Movie Tab II

Who are you and what have you done with our friend Mark?

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Awesome film experiences today.



Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Dir. Woody Allen - +





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Brazil (1985), Dir. Terry Gilliam -

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"After all... tomorrow is another day."

Crimes and Misdemeanors is still, for my money, Woody's best film.

He said he likes The Return more than any Tarkovsky, so it may be still him.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Well, I hope you're keeping a running total, because I'm going to be curious what your yearly total ends up being.

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

The Illusionist (2010), Dir. Sylvain Chomet - +



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Under the Skin (2013), Dir. Jonathan Glazer -



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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Dir. Mike Nichols - +

How come you disliked it that much?

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

You know, my first thought was that the sentimentality and didactic structure were completely dumb and lazy. And they are. The cliche where someone commits some fraud but makes good by learning/teaching a valuable lesson about honesty and being yourself seems to be a prerequisite in paint-by-numbers affairs like this, as opposed to the sort of well-meaning rebellion they preach. It's so common it's not even interesting or provocative to point out the irony anymore. (Cue some self-styled voice of reason to point out that "avant garde" cinema has its own set of cliches and ironies, its own didactic fixations, thereby neatly changing the subject.)

But I have a more fundamental and personal issue with School of Rock; which is that even if I played along and accepted the message of "rock", pretended to care about the characters, to the extent that it's tempered by the legitimate concerns of "school" (The stuffed-shirt administrator is sympathetic too!) it just makes the comedy kind of bland and wishy-washy. I say that's a more personal complaint because I'm at least self-aware enough to recognize that I often find my sense of humor in conflict with my desire for nuance. I don't experience too much cognitive dissonance when rating Tenacious D higher even though it's just as stupid and has even less of a point, though. In terms of comedy, I simply prefer and find funnier non-sympathetic caricatures and their nonsensical worldviews to ones who are humanized via formulaic sentimentality. In that sense "sympathy" is a dirty word to me, but that's okay because I'm "being myself"; now if only I could learn that important life lesson about caring, I'd be able to appreciate pablum like School of Rock.

Out of Sight (1998), Dir. Steven Soderbergh - +



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Dead Poets Society (1989), Dir. Peter Weir -



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Spring Breakers (2012), Dir. Harmony Korine - +

Watched quite a few movies this week so I'm just gonna leave this here.

Play Misty For Me (1971)
Jane Eyre (2011)
Grace of Monaco (2014)
Six Days Seven Nights (1998)
Elephant (2003)
Roman Holiday (1953)
His Wedding Night (1917)
Suspicion (1941)
Reservoir Dogs *rewatch (1992)

In Another Country (Sang-soo Hong, 2012) -

I'd love to hear something thoughts on Frank, mark. Were you a fan of Frank Sidebottom?

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I don't know what's weirder: that they made a Frank Sidebottom movie, or that it stars Michael Fassbender as Frank. The trailer did not appeal to me but I'll check it out eventually.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Frank as well, Mark. The reviews I have heard have been quite mixed, which has made me want to see it all the more.

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Letterboxd

Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Dir. Sergio Leone -



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The Zero Theorem (2013), Dir. Terry Gilliam - +

Frank is all about celebrating eccentricity over sanity. There really is no digging behind the characters and their illnesses, but the line between "normal" and "weird" is basically shown to be nonexistent except for how one copes with society. But I'm making the film sound too serious. The music is often enjoyable, although that's probably not the right word, and the performances are quite good. I would call it light-hearted whimsy which is often amusing but ultimately only hints at the despair underneath. I find it does just enough to be a worthwhile way to pass 90 minutes, but I can understand why others would love it or hate it. And no, I knew nothing of the real Frank beforehand, although the film incorporates the lives of Daniel Johnston and Captain Beefheart into the character, and I'm very familiar with them.

It's got Fassbender, but you can't see his face! Not sure if I want to watch it...