Author Topic: Resurrecting the Movies thread...  (Read 1025382 times)

Offline oilgun

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1030 on: September 05, 2008, 09:23:08 am »
Thanks for the Milk trailer, Leslie.  I worry about the Dan White portrayal, even from the brief trailer; he looks too calculating.  Most of the actual footage of him I've seen makes him look rather stupid and pathetic. (I'm thinking The Times of Harvey Milk.)

A pleasant diversion from the Repugnican Convention last night:  I flipped the channel and found Blade Runner.  I probably hadn't seen it in more than 25 years, yet I used to listen to the soundtrack a lot in the 80s. 

I think it certainly has held up (outside of the blatant Atari ads).  It reminded me of BBM in that it leaves things ambiguous and you have to think!  Rutger Hauer's "tears in the rain" speech is fantastic!

Repugnican?  Did you make that up?  I love it!

Thanks for the MILK trailer Leslie!  It's looking good, I'm really getting excited about the movie.

Offline southendmd

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1031 on: September 05, 2008, 12:15:50 pm »
Repugnican?  Did you make that up?  I love it!


I thought I did, but it's in the urban dictionary. 8)

Offline oilgun

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1032 on: September 05, 2008, 04:47:12 pm »
Here are the best reviewed films (4/4 stars) screening at TIFF (as per THE GLOBE & MAIL):


The Good, the Bad, the Weird
Kim Jee-Woon (South Korea)
With one of the most exciting and possibly longest horse-chase gun battles committed to celluloid, this Korean spaghetti western is both an exotic treat and an old-fashioned rollicking action pic. After meeting on a train in the Manchurian desert in the 1930s, the destinies of a gifted bounty hunter, a sadistic gang leader and an eccentric train robber become intertwined with that of a valuable map. The biggest budget Korean flick to date, this film is visually rich and fully loaded with wildly inventive comedy and action sequences. The director has fun with conventions, yet the movie feels fresher than Hollywood's most recent batch of westerns. J.P.


Rachel Getting Married
Jonathan Demme (U.S.)
Many films have used the ritual of a wedding to peer into the dysfunctions of a troubled family, but none better than this. In its raw honesty and emotional grit, Demme's work here is unsurpassed. Borrowing a little from Robert Altman, and a little more from the Dogme directors, Demme brings a probing camera to the gathering of a Connecticut clan, digging beneath the surface of the rehearsal party chatter — the gaiety real and forced, the speeches graceful and cringe-making — to examine some very large themes at a very intimate level, themes like sin and atonement and the blood that sometimes runs thinner than water. As the sister who gets checked out of rehab long enough to attend the wedding, Anne Hathaway delivers a nuanced and revelatory performance (expect Oscar to call). But so does Rosemarie DeWitt in the title role. The love/hate tension between them, filtered through the crowd around them, is almost voyeuristic in its intensity. Normally reserved for action flicks, that edge-of-your-seat cliché has a new home here — the rawness will have you leaning into the screen, often uncomfortable but always entranced. R.G.

Hunger
Steve McQueen (U.K.)
The debut film from Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen is a harrowing experience and a rule-breaking tour de force. Hunger focuses on the 1981 death of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands over the course of 66 days in the Maze prison. Without endorsing Sands's and his fellow IRA soldiers' tactics, the film places his death in the context of religious martyrdom and portrays the choice of extreme physical degradation — naked and starving in excrement-covered cells — as a form of sacrifice echoing Christ's death. That's not the same as saying McQueen endorses their actions. At the film's centre comes an extraordinary, single-take, 20-minute conversation between Sands (Michael Fassbender) and a sympathetic priest (Liam Cunningham) who tries to convince him this is an ego-driven suicide mission by a man who is no longer in his right mind. For those who are expecting Ken Loach-style propaganda, that's not McQueen's aim. This is a portrait of a hideous human drama, with distinct resonances of the martyrdom and torture in the post-9/11 world. The prison guards here are also victims in a literal sense: They were killed by IRA assassins at the same rate as the prisoners starved to death. L.L.

JCVD  [Woohoo! - oilgun]
Mabrouk El Mechri (France/Belgium/Luxembourg)
Loaded with hilarious in-jokes and packing an unexpected emotional wallop, this smart postmodern hostage pic stars martial-arts action thesp Jean-Claude Van Damme as a washed-up version of himself. In this brave career jolt, Van Damme transforms his leaden acting into Buster Keaton deadpan, pitch-perfect for the string of humiliations — a custody battle, losing a role to Steven Seagal, an unco-operative ATM — that lead his character to a botched Brussels post-office heist. Cops, fans and his parents gather, believing he's gone postal. But can this celebrity become a real-life hero? Shot in dreamy sepia hues, with a fab cast and intellectual and visual zip, JCVD opens the Midnight Madness program in style. J.P.

RR
James Benning (USA)
Barring a change of mind or circumstance, RR will be the last of James Benning's films shot on 16 mm, and it ends with a locomotive, pointedly stopped in front of a wind farm outside Palm Springs, Calif. It's the last in a line of 43 trains shot across the U.S., each one a witness to America's overconsumption. Those familiar with Benning's recent landscape films will be comforted by the fixed camera and the film's continental scope, but in RR the signified (the train) takes over from the signifier (the camera), each shot lasting as long as it takes for a train to traverse the frame; this is both an aesthetic and a political choice. Each shot comes as a surprise, and every one is mesmerizing (yet unspectacular), yet RR acquires a cumulative power over its running time, as the simplicity of the structure gives way to infinite experiences. A masterpiece of structural filmmaking. M. Peranson


For the films rated 3.5 stars and less: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080902.wtiff_minireviews/BNStory/tiff2008/home/?pageRequested=2

Offline oilgun

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1033 on: September 05, 2008, 05:05:53 pm »
Here is another TIFF movie review that should be of special interest to Bettermostians.  Toronto NOW magazine gives it an  impressive 5/5 stars:


Wendy And Lucy
Director(s): Kelly Reichardt
Country: USA
Starring: Michelle Williams, Walter Dalton
Program: CWC
Rating: NNNNN
Review by NW



Wendy (Williams) is driving through Oregon on her way to Alaska with a few possessions, a limited supply of money and her enthusiastic dog, Lucy. Car trouble and an empty bag of dog food trigger a cascade of unpleasant events that send the increasingly desperate woman racing around a small town, bleeding cash and seeing her options dwindle before her eyes.

I freely admit that this movie pushed just about every button I have. I spent most of its 80-minute running time grinding my teeth with mounting tension and silently begging the story not to end up where I feared it would. (It doesn't, though the ending Reichardt comes up with is just as devastating.)

My own issues aside, Williams holds the screen with a riveting, utterly sympathetic performance. Wendy And Lucy works powerfully as both a wrenching character study and a mournful commentary on the economic desperation of small-town Americans.


For more:  http://www.nowtoronto.com/guides/tiff/2008/

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1034 on: September 05, 2008, 06:23:34 pm »
Well, the reviews for the Cohen Bros' BURN AFTER READING have not been very good here in Toronto. - It's playing at the TIFF.  It's too bad I was looking forward to seeing Brad Pitt play a doophus, he really shines in comedies.  Remember how hilarious he was when he guested on FRIENDS?

A friend saw it yesterday - he had a free pass.  He said it was funny, enjoyable, Pitt was great, but it was weird like all Cohen movies.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1035 on: September 07, 2008, 07:47:35 pm »
I saw "Bottleshock" last night and, while I like Alan Rickman, it was kind of an ordeal to sit through. There were way too many closeups of sweaty faces and tangled hair, too much bad French being spoken, and so much wine swilling that my stomach began to feel queasy. Or maybe it was all those handheld camera shots. Also, there was a young surfer-boy actor named Chris Pine who looked like a cross between Heath and Brad, but with nothing of their acting talent or intellectual abilities. I vote to return this bottle for recycling!
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Offline oilgun

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1036 on: September 07, 2008, 09:17:32 pm »
 :D  And here is Chris Pine:


Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1037 on: September 07, 2008, 10:04:56 pm »
Thanks friend! He does deserve watching to see if he matures at all... I also saw the trailer for Australia. That looks promising with Aussies Hugh Jackman and what's her name...after I wrote Hugh Jackman, my mind just went blank! Whats'a matter with my head!!
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Offline Meryl

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1038 on: September 07, 2008, 10:17:53 pm »
I saw "Bottleshock" last night and, while I like Alan Rickman, it was kind of an ordeal to sit through. There were way too many closeups of sweaty faces and tangled hair, too much bad French being spoken, and so much wine swilling that my stomach began to feel queasy. Or maybe it was all those handheld camera shots. Also, there was a young surfer-boy actor named Chris Pine who looked like a cross between Heath and Brad, but with nothing of their acting talent or intellectual abilities. I vote to return this bottle for recycling!

I'm sorry to hear it's not up to par, Lee.  I love Alan Rickman and may see it just for him, though.  :)
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Offline JCinNYC2006

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Re: Resurrecting the Movies thread...
« Reply #1039 on: September 08, 2008, 12:40:40 pm »
Thanks for the Milk trailer, Leslie.  I worry about the Dan White portrayal, even from the brief trailer; he looks too calculating.  Most of the actual footage of him I've seen makes him look rather stupid and pathetic. (I'm thinking The Times of Harvey Milk.)

A pleasant diversion from the Repugnican Convention last night:  I flipped the channel and found Blade Runner.  I probably hadn't seen it in more than 25 years, yet I used to listen to the soundtrack a lot in the 80s. 

I think it certainly has held up (outside of the blatant Atari ads).  It reminded me of BBM in that it leaves things ambiguous and you have to think!  Rutger Hauer's "tears in the rain" speech is fantastic!
Hey Paul!  Hey everyone else!  I can't see the Milk trailer from work but I'll check it out at home, I'm looking forward to it.  Van Sant runs hot and cold with me but I'm dying to see Milk's story on film.  And Repugnican?  Too funny!
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