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| lady wakasa |
 Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:21 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Syd wrote: Faust (1926) was F. W. Murnau's last German film before he came to the United States. His next film was the classic Sunrise. Faust is also considered a classic, but I'm more lukewarm about it. I suspect it would work better on a big screen and certainly with a better print.
People go on about Faust, but I think it's Murnau's Tartuffe that has one of the best opening sequences I've ever seen. Period. (I even made Lorne sit through a description of it when I met him. %^D) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:35 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Nothing I had read or fantasized had prepared me for the sheer enchantment and mind-blowing ecstasy of Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues. It's a great film--and those here know my selectivity about using the word "great." It's an animated film, not my favorite genre, but probably the best animated film I've ever seen.
Almost impossible to describe, it incorporates two parallel stories of women being betrayed by men and wraps them up with an inspired comment on women's empowerment. Along the way it employs several different styles of animation, all dazzlingly original, and uses a host of wonderful 1920s-30s-style songs by Annette Hanshaw, reminiscent of Ruth Etting but completely unheard (though not unheard of) by me until now. What a delight she is, and what a great spokesperson for Sita (the ancient heroine of one story) and Nina (the modern heroine of the autobiographical-by-Paley other).
An animated film about female empowerment, directed by a woman who is the hero of one of the stories. Not a recipe for something I would kvell over. But it's one of the best films of 2009 in my book, and (with The Hurt Locker) one of the only two I would dub "great." Go figure. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:33 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a hoot. To say it's Will Ferrell's best film (or, more accurately, the best "Will Ferrell film") is not saying all that much for me, since I've disliked/felt meh about/loathed every other one. But TN:TBORB is really, truly funny, almost from beginning to end. A take-no-prisoners satire on trailer trash, or whatever you call that segment of society that thrives on NASCAR racing, it features hilarious acting by Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Jane Lynch, Leslie Bibb and others, and has a story that you can really get into. I loved it.
The unintentional double bill that resulted from my Netflix rental of Sita Sings the Blues and Talladega Nights was one of the most enjoyable evenings I've spent at the movies in a long time. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:29 am |
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With any luck those two might open here sometime.  Thanks Billy. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:06 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:10 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a hoot. To say it's Will Ferrell's best film (or, more accurately, the best "Will Ferrell film") is not saying all that much for me, since I've disliked/felt meh about/loathed every other one. But TN:TBORB is really, truly funny, almost from beginning to end. A take-no-prisoners satire on trailer trash, or whatever you call that segment of society that thrives on NASCAR racing, it features hilarious acting by Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Jane Lynch, Leslie Bibb and others, and has a story that you can really get into. I loved it.
I think it's the name "Ricky Bobby" that keeps me away. That something is improbable is often what makes something funny, but "Ricky Bobby" rings so cutesy false to me that it turns me off the picture. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:17 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Ricky Bobby is not such an outlandish name. There is a theater actor/director named Walter Bobbie who won the Tony for directing Chicago. Remember the actor Tony Bill, also producer of The Sting? Granted, the name Ricky Bobby was chosen for its silly sound, but it's not unbelievable. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:49 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Passon Fish is wonderfully set in Lafayette, LA, the heart of Cajun Country. Alfre Woodard is the umpteenth home care giver for Mary McDonnell, a hard drinking, TV-watching, self-pitying parapalegic bitch. It's a pretty conventional making friends flick, written, directed and acted superbly by people who don't have much else in their careers to recommend them. Qualifiers - John Sayles had written the screenplay for Baby It's You, a small favorite of mine; and I haven't seen McDonnell in Grand Canyon. Oh, and David Strathairn is in it. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Ricky Bobby is not such an outlandish name. There is a theater actor/director named Walter Bobbie who won the Tony for directing Chicago. Remember the actor Tony Bill, also producer of The Sting? Granted, the name Ricky Bobby was chosen for its silly sound, but it's not unbelievable.
Good point. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:29 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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| I remember really liking Passion Fish. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:44 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Driving Lessons is a coming of age story about a shy 17-year-old whose father is an Anglican priest and whose mother is a Christian fanatic follower of a new preacher. She dominates both her husband and son, including taking in a batty old man who ran over his wife. She insists her son take a job to help pay for this, and he's so beaten down he does so. The job turns out to be as an aide for an aging actress who's a bit bonkers herself, but claims to be a Dame, although she's best known for her part in a soap opera about shipping magnates, the title of which is, imaginatively, Shipping Magnates. Naturally, her free spirit liberates the boy and vice versa.
This is pretty ordinary stuff, elevated by the performances of Laura Linney as the mother, Julie Walters as the aging actress (playing about 15 years older than her real age, and reminding me a lot of Betty White, but less annoying), and, to my surprise, Rupert Grint as the son, in one of his rare acting performances outside of the Harry Potter movies. |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:35 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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| I agree with you about Driving Lessons, Syd. A gem of a picture that didn't get enough publicity at the time of its release. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:47 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Finally saw Last Chance Harvey. A small-scaled, extremely off-handed and delicate film, but a disarming, charming, utterly satisfying one nonetheless. Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson work their considerable chemistry for all it's worth and then some without evident effort -- his heartfelt speech at the climactic wedding reception and her wrenched-out admission at the denouement misty-fied me. Notable not only for its stars, both of whom are reason enough to see it, but for writer-director Joel Hopkins' keenly economic script and unfussy helming of some well-chosen London locations and as fine-tuned a supporting cast as has been assembled in a while. Particularly appreciated the ever-reliable Dame Eileen Atkins as Kate's (Emma's) bored/paranoid mum -- absolutely tickled me in the during-the-final-credits button -- and a luminous Liane Balaban as Harvey's daughter, yet they're all wonderful, with Kathy Baker achieving more with a single look as Harvey's ex-wife than many actors manage with an entire script. Instantly a new favorite modern romantic comedy in character-study guise, Highly recommended.
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| inla--Couldn't agree more, as I said at the time of its release. Hoffman and Thompson have amazing chemistry, the kind you can't buy or predict or direct into being. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 4:43 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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willybeeds, I remember that. It's really very special, their mutual affinity, and there's something to be said for film stars who can so readily play close to their presumed real-life personas. Most critically, am thinking that it will shortly supplant, oh, Michael Clayton, Slumdog Millionaire and Mamma Mia! as the mater's new film to watch over and over and over again (surely a mercy in itself). My suspicion is that, besides her lifelong Hoffmania, she relates to Dame Atkins' Maggie, though I'm sure I couldn't say why. I mean, none of the neighbors are Polish immigrants who barbecue all the time and carry body-sized objects out to the woodshed, at least as far as I know, and there are no lovably hangdog jingle writers on my horizon, dagnabbit.
Edited before the Punctuation Police haul me in. |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:01 pm; edited 2 times in total
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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