love

Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684034 times)

Jeff Schroeck

  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 982
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #730 on: March 23, 2017, 04:18:48 PM »

I want to keep trying John Cassavetes and Nicolas Roeg films for this reason. I haven't liked any I've seen but I feel like there HAS to be at least one each for me.

have you seen Don't Look Now? One of my all-time favorite supernatural thrillers.

No. Just Man Who Fell To Earth, which I hated, and Walkabout, which I loved up until the kids are on their own. I'd like to try Don't Look Now next, and then maybe Performance.

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #731 on: March 23, 2017, 04:19:39 PM »
When I was in my 20s I thought John Ford was a terrible director.
Same. Also hate 3 of LvTs films but Breaking the Waves is wonderful.

Honestly, the only director I've banned is Michael Bay, just because. :P

jdc

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 7799
  • Accept the mystery
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #732 on: March 23, 2017, 04:34:50 PM »
I like that attitude. Never give up. Plenty of terrible directors with a great film under them, and Lynch is not a terrible director.

When I was in my 20s I thought John Ford was a terrible director.

Yeah, but I don't have your willingness to sit through hours and hours of mediocrity to find the rare gems. Not that I am calling Lynch mediocre, he's just not my thing. Today I am watching Raging Bull; that should go better.

We are saving you those hours and pointing directly to Blue Velvet.  You will certainly understand everything that is going on and you will certainly find things that will be remembered as great moments. Even in the end if you don't like it, you won't regret watching it.  I'll bet a beer on it
"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."  Homer S.
“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #733 on: March 23, 2017, 04:43:32 PM »
Well, if there's a beer to be won...
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #734 on: March 23, 2017, 04:53:31 PM »
My ranking of Lynch features, from most straightforward to least:

The Straight Story (what an apt title!)
The Elephant Man
Blue Velvet
Dune
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Wild at Heart
Mulholland Drive
Lost Highway
Eraserhead
Inland Empire

You should see the top 3. Each is very different, has plenty to recommend it, and has a completely linear, grounded in reality narrative.

Everything below those 3 is probably not your cup of tea.

slowpogo

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 76
    • madeupwords
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #735 on: March 23, 2017, 05:10:43 PM »
Blue Velvet is in no way tough to follow. It has weird things in it, but I was surprised by how conventional it was, given Lynch's reputation, Dune being the only other one I've seen. It's also Very Good.

Hm, Blue Velvet may be conventional in its setup -- a sort of boy detective coming-of-age story. But it takes that conventional premise then throws it down, rolls it around in the dirt and the muck, then skins it alive.

Teproc

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3529
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #736 on: March 23, 2017, 05:12:23 PM »
Sholay (Ramesh Sippy, 1975)

My first foray into Bollywood, and boy oh boy is it something. Whatever you think of it, there is just a lot of cinema in there. Obviously it's 3 hours long, but still, in that time Leone can only give you a spaghetti western : this gives you that (it might as well be called The Magnificent Three), plus romance, comedy, an extended Great Dictator/Great Escape cross-over bit, and several 5+ minutes long musical numbers of course.

It's uneven as hell, with the acting all over the place and especially the tones : it's a little hard to go from a reasonably exciting opening featuring a cop and his two captors defending a train from bandits to the bandits in question singing a song about how great friends they are while goofing around on a sidecar. And when I say goofing around, I mean goofing around as if they were two 9-year old kids in the middle of a sugar rush. It's... fun, but also makes it somewhat hard to take them seriously as badasses that routinely face overwhelming numbers and come out unscathed. It probably helps that their opponents suffer from a very bad case of Stormtrooper Syndrome : not only are they rather poor at aiming, they frequently seem to forget that they own weapons, and even use those weapons as clubs rather than firing them during the final climax. The action overall is often silly... except when it's phenomenally cool, and then there are those precious instances where it's both : let's just say that seeing an old armless man beat up a terrifyingly cruel baddie is pretty fun.

Fun really is the operative word here : that's also how I'd describe the shameless cribbing of Leone's masterpieces here, or Hema Malini's performance as Basanti, a character I initially though would only have one scene, but turns out to be the female lead, even joining in on the ass-kicking towards the end. The musical numbers - aside from that first one which really doesn't work - are also fun... even when they get interrupted by sudden explosions. Twice ! Now that is a tonal shift I can get behind.

Again, there's a lot that doesn't really work, but it's a good time, and I was pretty invested in the main relationships by the end. It might not always make sense, but it generally works on an emotional level.

7/10

Blue Velvet is in no way tough to follow. It has weird things in it, but I was surprised by how conventional it was, given Lynch's reputation, Dune being the only other one I've seen. It's also Very Good.

Hm, Blue Velvet may be conventional in its setup -- a sort of boy detective coming-of-age story. But it takes that conventional premise then throws it down, rolls it around in the dirt and the muck, then skins it alive.

See, I feel that's way hyperbolic. It's weird, but it's not "skins premises alive" weird.

@Martin : Where would Twin Peaks (the TV show) rank on that scale ? Presumably near the movie ?
Legend: All-Time Favorite | Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Poor  |  Bad

Letterbox'd

jdc

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 7799
  • Accept the mystery
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #737 on: March 23, 2017, 05:13:25 PM »
Blue Velvet is in no way tough to follow. It has weird things in it, but I was surprised by how conventional it was, given Lynch's reputation, Dune being the only other one I've seen. It's also Very Good.

Hm, Blue Velvet may be conventional in its setup -- a sort of boy detective coming-of-age story. But it takes that conventional premise then throws it down, rolls it around in the dirt and the muck, then skins it alive.

That is true but you will never be confused about what it happening in the dirt and muck and walk away thinking WTF just happened. 
"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."  Homer S.
“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #738 on: March 23, 2017, 05:21:04 PM »
@Martin : Where would Twin Peaks (the TV show) rank on that scale ? Presumably near the movie ?

It's tricky because MOST of the show is very straightforward. There are eccentric people doing eccentric things but for the most part the story is quite comprehensible. But then there's a few things that are way out there. I'd probably put it just above the movie.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #739 on: March 23, 2017, 06:09:40 PM »
My ranking of Lynch features, from most straightforward to least:

The Straight Story (what an apt title!)
The Elephant Man
Blue Velvet
Dune
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Wild at Heart
Mulholland Drive
Lost Highway
Eraserhead
Inland Empire

You should see the top 3. Each is very different, has plenty to recommend it, and has a completely linear, grounded in reality narrative.

Everything below those 3 is probably not your cup of tea.

This is the best advise for you, DH, in regards to Lynch.  I was going to recommend Elephant Man because it's my favorite of Lynch and without the mystifying bits he often throws in, but Martin's already done that.

Mulholland Dr. didn't upset me after I first saw it, but it completely mystified and confused me.  I took to the webs to see if there were answers, and those years ago I didn't find much, just a suggestion that about half the film was a dream.  This year, I decided to watch it again, because the cinematic quality of the film draws me.  This viewing really clicked for me, it all came together.  Not that I understood everything Lynch was doing there, but the basic plot, the basic themes and the cinematic tricks that Lynch was using to bring the threads together.  It's as if he were attempting to create a new narrative style.  And that works for some people, but not for others.

After watching the film, I wrote my observations and new understanding of the film down here.  And then I found a video that took all my observations and more and displayed them with clips from the film.  I'm not suggesting you read/watch these analyses, I doubt that would make your enjoyment of the film increase. 

But I do think that Martin's suggestion of watching Lynch's more scrutable films would be a good experience for you.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2017, 06:59:10 PM by pixote »
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky