Movie Recommendations

[bendk]

Quote Originally Posted by Miss Happy Die Happy

Rewatched Midsommar a few times. Some parts are underdeveloped and hokey (it stretches credibility they don't all leave after the cliff jump bit), but the overall point of how melodramatic horror as ritual can be used to purge negative feelings from people hit home for me. Despite the rough patches, the ending made it my favourite film of the year, which is saying almost nothing as I saw a grand total of three films released in 2019. I'm still catching up on 2018. Looking forward to eventually seeing The Lighthouse, The Colour Out of Space, Gwen and Village in the Woods. After this and Hereditary I think Ari Aster is somebody who understands terror cinema as well as anybody out there and probably the horror director whose films I've felt the most immediate affinity with since Ben Wheatley seemingly retired from the genre -- though Wheatley may make a comeback if his upcoming Rebecca adaptation is suitably disquieting and gothic in effect.

Midsommar is one of the better movies that I have seen in a while. It cranked my misanthropy up to eleven, but I didn't think it that far-fetched. I have an aversion for ritual and I have trouble understanding the attraction.
Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Jordon Peele, and Ben Wheatley have all made excellent horror movies. (I still have hope that Wheatley will get Freak Shift made).

I was already enjoying it, but I thought the ending was beautiful and brilliant and made it special. It's another example of why I consider now to be the best time for horror cinema in decades. I'm sure there was plenty of great horror cinema this year I missed due to anxiety silliness. I'm glad I managed to make the trek for Aster and Peele, who have been predictably neglected by the Globe nominations.

[GirlyGirlMask]

The Irishman

Best American film I've seen in a long, long time. I've never been the biggest Scorcese fan-- he is always a little too excited about cruelty IMO. But that's precisely why The Irishmanworks so well. It's so bleak, so dour. The amusement park fun is gone.

A titanic film.

[bendk]

The 21 Masters Of Horror Shaping the Genre Right Now << Rotten Tomatoes Movie and TV News

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

The Eureka set of Sammo Hung films:

Iron Fisted Monk - I've seen few films that went to such lengths to make the villains so despicable. They kill a very old man, rape two girls (the film has become slightly notorious for this), bully children and headbutt an old lady. Film is far too long but mostly redeemed by the fights (for me at least). Probably included because it was Hung's directorial debut.

Magnificent Butcher - I was mistaken that this set is all directed by Hung, this one is actually by Yuen Woo Ping. Features a drunken laughing tramp with brilliant fighting skills, a bit like characters from other Ping and Hung films. I don't know if this is the role the director's dad was supposed to play because I've never seen him as a full-on drunk. It's fun enough but maybe it's just sitting in the shadow of similar films.

I cant recall which of these first two films contains the line "I hope your son is born with two arses, you'll be busy all day!", but that might be my favorite line from any martial arts film.

Eastern Condors - I've seen this one before, my estimation of it has increased. For all the overly similar martial arts films, this is one of the less repeatable ones. Rumor says that Hung tried to fill this film with as much talent as possible so that Jackie Chan would have less people to choose from.
I still don't get why anyone says this is a mostly serious film, it's clearly still a comedy but with extra brutality and moments of seriousness.
Yuen Wah is particularly good in this; I didn't realise that this made him famous and that his role in Dragons Forever was essentially the same character, makes sense now in retrospect and I understand the temptation to re-use that character type.
Yuen Biao ripping off a snake's head was previously censored from export versions; some people are unhappy about this being fully uncut and it raises questions about films like Snake In The Eagle's Shadow (a cat fights a snake in the original). I like the idea of seing films as they were made/intended but I'm also worried less people will watch Snake In The Eagle's Shadow because that uncut scene is quite alarming (I'm guessing the snake's teeth were removed though, which is another cruelty but I think most of us are more worried about the cat).
Really unusual bonus feature: several of the stars performed a stage version of the story and we see excerpts from that.

I have to wonder about the film choices, were Knockabout and Progidal Son not chosen because Sammo is not in the lead role? When is Spooky Encounters coming? what films were available? Can we please have another Sammo set? But this set is a lovely unexpected gift. Must buy for region B viewers. Nice seeing all the original poster art too, older releases hardly ever shown you that.

[bendk]

There are some unforgivable omissions and questionable inclusions on this list, imo. And I have fallen way behind. I have only seen 15 of the 50. Some of these do sound like they are worth tracking down.

The 50 Best Horror Movies of the 2010s – Best 2010s Horror Films << Rotten Tomatoes Movie and TV News

[miguel1984]

I have seen Manchester by the Sea (2016) and Marriage Story (2019); I recommend both of them, especially Manchester by the Sea. Heartbreaking performances by Casey Affleck in the former and Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in the latter.

Rise of Skywalker caves into the dumb backlash surrounding The Last Jedi, which is by far the best film in the sequel trilogy, and every choice made to appease the fans is for the worst, but Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are great in it, and some of the sappy stuff near the end worked for me. I think ranting about Star Wars online is the most passe thing imaginable, and I don't hate any of the films, including this silly mess.

My nerd rankings of the films from best to least-best:

The original Star Wars (by some distance)
Empire Strikes Back
Revenge of the Sith/The Last Jedi (tie)
Return of the Jedi
Attack of the Clones
Phantom Menace
The Force Awakens
Rise of Skywalker

The sequel trilogy is my least favourite, but I think Old Man Luke, Rey and Kylo Ren are the best Star Wars film characters, so I'm glad it exists.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I want to see all these, best channel!

Feather Fairy, Millennial Bee and Snow Queen (1986)

Church of Film: The Feather Fairy Trailer - YouTube

Church of Film: The Millennial Bee at Psychic - YouTube

Church of Film: THE SNOW QUEEN Trailer - YouTube

[gveranon]

I finally managed to see Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. (A coworker let me use his Netflix password for this purpose.) What a trippy movie. I'd have probably loved it from beginning to end if I'd been high. As it was, I was bored with Scorsese's banal political framings and the fictional elements he introduced (Sharon Stone, a pompous filmmaker who pretended he'd shot the original footage, a nonexistent congressman with ties to Jimmy Carter). The offstage and sometimes onstage chaos made me wonder how Dylan managed to keep his cool in the midst of all that. There's some excellent concert footage that occasionally rises to true greatness. There are also some riveting moments with Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Mick Ronson on guitar. Allen Ginsberg keeps reappearing, and at one point he and Dylan visit Kerouac's grave. Scarlet Rivera is absolutely enchanting.

Recent interview snippets with old-man Dylan are interspersed throughout, and I love how he undercut Scorsese's strained reachings for significance. I'm quoting here from memory, so this isn't exact: Near the beginning, old-man Dylan says something like, "The idea was to do a revue that would be like... a revue. Wait a minute, that's bull####. It was nothing." (An offscreen voice, probably Scorsese, says, "Okay, go with that.") Dylan: "It was nothing. It was 40 years ago, I don't even remember it." Then, in another interview snippet near the end, old man Dylan says "What's left of the Rolling Thunder Revue now is nothing. Ashes." Which the undaunted Scorsese immediately follows with Ginsberg sermonizing about how it was all about finding your meaning, finding your community, go forth and do likewise (or something like that), and then screen after screen listing all of Dylan's many concert dates since then (which I guess is meant to imply that The Rolling Thunder Revue is still ongoing?).

If you're a Dylan fan, you should see this. Despite Scorsese's questionable mythicizing and introduction of silly fictional elements, there are some truly powerful moments. I'll watch it again someday. If you're not a Dylan fan, I have no idea what you might think of it.