THX 11/1-30 (a November movie thread)

[Lee G]

Films I saw recently:



Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank's legendary documentary about the Rolling Stones' 1972 American tour, never released for its scabrous content but, of course, now available on YouTube in its entirety)

Birth (I skipped this when it came out—2004—but people still talk about it, and for good reason it turns out; Nicole Kidman plays a woman who comes to believe that her dead husband has been reincarnated as a 10-year-old; Jonathan Glazer followed up Sexy Beast with this, which I think made everybody go wha? at the time, but it's a really well-made and interesting film with some powerful moments)

The Ward (watching John Carpenter make an unoriginal, uninspired horror movie into something kind of good reminds you just how bad most people are at making movies)

The Other (boring '70s slow-burn creeper with Faulkner overtones)

Red (another fairly recent film I had skipped, and was glad I caught up on; some callow punks shoot a dog for kicks and the dog's old-duffer owner, played by Brian Cox, has a problem with that; some of the subplots tangle up/dumb down the main story, but it's a good cast and a pretty good quasi neo-Western)

[Randall]

Nice thread title!

My son and I have been seeing some movies the past couple of weekends:

"Argo": A interesting dramatization on some "secret history." Cool voice-over at the end!

"Cloud Atlas": Fun and thought-provoking science fiction/fantasy. The Wachowski siblings continue to free the downtrodden masses!

We might go see "Wreck-It Ralph" today because, you know, fun.

[F-Stop]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I finally watched this last night. Wow, very sad.

Upcoming movies to see this month:

1) Flight 2) Lincoln 3) Skyfall

[Rocky Hillian]

Wreck It Ralph! Was a very good movie. Period. By animation standards it was outstanding. By Disney (non-Pixar) standards it was out-of-this-world!

One thing about it. For being a movie set in video games, about video games, involving hundreds of different video games - it has some of the best female characters and storylines in an animated movie in a long time.

[Apeville]

Samsara- described as a guided meditation. Made me a vegetarian for at least 12 hours after I saw it. Beautiful for your eyes, mostly great music...and no words for 90 minutes. In any case, seeing it on the big screen was a bona fide treat.

[Randall]

Wreck It Ralph! Was a very good movie. Period. By animation standards it was outstanding. By Disney (non-Pixar) standards it was out-of-this-world!

One thing about it. For being a movie set in video games, about video games, involving hundreds of different video games - it has some of the best female characters and storylines in an animated movie in a long time.

We quite enjoyed it, also. The voice actors were all excellent, especially the leads.

[Demitra]

Cloud Atlas...

This is the type of movie that I would break my rule of never attending a theatre.

[jeffx]

intruders - kind of a del toro-lite spook story with clive owen at his least badass. some of the imagery is pretty/creepy, most of it is euro-cg bad.

[mte]

the man with the iron fists: fun but forgettable king fu movie from wu-tang's rza. (he stars and directs.) there's some cool stuff—spurting blood, popped-out eyeballs—but the fight scenes are dull, and they use CGI instead of wires. bah.

thief: didn't jeffx mention seeing this recently? michael mann's debut feature, and one of his best. his version of a jean-pierre melville movie.

the tall man: pascal laugier's american follow-up to the unbelievable martyrs, starring jessica biel. starts out as a horror/thriller, ends up as something altogether different. revelation after revelation, to no real effect in the end. i was on edge the whole time, steeling myself for the worst possible shit, which laugher is setting you up for, but he pulls the rug out in the last 10 minutes.

[shady lane]

to no real effect in the end.

which is likely to induce groans with its dumbness.

also watched: the innocents, a 1961 adaptation of the turn of the screw, starring deborah kerr.



shooting is great, ghosts is all creepy, and it holds up really well.

what did not hold up so well was 1971's let's scare jessica to death. it is, however, better than its title, and not without potential. a few bucks and less awkward acting would've gone a long way.