Comment Archives: stories: Film
Re: “Funny Games with the Horror Movie”
Funny Games was referenced explicitly in the first 5 minutes, yeah, what with the abrupt title card, and characters referring to "things not going wrong since 1998"? (They'd have to be using the U.S. release date, but still...)
Re: “Pinochet Coup Fever (Again)”
"Creepy socio-path" is a kind description of Pinochet, DINA and supporters of the 1973 coup.
Re: “This Lorax Doesn't Exactly Speak for the Trees”
Good review. Sounds like I'll wait for the DVD to catch it...
Re: “New Directors/New Films: Found Memories”
Oh saw this today and absolutely hated it! So dry and forced. It made me constantly think of a recent interview I read with Gregg Araki where he said the worst reason to make a film is just because you want to make a film. You can tell the filmmaker just wanted to make a movie and pieced some existing literature together to having something to put before the camera.
Re: “The End of the World, with Abel Ferrara”
The film, seen in tandem with the Lars von Trier failed effort at dystopic end-of-world scenario, is an exercise that might better have been confined to the sophomore film-lab in which it must, on some level, have been incubated. Little in the plot seems reasonable or inevitable, and the lack of REASON for the end of world cataclysm is a major negative in this most irritating though very NYC story.
Re: “God, Sex and Smalltown America”
I've heard nothing but amazing things about this film. I was unfortunately out of town when it hit NYC theaters and am PSYCHED to finally see it!
Re: “God, Sex and Smalltown America”
i saw this movie in Chicago in November and it was the best film i saw all year... amazing. so pumped to see it again!
Re: “The Miracle Woman”
One of the great casualties of the rise (and now fall) of the video store was the death of the revival house. When I first moved to NYC's Upper West Side 40 years ago there were at least seven of these wonderful venues, and on any given day I could enter, pay my fee and see the likes of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich or Barbara Stanwyck, 20 feet high and glowing. Ever since then it has been my firm belief that movies were made to be seen in the dark with 400 strangers. And especially this is true of comedies. How can seeing a comedy in one's living room, even with a group of friends, compare to the kind of shared, infectious laughter that audience in Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels" experienced?
Re: “The Miracle Woman”
I am reading this wonderful book right now and it is torture: how can I slow it down to last forever when I am simply dying to get to my favorites and see if Dan sees what I do? As to a film for which I would like to switch out the existing star to see what Miss Stanwyck could do, I offer "Five Graves to Cairo." Anne Baxter does a very good job as Mouche, and I'm not at all sure that Stanwyck could master the accent, but when I think of what she could have brought to the character -- oh, my! And I would have loved to see her reaction when Eric von Stroheim would have waved her back with that damn whisk!
Re: “Fashion Forward, Soviet!”
The film has no visual language of its own and deeply misrepresents the years it tries to depict...
Re: “U! S! A!”
Looks like a mind-blowing, totally awesome commercial.
Re: “The Miracle Woman”
Wow! This book sounds great--Stanwyck is one of my favorites from that era, and I love movies from the 30s and 40s in general. Everything about them was better, but especially the way roles for women were written. Modern "rom coms" just seem so insipid compared to The Lady Eve or Woman of the Year.
I haven't heard of a lot of these movies, and I just hope I can find them somewhere--even Netflix has a very limited selection of old movies. (And I wish movie theaters showed them more often. I saw Bringing Up Baby--my favorite screwball comedy--on the big screen a couple years ago and it was such a treat! It was wonderful to watch it after all these years with an audience!)
Re: “Technostalgia”
I program a summer film series, and have run into this very problem with WB. "Can you use a DVD?" they ask. Problem is, DVDs routinely look *horrible* when projected on a giant movie screen. Blu-rays are a little better, but have nowhere near the luminosity of at 35mm print, or a well-done DCP.
Re: “The Master, Probably: Bresson at Film Forum”
There are also Bresson men. It's unseamly to overlook the vibrant homoeroticism of "A Man Escaped," "Pickpocket," "Au Hasard Balthazar" and "Le Diable Probablement."
Re: “The Action Movie As Must-Have New Gadget”
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Re: “Ugh, What Are We Going to Do with All This Extra Zoo?!?”
find out more about real Scarlett by typing Scarlett Johansson clone in Google search bar and you would see much more then in The Island movie..
Re: “Tiny Steps Out the Closet Door”
It seems you missed the point of the movie if you feel that the mother had no complexity. She was, in fact, one of the most complex characters of the story. (Not to mention that was an amazing performance by Kim Wayans, who up until now, has only done comedy.)
Although the mother's actions are deplorable, in her mind, she is acting out of love and faith. Perhaps you haven't had the experience of dealing with parents or people who struggle to reconcile their faith with their close relationships, but I have and trust me, her character is very true to life.
Re: “The Jolie Doctrine: In the Land of Blood and Honey”
Serbia -
It's true, I didn't think this movie was very good. Here's a proposal: when the DVD is released next year, you and I can get together with a couple of beers and try figuring out the cause of our disagreement.
smacfarl@hunter.cuny.edu
Re: “The Jolie Doctrine: In the Land of Blood and Honey”
Steve MacFarlane...What world are you living in? Get off of your high horse, chill out and re-watch the movie...and this time, try to see it without your ego. I can hear your ego screaming all through your review. Why so scornful?
