2018 Cinema--Leave comic book movies to childish minds

First film of 2018 for me, "Good Time", directed by the Safdie brothers.

A character and crime drama, starring Robert Pattison, with some excellent supporting players (some of whom are non-actors).

Not as good as I'd been led to believe but the pacing is terrific and the movie believable and gripping.

My first film post of 2018. I'm hoping I won't need to write as many of these as last year, as I'll be doing other things this year - mostly reading and writing... https://iansales.com/2018/01/08/moving-pictures-2018-1/

>2 iansales: agree with your take on The Last Jedi, I have Suntan on my netflix list and will watch it sooner now - thanks for the heads up.

Watched on excellent documentary about the relationship between Aldous Huxley and his second wife, Laura.

"Huxley on Huxley", directed by Mary Ann Braubach.

Huxley must have been quite the man to attract TWO intelligent, wise women as companions in his life (his first wife died of cancer).

Three Outlaw Samurai by Hideo Gosha. The movie is the origin story for a Japanese TV show, and what a fun movie it is. Full of action from the very beginning and following a tightly constructed plot. Very straightforward, without pretensions other than entertain and it does that very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-yHW3drgs4

Sword of Doom by Kihachi Okamoto. The story of a sociopath samurai, this move has different aspirations. The plot is made of story lines that are interrupted and unfulfilled. This is clearly done on purpose and the effect is interesting. Final battle is satisfyingly bloody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXPsRiRPEw

Ben Wheatley's "Free Fire" tonight.

An arms deal goes awry and an extended shootout results.

Mildly entertaining and well-photographed but the weakest effort thus far from an extraordinarily talented director.

How come horror movies can't get any respect?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/movies/get-out-the-shape-of-water-horror-osca...

Like Someone in Love by Abbas Kiarostami. A little masterpiece and an unexpected surprise. "In Tokyo, a young sex worker develops an unexpected connection with a widower over a period of two days." Sounds tacky or maudlin but this is really a minimalist study about people going through the motions of being in love. And that ending is unforgettable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0cykyKMvE0

"Life" tonight, yet another science fiction movie with horror overtones.

The special effects are superior but the story just too unbelievable right from the beginning. There are all these protocols on the space station to keep alien life from Earth, yet no sterilization takes place when the alien shows signs of developing into higher life. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

> It's also a complete rip-off of Alien.

>10 iansales: Given that Alien is a complete ripoff of an earlier movie itself, eh.

11 You must mean "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" and, believe me, I've seen both films and that "Alien" comparison is a bit of a stretch.

It's actually Planet of the Vampires (1965) that it stole a ton from.

Wasn't there a Van Vogt story that was also, allegedly, source material for "Alien"?

"Black Destroyer", that was the one (thanks Google).

Lolol I like that "allegedly," as though it's simply not possible. There was a whole long article about it in a cinema magazine here around the time the latest one was coming out, complete with images, which I'm sure you can find online as well. Many pieces of it are incredibly blatantly stolen from it. But because it's a cheesy low-budget B-movie and practically no one knows it, he got away with it.

Didn't someone once say that genius was just an infinite capacity for stealing the best bits?

And there are common tropes to genres and all sorts of random similarities that can happen in an infinite, expanding universe.

I think sometimes companies settle with folks just to avoid legal hassles. Cheaper for them in the long run.

Just because a film or book features time travel doesn't mean the H.G. Wells estate is entitled to royalties...

>13 .Monkey.: Looking at the plot summary on Wikipedia, there's not that much it stole. Alien is basically a monster on the loose in space movie, but there's been a string of them going all the way back.

Watched Ernst Lubitsch's "To Be Or Not To Be" (1942), with Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.

A troubling combination of humor and drama, unevenly paced, and I don't see it as the classic movie others do.

Some nice moments but it just didn't hang together.

You guys I was at the Red Cross doing a platelet donation and I watched Pan’s Labyrinth for the first time. Wow! What an incredible movie! One thing that struck me was how much the child looked like her mother. The casting was truly tremendous. Also fascism is strangely on my mind recently, and the movie inspired me to finally commit to reading Homage to Catalonia this year.

Pan's Labyrinth is brilliant. His new one, The Shape of Water, is supposed to be really good too.

#13--I rounded up a copy of "Planet of the Vampires", just to see for myself if there were unmistakeable hints of "Alien".

Frankly, I saw only a few minor snippets that MIGHT have "Alien" overtones.

It's a "C" class movie, a quickie by Mario Bava.

Pretty inconsequential.

Watched Jordan Peele's "Get Out".

About 3/4 of a neat thriller, then it takes a steep dive into unbelievability and never really recovers.

Worth a look but wait for the letdown.

>23 CliffBurns: I did think wacking the grandparents redeemed it somewhat.

"Get Out" definitely had its moments but it really wasn't that hard to peel apart the onion and figure out what was going on.

And that sudden crash into unbelievability is jarring...

I know this is a cinema thread but no-one seems to mention what television they are watching. This seems a little odd as it is difficult to argue that television hasn't taken over from film as the dominant medium over the last few years.

Do we need a new thread or should this thread also encompass television?

(For the record I just finished watching Legion, probably the most inventive series I've seen in years. Hard to believe it is actually a Marvel franchise).

>26 Jargoneer:, why not? Noting that we've rarely specified by what means these movies have been viewed (often Netflix, I'd guess). I would also incidentally guess that the cable companies are fast becoming dinosaurs, not that that encompasses everything we mean by "television" now.

>26 Jargoneer: Yes, I watch far more series than movies these days especially since cutting the cord. Looking forward to season 2 of Westworld and have belatedly binged the 3 seasons of The Leftovers. Both series blew me away although for different reasons.

In-teresting new film-related book about the Nazis' influence in Hollywood:

https://www.popmatters.com/hitler-los-angeles-steven-j-ross-2532169325.html

Finished listening to a wonderful documentary on the life and work of producer Val Lewton. Wrote about it briefly on my film blog but you can find the entire series here:

https://www.attaboyclarence.com/the-secret-history-of-hollywood/31/5/2017/shadow...

I got a 2 for one at redbox and saw Atomic Blonde ....don't bother.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2406566/

A cult film from the 1970s tonight, Michael Ritchie's "Prime Cut".

Only so-so, despite the presence of two great actors, Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman.

>31 DugsBooks: I was less than impressed with that too.

>31 DugsBooks: - when I saw that title and a couple of stills I thought it was a biopic of Debbie Harry.

>30 CliffBurns: - that is a really interesting site. Lots of good stuff on it.

I finally got round to watching Doctor Strange, partly on the advice of a successful Scottish writer who I couldn't imagine anything like a superhero film. It was OK, a good cast swamped by effects. Why does every superhero film have to deal with the end of the world/universe/mult-verse? Why can't they just a save a cat in a tree? It would force them to spend more than 10 minutes on a script.
One thing that did bother me about the film was that a significant portion of it was set in Hong Kong yet there were few Asian actors. I kept wondering why the people in the temple were mainly black or white. (Obviously this is primarily due to being filmed in South Africa but they could have made a little effort).

>34 Jargoneer: That was my final complaint (of many) about 'Wonder Woman'; "Oh no, it's ANOTHER battle between Ultimate Good and Ultimate Evil."

Watching The Wind Will Carry Us on you-tube last night was a weird experience. I missed an important detail and part of the plot was very unclear to me until I read the reviews today. (Seems it was unclear to the New York Times reviewer too.) In any case a film crew goes to a village in Tehran to film a funeral and spends the whole film waiting for a woman to die. It is a bit of Waiting for Godot kind of situation. Very minimalist. A lot of withholding. Really tests your patience, and I kind of resent that. The imagery is gorgeous though, and some moments are very lyrical. There is intelligence directing the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq1gXC3119A

Watched Edgar Wright's "Baby Driver" recently.

Feh.

Car chases and a plot so formulaic and familiar it creaked.

A good cast wasted (how many times have I said that?). Only redeeming feature, the snappy, rhythmic editing.

Watched Vampir Cuadecuc... and went and bought a box set by the director on eBay...

Watched The Devil's Backbone by Guillermo del Toro. He says in the DVD that it is a companion piece to Pan's Labyrinth. It's more like a proto Labyrinth. A ghost story set towards the end of the Spanish Civil War. The more interesting part is the premise. A lot of sloppy poorly thought out scenes, and situations that are just not credible even within that fantasy context. Some fine performances and a gorgeous sunny landscape though.

>39 mejix: Agreed. I saw The Devil's Backbone a few years ago and felt it was a journeyman work compared to Pan's Labyrinth, which I re-watched just this weekend past (and am still in awe of). I'm hoping that with 'The Shape of Water', del Toro has finally returned to form.

>40 RobertDay: I wasn't aware of the film until I read an article that said The Shape of Water wasn't as good as Pan's Labyrinth or Devil's Backbone. I do hope it is better than Devil's Backbone though.

Watched The Stanford Prison Experiment on Netflix this week. I think they dramatized it beyond what the 1971 reality was to make it hit a bit harder but, wow, for a movie where you're basically just watching a psychology experiment play out, it worked.

I saw The Stanford Prison Experiment after having seen Das Experiment. It makes an interesting comparison.

I watched part of the Oscar's and Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water really hauled in the gold. I have not seen it yet but I was really impressed with Pan's Labyrinth and confused when others did not think it was great.

I saw Dunkirk a while back on Blu Ray and liked the flick but was a little confused {again!} with the lack of a "conclusion" which tied everything up - then I read that was an objective of the director. I did not think it would have garnered so many award nominations as it did, anyone from over the big puddle see the flick and was impressed with it?

::edit:: The cinematography was great and using real WWII planes in the battle segments were much better than efforts using substitutes!

I saw 'Dunkirk' recently, but on an ordinary cinema screen. I gather that one needs to go to an IMAX cinema to get the full effect. Like you I was impressed by the cinematography and I liked Nolan's non-reliance on CGI.

I really hated Hans Zimmer's score however which I found very monotonous and ceaselessly loud!

Over here in the UK critics have noted that it is not really an actor's movie and the awards it has picked up have largely been for things like sound effects.

I appreciated that what it does is to pitch the viewer into the experience alongside the soldiers desperately trying to escape, and that what it depicts is a frantic bid for survival at any cost. However I did miss the element of characterisation and was grateful for the sequences featuring Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh who brought the feeling of more rounded characters to the film. Having said that I thought that the melodramatic goings-on on Rylance's boat were a bit much; surely the events were dramatic enough without that. I am glad to have seen it and a lot of it did impress me.

Viewed "Land of Mine" last night, a Danish film about young German soldiers forced to remove thousands of land mines after the end of World War II.

Gripping and hard to watch at times but a worthy film about war and its aftermath.

Saw Raul Ruiz's adaption of Time Regained by Proust. Like all Ruiz's movies I'm not sure how I feel about it. I appreciate his boldness, and how he combines elegance and absurdity. I love all the choreography, and the flow of the scenes. But then it some times feels like too much style and not so much substance. In this case it was a good match for the text, and it was a pleasure to see this environment recreated. Loved that Ruiz wasn't intimidated by Proust and did something completely original. The movie is about 3hrs and I liked about 2 of them. Not bad.

Watched an oldie and not especially a goodie: John Carpenter's "They Live".

Saw it when it first came out (1982?) and reviewed it for a university weekly publication (panning it).

Not much has changed except i see why Slavoj Zizek uses the film to illustrate the pervasive, invisible influences of ideology on every moment of our waking lives.

Silly, but not without interest.

>48 CliffBurns: Nonetheless, the "hidden" slogans have acquired a certain mimetic currency, so much so that I was able to bring an online discussion about "how everyone has a mobile phone these days" to a shuddering halt (and collapse of stout party) by posting "Buy. Consume. Obey. Conform."

And Joe Straczynski popped similar improving slogans into Psi Corps HQ in one episode of 'Babylon 5'.

2001: A Space Odyssey" returns to theatres in 70mm

I saw the original, this should be very good at the theaters.

"Before the Flood" has come to Netflix with its ticking clock, despairing note about our environment. It does end on a slightly upbeat note in the final interview with Obama ... but then you remember who comes to the White House next, which has changed the ending's tone.

Well it has been a while since people have talked about film in this thread!

I am not much of a film buff, but every couple of months I spend my Saturday morning at the Red Cross donating platelets in memory of a friend. Since the process takes about the same amount of time as a feature film, they set us up to watch a dvd while hooked up to the apheresis machine. (Ok I just reread the thread and I see I mentioned this before when I saw Pan’s Labyrinth in Feb. oh well.)

Last time (late March) I watched “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” which was mostly a charming, cute old movie but for Mickey Rooney’s horrendous caricature of a Japanese guy. (Not being a film buff I had no clue this was in there and it was really jarring.)

Today, I watched a 1997 Aronovsky film called “Pi” (actually the character not the word) about a mathematician trying to use a computer to find the underlying number to the universal pattern that would allow him to predict stock prices. It was filmed in grainy b/w and it was pretty intense and interesting. Anyone here familiar with it?

Loved "Pi", a real sleeper. Nothing else he's done has been as good or compelling.

I urge anyone who loves good cinema to see "Killing of a Sacred Deer". Bizarre and fascinating. Currently on Netflix...

>52 anna_in_pdx: I thought the idiosyncratic recurring routines of an addictive habit were really accentuated by the repeated scenes in the movie - the snap of a pill bottle opening , shaking, and swallowing sounds with the accompanying montage of "sharp focused" visual scenes . That is what I remember most about the movie

Finished watching The Epic That Never Was a documentary on a 1937 film version of the Robert Graves novel, that was never completed. The film was directed by Josef von Sternberg and had Charles Laughton in the title role. Robert Graves was involved in the project. The set designs look spectacular and some of the scenes are impressive. Not a great documentary but it's a very interesting story.

The Epic That Never Was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUbt0sweIjI

Claudius becomes emperor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll0i6IDrbaA

I will shock you, haven't seen a movie yet in 2018! In general, I don't watch most TV or movies. But I love the Brit TV show Vera--an Irish female detective.

>56 Tess_W: Vera is set in Northumberland, which borders on Scotland. She's a Geordie and not Irish.

>>>>>>57 justifiedsinner:..........I've only seen 3 episodes, my friend told me she was Irish......and so Geordie is slang for Scottish?

>58 Tess_W: Geordies are people from Newcastle/Tyne and Wear, the north-east of England. Definitely not Scottish. And your friend was very wrong. Entirely the wrong sovereign nation.

>58 Tess_W: No, Geordie refers to people from the North-East of England, more specifically the citizens of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the lower Tyne valley. The term most probably comes from the support shown by the people of Newcastle for King George II during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.

I've not seen Vera, but I suspect that her accent is quite minimal compared to the real thing. The term is also applied to the local dialect, which has a lot of Nordic loan words and which is almost unintelligible to anyone from south of Darlington.

>59 iansales:
>60 RobertDay:

Vera is a brash, red-headed, overweight, detective. She sort of reminds me of a female Coloumbo. As as American, I don't know what the accent should sound like......but I have to listen very hard to make sure I get everything; and several times I've had to ask the hubby, 'what did she say?"

>61 Tess_W: They have moderated it a lot excluding phrases like "Wey aye, man. I'm gan yem" (Yes, I'm going home).

>62 justifiedsinner: Or "divven dunchus"

I watch a lot of mysteries from across the pond with the subtitles on. It really helps this Yank.

Film pirates have always been with us:

https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/how-1960s-film-pirates-sold-movies-before-the-fb...

>64 anna_in_pdx: If you haven't seen Vera (subtitled or not) it's worth a look and the scenery is spectacular. Brenda Blethyn who plays Vera is a gem, she's worked a lot with Mike Leigh. I recently saw a young Brenda (well, less middle-aged) in an old Maigret episode. The Gambon Maigret not the atrocious Rowan Atkinson version.

>64 anna_in_pdx: You'll never manage Taggart then

Watched The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro this weekend. Awful. Like The Devil's Backbone poorly thought out and sloppy plot. Neither allegorical or realistic, just syrupy and patronizing. Full of racial issues that just make you cringe.

>68 mejix: And very misogynistic

>68 mejix: >69 iansales: Weird I thought the opposite. Misogynistic as a reflection of the culture of the setting and was allegorical in that alienated people from society find each other. Probably some plot holes in the flick but I bought into the story and didn't have any problems with realism since it was SF.

>70 DugsBooks: I thought the misogynism much stronger than could be attributed to it being set in the 1950s. I mean, check out pretty much any Hollywood movie made in that decade for comparison.

>71 iansales:. I have to admit I was not looking for misogynism in the flick and think that maybe the racial prejudice that was shown {which was prevalent at the time} kind of overshadowed that - many of the women were minorities.

.....and racial prejudice in the 50’s movies was usually shown by stereotyping and caricatures in my {admittedly foggy} memory and not as more realistically portrayed in Shape of Water

>70 DugsBooks: They got the creature out using the ol' laundry cart trick. I'm sure there are more creative solutions.

Paul Schrader's Mishima; a life in four chapters has just been re-released in a new Blu-Ray transfer and (much more importantly) finally released in a Region 2/B version in the UK. Many will instantly recognise the Philip Glass score.

I have posted a review which may be found behind the touchstone; I have also cross-posted to my reviews blog, https://deepwatersreading.wordpress.com/2018/07/03/mishima-a-life-in-four-chapte...

Schrader's a fascinating guy--good on you for plugging his work.

>74 RobertDay: Thought that film excellent when I watched it a month or two ago.

Watched The Man Who Fell to Earth. Doesn't really hold up anymore. Laughably bad in some places.

Let me strongly recommend a cool, little psychological thriller currently playing on Netflix.

"Kaleidoscope", written and directed by Rupert Jones, is a mental maze, the tale of an enigmatic nobody whose hold on reality is increasingly tenuous. Toby Jones, the director's brother, stars and adds another great, under-stated performance to his C.V.

Here's a piece from PopMatters on the film:

https://www.popmatters.com/forget-and-transform-yourself-director-rupert-jones-o...

Saw Phantom Thread by Paul Thomas Anderson about the relation between a fashion designer and one of his models. Anderson's movies tend to be grand and panoramic. This one is very intimate and minimalist. I wasn't terribly convinced by the ending and thought it could have been shorter. Still it was gorgeous to watch. The direction was masterful and what a performance by Daniel Day Lewis!

I also saw Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino about the romantic relationship between a 17-year-old kid and a 24-year-old graduate-student in 80's Italy. Perhaps a bit over aestheticized but overall a very good film. Moving ending. Brilliant use of Sufjan Steven's music.

Saw two Luis Bunuel flicks on the big screen in Saskatoon this weekend (full disclosure: it's how we celebrated our 28th anniversary).

The newly remastered version of "Belle de Jour" and "Viridiana".

Afterwards, during the drive home, we talked about the latter far more than its celebrated counterpart.

In-teresting...

I saw “Red Sparrow” on dvd blue ray and found it interesting. Big hurdles to overcome for the “suspension of disbelief” ; title character’s dancing as a ballerina, Russians speaking English, and the spy vs spy tradecraft portrayed.

After all that it I would grade it an ok weekend movie with the nudity and violence forewarnings taken into consideration.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2873282/

>81 DugsBooks: When you talk abut suspending disbelief and list "title character’s dancing as a ballerina", is the quality of her dancing that requires the suspension, or the idea of her having the time to be both a ballet dancer and a spy?

>82 RobertDay: Let me preface my answer with I know little about ballet,spycraft or speaking Russian but dance only occurs in the first couple of minutes of the film and it looked iffy to me - less no more than 3-4 minutes in entire movie. Her retiring from dance prompts her new career.

Interview with Jonathan Pryce:

https://www.avclub.com/jonathan-pryce-on-working-with-glenn-close-playing-bon-18...

Just watched "New Dark City," a 20 year old movie I never heard of, on a rec from my son because I like the actor who played the main Nazi character in the Man in the High Castle series. It was sort of a cross between The Matrix and Sin City. Very stylized noir / sci-fi.

Ad from AMC theaters USA below:

Muggles Welcome!

Grab your floo powder and get to an AMC Theatre, to see the entire Harry Potter series! Every Sunday, from 9/2 to 9/23, we’ll be showing two films.

The British "New Wave"...in cinema this time:

https://www.popmatters.com/woodfall-revolution-in-british-cinema-2598339864.html

(Thanks, Gord.)

One of my favorite character actors, Brian Dennehy, reminisces about some of the people he's worked with:

https://www.avclub.com/brian-dennehy-on-dicaprio-rambo-and-why-saoirse-ronan-182...

Watched "Bigger Than Life", an odd Nicholas Ray film, starring James Mason as a man forced to undergo experimental steroid therapy in order to save his life. The drug eventually drives the man into psychosis, endangering his entire family.

A promising beginning but the film got worse and more melodramatic as it progressed. The ending is particularly weak and smarmy.

NOT recommended.

"The Death of Stalin", directed by Armando Iannucci.

Brilliant sendup of the aftermath of Stalin's death--solid cast, especially Simon Russell Beale as Beria.

Excellent satire and quite historically accurate as well.

Recommended.

Cliff have you seen the 2016 Scorcese film Silence? Recommend? Thoughts?

I have not. I used to be a big fan of Marty's but fell away from him some years back. When he started to make stuff like "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator" or even before that, when he was rewashing the same old laundry in work like "Casino".

"Taxi Driver", "Mean Streets", "Goodfellas" are fine cinematic efforts.

I looked into "Silence" when it first came out--mighty grim stuff but at least you know it will be well shot.

Give it a shot and tell us what YOU think.

>90 CliffBurns: Not entirely accurate - Steve Buscemi's portrayal of Khrushchev as a joker is rather unlikely (Bob Hoskins' playing of a younger, wartime Khrushchev at Stalingrad in Jean-Jacques Annaud's 'Enemy at the Gates' is far closer to reality); and burning a body to ashes takes rather more than a couple of cans of petrol) but it certainly captures well the atmosphere of desperate urgency turning to high farce.

I was surprised by how dark "Death of Stalin" was--ridiculous comic exchanges followed by someone getting their brains blown out.

Unsettling but not, I think, unbelievable. Tambor as Malenkov was also over the top but...forgivable in a comic context.

Val Lewton's films--perfect for Hallowe'en:

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5998-a-flower-in-the-mud-val-lewton-s-is...

Mike Leigh's lesser known classics:

http://thequietus.com/articles/25608-mike-leigh-beyond-the-hits

Watched "Film Worker" last night, a documentary about Leon Vitali, who gave up a promising acting career to work as Stanley Kubrick's right hand man.

Excellent and definitely recommended.

"Icarus" last night and "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" the night before, both on Netflix.

The former is a documentary about the whistleblower behind Russia's infamous doping system, the latter a smart homage to Orson Welles, interview footage combined with excerpts from his films, including "The Other Side of the Wind".

Two highly recommended documentaries.

Oh cool. I was curious about the Orson Welles doc. Thanks!

Criterion Channel to launch:

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6044-new-independent-criterion-channel-t...

>100 Harry_Vincent:
Awesome, that is great news!

>100 Harry_Vincent: dittos

Watched The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a collection of short stories by the Coen Bros for Netflix. A couple of the stories were great but most are meh. The telling itself though is always of the highest order. Gorgeous settings and gorgeous compositions. Very very enjoyable.

>101 mejix: Thanks for the assessment of the Buster Scruggs work, I have it on my to be viewed list. I have been watching the USA version of Shameless of which there are 8 seasons on Netflix, I am into the 6th season. I like it much better than the original English version I watched several episodes of way back.

I don't mind the possibly "gratuitous" nudity parts incorporated into the USA version and I like that they are actually taking a sometimes serious effort to address social issues that can complicate life. The acting & writing is done to a very slick standard - above many home made Netflix shows IMOHO

Watched "Falling Down", a Michael Douglas film from the mid-90s.

Predictable, clunky, obvious, dull-witted.

About what you'd expect from a Joel Schumacher film.

Netflix is hosting the movie "Dune" from 1984. I'd never troubled to watch it before, but I did it this time. It's overloaded with voiceovers that try to explain everything, almost incomprehensible especially through its latter half, and unnecessarily gross (but given director David Lynch, I suppose it's to be expected). But it does have some great visuals: the guild navigators and sandworms were exactly as I wanted to see them, and Paul's kid sister is appropriately spooky. The baron's demise is one of the stupidest, laziest things I've seen on a big budget film, capped by that smug look on Paul's face; this sequence is almost a parody of itself.

>106 Cecrow: I always thought of Lynch's 'Dune' as a trailer for the film we ought to have had. The voiceovers were an attempt to depict the chapter-heading quotations, which (as I recollect - I'm overdue a re-read) incorporate a lot of info-dumps in the early chapters at least.

Interestingly, the tv version that Lynch disowned (which appeared under the "Alan Smithee" directorial by-line) included some footage that ended up on the cutting-room floor, including more of Pat Stewart's Gurney Halleck. It would be nice to think that at some point we could have a definitive cut of Lynch's film.

Lynch and DUNE were a mismatch from the start. And the movie was produced by that hack Dino DeLaurentis. A disaster waiting to happen. Terribly cast (Kenneth McMillan & Sting among the many bad decisions), the script a mess...won't be watching it again, on Netflix or anywhere else.

The SF Channel mini-series produced years later was far, far better.

In other cinema news...in early 2019, Sherron and I are going to view a 70mm print of "2001: A Space Odyssey" at an IMax theater.

It will be a thrill to see Kubrick's masterpiece on the big screen (I've seen it at least a dozen times but never the way it should be seen).

>108 CliffBurns:, just noticed we didn't record in our obits thread the recent passing of the voice behind HAL, Canadian actor Douglas Rain.

>109 Cecrow: Douglas Rain, voice of HAL 9000
https://www.librarything.com/topic/280176#6628137

It was supposed to be Martin Balsam as the voice for HAL but Kubrick thought his reading too emotional.

Rain's cool, dispassionate delivery was perfect (Kubrick originally heard Rain's voice in a National Film Board documentary that was part of his research for "2001").

I alluded to it in another thread, but there was a recent book on the making of "2001" that was about as close to definitive as you're gonna get:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Space-Odyssey/Michael-Benson/978150116393...

>108 CliffBurns: You have a treat in store. We saw an IMAX 70mm print of 2001 back in 2009 when it was on its 40th anniversary re-release. There was one shot that couldn't cope with being blown up to seven stories high (I won't tell you which one - see if you spot it), but the rest was perfect. And in a 40-year old film! Many of the early CGI extravaganzas ('Apollo 13' springs to mind) are beginning to look contrived even on a domestic 30" screen.

That showing is one of my two memorable viewings. The other was an outdoor viewing at a small stately home in Warwickshire, possibly the same year. We just got to the point where the shuttle is landing at Clavius base, and the Moon came out from behind a cloud bank across the park. That was a real spine-tingling moment.

Ah, Robert, those are wonderful anecdotes.

May my experience be just as fun and inspiring.

I can hardly wait.

I was an early fan of Dune, reread it many times and was eagerly awaiting the movie. Oh my, what a disappointment. The SF series was so much better

I still have the "Dune" SF Channel series on VHS. Don't even have a player any more. Sheesh.

Sherron and I watched "Quest For Fire" again tonight, first time in over 30 years for both of us.

Still packs a wallop and seems well-researched and credible (in most places). The overbearing soundtrack was a drag but the cinematography and settings were dazzling.

We watched an absolutely gripping thriller last night, Joaquin Phoenix in "You Were Never Really Here".

A troubled man makes it his life's work to rescue children in dangerous, predatory circumstances.

Phoenix and the rest of the cast are remarkable, the editing stellar, one of the best films we've seen this year.

HIGHLY recommended.

Saw Roma by Alfonso Cuaron on Netflix. A beautiful movie about growing up in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City in the 70's, and a tribute to his childhood maid Liboria Rodriguez. Some sections are overly stylized for my taste but the affection for the city and the main character is evident. Yalitza Aparicio, who plays the main character is not trained as an actress but does an amazing job. She has a sweet presence and is a joy to watch. The movie was particularly interesting to me, having lived in Mexico around that time before moving to PR. Reminded me of the time my neighbors' kids threw their maid from the roof while trying a karate move on her. Yikes.

I have "Roma" on my "To Watch" list.

A solid director and a personal project. Usually that's a winning combination.

I'm also keeping my eye out for "Capernaum", which is going to be amazing (I believe it's in theaters now):

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/capernaum-review.html

>188, holy moley, I hope the maid survived her fall?

Thanks for the heads up on Roma - also on my watch list.

On Hoopla {free!}I have the movie “Santa Sangre” by Jodorowsky {of El Topo and the great never made Dune movie} on my watch list. I have no idea what it is about but it has a NC-17 rating so it might be edgy. Ah I just looked the flick up and it appears to be a slasher movie. El Topo was good, might wait awhile on this one.

I wouldn't call Roma a masterpiece like some people are saying but very good. Definitely worth watching.

>120 Cecrow: I'm guessing that she did but only because that's the kind of thing one would remember. I was less than 5yrs old and don't remember much.

#121 "Sante Sangre" is a deeply fucked movie. My wife and I happened upon it while it was playing at a little art house theater in Vancouver years ago.

Seeing it on the big screen was worthwhile, but we both left the theater with our knees shaking.

Jodorowsky, man. Still would've loved seeing his take on "Dune".

Let me give a plug to a cool, little documentary we watched the other night, "Duane Michals: The Man Who Invented Himself".

Michals is an eccentric photographer from Pittsburgh who shoots a series of stills based on scenarios he invents. He often writes on his photos, thoughts and impressions that question the nature of reality and his place within it.

We found it fascinating, picked up our DVD copy through the library system.

Recommended.

Sherron and I popped in "Hereditary" last night, supposedly "The Exorcist" for this generation.

Um...no.

But there were some chilling moments--the ending went on too long and there were, in our view, some needlessly gory scenes.

Good acting, by Toni Collette and especially a young adult actor, Alex Wolff.

Recommended, but with some misgivings.

>125 CliffBurns: do you think "The Exorcist" itself was all that, though?

There was more believability to "The Exorcist", which made its impact stronger. And that cast! Jason Miller, Burstyn, von Sydow, Blair...cripes!

Plus William Friedkin, at the top of his form, directing.

Still the scariest movie ever made...and I don't even fucking BELIEVE in the devil or that supernatural horseshit.

The first third (especially) of "Hereditary" is marred by a really annoying, ominous soundtrack...which then proceeded to peter out, until the conclusion.

Intrusive soundtracks are a sign that someone didn't think said movies packed enough emotional punch.

To me, a bad soundtrack is the equivalent of canned laughter, cueing you to chuckle.

Edward G. Robinson in "Little Caesar" tonight. First time in 20+ years (found a cheap copy in a thrift store).

One of the early gangster films, circa 1930, and very stagy and dated. Robinson chews more furniture than a doberman pup.

Gimme "Public Enemy" and "Roaring Twenties" with Jimmy Cagney any day.

>128 CliffBurns: A lot of “chiaroscuro” in the flick? Those flicks really pop with the lighting and composition when the resolution is jacked up to what it was on the silver screen - about 480p or better on a tv/ computer screen I think. The difference between an old analogue tv rerun and a good digital rendition is like night & day to me {sorry about the pun}

I'd like to see a remastered print of "Little Caesar"--my copy was pretty bad.

Still, remastering does little to improve clunky staging and over-acting.

"Little Caesar" was a very early talkie, made in 1930. Later Warner crime films were much improved...

Yeah I might be confused with the noir late 40’s 50’s flicks

Light and dark, that brilliant shadowplay, is present in most of Val Lewton's oeuvre.

Are you familiar with his cinema?

After a search I see a couple of Lawton films I have viewed at one time or another - probably on late night cathode tube tv years ago.

I was thinking more along the lines of my fav movie of the era The Big Sleep. Here is a 1 minute clip from the film showing typical book store behavior we all encounter on shopping sprees. ;-)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3t8H07c30io

Watched Roberto Rossellini's "Paisan" last night.

Rossellini claimed to like "Paisan" more than "Open City" but I think he's full of it. "Paisan" had some enjoyable moments but the acting was only so-so and one of the episodes veers into mawkish sentimentality.

Recommended, but with reservations.

Also tried to get through Pasolini's "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom" but it was so unpleasant and unlikeable I gave up after about 40 minutes. I'll try something else by that director another time ("Salo" was his last film).

This one will DEFINITELY make my "Top Ten" list this year:

"Sorry To Bother You", a surreal, original look at the world of telemarketing, directed by Boots Riley.

Bizarre, hilarious, disturbing.

Do NOT miss out on this movie, it's dazzling.

>134 CliffBurns: Try Pasolini's Arabian Nights or Medea.

Tonight, we watched Joaquin Phoenix in "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot".

A biopic and I'm no fan of biopics. Phoenix is impressive but the film itself, directed by Gus Van Sant, is sentimental and unconvincing. Talky and overlong.

Not recommended.