I Love I Love I Love Films
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 1:19 am
So FA took the kids to her parents' house for weekend+ and I stayed here to watch the pets. I basically watched movies and ordered take-out for dinner. I had not seen any of them before except for Game Night.
Mulholland Dr.: Genuinely unsettling. Naomi Watts was incredible in it. I'm still flabbergasted by 1. how clearly the demarcation between "Here's the part that would've been the TV pilot" and "Here's where we took it once it became a movie" is 2. how that switch actually works in the film's favor.
Hustlers: I watched like a third of this movie before there was a really awkward scene with Buzz from Home Alone and I just didn't want to watch it anymore. Like, it's fine? I rewatched Out of Sight a few months ago and was like "Man J-Lo was great in this movie" and she's very good in Hustlers, there's just something tedious about it.
Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero: A fine documentary about a band I was never super into. Some of the talking heads go overboard on what the band's impact could've been if they'd released a major-label weirdo rock record in 1998 (which was not a great time for rock) but whatever, it's their favorite band.
Duck, You Sucker! (aka A Fistful of Dynamite): Leone's last Western. It starts slow and easily could've been trimmed by 20 minutes, but once it gets going it's great. Reminded me of For a Few Dollars More, which is my favorite Leone.
Godzilla (1954): I'd never seen the original Godzilla and it's striking how sobering it is. The film basically plays like a "life during wartime on home soil" film for the hour or so.
Yojimbo: I'd watched A Fistful of Dollars early in the year and enjoyed it a lot. It was based on Yojimbo, but man does Yojimbo have a million more plot machinations. Overall I enjoyed it but the constant back and forth between the two sides hampered my enjoyment a bit.
Ex Machina: Very good sci-fi movie, although I'd stop short of saying I loved it. I feel strange admitting this but when there's no particularly sympathetic character I'm disconnected a bit, and that's the case here.
Wild at Heart: A bonkers road movie from David Lynch. I watched Something Wild a few months ago and even with Ray Liotta, that one's not nearly as wild as this film. Nic Cage channeling Elvis gets old, but Laura Dern's great in it. I don't think it holds together as well as Lynch's best films, though.
Game Night: I wanted to rewatch it and it mostly holds up. Jason Bateman playing Jason Bateman's probably the worst part of it.
Sanjuro: A shorter, tighter, and funnier follow-up to Yojimbo that I enjoyed a ton.
Lost Highway: I owned the soundtrack to this movie in high school but hadn't seen it. It's a solid Lynch experience but 1. I wish it had more lightness to balance the darkness 2. Lynch did more compelling things with these concepts in Mulholland Dr. and The Return.
Annihilation: Very good sci-fi movie, although I'd stop short of saying I loved it. The flaws aren't hard to spot but the last act / ending is sticking with me, even more than Ex Machina's did.
Rififi: What a great noir / heist movie.
Mulholland Dr.: Genuinely unsettling. Naomi Watts was incredible in it. I'm still flabbergasted by 1. how clearly the demarcation between "Here's the part that would've been the TV pilot" and "Here's where we took it once it became a movie" is 2. how that switch actually works in the film's favor.
Hustlers: I watched like a third of this movie before there was a really awkward scene with Buzz from Home Alone and I just didn't want to watch it anymore. Like, it's fine? I rewatched Out of Sight a few months ago and was like "Man J-Lo was great in this movie" and she's very good in Hustlers, there's just something tedious about it.
Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero: A fine documentary about a band I was never super into. Some of the talking heads go overboard on what the band's impact could've been if they'd released a major-label weirdo rock record in 1998 (which was not a great time for rock) but whatever, it's their favorite band.
Duck, You Sucker! (aka A Fistful of Dynamite): Leone's last Western. It starts slow and easily could've been trimmed by 20 minutes, but once it gets going it's great. Reminded me of For a Few Dollars More, which is my favorite Leone.
Godzilla (1954): I'd never seen the original Godzilla and it's striking how sobering it is. The film basically plays like a "life during wartime on home soil" film for the hour or so.
Yojimbo: I'd watched A Fistful of Dollars early in the year and enjoyed it a lot. It was based on Yojimbo, but man does Yojimbo have a million more plot machinations. Overall I enjoyed it but the constant back and forth between the two sides hampered my enjoyment a bit.
Ex Machina: Very good sci-fi movie, although I'd stop short of saying I loved it. I feel strange admitting this but when there's no particularly sympathetic character I'm disconnected a bit, and that's the case here.
Wild at Heart: A bonkers road movie from David Lynch. I watched Something Wild a few months ago and even with Ray Liotta, that one's not nearly as wild as this film. Nic Cage channeling Elvis gets old, but Laura Dern's great in it. I don't think it holds together as well as Lynch's best films, though.
Game Night: I wanted to rewatch it and it mostly holds up. Jason Bateman playing Jason Bateman's probably the worst part of it.
Sanjuro: A shorter, tighter, and funnier follow-up to Yojimbo that I enjoyed a ton.
Lost Highway: I owned the soundtrack to this movie in high school but hadn't seen it. It's a solid Lynch experience but 1. I wish it had more lightness to balance the darkness 2. Lynch did more compelling things with these concepts in Mulholland Dr. and The Return.
Annihilation: Very good sci-fi movie, although I'd stop short of saying I loved it. The flaws aren't hard to spot but the last act / ending is sticking with me, even more than Ex Machina's did.
Rififi: What a great noir / heist movie.