Briefly misunderstood this as suggesting Richard Pryor was on Tim and Eric and had to do some research to confirm this was not possible
3 Likes
Haha, no, uh, that wouldāve been wild
2 Likes
Anyone else pathetic enough to join me in a group watch of The Canyons
4 Likes
fuck i have been thinking about doing that but havenāt been able to pull the trigger
3 Likes
Did anyone on here ever talk about Space Sweepers? I watched it the other day and thought it was pretty good. I think it is SB notable for basically being a better Cowboy Bepop adaptation than the official netflix one was. Unfortunately it doesnāt have that particular hipster vibe that CB does but other than that basically all the key components are there. I think there are also elements of influence from Snowpiercer in there too, and not just because itās Korean. It has the same sort of ecoscifi theme. Anyway not totally mind blowing or anything but worth watching if you like outer space shit
3 Likes
I really liked it, particularly the first half. I thought it ran out of steam in the final third until the very final scene where the robot gets a human body and thatās when I was like āall right, I forgive all your jank, you are a fantastic movie. Give me Space Sweepers 2ā
2 Likes
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare: 0/10, not a CIA agent or asset in sight.
This one was good! Itās pretty fucking grim (a lot of people die, the big bad of the movie kills a dog in the first ten minutes), but then that trash-talking kappa shows up and stuff turns around.
Where the yokai in 100 Monsters adhered to Barkley rules, yāknow:
The yokai in this movie have a lot more agency and personality. They get recruited by two little kids and, sure enough, go to war with this impossibly powerful Babylonian demon. Hard not to root for their scrappy little bunch.
Anyway hereās some fanart of the MVP of the movie, both because heās the heart of the movie and also because heās easier to draw than the little leader guy.
8 Likes
Got to go to a preview screening of Marcel the Shell With Shoes On yesterday. I predict this movie will be a HUGE HIT. Itās cute, funny, and sort of maudlin but in a likeable way. The stop motion animation is pretty fun, and there are a lot of cartoony visual gags about being a small little guy in a big house. Itās charming!
I am the worldās #1 fan of Dean Fleischer-Campās previous film, the critically underseen Fraud (now streaming on Means TV!). Itās a documentary that messes with the form in truly wild ways that raise interesting and somewhat unsettling ethical dilemmas. In Marcel, Fleischer-Camp plays himself as the documentary filmmaker working with the titular lilā snail guy. He portrays himself as a total dipshit who doesnāt take any responsibility for the well-being of his subject or the consequences of his filmmaking. Itās funny, I read it as a commentary on Fraud, but that film is so unknown that this commentary will resonate for the tiniest percentage of the audience. Itās sort of a self-mythologizing move, except itās totally silly because he is not a filmmaker with any particularly popular perception or narrative about him, and heās portraying himself in a terrible light.
Going into the movie, I was wondering whether this A24 film by a director whoās done some pretty challenging and edgy work would end up taking a turn for the dark and surreal. It largely doesnāt, but the character of Fleisher-Camp and his deep irresponsibility does grant the film an undercurrent of menace even as it feels largely sentimental and lovable on the surface.
My friend who came with me also pointed out that it feels like a quarantine movie in an interesting and understated way. Thereās a lot of stuff about your house feeling like your whole world, and the discomfort of rejoining your community after a long stretch of intimate isolation.
12 Likes
I couldnāt stand how saccharine the trailers were every time I saw them (and I saw them before several movies, back to back with a red band Crimes of the Future trailer once lol) but I didnāt know the Fraud director made and was in this. That has me interested.
1 Like
It is definitely saccharine at times, but Marcelās character is more complex and grounded than the trailers would suggest, and there is a lot of melancholy and menace throughout. Itās definitely not a childrenās movie.
1 Like
I loved the old Marcel shorts fromā¦god how long ago was that? YouTube is saying 11 years ago, which sounds about right.
3 Likes
Yes, I thought there was no way Iād be interested in seeing this from the trailer, despite my affection for that type of animation. But Iām willing to reconsider if thereās another layer there that gives it some substance. (I guess I should see Fraud first. Itās been on my Letterboxd list for a while.)
2 Likes
what a great day of movie watching today was. started off with elvis which was a far more enjoyable piece of grotesque spectacle than i was expecting, followed up with late golden age porno the sinful pleasures of reverend star which maybe had a few too many hardcore sex scenes for my liking but i did find the opening to be an especially haunting bit of filmmaking and then i watched one-armed boxer which though fairly racist is a complete masterpiece of marital-arts cinema.
4 Likes
wait does this just mean more porn
4 Likes
Marcel hasnāt opened here yet but I may have already ordered a copy of the poster (the cool one, not the 10/10 white Batman-style one with all the review quotes). I figure itāll balance out my 70s exploitation posters.
2 Likes
At the campout today (which is at someoneās house in the woods so technically not a camp out) the conversation was on Robert Rodriguez and the Spy Kids films, and somehow this turned into someone putting on From Dusk Till Dawn, which I had never seen or knew the plot to so i just figured it was a road crime movie for the first half. This made the twist in the middle so much better holy shit. Damn. It goes from hardboiled tension to a very goofy action movie.
The film also just more and more intense and buck wild as it hurls itself to the climax. Rodriguez really likes making the goofiest shit possible and having shit explode for no reason at all. It was really good.
8 Likes
I think about the little āSo, what, were they psychos?ā exchange a lot still.
I meant to show it in a chat but wound up too tired, but I started up Nicky Larson et le Parfum de Cupidon, to make sure the subtitle track I downloaded worked. Itāsā¦really surreal to see someone trying to do a faithful City Hunter adaptation, but in French.
Didnāt finish it, but Iām gonna soon!
1 Like
I finally jumped on the Mismatched Couples train.
This film is so much fun, i think itās the first since Ong Bak that left me wanting to go around punching things, but like, in a good way.
If i ever get married i want this song playing at my wedding:
4 Likes
Yokai Monsters: Along With Ghosts was OK. It scales the yokai back from their prominent showing in Spook Warfare to how they played out in 100 Monsters - largely non-participants, but if you mess around on their turf, theyāre gonna get ya.
Itās fine, itās not bad, but itās probably my least favorite of the three older movies.
1 Like
review of summer vacation 1999 (1988, dir. shusuke kaneko):
now iām through / with the new Yu
8 Likes