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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 5:48 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| In They Came Together, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler make royal fun of many of the cliches of rom-com, although the movie occasionally takes things too far and gets overly twee. It's worth a look, however, for frequent chuckles and the occasional belly laugh. The parody goes way beyond the "montage" tropes, though they are satirized beautifully too. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 8:32 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| I liked the audacity of the scene with the bartender ("tell me about it")....so incredibly drawn out but somehow so funny. Several scenes did a good job taking some romcom cliche to a transgressive extreme. And they nailed that device that makes me loathe most romcoms: the utterly contrived "falling out" between the lovers. Hilariously. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 10:51 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: I liked the audacity of the scene with the bartender ("tell me about it")....so incredibly drawn out but somehow so funny. Several scenes did a good job taking some romcom cliche to a transgressive extreme. And they nailed that device that makes me loathe most romcoms: the utterly contrived "falling out" between the lovers. Hilariously.
The movie is really funny when it's funny, which is often. It's just a little too pleased with its own cleverness to be truly excellent, IMO. Certain sequences are wonderfully transgressive, as you point out. Amy Poehler's parents, Rudd's grandmother. And the bartender scene is amazing. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 12:02 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Yesterday TCM was running a string of pre-Code flicks about secretaries who ended up marrying their bosses. It was one of the few times when I was happy to be stuck at home--all of them were interesting and often witty, with stars like Miriam Hopkins and Marion Davies. My favorite line came in "She Had to Say Yes," when Loretta Young has found out her executive boyfriend has another girl; her roommate says she's never liked him, and Young says, "He used to be different." "Yeah, so was the Republican Party," says the girlfriend. (Circa 1933.) |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun May 03, 2015 9:06 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Great line. Most political quips don't stay fresh that long.
"Grabbers," a 2012 Irish monster film, has a certain wit and satiric edge, as it pits villagers against sea creatures that can venture onto land when it's raining. The creatures, which are nourished by blood, become sickened by a blood alcohol level over (don't recall figure, but it corresponds to "really hammered") and sometimes perish. The dependence of the plot on this could, in the wrong hands, have made for a tedious one-joke movie. "Grabbers," however, goes bouyantly over the top, and offers some romance and stunning Irish scenery along the ascent. Move over, Sharknado. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sun May 03, 2015 5:55 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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The Sweet Hereafter takes place in a small community in the Canadian Rockies. It is the aftermath, mixed with the past, of a school bus tragedy, and how several people deal with it - parents, the p.i. lawyer, others. This is an honest account of communal heartbreak that is endearing for its truth, over movie sentiment. And it has a twist ending you will never see coming.
Throughout we see or hear a woman reading to her kids Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamlin, and it is the perfect metaphor. You will want to read it after you see it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 5:33 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| I've heard good things about that ... |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 10:34 pm |
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gromit wrote: That's one Powell/Pressburger film I haven't seen.
Most of their films I think are pleasant enough with a few good scenes, but nothing more. Small Back Room, 49th Parallel, Black Narcissus, Col. Blimp, Canterbury Tale, Red Shoes. Not really my kind of films. But I did really like I Know Where I'm Going. And Powell's solo oddity Peeping Tom is great, and greatly unlike his other films. Will have to look for Stairway, though the golden age of dvd's and piracy has ended, and the selection here is much more limited now.
I'm watching I Know Where I'm Going! now. It's delightful, but a little slow going for me because I have trouble penetrating some of the accents. I particularly like the dogs, and, of course, Roger Livesey.
Edit: The sound's a bit muddy, which is probably a fault of the restoration, accents and my hearing loss. Still, it's a wonderful film. The crossing scene is amazingly intense, and I love the kiss and its aftermath eith him instantly dropping the luggage and kissing her, her turning back without his noticing, then him finally confronting the curse, which means he can never divorce the woman he's hopelessly in love with. I hope someday to see a version with captions. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 5:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| In the middle of watching Fruitvale Station on Netflix. It's a painful experience because it's so good. It tells the true story of a black man being killed by the poiice in almost documentary fashion. Detailing the victim's final 24 hours, it's sad and moving but, as I said, painful. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 12:05 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: In They Came Together, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler make royal fun of many of the cliches of rom-com, although the movie occasionally takes things too far and gets overly twee. It's worth a look, however, for frequent chuckles and the occasional belly laugh. The parody goes way beyond the "montage" tropes, though they are satirized beautifully too. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 4:49 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Finally watched A Man In Our House (1961) or as the subtitles have it A Hero Under Our Roof. I think the first translation is much better, as it is more subtle and has multiple meanings. There is an extra man in their house. But also for the first time they have a real Man in their house, not the apolitical males of the family. And even it can refer to a Man in Egypt willing to stand up for his (home) country.
Egypt is under British colonial rule and Omar Sharif don't like it. So he assassinates the Egyptian Prime Minister, gets roughed up by the police, and then escapes from the hospital and holes up in an apolitical classmate's family apartment. There's a romance that develops with the sister; while a suitor for the other sister discovers the fugitive hiding there, making things more tense.
What's interesting is that the film is predominately against the Egyptians collaborating with the British, and we see almost nothing of the British, except an off-screen order to shoot protesters early in the film, which incites our young firebrand to act. And while the police do smack people around some, they also take them to the hospital and generally follow the law, with only minor abuse sprinkled in. Even when they go above the law, it's because martial law has been declared so extra-legal steps have been made legal. They could act much worse considering it's a case of assassinating the head of the country (shades of Sadat), and Sharif was caught at the scene.
Also, there's a fair amount of casual classism. The young maid is considered an unreliable gossip, so they decide to pick a fight with her and fire her. Planning to rehire her after Omar Sharif leaves. Why they can't just tell her they have some family business to attend to and offer her a week off with pay is unclear. While the suitor is a cousin who didn't finish high school and is thought to be shady and dishonest.
Students are educated and heroic. The ordinary upper middle class family is apolitical and a bit cowardly, but given the chance join the student vanguard and act bravely for the country. There's also casual sexism as to be expected from 1961 and the Middle East. I was a bit surprised how much makeup the one daughter wears, while the mother dresses more traditional and wears a headscarf.
The film is pretty good, though a bit preachy/heroic at times. And gets a little melodramatic here and there. Also, they could have made it more clear how/why they chose the final target, as its rather vague, which lessens the impact. I did like how when the film ends, instead of The End appearing on screen, the titles say And That Was Just The Beginning ...
The following year Sharif made his Western debut in Lawrence of Arabia. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu May 14, 2015 3:59 am; edited 1 time in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 5:01 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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whiskeypriest wrote: billyweeds wrote: In They Came Together, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler make royal fun of many of the cliches of rom-com, although the movie occasionally takes things too far and gets overly twee. It's worth a look, however, for frequent chuckles and the occasional belly laugh. The parody goes way beyond the "montage" tropes, though they are satirized beautifully too. I thought it was tepid and obvious for the most part, with a couple of funny jokes buried in a so-so SNL sketch stretched out to 90 minutes.
This is certainly a viable description of the film, though how "obvious" it is depends entirely on your hip quotient. As for me, even though I was ahead of most of the satirical points being made, I still laughed out loud more times than I thought I was going to. I loathe most SNL sketches; this one would have saved many a lame episode.
Perhaps my favorite "obvious" joke was the way people said "Thanks" over and over again at the end of a "very special" scene. To me, this was hilarious. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 8:31 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: Finally watched A Man In Our House...
Egypt is under British colonial rule and Omar Sharif don't like it....
Probably Clashed with his values.
Enjoyed ur review, will look for it. Am switching from netflix to a better plan for classics and foreign, next month. Roku has several alts in its menu now.
] |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 5:03 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I should look it up.
Probably one of those well-known key Egyptian films, nobody has seen in the West. The director Henry Barakat had a long 50 year career from 1942 to 1993.
Well, it has a solid 7.1 IMDb rating, but just one review and a mere 415 votes. So a bit more obscure than I thought. I must have bought the Dvd about a dozen years ago, and perhaps the cover and the cheapo dvd packaging dissuaded me from giving it a whirl. I didn't realize it was a political film about colonialism and social justice. From the title I was expecting a family drama, which it does sort of provide in a deeply political context.
On IMDb the title is There Is a Man in Our House which sounds overly literal. Film titles tend not to be full sentences ... |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 10:40 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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billyweeds wrote: In the middle of watching Fruitvale Station on Netflix. It's a painful experience because it's so good. It tells the true story of a black man being killed by the poiice in almost documentary fashion....
Very good and very distressing. The only thing that marred the docu style for me was the way it oversold how sweet he was. I was getting that just fine without the run-down dog scene or the calling grandma to help the white lady fry fish scene. Oscar was a nice guy who had some scrapes along the way, and FS strikes mostly a good balance. The final scenes are horrific, and what they say about law enforcement culture is as timely as it can be. |
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