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

[NerveGas]

Most recent watches:

Annihilation [dir. Alex Garland, 2018] - I watched this around the time it came out and really really liked it, but was worried it wouldn't hold up on a repeat viewing. Happily this is not the case, I think I may have liked it even more. The first go round I had some issues with the dialogue and the characterizations of the expedition team but this time I didn't really have a complaint. probably because I knew what i was getting, instead of mentally looking for all the seams. My biggest complaint remains the flashback framing device for the movie which is completely unnecessary even the first go round, and even more unnecessary the second time. Happily it's used to sparingly you normally forget it's there. The visuals are very psilocybin without turning into Alex Gray, post-hippie shit, but the vibe is straight up DXM. And the score rules.

I don't know if you read any of the books, but I would say that this movie becomes incredibly difficult to fully enjoy if you've read the books. I love the trilogy and knew that the movie took a different approach, but still couldn't figure out why certain aspects of the book weren't brought into the film. I'm referring to stuff that would have been very easily filmable and basic plot stuff that works really well. With that said, the books are really vague and trippy, so certain creatures/phenomenon wouldn't convert to the visual medium successfully, but for the life of me I can't wrap my head around some of the unnecessary changes that were made. While I do think that film interpretations or books should indeed be viewed as interpretations, reading the books first made watching this much more challenging than it should have been. Don't get me wrong there were some aspects of the movie I appreciated. The mutated bear, the ending sequence, and a few others. I watched this movie with someone and it was probably horribly annoying for them hearing my commentary. I hate to be overly critical in my comparison because at the end of the day they are two different works of art all together, but it did nag at me.

Edit: I also forgot to specify that most of my critique revolves around the charitarization of the expedition team. The group dynamic in the books is totally different and so much more strange, tense, and unsettling. Seems like the dynamic of the characters in the movie really does a disservice to the story. If I'm being vague I apologize I just don't want to spoil the plot for anyone planning of giving The Southern Reach Trilogy a shot.

[NerveGas]

The Beast

Erotic art film (???) directed by Walerian Borowczyk. This is my first film of his that I've seen, and I've been very intrigued by him since I first read about him a while back. I thought I knew what to expect going into to this. A highly pornographic bestiality fairy tale with some kind of strange woodland rat/bear beast. To be honest, this movie was fucking boring. Sure there's the totally bonkers relentless rat creature bestiality at the end, but this movie drags and drags and drags. I'll give some of his other films a chance, but aside from the sheer absurdity of the final scenes, not much to offer.

[tiny_tove]

After over 2 decades I watched Idi Smotri (Come and see), Eastern War DRama, with an impressive sound design, bleak sa fuck and with some totally brutal scenes. I remember when I watched it the first time some sounds really made me think where I wanted to go musically for the industrial part of Foresta di Ferro and John Murphy (RIP) provided several atmospheric pieces that went in that direction, but the level of intensity of the post-bombing scenes with the kid suffering tinnitus (a condition I relate to) really left me speecheless. The movie is about the not-so-friendly interactin between Einsatzcommandos vs Belarius partisans seen from the eyes of a young kid who looks like a teen Max Von Sydow. The cool thing is that it has the classic dramatic atmospheric moments of Russian and Ukrainian cinema, but it goes fast as a shark with thousand  things happaning, more like contemporary Slavic cinema, with great camera movement and a few over the top scenes. Fits in The power electronics movies we were discussing years ago although from a different perspective than the move we keep quoting.

[NerveGas]

After over 2 decades I watched Idi Smotri (Come and see), Eastern War DRama, with an impressive sound design, bleak sa fuck and with some totally brutal scenes. I remember when I watched it the first time some sounds really made me think where I wanted to go musically for the industrial part of Foresta di Ferro and John Murphy (RIP) provided several atmospheric pieces that went in that direction, but the level of intensity of the post-bombing scenes with the kid suffering tinnitus (a condition I relate to) really left me speecheless. The movie is about the not-so-friendly interactin between Einsatzcommandos vs Belarius partisans seen from the eyes of a young kid who looks like a teen Max Von Sydow. The cool thing is that it has the classic dramatic atmospheric moments of Russian and Ukrainian cinema, but it goes fast as a shark with thousand  things happaning, more like contemporary Slavic cinema, with great camera movement and a few over the top scenes. Fits in The power electronics movies we were discussing years ago although from a different perspective than the move we keep quoting.

I've written about this movie in this thread before, so I'll keep it brief. But this really is a phenomenal film. I hesitate to employ the overused adjective "hallucinatory" or even worse, "fever dream" (the use of this term must stop), but it truly is a bizarre nightmare. Have not watched it in quite some time, but would be very interested to see how the Blu-Ray looks.

[tiny_tove]

will check your review, but I agree with your idea about it.

[MateriaPrima]

Hard to be a God by Aleksei German. The film is said to have consumed him throughout the last 15 years of his life until he died leaving it close to completion. His wife and son added the finishing touches after his death in 2013. The film is brutal and chaotic, beautiful, surreal, almost Andrei Tarkovsky but with a cruel violence and harsh bleak brutality and decay not seen in his work. For me it is like taking Bosch, Bruegel the Elder or Grünewald and translating them into film. The story, although interesting, almost isn't necessary, the images are what grasp you. You can smell and taste the sweat and sickness. I have only watched it once while I was sick with the flu, I remember spending the entire 177 minutes seeing it sideways while lying down. I do not wish anyone sickness but I think it's probably one of the best ways to experience it.

[tiny_tove]

Getting crazy for the 3rd series of Paradise PD, demented animated series of the gentlemen behind Brickleberry. Touches anything improper and unpc and have good rhythm. First series did not convince me too much, but then it improved.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

The Devils (1971)

Based on real life events, but this adaption is taken from the book "The Devils of Loudun" by Aldous Huxley. The lead, Father Grandier, is played beautifully by Oliver Reed, it's an incredible performance. The actor is most commonly known in our time as the slave owner/former gladiator who won his freedom in Gladiator. He also stars in Cronenberg's "The Brood" as Dr. Raglan.

A deeply disturbing film based in the witch hunts and religious persecution that swept the world, this time in the back drop of France in the 17th Century. I wouldn't call it a horror film but there are certainly elements and a good amount of sleaze. There are some great exploitation style scenes involving the nunnery once the convent plays into the "possession" afflicting them. The religious fervor and political themes around this movement are portrayed very well. The imagery and cinematography are excellent and brings the film to life. The cast of characters well represent how all citizens of a town were affected by the mass hysteria of the time. The accused playboy priest, a smitten and jealous hunchbacked nun, appointed "professional" witch hunter and others are wild and entertaining characters.

Not a flashy film by today's standards, but for those who enjoy cinema of a different era carried by excellent acting and story telling would enjoy The Devils.

[absurdexposition]

Not a flashy film by today's standards, but for those who enjoy cinema of a different era

The '70s were the best decade for cinema, period. Incredible amount of exploration and bold ideas, even in Hollywood.

[ConcreteMascara]

The Devils (1971)

Oliver Reed's mustache in this movie deserves an award! But I largely agree with FM's review, although I'm too desensitized to be find it disturbing. It's such an insanely gorgeous and detailed movie. All of the exterior and interiors are distinct and interesting in a way which compels re-watching, along with everything else.

A quick round-up of my last week of movies:

Shaun of the Dead [dir. Edgar Wright, 2004] - I saw pieces of this many times over the years but never had a chance to sit down and watch it. Now that I finally have I can see why people were so gaga for it when it came out. I kept thinking it felt like an expanded version of something from Spaced, and then I read afterwards that it basically was so there you go. Like Zombieland it's fun and fast-paced and straddles the line between action and comedy really well. It was a nice bit of fun after a miserable Tuesday.

I Care A Lot. [dir. J Blakeson, 2020] - I went into this one blind because I liked Rosamund Pike and it had some good buzz... I guess I should have been more circumspect. I found this movie frustrating to aggravating, especially after the 30-40 minute mark. I struggle anytime characters in a movie/series that's supposed to be "serious" make consistent or increasingly illogical decisions and that's what happens here. I was ready to start yelling bullshit at the TV for the last 30 minutes. Not recommended.

The Lobster [dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015] - Somehow only now I've finally watched my first Lanthimos film after missing a screening of Dogtooth 10 years ago. I tried to go into this as blind as possible and as a result this first viewing had me on the edge of my seat (in a good way) because I never knew where the movie was going. I really enjoyed both halves of the film and found myself laughing inwardly throughout. Parts of it really stuck in my brain after watching and I'm excited to watch it again. And now I've got a good reason to check out Lanthimos' other films.

Ex Machina [dir. Alex Garland, 2014] - Been meaning to watch this for ages but I figured it would be "just okay", so I wasn't racing to see it. Well that was dumb because this is a really nice discrete sci-fi story. Oscar Isaac does a great job as a "villainous" character, Domhnall Gleeson is great as the young coder who would fuck an android no questions asked, basically a stand-in for every weeb coder the world over, and Alicia Vikander is hot with and without skin. She looks a lot like my ex who had alopecia, and was similarly bald much of the time I saw her, but also a very similar face, so that was kind of exciting :D    I would say I called almost all of the story beats in my head before they happened but the way the story is told made it work really well for me.

And tonight I think my friend and I will continue our video game movie journey by watching Wing Commander. Shoot me.

[TS]

The Lobster [dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015] - Somehow only now I've finally watched my first Lanthimos film after missing a screening of Dogtooth 10 years ago. I tried to go into this as blind as possible and as a result this first viewing had me on the edge of my seat (in a good way) because I never knew where the movie was going. I really enjoyed both halves of the film and found myself laughing inwardly throughout. Parts of it really stuck in my brain after watching and I'm excited to watch it again. And now I've got a good reason to check out Lanthimos' other films.

The Lobster is probably his most light-hearted movie. Dogtooth and The Favourite are both better, I think. All very different, but still recognizably Lanthimos. Good director!

[JLIAT]

Father Grandier, is played beautifully by Oliver Reed, it's an incredible performance. The actor is most commonly known in our time as the slave owner/former gladiator who won his freedom in Gladiator. He also stars in Cronenberg's "The Brood" as Dr. Raglan.

Oliver Reed was certainly a magnificent actor, another great part was his in Women in Love, another Ken Russell film, which was quite shocking in its day, based on the D H Lawrence novel which explores sexuality... and also in The Devils was Vanessa Redgrave who also stared in Blow Up, another film which is a "must see" explores insanity and for noise fans a scene with the Yardbirds – from 1966!!!. As a tangent some of the filming of Gladiator was done on Malta. We used to holiday there, and a small bar is now called "Olie's last stand". The story goes he was drinking there when a British Navel ship docked, which resulted in a drinking session in which he died in the pub. We stayed in a Hotel in Valletta where some of the crew stayed. The barman remembered him well, and his late night sessions with the film crew.

[aububs]

women in love is hilarious. every line that oliver reed speaks is pure comedy. the naked wrestling with alan bates is the highlight.

there's another incredible movie called The Shout, with alan bates as a man who can kill people with his shout. a very power electronics movie, actually, now that i think of it. one of the characters is an electronic sound composer

[ConcreteMascara]

I'll have to check out Women in Love and The Shout, they sound interesting.

Well the last two nights I've been burning the midnight oil to watch some very good and very bad movies.

Monday night:
The Exorcist III [dir. William Peter Blatty, 1990] - the unexpected highlight of the last few nights maybe even the last week or two, damn was this movie awesome! My friend and I assumed it'd be shit because you know it's the third sequel and 17 years after the original. Until the last maybe 30 minutes we kept waiting for it to get terrible but at some point it hit us that it's just an awesome movie. I'd say the worst thing about it is the silly sequence where a crucified christ statute opens its eyes and it looks silly and dumb. Otherwise it's a cold police procedural staring George C Scott as an old man pushed to the edge by a grim world. That sounds a little corny so I'm not doing it justice but he's absolutely awesome. He's got to have one of the most commanding voices of any actor ever. It's a dialogue heavy movie but because Blatty's a skilled writer it's really good stuff. The sound design is also really excellent. The cinematography, the set designs, most of the effects are all good too. But what puts this movie over the top from really good to fucking awesome is Brad Dourif. He just tears up everything around him once he enters the picture. Almost all of his dialogue would be good for sampling in power electronics or goregrind. He's not fully unhinged, just very intense. I love it. Knowing Brad Dourif is going to be in anything makes me willing to watch it but this is the movie to watch for him alone. Oh and the whole Exorcist connection was a re-shoot studio interference thing and sorta works, but I'm very interested to watch the patchwork director's cut that was released a few years ago.

Night of the Demons [dir. Kevin Tenney, 1988] - So my friend and I watched this after The Exorcist III and it kind of felt like we were taking the piss by watching such a silly movie after such a good one. Frankly, I found it tough to enjoy this kind of schlock after such a meaty piece of cinema so my impression is probably less favorable than it would've been on any other given night. I will say, there's a decent amount of nudity but I think they easily could've pushed the amount. The gore is good to mediocre and often too quick for my taste, but it's there.  The whole thing was silly and fun enough, but my biggest complaint is there were a couple of essentially off-screen deaths and for a movie about a specific group of teens dying at the hands of demons in an isolated location, the kills are the reason for the season. Make an event out of each one, not just some of them. Well anyway, this will be a fun one to show at horror movie party, whenever I can start hosting those again.

Tuesday night:
Pulse [dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001] - my second viewing and I liked it a bit more this time but I still think it's too damn long. trim 20 minutes out of this and eliminate all the of the completely unnecessary CGI which starts popping up at the end and it'd be wayyy better. The first hour is a perfect horror movie so it annoys me that it gets lost in repetition in the second half. Also, unless you're making the Usual Suspects, don't start a movie at the end and then cut to the beginning. Flashback movies take out all of tension because you already know who is alive at the end. And in this movie, like Annihilation it adds absolutely nothing.

Pulse [dir. Jim Sonzero, 2006] - because my friend and I hate ourselves we watched this piece of trash immediately after the original. Kristen Bell is hot throughout but this is just dreadful in every department. If I want to see her be hot and used well I'll watch The Good Place. Anyway in order to make this story "work" they put in some kind of post-Matrix hackers plot, attempt to steal imagery and sequences from the original and bore you to tears while doing it. My main man Brad fucking Dourif shows up in this dung heap to essentially yell at the two mains, Alex Jones style, and is then never seen again. It was an entertaining interruption but is not enough of a reason to watch this. Also the whole thing is color corrected so it looks entirely grey and murky like the inside of a robots colon. And the fucking "ghosts" look like a sillier version of the creature in Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" video. Watch that instead of even thinking about watching Pulse 2006. Fuck this was truly awful.

https://youtu.be/TZ827lkktYs

[Atrophist]

Watched a documentary called The Booksellers, which is about -- believe it or not -- people who sell rare and old books, and their customers, the collectors.

Pretty interesting, until about 2/3 of the way in, when they start to go on about (you guessed it) how the traders and collectors are all white men -- even if they aren't, as the documentary itself makes clear. The solution is to introduce a black woman who collects and catalogues old hip-hop magazines. In and of itself a completely worthy pursuit, but the way it's presented in this film was so condescending and tokenistic I wanted to laugh.