Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

Watching The Shining, but with the sound turned off, and listening instead to La mer and the Mennin Eighth.

[Ken B]

Watching The Shining, but with the sound turned off, and listening instead to La mer and the Mennin Eighth.

This man hath penance done
And penance more will do

[Karl Henning]

I fibbed...in fact, I watched it with its own soundtrack. I love it, as is.

[aligreto]

The Drowning....

[Cato]

I finally saw Dunkirk last night, in a theater where c. 50 teenagers and 20-somethings wanted to see the stupid "scary clown" movie! 

The Dunkirk movie had precisely 4 people in the seats!    

So, yes, I found it to be a good movie, somewhat idiosyncratic (e.g. Did thousands of soldiers really stand so silently on the beach?), but I was willing to accept the stylistic conceit.  The practically anonymous "enemy" (rather than "Nazis" or "Germans") becomes a menace from a communal, Jungian nightmare, as is the whole situation nightmarish with 400,000 soldiers trapped on the edge of continental Europe.  Also interesting was how - again "practically" - many of the soldiers looked nearly identical!  Was this some version of The Clone Wars?   0:)   I suspect the idea was that nobody's life in such a situation would be too different: one soldier's story would be similar to another's, again a kind of Jungian collective experience.

[Karl Henning]

Also interesting was how - again "practically" - many of the soldiers looked nearly identical!  Was this some version of The Clone Wars?   0:)   I suspect the idea was that nobody's life in such a situation would be too different: one soldier's story would be similar to another's, again a kind of Jungian collective experience.

Or rushed post-production CGI 

[TheGSMoeller]

Or rushed post-production CGI 

More like they were all around 5-11, with dark hair that always seemed to be wet, and no facial hair or distinct features to set them apart. Which in low lit situations it was a little difficult to tell who was who.

But I really liked Dunkirk, found it fascinating in both the true story, and in the structure that Nolan presented it in.

[Cato]

More like they were all around 5-11, with dark hair that always seemed to be wet, and no facial hair or distinct features to set them apart. Which in low lit situations it was a little difficult to tell who was who.

But I really liked Dunkirk, found it fascinating in both the true story, and in the structure that Nolan presented it in.

Specifically black curly hair!    Most everybody had that brooding Gabriel Byrne look     :

[TheGSMoeller]

Specifically black curly hair!    Most everybody had that brooding Gabriel Byrne look     :

Of course! I should've known that was Byrne portraying the young British soldier(s) stuck on the beach. 

[aesthetic]

[...] I really liked Dunkirk, found it fascinating in both the true story, and in the structure that Nolan presented it in.

Nolan is a legend of the game.

[TheGSMoeller]

Nolan is a legend of the game.

Hi, aesthetic.
I agree, even though he's working with Hollywood money he's totally in control of what is presented. I am still completely in awe of Interstellar, I don't care what Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks about the science behind it, the story is engaging and incredibly emotional.

[Ken B]

Dunkirk, which I think a masterpiece, is a filmed Iliad. Nolan's script is spare and wonderfully constructed. It has I think two climaxes. The first is one word, and the last Churchill's speech. The daftest criticism I saw was that the speech was not given by an actor playing Churchill. Not only would that violate the unity of the construction, and detract from the Iliad like focus on the close, it would miss the connection of those two climaxes.

[James]

Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film
2006 ‧ Slasher/Horror ‧ 1h 28m

The film is a historical and critical look at slasher films, which includes dozens of clips, beginning with Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Prom Night. The films' directors, writers, producers, and special effects creators comment on the films' making and success. During the Ronald Reagan years, the films get gorier, budgets get smaller, and their appeal diminishes. Then, A Nightmare on Elm Street revives the genre. Jumping to the late 1990s, when Scream brings humor and TV stars into the mix. Although some criticize the genre as misogynistic, most of the talking heads celebrate the films: as long as there are teenagers, there will be slasher films.

[asin]B000LE1E8C[/asin]


Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
2013 - Arts, Sociopolitical Documentary - 3h

The first documentary to examine the dawn of the comic book genre and its powerful legacy, as well as the evolution of the characters who leapt from the pages over the last 75 years and their ongoing worldwide cultural impact.

[asin]B00EE8AIV0[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Yesterday, Escape From New York with the commentary by Jn Carpenter & Kurt Russell.  Okay, not the World's Greatest Commentary;  call it, reasonably fun.

[aligreto]

Zero Dark Thirty....

[SimonNZ]

Yesterday, Escape From New York with the commentary by Jn Carpenter & Kurt Russell.  Okay, not the World's Greatest Commentary;  call it, reasonably fun.

That was one of the earliest commentaries from the days of laserdiscs, which is how I first head it. That set the template for the jokey/slightly tipsy self-mocking commentary, just as Michael Jeck's for Seven Samurai set the template for the more scholarly critical analysis.

[Karl Henning]

That was one of the earliest commentaries from the days of laserdiscs, which is how I first head it. That set the template for the jokey/slightly tipsy self-mocking commentary, just as Michael Jeck's for Seven Samurai set the template for the more scholarly critical analysis.

Check.

Friends don't let friends do commentaries tipsy  0:)

[aligreto]

Mercury Rising....





Enjoyable thriller.

[SonicMan46]

Well, last few days, I've been watching my Jurassic Park films - one a night and 4 in all - these are all entertaining - my favorites are probably the first one of the Trilogy and Jurassic World (Opie's daughter is a joy to watch!) - Dave

 

[Cato]

Not quite sure where to put this: a review of Porky Pig cartoons from the 1930's!

Salient excerpts:

...And for the Warner Bros. cartoon studio, it all started with a pig.

Those groundbreaking results—the Looney Tunes starring Porky Pig, produced between 1935 and 1943—have just been released as "Porky Pig 101," a five-DVD package from the Warner Archive Collection featuring 101 black-and-white one-reelers (as well as three bonus films and numerous commentary tracks). It is the last significant group of Warners cartoons never to have been comprehensively released before on home video....

... these rarely shown one-reelers signify a major shift in the history of animation, film and the larger culture. They also show how three of the greatest directors in the history of comedy—Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin and Bob Clampett —all jump started their careers with Porky Pig.

The cartoons are also a time capsule of the late Depression and early wartime years, with the period's vintage songs, references to cultural figures from radio, the movies and even politics—and also, alas, long-outdated racial attitudes.

There were essentially two modes of expression in the Hollywood studio cartoon: the Disney style and that of Warner Bros.... the Warners style, which is often conflated with that of Avery, its most innovative director, came to mean uproarious, fast-paced and often transgressively violent humor in which characters frequently violate the fourth wall and confront you with their artificiality...

...By 1938-39, (Robert) Clampett had become the dominant directorial influence in Porky's career. On his watch, Porky became considerably cuter, thanks equally to Mel Blanc, who now provided the pig's voice and made the stutter more adorable than grotesque. Clampett's characters are like cuddly, bouncy balloons being manipulated by a maniacal genius. Such surrealist epics as "Porky in Wackyland" and "The Daffy Doc" revel in absurdity in a unique form of Looney Tune-ist Dada. In "Naughty Neighbors" and "Wise Quacks," Clampett seems determined to contrast exaggerated cuteness with even more extreme violence, as if throwing a hand grenade in the middle of a Disney Silly Symphony....

See:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/it-started-with-a-pig-1505247702