sometimes I watch too many japanese movies in a row and think “enough of all this strict formality! I want to go ape!!!”
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I watched Woman of the Hour
Pretty good film about how men are scary / the Dating Game Killer.
It’s on Netflix.
I have a thing for Anna Kendrick after she was in this weirdly good HBO show called Love Life that they subsequently pulled off of Max because I think no one cared about it… imo she’s on the same millennial white woman “actually I’m a pretty interesting artist I just wanted to get rich first” beat as Emma Stone is, she’s just a bit more like self consciously suburban in a way I appreciate
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Watched Hell goes to Frogtown. Inspired to write a movie that is nothing more than my own barely conceived fetishes.
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Right??
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I’m trying to remember the name of this movie that I watched about 15 years ago, in which a guy and his wife and being sent video observing them, and the paranoia starts driving them nuts.
I originally thought it was The Lives Of Others but looking at it now, that one’s about the Stasi, and I remember this movie being relatively modern-times.
Any idea?
cache?
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That’s it! Holy moly, that was fast. Danks!
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cache hive is really coming together around here lately…
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thinkin about america…present day…watching the blackpilled working class doomguy protagonist stoically planning ceo & banker mass killing next to live laugh love shit on his walls in this uwe boll movie
very prescient stuff here
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Saw the Subastance. It’s a pretty great episode of Tales of the Crypt writ large. Almost to large. There were about 5 points I thought it was going to start wrapping up but it kept going and boy did it go out on a huge note.
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I watched all the before movies in a rep theatre on Saturday. It was my first time seeing them after having on my letterboxd watchlist for over 11 years. They ruled. Watched On Deadly Ground and True stories last night instead of watching the super bowl.
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I watched two films from the twilight of the Weimar Republic. Both would be banned by the Nazis. The first was Der blaue Engel, Josef von Sternberg’s only(?) German language film. Sternberg and Dietrich is about as good as it gets. The film focuses on a stern professor who is hated by his students. He catches them with photos of a cabaret performer and learns they’ve been going out to a nightclub. He goes there himself to drag his pupils out, but then he himself is smitten by Dietrich’s character. Somehow, she sees something special in him.
This is where the film fascinates me. We start with a deeply unlikable man. In the middle, we find him in a place of total freedom and there seems like a real possibility he could become personable and loving. In another world, we might see him liberated into a fuller person. Instead, he loses his post as a teacher and over five years (depicted in a cruel ellipsis), his personality shrivels into something even smaller than it was before.
The second film I watched was Mädchen in Uniform. It’s set in a girls boarding school. Most of the mistresses at the school are stern and punishing, but one works hard to build a caring relationship with every student. All the girls adore her. A new girl arrives at the school, one who has lost her mom. She doesn’t just love the caring teacher, she’s utterly infatuated with her. When the teacher kisses the girls to bed at night, the new student reaches out to embrace her and receives a kiss on the lips.
While this main plot is happening, there’s another character, Ilsa, who constantly makes fun of the rigors of their pocket society. She’s fantastic. The movie just works really well at spearing the authoritarian culture that most teachers follow.
I saw an anecdote that the U.S. was going to ban the film, but Eleanor Roosevelt intervened. That rules.
It’s so painful to watch these movies and know what would happen to German society in the following decade. They should have gone the complete opposite direction! These movies show how much of a real possibility that was. A good reminder that progress doesn’t guarantee its permanence.
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I just saw Companion, the new sci-fi thriller written and directed by the writer of Fred 3: Camp Fred. I really liked it! It kind of reminded me of Midsommar in its use of genre structure to launch a thorough critique of a very specific kind of bad boyfriend. It also had an energy that reminded me a bit of early Adam Wingard stuff, especially You’re Next. You get to watch a situation spiral out of control in fun and unpredictable ways over and over. It also occasionally reveals an extremely goofy sense of humor that goes right up to the line of too stupid but never crosses it. I recommend it!
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So, finally was in the mood for Joker Folie a Deux and watched that today.
What can i say, kinda loved it, much to my surprise!
A lot of weird shots with a lingering camera that moves up close, then far away, musical numbers that start and end out of nowhere, and you are always second guessing what or who you are seeing, Arthur or his shadow.
And yeah, angry audience review bombing should def not distract anyone from giving it a fair shot if it’s up their alley.
Can you imagine how hype people would have been for this movie if it was an In the Mood for Love / chungking express pastiche the same way the first one lifted from taxi driver and king of comedy. Keep it simple todd. That’s what gets you the big bucks
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todd solondz’s the joker please
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that would be beautiful
i would also accept todd haynes
every todd should get to do a joker movie
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Todd MacFarlane
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Old Movies night was cancelled, no one wanted to watch Beau Geste (1939). over to the Hong Kong backup option
The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk was sold to me on the basis of the village square “first to touch the ground loses” fight (which was great). what was even better was Sai Yuk telling his mother he lost and she dressing up as a man (wearing a hat) to win the fight and restore the family pride & accidentally seducing the mother of his love interest. the mistaken identity themes continue, Sai Yuk is forced to marry his sweetheart but both manage not to recognise each other (dark rooms, lamps knocked over, etc.) and declare their hearts belong to another. and the wedding reception nearly killed me
then they are almost recognised by the first guest to turn up, the main antagonist from the previous fight. I nearly died at their attempts to remain incognito
it looks like they shot it inside a fridge, everyone’s breath condensing instantly in windy conditions. some audience discussion about how the fights look like video games, or maybe video game fights are inspired by Hong Kong media (we’re playing through Nine Sols at the moment). my wife says “this is boring” “what lovely fabric” “why is he dressed up as a present” and the costumes are remarkably fine
Jet Li is good, Josephine Siao as his mother is fantastic. they fight together a lot, and I loved to see so many mothers (2) beating up bad guys. there are also two dick jokes masterfully written
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