Author Topic: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico  (Read 5642 times)

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #20 on: June 09, 2020, 08:13:24 PM »
Here's what I've decided...
Top of my list is My Way (2011), because it's South Korean and I'm probably the only person who will watch it this month. I already found it streaming.

After that I have...
Grand Hotel (1932)
Dead Man (1995)
Tenderness (2009)
Eagle vs. Shark (2007)

The first two are rewatches, but I didn't like them and I suspect I'm wrong.
Tenderness was a straight to DVD film starring Russell Crowe back when he was at his peak. So I've always been interested.
I thought I'd seen Eagle vs. Shark, but all my charts say I haven't.

These 4 are in my pocket for now because I'm in the last 40 of my Best of the Decade Marathon. Much as I never want to put off somebody's Top 100 list, this Marathon is 10 years in the making and I've got all the momentum right now, so I wanted to have apology add-on titles if I take too long getting to My Way.

Perhaps when I get to your films the Forum will be right again.

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #21 on: June 09, 2020, 08:21:12 PM »
No worries at all, I'm slightly intimidated at the thought of you seeing these and wondering why I've ranked them that way haha.

While MY WAY is another WWII film, it is also one of those really incredible stories told from another perspective (similar to LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA in some ways, but different overall). Take your time though I'll be studying for the next 7 weeks then finally free to really dig in around here!
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Bondo

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #22 on: June 11, 2020, 10:09:12 PM »
Tender Mercies

This did have a few abrupt skips. One moment Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) is a drifter earning his room and board helping out at a roadside inn/gas station and then before I really knew it, apparently he had married his boss, the widow Rosa (Tess Harper). She has a certain sense of burden in the loss of her husband in Vietnam, left with the inn and a young son. He has a burden in the way alcoholism derailed his life as a musician and a father. It rides that essence of bittersweet throughout as this new family is molded from the fires of their past lives. There's always a little peril underneath.

As an aside that gets into spoilers, it does help put in contrast how society has gotten significantly safer around drinking and driving. Like, it's still an issue obviously, but the tragedy in the film rebounding from a past near-tragedy, has a certain it is the way of things nature.

Anyway, it didn't quite connect enough (though the music certainly helps) to be a personal essential, but I have no trouble seeing why it would be on someone else's list.

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #23 on: June 12, 2020, 12:36:19 AM »
For sure TENDER MERCIES holds a place in my heart that is very personal based on my past. Not that I was a country singer haha, but that the wreckage of the past can often linger and all you can do is try to be better today. I also realized I did not want to continue living in that place of self-pity and regret, making amends (living and direct) have been the better path.  The music is good, even though I am not much for country, this was just one of those stories that hit close to home.  I'm glad you enjoyed at least a part of it, enjoyed your take!  Thanks for watching!
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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #24 on: June 14, 2020, 06:36:28 PM »
The Agony and the Ecstasy



Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. - Henry Ward Beecher

Yes, agony and yes ecstasy, but there are vast stretches of drudgery in-between the two extremes. It's true that the film is "an illustrated lecture on a slow artist at work" (Crowther, New York Times), but that's not the type of drudgery I'm talking about. It's the artist's drudgery. The mind numbing task of pushing through the tedium to accomplish the art that is inside oneself, by working its way to the surface. Never was knitting a flashy art form; knit, purl, knit, purl, repeated incessantly. Same with fresco; plaster, paint, plaster, paint... I don't believe a more dynamic and adventurous plot would serve this story half as well, for the process is the point and the process is painstaking. And beyond that point, the story is most concerned with the reason behind this artist being willing to subject himself to the monotony and mental and physical deterioration required to finish the task. The work ethic is a given. No rest for the weary, or the driven and that drive is the desire to make manifest that which is in the heart and mind. Now that sums up the soul of an artist.

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #25 on: June 14, 2020, 09:28:32 PM »
Drudgery! Haha! Rex Harrison's role in this is really what I remember the most, he was a warrior pope, which is much different (and cooler/tough) than the pontiff of today old and cruising around in his popemobile.  I also thought it interesting the relationship they had, Michelangelo being who he was could challenge the pope, where others would likely be killed or jailed. I also thought it funny he would say "when I'm finished" all the time. You hit the nail on the head though why I really love this story, the movie is perhaps a little drawn out and I did not like the treatment of Contessina generally (a different actress I think, more demure and kind) because their relationship in the book was more of a deep friendship and companionship, maybe they did love each other but I thought the role was out of place. Though she was very loving to have given so much of herself to help nurse him. The quarries are beautiful, marble is such an interesting piece of rock, a geological wonder and Michelangelo would just sweep away the stone to show the beauty beneath.  I hope it wasn't too much of a drudgery for you, thanks for watching!
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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #26 on: June 16, 2020, 01:21:33 PM »
Drudgery! Haha! Rex Harrison's role in this is really what I remember the most, he was a warrior pope, which is much different (and cooler/tough) than the pontiff of today old and cruising around in his popemobile.

:))

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I also thought it interesting the relationship they had, Michelangelo being who he was could challenge the pope, where others would likely be killed or jailed. I also thought it funny he would say "when I'm finished" all the time.

Yes! That was a great running joke. I too like how only they could pull each other from their "death beds," into action. We all need a frenemy like that.

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You hit the nail on the head though why I really love this story, the movie is perhaps a little drawn out and I did not like the treatment of Contessina generally (a different actress I think, more demure and kind) because their relationship in the book was more of a deep friendship and companionship, maybe they did love each other but I thought the role was out of place. Though she was very loving to have given so much of herself to help nurse him.

I still hope to read the book, so will look forward to reading about that relationship.

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The quarries are beautiful, marble is such an interesting piece of rock, a geological wonder and Michelangelo would just sweep away the stone to show the beauty beneath.  I hope it wasn't too much of a drudgery for you, thanks for watching!

Not at all! I didn't have to paint upside down for years on end. :) I enjoyed the movie.

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #27 on: June 22, 2020, 01:25:54 PM »
A Woman of Affairs



(SPOILERY)

Oh how I wish I could change the last 3 minutes of this movie. Diana was able to secure and steady that ring numerous times before as she lifted herself up and out of her devastation. One more time, please? Initiate that tenacity and indomitable spirit shown throughout the story. Don't lose all that has been gained because someone who has disappointed, disappoints again. That is on him, not Diana. And yet, it's on her for wising for something different. Deliberately forgetting the reality, to live in the dream proves to be too much. Alas. As a consolation, I can take with me the illustration of an integrity filled graciousness, as Diana really sees Constance and makes sure to give credit where credit is due. Bravo.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #28 on: June 25, 2020, 07:46:12 AM »
Oh yeah, OK, put in some col_mx work in today.

#1 Wake In Fright

You all couldn't of have reached out and let me know what was about to happen in the second half? Couldn't let your dear fellow Filmspotter from the desert KNOW?

I mean, I loved this at the top, you could see the Lynchian (though this basically predates him, that's my reference point for bonkers absurdism) hell hole he was getting trapped in. The coin flipping game was giving me a heart attack, and I was just watching on my couch, but the sinking feeling I go when I know he was to lose everything and any hopes, plans, or optimism for his holiday vacation was done. And when he gets there, he just says f it and takes drinks from anyone and gets involved in some of the most cruel, sketchy, and ridiculous forms of activities. To this point, I'm loving the technicolor, the fill of color does wonders on the vast desert and dusty almost wild west looking place "The Yabba". I appreciated that it is a film that has its protagonist questioning his sanity and reality without the psychoanalysis, the world just isn't the world as he knows it. Even with how good I think Gary Bond is as John Grant, or how this feels like a more lo-fi surreal, bananas bender, I can't watch it again, and I'd only recommend it guardedly, and this is where we get back into having messages before or after films justifying atrocities therewithin.

Bottom line, the kangaroo hunt might be the worst animal cruelty I've seen caught on tape. I almost turned it off. I was pissed the rest of the film. I read up on it and saw that this expedition with licensed hunters was going to happen anyway, so it wasn't a hunt FOR the film (though one can question, with the crew there, would these hunters have acted as savagely? Maybe they would've been more savage.) But we're talking kangaroos crawling around with their intenstines being pulled out, among other awfulness the crew saw. It was so bad, the crew faked a power outage to end the hunt prematurely. Not just that, but then the film had to go the extra mile and show the guys slitting kangaroo's throats up close. No, this would not necessarily bother if it were fake using practical effects, but by this time I've seen so much true life carnage, I didn't have it in me for even a fake hand-to-hand killing. When this film finally got put together completely, it was screened at Cannes, where 12 people walked out. Now, the animal welfare group who encouraged including the carnage in the film thought it would be a way to teach people about how heinous these hunting sprees can be. So where do I actually sit on it? I'm gonna take a revised Touki Bouki stance. I gave that 3.5, but I'll never watch it again for the animal slaughters being performed, no matter the point, and it really should be like a 2 or 2.5. Same with Wake in Fright, I think there's some great stuff going on, the film is a fascinating exposure of toxic masculinity and, to be sure, just a bit down on people in general, but it's well-shot, gets you disoriented, and even at the end where Grant just tried to end it and fully recovered, that was nuts. And, I mean, I've never been more intensely interested in a flip of a coin. The theatre of the bizarre, but I can't watch that kangaroo slaughter ever again.

#2 mid90s

Just a cool ass movie about growing up in the mid 90s, trying to find an identity when your brother is emotionally unavailable and is passing his trauma onto you, mom is a little off her game, and you just don't know what makes you you. In fact, there's all sorts of trauma and skeletons in these kids' closet, so they find skateboarding as the equalizer, somewhere they can go to be themselves. You got a pretty cool 90's hip-hop soundtrack with a lot of Wu, even a Gravediggaz (RZA's OTHER group) track, but also some Morrissey, inexplicably, as Ray was helping Stevie get through his shit with his brother and they skated down that big street at night. There are elements to my adolescence in several of these characters, though I don't want to make this some sort of weird autobiography. Just a lot of connections to it. I even knew four kids who lost their lives in a drunk driving crash, around the ages of the kids in this show. A LOT of connections. I love the obvious "full screen" ratio, the cinematography is not to be messed with, they capture these big skate meetings showing the energy, the socialization, and even the empathy between skaters and the down and out in the community. Hill and his crew knew where to scan and pan, where to stop and linger to catch a moment in the midst of many moments worth being caught. I just really liked the vibe. There are some strong homophobic slurs used, especially by a young boy with a particularly tough, abusive home situation, a word that was used a lot back then, and it was tough on my ears. It was real, though, and while hearing grown men throw that around like pretty much has me turning off the program, kids coming of age get cut some slack from me, especially since the real mentor figure to the group, Ray, was holding it down for them, being that rock, and not feeding into the hate. I loved watching him take care of Stevie, almost like a guardian angel type thing. There's certainly more than a little nostalgia at play as I saw this work, but long as you know what it is, you can savor it from time to time. I'm the guy who keeps the family photos and other memorabilia, anyway, I love memories, looking back, even when it's hard. Watching mid90's was kind of like that for me.

A little more early morning movie rants, but I felt like getting a little more colloquial today after some of the more serious conversations we've been having, and I've been enjoying a lot.

I purchased Akira, so should be able to get that in before the month's done.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: colonel_mexico
« Reply #29 on: June 25, 2020, 06:30:30 PM »
@Sandy - I loved this movie so much because its Garbo at her best, beautiful, lost, stuck hurt and tragic.  This story is so spicy even with some of the censoring from the book. Lewis Stone and John Gilbert are also quite good and appear alongside Garbo in many of her films. I need to revisit this again soon and I am glad you did enjoy it despite the "darkness" of the story. 

@ET - The kangaroo scene is very brutal and mirrors the brutality of the outback. I love this so much because its one of the stronger films of the Australian gothic scene of the 70s and 80s.  Donald Pleasance makes an appearance, he was Dr. Loomis in the older HALLOWEEN films. There are other good ones that don't include horrible animal scenes in this genre including THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS, STONE, and MAD DOG MORGAN. 

MID90s also touches some past memories, ninja turtle skateboard, southern California, the liminal stages of changing from boy to teenager and that whole awkward, weird, tough time.  Sunny Slijic is really great in it, his performance is so real and emotive, he's cool without really trying to be.  I also really enjoy Katerine Waterston, though her role is very small and not very likeable here, still she conveys such a presence of longing and brooding that I would imagine was true of boomer/post-boomer era parents (and perhaps younger, single mothers) who were selfishly seeking out their own happiness. I love the symbols too, that the little dude was willing to take the hardest falls, but still be unafraid to press on, to keep "dropping in."

"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"