Well, I wasn’t actually that impressed with Hamill, but Annie Potts was fun. But why did they call it Corvette Summer when it was obviously filmed in spring?
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I just got Brigsby Bear and can hardly wait to see it. It sounds brilliant.
This past year I was watching IMDB to see when it was playing, and a few days before its listed release date, I checked my local cinema. They had been showing it for a whole week, at some wack time like only 11 AM, and it played its last day the day before I was checking. I swear that the movie distribution business exists mostly to bury movies.
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So did I watch it? YES
Was it worth it? NO
But I guess at least now when people on the internet want to tell me their opinions and theories about it I’ll have some hope of knowing WTF they’re talking about …
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It seems weird that the studio had a see thru dance floor, but then I guess it makes more sense than a club having one, come to think of it.
I may also be misremembering singing in EJ. But the idea is that it doesn’t heavily feature singing. I haven’t watched it in full in several years but I had it in the background for a half hour/hour last week and no singing in that span.
the cheap crappy OTA ones. I know I’ve seen it on Oldie Goldie and possibly others of that ikl.
His comedy can be really good and interesting, but Lorne/the writers will not give him any play, they don’t know what to do with him. They pushed bland-assed Taran Killam and then one-note Leslie Jones over him during his whole run. MOONEY IS MONEY!
Give a report on this, eh?
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Both studios and clubs used to have them for the same reason – they were considered cool. It’s hard to imagine now, but glass blocks used to be very chic.
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hey, I grew up with Miami Vice, of course I think glass blocks are chic.
but I don’t think that’s what was in the movie? the seams are far apart,
and no distortion–you get a clear image:
unless my version of glass block differs from the one you mean? image search shows that fully clear blocks exist, but they’re still each ~a foot square.
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The Miami Vice era was the resurrection of the glass wall/floor, which is when I learned about their history.
The still from the second video shows why they were so popular in the first place. I agree that looks too big to call a “block” – wonder what the proper architectural term is.
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I don’t think the studio has a see thru dance floor. It has a very reflective dance floor, but the only time we see through it is in that one shot from underneath. That’s basically a special effect, she’s dancing on a thick pane of glass for that shot.
That’s plausible. It’s definitely not a musical, but I’m sure they gave Robeson the opportunity to sing at least a little in there. Perhaps most of the singing is in the early part which doesn’t come from the original play. There’s a church scene and a chain gang scene. Perfect opportunity to let him sing a bit.
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Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day…
http://www.ubu.com/film/curtis_superstar.html
Superstar in a Housedress (2004) dir: Craig Highberger
Hour and a half documentary about Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis. The film actually spends more time on Jackie’s underground theater work and life in general than the Warhol connection. It’s a very fun look at a crazy chaotic life, although it, as you might begin to expect as the show goes on, ends on a (somewhat surreal) downer. The producer/director/writer/editor really should have cut down some of his interviewees discursions (usually about themselves) and he didn’t convince me, based on the evidence presented, that Curtis was an unsung genius, but still a worthwhile view for anyone interested in the era/milieu. Narrated by Lily Tomlin, with interviewees Holly Woodlawn, Paul Morrissey, Taylor Mead, Harvey Fierstein, Penny Arcade, and Joe Dallesandro, among many others.
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I wondered about that, too, but it looked like the seams matched in both shots. but after some thought, I’m pretty sure you’re right. since it was shot in a studio, that would be the logical way to shoot that part. It would only make sense to permanently install a see-through dance floor in an actual club where it would be an ongoing attraction and not just a few seconds in a movie.
A Hal Hartley film just played on TV that I hadn’t seen: No Such Thing. I mostly know Hartley because I randomly saw his Surviving Desire on PBS when i was in high school and was really taken with his style. NST is way different but still noticeably his hand. Sarah Polley was a perfect choice for a lead in a Hartley film. I forgot that she was in Go but I always remember her as the little girl in Baron Munchausen. I liked the film albeit the first several acts were glacially paced, even for me. It’s one of those “which is the monster, the Monster or mankind?” kind of movies.
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Probably more well-known than most of the obscure stuff I watch, but still somewhat un-distributed and unknown - perhaps not to people here, but the public at large:
Shin Godzilla - Seems to really polarize people in the US, I think it’s one of the best Godzilla movies. It’s live-action, by Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno, who are well-known for both anime and live-action. It aims for a serious, grounded interpretation of “What would it be like if we discovered Godzilla in real life, in Japan 2016?”. Much of the imagery very strongly brings to mind the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami, and Fukushima meltdown. And the movie is very much concerned with what an administrative, bureaucratic, and humanitarian clusterfuck this would be. As a fast-paced political/science thriller it is great. The monster and its damage are IMO quite horrifying. The only thing I disliked is how physically large Godzilla is now, which I think goes beyond awesome scale and becomes silly.
Some describe Shin Godzilla as being a satire, and I must admit that I do not know enough about Japanese politics to understand if some characters are meant to satirize real-life figures. It feels very documentary, and makes little effort to offer relatable characters or personal drama, which is a choice I liked. It has some very pro-Japanese nationalistic themes, and at times plays like an ad for the SDF, which I think should not be a surprise to anyone. It makes a strong statement about Japanese culture’s relationship with disaster, adversity, and the rest of the world.
Incidentally - speaking of tokusatsu and Fukushima, in 1974 Toho released a huge “disaster porn” movie called Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen (aka Last Days on Planet Earth) which was later banned/supressed and is almost unknown today. It eerily depicts the end of human civilization as starting with an offshore earthquake which causes the Fukushima nuclear plant to melt down. Yikes…
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women - This one played at my local cinema - but only at around 11:00 AM! They seem to pull this stunt with a lot of movies I’d like to see, so as usual I had to wait. As an openly queer poly kinkster, I’ve got to say that this is probably the most realistic treatment in movies have seen of a committed three-person unit. And in the early 20th century, no less. There was a great balance here of being sympathetic without being preachy, romantic without being cloying, sensuous without being spectacular.
Obviously, the “hook” is intended to be how this relationship informed the creation of Wonder Woman as a comic book character. This aspect of the movie I think is interesting and well-done, but less interesting than the relationships and events leading to this. At the risk of sounding elitist, I think it’s a great window into how academics who often truly do “know better” still struggle to deal with societal norms which are ignorantly imposed upon us for ignorant reasons. Being a small-scale movie centered very much upon its immediate cast calls a lot of attention to them. The standout performance to me was Rebecca Hall as Elizabeth Marston, the brilliant would-be professor whose life is already curtailed by society. Hers is the character with the most substantial arc, and she who performs the greatest range of different experiences and attitudes.
My two parents like Wonder Woman as a character, and liked the Wonder Woman movie, which I am still looking forward to seeing. I would say that they are generally open-minded, but still a bit stuffy and conservative with regards to sexuality, specifically. I am on the fence of whether or not to recommend Professor Marston to them, because I really don’t know if they would find it thought-provoking/empathetic, or if they would simply be reactionary/annoyed.
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They say there’s a war a-brewin’ on the prairie. But no one seems to be too worked up about it.
I have just finished watching “Heaven’s Gate.” Heaven help me. No, this is not a misunderstood work of art that was ahead of its time and deserves a second chance. It’s Michael Cimino trying to outdo Erich von Stroheim and failing.
I have nothing against slow movies. Some of my favorite movies are slow. Take “Solaris” for example. Somehow Tarkovsky is able to use the camera’s slow observation of the characters as a way of building a deep, thoughtful story. But it’s like Cimino told his cast “OK, I’m going to point the camera at you and we’re got three-and-a-half hours to kill, so don’t act. Move around with no motion, and make me feel nothing.”
Let me summarize the plot for you:
A group of people graduate from college. Twenty years later, cattlemen are going to wage war against immigrants to Wyoming. All the immigrants appear to be from Eastern Europe. The immigrants appear spend their time stealing cattle or hanging around a brothel. Kris Kristofferson is some kind of sheriff or something. He’s in love with the madam of said brothel. Christopher Walken is also some kind of sheriff, or something. He too is in love with the same madam. This madam has to choose between them and also walk around naked. Jeff Bridges is a bar owner, maybe. Or maybe it’s Kristofferson in a dual role, it’s hard to tell. John Hurt is kind of there, some of the time. Horses are abused. The madam is raped. Walken is shot approximately 70,000 times. In the end, everybody dies. And then there’s a yacht.
I should have been sympathetic to the politics of this movie — the rich and native-born oppressing the poor and immigrants — but in general my reactions alternated between “who the hell are these people?” and “what the hell are they doing?” I can only assume the original 5.5-hour cut made more sense.
Towards the end, the dramatic moments were so absurd and exaggerated that I was laughing at them. And Christopher Walken should never have a mustache.
The music was nice, if a bit repetitive.
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Bah, I thought it was great. But, it’s been too long since I’ve seen it to defend it with any details.
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wasn’t there a roller rink, too? what am I thinking of?
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I guess it’s a movie that still divides opinion.
There was indeed. It was a charming well-directed scene.
Then Kristofferson dances alone in the rink with Huppert. The dance ends and they walk outside to the lake. They are standing by the shore, perfectly framed by light reflecting off the water, and throuh post-dubbing he ends the scene by saying “I’m asking ya’ to go with me.” Which is exactly what he said 20 minutes earlier IN THE PREVIOUS SCENE!!!"
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I actually ripped a copy of it to take with me to China, but the laptop died before I got around to such a long film. At least I’ve still got 1900, which I also haven’t gotten to.
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Well, I have finally seen “Blade Runner.”
But that’s not exactly true.
I had seen Blade Runner before, during its first run in fact. Doing a bit of research, it seems I would have been 10 years old at the time. I can’t imagine why my mother took the family to see this violent, creative, sci-fi movie because violence, creativity and science fiction are three things that my mother usually tries to avoid.
I don’t remember much about it except that the movie was dark, confusing and that it really scared me. Here is a list of everything from the movie that I remember from my first viewing.
I remember:
- there was a tortoise on its back in a desert.
- “Tell him I’m eating.”
- “Wake up… Time to die.”
- seeing an exotic dancer wearing high boots and a shower curtain, and thinking to myself “I really shouldn’t be seeing this.”
- darkness
- rain
- children on the back of a car stealing something.
- someone’s hand reaching through a wall and grabbing something.
That’s about it.
So, you see, when I recently saw Blade Runner it was like seeing it for the first time. And what follows are my jumbled thoughts about it.
From the opening, echoing BOOOOMMMMOOmmmm it is evident that Ridley Scott owes a great debt to Vangelis. There is something about his sparse opening music that establishes the world in which the rest of the movie exists. I didn’t watch this movie so much as I inhabited it. This is, in my opinion, a movie where mood is more important than the story or acting. And that’s not a complaint. I’m always a fan of good production design, and this movie does not disappoint in that regard — it truly looks and sounds great, if that’s not an understatement.
It seems that Los Angeles in 2019 will be much more interesting than it is today. Perhaps the secession does occur in the next year.
I was pleasantly surprised by how many visual references there were to “Metropolis.” I would describe this movie as the book “Frankenstein” combined with the movie “This Gun for Hire,” set in the world of “Metropolis.” And there’s one part taken from “The Big Sleep,” just for fun.
When I was a young child — perhaps up until I was six years old — I remember having dreams where I would be wandering through our house alone, and no matter how many lights I turned on I still couldn’t see anything. This movie immediately brought memories of those dreams flooding back. Blade Runner feels to me like it exists in the same reality I experienced in those dreams. Were these dreams or was I sleepwalking? I’ve often wondered.
It seems to me that Ridley Scott did not have a final script ready when he started filming. There seem to be two different attempts at introducing Deckard and defining his charater. I can only assume they filmed more than they needed, for coverage, and hoped they would figure it all out in the editing room — this often happens.
- In one attempt, Deckard is a bitter, retired Blade Runner who has an antagonistic relationship with his former boss, Bryant. They have a sleazy meeting in Bryant’s sleazy office and he explains the details of the current situation in very sleazy way.
- In the next attempt, Deckard and Bryant have a more civil relationship, this time they meet in a screening room of some sort and the situation is once again explained.
- And then there is a third possibility. It seems to me that Deckard giving the VK test to Rachael could have been the opening scene. If this is the case, the eye we see at the opening would have been Deckard’s as he’s flying to the Tyrell Building. His next appointment might have been with Leon.
I love the crackling and fuzzing sounds made by the VK machine. But why does it breathe? It’s not attached to anyone. There is no reason why it would need to do that.
Larry! That was my reaction when I saw William Sanderson appear. He’s a good actor. I have a feeling Riddley Scott had Elisha Cook Jr. in mind when he cast and directed the role of J. F. Sebastian. Watch “The Killing” and you will see what I mean. Why did his character have to die? At least we didn’t have to see it happen.
I think the most prescient thing about the movie is Harrison Ford’s haircut.
Deckard’s interaction with the Espy machine is a great demonstration of why I never use Siri, or Amazon Echo, or whatever. Work can get done better and faster if you operate a computer with your hands.
There is an theory that I’ve heard from time to time, that Deckard is actually replicant himself. This is surprising because the movie makes it very clear that he is in fact merely human. I can point out two details that support this point: First, in low-light situations, the actors playing replicants are filmed with a light near to, or possibly in front of the camera’s lens. This causes light to reflect off their retinas and gives their pupils a distinct glow. This is the case with all the replicants, even the owl, but it is not the case with Harrison Ford. Second, if Deckard is a replicant, why does he get over-powered by the others so easily? Even Pris, a “basic pleasure model” is almost able to kill him while flipping around the room. With each replicant that Deckard encounters he is helpless without his gun.
So now, in the past couple months I’ve seen Blade Runner three times. This first time I was confused — especially by the ending. Why was there suddenly a car commercial tacked onto the end? I didn’t get it. So, after a few weeks I watched it a second time and I was even more confused than the first time. I vowed never again would I waste my time watching it. But I did. And this time I got it. In fact I’ve seen it four times now and I’m now looking forward to seeing the Final Cut version.
However I have no plans to see Blade Runner 2049.
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That’s not true. Deckard’s eyes get the glow treatment when he and Rachel are at his apartment. It’s around the time she asks if she ran away if Deckard would hunt her down, and he says no, but someone would.
As for Deckard’s relative strength and fighting ability – he hasn’t had to survive the incredibly harsh life they have in the colonies. It’s not design, it’s experience.
There’s also the whole unicorn thing, with Deckard dreaming of a unicorn and Dax leaving an origami one in the apartment corridor.
None of which is definitive, but it certainly makes it ambiguous.
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Shame that’s worth watching.
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