I watched that new Persuasion adaptation and it’s one of the worst movies I’ve seen in quite a while. Not romantic at all, horrible fourth wall breaking stuff, and anachronistic dialogue mixed in for no reason. Just terrible.
Medium, so, read with a critical eye, but an interesting take on RRR: RRR and Rajmouli's Hindutva
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Superficially, to audiences unfamiliar with the nuances of Indian society, RRR reads as an anti-imperialist film, à la Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers or Kalatozov’s Soy Cuba.
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Given the rise of Hindu fascism in India — with no sign of it waning any time soon — it’s important for Western audiences to know what they are consuming. One of the unique evils of Hindutva and Brahmanism is that despite their right-wing, reaction character, their position as colonized peoples allows them to portray themselves as anti-colonial or decolonial movements. What seems to be simply anti-British, may also be casteist and anti-Muslim/Christian. It is a deliberate effort by the Hindutva state, creatives, and intellectuals to make their ideas appealing to an international audience, and globalize their ideology.
@“Gaagaagiins”#p83074
If you‘re interested in this kind of analysis of RRR,this essayprovides a LOT of contextualizing for its actors, the Tollywood industry as a whole as well as the movie’s depictions of castes and links to the current Indian political climate. It's a long read (over 9000 words!) but very informative.
shame they couldn't just keep their eyes on the prize and make a anti-british movie
watching The Long Goodbye for maybe the 12th time
I watched Nope and I liked it a lot. I hope Peele makes a non nerd genre film at some point
Also rewatched _Under The Volcano_ which I’ve been flip flopping on every time I see it. I’ve had a low grade obsession with the book for 15 years so I’m not great at seeing it as it’s own thing. But I think for whatever shortcuts and imo misinterpretations it takes it’s overall a real good time seeing vintage Cuernavaca and Morelos filmed by John Huston. Also captures some of the boiling frog intensity of the novel. Albert Finney is too old and too broad for the role I think but of course he’s good (as are Yvonne and Hugh). Lacks the occult sub current of the book but on the other hand it makes the images connected to that aspect of the novel sharply weird when reproduced in the straight hollywood studio mode. Same thing with the leftist politics and tensions re the Spanish civil war that are prominent in the book, but in the film are condensed into an old fashioned little musical number like ricky nelson in rio bravo.
BTW/FYI…
(I’d post trailers, but both movies are so obscure, I don’t think any exist)
https://twitter.com/fort90filmclub/status/1565867172152442880
Maybe I should watch Waterworld
Heat wave here‘s been getting to me. Have been going to the theater to watch stuff with AC. It’s been nice. Saw saloum which was alright. Action/horror movie that's mostly in the daylight. I also saw Nope which was fun and playful. Glad I caught this one at a theaters.
I watched Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) for some reason and not for the first time in my life. It‘s bad! There’s one good gag when they thaw him out and tell him the cold war's over and he says “finally those capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes, eh comrades?” but then switches tone when Michael York corrects him.
Larry Thomas aka Soup Nazi has a cameo as a blackjack player.
Will Farrell in brown face.
Scott (Seth Green) here and [Kelly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUae1VCQRjA) (Vanessa Lee Chester) in *Lost World: Jurassic Park* (also 1997) both mention Sega, by which they undoubtedly mean Saturn, right?
Vanessa Lee Chester is also in *She's All That* (1999), which I watched last year and enjoyed a lot, and which has a scene where [Freddie Prinze Jr. threatens to play Sega with Kieran Culkin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKU28txrpZc). So what's with all these late nineties screenwriters and Sega??
I don't think I'll revisit the sequels to any of the above three movies (except I haven't seen *He's All That* (2021)… yet?).
I should have watched So I Married an Axe Murderer.
between the Saturn and the Dreamcast it was a emotional time for everyone
I didn‘t watch this recently but an essay I wrote months ago about Angel’s Egg apparently got published last week at Anime Herald.
https://youtu.be/fIhKqaNp4Dc
I don‘t know that I love this movie, but I find it endlessly fascinating. Also, Yoshitaka Amano did the art here a year before he worked on Final Fantasy I. Anyway, if you’ve never seen it and happen to have a free hour, it's worth giving a look!
We recently watched the new romcom with Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. It's definitely a movie! But what fascinated me is the way these two people aged so differently. If you told me Jennifer Lopez was 40, I'd be like, Yeah, probably. But she's 53! Though the movie seems to want us to believe she's 35, which...I mean, she looks good, but she's not 35. I'm 35! I know what people my age look like.
But Owen Wilson looks a thousand years old. His complete indifference to the movie he's being paid a lot of money to be in is honestly hilarious. I can't remember the last time I saw someone so defiantly phone something in.
Also, Samwell Tarly from Game of Thrones is in it and he manages to steal most of the scenes he's in. Who would've guessed!
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@“connrrr”#p84121 Freddie Prinze Jr. threatens to play Sega with Kieran Culkin
kieran culkin, a known retro games enthusiast, would probably love that
@“Syzygy”#p84161 I just watched it!! I'd seen big chunks of it as a kid when it came to TV but never the whole thing. The one scene I remembered the clearest was when >!the Mariner drops his flare down that shaft and the guy down below can only say “thank god.”!<
(Incidentally that's when the movie goes completely bonkers. That tanker was a whole town! He's a mass murder!!)
I was raised to look down my nose at this film, and yeah it's full of plot holes and it is *Road Warrior* by way of *Hook*, but it's also a lot of fun and anime as shit. I loved the very choreographed way they film the mechanisms unfolding on the Mariner's trimaran, the underwater sequence, the effort at world-building on the atoll.
[Costner](https://youtu.be/dwNVwiHAUUM?t=51) plays the role so confidently. He's a great foil to Dennis Hopper playing the same villain for the third year in a row.
Every time CGI pops up it really does pop, but is thankfully sparsely used. The sea monster looked cool.
***Waterworld* (1995)** is GOOD, *Dad!!!*
@“Syzygy”#p84251 I will take a look at these links soon! I also kind of want to see The Postman (1997)? Wondering if maybe it influenced Death Stranding at all.
I watched ***Tremors* (1990)** tonight! Another flick I'd only ever seen bits and pieces of. Now that's a fun movie. The cast is a real goof troop. Fred Ward is so fucking good—pardon my French.
I saw 3000 Years of Longing today. Not really sure why, someone mentioned it on twitter and I like Tilda Swinton.
It seems under-finished. The first half was good with the historic and mythic stories but the modern day parts (especially in London) felt rushed and a bit flat. It was nice to see CGFX used for colourful non-battle scenes.
My guess is covid massively interupted filming/production. I spent a non-significant amount of time thinking about at Idris Elba's elf ears and sparkly blue legs.
It's been interesting seeing how different movies have handled covid. From what I've watched, The Northman and Drive My Car have worked with restrictions best. I dont know if The Batman was filmed pre-covid, but I dont recall thinking about interrupted production while watching it. I'm still yet to see Bullet Train which has to be the most obvious covid movie in existence.
After a month long survey of Japanese cinema, ton FORT90 FILM CLUB X @wondervillenyc heads home & goes back in time with,“FUCK AROUND OLD NEW YORK AND FIND OUT”
First is essentially the Citizen Kane-esque gold standard when it comes to guerilla filmmaking in NYC…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRJWgjTxZv0
Second, I knew I had to include a Larry Cohen film into the proceedings, thus we have…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmJ8eOIzVU
Third up is something truly special, an earnest attempt at a Bollywood movie in America…
https://vimeo.com/231620724
And last but not least is a legit largely forgotten/ignored classic, and not just cuz the screenplay is by John Carpenter and is directed by Irvin Kershner…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_-4L-mssnQ
Stream starts at the usual time, 8PM EST, and at the usual destination…
https://www.twitch.tv/wondervillenyc
Well, time to be kind of a pest and say that, while I guess some of you know Jean-Luc Godard has died, I hate when I knew he had not much money and he couldn‘t finance some of his late projects, as he also ended up killing himself. I don’t know which were his reasons, but I feel sad and fed up that some great artists have to die in very poor conditions.
I read he was dealing with some chronic medical conditions and decided to go the medically assisted
route and clock out on his own terms. I‘d be shocked if he was living in poverty or anything like that. Agree it’s unfortunate that someone as accomplished and dedicated to his art couldn't get financing for his work