Coppola post-Apocalypse Now

I would've too, but I threw support behind Tetro, since it seemed a more viable contender.

I find Peggy Sue Got Married really compelling for some reason I don't entirely fathom. I think it's because it just seems so emotionally honest, it's sentimentality doesn't feel cheap or unearned. It's one of those things I will always watch if it happens to be on.

I remember Peggy Sue being tonally messy, but the scene with the grandparents destroyed me at the time, probably because I watched it not long after my own grandfather passed away.

the whole thing has this mixture of sweetness and pain, it's a fine balance. Someone like Zemeckis or Spielberg would have driven home the hamfisted "and then she realized what she needed all along was what she already had" point in a less nuanced way, a standard "unhappy protagonist learns a lesson about being happy" way. I guess really it's a variation on "It's a Wonderful Life" (which I also still find really emotionally rich and compelling). It's characters are so well drawn and sympathetic, they're given a complexity that rings true - Cage's Charlie is both a smalltown dimbulb with delusions of grandeur and a genuinely caring romantic, but she can't have one without the other, they're essential parts of his makeup.

plus it's funny.

Turner is luminous in that grandmother scene.

Someone like Zemeckis or Spielberg

one of these things isa not like the other.

I think he's said Jack was one of the movies he did to pay off One From The Heart, but he says that about a lot of things.

― Bill, Tuesday, June 21, 2011 1

He made a bunch of those eighties movies to pay off OFTH, then made a bunch of those nineties movies to pay off The Cotton Club.

the number of US directors who were first-rate in the '70s and rather less so after is not one. eg, Alan Pakula.

one of these things isa not like the other.

yr partisanship is duly noted

Why do you tolerate Jerry Lewis's voice only when Nic Cage uses it, btw?

? I like a couple Jerry Lewis things

although I kinda don't see Lewis in Cage's performance here, he's not nearly as abrasive or prepubescent

Peggy Sue Got Married the only movie I straight-up love on this list, altho I should probably revisit the Outsiders.

I rented the Outsiders about a week ago and it is... not good? I think as an adolescent I appreciated it for it's adult-free world and the belabored teenage poetry romanticism but man it is just clumsy as hell. Pretty much nobody seems to be aware that they're making the most ridiculous homoerotic fantasy of smalltown 50s male relationships (I assume Burroughs loved this movie), with the possible exception of Matt Dillon, who manages to get in a few funny reaction shots like his initial leering wink at C. Thomas Howell's bleached hair. I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but the script is like a teenage girl's fantasy of what teenage boys are like, it is a v false and contrived setup and yet the movie attempts to wring genuine emotion from something that is, frankly, really fucking silly. Also the music cues are completely wrong/mismatched (Eric v much not otm upthread) - moments that are supposed to be tense or suffused with violence and dread are backed by innocuously bouncy Elvis tunes, it just doesn't work.

In the bigger picture of Coppola's CV, what the fuck happened to this guy? Post-70s he seems so erratic and unfocused, pursuing strange nostalgic tangents (so much stuff set in the 40s and 50s!) with varying degrees of competence and interest. Seems like such a waste.

he likes wine

in the 80s?

the script is like a teenage girl's fantasy of what teenage boys are like

well, it is based on a book written by a teenage girl

as is painfully obvious

maybe I just prefer teenage girl's fantasies of what mad scientists are like

In the bigger picture of Coppola's CV, what the fuck happened to this guy? Post-70s he seems so erratic and unfocused, pursuing strange nostalgic tangents (so much stuff set in the 40s and 50s!) with varying degrees of competence and interest. Seems like such a waste.

― Οὖτις, Friday, January 6, 2017 12:38 PM (two hours ago)

I forgot where I read it, but FFC became obsessed with his children's interests (S.E. Hinton books) but then lost his eldest son in a tragic boating accident and never quite recovered from that.

francis ford crapola more like

― frogbracist (J0rdan S.), Monday, June 20, 2011 11:58 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe i made this up, but around the time jack came out i read an interview with coppola, and the journalist kind of gently pointed out that jack was not well-regarded and coppola blamed the fact that he seemed adrift as a director on the fact that the world was not producing interesting enough subjects for his movies anymore. it still pisses me off to think of that today.

― horseshoe, Monday, June 20, 2011 5:57 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

"what i need's another vietnam!"

anyway, i certainly prefer Tucker to Apocalypse Now and its second-half shapeless dickery.

I havent seen Tucker since it came out but remember it favorably

Pretty sure Tucker was the first film I saw in a theatre.

"Rumble Fish" easily.

critics raved about Tucker didn't they?

critics can be like that sometimes, but I forgive them.

watching Dracula again and it's finally clicking with me.

not cos it's 'great' or anything, Ryder and Reeves are hilariously bad and Oldman chews the scenery like mad but the atmosphere is fun including the Peter Pan disobedient shadow

What about... CAPTAIN EO !
And yeah, pretty amazing the quality drop post Apocalypse Now (although I do like Cotton Club).

As if a great artist like... Stevie Wonder had released only/mostly crap after Songs in The Key of Life !

pretty amazing the quality drop 2/3 of the way thru Apocalypse Now

I forgot where I read it, but FFC became obsessed with his children's interests (S.E. Hinton books) but then lost his eldest son in a tragic boating accident and never quite recovered from that.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, January 6, 2017 6:13 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Has anyone here seen Twixt? Horror movie that came out a couple months after this poll. Apparently it addresses the guilt he feels over the accident. From wiki:

Hall realizes that his writer's block is the result of a form of guilt over his daughter's death in a boating accident, as he had been too drunk to accompany her that morning.

Critical reception for Twixt has been predominantly negative and the film currently holds a rating of 29% "rotten" on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based upon 17 reviews. Reviewers have criticized the film for being "flimsy" and "unwatchable". French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma placed it as the third best film of 2012.

Noticed a weird flex on tonight's Nightline: The 'Top 5' was the highest grossing J.Lo movies, and JACK was #5 at $58 Mil. Figuring that couldn't be right, I check Box Office Mojo, who report that Jack is in fact her 9th biggest film (not adjusted for inflation BTW) and was distributed by Buena Vista, a subsidiary of ABC's parent company, Disney.

Also: $58 MILLION?!?

that was right after Birdcage and Jumanji, so Robin Williams could open a movie til word of mouth got around.

Yeah, I think this was where his momentum began to slow. Father's Day w/Crystal was the next year, and kind of a cinematic New Jersey.

I remember seeing BILLBOARDS for Jack that summer.

I should really give Tucker a rescreen j/k

it's very good

Not to keep harping on Jack, but owing to only catching bits and pieces on TV, I somehow missed that Bill Cosby's one of the supporting players.

Jack debuted at #1. Robin Williams was yuuuge through 1998-2000. Even goddamn Patch Adams was a smash.

I thought this thread was revived due to the re-edit of Cotton Club to restore footage that got cut at the time because "too many black people"

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/09/francis-ford-coppola-cotton-club-encore-gregory-hines

if you are curious

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-cotton-club-encore-movie-review-2019

Never seen the original release - interested to check this out on Blu-Ray or via Amazon.

“Encore” gives us more of the tap duet between Sandman and his brother Clay (Hines’ real-life brother and dance partner, Maurice Hines) and, in a heart-cracking act of sweet charity, allows Gwen Verdon (who plays Dixie’s mother)

I see what you did there

Watched a couple back-to-back: The Rainmaker and You're a Big Boy Now.

I think it's the first time for both, not 100% sure. The Rainmaker could have been directed by Ron Howard, but I liked it anyway, or at least once Mickey Rourke thankfully made an early exit. DeVito, Voight, Danny Glover, and Mary Kay Place are very good, and I probably like Matt Damon more than most people. His narration reminded me a lot of his narration in Rounders.

You're a Big Boy Now is mostly a dated mid-'60s romp, a young American filmmaker trying to catch up with Godard and Richard Lester. The common observation that it's a precursor to The Graduate has a bit of truth to it, but for me the latter is a quantum leap across the board. Karen Black's first film. I loved one sequence, Elizabeth Hartman's seduction of Peter Kastner to the Lovin' Spoonful's "Darling Be Home Soon." A different song, I wouldn't have even noticed.

did you watch YABBN on TCM? I saw it advertised tonight.

No, I found it on YouTube, which I'm able to watch on the big screen via my cable provider. Clean image, but it seemed a little jumpy now and again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AkcIlt2Yvo

Skip to 1:02:00 for the Lovin' Spoonful. (Off-screen, but Hartman actually puts on a record.)

rumble fish is so dope