ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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Have You Seen My Movie? is a pretty good montage film about the cinema-going experience, made out of hundreds scenes set in cinemas, cut from various well-known films.

 

I heard it might come to Mubi, but generally it will not be commercially available because the director hasn't cleared any of the rights, so he is hoping that he is protected by fair use. Anyway, I hope it will be available in some form, because it's quite fun to watch, especially in the cinema.

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Resurrection by Kristof Hoornaert is a pretty strong feature debut - he started writing this film in 2002 and had to make short films while working in a factory to get into a position of being able to make it. He found an experienced cinematographer and made quite a strong first feature which to me reminded of Bela Tarr's The Turin Horse, but with slightly faster pace and more dialogue.

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I was looking for something to see on a whim for my birthday the other day because we otherwise didn't have much going on except video games, and so my wife and I went to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri based on review scores alone.

 

Geez that movie does not disappoint. It's so good, and the dialogue is incredibly laugh out loud for what should otherwise be a super depressing movie. I don't think the plot premise really lets on why it's so good other than it being a series of ups and downs. Anyway, I'll have to check out more by this director. A friend told me In Bruges is really good.

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I've recently been really enjoying the first two seasons of the BBC series Inside No 9. This has been around for a few years but I'm only just encountering it now via Netflix.

 

It's a 30 minute anthology show where each episode is entirely different in style, story and format. The only thing they have in common is that each one takes place in a single location with a number nine in its title - often a house or an apartment, but sometimes something else, like a sleeper compartment of a railway carriage or a dressing room in a theatre. 

 

I guess you could file it under 'unsettling horror comedy' - something akin to a very British take on the Twilight Zone. But each episode is very different in tone. Some of the stories are small and silly and some of them are really wild. Some of it is quite gentle and funny, and some of it is really, really horrible. Sometimes it's quite affecting as well. Sometimes it is all of these things within the same half hour. One of them is entirely silent! But the ones which are not silent are generally written really well.

 

It's the product of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, who have somehow both written and starred in all the episodes thus far. They are part of the team who made The League of Gentlemen and Psychoville, but it's a very different thing from those shows (which I never fully enjoyed tbh). I think No 9 is comfortably the best thing they've done and one of the most interesting, imaginative, unpredictable British TV shows I've seen in a long time.

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I loved LoG and Psychoville (which was just Shearsmith and Pemberton, btw). Inside No. 9 ranges from brilliant to okay. I couldn't get the Christmas special out of my head for months.

 

Speaking of LoG, they're currently filming three new episodes for the anniversary. I would normally be worried, but the other stuff they're doing now is still generally fantastic.

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I finally got around to watching Drugstore Cowboy which I'd been meaning to do for quite a while and it was very good.  I expected to like it since I really like Matt Dillon and Gus Van Sant when he's in form (which he definitely was here).  That being said I feel similar about it to how i feel about Requiem For A Dream (which for the record I like, but not as much as this) which is that after seeing Panic in Needle Park it feels like I'm watching a movie.  Drugstore Cowboy is definitely super grounded and nothing is over the top, but there are a lot of scenes where we either get some sort of shot of someone shooting up and it's accompanied by  some quick cuts and sounds effects (much like Requiem) and some sort of semi-abstract visuals, or some sort of image superimposed on the screen that has something trippy going on like hats spinning to accomplish the same sort of thing and personally I'm not a fan of that.  What I really like about The Panic in Needle Park, which remains the most bleak and harrowing movie about drug use I've ever seen, is how straight and raw it is with it's characters and story.  There's no extreme closeups in a series of quick cuts of spoons and needles and shapes and lights with sounds, it's just a couple people and everything feels super honest as a result.  That being said I still really liked Drugstore Cowboy and it's certainly much easier to watch than Panic.  Having watched the entire Cowboy Trilogy in this year I can safely say that Drugstore is a solid second place, ahead of Urban and behind Midnight.

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(The) Wild Boys by Bertrand Mandico was pretty wild. But I can hardly say anything about it without spoiling some of the fun. I would even recommend not searching any information at all* about the movie before seeing it, if you can. I went in because I had a free slot during the festival and I liked the trailer, but didn't know anything else. It's kind of avant gard, syrrealistic, very erotic. I guess somewhat in the same style as some Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani movies.

 

* I think being more specific could even be considered a spoiler.

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On 1/12/2017 at 9:45 AM, TheLastBaron said:

What I really like about The Panic in Needle Park, which remains the most bleak and harrowing movie about drug use I've ever seen, is how straight and raw it is with it's characters and story. ... Having watched the entire Cowboy Trilogy in this year I can safely say that Drugstore is a solid second place, ahead of Urban and behind Midnight.

Added Panic in Needle Park to watchlist.

 

You should also watch the series based on the Cowboy Trilogy, Cowboy Bebop.

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I finally got around to watching The Martian last night.  I really loved it.  It feels somewhat incomplete, probably due to content being lost during the book to movie transition, but I still found it very enjoyable.

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Three Billboards Outside of Ebbings, Missouri is really exciting on a scene to scene basis but I really didn't buy any of it. McDonagh tries so hard to give the audience whiplash, emotionally and tonally, that it feels way too highly constructed for such a relatively realistic movie. There's a moment where Frances McDormand's character goes from hostile to nurturing on a dime's turn and it felt phony. Same with the redemption arc of the film's most despicable character. There's a lot of little moments where it feels like McDonagh is trying to make the characters complicated and instead just undermines their reality. Every character's actions seemed to stem from a screenwriter's desire to shock instead of their own inner state, especially the stuff with the letters*.

 

But Frances McDormand is amazing and it has Martin McDonagh's trademark dialogue and about a hundred really good little storytelling moments. I just never really got lost in the story or characters. 

 

As for the regressive/mean-spirited humor stuff, it's pretty clear that these are all bad, flawed people and I think it's more a device to key the audience not to root too hard for any one character than an expression of Martin McDonagh's actual beliefs. On the other hand, thinking that people this sexist/racist/homophobic/sizeist are so easily redeemable and worth empathizing with is definitely very, as the Twittersphere would say, "centerist", especially since none of the people of color get all the generous "depth" and "complication" that McDonagh grants the white characters. This is exacerbated by the fact that the film doesn't really have a moral center or even any one strong belief it holds. It tries to be bold and transgressive but actually feels quite timid in that way. It's like South Park, if South Park were funny.

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The Disaster Artist is a very perfunctory and uninspired movie. Franco does a good Wiseau impression but reveals nothing about the character, so it's never more than that. I like movies about making movies and this had all that same behind-the-scenes fun but anyone expecting more out of it, closer to something like Ed Wood, will be sorely disappointed. That said, the audience I saw it with were mostly die-hard The Room people (and had tickets to see the monthly midnight screening immediately after) and they absolutely loved it so if you are a huge fan you'll probably like this more than me.

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I unfortunately did not come off with an awesome feeling from seeing Three Billboards Outside of Ebbings, Missouri. It's a strange and bumpy and ambiguous movie, so here's a strange and bumpy and ambiguous and spoiler laden review... 
 

Spoiler

I felt the script was too on the nose, with most actors delivering campy lines that were overly expositional. McDormand's character was overly cinematic and characterized as a cow-boy-woman, perhaps most egregiously in the opening shots but that first impression was lasting, she eventually does settle into the roll as revenge seeking mother with a chip on her shoulder. That dentist scene was gruesome and is a lasting visual my mind wanders back to.


Sam Rockwell's character as befuddled policeman was overly infantilized, the turtle was fine but the comic books and toys and headphone dancing just were not well integrated. Rockwell's second act is interesting, despite being ham fisted via the epistolary plot twist during the arson. The conclusion to Woody Harrelson's plot was also a tonal hodgepodge, the epistolary delivery of his sage mentor advice also seemed wedged into the story. Strange mood whiplashes in scenes where domestic violence transitions into parlor faux pax. The racial slurs were bluntly delivered as tropes to signal the bigotry of the characters, they felt like sign posts for the audience and not artifacts of the world the characters live in. The introduction of the mysterious outsider occurred too late too feel like a part of the first act of the film, but that's because it was actually a set up for the final act of the film. The second arson sequence was even more awkwardly delivered than the first one. Caleb Landry Jones stole the show, his nervous defiance and reluctant mercy was really well delivered. 


Perhaps it was just the cinematography that soured my impression of the film, an editorial of tight two shots where you rarely see actors inhabit a space together. The super imposed deer was awkward to say the least. Perhaps the script of the film was improvised, perhaps Harrelson's dropped out of the movie early. Something about the whole movie felt off. Perhaps if it didn't have so many big name actors, perhaps if the shots were framed differently, perhaps if the script was whittled down a little more. 


I think I'm compelled to speak so derisively of the film after hearing positive buzz and I went in with the wrong expectations. The plot was as rambling and disjointed, it lacked the subtlety I expect from a drama, but contained too much gravity to be an actual comedy, or it didn't hit the dry tone of dark humor that I personally prefer.

 

I do appreciate the story's attempt to illustrate the lack of closure to such horrible life events, and to portray a world of characters that were deeply flawed but also driven humans. 

 

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I think therefore I scan 

I know the air is sweet

I know not what I am 

I am CHAMELEON STREET. 

 

It's been a while since I've seen it but I've been looking through all the a films I've  watched for the first time this year and remember really enjoying this.First heard about it on the great film  podcast called All Units, where the host talked about it with Perfect Blue(.http://thewonderofitall.xyz/all-units-episodes/2017/9/21/9-work-career-opportunities) it's the(true!?)story of con man Doug Street who apparently performed several hysterectomies with no medical training while impersonating a doctor. The film is weird and funny and angry and has a really boring sub plot, I recommend it! It won the grand prize at Sundance (I think) and then just disappeared, it's on YouTube now. 

 

 

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Can I use this thread to ask for recommendations? I think yes.

 

I've decided to catch up with Hitchcock a bit - I had recently only seen 9 of his 50 or so movies and now I'm at 14. Just watched Dial M for Murder and man, this is the stuff for me. This is actually how I mostly remember good old movies from my childhoold - that they involved mainly a man and a woman and took place in a room. I'm not sure why I remember it mostly like that, maybe I just happened to see such movies at an influential time. I think Dial M for Murder might have been one of those movies that left a permanent mark in my brain when I saw it as a kid because watching it now felt very familiar, but I didn't remember that I've seen this exactly. Actually I felt like there were some differences... was there a remake which changed some facts around? Was there a similar plot in a Columbo episode, or something else?

 

So my question is, can you recommend any other old movies* or TV show episodes where the film mostly takes place in an apartment and preferably** involves a (possible) murder? I will mention a few which I already know (not all with murders): Rear Window, Rope, The Apartment, The Tenant, Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby.
 

* not necessarily Hitchcock films, and I will not put an exact limit to 'old'

** I'm also open to watching old movies that take place in an apartment where there is no murder involved

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Deathtrap and Sleuth are not that old ('82 and '72, respectively) but they make a positively wonderful "Verbose and Witty Two-Handed Single Location Michael Caine Play Adaptation Comedy Thrillers About Murder And People Talking About Murder" double feature. Sleuth is OOP and probably harder to track down legally (though I hear, through the grapevine, many OOP movies are uploaded in their entirety to YouTube) but Deathtrap is available on most legit streaming sites and on disc via Warner Archive.

 

They are both somewhat tongue in cheek homages to the stage thrillers of the era that plays like Dial M for Murder made famous, but not so much that they turn into parody. Deathtrap is probably the more suspenseful of the two (director Sidney Lumet does really great work creating a metafictional aesthetic) while Sleuth is definitely the wittier and more verbose. If you've only seen Christopher Reeves as Superman Deathtrap is a real treat and proof that he was legitimately one of the great actors of his generation and if you've only seen Laurence Olivier in roles where he's hamming it up and shouting than...well that's exactly what you get in Sleuth, but it's great fun.

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I think Frenzy is another underrated Hitchcock film, probably because it didn’t have big stars and was too violent? Anyway, I found it to be brilliant in how the tricks of cinematography were effectively used for storytelling.

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Damn, I think all movies that Hitchcock made after Psycho are underrated (at least if I go by Letterboxd - too lazy to analyse ratings on other services). I've now seen them all, and the only ones I'd say are safe to skip are Torn Curtain and maybe Topaz. And even these are good movies, just maybe nothing that special. And actually I'm even taking a liking to Topaz in retrospect, there's just a problem that it looks a bit too artificial at times.

 

But The Birds, Marnie, Frenzy and Family Plot are all great. I just saw Family Plot - his last movie - and I really liked it. I like the subtle humor in it, never laugh out loud, but you are often just about to laugh, made me think of Blood Simple. And there are at least a couple genius cinematographic moves there, one of which I suspect other directors later got from this movie, but it may have been an older trick as well.

 

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In Christmas movies like Miracle on 34th Street and The Santa Clause where Santa is real but adults don't believe in him, what does Santa actually do? Because if he delivers presents to all the boys and girls of the world, where do their parents think those presents came from? And If he doesn't, what good is he?

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Does Santa bring gifts for everyone or just children? I think parents buy their kids presents in addition to the ones Santa brings but the parents are too oblivious and self involved to notice the extra gifts. 

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Which probably means Santa Claus is a terrible thoughtless kind of evil.

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