Talk About Movies: Part 4
Somehow threads merged, so here's part 4 of our ongoing movie discussion.
Perfect! Watched a few videos tonight, great stuff!!
Tonight I watched Bad Boys with the Michael Bay commentary track. I've always been a Bay fan boy. I think he's a maniac, has an inflated ego but his stuff works for me. On the commentary track it feels like he says the quiet parts out loud, but he's Michael Bay, who in this world is going to spank him for saying something inappropriate like calling the Bad Boys script crap and constantly complaining about the low budget of the movie, his first movie mind you. Anyway, it's super entertaining. He's a shot of Tea Leoni for your troubles.
I was moved by A Real Pain, directed and starring Jesse Eiesenberg. But the highlight is the performance of Kieran Culkin. He plays a wise ass who travels with his cousin, Eisenberg, on a guided tour of Holocaust sites, paid for by their deceased grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, that culminates in a visit to Majdenek concentration camp (filmed there). Culkin is a real pain in
At one point the Kieran Culkin character disappears for the night and when he comes back he says he was talking with the single woman in the tourist group. Can't figure out whether the movie meant that they did more than talk or not. Anyway, good movie and good performance.
Wallace and Gromit are amazing. And the train chase with Penquin in The Wrong Trousers is, and I'm not exaggerating, the greatest chase scene in movie history.
I can't help myself.
Broken YouTube LinkWhat's a good book or two to start with for learning about film language/techniques? Looking to add to my knowledge, especially since I'm starting to make video essays. Would add a level of authority if I knew what I was talking about! heh
Film Art by Bordwell and Thompson.
A Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thompson.
There's a ton of specialized books on film theory, but I would stay away from those for the most part. I think it's worthwhile looking at Laura Mulvey on the Male Gaze along with Constance Penley's corrective.
I like Andrew Sarris's The American Cinema. Sarris takes up auteur theory in an understandable fashion, unlike some of the French critics.
And although not about techniques, The World Viewed by Stanley Cavell takes a philosophical look at film that's entertaining.
David Cook's Film History.
Also, check out Mark Cousins film on the history of film. I think it's on Kanopy in fifteen parts. Well worth it.
I’ve found myself thinking about a Real Pain a lot over the few weeks since I watched it. Agree it was really good.
Jesse Eisenberg is interviewed on Fresh Air with Terry Gross this week. It’s worth a listen.
Local theaters are programming good stuff: 4k restoration of The Third Man, Sunrise (with in person score done on the spot), Punch-Drunk Love, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, North By Northwest, Casablanca, and a few more. I'm going to need to enter a few of these in my calendar.
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What's a good book or two to start with for learning about film language/techniques? Looking to add to my knowledge, especially since I'm starting to make video essays. Would add a level of authority if I knew what I was talking about! heh
If you want to know how they are made, the aforementioned Sidney Lumet is excellent
I’ve found myself thinking about a Real Pain a lot over the few weeks since I watched it. Agree it was really good.
Jesse Eisenberg is interviewed on Fresh Air with Terry Gross this week. It’s worth a listen.
Same. I watched it after hearing Jesse on the WTF podcast. Only actual film I’ve seen so far this year since I’ve been catching up on shows I let slip over the last few years. Nice film to begin the year with!
We watched A Real Pain last week. I was wanting to post about it but I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I don't disagree with the reviews here but it just didn't grab me at all. It was worth the watch and I like Caulkin but the movie sort of fell flat for me.
Last night was the 100th anniversary of Paul Newman's birth, so TCM was running a bunch of his films. Watched a little of Nobody's Fool before bed.
Loved that in the poker scene,
Willis beats Newman with four nines. What a callback to The Sting
Local theaters are programming good stuff: 4k restoration of The Third Man, Sunrise (with in person score done on the spot), Punch-Drunk Love, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, North By Northwest, Casablanca, and a few more. I'm going to need to enter a few of these in my calendar.
The Third Man and North by Northwest restorations are superb... well worth the time to go and see them in the theater... the others have been out for some time now.
I didn't make any specific recommendations because I don't have any for 'technical' education... anything I know comes from years of photographic experience and thru deep discussions with other experienced people about what I see, and don't see, on screen.
For individual films, BFI has some great studies, about 100 pages.
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The Brutalist
This is, I think, a great film. It caught my attention because I went to high school in a brand new Brutalist building (it replaced our over a century old building, and we moved into it sophomore year). I also work in a Brutalist building.
I know many people hate this style of architecture, but I like it. See Louis Kahn's work that is inspired by the Brutalist school.
The film is about a Jewish architect who comes to America after WW II. Although famous in Europe for his work, he is unrecognized in the US until he is commissioned by the son of a wealthy industrialist to redesign his father's in home library. The father sees it and is furious, refuses to pay for the work, but then hires him to design a massive, multi-purpose structure.
Trouble ensues, of course, and there are stories within stories.
This is a monumental film at over three and a half hours, including intermission. The film is not a million miles away from The Godfather in scope and ambition--and another story of the immigrant experience.
Shot in Vistavision, the cinematography and editing are superb, but, for me anyway, the sound design is the standout. Adrien Brody and Guy Pierce deliver outstanding performances.
See it.
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Anybody desperate for weekend entertainment given football ending and if not playing poker (like me), the movie "Flight Risk" is sure to not win any awards. But I liked some things about it. For some reason I love snow in the opening scenes of movies, the blues music was cool if brief early on, Alaska is cool/great scenery, a pretty good heroine, Wahlberg as a pretty good sicko.
My billing for it is "Cape Fear meets The Gauntlet." I could throw some other movies in there, but that gives an idea.
The Brutalist This is, I think, a great film. It caught my attention because I went to high school in a brand new Brutalist building (it replaced our over a century old building, and we moved into it sophomore year). I also work in a Brutalist building. I know many people hate this style of architecture, but I like it. See Louis Kahn's work that is inspired by the Brutalist sch
Did you see this on IMAX?
Are the interior spaces of Brutalist different than other buildings?
Did you see this on IMAX?
Are the interior spaces of Brutalist different than other buildings?
Not in IMAX but will see it again in IMAX. Brutalist buildings usually expose how they are made. So, cement used for the outside, cement on the inside. You don't get a good idea of the style until the end of the film.
Here's the rest of the audience.
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I've seen a bunch of Brutalist buildings in Japan but have never been inside one. I always thought maybe they were going for typhoon-proof
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We watched Lee last night about a photojournalist that took pictures during WW2. Kate Winslet was fantastic as she always is. Seeing Andy Samburg in a serious role sort of made my eyebrows raise, but he was good in it. We really enjoyed it although some of it was a tough watch.
Kind of smacks of the retired pro athletes bemoaning the state of the game, generation after generation, as ruined now and not like it was when they played. I agree the industry is sliding downhill fast, as is the whole country. So why wouldn't it? But he seems egorific in his delivery here. Unfortunately, occasionally I'm told I look like him.
fella, what he's talking about is grounded in facts though, total box office in 2024 was $8,517,031,731
to find a pre covid number lower than that, you need to go to 2001
once you account for inflation, we need to go back to the early 1980s to find a comparative total box office gross
industry is kaput, it's all streaming now, people are not going back to the theaters and that's fundamentally changing the business model
The last film I saw with a full audience was Arrival. The only seat I could find was next to a teenager and her mother.
Instead of getting more films that appeal to adults, we get films that appeal to the superhero crowd.
People stay away in droves from challenging films. Do people even stream challenging films? I doubt it.
I do, though, kinda enjoy when only a few people are in the audience.
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