Author Topic: August 2013 MDC  (Read 4561 times)

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: August 2013 MDC
« Reply #10 on: August 10, 2013, 05:34:47 PM »
WillMunny  will watch Jazz on a Summer's Day

WillMunny

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Re: August 2013 MDC
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2013, 06:09:21 PM »
Corndog will watch


Corndog

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Re: August 2013 MDC
« Reply #12 on: August 10, 2013, 07:22:41 PM »
Low hanging fruit, but JolietJerry will be watching:
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

JolietJerry

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Re: August 2013 MDC
« Reply #13 on: August 10, 2013, 11:58:21 PM »
"DO THE RIGHT THING"


Spike Lee's 1989 film "Do the Right Thing" is occasionally brilliant, sometimes cliched and cloying, and often brave and one of the most honest films about race relations I've seen. I don't know how I missed seeing this when I was 16 but if I had I would have loved it.

That's not to say the 40 year old me doesn't think it's great on many levels but several characters just seem to be race caricatures (Buggin' Out and the Korean store owner for example) and it distracted me terribly at times. There's also some heavy handed moments that aren't needed. If your film is so good it's able to get away with characters of different races looking at the camera while spewing derogatory racial commentary and mostly succeed at walking the tight-rope of not simplifying race relations in late 1980s Brooklyn, NY then you don't need to dumb it down with sitcom-ish characters.

Even with limited screen time, Spike's sister Joie Lee stood out as his character Mookie's sister Jade. I think Danny Aiello's Sal was attracted to her not so much on a sexual level but because she seems to be someone in the neighborhood who has hope and is also one of the few people who don't bring disfunction into his life (unlike nearly all the rest of his customers and his sons.) I've only seen her in this and Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes" but she has such a screen presence and I'm surprised she never became a more mainstream actress (nearly half of her films credits were in Spike's movies.) Aiello and John Turturro have one of the best scenes in the picture when Sal tries to explain to his son why he doesn't want to leave the neighborhood and how he doesn't understand his son's hatred towards the people who live there and keep the pizzeria going.

In the end, "Do the Right Thing" feels a tiny bit dated but the high notes it hits help it stand the test of time as a great film. It also made me miss Robin Harris. The man was a comedic genius...you test-tube baby!

**** (out of 5)

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: August 2013 MDC
« Reply #14 on: August 23, 2013, 05:29:35 PM »
Pitch Black 7/10

It's a low budget Sci-fi horror film, that's not exactly a big draw for me and for the first 10 minutes or so it was all I could notice. But slowly it begins to really build the atmosphere with a palpable sense of heat, dread and desperation. Narratively it relies a bit too much on well worn tropes, but the atmosphere is so effective that it largely didn't bother me and there are some great little moments that make it not feel entirely by-the numbers. It's not really the kind of film that gives me much of an urge to write, but I rather enjoyed it.

Corndog

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Re: August 2013 MDC
« Reply #15 on: September 05, 2013, 08:53:27 AM »
Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes, 2008) -

Apologies for the delayed review. I actually watched this near the end of August with plenty of time to write it up, but I just didn't, which is both unfortunate as well as telling of my experience. It was quite forgettable to be honest. I was excited when I got dictated another Miguel Gomes film after having enjoyed Tabu as much as I did. But this one didn't do it for me. Like Tabu, it did seem to start a little slow, but based on my experience with that other film, I remained patient, knowing that it could very well pick up and find its feet. It never did. I feel obligated to say here that I also did not make it through the whole thing. I did however, make it about 2/3rds of the way through when I realized this type of film just wasn't for me. I didn't like the jumping around of styles and narratives, with the film acting like a drama one minute and a documentary the next. None of the bits ever seemed to come together, or even interest me on their own. I also didn't like the touch of having it be pseudo-meta, with moments of people wishing to be in Miguel Gomes new film about 'Our Beloved Month of August'. It all seemed so bizarre, and I never bought into it, or sniffed a level of enjoyment to continue with the film. I get why people would like the style, I really do. But it just wasn't for me. Sort of like Terry Gilliam. I get it, but when his next one comes, I may have to pass. As for Gomes as a filmmaker? Well now I don't know, since I do still love Tabu so very much.

** - Poor
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

WillMunny

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Re: August 2013 MDC
« Reply #16 on: September 06, 2013, 09:56:46 AM »
Sorry you didn't liked it, Corndog, what can I say? don't watch Gomes's "a cara que mereces" - English title? DuckDuckGo please help me, here it is "the face you deserve" - thank you DDG!  ;D

Last night I've watched Jazz on a Summer's Day

thank you PeacefulAnarchy! great discovery!

It's easy to make a historical musical document when you are in Newport, R.I., the year the festival presents legends like the followings: Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Gerry Mulligan etcetera, but the real success of Jazz on a Summer's Day is the idea to mix the images of the performances with scenes from life in Newport, especially the America Cup that coincidentally was held there that day, it creates the portrait of an era, furthermore the way the interaction between performing artists and the audience is filmed/edited with a great sense of timing, I am not expert of musical documentaries, but I've never seen it done better than this. I am not a fan of jazz and documentaries about music, but this film is much more than that and it certainly is a masterpiece of the genre. And how much I love Satchmo!

4/5