DaveA wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 11:13 am For a film depicting a high-profile person's downfall as a result of grooming/romantic misconduct, there were few "erotic" or even that sensual moments that gave me the impression that Tàr had much of a sex drive at all. The tone just had a tendency to be clinical and drained of affect but not in a way that revealed much we couldn't assume. As a character study, it gained a lot more traction as her life began falling apart, and she started behaving erratically and desperately, but it was rather "meh" at establishing her as a credible larger than life figure.

Oh geez that's where it was going? I tried again and only got 20 minutes further. Seems like that entire story could have been told within the amount of time I put into it, and ditch the hour+ long chunk of what felt like watching someone read their own reviews.

Wood Goblin wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:15 am

tallchris wrote: Sat Jan 14, 2023 4:40 pm Criterion Channel just posted three of Jerzy Skolimowski's films in honor of his recently released EO (still need to see that).

After first reading about it 20+ years ago I finally saw DEEP END and it was a great as I could possibly have hoped for. If you described all the individual bits it doesn't seem like it would be that great, but it all comes together in a really fantastic way.

Real long scene set to most of (the) Can's "Mother Sky", great to finally hear that in context!

Definitely gonna watch the other two films in the series asap!

We watched this the other day, too, and agree: fantastic movie. The Can sequence is a highlight.

Worth pointing out that EO is now on the Criterion Channel as of this week. Just watched it last night, only 88 minutes and well worth your time.

Definitely the obvious similarities to Bresson's AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, but I'd say in some ways it reminded me more of L'ARGENT in many ways.

penningtron wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:17 pmOh geez that's where it was going?

To be fair, the film is about more than one thing. But a good chunk of it pertains in some way to the separation of art and artist, the #metoo movement, "cancel culture," etc., but with all of these things being potentially turned on their head given that a woman/lesbian is the subject of controversy rather than a man, and that the movie deals with the rarefied world of classical music rather than the Hollywood milieu or professional sports or whatever.

A curious thing about Tàr, or at least the discourse around it, is people parsing out what exactly its stance on these things might be, or if it even has one. I've seen some argue that the film is fundamentally conservative/reactionary. I've seen others argue that it's the opposite. Others still seem to think that its strength lies in it being able to be read either way, in neither of these things being underscored explicitly. For me, all of this would have a lot more traction and intrigue if dramatically the film itself had more traction and intrigue. As it is, it's just kind of a hodge-podge, an overlong one at that. The film has won over most critics and members of the film cognoscenti, though.

The Green Knight was interesting. Probably the best King Arthur flick since Excalibur.

Caught the unrated M3gan on Friday. That was genuinely hilarious, which is a requirement for me when it comes to horror movies. Some pretty brutal kills, too.

Yesterday, watched The Anderson Tapes which started strong then finished pointlessly (also was Walken's film debut in a supporting role) and Shamus which featured Burt Reynolds trying to pull off "vulnerable". He does a decent job of it at times but his biggest asset is that he's got charm for days. Unfortunately, trying to watch two movies in a row just saps my attention so I only barely paid attention to what struck me as a decently intricate plot. I feel like I need to rewatch it in maybe a week or so.

Watched The Wild Bunch and it continues to be fantastic and interesting. Such a banger of a film, yet still only my third favorite from Peckinpah.

La Bete Humain. I guess I somehow never saw this, although was a big fan of Lower Depths, Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion. Excellent in just about all ways, beaucoup steam train pron. If you don't believe me, Orson Welles called Renoir "The Greatest of All Directors".

The recent adaptation of White Noise. Fucking awful.

A_Man_Who_Tries wrote: Mon Mar 06, 2023 2:44 pm The recent adaptation of White Noise. Fucking awful.

Yeah, we bailed halfway through.

My wife and I watched a film that I would now consider the Mendoza Line of movies, Empire of Light.

Nothing moved me, nothing bothered me (except one shitty, hackneyed scene), and I felt nearly nothing from this film...but I didn't feel like turning it off, either. It was kinda fucked up actually.