Last Film You Saw Thread

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I hated the ending - I get what they were trying to do but DDL was totally munching on the scenery. "I drink your milkshake, I drink it down" has got to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious lines in cinema.

[faust-yusov 103]

Oh, I think that's a little unfair - I think there's certainly a degree of comedic intent in the line, as well as elsewhere in the scene. Anderson in fact paraphrased the analogy from a 1920s Congressional hearing, used by Albert Fall to explain drainage to senators, and has stated he did so precisely for its jarring incongruity.

I'd also say that it would be to misread the film to ignore its blackly comic undertones, or think it particularly naturalist/realist. I'm also not entirely sure how DDL could have not "chewed the scenery", seeing as the scene called for Plainview to be at the merest provocation whipped into so rabid a frenzy as to bludgeon his old antagonist in the head with a bowling pin.

Edited June 17, 2011 by faust-yusov

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Fair enough. I just didn't like it - it kind of detracted from the rest of the film for me.

[faust-yusov 103]

My erudite fiancee also recommended 'Yumurta', a recent Iranian film of apparently much the same vein as 'Tokyo Story'/'Still Walking', which I've managed to get a hold of. Hoping to watch it tonight or tomorrow.

Got round to watching this yesterday.

It's a 2007 Turkish film (mistakenly I'd said Iranian) about a man returning briefly to his home town to bury his mother. As with 'Tokyo Story' and 'Still Walking', there's that same backdrop of the generational shift from provincial to cosmopolitan living, and the introspection of returning to places or people you feel you've outgrown.

Most of all though it reminded me quite a bit of the Tarkovsky I've seen (particularly 'Nostalgia'): the idea of "home", a sort of metaphysical championing of the rural and the spiritual, and, stylistically, that same respect for an image, particularly of nature, to be worthwhile in and of itself. Really liked it - apparently the first in a trilogy, too, charting the main character's life in reverse-chronological order.

[faust-yusov 103]

...reminded me quite a bit of the Tarkovsky I've seen...

Speaking of, I discovered the other day that Mosfilm have a YouTube channel now.

It's largely in cyrillic, so you might need Chrome to translate the page, and it's a little bit of a lottery re whether or not something has English subs (though it seems, from articles, that it's their intent to provide them eventually), but it looks like a pretty excellent resource of good quality films (and it's not too tricky to work out how to download a YouTube vid and find subs elsewhere).

[Ken y Leidys 20]

I recently saw a Tarrantino/Grind House/Robert Rodriguez-type indie film named, "Ticked Off Trannies with Knives". I have to say, "WOW!" It dealt with issues related to gay bashing and stalking with lots of humor thrown in. Two thumbs up!

Edited June 27, 2011 by Ken y Leidys

[faust-yusov 103]

'Offret', 1986, dir: Andrei Tarkovsky

(Spurred by watching 'Yumurta' a few weeks ago.)

Alexander, a troubled academic, commemorates his birthday with a gathering of family and friends at his home. Festivities of typical Tarkovskian portent ensue. Characters interact as if disparate entities in separate dreams. A metaphysical disquisition (an advocacy of the natural/spiritual over the material/empirical) is broadly outlined.

Dusk thereafter dulls the expansive and ornate wood-floored reception room to a thick murk more befitting its inhabitants' brood and quandaries. The monochrome flicker of a faltering television broadcast imparts the news that WW3 has been declared; that the Soviets are at war with America. So is sketched the familiar backdrop of impending nuclear holocaust; of thick, broiling apocalypse, so present and so well captured in so much of his work ('Ivan's Childhood', 'Stalker', 'Andrei Rublev').

A really wonderful film, and gorgeously photographed by Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman's long time collaborator. A point on the ending, however: for a piece mostly consumed in a sort of groggy, meandering, oneiric existentialism, touching on the burdensome limitations of human intellect (a la 'Solaris'), its final climax did feel rather jarringly straight-forward... difficult to say whether this works to its favor or detriment after just one viewing.

Edited July 10, 2011 by faust-yusov

[one...two...tree 2,762]

A handful of really good films I watched on Netflix within the last couple of months:

1. Mammoth

2. Bangkok Girl (Documentary)

3. Flock of Dodos (Documentary)

4. Children of Heaven (Iranian film) - it was one of the most refreshingly simple films I've seen in a long time. Terrific story telling and the cinematography is outstanding.

[EvilEmmy 1]

Last film I saw was Marley and Me (watched it last night as was having movie marathon night due to boredom)

I have to admit I was skeptical on the film as heard was bad and loads said was fantastic, I will say for one who doesn't often cry at movies I sobbed my heart out right at the end. It was a good movie and well worth the watch albiet very sad.

[sachinky 465]

Super 8.

Frankly, I found it underwhelming. Rather disappointing given the buzz around it. Although, if I were twelve, I'd probably have thought it to be the best movie ever.

Edited July 11, 2011 by sachinky

[honey_me 7]

-American Beauty

-A Few Good Men

-As Good as It Gets

-Seven

-The Rookie

-Groundhog Day

-Gross Anatomy

-Beethoven

-Wargames

-The Legend of Bagger Vance

-The Scarlet letter

-The Muppets Movie

-Old Yeller

-Gone With the Wind

-Great Expectations

-Small Soldiers

-Little Voice

-Silverado

-The River Wild

-Romancing The Stone

-Good Will Hunting

All in 3 week time frame. I love movies.

[웃 910]

-American Beauty

-A Few Good Men

-As Good as It Gets

-Seven

-The Rookie

-Groundhog Day

-Gross Anatomy

-Beethoven

-Wargames

-The Legend of Bagger Vance

-The Scarlet letter

-The Muppets Movie

-Old Yeller

-Gone With the Wind

-Great Expectations

-Small Soldiers

-Little Voice

-Silverado

-The River Wild

-Romancing The Stone

-Good Will Hunting

All in 3 week time frame. I love movies.

[MikelanNida 28]

I liked Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood is one of my favorites.

[TheFantastics09 19]

-American Beauty

-A Few Good Men

-As Good as It Gets

-Seven

-The Rookie

-Groundhog Day

-Gross Anatomy

-Beethoven

-Wargames

-The Legend of Bagger Vance

-The Scarlet letter

-The Muppets Movie

-Old Yeller

-Gone With the Wind

-Great Expectations

-Small Soldiers

-Little Voice

-Silverado

-The River Wild

-Romancing The Stone

-Good Will Hunting

All in 3 week time frame. I love movies.

Whoa!!!

[honey_me 7]

Whoa!!!

I actually forgot to write Catch Me If You Can, Cast Away, Sneakers and Spaceballs . When I first got here, My husband would buy me vhs movies from Goodwill. I've already watched and donated again a lot of 80s, 90s and early 2000 comedy and rom-com movies. For a while, I've stopped watching them because of my schedule/got bored with it. Now I'm back with what's left, mostly non-comedy. I still have more.

Edited July 15, 2011 by honey_me