Recently Watched Films 2015

[Matt Wuethrich]

John Flynn, The Outfit, 1973

Newly reissued on DVD with 60+ page book included, yay!

Who's putting this out?

[Dan Warburton]

have you tried the Loren Connors soundtrack?

Yes! I actually enjoyed it so much I stopped the film and just listened to the music..

(so what am i, wimp jelly?)

Of course. And so is anyone who doesn't agree with me 100% on everything

John Flynn, The Outfit, 1973
Newly reissued on DVD with 60+ page book included, yay!

Who's putting this out?

The good people at Wildside. Book's in French, btw
http://www.wildside.fr/thriller/echec-a ... -1837.html

Sorry folks for the tweet-length write-ups (you know how much I love Twitter), but the only time I get to post is during odd free hours at work, so I tend to cumulate "reviews". Glad you like the films.

[walto]

Sorry folks for the tweet-length write-ups (you know how much I love Twitter), but the only time I get to post is during odd free hours at work, so I tend to cumulate "reviews". Glad you like the films.

I love your posts here, Dan--long or short. It's a tremendous gift for which I'm sure many here are grateful.




BTW, {OT on this thread} the article on aesthetics and atonality that I believe I sent you and Bivins a draft of a couple years back has just been accepted by PNM. Based on how long they took to review it, I think I might not still be alive when it's actually published, though. Anyhow, IIRC, I mention Erstwhile and Rowe in it, so if I don't have to waive the right to do so, I'll post a pre-pub copy somewhere accessible to folks here.

[Piano Mouth]

The Golden Fang...I liked Inherent Vice quite a bit. Paul Thomas Anderson is pretty great. I don't recall seeing a bad movie of his, although I haven't seen Punch Drunk Love yet.

[j-p]

The Golden Fang...I liked Inherent Vice quite a bit. Paul Thomas Anderson is pretty great. I don't recall seeing a bad movie of his, although I haven't seen Punch Drunk Love yet.

He's been a roll with his last few films, but Magnolia was a piece of shit (what a stupid ending).

There Will be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice are all worth seeing imo

[Piano Mouth]

I kind of liked Magnolia the second viewing. I gotta see Boogie Nights again, can't remember if Connie Chung is in it, playing Mark Wahlberg's character's mother...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Piano Mouth]

Junun, though, I can't express how awesome this hour long music and video project is. If it's still on Mubi.com then I highly recommend it. If not, KG's got it.

[MRS]

Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962)

I'd been catching scraps of Burns' Civil War on PBS and made the connection that maybe the most frequent wartime folk song form on both sides "Lorena" is the kernel of both Steiner's The Searchers theme and Bassman's here. Road movie, two old chums on the warpath one last time, at its hokiest in the old fart vein of the late Lemmon/Matthau series or Douglas/Lancaster in Tough Guys, maudlin grumpy. This takes place a touch later on the clock in the 19th century than most, filmed in Inyo National Forest, distinct High Sierra topography: blue sky/gray schist/green pines. Joel McCrea (Steve) and Randolph Scott (Gil) drag along a young couple through peril social and montane, Mariette Hartley (Elsa) a Jean Seberg or Lindsay Crouse of the Wild West. Crucially, Warren Oates plays the sociopath among the bad guys, his voice set eerily higher and his character constantly harassed by birds. Steve and Gil talk old loves, old gunfights and grandchildren strewn around. Of Heck Longtree, our impetuous boy, Steve: "Boys these days. . .plenty o' gall, no sand" or Elsa's preacher father: "Levity in the young is likened to a dry gourd with the seeds rattlin' around." As you would guess a most sententious Western script ever produced, King James bible verses, cute axioms, the dialogue an epigrammatic ping pong match start to finish, by turns belly laugh funny and shameless.

It's the levity throughout the first 3/4 which dilutes the whole. When I tune into to a garden variety classical station I want a minor key, not Dvořák. This isn't the immaculate, passive Scott of Boetticher but a bumbling fatalistic schlub. Oates' entrance is spectacular, crows perched on both shoulders, introduced by his kin: "Henry's sort of our. . .banker, you might say." We have an unreal wedding sequence in a brothel, each woman in clashing lime green and blood red gowns and hats in front of weird oboe barrelhouse music. The ensuing melodrama and the officiant's Q&A might best Spaceballs or the video for November Rain but the chaos devolves into an orgy and near rape of the bride. Gil attempts to have the marriage annulled, to the officiant: "Listen to me you fat gutted soak you’re gonna do as you're told understand?" Steve however severs ties with the couple: "She stays here! We're packin' gold, not petticoats!"

Spoiler: Gil ultimately crosses Steve in the final act and the bluff is called, the film redeems its jocular tedium in the space of twenty minutes. Steve: "Draw you damn tin horn!" and Gil unbuckles his belt. From here out Gil's shit-eating grin turns psychotic.

Pithy rejoinders, overwrought reasoning, lots of signposts to be read, rather shockingly somber ending. But I can't help seeing this as a bunch of very special Little House on the Prairie episodes welded together, 80% syrup. Convoluted script, like some forced sestina + ham-fisted pathos. McCrea's superb but too often sinks to rote 40s radio commercial bombast while Scott forces his way through without laughing too hard.

One to grow on from Mr. Oates: "I hate to get married with one of my brothers smellin' bad enough to gag a dog off a gut wagon.”

[walto]

Great summary, Michael. Like pretty much everybody else, I love Warren Oates.

{Re the article I mentioned above (entirely OT here), just put an abstract on my academia.edu page. Not allowed to do anything else until it's published. Sorry for the interruptions.}

BACK TO FILMS!

[Piano Mouth]

Yeah that's a damn fine film review, Michael.

[Dan Warburton]

They always are! Encore, Michael

-- meanwhile, we were watching this last night to try to take minds off what was going on a couple of miles away (to reassure you folks, all Warburtons alive and well, but Paris like a morgue today):



Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013

Really awful. I suppose you could say Leo does a "good job" (arguable, imo), but what's the fucking point of it all? It's a dismal rehash of Casino tropes (and that was already Goodfellas Revisited to start with), the non-stop flashy editing, the smartass voiceovers, the star-studded soundtrack (about 6000 pop songs each of which appears for about five seconds, the possible exception being "Mercy Mercy Mercy").. and, erm, who cares? Di Caprio is about the only semi-decent actor in it - the situations are patently ridiculous (heh, some cat here will no doubt post that Belfort's sidekick really did whip out his dick and pee on the subpoena in the wastepaper basket), especially the shipwreck, which, though indeed based on a real event, is even worse than the storm in the Scorsese remake of Cape Fear. The whole damn thing is about 45' too long and, unlike the other two predecessors I mentioned above, I reckon I'm not likely to want to return to it. Anyone want to buy a DVD? More importantly, I want to hear from anyone out there who actually liked this movie, and why.

[jon abbey]

good to see you're ok, Dan.

haven't seen that one, but it's crazy to me how far Scorsese has fallen and what a generic hack he's become.

[walto]

They always are! Encore, Michael

-- meanwhile, we were watching this last night to try to take minds off what was going on a couple of miles away (to reassure you folks, all Warburtons alive and well, but Paris like a morgue today):



Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013

Really awful. I suppose you could say Leo does a "good job" (arguable, imo), but what's the fucking point of it all? It's a dismal rehash of Casino tropes (and that was already Goodfellas Revisited to start with), the non-stop flashy editing, the smartass voiceovers, the star-studded soundtrack (about 6000 pop songs each of which appears for about five seconds, the possible exception being "Mercy Mercy Mercy").. and, erm, who cares? Di Caprio is about the only semi-decent actor in it - the situations are patently ridiculous (heh, some cat here will no doubt post that Belfort's sidekick really did whip out his dick and pee on the subpoena in the wastepaper basket), especially the shipwreck, which, though indeed based on a real event, is even worse than the storm in the Scorsese remake of Cape Fear. The whole damn thing is about 45' too long and, unlike the other two predecessors I mentioned above, I reckon I'm not likely to want to return to it. Anyone want to buy a DVD? More importantly, I want to hear from anyone out there who actually liked this movie, and why.

I'm such a one. I really enjoyed Wolf of Wall Street (especially the scenes involving the ancient sopors Leo took and his "successful" subsequent driving experience). It's one of my favorite Scorsese movies, actually.

Glad you and yours are ok, Dan.

[mono tony]

it's amazing how rehashed it felt, maybe two-thirds through where Leo's voice-overs uncannily resemble Ray Liotta's in Goodfellas.. regardless it was great watching this with the parents and their friends (who've never seen Scorcese's earlier classics) - they got a big, just like WTF-kick out of the whole thing.

[Dan Warburton]

Clarence Brown, Possessed, 1931

I agree with Zizek that the scene above, where a train passes slowly through a level crossing in front our heroine, is absolutely great - but I wish the heroine in question had been played by Barbara Stanwyck instead of Joan Crawford. (I side with Bette Davis every time when it comes to this one - with the exception of Johnny Guitar and Mildred Pierce I can't say I've ever enjoyed any of her performances..) Worth a watch nonetheless for Gable - and that awesome passing train

[Dan Warburton]

Lloyd Bacon, Wonder Bar, 1934

Nice to watch Dolores del Rio pouting (Kay Francis, otoh, is a bore), and I suppose the weird Paris-as-seen-from-Hollywood nightclub decor has a certain curious appeal, but Jolson's blackface closing number "Heaven on a Mule" is as awful as it is poltically incorrect and dated. Give this one a miss and watch one of the Gold Diggers instead

[Dan Warburton]

Peter Collinson, Fright, 1971

Not the least bit scary, despite a nice unhinged performance from Ian Bannen and Honor Blackman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Spoilt by Susan George (above), and for once Pauline Kael's rather insensitive putdown of Ms George in her broadside against Straw Dogs comes to mind.. why on earth she has to spend half the film wandering about with her blouse open is beyond me. She was pretty trashy in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry too. Anyway, there are many far more frightening tales of roaming psychos and vulnerable babysitters out there. Give this one a miss, but if you want a Peter Collinson film, I suggest The Italian Job

[Dan Warburton]

Alain Cavalier, Le plein de super, 1976

Slightly uneven but very entertaining road movie, with some juicy throwaway lines and the odd, wild bit of stunt action. Funny for the most part, but with dark undercurrents.. here you go, practise yr French http://www.lesinrocks.com/cinema/films- ... -de-super/

[Dan Warburton]

James Ivory, The Europeans, 1979

Lee Remick was the headlining star, but she doesn't have as much to do as Tim Woodward, Robin Ellis (you may remember him as the Cockney detective in a Fawlty Towers episode, or in the TV series Poldark) or Wesley Addy (one of Bob Aldrich's favourite actors). Typically elegant Merchant / Ivory production, beautiful New England autumn landscapes, yep, no surprises, no shootouts, pimps, overdoses, hijackings - just an elegant Henry James adaptation. Sound boring? Try it.

[Dan Warburton]

Virginie Despentes, Mutantes: Feminisme Porno Punk, 2009

Worth a look just to listen to Annie Sprinkle aned Scarlot Harlot telling some of their favourite stories, and certainly more entertaining and informative than Baise-moi. Of course, it veers into horribly pretentious Mattin-like post-structuralist twaddle (what is post-porno?) when we get to Barcelona, but never mind.