Got to watch Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill at the Metrograph back in January and had the strange experience of an extremely drunk woman yelling about how much she hated the movie and yet refusing to leave. Since it was the movie that got Suzuki kicked out of the film industry for “making no sense and no money” it was actually kind of great, like they had found one of his critics straight from 1967 to add to the ambiance.
yeah branded to kill RULES
and in a way that experience, while it ruins the movie, kind of works for the experience aspect of it! watch it again at home!
@exodus#3377 I had probably seen it a dozen times before that experience, which is good because I would have been much more angry had I had to follow that plot while all that was going on.
@MichaelDMcGrath#3332 Metrograph is legit the worst theater in all of NYC; it attracts the bougie-est of bougie film folk, who think they‘re “roughing” it by believing the bullshit marketing, how it’s a “return” of movies to Chinatown (yeah, none of the things they show would ever appear in the Music Palace, but more importantly, none of the rich, white patrons would have ever dared step foot inside it either).
The last couple times I went, there was al least one asshole saying racist (as well as homophobic) shit, like the three NYU princesses who for some reason found the footage of the MOVE bombing hilarious. I even got free passes from the management, who openly acknowledged that their primary client are garbage.
But anyway… said scene was from RECORDER, an amazing documentary about a woman who basically recorded every single thing, on every single channel, via several VCRs that were in constant operation, for decades. Cannot recommend it enough…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJNUdz6wQ3w
@fortninety#3422 Man I’ve been to the Metrograph a whole bunch of times and never had experiences like this. The Q&As they do are great!
BTW, elsewhere in NYC is the Japan Society, and their yearly showcase of cinema is online this year for obvious reasons. It’s worth checking out!
https://japancuts.japansociety.org/
BTW, some recommendations:
If you’re a fan of Nobuhiko Obayashi (best known for Hausu) then this doc about his life and times (and with his wife’s) is an absolute must see. FYI: his final film, Labyrinth of Cinema, is also part of the line-up (which I haven’t seen yet, due to its long runtime, but will finally get the chance later this week; it’s apparently quite amazing)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaSN7RX2HPE
The next film by the director of One Cut of the Dead has gotten a lot of flack from film critics, and I think they’re all being super unfair; it doesn’t reinvent any genre conventions, but if you’re obsessed with cults like I am, then am pretty sure you’ll dig…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd2zsVaqJOI
My personal fave is “very” Japanese, and is an entire hour & a half of various static shots of the woods, in which a robot and a tanuki either just walk into frame or found to be sitting already, who talk the entire time about random nonsense. It might actually be the best new film I’ve seen all year…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xe-gqKxlIU
BTW, the one movie you should avoid at all costs is Shell and Joint, which contains every single terrible trope and cliché of Japanese cinema imaginable (which arty farty white film critics eat up like cotton candy)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1XOsg53Bc
Amazon Prime Video is a good place to watch good bad movies from 85ish-95ish. I watched this, it’s basically a The Witcher movie.
https://youtu.be/yQASnIbXQQw
Also, either a lot of stuff was influenced by this OR it was influenced by the same stuff as everything else. A lot of Highlander vibes, well mainly Lambert vibes.
And this is funny:
https://twitter.com/adamazing/status/1287570918764675072?s=21
@adamazing#3443 and then i watched this because it was in the “This might also interest you.” It is not good. It’s similar to The Warrior and the Sorceress in that people were just doing something to build a portfolio. I just chose it because of the name. It has a lot of 3DO game vibes, and A LOT of shadowy blue shots (like everything in 95… like the Mortal Kombat movie).
https://youtu.be/HKkxZacy5Qo
@adamazing#3444 also, in the future; they dont drink Bud Light… they drink 3D Light
Alright, time once again to put on my promotional headgear on…
So tonight’s another livestream of movies, for that hipster bar I’m associated with. But tonight’s extra special cuz A. it’s the one-year anniversary for the thing, and B. I managed to snag not one but TWO films by a collective in editors in LA that vapor(wave)ize Hollywood content.
In this case, the live action adaptation of Speed Racer by The Wachowskis & Michael Mann's Heat. There’s no trailer per say, but this should give you an idea of what to expect…
https://twitter.com/racertrash/status/1287525255620128769
The screening starts at 6PM PST/9PM EST, and both movies will be shown back to back, with a VERY special intermission crated just for tonight that will be VERY relevant to folks who frequent this place! Maybe…
https://www.twitch.tv/wondervillenyc
Oh, and there will be an encore presentation immediately after the first showing, for those who can’t be there when it starts. Though these aren’t narratives in the conventional sense, so you can honestly jump in whenever!
@fortninety#3462 Would be happy to come check out these screenings in person when NYC’s not… as it is currently lol
BTW, here's a sample of H E A T A W A V E, one of the more low-key, chill parts, which you might all dig (I have no idea if the new IC still cares about Kojima)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65to14g9juM
Watched Juzo Itami‘s Taxing Woman last night. It ain’t no Tampopo, but it was pretty fun.
I watch a lot of these amazon prime trash movies… I‘ve been taking notes on the last uhhh 50 or so for a website I’ll maybe never make.
the warrior and the sorceress looks like something I could maybe get behind, the issue is when they're just BORING and full of empty space, which your dark souls roll tweet makes me think this might be. david carradine is no christopher lambert, that's for sure! watch Beowulf instead maybe!!!
@exodus#3503 oh, man… it is super boring. It took multiple evenings to finish it. I’m just too nice, so i feel i need to see the whole thing through. Maybe, ill go back and take some screenshots to get my point across (about Lambert comparisons). It’s hilarious how similar so many shots are…
yeah, I do that! I‘ve had to force myself to stop finishing bad movies, unless I’m with a friend - which is how I finished Code Hunter, which is abysmally boring despite how campy and fun it looks in the trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmSSFTvxUN8
This isn't exactly a hidden gem or weird trash, but I watched BlacKkKlansman last night and it was pretty good.
I'm guessing people here are probably familiar with tubi, but they sure do have a weird selection of free stuff to watch
https://tubitv.com/home
@hellomrkearns#3556 Yeah I liked Black Klansman (can never remember how the hell they stylize the “kkk” in the title) despite it being a bit on the nose even for Spike Lee. The subplot with Adam Driver in particular felt like kind of a mea culpa for some of Lee’s, let’s say insensitive portrayals of Jews in the past. But it was a good one.
I somehow only watched _Do the Right Thing_ for the first time a couple months ago, and it truly does outclass pretty much anything he’s made in the last 25 years in terms of sheer formal appeal _and_ biting social relevancy. I published a negative review of his new film _Da 5 Bloods_ (which he co-wrote with the same guy as _BkKk_) and got excoriated by some people on Film Twitter for it, which was kind of scary but thankfully only lasted for about 24 hours before the mob’s attention turned to something else.
Appreciating all the talk about NYC local theaters, I'm filing this info away for post-apocalypse reference.
@fortninety#3422 RECORDER looks incredible, I've been meaning to see it ever since Daniel Lopatin tweeted about it. What a fascinating project.
@fortninety#3462
I'm an enormous Speed Racer fan, is there a place I can obtain that edit you're talking about? Would love to see it.