Return of the RECENT VIEWING

..and why not?
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Matt Wilson
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jun 2018, 01:04

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The Great Silence

Il Grande Silenzio is one of the best non-Leone spaghetti westerns around. Entirely set in a snowbound town and the surrounding area, with one of the most pessimistic endings in film, this satisfies on most levels and checks off nearly every box you associate with the genre. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as a mute hero who only seems to kill bounty hunters, and Klaus Kinski (the hunchback whom Lee Van Cleef kills in For a Few Dollars More) as the bounty hunter being hunted. A gorgeous Ennio Morricone score is icing on the cake. Most of the best non-Leone Italian westerns have some kind of Leone connection. Hell, half of them star Van Cleef! Director Sergio Corbucci did Django, another essential entry in the crowded SW field.

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The Big Combo

Average noir which nevertheless enjoys a great reputation. Good photography, mediocre dialogue. Remember Richard Conte in The Godfather as Barzini, the head of the five families? He's a gangster here as well, with Cornel Wilde (he was just in Road House which I reviewed a week or so ago) as a detective obsessed with bringing him down. It's even got the before-mentioned Lee Van Cleef. I dunno, I was underwhelmed.

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Midnight Cowboy

A true counter culture classic. I always thought it was Hoffman's film, but after not seeing it for years (decades?) I now believe Voight gives the superior performance. His natural talent for accents serves him well here, while Dustin gets by on ticks and mannerisms. He's still great though. Criterion's new blu makes this ugly-looking picture shine. There's a full-on Warholian psychedelic party sequence here, and this was released before Easy Rider.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby driftin » 10 Jun 2018, 17:35

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As brilliant as ever.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby naughty boy » 10 Jun 2018, 17:41

Matt Wilson wrote:Image
Midnight Cowboy

A true counter culture classic. I always thought it was Hoffman's film, but after not seeing it for years (decades?) I now believe Voight gives the superior performance. His natural talent for accents serves him well here, while Dustin gets by on ticks and mannerisms. He's still great though. Criterion's new blu makes this ugly-looking picture shine. There's a full-on Warholian psychedelic party sequence here, and this was released before Easy Rider.


Thinking of buying that Criterion - the extras worth it, Matt?
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby sloopjohnc » 10 Jun 2018, 18:39

Saw the Artemis Hotel yesterday, starring Jodie Foster. One of her best performances and an interesting choice for her.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Twang » 10 Jun 2018, 21:20

Hereditary was great

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Matt Wilson
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 10 Jun 2018, 23:43

The Venerable B. Eef wrote:
Matt Wilson wrote:Image
Midnight Cowboy

A true counter culture classic. I always thought it was Hoffman's film, but after not seeing it for years (decades?) I now believe Voight gives the superior performance. His natural talent for accents serves him well here, while Dustin gets by on ticks and mannerisms. He's still great though. Criterion's new blu makes this ugly-looking picture shine. There's a full-on Warholian psychedelic party sequence here, and this was released before Easy Rider.


Thinking of buying that Criterion - the extras worth it, Matt?


If you love the movie, then this is the best it's looked on home video. Schlesinger provides commentary from 1991, and there are various documentaries on the film as well as one on the screenwriter. A period interview with Voight, etc. I'd say yes, the extras are icing on the cake.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby naughty boy » 11 Jun 2018, 00:24

Great - thanks. Ordered.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 11 Jun 2018, 05:24

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The Untouchables

I've always had a soft spot for De Palma's film. As pure entertainment goes, it's up there with Scarface, and I still get a kick out of Connery. There are plenty of plot holes (I noticed various scenes where Elliot Ness and his men blatantly walk around Chicago with rifles in plain sight and no one seems to notice), but you're not watching a picture like this for authenticity, right? The transfer is ten years old, and a new, 4K scan would be welcome, but it's good enough for now.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Snarfyguy » 12 Jun 2018, 21:27

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Kind of a psychological gothic horror thriller thing from 1964, in very nice looking black & white. William Castle directs a Robert Bloch script and George Kennedy has a delightful turn as a degenerate halfwit farmhand.

Not a big Crawford fan; I gather her career's on the skids here, although I enjoyed her performance. The whole thing's ridiculously over-the-top, but do you really want restraint from this kind of movie?

One cool thing I've never seen before: in one scene Crawford angrily stubs out a cigarette on the surface of an LP record while it's playing on the phonograph.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 14 Jun 2018, 22:42

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Silverado

Kasdan's mid '80s attempt to resurrect the western is only partially successful. A fine cast of up-and-coming actors and good photography can't save an overstuffed screenplay where there are too many characters all with back stories with a slightly overlong running time.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby pcqgod » 15 Jun 2018, 16:18

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Hereditary (2018)

This is pretty much full-tilt supernatural horror, though a slow burn through the first hour or more while tension is carefully ramped up. The start of a new wave of this genre, along with 'The Witch' (2015)?
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Goat Boy » 15 Jun 2018, 16:24

A strong first half with a couple of great moments let down by a cliched second half and too much exposition.

Good but not great and considering the reviews rather disappointing. Do these people even watch horror?
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Twang » 15 Jun 2018, 17:05

What's been better in the last 5-10 years? Genuinely curious. It's not "my" genre, and I tend to be underwhelmed by it.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Goat Boy » 15 Jun 2018, 17:19

Off the top of me head...

Antichrist
Cabin In The Woods
Let The Right One In
It Follows
Raw
I Saw The Devil
Martyrs
Rec 1 and 2
Kill List
The Babadook
Green Room
Under The Shadow
The Loved Ones
Don't Breathe
Under The Skin


I really think with Hereditary your reaction will be more positive if you're not that much of a horror fan. Kermode hits on this in his review which I think sums it up really well.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Twang » 15 Jun 2018, 17:44

Thanks. I've been meaning to check some of those out. I wasn't all that impressed by It Follows but liked Let the Right One In and Green Room well enough.

Just listened to Kermode's review. Horror movies have to overcome a lot to really get to me I think because I generally find them stupid and ridiculous from the start (i.e., put me in the not really a horror fan camp). I have such low expectations for their endings that I tend to be impressed when they can land it cleverly or in a way I didn't see coming. I thought Hereditary did both but I agree that it was a letdown from the earlier scene(s). I disagree that it was worse than The Witch, though, and It Comes at Night was kind of shit, wasn't it?

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Goat Boy » 15 Jun 2018, 18:07

Not all those movies have the same high points Hereditary has but I think they are more satisfying as movies, you know?
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby pcqgod » 15 Jun 2018, 21:12

I felt that it compared favorably to 'The Babadook' and 'Under the Shadow.' Yes, it features some horror cliches, but sometimes cliches still work.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Darkness_Fish » 15 Jun 2018, 21:27

Properly Good
Let The Right One In
I Saw The Devil
Martyrs
Rec 1
The Babadook
Don't Breathe

Pretty Good
Antichrist
Rec 2
It Follows

Ruined by really, really pathetic endings
Cabin In The Woods - Most egregious example of "throw some CGI shit at the screen" in recent history
Kill List - Hunchback lolz

Not seen
Green Room
Under The Shadow
The Loved Ones
Under The Skin
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby pcqgod » 15 Jun 2018, 22:01

'Green Room' is excellent. Not sure I'd call it horror, though.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Darkness_Fish » 18 Jun 2018, 09:15

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Visually gorgeous black and white vampire film, dialogue entirely in Farsi, though the locations are all in the US. Some really, really good scenes; the girl pushing the drugged-out dracula down the street on the skateboard, the slow bedroom scene with the mirrorball. The only major flaw is the same as with a lot of art-house stuff, there's no commitment to seeing through the narrative, which usually feels like a cop-out to me.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.


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