Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched (2013-2016)  (Read 973388 times)

Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8420 on: June 10, 2016, 10:39:25 AM »
That's what I meant, the first movie where they were the point of it, the leads. I've seen Swing Time and Top Hat, both of which are better than this.
Ah, so Shall We Dance should be next in this batch.

If it shows up on TCM while I'm home I will be all over that.
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jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8421 on: June 10, 2016, 11:00:42 AM »
Kill List
Ben Wheatley (2011)
I watched it with mild interest at first than my curiosity was picked when the action started going and by the ending I was in a sort of perplexed haze, my eyebrows energetically practicing gymnastics.

This is why I think I have it in my Top 100.. I should check to make sure.  You seem to capture it even if it doesn't do it for you in the end
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8422 on: June 10, 2016, 11:12:09 AM »
And I liked Kevin a lot.

Let the Right One in [...] I'm not overly thrilled for.

Maybe you just have bad taste? Mystery solved!  ;D

Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8423 on: June 10, 2016, 11:38:36 AM »
Take that, The Leftovers!
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8424 on: June 10, 2016, 11:46:28 AM »
People with bad taste, all the way down.

Sandy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8425 on: June 10, 2016, 12:35:51 PM »
Ooh biblical themes. How about Jesus being the only baby in the land after Herod's murder spree? People would have peered in at the baby in the same awed manner. If you take that as an historical event then the mythos that would have built around the child. Even as a man Jesus would be a unique individual of a certain age. Just like baby Diego at the beginning of the film or this baby later in life.  Oooooh!

I knew this, but I didn't really know it until you wrote about it in context of the movie. Or, in other words, it took an observation of an artistic juxtaposition, to get me to ponder the implications of Jesus' uniqueness, age wise. Ain't movies grand? :)


Love it. The Theo character is what drew me in on my most recent watch. Beyond the flash, which is quite flashy, there is a real person (or two or three, with Julianne Moore and Michael Caine helping out) around whom this film revolves. That opening really works to ground the audience in his perspective. The ringing is both his and the audience's shock. His scepticism is ours, his belief too.

The richness in symbolism (including that ringing "death knell"!) and the way the characters are so grounded in identifiable aspects and as you say, "real," this movie must be especially re- and re-re-watchable. I believe there is a great deal that can be gleaned from each viewing. It's true about the opening scene. It felt like a shared trauma, where we then were carried along for the whole ride.

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8426 on: June 10, 2016, 02:25:00 PM »

I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

This Review Contains Mature Content. Discretion is Advised.


There are a handful of titles that won't leave me alone. No matter how hard I try, they have remained a part of the cinema conversation, often for being the most controversial films in existence. Not the worst, but the finest examples of how low the art can sink.

Cannibal Holocaust
Faces of Death
The Human Centipede (and its sequels)
Last House on the Left
A Serbian Film

I have now seen all but one of these, and I don't ever see myself watching Faces of Death. Cannibal Holocaust is bad, but there are interesting things about it. Last House is actually good effective because it's made with a certain conviction. I Spit on Your Grave is only interesting in terms of the behind the scenes questions it raises.

I'm now fascinated in the backstory of Camille Keaton, who plays the lead and went on to marry the director (Meir Zarchi) after filming was completed. What were her hopes and dreams before landing in this cesspool. How did she get through the days of filming being raped and then being gang raped and then, thinking it was over only to be gang raped again. (I confess, even though the acting is comically bad enough to remove the incidents from reality, I watched much of this section at a faster speed. I have no interest in sitting through such a lengthy sexual assault.) What did the script look like? Was there a script? Were star and director falling in love while filming these sequences?

There's even more mystery years later. 15 years later, Keaton starred in an unofficial/remake playing the same role, going through much of the same ordeal. That same year she married her 2nd husband Sidney Luft, who was once married to Judy Garland. This year, Keaton and her ex Zarachi reunited to film I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu, where the relatives of the men in the first film try to take revenge on her. You know how mothers say to their children "make good choices"? Keaton seems to have done the exact opposite.

I've seen films with worse acting, writing and directing, but not many. I've seen films that were more offensive. (The prize for that may be a remake of Last House called Chaos that I had to watch while working for Sean S. Cunningham.) Zarchi claims the film was meant to be about female empowerment, but the amount of rape is way out of proportion with the small amount of revenge. To the film's credit there are a couple of good shots and even one effective scare. However, it's mostly a shame that there are so many rape and revenge films out there it's become its own sub-genre.
RATING: 0 Stars
« Last Edit: June 10, 2016, 02:43:36 PM by 1SO »

philip918

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8427 on: June 10, 2016, 03:18:42 PM »
Pretty sure that movie only gained an audience because of its poster.

sdb_1970

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8428 on: June 10, 2016, 04:26:35 PM »
I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

Pretty sure that movie only gained an audience because of its poster.

I vaguely remember watching that one a long time ago with a group of friends early on in high school (alongside Faces of Death, as I recall, on the recommendation of videostore clerk) ... Of the individuals on letterboxd that I follow who have logged the film, the large majority (including, um, oad) provided neither a rating nor a review, which seems to translate into either: (a) an actual rating of nil stars; or (b) "yep, I watched that, and I got nuthin." ...  Parties could disagree about the artistic merit of such films.  But reading Men, Women, and Chainsaws about a year ago, I came to the conclusion that I am glad that we live in a society that is relatively free from censorship, and as a result, films like this get made: for better or for worse (depending on your opinion), such films expose aspects of our culture that are best not repressed/hidden.  In my opinion, "why" is always a better option for discourse than "whether."
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philip918

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #8429 on: June 10, 2016, 05:51:10 PM »
I haven't seen this one, but seems like there's an interesting comparison that could be made between it and Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. A film I found deeply unsettling and brutal (literally watching through my fingers) and will most likely never watch again, but I think the film worked.