Last (x) movies you saw (II)

The Polka King (Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky 2018)
You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay 2018)
Shirkers (Sandi Tan 2018)
Murder Party (Saulnier 2007)
Cargo (Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling 2018 )
The Miseducation Of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan, Cecilia Frugiuele 2018)
Bros: After the Screaming Stops (Joe Pearlman and David Soutar 2018)
Dude (Olivia Milch, Kendall McKinnon 2018)
Catfight (Onur Tukel 2017)
* Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Dante, Haas 1990)
* Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Lord, Rothman, Persichetti, Ramsey 2018) [DCP]
Happy As Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher 2018)
* Children Of Men (Cuarón, Sexton, Arata & al. 2006) [Laser]
Ghost Stories (Dyson & Nyman 2017 )
The Fate Of The Furious (Gray, Morgan & al. 2017)
The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston and Gladys Hill after Rudyard Kipling 1975) [DCP]
Support The Girls (Bujalski 2018)
Duck Butter (Miguel Arteta, Alia Shawkat 2018)
Phantasm [4K restoration] (Coscarelli 1979) [DCP]

there's a point in Phantasm where a kid uses a hammer and a shotgun shell to blow open a door lock; at this exact moment, something fell from the rafters above the screen onto the wooden stage below, crashing loudly. For a few minutes, I thought this was a William Castle-esque trick designed to enhance the screening, which had also included free "embalming fluid" shots, a pre-show presentation and a burlesque performance. Once the next spoken line was mouthed, it turned out that the speaker which carried the dialogue had straight-up crashed out of the ceiling.

lol

(I got on the Letterboxd train.)

Stan & ollie
2001 A Space Oddyssey

xp nice

Finally started Les Diaboliques. God I love Simone Signoret.

Watched Fantastic Beasts w the kids. Meh

The General (Keaton, 1926) 8/10
Sorry to Bother You (Riley, 2018) 5/10
*Metropolitan (Stillman, 1990) 9/10
Dogville (Von Trier, 2003) 5/10
*My Night at Mauds (Rohmer, 1969) 10/10
*The Muppet Christmas Carol (Henson, 1992) 7/10
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Anderson, 2014) 7/10
Good Morning (Ozu, 1959) 7/10
The Farmer’s Daughter (Potter, 1947) 6/10
Carnival of Souls (Harvey, 1962) 9/10
*Taipei Story (Yang, 1985) 10/10
Carol (Haynes, 2015) 6/10
Ludwig (Visconti, 1973) 7/10
Hale County, This Morning This Evening (Ross, 2018) 7/10
The Favourite (Lanthimos, 2018) 6/10
*Miami Vice (Mann, 2006) 9/10

I watched a couple of ghost stories that have been on my watch list forever; The Innocents, and the Changeling.

The Innocents was great - really strong performances, especially the creepy kids; great cinematography etc.

The Changeling was...meh. It had that clumsy, 70s, made-for-TV feel, though it had a couple of great scenes. I appreciated it's critique of inherited power, the right etc., but it was just so sloppy most of the time.

I also finally caught up with The Changeling a while back and had a similar pleasantly meh reaction.

Leave No Trace (Granik, 2018)

I got around to watching this on dvd last night. Morbs gave it 7/10, which feels about right. It has a nice pace, subtle but clear exposition, understated and effective camera work, good acting. The script has some weaknesses, but nowhere near fatal. Just a very nice film all the way around.

I saw a Changeling restoration at SIFF last year, and the main audience reaction was for the office building with the narrow bottom (which is still downtown), rather than any scares or reveals or confrontations

Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941)
The Fall Guy (Pearce, 1930)
The Canary Murder Case (St. Clair & Tuttle, 1929)
Advice to the Lovelorn (Werker, 1933)
Aquaman (Wan, 2018)
Border River (Jones, 1919)
All Night Long (Dearden, 1962)
Stan & Ollie (Baird, 2018)
Cold War (Pawlikowski, 2018)
Fatty's Chance Acquaintance (Arbuckle, 1915)
The Gold Ghost (Lamont, 1934)
*The Paleface (Cline & Keaton, 1922)

x-post

Yeah, there were some interesting bits - I like the automatic writing, and some of the architectural shots. But so much of it was ugly.

It’s overlong, too - the audience catch on to the situation an hour before Scott does, but the protracted pace of the film never picks up its heels to increase from the initial “mild dread” to “tension”

Watched in January so far

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) 5/10
Mom and Dad (2017) 6/10
Birdbox (2018) 6/10
The Favourite (2018) 7/10
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018) 6/10
The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018) 7/10
The Deep Blue Sea (2011) 8/10
Killer Joe (2011) 7/10
Three Identical Strangers (2018) 7/10
*True Grit (2010) 8/10
Eighth Grade (2018) 8/10

lol sic my gf was at that Phantasm screening (and wrote about the series), I also saw The Man Who Would Be King at Central Cinema.

ha ha, hi!

lol sic my gf was at that Phantasm screening (and wrote about the series)

am curious to read this

Joe may mean the screening series, not the Phantasm series

(gf=LP?)

ahhh lol oh well

I am only guessing!

pal I saw it with rented the blu of Phantasm II three days later and I have FOMO

Anyone else on Letterboxd? mine is https://letterboxd.com/souleraser/

gf=JZ @ the Katie Herzog Hot Take Dispenser. She wrote about the screening series, not Phantasm.

My Letterboxd = https://letterboxd.com/jer_fairall/

Me on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/PollyPrecoder/

also, me: https://letterboxd.com/jamesdevine/

49-17 (Baldwin, 1917) 6/10
Skate Kitchen (Moselle, 2018) 6/10
*Husbands (Cassavetes, 1970) 8/10
The Letter (Wyler, 1940) 7/10
The Merry World of Leopold Z (Carle, 1965) 6/10
Private Life (Jenkins, 2018) 8/10
The Only Game in Town (Stevens, 1970) 4/10
The Public Enemy (Wellman, 1931) 7/10
*The Philadelphia Story (Cukor, 1940) 7/10
Rembrandt (Korda, 1936) 6/10

https://letterboxd.com/carrotbourke/

I just watched Coherence, which was fine, fairly impressive it's budget, I guess.

Then I watched Jarman's Wittgenstein, which I bought years ago and never got around to watching. It was much better than I expected, actually, but what an odd production. Co-written by Terry Eagleton, produced by Tariq Ali (I'm assuming it's the same Tariq Ali, anyway).

you can find me on L'boxd if yer clever

Leave No Trace was excellent; the subtle recurrence of the seahorse - an animal where the male carries the young - was a lovely touch. Great, honest understated performances and script.
Feel like you can give it a feminist reading as "we have to learn to let go of our toxic, self-destructive men" if you'd care to. Or not. Either way, totally worth a watch.

Eagleton and Ali’s involvement in Wittgenstein might account for why it depicts him as much more pro soviet than I recall him being (though it’s been ages since I read Monk’s bio).

Wasn't expecting much from "The Hate U Give," but it was really intense and pretty righteous, not even just for a YA movie.

I really liked the novel and heard the movie made some convervative changes, so I’m worried, but I’ll still give it a watch as soon as I can.

From Ozon and down it's seen to prepare for the Berlin Film Festival, but then I found out I screwed up the application, so I¨m probably not going anyway, lol.

Small Town Killers (Bornedal)
Checkered Ninja (Matthesen)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Ramsay & Rothman)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Lanthimos)*
Heli (Escalante)*
The Untamed (Escalante)*
Post Tenebras Lux (Reygadas)*
Belleville Baby (Engberg)
Tulpan (Dvortsevoy)
Frantz (Ozon)
Double Lover (Ozon)
Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (Côté)
Boris Without Béatrice (Côté)
Beyond the Hill (Alper)
Frenzy (Alper)
The Dreamed Path (Schanelec)
Faces Places (Varda & JR)
Tuya’s Marriage (Wang Quan’an)

The Longest day
Heaven knows, Mr Allison
couple of Robert Mitchum films that were on Film 4 a couple of days ago when i was working on a shirt.

I really liked the novel and heard the movie made some convervative changes, so I’m worried, but I’ll still give it a watch as soon as I can.

I didn't read the book, but my wife and older daughter did, and they said it was mostly pretty faithful. It gave my younger daughter (11) nightmares last night. Does not sidestep or downplay some pretty serious stuff.

Shiraz (1928, Osten) 8/10
*Unbreakable (2000, Shyamalan) 5/10
I Met Him in Paris (1937, Ruggles) 7/10
One Way Passage (1932, Garnett) 6/10
Enter Laughing (1967, Reiner) 5/10
The Good Bad Man (1916, Dwan) 6/10
Tomorrow’s Promise (1967, Owens) 6/10
Night Tide (1961, Harrington) 8/10
The Half-Breed (1916, Dwan) 7/10
Bronco Billy (1980, Eastwood) 7/10
Faust (1926, Murnau) 8/10

'49-'17 (Baldwin, 1917)
Day Dreams (Cline & Keaton, 1922)
Kiki (Taylor, 1931)
Mr. Robinson Crusoe (Sutherland, 1932)
So This Is Africa (Cline, 1933)
The World Moves On (Ford, 1934)
Husbands and Lovers (Stahl, 1924)
Girls About Town (Cukor, 1931)

wow, u r very kind to Wheeler & Woolsey.

I like them (definitely a minority opinion) and I liked the gender role reversal.

oh I like them too, but feel guilty about it.

Fantastic Beasts 2 : 4/10
Forest Of Bliss : 8/10
*Women Of The Night : 9/10
Aquamaing : 6/10
S'en Fout La Mort : 8/10
*There Was A Father : 10/10
The Image Book : 9/10
The Shop Around The Corner : 10/10

I tried to avoid superhero movies in 2018, so I played a bit of catch-up this month.

*rewatch of Ernest Saves Christmas (Cherry, 1988) 6/10
Coco (Disney, Unkrich and Molina, 2017) 6/10
Black Panther (Disney, Coogler, 2018) 7
Thor Ragnarok (Disney, Waititi, 2017) 7
Mary Poppins Returns (Disney, Marshall, 2018) 6
Avengers: Infinity War (Disney, Russos, 2018) 4
Bird Box (Netflix, Bier, 2018) 5
Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955) 6
Reel Bad Arabs (2006) 6; recommended by neil cicierega on ernest roulette
Roma (Netflix, Cuaron, 2018) 6

Black Panther Panchali

last 3 was a trio of Marvel flicks, I'm playing catch-up:

Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Guardians of the Galaxy 2

CA: CW was a perfectly decent flick, suffering from the issue a lot of films have and one which always bothers me, which is that a bunch of people decided to end some conversations a couple minutes too early or not say something they should have said, and it led to conflict and misunderstanding. But it's entertaining enough and decent overall, the cast is good as usual. It's just nowhere near Winter Soldier. 6/10

Doctor Strange was alright. A 6.5/10 movie, with a good cast and visuals and storytelling and so on.

GOTG2 was a surprise, since I'd heard the sequel wasn't as good, but I really enjoyed it: the color scheme, the cast, the humor, it was long but not too, too long (ok just maybe a bit too long). The Marvel machine taking on a straight science fiction story is more up my alley (which is maybe why the craft being applied to the fantasy genre is a the reason why I enjoy the first couple Thor movies more than other people seem to). Maybe this was an 8/10? Whatever.

I don't put much effort in it these days, but: https://letterboxd.com/ephender/

just saw Three Identical Strangers, what a bonkers story. couldn't stop thinking about the 3rd guy picking up the paper and seeing the "twins, separated at birth!" headline. the fact that they all had the same mannerisms and resting poses and everything else was really interesting to me

Manhattan Baby (Fulci, 1982)- 2.5/5 - Didn't really feel this one. Unusually limp score from Fabio Frizzi, surprisingly setbound for something that starts with gorgeous location shoots and seemingly really did shoot exteriors in NYC. The stuffed bird attack that feels like it's finally going to finally ramp this movie up into proper batshit Fulci territory is basically the end of anything interesting
A Serious Man (Coens, 2009)- 4.5/5- FUCKING LOVED IT. The mostly unknown cast (Fred Melamed GOAT though), the cinematography (color grading especially), the fucking showstopper "Goy's Teeth" story...all of it
The Favourite (Lanthimos, 2018)- 4/5- Shockingly funny, the period detail scratches my ever present Draughtsman's Contract itch (I have seen none of the other nominees but if this doesn't win the Oscar for Best Costume Design...I will be unsurprised because the Oscars are more meaningless each year, but whatever), I want Olivia Colman to get more high profile roles outside of the UK bubble
*Phantasm (Coscarelli, 1979)- 3.5/5- Have loved this since I was a teenager and still holds up
Phantasm II (Coscarelli, 1988)- 3/5- Does not hold up as much; haven't watched any extras yet but obvious *massive* studio interference (I have major problems with 3 but even with that as evidence I don't think Coscarelli would have intentionally scrambled the timeline with a weird mess of epistolary voiceover, or a major character dying a gruesome, climactic, expensive sfx death weirdly early only to be immediately handwaved away as a hallucination)
The Lobster (Lanthimos, 2015)- 4/5- I had only seen Dogtooth before starting in on Lanthimos this month and I firmly intend to see everything else as soon as I possibly can
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (Coscarelli, 1994)- 2.5/5- A fucking mess; all the sidekicks introduced to disguise the fact that the returning/original Mike can't act suck (the kid is a serial killer, Rocky is a cringeworthy portrayal of a lesbian-coded character and Reggie constantly trying to get in her pants doesn't make him relatable, it makes him a fucking creep); Coscarelli's Sam Raimi envy (after the little shoutout in the previous movie) would be fine if he understood what made Sam Raimi's films work
*Goto, Isle of Love (Borowczyk, 1969)- 4/5- taking my time and really digging through Arrow's Borowczyk discs. I enjoyed this the first time I saw it but a rewatch convinced me it's absolutely brilliant. The color film inserts, the Handel piece, Borowczyk's perspective-free framing and shadowless lighting, etc
*Theatre of Mr and Mrs Kabal (Borowczyk, 1967)- 4/5- Still really fucking funny
Living to Die (Hauser, 1990)- 1.5/5- a selection for Philly's Psychotronic Film Society; things Wings Hauser, director, does not understand: film noir, the 180-degree rule, breasts, why mickey-mousing fell out of favor in film scores, what makes jazz music cool, the fact that it's not a great idea to actually name a character "Jazz"
Blanche (Borowczyk, 1971)- 4/5- Monty Python and the Holy Grail probably lessened the impact of its grimy, lived-in medieval setting but there's still the portrayal of medieval society as utterly psychologically alien that I found so compelling in (the half of) Hard to Be a God (that I managed to stay awake through) and that reminded me Marketa Lazarova has been on my to-watch list for ages. I also love the period music (naturally, since this is a Borowczyk joint, the first line of dialogue is a castrato joke)
Gunpoint (Graham, 1972)- 3.5/5- a documentary short on pheasant rearing and hunting, edited and partially shot in guerrilla style by Borowczyk for the translator & critic Peter Graham. There's a particularly striking shot of the hunting party marching through the shade cast by perfectly orderly rows of trees in a game hunting park that's going to stick with me for a while