okay now we’re fending off haters from the peanut gallery?
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Sorry there was just a lot of action on this thread and it pulled me in
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I did not like Past Lives either so, thank you from the bottom of my (very unmoved by that movie) heart.
I remember having more specific reasons why I didn’t like it but I watched it on a plane 6 months ago and don’t really remember other than it felt like bad MFA writing to me and also I felt like it (and maybe the screenwriter, eek!) had no idea what love was. I think this comment
is close to how I felt watching it. It’s like I could see all of the gears turning and the whole thing left me cold
Challengers slaps. It’s worthy of being a book called Boner
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It’s tine once again to celebrate the birth of one’s nation, tho my homeland’s birthday is the 4th (plus I also don’t feel like honoring such a dumpster fire) whereas today it’s the 1st, which happens to be the Great White North’s bd, hence why I’m showing…
Another, less obvious Canadian classic is also one that’s very much relevant to all the Gamers out there…
Third up is a bonafide indie darling, one that should also appeal to all the indie rock folk out there…
Last but not least is one of THE most famous SOVs to hail from America’s hat…
Stream will again be via the alt account, starting around 8PM-ish EST…
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looking forward to seeing if Longlegs will finally be the much hyped horror movie to justify the build up. Also noticed Oddity, the new film by the Caveat guy is out the same week. Will admit Caveat genuinely spooked me out pretty good. Will probably check out In A Violent Nature this weekend time permitting
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I’m very keen to see this, but it doesn’t open over here until August
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i’m also looking forward to longlegs quite a bit. i saw in a violent nature last month and i liked it. what it was doing didn’t become apparent to me until much later in the movie, but when it did i left the theater in a satisfactory mood.
this looks awesome. wish a theater near me were playing it
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Checked out Shunji Iwai’s Picnic today. I don’t really have much to say about the themes under the hood, but this seems like they had so much fun on set. Really breezy piece for something so dark. Last few shots of this thing are so gorgeous.
also Juliet of the Spirits is on Criterion 24/7 RN so there’s that.
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A lot of our students have gone back to their home communities for the summer now that the school year is over. Because of this, our late nights tend to be pretty quiet. Thus… it’s time to catch up on the
Gaagaagiins Work Watch Movie Review Revue
Snowpiercer (2013)
This is a rewatch for me, of course, but sometime else decided to put it on. I haven’t seen it for many years.
It is a bit cornier than I remember it, but, that feeling may have just been amplified because I had praised in in front of coworkers, so, I was concerned whether or not they would like it. I mean, not that I’d really care if they didn’t like it, but, I hope they did.
Still a good flick. Not Uncle Joon Ho’s best but pretty damn good for an international co-production. Also, man, Song Sang Ho is such a good physical comedy actor. I swear he can make sitting motionless funny, if he wants.
Bits and pieces of The Northman (2022), which someone put on before I came in, but I was by the TV at the end
Looked pretty good, if a little overall a bit uneventful seeming. These white people are quite savage, aren’t they? It was funny that at the end they were naked.
Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) in Tamil
I want to nurture a reputation as The Coworker Who Puts On Weird Shit, and I can’t lie, that wasn’t not a bit of my motivation for putting this on.
It truly was the Indian Lord of the Rings, absolutely in terms of both presenting a story with an epic scale and characters with undeniable charisma, as well as containing more than a little of an undercurrent of a repulsive, supremacist, oppressive, and exploitative ideology in a way that is hard to ignore. I won’t belabour the latter point, that’s definitely its own separate conversation… but, I mean, come on, the way the Kalakeyas are portrayed? And the scene with Siva and Avantika? Blech.
I don’t think I’ve seen any South Asian cinema, or, at least, it has been long enough that I can’t remember if I have or not. I do like how we’re mostly following around a protagonist who is just a Perfect Guy, who can do anything and is boisterous and naughty and (still, blech, but also, still) even sexy. I also can never say no to Grizzled Old Loyal Warrior Guy.
It was a good time, but man, it was long and it felt long, but not totally in a bad way. I’ll definitely watch the second part. Maybe I’ll even watch RRR… I’m not gonna become a Hindu nationalist anytime soon either way.
Gladiator (2000)
My boy Joe put this one on as we came in to work, presumably in preparation for the sequel. Now this is a movie For The Boys, which was appropriate because it was a bunch of dudes on shift last night.
I’ve always liked this movie, and, this rewatch didn’t change that. It’s got some weird pacing that I didn’t notice prior, things move slowly and then quickly and it’s not always exceptionally clear what is actually happening or why.
It’s also much more obvious to me these days how bad most movies are at showing fighting and action. It’s not just that movies like Mad Max: Fury Road showed how it should have been done, Jackie Chan never had a problem showing action and violence (although to be fair it’s much easier to portray someone getting karate chopped than it is to show them being sliced in half by a chariot’s wheel blade). Even still, it’s the readability or comprehensibility of the action that is so lacking in lots of movies, Gladiator included. It’s all just kinda tangentially related shots of random extreme violence, that comes to some kind of eventual conclusion eventually.
Speaking of incomprehensible action…
Braveheart (1995)
The algorithm must have thought we were a bunch of white boomer dads because it put on Braveheart automatically right after (I think we got dads and I think one of my coworkers is white but the algorithm was wrong about any of us being boomers). I got a laugh from the boys on shift saying this out loud, and my coworker Elkana said “what’s next, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?” and I thought that was very funny.
I’ve actually never seen this movie before, and, damn, I was kinda surprised at how bad it was. It’s got a much more readable narrative than Gladiator, and some decently plotted battle scenes. But it was mostly pretty stupid. Mel Gibson is anti-charismatic in this role and the art and costume direction was absurd. Also Mel Gibson’s wig is so fuckin’ bad, I could not stop looking at it.
By the time Braveheart was over most of the other workers were napping, so, as I was quite tired of stories about savage white people who can’t be shown on camera actually hitting each other, I went back to my goal of being The Coworker Who Puts On Weird Shit, and put on…
Ip Man 3 (2015)
It’s not my favourite of this series of films, but, it was the only movie available on the streaming services our work TV has a subscription to, and, as I said, I wanted to watch something with readable fight choreography and without too many white people.
For one, I love these movies because the way Donnie Yuen portrays this real life person to be both hilarious and oddly sweet. Like, I like the character of Ip Man in the movies is noble and humble to the point of it being almost saccharine, but it just works, because, idk, you gotta love a hypercompetent yet unflinchingly generous and humble guy.
The fights are also awesome even if there isn’t anything as impressive and dynamic and creative as Ip Man 2’s incredible restaurant fights or Ip Man’s brutal dojo fight, and none of it has the same kind of emotional resonance as Ip Man 4 either. I also think it has some structural issues–it feels like its big finale kinda comes out of nowhere, or like, the whole thing with Mike Tyson (yes the actual Mike Tyson) and then the fight with Cheung Tin-chi were actually their own separate movies, but, each one on their own weren’t substantial enough for an entire movie, so they got lumped into one. But it’s still a great movie.
Lastly, I just want to say that, wow, Ip Man’s wife in this movie is sooooooooooooooo pretty. I think it’s gotta partially be her fashion. It’s kinda like period Hong Kong office siren or a Wong Kar Wai lady but with cuter patterns and it just makes me ~swoon~ so much. My lovey lovey ass is msging my partner while watching this like “you’d look cute in polka dots,” and she would.
Bits and pieces of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) which has been playing as I write this and I’m honestly just not really paying attention to it 'cause I don’t care
I’m on the record itt as saying that I thought Beverly Hills Cop was a surprisingly bad movie, and this looks like a total cash grab with dumb quippy humour. Who cares man. Maybe it’d have been good if I’d actually watched it but I bet you a Double Bubble it’s not that good. If you disagree let me know
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Oh, right, I forgot a few weeks ago I watched most of…
Leprechaun In the Hood (2000)
I, of course, have heard of this, and it feels like this movie was trying very hard to manufacture the experience of a movie that is So Bad Its Good, which really takes out a lot of the fun of it. Stuff like The Room is fascinating because it was on purpose, you know? There is no way that Leprechaun In The Hood was in any way a creative endeavour that was approached with any true earnestness.
…still. It is kind of funny here and there, regardless. It’s pretty funny that the evil leprechaun can get bitches. I guess a little bit of camp can go a long way.
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Someone put on Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood to close out the night and…
Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood (2019)
… Boy, this is like a Hollywood obsessed boomer fever dream. Nothing is friggin happening in this movie. It’s not awful, something is here because I still want to watch it, but man, I’m feeling every minute here
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Saw The Phantom (1996) for the 1st time. This movie was on the TV a lot when i was a kid. I think if i saw it on the 90s i’d like it a little bit more. Now i think it’s just an ok movie lol
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Lep in the hood come to do no good
Did you also watch leprechaun in space?
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I did not but something tells me at the same time that I have
i saw longlegs tonight
'review'
it was not good. the first third of the movie had a wonderful color palette, artful staging, and a powerful sense of dread. of these things, only the palette and staging remained interesting for the remainder of the movie.
when the evil villain is finally revealed as nic cage, it’s done so in a typical ham fisted screaming scene that’s indistinguishable from any other movie cage has done, from mandy to matchstick men. this is followed by two back-to-back scenes in a mental hospital with characters and dialogue so constructed to be “creepy” that the film lost all verisimilitude for me. the fear of the movie more or less hinges on nic cage. what a terrible choice.
my mood was soured by that point, especially so as the movie continued taking boring and shallow turns. the injected satanism/occultism in the movie ends up being little more than a deus ex machina for the plot. being charitable, you can say it also serves as a bromide against the church. i wish i could say it was as wide as an ocean and deep as puddle, but it wasn’t even wide.
the movie begs a comparison to silence of the lambs, which does it no favors. i watched silence of the lambs not too long ago, and even after seeing it multiple times throughout the years it retains that atmosphere, terror, and tension. i walked out of the movie wishing i’d stayed home and rewatched that instead.
the reason my expectations were so high is i was under the impression this movie was some indie darling by a first time director or something. i guess the marketing worked on me, since it’s little more than a milquetoast horror movie with a sophisticated patina.
in short, if you want to see nic cage wearing makeup that makes him look exactly like a bogdanoff twin while being freakin epic hail satan and if you like reading reddit r/nosleep, you will enjoy longlegs.
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I saw Céline et Julie vont en bateau [ˆ1]
[ˆ1]: given that the title is a French idiom it’s a little weird it’s usually translated directly to English. On that subject, the whole movie is steeped in wordplay that’s difficult to translate, and I don’t envy whoever did the job for this particular movie
Afterward I went online to find out how to see Out 1. A few years ago there were a number of Blu-ray releases available which you can now get for $200-400 used. KinoLorber’s website led me to out1movie.com, where you can buy something (unclear) for $50, or rent the episodes of the so-called Noli Me Tangere version for $5 each ($40 total). The purchase option is confusing because the main page suggests you’re buying a digital copy of the movie—which no matter how you break it down, even after inflation, paying that amount of money for a computer file doesn’t make sense for me. On the other hand… it supports the distribution/preservation of this kind of movie in the US. On the other hand, that might be a lost cause at this point.
It’s unclear whether this is both versions of Out 1 (Noli Me Tangere and Spectre) or just the longer one. KinoLorber licensed both for their Blu-ray, but on this website only Noli Me Tangere is available to rent, and the purchase option suggests the same but is not explicit. Furthermore the FAQ section not only answers none of my questions, but displays this bizarre title: OUT 1, A FILM BY JACQUES RIVETTE - ON VOD BLU-RAY (NOLI ME TANGERE)
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the Blackcoat’s Daughter wasn’t a masterpiece but it had some novelty to it and suggested to me that its director would make some cool stuff going forward. If Longlegs diverts into more familiar horror patterns, then that seems like a step back to me yeah. You might like blackcoat’s daughter more
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interesting. i did find out that the director is the son of anthony perkins of psycho fame.
i ended up clicking around on wikipedia and discovered something even more shocking: infamous romance the notebook staring ryan gosling was directed by….john cassavetes son!
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