction, history and film. |
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wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Jan 5, 2009 23:16:10 GMT -5
Our Century (Artavazd Peleshian, 1983) - 10  The most brilliant compilation documentary since A Movie? Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) 70mm - 10     The print I saw didn't have subtitles, but that hardly matters since the word mis en scene was no doubt invented for this film. |
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Post by Clark Nova on Jan 6, 2009 1:22:09 GMT -5
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wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Jan 7, 2009 0:48:17 GMT -5
Statues Also Die (Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, 1953) - 8  Well it's no surprise that a film written by Marker and edited by Resnais ends up being really good. This is an extremely intelligent film in which Marker and Resnais offers a subversive critique of colonialism by asserting that the African art is removed from its original context as everyday and ceremonial/religious objects into mummified works of art in museums, then commodified goods by western culture's fetish for that exotic otherness. The voiceover is beautifully written though a bit too dry by Marker's standards. Even if the issue of colonialism is kind of dated, the exoticization of art is still as relevant today. |
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Post by Clark Nova on Jan 7, 2009 23:34:15 GMT -5
Beowulf (Robert Zemeckis, 2007) Give it the Oscar for most cleverly-concealed genitals  6/10
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wkw
Homer
Posts: 562
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Post by wkw on Jan 8, 2009 3:19:18 GMT -5
Je T'aime, Je T'aime (Alain Resnais, 1968) - 5  I'm afraid I found this a rather disappointing outing from the dude that made such masterpieces as Marienbad and Muriel. The concept while compelling is flawed from the start. I guess Resnais took a cue from La Jetee in all the time travel idea, though the whole sci/fi backdrop is handled in a much more mundane and dorkish way. The difference between this and La Jetee, and what I thought was the main problem was that the paradox in La Jetee works whereas it doesn't here. Whereas La Jetee comes full circle, this one break apart. Also I didn't find most of the reliving the past/memories here to be compelling technically nor emotionally, which is probably due to Resnais overdoing fragmentation of the flashbacks, draining them of the emotional context that would have been there had the editing been more of a associational form or had been presented in larger chunks. And what's up with all the surreal stuff thrown in? |
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mixed
Hitchcock
We played with life and lost
Posts: 1,273
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Post by mixed on Jan 9, 2009 0:25:07 GMT -5
Taxi driver - slow burner, excellent finale. Hmm. 8/10
Outpost - Doesn't really go anywhere but it's still kinda cool. Nice lighting, good atmosphere, realistically shot but errr ultimately a bit empty....6/10
Equilibirum - Excellent, definitely a film I should have seen earlier! I liked the concept and thought there were some brilliant character and action sequences. - 9/10
Slumdog millionaire - The screening I saw was folowed by a very interesting QandA session (over satellite) with director Danny Boyle. He gave some excellent answers regarding the production and shooting of the film and also the idea about casting the lead actor. It was a suggestion by his daughter and this guy is in this british teen sitcom called Skins, which you guys might not be familiar with. Danny Boyle wanted an Asian guy that looked like a loser to play the lead. His daughter said 'how about that guy on Skins? He looks like a loser!' And so it was, this guy got the part! The film itself is truly excellent. It's very exciting and the flashback sequences are very interesting. Ultimately the story is a little bit cliche but it is still a very entertaining and animated flick.
9/10
errrum and there is my end of film reccommendations. Although I also recommend Dexter, highly! Ut's incredibly entertaining, engaging and dosed with dfark humour in just the right spots. A fantastic tv series which I need to delve further into!
9/10 fantastic television!
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CAREFUL, wkw, you came this close to revealing the existence of our secret forum utopia.
) . The Fox Lorber dvd looks like a VHS. 
