Film Discussion / Now Watching

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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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October highlights:

Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971)
Songs for Drella (Edward Lachman, 1990)
Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, Federico Fellini, 1968)
The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976)
The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, 1945)
Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)
Cruising (William Friedkin, 1980)
The Exorcist III: Legion (William Peter Blatty, 1990)
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)
Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) - Cinema du Parc
Day of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1985)
Apocalypse Now (theatrical cut) (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
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Scream & Writhe wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 7:47 pm
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971)
One of my favorite horror movies since I was a kid, and the local ABC channel would run it as an afternoon movie a couple of times a year, either during a horror theme week or the week of Halloween. The older I get, the more I understood it, the scarier it got.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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housepig wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:09 pm
Scream & Writhe wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 7:47 pm
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971)
One of my favorite horror movies since I was a kid, and the local ABC channel would run it as an afternoon movie a couple of times a year, either during a horror theme week or the week of Halloween. The older I get, the more I understood it, the scarier it got.
This was my first time watching it and I was blown away. Loved it. Genuinely creepy.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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33033 wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:10 pm Finally watched Vampire's Kiss (1989)
Vampire's Kiss & Andy Warhol's Blood For Dracula are easily my two favorite vampire movies
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Was able to see Triangle of Sadness this last weekend. Easily the best movie I've seen all year.

With many timeless tropes that expertly reflect modern society: the empty lives & relationship constraints of young models, the constant ideological push and pull between the "servant class" & luxury yacht attendees, excessive debauchery & gluttony, basic survival skills amid disaster, and even some small talk with soulless weapons contractors!

A perfect film all the way to the credits
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Hugely impressed by Barbarian, totally worth the hype.
Bodies Bodies Bodies was alright, a lot of characters got under my skin. I called the ending way early so it was a little disappointing
Dracula: Dead and Loving It as I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid, held up ok. Some pacing problems.
Confess, Fletch was actually pretty fun. Would be into more of these? I’m easy to impress with film.
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Scream & Writhe wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 7:47 pm Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
This one blew me away. Amazing movie
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33033 wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:10 pm Finally watched Vampire's Kiss (1989) and holy smokes. Surprised that I hadn't made it more of a priority earlier. Cage being in another universe, 80's NYC, bizarro proto-American Psycho?
What I think is incredible is that he was riding high off Moonstruck and then goes on to make that right after. Incredible. Total legend. I finally saw it a few years ago and on the one hand it's great and the other how did this thing get made?

Reading a huge Carpenter book atm, re-watched Assault on Precinct 13 which I hadn't seen if forever as well as Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from NY and Halloween I & II. I want to see the Kurt Russell Elvis movie and Cigarette Burns which I haven't seen in 100 years but I want to rewatch his Apocalypse Trilogy as well.

Also watched all 3 Fear Street movies on Netflix right before Halloween, they were actually really great and super fun. I thought they were going to be really "teen" but they were actually a little gruesome at times. That scene with the bread slicer? Oh man.....
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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November highlights:

The Working Class Goes to Heaven (Elio Petri, 1971)
Death of a Corrupt Man (Georges Lautner, 1977)
The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1966)
Compañeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970)
Run, Man, Run (Sergio Sollima, 1968)
Face to Face (Sergio Sollima, 1967)
Death Rides a Horse (Giulio Petroni, 1967)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah, 1970)
Four of the Apocalypse (Lucio Fulci, 1975)
One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
Dillinger (John Milius, 1973)
Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (John Hillcoat, 1988)
Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)
Rituals (Peter Carter, 1977)
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Scream & Writhe wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:16 pm Rituals (Peter Carter, 1977)
Watched that for the first time last month, after hearing about it for years - was pleasantly surprised, much better than I expected!
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housepig wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:53 pm
Scream & Writhe wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:16 pm Rituals (Peter Carter, 1977)
Watched that for the first time last month, after hearing about it for years - was pleasantly surprised, much better than I expected!
Same!

Whatever it lacks is more than made up for by the merciless proceedings and atmosphere.
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on a similar vibe, Just Before Dawn from 1981 is worth a watch. Standard "five college kids go for a camping trip in the backwoods, hilarity ensues" horror movie, but it's early enough that not everything feels by-the-numbers, and it maintains a solid creeper vibe throughout.
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I wasn't super hot on that one when I saw it a few years back, but do intend to give it another shot.
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X-Files: Fight the Future - Watch this one at least once a year and this time around it hit a little harder… After 6 seasons of paranormal investigation & government conspiracies; it becomes more obvious to the viewer that “the syndicate” had in fact struck up a partnership with the alien colonists decades prior. While simultaneously the black cancer virus has been mutating beneath a sinkhole in Texas. The newly discovered strain now gestates & mutates the hosts in which it embodies in less than 48hrs unless stored in below zero temperatures. After the bombing of an FBI building to hide the evidence of the alien virus, Mulder is tipped off by a syndicate member who is swiftly assassinated after betraying the colonists.

But it is OBVIOUS there are much darker forces influencing “the project” from the shadows. Mulder and Scully uncover a vast network of tax haven psyops used to house synthetic africanized honey bees carrying a genetically manipulated small Pox disease interconnected by railways. Scully becomes infected and is swiftly abducted by the syndicate where they continue testing their weak vaccine on the gestating black oil virus. Mulder is given the only vaccine that combats the black oil and travels all the way to Antartica on a recon mission to save Scully and usurp the god damn smokey man and his allegiance to the colonists. Both agents nearly dying from exposure after the vaccine is administered & a UFO that'd been laying dormant beneath the polar cap for most of human existence vacates earth.

I love this movie because after 6 seasons of build this plot is pretty much a non stop rising climax. X-Files itself only had around two seasons remaining till it went completely off the rails and never really recovered. The movie sets up the inevitable assassination of syndicate members by the alien colonists; as a covert civil war erupts between the faceless alien rebels and the extra terrestrial colonists that had colluded with the syndicate. The show really looses its audience and overarching plot after this event as well as the replacement of mulder with T2 agent Doggit. The original season finale really tied up loose ends nicely and helped salvage two years of nonsensical plot lines. Mulder and Scully “go underground” after defeating the remaining defectors and mercenaries from the original syndicate conspiracy.

I mean after Scully has an alien human hybrid baby and just gives it away to some Redneck Cult and somehow of course it was Mulder’s child; you continue to ask yourself how & why??? Because of a real cash grab by Rupert Murdoch & Chris Carter.

To this day I’ve never even tired to watch the second movie, which I’ve read is about a phony psychic investigation but is more so the endless fallout from Mulder and Scully’s decade long partnership. And finally they reboot the series in the Trump era (doing a few episodes of satisfying social commentary mixed with tongue & cheek comedy) but immediately the exact same problems & potholes reemerge. CGB Spender is undead after at least 5 assassination's in the show & his sole purpose in life is now fucking with his “secret son” Fox Mulder. Tragic compared to the heights we reached in Antartica.
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Shrek - man I had never seen this before somehow. Probably because I was 21 when it came out. It was funny as fuck. Gonna watch Shrek 2 over the holidays.

That Netflix Christmas movie with Lindsay Lohan - pretty good.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) - I liked it a lot. It was really well done.

Too Hot to Handle Season 4 - man I am glad I am not dating. People are NUTS. Fortune cookie says "stick with your wife".

The Crown Season 5 - McNulty as Prince Charles? Did not see that one coming.
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holy ghost wrote: Tue Dec 20, 2022 6:14 pm All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
The best parts of this, for me, were the ones that were lifted right from G.W. Pabst's worthy 1930 effort, "Westfront 1918".
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I watched In The Mood For Love, not really my thing, but I will not deny that it looked absolutely fantastic.

Also screened Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. I'm still confused how or why it got made. I loathe Bill Maher.
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33033 wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:54 pm Also screened Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. I'm still confused how or why it got made. I loathe Bill Maher.
"As a tax shelter for dentists from Peoria" is always a solid answer for many 70's & 80's movies!
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33033 wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:54 pm I watched In The Mood For Love, not really my thing, but I will not deny that it looked absolutely fantastic.
Would you say that it lives up to the reputation it has gotten?
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Weird - the Al Yankovic Story - very funny, but on some level I just want to see UHF again, which I watched, no exaggeration, 100 million times as a kid. I don't really pay a lot of attention to his songs/albums but he's fucking funny as all hell. The wizard guy who played him did a great job but the best scenes were the ones he was in. Evan Rachel Wood was great as Madonna.

Knives Out 2 - Glass Onion. Man Ed Norton looks old as fuck. It was kind of ridiculous. I liked it. My wife did not. It wasn't as good as the first one. The James Bond guy is very funny in it.
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December highlights

The Brig (Mekas, 1964)
Whistle and I'll Come to You (Miller, 1968)
Beware of a Holy Whore (Fassbinder, 1971)
Razzia (Decoin, 1955)
Witness in the City (Molinaro, 1959)
House of Bamboo (Fuller, 1955)
Last Known Address (Giovanni, 1970)
The Signalman (Clark, 1976)
No Fear, No Die (Denis, 1990)
Stigma (Clark, 1977)
A Warning to the Curious (Clark, 1972)
Playing with Fire (Robbe-Grillet, 1975)
The Beautiful Prisoner (Robbe-Grillet, 1983)
Malevil (de Chalonge, 1981)
Gradiva (Robbe-Grillet, 2006)
The Immortal One (Robbe-Grillet, 1963)
Road to Nowhere (Hellman, 2010)
Saint Jack (Bogdanovich, 1979)
The Killing of Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976)
Basic Instinct (Verhoeven, 1992)
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Fassbinder, 1972)
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December highlights:

The Thin Man - 1934 - I think I watched this three times this year, as it's one of those movies that I can't stop watching if I come across it. The vibe between William Powell and Myrna Loy makes the mystery secondary, always.

On The Beach - 1959 - It's hard for me to think of another movie with the incessant sense of impending doom like this one. You don't have much time; what do you do with it?

Urgh! A Music War - 1982 - available on Archive.org in a few different quality levels. IRS Records-produced compilation of live bands, no frills. Don't like one? Give it four minutes and check out the next. Standouts - Oingo Boingo, XTC, Athletico Spizz 80, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, Au Pairs, Devo and 999.

Titicut Follies - 1967 - fly-on-the-wall documentary about a hospital for the criminally insane in Massachussets. Hard to watch, but necessary.

Never Too Young To Die - 1986 - Someone paid actual money to make a movie about the college gymnast son (John Stamos) and girlfriend (Vanity) of a secret agent (ex-model turned one-time Bond actor George Lazenby) going after the person who killed him, who just happens to be a transgender club singer and leader of a pack of apocalyptic punks named Velvet Ragnar (Gene fucking Simmons) who kills people with a razor-edged fingernail.

Glass Onion - 2022 - not as good as the first, but still damn good and thoroughly entertaining.

Everything Everywhere All At Once - 2022 - watched this and Black Adam back to back, which was a fascinating contrast in how to approach an effects-heavy fantasy film. This one shows it doesn't have to be a soulless slog.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession - 2004 - fascinating reminder for me of the days before VCR's, DVR's, video stores, streaming or on-demand video when you scoured the program guide for your available provider every month and if you wanted to see something you marked your calendar and watched it as it was broadcast. It's better now, but it shows that good curation is still worthwhile.

The Swimmer - 1968 - fascinatingly weird movie about a guy sinking lower and lower into disrepute, disrespect and disrepair, one backyard pool at a time.
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SS1535 wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 8:44 pm
33033 wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:54 pm I watched In The Mood For Love, not really my thing, but I will not deny that it looked absolutely fantastic.
Would you say that it lives up to the reputation it has gotten?
I really hadn't heard of it previously, so I might be out of the loop? I can see why it would be on Criterion for sure.
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housepig wrote: Sun Jan 01, 2023 1:09 pm The Swimmer - 1968 - fascinatingly weird movie about a guy sinking lower and lower into disrepute, disrespect and disrepair, one backyard pool at a time.
Love this movie. Caught a 16mm screening of it earlier last year and while the print was in poor shape it added another layer to the emotional distance of Lancaster's character.
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33033 wrote: Mon Jan 02, 2023 1:19 am
SS1535 wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 8:44 pm
33033 wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:54 pm I watched In The Mood For Love, not really my thing, but I will not deny that it looked absolutely fantastic.
Would you say that it lives up to the reputation it has gotten?
I really hadn't heard of it previously, so I might be out of the loop? I can see why it would be on Criterion for sure.
I had always seen it talked about as one of the supposedly best movies of all time, but I never actually got around to watching it.
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