Re: Recent movie playlist

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Killing Of A Sacred Deer - saw this several months ago, realizing i never posted about it. another film, like mother!, that i didn't "get" while watching, but certainly enjoyed. after viewing, i googled around and discovered what the actual "plot" was and, like mother!, there really isn't one - it's 100% symbolic. regardless, a tight, dread-inducing film that i quite enjoyed and want to watch again now that i understand the story from which it originates.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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Alexhead wrote:I don't know the symbolic background but I quite liked it as a horror movie. Messed up ending.
it's a take on an ancient euripides play. makes sense since director and the other writer are both very greek.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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Mom And Dad - wow is this movie dark and comedic. ultra-dark horror comedy? i don't know. plot is essentially on the other end of the spectrum from Cooties. lots of great Cage-isms, and a surprise 3rd act appearance from lance henricksen, and he's fantastic. some slow parts but well worth a watch. if you're still watching after the opening scene, this is the movie for you.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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Pacific Rim: Uprising
Dumbest film I've seen in years. And not the good kind of dumb, just stupid. My son liked the big robots and occasional monsters (wasn't this supposed to be about robots fighting monsters like ALL of the time?), but thats about the best thing I could say about it.

Revenge
This one I did like, however. Amazing visuals and some really dirty sound work. So much blood. A refreshing approach to the 70's rape-revenge films. Recommended.

Logan
Didn't think I would enjoy this as much as I did. Have not liked Mangolds films in the past, but this worked for some reason. Absolutely essential that they kept it an R-rated film, it wouldn't have worked otherwise.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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Sorry to Bother You was a lot more surreal and bonkers than I was expecting from the trailer. Great movie, just more unsettling than I expected. It covered a lot of ground too. Good film if you're a SJW, not recommended for MAGAists. A little rough around the edges due to the first time director, but one hell of a vision and good acting. I would definitely recommend it.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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The Devils - "In 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier seeks to protect the city of Loudun from the corrupt establishment of Cardinal Richelieu. Hysteria occurs within the city when he is accused of witchcraft by a sexually repressed nun." yeah, that. also, lots and lots of acid was consumed, i assume. this is one bonkers film. first half is kind of slow burn, not really sure where this is going to go, then it takes a very hard right turn into nutso. everyone should see this at least once. a couple powerful performances flanked by a ton of over the top insanity and what someone assumes to be period dialog. it is quite striking for sure.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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TC wrote:The Devils - "In 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier seeks to protect the city of Loudun from the corrupt establishment of Cardinal Richelieu. Hysteria occurs within the city when he is accused of witchcraft by a sexually repressed nun." yeah, that. also, lots and lots of acid was consumed, i assume. this is one bonkers film. first half is kind of slow burn, not really sure where this is going to go, then it takes a very hard right turn into nutso. everyone should see this at least once. a couple powerful performances flanked by a ton of over the top insanity and what someone assumes to be period dialog. it is quite striking for sure.
Ding ding ding!

I've been pretty much obsessed with this movie since seeing it a couple months ago. It's screaming out for a lovingly prepared Criterion edition Blu, that's for sure.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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Alexhead wrote:Earlier this week I watched Only God Forgives, beautifully shot as expected, kind of a trifle of a crime drama story, much darker and less appealing than Drive. Based on watching 3 Refn films and reading a couple of interviews, I think dude has a cinematic violence fetish and his movies are just excuses to string together moments of human on human cruelty.
i finally caught this yesterday. it is certainly very high atmosphere, slow burner kind of a piece. his stuff to me seems much more about mood, tone, and atmosphere than necessarily the content. i'd wager the dialog script for this was half as long (or less) of most 90 minute films. which is fine by me. i enjoyed watching it, liked it fine, but didn't really leave me thinking about it afterwards. it's a high-art 70's kung-fu film, minus most of the kung-fu. guy's brother gets killed, brother seeks revenge, sort of, is guilted out. even JCVD did a couple films with pretty much this plot. but it certainly was artful.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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BFI have an HD master of The Devils, however Warner refused to let them release a blu-ray (DVD only), just as they refused to let them include the ROC scene within the film. I suspect the current climate isn't very conducive to turning this around, indeed one might say we are lucky it was released at all...

Kickboxer is a better, more culturally sensitive film than OGF (not saying much, of course).

Re: Recent movie playlist

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The Devils is marvelous. I think Refn's even admitted he didn't have a fully baked script with OGF. Neon Demon, on the other hand, is awesomely awful.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Recent movie playlist

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Beyond the Black Rainbow

Finally, finally set aside some time to watch this. It's from Panos Cosmatos, the director behind that lovely looking Nic Cage-flick Mandy. This is his first feature film (Mandy being the second) and from what I've read, it was funded from DVD residuals off of Tombraider of all films (his father was George P Cosmatos of Tombraider, Cobra and Rambo fame).

Anyway... This was quite something. Heavy themes of isolation, entrapment and control. Also one of the most visually striking films I've seen in years. Amazing photography and an almost hypnotizing amount of neon colors. Add to that a greta soundtrack and an amazing visualization of a deep acid trip, and you've got yourself quite a film.

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TC wrote:Beyond The Black Rainbow - someone told me awhile back that this was a lynchian horror movie. well, it's not really a horror movie, but holy shit did it go out of its way to be "lynchian". another way to describe it would be an acid trip in film version. the lead male actor delivers probably the most creepy performance i've ever seen. as a film, the first 1/2-3/4 is very interesting, you're wondering where they are going. then you get the feeling they suddenly realized they had no ending and threw something together. it totally goes in a completely different direction to provide an ending when leaving it open as a sort of film study would have been more satisfying. scenes of the girl walking as slowly as humanly possible - while pretty much fitting with the tone of the rest of the film - seem to have been left as long as possible to draw out the length, again lending to the feeling that they really had no idea where they were going with this. very much worth watching for the extremely creepy/uncomfortable first 3/4 and excellent very dark '80s synth score.
yeah here was my initial take. good stuff.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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The Tale - wow was this a powerful film. very well conceived and executed, powerful performances, quite disturbing and thought-provoking. i love laura dern so much, and the fact that this is a true story just makes it that much more of a gut punch. a real study of the stories we tell ourselves. highly recommended.