Movie/TV recommendations

[Woodfella]

Tried and failed to make it through The Revenant. Unbelievably tedious.

So tedious. Ridiculously long. DiCaprio gets battered to the point it becomes funny, to me anyway. Got some dirty looks when I chortled at him after hed just fallen off a cliff. All the spiritual malarkey can do one too.

[Gormongous]

If their house style didn't make it difficult for me to read more than one article every month or so, I'd remember more often that Cracked has some really good pieces of criticism about visual culture. For instance, this listicle of annoying writer cheats in TV and film is practically an inventory of everything that causes me to drop shows these days. The only entries that it's missing are "killing off recurring characters as a substitute for dramatic tension" and "making every antagonist the long-lost friend or lover of the protagonist."

[Gwardinen]

If their house style didn't make it difficult for me to read more than one article every month or so, I'd remember more often that Cracked has some really good pieces of criticism about visual culture. For instance, this listicle of annoying writer cheats in TV and film is practically an inventory of everything that causes me to drop shows these days. The only entries that it's missing are "killing off recurring characters as a substitute for dramatic tension" and "making every antagonist the long-lost friend or lover of the protagonist."

Spectre really bothered me with that last one. I really don't think Bond films, of all things, need all that forced interconnectedness.

[Gormongous]

Spectre really bothered me with that last one. I really don't think Bond films, of all things, need all that forced interconnectedness.

 

Yeah, that's exactly the situation of which I was thinking. Batman vs. Superman also had a related groaner with the "Martha" revelation.

 

Anyway, I watched the second season of Better Call Saul and the show still does nothing for me, not really. There was an excellent cliffhanger, which will probably have me tuning back into the show come winter, but Breaking Bad this ain't.

 

More specific thoughts:

People on Vox and Slate are talking about how Better Call Saul is about how Jimmy McGill becomes Saul Goodman, just like how Breaking Bad is about how Walter White became Heisenberg, and the former is more interesting than the latter because more subtle, but I don't agree. The thing with Walter was that it was virtually impossible to guess just how low he would sink, so it was exciting to see where his thresholds were, but we already know how low Jimmy will sink: by the end of the show, he will sink deep enough to become Saul, guaranteed. The question (and, really, the only interesting part of the show for me) is how long he'll take and whom he'll drag down with him, which the show is drawing out to an excruciating degree. It also doesn't help that, for me, Jimmy is already functionally Saul. There are no hidden depths of evil or cowardice, like Walter had: Jimmy is simply Saul, but with a support network still intact. Without that, he loses hope and becomes the sleazy lawyer that he already intermittently is. It verges on the "prequels that answer questions no one was asking" point in the above Cracked article. I was excited about Better Call Saul because I thought it would show us Saul's experience with other dirtbag clients, prior to and concomitant with Walter White. I didn't really need to know how he got to the point where he was taking dirtbag clients, I figured that out all on my own.

 

Also, and I'm going to be a bit more complimentary here because I need to be, Chuck isn't a good antagonist for Jimmy. Two seasons have established that Chuck knows Jimmy backwards and forwards. The only thing holding Chuck back is his guilt- and insecurity-born psychosis. In fact, Chuck is a much better protagonist than Jimmy is: a hyper-competent lawyer struggling with illness, an ambivalent business partner, and a younger brother who "helps" in all the wrong ways. His struggle is real, as opposed to Jimmy's halfhearted struggle to not be a shitbird. Seeing Chuck set against the actual protagonist, Jimmy, demoralizes me because I only see one of two outcomes: either Chuck rightly triumphs over Jimmy and, in defeat, Jimmy loses his last scruple, becoming Saul; or Jimmy triumphs over Chuck through sheer luck and Chuck is destroyed by that, which makes Jimmy lose his last scruple, becoming Saul. The latter is more interesting than the former, but only slightly. 

 

Finally, it is a horrible misjudgment to have Better Call Saul feature Mike Ehrmantraut's backstory, too, because it is understated, tense, and fiercely interesting, which makes it almost unbearable as a periodic five-minute interlude to Jimmy sucking at being a lawyer, a brother, and a friend. I want Mike to have his own show, just like I want Kim Wexler to have her own show, rather than just being Jimmy's reluctant girlfriend and agony aunt. A lot of wasted potential there, which isn't surprising given how open the show-runners have been about running each season's plot by the seat of their pants...

[Patrick R]

I've seen a slew of good-not-great movies lately that I'd all recommend for their strong points.

 

Nemesis (1992) - This direct to video cyberpunk movie is maybe secretly one of the best in it's field. It's probably the closest any film has come to capturing a William Gibson vibe (the lead character is basically a shameless rip-off of the Turner character in Count Zero), but the production design makes it also feel like an adaptation of an anime or maybe even some lost Data East arcade brawler. There's no shortage of gunfights, explosions and cheesy acting (basically every line of dialogue in the movie was done in post), but it also has an oppressive existential tone and an almost Cronenbergian obsession with sexy sweaty bodies being pulled apart to reveal big chunky electronics. It's cheap as hell but shockingly effective and fun on top of it.

 

Like most direct to video action movies of it's era, you can easily find it on YouTube. There is also a recent German blu-ray release that is apparently gorgeous looking.

 

Ip Man (2010) - Obviously I'm behind the curve here, as this has been a modern classic martial arts movie for half a decade, but if you don't know, this is a real good martial arts movie. Donnie Yen is the complete package, a good actor, a charismatic movie star and a great martial artist. This is basically a big cheesy Hollywood take on kung fu movies, with a big historical backdrop. It works the way that a Rocky movie works. The astounding thing is it works this way even though the titular character of Ip Man never comes close to losing a fight and his moral principles are basically never in question. That Ip Man can manage to wring any tension from such a unimpeachable main character is kind of amazing. Good solid entertainment.

 

Antoine and Collette (1962) - Part of an anthology film, this is Truffaut's follow-up to The 400 Blows that follows the further adventures of Antoine Doniel. If you like The 400 Blows this is a worthy addition, with the main character now in his late teens and trying to navigate the world of women. If you haven't seen The 400 Blows, skip this and watch that instead.

 

My Life In Pink (1997) - A touching Belgium film about a seven-year-old trans girl whose family and community cannot understand her. Notable primarily for being so ahead of it's time in just insisting that people let trans children be their actual gender (while, at the same time, America was grappling with the idea of Ellen Degeneres being gay like it was a national crisis). It's pretty by the numbers as far as these sorts of narratives go, but there's enough good quiet observational moments and Burtonesque surreal flourishes that it never feels tedious. It's also pretty subtle and nuanced for the kind of narrative it is. Good stuff.

 

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) - Scorsese feels like the wrong director for the material, seeming uncomfortable whether trapped in motel rooms and diners or outside in it's southwest locations (of all the regionally-specific dramas of the 70's, this is maybe the least regionally specific), but Ellen Burstyn's performance is on a whole other planet. It's genuinely astonishing to watch her work, displaying so many conflicting emotions all at once. She's able to be devastated, then laugh it off, then get exasperated, then put on a happy face for her kid all in the span of 3 seconds. Really strong drama

[Erkki]

I've seen some movies.

 

• Grave of the Fireflies - I've never cried so much before. Also, during the movie, after perhaps the saddest part, I got a call that a relative of mine had died, so I cried even more.
• Apu Trilogy - these are great and I would recommend to everyone. I think the last one is most regarded, but I really loved the first one.
• The "Dead Mountaineer" Hotel - kind of sci-fi/neo-noir set in the midst of snow, it's an Estonian movie based on a Strugatskies' book. It isn't bad, but doesn't quite fulfill its promise. Worth seeing just for the amazing prog-rock/electronic score. You may try watching it with auto-transalated subtitles on YT:
• Woman in the Dunes - a really unique and interesting slow thriller
• 10 Cloverfield Lane - a good movie. I liked the ending, in spite of being warned that the last 15 minutes would suck.
• Wages of Fear - amazing pace
• Come and See - this is the most devastating movie about war from the perspective of a teenage boy who enlists

[Erkki]

I think I may be becoming as obsessed with Chimes at Midnight as I was with Mad Max: Fury Road last year. I just watched the Mr Bongo* blu-ray version because I just couldn't wait for the Janus Films restoration to become available. It's such a masterpiece. The first time I kind of half-dismissed it because I was so not used to Shakespearean dialogue that it made the film hard to follow, but once I accepted that all the dialogue here is written by the bard and in that old style, I just tried my best to read it, and it became a real work of brilliance.

 

* Well, it is HD quality, but it kind of sucks. The black and grey levels are awful, the sound keeps popping, and on some occasions is out of sync, but the latter may not even be fixable as far as I know. Anyway, the Janus Films trailer suggests that the new restoration is going to be awesome.

[Patrick R]

Also that era of Welles will always be rough around the edges and have audio sync problems. Mr. Arkadin, even with the pristine 35mm print I saw, is the exact same way. Without studio money behind him, Welles' later work doesn't have near the amount of technical polish of Kane or Ambersons.

[namman siggins]

Wages of Fear - amazing pace

 Have you seen Sorcerer? It's an brilliant remake of Wages

It also has a killer Tangerine Dream soundtrack.

[Erkki]

It's on my (admittedly 450+ long and growing) watchlist!

[brkl]

I feel like every Friedkin movie I've seen has been half awesome and half dumb. Often great tension and visuals, but he likes twists that I find unnecessary and silly.

[Erkki]

This is a potentially awesome thing: Criterion and TCM making a cinefile streaming service. Will have a wider selection at a time than Mubi, and I hope it will be internationally accessible. If not, then I will feel stupid for putting into conveniet Letterboxd list form all films that appeared on their sizzle reel, which I plan to watch before they launch.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Mostly it just pisses me off because now instead of being able to watch them all via Hulu+, which I get free from using Bing as my search engine, I'll have to buy the new service to watch Criterion movies.

[Ben X]

I read something about there being an extra charge on top for access to the Criterion selection, but that might not be confirmed.

[Gormongous]

Mostly it just pisses me off because now instead of being able to watch them all via Hulu+, which I get free from using Bing as my search engine, I'll have to buy the new service to watch Criterion movies.

It's definitely the annoying reality of the digital age, that any streaming service getting too successful prompts content owners to pull their stuff off that service and launch their own instead. We're probably going to need another five years, at least, before all the UPlays and Origins and HBO Gos either die out or stabilize into broadly attractive business models...

[Erkki]

I guess it's different in the US (or for people willing to use VPNs) - you have Hulu, Netflix (and more?). Here I don't even know any service besides Mubi that provides quality content. Netflix just opened this year but here it has maybe 10-20 movies I'd watch, and some TV shows. Local TV/net providers show movies in horribly compressed form.

So I'm really glad if a quality movie service that could be international comes along. Personally I also don't think paying for some general subscription a la steam would be better for movies. Well, besides that every service needing their own app and not having it for your device would be annoying. I hope there be a Kodi plugin.

[Erkki]

Man with a Movie Camera (1929) is awesome and should be seen by everyone!

[Roderick]

I really enjoyed Captain America: Civil War! Wrote a bit about it here.

[Cordeos]

Finally saw The Force Awakens I wasn't expecting anything great, but was surprised how much little things like characters acting dumb and saying dumb things would bug me. Maybe don't tell every person you have a map to Luke Skywalker? Also fast cuts need to DIAF. Just do a long shot, you don't need to jump around that much in a two person fight scene.

There were also way too many scenes that were, this will look cool vs. this makes any kind of sense. I think I should stick to movies with smaller stakes, large stake ones just seem ridiculous to me now.

[BusbyBerkeley]

I saw Green Room over the weekend! It was brutal. Really good at just being tense as fuck and making the kills and injuries really hurt. Super good. Super grueling. I'm kind of jaded in terms of movie violence but oh man this thing really hits hard.

[sclpls]

Oh yeah, saw the latest Herzog film that was playing at the SF film festival not too long ago. It's about the internet, and it is the funniest movie he has made in awhile. In some ways it feels very phoned in, but whatever, even phoned in Herzog is pretty enjoyable to watch.

[Patrick R]

I saw Green Room over the weekend! It was brutal. Really good at just being tense as fuck and making the kills and injuries really hurt. Super good. Super grueling. I'm kind of jaded in terms of movie violence but oh man this thing really hits hard.

 

Box cutter violence!

[Erkki]

High-Rise is a roller coaster slow ride through a world where the Internet and personal computers were never invented, but there's a big surplus of concrete and real estate and everybody has a brain tumor.

There's a really funny scene 2/3 in, but it may require watching some of the garbage that comes before to make it work. It's not bad on the whole, but not too good either. It's an experience, I guess.

[Patrick R]

I think it'll be a hard sell for anyone who isn't already a Spike Lee fan, but Chi-Raq is kind of an insane miracle of a movie, a passionate and angry operatic Greek sex comedy in rhyming verse about America's epidemic of gun violence but also about sexy black people being very sexy and very black.

 

It feels like the sort of movie that isn't supposed to exist in post-Heaven's Gate Hollywood (so it's fitting it was actually the first theatrical film of Amazon Studios), completely personal and political and idiosyncratic and weird. How much you actually enjoy it depends on if you are already into Spike Lee's weirder tics (good barometer: do you like Bamboozled?) but even acknowledging it's a total overwrought mess, I urge people to watch it on principle because movies like this at this scale simply don't exist anymore.

 

I should mention that, like most of Spike Lee's work, it has regressive attitudes towards gender, female sexuality and, by projecting such a perversely heteronormative view of the world, it ends up being kind of homophobic too. 

[Erkki]

I've only seen a few Spike Lee movies. This one looks really good, but last time I tried to watch it I fell asleep from tiredness and didn't manage to continue in the next days. I think I will see it at one point, though, as I remember how good it looks each time I see the poster.