JayDee's Movie Musings

I will be interested to see how you feel about Lynch. I don't get the love. I could use another cinephile on my side.

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Letterboxd

Yes! Please do. Although you will probably hate most of his films, what 6 do you have available?

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Of his more popular films Taxi Driver is the only one I really love. It's his dark comedies that have become firm favourites with me - After Hours and The King of Comedy in particular I think are brilliant. I definitely recommend The Wolf of Wall Street too if you get a chance to see that.

P.S. Look! I'm in your thread!

Which ones have you seen?

I didn't care for Taxi Driver (gasp, shock, horror! ), or Gangs of New York and am not entirely sure how I feel about Bringing Out the Dead, but I really enjoyed Goodfellas, Casino, The Aviator, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street and, my favorite, The Departed.

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Well to be fair you've got pretty much the ultimate cinephile on your side in Mark. Other than a couple of his films I'm pretty sure you could say that he is certainly not an admirer of Mr. Lynch.

Oh I see! You don't think I'm intelligent enough to 'get' your precious Lynch? You pretentious art house snobs are all the same!!!

Between DVDs I've picked up and a couple I've taped off TV I've got Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Straight Story and Mulholland Drive.

Oh and I watched about half of Twin Peak's first season a long while back but then I got distracted or something and left it for a while. When I tried to pick it back up I just couldn't get back into it. So will need to go from the start again someday.

I've seen 4 of Marty's films, including what are perhaps his 3 most celebrated. Like you I also didn't really like Taxi Driver (I feel we should be whispering about this so we don't whip up an angry Movie Forums mob that will drive us off the board!). It's not that I thought it was a bad film or anything but just found it so bleak and grim that there's no way I could say I liked it. And I'm also not a great fan of Robert de Niro. Similar story for Raging Bull which I found a real slog to get through. Goodfellas I struggled a bit with, largely as I have no interest in films about gangsters. I may lose my man card for it but it's just not something that appeals to me at all. That said I did actually enjoy it more than I expected. And lastly there was Gangs of New York. Again it's a gangster flick of a sorts which is a mark against it, but I also just didn't think that one was all that good.

In addition to trying out more of his films I do plan on revisiting Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. It was a few years ago now that I watched both and would like to think that I've grown at least a little bit as a movie watcher in that time. Perhaps I'll be able to recognise and appreciate the technical qualities of the film to a degree that it overcomes my general problems with their natures. Oh and I have now actually seen 4 new Scorsese films over the last few days.

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I get where you're coming from in regards to gangster films, I'm not really a fan either. That said, though, if The Departed isn't one of the 4 "new" Scorcese films you've seen in the last few days, I urge you to watch it. I went into it the first time expecting not to like it because of its subject matter and because I hate Marky Mark and Alec Baldwin and don't like Matt Damon much, but it really blew me away. It's also largely responsible for Leonardo DiCaprio becoming one of my favorite actors.

That's a decent bunch. Most people like The Elephant Man and The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive seems to be one of his most accessible artistic ones and most people's favourite, Dune I have not seen and Wild At Heart is very odd but quite straightforward, you might enjoy Nicolas Cage being crazy. I'd just stay away from Inland Empire, there's like a 1% chance you'd like that, two of three hours in and you'd have regretted not giving Magnolia a re watch instead

@Jaydee:
Watch Blue Velvet.
If you don't like that one, you probably won't like Lynch. It's his masterpiece and it is the perfect combination of his typically mysterious and surrealistic, but wonderfully stylized atmosphere, the excessive situations he so often sketches in his work and his notoriously peculiar narrative style.
It's also quite accessible to a certain extent.

Anyway, I wish you a very fruitful movie year! Keep those reviews coming!

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

If you don't like Blue Velvet you probably won't like Lynchian Lynch, if you get my drift, which rules out most of his filmography. But if that's the case you might still love The Elephant Man and The Straight Story, JayDee. They both bear his mark to a certain extent but I wouldn't call them Lynchian films by any means, and they're both very good, especially the latter.

It's OK to not like crappy movies. Just try to see whichever movies with an open mind and take them for whatever they have to offer. Some of them may surprise you and turn you on to something new, in film and in yourself. But it's OK to call crap crap, preferably after seeing it. Yeah, I realize there may be limits for you, but this site proves people will watch and love (or hate) anything.

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

Indeed, but he said he was going to watch David Lynch, so that doesn't apply here

The Elephant Man is basically a sequel to Eraserhead. After the events of Eraserhead, Henry discovers that Mary is pregnant with another mutant child, and unable to cope he sends it away to join a circus, before it ends up in England under the care of Anthony Hopkins. Why do you think they are both black and white?

It does (or should) apply to reality though, but that may not apply here much either.

You don't believe Blue Velvet is crap, though, do you?

My comments above really were not talking about Lynch, but once Jeffrey goes down the rabbit hole, I pretty much think it falls apart. I still give it , but those later scenes are probably what make you, Woody Allen and those who are fans of the "Lynch Touch" call it a masterpiece.

I think I prefer Lost Highway to Blue Velvet, myself.

What one is it you really hate Mark? I know you're not a fan of many of them but I remember you really ripping into one at some point I'm sure. Was it Inland Empire?

And thanks for the recommendations everyone.

Don't want to give away too much, I like to keep you all in suspense. But no The Departed isn't one I've watched yet. I had actually been thinking of picking up a used copy on DVD for pennies but spotted that it's on TV tomorrow night, so will try and tape it to watch. Similar to you I have some reservations in terms of the cast in addition to the subject matter. Although for me it's Jack Nicholson who I really can't stand. As I've said before with the likes of Nicholson and De Niro I think it's those macho, aggressive types that I find a turn-off; something that a therapist could no doubt link to my problems with my father in mere seconds.

Couldn't be seeing as that's his best film!

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Mubi

Well if it's Nicholson you don't like, you might not like The Departed. Jack is very Jack in it, if you know what I mean. But I think it works very well for his character.

Nope, that's Mark's favourite, he gives it , it's The Elephant Man that he hates and gives only .

Or maybe it is the other way round