Long time since i’ve been around “these here parts” - as Gareth keenan from The Office would say.
Cleo From 5 to 7 - 7/10 - interesting french new wave film though I found none of the characters at all likeable which sort of harmed the pathos in the whole thing. Nicely shot and a great performance by the really hot lead actress…though it was made in the 60’s…I wonder what she looks like now!
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - 8/10 - A psychotic funny swampy black comedy from Werner Herzog with Nic Cage chewing the scenery to great effect. A Blast.
Inglorious Basterds (rewatch) - 9/10 - Still Rockin!
ARVOTTOMAT (THE WORTHLESS) rewatch
Dircetor: Mika Kaurismäki
10/10
I seriously love this movie. The best movie Mika Kaurismäki has directed but his brother Aki Kaurismäki has made dozens of great films, maybe even better than this. Hard to say. I think Mika hasn’t done so many good films than Aki. There are still many movies to watch though from both even though I own almost every movie by Aki.
Greenberg 7/10
It is like watching a Wes Anderson movie without feeling really good about life and movies. Depressing stuff.
Ahah, yeah cause Noah Baumbach IS one of the best friends of Wes Anderson. Have you watched The Squid and the Whale ? and Margot Goes to the Wedding ? He’s bitter, more realistic and more depressing than Anderson but I still love his work.
KICK-ASS
10/10
Fuck yeah. Watched it twice, 'cause it was so damn good! Gotta get this when it comes on Blu-Ray.
[quote=“cyber-lili”]Ahah, yeah cause Noah Baumbach IS one of the best friends of Wes Anderson. Have you watched The Squid and the Whale ? and Margot Goes to the Wedding ? He’s bitter, more realistic and more depressing than Anderson but I still love his work.[/quote]
Yeah, The Squid and the Whale is pretty much all about artistic failure. I really want to see Kicking and Screaming. The criterion looks good.
[quote=“cyber-lili”]Ahah, yeah cause Noah Baumbach IS one of the best friends of Wes Anderson. Have you watched The Squid and the Whale ? and Margot Goes to the Wedding ? He’s bitter, more realistic and more depressing than Anderson but I still love his work.[/quote]
Yeah, he wrote the screenplay for some of Anderson’s movies, right? Some shots seemed right out of an Anderson flick though. Seen SATW and Margot at the wedding. Equally depressing. For me it’s like Coldplay: I know it’s good, but I just can’t take that shit. I also enjoy movies/ music to be a bit more removed from reality.
Still not completely sure what to think of Greenberg.
He wrote Life Aquatic and Mr Fox. And The Squid and the Whale was very much influenced by his life (two parents writers, the mom splitting with the husband, blabla).
I think Greenberg is much more influenced by Mumblecore, the indie NYC Cassavetes-influenced movement. Noah Baumbach loves Cassavetes and he probably started to love Mumblecore as it became more “famous”.
Inception - 4/5
Not a masterpiece, and definitely not Kubrickian. But still pretty damn good.
[quote=“Ordell Rodriguez”]Inception - 4/5
Not a masterpiece, and definitely not Kubrickian. But still pretty damn good.[/quote]
Went and saw it today. Was pretty good. Still thinking about the way it ended.
Saw Inception on Sunday night and I’m still thinking about it. I thought it was a masterpiece and probably Nolan’s best. I don’t want to hype up any others, but yeah, it was an amazing experience for me.
Another experience for me recently was watching Serbian Film. The latest “insane shockfest” to make the rounds. Shocking it most certainly is, reaching back to Salo in its levels of depravity. Still, I felt that it had a hard time picking just what side of the fence it wanted to sit on. It acted as if it wanted to strike that balance of “artistic pretensions” and “exploitation shock” that films such as Antichrist and Irreversible were able to find, but by taking the shocking content in as extreme of a direction as they did the balance simply seemed uneven. You’re left with a morbid and ferocious film that ultimately doesn’t speak very clearly to its audience about its intentions and instead you’re left with the same feeling you would after watching Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh & Blood or Niku Daruma.
Still, I did “enjoy” it and think that it certainly does do the job in the level of shocks that it delivers.
Oh and I thought Marion Cotillard wasn’t going to be good in this and boy I was wrong. Marion, Tom Hardy, and JGL all was wonderful. Watch those 3 names, because I can bet you 1 ( or 2, or heck all 3) will be villains in Nolan’s last Batman film.
Joseph Gordon Levit and Ellen Page were awesome. DiCaprio aswell but you expect it. Nolan is always very good for complex narative, innovative visuals. I really like the movie. Plus this year sucks in terms of movies, I don’t even know what to expect around september-december. Shutter Island and Inception were pretty much the best movies so far.
Basic Instinct - 3/5
Why is it that good movies from twenty years ago seem so much better than good movies today? Maybe it’s just me.
Les BIches
It’s been a long time since I watched a movie by Claude Chabrol. I remember watching Masques when I was younger (can’t be arsed to search for the translated titles honestly), I vaguely remember it being a little weird. But with Les Biches, my weird-o-meter a bit crazy. Some lines and scenes seem out of place. I thought it was an ok film, but if it were to be released today, it would be considered one of the worst movies ever made probably 
[quote=“jonitapani”]KICK-ASS
10/10
Fuck yeah. Watched it twice, 'cause it was so damn good! Gotta get this when it comes on Blu-Ray.[/quote]
yeah! it’s like a diet kill bill if y’know what i mean 8)
[quote=“RatQuiRit”]Les BIches
It’s been a long time since I watched a movie by Claude Chabrol. I remember watching Masques when I was younger (can’t be arsed to search for the translated titles honestly), I vaguely remember it being a little weird. But with Les Biches, my weird-o-meter a bit crazy. Some lines and scenes seem out of place. I thought it was an ok film, but if it were to be released today, it would be considered one of the worst movies ever made probably [/quote]
Holy shit do I love Chabrol! Hands down my favorite of the new wave guys.
[quote=“Ordell Rodriguez”][quote=“RatQuiRit”]Les BIches
It’s been a long time since I watched a movie by Claude Chabrol. I remember watching Masques when I was younger (can’t be arsed to search for the translated titles honestly), I vaguely remember it being a little weird. But with Les Biches, my weird-o-meter a bit crazy. Some lines and scenes seem out of place. I thought it was an ok film, but if it were to be released today, it would be considered one of the worst movies ever made probably [/quote]
Holy shit do I love Chabrol! Hands down my favorite of the new wave guys.[/quote]
Oh, good! What Chabrol movies would you advise me to check out next? I want to keep exploring the new wave, because for now it’s only Godard + 1 or 2 movies from Chabrol and Truffaut for now.
[quote=“RatQuiRit”][quote=“Ordell Rodriguez”][quote=“RatQuiRit”]Les BIches
It’s been a long time since I watched a movie by Claude Chabrol. I remember watching Masques when I was younger (can’t be arsed to search for the translated titles honestly), I vaguely remember it being a little weird. But with Les Biches, my weird-o-meter a bit crazy. Some lines and scenes seem out of place. I thought it was an ok film, but if it were to be released today, it would be considered one of the worst movies ever made probably [/quote]
Holy shit do I love Chabrol! Hands down my favorite of the new wave guys.[/quote]
Oh, good! What Chabrol movies would you advise me to check out next? I want to keep exploring the new wave, because for now it’s only Godard + 1 or 2 movies from Chabrol and Truffaut for now.[/quote]
Awesome.
For a fun little spy/conspiracy flick you can’t go wrong with “Who’s Got the Black Box?”, had a good time watching that one.
This Man Must Die and The Unfaithful Wife are pretty fucking cool too.
I gotta say when I first saw a few of his flicks back to back with a couple of the other new wave films from Truffaut and Godard I really appreciated how simple they were in comparison. Movies, pure and simple. If there’s something more there it’s not a persistent hammering like Godard is prone to do.
Oh well. Let me know if you like them!
Inception - 8/10.
One of the best films i’ve seen all summer. I’ve come to expect this type of quality from Chris Nolan, I will agree with the poster above who said that it wasn’t masterpiece/Kubrickian but it was very enjoyable and nice retreat from all of the crap films the past year.