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The Station Agent (2003)
Dir. Tom McCarthy
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale, Patricia Clarkson

The Station Agent tells a simple and charming story about a man who wants nothing more than to go unnoticed, but cannot avoid attention due to his smaller stature. It's a film that focuses on its characters and how they deal with the circumstances they find themselves in, rather than relying on major events or actions. I found it quite amusing at times, and was engaged from the very start, mostly thanks to Dinklage's amazingly subtle and authentic performance.

I think the film did a great job with the small details that help tell the story, such as the change in Joe's footwear as he starts to walk more with Fin. Joe starts out wearing uncomfortable sandals, but then we see him on the railway tracks wearing new, more athletic shoes. I thought it was a clever way to show how invested Joe was, and how much he appreciated the time spent with Fin, without having to put things into words.

Unfortunately I can't really think of anything else to say about the film, other than the fact that I'm glad it was nominated. I thoroughly enjoyed The Station Agent, and I'll probably pick it up on DVD if I see it around anywhere.

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The Station Agent (2003)

The Station Agent tells a simple and charming story about a man who wants nothing more than to go unnoticed, but cannot avoid attention due to his smaller stature.

I found it quite amusing at times, and was engaged from the very start//
That's interesting that you seen it that way. I really liked the movie, but for me it was never charming or amusing as the poor guy was having people gawk at him all the time. I found it more bittersweet and actually a bit sad. But that's just my take. Anyone else feel the same? or different?





American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)
Imdb

Date Watched: 02/19/18
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 15th Hall of Fame, nominated by @Citizen Rules
Rewatch: No.


Well, I liked the soundtrack anyway.

There's nothing really wrong with this film, it just wasn't for me. Movies for and about teens tend to be very hit or miss with me. If I can relate to the characters and to the situations in which they find themselves I tend to get drawn in and enjoy it. I couldn't really relate to anything in American Graffiti and found most of its characters to be rather annoying. Aside from the music, which was wonderful, about the only thing that interested me was seeing the film's stars in the earlier part of their careers, but the novelty of that soon wore off and I was frequently checking the time.




I really liked the movie, but for me it was never charming or amusing as the poor guy was having people gawk at him all the time. I found it more bittersweet and actually a bit sad.
I chuckled quite a bit, especially in the first half. There was a fair amount of subtle humour, but I do agree that the film is bittersweet. The last half of the film is definitely heavier than the first, and it does start to get borderline tragic, but as a whole I think the film is quite light-hearted.



L'Avventura


Back in my early days on the forum when I started watching a lot of foreign films, I thought Italian cinema would be my favorite. After all, my wife is part Italian, I've always known many Italians, and I had a wonderful trip there. That never translated and it turned out to be the country whose films I've struggled with the most. Of course there have been exceptions. This movie was one of the first challenging arthouse films I watched, and it didn't work for me at all. Now that I've gotten some experience with different types of film, I was very curious to see if this viewing would be different. Not really.

Spoilers First off, the film is technically fantastic with how it looks and sounds, and the camera work is terrific. I have to give it major points there, and that's something I probably didn't appreciate as much before. I can't really tell how good the performances are, but I can say that I didn't have issues with any of them. I really like the concept; girl goes missing and then boyfriend and best friend fall in love. It's the characters and how it plays out that I don't care for. The best friend, played by the beautiful Monica Vitti, was the only character that I thought acted realistically after the disappearance, and that was just at first when she seemed to be a relatively strong and reasonable woman. After that, I just didn't believe in the new romance one bit. The guy was obviously a cad, and it seemed far fetched that the girl would just change her tune suddenly with her best friend missing. It's just the way it happened, like they were just paired together for the sake of it. I understand his reasoning; she's hot and he's a loser, but I didn't believe that she would be so weak. I didn't see any passion or yearning anyway. I liked the way the ending played out, but I thought it was somewhat predictable. The fact that I had no respect or liking for either character at that point also made it feel insignificant. I guess a person could watch the movie with a different point of view and get more out of it, like just seeing soulless and selfish people move on in the world. As far as the mystery goes, I don't have any problem with the issue never being resolved, even if it leaves me curious. Just as a side note, that 17 year old painter is one of the creepiest characters I've ever seen. I think the director is very talented, but that he didn't know what to do with this material.




Now I'm extra curious about watching L'Avventura. I didn't read the spoiler part of Cricket's review, but the first paragraph caught my eye. I might try to watch it tonight.



Sorry it didn't work for you this time around Cricket.
It really makes me wonder how important frame of mind is when watching. I don't know why I can't get what you get out of it.



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
It really makes me wonder how important frame of mind is when watching. I don't know why I can't get what you get out of it.
I'll be honest and say even I don't know what I'll get out of it next time. Which seems strange to say.




In the Mood For Love (2000)

'Ascetics and Aesthetics'

The ascetics of a relationship built on unconsummated love, wrapped in gorgeous haute couture du jour. The aesthetics of 1963 Hong Kong were in abundance! And Mrs. Chan was quite the fashion plate in all those high collared, form fitting dresses with the bold prints.

I'd give the movie 5 popcorn ratings just for the way she walked! Her hip swaying walk was part of the film's sub-context, and the cinematographer framed her in a way that we can see her curvy attributes from the mind set of Mr. Chow. That's not just wolf whistles for a hot babe, the film really presents her as sexy, but not obvious... woman of taste and class, which thanks to that walk and cinematography clues us in on how Mr. Chow sees her.

I loved the art production of the film, the sets were so intricate, so balanced. I'd say each room, each hallway and every scene is designed with feng shui. That is if I understood what feng shui was all about. At any rate I thought it looked really cool. From the first shot of Mrs Chan's room with the painting of the red apples on the wall and a bowl of red apples resting on the table below...I knew someone had taken great care to make visual art out of the story.

I liked the story and actors too, it's right up my alley. I liked the way most shots had a 'closed in' feeling. We never get broader shots of the building they live in, all we see is a narrow corridor and a few rooms. Even when we enter their rooms the director chooses to limit the information there by not showing us much. I liked that! Especially as it put the focus on the two people, as if they existed outside of the everyday world. That's focused directing.


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Aguirre, The Wrath of God
dir: Werner Herzog
1972

spoiler city


Uh oh..it's Klaus Kinski!

I loved the music in this film. I even dug the flautist. When he started getting down and funky as the camera cut away from him, all breathy and barely in an audible note, ..that made me kind of chuckle. How about the "la-la-la-la" guy? At one point his "la-la-la" was in the same key as the music score for the film.

Klaus Kinski breaks bad. Yeah, right. That guy is a dirty bird from the get. You can see it in those delusional blue eyes. His teeth all sticking out like George Washington..looking all sinister.

This movie may have been, or may be, an historical drama, but it's also a bit of a slapstick. Guy gets shot with an arrow and comments on the length before flopping down dead. Another dude is counting up to 10 until his head is lobbed off with a sword...his severed head finished the last number.

I didn't get much from this film. I see it as a curiosity. Kinski has certainly been nuttier (Fitzcarraldo, Crawlspace).
The locations were pretty fab. I wish I had this on blu ray, or at least a good dvd because the source I saw it on was cropped 4:3 and very noisy, muddying a lot of the scenery up.

Hey, how about that horse! That dude was clucking his ass off on that raft. I would have dropped that sumbitch off the next block. Poor horse, though. That was messed up, what they did.

This movie is pure messed up. It's historical!

Btw, @Siddon

sorry I got Klaus Kinski about The Station Agent. That was in poor taste on my part.



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

Shallow Grave




The creepiest thing about this film for me is just how dated it now looks. 1994 doesn’t seem like that long ago, but apparently it is. This is a very 90s Channel 4 sort of a film, I remember it being on late night on Channel 4/FilmFour quite frequently. It’s moderately entertaining but in the end a little bit disappointing.

There’s something a little bit slapdash about it, and it’s not just a budget issue. The screenplay is not as tight as it needs to be to really pull off the dark-comedy thriller and the tone isn’t quite right either - I’m all for dark comedies about terrible people being terrible, and it certainly has its moments of wit but it just wasn’t consistent overall. The characters actions didn’t always make sense. Trainspotting has the same writer and director but is overall more effective (but not necessarily because it was adapted from a book because it’s very different from the book, taking unconnected strands and weaving them together into something more coherent).

I like Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor. I don’t think McGregor is particularly memorable in this. Eccleston is better, but it’s not his greatest moment either. I had to look up who Kerry Fox was because I didn’t remember seeing her in anything else.

The more I think about it, the only Danny Boyle film I really really like is 28 Days Later. Sunshine is pretty good but didn’t hold up so well to a second viewing.

I feel like I’ve been really critical about this - I didn't not like it; I just hoped it would be more fun.



The creepiest thing about this film for me is just how dated it now looks. 1994 doesn’t seem like that long ago, but apparently it is.
My room mate said a similar thing just a few minutes ago. He walked by as I was rewatching Shallow Grave, and asked when the film came out. He said that it looks really old, which didn't make sense to him because Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston were in it.

When I told him the year, he just said "Hmmmm" and walked away haha.





Shallow Grave
(1994)
Dir. Danny Boyle
Starring: Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox

The main characters in Shallow Grave are not particularly likeable or sympathetic, but that is entirely the point. David, Alex, and Juliet are rude and self-centred, but their interactions with each other and with the world around them is what makes the film engaging. The film's brand of humour is quite dark, which naturally gets a few laughs out of me, and much of the dialogue is rather clever, even if the screenplay as a whole could use some fine tuning. It did seem to drag a little in the middle this time around, making the runtime feel a bit longer than it was, but I was never disinterested in what was happening.

The quirky and insulting manner in which the trio vet their potential new flatmates has always been the most memorable part of the film for me. I think it's a great introduction to the characters and style of the film, even if things do take a much darker turn later on. The film may not be as substantial as some of Boyle's later work, but I think the lack of depth to Shallow Grave's story is somehow quite fitting. It's still entertaining, and that's really all that matters.

The performances in the film are not as strong as I remember them being, but they're still really good. I didn't like Kerry Fox as much as I did Eccleston or McGregor, but I think that's just because her character was very normal in comparison to the eccentricities of the other two, leaving her with less to work with. She was definitely the weakest part of the film for me, but she ultimately had no impact on how I felt about the film overall. I probably won't rewatch this film for awhile, but it was nice to see it again, so I'm glad it was nominated.


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Shallow Grave

I got a little nervous at first because they opened the film with that rave-ish electro tune..which was still cool, but I thought the whole movie was gonna be one big trendy borefest. It wasn't a borefest. Sadly, when the best character is Ewan McGregor, it's not a great sign of things to come since I wasn't digging the humor while they interviewed potential tenants. I kind of hated everyone lol.

Well, things picked up and shifted gears and I became interested. No more rave music. It was replaced with a very surprising score by Simon Boswell (GOBLIN?!) that was unrecognizable from his usual output I hear.

The twists were cool. Some of the tense moments were cool, too. I was invested.

Unfortunately, I feel like the character's motivations seemed to hop too quick into their final destination. What I mean is that the four eyed dude who went psycho, I'm not sure I bought it. And the girl, same thing. Like I said, Ewan saved the movie, but boy oh boy he's been drinking a lot of coffee, looks like.

Danny Boyle isn't one of my favorite UK based directors. I never really connected with any of his films. That's just how I respond to his work. I don't hate him or anything. It's just all so...what's the word? Blase?

I laughed lightly a few times, but the suspense was very minimal. It seemed like either the writing or the editing was at fault here. The characters just kind of went from one extreme to the other without much padding or build-up. Maybe I missed something. I know the hint of a romantic relationship between McGregor and the girl was stomped out quick in favor of the betrayal plot twist, but it just didn't feel right. Seemed like a first time director.

I did like the movie, contrary to my scathing review. It had classic thriller elements to it. Love the ceiling holes and safety spot for the goods. But even with the ceiling holes there were more tiny plot holes. Certainly the other 2 flat mates were already aware of the holes and accessibility of spying so...what the hell? I dunno. My head itched a few times. I scratched my head and it felt great. Luckily I haven't cut my nails in a couple of weeks. The other day at work I was ripping my nails off into the waste basket.

Sorry!

Yes,





This movie pulls sort of a reverse Full Metal Jacket, where the training part is the least interesting part and the war is the better one. Everyone is very good in this, though I do wish the war scenes had a bit more scope and scale, the modest budgeting kind of comes out on my second viewing.

What I really like about this movie is the variations of African American's during this era. Everyone in the company is given a distinct personality and back story which works well for the film. Though I will criticize it's historical inaccuracy. The 54th had a medal of honor winner whose story was ignored, he was a survivor and the ending sort of makes it seem like the regiment all died in that battle. It was closer to 50%.

But that's really just a quibble, the movie on a whole was good. I forgot how good the music was but on second listen it really stands out.






American Graffiti is one of the better night out type movies. The film surrounds a group of several guys in 1962 out having fun on a friday night. The music is good, though I feel a little bit to commercial movies like this you want to hear the hits but you also want to discover music and Graffiti keeps it very commercial. I also wish that we would have had a more developed female character as all the women were really just sexual figures at different points of maturity. None of the women really stood out personality wise for me and I found that to be a problem.

The irony is I think the best story in the bunch was from the most unrecognizable one Paul Le Mat, always wondered what ever happened to that guy.





American Graffiti

The music is good, though I feel a little bit to commercial movies like this you want to hear the hits but you also want to discover music and Graffiti keeps it very commercial...
What do you mean by that? Are you saying it's a commercial Hollywood movie?



Are you saying it's a commercial Hollywood movie?
I think he was just referring to the music. It's all licenced, popular songs instead of having any alternative or relatively unknown tracks, or an originally composed score.

I believe I read somewhere that the cost of licencing all those songs left no room in the budget for any other music. It kind of sounded like they might've done things differently if they had the money, but I actually like the way music is used. I think that it really fits the film.