| |
| Author |
Message |
|
| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 11:29 pm |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
|
| Watched for no particular reason Charlie Wilson's War. Fuck but I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman. |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:18 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Gotta take a moment once again to praise the largely unappreciated work of director Charles Walters. the not-as-famous director-choreographer version of Vincente Minnelli who IMO is better than VM. Recently I revisited High Society, the semi-forgotten musical version of The Philadelphia Story which replaced Cary Grant with Bing Crosby, Katharine Hepburn with Grace Kelly, and Jimmy Stewart with Frank Sinatra. It's mostly mediocre (the songs by Cole Porter are not his best, the performances are just okay) but the pace and ambience are perfect and Walters allows Louis Armstrong to steal the show with his opening number, his duet with Crosby, and his overall attitude.
But enough about High Society. It just propelled me into another viewing of Good News, the wildly undersung 1947 college musical that is an unalloyed delight. Such mostly non-musical performers as June Allyson and Peter Lawford charm the socks off us with their really adorable renditions of "The French Lesson" and "The Varsity Drag," and Broadway sensation Joan McCracken burns up the place with "Pass That Peace Pipe." Along the way, Mel Torme does a great version of "The Best Things in Life Are Free." It's total joy.
And that's not mentioning Walters's masterpiece Lili, in which Leslie Caron delivers one of my ten favorite screen performances of all time and which never fails to make me cry tears of joy. And Billy Rose's Jumbo, with a staging of "Over and Over Again" that makes me smile from ear to ear no matter how many times I see it. (Walters apparently had some help from Busby Berkeley on that one.)
Charles Walters deserves a cult, and I hear he's getting one. About time. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:22 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
|
Well did you evah?
There's something about the mediocrity of High Society that I found irresistible. You've set me off in search of Good News. And the spouse has "Lili" on DVD, and apparently I haven't seen it since I was in diapers, so it's off to the movies.
We just saw Annihilation which is the final act of a trippy 2001-ish movie sadly stitched onto the first three acts of a less imaginative movie about automatic weaponry and mutants. The last half hour is surreal and fun, the rest skippable. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:10 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| American Made is a Tom Cruise vehicle I missed on purpose when it opened about a year ago. On purpose because stories about drug running don't automatically ring my chimes, and Tom Cruise is someone I can occasionally take but mostly can leave. This movie, however, is one where I can take him to the max. It's one of his two or three best performances, and the movie is a lot of fun, imbued with mucho energy. The somewhat true story of Barry Seal, a former TWA pilot who transported contraband for Pablo Escobar and other scumbags, is really well directed by Doug Liman, who helmed Swingers and The Bourne Identity. This flick is sort of a combination of those two movies, so if that's your dish, HBO is currently ready to serve. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:12 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Thanks for Sharing is a 2012 dramedy about a bunch of folks in a 12-step program for sex addiction. One of my fave raves Mark Ruffalo plays the lead in a perfect ensemble including Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Joely Richardson, Patrick Fugit, and Pink (yes, THAT Pink, who here goes by her birth name Alecia Moore). Directed beautifully by Stuart Blumberg, it's occasionally too schematic but generally humorous and appropriately dramatic, treating its very very flawed characters with respect. I loved it and would highly recommend you give it a shot. It's streaming on Amazon Prime. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 11:25 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
| If you're looking for a good Polish mermaid vampire musical, I can't help you, because Lure was pretty silly and not that interesting. Also the two teenage girls were topless so often it was hard to believe the film was directed by a woman. They end up working in a burlesque/strip joint. The film sounded a lot more fun then it turned out to be. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:32 pm |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Mary and the Witch's Flower appeared on screens here earlier this year in special release (I think it showed for about three days), which is a shame because I really like it. It's based on a YA novel by Mary Stewart and directed by the director of "The Secret World of Arietty." and tells the story of Mary, of a young red-headed girl sent to the countryside to wait for her parents and the beginning of school.
One day a black cat appears and she follows it, noticing the cat sometimes turns gray, and it leads her to a mysterious growth of glowing blue flowers and a broomstick (both of which we know came from a previous red-headed witch--red-headed witches are the most powerful), and soon discovers that the flowers give her temporary witch's powers. She's flown off to Endor School (a clever name), where she is mistaken for a prodigy, but it soon turns out that the headmaster and most brilliant professor are looking for the flower for their experiments. The terrified Mary betrays an acquaintance Peter, then has to try to save him, showing incredible courage in the process.
Lively and exciting film with details that go by extremely fast even if you slow the DVD to frame by frame. It reminds me a bit of "Kiki's Delivery Service," but this is much more substantial. I think it's a better film.
One bit I found interesting I think is intentional that requires a SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the film, Mary renounces the use of magic, and, when Peter points out that a flower is stuck in her hair, she throws it away. But earlier on, when she plucked the sprig of witch's flowers, there were quite a few sprigs, and she only took one. I'm sure she realizes there are dozens of the witch's flowers hidden in the woods, and she'll never tell a soul. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 8:31 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Can. Not. Believe. it took me this long to check out Baby Driver, which I wanted to see the day it came out but for one reason or another I kept postponing. Well, better late than never was never more true. This movie is instantly a favorite. From the wildly exhilarating soundtrack to the dazzling music-video-style Edgar-Wright-directed car chases to the astonishing lead performance by Ansel Elgort to the spectacular supporting turns by Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx to the brilliant cameos by Jon Bernthal and CJ Jones, this movie is a masterpiece, and arguably my favorite of 2017. It's on Showtime, for your instant gratification. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 11:10 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
|
Lily James devotion is impressive, considering SPOILERS SPOILER SPOILERS
the future prospects of her BF, after 5 years in the slammer and having his eardrums busted by Don Draper. And it was great to see Jon Hamm go through entire scenes without without collapsing onto a couch and contemplatively sipping Scotch.
We saw it the week it came out, so it's probably time to see it again on the wee screen. The car/earbud choreography was thrilling stuff. And, as you say, it was all well put together. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:15 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| I was really impressed by the editing , not something you usually consider until it goes wrong. After suffering through film after film that were edited to a hundred cuts per minute, I was so pleased to see this. This is how you do it, show the action with much lengthier takes, let the audience follow the action without editors' interference, and you have the audience on the edge of their seats. At least I was. It's a minor masterpiece. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:32 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
I wonder how many people quit "Ex Libris: The New York Public Library" after twenty minutes and went to visit their own public library. I'm lucky to have two, the local Pioneer system, which has a lot of local libraries in the OKC area (which gives you a very good chance of capturing that book you've been looking for for years), and the Oklahoma University Library, which really needs a new wing, but is pretty good anyway. (They moved the microforms to another building to create a learning center, which is frustrating if you're looking for an eyewitness account of the Johnstown flood.)
It would be a lot better here if they had provided captions for the mumblers, or at least provided us with the names of the guest lecturers. Apparently the NYPL has a great speakers program which would be even better for me if I knew who the hell the guest speakers were. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:28 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
I forgot about that.
My access to documentaries is rather random.
It helps if they win awards.
The Icarus film about the doping scandal in Russia (if I have all that right) is here, and I've been meaning to partake. Inla gave it praise. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:17 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
|
Syd wrote: I was really impressed by the editing , not something you usually consider until it goes wrong. After suffering through film after film that were edited to a hundred cuts per minute, I was so pleased to see this. This is how you do it, show the action with much lengthier takes, let the audience follow the action without editors' interference, and you have the audience on the edge of their seats. At least I was. It's a minor masterpiece.
To give an indication of the power of those long tracking shots, I will observe that the early scene where he goes to pick up 4 coffees was as kinetically absorbing as most movie chase scenes. And musical selections like "Hocus Pocus" (that Dutch band yodeling song that took over American pop stations in 1971) were quirkily perfect. For a moment, the long takes made me wonder if Edgar Wright and Joe Wright (the famous 4 minute Dunkirk shot in Atonement) were somehow related but apparently not.
Seeing it again, I couldn't avoid a "meta" impression when Spacey exits Hollywood by being mowed down by a car. Or another, when John Hamm perishes after falling several stories ("Mad Men" opening credits, in which his cartoon surrogate plunges between skyscrapers). Or (with more pleasure) the Paul Williams cameo selling assault weapons in the nomenclature of hog charcuterie.
The plot is a string of cliches that have new life breathed into them, such that you forget the triteness. I think that alone pushes it up to "minor masterpiece." |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 10:05 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
gromit wrote: Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
I forgot about that.
My access to documentaries is rather random.
It helps if they win awards.
The Icarus film about the doping scandal in Russia (if I have all that right) is here, and I've been meaning to partake. Inla gave it praise.
Some complaints about Ex Libris, including that it's three and a half hours long. (I'm watching it in segments.) No closed captions, which is not a big problem since most of the speakers don't have accents. But I would have appreciated subtitles telling me who each speaker was.
Love the different emotional takes of the Declaration of Independence, especially the angry take in sign language. I wonder about the librarian who says she's only read "The Wizard of Oz" among the many Oz books, then proceeds to give us a list of the next eight Oz books. (I've read thirteen or Baum's fourteen. I couldn't make it through "The Scarecrow of Oz." "Wizard", "Marvelous Land," "Patchwork Girl," "Rinkitink in Oz" and "Tim Woodsman" make the series well worth checking out.) |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 10:23 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| Murder by Decree is disappointing, partially because Genevieve Bujold is criminally underused, partly because the plot is preposterous, and mostly because Christopher Plummer and James Mason are the least interesting Holmes and Watson in the history of films. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
