The other day I saw a midnight screening of the 1972 giallo All the Colors of the Dark at a theater that is fanatically committed to screening film prints. They had this totally weird 16mm print of the film that was treated to be ULTRA widescreen. Their projector couldn’t handle it, but they ran it through anyway.
It was way too big for the screen! It was cropped on all sides. So the entire film felt like the camera was WAY too close to the action. Like, you’d see an extreme closeup of the left side of someone’s face and everything else would be way the hell off screen. It was totally weird and claustrophobic.
To make matters worse, it was a degraded print with ruined color – in classic fucked-up-print fashion, the only dye that hadn’t decomposed was red, so the whole film was rendered in shades of pink. That, combined with the too-close shots and a fuzzy, humming magnetic tape soundtrack lent the entire screening this bizarre, amniotic vibe.
It was the most poorly conceived screening I’ve ever been to, but it was quite an experience. There was a real poetry to the whole thing. Felt like we were all hanging out in someone’s basement watching a 5th generation VHS dub of the film.
honestly, even with fun issues like that, seeing film is great because you’re so cognizant that you’re watching a real, physical thing and all the hilarity that goes with it
one of my favorite experiences from college was the print we watched of Once Upon A Time in the West in a class that was the US cut but with the international scenes spliced back in and you could always tell because the color temperature would fucking shoot off to as warm as possible for a few minutes and then snap back (narrowly beating out the time we watched a print of a silent film with no backing music, which is fine but we’re all modern audiences and conditioned to not say a damn thing during the show so literally all you heard was the clacking of the projector running)
Its pretty good. But, didn’t quite amaze me. I think its biggest problem is shared with most of the recent, smaller sci-fi films. Nice slow development and build up to-----a quick reveal and then not much is really done with it----and the movie ends not long after, with no real finish.
Toy Story 4 is a fucking weird children’s movie about several characters that are either suicidal or on the verge of being suicidal finding their will to live again through chance encounters and is good
MIB International is a blockbuster about producers who will probably spend a great deal of wincing at box office numbers and is about as good as the mood that would produce such feelings
i saw the new shaft movie because i had a gift certificate and had to be out of the house and it was the only thing playing at 11am where i was
its really fun waiting around a mall with all the retirees waiting for things to open
also the movie wasnt horrible, i went in expecting THOSE DARN MILLENIALS
which it was for the first 20 minutes, and i had to hold on to my armrest to keep from bolting
but when it got shafty it was good! the way shaft changed through generations but stayed shaft was interesting and of course they could have gone into more about what it means to be shaft today vs 2000 vs 1970 but whatever, that would be a real movie with a real message
the action was good. richard roundtree makes fun of sam jackson for looking older than he does
theres drunk capoeira
tl;dr STARTS LIKE THE WORST DETECTIVE PIKACHU ENDS ON A SOLID SHAFT
while i was lamenting about no original movies i got to see the trailer for midsomer on a big big screen which made me more excited for it
its got no soundtrack and narration so it feels very much like you’re just looking into the window of this construction worker who can lift shit with just his fingers
he was made famous for bending a penny
my favorite part was when they asked if his strongman stunts gave him injuries and he was like ‘nah its the metal hauling that breaks my back’
I couldn’t sleep so I rewatched Grosse Pointe Blank
It’s a good film with problems.
The action and comedy work pretty well. The romance not so much.
John Cusack and Minnie Driver have chemistry but Debi doesn’t feel like a character she feels like a prize. Mr. Blank gains a newfound respect for life and wins the girl.
I do like how the script builds Mr. Blank. Mr. Blank’s profession makes him exhaustingly paranoid. He’s always worried about windows and where he sits. Cusack has little nervous habits that add to the feeling he’s been doing contract work for too long.
rewatched cecil b demented, i love it except for the part where they’re branding eachother
its not the branding that bothers me its when they moan-sing DEMENTED FOREVERRRRRRR and its like please please stop please you’re embarrassing me in front of my friends
the shotgun/boom is still a great gag
also the oyster slurping at gunpoint
I actually semi-enjoyed Glass even though it was a nonsense pile that had nothing to do with our reality. What the fuck is a Limited Edition M. Night? James Mcalvoy once again sending out his SNL Audition Tape. Bruce Willis looking as old man as he has ever and kind of just want a film where he is old and sad. Also GoPro shots and no budget.
I followed that up with Mortal Engines. This was so quickly gone from Japanese theaters I didn’t even notice it. It was like a Transformers movie with visual coherence because I could figure out what was going on but sure didn’t care.
I also watched Replicas.
Moana was nice. I saw why none of the songs captured the world. Tattoo guy was great.
And a Korean film Unstoppable about a guy whose wife gets kidnapped. I was hopping for a fun Lian Neison style film. Instead the bad guy was too evil and it really relishes in that evil and sort of minmizes husband beating up punks.
Get Out finally. This was good that I could watch it with Japanese subtitles with headphones off because the white people-ness was so uncomfortable. Everyone said it was great and it was great.
Then I saw John Wick 3 in a theater and that was great.