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| lady wakasa |
 Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Syd wrote: Bottle Shock is a film about the famous 1976 wine tasting contest organized by Steven Spurrier which was won by a wine from Napa Valley. The film itself is most notable for having Alan Rickman in superb form as Spurrier, Dennis Farina as his friend, and Freddy Rodriguez as Gustavo Gambrila, a hired hand at Montelena but also making his own superb wines as a sideline. However, the California segments include Chris Pine as the hippie son of the owner of Montelena and Rachael Taylor as his hippiesh intern, and they get rather much to take. All this amounts to is a pretty ordinary film with three fine performances, and lots of shots of California wine country.
I went to that winery a few times when I lived out there, although I'm pretty sure that's not the name (I've forgotten what it was - Stag's Leap, maybe?).
I'd be interested in the story, although it already sounds dicey.
...But I can see Alan Rickman in a role like that, LOL
I bet they did NOT mention Dr. Wilkinson's Mud Baths, though %^< |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Syd--I disagree about Bottle Shock. Not only did I admire the three performances you liked, I also was fond of Pine and Taylor. They were, I thought, utterly charming. I also really liked Bill Pullman as Pine's dad. And the photography was simply stunning. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:25 pm |
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| Stag's Leap is a very good wine. Never had their whites, but the reds are excellent. When SA and I were down in the North Shore of Lake Tahoe in the early or middle 80's we were a good restaurant there and there was a Stag's Leap Cab on the wine list for $10. We decided to give it a try. Boy were we surprised by how good it was. Needless to say, in no time the price soared. I looked for it when we got home thinking I'd found a terrific bargain. It was already 2 1/2 times the price it was at the restaurant. Oh well. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:00 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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lady wakasa wrote: Syd wrote: Bottle Shock is a film about the famous 1976 wine tasting contest organized by Steven Spurrier which was won by a wine from Napa Valley. The film itself is most notable for having Alan Rickman in superb form as Spurrier, Dennis Farina as his friend, and Freddy Rodriguez as Gustavo Gambrila, a hired hand at Montelena but also making his own superb wines as a sideline. However, the California segments include Chris Pine as the hippie son of the owner of Montelena and Rachael Taylor as his hippiesh intern, and they get rather much to take. All this amounts to is a pretty ordinary film with three fine performances, and lots of shots of California wine country.
I went to that winery a few times when I lived out there, although I'm pretty sure that's not the name (I've forgotten what it was - Stag's Leap, maybe?).
I'd be interested in the story, although it already sounds dicey.
...But I can see Alan Rickman in a role like that, LOL
I bet they did NOT mention Dr. Wilkinson's Mud Baths, though %^<
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars won the Cabernet competition and Chateau Montelena won the Chardonnay. The other two competitions, for Burgundies and Bordeaux were won by French wines. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:34 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Syd wrote: Stag's Leap Wine Cellars won the Cabernet competition and Chateau Montelena won the Chardonnay. The other two competitions, for Burgundies and Bordeaux were won by French wines.
Okay, fair enough; my original source All Those Years Ago only brought up Stag's Leap.
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To bring my comments back to movies: someone posted the following thread about There Will Be Blood on imdb:
Quote: no black people in this film
It's interesting to read the resulting 13 pages of comments (okay, I read five), and how they all made their own assumptions because on a sentence which doesn't say anything (which I'm sure was the point). Says a lot about the commenters... and about reading things into statements that aren't there. Some figured that out, but most, sadly, didn't.
The admins didn't have to delete many posts, though. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:46 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I've had the dvd of Leningrad Cowboys Go America sitting around for years. I thought it might be dopey, and it was, but it's also charming and laugh out loud funny. Their ridiculous hairstyles and ultra-pointy shoes are memorable, plus the weird renditions of rock and country tunes. I would have liked more of their klezmer-polka tunes. I liked the deadpan humor, the faces (especially the goofy accordion player and the chunky guy with the Amish beard), and the breezy nonsense.
It's like The Blues Brothers crossed with Borat, but much more low-key. It's largely a one-joke film, but manages to stay fun and entertaining for 80 minutes. Nice moments include the two band members who ride in the trunk of the Caddy in chairs, Jim Jarmusch's cameo as a used-car salesman ("this car can drive you through World War Three and back"), and the old barber singing a country tune. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:29 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Wendy and Lucy is a small indie about a young woman who on her way to Alaska searching for a job, gets stranded in Oregon where her car breaks down, her dog is missing and she is busted for shop lifting. Sensitive and nuanced.
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:15 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Just watched a movie that I just didn't get when it was first released: The Last Days Of Disco. Much to my surprise, it's really fucking good! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:45 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I thought The Last Days Of Disco was really fucking okay. Some good moments and characterizations balanced off against some real stilted dialogue and clunky subplots.
I did think that Chloe Sevigny's character was interesting (she's kind of a normal, intelligent person muddling through life) and Beckinsale a nice bitch. But I wanted a little more development than what the plot managed.
Stillman's dialogue is frequently over-written, the staging a bit sophomoric, and the peripheral characters too sketchy. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:57 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Marc wrote: Just watched a movie that I just didn't get when it was first released: The Last Days Of Disco. Much to my surprise, it's really fucking good!
Loved the whole triology. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:19 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Gromit,
While watching The Last Days Of Disco, my critical faculties were scrambled by the radiant Chloe Sevigny. She's an actress who has not gotten her due or the roles she deserves. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:22 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Sevigny is good in Big Love on HBO.
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:49 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Whit Stillman's best movie is still Metropolitan. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:50 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Sevigny and Beckinsale really ground the film and make it work. Especially Sevigny who has a more complex character and more screen time.
I got bored every time the one whiny male character appeared, even if he did seem like the model for Chandler on Friends.
I really should see Barcelona. Not sure if that was ever around here. I could see how I might not have noticed the very generic, suburban comedy cover when flipping through a zillion unorganized dvd's.
One thing funny is that when you flip through a few thousand dvd's rapidly in under 30 minutes, you walk out of the store and your brain is almost incapable of remembering even a single title. I used to make sentences with one word from each title I wanted to remember so I could look them up, but now I just bring pen and paper. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I've seen all three Stillman movies mentioned above, and preferred The Last Days of Disco to the other two by quite a large margin. Not only did I admire Sevigny and Beckinsale (the latter particularly well-cast), but I thought all the males were remarkably good as well. And the last scene is terrific (on the subway with, I think, "Love Train" on the soundtrack). It's the only Stillman movie that made me really care about its characters. |
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