Post: #1651

(02-17-2019 06:03 PM)Salinger Wrote:  

(02-08-2019 02:16 PM)Renzy Wrote:  Southern Comfort is on Amazon Prime right now. Really good and underrated movie I hadn't seen in a long time. It's an allegory about the Vietnam war set in the Louisiana bayous. Some National Guard soldiers on an exercise piss off the local Cajuns and end up getting hunted down in the swamps. It's got Powers Booth and one of the Carradine brothers.

I'm co-signing this one. Great little movie that no one these days has ever seen because it's never on cable. If you have Amazon Prime and like thrillers, check this one out. It got an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Interesting point on it being an allegory for Vietnam. I can see that now that I'm older and wiser.

I also like the film. There is a documentary about the film, where Walter Hill "refuses to answer to suggestions that the film is an allegory for the Vietnam War – even revealing that he threatened to sack anyone involved in its making who admitted to such allusions in press interviews." He seems to suggest that it explored placing modern man into primitive conditions where he must fight to survive.

http://www.fictionfactoryfilm.de/2012/11...n-comfort/

One of my all time favorite films with that theme is "The Naked Prey," a 1965 adventure film starring Cornel Wilde. I wrote about that film earlier in the thread:

/thread-18972...pid1713024

Post: #1652

Any Starship Trooper fans? I just realized they made sequel movies and a 1 season tv show to the original after watching a couple youtube clips dissecting the book and movie.

Post: #1653

(02-17-2019 06:09 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

(02-17-2019 05:26 PM)Kurgan Wrote:  I recently watched the documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, just now. It's about Mr. Rogers and the impact he had with children. It seems like he did evangelizing, but reaching out to children. It shows he couldn't really be a child or express himself at times so he did through puppets and his show.

It's really good, it's a documentary I recommend.

I concur. I just watched the film last week -- and I really enjoyed it.

I do believe that Mr. Rogers, like Dr. Spock before him, contributed greatly to the current snowflake generation, which told several generations of children that they were "special" just for being who they were. He certainly meant well and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what got lost in his self-esteem building agenda was the fact that being special usually comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself.

Unless they changed the show's content, I doubt it had anything to do with turning Millennials into snowflakes. Gen X grew up with Mr. Rogers too and we turned out alright.

Post: #1654

I watched another good one last night, Under the Silver Lake, from the director of It Follows. I haven't seen any of his other films yet, but after watching this I will have to check out his other two. In a sea of cape shit and by the numbers Oscar bait, this is a truly unique film. There are shades of Mulholland Drive and of course many Hitchcock films here, especially Vertigo. This is a moody, stylized picture with a Bernard Herrmann inspired score that adds to its dreamlike quality.

There's a mindfuck aspect to it too. Aside from a couple deliberate dream sequences, it's one of those movies where you get the sense that we're seeing events from the POV of an unreliable narrator where not every scene may be entirely grounded in reality. The story and general themes about "conspiracies" and seeking the truth will probably resonate in some way with most of the forum. By the end, I wasn't quite sure if it all came together as the film kinda peters out then, but it has left me thinking still a day later which is hard to say for most films these days.

The film hasn't been released in the States yet, but the leak is easy to find. I think it has all the makings of a future cult classic.

Post: #1655

(02-19-2019 04:21 AM)infinitejest Wrote:  I watched another good one last night, Under the Silver Lake, from the director of It Follows. I haven't seen any of his other films yet, but after watching this I will have to check out his other two. In a sea of cape shit and by the numbers Oscar bait, this is a truly unique film. There are shades of Mulholland Drive and of course many Hitchcock films here, especially Vertigo. This is a moody, stylized picture with a Bernard Herrmann inspired score that adds to its dreamlike quality.

There's a mindfuck aspect to it too. Aside from a couple deliberate dream sequences, it's one of those movies where you get the sense that we're seeing events from the POV of an unreliable narrator where not every scene may be entirely grounded in reality. The story and general themes about "conspiracies" and seeking the truth will probably resonate in some way with most of the forum. By the end, I wasn't quite sure if it all came together as the film kinda peters out then, but it has left me thinking still a day later which is hard to say for most films these days.

The film hasn't been released in the States yet, but the leak is easy to find. I think it has all the makings of a future cult classic.

Okay, this fucking movie. This movie is what would happen, what did in fact happen when a young guy was given complete freedom to do what he wanted in a film.

So why the fuck are you talking about story and themes?

This movie is just one quirky hot chick after another.



A dorky star who does nothing except follow his own idiosyncratic obsessions, completely disconnected from every day life.

No job, not handsome, not interesting, and yet he can have sex, which he doesn't even enjoy, whenever he wants, can walk into a high class party and be accepted.

This is the biggest faggy dog story ever.

It isn't like there is a mystery you slowly figure out along with the protagonist.

This dude is just someone for the losers in the audience to identify with. Does nothing, goes nowhere, has no life, and yet he is accepted on all levels of society as he awkwardly lurches around town.

Your weird favorite actresses, songs, comic books, spying on the neighbors with binoculars, smoking, sitting there. All of this is great, it is all you have to do in life.

After this premise is set up, (loser is really a charmed winner), then the parade of nude or partially nude hot girls initiates.

All the girls make you forget the movie isn't about anything.

Can you imagine how much fun it was to direct a movie where one of these girls showed up every two minutes? On your command?

Post: #1656

Post: #1657

This is just a sampling of all the girls in this film. It was literally one right after the other. For the director's and our pleasure.

That's what this film was about:

What if you could go anywhere, meet anyone, and do anything in L.A.?

How cool would that be? In your ratty t shirt? And women would like you?

In other words, I liked it.

Post: #1658

(02-19-2019 01:30 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  This is just a sampling of all the girls in this film. It was literally one right after the other. For the director's and our pleasure.

That's what this film was about:

What if you could go anywhere, meet anyone, and do anything in L.A.?

How cool would that be? In your ratty t shirt? And women would like you?

In other words, I liked it.

Regarding your review of "Under the Silver Lake," I agree that quirky movies (which I like) make good art, but often send very bad messages. Unfortunately, films do make an impact upon the impressionable. I experienced this phenomenon just last week when I watched "Boys" with Winona Ryder.

It was a coming of age film in which a 17-year-old guy has it all (with a wealthy family that cares about him, but with an overbearing father), but is headed to loser-ville because of his attitude. He then meets an attractive loser-girl who ensures his future residence in loser-ville. At the end of the movie, after everything finally gets sorted out at the police station, he and Winona spontaneously jump into an elevator together and run outside and grab a stolen car (ensuring that he never graduates from his private school, with graduation only several months away). It made a great ending to the movie, but I was left thinking: "Good art. Extremely bad message."

Post: #1659

Tail Gunner, you are reminding me of the grand daddy of these movies:

Post: #1660

(02-19-2019 02:43 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  Tail Gunner, you are reminding me of the grand daddy of these movies:

Yes, another movie that I like as art, but the story-line is not really logical. By the time that Elaine finds out about the affair between Ben and her mother, she and Ben have only dated once. Then he obsesses over her (he would most likely be considered a stalker today), despite the reality of their having little in common.

Thus, the "love story" is really forced -- and somewhat pathetic. Finally, Elaine abandons a man, who has his life together, at the church alter in exchange for a man who is an emotional basket case. She seems to trade an alpha for a beta. Elaine and Ben seem to enter into a relationship just to spite their parents -- and every member of the older generation. That message resonated with the times.

Post: #1661

(02-19-2019 03:02 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  Thus, the "love story" is really forced -- and somewhat pathetic. Finally, Elaine abandons a man, who has his life together, at the church alter in exchange for a man who is an emotional basket case. She seems to trade an alpha for a beta. Elaine and Ben seem to enter into a relationship just to spite their parents -- and every member of the older generation. That message resonated with the times.

I commented on this a while back for the same reasons. From my vantage point the Graduate is really a blue-pill fantasy that appeals to nerds who feel like they have a chance to punch over their weight if they just gather up enough courage to bang on the church window and scream like a baby.

There were a lot of movies about unlikely romances around that time. Harold and Maude is another. It was part of the counter-culture to put forth the idea that water didn't necessarily have to seek its level.

Post: #1662

Re: Under the Silver Lake.

Jay Dyer has a good analysis of the esoteric aspects of this movie, connecting it also to Hitchcock, Lynch, and Egyptian cults.





I commented over there, but my analysis of the movie (spoilers ahead) is more on the psychogical level.

Quote:You two have the esoteric angle covered, so how about the psychological? One problem for millennials is that many are raised by single moms, and even the ones that weren't had a weak or distant dad, leaving them with no real connection to older male mentors or their society.

This helps creates the dilemma they have of being pointless and atomized. It is like they have to start society from scratch and figure it out on their own, and so it is no wonder that they start off like the protagonist of this film, living a rootless life of following his own superficial inclinations and pleasures.

Film starts out talking to mom on the phone, watching a woman his mom's age topless across the way which makes the conversation tolerable because he doesn't listen. His basic attitude towards women is a kind of obligatory lust, because when he gets them in bed, he just talks about stuff and barely notices or seems to enjoy sex.

I have never seen a movie so peopled with so many hot alt chicks in my life but half the time, he just wants information from them, even when he is half heartedly fucking them. For me, the best thing about the movie was that an expanse of young alluring new flesh was only a minute away, but he is dead to all this.

Hold on though, he starts noticing things in his environment, trying to put it all together but, because he has been castrated by his mom and lack of father, the whole puzzle solving aspect of this film is a shaggy dog story, with threads of mystery arising and disappearing almost at random. No real thread holding it together, we don't watch and say, ah ha, that is what it all means. It seems to just be one idiosyncratic and pointless conclusion or direction after the other.

When he finally gets serious and starts to try to figure out life, he is incapable of escaping the pointless word of pop culture. Who is the main older man in his life? Landlord, who he completely dismisses because he tries to ground him in the real world of making rent.

The old man at the piano, supposedly one of the big puzzle pieces is just the father/mentor he never had who it turns out is playing a cruel joke on him, so even trying to play in the big boy's world his worst fears are realized, that he is a man child who doesn't belong and he is being mocked and shamed by the real people of consequence in the world.

Of course he flips out and kills him.

The movie ends when he goes back to a new mom, one who will take care of all his needs, including sex now.

He knows this is where he belongs, not in the world of men, but back with mom who will kiss his boo-boos and make it all better.

This is a movie about a sheltered momma's boy who fails to launch.

Post: #1663

(02-19-2019 01:27 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

Please! Who here hasn't fucked all kinds of bitches like this?

Post: #1664

That was an interesting video/channel debeguiled. Definitely the sort of film discussion I enjoy. Modern film criticism is mostly shit as it's devolved to selling out to the big studios (see TLJ), filling your review with enough academic buzzwords to get an A in Film Studies 101, or interpreting everything from a leftist lens. What the hell was this film about again? Yup, you guessed correctly, white privilege!

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/under-...201961578/

As for the film itself, I mostly agree with what's already been said in the video and your analysis. My thoughts (spoilers):

Quote:-I don't think the writer/director admired the protagonist or the millennial cast of characters at all. Or really any of the characters for that matter. He's a Gen X guy (44) and from what I remember the characters here are basically all millennials or boomers. Note that the protagonist, Sam, is sprayed by a skunk early on in the film and repulses everyone he encounters for the remainder of the film. I also thought it was funny that he never scored with the hottest girls he was after. Throughout the film he bangs an actress with no success, one of those girls who at 20 had the whole package and by 29 has a busted face already from the lifestyle (we only see them doing it doggystyle of course), a hooker, and the old nudist hippy at the end.

-The best scene by far was the scene with the Songwriter. That was when I felt the film finally coalesce into something more than just its shaggy dog narrative. The characters in the film brand themselves through the pop culture they like and 'express themselves' with film posters in their rooms, shirts featuring bands and games, and ink on their skin with the symbols of others. "Pop culture floats away like tissue paper." Yet many people look to it for meaning or identity. "There's no rebellion; there's only me earning a paycheck."

What about the hordes of people who still cling to their communities based around a brand that isn't being produced out of a desire to create great art but simply one to be spoon fed to and consumed by the masses to make as much money as possible for the elites. How can anyone still take Star Wars seriously when you know they are just trying to pump out as many of these films as they can and milk the masses dry before they wise up and see what's happening? The Songwriter says: "I wrote your parent's music, half the music you grew up to, and I'm still doing it today." The social programming and conditioning through pop culture has been going on for a long, long time already.

-This scene is also one that feels like it could be taking place in the protagonist's fractured mind. Just look at this image of him walking up to the Songwriter's mansion. It looks like a painting or a faint image in a half-remembered dream you once had.



-I wasn't sure what to make of the ending, but I like what the guy in video said about the millennial and boomer ideologies merging together. I saw it as a nihilistic ending. At several points in the film he passes by a billboard with a woman (later revealed to be his ex-gf) saying "I can see clearly now." This is after he's stepped down the rabbit hole. At the film's end he sees it one more time as it's being painted over by some burger ad. He knows he can't do anything, so he's given up, closed his eyes once again, and gone back to being a dutiful consumer of pop culture.

-It has its share of funny moments too. I liked his pair of friends. One, played by an unrecognizable Topher Grace, is the modern day fedora wearing, bearded hipster who is never seen at any of the parties, while the other is a plot device of a character played by Jimmi Simpson (one of the McPoyle brothers from It's Always Sunny). The latter cracks me up every time I see him in something and this time is no different. They represented a good amount of the men you see nowadays: Garfield's character as the outcast incel who can't compete in modern society, Topher Grace as the beta schmuck, and Simpson as the hedonist who is just enjoying the decline.

-Last but not least, yes, the chicks. This film had quite the collection of talent. I'll take the balloon girl from the movie, the one featured in the white dress in the photos you posted.

Post: #1665

The biggest irony is that the filmmaker himself is doing the same thing the old man is doing, creating some Hollywood bullshit for people to identify with., only one with heavy sarcasm and irony to make it palatable to people of the woke.

He is not going to change his life or turn his back on Hollywood or anything like that.

He is going to keep making movies in the same system he is ostensibly criticizing.

I did like "It Follows" though.

Post: #1666

Anyone who's read my posts knows I've reached my limit with superhero, Marvel and Star Wars movies. I hate them because I love the source material so much.

So imagine my surprise when a friend showed me Joachin Phoenix in the next 'JOKER' movie. This is just a short teaser but that face and that laugh are enough already to awaken the long-dormant fanboy in me;






What do you reckon? Phoenix is a top actor and this performance does it for me. I like the grimy 80's look too.

Post: #1667

Arctic

I saw this last night and enjoyed it. It's a castaway tale of a researcher/explorer who has crashed his plane and finds himself stranded in the polar Artic. He must to decide whether to remain in a makeshift camp he has created or trek out for a greater chance of survival.

The lead character, Mads Mikkelsen, delivers a superb performance... enough to carry a movie with basically no dialogue and maybe two or three paragraphs worth of utterances. The fact that the movie remains gripping despite the absence of communication and character development make it singular. The cinematography and the views of the striking, desolate frigid landscapes are also very well done.

Also impressive is that the movie was produced on a mere 2 million dollar budget.

Post: #1668

An older one, Thursday.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124901/

Enjoyably mindless in a Tarantino type way. Always surprised by how few have heard of it.

Paulina is awesome in it.

Post: #1669

Wandering Earth

Finally a non-Historical Chinese blockbuster worth seeing.
Amazing visuals, a well realised universe, no ChinaNumbaOne and no cheap deus ex machina.

With a refreshingly almost all male cast, (spoiler:The power armoured special ops woman from the trailer's main accomplishment is destroying crucial equipment in a fit of rage)

Post: #1670

The Insult was great, based off Tail Gunner's recommendation. By the way, you've got a great taste in films bro.

This movie is the cinematic version of that "well, that escalated quickly" meme. Great dialogue and acting from everybody, as well as some hot Lebanese poonani. I absolutely loved the quote at the end of the movie "no one has a monopoly on suffering." Considering this movie is from Lebanon was this a message to "our greatest ally" perhaps?

Post: #1671

(01-22-2019 11:00 AM)eljeffster Wrote:  

(01-22-2019 08:23 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  Watched Hunter Killer. Fun action movie, no sjw agenda (except muh russians of course), centers around honor and bravery. Highly recommend it!

I can second that. Going in I thought they were going to half-ass it with a bunch of computertronics but I was pleasantly surprised.

A quibble here or there but otherwise solid. Good, but not legendary.

"Hunter Killer" was great. My favorite submarine movie since "The Hunt for Red October." Non-stop action. No SJW agenda. Yes, Russians, but which other non-ally has the technology for submarine gamesmanship with the U.S.?

I have serious superhero fatigue from all the comic book movies. I watched "Venom" only because I really liked Tom Hardy in "Taboo." "Venom" sucked big time. I almost stopped watching it several times and really struggled to finish watching it. I am really fatigued by all the CGI that replaces a real, compelling story.

Skip "Venom" and watch season one of "Taboo," which is a joint venture between Tom Hardy and Riddley Scott. A very complex story slightly tinged with supernatural elements set in an alienating and ominous London setting.

Post: #1672

Been waiting for season 2 of taboo for 2 years now. It better be as awesome as the first one. Tom Hardy was practically a force of nature (brutal alpha male), his best role in my opinion.

Post: #1673

Is there an Oscars thread? It seems like all the Best Phicture nominations are low box office indie movies. LaLa Land was a stupid long and boring movie from a few years ago.

I just watched Vice and it was actually funny for a Dark Comedy but didn't do well at the box office. Bale is a great actor and really talks like Dick Chaney. I recommend it.

I've been meaning to watch Bohemian Raspbody. And I love Rami in Mr Robot.

Post: #1674

(02-26-2019 10:55 PM)jcrew247 Wrote:  I just watched Vice and it was actually funny for a Dark Comedy but didn't do well at the box office. Bale is a great actor and really talks like Dick Chaney. I recommend it.

There is a reason that it did not do well. It is a film that presents fiction as the truth. Such blatant political hit pieces never do well. Just to cite one example (of many):

Quote:He does this even more notoriously with the young Antonin Scalia when the then-future Supreme Court justice says, “If you, like myself, happen to believe in Article II of the Constitution . . .” Hang on, “believe in Article II?” From the mouth of Antonin Scalia, the one American most famously opposed to treating the Constitution as a matter of “belief” or a mystical text? Scalia continues by telling young Cheney that Article II (which grants the president a lot of authority, especially in wartime) gives the chief executive the power of “absolute executive authority, and I mean absolute.” Article II does not, of course, say the president can do absolutely anything, and Scalia would never have said so. It’s the equivalent of a scene showing young Barack Obama joining the Communist Party of Kenya while praying to Allah.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/m...ervatives/

Actually, a young Barack Obama joining the Communist Party of Kenya while praying to Allah is far more believable than presenting Antonin Scalia as a judicial activist, when he was exactly the opposite (the ultimate practitioner of judicial restraint). People easily see through such deceitful BS.

Post: #1675

The only thing I don't understand about Vice is how come US energy companies were never able to profit from the Iraqi oil fields? DOes ISIS still control oil fileds or make it too dangerous for private corporations to move in. The Vice movie showed a map of all the oil fields Exxon wanted to control when they met with Chaney. It just doesn't make any sense that the US took out Saddam and now we aren't able to profit from the oil privatization and we let ISIS cause a civil war. Do you think it is still possible for energy companies to set up Iraqui operations? or is the region too unstable?