Seen and not seen's, recommendations and queries on top films in general.

[bitewerksMTB]

Lady Snowblood and Curve- LSB is a Japanese classic from 1973. Criterion did a great job on their transfer as it looks quite beautiful with all of the blood spurting.
Curve is an Am. horror film about a woman trapped upside down in her car and a serial killer. I missed the first few minutes so not sure how she wrecked or how she was found. The ending is quite predictable. I caught LSB on Turner Classic Movies & Curve on another movie channel.

[absurdexposition]

Hadn't watched anything in over a month then blasted through about one a night last week.

Gattaca (Niccol, 1997)
Strange Days (Bigelow, 1995)
Conan the Barbarian (Milius, 1982)
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (Zahler, 2017)
The Proposition (Hillcoat, 2005)
The American Friend (Wenders, 1977)
Tombstone (Cosmatos, 1993)

The Proposition was probably my favourite out of the lot.

[bitewerksMTB]

The Standoff at Sparrow Creek is pretty decent. It has some lapses in logic & the ending can be guessed if you allow yourself to think about what you're watching. Dialogue & actor driven; a few faces are familiar esp. an older fat man I finally figured out is the character whom is given a quarter in No Country for Old Men. He's a polar opposite character in Standoff.

P2 is a silly horror film about a lonely security guard holding a woman against her will on Xmas night in the parking garage of the high rise she works in. Generally dumb with bad dialogue but one great gore scene with victim smashed to death against a concrete wall by a car.

[FallOfNature]

Summer Of '84
Contrived and just unnecessary attempt at an 80's nostalgia trip. Don't bother.

Boar
A lot of hype over this in the Australian horror community, but another flaccid hack job by director Chris Sun. Everything this director does fucking blows goats and this was even more mundane than his previous piece of shit Charlie's Farm.

[ConcreteMascara]

Hadn't watched anything in over a month then blasted through about one a night last week.

Gattaca (Niccol, 1997)
Strange Days (Bigelow, 1995)
Conan the Barbarian (Milius, 1982)
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (Zahler, 2017)
The Proposition (Hillcoat, 2005)
The American Friend (Wenders, 1977)
Tombstone (Cosmatos, 1993)

The Proposition was probably my favourite out of the lot.

Both Conan films will always remain personal favorites of mine for their sheer absurdity. But The Proposition is so good. I saw that one in theaters and have watched it many times since. I think it really holds up and marked the return of actually good Western films.

Last Thursday I watched Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion for the first time. Not quite as outrageous as I hoped but a lot of fun. Especially dug the weird surrealist touches that reminded me a lot of Seijun Suzuki's best yakuza films. Looking forward to digging into the other entries in the series.  Also started Teruo Ishii's Horrors of Malformed Men which was again less outrageous than I hoped, but fucking weird and fun. had to stop it half way through though because I got to sleepy. will probably finish it later this week. hoping to also re-watch the only Teruo Ishii film I've seen before, Screwed, which I remember as being very weird but really good.

[absurdexposition]

Hadn't watched anything in over a month then blasted through about one a night last week.

Gattaca (Niccol, 1997)
Strange Days (Bigelow, 1995)
Conan the Barbarian (Milius, 1982)
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (Zahler, 2017)
The Proposition (Hillcoat, 2005)
The American Friend (Wenders, 1977)
Tombstone (Cosmatos, 1993)

The Proposition was probably my favourite out of the lot.

Both Conan films will always remain personal favorites of mine for their sheer absurdity. But The Proposition is so good. I saw that one in theaters and have watched it many times since. I think it really holds up and marked the return of actually good Western films.

I hadn't seen Conan since I was a kid, and maybe have never seen the second one. The Barbarian is mostly enjoyable but I was teetering on the edge of boredom during some parts.

The Proposition is nuts. I'd been trying to watch it for years and finally the mood was right. So ruthless.

[Strangecross]

Conan the Conqueror's production is over the top, I think its better than the Barbarian. The Barbarian is best watched with commentary on, Arnold is so obsessed with the camel punching scene.

[Peterson]

All The President's Men (1976, dir. Alan Pakula)
          Somehow hadn't seen this until recently. What can you say? Essential viewing. Seems to have formed the basis for the X-Files along with Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Could probably be a pretty good sleeping pill if you're not in the right mood, though.

[EXU]

Strange Days (Bigelow, 1995)

Proposition and Conan are favorites here but so is Strange Days, sometimes I think that if you watch too many "at least good" movies on a roll you may overlook some or it doesn't sink as deep as it could given some reflection time (you may also just not like it tho and this theory is bullshit).

[monster ripper]

Both Conan films will always remain personal favorites of mine for their sheer absurdity

Most Absurd thing about the Conan films is Hiring Wilt Chamberlain to protect a girls virginity.

[tiny_tove]

Dr. Caligari (1989)
a nice overstylized piece of mindfuckery more or less on par with the usual suspects from the weird film department
not exactly a masterpiece and at times comes off as trying too hard, but some sequences are pretty ace

Check Night Dreams and Cafe Flesh by the same people under different names (Rinse Dream and FX Pope)

[Theodore]

Buffalo '66 : Total waste of time ! I should know from the first 10 minutes where we watch the guy running around to find a toilet to piss, in i ll piss my pants condition, while there are fields and parkings, and streets are empty. Before he finally finds relief, he kidnapped a woman to present it as his wife to his parents.

The Wailing : S.Korean horror / thriller. Evil movie ! Sickness, murders, zombie-like people, shamanic exorcisms in a village. Not telling more. Took me some time to get used to the acting which even horror scenes made them look funny at first. Not sure if this was on purpose or just different cultures. Anyway, things get really serious to laugh at them. What i liked more is that movie made me feel that this is not something unreal or pure fantasy, that is something natural and can happen or happened already. Many great scenes, images ! The end left me with some questions but dont know if i would like any clear answers. I think is better as is. It's a long movie, 150 min. Definitely worth watching. If you havent, do !

[Strangecross]

OHM+ the early gurus of electronic music DVD 2005 2 and a half hours of archival footage


Overall- a sort of mis-guided DVD that feels too much like NYC MOMA, but some REALLY good takeaways- I will just comment on the good tracks on this DVD. You would be better off seeking out the uncut performances and interviews, but i guess if this DVD was found for cheap, like i found, it is a lot less effort


Clara Rockmore I don't know if this is the best Theremin music i've seen, or if its just really cool to see a decadent old lady doing it. I never thought Theremin could work this well in non-noise, this piece called 'Hebrew Melody" and is a live recording in intimate setting in a mansion or something with people like Robert Moog there.
Jean-Claude Risset video is better than sound but i guess its the first use of FM synthesis
Steve Reicha pioneer, but they choose a work from 2004. its ok, video loops, some cool graphics like GX Jupiter Larsen stuff, and some not. Good themes of cloning and cyborgs.
Holger Czukay Floatspace this is sick, indoor fireworks, at least this capture of footage is really appealing and some sounds almost dark ambient by ARP odyssey.

Bebe Barron Great Interview segment- apparently the Forbidden Planet soundtrack was composed of sounds from living circuits-Cybernetic tape music.

Leon Theremin Leon giving a private in home Theremin lesson to Paul Lansky. Same lesson was given to Lenin.

Iannis Xenakis nothing special
Milton Babbit He describes working on the first synthesizers

David Behrman music with melody-driven electronics 1975. K-hole-esque video with Chelsea Girls type multiple frames and utilizing mirrors. Spaced out jam with 3 guys in cowboy hats even sheriff badge, some homemade electronics. very nice.

Laurie Spiegel never seen a Alles Synth before, 1977 bell telephone labs. not a great composition.

John Chowning Nice explanation with graphs of the Stria composition which is sort of a negative version of golden ratio music.

Robert Ashley weird in a good way i guess


Alvin Lucier 1965 solo,  Using Air Force brainwave research equipment he uses he brain waves to play percussion, including timpani. waves seem to flare up if he presses on he closed eyelids, i think i've seen this before but it was nice to see again.


Robert Moog short excerpt from moog documentary

[FallOfNature]

Had enough time to waste this week so I ticked off a few from the watchlist;

You Were Never Really Here
I was expecting some kind of Taken/The Equalizer type film with a bit of film-noir atmosphere with this one. While I wasn't 1000 miles away , this was far more psychological drama than I expected. A bit underwhelmed at first partly to the lack of brutal violence that might be implied, but kept me thinking long after it'd finished. Good, and I'll probably watch it again.

Hereditary
Didn't completely hate this like I predicted. Above average but still just ok. Watched it back to back with The Nun which probably made it seem alot better, as I lost interest in that after 30 mins.

Bad Day for the Cut
Nice surprise with this one. Indie revenge thriller set in Ireland.

On a side note picked up the blu ray for this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCpY5QZSAqE NZ horror film that was banned in my state for a long time. Never even heard of it.

[Andrew McIntosh]

OHM+ the early gurus of electronic music DVD 2005 2 and a half hours of archival footage

It's an odd one, that one. A funny cross section of bits and pieces seemingly culled from anywhere (that "Dust Bunny" animation was just bullshit). My favourite would have been the David Behrman excerpt, would love to see/hear the whole thing.