The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame II

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Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Well you're pretty consistent in picking movies that I don't like.
If it's any consolation, it'll probably rank higher than Blue Velvet. Maybe there will be others that I dislike even more?
hmmm, looks like Maltese Falcon just got another step up

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
~Mr Minio




Midnight Cowboy (1969)

I like being wrong. I do. It's self renovating to allow one's self the ability to be flexible and to reverse a held belief. And I believed that Midnight Cowboy would be something I'd loathed to watch. That's why I avoided it until now. It was originally rated X and I'm not a big fan of guy on guy scenes, especially in X rated films!

But as it turns out Midnight Cowboy was tame as an old farm horse. I've seen more provocative stuff in modern R films. And more importantly the film won me over with a heartfelt and original story backed up by two stand out actors who bring these colorfully interesting characters to life. So yes, I liked the movie and was impressed by it.

Most people will mention the story, characters and the actors who played them as being the reason they like the film. And those are good reasons!

But I have two other reasons to admire this film:
  • The cityscapes as seen through a time machine back to 1960. I love history, I love time, I think about time, all the time. There's no time machine that will lets us travel back in time, but movies allow us to do just that. I'm not talking about a film that's a period piece, say like Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, that's just a facsimile of what was. With Midnight Cowboy we see actual events, actual people and we see events as they occurred in time and captured on film. I loved the look at 1969 NYC. My eyes gobbled up the fashions and the store fronts and the way the world looked back then. All that is priceless to me.
  • Then there's the cinematic history of Midnight Cowboy. It's not just an Oscar Best Picture winner, it's the one and only X rated film to win an Oscar. It's also the only X rated film to be screened at the White House, and by Richard Nixon no less. It's ground breaking too in it's frank look at New York City's colorful 42nd street. Midnight Cowboy is probably the first American mainstream film to show gay people so up close and personal. The film captures a microcosmic on events and historical attitudes of a rapidly changing world.
Midnight Cowboy, along with Black Orpheus & Ali: Fear Eats the Soul are all tied for my 1st place...BUT, I still have two more films to go!





Women will be your undoing, Pépé
That is a HELLUVA good surprise that you enjoyed Midnight Cowboy THAT MUCH!!
I kinda figured you'd thoroughly enjoy the Time Machine to 1969 New York but wasn't sure how the rest of it would faire with you.



That is a HELLUVA good surprise that you enjoyed Midnight Cowboy THAT MUCH!!
I kinda figured you'd thoroughly enjoy the Time Machine to 1969 New York but wasn't sure how the rest of it would faire with you.
The characters Joe Buck and Ratso were so well played by Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight that they felt like real people to me. There story was a very personal tale and I liked the friendship that grew between them. That friendship was intelligently written, directed and performed and for me that's a big part of my appreciating the movie. The scenes in the grubby, abandoned tenement room were some of the best humanity scenes I've encountered. Great set too!

Joe Buck was very likeable, as Voight played the cowboy with so much unbridled enthusiasm and yet dumb as a door knob, that I couldn't help but root for him. And Dustin Hoffman really became a different character with Ratso, not at all the type of performance we're use to seeing out of Hoffman. I was impressed with Hoffman and previously hadn't noticed him much as an actor.

I read that the director was on the fence about the scene where Joe Buck assaults the older man in his room. Some say Voight's character wouldn't have been violent and I agree...I didn't like that scene because of the obvious violence, I wish it had been done differently. And I didn't enjoy watching some of the flashback scenes that showed the girl being attacked and raped. I think that was Jennifer Salt? I know her from Soap.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
The characters Joe Buck and Ratso were so well played by Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight that they felt like real people to me, more so that many other movies I've seen. There's was a very personal story and I liked the friendship that grew between them. And that friendship was so intelligently written, directed and performed...for me that's the big part of my appreciating of the movie. The scenes in the grubby, abandoned tenement room were some of the best humanity scenes I've encountered.

Joe Buck was very likeable as Voight played the cowboy with so much unbridled enthusiasm and yet dumb as a door knob, that I couldn't help but root for him. And Dustin Hoffman really became a different characer with Ratso, not at all the type of performance we're use to seeing out of Hoffman. I was impressed with Hoffman and previously hadn't noticed him much as an actor.

I read that the director was on the fence about the scene where Joe Buck assaults the older man in his room. Some say Voight's character wouldn't have been violent and I agree...I didn't like the scene because of the obvious violence and wish it had been done differently. And I didn't enjoy watching some of the flashback scenes that showed the girl being attacked and raped. I think that was Jennifer Salt? I know her from Soap.
I'm very much the same regarding Joe and Ratso. Their friendship really seals the film for greatness and those tenement scenes did hold some truly well done "humanity".

I've seen a few of Hoffman's performances throughout the years, most recently seeing The Graduate, which, from what I read, there were several folks that thought he was throwing his new found career by doing this "seedy" film. Causing me to wonder if that fueled him even more to work so intensely at this role. I think the role that really impressed me about him for the first time was Rain Man. Having not seen a lot of his much earlier roles before that one.

Regarding the violence with the old man I thought it was fitting and had it's own sense of intensity BECAUSE Joe was in no way a violent person as is shown on numerous times when he duped by so many others. It really nails home the desperation he feels and the intensity of the friendship that he does something so very much out of character on behalf of Ratso.

Also, I had NO IDEA that Annie from Texas was the same actress that played Eunice in Soap



...Also, I had NO IDEA that Annie from Texas was the same actress that played Eunice in Soap
The screenplay was written by Waldo Salt, Jennifer Salt's father. That probably helped her get into the film!



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
The screenplay was written by Waldo Salt, Jennifer Salt's father. That probably helped her get into the film!
what a nice dad
"Is there a part for me, daddy?"
"Actually. . . yes there is."



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Parasite


Ever wondered what if Shoplifters but South Korean? Parasite is the answer.

I think this was a very well-made film, it looks good and I liked that you never quite knew where it was going to go next. I think my favourite part of the film was when the basement apartment was flooded and they were running through the streets, just for the look of it.

I’ve always felt Bong Joon-Ho films suffer from being a bit silly and over the top, with wild tonal shifts and misplaced humour. Parasite is comparatively restrained, with appropriate dark humour in the first half of the film. I was almost braced for it to go really wacky and possibly even supernatural, but despite possibly the craziest climactic birthday party since Toni Erdmann, it never quite went there. I definitely think it is his best film I’ve seen to date.

I’ve seen some people online questioning why none of the actors were nominated at the Oscars, but it’s very much an ensemble film and while the acting was good, nobody particularly stood out, except maybe Song Kang-ho (the Weird from The Good the Bad and the Weird).

Good film, good nomination, glad to have finally seen it.



Blood Simple:

Has only five characters, but still manages to pack a suspenseful punch. It's only the Coen Brothers' first film, but it still manages to have many of the same quirks and motifs that have been apart of their style over the years: Set in rural America, a dark comedy of errors, memorable characters. It's incredibly impressive that they were able to establish such a distinct style so early in their careers. While it is quite a quaint story, I still love it due to it being a black-comedy of errors; there's just something so entertaining about seeing fictional bad guys getting totally screwed over due to something minor. The suspense is also very well done; that long stretch of no dialogue and the ending were both very effective scenes. Cinematography wise it's really good, love the use of night-time, shadows and fog.

Big thanks to whoever picked this.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Parasite


Ever wondered what if Shoplifters but South Korean? Parasite is the answer.

I think this was a very well-made film, it looks good and I liked that you never quite knew where it was going to go next. I think my favourite part of the film was when the basement apartment was flooded and they were running through the streets, just for the look of it.

I’ve always felt Bong Joon-Ho films suffer from being a bit silly and over the top, with wild tonal shifts and misplaced humour. Parasite is comparatively restrained, with appropriate dark humour in the first half of the film. I was almost braced for it to go really wacky and possibly even supernatural, but despite possibly the craziest climactic birthday party since Toni Erdmann, it never quite went there. I definitely think it is his best film I’ve seen to date.

I’ve seen some people online questioning why none of the actors were nominated at the Oscars, but it’s very much an ensemble film and while the acting was good, nobody particularly stood out, except maybe Song Kang-ho (the Weird from The Good the Bad and the Weird).

Good film, good nomination, glad to have finally seen it.
I had a strong, hopeful belief you'd enjoy this film when I picked it for ya.
I was very much the same way when it got nominated for me in the previous HoF.
Also, glad to hear it struck the right balance for ya as well. I was completely blind when I watched it; only knowing that I enjoy both Bong Joon-Ho and the father (Song Kang-ho) since -- well, see I saw him in Good/Bad&Weird and ever since.

The flooding scene was an exceptional bit visually.
And DID NOT see it going where it did. I was



As I've said before, Blood Simple is 1 of the 4 Coen movies I love, to go along with Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and The Big Lebowski.

Parasite was nominated for me last time which was cool since I had just gotten the DVD from Netflix, and I loved it. There were movies that year I loved more, but I thought 2019 was a great year for movies and I have no problem with Parasite winning the big Oscar.



Blood Simple is one of three Coen Bros. movies that rotates as my favorite from them. All depends on which one I've seen most recently.
That's pretty much how I am



The Right Stuff



I was 12 when this came out and I can remember how big of a movie it was. It must have been based on critical acclaim though because I was just shocked to read that it was a box office flop. It must've had something to do with the over 3 hour running time, which is probably why it took until now for me to see it. The movie I just watched looked to me like an enormous crowd pleaser. As far as true stories go, think Titanic except better.



For anyone who doesn't know, it's about the early days of the space program, and in case Miss Vicky doesn't know, it's from the same director as Quills. The deep cast is really good with the standouts being Ed Harris as John Glenn and Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard. It also stars Sam Shepard, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, Jeff Goldblum, Lance Henriksen, and more. This movie really succeeded at showing the danger to the test pilots/astronauts as well as the wonderment of it all. I thought it was involving and entertaining from start to finish and it was another home run nomination for me.




Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Never got around to seeing The Right Stuff. Sorta fell by the wayside. I have been curious to and I do like quite a few of the people involved and high praise from cricket says a lot as well.



Never got around to seeing The Right Stuff. Sorta fell by the wayside. I have been curious to and I do like quite a few of the people involved and high praise from cricket says a lot as well.
I think you'd love it



Very cool that you liked the The Right Stuff @cricket When I seen it was chose for you I wasn't sure if you would really like it, but I suspected you'd respect it. I've only seen it once and like 20 years ago. I do remember liking it quite a bit AND I'm very interested in the early space efforts. I need to watch The Right Stuff again one of these days.