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Umpteenth Rewatch...This 1966 Best Picture nominee that put director Mike Nichols on the map is my 2nde favorite movie of all time that I first saw when I was in high school. This story of two very dysfunctional marriages that clash on one drunken night is just as powerful now as it was upon release. Nichols and all four leads were nominated for Oscars and Taylor and Dennis won. This once in a lifetime theatrical experience based on an Edward Albee play has to be seen to be believed. ...
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52048902
The Handmaiden - (2016)
This twist-laden, erotic, blast of a film exemplifies all of the great qualities South Korean cinema offers these days. Wonderful story, and a very interesting take on British crime novel 'Fingersmith'. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.
The Tinder Swindler
By accident, I hit the Netflix button on my remote, and it worked (this time... even Prime had some similar glitch).. I searched, knowing if I exited, I might not ever use it again. Not a big deal, because it's not worth a penny a month, but I don't have cable, and I was tired of the Trump assassination stuff everywhere, so this was a distraction.. I've never used any of this bullshit. I don't have a "smart" phone and after seeing this, I really don't ever want to see anything current but I'm obsessed with "free" stuff that cost me a lot now that I think of it. This guy from israel just ponzi schemed women, one who falls in love, but no one is likable. Tossing 100k like it's nothing so they can take photos of caviar.
By accident, I hit the Netflix button on my remote, and it worked (this time... even Prime had some similar glitch).. I searched, knowing if I exited, I might not ever use it again. Not a big deal, because it's not worth a penny a month, but I don't have cable, and I was tired of the Trump assassination stuff everywhere, so this was a distraction.. I've never used any of this bullshit. I don't have a "smart" phone and after seeing this, I really don't ever want to see anything current but I'm obsessed with "free" stuff that cost me a lot now that I think of it. This guy from israel just ponzi schemed women, one who falls in love, but no one is likable. Tossing 100k like it's nothing so they can take photos of caviar.
2nd Rewatch...This 1967 Best Picture nominee was star Warren Beatty's first venture as
a producer and no doubt director Arthur Penn's masterpiece. This look at the legendary bank robbing couple might not be completely factual but is gloriously entertaining thanks to a literate and adult screenplay that addresses issues we don't see coming, including Clyde Barrow's impotence, the violence is unapologetically bloody and the performances are nothing short of spectacular. Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J Pollard, and Estelle Parsons earned five of the ten Oscar nominations that the film earned and Parsons won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Love that first getaway scene with a hysterical Blanche running around screaming and when the gang take the Texas Ranger (Denver Pyle) hostage and pose him for pictures. This film also marked the film debut of Dunaway (who is superb) and a young actor by the name of Gene Wilder.
Umpteenth Rewatch...Have loved this movie ever since I was a kid. Oscar winners Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis star in this Neil Simon comedy about a married couple named George and Gwen Kellerman who fly to New York for an important job interview for George where everything that can possibly go wrong for them does go wrong. It stretches credibility a bit, but it's still very funny, with a masterful comic turn from Lemmon and a lot of familiar faces popping up along he way like Anthony Holland, Ann Prentiss, Graham Jarvis, Dolph Sweet, Paul Dooley, and Billy Dee Williams. The film was remade in 1999 with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, but it's not nearly as funny.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.
5th time watching, everytime this is on cable, I stop to watch it. Love it
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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?
There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?
The Boy & The Heron
Beautiful, intriguing & overall a fascinating watch.
Not at the same level as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, but a lovely movie nevertheless.
Beautiful, intriguing & overall a fascinating watch.
Not at the same level as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, but a lovely movie nevertheless.
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The Boy & The Heron
Beautiful, intriguing & overall a fascinating watch.
Not at the same level as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, but a lovely movie nevertheless.
Beautiful, intriguing & overall a fascinating watch.
Not at the same level as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, but a lovely movie nevertheless.
Zielona granica
Agnieszka Holland's Zielona granica is an absolute masterpiece.
While there's been other recent movies about the European asylee crisis (Io Capitano quickly comes to mind), no other contemporary movie I can think of combines the raw power, fierce determination and tour-de-force filmmaking that this movie does.
There's simply no easy way to convey everything that Holland has accomplished here. The movie feels almost like a documentary, one that appeals to the intellect as well as the heart. Multiple points of view are presented that combine into a very coherent whole, and the technical aspects of the film are absolutely superb.
While I don't pretend to be an expert on the European asylee crises - and there's almost certainly a bit of nuance that may have been lost to US audiences - the film does an admirable job of explaining the dangerous choices that must be made by the courageous Polish civilians who are trying to help scores of desperate asylum-seekers.
Most strikingly, the film depicts Polish armed forces - soldiers and policemen alike - as being just as brutal and heartless when confronting asylum-seekers from distant lands as they are with their own countrymen who are trying to provide life-saving assistance to those desperate souls who somehow make it across the Polish border.
The movie does not pretend that there are any simple solutions; it is a movie that is as full of heart-wrenching sights as it is of valiant hope.
A coda that contrasts the treatment of Ukranian refugees upon the beginning of the Russian invasion with those from the Middle East is absolutely devastating.
Zielona granica has received a very limited release here in the US; if you have a chance to watch it on the big screen, you should definitely take it.
Snerting
Why would an Icelandic widower be in a rush to fly to London, then Japan during the early days of the pandemic?
The answer to that question is this lovely and very old-fashioned film by Baltasar Kormákur, based on a novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson,
About half of Snerting takes place roughly 50 years ago, and the movie ping-pongs back and forth with the present in a way that might sound confusing as described, but is always perfectly clear as the film unfolds.
The romantic mystery at the heart of the film takes a while to unfold, and may initially appear to be somewhat predictable, but when the answer finally arrives, it is not quite what one might have expected - and it is totally devastating.
You won't find a better romantic drama this summer.
National Anthem
This cool and easygoing indie film about a young construction worker in New Mexico who joins a community of ranchers and rodeo performers is an absolute delight.
The ranch in question is one that resolutely flies the rainbow flag, and much of the movie's pleasures are in its deconstruction of what typical "rodeo culture" is all about.
In addition to all of the human stars, you'll also see quite a few equine supporting players, who definitely get more screen time than in almost any movie since Barbenheimer a year ago.
This is sometimes a bit of a wild ride, but always a very pleasant one.
The Greatest Hits
I simply adore time-travel movies, and found this one to be an absolute charmer.
Lucy Boynton (last seen playing Proust Barbie in last year's biggest box-office hit) plays a young woman experiencing more than the usual grief following the death of her boyfriend (future Superman David Corenswet).
The twist is that every time she hears a song she heard when they were together, she's immediately transported back to that time and place where they originally heard it. And, somehow, she gets it into her head that if she's able to find the right point in time, she may even keep him from dying.
Doesn't that sound romantic? If it does, then this movie will be music to your ears.
Last week was the perfect convergence of fortunate circumstances. First of all, I got my property tax refund back and became several hundred dollars richer. That same day, I got my paycheck! And then, after paying for my bus fare for the next six months and paying the first half of next month's rent, I took advantage of Barnes & Noble's 50% sale on all of their Criterion DVD's, Blu-rays and 4k UHD's, and I got myself a stack of movies that have been on my wish list for quite some time. Some of them are Westerns, very much in keeping with my more recent viewing habits. A few of them deal with of Western themes and motifs, and a couple of them are from other genres completely. (And a couple of them aren't Criterion releases. The recent Arrow Video remastered release of Don Siegel's The Shootist is really quite the beautiful package, as well as a great film.)
Here are the ones that are completely new to my collection:
The Furies (Anthony Mann / 1950)
Last Train from Gun Hill (John Sturges / 1959)
The Shootist (Don Siegel / 1976)
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick / 1978)
Lone Star (John Sayles / 1996)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam / 1998)
Ride with the Devil (Ang Lee / 1999)
The Power of the Dog (John Campion / 2021)
And here are my "double-dips," including one that I've been waiting for a long time since it was first announced. I am referring of course to the Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray set of Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid! Believe me, it's totally worth the price, because it's got the original theatrical edition (106 minutes), the final preview edition (122 minutes), and the brand-new 50th Anniversary edition (117 minutes), as well as a commentary track and a few extras.
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell / 1960)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah / 1973)
Bound (The Wachowskis / 1996)
Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen / 2022)
I'll just comment on a few of these, briefly:
The Furies - Tough, powerful and dramatic Western, set in the 1870's, directed by Anthony Mann. It's his first, in fact! Floridly performed with broad strokes, but just avoiding full-on melodramatic excess. Walter Huston, in his swan song, plays tough rancher T.C. Jeffords, owner of the ranch that gives the film its title, while lead Barbara Stanwyck plays his greedy and ruthless daughter Vance, who hopes to inherit the Furies someday but is at the same time utterly devoted to old T.C. It's a real genuine love/hate sort of thing, you understand...
Last Train from Gun Hill - Very much in the classic Hollywood mainstream of '50s Westerns, a visually splendid VistaVision production from Paramount, directed by the underrated John Sturges. However, it's also very tough and gritty and deals with unusually mature themes for its day, and it has a fairly tragic and downbeat ending. Kirk Douglas plays U.S. Marshal Matt Morgan, whose Native American wife has been raped and murdered by a pair of drunken cowboys. The wife had lashed one of her assailants with a horsewhip, leaving an identifying scar. And that rapist/murderer is none other than the son of one of Morgan's best friends, a powerful rancher named Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn), who virtually owns the town of Gun Hill. Morgan arrives at Gun Hill to confront Belden and take his son into custody, but Belden won't let it happen without a fight. Somewhat influenced by Delmer Daves' 3:10 to Yuma from two years earlier, but this movie is still quite unique and special.
Peeping Tom - Michael Powell's controversial 1960 horror thriller, not only controversial in its day but nigh-on scandalous. It's the tale of a shy, awkward serial killer named Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), a man who is obsessed with photographing beautiful women with a camera, one of whose tripod legs is a sharp spear he uses to kill them, the better to capture their dying expressions of terror on film. Things get complicated when he falls in love with a beautiful woman named Helen Stephens (the great Anna Massey), who lives in the same apartment building with her blind mother. The mother (Maxine Audley) is blind, but she starts to perceive something very troubling about this young man her daughter his taken to...
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid - Sam Peckinpah's flawed but brilliant masterwork, an elegy for the old West (like most of the best Westerns are). James Coburn portrays Sheriff Pat Garrett and Kris Kristofferson plays notorious outlaw William Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid. They had been friends once before, but times have changed. Basically it's the story of a pursued outlaw who isn't especially in a hurry to run, and a lawman who isn't particularly keen on catching him. But Fate has its own plans, and the two cannot escape their destiny, or their own myth. Bob Dylan composed the score, including the immortal classic Knockin' on Heaven's Door, and also portrays the character of Alias.
The Shootist - Another Western elegy, the swan song of John Wayne, who performs the lawman-turned-gunfighter John Bernard Books, who is dying of cancer and wants to spend his last few days in a boarding house in Carson City, Nevada, owned by Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall) whose son Gillom (Ron Howard) utterly worships and idolizes Books. The movie is ably directed by Don Siegel, who lets the story's pathos speak for itself without indulging in sentimentality or pity. The score by Elmer Bernstein is similarly discreet in this regard. J.B. Books wouldn't have had it any other way, and neither would Wayne.
Days of Heaven - Directed by Terrence Malick, this one is really quite gorgeous and affecting, a true visual feast. At the same time it's rather hard to put one's finger on in terms of its effect. The year is 1916, and young Chicago couple Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) travel to Texas in search of work and a fresh start, accompanied by Bill's little sister Linda (Linda Manz). They find work as seasonal workers on a farm whose owner (Sam Shepard making his film debut) is dying of an unspecified illness. Bill persuades Abby to marry the farmer in order to inherit his money, but things don't really go quite as planned.
Lone Star - A very intricate slice-of-life neo-Western murder mystery from John Sayles, set in a South Texas border town with a history of racial strife and tensions between whites, blacks and Mexicans, this is extremely intelligent and engrossing viewing. Human remains are discovered in the present day, along with a Masonic ring and a sheriff's badge, and they would appear to be those of former sheriff Charlie Wade, who mysteriously disappeared in 1957. A brutal, corrupt and despised lawman back in the day (played by Kris Kristofferson with atypically malevolent relish in skillfully interwoven flashback sequences), Wade's disappearance was considered a blessing. Chris Cooper plays the present-day sheriff, Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper), the son of a legendary sheriff who was one of Wade's deputies back in the day (also played in flashbacks by Matthew McConaughey). Other important characters include a widowed schoolteacher named Pilar (Elizabeth Peña), Otis Payne, the black owner of a local saloon (Ron Canada) and his estranged son Delmore (Joe Morton), who is now a colonel stationed at a local army base. Mind you, these are only some of the characters! It's a very intricate and involved storyline, but all the characters' lives and story threads converge at some point. Very well-written and thought-provoking in the way it deals with the issue of race relations, and certainly not preachy at all.
Bound - The sexy crime thriller that put the Wachowski siblings on the map three years before The Matrix! Starring Gina Gershon as tough ex-con Corky, who gets romantically involved with Violet (Jennifer Tilly), the wife of local gangster Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). The two women hatch an intricate scheme to steal $2 million from the mob and run away together, but things don't go quite so smoothly. Also features an early role for future Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Christopher Meloni, portraying ill-tempered gangster Johnnie Marzzone, who delivers the funniest death-by-gunshot performance of all time. No lie!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Terry Gilliam's blackly comic adaptation of Hunter Thompson's 1971 novel, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. I've seen it once or twice many years ago, but I have yet to pop this new Criterion 4K edition into my player. I do remember liking it a lot, in particular an early "lizard hallucination" sequence!
Ride with the Devil - A very unconventional Civil War drama directed by Ang Lee and starring Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel and Jeffrey Wright. This is the story of a group of Missouri Irregulars known as the Bushwhackers, who fought as guerrilla fighters against the Kansas Jayhawkers during the Civil War. (If you remember the 1976 Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, you'll remember that the title character fought with the Bushwhackers in order to avenge his family's brutal murder at the hands of the Jayhawks.) Very affecting and very violent at times, particularly the raid on the town of Lawrence, Kansas, less the typical sacking of a Western town than like the destruction of a village during the Vietnam War. Jeffrey Wright is a true standout in the role of Daniel Holt, a freed black man who is fighting alongside the Confederates. Like I said, a very unorthodox and distinctive take on familiar subject matter.
The Power of the Dog - A very unsettling and unnerving psychological drama in Western garb, directed by Jane Campion, based on a 1967 novel by Thomas Savage. The story centers around two cattle ranch-owning brothers named Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemons). George meets a widow and inn owner named Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) as well as her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who aspires to go to medical school. He falls in love with Rose and decides to marry her, but once she moves into the ranch house, Phil starts to make things unpleasant for Rose as well as Peter, whom the macho Phil mocks as being effeminate. In actuality, Phil's mockery conceals a secret, closeted inner life rooted in his relationship with his dead mentor and role model Bronco Henry. Eventually, Rose turns to drink and becomes emotionally unstable, to her son's distress. In an unexpected twist, Phil decides to befriend young Peter and become a mentor just as Bronco Henry was his, but the medically-minded Peter has secret plans of his own. Truly an incredible film, and deeply challenging to viewer stereotypes concerning masculinity and male sexuality.
Moonage Daydream - Perhaps one of the greatest documentary films made about any popular musician, but it's much more than a documentary. It really takes you into the mind and music and philosophy of David Bowie, taking the viewer on a kind of grand tour of his life and career. It uses Bowie's music, audio extracts from interviews, performance footage as well as specially-created animation to create an insightful, enlightening overview of the man's artistic contributions to our culture. David Robert Jones may no longer be with us in the flesh, but Bowie lives on, particularly vividly in this movie.
Here are the ones that are completely new to my collection:
The Furies (Anthony Mann / 1950)
Last Train from Gun Hill (John Sturges / 1959)
The Shootist (Don Siegel / 1976)
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick / 1978)
Lone Star (John Sayles / 1996)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam / 1998)
Ride with the Devil (Ang Lee / 1999)
The Power of the Dog (John Campion / 2021)
And here are my "double-dips," including one that I've been waiting for a long time since it was first announced. I am referring of course to the Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray set of Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid! Believe me, it's totally worth the price, because it's got the original theatrical edition (106 minutes), the final preview edition (122 minutes), and the brand-new 50th Anniversary edition (117 minutes), as well as a commentary track and a few extras.
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell / 1960)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah / 1973)
Bound (The Wachowskis / 1996)
Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen / 2022)
I'll just comment on a few of these, briefly:
The Furies - Tough, powerful and dramatic Western, set in the 1870's, directed by Anthony Mann. It's his first, in fact! Floridly performed with broad strokes, but just avoiding full-on melodramatic excess. Walter Huston, in his swan song, plays tough rancher T.C. Jeffords, owner of the ranch that gives the film its title, while lead Barbara Stanwyck plays his greedy and ruthless daughter Vance, who hopes to inherit the Furies someday but is at the same time utterly devoted to old T.C. It's a real genuine love/hate sort of thing, you understand...
Last Train from Gun Hill - Very much in the classic Hollywood mainstream of '50s Westerns, a visually splendid VistaVision production from Paramount, directed by the underrated John Sturges. However, it's also very tough and gritty and deals with unusually mature themes for its day, and it has a fairly tragic and downbeat ending. Kirk Douglas plays U.S. Marshal Matt Morgan, whose Native American wife has been raped and murdered by a pair of drunken cowboys. The wife had lashed one of her assailants with a horsewhip, leaving an identifying scar. And that rapist/murderer is none other than the son of one of Morgan's best friends, a powerful rancher named Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn), who virtually owns the town of Gun Hill. Morgan arrives at Gun Hill to confront Belden and take his son into custody, but Belden won't let it happen without a fight. Somewhat influenced by Delmer Daves' 3:10 to Yuma from two years earlier, but this movie is still quite unique and special.
Peeping Tom - Michael Powell's controversial 1960 horror thriller, not only controversial in its day but nigh-on scandalous. It's the tale of a shy, awkward serial killer named Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), a man who is obsessed with photographing beautiful women with a camera, one of whose tripod legs is a sharp spear he uses to kill them, the better to capture their dying expressions of terror on film. Things get complicated when he falls in love with a beautiful woman named Helen Stephens (the great Anna Massey), who lives in the same apartment building with her blind mother. The mother (Maxine Audley) is blind, but she starts to perceive something very troubling about this young man her daughter his taken to...
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid - Sam Peckinpah's flawed but brilliant masterwork, an elegy for the old West (like most of the best Westerns are). James Coburn portrays Sheriff Pat Garrett and Kris Kristofferson plays notorious outlaw William Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid. They had been friends once before, but times have changed. Basically it's the story of a pursued outlaw who isn't especially in a hurry to run, and a lawman who isn't particularly keen on catching him. But Fate has its own plans, and the two cannot escape their destiny, or their own myth. Bob Dylan composed the score, including the immortal classic Knockin' on Heaven's Door, and also portrays the character of Alias.
The Shootist - Another Western elegy, the swan song of John Wayne, who performs the lawman-turned-gunfighter John Bernard Books, who is dying of cancer and wants to spend his last few days in a boarding house in Carson City, Nevada, owned by Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall) whose son Gillom (Ron Howard) utterly worships and idolizes Books. The movie is ably directed by Don Siegel, who lets the story's pathos speak for itself without indulging in sentimentality or pity. The score by Elmer Bernstein is similarly discreet in this regard. J.B. Books wouldn't have had it any other way, and neither would Wayne.
Days of Heaven - Directed by Terrence Malick, this one is really quite gorgeous and affecting, a true visual feast. At the same time it's rather hard to put one's finger on in terms of its effect. The year is 1916, and young Chicago couple Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) travel to Texas in search of work and a fresh start, accompanied by Bill's little sister Linda (Linda Manz). They find work as seasonal workers on a farm whose owner (Sam Shepard making his film debut) is dying of an unspecified illness. Bill persuades Abby to marry the farmer in order to inherit his money, but things don't really go quite as planned.
Lone Star - A very intricate slice-of-life neo-Western murder mystery from John Sayles, set in a South Texas border town with a history of racial strife and tensions between whites, blacks and Mexicans, this is extremely intelligent and engrossing viewing. Human remains are discovered in the present day, along with a Masonic ring and a sheriff's badge, and they would appear to be those of former sheriff Charlie Wade, who mysteriously disappeared in 1957. A brutal, corrupt and despised lawman back in the day (played by Kris Kristofferson with atypically malevolent relish in skillfully interwoven flashback sequences), Wade's disappearance was considered a blessing. Chris Cooper plays the present-day sheriff, Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper), the son of a legendary sheriff who was one of Wade's deputies back in the day (also played in flashbacks by Matthew McConaughey). Other important characters include a widowed schoolteacher named Pilar (Elizabeth Peña), Otis Payne, the black owner of a local saloon (Ron Canada) and his estranged son Delmore (Joe Morton), who is now a colonel stationed at a local army base. Mind you, these are only some of the characters! It's a very intricate and involved storyline, but all the characters' lives and story threads converge at some point. Very well-written and thought-provoking in the way it deals with the issue of race relations, and certainly not preachy at all.
Bound - The sexy crime thriller that put the Wachowski siblings on the map three years before The Matrix! Starring Gina Gershon as tough ex-con Corky, who gets romantically involved with Violet (Jennifer Tilly), the wife of local gangster Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). The two women hatch an intricate scheme to steal $2 million from the mob and run away together, but things don't go quite so smoothly. Also features an early role for future Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Christopher Meloni, portraying ill-tempered gangster Johnnie Marzzone, who delivers the funniest death-by-gunshot performance of all time. No lie!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Terry Gilliam's blackly comic adaptation of Hunter Thompson's 1971 novel, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. I've seen it once or twice many years ago, but I have yet to pop this new Criterion 4K edition into my player. I do remember liking it a lot, in particular an early "lizard hallucination" sequence!
Ride with the Devil - A very unconventional Civil War drama directed by Ang Lee and starring Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel and Jeffrey Wright. This is the story of a group of Missouri Irregulars known as the Bushwhackers, who fought as guerrilla fighters against the Kansas Jayhawkers during the Civil War. (If you remember the 1976 Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, you'll remember that the title character fought with the Bushwhackers in order to avenge his family's brutal murder at the hands of the Jayhawks.) Very affecting and very violent at times, particularly the raid on the town of Lawrence, Kansas, less the typical sacking of a Western town than like the destruction of a village during the Vietnam War. Jeffrey Wright is a true standout in the role of Daniel Holt, a freed black man who is fighting alongside the Confederates. Like I said, a very unorthodox and distinctive take on familiar subject matter.
The Power of the Dog - A very unsettling and unnerving psychological drama in Western garb, directed by Jane Campion, based on a 1967 novel by Thomas Savage. The story centers around two cattle ranch-owning brothers named Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemons). George meets a widow and inn owner named Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) as well as her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who aspires to go to medical school. He falls in love with Rose and decides to marry her, but once she moves into the ranch house, Phil starts to make things unpleasant for Rose as well as Peter, whom the macho Phil mocks as being effeminate. In actuality, Phil's mockery conceals a secret, closeted inner life rooted in his relationship with his dead mentor and role model Bronco Henry. Eventually, Rose turns to drink and becomes emotionally unstable, to her son's distress. In an unexpected twist, Phil decides to befriend young Peter and become a mentor just as Bronco Henry was his, but the medically-minded Peter has secret plans of his own. Truly an incredible film, and deeply challenging to viewer stereotypes concerning masculinity and male sexuality.
Moonage Daydream - Perhaps one of the greatest documentary films made about any popular musician, but it's much more than a documentary. It really takes you into the mind and music and philosophy of David Bowie, taking the viewer on a kind of grand tour of his life and career. It uses Bowie's music, audio extracts from interviews, performance footage as well as specially-created animation to create an insightful, enlightening overview of the man's artistic contributions to our culture. David Robert Jones may no longer be with us in the flesh, but Bowie lives on, particularly vividly in this movie.
__________________
"Well, it's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid" - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)
"I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours" - Bob Dylan, Talkin' World War III Blues (1963)
"Well, it's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid" - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)
"I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours" - Bob Dylan, Talkin' World War III Blues (1963)
Last edited by Darth Pazuzu; 07-16-24 at 12:48 AM.
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Favorite Movies
[Bonnie and Clyde]
2nd Rewatch...This 1967 Best Picture nominee was star Warren Beatty's first venture as
a producer and no doubt director Arthur Penn's masterpiece. This look at the legendary bank robbing couple might not be completely factual but is gloriously entertaining thanks to a literate and adult screenplay that addresses issues we don't see coming, including Clyde Barrow's impotence, the violence is unapologetically bloody and the performances are nothing short of spectacular. Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J Pollard, and Estelle Parsons earned five of the ten Oscar nominations that the film earned and Parsons won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Love that first getaway scene with a hysterical Blanche running around screaming and when the gang take the Texas Ranger (Denver Pyle) hostage and pose him for pictures. This film also marked the film debut of Dunaway (who is superb) and a young actor by the name of Gene Wilder.
2nd Rewatch...This 1967 Best Picture nominee was star Warren Beatty's first venture as
a producer and no doubt director Arthur Penn's masterpiece. This look at the legendary bank robbing couple might not be completely factual but is gloriously entertaining thanks to a literate and adult screenplay that addresses issues we don't see coming, including Clyde Barrow's impotence, the violence is unapologetically bloody and the performances are nothing short of spectacular. Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J Pollard, and Estelle Parsons earned five of the ten Oscar nominations that the film earned and Parsons won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Love that first getaway scene with a hysterical Blanche running around screaming and when the gang take the Texas Ranger (Denver Pyle) hostage and pose him for pictures. This film also marked the film debut of Dunaway (who is superb) and a young actor by the name of Gene Wilder.
It's a landmark film. There had never been anything quite like it: the music, the story, the acting. To me it was really two stories, what with the first part being a riotous comedy, and the second part being a shocking tragedy. Despite its filming method, I think it still holds up well today.
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I loved this picture. In '67 my wife and I lived in NYC. A good friend had seen the movie and invited us to go along with him on his nickel to see it again.
It's a landmark film. There had never been anything quite like it: the music, the story, the acting. To me it was really two stories, what with the first part being a riotous comedy, and the second part being a shocking tragedy. Despite its filming method, I think it still holds up well today.
It's a landmark film. There had never been anything quite like it: the music, the story, the acting. To me it was really two stories, what with the first part being a riotous comedy, and the second part being a shocking tragedy. Despite its filming method, I think it still holds up well today.
I also wouldn’t call it’s ending tragic, as I doubt many people were sad or depressed to see B&C die, even if their deaths were graphic and perhaps avoidable had they been given a chance to surrender.
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i loved it and really enjoyed it and amazing cast and amazing soundtrack , loved the casting
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^^^^^
Finished up my previous post!
However... there is yet a further development. Just recently ordered on Amazon and received in the mail today is:
Day of Anger (Tonino Valerii / 1967)
A very entertaining Italian Western teaming up the great Lee Van Cleef with Giuliano Gemma (star of Duccio Tessari's Ringo diptych). And it's really quite the "worm turns" sort of tale! Gemma portrays an outcast and menial laborer named Scott Mary in the town of Clifton, Arizona, persecuted and picked on by the unpleasant townsfolk. He meets with a sinister gunfighter named Frank Talby (played by Van Cleef) who has his own particular bone to pick with certain powerful individuals in the town. Talby becomes a mentor and teaches Scott the ways of the gun, schooling him with a set of rules to live by. Scott eventually becomes Talby's junior partner when the older gunman skillfully takes over the town of Clifton, but he finds he may end up having to confront Talby himself and perhaps do a bit of schooling of his own.
It actually sort of reminds me of Fight Club in a bizarre way. Talby's set of rules very much reminds one of the eight rules of Fight Club. In addition, the story premises of both movies seem strongly influenced by the whole Buddhist philosophy related to the necessity of metaphorically "killing" one's mentors and teachers and parent figures in order to evolve into a fully integrated human being. (Listen to one of the commentary tracks of the Fight Club Blu-ray disc for further details.) The main difference, of course, is that Scott and Frank are discrete and separate characters.
Finished up my previous post!
However... there is yet a further development. Just recently ordered on Amazon and received in the mail today is:
Day of Anger (Tonino Valerii / 1967)
A very entertaining Italian Western teaming up the great Lee Van Cleef with Giuliano Gemma (star of Duccio Tessari's Ringo diptych). And it's really quite the "worm turns" sort of tale! Gemma portrays an outcast and menial laborer named Scott Mary in the town of Clifton, Arizona, persecuted and picked on by the unpleasant townsfolk. He meets with a sinister gunfighter named Frank Talby (played by Van Cleef) who has his own particular bone to pick with certain powerful individuals in the town. Talby becomes a mentor and teaches Scott the ways of the gun, schooling him with a set of rules to live by. Scott eventually becomes Talby's junior partner when the older gunman skillfully takes over the town of Clifton, but he finds he may end up having to confront Talby himself and perhaps do a bit of schooling of his own.
It actually sort of reminds me of Fight Club in a bizarre way. Talby's set of rules very much reminds one of the eight rules of Fight Club. In addition, the story premises of both movies seem strongly influenced by the whole Buddhist philosophy related to the necessity of metaphorically "killing" one's mentors and teachers and parent figures in order to evolve into a fully integrated human being. (Listen to one of the commentary tracks of the Fight Club Blu-ray disc for further details.) The main difference, of course, is that Scott and Frank are discrete and separate characters.
Last edited by Darth Pazuzu; 07-16-24 at 01:40 AM.
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Favorite Movies
Moonage Daydream - Perhaps one of the greatest documentary films made about any popular musician, but it's much more than a documentary. It really takes you into the mind and music and philosophy of David Bowie, taking the viewer on a kind of grand tour of his life and career. It uses Bowie's music, audio extracts from interviews, performance footage as well as specially-created animation to create an insightful, enlightening overview of the man's artistic contributions to our culture. David Robert Jones may no longer be with us in the flesh, but Bowie lives on, particularly vividly in this movie.
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Remember - everything has an ending except hope, and sausages - they have two.
Latest Review : Double Down (2005)
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User Lists
5/10 – “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” – Just watched it last night and honestly, it was pretty average. The storyline felt kind of predictable, and I wasn’t super impressed with the acting. If you’re just looking for something to pass the time, it’s fine, but I wouldn’t rush to see it again.
I don't know if there was any moral in the 3 distinct stories but I didn't get it.
The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024) This film doesn't know what it wants to be. Not whimsical or magical enough to work as a fun fantasy, but not as edgy or smart enough to pull off the attempts at satire or social commentary. It isn't very funny and only mildly romantic, so it is at best a mediocre romantic comedy. The film makes some major generalizations and assumptions, but doesn't back them up and loses the audience along the way. Justice Smith does a decent job with the role, but the writing really hinders me and the rest of the cast. With better writing and clearer, sharper direction, this could have been good. As is, it is a bit of a muddle, unfunny mess.
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Favorite Movies
Sing Sing
Sing Sing definitely isn't Jailhouse Rock - but it's still uplifting.
Colman Domingo might as well start rehearsing an acceptance speech, as he's all but certain to get plenty of nominations come awards season. But the supporting cast - many of whom are actual former inmates - also does a really good job.
The film takes a look at the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison, specifically at a group of inmates putting together stage productions.
Putting on a show helps the prisoners relieve the boredom and tedium of their everyday routine, and they are willing to do anything from Shakespeare to time-travel adventures. Maybe even a combination of all of that!
You can bet there will be nominations come award season.