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Now rewatching The Abyss with steely-eyed square-jawed Ed Harris. Good lord.

Pig
I'm a few years behind on this one. What I thought I was getting was some kind of grimy exploitation flick in the tradition of tough-ass old man gets his ass kicked repeatedly but ultimately achieves righteous, vengeance in the form of comically gratuitous violence. I don't know where I got that idea. There's definitely some grime and a little violence in this, but it's much more thoughtful than all that. It digs deep into the challenge of the restaurant industry, and the power of people eating good food together. Similar themes to The Bear, yet a totally different genre.

Microbe and Gasoline
I stumbled across a random interview with Michel Gondry and realized I hadn't thought about him in years or kept up with his output. He mentioned this is his favorite film of his career. A touching, and only slightly surreal (for Gondry) coming of age film with two adolescent buddies and a road adventure. It's a little lightweight, but maybe he always was and I wasn't as aware of that when I was loving his stuff in my 20's. There's some relatable stuff about growing up a little ostracized and teaming up with other misfits. Amateur kid actor did a great job.

losthighway wrote: Wed Jun 04, 2025 10:46 am Pig
I'm a few years behind on this one. What I thought I was getting was some kind of grimy exploitation flick in the tradition of tough-ass old man gets his ass kicked repeatedly but ultimately achieves righteous, vengeance in the form of comically gratuitous violence. I don't know where I got that idea. There's definitely some grime and a little violence in this, but it's much more thoughtful than all that. It digs deep into the challenge of the restaurant industry, and the power of people eating good food together. Similar themes to The Bear, yet a totally different genre.

They filmed a couple of scenes at the funeral home/cemetery where I work (Cage in the mausoleum and the "nursing home" scene, which was filmed in one of our visitation rooms), but unfortunately I was covering staff absences at a mortuary across town so I missed the circus of it all.

*Movie I plan to watch

Pavements

Opens across the US this week.

Am planning on seeing it either in South Barrington or Schaumburg next Thursday.

Looks… interesting?

Will report back.

Conclave

A great film almost ruined with an additional tagged on ending.

I’m not giving spoilers because I highly recommend this film. But it inexplicably adds and second ending that wasn’t in the source material that felt like the worst Disney slapped on corporate attempt at what critics call “wokery”.

PS I hate that expression and n this context.

Have gotten into UHD discs a bit.

Picked up some "artsy-farsty" world cinema stuff that's par for the course for me but also got a few more general classics.

Saw Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia for the first time, via this new format. You've probably already seen it, but if you haven't, it's a weirdly endearing fatalistic south-of-the-border movie that bests a lot of similar fare made in its wake. Not normally my deal, but I'll be watching it again.

The Phoenician Scheme.

I enjoyed it more than any of Anderson's stuff since Isle of Dogs. I seriously disliked French Dispatch, was bored by Asteroid City, and had a good time with the Netflix shorts.

I'll always watch his new films, but I'm glad he's put out another feature that I will probably re-watch.

Pavements

It was like being in the Uranus Fudge Factory store for two hours.

On a recent couple of long flights:

Once Upon the Time in the West. Very good. Can't believe I'd never seen this particular spaghetti western. This is one film Quentin Tarantino just has to idolize.
Children of Men. The Cuaron film. Did not hold up, if it was ever up.
Inheritance. Gave it a chance because Rhys Ifans. It's pretty good. Low-budget road movie with is estranged daughter with some spy stuff. Reminded me of a Jarmusch film, but with more camera movement.
Started one called The Island by Michael Bay. Fuckinhell it's terrible, didn't finish it.

Cross-posting from the horror thread. A strong recommendation for Best Wishes to All from Yuta Shimotsu. RIYL Lanthimos, Shirley Jackson, Midsommar, strange movies