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Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5996571 times)

worm@work

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31570 on: May 25, 2010, 02:52:08 AM »

Blissfully Yours/ (Achipatpong Weerasethakul, 2002)

Creamy gearsticks, languid erections, cliffside picnics juxtaposed with frantic copulation. This film is much more free-form than his narrative-heavy Syndromes and a Century. The textures say it all. The interplay between dark and light, the constantly changing dappled light of the forest, the moving stream, the whole film being suffused with sounds of the forest, the gentle images and sequences of non-erotic eroticism as if in some Edenic idyll. The liminality of the protagonists, as they move through various worlds, a terrain of what seems to be a waking dream of desire, flesh and purification.

Is it regression, or progression? Does it need to be anything at all? It seems to be a release, but there is ambiguity, especially between the three protagonists, and extra especially in the character of Orn. What motivates her is far from clear, but there is an undercurrent to this film, that defies conventional motivations, or conventional narrative in any way. There is an alien energy in the forest, the landscape they traverse, that defies traditional interpretation and might just need to be experienced in the most primal sense. A cheeky provocation, sublime meditation, a film that transcends but also radically grounds the viewer. Or not. It's that sort of film. Sublime.

Nice job keeping the review as cryptic and ambiguous as the film ;D. I just found the whole experience so hypnotic and exhilarating. So glad you enjoyed this, flieger! 

worm@work

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31571 on: May 25, 2010, 03:28:27 AM »
Two Years Before the Mast (John Farrow, 1946)

I was excited about getting a chance to watch this one seeing as how it seems to be largely unavailable (except in a mostly unwatchable print) and yet seems to be on several "great adventure films" lists. Based on a true story and a bestselling book written by one of the men on the ship, Richard Henry Dana. The story itself is pretty predictable. The sailors get tired of the captain's ruthlessness and cruelty and decide to mutiny. They are spurred on by the rich playboy son of a shipowner who gets kidnapped and ends up as one of the crew. The film chronicles the atrocities committed by the captain and the inhuman conditions that the sailors were subject to at the time. The book is supposed to have led to the passing of a Congressional bill protecting the rights of merchant seamen.

The film moves at a reasonable pace for the most part and is interesting enough as an adventure tale but the real reason to watch the film is the performances. I am not really familiar with these actors but they bring so much depth to what is an otherwise fairly flat tale. William Bendix is so great as Amazeen and Barry Fitzgerald is great too as Terence O'Feenaghty. But the real standout is Howard Da Silva as the evil Captain Thompson. He always keeps the character from being a mere caricature and yet manages to make him truly menacing.

Unfortunately the film sort of falls apart in the third act. Everything feels rushed and the resolution is less than satisfying. Now I really want to watch Mutiny on the Bounty to see how it compares.

Grade: C+
« Last Edit: May 25, 2010, 03:34:16 AM by worm@work »

zarodinu

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31572 on: May 25, 2010, 03:37:22 AM »
Triangle

This is a really fun and out there B horror movie.  What begins as a standard boogie man in the dark becomes completely freaking insane to wards the end with a couple of pretty terrifying sequences.  Alot of it doesn't make sense, and there are plot holes you could drive a hummer through, but as a popcorn horror its awesome.   
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dedpool1979

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31573 on: May 25, 2010, 06:51:11 AM »
Triangle

This is a really fun and out there B horror movie.  What begins as a standard boogie man in the dark becomes completely freaking insane to wards the end with a couple of pretty terrifying sequences.  Alot of it doesn't make sense, and there are plot holes you could drive a hummer through, but as a popcorn horror its awesome.   

Is this the one with Melissa George and they're on the big boat?

flieger

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31574 on: May 25, 2010, 06:57:32 AM »

Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)

Once I've devoured you soul, we are neither animal nor human. Stop breathing.

This is cinema people. This is cinema.

Every drop of my blood sings our song. A song of happiness. There. Do you hear it?


roujin

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31575 on: May 25, 2010, 06:59:09 AM »
Better than Syndromes?

flieger

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31576 on: May 25, 2010, 07:00:11 AM »

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31577 on: May 25, 2010, 10:20:57 AM »
The Prestige

This is the 4th time I've seen this film and I'm still finding new stuff. This time around I knew enough of the story that I started picking up on the actual structure of the film and it's  brilliant. As far as I'm concerned, this is Nolan's masterpiece.

FroHam X

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31578 on: May 25, 2010, 10:45:00 AM »
The Prestige

This is the 4th time I've seen this film and I'm still finding new stuff. This time around I knew enough of the story that I started picking up on the actual structure of the film and it's  brilliant. As far as I'm concerned, this is Nolan's masterpiece.

Yay!!!!
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Bondo

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31579 on: May 25, 2010, 11:16:05 AM »
The Prestige
As far as I'm concerned, this is Nolan's masterpiece.

At least until Inception comes out. :)

Anyway, even though I still prefer Memento, you may well be right.