The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame II

Tools    





Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
[center][ Though I could have done without the male nudity. Why is it that when there's male nudity, there's no female nudity to speak of?
Because the director preferred male nudity to female nudity. Pretty sure that I read somewhere that the guy who plays 'Ali' was Fassbinder's boyfriend at the time.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Also, Fear Eats the Soul is a fantastic film and I keep thinking I must: a. watch it again and b. watch more Fassbinder films.



"Why is it that when there's male nudity, there's no female nudity to speak of?"

I ask the reverse of this question all the time - except rather than being for one specific movie, it's for like 90% of the films I see that contain nudity.



There's usually a need for female nudity, and in the rare instances it isn't, it should be in there anyway. Male nudity is never needed. Some things just shouldn't be seen.




The King of Comedy
"Why not me? Why not? A guy can get anything he wants as long as he pays the price. What's wrong with that? Stranger things have happened."

While I don't necessarily agree with that quote it certainly worked out well for Rupert. This is a tough movie to review because I didn't LIKE it yet there isn't much to complain about either. It just kind of...is.

Robert De Niro is Rupert Pumpkin, er Pupkin, the self proclaimed King of Comedy. He's a little loose upstairs and begins stalking late night host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), after a late night encounter, to secure a spot on his night time talk show. After being rebuffed several times by Langford's assistant (and SECURITY!) he enlists his equally nutty "friend" Masha (Sandra Bernhard), who is also infatuated with Langford, to kidnap and hold Langford for ransom. The ransom: a spot on Langfords late night show.

My biggest issue with the movie is there isn't anyone to root for. I didn't like Rupert, he's the kind of person I find insanely annoying, but were not supposed to like him so... mission accomplished. I never got the sense that he felt entitled to anything but he definitely wasn't interested in putting in the work to get to where he wanted to go. He wanted a shortcut to success and in the end, maybe he got what he wanted. The rest of the characters just kind of do their thing. The only standout for me was Sandra Bernhard who I thought provided some dark comedy. I really liked her take on a crazed fan.

This being a Scorsese movie there really isn't much to complain about from a filmmaking point of view. It doesn't have any of the flash of later Scorsese pics but a film like this doesn't really lend itself to too much flash and the performances are all good.

As for what it has to say about fame and celebrity, I think the themes of this movie were a little ahead of its time. It feels more relevant in the past 20 years than it did in the 80's. Probably why a recent blockbuster chose to go down a similar, albeit darker, path. The King of Comedy isn't a bad movie by any stretch but it's not my type of movie. I need someone or something to pull for a little bit or for someone to be so incredibly awful that I want something to happen to them. This felt cold. If I were to create a 1,000 movies to see before you die this would be on it because it does have something to say and I can see why people love it, I just didn't care.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Why is it that when there's male nudity, there's no female nudity to speak of?
I realise that I sort of answered the wrong question before, I missed the 'when'. Although my answer was true for this film.

I guess that it's a question of audience - the audiences who want to see male nudity probably don't want want to see female nudity and vice versa. Although most films are seen by a whole mixture of people so that doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. It's probably more about what film studios assume audiences want to see.

I watched Game of Thrones recently and there's a definite imbalance in the nudity in that.



Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and Random Harvest are both good movies that I've wanted to watch again. I liked both but thought there was much more I could get out of them.
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul didn't do anything for me emotionally, but I don't think it was ever intended to be a film that sweeps the viewer away in its characters and narrative. To me it seems Fassbinder is showing us the reality of immigrant workers in Germany, warts and all. It's neither a plea or a commentary, it's done in a more of a documentary style.

Random Harvest is another of those golden oldies that I first watched when I got into film almost 20 years ago. I've seen several of Greer Garson's films and she's always good. Funny thing is I just seen her on TV last week. Well it was on an old, What's My Line from 1958. Orson Welles was one of the panelist and Greer was the mystery celebrity that they had to guess. Funny show! And that's what Citizen watches when he's not watching movies, old 50s TV shows.

https://surprise.ly/v/?bZL2cNR9ovM:1045:1542:0:100



All About My Mother



When I saw this was nominated for me I didn't know anything about it. I quickly saw that it was directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and even though I've only see his The Skin I Live In, that gave me hope. While I love The Skin I Live In, I hadn't really given Almodóvar a second thought. Now, I want to see much more from this brilliant director.

Based on The Skin I Live In, I was expecting a sick and twisted movie. Early on as it seemed like it wouldn't be that way, I figured I probably wouldn't be crazy about it. The beautiful style was certainly there and I appreciated that, but I had my doubts about the narrative. It turned out to be another great film. The characters are wonderful, so flawed but yet I cared about them anyway. They've all been through so much and I just hoped for them to find some peace and happiness. It is very moving and the acting is superb. There are strong connections to classic films which helps make it a movie lover's delight.

You guys are incredible at picking for me.

-



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
All About My Mother



When I saw this was nominated for me I didn't know anything about it. I quickly saw that it was directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and even though I've only see his The Skin I Live In, that gave me hope. While I love The Skin I Live In, I hadn't really given Almodóvar a second thought. Now, I want to see much more from this brilliant director.

Based on The Skin I Live In, I was expecting a sick and twisted movie. Early on as it seemed like it wouldn't be that way, I figured I probably wouldn't be crazy about it. The beautiful style was certainly there and I appreciated that, but I had my doubts about the narrative. It turned out to be another great film. The characters are wonderful, so flawed but yet I cared about them anyway. They've all been through so much and I just hoped for them to find some peace and happiness. It is very moving and the acting is superb. There are strong connections to classic films which helps make it a movie lover's delight.

You guys are incredible at picking for me.

-

He shoots, he scoooooores!!!


Glad you liked it



I hadn't heard of All About My Mother before, but that would seem to be a solid choice for you Cricket. What list category was it in? I don't recall ever seeing it.
Without looking, I would guess either 90's, Cannes', or Ebert.



The trick is not minding
I hadn't heard of All About My Mother before, but that would seem to be a solid choice for you Cricket. What list category was it in? I don't recall ever seeing it.
Probably 1990’s.
I’ve seen a few of his films, such as Volver, and have enjoyed them. He just released Pain and Glory last year with Antonio Banderas, who he had collaborated with in The Skin I Live In.
I need to watch more of his films, yet.



Ali: Fear Eats the Soul didn't do anything for me emotionally, but I don't think it was ever intended to be a film that sweeps the viewer away in its characters and narrative. To me it seems Fassbinder is showing us the reality of immigrant workers in Germany, warts and all. It's neither a plea or a commentary, it's done in a more of a documentary style.
While I think I agree with the first half, I definitely disagree with the last part. I haven't seen the film in quite awhile, but the thing I remember most is that it is rife with social commentary and specifically about addressing prejudice. I recall Fassbender's framing and overall use of mise-en-scène being very purposeful, and it was nearly as important as the dialogue itself to understanding the film, which wouldn't really support a documentary-like approach to the subject matter.

But like I said, I don't remember very much about the film itself. I have always liked that the German title, Angst essen Seele auf, is grammatically incorrect, mirroring Ali's imperfect speech.