Watch for director Ti West. I haven’t seen his other movies yet, which include Cabin Fever 2, and something interesting looking called The Roost, but his House of the Devil is a pitch-perfect throwback horror movie, almost never hitting a wrong note.
Even the posters look right on the money:
A Serious Man: My new least favorite Coen Brothers movie. I didn’t make it anywhere close to the great ending. Deciding to hit stop at about 45 minutes in was my favorite thing about it.
Up in the Air: Other than some love for Lambert Field, and Clooney not playing a retard for the first time in a while, I stopped caring the moment the (obviously perceptive) guy ditched the annoying chicky by text message.
Avatar: Once the high wears off from being stoned, I frequently wonder why I took the drugs in the first place. Same thing. Yeah, it’s fun to look at, and Cameron ripping off his own movies so blatantly that he could sue is amusing… I walked out of it thinking it was worth the $13 and sitting through the IMAX ads for the National Guard that still make it look like you couldn’t possibly come home missing a limb or your sanity, but driving a tank will be a real hoot.
The Road: Just a gray joyless turd floating in the toilet at Graumann’s Chinese Theater that I desperately wanted to walk out of, but I had a guest. I kept wondering if Viggo was going to pull a tooth out of his mouth at some point, and then toss it away nonchalantly. Take me with you Charlize! I’ll go walk into the snowy forest with you to escape this! I only take solace in the hope that the family who rescued the child cooked and ate him moments after the closing credits rolled.
Here I am at the Road:
Continue reading Recent Disappointments
20 years on… So many great lines in this thing. A movie I loved then, and appreciate more and more as time goes on.
And how’s this for an image? Though like great lines, this one has ’em to spare.
Continue reading “Always do the right thing.” “That’s It?” “That’s It.” “I got it. I’m gone.”
This might be my favorite British TV show since The League of Gentlemen (Not that I’ve seen a lot since then. Though Peep Show was funny).
It’s going to start running on Comedy Central in April, and like League it also came from a live stage show and radio program. It’s somewhat akin to Flight of the Conchords since there are songs, and it focuses on a duo, one more handsome than the other. Continue reading The Mighty Boosh
Just kidding. It’s albums. Two sets: First the newer artists, then the old ones. There’s a lot of great music out there. I have no idea if it’s popular or on a big label, or if it sells, or if the band is even still going, but here it is in no particular order:
Starling Electric – Clouded Staircase (very Robert Pollard-y, but without the stuff that makes most people not like Robert Pollard)
J. Tillman – Vacilando Territory Blues / Cancer and Delirium (Rec. if you like Iron & Wine)
Ray LaMontagne – Gossip In The Grain
Frontier Ruckus – The Orion Songbook
Flying Lotus – Los Angeles / LAEP1 / LAEP2 / LAEP3
The Grand Archives
The Middle East – The Recordings Of The Middle East
Vampire Weekend (Hyped, but still so good)
Santogold – maybe my favorite of the year
Continue reading Best Movies of 2008
I just got a copy of 2666 from the library, and should be starting in on it, but I wanted to at least throw a few words down about Charlie Kaufman’s latest.
First off, the cast. Philip Seymour Hoffman has to have the best homerun average in the game right now. Though I wish he’d get roles a little closer to Talented Mr. Ripley than the usual depressed shlub, this shlub is every bit as great as this guy or the guy from Happiness. Hoffman’s the center, but there’s a huge number of first-rate female performances here: Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michelle Williams, Hope Davis – and then showing up late and re-igniting the whole movie again – Dianne Wiest and Emily Watson. This can be a frustrating movie I guess. Time is screwy, sores ooze, injuries mental, physical, psychological and self-inflicted are heaped on to a man who is so predestined for failure that his award of a MacArthur Genius Grant is almost summarily ignored by everyone.
But I’ll let Manohla and Roger say a little:
NY Times’ first line:
To say that Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York†is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now.
I think you have to see Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” twice. I watched it the first time and knew it was a great film and that I had not mastered it. The second time because I needed to. The third time because I will want to. It will open to confused audiences and live indefinitely.
Having only seen it once, I can’t claim to get it all (I’ve actually learned quite a bit I missed by reading some of the better reviews after seeing it), but I can at least tell you some of the reasons I loved it.
Continue reading Synecdoche, New York
As I mentioned in the War Inc. thread, I’ve been watching several movies that are featured in the excellent documentary Z Channel, which I re-watched and loved.
So far the most surprisingly good one was Turkish Delight (1973), an early Dutch film by Paul Verhoeven starring Rutger Hauer as a sculptor. Funny, sexy, sad, believable. Alas, that led to another Verhoeven/Hauer rental, Flesh+Blood , which was bad enough to leave unfinished.
But speaking of really bad films – or films that have the reputation of being really bad – what do you kids think of Heaven’s Gate? We watched the usual cut of it (219 min) over the past two nights and I shake my head in disbelief at the idea that this could rank on anyone’s list of “worst” movies (except Joe Queenan, who is a born fuckwit (let the Google linking of Joe Queenan and fuckwit commence!)). More specifically, let me ask you this: Why is Heaven’s Gate considered a disaster and Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven a masterpiece?
Continue reading Heaven’s Gate (1980)
This is an ambitious, enjoyable, visually impressive movie with a great, natural performance by Catinca Untaru.
The Fall owes a lot to Alejandro Jodorowsky (esp. Holy Mountain), Terry Gilliam’s Baron Munchausen (almost the definition of “ambitious failure”), Cinema Paradiso, and The Princes Bride. Continue reading The Fall, Tarsem
I agree with Jeff: Arnab sucks.
Comments don’t show up any more, and most movies are really bad.
make page work now
I see to have vague memories that both John Bruns and Arnab are big Rutles fans.
They got together for a showing at the Egyptian Theater last night and a Q&A and jam session – the first time the four have been together since it was filmed. Nicole Campos did a write-up and pictures for LA Weekly.
If you’re interested, it’s here:
blogs.laweekly.com/style_council/film/rutling-is-the-sincerest-form-1
I watched Badlands last night. Wasn’t nearly as poetic and grand as Days of Heaven. I was surprised. NOt sure what I think of it yet, though it was very good.
