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We'll start with the end of the film class then move on to the beginning of summer.
There is some overlap.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
Huh.
First time showing this one to stundents. It did okay, it got tense at points, but they were underwhelmed.
This is the same class that was underwhelmed by Casablanca and I think part of it is when you watch a film that everything you have ever seen was deeply influenced by it can be hard to see it for itself on first watch.
Anway, I'm excited for Soderbergh's book. You?
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
I've never made Napoleon Dynamite a film option because I figured too many students had already seen it. I don't mind studnets having seen the movies before, but too many calcified opinions makes it hard to judge the film fresh. And, as it ends up, more than half of them have seen it before. Often more than once. Often because a teacher is killing a day. So while some loved it and some hated it, most of them were trapped in previously held thoughts.
So it's back off the list.
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| HOME library dvd |
Coupla yuppies drop out and learn a valuable lesson?
I did like it but after one viewing I'm kind of confused how it counts as one of the great American comedies.
Also, I'm very distressed that we never learn about her FIRST time gambling. I feel we deserve to know!
All that said, I can see how this is the sort of movie that might play better after you already know the shape of it.
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| ELSEWHERE Link+ dvd |
I've been aware of this movie for a long time but even though I liked Geena Davis and have since come to like Samuel L. Jackson, I never considered watching it. Seemed like a dumb action movie that would fritter away time and braincells.
But then I watched this video and felt obliged to give it a shot.
And it's good. It's funny, it has impressive action sequences, the character work works.
I wouldn't really say I've missed all that much by waiting thirty years to watch it, but I would say that it was two hours of solid entertainment and I was left satisfied. And with my braincells reasonably intact.
Also: the mid90s soundtrack.
Also: like Arlington Road three years later, this movie plays with terrorism in a very pre-9/11 way that hits so different now, especially with its giddy/evil pleasure in the the possibility of conspiracy. They'd make an interesting pairing.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
Who knows how many times I've seen this movie and yet each time it still gives me a new experience.
This time I was struck by how funny the "Beautiful Girls" sequence is. I'm not sure I've ever noticed that before.
And it's remarkable even when you know how much crying Debbie Reynolds had been doing or that she has blood in her shoes or that Gene Kelly's running a massive fever or that Donald O'Connor starts a sequence already exhausted that you just can't tell. That's acting, baby.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
Still one of the best films to strike up conversation. And I love how students have wildly different opinions about things like how Anthony Perkins comes off or whether the psychiatrist is a good addition or whether they saw X or Y coming, etc etc. Every movie I show is a great movie but only some of them engage practically everyone every time—yet not in the same way.
Call it what you will but I call that art.
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| HOME library dvd |
What a lovely movie. Those stairs at the beginning, those lateral moves at the end, the long two-shot in-bed marital scene as real a snapshot of any marriage I've ever seen. The depths of emotions that are ambiguous even to—especially to?—those experiencing them.
Really, an amazing first films. Obviously from the mind of a playwright yet entirely filmic and terrifically so.
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| ELSEWHERE Hoopla |
Everytime I watch this I wonder why the heck am I watching this?????!?!?!!!?!!?!? but by the end, I mean, it's so great. I'm so glad I did.
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| HOME our dvd |
Never gets old.
Among the most quoted lines are: "Excuse me. Excuse me."
"You wrote a bad song, Petey."
and
"'Cause I'm little."
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| ELSEWHERE/HOME Public Domain Movies |
Caveat upfront. I haven't seen anything about how other Hindus feel about it, but apparently right wing–Hindus hate hate hate this movie. I take it they don't disagree so much with the details of this story from the Ramayana so much as the presentation and the attitude. I suppose one could dismiss this story as some orientalist Western froufra but, I mean, I liked it.
For one thing, I loved the varied styles of animation and how they fit together. I loved the music by Annette Hanshaw, a voice I did not know. It's a bummer that issues with the music trapped the movie in copyright jail (apparently it was out of copyright in the U.S. but not all the individual S.s?; this is an issue since repaired by Congress, remarkably). When I first heard this I wondered why she didn't just swap out the music but having seen the movie this is obviously impossible. The music is core to the storytelling.
Among the interesting credits at the end are demon wrangler, beloved cult leader, duck wrangler, genetic engineer, chameleon handler, and moon wrangler. I'm not certain what any of these people did, credit notwithstanding.
Loved the soundtrack which was not only Hanshaw but also Indian music, Europrean classics put to witty use, and more. Hope I can figure out how to get it.... (Ah ha!)
Anyway, Nina Paley killed with this. And predicted a lot of YouTube's animation aesthetic. I recommend.
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| HOME Internet Archive |
I don't know if having subtitles would have helped me understand what was going on here. This seems to be a work of surrealism and so the value of language is questionable. Direct influences clearly are the paintings of Salvadore Dali and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but might also include Kafka, Canticle of Leibowitz and Dune. It also reminded me of the trash planet of Thor: Ragnarok and the Borrowers.
It's apparently a post-apocalyptic world of some sort, filled with stand and massive human artifacts. By which I mean you can use a fork as a bridge here. A girl has sex with an idiot prophet who then gets sucked up to some upper-level world where the sacred texts are old catalogues.
The movie is wild and strange but beautiful. The opening sequence of them chasing an ostrich and then harvesting and eating its tail feathers before letting it go is enough to let you know you're in for something wondrous and strange.
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| THEATER Cinemark Century Hilltop 16 |
Lady Steed heard Celine Song say that she wanted to dig into romantic comedies next and I'm glad she did. I'll admit my core image of a romcom is a 90s Nora Ephron number starring Meg Ryan possibly opposite Tom Hanks and this is very different from that. Less silly, for one thing. (Which isn't a knock on 90s Nora Ephron numbers starring Meg Ryan possibly opposite Tom Hanks—I love those movies.) But it's easy to forget it's a comedy for long stretches.
Speaking of Lady Steed, she did say the only thing that keeps me from being a ten is not working in finance. But then she thought about it some more and said certainly I'm over a five. So that was nice.
She also said, before pulling me in, that the kissing in this movie is good—that it makes you want to kiss. Until you remember you don't like kissing.
So I would say the joke is on us but I have to say we left this movie happy to be in love with each other.
Also, special props for the excellent closing-titles sequence. It's perfect.
And I also want to point out something I didn't notice until Celine Song pointed it out: Materialists is very much structured like a noir. To which all I can say is: cool.
Also, happy to be introduced to Zoë Winters who kills in a supporting role.
Here's to hoping Song gets another writing nod, at minimum.
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| HOME Plex |
I haven't seen this since the '80s, although I saw it many times as a kid. My memories are a bit scrambled. I combined appearances of the Nothing into one single horrific sequence, for instance. And the empress, always a deeply uncanny character? I had a much different reaction to her. This time she seems like not the worst actor but in fact the best actor. It's why she didn't fit in. And what a shame that she didn't act in another movie for twenty-four years. Then ten years until another. Then six more years, in 2024, she made her fourth and (so far) final film. Wild.
Anyway, it's part of that dark, terrifying, imagination-celebrating movie family that created my generation. This and Dark Crystal and Don Bluth prepped us all for Sandman and shaped us into the weirdos we are.
So even though I was correct about never needing to see this again, I am satisfied. And will probably never watch it again. Now that Lady Steed has shown it to our progeny once, I think we're done.
ps: doesn't atreyu look like anna kendrick
pps: i would be amiss not to mention the great creature design at that ivory-tower scene and to ask outloud about the sphinxes' breasts
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| THEATER Rialto Cinemas Elmwood |
Having watched Fantastic Mr. Fox since my last viewing, I have to say that I think these two films share the most DNA. Yes, it looks like Asteroid City with some hints of Grand Budapest, but the rhythm of the dialogue and the blocking seems more like Fox. Benicio del Toro's performance is much like Clooney's. And the shrugs Liesl and Hilda give are straight out of Fox.
Anyway, I have answers to some of the questions I was left with last time. For one, it's too soon to know whether the scheme succeeds. But that it was even attempted suggests a sort of holy sacrifice on the part of the family. (Spoilers, by the way.) Instead of profiteering over endless violence, the scheme, especially following Liesl's changes, is a plan to bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East. The Korda's have bet everything on the scheme. And if it succeeds they will be wealthy and Phoenecia will be so much better off than ever before. If it fails? Well, just as now, they will have each other. And, as we see, that is enough.
A beautiful movie.
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| THEATER Cinemark Century Hilltop 16 |
I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, a lot of the beats it took seemed pretty obvious and lesson-oriented in the true Kid-Movie Way.
On the other hand, it did make me cry twice, laugh a lot, and I loved all the alien designs.
The 8yrold liked it a lot.
I'm above-average curious how my opinion might evolve on further watches. But I can definitely recommend checking it out and making up your own mind.
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| HOME our bluray |
I think I might love this movie? I didn't as a kid, but . . . it's really good. I think Gene Wilder was the main reason Dahl didn't like the movie, but he's a marvel. Such casual menace. I love the stream of quotations. But he's also a source of originality. And when he is filled with joy or love, I believe it. And while Charlie Bucket's line deliveries are only okay, the kid gives us excellent face acting. And one of the Oompa Loompas looks like Hugh Grant.
That about covers it, don't you think?
Unless you want me to rank the songs from sublime to erm but I think I'd rather not.
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| HOME Kanopy |
I just watched Cecil B. DeMille's original Ten Commandments so coming across this felt like a spot of kismet.
Who does not seem to have kismet is the poor folks who tried to do archaeology on the movie's set, buried in the Central Coast dunes. Nothing will make you more enraged about California's byzantine permitting processes this week than this movie. Guaranteed.
I've been down to Oceano twice the last couple years but I haven't tried to make it over to what there is to see. Having seen this movie I realize there's probably still a lot under the stand, but good luck finding it.
But I need to get myself to the proper museum and check out what they have found.
Anyway, the rest of the movie is sort of a hagiography for DeMille and it kinda persuaded me that maybe he deserved one. And so let me apologize real quick for occasionally getting him mixed up with D. W Griffith. DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
And I think I'd like to watch him movie on the Crusades next. Which, let me assure you, was NOT true two hours ago. But watch this movie and tell me if you don't feel a slight obligation yourself.
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| HOME our dvd |
Not a lot of movies take these kinds of chances anymore. We can disagree about how successful each choice is, but Ward Kimball's titles are wonderful, Bruns and the Sherman Brothers nailed the music, the cast is great, and, dang it, more movies should take these kinds of chances.
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| ELSEWHERE Friday Night Movies in the Parks |
Watching movies in the park is . . . suboptimal. But this was still a pretty darn good movie. Perhaps under other circumstances, even as good as everyone says? My main uncertainty is whether that third act was necessary. Your thoughts welcome.
I haven't seen the trailer in over a year but I was surprised how many plot points it covered. But I don't think it told us its when and where and so that was a surprised.
Also, props for the dark jokes. It might get a little too cozy at the end, but perhaps it earns it by going dark early. Also, those jokes have to be a big part of the reason parents dug the movie, n'est ce pas?
