What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)
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Reno
The In Kraut
Big Eyes, by Tim Burton. Everything is sign posted, the characters are as flat as cartoons and there isn't a single subtle moment or surprise in the film. Even the usually great Amy Adams can't to much with the wan role she's been given. Christopher Waltz has been criticised for his dastardly take on the role of Walter Keane but there is nowhere else to go the way its been written and how Burton conceives everything in black and white and in very large letters. It's a shame too, because a good film could be made about commercial mass market art and the strange case of Margaret and Walter Keane. I thought Burton's overrated Ed Wood, to which this is a companion piece, had many of the same problems but at least the characters were more eccentric and gave the actors something to work with.
I watched Still Alice instead for which Julianne Moore won the Oscar, which is about a linguistics professor who develops early onset Alzheimers and which is pretty good as disease-of-the-week films go thanks to Moore, who keeps it real.
I watched Still Alice instead for which Julianne Moore won the Oscar, which is about a linguistics professor who develops early onset Alzheimers and which is pretty good as disease-of-the-week films go thanks to Moore, who keeps it real.
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Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
Rabies - Israeli horror/thriller. Doesn't feature the disease; the title is a metaphor. Very contrived plot-wise (guess it's meant to work more on a thematic level), but I liked it. Nicely filmed and reminiscent of new French/Belgian/etc horror.
Reno
The In Kraut
Miracle Mile, one of the most underrated films of the 80s and one of the most genuinely unpredictable, changing genres several time due to some wild plot turns as it may or may not hurtle towards the apocalypse. One of a number of films of the period (After Hours, Something Wild) where meek men head into the night to pursue a kooky woman and then get in well over their head. Once it gets going this moves at a cracking pace, aided by a propulsive, shimmery Tangerine Dream score, which fits this LA neon nightmare perfectly. Has one of my favourite endings ever: "Diamonds"
Hitchcock's Sabotage, my favourite of his British films. Loosely based on the Conrad novel The Secret Agent, this is surprisingly bleak. I always liked Sylvia Sidney, who had the saddest eyes of any actress ever and who is therefore well cast here. There is a fantastically well edited stabbing in this which looks forward to Psycho. In many ways Sabotage feels more like his later American films , which were about twisted relationships and fucked up families rather than his lighter British films of the period.
Hitchcock's Sabotage, my favourite of his British films. Loosely based on the Conrad novel The Secret Agent, this is surprisingly bleak. I always liked Sylvia Sidney, who had the saddest eyes of any actress ever and who is therefore well cast here. There is a fantastically well edited stabbing in this which looks forward to Psycho. In many ways Sabotage feels more like his later American films , which were about twisted relationships and fucked up families rather than his lighter British films of the period.
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belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Slow West - a gently paced western (I wonder where they got the idea for the name from?) with Michael Fassbender, GoT's The Hound, and a bunch of people who look familiar but aren't actually. Absolutely brilliant, with nary a foot put wrong. Watch and enjoy as Fasssbender helps young Jay (who, at times, looks disconcertingly like a youthful Andy Murray) trek out west to find his beloved Rose. They meet various other 'characters' along the way who do their best to stop Jay in his tracks. All building to a superb ending, and all in a glorious landscape (even if it is clearly New Zealand, rather than the yankee west). Unlike any western you've seen, unless you've seen Dead Man Quite brilliant, get it, watch it.
The Falling - keeping up the GoT theme...Maisie Williams is in this one, as a schoolgirl in a strict girls school in 1969. After a tragedy occurs she starts fainting, as do a number of the other girls, until it seems half the school is passed out. Is it simply a hysterical reaction, or is there more to it? It's all very well done, a great supporting cast (Gretta Scachi, Maxine Peake amongst others) and very plausibly told, there are hints of Picnic at Hanging Rock about it, but it never quite transcended the sums of its parts for me. Worth a view, unless there's something better on. Great soundtrack from Tracey Thorn.
The Falling - keeping up the GoT theme...Maisie Williams is in this one, as a schoolgirl in a strict girls school in 1969. After a tragedy occurs she starts fainting, as do a number of the other girls, until it seems half the school is passed out. Is it simply a hysterical reaction, or is there more to it? It's all very well done, a great supporting cast (Gretta Scachi, Maxine Peake amongst others) and very plausibly told, there are hints of Picnic at Hanging Rock about it, but it never quite transcended the sums of its parts for me. Worth a view, unless there's something better on. Great soundtrack from Tracey Thorn.
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imposs1904
Thread Killa'
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
imposs1904
Thread Killa'
I've seen the Hound with his kit off. I was thinking more of Fassbender and Scacchi. I'm not fussy.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Shame and White Mischief for you then (Michael is....impressive)
Reno
The In Kraut
The Raven, another one from my Vincent Price box sets. It's Corman doing Poe as a comedy with Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Price shamelessly out-hamming each other and with an early role for Jack Nicholson, who even gets to flash his famous smile when he gets possessed by a magicians curse. It's cute but I prefer the less humorous Poe films, which are camp enough already.
trabuquera
Modesty Bag
Leviathan - almost comically grim Russian arthouse movie which won lots of awards last year. But stay with it - it's genius. Everybody is miserable and the picture it paints of Russia today is one of a violent, vodka-sodden, mafia-ridden, slowly decaying edifice of despair. And it tells a deeply tragic and angry story. But on the upside ... 
... it is amazingly photographed and art-directed (and it takes a lot to make the depressing landscapes and kitschy interiors of postSoviet Arctic Russia look so fascinating and even beautiful); it's amazingly daring about leaving key plot points deliberately unresolved or mysterious; and it's got some of the finest goggle-eyed Drunk Acting (and sober acting to be fair) you'll ever watch. It's breathtakingly outspoken and vicious about Russian government, the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and the legal system. Don't know how they got away with making it tbh, never mind wangling lots of funding from the Russian Ministry of Culture ( 
) or getting it shown inside or outside Russia. It is 2 1/2 hours of harsh truth but I was gripped throughout - it wasn't just something to endure and suffer through. Be daring and give it a go.
... it is amazingly photographed and art-directed (and it takes a lot to make the depressing landscapes and kitschy interiors of postSoviet Arctic Russia look so fascinating and even beautiful); it's amazingly daring about leaving key plot points deliberately unresolved or mysterious; and it's got some of the finest goggle-eyed Drunk Acting (and sober acting to be fair) you'll ever watch. It's breathtakingly outspoken and vicious about Russian government, the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and the legal system. Don't know how they got away with making it tbh, never mind wangling lots of funding from the Russian Ministry of Culture ( ) or getting it shown inside or outside Russia. It is 2 1/2 hours of harsh truth but I was gripped throughout - it wasn't just something to endure and suffer through. Be daring and give it a go.
Hellsbells
World's best procrastinator
Gone Girl. Was disappointed & mostly quite bored. Irritating start full of mumbling that was really hard to understand.
Actually, watching it reminded me that I was pretty disappointed with the book. Never really got the 'anazing' twist. It was all pretty predictable to me.
Actually, watching it reminded me that I was pretty disappointed with the book. Never really got the 'anazing' twist. It was all pretty predictable to me.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
Black Power Mixtape.
Old Swedish TV news footage of the Black struggle in America, 1967 - 1975, with present-day commentary by Black American artists and writers. If you have any interest in this sort of thing, absolutely essential viewing.
butchersapron did you catch this one?
Old Swedish TV news footage of the Black struggle in America, 1967 - 1975, with present-day commentary by Black American artists and writers. If you have any interest in this sort of thing, absolutely essential viewing.
butchersapron did you catch this one?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I did myself, torrented it couple of years ago after watching The Murder of Fred Hampton docu
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
Holy Motors - Really enjoyed it. Very wtf? sort of film, in a good way. 
One to watch again sometime.
One to watch again sometime.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Kickass 2. Quite funny. Total throwaway film but having the supervillian call himself 'The Motherfucker' tickled me no end.
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