Mike's comments
(member since Mar 26, 2008)
Mike's comments from the Movies We've Just Watched group.
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I didn't notice the conversation between the two until after watching the interview with Haneke...and even then I didn't "see" it, just knew it was there. I don't have a very big TV. But that shot, from its positioning and feel, gives the impression again of someone spying on the events. Watching it, I expected the tape to fast-forward at any second, but I think its that tension between whether or not what is happening is "live" or taped that Haneke is so in touch with during the whole film. Nothing feels concretely "real"--there is some tension put on the perspective at all times during the film.
I'm the exactly opposite. I think his westerns are good--and, in particular, the western he directed (High Plains Drifter). But the rest of his movies I can't get into.
A C is pretty fair, but I think I would lean more towards a C-/D+, to be honest. Most of the acting is pretty poor, much of the story feels familiar (in a stereotypical way) and a lot of the dialog is just flat. Though the ending was good, I don't think it really saved the movie. I was surprised with how well regarded this film was, since it really felt pretty hammy watching it. Generally I like Eastwood, and was actually interested in this when it came out and was receiving good reviews, but I just don't think it worked.
Just finally watched Cache yesterday and found it very good. The camera work in his films is consistently hypnotic. Scenes where what appears to be a view into what is currently going on, only to be interrupted by the lines of a tape being fast-forwarded, sew seeds of doubt into whether what you are watching is ever really happening, or if it is something which has happened. He seems very in touch with the relationship between the camera and a subject and is constantly problematizing it (doing similar things in Funny Games) by either explicit or implicit breakages of the fourth wall. The interview with him on the DVD is also hugely elucidating and a great way to better understand his, seemingly, completely original place in film. Really liked it.
Oldies is something entirely different. Its become a genre of its own which has a more or less distinct sound, not something which means "more than 10 or 20 years old." I completely believe you that they were a two man band, and they did start in the 80s, but that has no connection to, and in fact completely precludes them from being an oldies band--unless they strove to sound like "oldies," which they didn't.
Great Sam! If you do watch it I'll probably watch it again too.
I'd be curious to know what your reservations were, Phillip. That movie is rife for discussion.
Sam,
If you have a fairly strong stomach its an amazing movie. I hope you enjoy it.
I don't think the ending could have been anything other than deliberate, but that doesn't mean that it works as well as a small number of other possibilities (such as ending the movie shortly earlier).
I was really impressed with this movie when I watched it a few years ago. Shortly beforehand I had watched The Passenger and, as much as I liked that, this felt like Antonioni just got everything right with no frills or unnecessary moments. A really good exploration of distance, disconnection and the desire for something hard to express.
Thats kind of fatalistic...In fact, I think that's literally the definition of being fatalistic! That's too bad, because there are lots of good movies which don't move in a linear path, which means that you probably wouldn't like them simply because the ending isn't so much of an ending, per se. An ending exists because nothing can go on forever, but I don't think it should retroactively color the rest of the film unless its really bad, or in the case of horror, where it demystifies or cleans up what happened earlier.
And in the case of EWS, I think the ending itself was the not-so-good part--the rest was really interesting.
Ah, I just watched that for the first time recently. The ending was unfantastic, but otherwise I thought it was quite good.
Phillip already mentioned Walkabout, which was great. I've been wanting very much to see Picnic at Hanging Rock, but haven't gotten to it yet. One that I'm surprised no one mentioned yet is The Proposition, which was a beautiful western of cruelty and desperation. Written and scored by Nick Cave, with some amazing cinematography and fantastic acting. All around, just a really haunting and affecting film (without affectation).
Eugenia,Pootie Tang is far from the worst movie ever made. Its actually got some very good parts in it, utterly ridiculous though it may be. I guarantee its better than any comedies with Rob Schnieder, Larry the Cable Guy, almost all Mike Myers, and actually most other Chris Rock movies (Down to Earth is up there as worst movie). Probably better than most John Malkovich movies too--that guy sucks most of the time!
Um...I don't at all see how They Might Be Giants starting as a two person band makes them "technically" oldies. Also I don't really think that they will ever be considered "oldies" since "oldies" is more of a genre than a description of how old a song is. Eventually they'll just be lumped in as part of the first wave of "alternative," most likely. Oldies will still be oldies.
And on a separate note, I was really curious about Coraline.
Last movies I watched, none of which I had seen before, were:Eyes Wide Shut - Stanley Kubrick
Jackie Brown - Quintin Tarantino
Fireworks (Hanabi) - Takeshi Kitano
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - Sam Peckinpah
All of these were good in their own ways. I had heard Kubrick say that he considered EWS his best movie, which made me very curious to see it. Though I don't agree with his summation, there is a lot to like in it (particularly from about 30% in to about 80% in). Jackie Brown was another strong though-not-strongest movie by a really good director. Fireworks was a very good, lesser known film from Kitano's Yakuza period, and Alfredo Garcia...was just fantastic. If I don't have to work tomorrow, then I'm going to watch Frontier(s) tonight, which will surely get discussed in the (good) horror films group.
Trying to get back into the swing of things here!
Dec 28, 2008 02:18PM
Personally, there isn't really much TV I watch. I'll still catch reruns of The Simpsons (and sometimes Jeopardy afterwards), but beyond that there isn't really anything that piques my interest now that The Wire has finished. But I just finished the goal of 50 books read this year, which I guess puts me just under a book a week. I think, generally, I read around 50-100 pages a day and in dry periods more like 20-50.
Word up!
Even though my Encounters at the End of the World thread never got any play (its probably buried way back in the log of this group), its nice to see this finally get some attention!--even if it is only by all of us who are already buddies. I saw it in theaters--the only movie so far that I've gone by myself to see--and found it just stunning. This is one of those few where there aren't really words often to articulate the feelings it evokes, because those feelings are generally so rich and contradictory. My favorite movie of the year.
Whoops. I just realized that I think we both mean Jackie Brown, not Foxy Brown. Regardless, though, I still would like to see Jackie Brown.
Movies We've Just Watched
