I watched Furiosa in imax tonight:
lboxd review
In better news, I recently rewatched Network. Happy to report it remains a brilliant piece of cinema.
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Furiosa rules.
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I kind of forgot that the National Film Board of Canada has their entire collection online for free, so having run into it again I’ve been spinning the short documentary roulette whenever the mood strikes me.
It’s a mixed bag, but the 70s docs have a real particular vibe that’s been hitting just right lately. Tonight was an almost aggressively folksy 1973 piece about a sculptor living in rural Saskatchewan, making lil’ cows and waitresses and whatnot. Hell yeah.
I dug up the YouTube copy of this because I was thinking of embedding it, and YouTube autoplay decided that a free copy of Osmosis Jones was the right chaser for this. Can’t say I particularly agree.
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Felt the same. Rewatched Fury Road over the holiday and that is still an absolute masterpiece.
My short review: Not enough Furiousa to be named after her, she doesn’t do or say anything and her “journey” is just a train of trauma porn. Too many plot lines being juggled, too literal plot spoonfed out as if all the complaints about Fury Road “not having a story/being confusing” were taken to heart instead of ignored/thrown in the garbage. Cool world building but again, a lot of it felt unnecessary/spoonfed/literal (do we really need to see/spend so much time in Gastown or Bulletfarm? Did that actually add anything?). I enjoyed the MEDIOCRE CGI, fits the B movie/grindhouse aesthetic real well. I did not enjoy the huge step back in color grading and art direction; Fury Road is a gorgeous mix of all sorts of colors and this was very washed out in a modern blockbuster sort of way. Hamsworth chewed the scenes real well but it felt like his movie, not Fuiousa’s. Really felt like it was a story about his character that Furiosa was shoe horned into after Charlize’s performance stole the show in FR. Also her love interest being a soft sensitive Han Solo type was way too cliche and eye rolly. A very good action movie, no masterpiece. God I hope he gets to make more (signs don’t look good).
I’m looking for some recommendations for science-fiction movies. Watched the original The Planet of the Apes the other night and enjoyed it a lot. I guess my other favourites are Johnny Mnemonic and Brainstorm (which I watched based on @Moon 's recommendation), if that helps. I like to watch them at night when I can’t sleep, so preferably ones that aren’t too creepy or scary.
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I thought Furiosa was pretty good. I enjoyed the long drawn out sequences. My bud said it was very western like which I agreed. My only note is it should have come out sooner so you can double feature two desert movies with Dune/Furiosa.
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for older ones, alphaville and seconds might work. alphaville is a sci-fi noir directed by godard, i don’t love it but it’s interesting to watch. seconds is a rock hudson vehicle where he plays a man who’s transplanted into another body and has some fun subtext, it’s a little more on the creepy side but i didn’t really find it particularly scary.
newer ones i might say… ghost in the shell 2: innocence if you haven’t seen that one, i think it rocks and has some really cool setpieces. if you haven’t seen the original then that one too, but i figure most people on this forum have already watched it! also city of lost children, which is stretching it a little - it’s more surreal science-fantasy than sci-fi - but i really like that movie, it’s got some crazy set design and a very good ron perlman performance. it’s made by the same guys who did alien resurrection and has a lot of the same tonal stuff, a sort of quirky/weird french sci-fi flavor. similarly, their first movie delicatessen is a fun one, though it doesn’t have as much of a sci-fi feel.
edit: also strange days!
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Doesn’t fit with watching to fall asleep but for anyone who hasn’t heard, a restoration of this is getting rereleased to theaters at the end of the month. Should be pretty cool
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I will note that nothing is too obvious for me not to have seen it. For example I haven’t seen Ghost in the Shell.
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I don’t know if it’s available in your country, but: ABOUT | JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE 2024 | JFF+
It will be available until July, I think, so there you have it.
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- Blade Runner (prime sleeptytime cinema)
- Ghost in the Shell and Innocence (double prime sleepytime)
- Stalker (if horse tranquilizer were a movie)
no particular order:
- Solaris (1972) and Solaris (2002) if you want
- Avalon (2001)
- The Animatrix
- Metropolis (you can watch this with the sound off)
- La jetée
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Patlabor and Patlabor 2
- Memories (1995)
- Paprika
- Strange Days
- A Scanner Darkly
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Solaris.
Edit: saw Captain’s recommendations after writing mine. So consider this a strong “seconded.”
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12 Monkeys, Brazil, Moon, The Man From Earth, Ex Machina; all more psychological/philosophical than action-y.
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Nice tip! It even has subtitles for my country’s language. Hooray!
All of these are pretty popular/obvious but:
Maybe the most obvious rec but 2001: A Space Odyssey
I’ll second the recs for La Jetee and Ghost in the Shell
Melancholia is excellent but light on the sci-fi
I really like Ted Chiang’s writing and thought Arrival was pretty great.
I’ll throw out Blade Runner 2049 just because it hasn’t been mentioned even though the original has. I think it’s much better than Blade Runner, which I would say is an unpopular opinion until I realized that everyone I know irl agrees with that stance.
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heres a non-obvious one
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Well, I recently watched The Black Phone and Late Night with the Devil. Post-Stranger Things horror movies can’t help but be extremely influenced by it, and are here to stay ig. Both unmemorable other than a few neat visuals
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Catching up on the… Gaagaagiins Work Watch Movie Review Revue
Most of Cloverfield (2008) that I glanced over at here and there while doing other stuff
I don’t know if that movie would hit in the same way as it did when I saw it in theatres, but that movie seems like it’s good for what it was. Let’s call it a well executed on movie which is probably pretty cool. I dunno I wasn’t watching that closely
I Love You, Man (2009)
This is not the first time this has happened to me but this is one of those movie watches where I get to hear a line that I had heard in the past repeated ad nauseum by white boys, without knowing where it was from. This movie really fucking sucks. It’s just goddamned sordid how mirthless and artless these mainstream comedies can be, holy moley. I cannot believe that this must have played as a shock comedy at some point. Spiritually empty movie
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) with the volume down really low
Still fuckin rips, but I still think the score mostly sucks. They need to make a cut of Mad Max: Fury Road with a speed metal/NWOBHM/thrash soundtrack
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I haven’t watched much lately but I watched Unbreakable with my girlfriend for the first time since I saw it in the cinema as she hadn’t seen it. I didn’t really expect it to hold up but it did and I enjoyed the low key sinister undertone more than I did as a kid. Nice to watch some “comic book” movies without a whole load of nonsense too. Cool film.
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while not exactly hitting those notes, might I suggest Grimy Ghost! Presets: Fury Road (v2):
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