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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:34 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Saw a movie tonight which I streamed from Netflix. Never heard of it before but based on my liking for Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad (the only good Robin Williams performance in years, tied to a truly edgy and memorable black comic plot) I decided to give Goldthwait's Sleeping Dogs Lie a try.
Talk about a sleeper! I want to shout this movie's praises from the rooftops. It came out in 2006 to no fanfare, no publicity, and pretty great reviews, but as I said I had never even heard the title. It's the story of a girl who...
...now hang in there, because you may turn off after I tell you this...
...performs oral sex on a dog.
Yes. That's what it's about. But it turns into one of the most disarming romantic comedies in my memory. Black, disturbing in some ways, but sweeter than sweet while never becoming saccharine. Don't ask, just see it. See it. See it.
Bobcat Goldthwait is some kind of a great filmmaker. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:48 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Quote: Bobcat Goldthwait is some kind of a great filmmaker.
Shakes The Clown is an odd little gem. I'm glad Goldthwait became a director. As a stand-up comic, he was unbearable. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: Quote: Bobcat Goldthwait is some kind of a great filmmaker. is an odd little gem. I'm glad Goldthwait became a director. As a stand-up comic, he was unbearable.
Quite, quite true. This is another reason why it's such a surprise that he is so very good as a director. He has just about the surest touch with edgy comedy (read: potentially horribly offensive) that I've ever encountered, at least among American directors.
Never seen Shakes the Clown, because I was so unimpressed with Goldthwait as a comedian. Now it will be next on my list. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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This excellent quote from Robert Wilonsky of the Village Voice says everything I would want to say about Sleeping Dogs Lie.
Goldthwait makes this thing work, when you're sure it couldn't, because the Incident could be just about anything humiliating and disgusting you want to keep secret. And he handles it beautifully, crafting from such rough stuff something astoundingly sweet and sharply funny about forgiveness, unconditional love, tenderness, and the things we hide just to get ourselves from one day to the next.
And, Marc, this from Mark Olsen of the LA Times sums up the Goldthwait disconnect.
Those who recall Goldthwait's skittish, neurotic '80s stage persona will be surprised to see his name attached to a film this sensitive to human behavior. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 4:52 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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I knew I would love Julie and Julia, because I love both Streep and Child. I fully expected the former to live inside the latter's soul, and she did. I was laughing out loud whenever she was on screen.
Amy Adams's Julie was sufficiently cute, I suppose. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:07 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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| yambu, agree with you, I do, I absolutely doooo. At long last submitted (and resubmitted, being an inveterate rewriter, all apologies to Lorne) an unprecedented formal inlareview of J&J for Third Eye last week. Both the fillum and its leading ladies charmed, and continue to charm, me, old-school. |
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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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| Marj |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:47 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| Marj |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:36 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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I saw Joaquin Phoenix's last film, Two Lovers. It's is a bit cliched but he is so good that one quickly forgets that. It's worth a rental.
Also while I'm in the Couch, I need to tell anyone who saw or hasn't seen Public Enemies, to rent the DVD. I have never, ever head such a fascinating commentary in my life. I wish I could give you some examples but anything I might say would be a spoiler. Well, here's one thing. It took me two days to watch and listen to everything Mann had to say. What an education I received. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:58 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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American Pastime takes place around a Japanese internment camps named Topaz near Abraham, Utah from 1941 to 1945. The focus is the Nomura family, consisting of a husband and wife and their two sons, Lane and Lyle. Lane goes off to war as part of the 422nd and Lyle stays behind, jazzily playing the saxophone, wooing a local girl who plays the piano, and playing baseball. There are conflicts with the local people, including the girl's father who is none too thrilled that she's being wooed by a Japanese-American boy (Her brother was killed fighting the Japanese.) and a local barber who seems to simply hate the Japanese. One of the pastimes of the interns is baseball, so it all comes to a game between the camp team and the local minor league team, which, of course, includes the barber and the girl's father. Guess who wins.
This is a pretty mediocre movie, reminding me of the better Bollywood movie Lagaan, where it all comes down to cricket. Lyle's the focus, and he just has be not only a star saxophonist, but also the star of the game. There's a little insight into life in the internment camps, but if you're interested in that, you'd really want a documentary. Ken Burns covered this a lot better in his series on the Second World War.
Bdswagger liked this a lot better than I did. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:54 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Saw The Proposal yester. Sort of like Chicken McNuggets: made up of the pieces parts of other - often better - rom coms. Not awful. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:10 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marj wrote: I saw Joaquin Phoenix's last film, Two Lovers. It's is a bit cliched but he is so good that one quickly forgets that. It's worth a rental.
Two Lovers streams on Netflix. I plan to be there. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:21 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| The other RomCom I rented was (D)DoS. I must say that billy's Annie Hall comparison, though wrong, was at least not wrong headed. It is a very good, smart and funny movie, and I enjoyed it immensely, especially for Zooey Daschanel, whose recently vacated under foot ground I have worshiped ever since she was the best thing in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - and by "best thing" I mean "only thing that did not lick Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's charred scrotum in that godawful abomination". Cute and inventive enough in its borrowings of movie tropes to feel fresh, smart about its characters and well-acted. |
Last edited by whiskeypriest on Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:10 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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whiskey,
some of my Facebook friends (the younger ones) intensely dislike 500 Days Of Summer. I wonder if it might be a film about 20 somethings that actually speaks to 40 somethings and older. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:38 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: whiskey,
some of my Facebook friends (the younger ones) intensely dislike 500 Days Of Summer. I wonder if it might be a film about 20 somethings that actually speaks to 40 somethings and older.
What do they dislike about it? Maybe...just maybe...it hits too close to home. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Marc wrote: whiskey,
some of my Facebook friends (the younger ones) intensely dislike 500 Days Of Summer. I wonder if it might be a film about 20 somethings that actually speaks to 40 somethings and older. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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